{"title":"Pupil dilation as an index of episodic processing when remembering, imagining, and thinking creatively.","authors":"Preston P Thakral, Kevin P Madore, Aleea L Devitt","doi":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2737633","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17588928.2026.2737633","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Prior research indicates that the cognitive and neural systems supporting the recall of specific past experiences (episodic memory) also play a key role in imagining novel and specific future experiences (episodic simulation), and divergent creative thinking. In particular, constructive memory processes (e.g. retrieval and recombination of specific episodic details) are thought to benefit episodic simulation and divergent thinking. In the current study, we provide a novel test of this hypothesis using eye-tracking. We capitalized on prior eye-tracking and neuroimaging evidence demonstrating that pupil dilation and hippocampal activity are enhanced when memory is associated with the retrieval of episodic detail relative to non-episodic detail. We tracked pupil dilation as participants recalled past experiences, imagined novel future experiences, engaged in divergent thinking, or performed a non-episodic/semantic retrieval task. Pupil dilation tracked divergent thinking ability and the number of episodic details generated during episodic memory and simulation. No relationship was observed between pupil dilation and performance in the semantic memory task, or the generation of non-episodic details during episodic memory and simulation. In contrast, fixation counts tracked performance in the semantic retrieval task. In line with prior findings, we interpret the results as reflecting the retrieval of specific information during episodic memory, simulation, and divergent thinking. At a broader level, these findings suggest that examining pupillometry is a promising direction for identifying common episodic processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":10413,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149191709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-10-01Epub Date: 2026-05-24DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2026.2665610
Jason S Tsukahara, Anthony P Zanesco, Brooke Schwartzman, Ekaterina Denkova, Amishi P Jha
{"title":"Catching the drift: EEG microstate dynamics resemble time-on-task changes in mind wandering and sustained attention.","authors":"Jason S Tsukahara, Anthony P Zanesco, Brooke Schwartzman, Ekaterina Denkova, Amishi P Jha","doi":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2665610","DOIUrl":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2665610","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sustained focus is essential for effective goal-directed behavior. Yet, as sustained attention tasks drag on, the occurrence of mind wandering increases. Recent studies suggest that such increases in mind wandering correspond with increases in response time variability and declines in accuracy with greater time-on-task. Relatively little is known about how large-scale brain dynamics unfold over similar timescales. EEG microstates offer a way to characterize these dynamics by capturing brief, quasi-stable topographical patterns that index distinct large-scale neural configurations. Prior work has shown that microstate C corresponds with episodes of mind wandering, whereas microstate E corresponds with task-focused periods. The present study asked whether the prominence of these microstates may systematically shift with greater time-on-task. Thirty-four adults completed a 45-min Sustained Attention to Response Task, while EEG was recorded and canonical microstates were extracted. In line with established behavioral findings, self-reported mind wandering and performance indices suggested poorer task-focus with longer time-on-task. Critically, microstate metrics revealed a gradual increase in the prominence of microstate C (greater time coverage and occurrence) over the course of the task and a corresponding decrease in the prominence of microstate E (shorter duration). These results indicate that EEG microstate dynamics are sensitive to time-on-task related changes in sustained attention and track a shift from externally oriented task focus toward internally oriented, mind wandering states.</p>","PeriodicalId":10413,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"179-189"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148005075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-10-01Epub Date: 2026-08-17DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2026.2718716
Elliot Murphy
{"title":"Necessity and plurality of neural dynamics under ROSE.","authors":"Elliot Murphy","doi":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2718716","DOIUrl":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2718716","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>I am grateful to the authors of the commentary articles for identifying productive points of pressure for any neurocomputational account of syntax: whether semantic interpretation can proceed without a full syntactic derivation; how dynamical motifs are selected and coordinated; whether proposed mechanisms generalize across languages and modalities; how evolution may have repurposed older memory circuitry; and how neural dynamics distinguish types and tokens. Here, I clarify that ROSE is an architecture for implementing hierarchical syntactic computation, bringing with it no commitment that its full code is obligatory for every act of meaning construction. The commentaries suggest a number of compelling concrete extensions: task-dependent gating of S/E; factorized R/O subspaces; representation-relative rather than language-specific complexity measures; comparative tests of neural reuse; and occurrence-sensitive phase or state-space addresses. These thoughtful extensions sharpen the central aim of ROSE to formulate multiscale, falsifiable links between formal properties of language and neural dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":10413,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"167-173"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148758401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-10-01Epub Date: 2026-05-25DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2026.2675936
John P A Ioannidis
{"title":"fMRI research: do we need statistically better studies, larger studies, or no more studies?","authors":"John P A Ioannidis","doi":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2675936","DOIUrl":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2675936","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>fMRI research is highly prolific but raises multiple concerns. Many competing statistical methods and respective packages are available using different assumptions, none of which applies equally well to all settings. However, the most fundamental concerns are not about the statistical machinery, but about issues of reproducibility, utility, and even construct validity. One can probe how much the field would benefit by statistical refinements, the conduct of larger studies and/or improved reproducibility practices. Alternatively, maybe fMRI research should largely be abandoned with focus shifting toward developing imaging methods with construct validity for granular neuronal activity and higher potential for clinical utility.</p>","PeriodicalId":10413,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"192-193"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148013858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-10-01Epub Date: 2026-07-14DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2026.2699666
Ashley C Steinkrauss, Scott D Slotnick
{"title":"Reassessing hippocampal contributions to implicit memory: a call for conceptual clarity, methodological rigor, and increased measures of awareness.","authors":"Ashley C Steinkrauss, Scott D Slotnick","doi":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2699666","DOIUrl":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2699666","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In a previous discussion paper, we conducted a systematic review of 13 implicit memory studies that reported fMRI activity in the hippocampus. It was determined that each of these studies suffered from at least one of the following confounds that could produce hippocampal activity: explicit memory contamination, imbalanced attentional states, imbalanced stimuli between conditions, or differential novelty. Thus, we concluded that implicit memory is not associated with the hippocampus. Six commentaries on that discussion paper were received from Hannula (2024), Henke and Ruch (2024), Rosenthal (2024), Spaak (2024), Thakral et al. (2024), and Züst (2024). In this response, we address several issues to clarify our theoretical and experimental framework and maintain that when confounds are excluded, there is no evidence for hippocampal involvement during implicit memory. This discourse highlights the need for conceptual clarity, methodological consistency, and the critical distinction between neural engagement and behavioral expression.</p>","PeriodicalId":10413,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"174-178"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148435580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-10-01Epub Date: 2026-06-02DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2026.2682170
Anders Eklund
{"title":"Increasing statistical power in functional MRI through permutation and multivariate statistics.","authors":"Anders Eklund","doi":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2682170","DOIUrl":"10.1080/17588928.2026.2682170","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Slotnick (2026) provides a large number of simulations to demonstrate that statistical power in fMRI can be improved by including the sample size N when calculating an appropriate cluster extent threshold for thresholding statistical maps. I argue that the problems acknowledged by Slotnick can instead be solved using threshold free cluster enhancement (TFCE) and a permutation test, which together apply a large number of cluster forming thresholds and implicitly model the sample size as well as the spatial autocorrelation. Furthermore, I briefly mention some other approaches for increasing statistical power in fMRI.</p>","PeriodicalId":10413,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"190-191"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148148843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2025-11-14DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2025.2585989
Josselin Baumard
{"title":"What is technology-specific in technological cognition?","authors":"Josselin Baumard","doi":"10.1080/17588928.2025.2585989","DOIUrl":"10.1080/17588928.2025.2585989","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":10413,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"128-130"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145512130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2025-11-07DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2025.2585993
Emiliano Bruner
{"title":"Cognitive archeology, technological evolution, and the current agenda for extended cognition.","authors":"Emiliano Bruner","doi":"10.1080/17588928.2025.2585993","DOIUrl":"10.1080/17588928.2025.2585993","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><i>Homo sapiens</i> has evolved a specialized \"prosthetic ability\", necessary to integrate tools into the cognitive process. The neural toolkit associated with such technological extension is particularly influenced by the fronto-parietal system, the working memory network, and a set of unidentified skills linked to the concept of embodiment. The agenda for investigating these topics in the frame of evolution will require the refinement of proper definitions, and the application of experimental approaches in cognitive archeology. Of course, the fact that our technological ability is the result of natural selection does not mean that it is free from risks and drawbacks.</p>","PeriodicalId":10413,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"131-133"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145470842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2025-10-29DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2025.2573893
Mathieu Lesourd
{"title":"Bridging technical cognition and manipulation knowledge.","authors":"Mathieu Lesourd","doi":"10.1080/17588928.2025.2573893","DOIUrl":"10.1080/17588928.2025.2573893","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>While technical reasoning enables us to understand physical interactions, manipulation knowledge provides motor solutions grounded in prior experiences. Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies suggest that mechanical knowledge is central, but manipulation knowledge may still play a supporting role in familiar contexts. We argue that these two systems coexist within the cognitive architecture, supported by partially distinct neural substrates. Clarifying their interactions is essential for developing a comprehensive model of tool use within the broader framework of technological cognition.</p>","PeriodicalId":10413,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"152-154"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145400040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive NeurosciencePub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2025-10-29DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2025.2573888
Luca Turella
{"title":"A network-level perspective on technological cognition.","authors":"Luca Turella","doi":"10.1080/17588928.2025.2573888","DOIUrl":"10.1080/17588928.2025.2573888","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Federico et al. (2025) propose a comprehensive neurocognitive model of technological cognition, i.e. the brain's capability to generate and interact with technology. We situate their framework within the Affordance Competition Hypothesis, extending the notion of affordances from physical tools to technological devices. We highlight how specific aspects of technological cognition may rely on the interactions between parietal and temporal networks together with their interplay with the social brain. Understanding how these networks interact offers a promising path to explain how technological cognition emerges depending on the characteristics of the adopted tool and of the context in which it is used.</p>","PeriodicalId":10413,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"157-158"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145400007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}