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Learning & Memory (Cold Spring Harbor,... Oct 2009Psychologists and neurobiologists have a long-standing interest in understanding how the context surrounding the events of our lives is represented and how it influences... (Review)
Review
Psychologists and neurobiologists have a long-standing interest in understanding how the context surrounding the events of our lives is represented and how it influences our behavior. The hippocampal formation emerged very early as a major contributor to how context is represented and functions. There is a large literature examining its contribution that on the surface reveals an array of conflicting outcomes and controversy. This review reveals that these conflicts can be resolved by building Nadel and Willner's dual-process theory of context representations. Two general conclusions emerge: (1) There are two neural systems that can support context representations and functions-a neocortical system composed primarily of perirhinal and postrhinal cortices and a hippocampal system that includes perirhinal, postrhinal, entorhinal cortices, and the hippocampal formation. (2) These two systems are not equivalent-some context representations and functions are uniquely supported by the hippocampal system. These conclusions are discussed in the context of canonical ideas about the special properties of the hippocampal system that enable it to make unique contributions to memory.
Topics: Animals; Hippocampus; Humans; Mental Processes; Parahippocampal Gyrus
PubMed: 19794181
DOI: 10.1101/lm.1494409 -
Cognition Oct 2017What is distinctive about a bringing a learning perspective to moral psychology? Part of the answer lies in the remarkable transformations that have taken place in...
What is distinctive about a bringing a learning perspective to moral psychology? Part of the answer lies in the remarkable transformations that have taken place in learning theory over the past two decades, which have revealed how powerful experience-based learning can be in the acquisition of abstract causal and evaluative representations, including generative models capable of attuning perception, cognition, affect, and action to the physical and social environment. When conjoined with developments in neuroscience, these advances in learning theory permit a rethinking of fundamental questions about the acquisition of moral understanding and its role in the guidance of behavior. For example, recent research indicates that spatial learning and navigation involve the formation of non-perspectival as well as ego-centric models of the physical environment, and that spatial representations are combined with learned information about risk and reward to guide choice and potentiate further learning. Research on infants provides evidence that they form non-perspectival expected-value representations of agents and actions as well, which help them to navigate the human environment. Such representations can be formed by highly-general mental processes such as causal and empathic simulation, and thus afford a foundation for spontaneous moral learning and action that requires no innate moral faculty and can exhibit substantial autonomy with respect to community norms. If moral learning is indeed integral with the acquisition and updating of casual and evaluative models, this affords a new way of understanding well-known but seemingly puzzling patterns in intuitive moral judgment-including the notorious "trolley problems."
Topics: Choice Behavior; Humans; Judgment; Learning; Models, Psychological; Morals
PubMed: 27601269
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.08.015 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Oct 2014"Cognitive control" describes endogenous guidance of behavior in situations where routine stimulus-response associations are suboptimal for achieving a desired goal. The... (Review)
Review
"Cognitive control" describes endogenous guidance of behavior in situations where routine stimulus-response associations are suboptimal for achieving a desired goal. The computational and neural mechanisms underlying this capacity remain poorly understood. We examine recent advances stemming from the application of a Bayesian learner perspective that provides optimal prediction for control processes. In reviewing the application of Bayesian models to cognitive control, we note that an important limitation in current models is a lack of a plausible mechanism for the flexible adjustment of control over conflict levels changing at varying temporal scales. We then show that flexible cognitive control can be achieved by a Bayesian model with a volatility-driven learning mechanism that modulates dynamically the relative dependence on recent and remote experiences in its prediction of future control demand. We conclude that the emergent Bayesian perspective on computational mechanisms of cognitive control holds considerable promise, especially if future studies can identify neural substrates of the variables encoded by these models, and determine the nature (Bayesian or otherwise) of their neural implementation.
Topics: Bayes Theorem; Brain; Brain Mapping; Cognition; Humans; Learning; Mental Processes
PubMed: 24929218
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.06.001 -
Cognitive Neurodynamics Apr 2013In the present conceptual review several theoretical and empirical sources of information were integrated, and a hybrid model of the neural representation of complex... (Review)
Review
In the present conceptual review several theoretical and empirical sources of information were integrated, and a hybrid model of the neural representation of complex mental processing in the human brain was proposed. Based on empirical evidence for strategy-related and inter-individually different task-related brain activation networks, and further based on empirical evidence for a remarkable overlap of fronto-parietal activation networks across different complex mental processes, it was concluded by the author that there might be innate and modular organized neuro-developmental starting regions, for example, in intra-parietal, and both medial and middle frontal brain regions, from which the neural organization of different kinds of complex mental processes emerge differently during individually shaped learning histories. Thus, the here proposed model provides a hybrid of both massive modular and holistic concepts of idiosyncratic brain physiological elaboration of complex mental processing. It is further concluded that 3-D information, obtained by respective methodological approaches, are not appropriate to identify the non-linear spatio-temporal dynamics of complex mental process-related brain activity in a sufficient way. How different participating network parts communicate with each other seems to be an indispensable aspect, which has to be considered in particular to improve our understanding of the neural organization of complex cognition.
PubMed: 24427194
DOI: 10.1007/s11571-012-9220-2 -
International Journal of Environmental... Jun 2022The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is a gender-specific difference in the indirect effect of perceived coaching behaviors of Taekwondo Poomsae...
Exploring the Effects of Coaching Behavior on the Mental Conditioning Process of Taekwondo Poomsae Athletes: A Moderated Mediation Effect of Psychological Needs and Gender.
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is a gender-specific difference in the indirect effect of perceived coaching behaviors of Taekwondo Poomsae athletes on performance mediated by basic psychological needs. To this end, a survey was conducted to collect data from 474 Taekwondo Poomsae athletes (male = 285). Based on the collected data, analysis of basic descriptive statistics and confirmatory factor analysis were performed, and PROCESS was used to test the proposed model of multi mediated moderation. For female athletes, there was an indirect effect of controlling coaching behaviors resulting in performance improvement mediated by autonomy, but this effect was not observed in male athletes. The findings of this study indicate that different mental conditioning strategies should be applied in consideration of athletes' gender to improve coaches' methods of instruction and ultimately improve performance in Taekwondo Poomsae.
Topics: Athletes; Female; Humans; Male; Martial Arts; Mental Processes; Mentoring; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 35742267
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19127016 -
Nature Reviews. Neuroscience Jul 2015Placebo effects are beneficial effects that are attributable to the brain-mind responses to the context in which a treatment is delivered rather than to the specific... (Review)
Review
Placebo effects are beneficial effects that are attributable to the brain-mind responses to the context in which a treatment is delivered rather than to the specific actions of the drug. They are mediated by diverse processes--including learning, expectations and social cognition--and can influence various clinical and physiological outcomes related to health. Emerging neuroscience evidence implicates multiple brain systems and neurochemical mediators, including opioids and dopamine. We present an empirical review of the brain systems that are involved in placebo effects, focusing on placebo analgesia, and a conceptual framework linking these findings to the mind-brain processes that mediate them. This framework suggests that the neuropsychological processes that mediate placebo effects may be crucial for a wide array of therapeutic approaches, including many drugs.
Topics: Brain; Humans; Learning; Mental Processes; Neural Pathways; Neurosciences; Pain Management; Placebo Effect
PubMed: 26087681
DOI: 10.1038/nrn3976 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Oct 2017How do people make sense of the emotions, sensations, and cognitive abilities that make up mental life? Pioneering work on the dimensions of mind perception has been...
How do people make sense of the emotions, sensations, and cognitive abilities that make up mental life? Pioneering work on the dimensions of mind perception has been interpreted as evidence that people consider mental life to have two core components-experience (e.g., hunger, joy) and agency (e.g., planning, self-control) [Gray HM, et al. (2007) 315:619]. We argue that this conclusion is premature: The experience-agency framework may capture people's understanding of the differences among different beings (e.g., dogs, humans, robots, God) but not how people parse mental life itself. Inspired by Gray et al.'s bottom-up approach, we conducted four large-scale studies designed to assess people's conceptions of mental life more directly. This led to the discovery of an organization that differs strikingly from the experience-agency framework: Instead of a broad distinction between experience and agency, our studies consistently revealed three fundamental components of mental life-suites of capacities related to the body, the heart, and the mind-with each component encompassing related aspects of both experience and agency. This body-heart-mind framework distinguishes itself from Gray et al.'s experience-agency framework by its clear and importantly different implications for dehumanization, moral reasoning, and other important social phenomena.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Cognition; Emotions; Female; Humans; Male; Mental Processes; Middle Aged; Morals; Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation; Social Perception
PubMed: 29073059
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1704347114 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Jul 1999It is unclear that we will come to a better understanding of mental processes simply by observing which neural loci are activated while subjects perform a task. Rather,... (Review)
Review
It is unclear that we will come to a better understanding of mental processes simply by observing which neural loci are activated while subjects perform a task. Rather, I suggest here that it is better to come armed with a question that directs one to design tasks in ways that take advantage of the strengths of neuroimaging techniques (particularly positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging). Here I develop a taxonomy of types of questions that can be easily addressed by such techniques. The first class of questions focuses on how information processing is implemented in the brain; these questions can be posed at a very coarse scale, focusing on the entire system that confers a particular ability, or at increasingly more specific scales, ultimately focusing on individual structures or processes. The second class of questions focuses on specifying when particular processes and structures are invoked; these questions focus on how one can use patterns of activation to infer that specific processes and structures were invoked, and on how processing changes in different circumstances. The use of neuroimaging to address these questions is illustrated with results from experiments on visual cognition, and caveats regarding the logic of inference in each case are noted. Finally, the necessary interplay between neuroimaging and behavioural studies is stressed.
Topics: Brain; Cognition; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Mental Processes; Models, Neurological; Tomography, Emission-Computed; Visual Perception
PubMed: 10466151
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.1999.0479 -
Journal of Anatomy Feb 2010Art is a uniquely human activity associated fundamentally with symbolic and abstract cognition. Its practice in human societies throughout the world, coupled with... (Review)
Review
Art is a uniquely human activity associated fundamentally with symbolic and abstract cognition. Its practice in human societies throughout the world, coupled with seeming non-functionality, has led to three major brain theories of art. (1) The localized brain regions and pathways theory links art to multiple neural regions. (2) The display of art and its aesthetics theory is tied to the biological motivation of courtship signals and mate selection strategies in animals. (3) The evolutionary theory links the symbolic nature of art to critical pivotal brain changes in Homo sapiens supporting increased development of language and hierarchical social grouping. Collectively, these theories point to art as a multi-process cognition dependent on diverse brain regions and on redundancy in art-related functional representation.
Topics: Art; Behavior; Biological Evolution; Brain; Creativity; Cultural Evolution; Humans; Mental Processes; Models, Biological; Neuropsychology
PubMed: 19490399
DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2009.01099.x -
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth Feb 2011Although maternal nutrient status influences all aspects of fetal development including the brain, the impact of micronutrient supplementation on the baby's mental... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Although maternal nutrient status influences all aspects of fetal development including the brain, the impact of micronutrient supplementation on the baby's mental function is a topic of debate. This systematic review assesses the effect of single and multiple micronutrient supplementation during pregnancy on offspring mental development.
METHODS
Eleven electronic literature databases were searched using key terms of various combinations and filter string terms. Reference lists of articles selected for review were scanned for citations fitting the same inclusion criteria. Each stage of the literature retrieval and review process was conducted independently by two reviewers. The CONSORT checklist was used to assess study quality.
RESULTS
A total of 1316 articles were retrieved from the electronic database search, of which 18 met the inclusion criteria and were evaluated. The selected studies were randomized controlled trials published from 1983 to 2010, with high variance in sample size, intervention type, and outcome measures. The median CONSORT score was 15 (range 12 - 19). Due to inconsistent interventions and outcome measures among the studies, no conclusive evidence was found that enhancing the intrauterine environment through micronutrient supplementation was associated with child mental development in a number of dimensions. There was some evidence to support n-3 fatty acids or multi-micronutrients having some positive effect on mental development, but the evidence for single nutrients was much weaker.
CONCLUSIONS
The study of children's mental outcomes as a function of prenatal supplementation is still relatively new, but the results of this systematic review suggest that further work with multiple micronutrients and/or n-3 fatty acids should be conducted.
Topics: Child; Child Development; Cognition; Dietary Supplements; Female; Humans; Infant; Intelligence; Mental Processes; Micronutrients; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 21291560
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2393-11-12