This study aimed to investigate the effects of split size (small vs. large splits) and odd-even congruency (parity congruency vs. parity incongruency) of answers on arithmetical equation processing. Event-related potentials were recorded from 18 students in a first-answer-then-equation presentation mode. The ERP results showed that the odd-even congruency had a ...

The present study investigates whether the complement falsity elicited by strong non-factive verbs and the false belief activated by a standard nonverbal false belief task produce similar electrophysiological activities in the brain. The hypothesis is based on the notion that both complement falsity and false belief involve decoupling a false ...

Based on the previous study where phase-synchronization (PS) of gamma-band responses (GBRs) proved a reliable cerebral correlate of involuntary attention and its enhancement under threat, we measured gamma-PS elicited by novel sounds from human electroencephalogram (EEG) scalp-recordings when participants responded to visual stimuli displaying either highly motivational or neutral sceneries. ...

Positron emission tomography studies during speech have indicated a failure to show the normal activation of auditory cortical areas in stuttering individuals. In the present study, P300 event-related potentials were used to investigate possible effects of behavioral treatment on the pattern of signal amplitude and latency between waves. In order ...

In the present study we have tested the hypothesis that evoked traveling alpha waves are behaviorally significant. The results of a visual-semantic categorization task show that three early ERP components including the P1-N1 complex had a dominant frequency characteristic in the alpha range and behaved like traveling waves do. They ...

The electrophysiological correlates of conflict processing and cognitive control have been well characterized for the visual modality in paradigms such as the Stroop task. Much less is known about corresponding processes in the auditory modality. Here, electroencephalographic recordings of brain activity were measured during an auditory Stroop task, using three ...

Cerebral white matter damage is not only a commonly reported consequence of healthy aging, but is also associated with cognitive decline and dementia. The aetiology of this damage is unclear; however, individuals with hypertension have a greater burden of white matter signal abnormalities (WMSA) on MR imaging than those without ...

Processing speed (PS) training improves performance on untrained PS tasks in the elderly. However, PS training's effects on the PS of young adults and on neural mechanisms are still unknown. In humans, we investigated this issue using psychological measures, voxel-based morphometry, the n-back task [a typical task for functional magnetic ...

Aim:  To evaluated the relationship between change in cannabis use and changed cognitive performance over eight years. Design:  We used survey methodology with a cohort design. Setting & Participants:  An Australian community sample aged 20-24 at baseline. Measures:  We assessed cognitive performance with, the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) (immediate ...

Information-processing speed (IPS) slowing is a primary cognitive deficit in multiple sclerosis (MS). Basal ganglia, thalamus and neocortex are thought to have a key role for efficient information-processing, yet the specific relative contribution of these structures for MS-related IPS impairment is poorly understood. To determine if basal ganglia and thalamus ...

This paper examines four acoustic properties (duration F0, F1, and F2) of the monophthongal vowels of Iberian Spanish (IS) from Madrid and Peruvian Spanish (PS) from Lima in various consonantal contexts (/s/, /f/, /t/, /p/, and /k/) and in various phrasal contexts (in isolated words and sentence-internally). Acoustic measurements on ...

The P300 wave is an event related potential (ERP) elicited by infrequent, task-relevant stimuli and appeared at about 300 ms, represents higher cognitive function of information processing, working memory or stimulus categorization. Hypobaric hypoxia deteriorates the cognitive function during the short term stay (days to few weeks) at high altitude. ...

The anterior N2 and P3 waves of event related potentials (ERPs) in the GO/NOGO paradigm in trials related to preparatory set violations in previous studies were inconsistently associated either with action inhibition or conflict monitoring operations. In the present study a paired stimulus GO/NOGO design was used in order to ...

Fluid intelligence (Gf) predicts performance on a wide range of cognitive activities, and children with impaired Gf often experience academic difficulties. Previous attempts to improve Gf have been hampered by poor control conditions and single outcome measures. It is thus still an open question whether Gf can be improved by ...

Positron emission tomography studies during speech have indicated a failure to show the normal activation of auditory cortical areas in stuttering individuals. In the present study, P300 event-related potentials were used to investigate possible effects of behavioral treatment on the pattern of signal amplitude and latency between waves. In order ...

Mounting evidence suggests excessive glucocorticoid activity may contribute to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and age-associated memory impairment. 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type-1 (HSD1) regulates conversion of glucocorticoids from inactive to active forms. HSD1 knock-out mice have improved cognition, and the nonselective inhibitor carbenoxolone improved verbal memory in elderly men. Together, these data suggest ...

Attentional biases and executive control deficits may play a role in smoking cessation failure. The object of this study was to determine whether smokers' pre-quit reaction times on a computerized modified Simon task (which assesses attentional biases and executive control deficits) predict abstinence following a quit attempt. Participants (N = 365) in ...

In humans, training in which good performance is rewarded or bad performance punished results in transient behavioral improvements. The relative effects of reward and punishment on consolidation and long-term retention, critical behavioral stages for successful learning, are not known. Here, we investigated the effects of reward and punishment on these ...

Tactile working memory (WM) is improved by increasing top-down suppression of interfering sensory processing in S1 via a link from the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) to S1. Here we studied in healthy subjects whether the efficacy of top-down suppression varies with submodality of sensory interference. Navigated stimulation of the MFG-S1 ...

ABSTRACTBackground: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) can be used to quantify cognitive ability in older persons undergoing screening for cognitive impairment. Although highly sensitive in detecting mild cognitive impairment, its measurement precision is weakest among persons with milder forms of impairment. We sought to overcome this limitation by integrating information ...

The objective of this study was to investigate the nature of concurrent task interference during a vigilance task and to determine whether a concurrent task improves performance with decreased vigilance. Research has repeatedly shown that engaging in a cell phone conversation while driving increases the risk of getting into crashes. ...

Physical activity improves learning and hippocampal neurogenesis. It is unknown whether compounds that increase endurance in muscle also enhance cognition. We investigated the effects of endurance factors, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor δ agonist GW501516 and AICAR, activator of AMP-activated protein kinase on memory and neurogenesis. Mice were injected with GW for ...

Patients with schizophrenia exhibit poor working memory (WM). Although several subcomponents of WM can be measured, evidence suggests the primary subcomponent affected in schizophrenia is span capacity (WMC). Indeed, the NIMH-funded MATRICS initiative recommended assaying the WMC when assessing the efficacy of a putative therapeutic for FDA approval. Although dopamine ...

We assessed the attentional demands of drawing and passing in rugby league players and investigated the effects of single-task and dual-task training on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of skill in these athletes. In Study 1, high-skilled and lesser-skilled rugby league players performed a standardized 2-on-1 drill under single-task (primary ...

Suspiciousness is a common feature of schizophrenia. However, suspicious thoughts are also commonly experienced by the general population. This study aimed to examine the underlying neural mechanism of suspicious thoughts in individuals with and without schizotypal personality disorder (SPD)-proneness, using an event-related potential (ERP) paradigm. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded when ...

The influence of monetary incentives on performance has been widely investigated among various disciplines. While the results reveal positive incentive effects only under specific conditions, the exact nature, and the contribution of mediating factors are largely unexplored. The present study examined influences of payoff schemes as one of these factors. ...

An important question is whether monetary reward can increase attentional effort in order to improve performance. Up to now, evidence for a positive answer is weak. Therefore, in the present study, the flanker task was used to examine this question further. Participants had to respond sooner than a certain deadline ...

Humans imitate each other during social interaction. This imitative behavior streamlines social interaction and aids in learning to replicate actions. However, the effect of imitation on action comprehension is unclear. This study investigated whether vocal imitation of an unfamiliar accent improved spoken-language comprehension. Following a pretraining accent comprehension test, participants ...

This study explores the effect of individuation training on the acquisition of race-specific expertise. First, we investigated whether practice individuating other-race faces yields improvement in perceptual discrimination for novel faces of that race. Second, we asked whether there was similar improvement for novel faces of a different race for which ...

Deficits in error processing may contribute to the continuation of impulsive behaviors such as smoking. Previous studies show deficits in error processing among substance abuse patients. However, these studies were all conducted during affectively neutral conditions. Deficits in error processing in smokers may become more pronounced under affectively challenging conditions, ...

There is increasing evidence that nicotine is involved in learning and memory. However, there remains no study that has explored the relationship between nicotine and memory reconsolidation. At present study, we tested the effects of nicotine on the reconsolidation of contextual fear memory in rats. Behavior procedure involved four training ...

The cholinergic system is essential in mediating cognitive processes. Although there has been extensive research regarding cholinergic receptor subsystems, the specific contribution of the muscarinic and nicotinic receptor system to cognitive processes still has not been sufficiently explored. In the present study, we examined the selective contribution of muscarinic and ...

Smoking cues are theorized to be conditioned stimuli (CSs) formed by repeated pairing with drug. Smoking paraphernalia can elicit subjective and physiological responses in smokers, indicative of positive affect and motivation to consume. Although these responses are probably the result of conditioning, direct evidence from human conditioning studies with physiological ...

Patients with schizophrenia have a high rate of cigarette smoking and also exhibit profound deficits in sensory processing, which may in part be ameliorated by the acute actions of smoke-inhaled nicotine. The mismatch negativity (MMN), a preattentive event-related potential index of auditory sensory memory, is diminished in schizophrenia. The MMN ...

Previous studies have demonstrated reductions in episodic memory during nicotine withdrawal. However, these studies have been unable to dissociate memory reductions from losses in attention associated with tobacco abstinence. In the present study, the authors sought to determine whether episodic memory reduction is a primary effect of nicotine withdrawal during ...

The two main constituents of cannabis, cannabidiol and Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), have opposing effects both pharmacologically and behaviourally when administered in the laboratory. Street cannabis is known to contain varying levels of each cannabinoid. To study how the varying levels of cannabidiol and THC have an impact on the acute effects ...

Smoking withdrawal is associated with significant deficits in the ability to initiate and maintain attention for extended periods of time (i.e. sustained attention; SA). However, the effects of smoking abstinence on the temporal dynamics of neurocognition during SA have not been evaluated. Twenty adult smokers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging ...

Beyond the amelioration of deprivation-induced impairments, and in contrast to effects on attentional processes, the cognitive-enhancing properties of nicotine on working memory (WM) operations remain unclear. In an effort to elucidate potential enhancing effects, we explored the impact of transdermal nicotine on neural functioning in minimally deprived smokers and, in ...

In women, ovarian hormone loss at menopause has been related to cognitive decline, and some studies suggest that estrogen-containing hormone therapy (HT) can mitigate these effects. Recently, the Women's Health Initiative study found that conjugated equine estrogens, the most commonly prescribed HT, do not benefit cognition. Isolated components of conjugated ...

The self-medication hypothesis attempts to explain the extraordinary high levels of cigarette smoking in schizophrenia; patients may smoke in an attempt to reduce their cognitive deficits, symptoms, or the side effects of antipsychotics. In a previous report, we detected beneficial performance in attention and working memory in patients with first-episode ...

In Western societies a considerable percentage of young people expose themselves to the combination of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or 'ecstasy') and cannabis. The aim of the present study was to assess the acute effects of co-administration of MDMA and THC (the main psychoactive compound of cannabis) on pharmacokinetics, psychomotor performance, memory ...

Working memory capacity is extremely limited and individual differences are heritable to a considerable extent. In the search for a better understanding of the exact genetic underpinnings of working memory, most research has focused on functional gene variants involved in the metabolism of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Recently, there has been ...

The histaminergic neurotransmitter system is currently under investigation as a target for drug treatment of cognitive deficits in clinical disorders. The therapeutic potential of new drugs may initially be screened using a model of histaminergic dysfunction, for example, as associated with the use of centrally active antihistamines. Of the selective ...

To examine whether persistent smoking leads to impairments in self-reported and objective measures of prospective memory (PM: the cognitive ability to remember to carry out activities at some future point in time). An opportunity sample of 18 existing smokers and 22 who had never smoked were compared. An existing-groups design ...

Studies in smokers suggest that nicotine might exert anxiolytic, stress-dampening and mood-enhancing effects and beneficially influences neural processing of affective information. Regarding non-smokers, results are inconsistent, and no data exist on the effect of nicotine on neural emotion processing. We applied functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the influence ...

Substance use disorders are characterized by cognitive processing biases, such as automatically detecting and orienting attention towards drug-related stimuli. However, it is unclear how, when and what kind of attention (i.e. implicit, explicit) interacts with the processing of these stimuli. In addition, it is unclear whether smokers are hypersensitive to ...

Neurobiological models of addiction suggest that abnormalities of brain reward circuitry distort salience attribution and inhibitory control processes, which in turn contribute to high relapse rates. The aim of this study is to determine whether impairments of salience attribution and inhibitory control predict relapse in a pharmacologically unaided attempt at ...

Attentional bias for drug-related stimuli, as measured by emotional Stroop (ES) tasks, is predictive of treatment outcomes for tobacco smoking and other abused drugs. Characterizing relationships between smoking-related attentional bias and brain reactivity to smoking images may help in identifying neural substrates critical to relapse vulnerability. To this end, we ...

Previous studies have documented the existence of signs and symptoms of the acute tobacco abstinence syndrome; however, less attention has been paid to quantifying the magnitude of these effects. The present study quantified the relative magnitude of subjective, cognitive, and physiological manifestations of acute tobacco abstinence. Smokers (N=203, ≥ 15 ...

Over the last decade, Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng) has been shown to improve aspects of human cognitive function. American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) has a distinct ginsenoside profile from P. ginseng, promising cognitive enhancing properties in preclinical studies and benefits processes linked to human cognition. The availability of a highly standardised ...