In the Mind's Eye: Exploring the Relationship Between Visual Mental Imagery and Stereotyping.

Academic Abstract: How do social stereotypes shape and reflect images formed in the mind's eye? Visual mental imagery has long been assumed crucial in creating, maintaining, and perpetuating stereotypes and prejudice. Surprisingly, research in social cognition has only recently begun to explore the causal role of mental images in these phenomena. In contrast, cognitive neuroscience research on visual mental imagery (VMI) has explored the pivotal role of imagery in various consequential cognitive and behavioral phenomena.

Developmental surface dyslexia and dysgraphia in a child with corpus callosum agenesis: an approach to diagnosis and treatment.

We present a case study detailing cognitive performance, functional neuroimaging, and effects of a hypothesis-driven treatment in a 10-year-old girl diagnosed with complete, isolated corpus callosum agenesis. Despite having average overall intellectual abilities, the girl exhibited profound surface dyslexia and dysgraphia. Spelling treatment significantly and persistently improved her spelling of trained irregular words, and this improvement generalized to reading accuracy and speed of trained words.

Visual mental imagery: Evidence for a heterarchical neural architecture.

Theories of Visual Mental Imagery (VMI) emphasize the processes of retrieval, modification, and recombination of sensory information from long-term memory. Yet, only few studies have focused on the behavioral mechanisms and neural correlates supporting VMI of stimuli from different semantic domains. Therefore, we currently have a limited understanding of how the brain generates and maintains mental representations of colors, faces, shapes - to name a few.

Colors in the mind's eye.

The famous "Piazza del Duomo" paper, published in Cortex in 1978, inspired a considerable amount of research on visual mental imagery in brain-damaged patients. As a consequence, single-case reports featuring dissociations between perceptual and imagery abilities challenged the prevailing model of visual mental imagery. Here we focus on mental imagery for colors.

Fronto-parietal networks shape human conscious report through attention gain and reorienting.

How do attention and consciousness interact in the human brain? Rival theories of consciousness disagree on the role of fronto-parietal attentional networks in conscious perception. We recorded neural activity from 727 intracerebral contacts in 13 epileptic patients, while they detected near-threshold targets preceded by attentional cues. Clustering revealed three neural patterns: first, attention-enhanced conscious report accompanied sustained right-hemisphere fronto-temporal activity in networks connected by the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) II-III, and late accumulation of activity (>300 ms post-target) in bilateral dorso-prefrontal and right-hemisphere orbitofrontal cortex (SLF I-III).

Resource sharing in cognitive control: Behavioral evidence and neural substrates.

Cognitive control is a capacity-limited function responsible for the resolution of conflict among competing cognitive processes. However, whether cognitive control handles multiple concurrent requests through a single bottleneck or a resource sharing mechanism remains elusive. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we examined the effect of dual flanker conflict processing on behavioral performance and on activation in regions of the cognitive control network (CCN).

Same, Same but Different? A Multi-Method Review of the Processes Underlying Executive Control.

Attention, working memory, and executive control are commonly considered distinct cognitive functions with important reciprocal interactions. Yet, longstanding evidence from lesion studies has demonstrated both overlap and dissociation in their behavioural expression and anatomical underpinnings, suggesting that a lower dimensional framework could be employed to further identify processes supporting goal-directed behaviour. Here, we describe the anatomical and functional correspondence between attention, working memory, and executive control by providing an overview of cognitive models, as well as recent data from lesion studies, invasive and non-invasive multimodal neuroimaging and brain stimulation.

Visual mental imagery: Inside the mind's eyes.

What are mental images needed for? A variety of everyday situations calls for us to plan ahead; one of the clever ways our mind prepares and strategizes our next move is through mental simulation. A powerful tool in running these simulations is visual mental imagery, which can be conceived as a way to activate and maintain an internal representation of the to-be-imagined object, giving rise to predictions. Therefore, under normal conditions imagination is primarily an endogenous process, and only more rarely can mental images be activated exogenously, for example, by means of intracerebral stimulation.

The cost of attentional reorienting on conscious visual perception: an MEG study.

How do attentional networks influence conscious perception? To answer this question, we used magnetoencephalography in human participants and assessed the effects of spatially nonpredictive or predictive supra-threshold peripheral cues on the conscious perception of near-threshold Gabors. Three main results emerged. (i) As compared with invalid cues, both nonpredictive and predictive valid cues increased conscious detection.

Building a taxonomy of mental processes supporting social functioning to accelerate the integration between psychology and neuroscience: A commentary on Dang et al.

A methodological and theoretical chasm continues to exist between social psychology and social neuroscience, particularly with respect to research relevant to understanding racial bias, social justice and inequality. We use the Dang et al. (2022) study to illustrate the challenge of conducting research that lies between these two sub-disciplines.

Cognitive Considerations in Major Depression: Evaluating the Effects of Pharmacotherapy and ECT on Mood and Executive Control Deficits.

Deficits in the executive control of attention greatly impact the quality of life of patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, attentional deficits are often underemphasized in clinical contexts compared with mood-based symptoms, and a comprehensive approach for specifically evaluating and treating them has yet to be developed. The present study evaluates the efficacy of bifrontal electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) combined with drug therapy (DT) in alleviating mood-related symptomatology and executive control deficits in drug-refractory MDD patients and compares these effects with those observed in MDD patients undergoing DT only.

Accent discrimination abilities during the first days of life: An fNIRS study.

Humans are biologically endowed with the faculty of language. However, the way neonates can crack this complex communicative code is yet not totally understood. While phonetic discrimination has been widely investigated in neonates, less is known about the role of supra-segments patterns in the recognition of native language.

Hemispheric asymmetries in visual mental imagery.

Visual mental imagery is the faculty whereby we can "visualize" objects that are not in our line of sight. Longstanding evidence dating back over thirty years has shown that unilateral brain lesions, especially in the left temporal lobe, can impair aspects of this ability. Yet, there is currently no attempt to identify analogies between these neuropsychological findings of hemispheric asymmetry and those from other neuroscientific approaches.

Visual mental imagery engages the left fusiform gyrus, but not the early visual cortex: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging evidence.

The dominant neural model of visual mental imagery (VMI) stipulates that memories from the medial temporal lobe acquire sensory features in early visual areas. However, neurological patients with damage restricted to the occipital cortex typically show perfectly vivid VMI, while more anterior damages extending into the temporal lobe, especially in the left hemisphere, often cause VMI impairments. Here we present two major results reconciling neuroimaging findings in neurotypical subjects with the performance of brain-damaged patients: (1) A large-scale meta-analysis of 46 fMRI studies, of which 27 investigated specifically visual mental imagery, revealed that VMI engages fronto-parietal networks and a well-delimited region in the left fusiform gyrus.

Impact of unilateral stroke on right hemisphere superiority in executive control.

In our previous study, we have demonstrated a right hemisphere superiority in executive control of attention, with the right hemisphere being more efficient in dealing with conflict for stimuli presented in the left visual field. However, the unique and synergetic contribution of the two hemispheres to this superiority effect is still elusive. Here, using the lateralized attention network test, we compared the flanker conflict effect for stimuli presented in the left and right visual fields in patients with an ischemic stroke in the right or left hemisphere as the unilateral lesion groups and in patients with a transient ischemic attack without an acute infarction as the control group.

Supramodal executive control of attention: Evidence from unimodal and crossmodal dual conflict effects.

Although we have demonstrated that the executive control of attention acts supramodally as shown by significant correlation between conflict effect measures in visual and auditory tasks, no direct evidence of the equivalence in the computational mechanisms governing the allocation of executive control resources within and across modalities has been found. Here, in two independent groups of 40 participants each, we examined the interaction effect of conflict processing in both unimodal (visual) and crossmodal (visual and auditory) dual-conflict paradigms (flanker conflict processing in Task 1 and then in the following Task 2) with a manipulation of the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). In both the unimodal and the crossmodal dual-conflict paradigms, the conflict processing of Task 1 significantly interfered with the processing of Task 2 when the SOA was short, as shown by an additive interference effect of Task 1 on Task 2 under the time constraints.

Supramodal Mechanisms of the Cognitive Control Network in Uncertainty Processing.

Information processing under conditions of uncertainty requires the involvement of cognitive control. Despite behavioral evidence of the supramodal function (i.e.

The functional anatomy of cognitive control: A domain-general brain network for uncertainty processing.

Cognitive control is the coordination of mental operations under conditions of uncertainty in accordance with goal-directed behaviors, and plays a key role in the domains of executive control, working memory, and decision-making. Although there is emerging evidence of common involvement of the cognitive control network (CCN) of the brain in these domains, this network has mostly been linked to the processing of conflict, which is just one case of an increase in uncertainty. Here, we conducted an activation-likelihood-estimation-based large-scale meta-analysis of 289 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in the three domains to examine the common involvement of the CCN in uncertainty processing by contrasting the high-uncertainty versus low-uncertainty conditions.

Testing a Cognitive Control Model of Human Intelligence.

The definition of human intelligence and its underlying psychological constructs have long been debated. Although previous studies have investigated the fundamental cognitive functions determining intellectual abilities, such as the broadly defined executive functions including working memory, the core process has yet to be identified. A potential candidate for such a role might be cognitive control, a psychological construct for the coordination of thoughts and actions under conditions of uncertainty.

Anterior insular cortex is a bottleneck of cognitive control.

Cognitive control, with a limited capacity, is a core process in human cognition for the coordination of thoughts and actions. Although the regions involved in cognitive control have been identified as the cognitive control network (CCN), it is still unclear whether a specific region of the CCN serves as a bottleneck limiting the capacity of cognitive control (CCC). Here, we used a perceptual decision-making task with conditions of high cognitive load to challenge the CCN and to assess the CCC in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Right hemisphere superiority for executive control of attention.

Over forty years have passed since the first evidence showing the unbalanced attentional allocation of humans across the two visual fields, and since then, a wealth of behavioral, neurophysiological, and clinical data increasingly showed a right hemisphere dominance for orienting of attention. However, inconsistent evidence exists regarding the right-hemisphere dominance for executive control of attention, possibly due to a lack of consideration of its dynamics with the alerting and orienting functions. In this study, we used a version of the Attentional Network Test with lateralized presentation of the stimuli to the left visual field (processed by the right hemisphere, RH) and right visual field (processed by the left hemisphere, LH) to examine visual field differences in executive control of attention under alerting and orienting of attention.

Gray matter volume of the anterior insular cortex and social networking.

In human life, social context requires the engagement in complex interactions among individuals as the dynamics of social networks. The evolution of the brain as the neurological basis of the mind must be crucial in supporting social networking. Although the relationship between social networking and the amygdala, a small but core region for emotion processing, has been reported, other structures supporting sophisticated social interactions must be involved and need to be identified.

Deficit of supramodal executive control of attention in schizophrenia.

Although a deficit in executive control of attention is one of the hallmarks in schizophrenia that has significant impact on everyday functioning due to its relationship with thought processing, whether this deficit occurs across modalities, i.e., is supramodal, remains unclear.