scholarly journals Reducing future fears by suppressing the brain mechanisms underlying episodic simulation

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (52) ◽  
pp. E8492-E8501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland G. Benoit ◽  
Daniel J. Davies ◽  
Michael C. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Episodic Simulation ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Future Events ◽  
The Right ◽  
Development Of Anxiety ◽  
The Brain

Imagining future events conveys adaptive benefits, yet recurrent simulations of feared situations may help to maintain anxiety. In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that people can attenuate future fears by suppressing anticipatory simulations of dreaded events. Participants repeatedly imagined upsetting episodes that they feared might happen to them and suppressed imaginings of other such events. Suppressing imagination engaged the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which modulated activation in the hippocampus and in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Consistent with the role of the vmPFC in providing access to details that are typical for an event, stronger inhibition of this region was associated with greater forgetting of such details. Suppression further hindered participants’ ability to later freely envision suppressed episodes. Critically, it also reduced feelings of apprehensiveness about the feared scenario, and individuals who were particularly successful at down-regulating fears were also less trait-anxious. Attenuating apprehensiveness by suppressing simulations of feared events may thus be an effective coping strategy, suggesting that a deficiency in this mechanism could contribute to the development of anxiety.

Causal Role of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Belief Updating under Uncertainty

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-200
Author(s):  
Stefan Schulreich ◽  
Lars Schwabe
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Uncertain Environments ◽  
Belief Updating ◽  
Frontoparietal Network ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
The Right ◽  
Normative Value

Abstract Adaptive performance in uncertain environments depends on the ability to continuously update internal beliefs about environmental states. Recent correlative evidence suggests that a frontoparietal network including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) supports belief updating under uncertainty, but whether the dlPFC serves a “causal” role in this process is currently not clear. To elucidate its contribution, we leveraged transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the right dlPFC, while 91 participants performed an incentivized belief-updating task. Participants also underwent a psychosocial stress or control manipulation to investigate the role of stress, which is known to modulate dlPFC functioning. We observed enhanced monetary value updating after anodal tDCS when it was normatively expected from a Bayesian perspective. A model-based analysis indicates that this effect was driven by belief updating. However, we also observed enhanced non-normative value updating, which might have been driven instead by expectancy violation. Enhanced normative and non-normative value updating reflected increased vs. decreased Bayesian rationality, respectively. Furthermore, cortisol increases were associated with enhanced positive, but not with negative, value updating. The present study thereby sheds light on the causal role of the right dlPFC in the remarkable human ability to navigate uncertain environments by continuously updating prior knowledge following new evidence.

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Enables Updating of Established Memories

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 4154-4168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Marieke Kluen ◽  
Lisa Catherine Dandolo ◽  
Gerhard Jocham ◽  
Lars Schwabe
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Future Behavior ◽  
New Information ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Increased Activity ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Updating established memories in light of new information is fundamental for memory to guide future behavior. However, little is known about the brain mechanisms by which existing memories can be updated. Here, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and multivariate representational similarity analysis to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the updating of consolidated memories. To this end, participants first learned face–city name pairs. Twenty-four hours later, while lying in the MRI scanner, participants were required to update some of these associations, but not others, and to encode entirely new pairs. Updating success was tested again 24 h later. Our results showed increased activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) specifically during the updating of existing associations that was significantly stronger than when simple retrieval or new encoding was required. The updating-related activity of the dlPFC and its functional connectivity with the hippocampus were directly linked to updating success. Furthermore, neural similarity for updated items was markedly higher in the dlPFC and this increase in dlPFC neural similarity distinguished individuals with high updating performance from those with low updating performance. Together, these findings suggest a key role of the dlPFC, presumably in interaction with the hippocampus, in the updating of established memories.

scholarly journals Atomoxetine Enhances Connectivity of Prefrontal Networks in Parkinson’s Disease

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 2171-2177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin J Borchert ◽  
Timothy Rittman ◽  
Luca Passamonti ◽  
Zheng Ye ◽  
Saber Sami ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Cognitive impairment is common in Parkinson’s disease (PD), but often not improved by dopaminergic treatment. New treatment strategies targeting other neurotransmitter deficits are therefore of growing interest. Imaging the brain at rest (‘task-free’) provides the opportunity to examine the impact of a candidate drug on many of the brain networks that underpin cognition, while minimizing task-related performance confounds. We test this approach using atomoxetine, a selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor that modulates the prefrontal cortical activity and can facilitate some executive functions and response inhibition. Thirty-three patients with idiopathic PD underwent task-free fMRI. Patients were scanned twice in a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design, following either placebo or 40-mg oral atomoxetine. Seventy-six controls were scanned once without medication to provide normative data. Seed-based correlation analyses were used to measure changes in functional connectivity, with the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) a critical region for executive function. Patients on placebo had reduced connectivity relative to controls from right IFG to dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and to left IFG and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Atomoxetine increased connectivity from the right IFG to the dorsal anterior cingulate. In addition, the atomoxetine-induced change in connectivity from right IFG to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was proportional to the change in verbal fluency, a simple index of executive function. The results support the hypothesis that atomoxetine may restore prefrontal networks related to executive functions. We suggest that task-free imaging can support translational pharmacological studies of new drug therapies and provide evidence for engagement of the relevant neurocognitive systems.

scholarly journals Alpha and Theta Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Over the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Modulates Vigilance Performance, but Only When Arousal Levels Are Non-optimal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Martínez-Pérez ◽  
Miriam Tortajada ◽  
Lucía B. Palmero ◽  
Guillermo Campoy ◽  
Luis J. Fuentes
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Alternating Current ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Frontoparietal Network ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
The Right

Abstract BackgroundCurrent theoretical accounts on the oscillatory nature of sustained attention predict that entrainment via transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at alpha and theta frequencies on the frontoparietal network could prevent the drops in vigilance across time-on-task. Nonetheless, most previous studies have neglected both the fact that vigilance comprises two dissociable components (i.e. arousal and executive vigilance) and the potential role of differences in arousal baseline. MethodWe examined the effects of theta- and alpha-tACS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on both components of vigilance and on participants that differed in arousal baseline according to their chronotype and the time of testing. Intermediate-types performed the vigilance tasks when their arousal baseline was at the optimal level, whereas evening-types performed the vigilance tasks when their arousal baseline was at non-optimal levels. ResultsBoth theta- and alpha-tACS improved arousal vigilance, whereas alpha-tACS, but not theta-tACS, improved accuracy and attenuated the typical vigilance decrement in the executive vigilance task. Importantly, these stimulation effects were only found when arousal baseline was low (i.e., with evening-types performing the tasks at their non-optimal time of day).ConclusionThe results support the multicomponent view of vigilance, the relevance of heeding individual differences in arousal baseline, and the role of alpha oscillations as a long-range cortical scale synchronization mechanism that compensates the decrements in performance as a function of time-on-task by exerting and maintaining cognitive control attributed to activation of the frontoparietal network.

scholarly journals Role of the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in the Cognitive Process of Matching Between Action and Visual Feedback

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 288-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Shibata ◽  
Takuya Onuma ◽  
Yasuhiro Takeshima ◽  
Yuwadee Penwannakul ◽  
Nobuyuki Sakai
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Visual Feedback ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
The Right

The role of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in visual change awareness

Neuroreport ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (16) ◽  
pp. 2549-2552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Turatto ◽  
Marco Sandrini ◽  
Carlo Miniussi
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Visual Change ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
The Right
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