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The relationship between executive function and second-language ability remains contentious in bilingual children; thus, the current study focused on this issue. In total, 371 Uyghur-Chinese bilingual children ranging from 3 to 6 years old were assessed by a battery of tasks measuring language ability (expressive vocabulary tests, receptive vocabulary tests, and phonological awareness of both their first-language and second-language) and executive function (working memory, inhibition, and switching). Our results indicated that age is a crucial moderator of the relationship between second-language ability and executive function. Specifically, executive function unilaterally predicted second-language ability in children who were 3-4 years old, whereas second-language ability and executive function bilaterally influenced each other in children who were 4-5 and 5-6 years old. These findings suggest that executive function and second-language ability have an intertwined and causal relationship among preschool children during development. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

The emergence of machine learning (ML) techniques has opened up new avenues for identifying biomarkers associated with schizophrenia (SCZ) using task‐related fMRI (t‐fMRI) designs. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, we conducted a comprehensive meta‐analysis of 31 t‐fMRI studies using a bivariate model. Our findings revealed a high overall sensitivity of 0.83 and specificity of 0.82 for t‐fMRI studies. Notably, neuropsychological domains modulated the classification performance, with selective attention demonstrating a significantly higher specificity than working memory (β = 0.98, z = 2.11, P = 0.04). Studies involving older, chronic patients with SCZ reported higher sensitivity (P <0.015) and specificity (P <0.001) than those involving younger, first‐episode patients or high‐risk individuals for psychosis. Additionally, we found that the severity of negative symptoms was positively associated with the specificity of the classification model (β = 7.19, z = 2.20, P = 0.03). Taken together, these results support the potential of using task‐based fMRI data in combination with machine learning techniques to identify biomarkers related to symptom outcomes in SCZ, providing a promising avenue for improving diagnostic accuracy and treatment efficacy. Future attempts to deploy ML classification should consider the factors of algorithm choice, data quality and quantity, as well as issues related to generalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic exacerbated depression and anxiety worldwide. Resilience is important to maintain mental health during uncertain times, but limited study has systematically reviewed its association with depression or anxiety with an emphasis on the general population. Methods We searched PubMed and Embase for quantitative or mixed-methods studies on the general adult population published between 1 January 2020 and 31 April 2022 (PROSPERO ID: CRD 42022340935). National Institute of the Health quality assessment tools was used to assess the risk of bias. We qualitatively synthesized findings by outcome and study design. Results A total of 2945 studies were screened and 35 studies were included in the narrative analysis (5 on depression, 9 on anxiety, and 21 on both). Overall, 21 studies identified statistically significant inverse associations between resilience and depression, while 24 studies found statistically significant inverse associations between resilience and anxiety. Eight studies reported no statistically significant relationships between resilience with depression or anxiety. Conclusions Resilience was found to be inversely associated with depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings highlight the importance of resilience-enhancing intervention in migrating the global mental health burden from outbreaks of infectious diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition memory deficits, even after short delays, are sometimes observed following hippocampal damage. One hypothesis links the hippocampus with processes in updating contextual memory representation. Here, we used fornix transection, which partially disconnects the hippocampal system, and compares the performance of fornix-transected monkeys with normal monkeys on two versions of a delayed-matching-to-position task with short delays. Spatial recognition memory was affected by fornix transection only when the temporal structure of the task changed across trials, while differences in motor control, motivation, perception, or short-term memory were not critical. We attributed the deficit to a compromised ability in tracking changes in task temporal structure.

Recognition memory deficits, even after short delays, are sometimes observed following hippocampal damage. One hypothesis links the hippocampus with processes in updating contextual memory representation. Here, we used fornix transection, which partially disconnects the hippocampal system, and compares the performance of fornix-transected monkeys with normal monkeys on two versions of a delayed-matching-to-position task with short delays. Spatial recognition memory was affected by fornix transection only when the temporal structure of the task changed across trials, while differences in motor control, motivation, perception, or short-term memory were not critical. We attributed the deficit to a compromised ability in tracking changes in task temporal structure.

The relationship between executive function and second‐language ability remains contentious in bilingual children; thus, the current study focused on this issue. In total, 371 Uyghur‐Chinese bilingual children ranging from 3 to 6 years old were assessed by a battery of tasks measuring language ability (expressive vocabulary tests, receptive vocabulary tests, and phonological awareness of both their first‐language and second‐language) and executive function (working memory, inhibition, and switching). Our results indicated that age is a crucial moderator of the relationship between second‐language ability and executive function. Specifically, executive function unilaterally predicted second‐language ability in children who were 3–4 years old, whereas second‐language ability and executive function bilaterally influenced each other in children who were 4–5 and 5–6 years old. These findings suggest that executive function and second‐language ability have an intertwined and causal relationship among preschool children during development. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. Research Highlights: A counterfactual model showed causality between executive function and second language ability in Uyghur‐Chinese bilingual children.Executive function unilaterally predicted second language ability in the 3‐ to 4‐year‐old age group.Executive function and second language ability bilaterally influenced each other in the 4‐ to 5 and 5‐ to 6‐year‐old age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our subjective experience of remembering guides and monitors the reconstruction of past and simulation of the future, which enables us to identify mistakes and adjust our behavior accordingly. However, what underlies the process of subjective mnemonic experience remains incompletely understood. Here, we combined behavior, repetitive TMS, and functional neuroimaging to probe whether vividness and confidence are generated differently during retrieval. We found that preretrieval repetitive TMS targeting the left angular gyrus (AnG) selectively attenuated the vividness efficiency compared with control stimulation while keeping metacognitive efficiency and objective memory accuracy unaffected. Using trialwise data, we showed that AnG stimulation altered the mediating role of vividness in confidence in the accuracy of memory judgment. Moreover, resting-state functional connectivity of hippocampus and AnG was specifically associated with vividness efficiency, but not metacognitive efficiency across individuals. Together, these results identify the causal involvement of AnG in gauging the vividness, but not the confidence, of memory, thereby suggesting a differentiation account of conscious assessment of memory by functionally and anatomically dissociating the monitoring of vividness from confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Trigeminal neuralgia (TGN) is typically caused by an offending artery (OA) but may also involve an offending vein. Venous offending on the ventral side of the root entrance/exit zone (VO-VREZ) is particularly challenging. Objective: To analyze the rate and pattern of VO-VREZ and propose management strategy accordingly. Methods: VO-VREZ was classified into 3 types based on its anatomical relationship with a nerve root (A, the vein was covered by the nerve root entirely; B, the vein was lateral to the nerve root; and C, the vein penetrated the nerve root) and 3 groups based on the absence/presence of offending artery (I, no OA; II, suspected OA; and III, definitive OA). Results: The analysis included 143 cases with complete follow-up. Type A, B, and C accounted for 11.9, 31.5, and 56.6% of the cases, respectively. Group I, II, and III accounted for 24.5, 26.6, and 49.0%, respectively. Most group I VO-VREZ cases (26 out of 31) were managed with coagulation followed by division. Most group II VO-VREZ cases (31 out of 38) were decompressed with shredded Teflon interposition. Group III VO-VREZ was left in place in all 70 cases. Immediate pain relief was achieved in all cases. Temporary hemifacial hypesthesia occurred in 21 patients (14.7%), among which 14 were managed with Teflon decompression. Within the 4.5-year median follow-up, pain recurred in 11 patients (7.7%), but all with lesser intensity. Conclusion: VO-VREZ is not uncommon in patients with TGN. Different management strategy should be chosen according to the anatomical feature and the absence/presence of arterial conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

However, in clinical practice, because of the anatomical location of the VA, which is close to the REZ of the facial nerve, the VA is one of the most common OVs of HFS. Keywords: gelatin; microvascular; vertebral EN gelatin microvascular vertebral 857 861 5 06/14/21 20210701 NES 210701 Microvascular Decompression for Hemifacial Spasm Involving the Vertebral Artery (VA): A Modified Effective Technique Using a Gelatin Sponge with a FuAiLe Medical Adhesive. After transferring the VA from the REZ of the facial nerve, a FAL-absorbed gelatin sponge was placed between the dura and the VA, and then, pressure was administered for several seconds. [Extracted from the article]

Incongruence between the narrated (encoded) order and the actual chronological order of events is ubiquitous in various kinds of narratives and information modalities. The iconicity assumption in text comprehension proposes that readers will by default assume the chronological order to match the narrated order. However, it is not clear whether this iconicity assumption would directly bias inferred chronology of events and memory of their narrated order. In the current study, using non-linearly narrated video narratives as encoding materials, we dissociated the narrated order and the underlying chronological order of events. In Experiment 1, we found that participants' judgments of the chronological order of events were biased by the narrated order, but not vice versa. In Experiment 2, when the chronological positions of events were provided during encoding, participants' judgments of the chronological order were not biased by the narrated order, rather, their memory of the narrated order of events was biased by the chronological order. Interpreting the bias under a descriptive Bayesian framework, we offer a new perspective on the role of the iconicity assumption as prior belief, apart from prior knowledge about event sequences, in event understanding as well as memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the fornix has previously been implicated in the rapid learning of associations, we hypothesized that fornix transection in macaques would selectively impair the acquisition of rapidly learned conditional visuospatial discrimination problems. Macaque monkeys learned, postoperatively, three sets of concurrent problems of increasing sizes containing 8, 32, and 64 problems, respectively. Each problem consisted of four identical visual stimuli and animals had to learn which stimulus position was rewarded. The lesioned animals made significantly more errors-to-criterion on the smallest set of problems, consistent with the idea that the most rapidly acquired sets would be more vulnerable to fornical damage. Moreover, during the early stages of acquisition across all three sets, fornix transection selectively impeded monkeys' abilities to eliminate nonperseverative errors in correction trials, consistent with an inability to monitor or correct erroneous spatial responses made further back in time than the last trial. Both one-trial learning and an errorless learning (facilitation of performance) were observed in control and fornix lesioned animals but neither were fornix-dependent and overcoming the deleterious effect upon subsequent learning of having made prior errors was also unaffected by fornix transection. The data indicate that the fornix is not important for all forms of new learning; rather it is selectively concerned with the relatively rapid acquisition of spatial and temporal relationships between stimuli and responses. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. This article was published online on 27 May 2009. An error was subsequently identified. This notice is included in the online and print versions to indicate that both have been corrected 11 June 2009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prompted by the theoretical prediction that damage to the hippocampal system should abolish exploratory behavior, the present study examined exploratory movements in control monkeys (CON) and monkeys with transection of the fornix (FNX), a major input/output pathway of the hippocampus. CON and FNX monkeys were introduced to a novel octagonal chamber for six daily sessions, each lasting 20 min. Both groups visited, punctuated by stops, the majority of the floor space of the environment in each of the sessions. The exploratory movements of CON and FNX groups were not significantly different on most of the measures taken over six consecutive days. These measures included cumulative distance traveled, number and duration of stops, traveling patterns, and proportion of time spent in each of 12 designated zones of floor space. The high degree of similarity in behavior between CON and FNX groups suggests that an intact hippocampal system is not necessary for the display of normal exploratory movement per se. On the other hand, the CON and FNX groups did behave differently on two measures. First, the CON group exhibited a decrement in distance traversed over consecutive epochs within the first test session, whereas FNX animals did not. Second, on those days in which the chamber was made visually asymmetrical, the CON animals tended to show a predilection for spending proportionally more time within one particular quadrant of the chamber. These observations are consistent with the idea that interrupting normal hippocampal system function by means of fornix transection is detrimental to learning about the spatial layout of environments. We therefore suggest that while monkeys with fornix transection still display intact locomotor and exploratory behavior patterns, their new learning of visuospatial context is impaired. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fractionation view holds that distinct cognitive operations are mediated by subregions of the inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Within IPL, we hypothesised that retrieval-related activity in different parts of the right supramarginal gyrus (rSMG) may be modulated differentially by information acquired via different combinations of attention signals at encoding. We had two groups of participants watch a 42-min TV episode and, after a 24-hr delay, perform a temporal-order judgment task during fMRI. Each retrieval trial comprised three images presented sequentially, requiring participants to judge the temporal order between the first and last images while ignoring the second image ('distractor'). We manipulated the bottom-up factor by presenting distractors that were extracted from either an event-boundary or a non-boundary of the movie. The top-down factor was manipulated by instructing one group perform a segmentation task reporting the event-boundaries at encoding, while the other group watched the movie passively. Across groups, we found that the stimulus-related factor modulated retrieval activation in the anterior rSMG (areas PFt and PFop), whereas the goal-related influence of prior segmentation interacted with this effect in the middle rSMG (area PF), demonstrating IPL segregation during retrieval as a function of prior bottom-up vs. top-down attention signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether nonhuman primate species can construct, still less reconstruct, order of past events remains controversial. Here we show that rhesus macaques are capable of reconstructing the temporal order of memory traces of dynamic videos. We made use of 2000 unseen naturalistic videos of wildlife content for encoding, and then probed monkeys' recollection of temporal-order of events with a temporal-order judgement (TOJ) test. This encoding-TOJ procedure was repeated at three different time points (day 1, day 2, and day 32+). We specifically tested for differential TOJ memory performance for videos that were displayed in a reverse sequence versus videos that were displayed in a normal sequence at these different time points. We observed that during TOJ monkeys committed more errors for video content that were shown in reverse but only upon re-exposures (i.e., day 2 and day 32+). Moreover, this memory distortion effect is significantly accentuated by social relevance of the video content. We interpret that the monkeys reversed the out-of-order events in accordance to their knowledge priors; such fallaciously re-ordered memory traces then led to higher rate of errors. Demonstrating in macaque monkeys a form of errors in temporal-order memory for reverse videos carries implications for studying memory retrospection in the primates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study investigated whether music training led to better length estimation and/or rightward bias by comparing the performance of musicians (pianists) and non-musicians on performance of line sections and line extensions., Methods: One hundred and sixteen participants, among them 62 musicians and 54 non-musicians, participated in the present study, completed line section and line extension task under three conditions: 1/2, 1/3 and 2/3., Results: The mixed repeated measures ANOVA analysis revealed a significant group × condition interaction, that the musicians were more accurate than non-musicians in all the line section tasks and showed no obvious pseudoneglect, while their overall performance on the line extension tasks was comparable to the non-musicians, and only performed more accurately in the 1/2 line extension condition., Conclusion: These findings indicated that there was a dissociation between the effects of music training on line section and line extension. This dissociation does not support the view that music training has a general beneficial effect on line estimation, and provides insight into a potentially important limit on the effects of music training on spatial cognition., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Pei, Xu, He, Liu, Bai, Kwok, Li and Wang.)

The dorsomedial posterior parietal cortex (dmPPC) is part of a higher-cognition network implicated in elaborate processes underpinning memory formation, recollection, episode reconstruction, and temporal information processing. Neural coding for complex episodic processing is however under-documented. Here, we recorded extracellular neural activities from three male rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta ) and revealed a set of neural codes of "neuroethogram" in the primate parietal cortex. Analyzing neural responses in macaque dmPPC to naturalistic videos, we discovered several groups of neurons that are sensitive to different categories of ethogram items, low-level sensory features, and saccadic eye movement. We also discovered that the processing of category and feature information by these neurons is sustained by the accumulation of temporal information over a long timescale of up to 30 s, corroborating its reported long temporal receptive windows. We performed an additional behavioral experiment with additional two male rhesus macaques and found that saccade-related activities could not account for the mixed neuronal responses elicited by the video stimuli. We further observed monkeys' scan paths and gaze consistency are modulated by video content. Taken altogether, these neural findings explain how dmPPC weaves fabrics of ongoing experiences together in real time. The high dimensionality of neural representations should motivate us to shift the focus of attention from pure selectivity neurons to mixed selectivity neurons, especially in increasingly complex naturalistic task designs., (Copyright © 2024 the authors.)

Background: Compared to hemifacial spasm after microvascular decompression (MVD), delayed relief (DR) rarely occurs in patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TGN)., Objective: To analyze the characteristics of post-MVD DR in TGN patients to provide useful clues for the clinical differential diagnosis of postoperative DR., Methods: The clinical data of all patients with TGN who underwent MVD in our center from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2020, were reviewed retrospectively., Results: In 272 TGN MVD patients, DR occurred in nine patients (3.3%) during the follow-up periods of 1-6 years. During surgery, all nine DR-TGN patients were identified as having neurovascular conflicts (NVCs), involving the offending artery (OA) in eight patients (two OAs in two patients) and both an artery and a vein in the other patient. The compression site was near the root entry zone (REZ) in most DR patients (7/9). Delayed relief was relieved in seven patients within 5 days after surgery and within 30 days in the other two patients. No recurrence or serious complications were observed within the mean 4 (1-6)-year follow-up duration., Conclusion: Delayed relief rarely occurs in TGN patients after MVD. Neurovascular conflicts located at the REZ and NVC of grade III may be two important factors contributing to DR in TGN patients. Delayed relief may occur when the pain gradually improves after the operation and responds effectively to a small dose of carbamazepine. The recurrence rate of TGN seems even lower in such patients., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Wang, Yu, Kwok and Yin.)

Background: Epidermoid cysts (ECs) are one of the most common causes of secondary trigeminal neuralgia (TGN). However, most previous studies have primarily focused on whether complete tumor resection was achieved, and few studies have discussed the primary goal of pain relief., Objective: The present study provides intraoperative strategies for trigeminal nerve (TN) management in patients with TGN secondary to an EC and observed long-term follow-up outcomes., Methods: A total of 69 patients with TGN secondary to an EC at our hospitals were included (January 2011-June 2021). The same surgical team performed all surgeries using a retrosigmoid approach. After EC removal, different methods for TN management were used, including microvascular decompression (MVD), sharp capsulectomy, nerve combing and embedded cholesterol crystal excision. The epidemiological, clinical, and surgical data were extracted., Results: The total EC removal rate was 92.8% (64/69). All patients achieved initial pain relief postoperatively, and 12 patients (17.4%) experienced varying degrees of hemifacial hypesthesia, which was relieved within 3-6 months. Three patients (4.3%) reported partial pain recurrence within a median follow-up period of 5.5 (0.5-10.5) years, which was relieved completely after low-dose carbamazepine administration., Conclusion: The primary goal of surgical tumor removal for patients with TGN secondary to an EC is relief of the main symptom of tormenting pain. The selection of an appropriate strategy for TN, including MVD, sharp capsulectomy, nerve combing or embedded cholesterol crystal excision, should depend on the patient's situation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2022 Zhang, Yu, Yu, Kwok, Wang and Yin.)

Background: Microvascular decompression (MVD) surgery is the treatment of choice for trigeminal neuralgia (TGN). However, decompression becomes difficult when the offending vessel penetrates the trigeminal nerve root., Objective: To estimate the rates and patterns of different types of intraneural offending vessels in patients with TGN for MVD and to discuss respective management strategies., Methods: All patients with TGN undergoing MVD in our center from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2019, were analyzed retrospectively. The intraneural offending vessels included veins and arteries. The postoperative pain relief rate, complications, and recurrences were evaluated., Results: Of the 302 TGN cases, the intraneural offending vessels were identified in 58 of the cases (19.2%). The 9 cases (15.5%) of intraneural offending arteries were decompressed using shredded Teflon wrapping interposition. Of the 49 cases (84.5%) of intraneural offending veins (INOVs), 29 were not considered true offending vessels, and the treatment only addressed the offending artery in these patients. Of the remaining 20 INOVs, 15 were electrocoagulated and divided, and 5 were decompressed with shredded Teflon. Complete pain relief was achieved in all 58 patients. However, the pain recurred in 5 patients (8.6%), and transient hemifacial numbness occurred in 4 patients (6.9%)., Conclusion: Intraneural offending vessels requiring treatment are uncommon and are seen in less than 1 in 10 patients undergoing MVD for TGN. For intraneural offending artery, decompression by shredded Teflon wrapping interposition is recommended. Management of the INOV depends on the individual situations, and the management includes sacrifice, wrapping decompression, or leaving them untreated., (Copyright © Congress of Neurological Surgeons 2022. All rights reserved.)

Background: Previous research has reported that patients with schizophrenia would regard false memories with higher confidence, and this meta-memory deficit was suggested as a neurocognitive marker of schizophrenia. However, how schizophrenia patients determine their memory decision confidence has received scant consideration. This study, therefore, aimed to characterize the extent to which meta-memory evaluation strategy differs between schizophrenia patients and healthy individuals, and how such difference contributes to the patients' meta-memory performance., Methods: 27 schizophrenia patients and 28 matched healthy controls performed a temporal-order judgement (TOJ) task, in which they judged which movie frame occurred earlier in an encoded video, and then made retrospective confidence rating. Mixed effect regression models were performed to assess the between-group metacognitive evaluation strategy difference and its relationship to clinical symptoms., Results: Compared to the control group, the patients' confidence ratings were correlated more with the recent confidence history and less with the TOJ-related evidence. The degree of dependence on recent history of confidence was negatively correlated with the severity of positive symptoms. Furthermore, by controlling for the first-order TOJ performance, we observed that the patients discriminated correct memory decisions from the incorrect ones as accurately as the controls., Conclusion: The present investigation revealed that schizophrenia patients tend to use more heuristics in making meta-memory evaluations, and such atypical strategy is related to their clinical symptoms. This study provides new insights into how schizophrenia patients perform meta-memory processes. Future research could consider examining such metacognitive deficits in light of other cognitive domains in psychosis., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interests., (© 2021 Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Humans recall the past by replaying fragments of events temporally. Here, we demonstrate a similar effect in macaques. We trained six rhesus monkeys with a temporal-order judgement (TOJ) task and collected 5000 TOJ trials. In each trial, the monkeys watched a naturalistic video of about 10 s comprising two across-context clips, and after a 2 s delay, performed TOJ between two frames from the video. The data are suggestive of a non-linear, time-compressed forward memory replay mechanism in the macaque. In contrast with humans, such compression of replay is, however, not sophisticated enough to allow these monkeys to skip over irrelevant information by compressing the encoded video globally. We also reveal that the monkeys detect event contextual boundaries, and that such detection facilitates recall by increasing the rate of information accumulation. Demonstration of a time-compressed, forward replay-like pattern in the macaque provides insights into the evolution of episodic memory in our lineage., Competing Interests: SZ, LW, JS, YC, BZ, SL, KA, YZ, SK No competing interests declared, (© 2020, Zuo et al.)

How temporal and contextual information interactively impact on behavior and brain activity during the retrieval of temporal order about naturalistic episodes remains incompletely understood. Here, we used fMRI to examine the effects of contextual signals derived from the content of the movie on the neural correlates underlying memory retrieval of temporal-order in human subjects of both sexes. By contrasting SAME versus DIFF storyline conditions during the retrieval of the temporal order of cinematic events, we found that the activation in the precuneus, as well as behavior, are significantly modulated according to storyline condition, supporting our prediction of contextual information contributing to temporal retrieval. We suggest that the precuneus engages in memory retrieval via reconstructive mechanisms, entailing search within a movie-specific, situational knowledge-structure. Furthermore, information-based analyses of multivoxel activity revealed that the precuneus also contains a context-independent linear representation of temporal distances, consistent with a chronological organization of memory traces. We thus put forward that the retrieval of the temporal-order of naturalistic events encoded in rich and dynamic contexts relies on the joint contribution of chronological and reconstructive mechanisms, both of which rely on the medioposterior parietal cortex in humans. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Successful retrieval of episodic memory is dependent on both temporal and contextual signals. However, when contextual signals derived from multiple storylines or narratives are complex and intertwined, the behavioral and neural correlates underpinning the interplay between time and context is not completely understood. Here we characterized the activation level and multivoxel pattern of BOLD signals underlying the modulation of such contextual information during temporal order judgment in the precuneus. Our findings provide us with an elucidation of subprocesses implicating the medial parietal cortex in realizing temporal organization of episodic details., (Copyright © 2020 the authors.)

The human PFC has been associated more with meta-perceptual as opposed to meta-memory decisions from correlational neuroimaging investigations. Recently, metacognitive abilities have also been shown to be causally dependent upon anterior and dorsal PFC in nonhuman primate lesion studies. Two studies, using postdecision wagering paradigms and reversible inactivation, challenged this meta-perceptual versus meta-memory notion and showed that dorsal and anterior prefrontal areas are associated with metamemory for experienced objects and awareness of ignorance, respectively. Causal investigations are important but scarce; nothing is known, for example, about the causal contributions of prefrontal subregions to spatial metamemory. Here, we investigated the effects of dorsal versus ventral PFC lesions on two-alternative forced-choice spatial discrimination tasks in male macaque monkeys. Importantly, we were rigorous in approach and applied three independent but complementary indices used to quantify individual animals' metacognitive ability ("Type II sensitivity") by two variants of meta-d'/d' and phi coefficient (φ). Our results were consistent across indices: while neither lesions to superior dorsolateral PFC nor orbitofrontal cortex impaired spatial recognition performance, only monkeys with superior dorsolateral PFC lesions were impaired in meta-accuracy. Together with the observation that the same orbitofrontal cortex lesioned monkeys were impaired in updating rule value in a Wisconsin Card Sorting Test analog, we therefore document a functional double-dissociation between these two PFC regions. Our study presents important causal evidence that other dimensions, namely, domain-specific processing (e.g., spatial vs nonspatial metamemory), also need considerations in understanding the functional specialization in the neural underpinnings of introspection. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study demonstrates macaque monkeys' metacognitive capability of introspecting its own memory success is causally dependent on intact superior dorsolateral prefrontal cortices but not the orbitofrontal cortices. Combining neurosurgical techniques on monkeys and state-of-the-art measures of metacognition, we affirm a critical role of the PFC in supporting spatial meta-recognition memory and delineate functional specificity within PFC for distinct elements of metacognition., (Copyright © 2019 Kwok et al.)