Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Vishal Kapoor, Abhilash Dwarakanath, Shervin Safavi, Joachim Werner, Michel Besserve, Theofanis I. Panagiotaropoulos, Nikos K. Logothetis
Summary: The study examines the activity of prefrontal neurons in rhesus macaques and finds that internally generated changes in conscious perception are reliably reflected within prefrontal population activity, even in the absence of voluntary reports or changes in sensory input.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Qihui Zhou, Penghui Song, Xueming Wang, Hua Lin, Yuping Wang
Summary: Attention is the dynamic process of allocating limited resources to information relevant to our goals. Studies have shown that the right pSTS enhances feature discrimination processing and task performance by reducing N270 amplitude and increasing connectivity between different brain regions.
FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Hsing-Chang Ni, Hsiang-Yuan Lin, Yi-Lung Chen, June Hung, Chen-Te Wu, Yu-Yu Wu, Hsin-Yi Liang, Rou-Shayn Chen, Susan Shur-Fen Gau, Ying-Zu Huang
Summary: This study explored the effects of intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) on intellectually able adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The results showed that multi-session iTBS had immediate effects on parent-rate autistic symptoms. Additionally, individual factors such as social-communicative impairment, cognitive performance, psychotropic medication use, and baseline autistic symptoms modulated the effects of iTBS on cognitive flexibility and clinical symptoms.
BIOMEDICAL JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Veith Weilnhammer, Merve Fritsch, Meera Chikermane, Anna-Lena Eckert, Katharina Kanthak, Heiner Stuke, Jakob Kaminski, Philipp Sterzer
Summary: Research using computational modeling and functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments has shown that the inferior frontal cortex plays a key role in detecting perceptual conflicts caused by ambiguous sensory information, facilitating the transformation of ambiguous sensory information into clear conscious experiences.
Article
Psychiatry
Yuji Yamada, Kazuki Sueyoshi, Yuma Yokoi, Takuma Inagawa, Naotsugu Hirabayashi, Hideki Oi, Aya Shirama, Tomiki Sumiyoshi
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the effects of multisession tDCS targeting the superior temporal sulcus (STS) on social cognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia. The results showed significant improvements in theory of mind after multisession tDCS, which were not correlated with neurocognition or psychotic symptoms. The study also demonstrated the safety of tDCS with no serious adverse events.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Mathematical
Shuai Chang, Ling He, Rong Jiang, Xinyu Zhang, Ming Meng
Summary: Faces contain rich information and play a pivotal role in human daily social interactions. Previous studies have shown a left-visual-field-advantage in face perception. This study investigated the lateralisation of unconscious face stimuli using interocular suppression methods, and found that while the right visual field had an advantage in breaking through suppression, this advantage reversed to the left when both conscious and unconscious face stimuli were presented concurrently or prior.
PSYCHONOMIC BULLETIN & REVIEW
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Nicholas Yeh, Jessica D. Payne, Sara Y. Kim, Elizabeth A. Kensinger, Joshua D. Koen, Nathan S. Rose
Summary: This study investigated the role of mPFC in emotional memory encoding using transcranial magnetic stimulation. The results showed that mPFC activity interacts with consolidation processes to enhance the preservation of negatively salient information.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Dania Abuleil, Daphne L. McCulloch, Heidi Patterson, Benjamin Thompson
Summary: Experimental results showed that rapid monocular stimulation reduces the dominance of the stimulated eye and may activate a homeostatic interocular gain control mechanism in binocular rivalry tasks.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Justyna O. Ekert, Andrea Gajardo-Vidal, Diego L. Lorca-Puls, Thomas M. H. Hope, Fred Dick, Jennifer T. Crinion, David W. Green, Cathy J. Price
Summary: Previous studies have shown that the left posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and left temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) both contribute to phonological short-term memory, speech perception and speech production. The study further dissociated the response profiles of these regions and highlighted their distinct roles in speech processing.
Article
Neurosciences
Di Wu, Pan Zhang, Na Liu, Kewei Sun, Wei Xiao
Summary: This study investigated the effects of high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) on face view discrimination in relation to the left FFA, left STS, and right FFA. Results indicated that individual initial performance influenced the outcomes of tDCS, highlighting the importance of considering individual differences in future research and applications.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Review
Neurosciences
Joshua M. Martin, Mark Solms, Philipp Sterzer
Summary: According to the predictive processing framework, perception is optimized to represent the environment in terms of embodied action opportunities rather than objective truth. Research suggests that perception tends to be biased away from accurate estimates under conditions where utility and accuracy conflict, reflecting the brain's efforts to adjudicate between conflicting sources of prediction error.
TRENDS IN NEUROSCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Siew Kei Kho, David R. T. Keeble, Hoo Keat Wong, Alejandro J. Estudillo
Summary: The functional role of the occipital face area (OFA) and the fusiform face area (FFA) in face recognition is still inconclusive. This study used multifocal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to further examine their roles. Results showed that FFA stimulation enhanced facial feature recognition, while OFA stimulation had no effect on either facial feature or whole face recognition.
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Thomas Quettier, Elena Moro, Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Paola Sessa
Summary: This study examined the impact of congruency between facial mimicry and observed expressions on the stability of conscious facial expression representations. The findings demonstrate that congruent mimicry plays a crucial role in stabilizing conscious awareness of facial expressions.
COGNITION & EMOTION
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Michael Zhu, Richard Hardstone, Biyu J. He
Summary: Ambiguous images can lead to bistable perception and trigger perceptual memory during blank intervals; studying the role of the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) in ambiguous perception, we found that fluctuations in alpha and beta band oscillatory power can predict perceptual stability and memory.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Phillip (Xin) Cheng, Shrey Grover, Wen Wen, Shruthi Sankaranarayanan, Sierra Davies, Justine Fragetta, David Soto, Robert M. G. Reinhart
Summary: Understanding the neural mechanisms of conscious and unconscious experience is a crucial goal in neuroscience. In this study, researchers used noninvasive electrical stimulation to target the early visual cortex and identified distinct mechanisms for memory processing of conscious and unconscious perception. The findings contribute to existing theories of consciousness, call for revisions to these theories, and offer potential therapeutic interventions for enhancing visual cortical processing.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Gabriele Fusco, Martina Fusaro, Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Summary: The study revealed that theta oscillations over midfrontal-occipital areas modulated bodily specific, stimulus content-driven aspects of cognitive control.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Physics, Applied
A. De Angelis, M. Leonetti, F. Apollonio, M. Liberti, S. M. Aglioti, G. Ruocco
Summary: Low-intensity focused ultrasound is considered a promising alternative for noninvasive brain stimulation, with recent research focusing on optimizing multi-element stimulators to enhance focusing efficiency. Increasing the number of piezoelectric elements in the stimulator can improve the focusing optimization, with 96 point-sources identified as a cost-effective balance between cost and efficiency for this technology.
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Manuel Mello, Martina Fusaro, Gaetano Tieri, Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Summary: Research shows that wearing an opposite-sex avatar can enhance individuals' perceptions of pleasantness and erogeneity for same-sex touch, particularly for men. This body swap illusion may have important implications on people's attitudes and implicit reactivity to touch-mediated interactions.
QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Alessandro Monti, Giuseppina Porciello, Maria Serena Panasiti, Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Summary: Humans have the unique ability to think about themselves and form a clear concept of who they are in their mind. Recent evidence suggests that the birth, maintenance, and loss of the abstract concept of 'self' is closely tied to interoception, the sense of internal physiological signals. Interoception influences various aspects of the self-concept, contributing to its stability over time and constraining its susceptibility to external influences.
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH-PSYCHOLOGISCHE FORSCHUNG
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Sarah Boukarras, Duru Gun Ozkan, Vanessa Era, Quentin Moreau, Gaetano Tieri, Matteo Candidi
Summary: This study demonstrates the causal role of midfrontal theta oscillations in enhancing behavioral performance and motor strategies in synchronous interpersonal motor interactions.
JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Elias Paolo Casula, Gaetano Tieri, Lorenzo Rocchi, Rachele Pezzetta, Michele Maiella, Enea Francesco Pavone, Salvatore Maria Aglioti, Giacomo Koch
Summary: Immersive virtual reality can lead to a strong feeling of embodiment over artificial body parts, but the neural mechanisms behind this phenomenon are not yet fully understood. By tracking real-time brain dynamics, researchers found that observing virtual body parts is associated with a rapid decrease in cortical activity in the hand region of the primary motor cortex, as well as rapid changes in activity within a fronto-parietal circuit. These findings suggest that changes in bodily representations are supported by dynamic interactions within a highly plastic network.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Giuseppe Spinelli, Rachele Pezzetta, Loredana Canzano, Emmanuele Tidoni, Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Summary: Patients with limb apraxia (LA) show altered neurophysiological dynamics during action observation and execution, suggesting a link between error monitoring capacity and severity of apraxic phenotypes.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Valentina Nicolardi, Luca Simione, Domenico Scaringi, Peter Malinowski, Juliana Yordanova, Vasil Kolev, Federica Mauro, Fabio Giommi, Henk P. Barendregt, Salvatore M. Aglioti, Antonino Raffone
Summary: This study investigates the modulation of pain and related experiences by different types of meditation and meditation expertise. The results show that pain thresholds are higher in long-term meditators compared to short-term meditators. In short-term meditators, pain is reduced during focused attention meditation and open monitoring meditation, and aversion and identification are reduced in all meditation conditions. In long-term meditators, pain is only reduced during loving kindness meditation. Further analysis reveals causal influences between aversion and pain, aversion and identification, and identification and pain. Overall, this study provides insights into the mechanisms of pain modulation through meditation and sheds light on the relationship between sensory and mental factors in pain experiences.
Article
Neurosciences
Quentin Moreau, Gaetano Tieri, Vanessa Era, Salvatore Maria Aglioti, Matteo Candidi
Summary: This study used electroencephalography recordings and virtual reality to investigate how the action monitoring system tracks self and other behavior during interpersonal motor interactions. The results showed that the monitoring system is more attuned to others' actions and identified distinct neural responses to unexpected goals and trajectory corrections.
Review
Neurosciences
R. Pezzetta, M. E. Wokke, S. M. Aglioti, K. R. Ridderinkhof
Summary: Monitoring errors in one's own and others' actions is crucial for learning and adapting behavior. This review discusses the findings on error detection and awareness in healthy individuals as well as dysfunctional error monitoring in neurological disorders. The review examines both electrophysiological and behavioral evidence of error processing alterations in various neurological populations and highlights the limitations and potential approaches for future clinical studies.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Marina Scattolin, Maria Serena Panasiti, Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Summary: The study found that individuals with a higher sense of ownership displayed greater moral identity, while high agency was associated with increased moral identity particularly when sense of power is high. Results regarding deception were less clear and may be related to the impact of COVID-19. The findings on moral identity could potentially inspire policies relying on changes in corporeal awareness to combat immorality.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biology
Lennie Dupont, Valerio Santangelo, Ruben T. Azevedo, Maria Serena Panasiti, Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Summary: Using fMRI data from participants playing a card game involving deceptive or truthful decisions, researchers found that dishonest decisions were associated with increased activity in a cortico-subcortical circuit including the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), anterior insula (AI), left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, and right caudate. Deceptive immoral decisions under reputation risk enhanced activity and functional connectivity between the bilateral ACC and left AI, suggesting the need for heightened emotional processing and cognitive control. Manipulative individuals showed differential involvement of the ACC depending on whether the decision involved self-gain lies or other-gain truths, pointing to the role of cognitive control in going against one's own moral code.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Alisha Vabba, Maria Serena Panasiti, Marina Scattolin, Marco Spitaleri, Giuseppina Porciello, Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Summary: Research on thermal awareness is limited, although thermal body signals provide crucial information about the state of an organism and changes in body temperature may indicate affective states. This study developed a task to measure awareness of changes in peripheral body temperature and compared it to a classical heartbeat counting task. The results showed that different interceptive channels contribute separately to awareness of bodily states, and thermal interoceptive accuracy was associated with self-reported awareness of body temperature changes and the ability to regulate distress by focusing on body sensations.
JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Irene Parisi, Alessandra Mancini, Francesco Mancini, Salvatore Maria Aglioti, Maria Serena Panasiti
Summary: The research showed that individuals with high Disgust Sensitivity are more influenced by deontological inductions, leading to higher immorality. During the COVID-19 lockdown, people became more sensitive to the Authority pillar of the Moral Foundations and more sensitive to Disgust.
CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHIATRY
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Andrea Gajardo-Vidal, Maxime Montembeault, Diego L. Lorca-Puls, Abigail E. Licata, Rian Bogley, Sabrina Erlhoff, Buddhika Ratnasiri, Zoe Ezzes, Giovanni Battistella, Elena Tsoy, Christa Watson Pereira, Jessica Deleon, Boon Lead Tee, Maya L. Henry, Zachary A. Miller, Katherine P. Rankin, Maria Luisa Mandelli, Katherine L. Possin, Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini
Summary: This study investigates the potential differences in processing speed and neural correlates among the three variants of Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). The findings reveal that non-verbal cognitive abilities, such as processing speed, are significantly impacted in nfvPPA and lvPPA patients compared to healthy controls and svPPA patients. Neuroimaging results confirm the importance of fronto-parietal regions associated with processing speed and executive control.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Holger Wiese, Tsvetomila Popova, Maya Schipper, Deni Zakriev, Mike Burton, Andrew W. Young
Summary: Previous experiments have shown that brief exposure to unfamiliar individuals leads to the formation of new facial representations, which undergo changes and consolidation within the first day after learning.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Astrid Prochnow, Xianzhen Zhou, Foroogh Ghorbani, Paul Wendiggensen, Veit Roessner, Bernhard Hommel, Christian Beste
Summary: Individuals organize events in their environment by partitioning them into discrete units. This study reveals that the neural activity in the brain plays a critical role in this process, reflecting the key elements of event segmentation.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Zhenzhen Huo, Zhiyi Chen, Rong Zhang, Junye Xu, Tingyong Feng
Summary: Procrastination has adverse effects on personal growth and social development. Reward sensitivity is positively correlated with procrastination. This study used VBM and RSFC analyses to investigate the neural substrates underlying the association between reward sensitivity and procrastination. The results showed that the functional connectivity of the right parahippocampal gyrus-precuneus mediated the relationship between reward sensitivity and procrastination.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Stefano Lasaponara, Gabriele Scozia, Silvana Lozito, Mario Pinto, David Conversi, Marco Costanzi, Tim Vriens, Massimo Silvetti, Fabrizio Doricchi
Summary: Cholinergic (Ach), Noradrenergic (NE), and Dopaminergic (DA) pathways are crucial in regulating spatial attention and determining inter-individual differences in temperamental traits. This study found that temperamental traits predict individual differences in the ability to orient spatial attention based on the probabilistic association between cues and targets. These findings highlight the importance of considering temperamental and personality traits in social and professional environments where attention control is essential.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Darren J. Yeo, Courtney Pollack, Benjamin N. Conrad, Gavin R. Price
Summary: The processing of numerals as visual objects is supported by an Inferior Temporal Numeral Area (ITNA) in the bilateral inferior temporal gyri (ITG). Extant findings suggest some degree of hemispheric asymmetry in how the bilateral ITNAs process numerals. The study found that digit sensitivity did not differ between ITNAs, and digit sensitivity in both left and right ITNAs was associated with calculation skills. The study also revealed a right lateralization in engagement in alphanumeric categorization, and that the right ITNA showed greater discriminability between digits and letters.
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Beste Gulsuna, Abuzer Gungor, Alp O. Borcer, Ugur Ture
Summary: The fiber dissection technique has been used to study the internal structures of the brain, with less focus on white matter. The sagittal stratum, a white matter structure, has not received enough attention and has been a subject of controversy. Recent studies suggest potential functions of the sagittal stratum, emphasizing the importance of understanding this structure accurately.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Nora Geiser, Brigitte Charlotte Kaufmann, Samuel Elia Johannes Knobel, Dario Cazzoli, Tobias Nef, Thomas Nyffeler
Summary: This study compared the effects of auditory and visual motion stimulation on spatial neglect and found that both interventions were equally effective in improving neglect. Multimodal motion stimulation also improved neglect, but did not show greater improvement than unimodal auditory or visual motion stimulation alone.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Anna E. Hughes, Anna Nowakowska, Alasdair D. F. Clarke
Summary: This study examines the relationship between search slopes and search efficiency in visual search tasks, introduces the Target Contrast Signal (TCS) Theory, and extends it to a Bayesian multi-level framework. The findings demonstrate that TCS can predict data well, but distinguishing between contrast combination models proves to be difficult.