Role In Adaptive Behavior Research Articles

Network state changes in sensory thalamus represent learned outcomes

Thalamic brain areas play an important role in adaptive behaviors. Nevertheless, the population dynamics of thalamic relays during learning across sensory modalities remain unknown. Using a cross-modal sensory reward-associative learning paradigm combined with deep brain two-photon calcium imaging of large populations of auditory thalamus (medial geniculate body, MGB) neurons in male mice, we identified that MGB neurons are biased towards reward predictors independent of modality. Additionally, functional classes of MGB neurons aligned with distinct task periods and behavioral outcomes, both dependent and independent of sensory modality. During non-sensory delay periods, MGB ensembles developed coherent neuronal representation as well as distinct co-activity network states reflecting predicted task outcome. These results demonstrate flexible cross-modal ensemble coding in auditory thalamus during adaptive learning and highlight its importance in brain-wide cross-modal computations during complex behavior.

Low blood concentration of alcohol enhances activity related to stopping failure in the right inferior frontal cortex.

This study investigated the effects of low doses of alcohol, which are acceptable for driving a car, on inhibitory control and neural processing using the stop-signal task (SST) in 17 healthy right-handed social drinkers. The study employed simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging and electromyography (EMG) recordings to assess behavioral and neural responses under conditions of low-dose alcohol (breath-alcohol concentration of 0.15mg/L) and placebo. The results demonstrated that even a small amount of alcohol consumption prolonged Go reaction times in the SST and modified stopping behavior, as evidenced by a decrease in the frequency and magnitude of partial response EMG that did not result in button pressing during successful inhibitory control. Furthermore, alcohol intake enhanced neural activity during failed inhibitory responses in the right inferior frontal cortex, suggesting its potential role in behavioral adaptation following stop-signal failure. These findings suggest that even low levels of alcohol consumption within legal driving limits can greatly impact both the cognitive performance and brain activity involved in inhibiting responses. This research provides important evidence on the neurobehavioral effects of low-dose alcohol consumption, with implications for understanding the biological basis of impaired motor control and decision-making and potentially informing legal guidelines on alcohol consumption.

Brain network topology and personality traits: A source level magnetoencephalographic study.

Personality neuroscience is focusing on the correlation between individual differences and the efficiency of large-scale networks from the perspective of the brain as an interconnected network. A suitable technique to explore this relationship is the magnetoencephalography (MEG), but not many MEG studies are aimed at investigating topological properties correlated to personality traits. By using MEG, the present study aims to evaluate how individual differences described in Cloninger's psychobiological model are correlated with specific cerebral structures. Fifty healthy individuals (20 males, 30 females, mean age: 27.4 ± 4.8 years) underwent Temperament and Character Inventory examination and MEG recording during a resting state condition. High harm avoidance scores were associated with a reduced centrality of the left caudate nucleus and this negative correlation was maintained in females when we analyzed gender differences. Our data suggest that the caudate nucleus plays a key role in adaptive behavior and could be a critical node in insular salience network. The clear difference between males and females allows us to suggest that topological organization correlated to personality is highly dependent on gender. Our findings provide new insights to evaluate the mutual influences of topological and functional connectivity in neural communication efficiency and disruption as biomarkers of psychopathological traits.

Farmers' Adaptive Behaviors to Heavy Metal-Polluted Cultivated Land in Mining Areas: The Influence of Farmers' Characteristics and the Mediating Role of Perceptions.

Heavy metal pollution in cultivated land poses a serious threat to environmental health and farmers’ livelihoods. As the direct user of cultivated land, understanding farmers’ adaptive behavior to heavy metal pollution, and its influencing factors, can provide insight and information relevant for decision-making, so as to better manage the hazards and risks of heavy metal pollution. We proposed a conceptual framework of “farmers’ characteristics-perceptions-adaptive behaviors”. Factor analysis and mediation effect analysis were used to explore the influence of characteristics and perceptions on adaptive behaviors. The data of 278 farmers in a typical mining area in Daye, China, show that local farmers perceive the hazards of heavy metal pollution, but their adaptive behaviors are hindered to a certain extent. The results of the mediation effect analysis show that perceptions of health impact, self-efficacy, and adaptive cost play a partial mediating role in the impact of characteristics on adaptive behaviors. In addition, the influence of the “factor of dependence on farmland” and the “factor of obstacles to action” on adaptive behavior have no significant relationship with perception levels. By comparing the influencing factors, we found that although farmers’ perceptions have mediating effects between characteristics and adaptive behaviors, characteristics still play a decisive role in adaptive behaviors.

Molecular Imaging of Central Dopamine in Obesity: A Qualitative Review across Substrates and Radiotracers.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a crucial role in adaptive behavior. A wealth of studies suggests obesity-related alterations in the central dopamine system. The most direct evidence for such differences in humans comes from molecular neuroimaging studies using positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). The aim of the current review is to give a comprehensive overview of molecular neuroimaging studies that investigated the relation between BMI or weight status and any dopamine target in the striatal and midbrain regions of the human brain. A structured literature search was performed and a summary of the extracted findings are presented for each of the four available domains: (1) D2/D3 receptors, (2) dopamine release, (3) dopamine synthesis, and (4) dopamine transporters. Recent proposals of a nonlinear relationship between severity of obesity and dopamine imbalances are described while integrating findings within and across domains, after which limitations of the review are discussed. We conclude that despite many observed associations between obesity and substrates of the dopamine system in humans, it is unlikely that obesity can be traced back to a single dopaminergic cause or consequence. For effective personalized prevention and treatment of obesity, it will be crucial to identify possible dopamine (and non-dopamine) profiles and their functional characteristics.

Distinct roles for dopamine clearance mechanisms in regulating behavioral flexibility

Dopamine plays a crucial role in adaptive behavior, and dysfunctional dopamine is implicated in multiple psychiatric conditions characterized by inflexible or inconsistent choices. However, the precise relationship between dopamine and flexible decision making remains unclear. One reason is that, while many studies have focused on the activity of dopamine neurons, efficient dopamine signaling also relies on clearance mechanisms, notably the dopamine transporter (DAT), which predominates in striatum, and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), which predominates in cortex. The exact locus, extent, and timescale of the effects of DAT and COMT are uncertain. Moreover, there is limited data on how acute disruption of either mechanism affects flexible decision making strategies mediated by cortico-striatal networks. To address these issues, we combined pharmacological modulation of DAT and COMT with electrochemistry and behavior in mice. DAT blockade, but not COMT inhibition, regulated sub-second dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens core, but surprisingly neither clearance mechanism affected evoked release in prelimbic cortex. This was not due to a lack of sensitivity, as both amphetamine and atomoxetine changed the kinetics of sub-second release. In a multi-step decision making task where mice had to respond to reversals in either reward probabilities or the choice sequence to reach the goal, DAT blockade selectively impaired, and COMT inhibition improved, performance after reward reversals, but neither manipulation affected the adaptation of choices after action-state transition reversals. Together, our data suggest that DAT and COMT shape specific aspects of behavioral flexibility by regulating different aspects of the kinetics of striatal and cortical dopamine, respectively.

Minority status and self-employment among women: the mediating role of adaptive behaviour and networks

Minority status and self-employment among women: the mediating role of adaptive behaviour and networks

Minority status and self-employment among women: the mediating role of adaptive behaviour and networks

Minority status and self-employment among women: the mediating role of adaptive behaviour and networks

La perspective temporelle des étudiants français en première année d’études supérieures : quels liens avec les stratégies de coping et le sentiment d’efficacité ?

BackgroundLiterature data suggest coping strategies and self-efficacy have a significant influence on academic success and distress among students. It is then crucial to investigate the psychological variables involved in coping and self-efficacy among students. In fact, time perspective (TP), which can be described as an individual's attitude toward personal past, present and future, influences one's thoughts and behaviors, and could play a role in adaptive behavior and the sense of capability. However, the impact of TP on coping and self-efficacy among students has rarely been studied. To our knowledge, these interactions have never been investigated among students during their first year in college, which appears particularity relevant given its high academic failure rate. Moreover, self-efficacy and coping has always been studied independently in studies investigating TP; although we know self-efficacy can be considered as an interactional variable impacting coping. Consequently, we set out to explore the relationship between time perspective, coping and self-efficacy among first year undergraduate French students. MethodThree hundred and sixty-two first year undergraduate students (77.35% females, mean age=19) completed self-reported questionnaires assessing coping (Brief Cope), self-efficacy (GSE) and time perspective (ZTPI). Statistical analyses include: (1) regression analysis in order to investigate the predictive power of TP on coping strategy and self-efficacy, and (2) mediation analysis in order to investigate the mediation effect of self-efficacy in the relationship between TP and coping. ResultsAnalysis revealed that negative past and fatalistic present are negatively correlated with self-efficacy and adaptive coping strategy, and positively correlated with maladaptive coping strategies such as disengagement. Inversely, positive past and future orientation are positively associated with self-efficacy and adaptive coping strategies such as active coping, positive thinking or social support-focused coping. Hedonistic present yielded more ambiguous results, as it appeared positively associated with self-efficacy, social support-focused coping and positive thinking, but also with substance use. Mediation analysis revealed that self-efficacy mediates the relationship between negative past and three coping strategies (problem solving, avoidance, cognitive restructuration), and mediates the relationship between future orientation and problem solving. DiscussionThis study has some limitations: the sample is mostly female, and the lack of longitudinal or experimental design prevent from drawing conclusions concerning the predictive effect of TP. However, results highlight the importance of TP when considering adaptive behavior and self-efficacy among students, especially during their first year in college that is very demanding in terms of adaptation. Perspectives for further studies and prevention applications will be discussed, in terms of using TP as a potential tool to identify profiles of students at risk of non-adjustment in an academic context.

Lateral orbitofrontal cortex promotes trial-by-trial learning of risky, but not spatial, biases.

Individual choices are not made in isolation but are embedded in a series of past experiences, decisions, and outcomes. The effects of past experiences on choices, often called sequential biases, are ubiquitous in perceptual and value-based decision-making, but their neural substrates are unclear. We trained rats to choose between cued guaranteed and probabilistic rewards in a task in which outcomes on each trial were independent. Behavioral variability often reflected sequential effects, including increased willingness to take risks following risky wins, and spatial 'win-stay/lose-shift' biases. Recordings from lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) revealed encoding of reward history and receipt, and optogenetic inhibition of lOFC eliminated rats' increased preference for risk following risky wins, but spared other sequential effects. Our data show that different sequential biases are neurally dissociable, and the lOFC's role in adaptive behavior promotes learning of more abstract biases (here, biases for the risky option), but not spatial ones.

Basal Ganglia: Striosomes and the Link between Motivation and Action

The basal ganglia integrate motivation and action across their circuits; neurons in anatomical modules called striosomes could contribute strongly to this merger. A new method focusing on network interconnections will allow a better understanding of the functional role of striosomes.

The Role of Adaptive Behavior and Parent Expectations in Predicting Post-School Outcomes for Young Adults with Intellectual Disability.

This study examined the role of parent expectations and adaptive behavior in predicting outcomes for youth with intellectual disability. A sample of students with intellectual disability were drawn from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 for inclusion in this study. Four latent variables were created: demographic factors, adaptive behavior, parent expectations, and post-school outcomes. Structural equation modeling was used to test relationships between these constructs. Results indicated that adaptive behavior was more important than parent expectations in predicting post-school outcomes. Results supported the conclusion that adaptive behavior plays a critical role in post-school success for individuals with intellectual disability and that parent expectations alone were insufficient to ensure positive outcomes for youth with poor adaptive skills. Implications are discussed.

Human VMPFC encodes early signatures of confidence in perceptual decisions.

Choice confidence, an individual's internal estimate of judgment accuracy, plays a critical role in adaptive behaviour, yet its neural representations during decision formation remain underexplored. Here, we recorded simultaneous EEG-fMRI while participants performed a direction discrimination task and rated their confidence on each trial. Using multivariate single-trial discriminant analysis of the EEG, we identified a stimulus-independent component encoding confidence, which appeared prior to subjects' explicit choice and confidence report, and was consistent with a confidence measure predicted by an accumulation-to-bound model of decision-making. Importantly, trial-to-trial variability in this electrophysiologically-derived confidence signal was uniquely associated with fMRI responses in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), a region not typically associated with confidence for perceptual decisions. Furthermore, activity in the VMPFC was functionally coupled with regions of the frontal cortex linked to perceptual decision-making and metacognition. Our results suggest that the VMPFC holds an early confidence representation arising from decision dynamics, preceding and potentially informing metacognitive evaluation.

The Habenula's Role in Adaptive Behaviors: Contributions From Neuroimaging.

The Habenula's Role in Adaptive Behaviors: Contributions From Neuroimaging.

Impaired Feedback Processing for Symbolic Reward in Individuals with Internet Game Overuse

Reward processing, which plays a critical role in adaptive behavior, is impaired in addiction disorders, which are accompanied by functional abnormalities in brain reward circuits. Internet gaming disorder, like substance addiction, is thought to be associated with impaired reward processing, but little is known about how it affects learning, especially when feedback is conveyed by less-salient motivational events. Here, using both monetary (±500 KRW) and symbolic (Chinese characters “right” or “wrong”) rewards and penalties, we investigated whether behavioral performance and feedback-related neural responses are altered in Internet game overuse (IGO) group. Using functional MRI, brain responses for these two types of reward/penalty feedback were compared between young males with problems of IGO (IGOs, n = 18, mean age = 22.2 ± 2.0 years) and age-matched control subjects (Controls, n = 20, mean age = 21.2 ± 2.1) during a visuomotor association task where associations were learned between English letters and one of four responses. No group difference was found in adjustment of error responses following the penalty or in brain responses to penalty, for either monetary or symbolic penalties. The IGO individuals, however, were more likely to fail to choose the response previously reinforced by symbolic (but not monetary) reward. A whole brain two-way ANOVA analysis for reward revealed reduced activations in the IGO group in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex/ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in response to both reward types, suggesting impaired reward processing. However, the responses to reward in the inferior parietal region and medial orbitofrontal cortex/vmPFC were affected by the types of reward in the IGO group. Unlike the control group, in the IGO group the reward response was reduced only for symbolic reward, suggesting lower attentional and value processing specific to symbolic reward. Furthermore, the more severe the Internet gaming overuse symptoms in the IGO group, the greater the activations of the ventral striatum for monetary relative to symbolic reward. These findings suggest that IGO is associated with bias toward motivationally salient reward, which would lead to poor goal-directed behavior in everyday life.

P171 Impact of a novel high-definition tDCS set-up on cognitive control

Question High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) allows for more focal current delivery than conventional-tDCS. However, very few studies have assessed potential cognitive effects and regional specificity of HD-tDCS. Objectives This study assessed the impact and specificity of a novel HD-tDCS montage on cognitive control during a visual flanker task. Methods 120 healthy young participants were recruited and randomly assigned to four stimulation conditions: left or right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) or primary motor cortex (M1) HD-tDCS (N = 30 per condition). Each group underwent both active- and sham HD-tDCS in cross-over, double-blind designs. tDCS was administered using a one-channel DC-stimulator and two concentric round rubber electrodes mimicking the frequently used “4 × 1” HD-tDCS set-up. Our analyses focused on conflict adaptation (CA), a hallmark effect of adaptive cognitive control. Conflict adaptation in the flanker paradigm is reflected by the finding that the flanker effect (i.e., differences in response latency between incongruent and congruent trials in the flanker task) is smaller following trials with high vs. low response conflict. Results We obtained a sizeable CA effect which was influenced by region-specific active HD-tDCS, as indicated by a significant four-way interaction between region, stimulation, current congruency and previous congruency (p Conclusions Our results confirm the potential of this novel HD-tDCS set-up to modulate behavioural performance in a regionally specific manner. Selectively improved conflict adaptation during DLPFC stimulation supports the theory that left and right DLPFC play a critical role in behavioral adaptation following conflict detection.

Distinct Roles for the Anterior Cingulate and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortices During Conflict Between Abstract Rules.

Distinct patterns of activity within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) reported in neuroimaging studies during tasks involving conflict between competing responses have often been cited as evidence for their key contributions to conflict-monitoring and behavioral adaptation, respectively. However, supporting evidence from neuropsychological patients has been scarce and contradictory. We administered a well-studied analog of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, designed to elicit conflict between 2 abstract rules, to a cohort of 6 patients with damage to ACC or dlPFC. Patients who had sustained more significant damage to the ACC were not impaired either on a measure of “conflict cost” nor on measures of “conflict-induced behavioral adaptation.” In contrast, damage to dlPFC did not affect the conflict cost measure but abolished the patients’ ability to adapt their behavior following exposure to conflict, compared with controls. This pattern of results complements the findings from nonhuman primates with more circumscribed lesions to ACC or dlPFC on the same task and provides converging evidence that ACC is not necessary for performance when conflict is elicited between 2 abstract rules, whereas dlPFC plays a fundamental role in behavioral adaptation.

The Feedback-related Negativity Codes Components of Abstract Inference during Reward-based Decision-making.

Behavioral control is influenced not only by learning from the choices made and the rewards obtained but also by "what might have happened," that is, inference about unchosen options and their fictive outcomes. Substantial progress has been made in understanding the neural signatures of direct learning from choices that are actually made and their associated rewards via reward prediction errors (RPEs). However, electrophysiological correlates of abstract inference in decision-making are less clear. One seminal theory suggests that the so-called feedback-related negativity (FRN), an ERP peaking 200-300 msec after a feedback stimulus at frontocentral sites of the scalp, codes RPEs. Hitherto, the FRN has been predominantly related to a so-called "model-free" RPE: The difference between the observed outcome and what had been expected. Here, by means of computational modeling of choice behavior, we show that individuals employ abstract, "double-update" inference on the task structure by concurrently tracking values of chosen stimuli (associated with observed outcomes) and unchosen stimuli (linked to fictive outcomes). In a parametric analysis, model-free RPEs as well as their modification because of abstract inference were regressed against single-trial FRN amplitudes. We demonstrate that components related to abstract inference uniquely explain variance in the FRN beyond model-free RPEs. These findings advance our understanding of the FRN and its role in behavioral adaptation. This might further the investigation of disturbed abstract inference, as proposed, for example, for psychiatric disorders, and its underlying neural correlates.

NMDA Receptors on Dopaminoceptive Neurons Are Essential for Drug-Induced Conditioned Place Preference.

Plasticity of the brain’s dopamine system plays a crucial role in adaptive behavior by regulating appetitive motivation and the control of reinforcement learning. In this study, we investigated drug- and natural-reward conditioned behaviors in a mouse model in which the NMDA receptor-dependent plasticity of dopaminoceptive neurons was disrupted. We generated a transgenic mouse line with inducible selective inactivation of the NR1 subunit in neurons expressing dopamine D1 receptors (the NR1D1CreERT2 mice). Whole-cell recordings of spontaneous EPSCs on neurons in the nucleus accumbens confirmed that a population of neurons lacked the NMDA receptor-dependent component of the current. This effect was accompanied by impaired long-term potentiation in the nucleus accumbens and in the CA1 area of the ventral, but not the dorsal, hippocampus. Mutant mice did not differ from control animals when tested for pavlovian or instrumental conditioning. However, NR1D1CreERT2 mice acquired no preference for a context associated with administration of drugs of abuse. In the conditioned place preference paradigm, mutant mice did not spend more time in the context paired with cocaine, morphine, or ethanol, although these mice acquired a preference for sucrose jelly and an aversion to naloxone injections, as normal. Thus, we observed that the selective inducible ablation of the NMDA receptors specifically blocks drug-associated context memory with no effect on positive reinforcement in general.

Nonlinearity in cytoplasm viscosity can generate an essential symmetry breaking in cellular behaviors

The cytoplasms of ameboid cells are nonlinearly viscous. The cell controls this viscosity by modulating the amount, localization and interactions of bio-polymers. Here we investigated how the nonlinearity infers the cellular behaviors and whether nonlinearity-specific behaviors exist. We modeled the developed plasmodium of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum as a network of branching tubes and examined the linear and nonlinear viscous cytoplasm flows in the tubes. We found that the nonlinearity in the cytoplasm׳s viscosity induces a novel type of symmetry breaking in the protoplasmic flow. We also show that symmetry breaking can play an important role in adaptive behaviors, namely, connection of behavioral modes implemented on different time scales and transportation of molecular signals from the front to the rear of the cell during cellular locomotion.