Article
Neurosciences
S. F. A. Axelsson, N. K. Horst, Naotaka Horiguchi, A. C. Roberts, T. W. Robbins
Summary: Studies have shown the significant role of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) in higher order cognitive functions, with inactivation causing disruption in sequencing accuracy. Dopamine and serotonergic blockade had contrasting effects on performance, with dopamine producing error perseveration and serotonin significantly impairing accuracy.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Jun Zhao, Licheng Mo, Rong Bi, Zhenhong He, Yuming Chen, Feng Xu, Hui Xie, Dandan Zhang
Summary: The study found that both the DLPFC and VLPFC play a role in facilitating the downregulation of affective responses caused by social exclusion, demonstrating their causal role in voluntary emotional regulation. Additionally, these two cortical regions show relative functional specificity for distraction (DLPFC) and reappraisal (VLPFC) strategies.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Review
Oncology
Yihua Chen, Nengyuan Hu, Jianming Yang, Tianming Gao
Summary: Pathological anxiety, a difficult neuropsychiatric disease to treat, has been linked to structural changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and functional changes in PFC communication with other brain structures. Therapies that affect PFC activity can reverse anxiety-related circuit abnormalities. Rodent models and advanced techniques have provided insights into the neural circuits underlying anxiety and fear, aiding the development of therapies for pathological anxiety.
FRONTIERS OF MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Biology
Alexander Fengler, Lakshmi N. Govindarajan, Tony Chen, Michael J. Frank
Summary: In cognitive neuroscience, computational modeling is important but limited by the number of models with known likelihood functions. Using neural networks to learn approximate likelihoods allows fast recovery of parameter distributions for future inference.
Article
Neurosciences
Licheng Mo, Sijin Li, Si Cheng, Yiwei Li, Feng Xu, Dandan Zhang
Summary: The DLPFC plays a more crucial role in distraction, while the VLPFC plays a more crucial role in reappraisal during social interactions.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Xiaohe Xue, Ralf D. Wimmer, Michael M. Halassa, Zhe Sage Chen
Summary: The prefrontal cortical neurons are essential in rule-dependent tasks, and a neural network model can generate rule-specific tunings in single-unit representations similar to experimentally observed data. Through computational modeling, we can understand neuronal representations at a fine timescale during working memory and cognitive control.
COGNITIVE COMPUTATION
(2022)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Chenyi Chen, Yu-Hsin Chen, Yawei Cheng
Summary: This study conducted meta-analyses to investigate the neural mechanisms of clinical empathy. The results showed that healthcare providers had higher scores in empathic concern and perspective-taking, and the activation of anterior mid-cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex were consistently identified in clinical empathy.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Leo Kozachkov, John Tauber, Mikael Lundqvist, Scott L. Brincat, Jean-Jacques Slotine, Earl K. Miller
Summary: Research suggests that short-term synaptic plasticity (STSP) is important for maintaining working memory and making neural networks more brain-like. Artificial neural networks with STSP showed better performance in maintaining memories and resisting network degradation compared to networks without STSP.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Adrienne C. Loewke, Adelaide R. Minerva, Alexandra B. Nelson, Anatol C. Kreitzer, Lisa A. Gunaydin
Summary: The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) plays a key role in controlling defensive behavior through specific top-down projections. The dmPFC-amygdala projection is involved in reflexive fear behavior, while the dmPFC-striatum projection regulates anxious avoidance behavior. These findings provide important insights into the neural mechanisms underlying anxiety disorders.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Kaho Tsumura, Keita Kosugi, Yoshiki Hattori, Ryuta Aoki, Masaki Takeda, Junichi Chikazoe, Kiyoshi Nakahara, Koji Jimura
Summary: Adaptation to changing environments involves the guidance of behavioral flexibility in ambiguous situations. This study found that in situations where relevant behavior is ambiguous, top-down signals from the prefrontal cortex complement neural coding, while in situations where behavioral shifting is explicitly cued, modality-specialized occipitotemporal regions implement distinct neural coding and bottom-up signals from the occipitotemporal region (back of the brain) supplement the behavioral shift.
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Yan-yan Guo, Ying Zhou, Yu-jiao Li, An Liu, Jiao Yue, Qing-qing Liu, Le Yang, Yu-mei Wu, Shui-bing Liu, Kun Zhang, Ming-gao Zhao
Summary: This study reveals that Scutellarin has a protective effect against stress-induced anxiety in mice by restoring neurotransmitter levels and improving behavioral abnormalities.
PHYTOTHERAPY RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Timo Flesch, David G. Nagy, Andrew Saxe, Christopher Summerfield
Summary: The study proposes a novel training method inspired by the prefrontal cortex of the human brain, which enables artificial neural networks to learn multiple tasks in sequence without forgetting. The analysis of task representations in the network reveals similarities with the prefrontal cortex of the mammalian brain.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Wenwen Yu, Yiwei Li, Xueying Cao, Licheng Mo, Yuming Chen, Dandan Zhang
Summary: This study used high-frequency and low-frequency rTMS to separately activate or inhibit the rVLPFC and found a causal relationship between rVLPFC and voluntary emotion regulation of social pain. The results showed that the inhibitory group reported more negative emotions and larger pupil diameter, while the activated group showed less negative emotions and reduced pupil diameter during emotion regulation. Additionally, the activated group gave more positive social evaluation and donated more money. These findings reveal that the rVLPFC plays a causal role in voluntary emotion regulation of social pain and can be a potential brain target in treating deficits of emotion regulation in psychiatric disorders.
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
(2023)
Article
Cell Biology
Chun-Kit Law, Nils Kolling, Chetwyn C. H. Chan, Bolton K. H. Chau
Summary: Important decisions involve choosing between complex environments and item encounters. However, decision-making research has mainly focused on item choice, neglecting environment choice. This study contrasts the brain regions associated with item and environment choices and proposes a mechanism for how the brain decomposes and represents complex environments during decision making.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Dan Cao, Zhenying Qian, Yingying Tang, Jijun Wang, Tianzi Jiang, Yingjie Li
Summary: This study demonstrates the causal role of the left VLPFC in positive reappraisal, and provides a neural indicator to assess the degree to which single-pulse TMS modulates emotional experience using positive reappraisal.
JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
J. C. Niebaum, N. Chevalier, R. M. Guild, Y. Munakata
Summary: Developmental changes in executive function may involve differences in the decision to engage control and how to engage control, which could be related to awareness of cognitive demands and adaptive behavior.
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Alyssa N. Fassett-Carman, Harry Smolker, Benjamin L. Hankin, Hannah R. Snyder, Marie T. Banich
Summary: Perceived lack of control over dependent stressors is associated with increases in gray matter volume in certain brain regions, while perceived control over independent stressors is not. It is important to differentiate between these aspects of the stress experience in future research.
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Family Studies
Morgan M. Taylor, Hannah R. Snyder
Summary: Poor cognitive control is associated with commonalities between rumination and worry, and may predict engagement in repetitive negative thinking through the mechanism of dependent stress generation.
EMERGING ADULTHOOD
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Elena C. Peterson, Hannah R. Snyder, Chiara Neilson, Benjamin M. Rosenberg, Christina M. Hough, Christina F. Sandman, Leoneh Ohanian, Samantha Garcia, Juliana Kotz, Jamie Finegan, Caitlin A. Ryan, Abena Gyimah, Sophia Sileo, David J. Miklowitz, Naomi P. Friedman, Roselinde H. Kaiser
Summary: Both unipolar and bipolar depression are associated with impairments in executive functioning (EF). The severity of mood symptoms is related to differences in common EF. The deficits in common EF are driven by or reflect general features of mood pathology, which are shared across symptom dimensions, but are also specifically associated with physiological arousal.
FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Applied
Grant S. Shields, Alyssa Fassett-Carman, Zach J. Gray, Joseph E. Gonzales, Hannah R. Snyder, George M. Slavich
Summary: Subjective stress severity appraisals are better predictors of poor health than stressor exposure, possibly because they do not treat all stressors equally and reflect individual differences in stress vulnerability.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Harry R. Smolker, Hannah R. Snyder, Benjamin L. Hankin, Marie T. Banich
Summary: This study identifies the neuroanatomical correlates of different dimensions of internalizing psychopathology symptoms in adolescents, showing associations across various regions of the brain. Results varied between males and females, particularly in sexually dimorphic areas, with effects largely opposite to those observed in adults and children.
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Xinran Niu, Hannah R. Snyder
Summary: The study finds that maladaptive emotion regulation is a potential mechanism through which sleep disturbance and depression help maintain high levels of one another in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, addressing emotion regulation deficits is crucial for interventions to interrupt the sleep disturbance-depression cycle.
ANXIETY STRESS AND COPING
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Jennifer J. Wicks, Morgan M. Taylor, Alyssa N. Fassett-Carman, Chiara R. Neilson, Elena C. Peterson, Roselinde H. Kaiser, Hannah R. Snyder
Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted daily life for undergraduates and introduced new stressors. This study examined the impact of stress response styles on the perceived severity of COVID-related stressors and internalizing dimensions. The results showed that stress severity and maladaptive response styles were associated with internalizing symptoms.
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Hannah R. R. Snyder, Rebecca L. L. Silton, Benjamin L. L. Hankin, Harry R. R. Smolker, Roselinde H. H. Kaiser, Marie T. T. Banich, Gregory A. A. Miller, Wendy Heller
Summary: Recent research aims to represent the dimensional structure of psychopathology. This study tested the dimensional structure of internalizing psychopathology and its relations with depressive and anxiety disorders, finding specific and general internalizing dimensions.
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Education & Educational Research
Allison Zengilowski, Irum Maqbool, Surya Pratap Deka, Jesse C. Niebaum, Diego Placido, Benjamin Katz, Priti Shah, Yuko Munakata
NPJ SCIENCE OF LEARNING
(2023)
Article
Family Studies
Winnie Zhuang, Jade Noelani Yonehiro, Lucy Morse Roberts, Martha Lopez, Yuko Munakata
Summary: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), which include abuse, neglect, and household challenges, affect a high percentage of children in the United States. Interventions that focus on building protective factors at the individual, family, and community levels can help mitigate the negative effects of ACEs. The study evaluated the effectiveness of a peer-led parenting program, specifically the addition of ACEs and resilience materials, and found improved outcomes for participants, including non-English speaking parents.
JOURNAL OF CHILD AND FAMILY STUDIES
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Xinran Niu, Morgan M. Taylor, Jennifer J. Wicks, Alyssa N. Fassett-Carman, Amelia D. Moser, Chiara Neilson, Elena C. Peterson, Roselinde H. Kaiser, Hannah R. Snyder
Summary: This study examines the relationship between depression, anxiety, and emotion regulation during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. The results suggest that individuals with higher levels of maladaptive emotion regulation are more likely to experience depression and anxiety. However, there were no significant within-person associations between emotion regulation and internalizing symptoms.
COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Yuko Munakata, Diego Placido, Winnie Zhuang
Summary: Forming predictions about future development happens early in development, without instruction, and across species. Predictable environments support more accurate predictions and positive developmental trajectories. Understanding the effects of environmental predictability is complex but important for predicting and supporting developmental trajectories.
CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Psychology
Morgan M. Taylor, Jennifer J. Wicks, Alyssa N. Fassett-Carman, Hannah R. Snyder
Summary: Anxiety and depression symptoms were high among emerging adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research has lacked pre-pandemic longitudinal or matched comparison samples, making it difficult to determine the extent of the pandemic's impact on internalizing symptoms in this population. More research is needed to understand the types of emotion regulation strategies used during the pandemic and their relationship to psychopathology risk and resilience.
TRANSLATIONAL ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Danielle A. Swales, Hannah R. Snyder, Benjamin L. Hankin, Curt A. Sandman, Laura M. Glynn, Elysia Poggi Davis
Summary: This study examines the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and child psychopathology using the latent bifactor model. The results suggest that maternal depressive symptoms are associated with a general psychopathology factor (p-factor) in children, rather than specific internalizing or externalizing risks. This highlights the importance of understanding how maternal depression can impact children's mental health.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
