Controlling phase noise in oscillatory interference models of grid cell firing.

Oscillatory interference models account for the spatial firing properties of grid cells in terms of neuronal oscillators with frequencies modulated by the animal's movement velocity. The phase of such a "velocity-controlled oscillator" (VCO) relative to a baseline (theta-band) oscillation tracks displacement along a preferred direction. Input from multiple VCOs with appropriate preferred directions causes a grid cell's grid-like firing pattern.

Pattern completion in multielement event engrams.

Personally experienced events include multiple elements, such as locations, people, and objects. These events are thought to be stored in episodic memory as coherent representations [1] that allow the retrieval of all elements from a partial cue ("pattern completion" [2-6]). However, direct evidence for coherent multielement representations is lacking.

Neural mechanisms of self-location.

The ability to self-localise and to navigate to remembered goals in complex and changeable environments is crucial to the survival of many mobile species. Electrophysiological investigations of the mammalian hippocampus and associated brain structures have identified several classes of neurons which represent information about an organism's position and orientation. These include place cells, grid cells, head direction cells, and boundary vector cells, as well as cells representing aspects of self-motion.

Connectivity changes underlying neurofeedback training of visual cortex activity.

Neurofeedback based on real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a new approach that allows training of voluntary control over regionally specific brain activity. However, the neural basis of successful neurofeedback learning remains poorly understood. Here, we assessed changes in effective brain connectivity associated with neurofeedback training of visual cortex activity.

Neural Correlates of Subliminal Language Processing.

Language is a high-level cognitive function, so exploring the neural correlates of unconscious language processing is essential for understanding the limits of unconscious processing in general. The results of several functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have suggested that unconscious lexical and semantic processing is confined to the posterior temporal lobe, without involvement of the frontal lobe-the regions that are indispensable for conscious language processing. However, previous studies employed a similarly designed masked priming paradigm with briefly presented single and contextually unrelated words.

Human hippocampal processing of environmental novelty during spatial navigation.

The detection and processing of novel information encountered as we explore our environment is crucial for learning and adaptive behavior. The human hippocampus has been strongly implicated in laboratory tests of novelty detection and episodic memory, but has been less well studied during more ethological tasks such as spatial navigation, typically used in animals. We examined fMRI BOLD activity as a function of environmental and object novelty as humans performed an object-location virtual navigation task.

Spontaneous neuronal activity predicts intersubject variations in executive control of attention.

Executive control of attention regulates our thoughts, emotion and behavior. Individual differences in executive control are associated with task-related differences in brain activity. But it is unknown whether attentional differences depend on endogenous (resting state) brain activity and to what extent regional fluctuations and functional connectivity contribute to individual variations in executive control processing.

The effect of alcohol consumption on the adolescent brain: A systematic review of MRI and fMRI studies of alcohol-using youth.

Background: A large proportion of adolescents drink alcohol, with many engaging in high-risk patterns of consumption, including binge drinking. Here, we systematically review and synthesize the existing empirical literature on how consuming alcohol affects the developing human brain in alcohol-using (AU) youth.

Methods: For this systematic review, we began by conducting a literature search using the PubMED database to identify all available peer-reviewed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of AU adolescents (aged 19 and under).

Biases in preferences for sequences of outcomes in monkeys.

Movies, vacations, and meals are all examples of events composed of a sequence of smaller events. How do we go from our evaluations of each scene in a movie to an evaluation of the sequence as a whole? In theory, we should simply average the values of the individual events. In practice, however, we are biased towards sequences where each element tends to be better than the previous, where the last value is large, and we overweight the best (or worst) part of the sequence.

Short-term antidepressant administration reduces default mode and task-positive network connectivity in healthy individuals during rest.

Resting-state studies in depressed patients have revealed increased connectivity within the default mode network (DMN) and task-positive network (TPN). This has been associated with heightened rumination, which is the tendency to repetitively think about symptoms of distress. Here, we performed a pharmacological neuroimaging study in healthy volunteers to investigate whether short-term antidepressant administration could reduce DMN connectivity.

Residual number processing in dyscalculia.

Developmental dyscalculia - a congenital learning disability in understanding numerical concepts - is typically associated with parietal lobe abnormality. However, people with dyscalculia often retain some residual numerical abilities, reported in studies that otherwise focused on abnormalities in the dyscalculic brain. Here we took a different perspective by focusing on brain regions that support residual number processing in dyscalculia.

Occipital GABA correlates with cognitive failures in daily life.

The brain has limited capacity, and so selective attention enhances relevant incoming information while suppressing irrelevant information. This process is not always successful, and the frequency of such cognitive failures varies to a large extent between individuals. Here we hypothesised that individual differences in cognitive failures might be reflected in inhibitory processing in the sensory cortex.

Cognitive impairment in depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: This review aimed to address the question of whether cognitive impairment should be considered a core feature of depression that may be a valuable target for treatment.

Method: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of cognitive function, assessed with a single neuropsychological test battery, the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), in patients with depression during symptomatic and remitted states. Inclusion of studies comparing patients remitted from depression and controls enabled us to investigate whether cognitive impairment persists beyond episodes of low mood in depression.

The influence of puberty on subcortical brain development.

Puberty is characterized by hormonal, physical and psychological transformation. The human brain undergoes significant changes between childhood and adulthood, but little is known about how puberty influences its structural development. Using a longitudinal sample of 711 magnetic resonance imaging scans from 275 individuals aged 7-20years, we examined how subcortical brain regions change in relation to puberty.

Developmental changes in effects of risk and valence on adolescent decision-making.

Recent research on risky decision-making in adults has shown that both the risk in potential outcomes and their valence (i.e., whether those outcomes involve gains or losses) exert dissociable influences on decisions.

Neural correlates of consciousness.

Jon Driver's scientific work was characterized by an innovative combination of new methods for studying mental processes in the human brain in an integrative manner. In our collaborative work, he applied this approach to the study of attention and awareness, and their relationship to neural activity in the human brain. Here I review Jon's scientific work that relates to the neural basis of human consciousness, relating our collaborative work to a broader scientific context.

Atypical basic movement kinematics in autism spectrum conditions.

Individuals with autism spectrum conditions have difficulties in understanding and responding appropriately to others. Additionally, they demonstrate impaired perception of biological motion and problems with motor control. Here we investigated whether individuals with autism move with an atypical kinematic profile, which might help to explain perceptual and motor impairments, and in principle may contribute to some of their higher level social problems.

Past rewards capture spatial attention and action choices.

The desire to increase rewards and minimize punishing events is a powerful driver in behaviour. Here, we assess how the value of a location affects subsequent deployment of goal-directed attention as well as involuntary capture of attention on a trial-to-trial basis. By tracking eye position, we investigated whether the ability of an irrelevant, salient visual stimulus to capture gaze (stimulus-driven attention) is modulated by that location's previous value.

Individual differences in anthropomorphic attributions and human brain structure.

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to animals, non-living things or natural phenomena. It is pervasive among humans, yet nonetheless exhibits a high degree of inter-individual variability. We hypothesized that brain areas associated with anthropomorphic thinking might be similar to those engaged in the attribution of mental states to other humans, the so-called 'theory of mind' or mentalizing network.

Atypical interference effect of action observation in autism spectrum conditions.

Background: Observing incongruent actions interferes with ongoing action execution. This 'interference effect' is larger for observed biological actions than for non-biological actions. The current study used virtual reality to investigate the biological specificity of interference effects of action observation in autism spectrum conditions (ASC).

Measuring and testing awareness of emotional face expressions.

Comparison of behavioural measures of consciousness has attracted much attention recently. In a recent article, Szczepanowski et al. conclude that confidence ratings (CR) predict accuracy better than both the perceptual awareness scale (PAS) and post-decision wagering (PDW) when using stimuli with emotional content (fearful vs.

The role of prestimulus activity in visual extinction.

Patients with visual extinction following right-hemisphere damage sometimes see and sometimes miss stimuli in the left visual field, particularly when stimuli are presented simultaneously to both visual fields. Awareness of left visual field stimuli is associated with increased activity in bilateral parietal and frontal cortex. However, it is unknown why patients see or miss these stimuli.

Early visual learning induces long-lasting connectivity changes during rest in the human brain.

Spontaneous fluctuations in resting state activity can change in response to experience-dependent plasticity and learning. Visual learning is fast and can be elicited in an MRI scanner. Here, we showed that a random dot motion coherence task can be learned within one training session.

Hot and cold cognition in depression.

We discuss the importance of cognitive abnormalities in unipolar depression, drawing the distinction between "hot" (emotion-laden) and "cold" (emotion-independent) cognition. "Cold" cognitive impairments are present reliably in unipolar depression, underscored by their presence in the diagnostic criteria for major depressive episodes. There is good evidence that some "cold" cognitive abnormalities do not disappear completely upon remission, and that they predict poor response to antidepressant drug treatment.