Anterior and posterior subareas of the dorsolateral frontal cortex in socially relevant decisions based on masked affect expressions

Socially-relevant decisions are based on clearly recognizable but also not consciously accessible affective stimuli. We studied the role of the dorsolateral frontal cortex (DLFC) in decision-making on masked affect expressions using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our paradigm permitted us to capture brain activity during a pre-decision phase when the subjects viewed emotional expressions below the threshold of subjective awareness, and during the decision phase, which was based on verbal descriptions as the choice criterion. Using meta-analytic connectivity modeling, we found that the preparatory phase of the decision was associated with activity in a right-posterior portion of the DLFC featuring co-activations in the left-inferior frontal cortex. During the subsequent decision a right-anterior and more dorsal portion of the DLFC became activated, exhibiting a different co-activation pattern. These results provide evidence for partially independent sub-regions within the DLFC, supporting the notion of dual associative processes in intuitive judgments.

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Anterior and posterior subareas of the dorsolateral frontal cortex in socially relevant decisions based on masked affect expressions

F1000Research ◽

10.12688/f1000research.4734.2 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 212

Author(s):

Denise Prochnow ◽

Sascha Brunheim ◽

Hannes Kossack ◽

Simon B. Eickhoff ◽

Hans J. Markowitsch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Frontal Cortex ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Posterior Portion ◽

Affective Stimuli ◽

Subjective Awareness ◽

Co Activation ◽

Dorsal Portion ◽

Choice Criterion ◽

Socially Relevant

Socially-relevant decisions are based on clearly recognizable but also not consciously accessible affective stimuli. We studied the role of the dorsolateral frontal cortex (DLFC) in decision-making on masked affect expressions using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our paradigm permitted us to capture brain activity during a pre-decision phase when the subjects viewed emotional expressions below the threshold of subjective awareness, and during the decision phase, which was based on verbal descriptions as the choice criterion. Using meta-analytic connectivity modeling, we found that the preparatory phase of the decision was associated with activity in a right-posterior portion of the DLFC featuring co-activations in the left-inferior frontal cortex. During the subsequent decision a right-anterior and more dorsal portion of the DLFC became activated, exhibiting a different co-activation pattern. These results provide evidence for partially independent sub-regions within the DLFC, supporting the notion of dual associative processes in intuitive judgments.

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Suva Residents’ Views on Cancer, Diabetes and HIV in The Fiji Times

The Journal of Pacific Studies ◽

10.33318/jpacs.2020.40(1)-4 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Farzana Gounder

Keyword(s):

Chronic Illnesses ◽

Structural Reforms ◽

Letters To The Editor ◽

Medical Responsibility ◽

Grassroots Support ◽

Preliminary Study ◽

Socially Relevant ◽

Situated Approach ◽

Significant Health

The burden of preventable diseases is increasing in the South Pacific Island Countries and Territories. In Fiji, significant media attention and national finances are spent on public dissemination of the modifiable risk factors of chronic illnesses. However, little is known about lay societal perceptions of chronic illnesses and of people living with these illnesses. This preliminary study takes an area-situated approach to lay knowledge and examines Suva residents’ moral evaluations associated with socially significant health concerns in Fiji. Using the case studies of HIV, cancer, and diabetes, the research employs content analysis to examine 144 Suva residents’ Letters to the Editor, published between 2000 and 2019 in The Fiji Times. The findings indicate that letter writers on chronic illnesses are power sensitive, interested in governmental responsibility, and aware of the role of stigma in creating inequitable health outcomes. The study’s findings locate chronic illness as not only a medical responsibility but also a social justice and human rights concern that requires a multisectoral approach, with community-tailored responses at the heart of all discussions. The lay-societal recognition of the three illnesses as being socially relevant suggests grassroots support for policies directed towards structural reforms for the prevention and management of these illnesses.

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Modality and folk psychology

Studies in history and philosophy of science and technology ◽

10.15421/271903 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 19-27

Author(s):

Ja. O. Petik

Keyword(s):

Modal Logic ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Formal System ◽

Philosophy Of Logic ◽

Psychological States ◽

Formal Systems ◽

Modern Psychology ◽

Philosophical Interpretation ◽

Important Direction

The connection of the modern psychology and formal systems remains an important direction of research. This paper is centered on philosophical problems surrounding relations between mental and logic. Main attention is given to philosophy of logic but certain ideas are introduced that can be incorporated into the practical philosophical logic. The definition and properties of basic modal logic and descending ones which are used in study of mental activity are in view. The defining role of philosophical interpretation of modality for the particular formal system used for research in the field of psychological states of agents is postulated. Different semantics of modal logic are studied. The hypothesis about the connection of research in cognitive psychology (semantics of brain activity) and formal systems connected to research of psychological states is stated.

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TESTING GOAL-DRIVEN CAPTURE BY THREAT

10.31234/osf.io/jchqn ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Chris Robert Harrison Brown

Keyword(s):

Experimental Evidence ◽

Attentional Capture ◽

Critical Role ◽

Experimental Manipulation ◽

Contingent Capture ◽

Top Down ◽

Affective Stimuli ◽

Clinical Disorders ◽

Positive Stimuli

Attention has long been characterised within prominent models as reflecting a competition between goal-driven and stimulus-driven processes. It remains unclear, however, how involuntary attentional capture by affective stimuli, such as threat-laden content, fits into such models. While such effects were traditionally held to reflect stimulus-driven processes, recent research has increasingly implicated a critical role of goal-driven processes. Here we test an alternative goal-driven account of involuntary attentional capture by threat, using an experimental manipulation of goal-driven attention. To this end we combined the classic ‘contingent capture’ and ‘emotion-induced blink’ (EIB) paradigms in an RSVP task with both positive or threatening target search goals. Across six experiments, positive and threat distractors were presented in peripheral, parafoveal, and central locations. Across all distractor locations, we found that involuntary attentional capture by irrelevant threatening distractors could be induced via the adoption of a search goal for a threatening category; adopting a goal for a positive category conversely led to capture only by positive stimuli. Our findings provide direct experimental evidence for a causal role of voluntary goals in involuntary capture by irrelevant threat stimuli, and hence demonstrate the plausibility of a top-down account of this phenomenon. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to current cognitive models of attention and clinical disorders.

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Delta band activity contributes to the identification of command following in disorder of consciousness

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-95818-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Gonzalo Rivera-Lillo ◽

Emmanuel A. Stamatakis ◽

Tristan A. Bekinschtein ◽

David K. Menon ◽

Srivas Chennu

Keyword(s):

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Disorder Of Consciousness ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Electrical Brain Activity ◽

Delta Band ◽

Delta Modulation ◽

Command Following ◽

Band Activity

AbstractThe overt or covert ability to follow commands in patients with disorders of consciousness is considered a sign of awareness and has recently been defined as cortically mediated behaviour. Despite its clinical relevance, the brain signatures of the perceptual processing supporting command following have been elusive. This multimodal study investigates the temporal spectral pattern of electrical brain activity to identify features that differentiated healthy controls from patients both able and unable to follow commands. We combined evidence from behavioural assessment, functional neuroimaging during mental imagery and high-density electroencephalography collected during auditory prediction, from 21 patients and 10 controls. We used a penalised regression model to identify command following using features from electroencephalography. We identified seven well-defined spatiotemporal signatures in the delta, theta and alpha bands that together contribute to identify DoC subjects with and without the ability to follow command, and further distinguished these groups of patients from controls. A fine-grained analysis of these seven signatures enabled us to determine that increased delta modulation at the frontal sensors was the main feature in command following patients. In contrast, higher frequency theta and alpha modulations differentiated controls from both groups of patients. Our findings highlight a key role of spatiotemporally specific delta modulation in supporting cortically mediated behaviour including the ability to follow command. However, patients able to follow commands nevertheless have marked differences in brain activity in comparison with healthy volunteers.

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In your phase: neural phase synchronisation underlies visual imagery of faces

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-81336-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Andrés Canales-Johnson ◽

Renzo C. Lanfranco ◽

Juan Pablo Morales ◽

David Martínez-Pernía ◽

Joaquín Valdés ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Long Range ◽

Visual Imagery ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Neural Connectivity ◽

Frequency Range ◽

Subjective Impression ◽

Gamma Frequency ◽

Gamma Range ◽

Theta Frequency ◽

Socially Relevant

AbstractMental imagery is the process through which we retrieve and recombine information from our memory to elicit the subjective impression of “seeing with the mind’s eye”. In the social domain, we imagine other individuals while recalling our encounters with them or modelling alternative social interactions in future. Many studies using imaging and neurophysiological techniques have shown several similarities in brain activity between visual imagery and visual perception, and have identified frontoparietal, occipital and temporal neural components of visual imagery. However, the neural connectivity between these regions during visual imagery of socially relevant stimuli has not been studied. Here we used electroencephalography to investigate neural connectivity and its dynamics between frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal electrodes during visual imagery of faces. We found that voluntary visual imagery of faces is associated with long-range phase synchronisation in the gamma frequency range between frontoparietal electrode pairs and between occipitoparietal electrode pairs. In contrast, no effect of imagery was observed in the connectivity between occipitotemporal electrode pairs. Gamma range synchronisation between occipitoparietal electrode pairs predicted subjective ratings of the contour definition of imagined faces. Furthermore, we found that visual imagery of faces is associated with an increase of short-range frontal synchronisation in the theta frequency range, which temporally preceded the long-range increase in the gamma synchronisation. We speculate that the local frontal synchrony in the theta frequency range might be associated with an effortful top-down mnemonic reactivation of faces. In contrast, the long-range connectivity in the gamma frequency range along the fronto-parieto-occipital axis might be related to the endogenous binding and subjective clarity of facial visual features.

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Consciousness, decision making, and volition: freedom beyond chance and necessity

Theory in Biosciences ◽

10.1007/s12064-021-00346-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hans Liljenström

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Free Will ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Brain Structures ◽

Complex Process ◽

Neural Information ◽

Neural Information Processing ◽

Stochastic Population Model ◽

The Brain

AbstractWhat is the role of consciousness in volition and decision-making? Are our actions fully determined by brain activity preceding our decisions to act, or can consciousness instead affect the brain activity leading to action? This has been much debated in philosophy, but also in science since the famous experiments by Libet in the 1980s, where the current most common interpretation is that conscious free will is an illusion. It seems that the brain knows, up to several seconds in advance what “you” decide to do. These studies have, however, been criticized, and alternative interpretations of the experiments can be given, some of which are discussed in this paper. In an attempt to elucidate the processes involved in decision-making (DM), as an essential part of volition, we have developed a computational model of relevant brain structures and their neurodynamics. While DM is a complex process, we have particularly focused on the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) for its emotional, and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) for its cognitive aspects. In this paper, we present a stochastic population model representing the neural information processing of DM. Simulation results seem to confirm the notion that if decisions have to be made fast, emotional processes and aspects dominate, while rational processes are more time consuming and may result in a delayed decision. Finally, some limitations of current science and computational modeling will be discussed, hinting at a future development of science, where consciousness and free will may add to chance and necessity as explanation for what happens in the world.

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