Preserved Metacognition for Undetected Visuomotor Deviations.

Humans can successfully correct deviations of movements without conscious detection of such deviations, suggesting limited awareness of movement details. We ask whether such limited awareness impairs confidence (metacognition). We recorded functional magnetic resonance imaging data while 31 human female and male participants detected cursor deviations during a visuomotor reaching task and rated their confidence retrospectively.

Brain Substrates for Distinct Spatial Processing Components Contributing to Hemineglect in Humans.

Several cortical and sub-cortical regions in the right hemisphere, particularly in parietal and frontal lobe, but also in temporal lobe and thalamus, are part of neural networks critically implicated in spatial and attentional functions. Damage to different sites within these networks can cause hemispatial neglect. The aim of this study was to identify the neural substrates of different spatial processing components that are known to contribute to neglect symptoms.

Prism adaptation effect on neural activity and spatial neglect depend on brain lesion site.

Prism adaptation (PA) is one of the few rehabilitation techniques for spatial neglect that directly targets physiological mechanisms underlying space representation, but its efficacy and neural mechanisms remain unresolved. Using PA and fMRI in patients with spatial neglect after an acute right-hemispheric stroke, we previously observed post-PA increases in activity in bilateral parietal, frontal, and occipital cortex during specific visuo-spatial tasks (bisection and visual search). However, given a key role of parietal areas for PA in healthy individuals, we hypothesized that such activation might differ according to the site of brain damage.

Adding methylphenidate to prism-adaptation improves outcome in neglect patients. A randomized clinical trial.

Unlabelled: Spatial neglect is one of the main predictors of poor functional recovery after stroke. Many therapeutic interventions have been developed to alleviate this condition, but to date the evidence of their effectiveness is still scarce.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to test whether combining prism adaptation (PA) and methylphenidate (MP) could enhance the recovery of neglect patients at a functional level.

Metacognition of visuomotor decisions in conversion disorder.

Motor conversion disorder (CD) entails genuine disturbances in the subjective experience of patients who maintain they are unable to perform a motor function, despite lack of apparent neurological damage. Abilities by which individuals assess their own capacities during performance in a task are called metacognitive, and distinctive impairment of such abilities is observed in several disorders of self-awareness such as blindsight and anosognosia. In CD, previous research has focused on the recruitment of motor and emotional brain systems, generally linking symptoms to altered limbic-motor interactions; however, metacognitive function has not been studied to our knowledge.

Neural functional correlates of the impact of socio-emotional stimuli on performances on a flanker task in children aged 9-11 years.

Immature cognition is susceptible to interference from competing information, and particularly in affectively charged situations. Several studies have reported activation in the anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex and amygdala associated with emotional conflict processing in adults but literature is lacking regarding children. Moreover, studies in children and adolescents still disagree regarding the functional activation of amygdala related to facial stimuli.

Alterations in neural systems mediating cognitive flexibility and inhibition in mood disorders.

Impairment in mental flexibility may be a key component contributing to cardinal cognitive symptoms among mood disorders patients, particularly thought control disorders. Impaired ability to switch from one thought to another might reflect difficulties in either generating new mental states, inhibiting previous states, or both. However, the neural underpinnings of impaired cognitive flexibility in mood disorders remain largely unresolved.

What makes your brain suggestible? Hypnotizability is associated with differential brain activity during attention outside hypnosis.

Unlabelled: Theoretical models of hypnosis have emphasized the importance of attentional processes in accounting for hypnotic phenomena but their exact nature and brain substrates remain unresolved. Individuals vary in their susceptibility to hypnosis, a variability often attributed to differences in attentional functioning such as greater ability to filter irrelevant information and inhibit prepotent responses. However, behavioral studies of attentional performance outside the hypnotic state have provided conflicting results.

Temporal dynamics of musical emotions examined through intersubject synchrony of brain activity.

To study emotional reactions to music, it is important to consider the temporal dynamics of both affective responses and underlying brain activity. Here, we investigated emotions induced by music using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a data-driven approach based on intersubject correlations (ISC). This method allowed us to identify moments in the music that produced similar brain activity (i.

Neural correlates of generation and inhibition of verbal association patterns in mood disorders.

Objectives: Thought disorders such as rumination or flight of ideas are frequent in patients with mood disorders, and not systematically linked to mood state. These symptoms point to anomalies in cognitive processes mediating the generation and control of thoughts; for example, associative thinking and inhibition. However, their neural substrates are not known.

Neural substrates of rumination tendency in non-depressed individuals.

The tendency to ruminate, experienced by both healthy individuals and depressed patients, can be quantified by the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS). We hypothesized that brain activity associated with rumination tendency might not only occur at rest but also persist to some degree during a cognitive task. We correlated RRS with whole-brain fMRI data of 20 healthy subjects during rest and during a face categorization task with different levels of cognitive demands (easy or difficult conditions).

Functional neuro-anatomy of egocentric versus allocentric space representation.

Introduction: The functional neuroanatomy of the egocentric and allocentric representations of space remains poorly studied with neuroimaging. Here we aim to determine brain structures subserving two different kinds of spatial representations centred on the main axis of either the body or the external scene.

Method: Sixteen healthy participants evaluated the alignment of a bar relative to the middle of their body (Ego) or relative to another stimulus (Allo) during functional MRI.

Hypnosis, attachment, and oxytocin:an integrative perspective (1.).

This article considers links between clinical hypnosis, attachment theory, and oxytocin. First, it proposes that commonalities between clinical hypnosis and attachment theory may improve our understanding of the hypnotherapeutic process. Then, it suggests that an integrative model unifying clinical hypnosis and attachment theory may constitute a link between clinical hypnosis and a neurobiological factor such as oxytocin.

Distinct patterns of functional brain connectivity correlate with objective performance and subjective beliefs.

The degree of correspondence between objective performance and subjective beliefs varies widely across individuals. Here we demonstrate that functional brain network connectivity measured before exposure to a perceptual decision task covaries with individual objective (type-I performance) and subjective (type-II performance) accuracy. Increases in connectivity with type-II performance were observed in networks measured while participants directed attention inward (focus on respiration), but not in networks measured during states of neutral (resting state) or exogenous attention.

Neural substrates of cognitive switching and inhibition in a face processing task.

We frequently need to change our current occupation, an operation requiring additional effortful cognitive demands. Switching from one task to another may involve two distinct processes: inhibition of the previously relevant task-set, and initiation of a new one. Here we tested whether these two processes are underpinned by separate neural substrates, and whether they differ depending on the nature of the task and the emotional content of stimuli.

Time-course of motor inhibition during hypnotic paralysis: EEG topographical and source analysis.

Cognitive hypotheses of hypnotic phenomena have proposed that executive attentional systems may be either inhibited or overactivated to produce a selective alteration or disconnection of some mental operations. Recent brain imaging studies have reported changes in activity in both medial (anterior cingulate) and lateral (inferior) prefrontal areas during hypnotically induced paralysis, overlapping with areas associated with attentional control as well as inhibitory processes. To compare motor inhibition mechanisms responsible for paralysis during hypnosis and those recruited by voluntary inhibition, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to record brain activity during a modified bimanual Go-Nogo task, which was performed either in a normal baseline condition or during unilateral paralysis caused by hypnotic suggestion or by simulation (in two groups of participants, each tested once with both hands valid and once with unilateral paralysis).

Prism adaptation enhances activity of intact fronto-parietal areas in both hemispheres in neglect patients.

Unilateral spatial neglect involves a failure to report or orient to stimuli in the contralesional (left) space due to right brain damage, with severe handicap in everyday activities and poor rehabilitation outcome. Because behavioral studies suggest that prism adaptation may reduce spatial neglect, we investigated the neural mechanisms underlying prism effects on visuo-spatial processing in neglect patients. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the effect of (right-deviating) prisms on seven patients with left neglect, by comparing brain activity while they performed three different spatial tasks on the same visual stimuli (bisection, search, and memory), before and after a single prism-adaptation session.

[Analgesic placebo effect: contribution of the neurosciences].

Over the past twenty years, neuroscience has changed our understanding of placebo analgesia. Often perceived by researchers as a response bias adding noise to the assessment of efficacy, in the patients' view, it is associated with charlatanism. The origin of the word, qualifying a patient's response to "please" the doctor, did not help its rightful appreciation.

Neural bases of hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women: an event-related FMRI study.

Introduction: Although there is an abundant debate regarding the mechanisms sustaining one of the most common sexual complaints among women, i.e., female hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), little remains known about the specific neural bases of this disorder.

The brain under self-control: modulation of inhibitory and monitoring cortical networks during hypnotic paralysis.

Brain mechanisms of hypnosis are poorly known. Cognitive accounts proposed that executive attentional systems may cause selective inhibition or disconnection of some mental operations. To assess motor and inhibitory brain circuits during hypnotic paralysis, we designed a go-no-go task while volunteers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in three conditions: normal state, hypnotic left-hand paralysis, and feigned paralysis.

Motor inhibition in hysterical conversion paralysis.

Brain mechanisms underlying hysterical conversion symptoms are still poorly known. Recent hypotheses suggested that activation of motor pathways might be suppressed by inhibitory signals based on particular emotional situations. To assess motor and inhibitory brain circuits during conversion paralysis, we designed a go-nogo task while a patient underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).