Objective: Previous research suggests visual short-term memory (VSTM) capacity and mathematical abilities are significantly related. Moreover, both processes activate similar brain regions within the parietal cortex, in particular, the intraparietal sulcus; however, it is still unclear whether the neuronal underpinnings of VSTM directly correlate with mathematical operation and reasoning abilities. The main objective was to investigate the association between parieto-occipital brain activity during the retention period of a VSTM task and performance in mathematics.
Method: The authors measured mathematical abilities and VSTM capacity as well as brain activity during memory maintenance using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 19 healthy adult participants. Event-related magnetic fields (ERFs) were computed on the MEG data. Linear regressions were used to estimate the strength of the relation between VSTM related brain activity and mathematical abilities.
Results: The amplitude of parieto-occipital cerebral activity during the retention of visual information was related to performance in 2 standardized mathematical tasks: mathematical reasoning and calculation fluency.
Conclusions: The findings show that brain activity during retention period of a VSTM task is associated with mathematical abilities. Contributions of VSTM processes to numerical cognition should be considered in cognitive interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/neu0000349 | DOI Listing |
Anesthesiology
January 2025
Key Laboratory of Brain Science, Key Laboratory of Anesthesia and Organ Protection of Ministry of Education (In Cultivation), Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, 563100, Guizhou Province, China.
Background: The medial prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role in regulating consciousness. However, the specific functions of its excitatory and inhibitory networks during anesthesia remain uncertain. Here we explored the hypothesis that somatostatin interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex enhance the effects of sevoflurane anesthesia by increasing GABA transmission to pyramidal neurons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Biol
January 2025
Key Laboratory of Brain Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China.
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is recognized as a pivotal cortical region involved in the perception of pain. The retrosplenial cortex (RSC), located posterior to the ACC, is known to play a significant role in navigation and memory processes. Although the projections from the RSC to the ACC have been found, the specifics of the synaptic connections and the functional implications of the RSC-ACC projections remain less understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Pathog
January 2025
Department of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America.
The intracellular protozoan Toxoplasma gondii manipulates host cell signaling to avoid targeting by autophagosomes and lysosomal degradation. Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is a mediator of this survival strategy. However, EGFR expression is limited in the brain and retina, organs affected in toxoplasmosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Biol
January 2025
Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
Goal-directed behavior requires the effective suppression of distractions to focus on the task at hand. Although experimental evidence suggests that brain areas in the prefrontal and parietal lobe contribute to the selection of task-relevant and the suppression of task-irrelevant stimuli, how conspicuous distractors are encoded and effectively ignored remains poorly understood. We recorded neuronal responses from 2 regions in the prefrontal and parietal cortex of macaques, the frontal eye fields (FEFs) and the lateral intraparietal (LIP) area, during a visual search task, in the presence and absence of a salient distractor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Division of Oral Physiology, Faculty of Dentistry, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan.
This study examined the effects of treadmill running (TR) regimens on craniofacial pain- and anxiety-like behaviors, as well as their effects on neural changes in specific brain regions of male mice subjected to repeated social defeat stress (SDS) for 10 days. Behavioral and immunohistochemical experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of TR regimens on SDS-related those behaviors, as well as epigenetic and neural activity markers in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insular cortex (IC), rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM), and cervical spinal dorsal horn (C2). Behavioral responses were quantified using multiple tests, while immunohistochemistry measured histone H3 acetylation, histone deacetylases (HDAC1, HDAC2), and neural activity markers (FosB and phosphorylated cAMP response element-binding protein (pCREB).
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