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Selective stopping is demanded in situations where responses must be suppressed to certain signals, but not others. To explore this type of inhibition, the standard stop-signal task has been modified to include a selective implementation of response inhibition by introducing a new stimulus that participants should ignore. However, a stimulus-selective stop-signal task can be performed following different strategies. Some participants fulfill the selective implementation of the stopping process after discriminating the stop and ignore signals, but some others stop the ongoing response whenever any new stimulus appears. The factors that influence this strategy choice are being explored, where both task and participant variables are under consideration. This study aimed to investigate whether the difficulty in discriminating between stop and ignore signals influences strategy adoption. Additionally, we examined whether participants modify their strategy in a flexible manner throughout the task in alternating easy and hard discrimination condition blocks. In the easy discrimination condition, the stop and the ignore signals differed both in color and shape, whereas in the hard discrimination condition, they only differed in shape. Our results from 64 participants revealed that manipulating the difficulty of signal discrimination strongly influenced strategy choice. Also, we found that participants can adapt their strategy according to task demands. They preferentially adopted a selective stopping strategy when discrimination was easy, whereas they changed to a nonselective stopping strategy under the hard discrimination condition. Overall, results from the current study suggest that signal discrimination difficulty influences the adoption of strategies in selective stopping.

Mutations in the PQBP1 gene are associated with Renpenning syndrome (RENS1, MIM# 309500). Most cases are characterized by intellectual disability, but a detailed neuropsychological profile has not yet been established. The present case study of a 8.5 years-old male child with a missense novel mutation in the PQBP1 gene expands existing understanding of this syndrome by presenting a milder clinical and neuropsychological phenotype. Whole exome trio analysis sequencing revealed a maternally inherited PQBP1 missense mutation in chromosome X [NM_001032383.1, c.727C > T (p.Arg243Trp)]. Variant functional studies demonstrated a significant reduction in the interaction between PQBP1 and the component of the nuclear pre-mRNA splicing machinery, U5-15KD. A comprehensive neuropsychological assessment revealed marked deficits in processing speed, attention and executive functioning (including planning, inhibitory control and working memory) without intellectual disability. Several components of language processing were also impaired. These results support that this mutation partially disrupts the function of this gene, which is known to play critical roles in embryonic and neural development. As most of the genomic PQBP1 abnormalities associated with intellectual disability have been found to be loss-of-function mutations, we hypothesize that a partial loss-of-function of this variant is associated with a mild behavioral and neuropsychological phenotype. Sin financiación 1.613 JCR (2021) Q4, 190/212 Clinical Neurology 0.325 SJR (2021) Q3, 241/350 Developmental and Educational Psychology No data IDR 2021 UEM

Emotional scenes are, along with facial expressions, the most employed stimuli in Affective Sciences. However, as compared to facial expressions, available emotional scene databases are scarce and, in some cases, obsolete and overused. This paper describes EmoMadrid ( http://www.psicologiauam.es/CEACO/EmoMadrid.htm ), an open access database currently consisting of 813 emotional pictures. Valence and Arousal of each of these pictures were assessed by an average sample of 146 volunteers per session, who evaluated an average of 155 pictures each. Total participants up to the present is 768. EmoMadrid includes information, not provided in other databases, on low order visual parameters such as spatial frequency, luminosity, and chromatic complexity. These parameters are of crucial interest, since they have been revealed to interact with the affective content of pictures. EmoMadrid shows a robust short and long term reliability (under and over 5 years, respectively) and has already been employed in 15 Human Neuroscience and Behavior published studies, despite it has only been described in its web page.

Here, we review the recent literature on the use of neurofeedback in ADHD. We also discuss the progress and challenges in this field and offer future directions. There is promising and suggestive, but not conclusive, evidence suggesting that neurofeedback is an effective treatment for ADHD. Nonetheless, no firm conclusion about its clinical utility can be made because only a few neurofeedback trainings have been assessed. Novel approaches to acquiring and analyzing brain data have expanded the possibilities of neurofeedback for understanding and treating ADHD. At the basic level, neurofeedback represents an exciting new approach to complement descriptive neuroimaging ADHD research by providing evidence of specific causal brain-(dys)function relationships. At the clinical level, it represents a promising non-invasive intervention to normalize or compensate for neuropsychological/behavioral dsyfunctions associated with ADHD. Further, well-controlled studies are needed to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of traditional and new potentially useful neurofeedback trainings.

Memorizing emotional stimuli in a preferential way seems to be one of the adaptive strategies brought on by evolution for supporting survival. However, there is a lack of electrophysiological evidence on this bias in working memory. The present study analyzed the influence of emotion on the updating component of working memory. Behavioral and electrophysiological indices were measured from a 3-back task using negative, neutral, and positive faces. Electrophysiological data evidenced an emotional influence on the working memory sensitive P3 component, which presented larger amplitudes for negative matching faces compared to neutral ones. This effect originated in the superior parietal cortex, previously reported to be involved in N-back tasks. Additionally, P3 results showed a correlation with reaction times, where higher amplitudes were associated with faster responses for negative matching faces. These findings indicate that electrophysiological measures seem to be very suitable indices of the emotional influence on working memory.

Several lines of evidence suggest that the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) plays a crucial role in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Concretely, recent data indicate that the 10-repeat (10R) DAT1 allele may mediate neuropsychological functioning, response to methylphenidate, and even brain function and structure in children with ADHD. This study aimed to investigate the influence of 10R DAT1 on thickness of the prefrontal cortex in children and adolescents with ADHD. To this end, brain magnetic resonance images were acquired from 33 patients with homozygosity for the 10R allele and 30 patients with a single copy or no copy of the allele. The prefrontal cortex of each MRI scan was automatically parceled into regions of interest (ROIs) based on Brodmann areas (BA). The two groups were matched for age, gender, IQ, ADHD subtype, symptom severity, comorbidity and medication status. However, patients with two copies of the 10R allele exhibited significantly decreased cortical thickness in right BA 46 relative to patients with one or fewer copies of the allele. No other prefrontal ROI differed significantly between the two groups. Present findings suggest that cortical thickness of right lateral prefrontal cortex (BA 46) is influenced by the presence of the DAT1 10 repeat allele in children and adolescents with ADHD.

BackgroundAlthough both emotion and response inhibition are thought to be important in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie the interaction between these two processes in patients with this disorder. This study aimed at examining how emotional contexts affect inhibitory control in children with ADHD.MethodA total of 24 ADHD children and 24 healthy comparison subjects performed a modified go/no-go task during three different emotionally laden contexts: negative, neutral and positive. To explore the timing and the underlying neural substrates of emotion-modulated response inhibition, event-related potentials were measured and further analysed both at the scalp and at the voxel level.ResultsPatients with ADHD showed greater activation of inhibition-related neural mechanisms (i.e. no-go P3 amplitudes and orbitofrontal cortex activity) to maintain a similar level of performance as healthy comparison subjects, especially during the emotionally arousing contexts (negative and positive).ConclusionsThis study provides plausible neural mechanisms for the difficulty that ADHD children have in controlling their behaviour in highly emotional situations. Such emotional contexts might increase the need for top-down inhibitory control and put ADHD children at greater risk for impulsive behaviours and emotional dysregulation.

Here we analyze how performance differences in an adaptive cognitive training regime based on the n-back task interact with emotional stimuli (scenes and faces) varying in their valence (negative, positive, and neutral). One hundred and three participants completed four training sessions across 2 weeks showing remarkable improvements from time to time. Results revealed similar results for faces and scenes regarding accuracy levels across increased complexity levels. However, reaction times (RTs) were sensitive to emotional conditions to some extent. Observed faster RTs to negative faces (disgust) were consistent with the negativity bias phenomenon, but this effect vanished for the highest levels of processing complexity. It is suggested that emotional information contents fail to interact with cognition when there are no cognitive resources left after the primary task is addressed.

Structural and functional brain studies on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have primarily examined anatomical abnormalities in the prefronto-striatal circuitry (especially, dorsal and lateral areas of the prefrontal cortex and dorsal striatum). There is, however, increased evidence that several temporal lobe regions could play an important role in ADHD. The present study used MRI-based measurements of cortical thickness to examine possible differences in both prefrontal and temporal lobe regions between medication-naive patients with ADHD ( N =50) and age- and sex-matched typically developing controls ( N =50). Subjects with ADHD exhibited significantly decreased cortical thickness in the right temporal pole and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) relative to healthy comparison subjects. These differences remained significant after controlling for confounding effects of age, overall mean cortical thickness and comorbid externalizing conditions, such as oppositional defiant and conduct disorders. These results point to the involvement of the temporal pole and OFC in the neuropathology of ADHD. Moreover, present findings add evidence to the assumption that multiple brain regions and psychological processes are associated with ADHD.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the influence of dopamine transporter gene ( DAT1) 3’UTR genotype on cingulate cortical thickness in a large sample of children and adolescents with ADHD. Method: Brain MRIs were acquired from 46 ADHD patients with homozygosity for the 10-repeat allele and 52 ADHD patients with a single copy or no copy of the allele. The cingulate cortex of each MRI scan was automatically parceled into sulci and gyri as well as into Brodmann areas (BA). Results: There were no group differences in age, gender, full-scale intelligence quotient, symptom severity, treatment status, comorbidity, or mean overall cortical thickness. Sulcus/gyrus- and BA-based analyses revealed that patients homozygous for the 10-repeat allele showed significantly greater thickness in right cingulate gyrus and right BA 24 compared with 9-repeat carriers. Conclusion: These findings suggest that thickness of cingulate cortex is influenced by the presence of the 10-repeat allele in ADHD.

Negative stimuli have consistently been shown to efficiently attract exogenous attention. Two different types of unpleasant stimuli, disgusting and fearful, sharing similar arousal and valence, are usually employed as a single category. However, since they diverge in several important aspects (biological functionality, associated feelings, and central and peripheral physiological correlates), it may be expected that their potential to capture attention differs. Event-related potentials and behavioral indices were recorded while participants were engaged in a digit categorization task in response to three types of irrelevant, distracting pictures: disgusting, fearful and neutral. Disgusting trials were associated with worse performance than fearful trials in the digit categorization task as revealed by reaction times and number of errors. Moreover, P2-associated cuneus activation and scalp anterior P2 amplitude were greater for disgusting than for fearful distracters. All these indices reveal that, under the experimental conditions employed in the present study, disgusting distracters are more efficient at attracting exogenous attention than are fearful distracters.

The involvement of striatum in affective processes has been consistently reported in recent years. However, studies within this field have mainly focused on positive affect, revealing the involvement of striatum in reward situations. The present research aimed to explore the involvement of striatum in negative affect through fMRI. To that aim, participants (n=18) were presented with negative, positive and neutral pictures while they performed an indirect task, a strategy repeatedly recommended to avoid cognitive interferences. Positive and negative stimuli did not differ in their arousal levels, as assessed by participants themselves. Analyses of variance showed that caudate nucleus was sensitive to the emotional content of stimulation, negative pictures eliciting greater caudate responses than positive and neutral. Regression analyses indicated that both valence and arousal content of visual stimuli synergically contributed to explain the activation of caudate, whose strong response to negative pictures supports models proposing striatum as a key element in withdrawal situations.

Contrary to what occurs with negative pictures, negative words are, in general, not capable of interfering with performance in ongoing cognitive tasks in normal subjects. A probable explanation is the limited arousing power of linguistic material. Especially intense words (insults and compliments), neutral personal adjectives, and pseudowords were presented to 28 participants while they executed a lexical decision task. Insults were associated with the poorest performance in the task and compliments with the best. Amplitude of the late positive component of the event-related potentials, originating at parietal areas, was maximal in response to compliments and insults, but latencies were delayed in response to the latter. Results suggest that intense emotional words modulate ongoing cognitive processes through both bottom-up (attentional capture by insults) and top-down (facilitation of cognitive processing by arousing words) mechanisms.

Previous studies suggest that the magnocellular pathway, a visual processing system that rapidly provides low spatial frequency information to fast-responding structures such as the amygdala, is more involved in the processing of emotional facial expressions than the parvocellular pathway (which conveys all spatial frequencies). The present experiment explored the spatio-temporal characteristics of the spatial frequency modulation of affect-related neural processing, as well as its generalizability to non-facial stimuli. To that aim, the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by low-pass filtered (i.e., high spatial frequencies are eliminated) and intact non-facial emotional images were recorded from 31 participants using a 60-electrode array. The earliest significant effect of spatial frequency was observed at 135 ms from stimulus onset: N135 component of the ERPs. In line with previous studies, the origin of N135 was localized at secondary visual areas for low-pass filtered stimuli and at primary areas for intact stimuli. Importantly, this component showed an interaction between spatial frequency and emotional content: within low-pass filtered pictures, negative stimuli elicited the highest N135 amplitudes. By contrast, within intact stimuli, neutral pictures were those eliciting the highest amplitudes. These results suggest that high spatial frequencies are not essential for the initial affect-related processing of visual stimuli, which would mainly rely on low spatial frequency visual information. According to present data, high spatial frequencies would come into play later on.

Though neuropsychological data indicate that the right hemisphere (RH) plays a major role in metaphor processing, other studies suggest that, at least during some phases of this processing, a RH advantage may not exist. The present study explores, through a temporally agile neural signal—the event-related potentials (ERPs)—, and through source-localization algorithms applied to ERP recordings, whether the crucial phase of metaphor comprehension presents or not a RH advantage. Participants (n = 24) were submitted to a S1–S2 experimental paradigm. S1 consisted of visually presented metaphoric sentences (e.g., “Green lung of the city”), followed by S2, which consisted of words that could (i.e., “Park”) or could not (i.e., “Semaphore”) be defined by S1. ERPs elicited by S2 were analyzed using temporal principal component analysis (tPCA) and source-localization algorithms. These analyses revealed that metaphorically related S2 words showed significantly higher N400 amplitudes than non-related S2 words. Source-localization algorithms showed differential activity between the two S2 conditions in the right middle/superior temporal areas. These results support the existence of an important RH contribution to (at least) one phase of metaphor processing and, furthermore, implicate the temporal cortex with respect to that contribution. © 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Principles of perceptual grouping can be divided into intrinsic grouping cues, which are based on built-in properties of the grouped elements (e.g., their shape, position, colour, etc.) like most of the classical Gestalt laws, and extrinsic grouping principles, based on relations between the discrete elements and other external stimuli that induce them to group (e.g., common region, connectedness). Several studies have explored the neural correlates of intrinsic grouping factors but, to our knowledge, no previous study has studied the neural correlates of extrinsic principles. The present study aimed to shed light on this issue by exploiting the high temporal resolution of event-related potentials (ERPs) and recent advances in source localization. Specifically, grouping by common region was compared with two comparison conditions, an intrinsic grouping (luminance similarity) and a uniform stimulus condition, in a perceptual discrimination task. We reported three main neural effects associated with grouping by common region. First, a posterior N210 component with a neural origin in the left extrastriate cortex was related to perceptual analysis of extrinsic elements inducing grouping and the formation of a visual group. Second, an enhanced posterior P280, which presumably reflects higher confidence decisions during response selection. Finally, a P550 originated in the right superior parietal cortex that seems to be associated with top-down suppression activity connected with the termination of the processing of the current trial. Overall, our results suggest that common region cues belong to the category of long latency grouping principles that mainly involve activity in extrastriate cortices.

Although divergences between explicit and implicit processing of affective content during word comprehension have been reported, the underlying nature of those differences remains in dispute. Prior studies focused on either the timing or the spatial location of the effects. The present study examined the precise dynamics of the processing of negative words when attention is directed to affective content or to nonemotional properties by capitalizing on fine temporal resolution of the event-related potentials (ERPs) and recent advances in source localization. Tasks were used that required accessing knowledge about different semantic properties of negative and neutral words. In the direct task, participants’ attention was directed towards emotional information. By contrast, subjects had to decide whether the words’ referent could be touched or not in the indirect task. Regardless of being processed explicitly or implicitly, negative compared to neutral words were associated with more errors and greater key pressure responses. Electrophysiologically, affective processing was reflected in larger amplitudes to negative words in a late positive component (LPC) at the scalp level, and in increased activity in the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) at the voxel level. Interestingly, an interaction between emotion and type of task was observed. Negative words were associated with more errors, larger anterior distributed LPC amplitudes and increased activity in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in the direct compared to the indirect task. This LPC effect was modulated by the concreteness of the words. Finally, a task effect was found in a posterior negativity around 220 ms, with enhanced amplitudes to words in the direct compared to the indirect task. The present results suggest that negative information contained in written language is processed irrespective of controlled attention is directed to it or not, but that this processing is reinforced in the former case.

Mechanisms underlying exogenous attention to central and peripheral distracters were temporally and spatially explored while 30 participants performed a digit categorization task. Neural (event-related potentials-ERPs-, analyzed both at the scalp and at the voxel level) and behavioral indices of exogenous attention were analyzed. Distracters were either biologically salient or neutral, in order to test whether the exogenous attention bias to the former observed in previous studies is independent of, or interacts with, distracter eccentricity. Two subcomponents of the N2 component of the ERPs, N2olp and N2ft, reflected processes related to peripheral distracters processing. N2olp effects, located in the dorsal attention network (supplementary motor area), were probably related to covert reorientation to peripheral distracters. N2ft effects, located in the default mode network (posterior cingulate cortex), appeared to reflect less effort in the ongoing task when peripheral distracters were presented. N2ft also showed a biological saliency effect which was independent of eccentricity and was located in the polar/ventral prefrontal cortex. P3 showed greater amplitudes to centrally presented distracters. These latter effects were located in TEO (visual cortex), and would be functionally associated with spatial interference between the target and central distracters. Behavior showed the relevance of both central and peripheral distracters in exogenous attention. These results indicate that exogenous attention to peripheral distracters differed in temporal and spatial terms from exogenous attention to central distracters and that it is biased towards biologically salient events irrespective of their eccentricity.

article i nfo Despite an extensive literature on the neural substrates of response inhibition, when and where this process occurs in the brain remain unclear. The present study aimed to shed light on this issue by exploiting the high temporal resolution of the event-related potentials (ERPs) and recent advances in source localization. Temporo-spatial principal component analysis was employed to define more precisely the two ERP compo- nents most often associated with response inhibition (i.e., frontocentral N2 and frontocentral P3), as well as to improve the accuracy of source localization. In addition, participants (N = 40) performed a modified Go/ Nogo task composed of three types of stimuli (frequent-Go, infrequent-Go, and infrequent-Nogo), which allowed us to dissociate neural activity associated with response inhibition from that related to novelty pro- cessing by directly contrasting nogo and go trials matched with respect to frequency of occurrence. Scalp ERP data indicated that the frontocentral P3, but not the frontocentral N2, showed larger amplitudes for infrequent-Nogo than for infrequent-Go trials. Source localization data parallel the results obtained at the scalp level: only P3-related activity showed differences between infrequent-Nogo and infrequent-Go trials. This increased activation was observed predominantly in the presupplementary motor area (preSMA). Present results suggest that the frontocentral P3 and the preSMA play a core role in response inhibition. The findings of this study substantiate and complement previous results obtained by hemodynamic procedures.

The capacity of the two types of non-symbolic emotional stimuli most widely used in research on affective processes, faces and (non-facial) emotional scenes, to capture exogenous attention, was compared. Negative, positive and neutral faces and affective scenes were presented as distracters to 34 participants while they carried out a demanding digit categorization task. Behavioral (reaction times and number of errors) and electrophysiological (event-related potentials-ERPs) indices of exogenous attention were analyzed. Globally, facial expressions and emotional scenes showed similar capabilities to attract exogenous attention. Electrophysiologically, attentional capture was reflected in the P2a component of ERPs at the scalp level, and in left precentral areas at the source level. Negatively charged faces and scenes elicited maximal P2a/precentral gyrus activity. In the case of scenes, this negativity bias was also evident at the behavioral level. Additionally, a specific effect of facial distracters was observed in N170 at the scalp level, and in the fusiform gyrus and inferior parietal lobule at the source level. This effect revealed maximal attention to positive expressions. This facial positivity offset was also observed at the behavioral level. Taken together, the present results indicate that faces and non-facial scenes elicit partially different and, to some extent, complementary exogenous attention mechanisms.

Although, in everyday life, patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are frequently distracted by goal-irrelevant affective stimuli, little is known about the neural and behavioral substrates underlying this emotional distractibility. Because some of the most important brain responses associated with the sudden onset of an emotional distracter are characterized by their early latency onset and short duration, we addressed this issue by using a temporally agile neural signal capable of detecting and distinguishing them. Specifically, scalp event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while 20 boys with ADHD combined type and 20 healthy comparison subjects performed a digit categorization task during the presentation of three types of irrelevant, distracting stimuli: arousing negative (A-), neutral (N) and arousing positive (A+). Behavioral data showed that emotional distracters (both A- and A+) were associated with longer reaction times than neutral ones in the ADHD group, whereas no differences were found in the control group. ERP data revealed that, compared with control subjects, boys with ADHD showed larger anterior N2 amplitudes for emotional than for neutral distracters. Furthermore, regression analyses between ERP data and subjects' emotional ratings of distracting stimuli showed that only in the ADHD group, emotional arousal (ranging from calming to arousing) was associated with anterior N2: its amplitude increased as the arousal content of the visual distracter increased. These results suggest that boys with ADHD are more vulnerable to the distracting effects of irrelevant emotional stimuli than control subjects. The present study provides first data on the neural substrates underlying emotional distractibility in ADHD.

Evolutionary pressure has led the nervous system to guarantee rapid and intense responses to negative events (dangerous, harmful or repugnant). Thus, the 'negative brain' (the set of neural mechanisms triggered by unpleasant or negative stimuli) is equipped with several specific characteristics. This review organizes the current data on the human negative brain in three blocks. Firstly, the "Input mechanisms" block describes those structures responsible for the rapid distribution of all sensory information. Secondly, the "Evaluation systems" block refers to the key pieces: those responsible for evaluating negative consequences of stimulation and deciding which response is the most appropriate for coping with them. Thirdly, the "Associated and output processes" block describes how evaluative elements may interact with other brain structures to modulate attention, store and recover situational information, activate defense/withdrawal motor programs (or plan new actions) and develop autonomic/motor actions to cope with the unpleasant event. Finally, an integrative summary that serves as a tentative model of the negative brain is provided.

Introduccion. La investigacion sobre el trastorno por deficit de atencion/hiperactividad (TDAH) se ha centrado fundamentalmente en los aspectos cognitivos del trastorno, dejando en un segundo plano el estudio de las deficiencias afectivas. Objetivos. Revisar las investigaciones que han estudiado la competencia emocional (reconocimiento, regulacion y expresion de las emociones) en ninos, adolescentes y adultos con TDAH e identificar que aspectos se han explorado poco y requieren una mayor atencion. Desarrollo. Datos convergentes de distintos estudios conductuales indican que tanto ninos como adultos con TDAH presentan una disfuncion primaria en el reconocimiento de los estimulos emocionales (expresiones faciales emocionales y prosodia afectiva) y una importante discapacidad para modular sus emociones, especialmente cuando estas son negativas. No obstante, el conocimiento existente sobre las alteraciones emocionales presentes en el TDAH sigue siendo limitado y quedan todavia distintas cuestiones abiertas, sobre todo en relacion con las bases neurales que subyacen a dichas alteraciones. Conclusiones. La presente revision subraya la necesidad de realizar nuevas investigaciones que aborden el estudio de las disfunciones emocionales en el TDAH, empleando para ello no solo medidas conductuales sino tambien de actividad cerebral, y de evaluar y tratar los problemas emocionales en la practica clinica.