scholarly journals Dopamine and noradrenaline modulation of goal-directed behaviour in prefrontal areas: Toward a division of labour?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan-Carlos Cerpa ◽  
Etienne Coutureau ◽  
Shauna Parkes
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Action Control ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
The Core ◽  
Dopaminergic Pathway ◽  
Noradrenergic Innervation ◽  
Noradrenergic Modulation ◽  
Shed Light

The prefrontal cortex is considered to be at the core of goal-directed behaviours. Notably, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is known to play an important role in learning action-outcome associations, as well as in detecting changes in this contingency. Previous studies have also highlighted a specific engagement of the dopaminergic pathway innervating the mPFC in adapting to changes in action causality. While previous research on goal-directed actions has primarily focused on the mPFC region, recent findings have revealed a distinct and specific role of the ventral and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (vlOFC). Indeed, vlOFC is not necessary to learn about action-outcome associations but appears specifically involved when outcome identity is unexpectedly changed. Unlike the mPFC, the vlOFC does not receive a strong dopaminergic innervation. However, it receives a dense noradrenergic innervation which might indicate a crucial role for this neuromodulator. In addition, several lines of evidence highlight a role for noradrenaline in adapting to changes in the environment. We therefore propose that the vlOFC’s function in action control might be under the strong influence of the noradrenergic system. In the present paper, we review anatomical and functional evidence consistent with this proposal and suggest a direction for future studies that aims to shed light on the orbitofrontal mechanisms for flexible action control. Specifically, we suggest that dopaminergic modulation in the mPFC and noradrenergic modulation in the vlOFC may underlie distinct processes related to updating one’s actions.

The End of the Cold War as a Hard Case for Ideas

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Wohlforth
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Hard Case ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Cold War

The articles in this special issue of the journal succeeded in meeting the core objective set out in the introduction: to refine, deepen, and extend previous studies of the role of ideas in the end of the Cold War. In particular, they confront more forthrightly than past studies a major challenge of studying ideas in this case; namely, that ideas, material incentives, and policy all covaried. Two other important problems for those seeking to establish an independent role for ideas remain to be addressed in future studies. Facing those problems as squarely as the contributors to this issue have faced the covariation problem will yield major benefits for the study of ideas in this case and in international relations more generally.

Social cognition, brain networks and schizophrenia

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.-H. LEE ◽  
T. F. D. FARROW ◽  
S. A. SPENCE ◽  
P. W. R. WOODRUFF
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Social Functioning ◽  
Frontal Lobe ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Shed Light

Background. A better understanding of the neural basis of social cognition including mindreading (or theory of mind) and empathy might help to explain some deficits in social functioning in people with schizophrenia. Our aim was to review neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies on social cognition, as they may shed light on the neural mechanisms of social cognition and its dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia.Method. A selective literature review was undertaken.Results. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies suggest convergence upon specific networks for mindreading and empathy (the temporal cortex, amygdala and the prefrontal cortex). The frontal lobe is likely to play a central role in enabling social cognition, but mindreading and empathic abilities may require relatively different weighting of subcomponents within the same frontal-temporal social cognition network.Conclusions. Disturbances in social cognition may represent an abnormal interaction between frontal lobe and its functionally connected cortical and subcortical areas. Future studies should seek to explore the heterogeneity of social dysfunction within schizophrenia.

scholarly journals O PAPEL DA AFINIDADE TRANSCENDENTAL ENTRE OS FENÔMENOS NA TEORIA DO CONHECIMENTO KANTIANA

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gualtiero LORINI
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Pure Reason ◽  
The Core ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Opus Postumum ◽  
Shed Light

The article focuses on a concept placed at the core of the A-Deduction, of which the B-Version provides a different but not necessarily better exposition. It is the concept of “transcendental affinity” [transcendentale Affinität] (A 144). This concept is not present in the whole B-Edition of the KrV, and even the term “Affinity” does not appear in the B-Deduction, but only four times in the Transcendental Dialectic, and twice in the Discipline of the Pure Reason. In the economy of the A-Deduction, the concept of “transcendental affinity” plays a central role. It represents indeed the “thoroughgoing connection according to necessary laws” of all the possible phenomena. This connection is presupposed by transcendental consciousness insofar as it has a representation of these phenomena and their relationships, since what all the possible phenomena share is their determination in space and time according to the synthetic unity of the apperception. The concept of transcendental affinity between all the possible phenomena is intimately linked to imagination, which makes this affinity arise by reproducing a phenomenon in space and time according to the a priori laws of understanding. The necessary link between transcendental affinity and imagination represents an important passage in this paper. One goal is to point out that the implications of transcendental affinity are not rejected but rather deepened in the B-Deduction. On these assumptions, we consider the role of the “I think” in the B-Deduction, in order to claim that it implicitly relies upon the concept of transcendental affinity too. The last part of the paper aims to point out that the transcendental affinity between the phenomena describedin the A-Deduction is particularly apt to understand the unity of the representation of nature. To shed light on this point, we will deal with some significant passages from the Opus postumum.

scholarly journals The role of dopamine in action control: insights from medication effects in Parkinson’s disease

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Ruitenberg ◽  
Nelleke van Wouwe ◽  
Scotty Wylie ◽  
Elger Abrahamse
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Action Control ◽  
Motor Functioning ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Medication Effects ◽  
Medication Status

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurological disorder associated primarily with overt motor symptoms. Several studies show that PD is additionally accompanied by impairments in covert cognitive processes controlling motor functioning (e.g., action planning, adaptation, inhibition), and that dopaminergic medication may modulate such action control. In this review we aim to leverage findings from studies in this domain to elucidate the role of dopamine (DA) in action control. A qualitative review of studies that investigated the effects of medication status (on vs. off) on action control in PD suggests a component-specific role for DA in action control, although the expression of medication effects depends on characteristics of both the patients and experimental tasks used to measure action control. We discuss these results in the light of findings from other research lines examining the role of DA in action control (e.g., animal research, pharmacology), and recommend that future studies use multi-method, within-subject approaches to model DA effects on action control across different components as well as underlying striatal pathways (ventral vs. dorsal).

scholarly journals Strategic Management of Health and Safety at Work: Critical Insights for HR Professionals in the Construction Sector

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adel Ali Yassin Alzyoud ◽  
Habil Slade Ogalo
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
The Core ◽  
Human Resource Department ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Health And Safety Issues

The present article aims to underline the role and importance of health and safety in the workplace particularly in the construction sector. The article is posed to shed light and hence, educate professionals working in the construction sector on one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. The paper outline outline how the sector operates, and the importance of health and safety of employees is in this sector. The paper outlines the various types of hazardous and the acts that could cause health and safety issues for the workers in the construction sector. Following to this, the paper outlines the significant role of human resource department and HR professionals in the sector in this regard. The paper provides an insightful information on some of the core aspects that personnel management professionals in this sector could work on to help avoid any unintended consequences.

Is the framing effect a framing affect?

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 1412-1421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corentin J Gosling ◽  
Sylvain Moutier
Keyword(s):  
Framing Effect ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Risky Option ◽  
Major Hypothesis

Over the past 30 years, researchers have shown that human choices are highly sensitive to the ways in which alternatives are presented. For example, when individuals face a choice between a sure and a risky option, their willingness to take risks varies depending on whether the alternatives are framed in terms of gain or loss. The current major hypothesis that explains such a framing effect predicts that compared with an equivalent risky option, sure gains are emotionally attractive and sure losses are emotionally aversive. Using a behavioural paradigm, the main objective of the current study was to experimentally observe the extent to which the emotional attraction to sure gains and aversion to sure losses are at the core of framing susceptibility. First, our results showed that, as the literature suggests, the emotional attraction to sure gains and aversion to sure losses underpin the framing effect. Second, our results showed that methodological factors moderated the role of these emotional mechanisms in the framing effect. Implications and directions for future studies are discussed.

scholarly journals Why we need nonhuman primates to study the role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex in the regulation of threat- and reward-elicited responses

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (52) ◽  
pp. 26297-26304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela C. Roberts ◽  
Hannah F. Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Nonhuman Primates ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Emotional Symptoms ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Functional Homology

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is consistently implicated in the cognitive and emotional symptoms of many psychiatric disorders, but the causal mechanisms of its involvement remain unknown. In part, this is because of the poor characterization of the disorders and their symptoms, and the focus of experimental studies in animals on subcortical (rather than cortical) dysregulation. Moreover, even in those experimental studies that have focused on the vmPFC, the preferred animal model for such research has been the rodent, in which there are marked differences in the organization of this region to that seen in humans, and thus the extent of functional homology is unclear. There is also a paucity of well-defined behavioral paradigms suitable for translating disorder-relevant findings across species. With these considerations in mind, we discuss the value of nonhuman primates (NHPs) in bridging the translational gap between human and rodent studies. We focus on recent investigations into the involvement in reward and threat processing of 2 major regions of the vmPFC, areas 25 and 32 in NHPs and their anatomical homologs, the infralimbic and prelimbic cortex, in rodents. We highlight potential similarities, but also differences between species, and consider them in light of the extent to which anatomical homology reflects functional homology, the expansion of the PFC in human and NHPs, and most importantly how they can guide future studies to improve the translatability of findings from preclinical animal studies into the clinic.

scholarly journals Dissociable Neural Correlates of Uncertainty Underlie Different Exploration Strategies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Momchil S. Tomov ◽  
Van Q. Truong ◽  
Rohan A. Hundia ◽  
Samuel J. Gershman
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Relative Uncertainty ◽  
Total Uncertainty ◽  
The Core ◽  
Guided Exploration ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Subjective Estimates

SummaryMost real-world decisions involve a delicate balance between exploring unfamiliar alternatives and committing to the best known option. Uncertainty lies at the core of this “explore-exploit” dilemma, for if all options were perfectly known, there would be no need to explore. Yet despite the prominent role of uncertainty-guided exploration in decision making, evidence for its neural implementation is still sparse. We investigated this question with model-based fMRI (n = 31) using a two-armed bandit task that independently manipulates two forms of uncertainty underlying different exploration strategies. The relative uncertainty between the two options was correlated with BOLD activity in right rostrolateral prefrontal cortex and drove directed exploration, a strategy that adds an uncertainty bonus to each option. The total uncertainty across the two options was correlated with activity in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and drove random exploration, a strategy that increases choice stochasticity in proportion to total uncertainty. The subjective estimates of uncertainty from both regions were predictive of subject choices. These results are consistent with a hybrid computational architecture in which different uncertainty computations are performed separately and then combined by downstream decision circuits to compute choice.

scholarly journals Representation of speech categories in the primate auditory cortex

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (6) ◽  
pp. 2634-2646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joji Tsunada ◽  
Jung Hoon Lee ◽  
Yale E. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Nonhuman Primates ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Auditory Pathway ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
The Core ◽  
Ventral Pathway

A “ventral” auditory pathway in nonhuman primates that originates in the core auditory cortex and ends in the prefrontal cortex is thought to be involved in components of nonspatial auditory processing. Previous work from our laboratory has indicated that neurons in the prefrontal cortex reflect monkeys' decisions during categorical judgments. Here, we tested the role of the superior temporal gyrus (STG), a region of the secondary auditory cortex that is part of this ventral pathway, during similar categorical judgments. While monkeys participated in a match-to-category task and reported whether two consecutive auditory stimuli belonged to the same category or to different categories, we recorded spiking activity from STG neurons. The auditory stimuli were morphs of two human-speech sounds ( bad and dad). We found that STG neurons represented auditory categories. However, unlike activity in the prefrontal cortex, STG activity was not modulated by the monkeys' behavioral reports (choices). This finding is consistent with the anterolateral STG's role as a part of functional circuit involved in the coding, representation, and perception of the nonspatial features of an auditory stimulus.

Time perspective, emotional intelligence and discounting of delayed awards

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maciej Stolarski ◽  
Joanna Bitner ◽  
Philip G. Zimbardo
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Temporal Discounting ◽  
Temporal Orientation ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
The Core ◽  
Balanced Time Perspective ◽  
Core Feature

Although the tendency to delay gratification is by definition the core feature of twoincreasingly popular—within the scope of individual differences at least—constructs: emotional intelligence (EI) and time perspective (TP), the role of the latter two in its development has never been investigated before. Moreover, none of existing research reports consider mutual relationships between EI and TP. Our research investigated relationships between TP, EI and the rate of discounting of delayed awards, understood as one of the forms of gratification delay. We also applied a new method of assessing balanced time perspective—the Deviation from the Balanced Time Perspective (DBTP). 126 university students participated in the study. The results obtained suggest the existence of several important connections between TP and EI and moderate impact of DBTP on the process of discounting. Future studies on temporal orientation could be enriched by utilizing this integrative measure of balanced time perspective (the DBTP coefficient) and by partitioning award delays into stages when analyzing temporal discounting strategies.

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