Neurocognitive Models Research Articles

Variations of the past. Reflections on memory in contemporary psychoanalysis

In Jewish thought, contradictory positions may be legitimate. This is seen in Freud´s position in relation to tradition and memory: remembrance is valuable, but so is a movement forward. The main claim of this paper is that psychoanalysis in this respect has changed. While in especially the early Freudian position, one could see a stress on the importance of going back to earlier times, object relation theory mainly stresses the importance of facilitating new functions. This change has been especially clear during the last two decades. As cases of example, the use of neurocognitive models in psychoanalysis as well as Fonagy’s theory are discussed. The consequences of the shift from a bidirectional to a unidirectional, forward-looking, psychoanalysis, are discussed.

A diffusion modeling approach to understanding contextual cueing effects in children with ADHD.

Strong theoretical models suggest implicit learning deficits may exist among children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We examine implicit contextual cueing (CC) effects among children with ADHD (n=72) and non-ADHD Controls (n=36). Using Ratcliff's drift diffusion model, we found that among Controls, the CC effect is due to improvements in attentional guidance and to reductions in response threshold. Children with ADHD did not show a CC effect; although they were able to use implicitly acquired information to deploy attentional focus, they had more difficulty adjusting their response thresholds. Improvements in attentional guidance and reductions in response threshold together underlie the CC effect. Results are consistent with neurocognitive models of ADHD that posit subcortical dysfunction but intact spatial attention, and encourage the use of alternative data analytic methods when dealing with reaction time data.

Case studies continue to illuminate the cognitive neuroscience of memory.

The current ubiquity of functional neuroimaging studies, and the importance they have had in elucidating brain function, obscures the fact that much of what we know about brain-behavior relationships derives largely from the study of single- and multiple-patient cases. A major goal of the present review is to describe how single cases continue to uniquely and critically contribute to cognitive neuroscience theory. With several recent examples from the literature, we demonstrate that single cases can both challenge accepted dogma and generate hypotheses and theories that steer the field in new directions. We discuss recent findings from case studies that specify critical functions of the hippocampus in episodic memory and recollection, and clarify its role in nonmnemonic abilities. Although we focus on the hippocampus, we discuss other regions and the occurrence of new associative learning, as well as the involvement of the ventromedial prefrontal and parietal cortices in memory encoding and retrieval. We also describe ways of dealing with the shortcomings of case studies, and emphasize the partnership of patient and neuroimaging methods in constraining neurocognitive models of memory.

A neuro-cognitive model of sleep mentation and memory consolidation

Previous research has found evidence of relationships among sleep states and memory consolidation. However, no dominant models of sleep mentation (dreaming) account for the relationship between sleep and memory, despite the fact that the underlying neural processes of offline memory consolidation and sleep mentation happen simultaneously (and are therefore produced by the same brain state). In addition, experimental brain research contradicts what dominant neurological models of sleep mentation predict. Here a model of dream generation that agrees with empirical findings on dreams, and which is based on the neural process of memory consolidation during sleep, is proposed. The implications of the model are such that is suggests sleep state mentation may actually be a by-product (or readout) of the consolidation of memories produced by non-random cortical/sub-cortical reactivation during REM and Non-REM sleep (processes which are known, and are necessary for normal human memory function).

Neurocognitive models of sense-making

Abstract Sense-making is a temporally extended inference task involving multiple cycles of information foraging, evaluation, and judgment. Recent advances in neural simulations of sense-making are opening new venues to explore core issues on modeling complex cognition in the brain. Decision making is a basis element in complex cognition, and despite decades of study, it continues to draw interest from diverse fields. Through the construction and validation of neurocognitive models, the neural origins of complex cognition can be investigated and simulated to explain decision making behavior. We describe the broad landscape of inquiry, interdisciplinary motivation, and specific applications for building neurocognitive models that simulate the complex cognitive processes underlying sense-making.

Applying neurodevelopmental theory to school-based drug misuse prevention during adolescence.

Adolescence is characterized by incredible development in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is responsible for behavioral and emotional self-regulation, and higher order cognitive decision-making skills (that is, executive function). Typically late prefrontal cortical development and its integration with limbic areas of the brain associated with reward, pleasure, novelty seeking, and emotion can contribute to substance misuse vulnerability during adolescence. In this chapter, literature on the developmental integration of the prefrontal cortex with emotion and motivation centers of the brain is reviewed. Then this research is applied to school-based adolescent substance misuse prevention, highlighting two examples of preventive interventions incorporating neurocognitive models into comprehensive prevention approaches. Finally, innovative strategies (for example, mindfulness training) for promoting neurocognition as a mediator to substance misuse vulnerability are discussed.

Functional Connectivity and Temporal Variability of Brain Connections in Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Bipolar Disorder

Objectives: To assess brain functional connectivity and variability in adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or euthymic bipolar disorder (BD) relative to a control (CT) group. Methods: Electroencephalography (EEG) was measured in 35 participants (BD = 11; ADHD = 9; CT = 15) during an eyes-closed 10-min rest period, and connectivity and graph theory metrics were computed. A coefficient of variation (CV) computed also the connectivity's temporal variability of EEG. Multivariate associations between functional connectivity and clinical and neuropsychological profiles were evaluated. Results: An enhancement of functional connectivity was observed in the ADHD (fronto-occipital connections) and BD (diffuse connections) groups. However, compared with CTs, intrinsic variability (CV) was enhanced in the ADHD group and reduced in the BD group. Graph theory metrics confirmed the existence of several abnormal network features in both affected groups. Significant associations of connectivity with symptoms were also observed. In the ADHD group, temporal variability of functional connections was associated with executive function and memory deficits. Depression, hyperactivity and impulsivity levels in the ADHD group were associated with abnormal intrinsic connectivity. In the BD group, levels of anxiety and depression were related to abnormal frontotemporal connectivity. Conclusions: In the ADHD group, we found that intrinsic variability was associated with deficits in cognitive performance and that connectivity abnormalities were related to ADHD symptomatology. The BD group exhibited less intrinsic variability and more diffuse long-range brain connections, and those abnormalities were related to interindividual differences in depression and anxiety. These preliminary results are relevant for neurocognitive models of abnormal brain connectivity in both disorders.

Reading skill in adult survivors of childhood brain tumor: A theory-based neurocognitive model.

This study investigated the relationship between word reading and white matter (WM) integrity within a neuroanatomical-based reading system comparing adult survivors of childhood brain tumors and controls. It was predicted that the association between WM integrity and word reading would be mediated by processing speed, and this indirect effect would be moderated by group. Thirty-seven adult survivors of childhood brain tumor and typically developing adults participated (age M = 24.19 ± 4.51 years, 62% female). DTI Tractography identified the WM tract for 3 of the reading system connections: inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), arcuate fasciculus (AF), and parietotemporal-occipitotemporal connection (PT-OT). Fractional anisotropy values (FA) of the PT-OT tract were significantly correlated with word reading in survivors and controls (r = .45, .58, respectively; p < .05) and IFOF values were associated with reading in survivors only (r = .59, p < .01). Further, the moderated mediated model was significant for PT-OT and IFOF, such that the indirect effect of processing speed was only present for survivors (CI: PT-OT: 2.90, 28.41, IFOF: 2.92, 40.17). Results suggest the tracts emerging from the occipitotemporal area are a critical component of the reading system in adults. The finding that processing speed was the mechanism by which WM was associated with reading in survivors is in alignment with the developmental cascade model. Current findings bolster the existing theory-based models of reading using innovative diffusion tensor imaging and moderated mediation statistical neurodevelopmental model, establishing the role of processing speed and specific WM pathway integrity in word reading skill.

The role of conceptual knowledge in understanding synaesthesia: Evaluating contemporary findings from a “hub-and-spokes” perspective

Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which stimulation in one sensory modality triggers involuntary experiences typically not associated with that stimulation. Inducing stimuli (inducers) and synesthetic experiences (concurrents) may occur within the same modality (e.g., seeing colors while reading achromatic text) or span across different modalities (e.g., tasting flavors while listening to music). Although there has been considerable progress over the last decade in understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms of synesthesia, the focus of current neurocognitive models of synesthesia does not encompass many crucial psychophysical characteristics documented in behavioral research. Prominent theories of the neurophysiological basis of synesthesia construe it as a perceptual phenomenon and hence focus primarily on the modality-specific brain regions for perception. Many behavioral studies, however, suggest an essential role for conceptual-level information in synesthesia. For example, there is evidence that synesthetic experience arises subsequent to identification of an inducing stimulus, differs substantially from real perceptual events, can be akin to perceptual memory, and is susceptible to lexical/semantic contexts. These data suggest that neural mechanisms lying beyond the realm of the perceptual cortex (especially the visual system), such as regions subserving conceptual knowledge, may play pivotal roles in the neural architecture of synesthesia. Here we discuss the significance of non-perceptual mechanisms that call for a re-evaluation of the emphasis on synesthesia as a perceptual phenomenon. We also review recent studies which hint that some aspects of synesthesia resemble our general conceptual knowledge for object attributes, at both psychophysical and neural levels. We then present a conceptual-mediation model of synesthesia in which the inducer and concurrent are linked within a conceptual-level representation. This “inducer-to-concurrent” nexus is maintained within a supramodal “hub,” while the subjective (bodily) experience of its resultant concurrent (e.g., a color) may then require activation of “spokes” in the perception-related cortices. This hypothesized “hub-and-spoke” structure would engage a distributed network of cortical regions and may account for the full breadth of this intriguing phenomenon.

Effect of language proficiency on neuro-cognitive model in Chinese-English language perception: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Objective To explore the significance of language proficiency in bilingual perception in Chinese-English late bilingual subjects with block-design functional magnetic resonance imaging (bfMRI). Methods Thirteen right-handed Chinese Han healthy male late bilinguists who had limited English proficiency were scanned while listening to short sentences in Chinese and English. Based on blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal efficacy, functional images were collected using a 1.5-T MRI. Statistical parametric mapping 2 (SPM2) was used to analyze the data of functional images (P 100). Results For Chinese familiar voices, more significant activation was observed in the right superior temporal gyrus than that for English familiar voices. On the contrary, more significant activations for English familiar voices were observed in the left precuneus, middle frontal gyrus and left posterior cingulate cortex compared with that for Chinese familiar voices.For Chinese unfamiliar voices, more significant activations were observed in the right middle temporal gyrus and right medial frontal gyrus than that for English unfamiliar voices. In contrast, more significant activations by English unfamiliar voices were observed in the right inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus compared with that for Chinese unfamiliar voices. Conclusion Language proficiency may play an important role in different language perception from auditory level. Key words: Language proficiency; Block design; Functional MRI

Relationship between cognition, clinical and cognitive insight in psychotic disorders: A review and meta-analysis

The neurocognitive theory of insight posits that poor insight in psychotic illnesses is related to cognitive deficits in cognitive self-appraisal mechanisms. In this paper we perform a comprehensive meta-analysis examining relationships between clinical insight and neurocognition in psychotic disorders. We have also completed a meta-analysis of studies examining ‘cognitive insight’, as measured by the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale (BCIS), and its relationship with neurocognitive function in patients with psychosis. The clinical insight analysis included data from 72 studies and a total population of 5429 patients. We found that insight in psychosis was significantly associated with total cognition (r=0.16, p<0.001), IQ (r=0.16, p<0.001), memory (r=0.13, p<0.001) and executive function (r=0.14, p<0.001). All of these correlations were stronger when examined in patients with schizophrenia only. In the BCIS analysis we included 7 studies and 466 patients in total. We found that no significant associations were found between the self-reflectiveness sub-component and neurocognition. By contrast there were significant correlations between the self-certainty subcomponent and memory (r=–0.23, p<0.001), IQ (r=–0.19, p<0.001) and total cognition (r=–0.14, p=0.01). We did not find evidence of significant publication bias in any analyses. Overall, our results indicate that there is a small but significant relationship between clinical insight, some aspects of cognitive insight and neurocognition. These findings reflect the complexity of the insight construct and indicate that while the neurocognitive model is important it is likely to be one of many which contribute to the understanding of this phenomenon.

Report about the 35th annual meeting of the cognitive science society

The 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2013) was hosted by the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Berlin School of Mind and Brain from July 31 to August 3, 2013. The conference organizers formed a highly interdisciplinary team, including a philosopher Michael Pauen (HU Berlin, Germany), cognitive psychologists Markus Knauff (Universitat Giessen, Germany), and Natalie Sebanz (Central European University, Hungary), as well as a computer scientist Ipke Wachsmuth (Universitat Bielefeld, Germany), who ensured a high-quality event attracting scientists from every corner of the field. Three of the organizers are the members of the German Society for Cognitive Science (GK), which supported the conference along with the German Science Foundation (DFG), Artificial Intelligence Journal, EuCog network, The Robert Glushko and Pamela Samuelson foundation, and the publisher Willey Blackwell. The meeting was overwhelming in its scope and scale. Virtually, all aspects of human and animal cognition, as well as a plethora of methods to investigate cognitive phenomena were covered in up to eleven parallel tracks of the conference: from perception to social cognition and from neurocognitive modeling to robotics. There were a few remarkable trends at the CogSci 2013. The most significant of them—a paradigm shift toward more grounded approaches to cognition—could be seen in several sessions, workshops, and tutorials of the conference and was glorified by this year’s Rumelhart Prize. The Prize was received by Indiana University Professor Linda Smith, who is one of the pioneers of the dynamic, mechanistic, and process-oriented view on cognition. In her ingenious experiments, Prof. Smith demonstrates how the environment, actively explored by infants and toddlers, reveals quite different grounds for the development of cognition than a disembodied approach would suggest. The Heineken Prize winner, John Duncan from the University of Cambridge, also talked to this trend in his keynote lecture, ‘‘A core brain system in assembly of cognitive episodes,’’ which draw a link between cognition and neural processes. Another theme, which went as a red thread through the conference, was social cognition, as well as cooperation and joint action. Michael E. Bratman (Stanford Univerisity) touched on this topic in his keynote talk on shared agency, and Cynthia Breazeal (the Media Lab of MIT) emphasized the social component in human–robot interaction. The invited speaker Elisabeth Spelke (Harvard) presented her work in support of the social origins of cognition. Apart from these invited talks, presented by the world experts in the field, five invited symposia were organized, providing a forum for discussions on various topics, such as the joint action, interaction between language and gesture, new frameworks of rationality, linguistic compositionality, as well as word and language learning (Rumelhart Prize symposium). In the tutorials of the conference, a whole spectrum of mathematical tools that facilitate cognitive modeling was presented, including the quantum probability theory, hidden Markov modeling, and the complex network analysis. Moreover, the conference attendees could learn how largescale cognitive architectures may be realized and verified in a functional brain simulation Spaun, or within the framework of dynamic neural fields. Such modern tools to test cognitive models like robots or virtual humans were also presented in the CogSci 2013 tutorials. Y. Sandamirskaya (&) Institut fur Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-Univeristat Bochum, Bochum, Germany e-mail: sandayci@neuroinformatik.rub.de

Mapping modalities of self‐awareness in mindfulness practice: a potential mechanism for clarifying habits of mind

To better understand the neurobiological mechanisms by which mindfulness-based practices function in a psychotherapeutic context, this article details the definition, techniques, and purposes ascribed to mindfulness training as described by its Buddhist tradition of origin and by contemporary neurocognitive models. Included is theory of how maladaptive mental processes become habitual and automatic, both from the Buddhist and Western psychological perspective. Specific noting and labeling techniques in open monitoring meditation, described in the Theravada and Western contemporary traditions, are highlighted as providing unique access to multiple modalities of awareness. Potential explicit and implicit mechanisms are discussed by which such techniques can contribute to transforming maladaptive habits of mind and perceptual and cognitive biases, improving efficiency, facilitating integration, and providing the flexibility to switch between systems of self-processing. Finally, a model is provided to describe the timing by which noting and labeling practices have the potential to influence different stages of low- and high-level neural processing. Hypotheses are proposed concerning both levels of processing in relation to the extent of practice. Implications for the nature of subjective experience and self-processing as it relates to one's habits of mind, behavior, and relation to the external world, are also described.

Relational Network Theory as a bridge between linguistics and neuroscience

Sydney Lamb is the creator and main developer of Relational Network Theory (RNT), a neurocognitive model of language. The theory’s major manifesto, titled Pathways of the Brain, was published in 1999. In several conferences given since then, Lamb has introduced a number of refinements, most of which have not appeared in print. Besides, Pathways of the Brain leaves open several questions which prove crucial to the theory’s long-time followers and newcomers alike. In this interview, Professor Lamb discusses historical, technical, and practical aspects of RNT, addressing both recent innovations and recurring queries.

Delusions and the Role of Beliefs in Perceptual Inference

Delusions are unfounded yet tenacious beliefs and a symptom of psychotic disorder. Varying degrees of delusional ideation are also found in the healthy population. Here, we empirically validated a neurocognitive model that explains both the formation and the persistence of delusional beliefs in terms of altered perceptual inference. In a combined behavioral and functional neuroimaging study in healthy participants, we used ambiguous visual stimulation to probe the relationship between delusion-proneness and the effect of learned predictions on perception. Delusional ideation was associated with less perceptual stability, but a stronger belief-induced bias on perception, paralleled by enhanced functional connectivity between frontal areas that encoded beliefs and sensory areas that encoded perception. These findings suggest that weakened lower-level predictions that result in perceptual instability are implicated in the emergence of delusional beliefs. In contrast, stronger higher-level predictions that sculpt perception into conformity with beliefs might contribute to the tenacious persistence of delusional beliefs.

Autism and epistemology IV: Does autism need a theory of mind?

In their article, "Does the autistic child have a 'theory of mind'?," Baron-Cohen et al. [1985] proposed a novel paradigm to explain social impairment in children diagnosed as autistic (AD). Much research has been undertaken since their article went to print. The purpose of this commentary is to gauge whether Theory of Mind (ToM)-or lack thereof-is a valid model for explaining abnormal social behavior in children with AD. ToM is defined as "the ability to impute mental states to oneself and to others" and "the ability to make inferences about what other people believe to be the case." The source for their model was provided by an article published earlier by Premack and Woodruff, "Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?" Later research in chimpanzees did not support a ToM in primates. From the outset, ToM as a neurocognitive model of autism has had many shortcomings-methodological, logical, and empirical. Other ToM assumptions, for example, its universality in all children in all cultures and socioeconomic conditions, are not supported by data. The age at which a ToM emerges, or events that presage a ToM, are too often not corroborated. Recent studies of mirror neurons, their location and interconnections in brain, their relationship to social behavior and language, and the effect of lesions there on speech, language and social behavior, strongly suggests that a neurobiological as opposed to neurocognitive model of autism is a more parsimonious explanation for the social and behavioral phenotypes observed in autism.

Distinct alterations in value-based decision-making and cognitive control in suicide attempters: Toward a dual neurocognitive model

ObjectiveThe literature suggests that many suicide attempters show impairment in both decision-making and cognitive control. However, it is not clear if these deficits are linked to each other, and if they may be related to more basic alterations in attention. This is a relevant question in the perspective of future interventions targeting cognitive deficits to prevent suicidal acts. MethodTwo different populations of patients with histories of suicide attempts were assessed (N=142 and 119). The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was used to measure decision-making in both populations. We used a D2 cancellation task and a verbal working memory task in population 1; the Stroop test, the N-Back task, the Trail Making Test, and the Hayling Sentence Completion test in population 2. ResultsRegarding decision-making, we only found a small negative correlation between the Hayling test error score (r=−0.24; p=0.01), and the net score from the second half of the IGT. In contrast, working memory, cognitive flexibility and cognitive inhibition measures were largely inter-correlated. LimitationMost patients were medicated. Only patients with mood disorders. ConclusionThese results add to previous findings suggesting that the neurocognitive vulnerability to suicidal behavior may rely on impairments in two distinct anatomical systems, one processing value-based decision-making (associated with ventral prefrontal cortex, among others) and one underlying cognitive control (associated with more dorsal prefrontal regions). This distinction may result in tailored-made cognitive interventions.

Networks involved in olfaction and their dynamics using independent component analysis and unified structural equation modeling

The study of human olfaction is complicated by the myriad of processing demands in conscious perceptual and emotional experiences of odors. Combining functional magnetic resonance imaging with convergent multivariate network analyses, we examined the spatiotemporal behavior of olfactory-generated blood-oxygenated-level-dependent signal in healthy adults. The experimental functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm was found to offset the limitations of olfactory habituation effects and permitted the identification of five functional networks. Analysis delineated separable neuronal circuits that were spatially centered in the primary olfactory cortex, striatum, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, rostral prefrontal cortex/anterior cingulate, and parietal-occipital junction. We hypothesize that these functional networks subserve primary perceptual, affective/motivational, and higher order olfactory-related cognitive processes. Results provided direct evidence for the existence of parallel networks with top-down modulation for olfactory processing and clearly distinguished brain activations that were sniffing-related versus odor-related. A comprehensive neurocognitive model for olfaction is presented that may be applied to broader translational studies of olfactory function, aging, and neurological disease.

Advances in experimental psychopatholinguistics: What can we learn from simulation of disorder-like symptoms in human volunteers?

For more than a century, work on patients with acquired or developmental language disorders has informed psycholinguistic models of normal linguistic processing in healthy persons. On the other hand, such models of healthy language processing have been used as blue-prints to gain further insights into the impairments of patients with language pathologies. Against the exemplary background of language production, the first part of this paper reflects this relationship and formulates a desideratum for naturalistic albeit controlled experimental settings. Two recent examples of behavioural and neurofunctional research are presented in which aphasia-like speech symptoms were elicited in healthy control subjects. In the second part, this idea to investigate disorder-like symptoms which are being experimentally induced for the course of the study is further pursued in the field of reading and dyslexia research. Here, it is argued, again on the basis of behavioural and neurofunctional data, that such an approach is advantageous in at least two respects:1. It allows a much more stringent control of experimental factors and confounds than could be potentially achieved in a clinical setting.2. It allows in-extenso piloting of experiments with healthy volunteers before actually recruiting selected (and sometimes rare) patients.It will be concluded that the experimental simulation of disorder-like symptoms in easily accessible healthy volunteers may be a useful approach to understand novel aspects of a language disorder on the basis of a human neurocognitive model of this disorder.

Voxel-based lesion-parameter mapping: Identifying the neural correlates of a computational model of word production

The dual-route interactive two-step model explains the variation in the error patterns of aphasic speakers in picture naming, and word and nonword repetition tasks. The model has three parameters that can vary across individuals: the efficiency of the connections between semantic and lexical representations (s-weight), between lexical and phonological representations (p-weight), and between representations of auditory input and phonological representations (nl-weight). We determined these parameter values in 103 participants with chronic aphasia from left hemisphere stroke whose lesion locations had been determined. Then, using voxel-based lesion-parameter mapping, we mapped the parameters onto the brain, thus determining the neural correlates of the model’s mechanisms. The maps and the behavioral findings supported the model’s central claim that word repetition is affected by both the p and nl parameters. We propose that these two parameters constitute the model’s analogue of the “dorsal stream” component of neurocognitive models of language processing.