Comparative venom analysis between melanistic and normally coloured phenotypes of the common adder ().

Snake venom is an ecologically relevant functional trait directly linked with a snake's fitness and survival, facilitating predation and defence. Snake venom variation occurs at all taxonomic levels, but the study at the intraspecific level is still in its early stages. The common adder () exhibits considerable variation in colour phenotypes across its distribution range.

Image perception and reception in wordless picture books: Eye movements of children with intellectual disabilities.

Wordless picture books enhance comprehension and vocabulary growth and motivate children with intellectual disabilities (ID) to participate in literary activities. However, the reception of picture books can be challenging because deliberate selective attention processes and recognition of the image's meaning are often delayed. Examining eye movements may help explore these cognitive processes.

Variability in white matter structure relates to hallucination proneness.

Hallucinations are a prominent transdiagnostic psychiatric symptom but are also prevalent in individuals who do not require clinical care. Moreover, persistent psychosis-like experience in otherwise healthy individuals may be related to an increased risk to transition to a psychotic disorder. This suggests a common etiology across clinical and non-clinical individuals along a multidimensional psychosis continuum that may be detectable in structural variations of the brain.

Parallel EEG assessment of different sound predictability levels in tinnitus.

Tinnitus denotes the perception of a non-environmental sound and might result from aberrant auditory prediction. Successful prediction of formal (e.g.

Timing Patterns in the Extended Basal Ganglia System.

The human brain is a constructive organ. It generates predictions to modulate its functioning and continuously adapts to a dynamic environment. Increasingly, the temporal dimension of motor and non-motor behaviour is recognised as a key component of this predictive bias.

Boredom due to being over- or under-challenged in mathematics: A latent profile analysis.

Background: Recent research on boredom suggests that it can emerge in situations characterized by over- and under-challenge. In learning contexts, this implies that high boredom may be experienced both by low- and high-achieving students.

Aims: This research aimed to explore the existence and prevalence of boredom due to being over- and under-challenged in mathematics, for which empirical evidence is lacking.

Hallucination Proneness Alters Sensory Feedback Processing in Self-voice Production.

Background: Sensory suppression occurs when hearing one's self-generated voice, as opposed to passively listening to one's own voice. Quality changes in sensory feedback to the self-generated voice can increase attentional control. These changes affect the self-other voice distinction and might lead to hearing voices in the absence of an external source (ie, auditory verbal hallucinations).

Revisiting alpha resting state dynamics underlying hallucinatory vulnerability: Insights from Hidden semi-Markov Modeling.

Background: Resting state (RS) brain activity is inherently non-stationary. Hidden semi-Markov Models (HsMM) can characterize continuous RS data as a sequence of recurring and distinct brain states along with their spatio-temporal dynamics.

New Method: Recent explorations suggest that HsMM state dynamics in the alpha frequency band link to auditory hallucination proneness (HP) in non-clinical individuals.

Time-travel to "A review and proposal for a model of sensory predictability in auditory language perception".

Since its inception 60 years ago, the mission of Cortex has been to foster a better understanding of cognition and the relationship between the nervous system, behavior in general, and mental processes in particular. Almost 15 years ago, we submitted "a review and proposal" along these lines to the journal, in which we sought to integrate two components that are not often discussed together, namely the basal ganglia and syntactic language functions (Kotz et al., 2009).

Validation of the Dutch Sensory Gating Inventory (D-SGI): Psychometric properties and a Confirmatory factor analysis.

The Sensory Gating Inventory (SGI) is an established self-report questionnaire that is used to assess the capacity for filtering redundant or irrelevant environmental stimuli. Translation and cross-cultural validation of the SGI are necessary to make this tool available to Dutch speaking populations. This study, therefore, aimed to design and validate a Dutch Sensory Gating Inventory (D-SGI).

Macaque monkeys and humans sample temporal regularities in the acoustic environment.

Many animal species show comparable abilities to detect basic rhythms and produce rhythmic behavior. Yet, the capacities to process complex rhythms and synchronize rhythmic behavior appear to be species-specific: vocal learning animals can, but some primates might not. This discrepancy is of high interest as there is a putative link between rhythm processing and the development of sophisticated sensorimotor behavior in humans.

Sensory gating functions of the auditory thalamus: Adaptation and modulations through noise-exposure and high-frequency stimulation in rats.

The medial geniculate body (MGB) of the thalamus is an obligatory relay for auditory processing. A breakdown of adaptive filtering and sensory gating at this level may lead to multiple auditory dysfunctions, while high-frequency stimulation (HFS) of the MGB might mitigate aberrant sensory gating. To further investigate the sensory gating functions of the MGB, this study (i) recorded electrophysiological evoked potentials in response to continuous auditory stimulation, and (ii) assessed the effect of MGB HFS on these responses in noise-exposed and control animals.

Individual neurophysiological signatures of spontaneous rhythm processing.

When sensory input conveys rhythmic regularity, we can form predictions about the timing of upcoming events. Although rhythm processing capacities differ considerably between individuals, these differences are often obscured by participant- and trial-level data averaging procedures in M/EEG research. Here, we systematically assessed neurophysiological variability displayed by individuals listening to isochronous (1.

A Protocol to Investigate Deep Brain Stimulation for Refractory Tinnitus: From Rat Model to the Set-Up of a Human Pilot Study.

Background: Chronic tinnitus can have an immense impact on quality of life. Despite recent treatment advances, many tinnitus patients remain refractory to them. Preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a promising treatment to suppress tinnitus.

Hypersensitivity to passive voice hearing in hallucination proneness.

Voices are a complex and rich acoustic signal processed in an extensive cortical brain network. Specialized regions within this network support voice perception and production and may be differentially affected in pathological voice processing. For example, the experience of hallucinating voices has been linked to hyperactivity in temporal and extra-temporal voice areas, possibly extending into regions associated with vocalization.

Emotional salience but not valence impacts anterior cingulate cortex conflict processing.

Stimuli that evoke emotions are salient, draw attentional resources, and facilitate situationally appropriate behavior in complex or conflicting environments. However, negative and positive emotions may motivate different response strategies. For example, a threatening stimulus might evoke avoidant behavior, whereas a positive stimulus may prompt approaching behavior.

Cognition through the lens of a body-brain dynamic system.

Continuous interactions between physiological body-brain rhythms influence how individuals act, perceive, and evaluate their environment. Despite increasing interest, the intricate interface between breathing, cardiac, neural rhythms, and cognitive function remains poorly understood. By evaluating current theoretical and empirical implications, we derive an integrative framework of a 'body-brain dynamic system' that combines a hidden hierarchical structure with dynamical state transitions.

Uncovering hidden resting state dynamics: A new perspective on auditory verbal hallucinations.

In the absence of sensory stimulation, the brain transits between distinct functional networks. Network dynamics such as transition patterns and the time the brain stays in each network link to cognition and behavior and are subject to much investigation. Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), the temporally fluctuating unprovoked experience of hearing voices, are associated with aberrant resting state network activity.

The role of the medial geniculate body of the thalamus in the pathophysiology of tinnitus and implications for treatment.

Tinnitus is an auditory sensation in the absence of actual external stimulation. Different clinical interventions are used in tinnitus treatment, but only few patients respond to available options. The lack of successful tinnitus treatment is partly due to the limited knowledge about the mechanisms underlying tinnitus.

Dysfunctional Timing in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients: Co-occurrence of Cognitive, Motor, and Perceptual Deficits.

Timing is an essential part of human cognition and of everyday life activities, such as walking or holding a conversation. Previous studies showed that traumatic brain injury (TBI) often affects cognitive functions such as processing speed and time-sensitive abilities, causing long-term sequelae as well as daily impairments. However, the existing evidence on timing capacities in TBI is mostly limited to perception and the processing of isolated intervals.

Temporo-cerebellar connectivity underlies timing constraints in audition.

The flexible and efficient adaptation to dynamic, rapid changes in the auditory environment likely involves generating and updating of internal models. Such models arguably exploit connections between the neocortex and the cerebellum, supporting proactive adaptation. Here, we tested whether temporo-cerebellar disconnection is associated with the processing of sound at short timescales.

Boredom Makes Me Sick: Adolescents' Boredom Trajectories and Their Health-Related Quality of Life.

Existing research shows consistent links between boredom and depression, somatic complaints, substance abuse, or obesity and eating disorders. However, comparatively little is known about potential psychological and physical health-related correlates of academic boredom. Evidence for such a relationship can be derived from the literature, as boredom has adverse consequences in both work and achievement-related settings.

About time: Ageing influences neural markers of temporal predictability.

Timing abilities help organizing the temporal structure of events but are known to change systematically with age. Yet, how the neuronal signature of temporal predictability changes across the age span remains unclear. Younger (n = 21; 23.