Cognitive Neuroscience Approach Research Articles

Evaluating the Dynamics of Learning Approaches: A Systematic Review Investigating the Nexus Between Teaching Methods and Academic Performance in Medical and Dental Education

AbstractIn recent decades, a noticeable trend has emerged in medical and dental schools to adjust their curricula to promote learning strategies and habits geared towards long-term knowledge retention. This systematic review therefore sought to examine whether different teaching methods influence students’ preferred learning approaches (deep, strategic, and surface approach) and indirectly affect their academic performance. Furthermore, it provides a comprehensive overview of the inconsistencies evident in previous literature regarding the relationship between learning approaches and academic performance of medical and dental students. A thorough search across eight databases yielded 49 relevant studies published between the years 2000 and 2023. The majority of studies revealed that whilst deep and strategic learners tend to excel at medical or dental school, surface learners appear to struggle under intense workload and pressure. Hence, a common consensus emerged amongst the existing literature that there is a relative benefit in attempting to guide students towards deep and strategic learning habits and to minimise surface-related learning strategies. However, results also conveyed that merely modifying the teaching methods used in medical and dental schools has limited merit. As such, the results emphasised the lack of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ teaching method. Common factors influencing learning approaches were subsequently identified, and based on these findings, an outlook was put forth to integrate a cognitive neuroscience approach into higher education. These directions for future investigations aim to help students reach their full potential by understanding the processes underlying efficient learning and by being mindful of respective encouraging and discouraging factors.

Social Perception in the Infant Brain and Its Link to Social Behavior.

The current longitudinal study (n = 98) utilized a developmental cognitive neuroscience approach to examine whether and how variability in social perception is linked to social behavior in early human development. Cortical responses to processing dynamic faces were investigated using functional near-infrared spectroscopy at 7 months. Individual differences in sociability were measured using the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire at 18 months. Confirming previous work with infants and adults, functional near-infrared spectroscopy results show that viewing changing faces recruited superior temporal cortices in 7-month-old infants, adding to the view that this brain system is specialized in social perception from early in ontogeny. Our longitudinal results show that greater engagement of the right superior temporal cortex at 7 months predicts higher levels of sociability at 18 months. This suggests that early variability in social perception is linked to later differences in overtly displayed social behavior, providing novel longitudinal evidence for a social brain-behavior association.

Composite Measures of Brain Activation Predict Individual Differences in Behavioral Stroop Interference.

The goal of the current study was to interrogate aspects of the cascade-of-control model [Banich, M. T. The Stroop effect occurs at multiple points along a cascade of control: Evidence from cognitive neuroscience approaches. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2164, 2019] (Banich, 2009), a neurocognitive model that posits how portions of pFC interact in a cascade-like manner to overcome interference from task-irrelevant information, and to test whether it could be used to predict individual differences in cognitive control outside the scanner. Participants (n = 62) completed two fMRI Word-Picture Stroop tasks, one containing emotional stimuli and one containing non-emotional stimuli, as well as a behavioral out-of-scanner Color-Word Stroop task at each of two time points. In a departure from the traditional approach of using a single task contrast to index neural activation across all ROIs, the current study utilized specific ROI by contrast pairings selected based on the specific level of control hypothesized by the cascade-of-control model to occur within that region. In addition, data across both tasks and both time points were combined to create composite measures of neural activation and of behavior. Consistent with the cascade-of-control model, individual differences in brain activation for specific contrasts within each of the three ROIs were associated with behavioral interference on the standard Color-Word Stroop task. Testing of alternative models revealed that these brain-behavior relationships were specific to the theoretically driven ROI by contrast pairings. Furthermore, such relationships were not observed across single-task and single-time point measures, but instead emerged from the composite measures. These findings provide evidence that brain activation observed across multiple regions of frontal cortex, each of which likely exerts cognitive control in a differential manner, is capable of predicting individual differences in behavioral performance.

Not Every Thing Must Go.

In The Entangled Brain, Pessoa criticizes standard approaches in cognitive neuroscience in which the brain is seen as a functionally decomposable, modular system with causal operations built up hierarchically. Instead, he advocates for an emergentist perspective whereby dynamic brain networks are associated, not with traditional psychological categories, but with behavioral functions characterized in evolutionary terms. Here, we raise a number of concerns with such a radical approach. We ultimately believe that although much revision to cognitive neuroscience is welcome and needed, Pessoa's more radical proposals may be counterproductive.

"Natural Laboratory Complex" for novel primate neuroscience.

We propose novel strategies for primate experimentation that are ethically valuable and pragmatically useful for cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychiatric research. Specifically, we propose Natural Laboratory Complex or Natural Labs, which are a combination of indoor-outdoor structures for studying free moving and socially housed primates in natural or naturalistic environment. We contend that Natural Labs are pivotal to improve primate welfare, and at the same time to implement longitudinal and socio-ecological studies of primate brain and behavior. Currently emerging advanced technologies and social systems (including recent COVID-19 induced “remote” infrastructures) can speed-up cognitive neuroscience approaches in freely behaving animals. Experimental approaches in natural(istic) settings are not in competition with conventional approaches of laboratory investigations, and could establish several benefits at the ethical, experimental, and economic levels.

Uncovering sex/gender differences of arithmetic in the human brain: Insights from fMRI studies.

Over the long run, STEM fields had been perceived as dominant by males, despite that numerous studies have shown that female students do not underperform their male classmates in mathematics and science. In this review, we discuss whether and how sex/gender shows specificity in arithmetic processing using a cognitive neuroscience approach not only to capture contemporary differences in brain and behavior but also to provide exclusive brain bases knowledge that is unseen in behavioral outcomes alone. We begin by summarizing studies that had examined sex differences/similarities in behavioral performance of mathematical learning, with a specific focus on large‐scale meta‐analytical data. We then discuss how the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach can contribute to understanding neural mechanisms underlying sex‐specific effects of mathematical learning by reviewing structural and functional data. Finally, we close this review by proposing potential research issues for further exploration of the sex effect using neuroimaging technology. Through the lens of advancement in the neuroimaging technique, we seek to provide insights into uncovering sex‐specific neural mechanisms of learning to inform and achieve genuine gender equality in education.

The motivation of aggression: A cognitive neuroscience approach and neurochemical speculations.

The motivation of aggression: A cognitive neuroscience approach and neurochemical speculations.

Renting vs. Owning: Public Stereotypes of Housing Consumption Decision From the Perspective of Confucian Culture: Evidence From Event-Related Potentials.

The ideas of face consciousness, group conformity, extended family concept, and crisis consciousness in Confucian culture have a subtle and far-reaching impact on housing consumption decision among the Chinese public, forming a housing consumption model of “preferring to own a house rather than rent one.” The poor interaction between the housing rental market and the sales market caused by the shortage of rental demand and irrational purchasing behaviors has led to soaring house prices and imbalance between supply and demand that prevail in major cities in China. To gain a deeper understanding of public cognitive attitude toward decisions on owning and renting a house, this study divided the subjects into high and low impact groups based on the overall Confucian culture and four subdimensions. It attempts to take a cognitive neuroscience approach for assessing public stereotypes of housing consumption decision with different types based on the analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs). The results are as follows. First, overall, there is an obvious implicit stereotype of renting a house and explicit stereotype of owning a house among the public. Second, ERPs data show that descriptions of renting a house with positive adjectives could evoke more significant N400 responses. In other words, in the heuristic system, the public perceive that renting a house is restrictive, stressful, unhappy, and crisis. Data from subjective reports show that, after processing information in the analytic system, the public tend to think that owning a house is self-contained, restful, warm, and comfortable. Third, a more negative stereotype of renting a house exists in the high Confucian culture influence group (HIC) Group than in the low Confucian culture influence group (LIC) Group, and is more inclined to own a home. Fourth, under the Confucian culture sub-dimension, there are differences in housing consumption stereotypes between high and low groups in terms of extended family concept, group conformity, and crisis consciousness. Fifth, the moderating effect analysis found that perceived usefulness, trust in the rental market, and policy perception can be important factors in guiding public housing consumption stereotypes.

Social cognitive network neuroscience.

Over the past three decades, research from the field of social neuroscience has identified a constellation of brain regions that relate to social cognition. Although these studies have provided important insights into the specific neural regions underlying social behavior, they may overlook the broader neural context in which those regions and the interactions between them are embedded. Network neuroscience is an emerging discipline that focuses on modeling and analyzing brain networks—collections of interacting neural elements. Because human cognition requires integrating information across multiple brain regions and systems, we argue that a novel social cognitive network neuroscience approach—which leverages methods from the field of network neuroscience and graph theory—can advance our understanding of how brain systems give rise to social behavior. This review provides an overview of the field of network neuroscience, discusses studies that have leveraged this approach to advance social neuroscience research, highlights the potential contributions of social cognitive network neuroscience to understanding social behavior and provides suggested tools and resources for conducting network neuroscience research.

Mind wandering in sensory cortices

The recent task-free approach in Cognitive Neuroscience has sparked interest in understanding the brain’s default mode network (DMN). One particular mental activity that has been identified to recruit such a network is mind-wandering, which points to the functional aspect of mind-wandering as a default system. However, the phenomenological aspect of mind-wandering has been missing in the literature on brain imaging. To tackle this issue, we adopted online thought sampling while participants underwent a simple fixation task over multiple sessions in the scanner. During 10 h of scanning of each participant, over 200 mind wander episodes were labelled in each participant. With linear support vector machine classification on mind-wandering episodes with exclusive sensory content, we found that decoding accuracy in content-corresponding sensory cortices was significantly higher, indicating the neural bases of the phenomenology of mind-wandering. Unique patterns in classification were revealed in different individuals, pointing to individual variances in our phenomenal experiences.

Neural Coding of Cognitive Control: The Representational Similarity Analysis Approach.

Cognitive control relies on distributed and potentially high-dimensional frontoparietal task representations. Yet, the classical cognitive neuroscience approach in this domain has focused on aggregating and contrasting neural measures - either via univariate or multivariate methods - along highly abstracted, 1D factors (e.g., Stroop congruency). Here, we present representational similarity analysis (RSA) as a complementary approach that can powerfully inform representational components of cognitive control theories. We review several exemplary uses of RSA in this regard. We further show that most classical paradigms, given their factorial structure, can be optimized for RSA with minimal modification. Our aim is to illustrate how RSA can be incorporated into cognitive control investigations to shed new light on old questions.

How do neural processes give rise to cognition? Simultaneously predicting brain and behavior with a dynamic model of visual working memory.

There is consensus that activation within distributed functional brain networks underlies human thought. The impact of this consensus is limited, however, by a gap that exists between data-driven correlational analyses that specify where functional brain activity is localized using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and neural process accounts that specify how neural activity unfolds through time to give rise to behavior. Here, we show how an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach may bridge this gap. In an exemplary study of visual working memory, we use multilevel Bayesian statistics to demonstrate that a neural dynamic model simultaneously explains behavioral data and predicts localized patterns of brain activity, outperforming standard analytic approaches to fMRI. The model explains performance on both correct trials and incorrect trials where errors in change detection emerge from neural fluctuations amplified by neural interaction. Critically, predictions of the model run counter to cognitive theories of the origin of errors in change detection. Results reveal neural patterns predicted by the model within regions of the dorsal attention network that have been the focus of much debate. The model-based analysis suggests that key areas in the dorsal attention network such as the intraparietal sulcus play a central role in change detection rather than working memory maintenance, counter to previous interpretations of fMRI studies. More generally, the integrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here establishes a framework for directly testing theories of cognitive and brain function using the combined power of behavioral and fMRI data. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Public stereotypes of recycled water end uses with different human contact: Evidence from event-related potential (ERP)

Recycled water is an effective way to ease regional water resource shortages and promote environmental protection. The public is a direct user of recycled water, so their attitudes and acceptances are key links in the implementation of recycled water reuse projects. However, in the practical process of the implementation of recycled water reuse projects, the concept is frequently rejected by the public because of the negative perception that it is sourced from sewage. To gain a deeper understanding of this negative perception, this study attempts to take a cognitive neuroscience approach for assessing the stereotypes of recycled water end uses with different human contacts based on a temporal analysis of event-related potentials (ERP) and decision-making data. The results are as follows. First, in general, the stereotypes of recycled water reuse are deeply rooted among the public and are significantly negative. Second, compared with recycled water for car-washing, descriptions of recycled water for potable use with positive adjectives could evoke more significant N400 responses. In other words, the public perceive that recycled water for potable use is harmful, dangerous, and disgusting. Third, for recycled water with different levels of human contact, the negative stereotypes vary greatly. With increasing human contact levels, negative stereotypes will be increasingly enhanced. This study can provide scientific references for the promotion of recycled water end-use projects and optimal allocation of water resources.

Ballroom dancers exhibit a dispositional need for arousal and elevated cerebral cortical activity during preferred melodic recall.

BackgroundAlthough the association of human temperament and preference has been studied previously, few investigations have examined cerebral cortical activation to assess brain dynamics associated with the motivation to engage in performance. The present study adopted a personality and cognitive neuroscience approach to investigate if participation in ballroom dancing is associated with sensation-seeking temperament and elevated cerebral cortical arousal during freely chosen musical recall.MethodsPreferred tempo, indicated by tapping speed during melodic recall, and a measure of fundamental disposition or temperament were assessed in 70 ballroom dancers and 71 nondancers. All participants completed a trait personality inventory (i.e., the Chen Huichang 60 Temperaments Inventory) to determine four primary types: choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic. Participants separately recalled their favorite musical piece and tapped to it with their index finger for 40 beats using a computer keyboard. A subset of 59 participants (29 ballroom dancers and 30 nondancers) also repeated the same tapping task while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded.ResultsThe results revealed that the dancers were more extraverted, indicative of a heightened need for arousal, exhibited a preference for faster musical tempo, and exhibited elevated EEG beta power during the musical recall task relative to nondancers. Paradoxically, dancers also showed elevated introversion (i.e., melancholic score) relative to nondancers, which can be resolved by consideration of interactional personality theory if one assumes reasonably that dance performance environment is perceived in a stimulating manner.ConclusionThe results are generally consistent with arousal theory, and suggest that ballroom dancers seek elevated stimulation and, thereby, choose to engage with active and energetic rhythmic auditory stimulation, thus providing the nervous system with the requisite stimulation for desired arousal. These results also suggest an underlying predisposition for engagement in ballroom dance and support the gravitational hypothesis, which propose that personality traits and perception lead to the motivation to engage in specific forms of human performance.

Engrams of Fast Learning.

Fast learning designates the behavioral and neuronal mechanisms underlying the acquisition of a long-term memory trace after a unique and brief experience. As such it is opposed to incremental, slower reinforcement or procedural learning requiring repetitive training. This learning process, found in most animal species, exists in a large spectrum of natural behaviors, such as one-shot associative, spatial, or perceptual learning, and is a core principle of human episodic memory. We review here the neuronal and synaptic long-term changes associated with fast learning in mammals and discuss some hypotheses related to their underlying mechanisms. We first describe the variety of behavioral paradigms used to test fast learning memories: those preferentially involve a single and brief (from few hundred milliseconds to few minutes) exposures to salient stimuli, sufficient to trigger a long-lasting memory trace and new adaptive responses. We then focus on neuronal activity patterns observed during fast learning and the emergence of long-term selective responses, before documenting the physiological correlates of fast learning. In the search for the engrams of fast learning, a growing body of evidence highlights long-term changes in gene expression, structural, intrinsic, and synaptic plasticities. Finally, we discuss the potential role of the sparse and bursting nature of neuronal activity observed during the fast learning, especially in the induction plasticity mechanisms leading to the rapid establishment of long-term synaptic modifications. We conclude with more theoretical perspectives on network dynamics that could enable fast learning, with an overview of some theoretical approaches in cognitive neuroscience and artificial intelligence.

Thinking outside the box: The brain-bilingualism relationship in the light of early neurobiological variability

Bilingualism represents a distinctive way to investigate the interplay between brain and behaviour, and an elegant model to study the role of environmental factors in shaping this relationship. Past neuroimaging research has mainly focused on how bilingualism influences brain structure, and how eventually the brain accommodates a second language. In this paper, we discuss a more recent contribution to the field which views bilingualism as lens to understand brain-behaviour mappings from a different perspective. It has been shown, in contexts not related to bilingualism, that cognitive performance across several domains can be predicted by neuroanatomical variants determined prenatally and largely impervious to postnatal changes. Here, we discuss novel findings indicating that bilingualism modulates the predictive role of these variants on domain-specific cognition. The repercussions of these findings are potentially far-reaching on multiple levels, and highlight the need to shape more complex questions for progress in cognitive neuroscience approaches to bilingualism.

Built Environment Evaluation in Virtual Reality Environments—A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach

To date, the predominant tools for the evaluation of built environment quality and impact have been surveys, scorecards, or verbal comments—approaches that rely upon user-reported responses. The goal of this research project is to develop, test, and validate a data-driven approach for built environment quality evaluation/validation based upon measurement of real-time emotional responses to simulated environments. This paper presents an experiment that was conducted by combining an immersive virtual environment (virtual reality) and electroencephalogram (EEG) as a tool to evaluate Pre and Post Purple Line development. More precisely, the objective was to (a) develop a data-driven approach for built environment quality evaluation and (b) understand the correlation between the built environment characters and emotional state. The preliminary validation of the proposed evaluation method identified discrepancies between traditional evaluation results and emotion response indications through EEG signals. The validation and findings have laid a foundation for further investigation of relations between people’s general cognitive and emotional responses in evaluating built environment quality and characters.

The Stroop Effect Occurs at Multiple Points Along a Cascade of Control: Evidence From Cognitive Neuroscience Approaches.

This article argues that the Stroop effect can be generated at a variety of stages from stimulus input to response selection. As such, there are multiple loci at which the Stroop effect occurs. Evidence for this viewpoint is provided by a review of neuroimaging studies that were specifically designed to isolate levels of interference in the Stroop task and the underlying neural systems that work to control the effects of interference at those levels. In particular, the evidence suggests that lateral prefrontal regions work to bias processing toward the task-relevant dimension of a Stroop stimulus (e.g., its color) and away from the task-irrelevant dimension (e.g., the meaning of the word). Medial prefrontal regions, in contrast, tend to be more involved in response-related and late-stage aspects of control. Importantly, it is argued that this control occurs in a cascade-like manner, such that the degree of control that is exerted at earlier stages influences the degree of control that needs to be exerted at later stages. As such, the degree of behavioral interference that is observed is the culmination of processing in specific brain regions as well as their interaction.

Theoretical Considerations for The Possibility of Effective Memory Rehabilitation from The Cognitive Neuroscience Approach

Theoretical Considerations for The Possibility of Effective Memory Rehabilitation from The Cognitive Neuroscience Approach

Early attentive processing on forged and genuine exemplars by imitators: An ERP study

Important questions have arisen about the capacity of traditional questioned document methodology to differentiate between genuine and forged exemplars of an author’s handwriting. This paper does not address that dispute. The paper describes the first part of a research project investigating whether imitators (forgers) can reliably differentiate between genuine samples and forgeries. This paper takes a different, cognitive neuroscience approach and investigates the overlooked topic of the mental processing of forgeries by forgers. The paper tried to examine the neural mechanisms of imitators’ (forgers’) attentive processing of forged and genuine exemplars. The data in this initial phase of the study showed imitators experienced more difficulty evaluating their own forgeries perhaps because the forgeries included both the features they had consciously copied and some of their own handwriting characteristics that they could not completely suppress. A subsequent phase of the study will use self-reporting and eye movement tracking studies, in this phase we shall attempt to identify the specific types of features the imitators relied on in correctly classifying the exhibit as a forgery. We shall then enlist the services of experienced questioned document examiners endeavor to determine whether those characteristics appear in genuine exemplars of the forgers’ handwriting. The identification of those categories of features may hold the potential for improving both the detection of forgeries and the identification of the forger.