Background: Knowledge about the brain has been growing rapidly since the 1990s as a result of developments in neuroscientific research linked to improvements in functional neuroimaging and other brain imaging technologies. As the brain is the "principal organ involved in learning" (1), it would seem reasonable to assume that education…

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in activity-dependent synaptic plasticity. Altered blood BDNF levels have been frequently identified in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). There are however wide discrepancies in the evidence. Therefore, we performed the present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed at…

Switches in reward outcomes or reward-predictive cues are two fundamental ways in which information is used to flexibly shift response patterns. The rat prelimbic cortex and dorsomedial striatum support behavioral flexibility based on a change in outcomes. The present experiments investigated whether these two brain regions are necessary for…

Consciousness remains a mystery--"a phenomenon that people do not know how to think about--yet" (Dennett, D. C., 1991, p. 21). Here, I consider how the connectionist perspective on information processing may help us progress toward the goal of understanding the computational principles through which conscious and unconscious processing…

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in white matter anatomy of the human brain. With advances in brain imaging techniques, the significance of white matter integrity for brain function has been demonstrated in various neurological and psychiatric disorders. As the demand for interpretation of clinical and imaging data on white…

Pierre Paul Broca is one of the most legendary neuroscientists of the last few centuries. His name graces a region of the brain, and his work is richly associated with human communication and its disorders. This article traces the contributions of this man and the historical context of his remarkable discoveries. After approval to visit and access…

With the burgeoning influence of cognitive neuroscience in the field of psychology, it is important to train, or at least expose, undergraduate psychology students to the discipline's methods. Unfortunately, many instructors are limited in their ability to provide such tangible experiences due to resource limitations. However, recent advances in…

It has been proposed that the right hemisphere (RH) is better suited to acquire novel material whereas the left hemisphere (LH) is more able to process well-routinized information. Here, we ask whether this potential dissociation also manifests itself in an implicit learning task. Using a lateralized version of the serial reaction time task (SRT),…

Objective: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) typically begins during adolescence and can persist into adulthood. The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this disorder remain unclear. Recent evidence from resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) studies in adults suggests disruptions in amygdala-based circuitry; the…

Changes in thinking skills are commonly experienced by older adults, though large variation exists. Such changes are one of the top concerns of people as they get older. Public perceptions of those changes could be used to effectively communicate with them about ways to improve their thinking skills. This study explored people's views about…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate how deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the caudal zona incerta (cZi) affects speech intelligibility in persons with essential tremor. Method: Thirty-five participants were evaluated: off stimulation, on chronic stimulation optimized to alleviate tremor, and during unilateral stimulation at increasing…

Bandura's (1977) social cognitive theory contends that people think, learn, and perform based upon a sum of personal (e.g., beliefs, emotions, behaviors), social (home-school relationships), and environmental (school culture). Research has also determined that collaboration between home and school leads to better children's social-emotional…

In addition to social and communicative deficits, many studies have reported motor deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study investigated the macro and microstructural properties of the corpus callosum (CC) of 18 children with ASD and 12 typically developing controls using diffusion tensor imaging tractography. We aimed to explore…

The school psychology literature base is lacking in information and resources for working with students with traumatic brain injuries, and concussions specifically. This special issue includes five articles from school psychology based researchers committed to increasing the awareness of the identification, assessment, and intervention for…

Examination of resting state brain activity using electrophysiological measures like complexity as well as functional connectivity is of growing interest in the study of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The present paper jointly examined complexity and connectivity to obtain a more detailed characterization of resting state brain activity in ASD.…