Access to consciousness of briefly presented visual events is modulated by transcranial direct current stimulation of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Adaptive behaviour requires the ability to process goal-relevant events at the expense of irrelevant ones. However, perception of a relevant visual event can transiently preclude access to consciousness of subsequent events — a phenomenon called attentional blink (AB). Here we investigated involvement of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in conscious access, by using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to potentiate or reduce neural excitability in the context of an AB task. In a sham-controlled experimental design, we applied between groups anodal or cathodal tDCS over the left DLPFC, and examined whether this stimulation modulated the proportion of stimuli that were consciously reported during the AB period. We found that tDCS over the left DLPFC affected the proportion of consciously perceived target stimuli. Moreover, anodal and cathodal tDCS had opposing effects, and exhibited different temporal patterns. Anodal stimulation attenuated the AB, enhancing conscious report earlier in the AB period. Cathodal stimulation accentuated the AB, reducing conscious report later in the AB period. These findings support the notion that the DLPFC plays a role in facilitating information transition from the unconscious to the conscious stage of processing

Left Imaginal Neglect in Heminattention: Experimental Study with the O'Clock Test

Both sensory and imaginal defects have been reported in unilateral neglect, but their assessment based on the description of famous squares can be difficult in a clinical setting. The O'clock Test is an alternative tool for revealing imaginal defects. Our aim was to demonstrate imaginal neglect in patients with left heminattention. Ten patients were studied and a mild unilateral defect in imaginal processes was found with an increase in the defect when the patients were fatigued

A closer look at the size of the gaze-liking effect: a preregistered replication

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This study is a direct replication of gaze-liking effect using the same design, stimuli and procedure. The gaze-liking effect describes the tendency for people to rate objects as more likeable when they have recently seen a person repeatedly gaze toward rather than away from the object. However, as subsequent studies show considerable variability in the size of this effect, we sampled a larger number of participants (N = 98) than the original study (N = 24) to gain a more precise estimate of the gaze-liking effect size. Our results indicate a much smaller standardised effect size (d z  = 0.02) than that of the original study (d z  = 0.94). Our smaller effect size was not due to general insensitivity to eye-gaze effects because the same sample showed a clear (d z  = 1.09) gaze-cuing effect – faster reaction times when eyes looked toward vs away from target objects. We discuss the implications of our findings for future studies wishing to study the gaze-liking effect

Asymmetric contributions of the fronto-parietal network to emotional conflict in the word-face interference task

The fronto-parietal network is involved in top-down and bottom-up processes necessary to achieve cognitive control. We investigated the role of asymmetric enhancement of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) and right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC) in cognitive control under conditions of emotional conflict arising from emotional distractors. The effects of anodal tDCS over the lDLPFC/cathodal over the rPPC and the effects of anodal tDCS over the rPPC/cathodal over the lDLPFC were compared to sham tDCS in a double-blind design. The findings showed that anodal stimulation over the lDLPFC reduced interference from emotional distractors, but only when participants had already gained experience with the task. In contrast, having already performed the task only eliminated facilitation effects for positive stimuli. Importantly, anodal stimulation of the rPPC did not affect distractors’ interference. Therefore, the present findings indicate that the lDLPFC plays a crucial role in implementing top-down control to resolve emotional conflict, but that experience with the task is necessary to reveal this role

Emotion: Appraisal-coping model for the "Cascades" problem

Modelling emotion has become a challenge nowadays. Therefore, several models have been produced in order to express human emotional activity. However, only a few of them are currently able to express the close relationship existing between emotion and cognition. An appraisal-coping model is presented here, with the aim to simulate the emotional impact caused by the evaluation of a particular situation (appraisal), along with the consequent cognitive reaction intended to face the situation (coping). This model is applied to the "Cascades" problem, a small arithmetical exercise designed for ten-year-old pupils. The goal is to create a model corresponding to a child's behaviour when solving the problem using his own strategies.Comment: 6 page

Social contacts and loneliness affect the own age bias for emotional faces

Individuals are better at recognizing faces of their own age group (Own Age Bias) but it is unclear whether this bias occurs also for emotional faces and to what extent is affected by loneliness. Young individuals (N = 235) completed an age categorization task on faces of young and old individuals showing neutral, happy, and angry expressions. After a filler task, they categorized as seen or novel the original set of faces intermixed with a new set. Findings showed an Own Age Bias for novel young faces but no evidence that emotion eliminates it. Recognition accuracy was better for emotional faces, but the two factors did not interact. Importantly, low loneliness was linked to an Own Age Bias for novel happy faces. These findings are discussed in the context of current theoretical accounts of the Own Age Bias and of the effects of loneliness on attention and memory

Exploring the relationship between perceived loneliness and subjective cognitive decline in older individuals.

OBJECTIVE: Loneliness has been associated to a greater risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older individuals. However, evidence on whether this association also exists for older individuals who complain of cognitive problems is limited. We conducted a survey to examine the association between subjective cognitive decline in the working memory domain, perceived loneliness, depression, anxiety, and stress in older individuals with different profiles. METHODS: A total of 302 healthy, old individuals completed 3 questionnaires to assess subjective cognitive problems in attention, executive functions, storage, depression, anxiety, stress, and perceived loneliness. RESULTS: We conducted a cluster analysis and 3 clusters of individuals with different profiles emerged. Individuals with greater subjective cognitive problems (cluster 1) in the attention and storage domains, reported higher perceived loneliness and stress but not depression. In contrast, individuals with the least subjective cognitive problems (cluster 3) in the storage domain, reported lower perceived loneliness. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with higher subjective cognitive decline also report higher levels of perceived loneliness but not more depression than their peers. However, this correlation is present only for individuals with mild subjective cognitive decline (cluster 2). The implications for future research and interventions are discussed

Anticipatory stress restores decision-making deficits in heavy drinkers by increasing sensitivity to losses

Background: Substance abusers are characterized by hypersensitivity to reward. This leads to maladaptive decisions generally, as well as those on laboratory-based decision-making tasks, such as the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Negative affect has also been shown to disrupt the decision-making of healthy individuals, particularly decisions made under uncertainty. Neuropsychological theories of learning, including the Somatic Marker Hypothesis (SMH), argue this occurs by amplifying affective responses to punishment. In substance abusers, this might serve to rebalance their sensitivity to reward with punishment, and improve decision-making

Decision making as a predictor of first ecstasy use: a prospective study

Ecstasy (+/- 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is a widely used recreational drug that may damage the serotonin system and may entail neuropsychological dysfunctions. Few studies investigated predictors for ecstasy use. Self-reported impulsivity does not predict the initiation of ecstasy use; the question is if neuropsychological indicators of impulsivity can predict first ecstasy use. This study tested the hypothesis that a neuropsychological indicator of impulsivity predicts initiation of ecstasy use. Decision-making strategy and decision-making reaction times were examined with the Iowa Gambling Task in 149 ecstasy-naive subjects. The performance of 59 subjects who initiated ecstasy use during a mean follow-up period of 18 months (range, 11-26) was compared with the performance of 90 subjects that remained ecstasy-naive. Significant differences in decision-making strategy between female future ecstasy users and female persistent ecstasy-naive subjects were found. In addition, the gap between decision-making reaction time after advantageous choices and reaction time after disadvantageous choices was smaller in future ecstasy users than in persistent ecstasy-naives. Decision-making strategy on a gambling task was predictive for future use of ecstasy in female subjects. Differences in decision-making time between future ecstasy users and persistent ecstasy-naives may point to lower punishment sensitivity or higher impulsivity in future ecstasy users. Because differences were small, the clinical relevance is questionabl