Microinjection of NMDA-neurotoxin into the superior salivatory nucleus of the rat: Short-term secretory and long-term drinking behavior effects.

The anatomical location of the superior salivatory nucleus (SSN), the site of origin of the parasympathetic preganglionic cell bodies that innervate the submandibular-sublingual salivary glands, is well established in rats. However, as of yet there is no functional data that convincingly shows the secretory nature of this region. Previous studies have not been able to differentiate between interventions on efferent or afferent fibers connected to the SSN versus interventions on the salivatory nucleus itself.

P3-like signatures of temporal predictions: a computational EEG study.

Many cognitive processes, ranging from perception to action, depend on the ability to predict the timing of forthcoming events. Yet, how the brain uses predictive models in the temporal domain is still an unsolved question. In previous work, we began to explore the neural correlates of temporal predictions by using a computational approach in which an ideal Bayesian observer learned the temporal probabilities of target onsets in a simple reaction time task.

Early development of electrophysiological activity: Contribution of periodic and aperiodic components of the EEG signal.

Brain function rapidly changes in the first 2 years of life. In the last decades, resting-state EEG has been widely used to explore those changes. Previous studies have focused on the relative power of the signal in established frequency bands (i.

Symptoms of Anxiety in Mothers During the COVID-19 Lockdown: A Structural Equation Model Approach.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has forced millions of people to stay confined at home, increasing symptoms of anxiety and stress levels. Women who are also mothers, for their part, not only face the demands of motherhood but must combine working life with family life locked down in their homes. Main objective was to develop an explanatory model of the psychological consequences of COVID-19 and parental and perceived stress in mothers.

Psychometric evaluation of the computerized battery for neuropsychological evaluation of children (BENCI) among school aged children in the context of HIV in an urban Kenyan setting.

Introduction: Culturally validated neurocognitive measures for children in Low- and Middle-Income Countries are important in the timely and correct identification of neurocognitive impairments. Such measures can inform development of interventions for children exposed to additional vulnerabilities like HIV infection. The Battery for Neuropsychological Evaluation of Children (BENCI) is an openly available, computerized neuropsychological battery specifically developed to evaluate neurocognitive impairment.

Influence of the environment on the early development of attentional control.

The control of visual attention is key to learning and has a foundational role in the development of self-regulated behavior. Basic attention control skills emerge early in life and show a protracted development along childhood. Prior research suggests that attentional development is influenced by environmental factors in early and late childhood.

The opportunity to compare similar stimuli can reduce the effectiveness of features they hold in common.

In three experiments, rats were given experience of flavored solutions AX and BX, where A and B represent distinctive flavors and X a flavor common to both solutions. In one condition, AX and BX were presented on the same trial separated by a 5-min interval (intermixed preexposure). In another condition, each daily trial consisted of presentations of only AX or only BX (blocked preexposure).

Early morning physical activity is associated with healthier white matter microstructure and happier children: the ActiveBrains project.

The background of this study is to examine the associations of individual and combined early morning patterns (i.e., active commuting to school, physical activity before school, having breakfast and good sleep) with white matter microstructure (WMM) and, whether the associated white mater microstructure outcomes were related to mental health outcomes in children with overweight or obesity.

A transcranial magnetic stimulation study on the role of the left intraparietal sulcus in temporal orienting of attention.

Adaptive behavior requires the ability to orient attention to the moment in time at which a relevant event is likely to occur. Temporal orienting of attention has been consistently associated with activation of the left intraparietal sulcus (IPS) in prior fMRI studies. However, a direct test of its causal involvement in temporal orienting is still lacking.

An umbrella review of randomized control trials on the effects of physical exercise on cognition.

Extensive research links regular physical exercise to an overall enhancement of cognitive function across the lifespan. Here we assess the causal evidence supporting this relationship in the healthy population, using an umbrella review of meta-analyses limited to randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Despite most of the 24 reviewed meta-analyses reporting a positive overall effect, our assessment reveals evidence of low statistical power in the primary RCTs, selective inclusion of studies, publication bias and large variation in combinations of pre-processing and analytic decisions.

The associative learning roots of affect-driven impulsivity and its role in problem gambling: A replication attempt and extension of Quintero et al. (2020).

Background And Aims: Negative/positive urgency (NU/PU) refers to the proneness to act rashly under negative/positive emotions. These traits are proxies to generalized emotion dysregulation, and are well-established predictors of gambling-related problems. We aimed to replicate a previous work (Quintero et al.

E-health psychological intervention in pregnant women exposed to intimate partner violence (eIPV): A protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy, a condition as common as obstetrics conditions like gestational diabetes, is associated with maternal and neonatal complications. Systematic detection of IPV is not well established in antenatal screening probably because the effectiveness of protective interventions has not been evaluated. E-health interventions may be beneficial among mothers exposed to IPV.

The contribution of the supplementary motor area to explicit and implicit timing: A high-definition transcranial Random Noise Stimulation (HD-tRNS) study.

It is becoming increasingly accepted that timing tasks, and underlying temporal processes, can be partitioned on the basis of whether they require an explicit or implicit temporal judgement. Most neuroimaging studies of timing associated explicit timing tasks with activation of the supplementary motor area (SMA). However, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies perturbing SMA functioning across explicit timing tasks have generally reported null effects, thus failing to causally link SMA to explicit timing.

Mental health and psychosocial interventions integrating sexual and reproductive rights and health, and HIV care and prevention for adolescents and young people (10-24 years) in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic scoping review.

Background: Interventions targeting combined sexual and reproductive health, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) management and mental health care in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are few. There is a need to address common determinants of poor mental, psychosocial and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) through multimodal and multipronged interventions for adolescents. The main objective of this study was to identify whether and how interventions targeting adolescent SRHR and HIV with a focus on pregnant and parenting adolescents in SSA include mental health components and how these components and their outcomes have been reported in the literature.

Top-down specific preparatory activations for selective attention and perceptual expectations.

Proactive cognition brain models are mainstream nowadays. Within these, preparation is understood as an endogenous, top-down function that takes place prior to the actual perception of a stimulus and improves subsequent behavior. Neuroimaging has shown the existence of such preparatory activity separately in different cognitive domains, however no research to date has sought to uncover their potential similarities and differences.

The influence of meaningful activities in the quality of life and functional autonomy of adults with intellectual disability: A prospective study during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic might negatively impact the quality of life and functional autonomy of Spanish adults with intellectual disability, and meaningful activities could prevent this negative progression.

Methods: This is a prospective cohort study in Spanish adults with intellectual disability during the COVID-19 pandemic. Quality of life, functional autonomy and functional independence were measured.

Electrophysiological correlates of dispositional mindfulness: A quantitative and complexity EEG study.

While growing evidence supports that dispositional mindfulness relates to psychological health and cognitive enhancement, to date there have been only a few attempts to characterize its neural underpinnings. In the present study, we aimed at exploring the electrophysiological (EEG) signature of dispositional mindfulness using quantitative and complexity measures of EEG during resting state and while performing a learning task. Hundred twenty participants were assessed with the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and underwent 5 min eyes-closed resting state and 5 min at task EEG recording.

Sodium Homeostasis, a Balance Necessary for Life.

Body sodium (Na) levels must be maintained within a narrow range for the correct functioning of the organism (Na homeostasis). Na disorders include not only elevated levels of this solute (hypernatremia), as in diabetes insipidus, but also reduced levels (hyponatremia), as in cerebral salt wasting syndrome. The balance in body Na levels therefore requires a delicate equilibrium to be maintained between the ingestion and excretion of Na.

Development of visual attention control in early childhood: Associations with temperament and home environment.

Endogenous visual attention orienting is early available from infancy. It shows a steady development during the preschool period towards monitoring and managing executive attention to optimize the interplay between environmental contingencies and internal goals. The current study aims at understanding this transition from basic forms of endogenous control of visual orienting towards the engagement of executive attention, as well as their association with individual differences in temperament and home environment.

Corrigendum: Disentangling the role of deviant letter position on cognate word processing.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.

Are there quantitative differences between eye-gaze and arrow cues? A meta-analytic answer to the debate and a call for qualitative differences.

Gaze acts from an early age as a cue to orient attention and, thereafter, to infer our social partners' intentions, thoughts, and emotions. Variants of the attentional orienting paradigm have been used to study the orienting capabilities associated to eye gaze. However, to date, it is still unclear whether this methodology truly assesses "social-specific" processes exclusively involved in attention to eye-gaze or the operation of domain-general attentional processes.

Political change as group-based control: Threat to personal control reduces the support for traditional political parties.

People desire agentic representations of their personal and collective selves, such as their own nation. When national agency is put into question, this should increase their inclination to restore it, particularly when they simultaneously lack perceptions of personal control. In this article, we test this hypothesis of group-based control in the context of political elections occurring during socio-economic crises.

Physical activity, sedentary time, and fitness in relation to brain shapes in children with overweight/obesity: Links to intelligence.

Objectives: To examine the association between physical activity, sedentary time, and physical fitness with the shapes of subcortical brain structures in children with overweight/obesity. Further, we analyzed whether differences in the shapes of subcortical brain structures were related to intelligence. We hypothesized that those children with higher physical activity levels, lower sedentary time, and better fitness, would show greater expansion of the brain regions analyzed, and these expansions would be associated with higher intelligence.

Transfer effects from language processing to visual attention dynamics: The impact of orthographic transparency.

The consistency between letters and sounds varies across languages. These differences have been proposed to be associated with different reading mechanisms (lexical vs. phonological), processing grain sizes (coarse vs.