All posts; Tags Include "Cognitive Neuroscience"
- November 29, 2012
- 12:28 PM
- 912 views
Exercise and the Brain: Fatigue
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Aerobic exercise results in improved cardiovascular and muscular health. However, the benefits of exercise on the brain are only now beginning to be understood. In the next series of posts, I will review some recent research addressing the effects of exercise on the brain. One area of research on this topic is understanding the biological mechanism for exercise fatigue and this effect contributes to athletic performance.Historically, the brain was felt to have no significant co........ Read more »
Noakes TD. (2012) Fatigue is a Brain-Derived Emotion that Regulates the Exercise Behavior to Ensure the Protection of Whole Body Homeostasis. Frontiers in physiology, 82. PMID: 22514538
- November 25, 2012
- 05:42 PM
- 1,587 views
The ageless face of an Aes Sedai: Science Edition
by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale
How would the brain process a truly 'ageless' face? Moraine, an ageless Aes Sedai (source)I am sure this question has plagued many Wheel of Time fans, but only now has an experiment been designed to test it. Just 4 days ago, Homola et al. (2012) published a paper in PLoS ONE in which they have people guess ages of people in pictures and scan their brains. Homola et al. (2012) Figure 1A. (Which one looks most Aes Sedai to you?)The first interesting thing that they found was that the older t........ Read more »
Homola GA, Jbabdi S, Beckmann CF, & Bartsch AJ. (2012) A Brain Network Processing the Age of Faces. PLoS One . DOI: 10.1371
- November 20, 2012
- 10:51 AM
- 977 views
Brain Markers of Math Anxiety
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Right and Left Amygdala Highlighted in BlueIn the last several posts, I have examined some recent research related to the learning disorder known as dyscalculia or mathematics disorder. A common component of mathematics disorder is math anxiety. As children with math disorders struggle with school-based mathematics activities, anxiety common develops around these types of learning experiences. This anxiety can contribute to impaired learning and additionally make the experience........ Read more »
Young CB, Wu SS, & Menon V. (2012) The neurodevelopmental basis of math anxiety. Psychological science, 23(5), 492-501. PMID: 22434239
- November 19, 2012
- 06:01 AM
- 522 views
Our Dwindling Intelligence and Einstein’s Brain
by GDW in The Beast, the Bard and the Bot
A recent duo of articles by Stanford professor Gerald Crabtree has sparked some controversy. In two parts, he discusses our ‘fragile intellect’. In the first part, it is stated that our intelligence is based on the many, many genes, and, as such, is very fragile. In the second part, he argues that, during much of [...]... Read more »
Crabtree, G. (2012) Our fragile intellect. Part I. Trends in Genetics. DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2012.10.002
Crabtree, G. (2012) Our fragile intellect. Part II. Trends in Genetics. DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2012.10.003
Falk, D., Lepore, F., & Noe, A. (2012) The cerebral cortex of Albert Einstein: a description and preliminary analysis of unpublished photographs. Brain. DOI: 10.1093/brain/aws295
- November 19, 2012
- 01:05 AM
- 2,128 views
Vicodin for Social Exclusion
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Cyberball (with apologies to Kipling D. Williams).Cyberball (not the Atari version) is a virtual game designed by social psychologists to be a model for social rejection and ostracism (Williams et al., 2000). The study participant is led to believe they are playing an online ball-tossing game with other people, who then proceed to exclude them from the game. The resultant negative feelings are meant to be a proxy for ostracism based on fundamental attributes such as race, disability, physical ap........ Read more »
Hayes, D., & Northoff, G. (2012) Common brain activations for painful and non-painful aversive stimuli. BMC Neuroscience, 13(1), 60. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2202-13-60
Riva, P., Romero Lauro, L., DeWall, C., & Bushman, B. (2012) Buffer the Pain Away: Stimulating the Right Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Reduces Pain Following Social Exclusion. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797612450894
- November 14, 2012
- 11:33 AM
- 839 views
Math Disorder: Brain Imaging Research
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In previous posts, I have reviewed research related to the definition and prevalence of mathematics disorder. Mathematics disorder was compared to reading disability and the role of genetic and environmental influences in math disorder was examined.Advances in brain imaging technology provide additional tools to understand brain function including performing calculations and other math cognitive skills.An early important brain imaging study in mathematics disorders has been published by Da........ Read more »
Davis N, Cannistraci CJ, Rogers BP, Gatenby JC, Fuchs LS, Anderson AW, & Gore JC. (2009) Aberrant functional activation in school age children at-risk for mathematical disability: a functional imaging study of simple arithmetic skill. Neuropsychologia, 47(12), 2470-9. PMID: 19410589
- November 13, 2012
- 03:35 PM
- 870 views
Math Disorder: Gene-Environment Interaction
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Ever wonder why you might be good at math or might struggle with numbers, calculations and higher order mathematics? Well, to a certain extent, doing your problem sets in grade school and continuing higher level mathematics classes in high school, college and beyond are important. Research studies suggest some features of your mathematics abilities may lie outside the simple work=skill equation. In this post, I am going to review two recently published studies of mathematics abi........ Read more »
Docherty SJ, Davis OS, Kovas Y, Meaburn EL, Dale PS, Petrill SA, Schalkwyk LC, & Plomin R. (2010) A genome-wide association study identifies multiple loci associated with mathematics ability and disability. Genes, brain, and behavior, 9(2), 234-47. PMID: 20039944
Docherty SJ, Kovas Y, & Plomin R. (2011) Gene-environment interaction in the etiology of mathematical ability using SNP sets. Behavior genetics, 41(1), 141-54. PMID: 20978832
- November 12, 2012
- 01:10 PM
- 1,319 views
Complementary taxonomic and thematic semantic systems
by Dan Mirman in Minding the Brain
I am happy to report that my paper with Kristen Graziano (a Research Assistant in my lab) showing cross-task individual differences in strength of taxonomic vs. thematic semantic relations is in this month's issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (Mirman & Graziano, 2012a). This paper is part of a cluster of four articles developing the idea that there is a functional and neural dissociation between taxonomic and thematic semantic systems in the human brain. First, so........ Read more »
Kalénine S., Mirman D., Middleton E.L., & Buxbaum L.J. (2012) Temporal dynamics of activation of thematic and functional knowledge during conceptual processing of manipulable artifacts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(5), 1274-1295. PMID: 22449134
Mirman D., & Graziano K.M. (2012) Individual differences in the strength of taxonomic versus thematic relations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(4), 601-609. PMID: 22201413
Mirman D., & Graziano K.M. (2012) Damage to temporo-parietal cortex decreases incidental activation of thematic relations during spoken word comprehension. Neuropsychologia, 50(8), 1990-1997. PMID: 22571932
Schwartz M.F., Kimberg D.Y., Walker G.M., Brecher A., Faseyitan O.K., Dell G.S., Mirman D., & Coslett H.B. (2011) Neuroanatomical dissociation for taxonomic and thematic knowledge in the human brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(20), 8520-8524. PMID: 21540329
- November 12, 2012
- 10:37 AM
- 560 views
If America’s Boyfriend were a Cognitive Neuroscientist…
by J Zevin in The Magnet is Always On
Ontologies of cognitive tasks are anthropological facts about cognitive neuroscientists, and the conditions under which we observe the brain. ... Read more »
Laird AR, Fox PM, Eickhoff SB, Turner JA, Ray KL, McKay DR, Glahn DC, Beckmann CF, Smith SM, & Fox PT. (2011) Behavioral interpretations of intrinsic connectivity networks. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 23(12), 4022-37. PMID: 21671731
Yarkoni, T., Poldrack, R., Nichols, T., Van Essen, D., & Wager, T. (2011) Large-scale automated synthesis of human functional neuroimaging data. Nature Methods, 8(8), 665-670. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1635
- November 9, 2012
- 10:14 AM
- 1,338 views
Do ants really count their steps?
by sedeer in Inspiring Science
Several years ago, scientists published an excellent study about how desert ants find their way home after foraging. The story …Continue reading »... Read more »
Wittlinger, M. (2006) The Ant Odometer: Stepping on Stilts and Stumps. Science, 312(5782), 1965-1967. DOI: 10.1126/science.1126912
van der Hoort B, Guterstam A, & Ehrsson HH. (2011) Being Barbie: the size of one's own body determines the perceived size of the world. PloS one, 6(5). PMID: 21633503
- November 8, 2012
- 01:28 PM
- 617 views
Comparing Math Disorder and Reading Disorder
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
One of the important areas for understanding learning disorders is learning about the prevalence and specificity of various types of disorders.In a previous post, I summarized a research review that estimated math disorder or disability is present in about 7% of school children. It is possible that math disorder simply represents a component of a more general learning disability. If this is true, there should be a large overlap of math disorder with other learning disorders such as re........ Read more »
Compton DL, Fuchs LS, Fuchs D, Lambert W, & Hamlett C. (2012) The cognitive and academic profiles of reading and mathematics learning disabilities. Journal of learning disabilities, 45(1), 79-95. PMID: 21444929
- November 6, 2012
- 11:07 AM
- 825 views
Mathematics Learning Disorders
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Math disorder or dyscalculia is a learning disability where math performance lags significantly behind expected performance given the students age, grade level and general intelligence.In the next few posts, I will focus on math disorder and explore the epidemiology of math disorder and compare overlap with reading disorder. Additionally, I will review some of the genetic and environmental risk factors for math disorder. Finally, I will take a look at some of the research related to ........ Read more »
Geary DC. (2011) Consequences, characteristics, and causes of mathematical learning disabilities and persistent low achievement in mathematics. Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP, 32(3), 250-63. PMID: 21285895
- November 1, 2012
- 11:25 AM
- 872 views
Red Bull and Driving Performance
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In previous posts, I have examined some recent research using driving simulation technology. These posts examined the effect of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and sleep apnea on driving performance.In the next two posts, I will take a look at a couple of studies focusing on the effect of pharmacological and training interventions on driving performance. Driving simulators are very useful in examining the response to specific interventions on driving performance.Mets and her........ Read more »
Howland J, Rohsenow DJ, Arnedt JT, Bliss CA, Hunt SK, Calise TV, Heeren T, Winter M, Littlefield C, & Gottlieb DJ. (2011) The acute effects of caffeinated versus non-caffeinated alcoholic beverage on driving performance and attention/reaction time. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 106(2), 335-41. PMID: 21134017
- October 31, 2012
- 10:56 AM
- 784 views
Driving Simulation and Parkinson's Disease
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In two previous posts, I reviewed research relevant to driving performance in patients Alzheimer's disease and in patients with sleep apnea.These posts noted that driving impairment appears present in very early Alzheimer's disease, at a stage when family and medical personnel may not be aware of the disorders.Additionally, in sleep apnea, driving impairment is commonly present with some improvement, but not normalization with continuous positive airway pressure. &n........; Read more »
Vaux LM, Ni R, Rizzo M, Uc EY, & Andersen GJ. (2010) Detection of imminent collisions by drivers with Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease: a preliminary study. Accident; analysis and prevention, 42(3), 852-8. PMID: 20380912
Uc EY, Rizzo M, Anderson SW, Dastrup E, Sparks JD, & Dawson JD. (2009) Driving under low-contrast visibility conditions in Parkinson disease. Neurology, 73(14), 1103-10. PMID: 19805726
- October 30, 2012
- 11:39 AM
- 778 views
Driving Simulation and Sleep Apnea
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In a previous post, I examined a research study simulator of the effect of mild to moderateAlzheimer's disease on driving performance. This study found that even mild probable Alzheimer'sdisease subjects demonstrated significant impairment in a variety of driving performance domains.In this post, I will summarize three research studies related to driving performance in the sleepdisorder sleep apnea. The first study focused on changes in driving performance following theinitiatio........ Read more »
Vakulin A, Baulk SD, Catcheside PG, Antic NA, van den Heuvel CJ, Dorrian J, & McEvoy RD. (2011) Driving simulator performance remains impaired in patients with severe OSA after CPAP treatment. Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 7(3), 246-53. PMID: 21677893
Williams SC, Marshall NS, Kennerson M, Rogers NL, Liu PY, & Grunstein RR. (2010) Modafinil effects during acute continuous positive airway pressure withdrawal: a randomized crossover double-blind placebo-controlled trial. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 181(8), 825-31. PMID: 20056901
Tippin J, Sparks J, & Rizzo M. (2009) Visual vigilance in drivers with obstructive sleep apnea. Journal of psychosomatic research, 67(2), 143-51. PMID: 19616141
- October 29, 2012
- 10:28 PM
- 1,396 views
Embodied cognition: Theoretical claims and theoretical predictions
by Dan Mirman in Minding the Brain
I'm at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Aphasia (50th Anniversary!) in San Francisco. I like the Academy meeting because it is smaller than the other meetings that I attend and it brings together an interesting interdisciplinary group of people that are very passionate about the neural basis of language and acquired language disorders. One of the big topics of discussion on the first day of the meeting was embodied cognition, particularly its claim that semantic knowledge is grounded in........ Read more »
Barsalou, L. (2008) Grounded Cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59(1), 617-645. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639
Carota F, Moseley R, & Pulvermüller F. (2012) Body-part-specific representations of semantic noun categories. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24(6), 1492-1509. PMID: 22390464
Mahon, B., & Caramazza, A. (2008) A critical look at the embodied cognition hypothesis and a new proposal for grounding conceptual content. Journal of Physiology-Paris, 102(1-3), 59-70. DOI: 10.1016/j.jphysparis.2008.03.004
- October 25, 2012
- 11:47 AM
- 679 views
Driving Simulation and Alzheimer's Disease
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In previous posts I have summarized research studies of the role of cannabis in risk for motor vehicle accidents (MVA). This research suggests that risk of MVA with cannabis use is comparable to that of driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.8 g/L. A research study review found that cannabis use carries an overall risk of doubling the chances for serious MVA.Driving simulation research provides a laboratory tool to better understand the key elements in driving skill. A........ Read more »
Stein AC, & Dubinsky RM. (2011) Driving simulator performance in patients with possible and probable Alzheimer's disease. Annals of advances in automotive medicine / Annual Scientific Conference .. Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine. Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine. Scientific Conference, 325-34. PMID: 22105407
- October 24, 2012
- 11:05 AM
- 741 views
Cannabis Use and Car Accident Risk
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In a previous post, I summarized a recent study of the relative contribution of cannabis and alcohol to motor vehicle accident (MVA) risk. This Belgium study estimated that risk of motor vehicle accident with cannabis use was comparable to that of alcohol at a blood alcohol concentration of about 0.8 to 1.0 g/L.The Belgium study estimated the odds ratio for motor vehicle risk with cannabis at about 5.8. Asbridge and colleagues recently published a review of acute cannabis consumptio........ Read more »
Asbridge M, Hayden JA, & Cartwright JL. (2012) Acute cannabis consumption and motor vehicle collision risk: systematic review of observational studies and meta-analysis. BMJ (Clinical research ed.). PMID: 22323502
- October 22, 2012
- 10:29 AM
- 739 views
Dyslexia Intervention Changes the Brain
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In previous posts, I reviewed recent research findings in reading disorder (dyslexia). These studies estimated the prevalence of dyslexia at approximately 10% of children with rates in boys nearly twice that of girls. Twin studies show a significant genetic contribution to the risk for dyslexia. Brain imaging studies show deficits in the structure and function of inferior parietal and supramarginal gray matter regions in those with dyslexia.Brain imaging is beginning to be used........ Read more »
Krafnick AJ, Flowers DL, Napoliello EM, & Eden GF. (2011) Gray matter volume changes following reading intervention in dyslexic children. NeuroImage, 57(3), 733-41. PMID: 21029785
- October 21, 2012
- 05:43 PM
- 953 views
Savoir Faire or Savant?
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
Is amygdala volume correlated with social network size or with special talents in autism spectrum disorders? Or both??The amygdala is a subcortical structure located within the medial temporal lobes. It consists of a number of different nuclei, or collections of neurons delineated by commonalities in morphology and connectivity. The amygdala is best known for major roles in fear conditioning (Paré et al., 2004) and responding to emotional stimuli more generally (Phelps & LeDoux, 2005), ........ Read more »
Bickart, K., Hollenbeck, M., Barrett, L., & Dickerson, B. (2012) Intrinsic Amygdala-Cortical Functional Connectivity Predicts Social Network Size in Humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(42), 14729-14741. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1599-12.2012
Corrigan, N., Richards, T., Treffert, D., & Dager, S. (2012) Toward a better understanding of the savant brain. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 53(6), 706-717. DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2011.11.006
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