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• The Words and Faces tests are self-administered, computerized recognition memory tasks. • The Words and Faces tests show good convergent and divergent validity with gold standard neuropsychological testing in epilepsy. • The Words and Faces tests show excellent predictive accuracy in identifying patients with impairments on traditional memory measures. • Patients with epilepsy have lower scores on these automated memory measures than healthy controls. • Scores on the Words and Faces tests are associated with AED burden and seizure localization. • The Words and Faces tests are valid, computerized tools that can be used to screen for memory and other cognitive impairment in epilepsy. Cognitive impairment is prevalent in epilepsy and often presents at the time of initial diagnosis. This study sought to validate brief, self-administered, iPad-based recognition memory tasks in a sample of patients with epilepsy and to examine their screening utility in identifying patients with cognitive impairment. The Words and Faces tests were administered to 145 adult patients with epilepsy along with a neuropsychological battery. Correlation analyses examined the convergent and divergent validity of the Words and Faces tests, and a series of logistic regression analyses examined discriminative ability in identifying patients with and without cognitive impairments on neuropsychological measures. Patient performance was compared to that of a healthy control group (n = 223), and the relationship between the Words and Faces test performance and disease-related variables (i.e., antiepileptic medication burden, seizure lateralization/localization) was examined. The Words and Faces tests were positively correlated with traditional paper-and-pencil neuropsychological measures of episodic memory, with generally moderate to large effect sizes (r >.40), while correlations between the Words and Faces tests and non-memory measures were generally small in magnitude (r <.30). Patients with epilepsy had significantly lower scores on Words and Faces tests compared to healthy controls, and performance was associated with antiepileptic medication burden and seizure localization. The Words and Faces tests demonstrated good predictive accuracy in identifying any cognitive impairment (concordance (c) statistic =.77) and excellent predictive accuracy (c =.85) in identifying patients with impairments on traditional memory measures. The Words and Faces tests also demonstrated reasonable discrimination for impairments in non-memory domains including executive function, language, attention, processing speed, and visuospatial ability (c =.62 −.70). Importantly, the Words and Faces Immediate Index performed just as well as the Total Score (which included delayed memory performance), suggesting a short version of this measure is sufficient for identifying patients with cognitive impairment. The Words and Faces tests are valid, computerized tools that can be used to screen for memory and other cognitive impairment in adults with epilepsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental disorders among children and adolescents pose a significant global challenge. The exposome framework covering the totality of internal, social and physical exposures over a lifetime provides opportunities to better understand the causes of and processes related to mental health, and cognitive functioning. The paper presents a conceptual framework on exposome, mental health, and cognitive development in children and adolescents, with potential mediating pathways, providing a possibility for interventions along the life course. The paper underscores the significance of adopting a child perspective to the exposome, acknowledging children's specific vulnerability, including differential exposures, susceptibility of effects and capacity to respond; their susceptibility during development and growth, highlighting neurodevelopmental processes from conception to young adulthood that are highly sensitive to external exposures. Further, critical periods when exposures may have significant effects on a child's development and future health are addressed. The paper stresses that children's behaviour, physiology, activity pattern and place for activities make them differently vulnerable to environmental pollutants, and calls for child-specific assessment methods, currently lacking within today's health frameworks. The importance of understanding the interplay between structure and agency is emphasized, where agency is guided by social structures and practices and vice-versa. An intersectional approach that acknowledges the interplay of social and physical exposures as well as a global and rural perspective on exposome is further pointed out. To advance the exposome field, interdisciplinary efforts that involve multiple scientific disciplines are crucial. By adopting a child perspective and incorporating an exposome approach, we can gain a comprehensive understanding of how exposures impact children's mental health and cognitive development leading to better outcomes. • Conceptual framework of a child perspective for the exposome and mental health. • Framework combines child development, life-course perspective and vulnerability. • Social practice theory integrates multiple exposures articulating relevant concepts. • Mediating pathways provides the base for interventions. • Framework based on interdisciplinary efforts for comprehensive understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• How visual statistics of the world explain the cognitive apprehension of materiality A positive interaction between cognition and a materialised human world • Examination of theoretical and interpretive implications of ETA analysis of the visual response to prehistoric pottery • Cognitive and physiological results as proof for coevolution between cognitive processes, materialities and social complexity • A positive interaction between cognition and a materialised human world • The human visual cognition system actively internalizes the observed, showing a perceptual coupling The paper examines how materializations of human practices relate to human cognition and to socio-cultural contexts. By combining evidence on the relationship between material culture and perceptual behaviour, we aim to understand the interactions between the mind, objects, and the world. The research is based on data regarding the visual perception of prehistoric pottery that was analyzed using Eye-Tracking techniques in a way that has not been applied previously to archaeological material culture. The datasets come from Galicia (NW Iberian Peninsula) and range from the Middle Neolithic until the end of the Iron Age (6000–200 BP). They belong to very different contexts that comprise a long-term history through diverse socio-cultural formations. A rigorous methodology makes it possible to unveil cross- and intra-cultural patterns of visual response to materiality, while avoiding presentism and subjective bias. The results provide new insights into the agency of material culture, which contribute to our understanding of the relationship between the mind and the material world, and account for the transitive engagement between the way of thinking, seeing, and making things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Recent behavioral studies and meta -analyses have called into question whether bilingualism leads to changes in domain-general executive functions in children. • The present paper provides an updated quantitative analysis of recent failed replications comparing bilingual and monolingual children on executive functioning. • When group differences do appear on EF tasks, performance favors bilinguals far more often than monolinguals. • A Bayesian analysis of 147 studies supports bilingual children outperforming monolingual children, with a Bayes Factor classified as "extreme" evidence for the alternative (BF10 = 4.08 × 108). • Our findings highlight the need to measure and identify the specific characteristics that lead to differences between bilingual and monolingual children on EF tasks. The ongoing debate regarding the effects of bilingualism on executive functions warrants a deeper investigation into sample characteristics, and the likelihood of performance differences between monolinguals and bilinguals despite the variability in samples. The present paper provides an updated quantitative analysis of studies comparing bilingual and monolingual children on executive function tasks. We report a Bayesian analysis of 147 studies that provides evidence that bilingual children outperform monolinguals on tests of executive functions (e.g., attention, inhibition, working memory, shifting) far more often than chance, with a Bayes Factor classified as "extreme" evidence for the alternative (BF 10 = 4.08 × 108). This effect is even larger than previously reported with younger adults. These effects are independent of task, publication bias, publication year, and sample size. Furthermore, we uncovered a great deal of heterogeneity and missingness of bilingual sample characteristics across studies. Our findings highlight the need to measure and report bilingualism more consistently across studies which will allow future researchers to identify the specific characteristics and circumstances that predict changes in executive functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main neurological, cognitive, and behavioural consequences of phenylketonuria have been eradicated thanks to new-born screening and Phe-restricted diet therapy. However, the effects of high phenylalanine levels during adolescence and adulthood on neurocognitive functions remain a concern. This systematic review aimed at collecting clinical data suggesting the safest metabolic target for early treated PKU during the second decade of life. Twenty studies met the inclusion criteria for full-text review. Relevant studies included papers that (a) examined the relationship between metabolic control and neurocognitive functions during adolescence or (b) investigated the impact of metabolic control in adolescence on adult outcomes. Most studies showed a positive correlation between metabolic control during adolescence and neurocognitive outcomes across ages. This was true both for IQ and executive functions, although data on executive functions were less clear, and it remains to be established whether they are more vulnerable to Phe than IQ. Taken together present evidence confirm brain vulnerability to Phe during adolescence and suggests that low average Phe levels and low Phe fluctuations should be maintained throughout life. While results are fully compatible with current European recommendations, clinical and methodological limitations coupled with remarkable interindividual variability prevented a clear identification of a safe threshold for Phe blood levels during adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Neural simulation involves high-level sensorimotor and multimodal representations. • Grounding comes in degrees. • The semantic system relies on hierarchical representations. • Abstraction is a design feature of concepts. Research on semantic memory has a problem. On the one hand, a robust body of evidence implicates sensorimotor regions in conceptual processing. On the other hand, a different body of evidence implicates a modality independent semantic system. The standard solution to this tension is to posit a hub-and-spoke system with modality independent hubs and modality specific spokes. In this paper, I argue in support of an alternative view of grounding which remains committed to neural reenactment but emphasizes the multimodal and multilevel nature of the semantic system. This view is built upon the recognition that abstraction is a design feature of concepts. Semantic memory employs hierarchically structured representations to capture different degrees of abstraction. Grounding does not work the way that many embodied approaches have assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a classic animal model of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the 3 × Tg-AD mouse not only recapitulates most of anatomical hallmarks observed in AD pathology but also displays cognitive alterations in memory and learning tasks. The 3 × Tg-AD can better show the two characteristics of AD, amyloid β (Aβ) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT). Therefore, 3 × Tg-AD strain is widely used in AD pathogenesis research and new drug development of AD. In this paper, the construction methods, pathological changes, and treatment characteristics of 3 × Tg-AD mouse models commonly used in AD research are summarized and commented, hoping to provide reference for researchers to choose and establish experimental patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The exposome approach can be a powerful tool for understanding the intertwining of social, physical, and internal influences that shape mental health and cognitive development throughout childhood. To distil conceptual models for subsequent analyses, the EU-funded project Early Environmental quality and Life-course mental health effects (Equal-Life) has conducted literature reviews on potential mediators linking the exposome to these outcomes. We report on a scoping review and a conceptual model of the role of restorative possibilities and physical activity. Methods Peer-reviewed studies published since the year 2000 in English, on the association between the exposome and mental health/cognition in children/adolescents, and quantitatively investigating restoration/restorative quality as a mediating variable were considered. Database searches were last updated in December 2022. We used an unstructured expert-driven approach to fill in gaps in the reviewed literature. Results Five records of three distinct studies were identified, indicating a scarcity of empirical evidence in this newly developing research area. Not only were these studies few in numbers, but also cross-sectional, lending only tentative support to the idea that perceived restorative quality of adolescent's living environment might mediate the association between greenspace and mental health. Physical activity emerged as a mediator leading to better psychological outcomes in restorative environments. We provide a critical discussion of potential caveats when investigating the restoration mechanism in children and propose a hierarchical model including restoration, physical activity, and relational dynamics between children and their environment, including social context, as well as restorative environments other than nature. Conclusions It is justified to further explore the role of restoration and physical activity as mediators in the association between early-life exposome and mental health/cognitive development. It is important to consider the child perspective and specific methodological caveats. Given the evolving conceptual definitions/operationalizations, Equal-Life will attempt to fill in a critical gap in the literature. • We report on a review of children/adolescent mental health/cognition. • This paper was produced in the Equal-Life exposome project. • We investigate restoration and physical activity as mechanistic pathways. • Limited body of evidence suggesting that exploring these mediators is justified. • We propose a conceptual model for empirical testing in the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Children's ability to understand others pretense is part of a system of causal inference. • This hypothesis helps resolve theoretical dialogues between understanding pretense as mentalistic and "acting as if". • This hypothesis synthesizes lines of research on children's understanding of fiction, fantasy and counterfactual reasoning. • Pretending potentially changes how children engage in causal inference by allowing them to imagine alternate possibilities. There is a long-standing interest in the role that children's understanding of pretense plays in their more general theory of mind development. Some argue that children understand pretense as a mental state, and the capacity to pretend is indicative of children possessing the capacity for mental representations. Others argue that children understand pretense in terms of actions and appearances, and an understanding of the mental states involved in pretending has a prolonged developmental trajectory. The goal of this paper is to integrate these ideas by positing that children understand pretense as a form of causal inference, which is based on both their general causal reasoning capacities and specific knowledge of mental states. I will first review literature on children's understanding of pretense, and how such understanding can be conceptualized as integrating with children's causal reasoning ability. I will then consider how children's causal knowledge affects the ways they make inferences about others' pretense. Next, I will consider the role of causal knowledge more broadly in children's reasoning about pretense worlds, judgments of possibility, and counterfactual reasoning. Taken together the goal of this review is to synthesize how children understand pretending into a rational constructivist framework for understanding social cognitive development in a more integrative manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate research findings on the role of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in neuronal signaling. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are the building blocks of the brain and are responsible for the proper functioning of neurons, synapses, and neuronal communication. The deficiency of a significant component, omega-3 (ω-3) FA, in favor of omega-6 (ω-6) FA can exacerbate the course of mental illness and be one of the triggers of the cascade of neurodegenerative changes. PUFAs play an essential role in transmitting neuronal signals, affecting brain homeostasis. Physicochemical parameters of lipid layers significantly affect their functioning; interactions between lipids and proteins in brain cells are critical for mechanical stability and maintaining adequate elasticity for vesicle budding and membrane fusion. This paper discusses the role of PUFA deficiency or inappropriate ratios in brain tissue. The deficiency is a crucial element in depressive disorders and cognitive impairment, while in Alzheimer's disease, there is some controversy. [Display omitted] • Functional interactions between lipids and proteins in brain cells are regulated according to the composition of PUFAs. • Biological mechanisms linking omega acids to depression. • Neurotransmission and plastic changes under the influence of omega-3: importance of membrane properties (viscosity, phase separation, membrane geometry). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We present a revised model of the relations between attachment and intelligence. • Intelligence affects attachment both in infancy/childhood and adulthood. • Ambivalent and disorganized children show lower intelligence on average. • Adults with preoccupied and unresolved states of mind show lower intelligence. • Intelligence likely contributes to the intergenerational "transmission gap" In this paper we offer a new perspective on the relations between attachment and intelligence, a topic that has received relatively little attention in the recent decades of attachment research. Based on a review of relevant empirical work, a reanalysis of published data, and novel theoretical arguments, we advance a revised model of attachment and intelligence that challenges a number of widespread assumptions in the field. Specifically, we argue that attachment in infancy and childhood is influenced by general intelligence (with lower cognitive ability in ambivalent and disorganized categories compared with secure and avoidant ones), and that attachment states of mind in adulthood show a parallel pattern (with lower cognitive ability in preoccupied and unresolved/unclassifiable categories). The partially genetic correlation between parent and child intelligence gives rise to a previously unrecognized causal pathway linking parents' states of mind to children's attachment; parental intelligence also predicts aspects of sensitivity and mentalizing, and thus exerts an additional indirect influence on children's attachment. Our revised model suggests that intelligence likely contributes to the "transmission gap" between parental state of mind and child attachment; it also offers a novel (partial) explanation of the increased levels of parent–child concordance observed in older children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Presenting a model relative account of functional segregation under the free energy principle. • Models are indispensable to scientific practice , so is modularity to predictive architecture. • Addressing Hipolito and Kirchhoff's replies to the intransitivity argument and Markovian formalism. The paper presents a model-based defence of the partial functional/informational segregation of cognition in the context of the predictive architecture. The paper argues that the model-relativeness of modularity does not need to undermine its tenability. In fact, it holds that using models is indispensable to scientific practice, and it builds its argument about the indispensability of modularity to predictive architecture on the indispensability of scientific models. More specifically to defend the modularity thesis, the paper confutes two counterarguments that lie at the centre of Hipolito and Kirchhoff's (2019) recent confutation of the modularity thesis. The main insight of the paper is that Hipolito and Kirchhoff's counterarguments miss the mark because they dismiss a few rudimentary facts about the model-based nature of dynamical causal models and Markov blankets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on causal cognition has largely focused on learning and reasoning about contingency data aggregated across discrete observations or experiments. However, this setting represents only the tip of the causal cognition iceberg. A more general problem lurking beneath is that of learning the latent causal structure that connects events and actions as they unfold in continuous time. In this paper, we examine how people actively learn about causal structure in a continuous-time setting, focusing on when and where they intervene and how this shapes their learning. Across two experiments, we find that participants' accuracy depends on both the informativeness and evidential complexity of the data they generate. Moreover, participants' intervention choices strike a balance between maximizing expected information and minimizing inferential complexity. People time and target their interventions to create simple yet informative causal dynamics. We discuss how the continuous-time setting challenges existing computational accounts of active causal learning, and argue that metacognitive awareness of one's inferential limitations plays a critical role for successful learning in the wild. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hormonal contraceptives have beneficial and adverse effects on mood and stress. • To maximize benefits, we need to understand how HCs affect brain and behavior. • HCs act directly on receptors, decrease hormone levels, and via off-target effects. • Animal models will identify mechanisms by which HC affect mood and cognition. Hormonal contraceptives are among the most important health and economic developments in the 20th Century, providing unprecedented reproductive control and a range of health benefits including decreased premenstrual symptoms and protections against various cancers. Hormonal contraceptives modulate neural function and stress responsivity. These changes are usually innocuous or even beneficial, including their effects on mood. However, in approximately 4–10% of users, or up to 30 million people at any given time, hormonal contraceptives trigger depression or anxiety symptoms. How hormonal contraceptives contribute to these responses and who is at risk for adverse outcomes remain unknown. In this paper, we discuss studies of hormonal contraceptive use in humans and describe the ways in which laboratory animal models of contraceptive hormone exposure will be an essential tool for expanding findings to understand the precise mechanisms by which hormonal contraceptives influence the brain, stress responses, and depression risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early detection of cognitive decline involved in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) in older adults living alone is essential for developing, planning, and initiating interventions and support systems to improve users' everyday function and quality of life. In this paper, we explore the voice commands using a Voice-Assistant System (VAS), i.e., Amazon Alexa, from 40 older adults who were either Healthy Control (HC) participants or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) participants, age 65 or older. We evaluated the data collected from voice commands, cognitive assessments, and interviews and surveys using a structured protocol. We extracted 163 unique command-relevant features from each participant's use of the VAS. We then built machine-learning models including 1-layer/2-layer neural networks, support vector machines, decision tree, and random forest, for classification and comparison with standard cognitive assessment scores, e.g., Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Our classification models using fusion features achieved an accuracy of 68%, and our regression model resulted in a Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE) score of 3.53. Our Decision Tree (DT) and Random Forest (RF) models using selected features achieved higher classification accuracy 80%–90%. Finally, we analyzed the contribution of each feature set to the model output, thus revealing the commands and features most useful in inferring the participants' cognitive status. We found that features of overall performance, features of music-related commands, features of call-related commands, and features from Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) were the top-four feature sets most impactful on inference accuracy. The results from this controlled study demonstrate the promise of future home-based cognitive assessments using Voice-Assistant Systems. • Collect 1685 Alexa commands from 18 Healthy and 22 MCI older adults. • Extract 163 unique command features and build classification and regression models. • Classification achieves 68% accuracy and regression results in an RMSE score of 3.53. • Decision Tree and Random Forest using selected features achieve accuracy 80%-90%. • Music, call, and ASR features are the top features most impactful on accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• New hypotheses of the Developmental Neuro-Ecological Risk-taking Model are outlined. • This hybrid psychological-criminological model describes risk behavior development. • Age and culture predict access to risk conducive situations (i.e., risk exposures). • Increases in such risk exposures as youth age, predict increases in risk behavior. • This changing ecology interacts with youth's ongoing neuropsychological development. Adolescents have long been characterized as the stereotypical risk-takers, due to their apparent heightened risk behavior (e.g., delinquency, substance use). Hence, the raising of minimum ages for substance use are common legal actions that presume that limiting the exposure to substances (i.e., "riskexposure") will decrease such heightened adolescent risk behavior. This ecological concept of risk exposure (access to risk conducive situations) is acknowledged in criminological models—to some extent. However, risk exposure is virtually absent from contemporary psychological models, which focus on neuropsychological development, particularly socio-affective and cognitive control development. Moreover, when theories in these disciplines do consider risk exposure, the ubiquitous developmental (i.e., age-dependent) component of this concept is overlooked. For example, in the real-word, adolescents encounter far more riskconducive situations (both offline and online) than children, which could at least partially account for heightened adolescent risk behaviors compared to children. A meta-analysis (Defoe et al. 2015) on laboratory studies provided suggestive evidence for this assertion. Namely, this meta-analysis showed that in laboratory settings—where risk exposure is equal for all participants regardless of age—children and adolescents are generally equally susceptible to engage in risks. Hence, in the above-mentioned meta-analysis, a hybrid Developmental Neuro-Ecological Risk-taking Model (DNERM) was put forward. DNERM emphasizes an interaction between adolescents' neuropsychological development and their changing physical- and social- ecology, which is further embedded in a cultural context. The current paper further develops DNERM's aims, which include bridging contemporary psychology models with criminology models to comprehensively describe the development of risk behavior during the youth period (ages 11–24). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NCC Program is framed by explicit and implicit assumptions. • Focus is on locating the the neural correlates based on conscious-unconscious contrast. • These assumptions are challenged by taking into account diverse findings and theories. • Considering consciousness as evolving, transient, or spatiotemporally dynamic. • New approaches; a parsimonious unification of mechanism and phenomenology. The way one asks a question is shaped by a-priori assumptions and constrains the range of possible answers. We identify and test the assumptions underlying contemporary debates, models, and methodology in the study of the neural correlates of consciousness, which was framed by Crick and Koch's seminal paper (1990). These premises create a sequential and passive conception of conscious perception: it is considered the product of resolved information processing by unconscious mechanisms, produced by a singular event in time and place representing the moment of entry. The conscious percept produced is then automatically retained to be utilized by post-conscious mechanisms. Major debates in the field, such as concern the moment of entry, the all-or-none vs graded nature, and report vs no-report paradigms, are driven by the consensus on these assumptions. We show how removing these assumptions can resolve some of the debates and challenges and prompt additional questions. The potential non-sequential nature of perception suggests new ways of thinking about consciousness as a dynamic and dispersed process, and in turn about the relationship between conscious and unconscious perception. Moreover, it allows us to present a parsimonious account for conscious perception while addressing more aspects of the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central goal for cognitive science and philosophy of mind is to distinguish between perception and cognition. The representational approach has emerged as a prominent candidate to draw such a distinction. The idea is that perception and cognition differ in the content and the format in which the information is represented —just as perceptual representations are nonconceptual in content and iconic in format, cognitive representations are conceptual in content and discursive in format. This paper argues against this view. I argue that both perception and cognition can use conceptual and nonconceptual contents and be vehiculated in iconic and discursive formats. If correct, the representational strategy to distinguish perception from cognition fails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]