Superior parietal cortex and the attention to delayed intention: An rTMS study.

This study aimed to investigate whether the superior parietal cortex is causally involved in PM and, if so, what is its functional role. We applied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the left and right superior parietal cortex, and we evaluated the TMS effects on two different PM tasks that required to direct the attention towards either the external stimuli (\u2018Monitoring-load\u2019 task) or the intention in memory (\u2018Retrospective-load\u2019 task). rTMS of left parietal cortex produced a facilitation of PM performance in both tasks. This was coupled by slower responses to the ongoing activity, for left and right parietal stimulation, but selectively in the \u2018Retrospective-load\u2019 condition. The present results suggest that superior parietal cortex is causally involved in biasing top-down attentional resources between the external, ongoing stimuli and the internal, PM intentions. The possible physiological mechanisms underlying the TMS-related improvement in PM performance are discussed

Physician Assisted Suicide Legalization in the United States

In a growing society of medicine there are countless people with terminal illnesses that cannot be cured. These people can suffer a long time with anything from physical pain or even a declining mental view of life. In some cases, in certain states, patients can choose to peacefully end their life through the process of physician assisted suicide (PAS). From past Supreme Court rulings from Vacco v. Quill and Washington v. Glucksberg which challenge the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause respectively. After both rulings were decided, the Supreme Court left the decision of physician assisted suicide up to each individual state to decide if it show be legal. Eleven states have PAS legalized with countless strict requirements, such as age, confirmation of a terminal illness with a six-month prognosis, location of patient care, physiological evaluations, formal requests for the medicine, and physical capability to administer the medicine themselves. Based on different research, it has shown that the physical toll an illness has on a patient\u27s body can influence the mental aspect, too. Studies have shown that the leading physical cause of terminal illnesses, fatigue, can lead a patient to develop a feeling of a less meaningful life due to not being able to perform their normal daily tasks. Furthermore, contrary to most medical ethics, PAS can be supported by different ethical principles. Patients hold a right to make their own rational decisions and their wishes can be honored by legalizing PAS throughout the United States. In the process of PAS, patients hold their own power to end their suffering peacefully, having control over their illness, and families can have closure. Other treatment such as palliative medicine sometimes can only causing more suffering. By legalizing physician assisted suicide, terminal patients can have the option to peacefully end pain and suffering while in the end stage of their terminal illness fight

Effects of cue focality on the neural mechanisms of prospective memory: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies

Remembering to execute pre-defined intentions at the appropriate time in the future is typically referred to as Prospective Memory (PM). Studies of PM showed that distinct cognitive processes underlie the execution of delayed intentions depending on whether the cue associated with such intentions is focal to ongoing activity processing or not (i.e., cue focality). The present activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis revealed several differences in brain activity as a function of focality of the PM cue. The retrieval of intention is supported mainly by left anterior prefrontal cortex (Brodmann Area, BA 10) in nonfocal tasks, and by cerebellum and ventral parietal regions in focal tasks. Furthermore, the precuneus showed increased activation during the maintenance phase of intentions compared to the retrieval phase in nonfocal tasks, whereas the inferior parietal lobule showed increased activation during the retrieval of intention compared to maintenance phase in the focal tasks. Finally, the retrieval of intention relies more on the activity in anterior cingulate cortex for nonfocal tasks, and on posterior cingulate cortex for focal tasks. Such focality-related pattern of activations suggests that prospective remembering is mediated mainly by top-down and stimulus-independent processes in nonfocal tasks, whereas by more automatic, bottom-up, processes in focal tasks

The Influence of Emotional Material on Encoding and Retrieving Intentions: An ERP Study in Younger and Older Adults

Prospective memory is a cognitive process that comprises the encoding and maintenance of an intention until the appropriate moment of its retrieval. It is of highly relevance for an independent everyday life, especially in older adults; however, there is ample evidence that prospective memory declines with increasing age. Because most studies have used neutral stimuli, it is still an open question how emotional factors influence age-related differences in prospective remembering. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of emotional material on prospective memory encoding, monitoring, maintaining, and retrieval in younger and older adults using behavioral and electrophysiological measures. We tested 24 younger adults (M = 26.4 years) and 20 older adults (M = 68.1 years) using a picture one-back task as ongoing activity with an embedded prospective memory instruction. The experimental task consisted of three sessions. In each session, participants had to encode series of images that represented the prospective memory cues for the consecutive block. The images were either of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral valence. The pictures used in the ongoing task were likewise of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral valence. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to assess the neural correlates of intention encoding, maintenance, and self-initiated retrieval. We did not find age differences between younger and older adults on the behavioral level. However, the ERP results revealed an interesting pattern that suggested for both age groups elevated attentional processing of emotional cues during encoding indicated by an elevated LPP for the emotional cues. Additionally, younger adults showed increased activity for unpleasant cues. During the maintenance phase, both age groups engaged in strategic monitoring especially for pleasant cues, which led to enhanced sustained positivity. During retrieval, older adults showed increased activity of ERP components related to cue detection and retrieval mainly for pleasant cues indicating enhanced relevance for those cues. In conclusion, emotional material may influence prospective remembering in older adults differently than in younger adults by supporting a mixture of top-down and bottom-up controlled processing. The results demonstrated a negativity bias in younger adults and a positivity bias in older adults

It\u2019s a Matter of Mind! Cognitive Functioning Predicts the Athletic Performance in Ultra- Marathon Runners

The present study was aimed at exploring the influence of cognitive processes on performance in ultra-marathon runners, providing an overview of the cognitive aspects that characterize outstanding runners. Thirty runners were administered a battery of computerized tests right before their participation in an ultra-marathon. Then, they were split according to the race rank into two groups (i.e., faster runners and slower runners) and their cognitive performance was compared. Faster runners outperformed slower runners in trials requiring motor inhibition and were more effective at performing two tasks together, successfully suppressing the activation of the information for one of the tasks when was not relevant. Furthermore, slower runners took longer to remember to execute pre-defined actions associated with emotional stimuli when such stimuli were presented. These findings suggest that cognitive factors play a key role in running an ultra-marathon. Indeed, if compared with slower runners, faster runners seem to have a better inhibitory control, showing superior ability not only to inhibit motor response but also to suppress processing of irrelevant information. Their cognitive performance also appears to be less influenced by emotional stimuli. This research opens new directions towards understanding which kinds of cognitive and emotional factors can discriminate talented runners from less outstanding runners

A Neural Mass Model to Simulate Different Rhythms in a Cortical Region

An original neural mass model of a cortical region has been used to investigate the origin of EEG rhythms. The model consists of four interconnected neural populations: pyramidal cells, excitatory interneurons and inhibitory interneurons with slow and fast synaptic kinetics, GABAA, slow and GABAA,fast respectively. A new aspect, not present in previous versions, consists in the inclusion of a self-loop among GABAA,fast interneurons. The connectivity parameters among neural populations have been changed in order to reproduce different EEG rhythms. Moreover, two cortical regions have been connected by using different typologies of long range connections. Results show that the model of a single cortical region is able to simulate the occurrence of multiple power spectral density (PSD) peaks; in particular the new inhibitory loop seems to have a critical role in the activation in gamma (γ) band, in agreement with experimental studies. Moreover the effect of different kinds of connections between two regions has been investigated, suggesting that long range connections toward GABAA,fast interneurons have a major impact than connections toward pyramidal cells. The model can be of value to gain a deeper insight into mechanisms involved in the generation of γ rhythms and to provide better understanding of cortical EEG spectra

The role of president director’s characteristics in affecting the corporate cash holdings on manufacturing companies listed on indonesia stock exchange

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of president director’s Education Major, Education Level, Age, and Tenure towards Cash Holdings on manufacturing companies. The type of data used is quantitative. The data taken is secondary data, in the form of annual report of manufacturing companies for five years, from 2015 to 2019. The sampling method used was a purposive sampling technique, thus resulting in a total sample of 130 companies. This study used the documentation method obtained from the annual and financial reports published on the official website of the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The analytical tools used are descriptive statistics and panel data regression. The result of this study indicates that (1) Education Major which proxied by MBA has a positive and significant effect on Cash Holdings. (2) Education Level has a negative and significant effect on Cash Holdings. (3) Age has a positive and insignificant effect on Cash Holdings. (4) Tenure has a positive and insignificant effect on Cash Holdings

Efektivitas Teknik Self-Talk untuk Mengembangkan Kepercayaan Diri dalam Belajar Siswa

Abstract: Low self-confidence in learning in students is one of the problems that often occur in achieving learning success. This study aims to test the effectiveness of the self-talk technique to increase self-confidence in learning. This study used a quasi-experimental experimental method with a non-equivalent control group design. The research subjects in this study were 20 students who were divided into two experimental and control groups. The data collection technique in this study used a self-confidence questionnaire in learning that had been tested for validity and reliability. The results of the post-test data analysis with the Mann-Whitney test in this study showed p-value 0,010 (0,010<0,05). So it can be concluded that the hypothesis is accepted. There is a difference between the two experimental groups and the control group due to the provision of the self-talk technique intervention. Based on the study results, it can be concluded that the self-talk technique is effectively used to increase self-confidence in learning.Abstrak: Kepercayaan diri dalam belajar yang rendah pada peserta didik merupakan salah satu permasalahan yang sering terjadi dalam mencapai keberhasilan belajar. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji keefektifan teknik self-talk untuk meningkatkan kepercayaan diri dalam belajar para siswa. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode eksperimen desain quasi experimental dengan rancangan non-equivalent control group design. Subjek penelitian dalam penelitian ini adalah 20 peserta didik yang terbagi menjadi 2 kelompok eksperimen dan kontrol. Teknik pengumpulan data pada penelitian ini menggunakan angket kepercayaan diri dalam belajar yang telah diuji validitas dan reliabilitas. Hasil analisis data post-test dengan Uji Mann Whitney pada penelitian ini menunjukan skor p-value 0,010 (0,010<0,05). Maka dapat dikatakan bahwa hipotesis diterima dan berarti terdapat perbedaan antara dua kelompok eksperimen dan kelompok kontrol karena adanya pemberian intervensi teknik self-talk. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dapat disimpulkan bahwa  teknik self-talk efektif digunakan untuk meningkatkan kepercayaan diri dalam belajar para siswa