Patients on the psychosis spectrum employ an alternate brain network to engage in complex decision-making.

Brain reward processing mechanisms that underlie complex decision-making are compromised in psychosis. The goal of this research was to advance our understanding of the underlying (1) neural mechanisms and (2) discrete neuro-economic/motivational processes that may be altered in complex decision-making in euthymic patients on the psychosis spectrum (PPS). Utilizing a functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging (fmri) paradigm of a well-validated laboratory measure of complex decision-making (Iowa Gambling Task-IGT), the brain activation patterns of a target group of PPS were compared to a demographically matched healthy comparison group (HMC).

The Role of Emotional vs. Cognitive Intelligence in Economic Decision-Making Amongst Older Adults.

The links between emotions, bio-regulatory processes, and economic decision-making are well-established in the context of age-related changes in fluid, real-time, decision competency. The objective of the research reported here is to assess the relative contributions, interactions, and impacts of affective and cognitive intelligence in economic, value-based decision-making amongst older adults. Additionally, we explored this decision-making competency in the context of the neurobiology of aging by examining the neuroanatomical correlates of intelligence and decision-making in an aging cohort.

Distributed neural efficiency: Intelligence and age modulate adaptive allocation of resources in the brain.

Whether superior intelligence is associated with global lower resource consumption in the brain remains unresolved. In order to tap fluid intelligence "Gf" cortical networks, 50 neurologically healthy adults were functionally neuro-imaged while solving a modified version of the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices. "Gf" predicted increased activation of key components of the dorsal attention network (DAN); and age predicted extent of simultaneous deactivation in key components of the default mode network (DMN) during problem-solving.

Authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, and the human prefrontal cortex.

Objective: The psychological processes of doubting and skepticism have recently become topics of neuroscientific investigation. In this context, we developed the False Tagging Theory, a neurobiological model of the belief and doubt process, which proposes that the prefrontal cortex is critical for normative doubt regarding properly comprehended cognitive representations. Here, we put our theory to an empirical test, hypothesizing that patients with prefrontal cortex damage would have a doubt deficit that would manifest as higher authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism.

Creativity in art and science: are there two cultures?

The study of creativity is characterized by a variety of key questions, such as the nature of the creative process, whether there are multiple types of creativity, the relationship between high levels of creativity ("Big C") and everyday creativity ("little c"), and the neural basis of creativity. Herein we examine the question of the relationship between creativity in the arts and the sciences, and use functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the neural basis of creativity in a group of "Big C" individuals from both domains using a word association protocol. The findings give no support for the notion that the artists and scientists represent "two cultures.

Market mechanisms protect the vulnerable brain.

Markets are mechanisms of social exchange, intended to facilitate trading. However, the question remains as to whether markets would help or hurt individuals with decision-makings deficits, as is frequently encountered in the case of cognitive aging. Essential for predicting future gains and losses in monetary and social domains, the striatal nuclei in the brain undergo structural, neurochemical, and functional decline with age.