Childhood exercise predicts response inhibition in later life via changes in brain connectivity and structure.

Participation in exercise during early life (i.e., childhood through adolescence) enhances response inhibition; however, it is unclear whether participation in exercise during early life positively predicts response inhibition in later life.

Urgency Promotes Affective Disengagement: Effects From Bivalent Cues on Preference Formation for Abstract Images.

Although previous research has characterized the important role for spatial and affective pre-cues in the control of visual attention, less is known about the impact of pre-cues on preference formation. In preference formation, the gaze cascade phenomenon suggests that the gaze serves both to enhance and express "liking" during value-based decision-making. This phenomenon has been interpreted as a type of Pavlovian approach toward preferred objects.

Evaluative Processing of Food Images: Longer Viewing for Indecisive Preference Formation.

The well-known gaze cascade hypothesis proposes that as people look longer at an item, they tend to show an increased preference for it. However, using single food images as stimuli, we recently obtained results that clearly deviated from the general proposal that the gaze both expresses and influences preference formation. Instead, the pattern of data depended on the self-determination of exposure duration as well as the type of evaluation task.

Active Confirmation Bias in the Evaluative Processing of Food Images.

Predictive processing is fundamental to many aspects of the human mind, including perception and decision-making. It remains to be elucidated, however, in which way predictive information impacts on evaluative processing, particularly in tasks that employ bivalent stimulus sets. Various accounts, including framing, proactive interference, and cognitive control, appear to imply contradictory proposals on the relation between prediction and preference formation.

Evaluative Processing of Food Images: A Conditional Role for Viewing in Preference Formation.

Previous research suggested a role of gaze in preference formation, not merely as an expression of preference, but also as a causal influence. According to the gaze cascade hypothesis, the longer subjects look at an item, the more likely they are to develop a preference for it. However, to date the connection between viewing and liking has been investigated predominately with self-paced viewing conditions in which the subjects were required to select certain items from simultaneously presented stimuli on the basis of perceived visual attractiveness.

A gaze bias with coarse spatial indexing during a gambling task.

Researchers have used eye-tracking methods to infer cognitive processes during decision making in choice tasks involving visual materials. Gaze likelihood analysis has shown a cascading effect, suggestive of a causal role for the gaze in preference formation during evaluative decision making. According to the gaze bias hypothesis, the gaze serves to build commitment gradually towards a choice.

Influence of multiple action-outcome associations on the transition dynamics toward an optimal choice in rats.

When faced with familiar versus novel options, animals may exploit the acquired action-outcome associations or attempt to form new associations. Little is known about which factors determine the strategy of choice behavior in partially comprehended environments. Here we examine the influence of multiple action-outcome associations on choice behavior in the context of rewarding outcomes (food) and aversive outcomes (electric foot-shock).

Women's Preference for a Male Acquaintance Enhances Social Reward Processing of Material Goods in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex.

Men, like the male of many animal species, use gifts to build satisfactory relationships with a desired woman. From the woman's perspective, all gifts are not always equally rewarding; the reward value of a gift depends on two factors: (1) the giver and (2) the type of the gift (the gift's social meaning). In this study, we investigated how these two factors interactively determine the reward value of a gift.

The deaf utilize phonological representations in visually presented verbal memory tasks.

The phonological abilities of congenitally deaf individuals are inferior to those of people who can hear. However, deaf individuals can acquire spoken languages by utilizing orthography and lip-reading. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show that deaf individuals utilize phonological representations via a mnemonic process.

Within-session dynamics of theta-gamma coupling and high-frequency oscillations during spatial alternation in rat hippocampal area CA1.

Theta-gamma coupling in the hippocampus is thought to be involved in cognitive processes. A large body of research establishes that the hippocampus plays a crucial role in the organization and maintenance of episodic memory, and that sharp-wave ripples (SWR) contribute to memory consolidation processes. Here, we investigated how the local field potentials in the hippocampal CA1 area adapted along with rats' behavioral changes within a session during a spatial alternation task that included a 1-s fixation and a 1.

Theta phase shift in spike timing and modulation of gamma oscillation: a dynamic code for spatial alternation during fixation in rat hippocampal area CA1.

Although hippocampus is thought to perform various memory-related functions, little is known about the underlying dynamics of neural activity during a preparatory stage before a spatial choice. Here we focus on neural activity that reflects a memory-based code for spatial alternation, independent of current sensory and motor parameters. We recorded multiple single units and local field potentials in the stratum pyramidale of dorsal hippocampal area CA1 while rats performed a delayed spatial-alternation task.

Fear conditioning induces guinea pig auditory cortex activation by foot shock alone.

The present study used an optical imaging paradigm to investigate plastic changes in the auditory cortex induced by fear conditioning, in which a sound (conditioned stimulus, CS) was paired with an electric foot-shock (unconditioned stimulus, US). We report that, after conditioning, auditory information could be retrieved on the basis of an electric foot-shock alone. Before conditioning, the auditory cortex showed no response to a foot-shock presented in the absence of sound.

Context and the renewal of conditioned taste aversion: the role of rat dorsal hippocampus examined by electrolytic lesion.

An extinguished conditioned response can sometimes be restored. Previous research has shown that this renewal effect depends on the context in which conditioning versus extinction takes place. Here we provide evidence that the dorsal hippocampus is critically involved in the representation of context that underscores the renewal effect.

A code for spatial alternation during fixation in rat hippocampal CA1 neurons.

The classical notion of hippocampal CA1 "place cells," whose activity tracks physical locations, has undergone substantial revision in recent years. Here, we provide further evidence of an abstract spatial code in hippocampal CA1, which relies on memory and adds complexity to the basic "place cell." Using a nose-poking paradigm with four male Wistar rats, we specifically concentrated on activity during fixation, when the rat was immobile and waiting for the next task event in a memory-guided spatial alternation task.

Behavioral state-dependent episodic representations in rat CA1 neuronal activity during spatial alternation.

Hippocampus is considered crucial for episodic memory, as confirmed by recent findings of "episode-dependent place cells" in rodent studies, and is known to show differential activity between active exploration and quiet immobility. Most place-cell studies have focused on active periods, so the hippocampal involvement in episodic representations is less well understood. Here, we draw a typology of episode-dependent hippocampal activity among three behavioral periods, presumably governed by different molecular mechanisms: Active exploration with type 1 theta, quiet alertness with type 2 theta, and consummation with large amplitude irregular activity.