Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mandy V. V. Bartsch, Christian Merkel, Hendrik Strumpf, Mircea A. Schoenfeld, John K. Tsotsos, Jens-Max Hopf
Summary: This study analyzes the spatiotemporal dynamics of neuromagnetic activity in the human visual cortex during focus shifts. The findings suggest that large focus shifts elicit activity modulations starting from higher hierarchical levels and progressing to lower levels, while smaller shifts start at lower levels. Successive shifts involve backward progressions through the hierarchy. The study concludes that covert focus shifts arise from a cortical coarse-to-fine process, which improves spatial resolution and resolves coding issues.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Laurie Geers, Mauro Pesenti, Gerard Derosiere, Julie Duque, Laurence Dricot, Michael Andres
Summary: Research indicates that prospective action judgments do not solely rely on simulating the action, but involve refreshing the memory of maximal grip aperture and facilitating its comparison with object size. These judgments involve right fronto-parietal areas, rather than simple motor system simulation.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Review
Neurosciences
Bruno Averbeck, John P. O'Doherty
Summary: This article reviews the current state of knowledge on the computational and neural mechanisms of reinforcement learning, with a focus on fronto-striatal circuits. Five broad research themes are identified, including learning targets, algorithms driving learning and inference, value conversion into choices and actions, state representations, and brain control over reinforcement learning subsystems. The authors argue that bridging algorithmic level descriptions to implementation level models is essential to better understand how reinforcement learning emerges from multiple distributed neural networks in the brain.
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Alfredo L. Sklar, Brian A. Coffman, Dean F. Salisbury
Summary: Cognitive impairments play a significant role in schizophrenia and are present at disease onset. Patients with first-episode schizophrenia spectrum exhibit greater right hemisphere brain activity despite worse performance compared to healthy controls. Stronger activity in specific brain regions is associated with faster responses, reduced negative symptoms, and improved community functioning in patients.
JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yusaku Takamura, Shintaro Fujii, Satoko Ohmatsu, Shu Morioka, Noritaka Kawashima
Summary: Visuospatial neglect (VSN) is a neurological syndrome where patients fail to detect stimuli on the side opposite a hemispheric lesion. A study found VSN can be divided into elements such as low arousal, exogenous neglect, and spatial working memory deficit, each correlating with specific neural damage. This research sheds light on the complex structure of VSN as a deficit in attention network components.
Article
Neurosciences
Selene Schintu, Catherine A. Cunningham, Michael Freedberg, Paul Taylor, Stephen J. Gotts, Sarah Shomstein, Eric M. Wassermann
Summary: Hemispatial neglect is believed to be caused by disruption of interhemispheric balance, where right hemisphere lesions deactivate the right frontoparietal network and hyperactivate the left. Evidence from neuropsychological research and TMS studies in healthy subjects support this mechanism. Inhibition of the right PPC leads to neglect-like, rightward visuospatial bias.
Article
Neurosciences
Francesca Rocchi, Hiroyuki Oya, Fabien Balezeau, Alexander J. Billig, Zsuzsanna Kocsis, Rick L. Jenison, Kirill V. Nourski, Christopher K. Kovach, Mitchell Steinschneider, Yukiko Kikuchi, Ariane E. Rhone, Brian J. Dlouhy, Hiroto Kawasaki, Ralph Adolphs, Jeremy D. W. Greenlee, Timothy D. Griffiths, Matthew A. Howard, Christopher I. Petkov
Summary: This study found comparable effective connectivity patterns between macaque monkeys and humans in brain pathways supporting language and memory, with human-specific differences in hemispheric lateralization effects. Additionally, rapid evoked potentials were observed between the auditory cortex and VLPFC in humans, indicating direct projections similar to those seen in monkeys.
Article
Psychiatry
Linming Yao, Yajing Wang, Yanzhong Gao, Hongwei Gao, Xufeng Guo
Summary: This study examines the neurobiological basis of sustained attention deficits caused by sleep deprivation. Using advanced imaging techniques, the researchers found that sleep deprivation leads to a significant decrease in activity within the fronto-parietal network, which is correlated with impaired performance on the psychomotor vigilance task. Additionally, the study identifies baseline activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as a potential marker for individual responses to the cognitive effects of sleep deprivation.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Dan C. Li, Niharika M. Dighe, Britton R. Barbee, Elizabeth G. Pitts, Brik Kochoian, Sarah A. Blumenthal, Janet Figueroa, Traci Leong, Shannon L. Gourley
Summary: Behavioral flexibility is crucial for navigating dynamic environments, and it relies on the durable encoding and retrieval of new memories. The orbitofrontal cortex plays a key role in supporting outcome-guided behaviors, while the connections between the basolateral amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and dorsomedial striatum are involved in the control of memory formation and retrieval. This study reveals the bidirectional control of memory formation and retrieval within this integrated circuit, shedding light on the mechanisms underlying flexible learning and memory.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biology
Jianghao Liu, Dimitri J. Bayle, Alfredo Spagna, Jacobo D. Sitt, Alexia Bourgeois, Katia Lehongre, Sara Fernandez-Vidal, Claude Adam, Virginie Lambrecq, Vincent Navarro, Tal Seidel Malkinson, Paolo Bartolomeo
Summary: This study investigates the interaction between attention and consciousness in the human brain. The findings suggest that fronto-parietal attentional networks play a crucial role in conscious perception. Neural activity recordings from epilepsy patients reveal three distinct neural patterns associated with attention and consciousness. Therefore, this research highlights the importance of fronto-parietal networks in shaping human conscious experience.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Ke Zeng, Neil M. Drummond, Ayda Ghahremani, Utpal Saha, Suneil K. Kalia, Mojgan Hodaie, Andres M. Lozano, Adam R. Aron, Robert Chen
Summary: Research on the neural substrate for fronto-subthalamic communication during conflict processing has indicated that coordination and information transfer between brain structures are achieved through mechanisms such as theta phase synchronization and theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling.
Article
Neurosciences
Cheng Xue, Lily E. Kramer, Marlene R. Cohen
Summary: Natural decisions involve inferring the relevant task and performing the believed-relevant task. This research reveals an inherent connection between task-belief and perceptual decision-making, as evidenced by stronger task-belief being associated with better perception in animals. Neuronal recordings also demonstrate that strong task-belief improves discriminability of relevant features. These findings highlight the impact of belief and perception on decision-making.
Article
Neurosciences
Youngsun T. Cho, Flora Moujaes, Charles H. Schleifer, Martina Starc, Jie Lisa Ji, Nicole Santamauro, Brendan Adkinson, Antonija Kolobaric, Morgan Flynn, John H. Krystal, John D. Murray, Grega Repovs, Alan Anticevic
Summary: This study investigated how reward and loss impact spatial working memory precision and neural circuits in human subjects. The results showed that both reward and loss improved spatial working memory precision, with specific regions like precentral sulcus and intraparietal sulcus having increased BOLD signal related to better working memory precision. Conversely, areas straddling executive networks displayed decreased BOLD signal during incentivized working memory.
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Micha Burkhardt, Julia Bergelt, Lorenz Goenner, Helge Ulo Dinkelbach, Frederik Beuth, Alex Schwarz, Andrej Bicanski, Neil Burgess, Fred H. Hamker
Summary: We introduce a large-scale neurocomputational model called 'Spacecog' that integrates recent findings from mechanistic models of visual and spatial perception. The model successfully interfaces spatial memory and imagery with mechanisms of object localization, saccade execution, and attention through coordinate transformations in the brain's parietal areas. Our evaluation in a realistic virtual environment demonstrates the model's effectiveness and opens up new possibilities in the assessment of neuropsychological data and human spatial cognition.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Olof J. van der Werf, Teresa Schuhmann, Tom de Graaf, Sanne Ten Oever, Alexander T. Sack
Summary: It has been discovered that visuospatial attention operates rhythmically, with a low-frequency 7-8 Hz mechanism coordinating periodic windows of sampling. The relative importance of locations in a visual scene affects the rhythmic sampling process.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)