Article
Mathematical & Computational Biology
William H. Alexander, Thilo Womelsdorf
Summary: The interaction between medial and lateral prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role in cognitive control and decision-making, with proposals suggesting complementary roles in different aspects of behavior. The Hierarchical Error Representation model places these regions within the framework of predictive coding, demonstrating how they interact during behavioral periods. This model is able to capture neurophysiological, behavioral, and network effects, providing evidence for predictive coding as a unifying framework for understanding PFC function.
FRONTIERS IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Horst A. Obenhaus, Weijian Zong, R. Irene Jacobsen, Tobias Rose, Flavio Donato, Liangyi Chen, Heping Cheng, Tobias Bonhoeffer, May-Britt Moser, Edvard Moser
Summary: The study found that grid cells in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) exhibit distinct organization compared to border, head-direction, and object-vector cells, with strong coupling among themselves but weaker connections to other cell types.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Eisa Jafari, Jaber Alizadehgoradel, Fereshteh Pourmohseni Koluri, Ezzatollah Nikoozadehkordmirza, Meysam Refahi, Mina Taherifard, Vahid Nejati, Amir-Homayun Hallajian, Elham Ghanavati, M. Carmelo Vicario, A. Michael Nitsche, Mohammad Ali Salehinejad
Summary: Modulation of dorsolateral and medial PFC activity with intensified stimulation can improve core symptoms of SAD, treatment-related variables, and reduce attention bias to threatening stimuli. This effect is more significant with 2-mA intensity compared to 1-mA, highlighting the potential therapeutic benefits of higher stimulation intensity in SAD treatment.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Dongsheng Zhang, Yang Huang, Shasha Liu, Jie Gao, Weirui Liu, Wanting Liu, Kai Ai, Xiaoyan Lei, Xiaoling Zhang
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the role of structural and functional alterations of the cingulate gyrus in early cognitive impairment in Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. The results showed no significant differences in the cortical thickness of the cingulate gyrus between the patients and healthy controls, but the functional connectivity between specific brain regions was significantly different. These findings suggest that the functional connectivity of the cingulate gyrus may play a role in compensatory mechanisms for cognitive impairment in Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
ANNALS OF CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Renata Kabiljo, Alfredo Iacoangeli, Ammar Al-Chalabi, Ivana Rosenzweig
Summary: ALS is a devastating neurodegenerative disease with unclear association with the cerebellar role, recent findings suggest certain gene variants are significantly linked to ALS risk. Gene-based and tissue enrichment analysis show a specific relationship between cerebellar tissue and ALS, calling for a re-evaluation of cerebellar involvement in ALS pathology.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
David M. Bortz, Catalina M. Feistritzer, Anthony A. Grace
Summary: This study suggests that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to medial septum (MS) pathway may be involved in regulating cognitive flexibility and dopamine neuron activity. Activation of the mPFC-MS pathway improves strategy switching, while inhibition produces different effects. The pathway bidirectionally regulates dopamine neuron activity. This study reveals a potential top-down circuit from the prefrontal cortex to the midbrain that can manipulate dopamine activity to promote cognitive flexibility.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Johan Alsio, Olivia Lehmann, Colin McKenzie, David E. Theobald, Lydia Searle, Jing Xia, Jeffrey W. Dalley, Trevor W. Robbins
Summary: Across-species studies have found an evolutionarily conserved role for serotonin in flexible behavior, including reversal learning. This study aimed to investigate the contribution of serotonin in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) to visual discrimination and reversal learning. The findings revealed differential effects of serotonin within the two prefrontal cortex subregions on cognitive flexibility during visual discrimination and reversal learning.
Article
Biology
Geoffrey W. Diehl, A. David Redish
Summary: Decision-making requires different aspects of information and involves multiple cognitive processes. The rodent medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is believed to play a central role in these abilities. Previous studies on mPFC function have yielded controversial results, but this study with rats performing an economic decision task revealed four distinct functional domains within mPFC, closely related to anatomical subregions. Dorsal mPFC regions were more involved in processing active decisions, while ventral regions were more engaged in motivational factors.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Zhongzheng Fu, Danielle Beam, Jeffrey M. Chung, Chrystal M. Reed, Adam N. Mamelak, Ralph Adolphs, Ueli Rutishauser
Summary: Monitoring one's own performance is crucial for flexibly achieving desired goals. In this study, single neurons in the human medial frontal cortex were recorded while subjects performed two tasks involving cognitive conflict. The findings suggest that neuronal representations of evaluative signals can be both abstract and task-specific, providing insights into the neuronal mechanism for estimating control demand.
Article
Neurosciences
R. C. Lapate, I. C. Ballard, M. K. Heckner, M. D'Esposito
Summary: This study unveils the neural mechanisms through which emotional states influence goal-directed behavior, identifying the lateral frontal pole as a key region for integrating emotional and action goal information, while the subgenual ACC and amygdala play a role in transmitting emotional signals to the frontal pole.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Clement Goussi-Denjean, Vincent Fontanier, Frederic M. Stoll, Emmanuel Procyk
Summary: Behavioral adaptations are influenced by different constraints and outcomes, however, the mechanisms behind these adaptations in neural activity are unclear. This study investigated the impact of task performance and behavioral adaptation on local field potentials (LFPs) in the prefrontal and midcingulate cortex of rhesus macaques. The results showed that task difficulty had a significant effect on accuracy and reaction times, while LFP modulations were mainly related to reaction times, touch position, feedback valence, and time-in-session. This suggests that execution, regulation, and motivation-related factors play a major role in frontal activity.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Alex S. Vitorio, Lilian L. Reis-Silva, Lucas Barretto-de-Souza, Lucas Gomes-de-Souza, Carlos C. Crestani
Summary: This study investigated the role of the rostrocaudal subregions in the posterior insular cortex (IC) in anxiogenic responses caused by stress. The results suggest that the regulation of anxiogenic-like effect to emotional stress in the posterior IC may occur in a site-specific manner along the rostrocaudal axis, with a significant role of the intermediate subregion.
PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Hiroshi Kuniishi, Yuko Nakatake, Masayuki Sekiguchi, Mitsuhiko Yamada
Summary: Early-life social isolation is associated with social and emotional problems in adulthood. The present study investigates the neural mechanisms underlying how social deprivation impairs social and emotional development through the disruption of information processing in the OFC-BLA pathway. The results suggest that distinct postsynaptic changes in the mOFC-BLA and lOFC-BLA synapses contribute separately to abnormalities in social and emotional development.
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Celine Amiez, Jerome Sallet, Camille Giacometti, Charles Verstraete, Clemence Gandaux, Valentine Morel-Latour, Adrien Meguerditchian, Fadila Hadj-Bouziane, Suliann Ben Hamed, William D. Hopkins, Emmanuel Procyk, Charles R. E. Wilson, Michael Petrides
Summary: Detailed neuroscientific analysis of macaque monkey brains has advanced our understanding of human frontal cortex function. To directly apply this knowledge, it is crucial to understand the homologies between monkey and human brains, particularly in terms of sulci and cytoarchitectonic regions in the frontal cortex. Combining sulcal pattern analysis, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, and cytoarchitectonic analysis, it has been revealed that old-world monkey brains share the same organizational principles as hominid brains, except for the sulci in the frontopolar cortex. This comparative framework not only sheds light on primate brain evolution, but also serves as a valuable tool for translating invasive monkey research to human applications.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Maya Zhe Wang, Benjamin Y. Hayden, Sarah R. Heilbronner
Summary: Economic choice involves multiple cognitive subprocesses associated with the central orbitofrontal cortex (cOFC). This study challenges the assumption that cOFC is a single region with a single function, showing anatomical and physiological evidence for subdivision into cOFCm and cOFCl subregions. These subregions differ in functional connectivity and the relaying of choice signals.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
