Self-monitoring of social facial expressions in the primate amygdala and cingulate cortex.

Keeping track of self-executed facial expressions is essential for the ability to correctly interpret and reciprocate social expressions. However, little is known about neural mechanisms that participate in self-monitoring of facial expression. We designed a natural paradigm for social interactions where a monkey is seated in front of a peer monkey that is concealed by an opaque liquid crystal display shutter positioned between them.

Amygdala-prefrontal synchronization underlies resistance to extinction of aversive memories.

Emotional memories can persist for a lifetime but can also undergo extinction. Although we know about the mechanisms involved in expression and extinction, we know very little about the mechanisms that determine whether a specific memory would persist or not. Here, we use partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE) to explore the neural mechanisms that differentiate persistent from labile memories.

Aversive-bias and stage-selectivity in neurons of the primate amygdala during acquisition, extinction, and overnight retention.

Extensive evidence implicates the amygdala as a major station for acquisition, extinction, and consolidation of emotional memories. Most of this work relies on fear-conditioning in rodents and imaging in humans. Few studies have explored coding of value in the primate amygdala, but the circuitry that underlies extinction and overnight retention remains largely unexplored.

An implicit measure of olfactory performance for non-human primates reveals aversive and pleasant odor conditioning.

We have little understanding of how odorants are processed in neural networks of the primate brain. Because chemo-stimuli are harder to control than physical stimuli (e.g.

Strain and regional dependence of alternate splicing of acetylcholinesterase in the murine brain following stress or treatment with diisopropylfluorophosphate.

Induction of the rare readthrough variant of acetylcholinesterase (AChE-R) by an acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitor or by stress was tested in four mouse strains that differ in their behavioural profiles on tests of anxiety and depression. BALB/C, C57Bl/6, C3H/He and CD-1 mouse strains were tested in the elevated plus maze in two sessions, separated by 48h. All strains, except CD-1, showed the expected reduction in open arm exploration on the second session.

Multidisciplinary perspectives on attention and the development of self-regulation.

During infancy and early childhood, children develop their ability to regulate their own emotions and behavior. This development of self-regulatory mechanisms has been considered to be the crucial link between genetic predisposition, early experience, and later adult functioning in society. This paper brings together the updated empirical findings related to the role of attention and the maturation of brain frontal areas in self-regulation.