Neural Template Research Articles

Prey detection by a stepwise visual template matching mechanism

Predators can improve prey capture using a search image, and recent prey provide a visual template with which subsequent prey are compared. Considering trout feeding responses to mayfly prey of different sizes and phenological availability across years, we tested if changing relative abundances (ratios) of prey of the same species, but different body sizes, shifted trout feeding behaviour. For example, we hypothesized that a feeding switch from larger to smaller prey required continuous exposure to the novel smaller prey. The hypothesis that continuous exposure to novel small prey results in their acceptance was not supported. Rather, we discovered that trout identify novel prey using a dynamic stepwise visual neural template prey matching process, which involves the formation of focal prey template based on size or type, rejection of novel prey that do not match the size or type templates and modification of the existing or development of multiple prey templates that eventually enabled recognition of novel, small prey. We also discovered trout store multiple visual prey templates in memory. These results have implications for predator and prey dynamics, optimal foraging, the persistence of rare prey, prey species coexistence and predator selection on prey phenology.

Unlearned adaptive responses to heterospecific referential alarm calls in two bird species from separate evolutionary lineages

The interspecific responses to alarm signals may be based on unlearned mechanisms but research is often constrained by the difficulties in differentiating between unlearned and learned responses in natural situations. In a field study of two Paridae species, Parus minor and Sittiparus varius, who originated from a common ancestor 8 million years ago, we found a considerable degree of between-species overlap in acoustic properties of referential snake-alarm calls. Playback of these calls triggered unlearned adaptive fledging behavior in conspecific and heterospecific naive nestlings, suggesting a between-species overlap in the hypothetical unlearned neural templates involved in nestlings’ reactions to alarm calls in both species. This suggests that similar calls and similar unlearned sensitivity might have been present in the common ancestor of the two species, and possibly in the ancestor of the whole family Paridae that originated 10–15 million years ago in Asian regions rich in snakes.

Attachment Reminders Trigger Widespread Synchrony across Multiple Brains.

Infant stimuli elicit widespread neural and behavioral response in human adults, and such massive allocation of resources attests to the evolutionary significance of the primary attachment. Here, we examined whether attachment reminders also trigger cross-brain concordance and generate greater neural uniformity, as indicated by intersubject correlation. Human mothers were imaged twice in oxytocin/placebo administration design, and stimuli included four ecological videos of a standard unfamiliar mother and infant: two infant/mother alone (Alone) and two mother-infant dyadic contexts (Social). Theory-driven analysis measured cross-brain synchrony in preregistered nodes of the parental caregiving network (PCN), which integrates subcortical structures underpinning mammalian mothering with cortical areas implicated in simulation, mentalization, and emotion regulation, and data-driven analysis assessed brain-wide concordance using whole-brain parcellation. Results demonstrated widespread cross-brain synchrony in both the PCN and across the neuroaxis, from primary sensory/somatosensory areas, through insular-cingulate regions, to temporal and prefrontal cortices. The Social context yielded significantly more cross-brain concordance, with PCNs striatum, parahippocampal gyrus, superior temporal sulcus, ACC, and PFC displaying cross-brain synchrony only to mother-infant social cues. Moment-by-moment fluctuations in mother-infant social synchrony, ranging from episodes of low synchrony to tightly coordinated positive bouts, were tracked online by cross-brain concordance in the preregistered ACC. Findings indicate that social attachment stimuli, representing evolutionary-salient universal cues that require no verbal narrative, trigger substantial interbrain concordance and suggest that the mother-infant bond, an icon standing at the heart of human civilization, may function to glue brains into a unified experience and bind humans into social groups.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Infant stimuli elicit widespread neural response in human adults, attesting to their evolutionary significance, but do they also trigger cross-brain concordance and induce neural uniformity among perceivers? We measured cross-brain synchrony to ecological mother-infant videos. We used theory-driven analysis, measuring cross-brain concordance in the parenting network, and data-driven analysis, assessing brain-wide concordance using whole-brain parcellation. Attachment cues triggered widespread cross-brain concordance in both the parenting network and across the neuroaxis. Moment-by-moment fluctuations in behavioral synchrony were tracked online by cross-brain variability in ACC. Attachment reminders bind humans' brains into a unitary experience and stimuli characterized by social synchrony enhance neural similarity among participants, describing one mechanism by which attachment bonds provide the neural template for the consolidation of social groups.

Prior Knowledge Uses Prestimulus Alpha Band Oscillations and Persistent Poststimulus Neural Templates for Conscious Perception.

Prior knowledge has a profound impact on the way we perceive the world. However, it remains unclear how the prior knowledge is maintained in our brains and thereby influences the subsequent conscious perception. The Dalmatian dog illusion is a perfect tool to study prior knowledge, where the picture is initially perceived as noise. Once the prior knowledge was introduced, a Dalmatian dog could be consciously seen, and the picture immediately became meaningful. Using pictures with hidden objects as standard stimuli and similar pictures without hidden objects as deviant stimuli, we investigated the neural representation of prior knowledge and its impact on conscious perception in an oddball paradigm using electroencephalogram (EEG) in both male and female human subjects. We found that the neural patterns between the prestimulus alpha band oscillations and poststimulus EEG activity were significantly more similar for the standard stimuli than for the deviant stimuli after prior knowledge was provided. Furthermore, decoding analysis revealed that persistent neural templates were evoked after the introduction of prior knowledge, similar to that evoked in the early stages of visual processing. In conclusion, the current study suggests that prior knowledge uses alpha band oscillations in a multivariate manner in the prestimulus period and induces specific persistent neural templates in the poststimulus period, enabling the conscious perception of the hidden objects.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The visual world we live in is not always optimal. In dark or noisy environments, prior knowledge can help us interpret imperfect sensory signals and enable us to consciously perceive hidden objects. However, we still know very little about how prior knowledge works at the neural level. Using the Dalmatian dog illusion and multivariate methods, we found that prior knowledge uses prestimulus alpha band oscillations to carry information about the hidden object and exerts a persistent influence in the poststimulus period by inducing specific neural templates. Our findings provide a window into the neural underpinnings of prior knowledge and offer new insights into the role of alpha band oscillations and neural templates associated with conscious perception.

Scale-Adaptive KCF Mixed with Deep Feature for Pedestrian Tracking

Pedestrian tracking is an important research content in the field of computer vision. Tracking is achieved by predicting the position of a specific pedestrian in each frame of a video. Pedestrian tracking methods include neural network-based methods and traditional template matching-based methods, such as the SiamRPN (Siamese region proposal network), the DASiamRPN (distractor-aware SiamRPN), and the KCF (kernel correlation filter). The KCF algorithm has no scale-adaptive capability and cannot effectively solve the occlusion problem, and because of many defects of the HOG (histogram of oriented gradient) feature that the KCF uses, the tracking target is easy to lose. For those defects of the KCF algorithm, an improved KCF model, the SKCFMDF (scale-adaptive KCF mixed with deep feature) algorithm was designed. By introducing deep features extracted by a newly designed neural network and by introducing the YOLOv3 (you only look once version 3) object detection algorithm, which was also improved for more accurate detection, the model was able to achieve scale adaptation and to effectively solve the problem of occlusion and defects of the HOG feature. Compared with the original KCF, the success rate of pedestrian tracking under complex conditions was increased by 36%. Compared with the mainstream SiamRPN and DASiamRPN models, it was still able to achieve a small improvement.

Towards a common template for neural reinforcement of finger individuation

The inability to individuate finger movements is a common impairment following stroke. Conventional physical therapy ignores underlying neural changes with recovery, leaving it unclear why sensorimotor function often remains impaired. Functional MRI neurofeedback can monitor neural activity and reinforce it towards a healthy template to restore function. However, identifying an individualized training template may not be possible depending on the severity of impairment. In this study, we investigated the use of functional alignment of brain data across healthy participants to create an idealized neural template to be used as a training target for new participants. We employed multi-voxel pattern analyses to assess the prediction accuracy and robustness to missing data of pre-trained functional templates corresponding to individual finger presses. We found a significant improvement in classification accuracy (p < 0.001) of individual finger presses when group data was aligned based on function (88%) rather than anatomy (46%). Importantly, we found no significant drop in performance when aligning a new participant to a pre-established template as compared to including this new participant in the creation of a new template. These results indicate that functionally aligned templates could provide an effective surrogate training target for patients following neurological injury.

Automatic Reel Editing in Chip on Film Quality Control With Computer Vision

Chip on film (COF) is a special packaging technology to pack integrated circuits in a flexible carrier tape. Chips packed with COF are primarily used in the display industry. Reel editing is a critical step in COF quality control to remove sections of congregating NG (not good) chips from a reel. Today, COF manufactures hire workers to count consecutive NG chips in a rolling reel with naked eyes. When the count is greater than a preset number, the corresponding section is removed. A novel method using object detection and object tracking is proposed to solve this problem. Object detection techniques including convolutional neural network (CNN), template matching (TM), and scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) were used to detect NG marks, and object tracking was used to track them with IDs so that congregating NG chips could be counted reliably. Using simulation videos similar to worksite scenes, experiments show that both CNN and TM detectors could solve the reel editing problem, while SIFT detectors failed. Furthermore, TM is better than CNN by yielding a real time solution.

Learning Distinct Chemical Labels of Nestmates in Ants.

Colony coherence is essential for eusocial insects because it supports the inclusive fitness of colony members. Ants quickly and reliably recognize who belongs to the colony (nestmates) and who is an outsider (non-nestmates) based on chemical recognition cues (cuticular hydrocarbons: CHCs) which as a whole constitute a chemical label. The process of nestmate recognition often is described as matching a neural template with the label. In this study, we tested the prevailing view that ants use commonalities in the colony odor that are present in the CHC profile of all individuals of a colony or whether different CHC profiles are learned independently. We created and manipulated sub-colonies by adding one or two different hydrocarbons that were not present in the original colony odor of our Camponotus floridanus colony and later tested workers of the sub-colonies in one-on-one encounters for aggressive responses. We found that workers adjust their nestmate recognition by learning novel, manipulated CHC profiles, but still accept workers with the previous CHC profile. Workers from a sub-colony with two additional components showed aggression against workers with only one of the two components added to their CHC profile. Thus, additional components as well as the lack of a component can alter a label as “non-nestmate.” Our results suggest that ants have multiple-templates to recognize nestmates carrying distinct labels. This finding is in contrast to what previously has been proposed, i.e., a widening of the acceptance range of one template. We conclude that nestmate recognition in ants is a partitioned (multiple-template) process of the olfactory system that allows discrimination and categorization of nestmates by differences in their CHC profiles. Our findings have strong implications for our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of colony coherence and task allocation because they illustrate the importance of individual experience and task associated differences in the CHC profiles that can be instructive for the organization of insect societies.

Nest signature changes throughout colony cycle and after social parasite invasion in social wasps.

Social insects recognize their nestmates by means of a cuticular hydrocarbon signature shared by colony members, but how nest signature changes across time has been rarely tested in longitudinal studies and in the field. In social wasps, the chemical signature is also deposited on the nest surface, where it is used by newly emerged wasps as a reference to learn their colony odor. Here, we investigate the temporal variations of the chemical signature that wasps have deposited on their nests. We followed the fate of the colonies of the social paper wasp Polistes biglumis in their natural environment from colony foundation to decline. Because some colonies were invaded by the social parasite Polistes atrimandibularis, we also tested the effects of social parasites on the nest signature. We observed that, as the season progresses, the nest signature changed; the overall abundance of hydrocarbons as well as the proportion of longer-chain and branched hydrocarbons increased. Where present, social parasites altered the host-nest signature qualitatively (adding parasite-specific alkenes) and quantitatively (by interfering with the increase in overall hydrocarbon abundance). Our results show that 1) colony odor is highly dynamic both in colonies controlled by legitimate foundresses and in those controlled by social parasites; 2) emerged offspring contribute little to colony signature, if at all, in comparison to foundresses; and 3) social parasites, that later mimic host signature, initially mark host nests with species-specific hydrocarbons. This study implies that important updating of the neural template used in nestmate recognition should occur in social insects.

Epigenetic and Neural Circuitry Landscape of Psychotherapeutic Interventions.

The science behind psychotherapy has garnered considerable interest, as objective measures are being developed to map the patient's subjective change over the course of treatment. Prenatal and early life influences have a lasting impact on how genes are expressed and the manner in which neural circuits are consolidated. Transgenerationally transmitted epigenetic markers as well as templates of enhanced thought flexibility versus evasion can be passed down from parent to child. This influences gene expression/repression (impacting neuroplasticity) and kindling of neurocircuitry which can perpetuate maladaptive cognitive processing seen in a number of psychiatric conditions. Importantly, genetic factors and the compounding effects of early life adversity do not inexorably lead to certain fated outcomes. The concepts of vulnerability and resilience are becoming more integrated into the framework of “differential susceptibility,” speaking to how corrective environmental factors may promote epigenetic change and reconfigure neural templates, allowing for symptomatic improvement. Psychotherapy is one such factor, and this review will focus on our current knowledge of its epigenetic and neurocircuitry impact.

Auditory Profiles of Classical, Jazz, and Rock Musicians: Genre-Specific Sensitivity to Musical Sound Features.

When compared with individuals without explicit training in music, adult musicians have facilitated neural functions in several modalities. They also display structural changes in various brain areas, these changes corresponding to the intensity and duration of their musical training. Previous studies have focused on investigating musicians with training in Western classical music. However, musicians involved in different musical genres may display highly differentiated auditory profiles according to the demands set by their genre, i.e., varying importance of different musical sound features. This hypothesis was tested in a novel melody paradigm including deviants in tuning, timbre, rhythm, melody transpositions, and melody contour. Using this paradigm while the participants were watching a silent video and instructed to ignore the sounds, we compared classical, jazz, and rock musicians' and non-musicians' accuracy of neural encoding of the melody. In all groups of participants, all deviants elicited an MMN response, which is a cortical index of deviance discrimination. The strength of the MMN and the subsequent attentional P3a responses reflected the importance of various sound features in each music genre: these automatic brain responses were selectively enhanced to deviants in tuning (classical musicians), timing (classical and jazz musicians), transposition (jazz musicians), and melody contour (jazz and rock musicians). Taken together, these results indicate that musicians with different training history have highly specialized cortical reactivity to sounds which violate the neural template for melody content.

Past experience shapes ongoing neural patterns for language.

Early experiences may establish a foundation for later learning, however, influences of early language experience on later neural processing are unknown. We investigated whether maintenance of neural templates from early language experience influences subsequent language processing. Using fMRI, we scanned the following three groups performing a French phonological working memory (PWM) task: (1) monolingual French children; (2) children adopted from China before age 3 who discontinued Chinese and spoke only French; (3) Chinese-speaking children who learned French as a second language but maintained Chinese. Although all groups perform this task equally well, brain activation differs. French monolinguals activate typical PWM brain regions, while both Chinese-exposed groups also activate regions implicated in cognitive control, even the adoptees who were monolingual French speakers at testing. Early exposure to a language, and/or delayed exposure to a subsequent language, continues to influence the neural processing of subsequently learned language sounds years later even in highly proficient, early-exposed users.

Neural Mechanisms and Information Processing in Recognition Systems.

Nestmate recognition is a hallmark of social insects. It is based on the match/mismatch of an identity signal carried by members of the society with that of the perceiving individual. While the behavioral response, amicable or aggressive, is very clear, the neural systems underlying recognition are not fully understood. Here we contrast two alternative hypotheses for the neural mechanisms that are responsible for the perception and information processing in recognition. We focus on recognition via chemical signals, as the common modality in social insects. The first, classical, hypothesis states that upon perception of recognition cues by the sensory system the information is passed as is to the antennal lobes and to higher brain centers where the information is deciphered and compared to a neural template. Match or mismatch information is then transferred to some behavior-generating centers where the appropriate response is elicited. An alternative hypothesis, that of “pre-filter mechanism”, posits that the decision as to whether to pass on the information to the central nervous system takes place in the peripheral sensory system. We suggest that, through sensory adaptation, only alien signals are passed on to the brain, specifically to an “aggressive-behavior-switching center”, where the response is generated if the signal is above a certain threshold.

Taking care of group size and heterogeneity in social recognition systems

Scrutinizing the relative effects and inter-relations of genetic relatedness per se and familiarity (established independently, but maybe used as a proxy, of genetic relatedness) in social recognition systems is, owing to their fundamental evolutionary significance, an important but experimentally challenging task. de Bruijn et al. (2014) report that immature thrips Frankliniella occidentalis living in sibling groups have higher survival chances under predation risk when they are familiar than unfamiliar whereas this is not the case in non-sibling groups. The authors conclude that (1) direct familiarity enhances survival of thrips under predation risk and (2) thrips only familiarize with kin or kinship is needed for generating beneficial effects of familiarity under predation risk. Conclusion (1) is straightforward and clearly supported by the presented experiments; conclusion (2) is invalid. Possible effects of prior association, leading to direct familiarity based recognition (e.g. Blaustein and Porter 1996; Mateo 2004), are commonly constrained by referent number and heterogeneity (label variability) during familiarization (e.g. Reeve 1989; Griffiths and Magurran 1997; Liebert and Starks 2004; Croney and Newberry 2007). Due to cognitive limitations, these constraints principally apply to both social recognition mechanisms based on familiarity via prior association, learning and memorizing distinct individual labels of the referents (direct familiarity), and its extension, generalizing on a shared feature of the referents (indirect familiarity, phenotype matching). Accordingly, the acceptance thresholds of the actors (the discriminating individuals) depend on and vary with the number and variability of referents (the label carrying individuals) encountered during the phase of neural template formation (Reeve 1989; Liebert and Starks 2004). The larger the group size, the higher the number of referents encountered, the less likely the chance of encountering every single possible referent, the more difficult forming and storing neural templates of every individual label, the less precise the individual neural templates formed, the more likely formation of a generalized template, the more liberal the acceptance threshold of the actor upon encountering conspecific individuals to be recognized (i.e., the recipients), the higher the chance of recognition errors. The tight linkage between acceptance thresholds and number and variability of referents/recipients is disregarded in experiment 2 of de Bruijn et al. (2014). In experiment 2 of de Bruijn et al. (2014), sibling and nonsibling group size was the same during the experiment on survival under predation risk, but sibling and non-sibling group size and label heterogeneity differed decisively during the pre-experimental familiarizat ion phase. Preexperimentally, siblings grew up in groups of 10 to 15 individuals, whereas non-siblings grew up in >10 times larger groups. de Bruijn et al. (2014) placed 1 vs. 10 to 15 ovipositing thrips females on the same leaf for 4 days giving rise to larvae used in sibling and non-sibling groups, respectively (at 21 °C, each thrips female deposits two to three eggs per day on cucumber—see Deligeorgidis et al. (2006)). Following is that due to largely differing pre-experimental group sizes, the likelihood of mutual encounter between any pair of individuals, and with that the opportunity to mutually familiarize, was much lower in non-sibling than sibling groups. Additionally, due to the high number and associated variability of founder females of the non-sibling groups, referent label variability was much higher in non-sibling than sibling groups. While de Bruijn et al. (2014) acknowledge the difference in pre-experimental group size of siblings and nonsiblings and separately analyzed survival of familiar vs. Communicated by J. C. Choe

Design of an Authentication System Based on Face Recognition and the Second Generation ID Detection

Combined with the knowledge of BP neural network and template matching, a new face recognition method was given. It matched the face image which was identified with the serial number and corresponding to the face model that based on random sequence in the matching process. The acquisition image should be preprocessed in filtering, smoothing and sharpening way by using BP neural network learning ability and classification ability which can achieve classifier. By using the actual face, it verify the correctness and reliability of the hardware and software design, manifest a good authentication capabilities and provide a reference for the research of similar products.

Mere visual experience impacts preference for body shape: evidence from male competitive swimmers

Theoretical and empirical studies suggest that phenotypic averageness is a sign of an individual's high biological quality. The averageness should therefore be preferred in mates. A condition for such preference is the knowledge of average phenotype in the population. It is envisaged that an individual develops a neural template of typical phenotype on the basis of perceptual experience with images of conspecifics, and the template is then used in attractiveness assessments of potential partners. Regrettably, studies supporting this view are lacking. In the present study, adult male competitive swimmers and men who did not partake in swimming assessed the attractiveness of female silhouettes with proportions typical for swimmers or non-swimmers. Because swimmers see other swimmers relatively frequently, we hypothesize that they prefer swimmer-like female silhouettes more strongly than non-swimmers do. The analysis supports this hypothesis, suggesting that mere visual experience shapes a neural template of a silhouette, which subsequently serves as a reference for attractiveness evaluations.

Phoneme discrimination and mismatch negativity in English and Japanese speakers

Neural templates for phonemes in one's native language are formed early in life; these can be modified but are difficult to form de novo. These can be examined with mismatch negativity (MMN). Three phonemic contrasts were presented to adult native English compared with Japanese speakers who acquired English later in life: vowels native to both languages (/i//iy/), consonant-vowel contrasts (/da//wa/) phonemic in both languages, and consonant-vowel contrasts phonemic in English but not in Japanese (/ra//la/). For vowels, no MMN differences were found. For /da//wa/, MMN amplitude was significantly reduced in Japanese speakers. For /ra//la/, only 50% of the Japanese group showed an identifiable MMN. This suggests that phonemic templates are formed early in life, and non-native consonant contrasts are difficult to learn later.

The Neuroecology of Competitor Recognition

Territorial animals can be expected to distinguish among the types of competitors and noncompetitors that they encounter on a regular basis, including prospective mates and rivals of their own species, but they may not correctly classify individuals of other species. Closely related species often have similar phenotypes and this can cause confusion when formerly allopatric populations first come into contact. Errors in recognizing competitors can have important ecological and evolutionary effects. I review what is known about the mechanisms of competitor recognition in animals generally, focusing on cases in which the targets of recognition include other species. Case studies include damselflies, ants, skinks, salamanders, reef fishes, and birds. In general, recognition systems consist of a phenotypic cue (e.g., chemical, color, song), a neural template against which cues are compared, a motor response (e.g., aggression), and sensory integration circuits for context dependency of the response (if any). Little is known about how competitor recognition systems work at the neural level, but inferences about specificity of cues and about sensory integration can be drawn from the responses of territory residents to simulated intruders. Competitor recognition often involves multiple cues in the same, or different, sensory modalities. The same cues and templates are often, but not always, used for intraspecific and interspecific recognition. Experiments have shown that imprinting on local cues is common, which may enable templates to track evolved changes in cues automatically. The dependence of aggression and tolerance on context is important even in the simplest systems. Species in which mechanisms of competitor recognition are best known offer untapped opportunities to examine how competitor-recognition systems evolve (e.g., by comparing allopatric and sympatric populations). Cues that are gene products (peptides, proteins) may provide insights into rates of evolution. There are many avenues for further research on the important but understudied question of how animals recognize competitors.

Seeing edge blur: receptive fields as multi-scale neural templates

Edge blur is an important perceptual cue, but how does the visual system encode the degree of blur at edges? Blur could be measured by the width of the luminance gradient profile, peak ^ trough separation in the 2nd derivative profile, or the ratio of 1st-to-3rd derivative magnitudes. In template models, the system would store a set of templates of different sizes and find which one best fits the `signature' of the edge. The signature could be the luminance profile itself, or one of its spatial derivatives. I tested these possibilities in blur-matching experiments. In a 2AFC staircase procedure, observers adjusted the blur of Gaussian edges (30% contrast) to match the perceived blur of various non-Gaussian test edges. In experiment 1, test stimuli were mixtures of 2 Gaussian edges (eg 10 and 30 min of arc blur) at the same location, while in experiment 2, test stimuli were formed from a blurred edge sharpened to different extents by a compressive transformation. Predictions of the various models were tested against the blur-matching data, but only one model was strongly supported. This was the template model, in which the input signature is the 2nd derivative of the luminance profile, and the templates are applied to this signature at the zero-crossings. The templates are Gaussian derivative receptive fields that covary in width and length to form a self-similar set (ie same shape, different sizes). This naturally predicts that shorter edges should look sharper. As edge length gets shorter, responses of longer templates drop more than shorter ones, and so the response distribution shifts towards shorter (smaller) templates, signalling a sharper edge. The data confirmed this, including the scale-invariance implied by self-similarity, and a good fit was obtained from templates with a length-to-width ratio of about 1. The simultaneous analysis of edge blur and edge location may offer a new solution to the multiscale problem in edge detection.

Apports de la neurobiologie en psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent

Recent findings in neurosciences are reviewed and applied to the domain of child and adolescent psychiatry, especially ADHD and PTSD in childhood. Behavioral genetics studies highlight a bidirectional relationship between genetic and environmental factors which interact at a certain critical period during the child development. fMRI and cognitive studies in turn reveal the brain plasticity which reflects that interplay between genes and environment both at a cellular level and at the level of the neural circuitry. In keeping with those experiments, a new neurocognitive model emerges, the forward model, wherein motor and emotional aspects of an experience are imprinted in our neural networks. This neural template is then automatically and non-consciously activated when the person is interacting with another one. Applied to PTSD and ADHD, this model suggests that the therapeutic challenge which is carried along with such disorders is to prevent the youth from re-activating such a neural template. If our understanding of the child psychopathology is stimulated by neurosciences findings, the therapeutic apparatus is enlarged as well with such new venues as the computerized-assisted cognitive remediation for ADHD. Such computer devices are used to elicit the activation of new neural networks and to help out the youth inhibiting the activation of the non-adaptative previous neural pathways.