Developmental changes in effective connectivity associated with relational reasoning

Rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) is part of a frontoparietal network of regions involved in relational reasoning, the mental process of working with relationships between multiple mental representations. RLPFC has shown functional and structural changes with age, with increasing specificity of left RLPFC activation for relational integration during development. Here, we used dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to investigate changes in effective connectivity during a relational reasoning task through the transition from adolescence into adulthood. We examined fMRI data of 37 healthy female participants (11–30 years old) performing a relational reasoning paradigm. Comparing relational integration to the manipulation of single relations revealed activation in five regions: the RLPFC, anterior insula, dorsolateral PFC, inferior parietal lobe, and medial superior frontal gyrus. We used a new exhaustive search approach and identified a full DCM model, which included all reciprocal connections between the five clusters in the left hemisphere, as the optimal model. In line with previous resting state fMRI results, we showed distinct developmental effects on the strength of long-range frontoparietal versus frontoinsular short-range fixed connections. The modulatory connections associated with relational integration increased with age. Gray matter volume in left RLPFC, which decreased with age, partly accounted for changes in fixed PFC connectivity. Finally, improvements in relational integration performance were associated with greater modulatory and weaker fixed PFC connectivity. This pattern provides further evidence of increasing specificity of left PFC function for relational integration compared to the manipulation of single relations, and demonstrates an association between effective connectivity and performance during development. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013

Neural correlates of economic game playing

The theory of games provides a mathematical formalization of strategic choices, which have been studied in both economics and neuroscience, and more recently has become the focus of neuroeconomics experiments with human and non-human actors. This paper reviews the results from a number of game experiments that establish a unitary system for forming subjective expected utility maps in the brain, and acting on these maps to produce choices. Social situations require the brain to build an understanding of the other person using neuronal mechanisms that share affective and intentional mental states. These systems allow subjects to better predict other players' choices, and allow them to modify their subjective utility maps to value pro-social strategies. New results for a trust game are presented, which show that the trust relationship includes systems common to both trusting and trustworthy behaviour, but they also show that the relative temporal positions of first and second players require computations unique to that role

Tumor necrosis factor alpha stimulates AP-1 activity through prolonged activation of the c-Jun kinase.

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) has multiple biological functions including the prolonged activation of the collagenase and c-jun genes, which are regulated via their AP-1 binding sites. We show that incubating human fibroblasts with TNF alpha induces prolonged activation of JNK, the c-Jun kinase, which phosphorylates the transactivation domain of c-Jun. Furthermore, an immune complex kinase assay specifically demonstrates that TNF alpha stimulates the activity of JNK1, the recently described predominant form of JNK. TNF alpha also produces a small and transient increase in extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activity and no measured increase in Raf-1 kinase activity. On the other hand, epidermal growth factor causes a prolonged activation of Raf-1 kinase and ERK activity and a smaller, more transient activation of JNK, whereas the phorbol ester phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate causes a small stimulation of Raf-1 kinase and a pronounced stimulation of ERK activity. The activation of JNK by TNF alpha does not correlate with Raf-1 or ERK activity. The kinetics of Raf-1, ERK, and JNK induction by epidermal growth factor, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, or TNF alpha indicate distinct mechanisms of activation in human fibroblasts

Testing Reactive Probabilistic Processes

We define a testing equivalence in the spirit of De Nicola and Hennessy for reactive probabilistic processes, i.e. for processes where the internal nondeterminism is due to random behaviour. We characterize the testing equivalence in terms of ready-traces. From the characterization it follows that the equivalence is insensitive to the exact moment in time in which an internal probabilistic choice occurs, which is inherent from the original testing equivalence of De Nicola and Hennessy. We also show decidability of the testing equivalence for finite systems for which the complete model may not be known

Recruitment of lateral rostral prefrontal cortex in spontaneous and task-related thoughts

Behavioural and neuroimaging studies suggest that spontaneous and task-related thought processes share common cognitive mechanisms and neural bases. Lateral rostral prefrontal cortex (RPFC) is a brain region that has been implicated both in spontaneous thought and in high-level cognitive control processes, such as goal/subgoal integration and the manipulation of self-generated thoughts. We therefore propose that the recruitment of lateral RPFC may follow a U-shaped function of cognitive demand: relatively high in low-demand situations conducive to the emergence of spontaneous thought, and in high-demand situations depending on processes supported by this brain region. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activity while healthy participants performed two tasks, each with three levels of cognitive demands, in a block design. The frequency of task-unrelated thoughts, measured by questionnaire, was highest in the low cognitive demand condition. Low and high cognitive demand conditions were each compared to the intermediate level. Lateral RPFC and superior parietal cortex were recruited in both comparisons, with additional activations specific to each contrast. These results suggest that RPFC is involved both when (a) task demands are low, and the mind wanders, and (b) the task requires goal/subgoal integration and manipulation of self-generated thoughts

Audience effects on the neural correlates of relational reasoning in adolescence

Adolescents are particularly sensitive to peer influence. This may partly be due to an increased salience of peers during adolescence. We investigated the effect of being observed by a peer on a cognitively challenging task, relational reasoning, which requires the evaluation and integration of multiple mental representations. Relational reasoning tasks engage a fronto-parietal network including the inferior parietal cortex, pre-supplementary motor area, dorsolateral and rostrolateral prefrontal cortices. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), peer audience effects on activation in this fronto-parietal network were compared in a group of 19 female mid-adolescents (aged 14-16 years) and 14 female adults (aged 23-28 years). Adolescent and adult relational reasoning accuracy was influenced by a peer audience as a function of task difficulty: the presence of a peer audience led to decreased accuracy in the complex, relational integration condition in both groups of participants. The fMRI results demonstrated that a peer audience differentially modulated activation in regions of the fronto-parietal network in adolescents and adults. Activation was increased in adolescents in the presence of a peer audience, while this was not the case in adults

Metacognitive scaffolding boosts cognitive and neural benefits following executive attention training in children

Version of Record online: 25 October 2018Interventions including social scaffolding and metacognitive strategies have been used in educational settings to promote cognition. In addition, increasing evidence shows that computerized process-based training enhances cognitive skills. However, no prior studies have examined the effect of combining these two training strategies. The goal of this study was to test the combined effect of metacognitive scaffolding and computer-based training of executive attention in a sample of typically developing preschoolers at the cognitive and brain levels. Compared to children in the regular training protocol and an untrained active control group, children in the metacognitive group showed larger gains on intelligence and significant increases on an electrophysiological index associated with conflict processing. Moreover, changes in the conflict-related brain activity predicted gains in intelligence in the metacognitive scaffolding group. These results suggest that metacognitive scaffolding boosts the influence of process-based training on cognitive efficiency and brain plasticity related to executive attention.Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, Grant/Award Number: PSI2014-55833-

Spontaneous and deliberate future thinking: A dual process account

© 2019 Springer Nature.This is the final published version of an article published in Psychological Research, licensed under a Creative Commons Attri-bution 4.0 International License. Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01262-7.In this article, we address an apparent paradox in the literature on mental time travel and mind-wandering: How is it possible that future thinking is both constructive, yet often experienced as occurring spontaneously? We identify and describe two ‘routes’ whereby episodic future thoughts are brought to consciousness, with each of the ‘routes’ being associated with separable cognitive processes and functions. Voluntary future thinking relies on controlled, deliberate and slow cognitive processing. The other, termed involuntary or spontaneous future thinking, relies on automatic processes that allows ‘fully-fledged’ episodic future thoughts to freely come to mind, often triggered by internal or external cues. To unravel the paradox, we propose that the majority of spontaneous future thoughts are ‘pre-made’ (i.e., each spontaneous future thought is a re-iteration of a previously constructed future event), and therefore based on simple, well-understood, memory processes. We also propose that the pre-made hypothesis explains why spontaneous future thoughts occur rapidly, are similar to involuntary memories, and predominantly about upcoming tasks and goals. We also raise the possibility that spontaneous future thinking is the default mode of imagining the future. This dual process approach complements and extends standard theoretical approaches that emphasise constructive simulation, and outlines novel opportunities for researchers examining voluntary and spontaneous forms of future thinking.Peer reviewe