Mohammad Ali Salehinejad, Elham Ghanavati, Md Harun Ar Rashid, Michael A Nitsche
{"title":"Hot and cold executive functions in the brain: A prefrontal-cingular network.","authors":"Mohammad Ali Salehinejad, Elham Ghanavati, Md Harun Ar Rashid, Michael A Nitsche","doi":"10.1177/23982128211007769","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23982128211007769","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Executive functions, or cognitive control, are higher-order cognitive functions needed for adaptive goal-directed behaviours and are significantly impaired in majority of neuropsychiatric disorders. Different models and approaches are proposed for describing how executive functions are functionally organised in the brain. One popular and recently proposed organising principle of executive functions is the distinction between <i>hot</i> (i.e. reward or affective-related) versus <i>cold</i> (i.e. purely cognitive) domains of executive functions. The prefrontal cortex is traditionally linked to executive functions, but on the other hand, anterior and posterior cingulate cortices are hugely involved in executive functions as well. In this review, we first define executive functions, their domains, and the appropriate methods for studying them. Second, we discuss how <i>hot</i> and <i>cold</i> executive functions are linked to different areas of the prefrontal cortex. Next, we discuss the association of <i>hot</i> versus <i>cold</i> executive functions with the cingulate cortex, focusing on the anterior and posterior compartments. Finally, we propose a functional model for <i>hot</i> and <i>cold</i> executive function organisation in the brain with a specific focus on the <i>fronto-cingular</i> network. We also discuss clinical implications of <i>hot</i> versus <i>cold</i> cognition in major neuropsychiatric disorders (depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, substance use disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism) and attempt to characterise their profile according to the functional dominance or manifest of <i>hot-cold</i> cognition. Our model proposes that the lateral prefrontal cortex along with the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex are more relevant for <i>cold</i> executive functions, while the medial-orbital prefrontal cortex along with the ventral anterior cingulate cortex, and the posterior cingulate cortex are more closely involved in <i>hot</i> executive functions. This functional distinction, however, is not absolute and depends on several factors including task features, context, and the extent to which the measured function relies on cognition and emotion or both.</p>","PeriodicalId":72444,"journal":{"name":"Brain and neuroscience advances","volume":"5 ","pages":"23982128211007769"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/23982128211007769","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38919204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Joseph Clift, Anne Cooke, Anthony R Isles, Jeffrey W Dalley, Richard N Henson
{"title":"Lifting the lid on impact and peer review.","authors":"Joseph Clift, Anne Cooke, Anthony R Isles, Jeffrey W Dalley, Richard N Henson","doi":"10.1177/23982128211006574","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23982128211006574","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><i>Brain and Neuroscience Advances</i> has grown in tandem with the British Neuroscience Association's campaign to build Credibility in Neuroscience, which encourages actions and initiatives aimed at improving reproducibility, reliability and openness. This commitment to credibility impacts not only what the Journal publishes, but also how it operates. With that in mind, the Editorial Board sought the views of the neuroscience community on the peer review process, and on how they should respond to the Journal Impact Factor that will be assigned to <i>Brain and Neuroscience Advances</i>. In this editorial, we present the results of a survey of neuroscience researchers conducted in the autumn of 2020 and discuss the broader implications of our findings for the Journal and the neuroscience community.</p>","PeriodicalId":72444,"journal":{"name":"Brain and neuroscience advances","volume":"5 ","pages":"23982128211006574"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/23982128211006574","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38964033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Charline Tessereau, Reuben O'Dea, Stephen Coombes, Tobias Bast
{"title":"Reinforcement learning approaches to hippocampus-dependent flexible spatial navigation.","authors":"Charline Tessereau, Reuben O'Dea, Stephen Coombes, Tobias Bast","doi":"10.1177/2398212820975634","DOIUrl":"10.1177/2398212820975634","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Humans and non-human animals show great flexibility in spatial navigation, including the ability to return to specific locations based on as few as one single experience. To study spatial navigation in the laboratory, watermaze tasks, in which rats have to find a hidden platform in a pool of cloudy water surrounded by spatial cues, have long been used. Analogous tasks have been developed for human participants using virtual environments. Spatial learning in the watermaze is facilitated by the hippocampus. In particular, rapid, one-trial, allocentric place learning, as measured in the delayed-matching-to-place variant of the watermaze task, which requires rodents to learn repeatedly new locations in a familiar environment, is hippocampal dependent. In this article, we review some computational principles, embedded within a reinforcement learning framework, that utilise hippocampal spatial representations for navigation in watermaze tasks. We consider which key elements underlie their efficacy, and discuss their limitations in accounting for hippocampus-dependent navigation, both in terms of behavioural performance (i.e. how well do they reproduce behavioural measures of rapid place learning) and neurobiological realism (i.e. how well do they map to neurobiological substrates involved in rapid place learning). We discuss how an actor-critic architecture, enabling simultaneous assessment of the value of the current location and of the optimal direction to follow, can reproduce one-trial place learning performance as shown on watermaze and virtual delayed-matching-to-place tasks by rats and humans, respectively, if complemented with map-like place representations. The contribution of actor-critic mechanisms to delayed-matching-to-place performance is consistent with neurobiological findings implicating the striatum and hippocampo-striatal interaction in delayed-matching-to-place performance, given that the striatum has been associated with actor-critic mechanisms. Moreover, we illustrate that hierarchical computations embedded within an actor-critic architecture may help to account for aspects of flexible spatial navigation. The hierarchical reinforcement learning approach separates trajectory control via a temporal-difference error from goal selection via a goal prediction error and may account for flexible, trial-specific, navigation to familiar goal locations, as required in some arm-maze place memory tasks, although it does not capture one-trial learning of new goal locations, as observed in open field, including watermaze and virtual, delayed-matching-to-place tasks. Future models of one-shot learning of new goal locations, as observed on delayed-matching-to-place tasks, should incorporate hippocampal plasticity mechanisms that integrate new goal information with allocentric place representation, as such mechanisms are supported by substantial empirical evidence.</p>","PeriodicalId":72444,"journal":{"name":"Brain and neuroscience advances","volume":"5 ","pages":"2398212820975634"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2398212820975634","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38964030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Maternal obesity and developmental programming of neuropsychiatric disorders: An inflammatory hypothesis.","authors":"Jonathan Davis, Erik Mire","doi":"10.1177/23982128211003484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23982128211003484","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Maternal obesity is associated with the development of a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders; however, the mechanisms behind this association are not fully understood. Comparison between maternal immune activation and maternal obesity reveals similarities in associated impairments and maternal cytokine profile. Here, we present a summary of recent evidence describing how inflammatory processes contribute towards the development of neuropsychiatric disorders in the offspring of obese mothers. This includes discussion on how maternal cytokine levels, fatty acids and placental inflammation may interact with foetal neurodevelopment through changes to microglial behaviour and epigenetic modification. We also propose an exosome-mediated mechanism for the disruption of brain development under maternal obesity and discuss potential intervention strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":72444,"journal":{"name":"Brain and neuroscience advances","volume":"5 ","pages":"23982128211003484"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/23982128211003484","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38900698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"BNA 2021 Festival of Neuroscience Poster abstracts","authors":"J. E. Haley, A. Mehta, C. Abbott","doi":"10.1177/23982128211035062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23982128211035062","url":null,"abstract":"As part of the engagement programme for FENS2020 in Glasgow, and to mark the centenary of the founding of the Cajal Institute in Madrid in 1920, we embarked on creating what we believe could be the world's largest Cajal-related embroidery! Consisting of 81 separate panels representing 9 different neuron/astrocyte illustrations by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, this embroidery project was intended to engage neuroscientists, embroiderers, artists and crafters. Launched in February 2020, the project immediately had challenges to overcome as the world went into a covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Whilst not its original intended purpose, the Cajal Embroidery Project, was found by many of our contributors to be a source of tranquility and connection during a chaotic and isolating period. It brought people together, virtually, to share progress of their work, seek advice or materials and find out more about Cajal and the project. The pandemic resulted in the FENS Forum moving online, so we produced a short film featuring the embroideries, the process, and the contributor's feelings about the project. This was made available as one of their Open Theatre slots. Our project has continued and, to date, we have received 77 embroideries from 64 contributors in 7 countries. The final four panels are due for completion in January 2021 and we will join all the panels together during Spring 2021 (pandemic permitting!). The project has already generated exciting outcomes - a short article in BNA Bulletin and a published 'In Context' piece in Lancet Neurology. During 2021, the embroideries are featuring on Lancet Neurology front covers, to accompany 'Focal point' commentaries. Plus, they will form the inaugural exhibition at the Dott Gallery within the new Division of Clinical Neurosciences building, Edinburgh. Communal crafting projects have been used by groups of women for centuries to make often beautiful but utilitarian objects. These projects have traditionally existed in the domestic sphere but we have successfully harnessed the same skills to engage not just the participants (who happened to all be women) but a wider, global community in understanding the history of neuroscience. The Cajal Embroidery Project: celebrating neuroscience, Mehta A. et al, Lancet Neurol. 2020;19: 979 Statistical statement: Although this project clearly involves replicants (n=9 of each image), embroideries, being an artistic expression, are not usually amenable to delivering measurable data. In addition, the end output is, by design, an n of 1. The authors feel, therefore, that statistical analysis is not appropriate or possible for this particular project. Communal crafting projects have been used by groups of women for centuries to make often beautiful but utilitarian objects. These projects have traditionally existed in the domestic sphere but we have successfully harnessed the same skills to engage not just the participants (who happened to all be women) but a wider, global community in un","PeriodicalId":72444,"journal":{"name":"Brain and neuroscience advances","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/23982128211035062","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45722891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ethan G Dutcher, E A Claudia Pama, Mary-Ellen Lynall, Shahid Khan, Menna R Clatworthy, Trevor W Robbins, Edward T Bullmore, Jeffrey W Dalley
{"title":"Early-life stress and inflammation: A systematic review of a key experimental approach in rodents.","authors":"Ethan G Dutcher, E A Claudia Pama, Mary-Ellen Lynall, Shahid Khan, Menna R Clatworthy, Trevor W Robbins, Edward T Bullmore, Jeffrey W Dalley","doi":"10.1177/2398212820978049","DOIUrl":"10.1177/2398212820978049","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Repeated maternal separation is the most widely used pre-clinical approach to investigate the relationship between early-life chronic stress and its neuropsychiatric and physical consequences. In this systematic review, we identified 46 studies that conducted repeated maternal separation or single-episode maternal separation and reported measurements of interleukin-1b, interleukin-6, interleukin-10, tumour necrosis factor-alpha, or microglia activation and density. We report that in the short-term and in the context of later-life stress, repeated maternal separation has pro-inflammatory immune consequences in diverse tissues. Repeated maternal separation animals exhibit greater microglial activation and elevated pro-inflammatory cytokine signalling in key brain regions implicated in human psychiatric disorders. Notably, repeated maternal separation generally has no long-term effect on cytokine expression in any tissue in the absence of later-life stress. These observations suggest that the elevated inflammatory signalling that has been reported in humans with a history of early-life stress may be the joint consequence of ongoing stressor exposure together with potentiated neural and/or immune responsiveness to stressors. Finally, our findings provide detailed guidance for future studies interrogating the causal roles of early-life stress and inflammation in disorders such as major depression.</p>","PeriodicalId":72444,"journal":{"name":"Brain and neuroscience advances","volume":"4 ","pages":"2398212820978049"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7780197/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38821546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Striatal and hippocampal contributions to flexible navigation in rats and humans.","authors":"Christoffer J Gahnstrom, Hugo J Spiers","doi":"10.1177/2398212820979772","DOIUrl":"10.1177/2398212820979772","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The hippocampus has been firmly established as playing a crucial role in flexible navigation. Recent evidence suggests that dorsal striatum may also play an important role in such goal-directed behaviour in both rodents and humans. Across recent studies, activity in the caudate nucleus has been linked to forward planning and adaptation to changes in the environment. In particular, several human neuroimaging studies have found the caudate nucleus tracks information traditionally associated with that by the hippocampus. In this brief review, we examine this evidence and argue the dorsal striatum encodes the transition structure of the environment during flexible, goal-directed behaviour. We highlight that future research should explore the following: (1) Investigate neural responses during spatial navigation via a biophysically plausible framework explained by reinforcement learning models and (2) Observe the interaction between cortical areas and both the dorsal striatum and hippocampus during flexible navigation.</p>","PeriodicalId":72444,"journal":{"name":"Brain and neuroscience advances","volume":"4 ","pages":"2398212820979772"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7755934/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38803997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The role of cytokines in modulating learning and memory and brain plasticity.","authors":"Julie-Myrtille Bourgognon, Jonathan Cavanagh","doi":"10.1177/2398212820979802","DOIUrl":"10.1177/2398212820979802","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cytokines are proteins secreted in the central nervous system by neurons, microglia, astrocytes and infiltrating peripheral immune cells under physiological and pathological conditions. Over the last 20 years, a growing number of reports have investigated the effects of these molecules on brain plasticity. In this review, we describe how the key cytokines interleukin 1β, interleukin 6 and tumour necrosis factor α were found to support long-term plasticity and learning and memory processes in physiological conditions. In contrast, during inflammation where cytokines levels are elevated such as in models of brain injury or infection, depression or neurodegeneration, the effects of cytokines are mostly detrimental to memory mechanisms, associated behaviours and homeostatic plasticity.</p>","PeriodicalId":72444,"journal":{"name":"Brain and neuroscience advances","volume":"4 ","pages":"2398212820979802"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7750764/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38795427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andrew S Alexander, Jennifer C Robinson, Holger Dannenberg, Nathaniel R Kinsky, Samuel J Levy, William Mau, G William Chapman, David W Sullivan, Michael E Hasselmo
{"title":"Neurophysiological coding of space and time in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and retrosplenial cortex.","authors":"Andrew S Alexander, Jennifer C Robinson, Holger Dannenberg, Nathaniel R Kinsky, Samuel J Levy, William Mau, G William Chapman, David W Sullivan, Michael E Hasselmo","doi":"10.1177/2398212820972871","DOIUrl":"10.1177/2398212820972871","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Neurophysiological recordings in behaving rodents demonstrate neuronal response properties that may code space and time for episodic memory and goal-directed behaviour. Here, we review recordings from hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and retrosplenial cortex to address the problem of how neurons encode multiple overlapping spatiotemporal trajectories and disambiguate these for accurate memory-guided behaviour. The solution could involve neurons in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus that show mixed selectivity, coding both time and location. Some grid cells and place cells that code space also respond selectively as time cells, allowing differentiation of time intervals when a rat runs in the same location during a delay period. Cells in these regions also develop new representations that differentially code the context of prior or future behaviour allowing disambiguation of overlapping trajectories. Spiking activity is also modulated by running speed and head direction, supporting the coding of episodic memory not as a series of snapshots but as a trajectory that can also be distinguished on the basis of speed and direction. Recent data also address the mechanisms by which sensory input could distinguish different spatial locations. Changes in firing rate reflect running speed on long but not short time intervals, and few cells code movement direction, arguing against path integration for coding location. Instead, new evidence for neural coding of environmental boundaries in egocentric coordinates fits with a modelling framework in which egocentric coding of barriers combined with head direction generates distinct allocentric coding of location. The egocentric input can be used both for coding the location of spatiotemporal trajectories and for retrieving specific viewpoints of the environment. Overall, these different patterns of neural activity can be used for encoding and disambiguation of prior episodic spatiotemporal trajectories or for planning of future goal-directed spatiotemporal trajectories.</p>","PeriodicalId":72444,"journal":{"name":"Brain and neuroscience advances","volume":"4 ","pages":"2398212820972871"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/9c/76/10.1177_2398212820972871.PMC7708714.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38351909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Steven L Poulter, Yutaka Kosaki, David J Sanderson, Anthony McGregor
{"title":"Spontaneous object-location memory based on environmental geometry is impaired by both hippocampal and dorsolateral striatal lesions.","authors":"Steven L Poulter, Yutaka Kosaki, David J Sanderson, Anthony McGregor","doi":"10.1177/2398212820972599","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2398212820972599","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We examined the role of the hippocampus and the dorsolateral striatum in the representation of environmental geometry using a spontaneous object recognition procedure. Rats were placed in a kite-shaped arena and allowed to explore two distinctive objects in each of the right-angled corners. In a different room, rats were then placed into a rectangular arena with two identical copies of one of the two objects from the exploration phase, one in each of the two adjacent right-angled corners that were separated by a long wall. Time spent exploring these two objects was recorded as a measure of recognition memory. Since both objects were in different locations with respect to the room (different between exploration and test phases) and the global geometry (also different between exploration and test phases), differential exploration of the objects must be a result of initial habituation to the object relative to its local geometric context. The results indicated an impairment in processing the local geometric features of the environment for both hippocampus and dorsolateral striatum lesioned rats compared with sham-operated controls, though a control experiment showed these rats were unimpaired in a standard object recognition task. The dorsolateral striatum has previously been implicated in egocentric route-learning, but the results indicate an unexpected role for the dorsolateral striatum in processing the spatial layout of the environment. The results provide the first evidence that lesions to the hippocampus and dorsolateral striatum impair spontaneous encoding of local environmental geometric features.</p>","PeriodicalId":72444,"journal":{"name":"Brain and neuroscience advances","volume":"4 ","pages":"2398212820972599"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2398212820972599","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38681218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}