The interaction of oxytocin and nicotine addiction on psychosocial stress: an fMRI study.

The anxiolytic effect of oxytocin (OXT) on psychosocial stress has been well documented, but the effectiveness under the interference of other factors still requires in-depth research. Previous studies have shown that nicotine addiction interacts with OXT on psychosocial stress on the behavioral level. However, the underlying neural mechanism of interaction between OXT and nicotine addiction on psychosocial stress has not been examined, and we conducted two experiments to reveal it.

Higher emotional synchronization is modulated by relationship quality in romantic relationships and not in close friendships.

Emotions are fundamental to social interaction and deeply intertwined with interpersonal dynamics, especially in romantic relationships. Although the neural basis of interaction processes in romance has been widely explored, the underlying emotions and the connection between relationship quality and neural synchronization remain less understood. Our study employed EEG hyperscanning during a non-interactive video-watching paradigm to compare the emotional coordination between romantic couples and close friends.

Separable amygdala activation patterns in the evaluations of robots.

Given the increasing presence of robots in everyday environments and the significant challenge posed by social interactions with robots, it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding into the social evaluations of robots. One potentially effective approach to comprehend the fundamental processes underlying controlled and automatic evaluations of robots is to probe brain response to different perception levels of robot-related stimuli. Here, we investigate controlled and automatic evaluations of robots based on brain responses during viewing of suprathreshold (duration: 200 ms) and subthreshold (duration: 17 ms) humanoid robot stimuli.

Impulsivity-related right superior frontal gyrus as a biomarker of internet gaming disorder.

Background: Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a mental health issue that affects individuals worldwide. However, the lack of knowledge about the biomarkers associated with the development of IGD has restricted the diagnosis and treatment of this disorder.

Aims: We aimed to reveal the biomarkers associated with the development of IGD through resting-state brain network analysis and provide clues for the diagnosis and treatment of IGD.

Internet gaming disorder and tobacco use disorder share neural connectivity patterns between the subcortical and the motor network.

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and tobacco use disorder (TUD) are globally common, non-substance-related disorders and substance-related disorders worldwide, respectively. Recognizing the commonalities between IGD and TUD will deepen understanding of the underlying mechanisms of addictive behavior and excessive online gaming. Using node strength, 141 resting-state data were collected in this study to compute network homogeneity.

Implicit Perception of Differences between NLP-Produced and Human-Produced Language in the Mentalizing Network.

Natural language processing (NLP) is central to the communication with machines and among ourselves, and NLP research field has long sought to produce human-quality language. Identification of informative criteria for measuring NLP-produced language quality will support development of ever-better NLP tools. The authors hypothesize that mentalizing network neural activity may be used to distinguish NLP-produced language from human-produced language, even for cases where human judges cannot subjectively distinguish the language source.

Altered white matter functional network in nicotine addiction.

Nicotine addiction is a neuropsychiatric disorder with dysfunction in cortices as well as white matter (WM). The nature of the functional alterations in WM remains unclear. The small-world model can well characterize the structure and function of the human brain.

How far is brain-inspired artificial intelligence away from brain?

Fueled by the development of neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI), recent advances in the brain-inspired AI have manifested a tipping-point in the collaboration of the two fields. AI began with the inspiration of neuroscience, but has evolved to achieve a remarkable performance with little dependence upon neuroscience. However, in a recent collaboration, research into neurobiological explainability of AI models found that these highly accurate models may resemble the neurobiological representation of the same computational processes in the brain, although these models have been developed in the absence of such neuroscientific references.

Using multisession tDCS stimulation as an early intervention on memory bias processing in subthreshold depression.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as an intervention tool has gained promising results in major depression disorder. However, studies related to subthreshold depression's (SD) cognitive deficits and neuromodulation approaches for the treatment of SD are still rare. We adopted Beck's cognitive model of depression and tested the tDCS stimulation effects on attentional and memory deficits on SD.

Effects of retrieval-extinction training on internet gaming disorder.

Background And Aims: Internet gaming disorder (IGD) leads to serious impairments in cognitive functions, and lacks of effective treatments. Cue-induced craving is a hallmark feature of this disease and is associated with addictive memory elements. Memory retrieval-extinction manipulations could interfere with addictive memories and attenuate addictive syndromes, which might be a promising intervention for IGD.

No smoking signs with strong smoking symbols induce weak cravings: an fMRI and EEG study.

No smoking signs (NSSs) that combine smoking symbols (SSs) and prohibition symbols (PSs) represent common examples of reward and prohibition competition. To evaluate how SSs within NSSs influence their effectiveness in guiding reward vs. prohibition, we studied 93 male smokers.

A behavioral protocol to assess the relationship between three cognitive biases and future depression severity.

According to the cognitive model of depression, memory bias, interpretation bias, and attention bias are associated with the development and maintenance of depression. Here, we present a protocol for investigating whether and how the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may affect the relationship between current cognitive biases and future depression severity in a population with non-clinical depression. This protocol can also be used in other contexts, including cognitive bias-related studies and depression-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies.

A role of the lateral prefrontal cortex in the congruency sequence effect revealed by transcranial direct current stimulation.

Congruency effect is the increase in response time when relevant and irrelevant cues indicate incongruent rather than congruent responses. The congruency effect is smaller in the trial after an incongruent trial than after a congruent trial: this difference is known as the congruency sequence effect (CSE). Psychophysical and neural studies have suggested that the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and the medial prefrontal cortex are associated with the CSE.

Outbreak of COVID-19 altered the relationship between memory bias and depressive degree in nonclinical depression.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has increased concern about people's mental health under such serious stressful situation, especially depressive symptoms. Cognitive biases have been related to depression degree in previous studies. Here, we used behavioral and brain imaging analysis, to determine if and how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the relationship between current cognitive biases and future depression degree and the underlying neural basis in a nonclinical depressed population.

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Induced Hypoconnectivity Within the Default Mode Network Yields Cognitive Improvements in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Study.

Background: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is thought to be effective in alleviating cognitive symptoms in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), but the mechanisms related to network modification are poorly understood.

Objective: Here we tested rTMS efficacy and explored the effect of rTMS-induced changes in the default mode network (DMN) and their predictive value for treatment response.

Methods: Twenty-one subjects clinically diagnosed with aMCI were recruited to complete a 10-session randomized and sham-controlled rTMS treatment targeting the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Chronic nicotine exposure impairs uncertainty modulation on reinforcement learning in anterior cingulate cortex and serotonin system.

Deficits in the computational processes of reinforcement learning have been suggested to underlie addiction. Additionally, environmental uncertainty, which is encoded in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), modulates reward prediction errors (RPEs) during reinforcement learning and exacerbates addiction. The present study tested whether and how the ACC would have an essential role in drug addiction by failing to use uncertainty to modulate the RPEs during reinforcement learning.

Summary and Prospect.

In this chapter, the main content is to summarize the similarities and differences between substance and non-substance addictions in several aspects, involving definition, mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment. We try to display the complete picture of addictions in a brief but comprehensive way. Mechanism includes molecule and neural circuit, genetics, neuroimaging and cognitive psychology; diagnosis includes diagnostic criterion, diagnostic scales, biochemical diagnosis and new diagnostic techniques; treatment includes drug therapy, physical therapy, traditional Chinese medical therapy, nutrition support therapy, psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Similarities and Differences in Diagnostic Criterion.

In this chapter, the main content is to discuss the similarities and differences in diagnostic criteria between substance and non-substance addictions. Firstly, diagnostic criteria of substance addiction were introduced, mainly focused on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for the Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5). Then, we described the diagnostic criteria of several non-substance addictions, including gambling disorder, internet addiction, food addiction and hypersexual disorder.

Received View of Addiction, Relapse and Treatment.

It is important to highlight that attempts at understanding and explaining addiction have been made for centuries. It is, however, just five decades ago, with the growth of science and technology that more interest has been observed in this field. This chapter examines different views and theories that have been posited to understand and explain addiction.

Neural substrates of updating the prediction through prediction error during decision making.

Learning of prediction error (PE), including reward PE and risk PE, is crucial for updating the prediction in reinforcement learning (RL). Neurobiological and computational models of RL have reported extensive brain activations related to PE. However, the occurrence of PE does not necessarily predict updating the prediction, e.

Resting-state functional connectivity between the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and thalamus is associated with risky decision-making in nicotine addicts.

Nicotine addiction is associated with risky behaviors and abnormalities in local brain areas related to risky decision-making such as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), anterior insula (AI), and thalamus. Although these brain abnormalities are anatomically separated, they may in fact belong to one neural network. However, it is unclear whether circuit-level abnormalities lead to risky decision-making in smokers.

Novelty seeking is related to individual risk preference and brain activation associated with risk prediction during decision making.

Novelty seeking (NS) is a personality trait reflecting excitement in response to novel stimuli. High NS is usually a predictor of risky behaviour such as drug abuse. However, the relationships between NS and risk-related cognitive processes, including individual risk preference and the brain activation associated with risk prediction, remain elusive.

Electrical stimulation over bilateral occipito-temporal regions reduces N170 in the right hemisphere and the composite face effect.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that can modulate cortical excitability. Although the clinical value of tDCS has been advocated, the potential of tDCS in cognitive rehabilitation of face processing deficits is less understood. Face processing has been associated with the occipito-temporal cortex (OT).