Role of cholinergic system on the construction of memories: taste memory encoding

There is a large body of evidence suggesting that cholinergic activity is involved in memory processes. It seems that cholinergic activity is essential to learn several tasks and recent works suggest that acetylcholine plays an important role during the early stages of memory formation. In this review, we will discuss the results related to taste memory formation, focusing particularly on the conditioned taste aversion paradigm. We will first give evidence that nucleus basalis magnocellularis is involved in taste memory formation, due to its cholinergic projections. We then show that the cholinergic activity of the insular (gustatory) cortex is related to the taste novelty, and that the cholinergic signals initiated by novelty are crucial for taste memory formation. Then we present recent data indicating that cortical activation of muscarinic receptors is necessary for taste trace encoding, and also for its consolidation under certain circumstances. Finally, interactions between the cholinergic and other neuromodulatory systems inducing intracellular mechanisms related to plastic changes will be proposed as important processes underlying gustatory memory trace storage.     

What Can We Know of Computational Information? Measuring,Quantity, and Quality at Work in Programmable Artifacts

This paper explores the problem of knowledge in computational informational organisms, i.e. organisms that include a computing machinery at the artifact side. Although information can be understood in many ways, from the second half of the past century information is getting more and more digitised, von Neumann machines becoming dominant. Computational information is a challenge for the act of measuring, as neither purely quantitative nor totally qualitative approaches satisfy the need to explain the interplay among the agents producing and managing computational information. In this paper, Floridi’s method of levels of abstraction is applied to the analysis of computational information, with a chief interest in the concepts of information measure, quantification and quality.     

Dignity and Animals. Does it Make Sense to Apply the Concept of Dignity to all Sentient Beings?

Although the idea of dignity has always been applied to human beings and although its role is far from being uncontroversial, some recent works in animal ethics have tried to apply the idea of dignity to animals. The aim of this paper is to discuss critically whether these attempts are convincing and sensible. In order to assess these proposals, I put forward two formal conditions that any conception of dignity must meet (non-redundancy and normative determinacy) and outline three main approaches which might justify the application of dignity to animals: the species-based approach, moral individualism and the relational approach. Discussing in particular works by Martha Nussbaum and Michael Meyer I argue that no approach can convincingly justify the extension of dignity to animals because all fail to meet the formal conditions and do not provide an appropriate basis for animal dignity. I conclude by arguing that the recognition of the moral importance of animals and their defense should appeal to other normative concepts which are more appropriate than dignity.     

Assessment of hormonal parameters and psychological well‐being in healthy subjects after a Taoist qigong program: An exploratory study

Qigong is an ancient form of health maintenance, which is part of Traditional China Medicine. Numerous beneficial mental and physical effects have been classically ascribed to this traditional psychosomatic method. The purpose of this work has been to assess the effects of Taoist qigong practice on several hormonal parameters of the Hipotalamic‐Pituitary‐Adrenal axis and specific measures of psychological well‐being in healthy subjects. Forty‐three healthy volunteers participated in the study, of whom 22 were randomly allocated to the experimental group, and 21 were assigned to the control group. Experimental participants underwent a qigong training program for one month. Blood samples for the quantification of hormonal parameters, and several instruments to assess anxiety and depression symptoms as well as subjective sleep quality, were obtained before and after the program. Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups, with the experimental group showing lower blood levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). This study shows that Taoist qigong is a psychosomatic method able to exert a modulatory action on ACTH levels in healthy subjects. We consider the need to continue exploring the psychobiological modulation of this qigong method and its possible repercussion for human health care.     

Does aging affect the formation of new topographical memories? Evidence from an extensive spatial training

A decline in navigational abilities is a consistent feature of aging. Although many studies focused on recall of navigational information, the impact of time and type of learning on recall has received little attention. We submitted older adults and young participants to an extensive training of an ecological environment, from both route and survey perspectives. Then, we tested participants’ learning using from both route and survey perspectives. Although older adults benefit from the extensive training, they did not reach the same performance of the young participants. Despite this main effect of age, the effect of the type of learning was the same in the two groups. Congruence between type of learning and recall led to better performance in both groups. We discuss these findings in the light of cognitive models of human navigation and aging. Useful suggestions about how these findings may inform a specific cognitive intervention in older adults are also provided.     

Mangabeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cercocebus torquatus lunulatus</Emphasis>) solve the reverse contingency task without a modified procedure

Problem solving often relies on generating new responses while inhibiting others, particularly prepotent ones. A paradigm to study inhibitory abilities is the reverse contingency task (Boysen and Berntson in J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 21:82–86, 1995), in which two different quantities of food are offered to an individual who receives the array he did not choose. Therefore, mastery of the task demands selecting the smaller quantity to obtain the larger one. Several non-human primates have been tested in the reverse contingency task. To date, only great apes and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) have succeeded in the original task, with no need of procedural modifications as the large-or-none contingency, correction trials or symbolic stimuli substituting for actual food quantities. Here, four mangabeys were presented with two stimulus arrays of one and four raisins in the context of the reverse contingency task. Three of them learned to perform the task well above chance without a modified procedure. They also reached above-chance performance when presented with two stimulus arrays of zero and four raisins, despite the initial difficulty of choosing a null quantity. After a period of 7–10 months, in which the animals were not tested on any task, all three subjects continued to perform well, even when presented with novel quantity pairs.     

Children,but not great apes,respect ownership

Access to and control of resources is a major source of costly conflicts. Animals, under some conditions, respect what others control and use (i.e. possession). Humans not only respect possession of resources, they also respect ownership. Ownership can be viewed as a cooperative arrangement, where individuals inhibit their tendency to take others’ property on the condition that those others will do the same. We investigated to what degree great apes follow this principle, as compared to human children. We conducted two experiments, in which dyads of individuals could access the same food resources. The main test of respect for ownership was whether individuals would refrain from taking their partner's resources even when the partner could not immediately access and control them. Captive apes (N = 14 dyads) failed to respect their partner's claim on food resources and frequently monopolized the resources when given the opportunity. Human children (N = 14 dyads), tested with a similar apparatus and procedure, respected their partner's claim and made spontaneous verbal references to ownership. Such respect for the property of others highlights the uniquely cooperative nature of human ownership arrangements.