In the presence of temporally organized stimuli, there is a tendency to entrain to the beat, even at the neurological level. Previous research has shown that when adults listen to rhythmic stimuli and are asked to imagine the beat, their neural responses are the same as when the beat is physically accented. The current study explores the neural processing of simple beat structures where the beat is physically accented or inferred from a previously presented physically accented beat structure in a passive listening context. We further explore the associations of these neural correlates with behavioral and self-reported measures of musicality. Fifty-seven participants completed a passive listening EEG paradigm, a behavioral rhythm discrimination task, and a self-reported musicality questionnaire. Our findings suggest that when the beat is physically accented, individuals demonstrate distinct neural responses to the beat in the beta (13–23 Hz) and gamma (24–50 Hz) frequency bands. We further find that the neu...

This article allows readers to assess their ability to detect errors in thinking in seven case histories of psychologists’ thoughts about cognitive science. It explains the nature of the errors and shows that some of them reflect faulty reasoning. It presents a “model method” to improve reasoning. It is based on the theory of mental models, which gives a general account of how individuals think, both deductively and indicatively, and which postulates that individuals construct mental models of possibilities in the world. The model method enhances both the accuracy and speed of reasoning. The article concludes with some general reflections on the role of knowledge of meanings, the world, and context in thinking.

Two-photon calcium imaging allows for the activity readout of large populations of neurons at single cell resolution in living organisms, yielding new insights into how the brain processes information. Holographic optogenetics allows us to trigger activity of this population directly, raising the possibility of injecting information into a living brain. Optogenetic triggering of activity that mimics “natural” information, however, requires identification of stimulation targets based on real-time analysis of the functional network. We have developed NeuroART (Neuronal Analysis in Real Time), software that provides real-time readout of neuronal activity integrated with downstream analysis of correlations and synchrony and of sensory metadata. On the example of auditory stimuli, we demonstrate real-time inference of the contribution of each neuron in the field of view to sensory information processing. To avoid the limitations of microscope hardware and enable collaboration of multiple research groups, NeuroA...

Despite decades of preclinical investigation, there remains limited understanding of the etiology and biological underpinnings of anxiety disorders. Sensitivity to potential threat is characteristic of anxiety-like behavior in humans and rodents, but traditional rodent behavioral tasks aimed to assess threat responsiveness lack translational value, especially with regard to emotionally valenced stimuli. Therefore, development of novel preclinical approaches to serve as analogues to patient assessments is needed. In humans, the fearful face task is widely used to test responsiveness to socially communicated threat signals. In rats, ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are analogous social cues associated with positive or negative affective states that can elicit behavioral changes in the receiver. It is therefore likely that when rats hear aversive alarm call USVs (22 kHz), they evoke translatable changes in brain activity comparable with the fearful face task. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging in ma...

This study aims to explore the correlation of serum thyroid hormone levels to cognitive impairments in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. In this retrospective study, 106 Chinese patients without cognitive impairments and 94 patients with cognitive impairments, including 55 with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) and 39 with PD dementia (PDD), were analyzed. Clinical data regarding the PD assessments, including disease duration, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) Part 3 scores, and Hoehn and Yahr (H–Y) staging, were analyzed. Cognitive functions were evaluated using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment score. Serum levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4), and free triiodothyronine (FT3), were measured using ELISA. Significantly altered H–Y staging, disease duration, and UPDRS Part 3 scores were observed in PD patients with cognitive impairment compared with those without. Serum levels of FT3 were significantly decreased, while FT4 and TSH levels were significantly eleva...

Pyroptosis, an inflammatory programmed cell death, has recently been found to play an important role in spinal cord injury (SCI). C-type lectin domain family 5 member A (CLEC5A), triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM1), and NLR-family CARD-containing protein 4 (NLRC4) have been reported to be associated with neuronal pyroptosis, but few studies have clarified their functions and regulatory mechanisms in SCI. In this study, CLEC5A, TREM1, and NLRC4 were highly expressed in lidocaine-induced SCI rat models, and their knockdown alleviated lidocaine-induced SCI. The elevation of pyroptosis-related indicators LDH, ASC, GSDMD-N, IL-18, caspase-1, and IL-1β levels in SCI rats was attenuated after silencing of CLEC5A, TREM1, or NLRC4. Lidocaine-induced decrease in cell viability and the elevation in cell death were partly reversed after CLEC5A, TREM1, or NLRC4 silencing. Lidocaine-mediated effects on the levels of LDH, ASC, GSDMD-N, IL-18, caspase-1, and IL-1β in lidocaine-induced PC12 cells were ...

Human and mouse dorsal root ganglia (hDRG and mDRG) neurons are important tools in understanding the molecular and electrophysiological mechanisms that underlie nociception and drive pain behaviors. One of the simplest differences in firing phenotypes is that neurons are single-firing (exhibit only one action potential) or multi-firing (exhibit 2 or more action potentials). To determine if single- and multi-firing hDRG neurons exhibit differences in intrinsic properties, firing phenotypes, and AP waveform properties, and if these properties could be used to predict multi-firing, we measured 22 electrophysiological properties by whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology of 94 hDRG neurons from six male and four female donors. We then analyzed the data using several machine learning models to determine if these properties could be used to predict multi-firing. We used 1,000 iterations of Monte Carlo cross-validation to split the data into different train and test sets and tested the logistic regression, k -ne...

Ischemic stroke (IS) poses a serious threat to patient survival. The inhibition of ferroptosis can effectively alleviate ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, suggesting potential targets in the ferroptosis pathway for the treatment of IS. In this study, MCAO/R mice and OGD/R-induced HT22 cell were constructed. It was found that baicalein decreased ROS, MDA, and Fe2+ levels, upregulated GSH levels, and enhanced the expression of ferroptosis-related proteins (GPX4 and SLC7A11), downregulated the expression of proapoptotic proteins (Bax, cytochrome c , and cleaved caspase-3), and upregulated the expression of an antiapoptotic protein (Bcl-2), ameliorating cerebral I/R injury. In animal and cell models, Sirtuin6 (SIRT6) is downregulated, and Forkhead boxA2 (FOXA2) expression and acetylation levels are abnormally upregulated. SIRT6 inhibited FOXA2 expression and acetylation. Baicalein promoted FOXA2 deacetylation by upregulating SIRT6 expression. FOXA2 transcriptionally inhibits SLC7A11 expression. In conclusion,...

Illusionism is a general philosophical framework in which specific theories of consciousness can be constructed without having to invoke a magical mind essence. The advantages of illusionism are not widely recognized, perhaps because scholars tend to think only of the most extreme forms and miss the range of possibilities. The brain's internal models are never fully accurate, nothing is exactly as the brain represents it, and therefore some element of illusionism is almost certainly necessary for any working theory of consciousness or of any other property that is accessed through introspection. Here I describe the illusionist framework and propose six specific theories. One purpose of this article is to demonstrate the range of possibilities in a domain that is not yet sufficiently explored. The second purpose is to argue that even existing, popular theories, such as the integrated information theory or the global workspace theory, can be transformed and greatly strengthened by adding an illusionist layer...

Confirmation bias (CB) is a cognitive bias that allows us to fool ourselves by selectively filtering data and distorting analyses to support favored beliefs or hypotheses. In this article, I will briefly review some classic experiments from cognitive psychology that illustrate what a powerful, pernicious, and insidious force CB is. I will then discuss how to recognize CB in our own thinking and behavior and describe specific elements of good experimental design that can mitigate its effects. These elements—such as randomization and blinding—are conceptually straightforward but often difficult in practice and therefore not as widely implemented as they should be.