228 research outputs found
Processing counterfactual and hypothetical conditionals: An fMRI investigation
Counterfactual thinking is ubiquitous in everyday life and an important aspect of cognition and emotion. Although counterfactual thought has been argued to differ from processing factual or hypothetical information, imaging data which elucidate these differences on a neural level are still scarce. We investigated the neural correlates of processing counterfactual sentences under visual and aural presentation. We compared conditionals in subjunctive mood which explicitly contradicted previously presented facts (i.e. counterfactuals) to conditionals framed in indicative mood which did not contradict factual world knowledge and thus conveyed a hypothetical supposition. Our results show activation in right occipital cortex (cuneus) and right basal ganglia (caudate nucleus) during counterfactual sentence processing. Importantly the occipital activation is not only present under visual presentation but also with purely auditory stimulus presentation, precluding a visual processing artifact. Thus our results can be interpreted as reflecting the fact that counterfactual conditionals pragmatically imply the relevance of keeping in mind both factual and supposed information whereas the hypothetical conditionals imply that real world information is irrelevant for processing the conditional and can be omitted. The need to sustain representations of factual and suppositional events during counterfactual sentence processing requires increased mental imagery and integration efforts. Our findings are compatible with predictions based on mental model theory
Visual Experience Shapes Orthographic Representations in the Visual Word Form Area
Current neurocognitive research suggests that the efficiency of visual word recognition rests on abstract memory representations of written letters and words stored in the visual word form area (VWFA) in the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex. These representations are assumed to be invariant to visual characteristics such as font and case. In the present functional MRI study, we tested this assumption by presenting written words and varying the case format of the initial letter of German nouns (which are always capitalized) as well as German adjectives and adverbs (both usually in lowercase). As evident from a Word Type Ă Case Format interaction, activation in the VWFA was greater to words presented in unfamiliar case formats relative to familiar case formats. Our results suggest that neural representations of written words in the VWFA are not fully abstract and still contain information about the visual format in which words are most frequently perceived
Impact of nonâCNS childhood cancer on restingâstate connectivity and its association with cognition
Introduction
Nonâcentral nervous system cancer in childhood (nonâCNS CC) and its treatments pose a major threat to brain development, with implications for functional networks. Structural and functional alterations might underlie the cognitive lateâeffects identified in survivors of nonâCNS CC. The present study evaluated restingâstate functional networks and their associations with cognition in a mixed sample of nonâCNS CC survivors (i.e., leukemia, lymphoma, and other nonâCNS solid tumors).
Methods
Fortyâthree patients (offâtherapy for at least 1 year and aged 7â16 years) were compared with 43 healthy controls matched for age and sex. Highâresolution T1âweighted structural magnetic resonance and restingâstate functional magnetic resonance imaging were acquired. Executive functions, attention, processing speed, and memory were assessed outside the scanner.
Results
Cognitive performance was within the normal range for both groups; however, patients after CNSâdirected therapy showed lower executive functions than controls. Seedâbased connectivity analyses revealed that patients exhibited stronger functional connectivity between frontoâ and temporoâparietal pathways and weaker connectivity between parietalâcerebellar and temporalâoccipital pathways in the right hemisphere than controls. Functional hyperconnectivity was related to weaker memory performance in the patients' group.
Conclusion
These data suggest that even in the absence of brain tumors, nonâCNS CC and its treatment can lead to persistent cerebral alterations in restingâstate network connectivity
Loss, gain and choice difficulty in gambling patients: Neural and behavioural processes
Impaired decisionâmaking is often displayed by individuals suffering from gambling disorder (GD). Since there are a variety of different phenomena influencing decisionâmaking, we focused in this study on the effects of GD on neural and behavioural processes related to loss aversion and choice difficulty. Behavioural responses as well as brain images of 23 patients with GD and 20 controls were recorded while they completed a mixed gambles task, where they had to decide to either accept or reject gambles with different amounts of potential gain and loss. We found no behavioural loss aversion in either group and no group differences regarding loss and gainârelated choice behaviour, but there was a weaker relation between choice difficulty and decision time in patients with GD. Similarly, we observed no group differences in processing of losses or gains, but choice difficulty was weaker associated with brain activity in the right anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex in patients with GD. Our results showed for the first time the effects of GD on neural processes related to choice difficulty. In addition, our findings on choice difficulty give new insights on the psychopathology of GD and on neural processes related to impaired decisionâmaking in GD
The deal.II Library, Version 8.3
deal.II version 8.3 was released August 1, 2015. This paper provides an overview of the new features of this release and serves as a citable reference for the deal.II software library version 8.3. deal.II is an object-oriented finite element library used around the world in the development of finite element solvers. It is available for free under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) from the deal.II homepage at http://www.dealii.org/
Pathogenesis of eosinophilic esophagitis: A comprehensive review of the genetic and molecular aspects
Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a relatively new condition described as an allergicmediated disease of the esophagus. Clinically, it is characterized by dysphagia, food impaction, and reflux-like symptoms. Multiple genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been conducted to identify genetic loci associated with EoE. The integration of numerous studies investigating the genetic polymorphisms in EoE and the Mendelian diseases associated with EoE are discussed to provide insights into the genetic risk of EoE, notably focusing on CCL26 and CAPN14. We focus on the genetic loci investigated thus far, and their classification according to whether the function near the loci is known. The pathophysiology of EoE is described by separately presenting the known function of each cell and molecule, with the major contributors being eosinophils, Th2 cells, thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), transforming growth factor (TGF)-ÎČ1, and interleukin (IL)-13. This review aims to provide detailed descriptions of the genetics and the comprehensive pathophysiology of EoE
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