Successful closed-loop neurofeedback alpha frequency modulation enhances the temporal dynamics of attention.

In everyday life, our behavior is often guided by environmental cues that predict rewarding or aversive outcomes. The Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm provides a framework for examining how conditioned stimuli (CS) influence instrumental actions (R) associated with specific outcomes (O). Two distinct mechanisms have been identified: specific PIT, where a cue selectively invigorates the action linked to the same outcome, and general PIT, where reward-predictive cues non-selectively enhance response vigor. Theoretical accounts propose that specific PIT depends on the reactivation of learned action representations by sensory-specific cues, yet it remains unclear whether such reactivation occurs during passive cue exposure (Pavlovian phase) and how it evolves across learning. Using fMRI (N = 31), we investigated cue-evoked neural activity during two Pavlovian learning phases, before and after instrumental learning, in a four-phase PIT paradigm. Behaviorally, participants showed robust specific and general PIT effects in the transfer phase. At the neural level, general PIT-related cues engaged occipito-temporal visual and associative regions early in learning, whereas specific PIT-related cues recruited fronto-parietal, premotor, sensorimotor and striatal regions (MFG, IPS, PMC/M1/S1, caudate, putamen) after instrumental learning. These findings indicate that Pavlovian cues dynamically engage motor and sensorimotor systems following action-outcome learning, consistent with outcome-mediated retrieval of learned action representations even in the absence of overt movement. Together, the results refine theoretical models of PIT by demonstrating learning-dependent modulation of corticostriatal circuits during passive cue processing.

Seeing race, stopping action: neural dynamics of face-based inhibitory control.

Assessment of neural and MAP level asymmetries in a large cohort of children with bilateral cochlear implants.

How emotional disclosure enhances interpersonal closeness from a speaker-listener perspective: An fNIRS hyperscanning study.

Recent research indicates that humans continuously and automatically modulate their breathing to temporally align exteroceptive stimuli with specific phases of the respiratory cycle. This process has been interpreted as a form of active sensing and is associated with faster responses and improved perceptual accuracy. While converging evidence suggests that respiration also shapes interoceptive processing at both neural and behavioral levels, it remains unclear whether individuals actively adjust their breathing to optimize interoceptive performance. In this study, we examined whether healthy participants (25 females and 16 males) modulated their respiration during an interoceptive (heartbeat discrimination) and an exteroceptive (tactile detection) task. We analyzed respiration both in terms of time-locked activity and inter-trial coherence relative to stimulus onset and assessed their relationship with perceptual accuracy. Our results demonstrated that participants systematically adjust their breathing in both amplitude and phase, synchronizing respiration to the anticipated (i.e., cued) onset of stimuli in both tasks. Crucially, task performance was enhanced during exhalation compared to inhalation, suggesting that respiratory modulation supports the perception of both interoceptive and exteroceptive signals. Significance statement This study reveals that humans not only synchronize their breathing to anticipated external and internal stimuli, but also perform better when perceiving them during exhalation. By showing that respiration is modulated in both interoceptive and exteroceptive contexts, our findings extend the concept of active sensing to internal bodily awareness. This has important implications for understanding the dynamic interplay between physiology and perception and may guide interventions aimed at improving clinical outcomes in conditions where interoception is disrupted.

Bimanual coordination is essential for many spaceflight tasks, yet the effects of altered gravity on its behavioral and neural underpinnings remain unclear. This study examined the influence of microgravity (0 g) and partial gravity (0.25-0.75 g) on isometric bimanual coordination during parabolic flight. Participants performed rhythmic force tasks while force and electromyography (EMG) data were collected. Results indicated that mean force and force smoothness differed across gravity conditions, with the most pronounced behavioral impairments occurring in microgravity. Performance under partial gravity (0.25-0.75 g) generally trended toward the 1 g condition. At the neural level, exploratory EMG-EMG cross-wavelet analysis indicated reduced beta band (13-30 Hz) interlimb coordination in 0 g compared with 1 g, whereas traditional coherence measures did not show differences related to gravity. These neural findings should be interpreted cautiously and as exploratory rather than confirmatory. The findings suggest that the absence of gravitational loading is associated with the greatest challenges for coordinated motor output, while partial loading may help preserve performance. These results have implications for astronaut training and countermeasure development for future lunar and Martian missions.

Insulin resistance constitutes a major global public health burden, and obesity─a critical precursor of insulin resistance─is closely associated with comorbid anxiety, depressive disorders, and cognitive impairments. Propionate, a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) and widely used food preservative, exhibits potential public health hazards at excessive concentrations; however, its effects on neuropsychiatric manifestations and the underlying mechanisms in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced metabolic dysfunction remain insufficiently investigated. Herein, we focused on the effects of propionate on neurobehavioral impairments in HFD-fed mice, as well as the associated metabolic and neural perturbations. Six-week-old male Balb/c mice were randomly divided into four groups for a 6-week intervention: standard diet (SD), propionate (15 mg/kg, Pro), HFD, and HFD combined with propionate (15 mg/kg, HFD+Pro). Relative to the HFD group, mice in the HFD+Pro group displayed exacerbated weight gain, fatty liver pathological changes, impaired glucose homeostasis, and aggravated insulin resistance. Behaviorally, exposure to HFD+Pro induced more severe anxiety-like and depressive-like phenotypes (assessed via the elevated plus maze and forced swim test) and exacerbated cognitive and social impairments (evaluated using the novel object recognition test and social interaction test). At the neural level, HFD+Pro treatment induced hippocampal neuronal loss, microglial activation, upregulation of the pro-inflammatory cytokines Il-6 and Il-1β, and downregulation of the anti-inflammatory cytokines Il-4 and Il-10. Collectively, propionate exacerbates HFD-induced neuroinflammation and hippocampal injury, which contributes to the onset and progression of comorbid neuropsychiatric impairments, while aggravating insulin resistance-associated metabolic disturbances. This study establishes a critical association between propionate exposure and insulin resistance-related neuropsychiatric pathology, highlighting the urgent need to reevaluate the safety profile of propionate in populations at risk.

Neural underpinnings of verbal memory encoding and recognition impairments in individuals with clinically stable mood or schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Background/Objectives: Scaffolding plays a vital role in sustaining collaborative discourse and shifting attention. However, current research lacks a detailed understanding of how scaffold use affects participants' discussions at the neural level. This paper investigates whether epistemic scaffold types (Design-mode and Belief-mode) influence participants' collaborative discourse and subsequently modulate N400 event-related potential amplitude during sentence processing. Methods: Participants in two experimental conditions engaged in an online discussion using scaffolds either representing Design-mode (My theory) or Belief-mode (I agree/I disagree). Participants then individually completed a stimulus-based decision-making task involving sentences representing the two modes. Pre- and post-surveys assessed changes in participants' attitudes across the study. Machine learning models were used to examine participants' discourse patterns while event-related potential (ERP) analyses of the N400 component assessed neural responses during the decision-making task. Results: Machine learning analyses indicated differences between the two scaffold modes, while ERP analyses revealed a modest N400 amplitude difference between the two modes, during the 380-430 ms time window. Conclusions: Findings suggest that epistemic scaffolding can influence collaborative discourse and neural processing, offering implications for the design of scaffolded learning for researchers and practitioners.

Premonitory urges (PU) are central to tic expression and guide behavioural treatment yet are difficult to measure in children using self-report because urge awareness often lags tic onset. We therefore examined neural correlates of urge control in paediatric tic disorders (TS) across natural urge conditions (blink, yawn) and tics, using an fMRI release-suppression task in 25 medication-naïve children and adolescents with TS (76% male; 7-16 years) and 25 matched typically developing control participants (76% male; 6-17 years). We compared natural urge suppression between the TS group and controls at behavioural and neural levels. In participants with TS, we identified neural correlates of voluntary tic suppression, and examined task-evoked connectivity during tic suppression using psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses with parietal seeds derived from natural urge effects to assess coupling with control/monitoring and interoceptive-salience networks. Across blink and yawn, TS participants showed greater suppression-related activation than controls in left posterior parietal association cortex, with additional right parietal and frontal engagement for yawn. Behavioural impairment was selective to blink. Tic suppression did not yield uniform group-level activation, but suppression success was positively associated with engagement of executive, salience, and default-mode hubs. PPI analyses showed that stronger parietal-cingulo-opercular coupling was negatively associated with suppression success, whereas fronto-parietal coupling showed no positive association. These network-level associations provide a framework for refining models of urge control in youth and motivate future studies with larger samples to evaluate their robustness and potential translational relevance.

ABSTRACT Intimate partner violence (IPV) impacts individuals, families, and wider society. Sensitivity to rejection is reliably associated with IPV use. Yet with IPV-users often demonstrating reduced emotional clarity, such sensitivity may not always be accessible to verbal reporting. Electroencephalography may circumvent this issue by capturing sensitivity to rejection at the neural level. Using event-related potentials, the neural processing of social exclusion has been explicated and is often linked to reductions in frontal slow wave (FSW) amplitude. This study examined FSW amplitude as elicited by the social exclusion game, Cyberball, to investigate the neural mechanisms of social exclusion processing in 43 fathers with and without histories of IPV use. We further investigate group differences in self-reported ostracism distress and emotional clarity across IPV-using and control fathers. IPV-using fathers displayed significantly lower exclusion evoked FSW amplitude, possibly reflecting stress-induced disruptions to mentalizing. Additionally, IPV-using fathers reported no significant differences in ostracism distress but increased difficulties in emotional clarity. Overall, findings suggest that IPV-using fathers display a profile of heightened neural sensitivity to social exclusion and a reduced ability to access their emotional states. These findings shed light on potential mechanisms of IPV to inform future research and interventions.

Social interaction processing and theory of mind (ToM) frequently co-occur, but their commonalities and distinctions at behavioral and neural levels remain unclear. Participants (N = 231) provided moment-by-moment ratings of four text and four audio narratives on social interactions and ToM engagement, which were reliable (split-half r = 0.98 and 0.92, respectively) but only modestly correlated (r = 0.32). In a second sample (N = 90), we analyzed the co-variation between social interaction and ToM ratings and fMRI activity during text and audio narratives. Activity maps associated withsocial interactionprocessing and ToM generalized across text and audio (spatial r = 0.60 and 0.58, respectively) andoverlapped in canonical ToM regions (FDR q < 0.01). ToM uniquely engaged the anterior intraparietal sulcus, right lateral occipitotemporal cortex, and right supplementary motor area. These results suggest that observing social interactions automatically engages canonical ToM regions,even without explicit mentalizing, and ToM additionally engages brain regions related to action understanding.

Problematic pornography use (PPU) has been associated with impaired risk-based decision-making, possibly stemming from disrupted feedback processing. However, the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms remain unclear. This study examined behavioral risk-taking and feedback-related electrophysiological responses in individuals at risk for PPU. Thirty-five male university students at risk for PPU (M = 20.51, SD = 0.89) and thirty-four matched controls (M = 20.79, SD = 1.70) completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) while EEG data were recorded. Self-report questionnaires assessing impulsivity traits were also administered. At the behavioral level, individuals in the PPU risk group exhibited significantly more balloon explosions and lower total earnings than controls, while no group difference was found in the adjusted number of pumps. At the neural level, there were no group differences in the feedback-related negativity (FRN), suggesting intact early evaluation of feedback valence. However, the PPU risk group exhibited significantly reduced P300 amplitudes in response to negative (loss) feedback, suggesting impaired attentional allocation and feedback integration, which may reflect a diminished capacity to adapt behavior based on aversive outcomes. Furthermore, individuals at risk for PPU reported elevated levels of impulsivity, particularly in emotion-driven components such as positive and negative urgency. This neurocognitive profile may contribute to the persistence of maladaptive behaviors despite adverse consequences and highlights potential intervention targets to improve feedback sensitivity and self-regulation in individuals with PPU.

Task switching is widely used to investigate cognitive control, typically revealing switch costs-greater performance costs in switch than in repetition trials. Previous research reported affective asymmetric switch costs, with higher costs when switching towards an affective task compared with a switch towards a neutral task. This asymmetry can be explained by the inhibition of the affective task, which enables the performance of the neutral task, leading to increased costs for a switch from the neutral toward the affective task. In Experiment 1, we examined whether the affective task content interferes with the preparation of the switching process, as reflected in neural correlates of proactive control. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether the maintenance of task sets is modulated by affective task content indexed by mixing costs (repetition - single-task performance) at the behavioural and the neural levels. Participants completed a cued task-switching during electroencephalographic recording, and judged either the gender (neutral-task) or emotional expression (affective-task) of faces. Neurally, within the cue-stimulus interval, the switch-related posterior positivity was reduced in the affective compared with the neutral task, coinciding with increased switch costs for the affective task. This suggests an impaired task-set reconfiguration for the affective compared with the neutral task. For Experiment 2, we investigated whether mixing costs and the mixing-related centroparietal positivity are modulated by affective task content. Neurally, within the cue-stimulus interval, the mixing-related centroparietal positivity remained unchanged by affective task content, mirrored behaviourally by symmetrical mixing costs. These findings indicate that affective task content selectively interferes with the preparation of the switching process but not with goal-setting.

Early neurodevelopment is a critical period during which environmental exposures can have lasting effects on brain function and behavior. One key indicator of early neurodevelopmental integrity in rodents is the production of neonatal ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), which are essential for maternal-offspring communication. Given the widespread use of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) in food and consumer products, there is growing concern that perinatal exposure to these particles may interfere with normal neurodevelopment. However, the effects of TiO2NPs exposure on USV production remain poorly investigated. In the present study, pregnant mice were orally exposed to TiO2NPs (200µg/g) from conception to weaning, and their offspring underwent a maternal separation test to assess USVs between postnatal day P2 and P13. TiO2NP-exposed pups exhibited a significant reduction in the number of USVs at P6-7, accompanied by a delayed peak vocalization period. This reduction was primarily attributable to shorter vocalization series rather than fewer isolated calls. Additionally, acoustic analysis revealed that pups emitted two types of USVs, simple and complex, both of which were significantly reduced in number at P6-7 in the exposed group. Fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based analysis showed that complex USVs had a lower mean frequency, while both call types exhibited increased variability in mean frequency. Furthermore, TiO2NP-exposed pups displayed alterations in USV syntax, including a lower proportion of simple USVs and disrupted developmental maturation of call structure. Electrophysiological recordings revealed that the intermediate reticular oscillator (iRO), a key brainstem center involved in vocalization control, exhibited reduced excitability and an increased activity variability in exposed pups, suggesting that nanoparticle exposure compromises vocal motor regulation at the neural level. Lastly, playback experiments demonstrated that USVs from TiO2NP-exposed pups failed to elicit appropriate maternal attraction, indicating impaired communicative effectiveness. Perinatal exposure to TiO2NPs disrupts the normal development of USVs, impairing both vocalization patterns and neural excitability of the iRO. These changes may contribute to altered maternal-offspring interactions and highlight the potential neurodevelopmental risks of early-life TiO2NPs exposure. Given the widespread presence of TiO2NPs in consumer products, further research is necessary to assess their long-term consequences on neural circuits underlying communication and social behavior.

When the distinction between self and other is blurred, the self-other boundary is weakened, introducing perceptual ambiguity. The neural and behavioural mechanisms of resolving this ambiguity, and their interaction, are not known. To address this, we used a facial morphing task recorded in EEG, where participants' faces were morphed with the face of another in different proportions. Ambiguous images elicited different neural and behavioural dynamics than unambiguous images. Firstly, drift diffusion modelling of response behaviour revealed slower drift rates/evidence accumulation for ambiguous vs. unambiguous stimuli, which was accompanied by lower task-state neural measures of peak frequency sliding (PFS) in the theta band. Secondly, entropy of response times (RTs) and spectral entropy (SE) were higher for ambiguous vs. unambiguous faces, implying greater unpredictability and increased processing demand in both brain and behaviour. Notably, we identified neurobehavioural relationships for both dynamic measures. Resting-state theta PFS and ambiguous drift rates were significantly related, suggesting that stronger and faster internal information uptake during rest was related to better evidence accumulation for ambiguous faces. Moreover, SE on the neural level was related to behavioural entropy: smaller SE increase from rest to task was linked to lower RT entropy in the ambiguous condition, and thus better allocation of cognitive resources. Together, we demonstrate speed of information uptake and entropy/processing capacity are key in efficiently resolving self-other ambiguity, serving as the "common currency" (Northoff et al., 2020, 2025) of neural and behavioural levels of processing.

How affordance similarity impacts µ rhythm desynchronization during object selection.

Number sense is the intuitive, non-verbal ability to perceive and process numerical quantities without formal counting. This evolutionarily conserved trait, shared by different animal species, is supported by two mechanisms: the object tracking system (OTS) for small sets and the approximate number system (ANS) for larger quantities. Although historically viewed as distinct, these systems interact dynamically; their disruption is implicated in developmental dyscalculia and disorders such as Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS), a chromosome microdeletion characterised by marked numerical and visuospatial deficits. Here, we synthesise neurobiological advances to provide an integrative perspective on the neural substrates of number sense. Field studies provide ecological validity, while laboratory procedures offer tighter precision; together, they illuminate the biological foundations of numerical cognition. Although number sense is conserved, human studies indicate only moderate heritability likely reflecting directional selection. Nonetheless, genetic findings converge on neurodevelopmental and synaptic mechanisms. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) offer a powerful platform to bridge genes, circuits and behaviour. For instance, manipulating zebrafish genes linked to WBS reveals gene-specific effects on quantity processing. At the neural level, numerical cognition is largely supported by specialised number-selective neurons. Whole-brain calcium imaging in larval zebrafish demonstrates that these neurons emerge by 3 days postfertilisation and follow a trajectory where representations of small numerosities precede larger ones. Altogether, integrating genetic, behavioural and circuit-level approaches provides a powerful framework for uncovering conserved mechanisms of numerosity supporting higher-level cognitive functions, including mathematics.

Interpreting chemical information and translating it into ethologically relevant output is a shared challenge of olfactory systems across species, but are olfactory computations conserved across species to overcome these common challenges? To investigate this, we compared neural activity in the locust antennal lobe (AL) and mouse olfactory bulb (OB) both during and after odor presentations. We found that odors activated nearly mutually exclusive neural ensembles during odor presentations ("ON response") and after the termination of the odor stimulus ("OFF response"). ON and OFF responses evoked by a single odor were anticorrelated with each other. Inverted OFF responses persisted long after odor termination in both AL and OB, and enhanced contrast between odors that were experienced close together in time. Together our results show how post-odor neural activity, relative to odor-evoked activity, is similar across two distinct species, revealing a conserved mechanism for enhancing contrast between odors at the neural level.