Acute psychosocial stress modulates neural and behavioral substrates of cognitive control.

Acute psychosocial stress affects learning, memory, and attention, but the evidence for the influence of stress on the neural processes supporting cognitive control remains mixed. We investigated how acute psychosocial stress influences performance and neural processing during the Go/NoGo task-an established cognitive control task. The experimental group underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) acute stress induction, whereas the control group completed personality questionnaires.

The role of planfulness for well-being, stress, and goal disruption during COVID-19.

refers to an individual's tendency to be future oriented, mentally flexible, and cognitively strategic when engaging with goals, and has been shown to predict goal completion. We investigated the relationships among planfulness, goal disruption, stress, and psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, which served as a unique setback context. We measured these constructs using the planfulness scale, an survey item probing goal disruption in the pandemic, the perceived stress scale, and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, respectively.

Back and front peripersonal space: behavioural and EMG evidence of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms.

Previous studies have identified a 'defensive graded field' in the peripersonal front space where potential threatening stimuli induce stronger blink responses, mainly modulated by top-down mechanisms, which include various factors, such as proximity to the body, stimulus valence, and social cues. However, very little is known about the mechanisms responsible for representation of the back space and the possible role of bottom-up information. By means of acoustic stimuli, we evaluated individuals' representation for front and back space in an ambiguous environment that offered some degree of uncertainty in terms of both distance (close vs.

Improving Walking Assistance Efficiency in Real-World Scenarios with Soft Exosuits Using Locomotion Mode Detection.

The use of portable and lightweight wearable assistive devices can improve wearer locomotion efficiency by reducing the metabolic cost of walking. To achieve this goal, assistive technologies must adapt to different locomotion modes to optimize walking assistance. In this work, we developed a novel control strategy for an underactuated soft exosuit featuring a single actuator to assist bilateral hip flexion, which utilized inertial measurement units (IMUs) to discriminate between three different locomotion modes: walking up/down stairs or on level ground.

Soft Robotics to Enhance Upper Limb Endurance in Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that affects the central nervous system and can result in various symptoms, including muscle weakness, spasticity, and fatigue, ultimately leading to the deterioration of the musculoskeletal system. However, in recent years, exosuits have emerged as a game-changing solution to assist individuals with MS during their daily activities. These lightweight and affordable wearable robotic devices have gained immense popularity.

Subjective valuation of performance feedback is robust to trait cognitive fatigue in multiple sclerosis.

Background: Performance feedback is vital to rehabilitation interventions that treat cognitive impairments from multiple sclerosis (MS). Optimal treatment relies on participants' motivation to learn from feedback throughout these interventions. Cognitive fatigue, a prevalent symptom of MS, is associated with aberrant reward processing, which necessitates research into how fatigue affects perceived reward value of feedback in these individuals.

Altered functional connectivity during performance feedback processing in multiple sclerosis.

Effective learning from performance feedback is vital for adaptive behavior regulation necessary for successful cognitive performance. Yet, how this learning operates in clinical groups that experience cognitive dysfunction is not well understood. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune, degenerative disease of the central nervous system characterized by physical and cognitive dysfunction.

The Reaching Phase of Feeding and Self-Care Actions Optimizes Action Observation Effects in Chronic Stroke Subjects.

Background: The Action Observation Therapy (AOT) is a well-established post-stroke rehabilitation treatment based on the theoretical framework of the Mirror Neuron System (MNS) activation. However, AOT protocols are still heterogeneous in terms of video contents of observed actions.

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings in stroke patients during the observation of different videos of task-specific upper limb movements, and to define which category of actions can elicit a stronger cortical activation in the observer's brain.

Virtual Coaching for Rehabilitation: The Participatory Design Experience of the vCare Project.

End-user involvement constitutes an essential goal during the development of innovative solution, not only for the evaluation, but also in codesign, following a user-centered strategy. Indeed, it is a great asset of research to base the work in a user-centered approach, because it allows to build a platform that will respond to the real needs of users. The aims of this work are to present the methodology adopted to involve end-users (i.

Determining the effects of training duration on the behavioral expression of habitual control in humans: a multilaboratory investigation.

It has been suggested that there are two distinct and parallel mechanisms for controlling instrumental behavior in mammals: goal-directed actions and habits. To gain an understanding of how these two systems interact to control behavior, it is essential to characterize the mechanisms by which the balance between these systems is influenced by experience. Studies in rodents have shown that the amount of training governs the relative expression of these two systems: Behavior is goal-directed following moderate training, but the more extensively an instrumental action is trained, the more it becomes habitual.

Demonstrating and disrupting well-learned habits.

Researchers have exerted tremendous efforts to empirically study how habits form and dominate at the expense of deliberation, yet we know very little about breaking these rigid habits to restore goal-directed control. In a three-experiment study, we first illustrate a novel approach of studying well-learned habits, in order to effectively demonstrate habit disruption. In Experiment 1, we use a Go/NoGo task with familiar color-response associations to demonstrate outcome-insensitivity when compared to novel, more flexible associations.

The neurobehavioral mechanisms of motivational control in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) poses debilitating impairments in the neurobehavioral systems governing reward-related processes-key to the control of motivated behaviors. Individuals with ADHD may rely on a motivational control system that favors cue-driven habits-rooted in the posterior putamen-over caudate and prefrontal cortex-driven goal-directed behaviors. We examined the neurobehavioral correlates of motivational control in ADHD.

Effects of Expressive Writing on Neural Processing During Learning.

Expressive writing about past negative events has been shown to lead to a slew of positive outcomes. However, little is known about why writing about something negative would have positive effects. While some have posited that telling a narrative of a past negative event or current anxiety "frees up" cognitive resources, allowing individuals to focus more on the task at hand, there is little neural evidence suggesting that expressive writing has an effect on cognitive load.

Habit Expression and Disruption as a Function of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptomology.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with neurobehavioral reward system dysfunctions that pose debilitating impairments in adaptive decision-making. A candidate mechanism for such anomalies in ADHD may be a compromise in the control of motivated behaviors. Thus, demonstrating and restoring potential motivational control irregularities may serve significant clinical benefit.

Intelligence mindset shapes neural learning signals and memory.

Intelligence mindset, which denotes individual beliefs about whether intelligence is fixed versus malleable, shapes academic success, but the neural mechanisms underlying mindset-related differences in learning are unknown. Here, we probe the effects of individual differences in mindset on neural responses to negative feedback after a competence threat manipulation. We hypothesized that when their competence was threatened, participants with fixed mindsets would interpret further negative feedback as punishing.

Reward circuitry activation reflects social preferences in the face of cognitive effort.

Research at the intersection of social neuroscience and cognitive effort is an interesting new area for exploration. There is great potential to broaden our understanding of how social context and cognitive effort processes, currently addressed in disparate literatures, interact with one another. In this paper, we briefly review the literature on cognitive effort, focusing on effort-linked valuation and the gap in the literature regarding cognitive effort in the social domain.

Writing About Past Failures Attenuates Cortisol Responses and Sustained Attention Deficits Following Psychosocial Stress.

Acute stress can harm performance. Paradoxically, writing about stressful events-such as past failures-has been shown to improve cognitive functioning and performance, especially in tasks that require sustained attention. Yet, there is little physiological evidence for whether writing about past failures or other negative events improves performance by reducing stress.

Control and Effort Costs Influence the Motivational Consequences of Choice.

The act of making a choice, apart from any outcomes the choice may yield, has, paradoxically, been linked to both the enhancement and the detriment of intrinsic motivation. Research has implicated two factors in potentially mediating these contradictory effects: the personal control conferred by a choice and the costs associated with a choice. Across four experiments, utilizing a physical effort task disguised as a simple video game, we systematically varied costs across two levels of physical effort requirements (Low-Requirement, High-Requirement) and control over effort costs across three levels of choice (Free-Choice, Restricted-Choice, and No-Choice) to disambiguate how these factors affect the motivational consequences of choosing within an effortful task.

Modulation of ventral striatal activity by cognitive effort.

Effort discounting theory suggests that the value of a reward should be lower if it was effortful to obtain, whereas contrast theory suggests that the contrast between the costly effort and the reward makes the reward seem more valuable. To test these alternative hypotheses, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as participants engaged in feedback-based learning that required low or high cognitive effort to obtain positive feedback, while the objective amount of information provided by feedback remained constant. In the low effort condition, a single image was presented with four response options.

Are You Smarter Than a Teenager? Maybe Not When It Comes to Reinforcement Learning.

Adolescence is a time of tumultuous behavior that may result, in part, from brain circuitry that enhances reward seeking. In this issue of Neuron, Davidow et al. (2016) present a convincing argument that adolescent brain functionality can be adaptive in certain contexts, particularly probabilistic learning environments.

Increases in brain activity during social competition predict decreases in working memory performance and later recall.

In our fMRI experiment, participants completed a learning task in both a noncompetitive and a socially competitive learning environment. Despite reporting a preference for completing the task while competing, participants remembered significantly more during the task and later recalled more from the noncompetitive learning environment. Furthermore, during working memory maintenance, there was performance-related deactivation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the precuneus/PCC.

The Value of Being Wrong: Intermittent Feedback Delivery Alters the Striatal Response to Negative Feedback.

Whereas positive feedback is both rewarding and informative, negative feedback can be construed as either punishing (because it is indicative of poor performance) or informative (because it may lead to goal attainment). In this neuroimaging experiment, we highlighted the informational value of negative feedback by intermixing trials with and without feedback. When performance feedback is expected, positive feedback triggers an increase in striatal activity, whereas negative feedback elicits a decrease in striatal activity.

The power of competition: Effects of social motivation on attention, sustained physical effort, and learning.

Competition has often been implicated as a means to improve effort-based learning and attention. Two experiments examined the effects of competition on effort and memory. In Experiment 1, participants completed a physical effort task in which they were rewarded for winning an overall percentage, or for winning a competition they believed was against another player.

Effects of intrinsic motivation on feedback processing during learning.

Learning commonly requires feedback about the consequences of one's actions, which can drive learners to modify their behavior. Motivation may determine how sensitive an individual might be to such feedback, particularly in educational contexts where some students value academic achievement more than others. Thus, motivation for a task might influence the value placed on performance feedback and how effectively it is used to improve learning.

Value and probability coding in a feedback-based learning task utilizing food rewards.

For the consequences of our actions to guide behavior, the brain must represent different types of outcome-related information. For example, an outcome can be construed as negative because an expected reward was not delivered or because an outcome of low value was delivered. Thus behavioral consequences can differ in terms of the information they provide about outcome probability and value.