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Mind and muscle: the cognitive-affective neuroscience of exercise.

There is growing basic-science interest in the mechanisms underpinning the positive effects of exercise on brain function and cognitive-affective performance. There is also increasing clinical evidence that exercise may prevent and treat various neuropsychiatric disorders. At the same time, there is growing awareness that athletic performance is mediated in crucial ways by central nervous system mechanisms. The relevant mechanisms in all these cases requires further exploration, but likely includes neurotrophic, neuroendocrine, and neurotransmitter systems, which in turn are crucial mediators of psychopathology and resilience. The hypothesis that Homo sapiens evolved as a specialist endurance runner provides an intriguing context against which to research the proximal mechanisms relevant to a cognitive-affective neuroscience of exercise.

Affect↗

Proteomics for protein expression profiling in neuroscience.

As the technology of proteomics moves from a theoretical approach to a practical reality, neuroscientists will have to determine the most appropriate applications for this technology. Neuroscientists will have to surmount difficulties particular to their research, such as limited sample amounts, heterogeneous cellular compositions in samples, and the fact that many proteins of interest are rare, hydrophobic proteins. This review examines protein isolation and protein fractionation and separation using two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and mass spectrometry proteomic methods. Methods for quantifying relative protein expression between samples (e.g., 2-DIGE, and ICAT) are also described. The coverage of the proteome, ability to detect membrane proteins, resource requirements, and quantitative reliability of different approaches is also discussed. Although there are many challenges in proteomic neuroscience, this field promises many rewards in the future.

Animals↗

Computational principles of movement neuroscience.

Unifying principles of movement have emerged from the computational study of motor control. We review several of these principles and show how they apply to processes such as motor planning, control, estimation, prediction and learning. Our goal is to demonstrate how specific models emerging from the computational approach provide a theoretical framework for movement neuroscience.

Animals↗

The role of neuroscience in the remediation of students with dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, spelling and decoding abilities. Research findings agree that these and other observed behavioral manifestations largely result from a deficit in the phonological component of language. However, conflicting theories on the exact nature of the phonological deficit have given rise to divergent treatment approaches. Recent advances in functional brain imaging and genetics have allowed these theories to be examined more closely. If implemented appropriately, commercial programs can be effective in identifying dyslexia. Treatment of dyslexia has been advanced through neuroscience, yet further study is needed to provide rigorous, reproducible findings that will sustain commercial approaches.

Brain↗

Anomalous perception in synaesthesia: a cognitive neuroscience perspective.

An enduring question in cognitive neuroscience is how the physical properties of the world are represented in the brain to yield conscious perception. In most people, a particular physical stimulus gives rise to a unitary, unimodal perceptual experience. So, light energy leads to the sensation of seeing, whereas sound waves produce the experience of hearing. However, for individuals with the rare phenomenon of synaesthesia, specific physical stimuli consistently induce more than one perceptual experience. For example, hearing particular sounds might induce vivid experiences of colour, taste or odour, as might the sight of visual symbols, such as letters or digits. Here we review the latest findings on synaesthesia, and consider its possible genetic, neural and cognitive bases. We also propose a neurocognitive framework for understanding such anomalous perceptual experiences.

Auditory Perception↗

Evolutionary autonomous agents: a neuroscience perspective.

In this article, I discuss the use of neurally driven evolutionary autonomous agents (EAAs) in neuroscientific investigations. Two fundamental questions are addressed. Can EAA studies shed new light on the structure and function of biological nervous systems? And can these studies lead to the development of new tools for neuroscientific analysis? The value and significant potential of EAA modelling in both respects is demonstrated and discussed. Although the study of EAAs for neuroscience research still faces difficult conceptual and technical challenges, it is a promising and timely endeavour.

Animals↗

A note on the concept of the visual field in neurology, psychology, and visual neuroscience.

Some current confusions in visual neuroscience and psychology over the use of the terms 'visual field', 'field of vision', 'stimulus field', and topographic 'brain maps' are reviewed. These are often used as synonyms, whereas they refer to quite different things. A plea is made that visual scientists should use these terms correctly to avoid conceptual and engineering confusion.

Brain↗

Illusory memories: a cognitive neuroscience analysis.

Memory illusions and distortions have long been of interest to psychology researchers studying memory, but neuropsychologists and neuroscientists have paid relatively little attention to them. This article attempts to lay the foundation for a cognitive neuroscience analysis of memory illusions and distortions by reviewing relevant evidence from a patient with a right frontal lobe lesion, patients with amnesia produced by damage to the medial temporal lobes, normal aging, and healthy young volunteers studied with functional neuroimaging techniques. Particular attention is paid to the contrasting roles of prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe structures in accurate and illusory remembering. Converging evidence suggests that the study of illusory memories can provide a useful tool for delineating the brain processes and systems involved in constructive aspects of remembering.

Aged↗

Imaging neuroscience: principles or maps?

This article reviews some recent trends in imaging neuroscience. A distinction is made between making maps of functional responses in the brain and discerning the rules or principles that underlie their organization. After considering developments in the characterization of brain imaging data, several examples are presented that highlight the context-sensitive nature of neuronal responses that we measure. These contexts can be endogenous and physiological, reflecting the fact that each cortical area, or neuronal population, expresses its dynamics in the context of interactions with other areas. Conversely, these contexts can be experimental or psychological and can have a profound effect on the regional effects elicited. In this review we consider experimental designs and analytic strategies that go beyond cognitive subtraction and speculate on how functional imaging can be used to address both the details and principles underlying functional integration and specialization in the brain.

Animals↗

Auditory neuroscience: development, transduction, and integration.

Hearing underlies our ability to locate sound sources in the environment, our appreciation of music, and our ability to communicate. Participants in the National Academy of Sciences colloquium on Auditory Neuroscience: Development, Transduction, and Integration presented research results bearing on four key issues in auditory research. How does the complex inner ear develop? How does the cochlea transduce sounds into electrical signals? How does the brain's ability to compute the location of a sound source develop? How does the forebrain analyze complex sounds, particularly species-specific communications? This article provides an introduction to the papers stemming from the meeting.

Animals↗

A proposed ethical framework for interventional cognitive neuroscience: a consideration of deep brain stimulation in impaired consciousness.

Advances in neuromodulation techniques offer the promise of new therapeutic interventions for patients with neuropsychiatric maladies. Several complex social, ethical and policy issues will attend developments in this area. In this paper an ethical framework for clinical research in interventional cognitive neuroscience is advanced. Deep brain stimulation in traumatic brain injury is considered as a paradigm case to examine ethical obligations in human subject research. These include balancing access to novel therapies versus protection of vulnerable study populations, rational evaluation of study design and research strategies, informed consent, and the importance of achieving societal consensus for this line of scientific inquiry.

Brain↗

Advances in understanding the anxiety disorders: the cognitive-affective neuroscience of 'false alarms'.

BACKGROUND: There have been significant advances in our understanding of the anxiety disorders; a range of data is now available on their epidemiology, nosology, psychobiology, and management. An integrative framework is required in order to conceptualize this data and to apply it in the clinic. METHODS: This is a nonsystematic review of literature on the psychobiology of some the major anxiety disorders, focused on the idea that each of these conditions can be conceptualized in terms of a different "false alarm," mediated by specific neurocircuitry and with a particular evolutionary origin. RESULTS: The "false alarm" concept is able to integrate a range of data on the proximal mechanisms of anxiety disorders (including their mediating neurochemistry and neurogenetics), as well as hypotheses about the distal or evolutionary underpinnings of these conditions. CONCLUSION: Fortunately, serotonergic antidepressants and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy appear to be able to normalize the putative "false alarms" in anxiety disorders. A better understanding of the cognitive-affective neuroscience of anxiety disorders will hopefully lead to improved treatments.

Affect↗

A cognitive neuroscience view of schizophrenic thought disorder.

The experimental association psychology approach to mental associations has been the conceptual background for the concept of schizophrenia. Cognitive neuroscience methods and concepts can be used to study various forms of schizophrenic thought disorder. In particular, the concepts of semantic associative and working memory can be applied fruitfully to schizophrenia research. Semantic associative networks can be simulated with self-organizing feature maps. Dysfunctional lexical access can be modeled in terms of low signal-to-noise ratio in intra- or between-network information processing. Evidence for the crucial role of dopamine in this function is presented, and a general neurocomputational model of schizophrenic thought disorder is developed. This model capitalizes on basic aspects of neural information processing (i.e., neuromodulation and neuroplasticity) and allows a parsimonious explanation of a number of otherwise inexplicable or unrelated clinical phenomena and experimental results.

Brain Mapping↗

Applying new approaches from cognitive neuroscience to enhance drug development for the treatment of impaired cognition in schizophrenia.

New approaches to the measurement of cognition in schizophrenia include the use of tasks from experimental cognitive psychology to examine the integrity of specific cognitive systems and the application of these tasks in noninvasive neuroimaging (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]) studies that directly measure the effects of drugs on cognition-related brain activity. These approaches offer many advantages, including the isolation of specific cognitive systems that may be conserved across species; controlling for the confounding effects of generalized performance deficits such as poor motivation, sedation, and so on; and providing a direct translational bridge from studies using animal models of cognition to patient-based research using fMRI. These developments have the potential to transform the early human phases of drug development and streamline the decision making at this critical point in the process. As was the case for the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia initiative, optimizing the application of cognitive neuroscience to new drug development will require a major commitment by multiple investigators to task development and a thorough psychometric evaluation of both behavioral and neuroimaging measures.

Animals↗

Perceptual anomalies in schizophrenia: integrating phenomenology and cognitive neuroscience.

From phenomenological and experimental perspectives, research in schizophrenia has emphasized deficits in "higher" cognitive functions, including attention, executive function, as well as memory. In contrast, general consensus has viewed dysfunctions in basic perceptual processes to be relatively unimportant in the explanation of more complex aspects of the disorder, including changes in self-experience and the development of symptoms such as delusions. We present evidence from phenomenology and cognitive neuroscience that changes in the perceptual field in schizophrenia may represent a core impairment. After introducing the phenomenological approach to perception (Husserl, the Gestalt School), we discuss the views of Paul Matussek, Klaus Conrad, Ludwig Binswanger, and Wolfgang Blankenburg on perception in schizophrenia. These 4 psychiatrists describe changes in perception and automatic processes that are related to the altered experience of self. The altered self-experience, in turn, may be responsible for the emergence of delusions. The phenomenological data are compatible with current research that conceptualizes dysfunctions in perceptual processing as a deficit in the ability to combine stimulus elements into coherent object representations. Relationships of deficits in perceptual organization to cognitive and social dysfunction as well as the possible neurobiological mechanisms are discussed.

Attention↗

Nurses' perceptions of open visiting hours in neuroscience intensive care unit.

A quality improvement project was undertaken by Neuro-ICU nurses to determine possible effects from open visitation. From a quality improvement perspective, nurses' concerns were investigated along with their perceptions about open visitation to determine a need for visitation policy revision. Vast variability in nurses' interpretation and implementation of individualized open visitation policy suggested a need for the following: staff education about the policy and its implementation, a review of the literature to determine the validity of concerns about deleterious physiologic effects on neuroscience patients from visitation, and improved communication among nurses about visitation.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Continuous EEG and evoked potential monitoring in the neuroscience intensive care unit.

As with other methods long used in intensive care units (ICU) and operating rooms (OR), the goal of neuroscience ICU continuous EEG (NICU-CEEG) and evoked potential (NICU-EP) monitoring is to extend our powers of observation to detect abnormalities at a reversible stage. EEG is an appropriate monitoring tool because it is linked to cerebral metabolism, is sensitive to ischemia and hypoxemia, correlates with cerebral topography, detects neuronal dysfunction at a reversible stage, and is the best method for detecting seizure activity. When applied systematically, it can impact medical decision-making in 81% of monitored patients. It is useful in monitoring precarious cerebral perfusion at the bedside, and it has revealed that nonconvulsive seizures, undetectable otherwise, occur in 34% of NICU patients. In convulsive status epilepticus, NICU-CEEG can help avoid undertreatment and overtreatment. In comatose patients, it can provide useful prognostic information as well as detect potentially treatable causes. Traditional impediments to its application are yielding to technological advances and educational efforts. Real-time digitized EEG in particular has been a major advance. Within limits, somatosensory evoked potential monitoring (ICU-SEP) is useful in the prognosis of coma, but it is less helpful in monitoring focal cerebral ischemia. Brainstem auditory evoked potential monitoring has a relatively restricted role in the NICU but is helpful in distinguishing structural from nonstructural causes of coma and can supplement ICU-SEP in predicting outcome.

Brain Damage, Chronic↗

Neuroimaging of rodent and primate models of alcoholism: initial reports from the integrative neuroscience initiative on alcoholism.

Neuroimaging of animal models of alcoholism offers a unique path for translational research to the human condition. Animal models permit manipulation of variables that are uncontrollable in clinical, human investigation. This symposium, which took place at the annual meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on June 29th, 2004, presented initial findings based on neuroimaging studies from the two centers of the Integrative Neuroscience Initiative on Alcoholism funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Effects of alcohol exposure were assessed with in vitro glucose metabolic imaging of rat brain, in vitro receptor imaging of monkey brain, in vivo magnetic resonance imaging of monkey brain, and in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopic quantification of alcohol metabolism kinetics in rat brain.

Alcoholism↗