1,721,084 research outputs found
The social transmission of metacontrol policies: mechanisms underlying the interpersonal transfer of persistence and flexibility
Humans often face binary cognitive-control dilemmas, with the choice between persistence and flexibility being a crucial one. Tackling these dilemmas requires metacontrol, i.e., the control of the current cognitive-control policy. As predicted from functional, psychometric, neuroscientific, and modeling approaches, interindividual variability in metacontrol biases towards persistence or flexibility could be demonstrated in metacontrol-sensitive tasks. These biases covary systematically with genetic predispositions regarding mesofrontal and nigrostriatal dopaminergic functioning and the individualistic or collectivistic nature of the cultural background. However, there is also evidence for mood- and meditation-induced intraindividual variability (with negative mood and focused-attention meditation being associated with a bias towards persistence, and positive mood and open-monitoring meditation being associated with a bias towards flexibility), suggesting that genetic and cultural factors do not determine metacontrol settings entirely. We suggest a theoretical framework that explains how genetic predisposition and cultural learning can lead to the implementation of metacontrol defaults, which however can be shifted towards persistence or flexibility by situational factors.Action Contro
High vagally mediated resting-state heart rate variability is associated with superior action cascading
The neurovisceral integration model suggests that individual differences in heart rate variability (HRV), an index of vagal tone, may relate to prefrontal cortical activity and predict performance on cognitive control tasks. The aim of this study was to further verify this model by investigating the relationship between vagally-mediated resting-state HRV and action cascading, a crucial cognitive control function which refers to the ability to cope with multiple response options when confronted with various task goals. Resting-state HRV and performance on the stop-change paradigm, which provides a relatively well-established diagnostic measure of action cascading and response inhibition, was assessed in 88 healthy volunteers (age range 18–33). Compared to individuals with low resting-state HRV, participants with high resting-state HRV showed enhanced action cascading performance, both when a disruption (stopping) and change towards an alternative response were required simultaneously, and when requirements were cascaded (i.e. when the stopping process had already finished at the time the change was required). Our findings represent an important step towards extending our understanding of the neurovisceral integration model in cognitive control
The COMT Val158Met polymorphism does not modulate the after-effect of tDCS on working memory
Jongkees, B.J., Loseva, A., Yavari, F., Nitsche, M. & Colzato, L.S. (2019) European Journal of Neuroscienc
The COMT Val158Met polymorphism does not modulate the after-effect of tDCS on working memory
Jongkees, B.J., Loseva, A., Yavari, F., Nitsche, M. & Colzato, L.S. (2019) European Journal of Neuroscienc
Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) modulates flow experience
Flow has been defined as a pleasant psychological state that people experience when completely absorbed in an activity. Previous correlative evidence showed that the vagal tone (as indexed by heart rate variability) is a reliable marker of flow. So far, it has not yet been demonstrated that the vagus nerve plays a causal role in flow. To explore this we used transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), a novel non-invasive brain stimulation technique that increases activation of the locus coeruleus (LC) and norepinephrine release. A sham/placebo-controlled, randomized cross-over within-subject design was employed to infer a causal relation between the stimulated vagus nerve and flow as measured using the Flow Short-Scale in 32 healthy young volunteers. In both sessions, while being stimulated, participants had to rate their flow experience after having performed a task for 30 min. Active tVNS, compared to sham stimulation, decreased flow (as indexed by absorption scores). The results can be explained by the network reset theory, which assumes that high-phasic LC activity promotes a global reset of attention over exploitation of the current focus of attention, allowing rapid behavioral adaptation and resulting in decreased absorption scores. Furthermore, our findings corroborate the hypothesis that the vagus nerve and noradrenergic system are causally involved in flow.Action Contro
Commonalities of feature integration processing in and across perception and action planning
UBL - phd migration 201
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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