The Motivational Origins of Religious Practices

I hypothesize that people engage in religious practices, in part, because such practices activate the frontal lobes. Activation of the frontal lobes is both intrinsically rewarding and necessary for acquisition of many of the behaviors that religions seek to foster, including self-responsibility, impulse and emotion modulation, empathy, moral insight, hope, and optimism. Although direct tests of the hypothesis are as yet nonexistent, there is reasonably strong circumstantial evidence (reviewed herein) for it. Recent brain-imaging studies indicate greater anterior activation values and increased blood flow to frontal sites during prayer and meditation. Regular prayer is positively correlated with better overall mental health. Religiosity is correlated with higher levels of self-monitoring, empathy, and moral insight and other positive behaviors and negatively correlated with depression and impulsive and risky behaviors. Independent data show that self-monitoring, empathy, hope, and moral insight are all selectively associated with intact frontal function, whereas depression, impulsiveness, and drug and alcohol abuse are associated selectively with frontal dysfunction. If religious practices do indeed preferentially activate and stimulate development of the frontal lobes, (a) religious practices should be considered as possible adjuncts for some patients in treatment for mental health disorders, and (b) the frontal lobes (rather than the temporal lobes) should be considered the major brain site that supports the core components of religious experience.     

选择注意神经机制:前扣带皮层对躯体感觉输入的丘脑-皮层调制

本文阐述了认知神经科学关于选择注意发生在感知觉中枢信息流加工较早阶段以及前扣带皮层（ACC）在丘脑和初级感觉皮层水平调制躯体感觉输入的研究证据,揭示了ACC在感知觉信息加工早期的选择注意控制执行机能,以及实行该机能的神经途径。     

An analysis of independence and interactions of brain substrates that subserve multiple attributes, memory systems, and underlying processes

It is proposed that memory is organized into event-based, knowledge-based, and rule-based memory systems. Furthermore, each system is composed of the same set of multiple attributes and characterized by a set of process oriented operating characteristics that are mapped onto multiple neural regions and interconnected neural circuits. Based on this theoretical model of memory, it is possible to investigate the independence and interaction among brain regions between any two systems for any of the proposed attributes or processes. This applies also to the investigation of independence and interactions between any two attributes within a system and between processes associated with a system for any of the proposed attributes. In this article, research evidence is presented to suggest that there are both dissociations and interactions between the hippocampus and caudate nucleus in mediating spatial and response attributes within the event-based memory system, between the hippocampus and the parietal cortex in subserving the spatial attribute within the event-based and knowledge-based memory systems, and between the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex in subserving the spatial attribute within the event-based and rule-based memory systems.     

Imaging brain plasticity during motor skill learning

The search for the neural substrates mediating the incremental acquisition of skilled motor behaviors has been the focus of a large body of animal and human studies in the past decade. Much less is known, however, with regard to the dynamic neural changes that occur in the motor system during the different phases of learning. In this paper, we review recent findings, mainly from our own work using fMRI, which suggest that: (i) the learning of sequential finger movements produces a slowly evolving reorganization within primary motor cortex (M1) over the course of weeks and (ii) this change in M1 follows more dynamic, rapid changes in the cerebellum, striatum, and other motor-related cortical areas over the course of days. We also briefly review neurophysiological and psychophysical evidence for the consolidation of motor skills, and we propose a working hypothesis of its underlying neural substrate in motor sequence learning.     

Executive Control Functions in Degenerative Dementias: A Comparative Review

This paper reviews the literature concerning executive control impairments in degenerative dementias. The construct of executive control functioning is examined, as is the neuroanatomy of frontal–subcortical networks, believed to underlie executive function (EF) impairments. The pattern of EF impairments in Alzheimer's disease (AD) which affects temporal and parietal brain regions most severely is contrasted with observed executive dysfunctions in patients with dementias involving degeneration of primarily frontal and frontal–subcortical brain areas. EF impairments are present in each of these types of dementing illnesses. Although EF impairments are present in AD, they are less prominent than the memory disorder in the neuropsychological profile of the disease and tend to become more pronounced later in the course of the illness. In contrast, patients with frontal or frontal–subcortical dementia may demonstrate executive dysfunction, which occurs earlier in the disease progression and may be initially more severe.     

When the self represents the other: a new cognitive neuroscience view on psychological identification

There is converging evidence from developmental and cognitive psychology, as well as from neuroscience, to suggest that the self is both special and social, and that self-other interaction is the driving force behind self-development. We review experimental findings which demonstrate that human infants are motivated for social interactions and suggest that the development of an awareness of other minds is rooted in the implicit notion that others are like the self. We then marshall evidence from functional neuroimaging explorations of the neurophysiological substrate of shared representations between the self and others, using various ecological paradigms such as mentally representing one's own actions versus others' actions, watching the actions executed by others, imitating the others' actions versus being imitated by others. We suggest that within this shared neural network the inferior parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex in the right hemisphere play a special role in the essential ability to distinguish the self from others, and in the way the self represents the other. Interestingly, the right hemisphere develops its functions earlier than the left.     

Cholinergic dependence of taste memory formation: evidence of two distinct processes

Learning the aversive or positive consequences associated with novel taste solutions has a strong significance for an animal's survival. A lack of recognition of a taste's consequences could prevent ingestion of potential edibles or encounter death. We used conditioned taste aversion (CTA) and attenuation of neophobia (AN) to study aversive and safe taste memory formation. To determine if muscarinic receptors in the insular cortex participate differentially in both tasks, we infused the muscarinic antagonists scopolamine at distinct times before or after the presentation of a strong concentration of saccharin, followed by either an i.p. injection of a malaise-inducing agent or no injection. Our results showed that blockade of muscarinic receptors before taste presentation disrupts both learning tasks. However, the same treatment after the taste prevents AN but not CTA. These results clearly demonstrate that cortical cholinergic activity participates in the acquisition of both safe and aversive memory formation, and that cortical muscarinic receptors seem to be necessary for safe but not for aversive taste memory consolidation. These results suggest that the taste memory trace is processed in the insular cortex simultaneously by at least two independent mechanisms, and that their interaction would determine the degree of aversion or preference learned to a novel taste.     

Functional anatomy of speech perception and speech production: psycholinguistic implications

This paper presents evidence for a new model of the functional anatomy of speech/language (Hickok & Poeppel, 2000) which has, at its core, three central claims: (1) Neural systems supporting the perception of sublexical aspects of speech are essentially bilaterally organized in posterior superior temporal lobe regions; (2) neural systems supporting the production of phonemic aspects of speech comprise a network of predominately left hemisphere systems which includes not only frontal regions, but also superior temporal lobe regions; and (3) the neural systems supporting speech perception and production partially overlap in left superior temporal lobe. This model, which postulates nonidentical but partially overlapping systems involved in the perception and production of speech, explains why psycho- and neurolinguistic evidence is mixed regarding the question of whether input and output phonological systems involve a common network or distinct networks.     

肢体运动信息如何在工作记忆中存储?

肢体运动(空间位置运动与身体模式运动)是个体与环境交互作用的重要途径。以往行为学和脑成像研究分别探讨了空间位置运动信息和身体模式运动信息的工作记忆存储问题, 发现两种肢体运动信息的存储均独立于语音环、视空间画板的视觉子系统, 需要视空间画板的空间子系统的参与; 两种肢体运动信息激活的脑区(运动相关皮层)独立于语音环、视空间画板的视觉子系统和空间子系统, 并存在差异。这表明, 现有的工作记忆多成分模型不能完全解释肢体运动信息的存储。据此可推论, 工作记忆系统中可能存在一个负责处理肢体运动信息的“肢体运动系统”, 其隶属于视空间画板, 与视觉子系统和空间子系统并存; 其激活脑区因肢体运动的不同而存在差异。     

强迫性特征在药物成瘾行为中的易感性及其前额叶-反奖赏系统神经基础

强迫性是一种与不顾严重后果的固着行为密切相关的神经心理结构, 大脑神经系统对强迫性行为的调控机制崩溃是导致药物成瘾的直接原因。以往研究对于奖赏系统(中脑-皮层-边缘神经环路)在成瘾行为中的作用及机制已经具有丰富的了解, 但针对药物成瘾的强迫性特征本身以及前额叶-反奖赏系统神经环路在成瘾行为中的作用机制了解有限, 尤其是缺乏对药物成瘾强迫性特征的系统考察、缺少遗传学研究以及非兴奋剂类药物的汇聚证据。项目拟结合人类成瘾行为的遗传学视角(海洛因成瘾者与其无药物使用的兄弟姐妹对照), 结合神经认知、脑电生理、神经影像等不同层面的方法和技术, 对药物成瘾强迫性的外在表征、神经生物学基础以及与个体差异有关的遗传易感性进行探索, 期在进一步识别药物成瘾的神经生物标记, 为探寻潜在的药物或非药物干预靶点提供更多证据。