Thomas Andrillon, Sid Kouider (2020), The vigilant sleeper: neural mechanisms of sensory (de)coupling during sleep, Current Opinion in Physiology, Volume 15, Pages 47-59, doi.org/10.1016/j.cophys.2019.12.002.

Sleep suppresses the ability to react to environmental demands. It has been proposed that a phenomenon of sensory isolation, whereby sensory inputs fail to reach cortical brain regions during sleep, would be responsible for this absence of responses. How and why this decoupling is implemented has been intensively investigated. However, sleepers might not be fully disconnected from their environment. We review here the empirical evidence showing that sleepers can perform a surprisingly large range of cognitive processes. We describe potential mechanisms explaining sleepers’ ability to maintain covert cognitive processes as well as their suppression. Rather than being isolated from the environment, sleepers seem to enter a standby mode, allowing them to balance the monitoring of their surroundings with sensory isolation. This balance could allow sleepers to determine when to stay asleep or when to wake up, and might be essential for the fulfilment of sleep functions, notably memory consolidation.

Bourgeois-Gironde, S. (2020). The Mind under the Axioms. Elsevier. doi:DOI: 10.1016/C2017-0-02647-2

The Mind under the Axioms reviews two basic ingredients of our understanding of human decisions – conative aspects (preferences) and cognitive aspects (beliefs). These ingredients are axiomatized in modern decision theory in the view to obtain a formally and empirically tractable representation of the decision-maker. The main issue developed in this book is the connection between realistic and testable psychological features and the descriptive component of abstract axioms of rationality. It addresses three main topics for which the interaction between axiomatization and psychology leads to potential new developments in experimental decision-theory and puts strictures on the standard revealed preference methodology prevailing in that field. The possibility of a cardinal representation of preferences is discussed. Different ways of accounting for incomplete preferences, and in which sense, are analysed. Finally, the conditions of separability between preferences and beliefs, such as prescribed by axioms of state-independence, are submitted to actual and potential tests. The book offers a bridge between the disciplines of decision-theory, psychology, and neuroeconomics. It is thus relevant for those, in psychology and cognitive sciences, who are sometimes put off by the high degree of formalism and abstraction in decision-theory, that seems to lie beyond the reach of psychological realism. It also aims to convince those in decision-theory for whom psychological realism and empirical testability should not constrain the modelling enterprise that conceptual clarification can come from attempted experimentation.

Fernández-Castro, Víctor & Martínez-Manrique, Fernando (2020). Shaping your own mind: the self-mindshaping view on metacognition. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences,1-29 https://philpapers.org/rec/FERSYO

Starting from Proust’s distinction between the self-attributive and self-evaluative views on metacognition, this paper presents a third view: self-mindshaping. Based on the notion of mindshaping as the core of social cognition, the self-mindshaping view contends that mindshaping abilities can be turned on one’s own mind. Against the self-attributive view, metacognition is not a matter of accessing representations to metarepresent them but of giving shape to those representations themselves. Against the self-evaluative view, metacognition is not blind to content but relies heavily on it. We characterize our view in terms of four issues that, according to Proust, distinguish the previous approaches, namely, whether metacognitive mechanisms are the same as those employed to access other minds, whether metacognitive control requires conceptual representation, whether metacognition is propositional, and whether metacognitive access is linked to mental action. After describing some of the mechanisms for self-mindshaping, we show how this view regards metacognition as grounded on social interaction mechanisms, conceptually driven, possibly, but not necessarily, propositional, and engaged in the practical regulation of mental states. Finally, we examine the prospects for the primacy of self-mindshaping as the primary metacognitive function. We argue that self-attributive processes typically subserve the practical goals emphasized by the mindshaping view, and that the evaluative role played by procedural metacognition can be grounded on social cues rather than on experiential feelings. Even if this is not enough to claim the primacy of self-mindshaping, it still appears as a third kind of metacognition, not reducible to the other two.

Fernández Castro, V., Pacherie, E. Joint actions, commitments and the need to belong. Synthese (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02535-0

This paper concerns the credibility problem for commitments. Commitments play an important role in cooperative human interactions and can dramatically improve the performance of joint actions by stabilizing expectations, reducing the uncertainty of the interaction, providing reasons to cooperate or improving action coordination. However, commitments can only serve these functions if they are credible in the first place. What is it then that insures the credibility of commitments? To answer this question, we need to provide an account of what motivates us to abide by our commitments. We first discuss two conceptions of the nature of the commitments present in joint action and of the norms that govern them. We contend that while normative considerations may have some motivational force, there are reasons to doubt that they, by themselves, could provide a sufficient motivational basis to fully explain why agents abide by their commitments and thus why their commitments are credible. In the next two sections, we discuss two proposals regarding further sources of motivation, reputation management and social emotions. We argue that while reputation management and social emotions certainly play a role in motivating us to act as committed, there are both theoretical and empirical reasons to think that neither captures the most basic motivational force at work in sustaining commitments. We propose instead that the need to belong, i.e., the need to affiliate with others and form long-lasting bonds with them, is what primarily motivates us to interact and engage with those around us and act so as to preserve and reinforce the bonds we have forged with them. We argue that the need to belong is a more basic proximate motivation for conforming to commitments, in the sense both that affiliative behaviors are evidenced much earlier in human development than either reputation management or social emotions and that the need to belong is at least part of an explanation of why we care for our reputation and why we care about others’ assessments of our behavior.

B. Ip, C. Lunghi, U. E. Emir, A. J. Parker and H. Bridge, "Relating Eye Dominance to Neurochemistry in the Human Visual Cortex Using Ultra High Field 7-Tesla MR Spectroscopy", 2019 International Conference on 3D Immersion (IC3D), Brussels, Belgium, 2019, pp. 1-7.

Although our view of the world looks singular, it is combined from each eye’s separate retinal image. If the balanced input between eyes is disrupted during early childhood, visual acuity and stereoscopic depth perception are impaired. This is because one eye dominates over the other, causing a neurological condition called ‘amblyopia’ [1]. In the normal, healthy visual system, the balance between eyes can be determined using various methods to provide a measure of ‘eye dominance’. Eye dominance is the preference for using image from one eye over another [2], suggesting that the visual system applies different weights upon their input. Hence, eye dominance is relevant for understanding the mechanisms underlying binocular vision. As an investigative strategy to understand the binocular visual system in health in disease, we want to characterize eye dominance in the normal visual system. This information can then be used to serve as a baseline to compare to extreme eye dominance in ‘amblyopia’. Specifically, we ask to which degree variations in eye dominance are related to visual cortex concentrations of major excitatory neurotransmitter and metabolite glutamate (‘Glu’) and inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (‘GABA’). Their relationship is formalised as the ‘Glu/GABA’ ratio. 13 participants took part in a 1-h psychophysical experiment to quantify eye dominance and a separate 1.5-h 7-Tesla MRI brain scan to measure hemodynamic and neurochemical responses during visual stimulation. The degree of eye dominance was predicted by the inter-ocular difference in V1 Glu/GABA balance. Stronger eye dominance correlated with an increase in inhibition during dominant relative to non-dominant eye viewing (r = −0.647, p = 0.023). In contrast the hemodynamic response, measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging, did not correlate with eye dominance. Our findings suggest that normally occurring eye dominance is associated with the balance of neurochemicals in the early visual cortex.

Mikel Lizarazu, Santiago Gil-Robles, Iñigo Pomposo, Sanjeev Nara, Lucía Amoruso, Ileana Quiñonesa, Manuel Carreiras (2020), Spatiotemporal dynamics of postoperative functional plasticity in patients with brain tumors in language areas, Brain and Language, Volume 202, March 2020, 104741

Postoperative functional neuroimaging provides a unique opportunity to investigate the neural mechanisms that facilitate language network reorganization. Previous studies in patients with low grade gliomas (LGGs) in language areas suggest that postoperative recovery is likely due to functional neuroplasticity in peritumoral and contra-tumoral healthy regions, but have attributed varying degrees of importance to specific regions. In this study, we used Magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate functional connectivity changes in peritumoral and contra-tumoral regions after brain tumor resection. MEG recordings of cortical activity during resting-state were obtained from 12 patients with LGGs in left-hemisphere language brain areas. MEG data were recorded before (Pre session), and 3 (Post_1 session) and 6 (Post_2 session) months after awake craniotomy. For each MEG session, we measured the functional connectivity of the peritumoral and contra-tumoral regions to the rest of the brain across the 1–100 Hz frequency band. We found that functional connectivity in the Post_1 and Post_2 sessions was higher than in the Pre session only in peritumoral regions and within the alpha frequency band. Functional connectivity in peritumoral regions did not differ between the Post_1 and Post_2 sessions. Alpha connectivity enhancement in peritumoral regions was observed in all patients regardless of the LGG location. Together, these results suggest that postoperative language functional reorganization occurs in peritumoral regions regardless of the location of the tumor and mostly develops within 3 months after surgery.

Joana Lourenço, Angela Michela De Stasi, Charlotte Deleuze, Mathilde Bigot, Antonio Pazienti, Andrea Aguirre, Michele Giugliano, Srdjan Ostojic, Alberto Bacci (2020), Modulation of Coordinated Activity across Cortical Layers by Plasticity of Inhibitory Synapses, Cell Reports, 30, 2 ; 630-641.e5, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2019.12.052

In the neocortex, synaptic inhibition shapes all forms of spontaneous and sensory evoked activity. Importantly, inhibitory transmission is highly plastic, but the functional role of inhibitory synaptic plasticity is unknown. In the mouse barrel cortex, activation of layer (L) 2/3 pyramidal neurons (PNs) elicits strong feedforward inhibition (FFI) onto L5 PNs. We find that FFI involving parvalbumin (PV)-expressing cells is strongly potentiated by postsynaptic PN burst firing. FFI plasticity modifies the PN excitation-to-inhibition (E/I) ratio, strongly modulates PN gain, and alters information transfer across cortical layers. Moreover, our LTPi-inducing protocol modifies firing of L5 PNs and alters the temporal association of PN spikes to γ-oscillations both in vitro and in vivo. All of these effects are captured by unbalancing the E/I ratio in a feedforward inhibition circuit model. Altogether, our results indicate that activity-dependent modulation of perisomatic inhibitory strength effectively influences the participation of single principal cortical neurons to cognition-relevant network activity.

Lunghi, C. (2020). Visual Cortex Rewiring in Retinitis Pigmentosa: Plasticity is Preserved. Neuroscience, 424, 203-204. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.10.053

Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is a class of inherited disorders caused by the progressive death of photore- ceptors in the retina. RP is still orphan of an effective treatment, with increasing optimism deriving from research aimed at arresting neurodegeneration or replacing light-responsive elements. All these therapeutic strategies rely on the functional integrity of the visual system downstream of photoreceptors. Whereas the inner retinal structure and optic radiation are known to be considerably preserved at least in early stages of RP, very little is known about the visual cortex. Remarkably, it remains completely unclear whether visual cortex plasticity is still present in RP. Using a well-established murine model of RP, the rd10 mouse, we report that visual cortical circuits retain high levels of plasticity, preserving their capability of input-dependent remodelling even at a late stage of retinal degeneration.

Mercier, Hugo (2019). Not Born Yesterday. Princeton University Press

Not Born Yesterday explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should believe—and argues that we’re pretty good at making these decisions. In this lively and provocative book, Hugo Mercier demonstrates how virtually all attempts at mass persuasion—whether by religious leaders, politicians, or advertisers—fail miserably. Drawing on recent findings from political science and other fields ranging from history to anthropology, Mercier shows that the narrative of widespread gullibility, in which a credulous public is easily misled by demagogues and charlatans, is simply wrong. Why is mass persuasion so difficult? Mercier uses the latest findings from experimental psychology to show how each of us is endowed with sophisticated cognitive mechanisms of open vigilance. Computing a variety of cues, these mechanisms enable us to be on guard against harmful beliefs, while being open enough to change our minds when presented with the right evidence. Even failures—when we accept false confessions, spread wild rumors, or fall for quack medicine—are better explained as bugs in otherwise well-functioning cognitive mechanisms than as symptoms of general gullibility. Not Born Yesterday shows how we filter the flow of information that surrounds us, argues that we do it well, and explains how we can do it better still. What do you really know about gullibility? The smart move: we learn more by trusting than by not trusting

Barbara Pavlek, James Winters, Olivier Morin (2020), Reverse engineering cash: Coin designs mark out high value differentials and coin sizes track values logarithmically, Cognition, 198, 104182, doi :10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104182.

Coins are physical representations of monetary values. Like mental or verbal representations of quantities, coins encode sums of money in formats shaped, in part, by cognitive and communicative needs. Studying the coins circulating today, we consider how their design, colour, and size reflect their value. We show that coin designs solve a trade-off between informativeness—the pressure to highlight distinct denominations—and simplicity—the pressure to limit the number of designs that coin users must memorise. Coinage worldwide is more likely to display distinctive graphic designs and distinct colours on pairs of coins with large differences in value, thus minimising the aggregate cost of mistaking one coin for another. Coin size differentials, in contrast, do not seem to indicate greater value differentials, although absolute coin sizes do reflect monetary values. Log-transformed values predict design and colour distinctiveness in coin pairs, as well as absolute coin sizes, better than raw values, consistent with research suggesting that monetary quantities may recruit the “numerosity system” for magnitude representations, thought to track quantities logarithmically. These results show that coins obey similar informational constraints as linguistic and mental representations.

Peyre H, Mohanpuria N, Jednoróg K, Heim S, Grande M, van Ermingen-Marbach M, Altarelli I, Monzalvo K, Williams CM, Germanaud D, Toro R, Ramus F (2020), Neuroanatomy of dyslexia: An allometric approach, Eur J Neurosci. doi: 10.1111/ejn.14690.

Despite evidence for a difference in total brain volume between dyslexic and good readers, no previous neuroimaging study examined differences in allometric scaling (i.e. differences in the relationship between regional and total brain volumes) between dyslexic and good readers. The present study aims to fill this gap by testing differences in allometric scaling and regional brain volume differences in dyslexic and good readers. Object-based morphometry analysis was used to determine grey and white matter volumes of the four lobes, the cerebellum and limbic structures in 130 dyslexic and 106 good readers aged 8-14 years. Data were collected across three countries (France, Poland and Germany). Three methodological approaches were used as follows: principal component analysis (PCA), linear regression and multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA). Difference in total brain volume between good and dyslexic readers was Cohen's d = 0.39. We found no difference in allometric scaling, nor in regional brain volume between dyslexic and good readers. Results of our three methodological approaches (PCA, linear regression and MGCFA) were consistent. This study provides evidence for total brain volume differences between dyslexic and control children, but no evidence for differences in the volumes of the four lobes, the cerebellum or limbic structures, once allometry is taken into account. It also finds no evidence for a difference in allometric relationships between the groups. We highlight the methodological interest of the MGCFA approach to investigate such research issues.

Rahnev, D., Desender, K., … Rouault, M. , Sackur, …Zylberberg, A. (2020). The Confidence Database. Nature Human Behaviour, 4. doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0813-1

Understanding how people rate their confidence is critical for the characterization of a wide range of perceptual, memory, motor and cognitive processes. To enable the continued exploration of these processes, we created a large database of confidence studies spanning a broad set of paradigms, participant populations and fields of study. The data from each study are structured in a common, easy-to-use format that can be easily imported and analysed using multiple software packages. Each dataset is accompanied by an explanation regarding the nature of the collected data. At the time of publication, the Confidence Database (which is available at https://osf.io/s46pr/) contained 145 datasets with data from more than 8,700 participants and almost 4 million trials. The database will remain open for new submissions indefinitely and is expected to continue to grow. Here we show the usefulness of this large collection of datasets in four different analyses that provide precise estimations of several foundational confidence-related effects.

Tsuji, S., Jincho, N. , Mazuka, R. & Cristia, A. (2020). Communicative cues in the absence of a human interaction partner enhance 12-month-old infants’ word learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 191, 104740, doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104740

Is infants’ word learning boosted by nonhuman social agents? An on-screen virtual agent taught infants word–object associations in a setup where the presence of contingent and referential cues could be manipulated using gaze contingency. In the study, 12-month-old Japanese-learning children (N = 36) looked significantly more to the correct object when it was labeled after exposure to a contingent and referential display versus a noncontingent and nonreferential display. These results show that communicative cues can augment learning even for a nonhuman agent, a finding highly relevant for our understanding of the mechanisms through which the social environment supports language acquisition and for research on the use of interactive screen media.

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