Rodent and human data implicate the hippocampus in the arbitration of approach-avoidance conflict (AAC), which arises when an organism is confronted with a stimulus associated simultaneously with reward and punishment. Yet, the precise contributions of this structure are underexplored, particularly with respect to the decision-making processes involved. We assessed humans with hippocampal damage and matched neurologically healthy controls on a computerized AAC paradigm in which participants first learned whether individual visual images were associated with the reward or loss of game points and were then asked to approach or avoid pairs of stimuli with non-conflicting or conflicting valences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe cerebellum is involved in multiple closed-loops circuitry which connect the cerebellar modules with the motor cortex, prefrontal, temporal, and parietal cortical areas, and contribute to motor control, cognitive processes, emotional processing, and behavior. Among them, the cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathway represents the anatomical substratum of cerebellum-motor cortex inhibition (CBI). However, the cerebellum is also connected with basal ganglia by disynaptic pathways, and cerebellar involvement in disorders commonly associated with basal ganglia dysfunction (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA central debate in the systems neuroscience of memory concerns whether different medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures support different processes in recognition memory. Using two recognition memory paradigms, we tested a rare patient (MH) with a perirhinal lesion that appeared to spare the hippocampus. Consistent with a similar previous case, MH showed impaired familiarity and preserved recollection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute sentinel hypoxia-ischaemia in neonates can target the hippocampus, mammillary bodies, thalamus, and the basal ganglia. Our previous work with paediatric patients with a history of hypoxia-ischaemia has revealed hippocampal and diencephalic damage that impacts cognitive memory. However, the structural and functional status of other brain regions vulnerable to hypoxia-ischaemia, such as the basal ganglia, has not been investigated in these patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: We investigated the nature and neural foundations of pathologic tearfulness in a uniquely large cohort of patients who had presented with autoimmune limbic encephalitis (aLE).
Methods: We recruited 38 patients (26 men, 12 women; median age 63.06 years; interquartile range [IQR] 16.
Cerebellum
February 2020
Sporadically advocated over the last two centuries, a cerebellar role in cognition and affect has been rigorously established in the past few decades. In the clinical domain, such progress is epitomized by the "cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome" ("CCAS") or "Schmahmann syndrome." Introduced in the late 1990s, CCAS reflects a constellation of cerebellar-induced sequelae, comprising deficits in executive function, visuospatial cognition, emotion-affect, and language, over and above speech.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
September 2019
Objective: Limbic encephalitis associated with antibodies to components of the voltage-gated potassium channel complex (VGKCC-Ab-LE) often leads to hippocampal atrophy and persistent memory impairment. Its long-term impact on regions beyond the hippocampus, and the relationship between brain damage and cognitive outcome, are poorly understood. We investigated the nature of structural and functional brain abnormalities following VGKCC-Ab-LE and its role in residual memory impairment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe emergence of studies on cerebellar contributions in 'non-motor' aspects of predictive language processing has long been awaited by researchers investigating the neural foundations of language and cognition. Despite (i) progress in research implicating the cerebellum in language processing, (ii) the widely-accepted nature of the uniform, multi-modal computation that the cerebellum implements in the form of internal models, as well as (iii) the long tradition of psycholinguistic studies addressing prediction mechanisms, research directly addressing cerebellar contributions to 'non-motor' predictive language processing has only surfaced in the last five years. This paper provides the first review of this novel field, along with a critical assessment of the studies conducted so far.
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