Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-01-08DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae394
Kevin S LaBar
{"title":"Fear, learning, and the amygdala: a personal reflection in honor of Joseph LeDoux.","authors":"Kevin S LaBar","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae394","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhae394","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In honor of Joseph LeDoux's retirement from an illustrious career in science, I offer a personal reflection on how my graduate training experiences in his lab shaped my subsequent career trajectory and the development of my views on human amygdala function and the scientific enterprise. I discuss the values of openness to scientific exploration and of multi-methodological integration, both of which distinguished his laboratory over the years. I highlight the unique historical context in which the lab's foundational discoveries on the emotional brain occurred and the importance of embracing new technologies to advance an understanding of brain-behavior relationships in affective neuroscience.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":" ","pages":"5-10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142388350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Honoring the legacy of Joseph E. LeDoux: introduction to the Special Issue.","authors":"Daniela Schiller, Joshua Johansen, Linnaea Ostroff","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae463","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhae463","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":" ","pages":"1-2"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142823988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-01-08DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae454
Valérie Doyère, Sylvie Droit-Volet
{"title":"When emotion and time meet from human and rodent perspectives: a central role for the amygdala?","authors":"Valérie Doyère, Sylvie Droit-Volet","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae454","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhae454","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Initiated by a long stay of Valérie Doyère in the laboratory of Joseph LeDoux, a Franco-American collaborative group was formed around the topic of emotion and time perception in a comparative perspective between humans and non-human animals. Here, we discuss results from our studies on the mechanisms underlying time distortion under 2 conditions, timing of a threatening stimulus and timing of a neutral stimulus in the context of fear, with insights from neurodevelopment. Although the type of temporal distortion depends on the experimental situations, in both humans and rodents a high-arousal emotion automatically triggers acceleration of an \"internal clock\" system, an effect that may rely on the early maturing amygdala. Our studies, particularly in humans, also point to the role of attention and self-awareness in regulating the effect of fear on timing, relying on the prefrontal cortex, a late maturing structure. Thus, in line with LeDoux, while the amygdala may process all characteristics of events (including time) necessary to quickly trigger appropriate survival behaviors, some type of time distortions may rely on higher-order processing, some specific to humans. The extent of the network underlying threat-related time distortions remains to be explored, with species comparisons being a promising means of investigation.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":" ","pages":"34-41"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142692784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-01-08DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae389
Richard Brown
{"title":"How to interpret LeDoux's multistate hierarchical theory of consciousness.","authors":"Richard Brown","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae389","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhae389","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":" ","pages":"84-87"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142388351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-01-08DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae417
Sheena A Josselyn
{"title":"On role models and Joe LeDoux.","authors":"Sheena A Josselyn","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae417","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhae417","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Joseph LeDoux is a pioneering neuroscientist who has made profound discoveries that continue to impact our understanding of the neural basis of emotion and memory, particularly the role of the amygdala in threat conditioning. LeDoux's trailblazing and elegant studies were some of the first to examine the circuit basis of behavior. His work combined techniques to trace pathways into and out of the amygdala important for threat conditioning and related behaviors. Since that time, these types of circuit tracing studies have exploded in popularity across neuroscience, and I would argue, we all owe a debt to LeDoux for this. LeDoux has made numerous additional contributions to neuroscience and, by bringing emotion back to neuroscience, has helped unite neuroscience with psychology. A gifted writer with a knack for communicating complicated scientific ideas in an accessible manner, LeDoux has become an ambassador of science who uses his love of music to help educate and inspire. Perhaps more important than these laudable scientific achievements, LeDoux is also a true \"gentleman\" of science, showing that science need not be a contact sport. Here, I give a personal account on why Joseph LeDoux is one of my scientific role models.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":" ","pages":"15-18"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11712266/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142459030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-01-08DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae466
Elizabeth A Phelps
{"title":"My science and career with Joseph E. LeDoux.","authors":"Elizabeth A Phelps","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae466","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhae466","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":" ","pages":"11-14"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142709377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-01-08DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae388
Daniel L Schacter, Sarah E Kalinowski, Jenna M Wilson
{"title":"Emotional future simulations: neural and cognitive perspectives.","authors":"Daniel L Schacter, Sarah E Kalinowski, Jenna M Wilson","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae388","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhae388","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>LeDoux's work on the emotional brain has had broad impact in neuroscience and psychology. Here, we discuss an aspect of the emotional brain that we have examined in our laboratory during the past two decades: emotional future simulations or constructed mental representations of positive and negative future experiences. Specifically, we consider research concerning (i) neural correlates of emotional future simulations, (ii) how emotional future simulations impact subsequent cognition and memory, (iii) the role of emotional future simulations in worry and anxiety, and (iv) individual differences in emotional future simulation related to narcissistic grandiosity. The intersection of emotion and future simulation is closely linked to some of LeDoux's primary scientific concerns.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":" ","pages":"77-83"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11712269/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142388349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-01-08DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae456
Beatrice de Gelder, Nicholas Humphrey, Alan J Pegna
{"title":"On the bright side of blindsight. Considerations from new observations of awareness in a blindsight patient.","authors":"Beatrice de Gelder, Nicholas Humphrey, Alan J Pegna","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae456","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhae456","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Blindsight refers to the ability to make accurate visual discriminations without conscious awareness of the stimuli. In this study, we present new evidence from naturalistic observations of a patient with bilateral damage to the striate cortex, who surprisingly demonstrated the ability to detect colored objects, particularly red ones. Despite the slow and effortful process, the patient reported full awareness of the color aspect of the stimuli. These observations cannot be explained by traditional concepts of type 1 or type 2 blindsight, raising intriguing questions about the boundaries between objective and subjective blindness, as well as the nature of visual experience and epistemic agency. Moreover, these findings underscore the significant role that blindsight could play in future research, especially in understanding how higher cortical functions are involved in emotions and feelings. This highlights the necessity for further exploration to better understand the visual features that contribute to the phenomenon of affective blindsight.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":" ","pages":"42-48"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11712267/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142738481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-01-08DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae455
Megan A K Peters
{"title":"Introspective psychophysics for the study of subjective experience.","authors":"Megan A K Peters","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae455","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhae455","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Studying subjective experience is hard. We believe that pain is not identical to nociception, nor pleasure a computational reward signal, nor fear the activation of \"threat circuitry\". Unfortunately, introspective self-reports offer our best bet for accessing subjective experience, but many still believe that introspection is \"unreliable\" and \"unverifiable\". But which of introspection's faults do we find most damning? Is it that introspection provides imperfect access to brain processes (e.g. perception, memory)? That subjective experience is not objectively verifiable? That it is hard to isolate from non-subjective processing capacity? Here, I argue none of these prevents us from building a meaningful, impactful psychophysical research program that treats subjective experience as a valid empirical target through precisely characterizing relationships among environmental variables, brain processes and behavior, and self-reported phenomenology. Following recent similar calls by Peters (Towards characterizing the canonical computations generating phenomenal experience. 2022. Neurosci Biobehav Rev: 142, 104903), Kammerer and Frankish (What forms could introspective systems take? A research programme. 2023. J Conscious Stud 30:13-48), and Fleming (Metacognitive psychophysics in humans, animals, and AI. 2023. J Conscious Stud 30:113-128), \"introspective psychophysics\" thus treats introspection's apparent faults as features, not bugs-just as the noise and distortions linking environment to behavior inspired Fechner's psychophysics over 150 years ago. This next generation of psychophysics will establish a powerful tool for building and testing precise explanatory models of phenomenology across many dimensions-urgency, emotion, clarity, vividness, confidence, and more.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":" ","pages":"49-57"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142680885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-01-08DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae449
B J Casey, Yen-Chu Lin, Heidi C Meyer
{"title":"Examining threat responses through a developmental lens.","authors":"B J Casey, Yen-Chu Lin, Heidi C Meyer","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhae449","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhae449","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Adolescence has been characterized by risk taking and fearlessness. Yet, the emergence of anxiety disorders that are associated with fear peaks during this developmental period. Moreover, adolescents show heightened sensitivity to stress relative to children and adults. To address inconsistencies between the common characterization of adolescents as fearless and the evidence of heightened anxiety and stress during this time, we build upon foundational discoveries of threat-related circuitry and behavior in adult rodents by Joseph LeDoux and colleagues. Specifically, the conservation of this circuitry across species has provided opportunities for identifying mechanisms underlying threat responses that we have extended to developing humans and rodents. We elucidate situations in which adolescents show heightened threat responses and others where they appear fearless and link them to developmental changes of threat circuitry during this period. We discuss the potential adaptiveness of these threat responses for survival of the individual and species but also the potential risks for anxiety and stress. We end by offering potential new ways in which behavioral treatments for youth with anxiety and stress-related disorders may be optimized to target the developing vs developed brain.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":" ","pages":"19-33"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142675292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}