In two experiments rats were required to escape from a circular pool by swimming to an invisible platform that was located in the same place relative to one configuration of two landmarks (X and Y). The two landmarks were placed relatively far and equidistant from the hidden platform. Training could be either on consecutive days (Experiment 1) or…

It has been generally accepted that the left hemisphere is more functionally specialized for language than the right hemisphere for right-handed monolinguals. But more and more studies have also demonstrated right hemisphere advantage for some language tasks with certain participants. A recent comprehensive survey has shown that hemisphere…

The valence hypothesis suggests that the right hemisphere is specialised for negative emotions and the left hemisphere is specialised for positive emotions (Silberman & Weingartner, 1986). It is unclear to what extent valence-specific effects in facial emotion perception depend upon the gender of the perceiver. To explore this question 46…

This chapter presents emotion as a function of brain-body interaction, as a vital part of a multi-tiered phylogenetic set of neural mechanisms, evoked by both instinctive processes and learned appraisal systems, and argues to establish the primacy of emotion in relation to cognition. Primarily based on Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis, but also…

The nucleus accumbens shell (NAC) receives axons containing dopamine-[beta]-hydroxylase that originate from brainstem neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). Recent findings show that memory enhancement produced by stimulating NTS neurons after learning may involve interactions with the NAC. However, it is unclear whether these…

In adults, the onset of coherent motion compared to random motion in a random dot kinematogram leads to a right hemispheric amplitude advantage of the N2 response. The source of this asymmetry is believed to lie in the motion selective MT+ cortex. Here, we tested whether the right tempo-parietal N2 component shows a similar regularity in children.…

Neuroimaging methods represent a critical tool in efforts to join the study of the neurobiology of genes with the neurobiology of behaviour, and to understand the neurodevelopmental pathways that give rise to cognitive and behavioural impairments. This article reviews the clinical features and highlights studies with a focus on the relevant…

The ability to statistically segment a continuous auditory stream is one of the most important preparations for initiating language learning. Such ability is available to human infants at 8 months of age, as shown by a behavioral measurement. However, behavioral study alone cannot determine how early this ability is available. A recent study using…

Cognitive development and learning are characterized by diminished reliance on effortful procedures and increased use of memory-based problem solving. Here we identify the neural correlates of this strategy shift in 7-9-year-old children at an important developmental period for arithmetic skill acquisition. Univariate and multivariate approaches…

The goal of this research was to determine the effects of [beta]-adrenergic antagonism in the IC before or after inhibitory avoidance (IA) training or context pre-exposure in a latent inhibition protocol. Pretraining intra-IC infusion of the [beta]-adrenergic antagonist propranolol disrupted subsequent IA retention and impaired latent inhibition…

Apolipoprotein receptors belong to an evolutionarily conserved surface receptor family that has intimate roles in the modulation of synaptic plasticity and is necessary for proper hippocampal-dependent memory formation. The known lipoprotein receptor ligand Reelin is important for normal synaptic plasticity, dendritic morphology, and cognitive…

Accumulation of the DNA/RNA binding protein fused in sarcoma as cytoplasmic inclusions in neurons and glial cells is the pathological hallmark of all patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with mutations in "FUS" as well as in several subtypes of frontotemporal lobar degeneration, which are not associated with "FUS" mutations. The mechanisms…

The predominant models on the emergence and maintenance of stereotypy in individuals with developmental disabilities are based on operant and neurobiological interpretations of the behavior. Although the proponents of the two models maintain largely independent lines of research, operant and neurobiological interpretations of stereotypy are not…

Verbal short-term memory (VSTM) is thought to play a critical role in language learning. It is indexed by the nonword repetition task where listeners are asked to repeat meaningless words like "blonterstaping". The present study investigated the effect on nonword repetition performance of differences in efficiency of functioning of some part of…

There is an increasing line of evidence supporting the idea that the formation of lasting memories involves neural activity preceding stimulus presentation. Following this line, we presented words in an incidental learning setting and manipulated the prestimulus state by asking the participants to perform either an emotional (neutral or emotional)…