It has recently been observed that certain objects, when viewed or imagined in isolation, evoke a strong sense of three-dimensional local space surrounding them (space-defining (SD) objects), while others do not (space-ambiguous (SA) objects), and this is associated with engagement of the parahippocampal cortex (PHC). But activation of the PHC is…

We report the results of a human fMRI experiment investigating the influence of context upon value judgement. Trials were separated into high and low value blocks such that it is possible to investigate the effect of a change in surrounding trials upon the encoding of financial value. The ventral striatum was dependent upon "local context", with…

Action observation and action execution are tightly coupled on a neurophysiological and a behavioral level, such that visually perceiving an action can contaminate simultaneous and subsequent action execution. More specifically, observing a model in postural disequilibrium was shown to induce an increase in observers' body sway. Here we…

Category training can induce category effects, whereby color discrimination of stimuli spanning a newly learned category boundary is enhanced relative to equivalently spaced stimuli from within the newly learned category (e.g., categorical perception). However, the underlying mechanisms of these acquired category effects are not fully understood.…

Introduction: Adaptation to changing situations can be mediated by two strategies: (1) Evaluation of a "response" and (2) Evaluation of "outcome" values in relation to objects. Previous studies indicate that response shifting is associated with a network comprising the left frontal cortex and parietal cortex connected by the superior longitudinal…

Objective: The goal of the present study was to examine distributed attentional functions in long-term but currently abstinent methamphetamine (MA) abusers using a task that measures attentional alertness, orienting, and conflict resolution. Methods: Thirty currently abstinent MA abusers (1 month-5 years) and 22 healthy non-substance using adults…

It is well established that scenes and objects elicit a highly selective response in specific brain regions in the ventral visual cortex. An inherent difference between these categories that has not been explored yet is their perceived distance from the observer (i.e. scenes are distal whereas objects are proximal). The current study aimed to test…

Empirical research has shown that the amygdala, hippocampus, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are involved in fear conditioning. However, the functional contribution of each brain area and the nature of their interactions are not clearly understood. Here, we extend existing neural network models of the functional roles of the hippocampus…

While hemispheric differences in global/local processing have been reported by various studies, it is still under dispute at which processing stage they occur. Primarily, it was assumed that these asymmetries originate from an early perceptual stage. Instead, the content-level binding theory (Hubner & Volberg, 2005) suggests that the hemispheres…

Flashbacks are a defining feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but there have been few studies of their neural basis. We tested predictions from a dual representation model of PTSD that, compared with ordinary episodic memories of the same traumatic event, flashbacks would be associated with activity in dorsal visual stream and related…

This study examined behavioral and neuroelectric intra-individual variability (IIV) in preadolescent children during a task requiring variable amounts of cognitive control. The current study further examined whether IIV was moderated by aerobic fitness level. Participants performed a modified flanker task, comprised of congruent and incongruent…

The nature of object-centred (allocentric) neglect and the possibility of dissociating it from egocentric (subject-centred) forms of neglect are controversial. Originally, allocentric neglect was described by and in patients who reproduced all the elements of a multi-object scene, but left unfinished the left side of one or more of them. More…

We examined how feedback delay and stimulus offset timing affected declarative, rule-based and procedural, information-integration category-learning. We predicted that small feedback delays of several hundred milliseconds would lead to the best information-integration learning based on a highly regarded neurobiological model of learning in the…

Observation of human actions influences the observer's own motor system, termed visuomotor priming, and is believed to be caused by automatic activation of mirror neurons. Evidence suggests that priming effects are larger for biological (human) as opposed to non-biological (object) stimuli and enhanced when viewing stimuli in mirror compared to…

Moral decision making has recently attracted considerable attention as a core feature of all human endeavors. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging studies about moral judgment have identified brain areas associated with cognitive or emotional engagement. Here, we applied graph theory-based network analysis of event-related potentials…