Brands and Inhibition: A Go/No-Go Task Reveals the Power of Brand Influence

Whether selecting a candy in a shop or picking a digital camera online, there are usually many options from which consumers may choose. With such abundance, consumers must use a variety of cognitive, emotional, and heuristic means to filter out and inhibit some of their responses. Here we use brand logos within a Go/No-Go task to probe inhibitory control during the presentation of familiar and unfamiliar logos. The results showed no differences in response times or in commission errors (CE) between familiar and unfamiliar logos. However, participants demonstrated a generally more cautious attitude of responding to the familiar brands: they were significantly slower and less accurate at responding to these brands in the Go trials. These findings suggest that inhibitory control can be exercised quite effectively for familiar brands, but that when such inhibition fails, the potent appetitive nature of brands is revealed.     

Progesterone attenuates impulsive action in a Go/No-Go task for sucrose pellets in female and male rats

Impulsivity, or a tendency to act without anticipation of future consequences, is associated with drug abuse. Impulsivity is typically separated into two main measures, impulsive action and impulsive choice. Given the association of impulsivity and drug abuse, treatments that reduce impulsivity have been proposed as an effective method for countering drug addiction. Progesterone has emerged as a promising treatment, as it is associated with decreased addiction-related behaviors and impulsive action. The goal of the present study was to determine the effects of progesterone (PRO) on impulsive action for food: a Go/No-Go task. Female and male rats responded for sucrose pellets during a Go component when lever pressing was reinforced on a variable-interval 30-s schedule. During the alternate No-Go component, withholding a lever press was reinforced on a differential reinforcement of other (DRO) behavior 30-s schedule, where a lever press reset the DRO timer. Impulsive action was operationally defined as the inability to withhold a response during the No-Go component (i.e. the number of DRO resets). Once Go/No-Go behavior was stable, responding between rats treated with PRO (0.5 mg/kg) or vehicle was examined. Progesterone significantly decreased the total number of DRO resets in both males and females, but it did not affect VI responding for sucrose pellets. This suggests that PRO decreases motor impulsivity for sucrose pellets without affecting motivation for food. Thus, PRO may reduce motor impulsivity, a behavior underlying drug addiction.     

Decision Theory and the Concept of Threshold in Psychophysics

Psychophysics deals basically with how signals are perceived. It is assumed that a signal or stimulus is perceived after it reaches a certain threshold value, called the sensory threshold. Thus, there are two possible states: either a signal is perceived by the neuronal system, or it is not. Fechner deserves most of the credit for the concept of the sensory threshold and for detailing the various techniques for measuring it. A discussion of this cardinal concept may be found in his book Elemente der Psychophysik (1860), although the idea is actually of much earlier origins: Leibnitz and Herbart certainly spoke of it, and indeed it seems to have been considered even by ancient Greek philosophers. Methods for measuring the sensory threshold were known even before Fechner; his contribution was being the first to systematize and perfect them. It is for this reason that his book (Elemente) is considered basic.     

纹状体神经通路与运动调控

纹状体(striatum)是机体运动中枢的关键组成部分,对机体随意运动、非意识性运动、肌张力、身体姿态、精细运动等调节均发挥重要作用。纹状体功能异常导致运动失调:一类为运动减少,肌张力亢进,如帕金森病;另一类为运动过多,肌张力不足,如舞蹈病。一般认为,纹状体接收大脑运动皮层传来的运动相关信号,经其加工处理后,经丘脑返传回运动皮层,最终由运动皮层发出运动执行信号,经锥体系完成运动。可见,纹状体的运动调控功能有赖于复杂的神经通路系统。本文综述近几年来有关纹状体神经通路与运动调控的研究进展,以期更深入理解纹状体运动调控神经机制及其与临床疾病的关系。     

Analysis of Dom34 and Its Function in No-Go Decay

Eukaryotic mRNAs are subject to quality control mechanisms that degrade defective mRNAs. In yeast, mRNAs with stalls in translation elongation are targeted for endonucleolytic cleavage by No-Go decay (NGD). The cleavage triggered by No-Go decay is dependent on Dom34p and Hbs1p, and Dom34 has been proposed to be the endonuclease responsible for mRNA cleavage. We created several Dom34 mutants and examined their effects on NGD in yeast. We identified mutations in several loops of the Dom34 structure that affect NGD. In contrast, mutations inactivating the proposed nuclease domain do not affect NGD in vivo. Moreover, we observed that overexpression of the Rps30a protein, a high copy suppressor of dom34Δ cold sensitivity, can restore some mRNA cleavage in a dom34Δ strain. These results identify important functional regions of Dom34 and suggest that the proposed endonuclease activity of Dom34 is not required for mRNA cleavage in NGD. We also provide evidence that the process of NGD is conserved in insect cells. On the basis of these results and the process of translation termination, we suggest a multistep model for the process of NGD.     

Estrogen Rapidly Induces c-jun Immunoreactivity in Rat Striatum

Estrogen has been reported to exert rapid effects on the function of neurons located in various brain regions, including those where classical estrogen receptors are not abundant, such as the striatum. The mechanism underlying these actions is not well understood, but does not appear to involve classical estrogen receptor-mediated genomic mechanisms. Estrogen has also been shown to regulate expression of immediate-early gene products in many tissues. In the present study, immunohistochemical methods were used to determine whether estrogen modulates the appearance of e-jun immunoreactivity (IR) in the striatum of rats. Administration of estradiol (100 μg/rat) to ovariectomized rats for 15 min induced a rapid and transient increase in c-jun-IR in the dorsomedial striatum and the core region of the nucleus accumbens. These data suggest that c-jun may serve as one of the rapidly responding mediators of estrogen action in the striatum and nucleus accumbens.     

Individual Dopaminergic Neurons of Lamprey SNc/VTA Project to Both the Striatum and Optic Tectum but Restrict Co-release of Glutamate to Striatum Only

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Proactive Control Strategies for Overt and Covert Go/NoGo Tasks: An Electrical Neuroimaging Study

Proactive and reactive inhibition are generally intended as mechanisms allowing the withholding or suppression of overt movements. Nonetheless, inhibition could also play a pivotal role during covert actions (i.e., potential motor acts not overtly performed, despite the activation of the motor system), such as Motor Imagery (MI). In a previous EEG study, we analyzed cerebral activities reactively triggered during two cued Go/NoGo tasks, requiring execution or withholding of overt or covert imagined actions, respectively. This study revealed activation of pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG), key nodes of the network underpinning reactive inhibition of overt responses in NoGo trials, also during MI enactment, enabling the covert nature of the imagined motor response. Taking into account possible proactive engagement of inhibitory mechanisms by cue signals, for an exhaustive interpretation of these previous findings in the present study we analyzed EEG activities elicited during the preparatory phase of our cued overt and covert Go/NoGo tasks. Our results demonstrate a substantial overlap of cerebral areas activated during proactive recruitment and subsequent reactive implementation of motor inhibition in both overt and covert actions; also, different involvement of pre-SMA and rIFG emerged, in accord with the intended type (covert or overt) of incoming motor responses. During preparation of the overt Go/NoGo task, the cue is encoded in a pragmatic mode, as it primes the possible overt motor response programs in motor and premotor cortex and, through preactivation of a pre-SMA-related decisional mechanism, it triggers a parallel preparation for successful response selection and/or inhibition during the response phase. Conversely, the preparatory strategy for the covert Go/NoGo task is centered on priming of an inhibitory mechanism in rIFG, tuned to the instructed covert modality of motor performance and instantiated during subsequent MI, which allows the imagined response to remain a potential motor act.     

Paradoxical Interaction between Ocular Activity,Perception, and Decision Confidence at the Threshold of Vision

In humans and some other species perceptual decision-making is complemented by the ability to make confidence judgements about the certainty of sensory evidence. While both forms of decision process have been studied empirically, the precise relationship between them remains poorly understood. We performed an experiment that combined a perceptual decision-making task (identifying the category of a faint visual stimulus) with a confidence-judgement task (wagering on the accuracy of each perceptual decision). The visual stimulation paradigm required steady fixation, so we used eye-tracking to control for stray eye movements. Our data analyses revealed an unexpected and counterintuitive interaction between the steadiness of fixation (prior to and during stimulation), perceptual decision making, and post-decision wagering: greater variability in gaze direction during fixation was associated with significantly increased visual-perceptual sensitivity, but significantly decreased reliability of confidence judgements. The latter effect could not be explained by a simple change in overall confidence (i.e. a criterion artifact), but rather was tied to a change in the degree to which high wagers predicted correct decisions (i.e. the sensitivity of the confidence judgement). We found no evidence of a differential change in pupil diameter that could account for the effect and thus our results are consistent with fixational eye movements being the relevant covariate. However, we note that small changes in pupil diameter can sometimes cause artefactual fluctuations in measured gaze direction and this possibility could not be fully ruled out. In either case, our results suggest that perceptual decisions and confidence judgements can be processed independently and point toward a new avenue of research into the relationship between them.     

Functional Difference between Sustained and Transient Modulations of Cognitive Control in the Simon Task: Evidence from False Alarm Responses on No-Go Trials

Cognitive control in response compatibility tasks is modulated by the task context. Two types of contextual modulations have been demonstrated; sustained (block-wise) and transient (trial-by-trial). Recent research suggests that these modulations have different underlying mechanisms. This study presents new evidence supporting this claim by comparing false alarm (FA) responses on no-go trials of the Simon task between the sustained and transient contexts. In Experiment 1, the sustained context was manipulated so that a block included a larger number of incongruent trials. Results showed that participants made more FA responses by the hand opposite to the stimulus location. This suggests a generation of response bias in which the task-irrelevant location information is utilized in a reversed manner (i.e., to respond with the right hand to a stimulus presented on the left side and vice versa). Next, Experiment 2 examined the effect of the transient context and found that overall FA rate was lower when a no-go trial was preceded by an incongruent trial than by a congruent trial, whereas such response bias as that shown in Experiment 1 was not demonstrated. This suggests that the transient conflict context enhances inhibition of the task-irrelevant process but does not make the task-irrelevant information actively usable. Based on these results, we propound two types of cognitive control modulations as adaptive behaviors: response biasing based on utilization of the task-irrelevant information under the sustained conflict context and transient enhancement of inhibition of the task-irrelevant process based on the online conflict monitoring.     

3-Nitropropionic Acid Toxicity in the Striatum

Abstract: We examined the effects of chronic systemic administration of the mitochondrial toxin 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP) in doses ranging from 12 to 16 mg/kg/day for 30 days on striatal cytoarchitecture in rats. Administration of 3-NP at a dose of 16 mg/kg/day resulted in large lesions with a central necrotic core that was depleted of both neurons and glia. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) gene expression was decreased in the lesion core, whereas the tissue surrounding this area showed a massive increase in signal intensity. Enkephalin and substance P mRNA expression in the striatum showed dose-dependent decreases following administration of 3-NP. A substantial decrease occurred even in animals treated with 3-NP at a dose of 12 mg/kg/day, in which there was little discernible neuronal loss and no increase in GFAP gene expression. In contrast to the decrease in enkephalin and substance P mRNA expression, somatostatin mRNA-expressing neurons were largely preserved. There was no preferential loss of [³H]naloxone patches in the rat striatum following chronic administration of 3-NP. In animals treated with 12–15 mg/kg/day neither the area nor binding density of the patches was changed. To study the effect of 3-NP on N -methyl- d -aspartate (NMDA)-gated Ca²⁺ channels we used in vivo administration of [³H]MK-801. Three hours after a single injection of 3-NP at a dose of 30 mg/kg there was a three- to fivefold increase in [³H]MK-801 binding in cortex and striatum as compared with saline-treated animals, consistent with an activation of NMDA receptors.     

Neuromodulatory Control of a Goal-Directed Decision

Many cost-benefit decisions reduce to simple choices between approach or avoidance (or active disregard) to salient stimuli. Physiologically, critical factors in such decisions are modulators of the homeostatic neural networks that bias decision processes from moment to moment. For the predatory sea-slug Pleurobranchaea, serotonin (5-HT) is an intrinsic modulatory promoter of general arousal and feeding. We correlated 5-HT actions on appetitive state with its effects on the approach-avoidance decision in Pleurobranchaea. 5-HT and its precursor 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) augmented general arousal state and reduced feeding thresholds in intact animals. Moreover, 5-HT switched the turn response to chemosensory stimulation from avoidance to orienting in many animals. In isolated CNSs, bath application of 5-HT both stimulated activity in the feeding motor network and switched the fictive turn response to unilateral sensory nerve stimulation from avoidance to orienting. Previously, it was shown that increasing excitation state of the feeding network reversibly switched the turn motor network response from avoidance to orienting, and that 5-HT levels vary inversely with nutritional state. A simple model posits a critical role for 5-HT in control of the turn network response by corollary output of the feeding network. In it, 5-HT acts as an intrinsic neuromodulatory factor coupled to nutritional status and regulates approach-avoidance via the excitation state of the feeding network. Thus, the neuromodulator is a key organizing element in behavioral choice of approach or avoidance through its actions in promoting appetitive state, in large part via the homeostatic feeding network.     

Threshold Effects and Control of Oxidative Phosphorylation in Nonsynaptic Rat Brain Mitochondria

Abstract: The amount of control exerted by respiratory chain complexes in isolated nonsynaptic mitochondria prepared from rat brain on the rate of oxygen consumption was assessed using inhibitor titrations. Rotenone, myxothiazol, and KCN were used to titrate the activities of NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase (EC 1.6.5.3; complex I), ubiquinol:ferrocytochrome c oxidoreductase (EC 1.10.2.2; complex III), and cytochrome c oxidase (EC 1.9.3.1; complex IV), respectively. Complexes I, III, and IV shared some of the control of the rate of oxygen consumption in nonsynaptic mitochondria, having flux control coefficients of 0.14, 0.15, and 0.24, respectively. Threshold effects in the control of oxidative phosphorylation were demonstrated for complexes I, III, and IV. It was found that complex I activity could be decreased by ∼72% before major changes in mitochondrial respiration and ATP synthesis took place. Similarly, complex III and IV activities could be decreased by ∼70 and 60%, respectively, before major changes in mitochondrial respiration and ATP synthesis occurred. These results indicate that previously observed decreases in respiratory chain complex activities in some neurological disorders need to be reassessed as these decreases might not affect the overall capability of nonsynaptic mitochondria to maintain energy homeostasis unless a certain threshold of decreased complex activity has been reached. Possible implications for synaptic mitochondria and neurodegenerative disorders are also discussed.