Relationship between circadian rhythm and brain cognitive functions

Circadian rhythms are considered a masterstroke of natural selection,which gradually increase the adaptability of species to the Earth’s rotation.Importantly,the nervous system plays a key role in allowing organisms to maintain circadian rhythmicity.Circadian rhythms affect multiple aspects of cognitive functions(mainly via arousal),particularly those needed for effort-intensive cognitive tasks,which require considerable top-down executive control.These include inhibitory control,working memory,task switching,and psychomotor vigilance.This mini review highlights the recent advances in cognitive functioning in the optical and multimodal neuroimaging fields;it discusses the processing of brain cognitive functions during the circadian rhythm phase and the effects of the circadian rhythm on the cognitive component of the brain and the brain circuit supporting cognition.

Optical neuroimaging of executive function impairments in food addiction

This study investigated the neural mechanisms located in the prefrontal cortex(PFC)involved in maintaining addictive-like eating behavior.Therefore,we aimed toll a gap in the existing literature and help clarify the food addiction(FA)cycle by inspecting the relationship between the executive control and psychopathology involved in the FA cycle.Twenty-three students recruited from the University of Macao participated in this study.We investigated a hemodynamic response captured by NIRS recordings,activated during n-back,set-shifting,and go/nogo paradigms.Moreover,we investigated the FA symptoms through the YFAS clinical inventory to better understand the relationship between hemodynamic response and clinical symptomatology in college students.First,the hemodynamicndings conrm that altered cognitive control in executive function performance appears to be linked to addictive-like eating behaviors,which in turn conrms a circuit similarity between FA and the substance abuse population(SUD)as reported in previous fMRI studies.Secondly,the psychologicalndings conrm the signicant association between the working memory decits and symptoms severity which suggest the role of self-control and regulation in limiting the storage resources as a potential trigger to develop overconsumption episodes in the FA cycle.Ourndings highlight how disrupted self-control and regulation of craving and negative a®ect induced by mental imagery might shape and overload the working memory storage as a potential trigger to develop binge eating episodes to maintain the FA cycle.In conclusion,the use of fNIRS in the context of eating disorders studies represents a valuable application,noninvasive,and patientfriendly tool,providing new insights into understanding the addiction cycle and treatment guidelines.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy can detect low-frequency hemodynamic oscillations in the prefrontal cortex during steady-state visual evoked potentialinducing periodic facial expression stimuli presentation

Brain oscillations are vital to cognitive functions,while disrupted oscillatory activity is linked to various brain disorders.Although high-frequency neural oscillations(>1 Hz)have been extensively studied in cognition,the neural mechanisms underlying low-frequency hemodynamic oscillations(LFHO)<1 Hz have not yet been fully explored.One way to examine oscillatory neural dynamics is to use a facial expression(FE)paradigm to induce steady-state visual evoked potentials(SSVEPs),which has been used in electroencephalography studies of high-frequency brain oscillation activity.In this study,LFHO during SSVEP-inducing periodic flickering stimuli presentation were inspected using functional near-infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS),in which hemodynamic responses in the prefrontal cortex were recorded while participants were passively viewing dynamic FEs flickering at 0.2 Hz.The fast Fourier analysis results demonstrated that the power exhibited monochronic peaks at 0.2 Hz across all channels,indicating that the periodic events successfully elicited LFHO in the prefrontal cortex.More importantly,measurement of LFHO can effectively distinguish the brain activation difference between different cognitive conditions,with happy FE presentation showing greater LFHO power than neutral FE presentation.These results demonstrate that stimuli flashing at a given frequency can induce LFHO in the prefrontal cortex,which provides new insights into the cognitive mechanisms involved in slow oscillation.

青少年抑郁个体化识别与干预的三级框架

Depression in adolescents is a significant public health challenge with a high prevalence and negative outcomes.In the United States,the lifetime and 12-month prevalence rates of major depressive disorder(MDD)among 13-to 18-year-olds were 11.0%and 7.5%,respectively,prior to COVID-19.The COVID-19pandemic has further exacerbated the global trend of increasing rates of adolescent depression.

Promoting interactions between cognitive science and large language models

Large language models(LLMs)have made unprecedented progress,demonstrating human-like language proficiency and an extraordinary ability to encode complex knowledge.The emergence of high-level cognitive capabilities in LLMs,such as in-context learning and complex reasoning,suggests a path toward the realization of artificial general intelligence(AGI).However,we lack scientific theories and tools to assess and interpret such an emergence of the advanced intelligence of LLMs.Artificial intelligence(AI)has been extensively applied in various areas of fundamental science to accelerate scientific research.