Brain mechanisms associated with background monitoring of the environment for potentially significant sensory events

Background monitoring is a necessary prerequisite to detect unexpected changes in the environment, while being involved in a primary task. Here, we used fMRI to investigate the neural mechanisms that underlie adaptive goal-directed behavior in a cued task switching paradigm during real response conflict or, more generally, when expectations on the repetitive features of the environment were violated. Unexpected changes in sensory stimulus attributes in the currently unattended stimulus dimension thereby led to activations in a bilateral network comprising inferior lateral frontal, intraparietal, and posterior medial frontal brain regions, independent of whether these attributes elicited a factual response conflict or not. This fronto-parietal network may thus play an important role in adaptive responding to potentially significant events outside the current focus of attention.     

Associations Among Anxiety Disorders and Non-anxiety Disorders,Functional Impairment and Medication in Children and Adolescents

This is a study of comorbid anxiety disorders and how they affect the clinical picture of comorbid cases. The sample consisted of 576 Spanish children aged 8 to 17 years receiving psychiatric outpatient consultation that were evaluated using a semi-structured diagnostic interview for both parents and children. A specific association of homotypic comorbidity among anxiety disorders that was independent of the presence of other disorders was found. There was heterotypic comorbidity between anxiety and depressive disorders, ADHD, anorexia and tic disorders. Relationships between non-anxiety disorders were, in general, independent of anxiety, but anxiety moderated the relationship between ADHD-Conduct disorder and Conduct disorder-enuresis. Comorbid anxiety increased difficulties in social interaction, was related with higher global impairment and had an impact on consultation and medication. Anxiety disorder comorbidity should be well recognized in order not to disregard the treatment of all present disorders.     

Efficient search under constraints and not working memory resources supports creative action emergence in a convergent motor task

Creative (original and functional) solutions to problems can be facilitated by guiding search behavior. According to cognitive models, when solving convergent tasks (tasks with few solutions), high available working memory (WM) resources and capacity can guide creative solution emergence via repeated (persistent) search within a solution subcategory. However, no clear associations have been found of WM capacity on creative outcomes when tasks require the individual to enact solutions in divergent doing tasks. This study further tested constraints on WM resources on search behavior and creative outcomes in a convergent doing task. Novices to combat sports were asked to repeatedly strike a target with the intent to achieve an individualized target force. In order to manipulate available WM resources, every ten strikes, participants were asked to recall and then retain a sequence of 5 digits (high load group: n = 21) or 2 digits (low load group: n = 21). The task constraints favored the functionality (or appropriateness) of a qualitatively distinct, non-obvious solution. Functionality was assessed using the force registered for each strike. Originality was assessed in terms of how infrequently actions occurred. Finally, search behavior was quantified based on changes in which limb was used and changes in which part of the limb was used from one strike to the next. There were no significant effects of WM load on creativity outcomes, solution search, or task success. Rather, task success was related to efficient search and creativity. Future research should focus on constraints (other than WM resources) that promote efficient search.     

Synergistic influences of sensory and central stimuli on non-voluntary rhythmic arm movements

In recent years, neuromodulation of the cervical spinal circuitry has become an area of interest for investigating rhythmogenesis of the human spinal cord and interaction between cervical and lumbosacral circuitries, given the involvement of rhythmic arm muscle activity in many locomotor tasks. We have previously shown that arm muscle vibrostimulation can elicit non-voluntary upper limb oscillations in unloading body conditions. Here we investigated the excitability of the cervical spinal circuitry by applying different peripheral and central stimuli in healthy humans. The rationale for applying combined stimuli is that the efficiency of only one stimulus is generally limited. We found that low-intensity electrical stimulation of the superficial arm median nerve can evoke rhythmic arm movements. Furthermore, the movements were enhanced by additional peripheral stimuli (e.g., arm muscle vibration, head turns or passive rhythmic leg movements). Finally, low-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex significantly facilitated rhythmogenesis. The findings are discussed in the general framework of a brain-spinal interface for developing adaptive central pattern generator-modulating therapies.     

Neurodevelopmental influences in the genesis and epigenesis of schizophrenia: An overview

The classical view of schizophrenia as a dementing disorder has recently been challenged by several findings pointing to a prenatal/perinatal origin of at least some of the brain abnormalities seen in these patients. This article reviews evidence from a number of different fields, including postmortem neuropathology, in vivo neuroimaging, developmental neuropsychology, and obstetric epidemiology in assessing the viability of a neurodevelopmental perspective of schizophrenia. Although the case for viewing schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental condition is still circumstantial, and several gaps in this model remain, evidence from these diverse lines of inquiry converge to indicate at least a partial role of disturbances of brain development in the disorder's genesis and epigenesis.     

Some Facts from the Biography of A. R. Luria

The biographical sketches from Luria's life reveal the capricious political changes and their effect on the development of Soviet neuropsychology. The picture that emerges is of an individual who survived several ideological reprisals. He introduced Vygotsky into the mainstream of psychology, and continued to advance the study of cognitive functions within the context of neuroanatomy of the brain. And yet, he had an open mind judged by his interest in Freud, and welcoming to his clinic pioneers of psychology such as Piaget, Bruner and Pribram. Also included are intimate impressions of a daughter of her father, who like his young mentor, Vygotsky was a near-genius. He was unvanquished by adversities, doggedly working away to extend the frontiers of the science of human mind.     

Amygdala activation during masked presentation of emotional faces predicts conscious detection of threat-related faces

It has been argued that critical functions of the human amygdala are to modulate the moment-to-moment vigilance level and to enhance the processing and the consolidation of memories of emotionally arousing material. In this functional magnetic resonance study, pictures of human faces bearing fearful, angry, and happy expressions were presented to nine healthy volunteers using a backward masking procedure based on neutral facial expression. Activation of the left and right amygdala in response to the masked fearful faces (compared to neutral faces) was significantly correlated with the number of fearful faces detected. In addition, right but not left amygdala activation in response to the masked angry faces was significantly related to the number of angry faces detected. The present findings underscore the role of the amygdala in the detection and consolidation of memory for marginally perceptible threatening facial expression.     

Human symbol manipulation within an integrated cognitive architecture

This article describes the Adaptive Control of Thought–Rational (ACT–R) cognitive architecture (Anderson et al., 2004; Anderson & Lebiere, 1998) and its detailed application to the learning of algebraic symbol manipulation. The theory is applied to modeling the data from a study by Qin, Anderson, Silk, Stenger, & Carter (2004) in which children learn to solve linear equations and perfect their skills over a 6-day period. Functional MRI data show that: (a) a motor region tracks the output of equation solutions, (b) a prefrontal region tracks the retrieval of declarative information, (c) a parietal region tracks the transformation of mental representations of the equation, (d) an anterior cingulate region tracks the setting of goal information to control the information flow, and (e) a caudate region tracks the firing of productions in the ACT–R model. The article concludes with an architectural comparison of the competence children display in this task and the competence that monkeys have shown in tasks that require manipulations of sequences of elements.     

Being a self: considerations from functional imaging

Having a self is associated with important advantages for an organism.These advantages have been suggested to include mechanisms supporting elaborate capacities for planning, decision-making, and behavioral control. Acknowledging such functionality offers possibilities for obtaining traction on investigation of neural correlates of self-hood. A method that has potential for investigating some of the brain-based properties of self arising in behavioral contexts varying in requirements for such behavioral guidance and control is functional brain imaging. Data obtained with this method are beginning to converge on a set of brain areas that appear to play a significant role in permitting conscious access to representational content having reference to self as an embodied and independent experiencer and agent. These areas have been identified in a variety of imaging contexts ranging from passive state conditions in which they appear to manifest ongoing activity associated with spontaneous and typically 'self-related' cognition, to tasks targeting explicitly experienced properties of self, to demanding task conditions where activity within them is attenuated in apparent redirection of cognitive resources in the service of task guidance and control. In this paper, these data will be reviewed and a hypothesis presented regarding a significant role for these areas in enabling degrees of self-awareness and participating in the management of such behavioral control.     

Critical appraisal of the discussion on delay discounting by Bailey et al. and Stein et al.: A scientific proposal for a reinforcer pathology theory 3.0

Delay discounting is one of the most studied phenomena in Psychology in the last decades. Recently, it has been proposed as a transdiagnostic variable accounting for several psychopathological problems. A review of current practices and clinical application (Bailey et al., 2021) and a response article (Stein et al., 2022) have been recently published. Despite both of them being stimulating, the articles raise issues needing further discussion. The first part of the present article critically appraises both publications by highlighting their strengths/limitations and offers an alternate perspective that clarifies some theoretical issues and allows new lines in research. In the second part, one of these new lines of research is presented by describing a research proposal based on the analysed critiques and current developments in both psychopathology and addiction research. This article contributes to the discussion on delay discounting suggesting alternative interpretations and future studies to improve theoretical models.