Showing papers in "Trends in Cognitive Sciences in 2015"

TL;DR: Rodent studies, neuroimaging, and large-scale behavioural studies in humans that have yielded data that are consistent with heightened neuroplasticity in adolescence are described.

TL;DR: Dynamic coding suggests that WM is encoded in patterns of functional connectivity, and population-level analyses reveal that brain activity is highly dynamic.

TL;DR: Recent translational and clinical research reveals the pivotal role that imagery plays in many mental disorders and suggests how clinicians can utilize imagery in treatment.

TL;DR: Considering single-unit, electrocorticography, and functional imaging data, it is argued that virtually all cortical circuits can accumulate information over time, and the timescales of accumulation vary hierarchically, from early sensory areas with short processing timescale to higher-order areas with long processing timesCales.

TL;DR: It is suggested that meta-awareness, perspective taking and cognitive reappraisal, and self-inquiry may be important mechanisms in specific families of meditation and that alterations in these processes may be used to target states of experiential fusion, maladaptive self-schema, and cognitive reification.

TL;DR: It is suggested that cognitive control is initiated when goal conflicts evoke phasic changes to emotional primitives that both focus attention on the presence of goal conflicts and energize conflict resolution to support goal-directed behavior.

TL;DR: Experimental evidence suggests form-to-meaning correspondences serve different functions in language processing, development, and communication: systematicity facilitates category learning by means of phonological cues, iconicity facilitates word learning and communication by Means of perceptuomotor analogies, and arbitrariness facilitates meaning individuation through distinctive forms.

TL;DR: In summary, search represents a core feature of cognition, with a vast influence on its evolution and processes across contexts and requiring input from multiple domains to understand its implications and scope.

TL;DR: A theoretical framework is offered according to which SL is not a unitary mechanism, but a set of domain-general computational principles that operate in different modalities and, therefore, are subject to the specific constraints characteristic of their respective brain regions.

TL;DR: This work proposes an oscillatory model of sustained attention that relies on frontomedial theta oscillations, inter-areal communication via low-frequency phase synchronisation, and selective excitation and inhibition of cognitive processing through gamma and alpha oscillations to protect task performance against fatigue and distraction.

TL;DR: It is argued that the requirement of reports has biased the search for the neural correlates of consciousness over the past decades and how report-based and no-report paradigms jointly bring us closer to understanding the true neural basis of consciousness.

TL;DR: This work argues for a reformulation of ToM through a systematic two-stage approach, beginning with a deconstruction of the construct into a comprehensive set of basic component processes, followed by a complementary reconstruction from which a scientifically tractable concept of ToB can be recovered.

TL;DR: An integrated theoretical account of how the unique demands of acquiring instrumental skills and cultural conventions provide insight into when children imitate, when they innovate, and to what degree is proposed.

TL;DR: Evidence is reported that self-reference affects the binding of memory to source, the integration of parts into perceptual wholes, and the ability to switch from a prior association to new associations.

TL;DR: This work proposes that changes in implicit social bias occur via a process of self association that first takes place in the physical, bodily domain as an increase in perceived physical similarity between self and outgroup member, leading to a generalization of positive self-like associations to the outgroup.

TL;DR: Recent work in humans examining hippocampal contributions to sequence learning is summarized and the learning of sequential relationships through repetition from the rapid, episodic acquisition of sequential associations is distinguished.

TL;DR: This work builds on previous theoretical models that emphasize the role of prediction in music appreciation by integrating these ideas with recent neuroscientific evidence to summarize how complex cognitive abilities and cortical processes integrate with fundamental subcortical reward and motivation systems in the brain to give rise to musical pleasure.

TL;DR: The possible roles of the insula in addiction are examined, open questions are identified, and ways to address them are explored.

TL;DR: A unifying Bayesian framework for understanding biases in magnitude estimation is discussed, which enables a re-interpretation of a range of established psychophysical findings, reconciles seemingly incompatible classical views on magnitude estimation, and can guide future investigations of magnitude estimation and its neurobiological mechanisms in health and in psychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia.

TL;DR: This work proposes that time-dependent effects of emotion can be better understood by an emotional binding account whereby the amygdala mediates the recollection of item-emotion bindings that are forgotten more slowly than item-context bindings supported by the hippocampus.

TL;DR: It is proposed that patterns of activity in LOTC form representational spaces, the dimensions of which capture perceptual, semantic, and motor knowledge of how actions change the state of the world.

TL;DR: It is argued that rational application of tES should occur in tandem with computational neurostimulation and appropriate physiological and behavioural assays to aid appreciation of the limitations and generate testable predictions of how tES expresses its effects on behaviour.

TL;DR: Progress is described using the computational neuroimaging approach in human visual cortex, which aims to build models that predict the neural responses from the stimulus and task.

TL;DR: A novel network strongly related to learning and memory is identified through examination of meta-analyses of task-based functional MRI and resting state functional connectivity MRI, called the 'parietal memory network' (PMN) to reflect its broad involvement in human memory processing.

TL;DR: It is argued that higher- order language combinatorics, including sentence and discourse processing, can be situated in a unified, cross-species dorsal-ventral streams architecture for higher auditory processing, and that the functions of the dorsal and ventral streams in higher-order language processing can be grounded in their respective computational properties in primate audition.

TL;DR: This work reviews recent trends in the study of skill learning which suggest a hierarchical organization of the representations that underlie such expert performance, with premotor areas encoding short sequential movement elements (chunks) or particular component features (timing/spatial organization).

TL;DR: This work highlights several issues related to gamma rhythms, such as low and inconsistent power, its dependence on low-level stimulus features, problems due to conduction delays, and contamination due to spike-related activity that makes accurate estimation of gamma phase difficult.

TL;DR: Microscopic organization of neural codes reveals a key role of neural heterogeneity and how microscopic and population dynamics interact to make processing state-dependent.

TL;DR: In an integrative review, it is proposed that all three major instantiations of the endowment effect are attributable to exogenously and endogenously induced cognitive frames that bias which information is accessible during valuation.

TL;DR: It is proposed that measuring distinct types of neural variability in autism and other disorders is likely to reveal crucial insights regarding their neuropathology and the importance of studying neural variability more generally across development and aging in humans is discussed.