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Psychological Review Nov 2017In this paper, we argue that prefrontal cortex ontogenetic functional development is best understood through an ecological lens. We first begin by reviewing evidence... (Review)
Review
In this paper, we argue that prefrontal cortex ontogenetic functional development is best understood through an ecological lens. We first begin by reviewing evidence supporting the existing consensus that PFC structural and functional development is protracted based on maturational constraints. We then examine recent findings from neuroimaging studies in infants, early life stress research, and connectomics that support the novel hypothesis that PFC functional development is driven by reciprocal processes of neural adaptation and niche construction. We discuss implications and predictions of this model for redefining the construct of executive functions and for informing typical and atypical child development. This ecological account of PFC functional development moves beyond descriptions of development that are characteristic of existing frameworks, and provides novel insights into the mechanisms of developmental change, including its catalysts and influences. (PsycINFO Database Record
Topics: Child; Child Development; Executive Function; Humans; Prefrontal Cortex
PubMed: 29106267
DOI: 10.1037/rev0000078 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Sep 2023Convergent studies corroborated the idea that the right prefrontal cortex is the crucial brain region responsible for inhibiting our actions. However, which sub-regions... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Convergent studies corroborated the idea that the right prefrontal cortex is the crucial brain region responsible for inhibiting our actions. However, which sub-regions of the right prefrontal cortex are involved is still a matter of debate. To map the inhibitory function of the sub-regions of the right prefrontal cortex, we performed Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analyses and meta-regressions (ES-SDM) of fMRI studies exploring inhibitory control. Sixty-eight studies (1684 subjects, 912 foci) were identified and divided in three groups depending on the incremental demand. Overall, our results showed that higher was the inhibitory demand based on the individual differences in performances, more the upper portion of the right prefrontal cortex was activated to achieve a successful inhibition. Conversely, a lower demand of the inhibitory function, was associated with the inferior portions of the right prefrontal cortex recruitment. Notably, in the latter case, we also observed activation of areas associated with working memory and responsible for cognitive strategies.
Topics: Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Prefrontal Cortex; Brain; Memory, Short-Term; Brain Mapping
PubMed: 37327836
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105285 -
The European Journal of Neuroscience Mar 2017The ability to walk is critical for functional independence and wellbeing. The pre-frontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role in cognitive control of locomotion, notably...
The ability to walk is critical for functional independence and wellbeing. The pre-frontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role in cognitive control of locomotion, notably under attention-demanding conditions. Factors that influence brain responses to cognitive demands of locomotion, however, are poorly understood. Herein, we evaluated the individual and combined effects of gender and perceived stress on stride velocity and PFC Oxygenated Hemoglobin (HbO ) assessed during single and dual-task walking conditions. The experimental paradigm included Normal Walk (NW); Cognitive Interference (Alpha); and Walk-While-Talk (WWT) tasks. An instrumented walkway was used to assess stride velocity in NW and WWT conditions. Functional Near-Infrared-Spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to quantify PFC HbO levels during NW, Alpha and WWT. Perceived task-related stress was evaluated with a single 11-point scale item. Participants were community residing older adults (age = 76.8 ± 6.7 years; %female = 56). Results revealed that higher perceived stress was associated with greater decline in stride velocity from single to dual-task conditions among men. Three-way interactions revealed that gender moderated the effect of perceived stress on changes in HbO levels comparing WWT to NW and Alpha. Attenuation in the increase in HbO levels, in high compared to low perceived stress levels, from the two single task conditions to WWT was observed only in men. Thus, older men may be more vulnerable to the effect of perceived stress on the change in PFC oxygenation levels across walking conditions that vary in terms of cognitive demands. These findings confer important implications for assessment and treatment of individuals at risk of mobility impairments.
Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cognition; Female; Humans; Male; Oxygen Consumption; Oxyhemoglobins; Prefrontal Cortex; Sex Factors; Stress, Physiological; Walking
PubMed: 28028863
DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13518 -
Brain : a Journal of Neurology Jul 2014The prefrontal cortex of the primate brain has a modular architecture based on the aggregation of neurons in minicolumnar arrangements having afferent and efferent... (Review)
Review
The prefrontal cortex of the primate brain has a modular architecture based on the aggregation of neurons in minicolumnar arrangements having afferent and efferent connections distributed across many brain regions to represent, select and/or maintain behavioural goals and executive commands. Prefrontal cortical microcircuits are assumed to play a key role in the perception to action cycle that integrates relevant information about environment, and then selects and enacts behavioural responses. Thus, neurons within the interlaminar microcircuits participate in various functional states requiring the integration of signals across cortical layers and the selection of executive variables. Recent research suggests that executive abilities emerge from cortico-cortical interactions between interlaminar prefrontal cortical microcircuits, whereas their disruption is involved in a broad spectrum of neurologic and psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's and drug addiction. The focus of this review is on the structural, functional and pathological approaches involving cortical minicolumns. Based on recent technological progress it has been demonstrated that microstimulation of infragranular cortical layers with patterns of microcurrents derived from supragranular layers led to an increase in cognitive performance. This suggests that interlaminar prefrontal cortical microcircuits are playing a causal role in improving cognitive performance. An important reason for the new interest in cortical modularity comes from both the impressive progress in understanding anatomical, physiological and pathological facets of cortical microcircuits and the promise of neural prosthetics for patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Topics: Cognition Disorders; Executive Function; Humans; Prefrontal Cortex
PubMed: 24531625
DOI: 10.1093/brain/awt359 -
Genes, Brain, and Behavior Mar 2020Adolescence is a highly dynamic period of development, which includes the final organizational phases of neural maturation within the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The... (Review)
Review
Adolescence is a highly dynamic period of development, which includes the final organizational phases of neural maturation within the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The organizational events of neural pruning and myelination occur in a sex-specific manner, potentially giving rise to the disparities in mood disorders in adulthood. Because of the extended developmental time period of the PFC, environmental insults, including psychosocial stressors, may play a major role in steering the maturation of this region. In this review, the literature surrounding the sex specific alterations that occur in the PFC in rodent models following adolescent stress will be discussed. This will be complimented by a brief review on the state of human research in PFC sex differences in the development of white matter and cytoarchitecture across the lifespan. Taken together, the impact of developmental psychosocial stress on the circuitry of the PFC and resulting adult phenotypes will be summarized with a focus on the importance of considering sex differences in order to build a better understanding of developmental influences on adult disorders.
Topics: Adolescent; Adolescent Development; Animals; Cytoskeleton; Humans; Myelin Sheath; Prefrontal Cortex; Sex Factors; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 31769158
DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12626 -
NeuroImage Dec 2022Intergenerational sustainability requires people of the present generation to make sacrifices today to benefit others of future generations (e.g. mitigating climate...
Intergenerational sustainability requires people of the present generation to make sacrifices today to benefit others of future generations (e.g. mitigating climate change, reducing public debt). Individuals vary greatly in their intergenerational sustainability, and the cognitive and neural sources of these interindividual differences are not yet well understood. We here combined neuroscientific and behavioral methods by assessing interindividual differences in cortical thickness and by using a common-pool resource paradigm with intergenerational contingencies. This enabled us to look for objective, stable, and trait-like neural markers of interindividual differences in consequential intergenerational behavior. We found that individuals behaving sustainably (vs. unsustainably) were marked by greater cortical thickness of the dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Given that these brain areas are involved in perspective-taking and self-control and supported by mediation analyses, we speculate that greater cortical thickness of these brain areas better enable individuals to take the perspective of future generations and to resist temptations to maximize personal benefits that incur costs for future generations. By meeting recent calls for the contribution of neuroscience to sustainability research, it is our hope that the present study advances the transdisciplinary understanding of interindividual differences in intergenerational sustainability.
Topics: Humans; Prefrontal Cortex; Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex; Brain; Magnetic Resonance Imaging
PubMed: 36202158
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119664 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... May 2016The ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are two central nodes of the "reward circuit" of the brain. Human neuroimaging studies have demonstrated...
UNLABELLED
The ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are two central nodes of the "reward circuit" of the brain. Human neuroimaging studies have demonstrated coincident activation and functional connectivity between these brain regions, and animal studies have demonstrated that the vmPFC modulates ventral striatum activity. However, there have been no comparable data in humans to address whether the vmPFC may be critical for the reward-related response properties of the ventral striatum. In this study, we used fMRI in five neurosurgical patients with focal vmPFC lesions to test the hypothesis that the vmPFC is necessary for enhancing ventral striatum responses to the anticipation of reward. In support of this hypothesis, we found that, compared with age- and gender-matched neurologically healthy subjects, the vmPFC-lesioned patients had reduced ventral striatal activity during the anticipation of reward. Furthermore, we observed that the vmPFC-lesioned patients had decreased volumes of the accumbens subregion of the ventral striatum. Together, these functional and structural neuroimaging data provide novel evidence for a critical role for the vmPFC in contributing to reward-related activity of the ventral striatum. These results offer new insight into the functional and structural interactions between key components of the brain circuitry underlying human affective function and decision-making.
SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT
Maladaptive decision-making is a common problem across multiple mental health disorders. Developing new pathophysiologically based strategies for diagnosis and treatment thus requires a better understanding of the brain circuits responsible for adaptive decision-making and related psychological subprocesses (e.g., reward valuation, anticipation, and motivation). Animal studies provide evidence that these functions are mediated through direct interactions between two key nodes of a posited "reward circuit," the ventral striatum and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). For the first time in humans, we demonstrate that damage to the vmPFC results in decreased ventral striatum activity during reward anticipation. These data provide unique evidence on the causal mechanisms by which the vmPFC and ventral striatum interact during the anticipation of rewards.
Topics: Adult; Arousal; Cerebrovascular Circulation; Decision Making; Female; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Neurosurgical Procedures; Prefrontal Cortex; Psychomotor Performance; Reward; Ventral Striatum; Young Adult
PubMed: 27147657
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4236-15.2016 -
Neuroscience Mar 2017Anxiety often is studied as a stand-alone construct in laboratory models. But in the context of coping with real-life anxiety, its negative impacts extend beyond... (Review)
Review
Anxiety often is studied as a stand-alone construct in laboratory models. But in the context of coping with real-life anxiety, its negative impacts extend beyond aversive feelings and involve disruptions in ongoing goal-directed behaviors and cognitive functioning. Critical examples of cognitive constructs affected by anxiety are cognitive flexibility and decision making. In particular, anxiety impedes the ability to shift flexibly between strategies in response to changes in task demands, as well as the ability to maintain a strategy in the presence of distractors. The brain region most critically involved in behavioral flexibility is the prefrontal cortex (PFC), but little is known about how anxiety impacts PFC encoding of internal and external events that are critical for flexible behavior. Here we review animal and human neurophysiological and neuroimaging studies implicating PFC neural processing in anxiety-induced deficits in cognitive flexibility. We then suggest experimental and analytical approaches for future studies to gain a better mechanistic understanding of impaired cognitive inflexibility in anxiety and related disorders.
Topics: Animals; Anxiety; Cognition; Executive Function; Humans; Prefrontal Cortex
PubMed: 27316551
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.06.013 -
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) Apr 2023The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has been shown to be associated with prosocial behavior. However, the direction of this relationship remains controversial. To resolve...
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has been shown to be associated with prosocial behavior. However, the direction of this relationship remains controversial. To resolve inconsistencies in the existing literature, we introduced the concept of default prosociality preference and hypothesized that this preference moderates the relationship between gray matter volume in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and prosocial behavior. This study analyzed the data of 168 participants obtained from voxel-based morphometry, 4 types of economic games, and 3 different measures of social value orientation that represent default prosociality preference. Here we show that, in individuals who were consistently classified as proself on the 3 social value orientation measures, gray matter volume in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was positively associated with prosocial behavior. However, in individuals who were consistently classified as prosocial, the direction of this association was vice versa. These results indicate that the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex regulates default prosociality preference.
Topics: Humans; Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex; Prefrontal Cortex; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Gray Matter; Cerebral Cortex
PubMed: 36396873
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac429 -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences Mar 2011Self-regulatory failure is a core feature of many social and mental health problems. Self-regulation can be undermined by failures to transcend overwhelming temptations,... (Review)
Review
Self-regulatory failure is a core feature of many social and mental health problems. Self-regulation can be undermined by failures to transcend overwhelming temptations, negative moods and resource depletion, and when minor lapses in self-control snowball into self-regulatory collapse. Cognitive neuroscience research suggests that successful self-regulation is dependent on top-down control from the prefrontal cortex over subcortical regions involved in reward and emotion. We highlight recent neuroimaging research on self-regulatory failure, the findings of which support a balance model of self-regulation whereby self-regulatory failure occurs whenever the balance is tipped in favor of subcortical areas, either due to particularly strong impulses or when prefrontal function itself is impaired. Such a model is consistent with recent findings in the cognitive neuroscience of addictive behavior, emotion regulation and decision-making.
Topics: Attitude; Brain Mapping; Cognition; Cues; Diagnostic Imaging; Emotions; Humans; Models, Biological; Neurosciences; Prefrontal Cortex; Prejudice; Social Behavior; Social Control, Informal
PubMed: 21273114
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2010.12.005