Up until recent technological developments in neuroscience and advancements in brain imagery techniques, educators and scientists had little insight into what was occurring in the minds of learners. These developments in the field of neuroscience have led to increased knowledge about how the brain develops and learns in childhood. Understanding…

Our visual system samples external information, adjusts its sensitivity and constructs a stable representation of the world that allows us to perceive and interact with objects in our environments. Visual information with different levels of complexity is processed through the hierarchically organized visual cortical areas. This dissertation…

Fostering creative minds has always been a premise to ensure adaptation to new challenges of human civilization. While some alternative educational settings (i.e., Montessori) were shown to nurture creative skills, it is unknown how they impact underlying brain mechanisms across the school years. This study assessed creative thinking and…

Following the relevant literature on higher education services, the objective of this study explores how the higher education perceived value outlines students' satisfaction with the service and their migration intentions. Data from 1,150 university students in Macedonia was collected and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation…

This paper reviews three studies investigating the relationship between brain regions involved in executive control and those involved in reading comprehension in typically-developing teens. In the first study, three regions of posterior left lateral prefrontal cortex (i.e., precentral gyrus, inferior frontal junction, inferior frontal gyrus) were…

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) affects 2-6% of the population. Yet, a readily accessible list of potential interventions for DD is not available or can be easily found by educators. With a large percentage of the population afflicted with DD, educators should be made aware of what supportive approaches are available. The purpose of this study was…

Background: An estimated 1 in 5 adolescents have sustained a concussion in North America. Teachers and school administrators are responsible for implementing academic accommodations and other supports for optimal return to learn following a concussion. The primary objective of this study was to describe the prevalence and feasibility of providing…

This study aimed to understand the effect of task motivation on online group creative performance and interpersonal interaction. A total of 150 university students were recruited to collaborate online on creativity tasks in dyads. The members' task motivation was manipulated, resulting in three groups that differed in their motivation composition.…

The absence of a2* nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in oriens lacunosum moleculare (OLM) GABAergic interneurons ablate the facilitation of nicotine-induced hippocampal CA1 long-term potentiation and impair memory. The current study delineated whether genetic mutations of a2* nAChRs ("Chrna2"[superscript L9'S/L9'S] and…

Retrieval of fear memories can be state-dependent, meaning that they are best retrieved if the brain states at encoding and retrieval are similar. Such states can be induced by activating extrasynaptic ?-aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABAAR) with the broad a-subunit activator gaboxadol. However, the circuit mechanisms and specific subunits…

Emotional states influence how stimuli are interpreted. High anxiety states in humans lead to more negative, threatening interpretations of novel information, typically accompanied by activation of the amygdala. We developed a handling protocol that induces long-lasting high and low anxiety-like states in rats to explore the role of state anxiety…

Working memory training improves children's cognitive performance on untrained tasks; however, little is known about the underlying neural mechanisms. This was investigated in 32 typically developing children aged 10-14 years (19 girls and 13 boys) using a randomized controlled design and multi-modal magnetic resonance imaging (Devon, UK;…

For this study, we explored the association between high school students' reported history of sport- or physical activity-related concussions and persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Data from the 2017 national "Youth Risk Behavior Survey" (YRBS; N = 14,765) was used for this analysis. YRBS is administered to high school…

Doll play provides opportunities for children to practice social skills by creating imaginary worlds, taking others' perspectives, and talking about others' internal states. Previous research using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) found a region over the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) was more active during solo doll play…

Background: Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are associated with significant difficulties in daily functioning, and these difficulties have been associated with impaired executive functions (EEFF). However, specific cognitive and socio-emotional executive deficits have not been fully established. Objective: The present study has several…