Neural evidence for advantaged representation of first items in memory.

Visual areas activated during perception can retain specific information held in memory without the presence of physical stimuli via distributed activity patterns. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the delay-period representation of information in visual areas is modulated by factors such as memory load and task demands, raising the possibility of serial position as another potential modulator. Specifically, enhanced representation of first items during the post-encoding delay period may serve as a mechanism underlying the well-established but not well-understood primacy effect - the mnemonic advantage of first items.

Assessment of Exercise Capacity of Individuals with Long COVID: A Cross-sectional Study.

Background: Clinical investigations of long-term effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are rarely translated to objective findings.

Objectives: To assess the functional capacity of individuals reported on deconditioning that hampered their return to their pre-COVID routine.

Methods: Assessment included the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) and the 30-second sit-to-stand test (30-STST).

Characteristics of long-COVID among older adults: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To describe long-COVID symptoms among older adults and to assess the risk factors for two common long-COVID symptoms: fatigue and dyspnea.

Methods: This is a multicenter, prospective cohort study conducted in Israel, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy. Individuals were included at least 30 days after their COVID-19 diagnosis.

Risk Factors and Multidimensional Assessment of Long Coronavirus Disease Fatigue: A Nested Case-Control Study.

Background: Fatigue is the most prevalent and debilitating long-COVID (coronavirus disease) symptom; however, risk factors and pathophysiology of this condition remain unknown. We assessed risk factors for long-COVID fatigue and explored its possible pathophysiology.

Methods: This was a nested case-control study in a COVID recovery clinic.

Participation of the left inferior frontal gyrus in human originality.

Human creative cognition is commonly described as a twofold cyclic process that involves an idea generation phase and an idea evaluation phase. Although the evaluation phase makes a crucial contribution to originality, its underlying mechanisms have not received sufficient research attention. Here, we suggest that the left inferior frontal gyrus (lIFG) plays a major role in the interplay between the evaluation and generation networks and that inhibiting this region's activity may have an effect on "releasing" the generation neural network, resulting in greater originality.

Expertise in musical improvisation and creativity: the mediation of idea evaluation.

The current study explored the influence of musical expertise, and specifically training in improvisation on creativity, using the framework of the twofold model, according to which creativity involves a process of idea generation and idea evaluation. Based on the hypothesis that a strict evaluation phase may have an inhibiting effect over the generation phase, we predicted that training in improvisation may have a "releasing effect" on the evaluation system, leading to greater creativity. To examine this hypothesis, we compared performance among three groups--musicians trained in improvisation, musicians not trained in improvisation, and non-musicians--on divergent thinking tasks and on their evaluation of creativity.

Brain lateralization of metrical accenting in musicians.

The perception of meter, or the alternation of strong and weak beats, was assessed in musically trained listeners through magnetoencephalography. Metrical accents were examined with no temporal disruption of the serial grouping of tones. Results showed an effect of metrical processing among identical standard tones in the left hemisphere, with larger responses on strong than on weak beats.

Perceiving rhythm where none exists: event-related potential (ERP) correlates of subjective accenting.

Previous research suggests that our past experience of rhythmic structure in music results in a tendency for Western listeners to subjectively accent equitonal isochronous sequences. We have shown in an earlier study that the occurrence of a slightly softer tone in the 8th to 11th position of such a sequence evokes a P300 event-related potential (ERP) response of different amplitudes depending on whether the tone occurs in putatively subjectively accented or unaccented sequence positions (Brochard et al., 2003).

The "ticktock" of our internal clock: direct brain evidence of subjective accents in isochronous sequences.

The phenomenon commonly known as subjective accenting refers to the fact that identical sound events within purely isochronous sequences are perceived as unequal. Although subjective accenting has been extensively explored using behavioral methods, no physiological evidence has ever been provided for it. In the present study, we tested the notion that these perceived irregularities are related to the dynamic deployment of attention.