Cortex最新文献

{"title":"Anomic primary progressive aphasia with kanji-predominant dyslexia and dysgraphia.","authors":"Shoko Ota, Kazuo Kakinuma, Kazuto Katsuse, Nobuko Kawakami, Ayumi Morita, Ai Kawamura, Nanayo Ogawa, Chifumi Iseki, Shigenori Kanno, Minoru Matsuda, Kyoko Suzuki","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.013","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Reading and writing impairments in primary progressive aphasia (PPA) have received relatively limited attention both globally and in the Japanese context. Although several Japanese patients with anomic aphasia and kanji-predominant dysgraphia have been reported, kanji-predominant dyslexia at a relatively early stage has not been described. We report a case of anomic PPA presenting with kanji-predominant dyslexia and dysgraphia. A 69-year-old right-handed woman first noted word-finding difficulty at age 67 and subsequently developed reading difficulty. Examination revealed anomic aphasia with kanji-predominant dyslexia and dysgraphia. Reading errors occurred mainly with kanji irregular words. Kana word reading and writing were preserved, with reduced performance only in kana non-word reading. Reading sentences consisting of mixed kanji and kana revealed deficits in oral reading and comprehension. Visuospatial function remained intact. Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers were compatible with Alzheimer's disease pathology. ¹²³I-iodoamphetamine single-photon emission computed tomography demonstrated hypoperfusion in the left inferior temporal region, most prominently in the middle to posterior fusiform gyrus. In contrast, five control patients with anomia and kanji dysgraphia, but without dyslexia, showed hypoperfusion confined to the left lateral temporal cortex, sparing the fusiform gyrus. These findings indicate that dysfunction of the left fusiform gyrus may contribute to the kanji-predominant dyslexia. Further studies are needed to better characterize script-specific deficits across languages and related brain regions in neurodegenerative language disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"200 ","pages":"116-123"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147856119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cortical plasticity of the tactile mirror system in borderline personality disorder.","authors":"Agnese Zazio, Giacomo Guidali, Cora Miranda Lanza, Elisa Dognini, Christian Mancini, Serena Meloni, Barbara Borroni, Roberta Rossi, Nadia Bolognini, Marta Bortoletto","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show alterations in empathic abilities, potentially involving automatic simulation processes supported by mirror-like mechanisms in the somatosensory domain. Within the tactile mirror system (TaMS), observing touch on another person's body activates cortical regions involved in tactile perception, including the primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Although mirror-like alterations have been suggested in BPD, the underlying mechanisms of plasticity remain underexplored. Here, we used a cross-modal paired associative stimulation (cm-PAS) protocol to investigate the plasticity mechanisms of TaMS functioning in BPD. Twenty-four individuals with BPD and 24 healthy controls (HCs) were included. Empathic abilities were assessed using self-report questionnaires. Participants performed tactile acuity and visuo-tactile spatial congruity (VTSC) tasks before and after a cm-PAS protocol. During cm-PAS, images of a hand being touched were paired with transcranial magnetic stimulation over the S1. The effects of cm-PAS were assessed on tactile acuity, as an index of S1 activity, and VTSC performance, as an index of TaMS functioning. Preregistered analyses revealed that patients with BPD tended to have lower cognitive empathy than HCs, with no significant cm-PAS effects on tactile acuity or VTSC performance in HCs, precluding between-group comparisons of plasticity effects. Exploratory analyses were conducted to further investigate potential sources of variability in the effects of cm-PAS, as well as the relationship between cognitive empathy and visuo-tactile processing as measure of TaMS functioning.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"200 ","pages":"165-184"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147856155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sequence-dependent effects of iTBS and perceptual learning on binocular balance.","authors":"Junyu Wang, Dorita H F Chang","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sensory eye dominance (SED) reflects imbalanced treatment of the two eyes' inputs by the brain. Both V1-targeted intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) and dichoptic perceptual learning (PL) can reduce SED, implicating primary visual cortex (V1); however, how these interventions interact and whether they interact in an order-dependent manner remains unknown. Forty-four healthy control (HC) adults completed three daily sessions receiving either iTBS followed by PL (iTBS-PL) or PL followed by iTBS (PL-iTBS). We indexed observers' SED and motion discrimination thresholds before and after each session. SED decreased across sessions only for observers who received iTBS before PL. Motion thresholds were reduced similarly in both groups. These findings reveal an order-dependent facilitatory interaction between the two paradigms and support a causal, initiating role of V1 state in PL-driven SED plasticity rather than its implication as a byproduct of learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"200 ","pages":"124-135"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147856168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influences of mental imagery at different stages of Atkinson's and Shiffrin's modal model: Visual imagery is associated with enhanced iconic memory performance.","authors":"Merlin Monzel, Charlie Yang, Gaën Plancher, Fraser Milton, Martin Reuter","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mental imagery varies widely across individuals, ranging from aphantasia (absent or near-absent imagery) to hyperphantasia (extremely vivid imagery), yet its influence on early memory processes remains unclear. This study examined how imagery vividness affects distinct stages of Atkinson's and Shiffrin's modal model, focusing on iconic and working memory. Ninety-two participants (46 aphantasics, 46 non-aphantasics) completed a modified Sperling partial-report task with brief (50 msec; iconic memory) and extended (5000 msec; working memory) encoding durations, each with and without a delay of the recall cue. Non-aphantasics outperformed aphantasics in iconic, but not in working memory. Performance in the iconic memory task declined numerically more strongly after the delay among non-aphantasics than among aphantasics, suggesting greater visual decay in those who were initially able to rely on visual strategies. Importantly, aphantasics' performance declined more steeply across the rows of the iconic memory task's letter array than that of non-aphantasics, suggesting greater reliance on sequential strategies such as verbal encoding. Additional strategy analyses revealed that visual strategies enhanced iconic memory only in non-aphantasics, whereas verbal strategies improved working memory in both groups. Overall, our findings suggest that vivid mental imagery enhances early sensory processing and that non-visual strategies can only be applied at later processing stages. Thus, iconic memory appears to be partly dependent on top-down modulation by visual imagery.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"200 ","pages":"151-164"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147856145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Object recognition is shaped by the dynamic interplay between low-level contrast and high-level context.","authors":"Wenting Lin, Hui Zeng, Yaqi He, Jiehui Qian","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human perception relies on bottom-up sensory input and top-down prior knowledge, and object recognition is known to be modulated by the semantic relationship between objects and their surrounding context. However, the dynamic processing mechanism during object recognition and the resulting interaction between top-down and bottom-up factors remains unclear. The present study investigated how stimulus contrast modulates the effect of scene-object semantic congruency. Participants performed an object-recognition task in which target objects of high or low contrast appeared within semantically congruent or in congruent natural scenes. In Experiment 1, behavioral results (N= 73) on recognition accuracy revealed a congruency benefit for high-contrast objects and an incongruency benefit for low-contrast objects, indicating a contrast-dependent shift in how scene context influences recognition. Experiment 2 (N= 19) employed event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the neural activity of these effects. For high-contrast targets, congruency effects emerged in the N300 and N400 over central-parietal regions, and in the P600 over frontal sites. For low-contrast targets, effects were observed in the late component. These findings provide novel evidence that low-level visual contrast determines whether prior knowledge facilitates or interferes with object recognition, offering critical insights into the mechanisms underlying the dynamic interaction between bottom-up and top-down processes in visual perception.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"200 ","pages":"185-199"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147856194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Contralateral delay activity as a marker of visual working memory capacity: A multi-site registered replication.","authors":"Dawid Strzelczyk, Peter E Clayson, Heida Maria Sigurdardottir, Faisal Mushtaq, Yuri G Pavlov, Hélène Devillez, Anton Lukashevich, Harold A Rocha, Yong Hoon Chung, Kevin M Ortego, Viola S Störmer, José C García Alanis, Christoph Löffler, Anna-Lena Schubert, Anna Lena Biel, Samuel A Birkholz, Emily M Johnson, Jeffrey S Johnson, Zitong Lu, Yong Min Choi, Eva Lout, Julie D Golomb, Shuangke Jiang, Myles Jones, Eda Mizrak, Claudia C von Bastian, Niko A Busch, Charline Peylo, Larissa Behnke, Yannik Hilla, Maro G Machizawa, William X Q Ngiam, Edward K Vogel, Nicolas Langer","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The contralateral delay activity (CDA) is a widely used electrophysiological marker of visual working memory (VWM), yet recent work has questioned whether typical sample sizes in CDA studies are sufficient to robustly detect set size effects and brain-behavior correlations. As part of the #EEGManyLabs initiative, the present multi-site replication study aimed to rigorously test replicability of the key findings of Vogel and Machizawa (2004)using a large sample of 304 participants across 10 laboratories and a preregistered analysis plan. We replicated the expected contralateral-ipsilateral asymmetry and observed increases in CDA amplitude from set size 2 to 4 and from set size 2 to 6. In contrast, the hypothesized positive correlation between the CDA increase from set size 2 to 4 and individual VWM capacity was not replicated in the preregistered meta-analytic correlation. Across different pipelines and statistical analyses, the meta-analytic correlation estimate was small (r = .15) and substantially attenuated relative to the original effect size in Vogel and Machizawa (2004)study (r = .78). To contextualize these findings, we applied a funnel-plot diagnostic combining published effects with the #EEGManyLabs data, indicating small-study inflation and publication bias. Taken together, our results indicate that reports of strong correlations between CDA amplitude and VWM capacity may have been overestimated, in part because statistically significant findings were selectively reported. Our results highlight the importance of open science practices, including well-powered, preregistered studies with transparent data and analysis pipelines, in order to characterize the magnitude and robustness of individual-difference associations in psychophysiology.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"201 ","pages":"10-39"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147856199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neural activation by vocal threat requires attention.","authors":"Jurriaan Witteman, Sofia Axioti, Aranka van Tol","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.009","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Twenty years ago, an influential neuroimaging study showed that the auditory cortex and amygdala are active during the presentation of non-attended angry voices. These results had a large scientific impact and inspired subsequent clinical work but have not been replicated by an independent laboratory. We conducted a high powered pre-registered close replication study (n= 37) of unattended vocal anger processing and extended the study by examining anger specificity of activations. Additionally, we performed an effect size meta-analysis of neural processing of angry voices (total n= 140). Neither the close replication nor the meta-analysis supported activation of the amygdala or auditory cortex during the presentation of non-attended angry voices, while the meta-analysis supported a role of the auditory cortex in attention-dependent processing of anger. Together, the results do not support the existence of circuitry that is automatically activated to detect vocal threat, in contrast to evolutionary inspired models of automatic threat perception.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"200 ","pages":"136-150"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147856148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Situation model manipulations differently engage semantic and default mode networks during narrative comprehension.","authors":"Erica Adezati, Melissa Thye, Shubhangi Butta, Luca Pecchioli, Paul Hoffman, Daniel Mirman","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Narrative comprehension involves creating a mental representation of the events of the story: a \"situation model\". Maintaining a situation model is thought to be supported by the Default Mode Network (DMN), but recent work suggests that the semantic system, and specifically the ventrolateral anterior temporal lobe (ATL), may play a role in reflecting on and restructuring the situation model via internally-driven or endogenous semantic processing. The present study used fMRI to investigate how ATL and DMN brain regions respond under varying exogenous, or input-driven, and endogenous processing demands when reading social and non-social stories. We studied neural responses to three types of situation model manipulation: 1) add-incorporating new information into the situation model, 2) use-using the information in the situation model to support comprehension of narrative language input, and 3) reconfigure-restructuring the situation model. Relative to add, the use and reconfigure manipulations tended to elicit greater activation in regions of the DMN, including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus, as well as the bilateral superior, middle and inferior ATL. Relative to non-social stories, add and use manipulations in social stories engaged the left anterior middle and superior temporal gyri and inferior parietal lobule (IPL), whereas reconfigure manipulations engaged the right superior, middle and inferior frontal gyri and IPL. The present results inform a developing framework for coordination between the ATL and DMN during narrative comprehension.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"200 ","pages":"92-115"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147834691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Baby brain? Evidence for no objective cognitive differences between mothers, fathers and non-parents in the post-partum period.","authors":"M Navyaan Siddiqui, Edwina R Orchard, Ashlea Segal, Kelsey Perrykkad, Sharna D Jamadar","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Becoming a parent is a significant life transition, leading to extensive change and uncertainty in one's daily environment. Parenthood is often thought to have adverse consequences across multiple cognitive domains, such as memory, a phenomenon known colloquially as 'baby brain'. Evidence supporting an objective cognitive decline in the postpartum period is unconvincing, and it is unknown whether fathers experience similar changes in cognitive function. Here we examine cognitive differences in birthgiving mothers and non-birthgiving fathers up to two years postpartum. Four hundred participants (300 parents and 100 non-parents) completed a cognitive battery assessing executive function, working and episodic memory, processing speed and subjective memory. Parents showed similar performance to non-parent controls on all objective cognition measures, and we found evidence for no differences in cognitive performance between mothers and fathers, suggesting the absence of so-called \"baby brain\" effects. Significant group differences in subjective memory were driven by a self-promotion bias, where male non-fathers reported better subjective memory than all other groups. A commonly shown phenomenon in males, this self-promotion bias appeared to be lost in fathers, an effect driven by lack of sleep. Strikingly, there was no effect of time postpartum on any cognitive measure. Therefore, these results challenge the societal 'baby brain' stereotype, and provide a new foundation to support family units together irrespective of birth-giving status.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147812178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Electrophysiological evidence of infants’ understanding of verbs","authors":"Kelsey L. Frewin ,&nbsp;Ross E. Vanderwert ,&nbsp;Chiara Gambi ,&nbsp;Louis Renoult ,&nbsp;Sarah A. Gerson","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2025.12.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cortex.2025.12.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>When do infants first begin grasping the meaning of verbs? To learn verbs – words that describe actions and events – theorists suggest that infants must employ word segmentation, event processing, and verb-to-action mapping skills. Prior research suggests that many of these skills emerge by approximately 10 months. In the current study, we examined whether 10-month-old infants understand several early verbs. In a novel action-verb pairing paradigm, infants saw videos of everyday actions while hearing matching or mismatching verbs. We tested adults on the same paradigm to verify that action-verb pairs reliably evoked an N400 mismatch effect. Adults showed an N400-like effect over frontal and centroparietal regions. Infants also showed ERP differences between mismatched and matched action-verb pairs, although the pattern differed from adults, with variation in topography and directionality. Infants’ ERP response was not related to their receptive or productive vocabulary size. These findings indicate that infants were sensitive to co-occurrences between actions and verbs, reflecting emerging verb understanding and suggesting nascent semantic knowledge. We further consider alternative explanations, including the possibility that the observed ERP differences reflect early action-verb associations that may serve as building blocks for later semantic verb knowledge. These results expand our understanding of infant language acquisition by demonstrating that, by 10 months, infants are sensitive to mismatches between everyday actions and verbs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"196 ","pages":"Pages 41-60"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146076135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}