Cognitive Basis Research Articles

Habitual physical activity is related to more creative activities and achievements

Beyond health, physical activity (PA) is associated with better creative ideation performance. People who are habitually more physically active produce more original ideas when asked to think creatively about an alternative use of an everyday object such as a brick. This aligns with findings indicating a positive relationship of PA with more basic cognition, such as memory, attention, as well as executive functioning. However, to the best of our knowledge, to date, no empirical research examined the link between PA (or inactivity) and real-life creative behavior. Therefore, this study investigated how objective and subjective assessments of PA relate to creative activities and achievements. In a sample of 156 participants wearing a mobile sensor for up to five consecutive days, less sedentary behavior and more moderate-to-vigorous PA were associated with more frequent creative activities. A similar pattern of associations occurred for self-rated habitual PA, which explained additional and unique variance of creative activities as well as creative achievements. For objective PA (assessed via sensor), we did not find associations with creative achievements, openness, and creative behavior. The results of this study suggest that the positive effects of habitual PA may generalize from better health, cognition, and creative ideation performance outcomes to more real-life creative behavior such as cooking original dishes and making music.

Human culture is uniquely open-ended rather than uniquely cumulative.

Theories of how humans came to be so ecologically dominant increasingly centre on the adaptive abilities of human culture and its capacity for cumulative change and high-fidelity transmission. Here we revisit this hypothesis by comparing human culture with animal cultures and cases of epigenetic inheritance and parental effects. We first conclude that cumulative change and high transmission fidelity are not unique to human culture as previously thought, and so they are unlikely to explain its adaptive qualities. We then evaluate the evidence for seven alternative explanations: the inheritance of acquired characters, the pathways of inheritance, the non-random generation of variation, the scope of heritable variation, effects on organismal fitness, effects on genetic fitness and effects on evolutionary dynamics. From these, we identify the open-ended scope of human cultural variation as a key, but generally neglected, phenomenon. We end by articulating a hypothesis for the cognitive basis of this open-endedness.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Saudi Arabia’s Governance

Why does the Saudi government utilize artificial intelligence? The research questions whether the more the Saudi government utilizes artificial intelligence (AI), the more it endures authoritarianism or not. In fact, an analytical research design based on a neo-institutional approach is applied to the case study. The research examines the concept of isomorphism by addressing the motivations for AI utilization in Saudi Arabia, the outcomes of AI on Saudi Arabia’s authoritarian practices, Saudi citizens’ insights into AI applications in Saudi Arabia, the relationship between legitimacy and stability in the presence of AI in Saudi Arabia, and the impact of culture and cognitive bases on Saudi organizational behavior toward AI in Saudi Arabia. The research concludes the following: Saudi Arabia applies artificial intelligence to keep the political sphere unchangeable. In other words, the more the Saudi government utilizes artificial intelligence, the more it becomes a digital authoritarian tool.

Characterization of the temporal stability of ToM and pain functional brain networks carry distinct developmental signatures during naturalistic viewing

A temporally stable functional brain network pattern among coordinated brain regions is fundamental to stimulus selectivity and functional specificity during the critical period of brain development. Brain networks that are recruited in time to process internal states of others’ bodies (like hunger and pain) versus internal mental states (like beliefs, desires, and emotions) of others’ minds allow us to ask whether a quantitative characterization of the stability of these networks carries meaning during early development and constrain cognition in a specific way. Previous research provides critical insight into the early development of the theory-of-mind (ToM) network and its segregation from the Pain network throughout normal development using functional connectivity. However, a quantitative characterization of the temporal stability of ToM networks from early childhood to adulthood remains unexplored. In this work, reusing a large sample of children (n = 122, 3–12 years) and adults (n = 33) dataset that is available on the OpenfMRI database under the accession number ds000228, we addressed this question based on their fMRI data during a short and engaging naturalistic movie-watching task. The movie highlights the characters’ bodily sensations (often pain) and mental states (beliefs, desires, emotions), and is a feasible experiment for young children. Our results tracked the change in temporal stability using an unsupervised characterization of ToM and Pain networks DFC patterns using Angular and Mahalanobis distances between dominant dynamic functional connectivity subspaces. Our findings reveal that both ToM and Pain networks exhibit lower temporal stability as early as 3-years and gradually stabilize by 5-years, which continues till adolescence and late adulthood (often sharing similarity with adult DFC stability patterns). Furthermore, we find that the temporal stability of ToM brain networks is associated with the performance of participants in the false belief task to access mentalization at an early age. Interestingly, higher temporal stability is associated with the pass group, and similarly, moderate and low temporal stability are associated with the inconsistent group and the fail group. Our findings open an avenue for applying the temporal stability of large-scale functional brain networks during cortical development to act as a biomarker for multiple developmental disorders concerning impairment and discontinuity in the neural basis of social cognition.

Между «ratio» и «irratio»: в поисках оптимальной стратегии изучения доверия в политическом пространстве

The literature on political trust currently continues to be dominated by the cognitive approach, whose adherents perceive trust as a function of political knowledge and social experience. In turn, the psycho-emotional foundations of political trust (personality traits, psychological needs and emotions) are still in the shadow of the cognitive revolution and remain poorly understood. The article attempts to justify the need to study political trust not only as a rational-evaluative construct, but also as a complex psycho-emotional phenomenon that arises at the intersection of cognitive and affective processes occurring at the conscious and subconscious levels. Having consistently analyzed three approaches to understanding the nature of political trust — as knowledge, as heuristics and as affect — the author elaborates his definition of this phenomenon, describing it as a specific psycho-emotional state that accumulates knowledge about objects of political space, emotionally and symbolically significant images of politicians and institutions formed in the process of socialization, as well as the confidence that the expectations arising on this basis will be met to one degree or another in the future. Moving from the conceptual to the empirical level, he examines survey and experimental strategies for distinguishing between cognitive and affective foundations of trust, revealing their possibilities and limitations. The final part of the article outlines potential further directions for research in the field of political trust. According to the author, agent-based modeling is extremely promising in this regard, as it allows looking at the cognitive and affective bases of political trust as a single whole, where cognitive and affective processes are closely interconnected and capable of moving from one state to another.

Individual differences in belief updating and phasic arousal are related to psychosis proneness

Many decisions entail the updating of beliefs about the state of the environment by accumulating noisy sensory evidence. This form of probabilistic reasoning may go awry in psychosis. Computational theory shows that optimal belief updating in environments subject to hidden changes in their state requires a dynamic modulation of the evidence accumulation process. Recent empirical findings implicate transient responses of pupil-linked central arousal systems to individual evidence samples in this modulation. Here, we analyzed behavior and pupil responses during evidence accumulation in a changing environment in a community sample of human participants. We also assessed their subclinical psychotic experiences (psychosis proneness). Participants most prone to psychosis showed overall less flexible belief updating profiles, with diminished behavioral impact of evidence samples occurring late during decision formation. These same individuals also exhibited overall smaller pupil responses and less reliable pupil encoding of computational variables governing the dynamic belief updating. Our findings provide insights into the cognitive and physiological bases of psychosis proneness and open paths to unraveling the pathophysiology of psychotic disorders.

How do theory of mind and formal language skills impact metaphoric reference comprehension during children's school-age years.

Prior research has shown that school-aged children's metaphor comprehension becomes adultlike progressively. This has given rise to claims that the development of metaphor comprehension is due to children's evolving abilities with respect to theory of mind (ToM) or to formal language. The present work investigates the extent to which children's growing sophistication with metaphor is attributable to each of these. Experiment 1 validates a newly constructed tablet task-with two groups of children whose mean ages were approximately 7 and 10 (N = 89)-in which participants (a) listen to vignettes that conclude with either a metaphoric or a synonymic (control) reference and then (b) choose pictures (while latencies are recorded) that indicate whether the children understand the reference as intended. The outcomes from Experiment 1 confirm prior results: Accurate responding in the wake of a metaphoric reference increases with age; meanwhile, correct metaphoric responses take longer than synonymic ones. Experiment 2 tests a more expansive range of 6- to 11-year-olds (N = 248) and a wider array of tasks, including two clinical tasks measuring ToM and formal language skills which we use as cognitive predictors of metaphor accuracy and response times. Results show that ToM is a reliable predictor of successful performance on the metaphor task among younger children, before attenuating with age; in contrast, formal language is a predictor of metaphor comprehension that strengthens with age and is maximal in older children. This work underlines the importance of considering developmental perspectives when investigating the cognitive bases of metaphor skills. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive foundations of the formation of communicative competencies in the theory of dialogue

Abstract The study of cognitive mechanisms involved in the process of developing communicative competencies, particularly from the perspective of dialogue theory, is relevant and necessary to improve communicative activity and its effectiveness. The purpose of this research is to study the cognitive-communicative interaction in the process of dialogical communication and the cognitive conditionality of the development of communicative competencies. The methods of frame, cognitive and communicative analysis, and the analytical-synthetic method were used in the study. The main frame structures of dialogic speech were considered: using one frame and similar ways of verbalization, using one frame and different ways of verbal expression, and using two frames with different thematic or semantic content. The study examined cognitive-communicative interaction in dialogic communication and the cognitive basis for developing communicative competencies. Among the important conclusions is the discovery of three primary dialogical unity frame structures. It has been found that cognitive functions affect successful communication. The study demonstrated how cognitive-communicative interaction fosters the development of communicative competencies. It was also determined that dialogue structure relates to response shifts represented as interrelated frames. The study concludes that future research should focus on studying cognitions in communicative contexts and improving foreign language communication.

Under the influence: exogenous testosterone influences men's cross-sex perceptions of sexual interest.

The sexual misperception bias is a cognitive bias in which men tend to overestimate sexual interest from women, potentially shaped by evolutionary mating strategies. Testosterone, often linked to mating behaviors, might play a role in sustaining sexual overperceptions. To explore this possibility, we conducted a placebo-controlled study with 190 heterosexual men, administering either 11 mg of testosterone or a placebo. Participants interacted with an attractive female confederate, while naïve raters assessed the confederate's affiliative behaviors. Our findings suggest that exogenous testosterone did not broadly impact sexual overperception. However, we found that affiliative behavior from the confederate was positively correlated with perceived sexual interest among testosterone-treated, but not placebo-treated men. In addition, we found that this effect among testosterone-treated men was contingent on their self-perceived attractiveness. Specifically, the confederate's affiliative behaviors were positively correlated with perceived sexual interest, but only for testosterone-treated men with average or above average self-perceived attractiveness. Furthermore, our data revealed that men's tendency to project their own short-term and long-term mating interests increases as a function of self-perceived attractiveness, and this coupling is enhanced by testosterone for long-term interest. Taken together, these results suggest that testosterone may potentiate existing biases, particularly when sexual motivation is high, and bias perceptions of friendly behavior when engaging in cross-sex mindreading. This study adds to the understanding of the neuroendocrine bases of social cognition, suggesting that testosterone can affect men's perceptions of potential mates.

Life, sense-making, and subjectivity. Why the enactive conception of life and mind requires phenomenology

One of the ideas that characterises the enactive approach to cognition is that life and mind are deeply continuous, which means that both phenomena share the same basic set of organisational and phenomenological properties. The appeal to phenomenology to address life and basic cognition is controversial. It has been argued that, because of its reliance on phenomenological categories, enactivism may implicitly subscribe to a form of anthropomorphism incompatible with the modern scientific framework. These worries are a result of a lack of clarity concerning the role that phenomenology can play in relation to biology and our understanding of non-human organisms. In this paper, I examine whether phenomenology can be validly incorporated into the enactive conception of mind and life. I argue that enactivists must rely on phenomenology when addressing life and mind so that they can properly conceptualise minimal living systems as cognitive, as well as argue for an enactive conception of biology in line with their call for a non-objectivist science. To sustain these claims, I suggest that enactivism must be further phenomenologised by not only drawing from Hans Jonas’s phenomenology of the organism (as enactivists often do) but also from Edmund Husserl’s thoughts on the connection between transcendental phenomenology and biology. Additionally, phenomenology must be considered capable of providing explanatory accounts of phenomena

Task-based functional neural correlates of social cognition across autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders

BackgroundAutism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) both feature atypical social cognition. Despite evidence for comparable group-level performance in lower-level emotion processing and higher-level mentalizing, limited research has examined the neural basis of social cognition across these conditions. Our goal was to compare the neural correlates of social cognition in autism, SSDs, and typically developing controls (TDCs).MethodsData came from two harmonized studies in individuals diagnosed with autism or SSDs and TDCs (aged 16–35 years), including behavioral social cognitive metrics and two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tasks: a social mirroring Imitate/Observe (ImObs) task and the Empathic Accuracy (EA) task. Group-level comparisons, and transdiagnostic analyses incorporating social cognitive performance, were run using FSL’s PALM for each task, covarying for age and sex (1000 permutations, thresholded at p < 0.05 FWE-corrected). Exploratory region of interest (ROI)-based analyses were also conducted.ResultsImObs and EA analyses included 164 and 174 participants, respectively (autism N = 56/59, SSD N = 50/56, TDC N = 58/59). EA and both lower- and higher-level social cognition scores differed across groups. While canonical social cognitive networks were activated, no significant whole-brain or ROI-based group-level differences in neural correlates for either task were detected. Transdiagnostically, neural activity during the EA task, but not the ImObs task, was associated with lower- and higher-level social cognitive performance.LimitationsDespite attempting to match our groups on age, sex, and race, significant group differences remained. Power to detect regional brain differences is also influenced by sample size and multiple comparisons in whole-brain analyses. Our findings may not generalize to autism and SSD individuals with co-occurring intellectual disabilities.ConclusionsThe lack of whole-brain and ROI-based group-level differences identified and the dimensional EA brain-behavior relationship observed across our sample suggest that the EA task may be well-suited to target engagement in novel intervention testing. Our results also emphasize the potential utility of cross-condition approaches to better understand social cognition across autism and SSDs.

"How handy was early hominin 'know-how'?" An experimental approach exploring efficient early stone tool use.

The appearance of early lithic industries has been associated with the gradual development of unique biomechanical and cognitive abilities in hominins, including human-like precision grasping and basic learning and/or communicating capacities. These include tools used for activities exclusively associated with hominin contexts (cutting flakes) and hammerstones utilized for behaviors shared with non-human primates (e.g., nut-cracking). However, no previous experimental research has focused on comparing the factors affecting efficiency between these two key behavioral patterns and their evolutionary implications. Here, we address this gap with an experimental design involving participants with varying tool-related experience levels (i.e., no experience, theoretical-only experience, and extensive practical knapping expertise) to monitor their success rates, biometrics, and surface electromyography (sEMG) recordings from eight important hand and forearm muscles. Our results showed that practical experience had a substantial impact on flake-cutting efficiency, allowing participants to achieve greater success rates with substantially less muscle effort. This relationship between success rates and muscle effort was not observed for the nut-cracking task. Moreover, even though practical experience did not significantly benefit nut-cracking success, experts exhibited increased rates of self-improvement in that task. Altogether, these experimental findings suggest that the ability to practice and retain tool-using knowledge played a fundamental role in the subsistence strategies and adaptability of early hominins, potentially providing the cognitive basis for conceptualizing the first intentional tool production strategies.

Patricia Goldman-Rakic: A Pioneer in Cognitive Neuroscience.

Patricia Goldman-Rakic (1937-2003) was a trailblazing neuroscientist whose groundbreaking work greatly advanced our understanding of the prefrontal cortex and its crucial role in higher cognitive functions like working memory and executive function. Her innovative research, which integrated anatomical, electrophysiological, and behavioral methods, provided foundational insights into the neural basis of cognition. This review underscores her significant contributions, personal challenges, and the enduring influence of her work in the field of neuroscience.

COGNITIVE CHALLENGES AND PROFESSIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF PREGNANCY BRAIN IN ACADEMIA: A REVIEW OF PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES AND POTENTIAL INTERVENTIONS

Pregnancy brain, characterized by cognitive changes during pregnancy, has significant implications for women in academia, affecting professional performance and career progression. In this review, we focus on the physiological and psychological bases of pregnancy brain, its impacts on cognitive functions, and potential interventions for pregnant women. The objective of this review is to explore the phenomenon of pregnancy-induced cognitive decline, focusing on its physiological, psychological, and cognitive bases, and its potential impact on cognitive function. The impact of pregnancy on cognitive performance, career progression, and professional performance can be mitigated through increased awareness, research, and institutional support. By recognizing and addressing the cognitive challenges faced by pregnant women, academic institutions can foster a more inclusive and supportive environment, ultimately benefiting the professional and personal well-being of women in academic institutions. KEYWORDS: Pregnancy brain; Cognitive function; Women in academia; Professional performance; Institutional support

Greening the Gray: Determining Plant Preferences for Indoor Fitness Gyms in the Philippines

Abstract Biophilia is known as the innate connection people have with nature and how green spaces can positively affect basic cognition, mood and health. Mostly applied in urban areas where outdoor green spaces are scarce, designed facilities that incorporate this concept have been observed to be more beneficial to users. Interestingly, one indoor space visited by urban dwellers that have yet to be studied in terms of biophilic design application is fitness gyms. To determine gym members’ preference of planting materials if these were placed in gyms, surveys were distributed online over two weeks. 239 participants composed of actual and potential gym members selected appropriate plants as detailed in the surveys. Site planting considerations or constraints were also identified if these were used indoors. Additionally, their familiarity with biophilia and its advantages were investigated. After the responses were analysed, participants selected Dracaena fragrans, Spathiphyllum wallisii and Epipremnum aureum as top choices of plants for a gym with major considerations on plants’ aesthetic qualities, ecological and psychological benefits, and maintenance. Moreover, more than 50 percent respondents were at least slightly familiar with biophilia. They believed that having plants can improve indoor air quality, make the interiors more aesthetically pleasing and can enhance mood. As per results, it can be said that the respondents supported the idea of designing indoor fitness gyms as biophilic environments although its level of familiarity needs to be increased. This is where professionals come in, by designing facilities such as fitness gyms with plants to optimize biophilia’s benefits.

Neural Basis of Categorical Representations of Animal Body Silhouettes.

Neural activities differentiating bodies versus non-body stimuli have been identified in the occipitotemporal cortex of both humans and nonhuman primates. However, the neural mechanisms of coding the similarity of different individuals' bodies of the same species to support their categorical representations remain unclear. Using electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated the temporal and spatial characteristics of neural processes shared by different individual body silhouettes of the same species by quantifying the repetition suppression of neural responses to human and animal (chimpanzee, dog, and bird) body silhouettes showing different postures. Our EEG results revealed significant repetition suppression of the amplitudes of early frontal/central activity at 180-220 ms (P2) and late occipitoparietal activity at 220-320 ms (P270) in response to animal (but not human) body silhouettes of the same species. Our MEG results further localized the repetition suppression effect related to animal body silhouettes in the left supramarginal gyrus and left frontal cortex at 200-440 ms after stimulus onset. Our findings suggest two neural processes that are involved in spontaneous categorical representations of animal body silhouettes as a cognitive basis of human-animal interactions.

Rényi entropy-complexity causality space: a novel neurocomputational tool for detecting scale-free features in EEG/iEEG data.

Scale-free brain activity, linked with learning, the integration of different time scales, and the formation of mental models, is correlated with a metastable cognitive basis. The spectral slope, a key aspect of scale-free dynamics, was proposed as a potential indicator to distinguish between different sleep stages. Studies suggest that brain networks maintain a consistent scale-free structure across wakefulness, anesthesia, and recovery. Although differences in anesthetic sensitivity between the sexes are recognized, these variations are not evident in clinical electroencephalographic recordings of the cortex. Recently, changes in the slope of the power law exponent of neural activity were found to correlate with changes in Rényi entropy, an extended concept of Shannon's information entropy. These findings establish quantifiers as a promising tool for the study of scale-free dynamics in the brain. Our study presents a novel visual representation called the Rényi entropy-complexity causality space, which encapsulates complexity, permutation entropy, and the Rényi parameter q. The main goal of this study is to define this space for classical dynamical systems within theoretical bounds. In addition, the study aims to investigate how well different time series mimicking scale-free activity can be discriminated. Finally, this tool is used to detect dynamic features in intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) signals. To achieve these goals, the study implementse the Bandt and Pompe method for ordinal patterns. In this process, each signal is associated with a probability distribution, and the causal measures of Rényi entropy and complexity are computed based on the parameter q. This method is a valuable tool for analyzing simulated time series. It effectively distinguishes elements of correlated noise and provides a straightforward means of examining differences in behaviors, characteristics, and classifications. For the iEEG experimental data, the REM state showed a greater number of significant sex-based differences, while the supramarginal gyrus region showed the most variation across different modes and analyzes. Exploring scale-free brain activity with this framework could provide valuable insights into cognition and neurological disorders. The results may have implications for understanding differences in brain function between the sexes and their possible relevance to neurological disorders.

Investigation of the Neural Basis of Social Interactions Using Hyperscanning Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Hyperscanning functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was developed to gain deeper insight into the neural basis of social cognition. Simultaneous imaging of brain activity in multiple subjects facilitates analysis of the neural basis of real-time interactions and communication. This method reveals the neural basis of social interactions, including inter-individual synchronization as a phenomenon that cannot be reduced to individuals. This modality enables research into the neural mechanisms underlying social interactions that are integral to many aspects of our lives. I will outline the background, current status, and prospects of development of hyperscanning fMRI, which may be an important methodology in the shift from "first-person" neuroscience (which refers to the interaction between individuals and the environment) to "second-person" neuroscience (which refers to the application of neuroscientific methods to investigate inter-individual associations).

Behavioral and Biological Bases of Herding and Conformity.

Humans are inherently complex creatures, and this issue became even more complicated when they decided to construct social relationships. Research into human behavior is an interdisciplinary and multifaceted endeavor studied by various disciplines, such as psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology, and neurosciences. Today, with the cooperation of researchers in different fields, it is possible to link the cellular dynamic of neurons to brain function and human behavior. Cognitive science and neurosciences, along with other disciplines, can enrich our knowledge about mechanisms of social influence, which may assist policymakers in influencing public behaviors toward creating a better society. This review aims to describe previous research on social influence's behavioral, cognitive, and neural basis and provide more understanding of human behavior in society. I review and evaluate the relevant literature from multiple databases of peer-reviewed journals, books, and conferences and hand-searching reference lists of relevant studies that consider conformity from psychological, economic, neurobiological, and neurochemical aspects. This paper has been divided into four parts. First, I start by defining and describing two kinds of social influences. The second section focuses on psychological and economic evidence of social influence. It will then explore the neurobiological and neurochemical approaches to studying social influence. Finally, the conclusion summarizes and highlights three points I believe social neuroscience as an interdisciplinary and vibrant field should consider for future developments.

Repeated exposure to multiple concurrent stressors alters visual processing in the adult posterior parietal cortex

Chronic stress is well known to erode cognitive functions. Yet, our understanding of how repeated stress exposure impacts one of the fundamental bases of cognition: sensory processing, remains limited. The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is a high order visual region, known for its role in visually guided decision making, multimodal integration, attention, and working memory. Here, we used functional measures to determine how repeated exposure to multiple concurrent stressors (RMS) affects sensory processing in the PPC in adult male mice. A longitudinal experimental design, repeatedly surveying the same population of neurons using in vivo two-photon imaging, revealed that RMS disrupts the balanced turnover of visually responsive cells in layer 2/3 of the PPC. Across the population, RMS-induced changes in visual responsiveness followed a bimodal distribution suggesting idiosyncratic stress effects. In cells that maintained their responsiveness across recording sessions, we found that stress reduced visual response magnitudes and feature selectivity. While we did not observe stress-induced elimination of excitatory synapses, noise correlation statistics indicated that RMS altered visual input to the neuronal population. The impact of RMS was restricted to visually evoked responses and was not evident in neuronal activity associated with locomotion onset. Together, our results indicate that despite no apparent synaptic reorganization, stress exposure in adulthood can disrupt sensory processing in the PPC, with the effects showing remarkable individual variation.