Extinction partially reverts structural changes associated with remote fear memory

Structural synaptic changes occur in medial prefrontal cortex circuits during remote memory formation. Whether extinction reverts or further reshapes these circuits is, however, unknown. Here we show that the number and the size of spines were enhanced in anterior cingulate (aCC) and infralimbic (ILC) cortices 36 d following contextual fear conditioning. Upon extinction, aCC spine density returned to baseline, but the enhanced proportion of large spines did not. Differently, ILC spine density remained elevated, but the size of spines decreased dramatically. Thus, extinction partially erases the remote memory network, suggesting that the preserved network properties might sustain reactivation of extinguished conditioned fear.     

Visual selective attention and the effects of monetary rewards

Outcomes of actions, in the form of rewards and punishments, are known to shape behavior. For example, an action followed by reward will be more readily elicited on subsequent encounters with the same stimuli and context -- a phenomenon known as the law of effect. These consequences of rewards (and punishments) are important because they reinforce adaptive behaviors at the expense of competing ones, thus increasing fitness of the organism in its environment. However, it is unknown whether similar influences regulate covert mental processes, such as visual selective attention. Visual selective attention allows privileged processing of task-relevant information, while inhibiting distracting contextual elements. Using variable monetary rewards as arbitrary feedback on performance, we tested whether acts of attentional selection, and in particular the resulting aftereffects, can be modulated by their consequences. Results show that the efficacy of visual selective attention can be sensibly adjusted by external feedback. Specifically, although lingering inhibition of distractors is robust after highly rewarded selections, it is eliminated after poorly rewarded selections. This powerful feature of visual selective attention provides attentive processes with both flexibility and self-regulation properties.     

Psychological impact of coronavirus-related social isolation in Colombia after a year of lockdown

Several repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent isolation period have been reported worldwide. In this paper, we analyze the behavioral and emotional effects of 1 year of coronavirus-related lockdown in Colombia. A cross-sectional correlational design was used on a sample of 1853 participants from different regions, and with different levels of education, income, and employment situations. We applied the fear of coronavirus scale, the use of preventive behaviors scale, and a scale to measure pleasant and unpleasant emotions based on the circumplex model of affect. Our data shows that women, participants who were unemployed during the lockdown, and participants that study or work in legal, computational, or related fields, have been more affected in terms of unpleasant emotions. In addition, we observed a trend towards a relation between higher income and educational levels with lower degrees of fear, higher degrees of pleasant emotions, and a greater use of preventive behaviors related to the pandemic.     

Serial attention mechanisms in visual search: A critical look at the evidence

Until a few years ago, visual search tasks were of exclusive pertinence to psychophysicists and cognitive psychologists trying to understand the operating principles and computational constraints of visual perception and visual selective attention. In recent years, cognitive neuroscience, with its powerful tools, has started to explore more directly the neuronal mechanisms underlying search performance in humans and macaques, aiming at the same general goals. New observations from a number of cognitive neuroscience approaches are promising a near future of great excitement in this field of research. This article offers a critical review of some of these recent contributions and highlights some of the interpretational problems that they pose. Received: 20 January 1998 / Accepted: 25 September 1998     

Dynamic conception of vocational guidance

The author maintains that V.G. must be the result of a clinical examination carried out deeply, and that, therefore, an orientation diagnosis can be made only by taking into consideration the deeper inclinations of the subject, rather than his aptitudes, interests or character traits; satisfactory adjustment to work being, in fact, the consequence of an harmonious concord between the individual's professional activity and the deep inclinations of the personality while a situation of maladjustment is the consequence of a chronic frustration of a fundamental emotional need.     

CaMeRa: A Computational Model of Multiple Representations

This research aims to clarify, by constructing and testing a computer simulation, the use of multiple representations in problem solving, focusing on their role in visual reasoning. The model is motivated by extensive experimental evidence in the literature for the features it incorporates, but this article focuses on the system's structure. We illustrate the model's behavior by simulating the cognitive and perceptual processes of an economics expert as he teaches some well-learned economics principles while drawing a graph on a blackboard. Data in the experimental literature and concurrent verbal protocols were used to guide construction of a linked production system and parallel network, CaMeRa (Computation with Multiple Representations), that employs a "Mind's Eye" representation for pictorial information, consisting of a bitmap and associated node-link structures. Propositional list structures are used to represent verbal information and reasoning. Small individual pieces from the different representations are linked on a sequential and temporary basis to form a reasoning and inferencing chain, using visually encoded information recalled to the Mind's Eye from long-term memory and from cues recognized on an external display. CaMeRa, like the expert, uses the diagrammatic and verbal representations to complement one another, thus exploiting the unique advantages of each.     

Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Embodied Language

ABSTRACT— Mirror neurons are a class of neurons first discovered in the monkey premotor cortex that activate both when the monkey executes an action and when it observes the same action made by another individual. These neurons enable individuals to understand actions performed by others. Two subcategories of mirror neurons in monkeys activate when they listen to action sounds and when they observe communicative gestures made by others, respectively. The properties of mirror neurons could constitute a substrate from which more sophisticated forms of communication evolved; this would make sense, given the anatomical and functional homology between part of the monkey premotor cortex and Broca's area (the "speech" area of the brain) in humans. We hypothesize that several components of human language, including some aspects of phonology and syntax, could be embedded in the organizational properties of the motor system and that a deeper knowledge of this system could shed light on how language evolved.