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Hypothalamic Neural Circuits Regulating Maternal Responsiveness Toward InfantsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A theoretical neural model is developed, along with supportive evidence, to explain how the medial preoptic area (MPOA) of the hypothalamus can regulate maternal responsiveness toward infant-related stimuli. It is proposed that efferents from a hormone-primed MPOA (a) depress a central aversion system (composed of neural circuits between the amygdala, medial hypothalamus, and midbrain) so that novel infant stimuli do not activate defensive or avoidance behavior and (b) excite the mesolimbic dopamine system so that active, voluntary maternal responses are promoted. The effects of oxytocin and maternal experience are include...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - November 10, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Numan, M. Source Type: journals

Instrumental Learning Within the Spinal Cord: Underlying Mechanisms and Implications for Recovery After InjuryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Using spinally transected rats, research has shown that neurons within the L4-S2 spinal cord are sensitive to response-outcome (instrumental) relations. This learning depends on a form of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-mediated plasticity. Instrumental training enables subsequent learning, and this effect has been linked to the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Rats given uncontrollable stimulation later exhibit impaired instrumental learning, and this deficit lasts up to 48 hr. The induction of the deficit can be blocked by prior training with controllable shock, the concurrent presentation of a tonic stimulus...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - November 10, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Grau, J. W., Crown, E. D., Ferguson, A. R., Washburn, S. N., Hook, M. A., Miranda, R. C. Source Type: journals

Index to Behaviorial and Cognitive Neuroscience ReviewsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - November 10, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: journals

Reading Words in Discourse: The Modulation of Lexical Priming Effects by Message-Level ContextEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article reviews behavioral and electrophysiological research that has examined the processing of repeated and associated words in sentence and discourse contexts. It provides examples of the ways in which eye tracking and event-related potentials might be used to further explore priming effects in discourse. The modulation of lexical priming effects by discourse factors suggests the interaction of information at different levels in online language comprehension.
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - August 4, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Ledoux, K., Camblin, C. C., Swaab, T. Y., Gordon, P. C. Source Type: journals

Comparative Psychoneuroimmunology: Evidence From the InsectsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Interactions between immune systems, nervous systems, and behavior are well established in vertebrates. A comparative examination of these interactions in other animals will help us understand their evolution and present adaptive functions. Insects show immune-behavioral interactions similar to those seen in vertebrates, suggesting that many of them may have a highly conserved function. Activation of an immune response in insects results in illness-induced anorexia, behavioral fever, changes in reproductive behavior, and decreased learning ability in a broad range of species. Flight-or-fight behaviors result in a decline i...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - August 4, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Adamo, S. A. Source Type: journals

Neuroimaging, Cognitive, and Neurobehavioral Outcomes Following Carbon Monoxide PoisoningEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas produced as a byproduct of combustion. Carbon monoxide is the leading cause of poisoning injury and death worldwide. Morbidity following CO poisoning includes neurologic sequelae, neuropathologic abnormalities on brain imaging, neurobehavioral changes, and cognitive impairments. It is estimated that as high as 50% of individuals with carbon monoxide poisoning will develop neurologic, neurobehavioral, or cognitive sequelae. Carbon monoxide related cognitive impairments included impaired memory, attention, executive function, motor, visual spatial, and slow mental processing speed...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - August 4, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Hopkins, R. O., Woon, F. L. M. Source Type: journals

A Cartesian Reflex Assessment of Face ProcessingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Commands to blink were embedded within pictures of faces and simple geometric shapes or forms. The faces and shapes were conditioned stimuli (CSs), and the required responses were conditioned responses, or more properly, Cartesian reflexes (CRs). As in classical conditioning protocols, response times (RTs) were measured from CS onset. RTs provided a measure of the processing cost (PC) of attending to a CS. A PC is the extra time required to respond relative to RTs to unconditioned stimulus (US) commands presented alone. They reflect the interplay between attentional processing of the informational content of a CS and its s...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - June 30, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Polewan, R. J., Vigorito, C. M., Nason, C. D., Block, R. A., Moore, J. W. Source Type: journals

Dimensions of Cognition in an Insect, the HoneybeeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This review provides evidence for the enormous richness of insect behavior, its high flexibility, and the cross-talk between different behavioral routines. The memory structure established by multiple forms of learning represents sensory inputs and relates behaviors in such a way that representations of complex environmental conditions are formed. Navigation and communication in social hymenoptera are particularly telling examples in this respect, but it is fair to conclude that similar integrated forms of dealing with the environment will be found in other insects when they are studied more closely. In this sense, researc...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - June 30, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Menzel, R., Giurfa, M. Source Type: journals

What Is the Functional Significance of Chronic Stress-Induced CA3 Dendritic Retraction Within the Hippocampus?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Chronic stress produces consistent and reversible changes within the dendritic arbors of CA3 hippocampal neurons, characterized by decreased dendritic length and reduced branch number. This chronic stress-induced dendritic retraction has traditionally corresponded to hippocampus-dependent spatial memory deficits. However, anomalous findings have raised doubts as to whether a CA3 dendritic retraction is sufficient to compromise hippocampal function. The purpose of this review is to outline the mechanism underlying chronic stress-induced CA3 dendritic retraction and to explain why CA3 dendritic retraction has been thought to...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - June 30, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Conrad, C. D. Source Type: journals

Neurotrophic Enhancers as Therapy for Behavioral Deficits in Rodent Models of Huntington's Disease: Use of Gangliosides, Substituted Pyrimidines, and Mesenchymal Stem CellsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The interest in using neurotrophic factors as potential treatments for neurodegenerative disorders, such as Huntington's disease, has grown in the past decade. A major impediment for the clinical utility of neurotrophic factors is their inability to cross the blood-brain barrier in therapeutically significant amounts. Although several novel mechanisms for delivering exogenous neurotrophins to the brain have been developed, most of them involve invasive procedures or present significant risks. One approach to circumventing these problems is using therapeutic agents that can be administered systemically and have the ability ...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - June 26, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dunbar, G. L., Sandstrom, M. I., Rossignol, J., Lescaudron, L. Source Type: journals

Neuronal Implementation of Hippocampal-Mediated Spatial Behavior: A Comparative Evolutionary PerspectiveEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The hippocampal formation (HF) of mammals and birds plays a strikingly similar role in the representation of space. This evolutionarily conserved property, however, belies the contrasting spatial ecology of animals such as rats and homing pigeons, differing spatial ecologies that should have promoted the evolution of group-specific adaptations to the HF representation of space. However, the spatial response properties of pigeon and rat HF neurons reveal surprising similarity in the contribution of position, direction, and trajectory toward explaining spatial variation in firing rate. By contrast, the asymmetrical distribut...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - June 26, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Bingman, V. P., Sharp, P. E. Source Type: journals

Perception of Emotional Prosody: Moving Toward a Model That Incorporates Sex-Related DifferencesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article also reviews more recent research that implicates a role for the left hemisphere and subcortical structures in the perception of emotional prosody. The last major section of this article addresses sex-related differences and the potential influence of hormones on the perception of emotional prosody. The article concludes with a section that offers directions for future research.
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - June 26, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Everhart, D. E., Demaree, H. A., Shipley, A. J. Source Type: journals

The Effect of Music on Cognitive Performance: Insight From Neurobiological and Animal StudiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article also explores candidate mechanisms for this putative effect. A review of neurobiological evidence from human and comparative animal studies confirms that musical stimuli modify autonomic and neurochemical arousal indices, and may also modify synaptic plasticity. It is proposed that understanding how music affects animals provides a valuable conjunct to human research and may be vital in uncovering how music might be used to enhance cognitive performance.
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - April 3, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Rickard, N. S., Toukhsati, S. R., Field, S. E. Source Type: journals

The Endophenotype of Impulsivity: Reaching Consilience Through Behavioral, Genetic, and Neuroimaging ApproachesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Impulsivity is a multidimensional construct with implications for understanding the etiology and treatment of multiple forms of psychopathology. As a multidimensional construct, however, the processes underlying impulsivity, particularly behavioral inhibition, must be separated to allow for investigations into its neurogenetic bases. Evidence from both animal and human studies supports the role of dopamine in impulsivity, and neuroimaging research is elucidating brain regions involved in behavioral inhibition. Evidence is now emerging that suggests an interaction between dopamine system genes and frontal brain regions in u...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - April 3, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Congdon, E., Canli, T. Source Type: journals

Relational Spatial Reasoning by a Nonhuman: The Example of Capuchin MonkeysEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The authors review spontaneous manipulation and spatial problem solving by capuchin monkeys to illuminate the nature of relational reasoning (wherein two or more elements of a problem or situation are considered together to arrive at a course of action) that these monkeys use in goal-directed activity. Capuchin monkeys master problems with one, two, or three spatial relations, and if more than one relation, at least two relations may be managed concurrently. They can master static and dynamic relations and, with sufficient practice, can produce specific spatial relations through both direct and distal action. Examining cap...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - April 3, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Fragaszy, D. M., Cummins-Sebree, S. E. Source Type: journals

Manuscript Submission GuidelinesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(No abstract is available for this citation)
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - April 3, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: journals

Index to Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews Volume 4Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(No abstract is available for this citation)
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - April 3, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: journals

The Representation of Taste Quality in the Mammalian Nervous SystemEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article critically reviews molecular, electro-physiological, and behavioral findings that bear on the issue. In the peripheral gustatory system, the authors conclude that most qualities appear to be signaled by labeled lines; however, elements of both types of coding characterize signaling of sodium salts. Given the heterogeneity of neuronal tuning functions in the brain, the central coding mechanism is less clear. Both sparse coding and neuronal ensemble models remain viable possibilities. Furthermore, temporal patterns of discharge could contribute additional information. Ultimately, until specific classes of neuron...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - March 1, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Spector, A. C., Travers, S. P. Source Type: journals

The Perception of Motion in Chromatic StimuliEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The issue of whether there is a motion mechanism sensitive to purely chromatic stimuli has been pertinent for the past 30 or more years. The aim of this review is to examine why such different conclusions have been drawn in the literature and to reach some reconciliation. The review critically examines the behavioral evidence and concludes that there is a purely chromatic motion mechanism but that it is limited to the fovea. Examination of motion performance for chromatic and luminance stimuli provides convincing evidence that there are at least two different mechanisms for the two kinds of stimuli. The authors further arg...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - March 1, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Cropper, S. J., Wuerger, S. M. Source Type: journals

Auditory Processing in the Posterior Parietal CortexEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Goal-directed behavior can be characterized as a dynamic link between a sensory stimulus and a motor act. Neural correlates of many of the intermediate events of goal-directed behavior are found in the posterior parietal cortex. Although the parietal cortex’s role in guiding visual behaviors has received considerable attention, relatively little is known about its role in mediating auditory behaviors. Here, the authors review recent studies that have focused on how neurons in the lateral intraparietal area (area LIP) differentially process auditory and visual stimuli. These studies suggest that area LIP contains a mo...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - March 1, 2006 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Cohen, Y. E., Russ, B. E., Gifford, G. W. Source Type: journals

Behavioral and Neurophysiological Analyses of Dynamic Learning ProcessesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In this article, the authors address two topics relevant to the study of the brain basis of associative learning. In Part 1, they compare and contrast the patterns and time course of dynamic learning-related neural activity that have been reported in the medial temporal lobe, premotor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and striatum during various associative learning tasks. In Part 2, they examine the statistical methodologies that have been used to analyze both behavioral learning and learning-related neural activity. They describe a state-space model of behavioral learning that provides accurate estimates of dynamic learning pro...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - October 26, 2005 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Suzuki, W. A., Brown, E. N. Source Type: journals

Transformations of Visuospatial ImagesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Transformations of visuospatial mental images are important for action, navigation, and reasoning. They depend on representations in multiple spatial reference frames, implemented in the posterior parietal cortex and other brain regions. The multiple systems framework proposes that different transformations can be distinguished in terms of which spatial reference frame is updated. In an object-based transformation, the reference frame of an object moves relative to those of the observer and the environment. In a perspective transformation, the observer's egocentric reference frame moves relative to those of the environment...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - October 26, 2005 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Zacks, J. M., Michelon, P. Source Type: journals

Current Models and Future Directions for Understanding the Neural Circuitries of Maternal Behaviors in RodentsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Maternal behaviors in rodents include a number of subcomponents, such as nursing, nest building, licking and grooming of pups, pup retrieval, and maternal aggression. Because each behavior involves a unique motor pattern, a unique ensemble neural circuitry must underlie each behavior. To what extent there is overlap in terms of brain regions and specific neurons for each circuit is being actively investigated. This review will first examine overlapping and separate components of pup retrieval and maternal aggression circuitries while examining a central role for medial preoptic area (MPA) in both behaviors. With an emphasi...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - October 26, 2005 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Gammie, S. C. Source Type: journals

Brain Lateralization of Emotional Processing: Historical Roots and a Future Incorporating "Dominance"Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article provides a review of research on the hemispheric specialization in emotional processing during the past 40 years and the theoretical models derived from the conceptual analysis of these results. The publications reviewed here were collected to better appreciate the cortical lateralization of emotional perception (visual and auditory), expression (facial and prosodic), and experience. Four major models of emotional processing are discussed—the Right Hemisphere, Valence, Approach-Withdrawal, and Behavioral Inhibition System–Behavioral Activation System models. Observing the relative merits and limita...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - May 10, 2005 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Demaree, H. A., Everhart, D. E., Youngstrom, E. A., Harrison, D. W. Source Type: journals

The Role of Temporal Structure in Human VisionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Gestalt psychologists identified several stimulus properties thought to underlie visual grouping and figure/ground segmentation, and among those properties was common fate: the tendency to group together individual objects that move together in the same direction at the same speed. Recent years have witnessed an upsurge of interest in visual grouping based on other timedependent sources of visual information, including synchronized changes in luminance, in motion direction, and in figure/ ground relations. These various sources of temporal grouping information can be subsumed under the rubric temporal structure. In this ar...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - May 10, 2005 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Blake, R., Lee, S.-H. Source Type: journals

Effect of Estrogen-Serotonin Interactions on Mood and CognitionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Both the neurotransmitter serotonin and the ovarian steroid estrogen have been implicated in the modulation of mood and cognition. Although significant functional interactions between estrogen and serotonin are acknowledged, the nature of their relationship has not been fully elucidated. Research using ovariectomized animals has identified estrogen-induced changes in serotonin transmission, binding, and metabolism in brain regions implicated in the regulation of affect and cognition. Studies in humans, particularly of menopausal women undergoing estrogen treatment, have provided some support for these findings and identifi...
Source: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews - May 10, 2005 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Amin, Z., Canli, T., Epperson, C. N. Source Type: journals