Cortex最新文献

{"title":"Stage-specific contributions of dorsal and ventral premotor cortices to the acquisition of arbitrary visuomotor associations.","authors":"Sonia Turrini, Anastasia Amadori, Giorgio Arcara, Giuseppe di Pellegrino, Alessio Avenanti","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.09.018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.09.018","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The acquisition and consolidation of arbitrary visuomotor mappings (AVMMs) engage premotor regions, yet the distinct contributions of the dorsal (PMd) and ventral (PMv) premotor cortices remain unclear. Here, we applied continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) immediately before AVMM learning to transiently disrupt PMd, PMv, or an occipital control site (V1) in 19 healthy young adults, using a within-subjects design. Participants learned arbitrary stimulus-response associations through trial-and-error feedback and completed a 24-h delayed recall test. Trial-by-trial accuracy and response times were modeled using state-space and Rescorla-Wagner frameworks to quantify learning dynamics, prediction errors, and stabilization across days. Disruption of both PMd and PMv slowed early acquisition of AVMMs to a comparable extent relative to V1. However, only PMd disruption additionally impaired next-day recall, rendering recall performance dependent on sleep quality and decoupled from learning-day performance, whereas recall following PMv disruption remained comparable to the control condition. These findings indicate that PMd, but not PMv, contributes to the stabilization of newly learned visuomotor associations, providing causal, stage-specific evidence for a functional dissociation within the human premotor cortex: PMd and PMv support early rule formation and exploratory learning, whereas only PMd contributes to subsequent stabilization of newly learned visuomotor associations. Furthermore, they emphasize the modulatory influence of sleep on memory retention when consolidation processes are compromised, advancing mechanistic models of premotor contributions to associative sensorimotor learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"205 ","pages":"441-455"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149223481","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":"Waves of control: An ER(S)P study to explore the neural dynamics of proactive and reactive stability.","authors":"Giada Viviani, Antonino Visalli, Maria Montefinese, Irene Di Pietro, Maria Ruz, Antonino Vallesi, Ettore Ambrosini","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.09.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.09.004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cognitive stability, the ability to maintain task focus while facing distractions, is a core component of cognitive control. According to the Dual Mechanisms of Control model, stability can be implemented proactively, through anticipatory goal maintenance, or reactively, through transient, conflict-triggered adjustments. However, their neural dynamics remain debated, mainly due to the limited temporal resolution of fMRI and to EEG designs that fail to disentangle different forms of stability. Here, we recorded EEG while 40 participants performed a spatial Stroop task to dissociate predictive proactive stability, induced by list-wide proportion congruency (LWPC), and predictive reactive stability, induced by item-specific proportion congruency (ISPC). Moreover, using response-locked analyses, we exploratively probed the late, corrective form of reactive stability engaged after conflict detection. Using a state-of-the-art analytical approach combining trial-level Bayesian estimates of the manipulated variables with multilevel modeling, we isolated these predictive mechanisms from low-level confounds like contingency. The analyses of event-related potentials and time-frequency activity revealed neural signatures of proactive stability, including anticipatory pre-stimulus modulations and a systematic reduction of post-stimulus conflict-related activity. In contrast, no reliable neural evidence for predictive reactive stability was observed once contingency was controlled. Importantly, response-locked analyses revealed distinct late neural markers compatible with a corrective reactive stability mechanism engaged to resolve conflict when predictive mechanisms failed. Together, these findings provide clear electrophysiological evidence for predictive proactive stability neural mechanisms, while failing to reveal those of ISPC-dependent predictive reactive stability. Moreover, exploratory analyses provided insights into late corrective reactive stability neural mechanisms, engaged when predictive mechanisms failed.</p>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149073793","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}

{"title":"Auditory-motor distractor-response binding is modulated by harmonicity of stimuli and acoustical discrimination skills","authors":"Theresa Paulus ,&nbsp;Astrid Prochnow ,&nbsp;Julia Jaworski ,&nbsp;Lars-Michael Schöpper ,&nbsp;Christian Beste ,&nbsp;Christian Frings ,&nbsp;Alexander Münchau ,&nbsp;Julius Verrel ,&nbsp;Tobias Bäumer","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2025.12.012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cortex.2025.12.012","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Distractor-response binding (DRB) has been widely studied to understand the interplay between perception and motor processes, with DRB effects referring to performance costs or benefits that arise when previously co-occurring distractors and responses are retrieved together. We hypothesize that musical training and musical perception skills modulate flexibility in reconfiguring auditory perception–action associations; this has not yet been investigated in the context of DRB. Here, we use an auditory DRB paradigm with concomitant EEG recordings to investigate how auditory-motor bindings are established, retrieved, and how they might differ between harmonic versus inharmonic sounds. Using a healthy sample of participants (N = 42) with a wide range of musical training, we also investigated whether these processes are modulated by musical perception skills, assessed using the well-established Micro-PROMS (Profile of Music Perception Skills).</div><div>Behavioral and EEG results indicated significant DRB effects for both harmonic and inharmonic distractor sound combinations. These effects were modulated by harmonicity: stronger behavioral DRB effects and weaker DRB effects in theta band activity were found when inharmonic as compared to harmonic distractor stimuli were presented. Beamformer analysis localized the theta band effect to the right superior temporal cortex, highlighting the role of this brain area in auditory-motor integration. Further, this study provides evidence that participants with better musical perception skills and higher cumulative practice time show increased flexibility in handling perception–action associations. Together, these findings enhance the understanding of how auditory stimuli interact with motor actions, particularly in relation to individual differences in musical perception skills.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"196 ","pages":"Pages 155-170"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146124109","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":"The role of vision and proprioception in implicit and explicit self-movement recognition","authors":"Ivan Patané ,&nbsp;Mariano D'Angelo ,&nbsp;Elisa Zamagni ,&nbsp;Richard Moreau ,&nbsp;Minh Tu Pham ,&nbsp;Alice C. Roy ,&nbsp;Francesca Frassinetti ,&nbsp;Alessandro Farnè","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2025.12.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cortex.2025.12.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The recognition of one's own body is a fundamental component of body self-representation. While several studies have reported a self-advantage (enhanced performance when processing one's own body parts), this phenomenon appears complex and inconsistently observed across tasks. In particular, a self-advantage often emerges in implicit tasks, where self-recognition is incidental, whereas explicit self-recognition tasks sometimes reveal no advantage or even a self-disadvantage. Although previous research has examined various aspects of movement self-recognition, systematic investigations directly comparing self-advantage effects in implicit versus explicit recognition of one's own movements, and disentangling the respective contributions of vision and proprioception within this framework, remain scarce. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the self-advantage effect previously reported for static body parts extends to the recognition of one's own movements, in visual and proprioceptive conditions. In the implicit task, participants judged the perceived lateral direction (left or right) of their own or others' arm reaching movements, which were pre-recorded and replayed using an upper-limb exoskeleton. In the explicit task, participants judged whether reaching movements were their own or not. In the visual condition, they observed the exoskeleton executing the reaching movements, while in the proprioceptive condition their arm was passively moved by the exoskeleton. Results showed self-advantage in the implicit recognition task, with participants demonstrating higher accuracy in discriminating their own actions in both visual and proprioceptive modalities. Notably, this self-advantage for movement ownership was also observed in the explicit recognition within the visual modality, but was absent in the proprioceptive modality. Thus, individuals can implicitly differentiate distinct proprioceptive and visual kinematic patterns associated with their own movements, this advantage extending to explicit recognition in the visual modality. These findings reveal the role of proprioceptive experience in implicitly favoring action discrimination and highlight the differential influence of visual and proprioceptive cues in motion self-recognition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"196 ","pages":"Pages 61-77"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146076067","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":"Should aphantasia be rehabilitated? The case for subtype-specific interventions","authors":"Juha Silvanto","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.01.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.01.005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"196 ","pages":"Pages 137-139"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146118194","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":"Cover figure","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/S0010-9452(26)00058-4","DOIUrl":"10.1016/S0010-9452(26)00058-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><strong>Cover caption:</strong>'Light and Colour (Goethe's Theory) – The Morning after the Deluge – Moses Writing the Book of Genesis', by J. M. W. Turner (<span><span>https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2653879</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>). This image relates to Gardner, Saurels, and Arnold's article in this volume, which confirms that pupil size are modulated by mental imagery of light and dark, though these changes did not correlate with imagery vividness ratings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"196 ","pages":"Pages ii-iii"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147448917","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":"Longitudinal prediction of naming and connected speech in post-stroke aphasia: Contribution of acute white matter characteristics","authors":"Marie-Ève Desjardins ,&nbsp;Karine Marcotte ,&nbsp;Christophe Bedetti ,&nbsp;Bérengère Houzé ,&nbsp;Amélie Brisebois ,&nbsp;Maxime Descoteaux ,&nbsp;Alex Desautels ,&nbsp;Simona Maria Brambati","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.01.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.01.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>People with aphasia (PWA) display considerable variability in naming and connected speech during language recovery. While white matter lesion-related, micro- and macro-structural characteristics in the subacute and chronic phases have been associated with these language functions, the predictive value of white matter predictors acquired in the acute phase remains largely unknown. We aimed to assess how acute features of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), uncinate fasciculus (UF), and frontal aslant tract (FAT) contribute to naming and connected speech fluency and efficiency over time. Twenty-eight PWA underwent anatomical and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging within the first week post-stroke. Naming and connected speech (quantified using correct information units per minute, CIUs/min) were assessed across the acute (0–5 days), subacute (7–15 days), and chronic (&gt;6 months) phases. We conducted correlation and regression analyses using demographics, acute clinical scores, and characteristics of the language-related bundles of interest. Better subacute naming was correlated with higher acute naming, smaller lesions, and lower IFOF-lesion load. Subacute connected speech was correlated positively to acute CIUs/min and negatively to IFOF-lesion load. Regression models revealed that acute naming predicted subacute naming, and a combination of acute CIUs/min and IFOF-lesion load predicted subacute CIUs/min. Acute aphasia severity, as reflected in acute naming or connected speech performances, is a key predictor of subacute outcomes. Furthermore, the contribution of acute white matter tracts appears to vary across symptoms and recovery stages.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"196 ","pages":"Pages 101-116"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146076068","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":"Impact of aging on theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling during learning: A multivariate analysis","authors":"Dawid Strzelczyk ,&nbsp;Charline Peylo ,&nbsp;Nicolas Langer","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.01.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cortex.2026.01.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Aging is associated with cognitive decline and memory impairment, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) between mid-frontal theta and occipital gamma is a proposed marker for the parallel storage of multiple items in working memory. However, prior research has mainly focused on young adults, with only a few studies in aging populations. Moreover, these studies typically used univariate PAC methods, which are susceptible to spurious estimates due to EEG nonstationarities and often assess PAC at individual electrodes, potentially overlooking the broader functional significance of PAC in coordinating neural activity across distant brain regions. To address these limitations, we applied multivariate PAC (mPAC) using generalized eigendecomposition (GED), which avoids confounds from non-sinusoidal waveforms and captures coupling across distributed brain regions. EEG was recorded from 113 younger and 117 older healthy adults during a sequence learning paradigm (6423 repetitions, 55,944 stimuli), where participants learned a fixed visual sequence over repeated observations, allowing us to track mPAC throughout incremental learning. Younger adults learned significantly faster than older adults. In both groups, mPAC increased with learning and distinguished fast from slow learners. However, older participants showed overall reduced mPAC, suggesting compromised parallel storage in working memory. Crucially, stratification analysis revealed that mPAC effects persisted across performance groups matched for mid-frontal theta power, indicating that theta amplitude alone does not explain the observed effects. These findings shed light on the age-related differences in memory formation processes and may guide interventions to enhance memory performance in older adults and slow learners.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"196 ","pages":"Pages 171-188"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146140994","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":"Individuals with congenital amusia show degraded performance in a nonword repetition task with lexical tones","authors":"Jiaqiang Zhu ,&nbsp;Min Xu ,&nbsp;Jing Shao","doi":"10.1016/j.cortex.2025.11.017","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cortex.2025.11.017","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Congenital amusia is a disorder characterized by abnormal pitch processing, including pitch encoding and pitch memory. Individuals with amusia were impaired in speech perception, but they showed comparable speech production as those without (mainly investigated in tonal languages). Nonetheless, most previous studies collected amusics' recordings based on real words, and little is known about how amusics produce nonwords that incorporate phonological components of syllables and lexical tones. In this study, two participant groups of amusics and typical, musically intact controls (18 participants per group) attended a nonword repetition task. All nonwords were syllable-tone combinations created following the Chinese word structure. The length of the nonwords gradually increased from one to seven syllables. Repetition accuracy and error patterns were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models. Results showed that amusics had fewer correct responses to syllables and tones within a nonword, especially for longer nonwords. Besides, amusics’ error rates for the double-type error, meaning the simultaneous mistakes on both syllables and tones, were also larger than controls in the longer lengths. It was revealed that amusics repeated the nonwords less accurately than controls, and they were struggling with concurrent processing of different phonological components within a nonword. This study provides novel evidence that amusics exhibit degraded nonword repetition involving both syllables and tones, which supports the perception-production link and sheds light on designing intervention programs to soften the disorder of amusia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10758,"journal":{"name":"Cortex","volume":"196 ","pages":"Pages 140-154"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146118169","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}