scholarly journals Towards a new understanding of fear generalization and its neural origin

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selim Onat
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Perceptual Similarity ◽  
Inference Problem ◽  
Complex Skill ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Neural Origin ◽  
Fear Generalization

Forming generalizations from previous experiences is a complex skill, which requires a delicate coordination between several basic cognitive abilities. In menacing situations, this ability is called “fear generalization”. It allows humans to predict harmful events and is necessary for survival. Impairments of this ability may lead to overgeneralizations – a phenomenon we know from anxiety disorders. By and large, fear generalization has been studied with one type of experimental paradigm. Stimuli forming a carefully controlled perceptual similarity gradient have been the basis to quantify behavioral and neuronal “fear generalization profiles”. This paradigm has provided fruitful insights into how learnt fear generalizes to perceptually similar events. Yet, a number of findings suggest that fear generalization is more adaptive than predicted by a mechanism which is solely based on perceptual similarity. This is a proposal that aims to bring new perspectives onto fear generalization as a complex, adaptive process. I will investigate the following major hypotheses: (1) Fear generalization can be understood as the optimal result of a Bayesian inference problem. (2) In real-world conditions, fear generalization builds on conceptual knowledge rather than perceptual similarity alone. (3) Brain structures involved in fear generalization can be causally linked to modulate fear responses adaptively. To test these hypotheses, I propose use of tools including fMRI, EEG as well as intracranial electrical stimulation and LFP recordings in presurgical epilepsy patients. With the combination of these tools, the expected findings have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of fear generalization and anxiety disorders.

scholarly journals Towards a new understanding of fear generalization and its neural origin

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selim Onat
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Perceptual Similarity ◽  
Inference Problem ◽  
Complex Skill ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Neural Origin ◽  
Fear Generalization

Forming generalizations from previous experiences is a complex skill, which requires a delicate coordination between several basic cognitive abilities. In menacing situations, this ability is called “fear generalization”. It allows humans to predict harmful events and is necessary for survival. Impairments of this ability may lead to overgeneralizations – a phenomenon we know from anxiety disorders. By and large, fear generalization has been studied with one type of experimental paradigm. Stimuli forming a carefully controlled perceptual similarity gradient have been the basis to quantify behavioral and neuronal “fear generalization profiles”. This paradigm has provided fruitful insights into how learnt fear generalizes to perceptually similar events. Yet, a number of findings suggest that fear generalization is more adaptive than predicted by a mechanism which is solely based on perceptual similarity. This is a proposal that aims to bring new perspectives onto fear generalization as a complex, adaptive process. I will investigate the following major hypotheses: (1) Fear generalization can be understood as the optimal result of a Bayesian inference problem. (2) In real-world conditions, fear generalization builds on conceptual knowledge rather than perceptual similarity alone. (3) Brain structures involved in fear generalization can be causally linked to modulate fear responses adaptively. To test these hypotheses, I propose use of tools including fMRI, EEG as well as intracranial electrical stimulation and LFP recordings in presurgical epilepsy patients. With the combination of these tools, the expected findings have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of fear generalization and anxiety disorders.

Effects of an Anxiety-Specific Psychometric Factor on Fear Conditioning and Fear Generalization

2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (3) ◽  
pp. 200-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Baumann ◽  
Miriam A. Schiele ◽  
Martin J. Herrmann ◽  
Tina B. Lonsdorf ◽  
Peter Zwanzger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Longitudinal Design ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Specific Factor ◽  
High Anxious ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Fear Generalization

Abstract. Conditioning and generalization of fear are assumed to play central roles in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. Here we investigate the influence of a psychometric anxiety-specific factor on these two processes, thus try to identify a potential risk factor for the development of anxiety disorders. To this end, 126 healthy participants were examined with questionnaires assessing symptoms of anxiety and depression and with a fear conditioning and generalization paradigm. A principal component analysis of the questionnaire data identified two factors representing the constructs anxiety and depression. Variations in fear conditioning and fear generalization were solely associated with the anxiety factor characterized by anxiety sensitivity and agoraphobic cognitions; high-anxious individuals exhibited stronger fear responses (arousal) during conditioning and stronger generalization effects for valence and UCS-expectancy ratings. Thus, the revealed psychometric factor “anxiety” was associated with enhanced fear generalization, an assumed risk factor for anxiety disorders. These results ask for replication with a longitudinal design allowing to examine their predictive validity.

scholarly journals Correlating MRI-Based Brain Volumetry and Cognitive Assessment in Down Syndrome Patients

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osama Hamadelseed ◽  
Thomas Skutella
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Assessment ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral ◽  
Brain Volumetry ◽  
Neuropsychological Profile ◽  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Mri ◽  
And Gender

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability. Here, we use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on children and adults with DS to characterize changes in the volume of specific brain structures involved in memory and language and their relationship to features of cognitive-behavioral phenotypes.METHODS: Thirteen children and adults with the DS phenotype and 12 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were analyzed by MRI and underwent a psychological evaluation for language and cognitive abilities.RESULTS: The neuropsychological profile of DS patients showed deficits in different cognition and language domains in correlation with reduced volumes of specific regional and subregional brain structures.CONCLUSIONS: The memory functions and language skills affected in our DS patients correlate significantly with the reduced volume of specific brain regions, allowing us to understand DS's cognitive-behavioral phenotype. Our results provide an essential basis for early intervention and the design of rehabilitation management protocols.

EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION ON GROUP LEARNING RATES IN A MULTI-AGENT ENVIRONMENT

2003 ◽  
Vol 06 (03) ◽  
pp. 405-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL DARBYSHIRE
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Simulation Techniques ◽  
Learning Rates ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Rate Of Learning ◽  
Multi Agent

Distillations utilize multi-agent based modeling and simulation techniques to study warfare as a complex adaptive system at the conceptual level. The focus is placed on the interactions between the agents to facilitate study of cause and effect between individual interactions and overall system behavior. Current distillations do not utilize machine-learning techniques to model the cognitive abilities of individual combatants but employ agent control paradigms to represent agents as highly instinctual entities. For a team of agents implementing a reinforcement-learning paradigm, the rate of learning is not sufficient for agents to adapt to this hostile environment. However, by allowing the agents to communicate their respective rewards for actions performed as the simulation progresses, the rate of learning can be increased sufficiently to significantly increase the teams chances of survival. This paper presents the results of trials to measure the success of a team-based approach to the reinforcement-learning problem in a distillation, using reward communication to increase learning rates.

Speech as a breakthrough signaling resource in the cognitive evolution of biological complex adaptive systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 563-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias A. Mattei
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Complex Adaptive System ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Triggering Events ◽  
The Brain

AbstractIn self-adapting dynamical systems, a significant improvement in the signaling flow among agents constitutes one of the most powerful triggering events for the emergence of new complex behaviors. Ackermann and colleagues' comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the brain structures involved in acoustic communication provides further evidence of the essential role which speech, as a breakthrough signaling resource, has played in the evolutionary development of human cognition viewed from the standpoint of complex adaptive system analysis.

scholarly journals A horse's eye view: size and shape discrimination compared with other mammals

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 20150701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masaki Tomonaga ◽  
Kiyonori Kumazaki ◽  
Florine Camus ◽  
Sophie Nicod ◽  
Carlos Pereira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Acuity ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Visual Discrimination ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Perceptual Similarity ◽  
Shape Discrimination ◽  
Size And Shape ◽  
Circle Size ◽  
Computer Controlled

Mammals have adapted to a variety of natural environments from underwater to aerial and these different adaptations have affected their specific perceptive and cognitive abilities. This study used a computer-controlled touchscreen system to examine the visual discrimination abilities of horses, particularly regarding size and shape, and compared the results with those from chimpanzee, human and dolphin studies. Horses were able to discriminate a difference of 14% in circle size but showed worse discrimination thresholds than chimpanzees and humans; these differences cannot be explained by visual acuity. Furthermore, the present findings indicate that all species use length cues rather than area cues to discriminate size. In terms of shape discrimination, horses exhibited perceptual similarities among shapes with curvatures, vertical/horizontal lines and diagonal lines, and the relative contributions of each feature to perceptual similarity in horses differed from those for chimpanzees, humans and dolphins. Horses pay more attention to local components than to global shapes.

scholarly journals Supervised Learning With Perceptual Similarity for Multimodal Gene Expression Registration of a Mouse Brain Atlas

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Krepl ◽  
Francesco Casalegno ◽  
Emilie Delattre ◽  
Csaba Erö ◽  
Huanxiang Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Supervised Learning ◽  
Mouse Brain ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Brain Atlas ◽  
Perceptual Similarity ◽  
Gene Expressions ◽  
Individual Gene ◽  
Staining Techniques ◽  
Quality Maps

The acquisition of high quality maps of gene expression in the rodent brain is of fundamental importance to the neuroscience community. The generation of such datasets relies on registering individual gene expression images to a reference volume, a task encumbered by the diversity of staining techniques employed, and by deformations and artifacts in the soft tissue. Recently, deep learning models have garnered particular interest as a viable alternative to traditional intensity-based algorithms for image registration. In this work, we propose a supervised learning model for general multimodal 2D registration tasks, trained with a perceptual similarity loss on a dataset labeled by a human expert and augmented by synthetic local deformations. We demonstrate the results of our approach on the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas (AMBA), comprising whole brain Nissl and gene expression stains. We show that our framework and design of the loss function result in accurate and smooth predictions. Our model is able to generalize to unseen gene expressions and coronal sections, outperforming traditional intensity-based approaches in aligning complex brain structures.

scholarly journals Individual patterns of attentional exploration predict the extent of fear generalization in humans

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Reutter ◽  
Matthias Gamer
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Generalization Gradient ◽  
Generalization Test ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Attentional Deployment ◽  
Facial Stimuli ◽  
Fear Generalization ◽  
Rate Deceleration

Generalization of fear is an important mechanism contributing to the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Although previous studies have identified perceptual aspects and evaluation processes as determinants of fear generalization, it is currently unclear, to what degree overt attention might mediate its magnitude. To test the prediction that attentional preferences for diagnostic stimulus aspects reduce fear generalization, we developed a set of facial stimuli that was meticulously manipulated such that pairs of faces could be distinguished by looking into predefined diagnostic areas. These pairs were then employed as CS+ and CS− in a differential fear conditioning paradigm followed by a generalization test. Results indicated a typical quadratic fear generalization gradient in shock expectancy ratings but its shape was altered depending on individual attentional deployment. Subjects who dwelled on the distinguishing stimulus regions faster and for longer periods of time exhibited less fear generalization. Although heart rate responses also showed a generalization gradient with heart rate deceleration increasing as a function of threat, these responses were not significantly related to patterns of attentional exploration. Altogether the current results indicate that the extent of fear generalization depends on individual patterns of attentional exploration. This implies that overgeneralization of fear, as observed in patients with anxiety disorders, might be treated by perceptual trainings that aim to augment discriminability between threatening and safe situations.

Building Emotional Stability and Mental Capacity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Dienstbier ◽  
Lisa M. PytlikZillig
Keyword(s):  
Physical Exercise ◽  
Stress Tolerance ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Emotional Stability ◽  
Mental Capacity ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
Mental Stimulation

Stress and aging deplete some neurochemistry and degrade various brain structures, ultimately affecting stress tolerance and cognitive capacities. However, engaging in various toughening activities prevents and even reverses the ravages of stress and aging. The toughening activities described here include mental stimulation, physical exercise, meditation, self-control, and affectionate activities. Toughening activities enhance neurochemistry and important brain structures by activating or deactivating various genes—sometimes temporarily, but sometimes for a lifetime. Those aspects of physiological toughness lead, in turn, to positive mental/psychological toughness including emotional stability, enhanced mental/cognitive abilities, and even self-control. We review research describing how much each toughening activity fosters mental/psychological toughness, and then the research showing how each activity leads to the components of physiological toughness. Finally we show how physiological toughness leads to mental/psychological toughness. We discuss the usefulness of the toughness concept by assessing the overlapping impacts of the various toughening activities.

scholarly journals Hierarchy processing in human neurobiology: how specific is it?

2019 ◽  
Vol 375 (1789) ◽  
pp. 20180391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Animal Communication ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Part ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
General View ◽  
Crucial Difference

Although human and non-human animals share a number of perceptual and cognitive abilities, they differ in their ability to process hierarchically structured sequences. This becomes most evident in the human capacity to process natural language characterized by structural hierarchies. This capacity is neuroanatomically grounded in the posterior part of left Broca's area (Brodmann area (BA) 44), located in the inferior frontal gyrus, and its dorsal white matter fibre connection to the temporal cortex. Within this neural network, BA 44 itself subserves hierarchy building and the strength of its connection to the temporal cortex correlates with the processing of syntactically complex sentences. Whether these brain structures are also relevant for other human cognitive abilities is a current debate. Here, this question will be evaluated with respect to those human cognitive abilities that are assumed to require hierarchy building, such as music, mathematics and Theory of Mind. Rather than supporting a domain-general view, the data indicate domain-selective neural networks as the neurobiological basis for processing hierarchy in different cognitive domains. Recent cross-species white matter comparisons suggest that particular connections within the networks may make the crucial difference in the brain structure of human and non-human primates, thereby enabling cognitive functions specific to humans. This article is part of the theme issue ‘What can animal communication teach us about human language?’

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