scholarly journals Prefrontal cortex and cognitive control: new insights from human electrophysiology

F1000Research ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alik S. Widge ◽  
Sarah R. Heilbronner ◽  
Benjamin Y. Hayden
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Multiple Regions ◽  
Human Electrophysiology ◽  
Cortical Regions

Cognitive control, the ability to regulate one’s cognition and actions on the basis of over-riding goals, is impaired in many psychiatric conditions. Although control requires the coordinated function of several prefrontal cortical regions, it has been challenging to determine how they work together, in part because doing so requires simultaneous recordings from multiple regions. Here, we provide a précis of cognitive control and describe the beneficial consequences of recent advances in neurosurgical practice that make large-scale prefrontal cortical network recordings possible in humans. Such recordings implicate inter-regional theta (5–8 Hz) local field potential (LFP) synchrony as a key element in cognitive control. Major open questions include how theta might influence other oscillations within these networks, the precise timing of information flow between these regions, and how perturbations such as brain stimulation might demonstrate the causal role of LFP phenomena. We propose that an increased focus on human electrophysiology is essential for an understanding of the neural basis of cognitive control.

scholarly journals 'To do or not to do'? The neurobiology of decision-making in daily life: I. Getting the basics

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Palmini ◽  
Victor Geraldi Haase
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Cortical Regions

Abstract The constant conflict between decisions leading to immediate pleasurable consequences versus behaviors aiming at long-term social advantages is reviewed here in the framework of the evolutionary systems regulating behavior. The inescapable temporal perspective in decision-making in everyday life is highlighted and integrated with the role of the executive functions in the modulation of subcortical systems. In particular, the representations of the 'non-existent' future in the prefrontal cortical regions and how these representations can bridge theory and practice in everyday life are addressed. Relevant discussions regarding the battle between emotions and reasons in the determination of more complex decisions in the realm of neuroeconomics and in moral issues have been reserved for a second essay.

The role of the amygdala in bipolar disorder development

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 1285-1296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Garrett ◽  
Kiki Chang
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Amygdala Activity ◽  
Psychiatric Conditions ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
And Function ◽  
Experienced Emotion

AbstractThe amygdala has received great interest as a possible neurophysiological substrate of bipolar disorder (BD). This review summarizes information about the structure and function of the amygdala with attention to its role in experienced emotion and mood. We review the evidence for amygdala pathology in psychiatric conditions and discuss the role of the amygdala in BD during development. There appear to be consistent findings in the neuroimaging literature that suggest an etiological model for BD that involves abnormalities in the structure and function of the amygdala, but also depends on the failure of prefrontal cortical regions to modulate amygdala activity. In addition, evidence is accumulating to suggest that this model has flexible outcomes, depending on factors intrinsic and extrinsic to BD, and may follow several possible paths across the course of maturational development.

scholarly journals The Neural Basis of Motivational Influences on Cognitive Control

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Parro ◽  
Matthew L Dixon ◽  
Kalina Christoff
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Likelihood Estimation ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
The Brain

AbstractCognitive control mechanisms support the deliberate regulation of thought and behavior based on current goals. Recent work suggests that motivational incentives improve cognitive control, and has begun to elucidate the brain regions that may support this effect. Here, we conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of motivated cognitive control using activation likelihood estimation (ALE) and Neurosynth in order to delineate the brain regions that are consistently activated across studies. The analysis included functional neuroimaging studies that investigated changes in brain activation during cognitive control tasks when reward incentives were present versus absent. The ALE analysis revealed consistent recruitment in regions associated with the frontoparietal control network including the inferior frontal sulcus (IFS) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS), as well as consistent recruitment in regions associated with the salience network including the anterior insula and anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC). A large-scale exploratory meta-analysis using Neurosynth replicated the ALE results, and also identified the caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens, medial thalamus, inferior frontal junction/premotor cortex (IFJ/PMC), and hippocampus. Finally, we conducted separate ALE analyses to compare recruitment during cue and target periods, which tap into proactive engagement of rule-outcome associations, and the mobilization of appropriate viscero-motor states to execute a response, respectively. We found that largely distinct sets of brain regions are recruited during cue and target periods. Altogether, these findings suggest that flexible interactions between frontoparietal, salience, and dopaminergic midbrain-striatal networks may allow control demands to be precisely tailored based on expected value.

scholarly journals ‘The challenge now is for us to remain relevant’: Australian public libraries and the COVID-19 crisis

IFLA Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 034003522110541
Author(s):  
Simon Wakeling ◽  
Jane Garner ◽  
Philip Hider ◽  
Hamid Jamali ◽  
Jessie Lymn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
The World ◽  
Large Scale Survey ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Delivery Models

The COVID-19 crisis has had a significant impact on public libraries around the world. In Australia, almost all public libraries experienced some period of building closure, requiring libraries to adapt their services and delivery models. This article reports findings from a large-scale survey of public library managers in Australia, which was conducted in August 2020. In particular, it presents the results of a thematic analysis of the participants’ free-text responses to open questions asked as part of the survey. This analysis reveals important insights relating to responses to library closures, staffing issues, new and expanded services and programmes, relationships with parent bodies, and the role of public libraries during the crisis and beyond. While public libraries are perceived by managers to have been agile and adaptable, and to have utilised technology effectively, the findings clearly demonstrate the value to users of library buildings, with important consequences for understanding the role of public libraries.

scholarly journals The role of prefrontal cortex in cognitive control and executive function

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi P. Friedman ◽  
Trevor W. Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
General Factor ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
Working Memory Updating ◽  
Goal Directed Behavior

AbstractConcepts of cognitive control (CC) and executive function (EF) are defined in terms of their relationships with goal-directed behavior versus habits and controlled versus automatic processing, and related to the functions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and related regions and networks. A psychometric approach shows unity and diversity in CC constructs, with 3 components in the most commonly studied constructs: general or common CC and components specific to mental set shifting and working memory updating. These constructs are considered against the cellular and systems neurobiology of PFC and what is known of its functional neuroanatomical or network organization based on lesioning, neurochemical, and neuroimaging approaches across species. CC is also considered in the context of motivation, as “cool” and “hot” forms. Its Common CC component is shown to be distinct from general intelligence (g) and closely related to response inhibition. Impairments in CC are considered as possible causes of psychiatric symptoms and consequences of disorders. The relationships of CC with the general factor of psychopathology (p) and dimensional constructs such as impulsivity in large scale developmental and adult populations are considered, as well as implications for genetic studies and RDoC approaches to psychiatric classification.

scholarly journals Inferring decoding strategies for multiple correlated neural populations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaushik J Lakshminarasimhan ◽  
Alexandre Pouget ◽  
Gregory C DeAngelis ◽  
Dora E Angelaki ◽  
Xaq Pitkow
Keyword(s):  
Neural Coding ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
Correlated Noise ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Precise Knowledge ◽  
Behaving Monkeys

AbstractStudies of neuron-behaviour correlation and causal manipulation have long been used separately to understand the neural basis of perception. Yet these approaches sometimes lead to drastically conflicting conclusions about the functional role of brain areas. Theories that focus only on choice-related neuronal activity cannot reconcile those findings without additional experiments involving large-scale recordings to measure interneuronal correlations. By expanding current theories of neural coding and incorporating results from inactivation experiments, we demonstrate here that it is possible to infer decoding weights of different brain areas without precise knowledge of the correlation structure. We apply this technique to neural data collected from two different cortical areas in macaque monkeys trained to perform a heading discrimination task. We identify two opposing decoding schemes, each consistent with data depending on the nature of correlated noise. Our theory makes specific testable predictions to distinguish these scenarios experimentally without requiring measurement of the underlying noise correlations.Author SummaryThe neocortex is structurally organized into distinct brain areas. The role of specific brain areas in sensory perception is typically studied using two kinds of laboratory experiments: those that measure correlations between neural activity and reported percepts, and those that inactivate a brain region and measure the resulting changes in percepts. The two types of experiments have generally been interpreted in isolation, in part because no theory has been able combine their outcomes. Here, we describe a mathematical framework that synthesizes both kinds of results, giving us a new way to assess how different brain areas contribute to perception. When we apply our framework to experiments on behaving monkeys, we discover two models that can explain the perplexing finding that one brain area can predict an animal’s percepts, even though the percepts are not affected when that brain area is inactivated. The two models ascribe dramatically different efficiencies to brain computation. We show that these two models can be distinguished by an experiment that measures correlations while inactivating different brain areas.

scholarly journals Autoantibodies against NMDA receptor 1 modify rather than cause encephalitis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justus B. H. Wilke ◽  
Martin Hindermann ◽  
Stefan A. Berghoff ◽  
Svenja Zihsler ◽  
Sahab Arinrad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pyramidal Neurons ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Brain Inflammation ◽  
Receptor Internalization ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Aspartate Receptor ◽  
Nmdar Encephalitis ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Firm Evidence

AbstractThe etiology and pathogenesis of “anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate-receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis” and the role of autoantibodies (AB) in this condition are still obscure. While NMDAR1-AB exert NMDAR-antagonistic properties by receptor internalization, no firm evidence exists to date that NMDAR1-AB by themselves induce brain inflammation/encephalitis. NMDAR1-AB of all immunoglobulin classes are highly frequent across mammals with multiple possible inducers and boosters. We hypothesized that “NMDAR encephalitis” results from any primary brain inflammation coinciding with the presence of NMDAR1-AB, which may shape the encephalitis phenotype. Thus, we tested whether following immunization with a “cocktail” of 4 NMDAR1 peptides, induction of a spatially and temporally defined sterile encephalitis by diphtheria toxin-mediated ablation of pyramidal neurons (“DTA” mice) would modify/aggravate the ensuing phenotype. In addition, we tried to replicate a recent report claiming that immunizing just against the NMDAR1-N368/G369 region induced brain inflammation. Mice after DTA induction revealed a syndrome comprising hyperactivity, hippocampal learning/memory deficits, prefrontal cortical network dysfunction, lasting blood brain-barrier impairment, brain inflammation, mainly in hippocampal and cortical regions with pyramidal neuronal death, microgliosis, astrogliosis, modest immune cell infiltration, regional atrophy, and relative increases in parvalbumin-positive interneurons. The presence of NMDAR1-AB enhanced the hyperactivity (psychosis-like) phenotype, whereas all other readouts were identical to control-immunized DTA mice. Non-DTA mice with or without NMDAR1-AB were free of any encephalitic signs. Replication of the reported NMDAR1-N368/G369-immunizing protocol in two large independent cohorts of wild-type mice completely failed. To conclude, while NMDAR1-AB can contribute to the behavioral phenotype of an underlying encephalitis, induction of an encephalitis by NMDAR1-AB themselves remains to be proven.

scholarly journals Major Thought Restructuring: The Roles of Different Prefrontal Cortical Regions

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 1147-1161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shima Seyed-Allaei ◽  
Zahra Nasiri Avanaki ◽  
Bahador Bahrami ◽  
Tim Shallice
Keyword(s):  
Gray Matter ◽  
Gray Matter Volume ◽  
Cognitive Restructuring ◽  
Repeated Measurements ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Matter Volume ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Morphometry Analysis ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
The Right

An important question for understanding the neural basis of problem solving is whether the regions of human prefrontal cortices play qualitatively different roles in the major cognitive restructuring required to solve difficult problems. However, investigating this question using neuroimaging faces a major dilemma: either the problems do not require major cognitive restructuring, or if they do, the restructuring typically happens once, rendering repeated measurements of the critical mental process impossible. To circumvent these problems, young adult participants were challenged with a one-dimensional Subtraction (or Nim) problem [Bouton, C. L. Nim, a game with a complete mathematical theory. The Annals of Mathematics, 3, 35–39, 1901] that can be tackled using two possible strategies. One, often used initially, is effortful, slow, and error-prone, whereas the abstract solution, once achieved, is easier, quicker, and more accurate. Behaviorally, success was strongly correlated with sex. Using voxel-based morphometry analysis controlling for sex, we found that participants who found the more abstract strategy (i.e., Solvers) had more gray matter volume in the anterior medial, ventrolateral prefrontal, and parietal cortices compared with those who never switched from the initial effortful strategy (i.e., Explorers). Removing the sex covariate showed higher gray matter volume in Solvers (vs. Explorers) in the right ventrolateral prefrontal and left parietal cortex.

Item-specific Training Reduces Prefrontal Cortical Involvement in Perceptual Awareness

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1777-1787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Eriksson ◽  
Anne Larsson ◽  
Lars Nyberg
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Perceptual Awareness ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Marked Decline ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Cortical Involvement ◽  
Reduced Activity

Previous studies on the neural correlates of perceptual awareness implicate sensory-specific regions and higher cortical regions such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in this process. The specific role of PFC regions is, however, unknown. PFC activity could be bottom-up driven, integrating signals from sensory regions. Alternatively, PFC regions could serve more active top-down processes that help to define the content of consciousness. To compare these alternative views of PFC function, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and measured brain activity specifically related to conscious perception of items that varied in ease of identification (by being presented 0, 12, or 60 times previously). A bottom-up account predicts that PFC activity would be largely insensitive to stimulus difficulty, whereas a top-down account predicts reduced PFC activity as identification becomes easier. The results supported the latter prediction by showing reduced activity for previously presented compared to novel items in the PFC and several other regions. This was further confirmed by a functional connectivity analysis showing that the interaction between frontal and visual sensory regions declined as a function of ease of identification. Given the attribution of top-down processing to PFC regions in combination with the marked decline in PFC activity for easy items, these findings challenge the prevailing notion that the PFC is necessary for consciousness.

scholarly journals Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emese Kroon ◽  
Lauren Kuhns ◽  
Janna Cousijn
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Parietal Lobe ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Cannabis Use ◽  
Irrelevant Distractors ◽  
Multiple Regions ◽  
Cannabis Use Disorders ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Abstract Rationale Compromised cognitive control in cannabis use–tempting situations is thought to play a key role in the development of cannabis use disorders. However, little is known about how exposure to cannabis cues and contexts may influence cognitive control and the underlying neural mechanisms in cannabis users. Objectives Working memory (WM) is an attention reliant executive function central to cognitive control. In this study, we investigated how distracting cannabis words affected WM load–dependent performance and related brain activity in near-daily cannabis users (N = 36) relative to controls (N = 33). Methods Brain activity was recorded during a novel N-back flanker WM task with neutral and cannabis flankers added as task-irrelevant distractors. Results On a behavioural level, WM performance did not differ between groups, and the presence of cannabis flankers did not affect performance. However, in cannabis users compared to controls, the presence of cannabis flankers reduced WM load–related activity in multiple regions, including the insula, thalamus, superior parietal lobe and supramarginal gyrus. Conclusions The group specificity of these effects suggest that cannabis users might differ from controls in the way they process cannabis-related cues and that cannabis cue exposure could interfere with other cognitive processes under cognitively demanding circumstances. Future studies should focus on the role of context in cognitive control–related processes like WM and attention to further elucidate potential cognitive impairments in heavy cannabis users and how these relate to loss of control over drug seeking itself.

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