{"title":"Insights into conscious cognitive information processing","authors":"Ekrem Dere","doi":"10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1443161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1443161","url":null,"abstract":"For over a century, the neuro- and pathophysiological, behavioral, and cognitive correlates of consciousness have been an active field of theoretical considerations and empirical research in a wide range of modern disciplines. Conscious cognitive processing of information cannot be observed directly, but might be inferred from step-like discontinuities in learning performance or sudden insight-based improvements in problem solving behavior. It is assumed that a sudden step of knowledge associated with insight requires a creative reorganization of mental representations of task- or problem-relevant information and the restructuration of the task, respectively problem to overcome an cognitive dead-end or impasse. Discontinuities in learning performance or problem solving after an insight event can be used as time-tags to capture the time window in which conscious cognitive information processing must have taken place. According to the platform theory of conscious cognitive information processing, the reorganization and restructuration processes, require the maintenance of task- or problem-relevant information in working memory for the operation of executive functions on these mental representations. Electrophysiological evidence suggests that the reorganization and restructuration processes in working memory, that precede insight-based problem solutions are accompanied by an increase in the power of gamma oscillations in cortical areas including the prefrontal cortex. Empirical evidence and theoretical assumptions argue for an involvement of gap junction channels and connexin hemichannels in cortical gamma-oscillations and working memory processes. Discontinuities in learning or problem solving performance might be used as time-tags to investigate the implication of gap junction channels and hemichannels in conscious cognitive processing.","PeriodicalId":12368,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141770985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gloria Cecchini, Michael DePass, Emre Baspinar, Marta Andujar, Surabhi Ramawat, Pierpaolo Pani, Stefano Ferraina, Alain Destexhe, Rubén Moreno-Bote, Ignasi Cos
{"title":"Frontiers | Cognitive mechanisms of learning in sequential decision-making under uncertainty: an experimental and theoretical approach","authors":"Gloria Cecchini, Michael DePass, Emre Baspinar, Marta Andujar, Surabhi Ramawat, Pierpaolo Pani, Stefano Ferraina, Alain Destexhe, Rubén Moreno-Bote, Ignasi Cos","doi":"10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1399394","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1399394","url":null,"abstract":"Learning to make adaptive decisions involves making choices, assessing their consequence, and leveraging this assessment to attain higher rewarding states. Despite vast literature on value-based decision-making, relatively little is known about the cognitive processes underlying decisions in highly uncertain contexts. Real world decisions are rarely accompanied by immediate feedback, explicit rewards, or complete knowledge of the environment. Being able to make informed decisions in such contexts requires significant knowledge about the environment, which can only be gained via exploration. Here we aim at understanding and formalizing the brain mechanisms underlying these processes. To this end, we first designed and performed an experimental task. Human participants had to learn to maximize reward while making sequences of decisions with only basic knowledge of the environment, and in the absence of explicit performance cues. Participants had to rely on their own internal assessment of performance to reveal a covert relationship between their choices and their subsequent consequences to find a strategy leading to the highest cumulative reward. Our results show that the participants’ reaction times were longer whenever the decision involved a future consequence, suggesting greater introspection whenever a delayed value had to be considered. The learning time varied significantly across participants. Second, we formalized the neurocognitive processes underlying decision-making within this task, combining mean-field representations of competing neural populations with a reinforcement learning mechanism. This model provided a plausible characterization of the brain dynamics underlying these processes, and reproduced each aspect of the participants’ behavior, from their reaction times and choices to their learning rates. In summary, both the experimental results and the model provide a principled explanation to how delayed value may be computed and incorporated into the neural dynamics of decision-making, and to how learning occurs in these uncertain scenarios.","PeriodicalId":12368,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":"133 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141938973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ellen McMullen, Astrid Weiler, Holger M Becker, Stefanie Schirmeier
{"title":"Corrigendum: Plasticity of carbohydrate transport at the blood-brain barrier.","authors":"Ellen McMullen, Astrid Weiler, Holger M Becker, Stefanie Schirmeier","doi":"10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1443912","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1443912","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2020.612430.].</p>","PeriodicalId":12368,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":"18 ","pages":"1443912"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11294888/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141888957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kanat Chanthongdee, Yerko Fuentealba, Thor Wahlestedt, Lou Foulhac, Tetiana Kardash, Andrea Coppola, Markus Heilig, Estelle Barbier
{"title":"Frontiers | Comprehensive ethological analysis of fear expression in rats using DeepLabCut and SimBA machine learning model","authors":"Kanat Chanthongdee, Yerko Fuentealba, Thor Wahlestedt, Lou Foulhac, Tetiana Kardash, Andrea Coppola, Markus Heilig, Estelle Barbier","doi":"10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1440601","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1440601","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionDefensive responses to threat-associated cues are commonly evaluated using conditioned freezing or suppression of operant responding. However, rats display a broad range of behaviors and shift their defensive behaviors based on immediacy of threats and context. This study aimed to systematically quantify the defensive behaviors that are triggered in response to threat-associated cues and assess whether they can accurately be identified using DeepLabCut in conjunction with SimBA.MethodsWe evaluated behavioral responses to fear using the auditory fear conditioning paradigm. Observable behaviors triggered by threat-associated cues were manually scored using Ethovision XT. Subsequently, we investigated the effects of diazepam (0, 0.3, or 1 mg/kg), administered intraperitoneally before fear memory testing, to assess its anxiolytic impact on these behaviors. We then developed a DeepLabCut + SimBA workflow for ethological analysis employing a series of machine learning models. The accuracy of behavior classifications generated by this pipeline was evaluated by comparing its output scores to the manually annotated scores.ResultsOur findings show that, besides conditioned suppression and freezing, rats exhibit heightened risk assessment behaviors, including sniffing, rearing, free-air whisking, and head scanning. We observed that diazepam dose-dependently mitigates these risk-assessment behaviors in both sexes, suggesting a good predictive validity of our readouts. With adequate amount of training data (approximately > 30,000 frames containing such behavior), DeepLabCut + SimBA workflow yields high accuracy with a reasonable transferability to classify well-represented behaviors in a different experimental condition. We also found that maintaining the same condition between training and evaluation data sets is recommended while developing DeepLabCut + SimBA workflow to achieve the highest accuracy.DiscussionOur findings suggest that an ethological analysis can be used to assess fear learning. With the application of DeepLabCut and SimBA, this approach provides an alternative method to decode ongoing defensive behaviors in both male and female rats for further investigation of fear-related neurobiological underpinnings.","PeriodicalId":12368,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141872500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nicole L. Reitz, Polliana T. Nunes, Lisa M. Savage
{"title":"Frontiers | Exercise leads to sex-specific recovery of behavior and pathological AD markers following adolescent ethanol exposure in the TgF344-AD model","authors":"Nicole L. Reitz, Polliana T. Nunes, Lisa M. Savage","doi":"10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1448691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1448691","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionHuman epidemiological studies suggest that heavy alcohol consumption may lead to earlier onset of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), especially in individuals with a genetic predisposition for AD. Alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) during a critical developmental timepoint, such as adolescence, interacts with AD-related pathologies to accelerate disease progression later in life. The current study investigates if voluntary exercise in mid-adulthood can recover memory deficits caused by the interactions between adolescence ethanol exposure and AD-transgenes.MethodsMale and female TgF344-AD and wildtype F344 rats were exposed to an intragastric gavage of water (control) or 5 g/kg of 20% ethanol (adolescent intermittent ethanol; AIE) for a 2 day on/off schedule throughout adolescence (PD27-57). At 6 months old, rats either remained in their home cage (stationary) or were placed in a voluntary wheel running apparatus for 4 weeks and then underwent several behavioral tests. The number of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain and measure of neurogenesis in the hippocampus were assessed.ResultsVoluntary wheel running recovers spatial working memory deficits selectively in female TgF344-AD rats exposed to AIE and improves pattern separation impairment seen in control TgF344-AD female rats. There were sex-dependent effects on brain pathology: Exercise improves the integration of recently born neurons in AIE-exposed TgF344-AD female rats. Exercise led to a decrease in amyloid burden in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex, but only in male AIE-exposed TgF344-AD rats. Although the number of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons was not affected by AD-transgenes in either sex, AIE did reduce the number of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons in female rats.DiscussionThese data provide support that even after symptom onset, AIE and AD related cognitive decline and associated neuropathologies can be rescued with exercise in unique sex-specific ways.","PeriodicalId":12368,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141872508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Object recognition in primates: what can early visual areas contribute?","authors":"Christian Quaia, Richard J. Krauzlis","doi":"10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1425496","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1425496","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionIf neuroscientists were asked which brain area is responsible for object recognition in primates, most would probably answer infero-temporal (IT) cortex. While IT is likely responsible for fine discriminations, and it is accordingly dominated by foveal visual inputs, there is more to object recognition than fine discrimination. Importantly, foveation of an object of interest usually requires recognizing, with reasonable confidence, its presence in the periphery. Arguably, IT plays a secondary role in such peripheral recognition, and other visual areas might instead be more critical.MethodsTo investigate how signals carried by early visual processing areas (such as LGN and V1) could be used for object recognition in the periphery, we focused here on the task of distinguishing faces from non-faces. We tested how sensitive various models were to nuisance parameters, such as changes in scale and orientation of the image, and the type of image background.ResultsWe found that a model of V1 simple or complex cells could provide quite reliable information, resulting in performance better than 80% in realistic scenarios. An LGN model performed considerably worse.DiscussionBecause peripheral recognition is both crucial to enable fine recognition (by bringing an object of interest on the fovea), and probably sufficient to account for a considerable fraction of our daily recognition-guided behavior, we think that the current focus on area IT and foveal processing is too narrow. We propose that rather than a hierarchical system with IT-like properties as its primary aim, object recognition should be seen as a parallel process, with high-accuracy foveal modules operating in parallel with lower-accuracy and faster modules that can operate across the visual field.","PeriodicalId":12368,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141608697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The effects of reward and punishment on the performance of ping-pong ball bouncing","authors":"Cong Yin, Yaoxu Wang, Biao Li, Tian Gao","doi":"10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1433649","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1433649","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionReward and punishment modulate behavior. In real-world motor skill learning, reward and punishment have been found to have dissociable effects on optimizing motor skill learning, but the scientific basis for these effects is largely unknown.MethodsIn the present study, we investigated the effects of reward and punishment on the performance of real-world motor skill learning. Specifically, three groups of participants were trained and tested on a ping-pong ball bouncing task for three consecutive days. The training and testing sessions were identical across the three days: participants were trained with their right (dominant) hand each day under conditions of either reward, punishment, or a neutral control condition (neither). Before and after the training session, all participants were tested with their right and left hands without any feedback.ResultsWe found that punishment promoted early learning, while reward promoted late learning. Reward facilitated short-term memory, while punishment impaired long-term memory. Both reward and punishment interfered with long-term memory gains. Interestingly, the effects of reward and punishment transferred to the left hand.DiscussionThe results show that reward and punishment have different effects on real-world motor skill learning. The effects change with training and transfer readily to novel contexts. The results suggest that reward and punishment may act on different learning processes and engage different neural mechanisms during real-world motor skill learning. In addition, high-level metacognitive processes may be enabled by the additional reinforcement feedback during real-world motor skill learning. Our findings provide new insights into the mechanisms underlying motor learning, and may have important implications for practical applications such as sports training and motor rehabilitation.","PeriodicalId":12368,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":"73 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141502393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aymen Balikci, Ugur Eryilmaz, Vildan Keles Guler, Gul Ilbay
{"title":"Tactile stimulation of young WAG/Rij rats prevents development of depression but not absence epilepsy","authors":"Aymen Balikci, Ugur Eryilmaz, Vildan Keles Guler, Gul Ilbay","doi":"10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1433431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1433431","url":null,"abstract":"Investigations in Wistar Albino Glaxo from Rijswijk (WAG/Rij) rats that are susceptible to genetic absence epilepsy have demonstrated that environmental modifications affect absence seizures. Previously, we showed that neonatal tactile stimulations produce disease-modifying effect on genetically determined absence epilepsy and associated depression in Wag/Rij rats. The study presented here examined the effect of TS during late ontogenesis (adolescence and young adulthood) on epilepsy and depression outcomes in this genetically epileptic rat strain. On postnatal day (PND) 38, male WAG/Rij rats randomly were assigned to either the tactile stimulation (TS), handled or control group (unhandled) with 8 animals in each group. Following a 7-day adaptation period to their new surroundings, the animals were submitted to tactile stimulation from PND 45 to PND 90, five days per week, for 5 min daily. The tactile-stimulated rat was removed from its cage, placed on the experimenter’s lap, and had its neck and back gently stroked by the researcher. The handled rats were taken to another cage and left alone for 5 min daily from PND 45 to PND 90. The control rats were left undisturbed in their home cage, except for regular cage cleaning. After PND 90, all rats were left undisturbed until behavioral testing and EEG recording. When the animals were 7 months old, they were subjected to the sucrose consumption test (SCT) and the forced swimming test (FST). Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings were made at 8 months of age in order to measure electroencephalographic seizure activity, thus, the spike–wave discharges (SWDs). Tactile-stimulated rats showed increased sucrose consumption and number of approaches to the sucrose solution in the SCT when compared with the handled and control rats. In the FST, rats in TS group showed lower immobility time and greater immobility latency, active swimming time and diving frequency than the handled and control rats. The duration and the number of seizures were not different amongst the groups. The data obtained suggest that TS in young rats is able to prevent depression in WAG/Rij rats.","PeriodicalId":12368,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141502392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jennifer I. Mejaes, Jacqueline Saenz, Chris O’Brien, Carina M. Pizzano, Ping-Yue Pan, David J. Barker
{"title":"Frontiers | Haploinsufficiency of the Parkinson’s disease gene synaptojanin1 is associated with abnormal responses to psychomotor stimulants and mesolimbic dopamine signaling","authors":"Jennifer I. Mejaes, Jacqueline Saenz, Chris O’Brien, Carina M. Pizzano, Ping-Yue Pan, David J. Barker","doi":"10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1359225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1359225","url":null,"abstract":"The synaptojanin-1 (SYNJ1) gene is known to be important for dopamine-related disorders. Recent evidence has demonstrated that Synj1 deficient mice (Synj1+/−) have impairments in dopaminergic synaptic vesicular recycling. However, less is known about how Synj1 deficits affect the mesolimbic system, reward processing, and motivated behavior. To examine the role of the Synj1 gene in motivated behavior, we subjected male and female Synj1+/− and Synj1+/+ mice to a battery of behavioral tests evaluating hedonic responses, effortful responding, and responses to psychomotor stimulants. We observed that Synj1+/− mice exhibit few differences in reward processing and motivated behavior, with normal hedonic responses and motivated responding for sucrose. However, male but not female Synj1+/− demonstrated an attenuated conditioned place preference for cocaine that could not be attributed to deficits in spatial memory. To further understand the dopamine signaling underlying the attenuated response to cocaine in these mutant mice, we recorded nucleus accumbens dopamine in response to cocaine and observed that Synj1+/− male and female mice took longer to reach peak dopamine release following experimenter-administered cocaine. However, female mice also showed slower decay in accumbens dopamine that appear to be linked to differences in cocaine-induced DAT responses. These findings demonstrate that SYNJ1 deficiencies result in abnormal mesolimbic DA signaling which has not previously been demonstrated. Our work also highlights the need to develop targeted therapeutics capable of restoring deficits in DAT function, which may be effective for reversing the pathologies associated with Synj1 mutations.","PeriodicalId":12368,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":"69 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141568977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}