Altered Distant Synchronization of Background Network in Mild Cognitive Impairment during an Executive Function Task.

Few studies to date have investigated the background network in the cognitive state relying on executive function in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients. Using the index of degree of centrality (DC), we explored distant synchronization of background network in MCI during a hybrid delayed-match-to-sample task (DMST), which mainly relies on the working memory component of executive function. We observed significant interactions between group and cognitive state in the bilateral posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the ventral subregion of precuneus.

Ongoing Voluntary Settlement and Independent Agency: Evidence from China.

Voluntary frontier settlement leads to independent agency. Since this type of research has not yet been implemented in ongoing voluntary settlement frontiers, we conducted several cultural tasks to investigate Shenzhen, known as China's ongoing "South Frontier," which is composed mostly of people that have emigrated from other Chinese provinces within the past 30 years. We hypothesized that residents of Shenzhen are more independent than those in other regions of Mainland China.

Altered Brain Activities Associated with Craving and Cue Reactivity in People with Internet Gaming Disorder: Evidence from the Comparison with Recreational Internet Game Users.

Although the neural substrates of cue reactivity in Internet gaming disorder (IGD) have been examined in previous studies, most of these studies focused on the comparison between IGD subjects and healthy controls, which cannot exclude a potential effect of cue-familiarity. To overcome this limitation, the current study focuses on the comparison between IGD subjects and recreational Internet game users (RGU) who play online games recreationally but do not develop dependence. Data from 40 RGU and 30 IGD subjects were collected while they were performing an event-related cue reactivity task in the fMRI scanner.

Episodic Specificity in Acquiring Thematic Knowledge of Novel Words from Descriptive Episodes.

The current study examined whether thematic relations of the novel words could be acquired via descriptive episodes, and if yes, whether it could be generalized to thematically related words in a different scenario. In Experiment 1, a lexical decision task was used where the novel words served as primes for target words in four conditions: (1) corresponding concepts of the novel words, (2) thematically related words in the same episodes as that in learning condition, (3) thematically related words in different episodes, or (4) unrelated words served as targets. Event related potentials elicited by the targets revealed that compared to the unrelated words, the corresponding concepts and thematically related words in the same episodes elicited smaller N400s with a frontal-central distribution, whereas the thematically related words in different episodes elicited an enhanced late positive component.

Task Performance Modulates Functional Connectivity Involving the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Patients with Schizophrenia.

Previous studies have suggested that patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls exhibit differential activation of and connectivity involving the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during working memory tasks, though their findings remain inconsistent. The functional integration perspective further suggests that working memory performance also modulates differences in functional interactions of the DLPFC between patients and controls. To explore this possibility, 45 healthy controls and 45 patients with schizophrenia were recruited to perform a 2-back task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Automatic and Precise Localization and Cortical Labeling of Subdural and Depth Intracranial Electrodes.

Subdural or deep intracerebral electrodes are essential in order to precisely localize epileptic zone in patients with medically intractable epilepsy. Precise localization of the implanted electrodes is critical to clinical diagnosing and treatment as well as for scientific studies. In this study, we sought to automatically and precisely extract intracranial electrodes using pre-operative MRI and post-operative CT images.

Impaired Memory for Instructions in Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Is Improved by Action at Presentation and Recall.

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often fail to comply with teacher instructions in the classroom. Using action during presentation or recall can enhance typically developing children's abilities to complete multi-step instruction sequences. In this study, we tested the ability to following instructions in children with ADHD under different conditions to explore whether they show the same beneficial effects of action.

Culture and Unmerited Authorship Credit: Who Wants It and Why?

Unmerited authorship is a practice common to many countries around the world, but are there systematic cultural differences in the practice? We tested whether scientists from collectivistic countries are more likely to add unmerited coauthors than scientists from individualistic countries. We analyzed archival data from top scientific journals (Study 1) and found that national collectivism predicted the number of authors, which might suggest more unmerited authors. Next, we found that collectivistic scientists were more likely to add unmerited coauthors than individualistic scientists, both between cultures (Studies 2-3) and within cultures (Study 4).

Effects of Duloxetine Treatment on Cognitive Flexibility and BDNF Expression in the mPFC of Adult Male Mice Exposed to Social Stress during Adolescence.

Early stress is a significant risk factor for the onset of mood disorders such as depression during adulthood. Impairments in cognitive flexibility mediated by prefrontal cortex (PFC) dysfunction are increasingly recognized as important etiological and pathological factors in the development of depression. Our previous study demonstrated that social defeat stress during early adolescence produced delayed deficits in cognitive flexibility in adult mice.

"Female Preponderance" of Depression in Non-clinical Populations: A Meta-Analytic Study.

Clinical observations and research suggest a female preponderance in major depressive disorder. However, it is unclear whether a similar gender difference is found for the reporting of depressive symptoms in non-clinical populations. The present meta-analysis was conducted to address this issue.