Therapeutic applications of computer models of brain activity for Alzheimer disease.

THERAPEUTIC IMPLICATIONS OF COMPUTER MODELS OF BRAIN ACTIVITY FOR ALZHEIMER DISEASE

Lateralised sleep spindles relate to false memory generation

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Sleep is known to enhance false memories: After presenting participants with lists of semantically related words, sleeping before recalling these words results in a greater acceptance of unseen “lure” words related in theme to previously seen words. Furthermore, the right hemisphere (RH) seems to be more prone to false memories than the left hemisphere (LH). In the current study, we investigated the sleep architecture associated with these false memory and lateralisation effects in a nap study. Participants viewed lists of related words, then stayed awake or slept for approximately 90 min, and were then tested for recognition of previously seen-old, unseen-new, or unseen-lure words presented either to the LH or RH. Sleep increased acceptance of unseen-lure words as previously seen compared to the wake group, particularly for RH presentations of word lists. RH lateralised stage 2 sleep spindle density relative to the LH correlated with this increase in false memories, suggesting that RH sleep spindles enhanced false memories in the RH

Inducing a mental context for associative memory formation with real-time fMRI neurofeedback

Memory, one of the hallmarks of human cognition, can be modified when humans voluntarily modulate neural population activity using neurofeedback. However, it is currently unknown whether neurofeedback can influence the integration of memories, and whether memory is facilitated or impaired after such neural perturbation. In this study, participants memorized objects while we provided them with abstract neurofeedback based on their brain activity patterns in the ventral visual stream. This neurofeedback created an implicit face or house context in the brain while memorizing the objects. The results revealed that participants created associations between each memorized object and its implicit context solely due to the neurofeedback manipulation. Our findings shed light onto how memory formation can be influenced by synthetic memory tags with neurofeedback and advance our understanding of mnemonic processing

Ensemble of Single‐Layered Complex‐Valued Neural Networks for Classification Tasks

This paper presents ensemble approaches in single-layered complex-valued neural network (CVNN) to solve real-valued classification problems. Each component CVNN of an ensemble uses a recently proposed activation function for its complex-valued neurons (CVNs). A gradient-descent based learning algorithm was used to train the component CVNNs. We applied two ensemble methods, negative correlation learning and bagging, to create the ensembles. Experimental results on a number of real-world benchmark problems showed a substantial performance improvement of the ensembles over the individual single-layered CVNN classifiers. Furthermore, the generalization performances were nearly equivalent to those obtained by the ensembles of real-valued multilayer neural networks

The Role of Sleep Spindles and Theta Rhythms in Associative Memory Consolidation of Healthy Young Adults

The purpose of this study was to examine sleep EEG in healthy young adults ages 18-25 years old. The Dreem2 wearable device was used to collect data.Undergraduat

Implicit and Explicit Values as a Predictor of Ethical Decision-Making and Ethical Behavior

The present study uses measures of implicit and explicit values to predict moral behaviors. Implicit value measures based on a word-fragment completion tasks were developed in this study to assess implicit values. Because values and moral processes are believed to operate at both explicit and implicit levels, it was hypothesized that both implicit and explicit values would predict moral behaviors. Results from a laboratory study show that both implicit and explicit values predicted actual moral behavior, consistent with dual process theories of morality. Chronic collective identity moderated the relation of both implicit and explicit values to ethical behavior. Theoretical and practical implications for the use of both explicit and implicit value measures in research and applied settings are discussed

Rescuing Age-related Proteolysis Deficits with Methylene Blue

The average lifespan is constantly increasing with the advent of new medical techniques, and age-related cognitive decline is becoming a prevalent societal issue. Even during healthy aging, humans and rats exhibit progressive deficits in episodic/declarative memory. In laboratory rats, age-related memory impairment can be assessed with trace fear conditioning (TFC). Recent research implicates ubiquitin proteasome system-mediated protein degradation in the synaptic plasticity supporting memory formation and retrieval. In rats, aging leads to decreased basal proteolytic activity in brain structures known to support the acquisition and retrieval of trace fear memories, and our preliminary data suggests activity-dependent proteasome activity declines in a similar fashion. The proposed experiments sought to rescue age-related decreases in plasticity-related protein degradation during memory consolidation via proteasome stimulation with the compound methylthioninium chloride (methylene blue [MB]). Intraperitoneal post-training MB administration at 1, 4, or 16mg/kg did not improve memory performance, chymotrypsin-like, or trypsin-like proteasome activity in young or aged rats in any of the four brain structures examined. Additionally, dietary treatment with MB for four months did not enhance memory, chymotrypsin-like, or trypsin-like proteasome activity in young or aged animals. These results suggest that MB may not be well suited to augment fear learning or to upregulate general proteasome activity. Future work should investigate other means of proteasome stimulation and subsequent rescue of cognitive decline during aging