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Introduction: Cognitive control plays a role in human behavior and mental processes and affects paranormal beliefs. This study aims to investigate the role of cognitive control in paranormal beliefs using the go/no-go task. Methods: A total of 92 people were selected based on low, middle, and high scores in the revised paranormal belief scale (R-PBS) and assigned to 3 groups. The groups included 30 severe paranormal believers (13 females with a mean age of 25.3 years), 31 mild paranormal believers (14 females with a mean age of 26.4 years), and 31 skeptics (16 females with a mean age of 25.8 years). All participants were tested on the go/no-go task. A multivariate analysis of variance was conducted with the given groups (severe paranormal believers, mild paranormal believers, and skeptics) as the independent variable and the go/no-go subscales scores as dependent variables. Results: The findings showed a significant difference between the mean scores in errors of go (F(2, 89)=7.20, P=0.01), errors of no-go (F(2, 89)=11.81, P=0.01), and reaction time (F(2, 89)=21.46, P=0.01) between the groups. Conclusion: The severe and mild paranormal believers had lower accuracy and slower reaction times than the skeptics group. Therefore, severe paranormal believers and mild paranormal believers had a weakness in all go/no-go subscale scores. This finding suggests that paranormal beliefs may be related to poor cognitive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Paranormal beliefs are defined as believing in extrasensory perception, precognition, witchcraft, and telekinesis, magical thinking, psychokinesis, superstitions. Previous studies corroborate that executive brain functions underpin paranormal beliefs. To test causal hypotheses, neurophysiological studies of brain activity are required. Method: A sample of 20 students (10 females, age: 22.50 ± 4.07 years) were included for the current study. The absolute power of resting-state EEG in intrahemispheric and interhemispheric coherence was analyzed with eyes opened. The paranormal beliefs were determined based on the total score of the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS). Result: The results of this study demonstrated that there was a significant negative relationship between paranormal beliefs and EEG resting state in alpha band activity in the frontal lobe (left hemisphere), EEG coherence of alpha and beta1, beta2, and gamma band activities in the frontal lobe (right hemisphere) and coherence of alpha and beta1, beta2 and gamma band activities between frontal regions (two hemispheres). In addition, the results showed that coherence of alpha, alpha1, beta, and beta2 band activities between frontal lobe (right hemispheres) and EEG coherence of delta, alpha1, and band activities in the frontal lobe (two hemispheres) predicted paranormal beliefs. Conclusion: This study confirms connecting executive brain functions to paranormal beliefs, and determines that frontal brain functioning may contribute to paranormal beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Brain lateralization is associated with human behavior. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the effects of brain lateralization on the scores of paranormal beliefs. Methods: The study population included 180 students of Sanandaj universities, Sanandaj City, Iran who were selected with convenience sampling method (100 left-brained males, 6 left-brained females, 56 both left- and right-brained males and 22 both left- and right-brained females). The research tools were the paranormal belief scale developed by Blackmore (1994), as well as the brain lateralization questionnaire (1985). Results: The obtained findings suggested a significant difference between the left-brain and right-brained people in terms of paranormal beliefs. A significant difference was also found between the left-brained males and both left- and right-brained females in terms of paranormal beliefs. Conclusion: The paranormal beliefs of the left-brained cases were different from both left- and right-brained subjects, which can be seen between the left-brained males and both left- and right-brained females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Many studies show that words learned early in life are read more easily than the ones learned later and are less vulnerable to brain damage. Methods: the first part of the current study, 25 primary school students in the 5th grade read the word groups learned initially during a previous grade. The words used in the experiments were 327 Farsi monosyllable words matched on the other factors involved in Farsi word naming. Results: The analysis of covariance (the consistency and frequency as covariates) showed that words learned in earlier grades were read more easily than the ones learned later, showing the known effect of the Age of Acquisition (AoA). In the second part of the study, it was tried to simulate AoA in word naming by a neural network model developed earlier based on connectionist approach. While previous studies used random patterns, in the current study words from primary school books were used. Likewise, words learned early by the model were read better than words learned later. However, there was a failure in replicating previous simulation of AoA in English reading by an algorithm called Quick prop for Farsi. In addition, the model was lesioned by removing some hidden units to see its effect on word reading. As a result, words learned earlier were less vulnerable to damage compared with the ones learned later. Conclusion: The findings showed that words learned earlier, compared to those learned later, were read better and were less vulnerable to damage. These effects are explained by considering the nature of learning in neural networks trained by error back-propagation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The current study aimed to elucidate the role of preparatory cognitive control in decision making and its neural correlates using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). To this effect, by employing a series of new cognitive tasks, we assessed the role of preparatory cognitive control in monetary (risky) decision making. Methods: The participants had to decide between a risky and a safe gamble based on their chance of winning (high or low). In the 2-phase gambling task (similar to Cambridge gambling task), the chance and the gamble were presented at the same time (i.e. in a single phase), but in a new 3-phase gambling task, the chance is presented before the gamble. The tasks ended with a feedback phase. Results: In the 3-phase task, holding the chance in memory to guide their decision enabled the participants to have more control on their risk taking behaviors as shown by activation in a network of brain areas involved in the control and conflict, including dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex (dACC), indexed by faster reaction times and better performance in the gambling task, and the temporal lobe, which has a role in holding contextual information. Discussion: Holding information in memory to guide decision presumably enables the participants to have more control on their risk taking behaviors. The conflict and uncertainty resulting from this risky decision was indexed by the activation of dACC, known to be activated in conflict and cognitive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]