Functional brain organization of preparatory attentional control in visual search

Looking for an object that may be present in a cluttered visual display requires an advanced specification of that object to be created and then matched against the incoming visual input. Here, fast event-related fMRI was used to identify the brain networks that are active when preparing to search for a visual target. By isolating the preparation phase of the task it has been possible to show that for an identical stimulus, different patterns of cortical activation occur depending on whether participants anticipate a 'feature' or a 'conjunction' search task. When anticipating a conjunction search task, there was more robust activation in ventral occipital areas, new activity in the transverse occipital sulci and right posterior intraparietal sulcus. In addition, preparing for either type of search activated ventral striatum and lateral cerebellum. These results suggest that when participants anticipate a demanding search task, they develop a different advanced representation of a visually identical target stimulus compared to when they anticipate a nondemanding search. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Fiscal Policy as a Stabilization Instrument

This paper investigates the role of the fiscal authority in the case in which a negative shock hits the economic system. We analyze the several kinds of behavior that the fiscal authority can adopt during a crisis and show how the various approaches impact upon the effectiveness of fiscal policy. In general, there are two approaches: a) Adopt a neutral behavior or b) Adopt an active behavior in order to stabilize output volatility caused by a slump. Using a constrained minimization process it emerges that the mere use of a monetary policy is ineffective to counteract the crisis, with the risk of keeping the system in a situation in which aggregate demand falls below the potential output. In this context, an expansionary fiscal policy may be crucial to restore the output equilibrium

Fiscal Rules Compliance and Trust in Institution in Eurozone: The Case of European Central Bank

The institutional and policy features of Eurozone represent a field of special interest to analyse the process of integration. The aim of this study is to investigate on the existence of a trade-off between the compliance to fiscal rules and trust as a proxy of institutional legitimacy in Eurozone. At this scope, the relation between trust in the European Central Bank and structural adjustment, together with unemployment and inflation in 11 Eurozone countries from 1999 to 2013, is tested. The empirical results showed that a) discretionary policy measures have an opposite sign impact on trust; b) in peripheral countries, the structural adjustment is the main variable affecting trust in ECB; c) unemployment plays a key role; and d) deviation from the objective of 2% of inflation is not significant. These outcomes prove the existence of a trade-off between the fiscal rules commitments and the European institutional consolidation process. Key words: Trust, ECB, Fiscal policy, Eurozone.JEL: E02, E31, E63, D63. Pridržavanje fiskalnih pravila i poverenje u institucije Evrozone: slucaj Evropske centralne banke Institucionalna i politicka obeležja Evrozone predstavljaju oblast od posebnog interesa za analizu procesa integracije. Cilj ove studije je da istraži postojanje trade-off-a između pridržavanja fiskalnih pravila i poverenja kao vestacke promenljive za institucionalni legitimitet u Evrozoni. U tom smislu, ispitan je odnos između poverenja u Evropsku centralnu banku (ECB) i strukturnog prilagođavanja, zajedno sa nezaposlenoscu i inflacijom u 11 zemalja Evrozone od 1999. do 2013. godine. Empirijski rezultati su pokazali da: (i) mere diskrecione politike imaju uticaj suprotnog znaka na poverenje; (ii) u perifernim zemljama, strukturno prilagođavanje je osnovna varijabla koja utice na poverenje u ECB; (iii) nezaposlenost igra kljucnu ulogu; i (iv) odstupanje od cilja od 2% inflacije nije znacajno. Rezultati dokazuju postojanje trade-off-a između pridržavanja fiskalnih pravila i procesa evropske institucionalne konsolidacije. Kljucne reci: Poverenje, ECB, fiskalna politika, Evrozona

Neural mechanisms of top-down control during visual search: effects of template complexity

Neural mechanisms of top-down control during visual search: effects of template complexit

An ERP study of visual search showing early detection of feature conjunctions

An ERP study of visual search showing early detection of feature conjunction