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During the socialization process in family and school contexts, children display a wide variety of social behaviors with parents and peers. Yet the developmental trajectory, the predictors and outcomes, and the neural basis of those social behaviors are largely under-investigated. To address these problems, we invited experts in the field to submit their latest findings to tell this story. The current Special Issue is a collection of papers highlighting the complexity for various social behaviors, with a focus on the complex mechanisms that link social behaviors to child socio-emotional adjustment and mediating/moderating factors among the associations. Thirteen papers illustrate empirical work in the field, two papers present new methodological concerns, and one paper that provides a comprehensive review of the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Often deemed a 'black box' resistant to scientific examination, the human mind challenges empirical inquiry--particularly in subjective experiences like dreams. However, objective empirical measures can indeed be applied to such phenomena. While there has been notable progress in understanding human dreams, the domain of sleep and dreams in non-human animals remains less explored. This review paper addresses whether animals experience dreams and, if so, the nature of these dreams. To this end, it evaluates various research methodologies, including monitoring neural activity, replaying new memories, and analyzing dream-like behaviors. It also identifies crucial sleep patterns, such as Rapid Eye Movement (REM), Slow-wave (SW) sleep, and unihemispheric sleep, that play significant roles in dreaming. Furthermore, this study proposes a novel approach for deciphering animal dream content, specifically by investigating dreaming in octopuses. The paper concludes by examining atypical sleep patterns and deviations from everyday dream experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superficial temporal artery (STA) to middle cerebral artery (MCA) bypass, also referred to as STA-MCA bypass, is a direct revascularisation treatment for moyamoya disease. Moyamoya disease is a rare cerebrovascular condition characterised by progressive narrowing of the distal segments of the internal carotid arteries. Untreated, this may cause varied and progressive symptoms for patients, with a significantly increased risk of stroke annually. STA-MCA bypass is performed several times a year at Royal North Shore Hospital by specialist cerebrovascular neurosurgeons. This is a quaternary service with patient referrals received from throughout Australia. This paper will provide an overview of moyamoya, the surgical treatment and nursing care. The pre- and post-procedure nursing care for these patients is paramount, including perioperative blood pressure management, neurological assessment and wound care. The paper will also explore a case study of a patient who underwent a STA-MCA bypass, highlighting the value of specialised neuroscience nursing care, and additional considerations when managing patients living at a distance from the local health district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the prospect of using neurophenomenology to understand, design and test phygital consumer experiences. It aims to clarify interpretivist approaches to consumer neuroscience, wherein theoretical models of individual phenomenology can be combined with modern neuroimaging techniques to detect and interpret the first-person accounts of phygital experiences. Design/methodology/approach: The argument is conceptual in nature, building its position through synthesizing insights from phenomenology, phygital marketing, theoretical neuroscience and other related fields. Findings: Ultimately, the paper presents the argument that interpretivist neuroscience in general, and neurophenomenology specifically, provides a valuable new perspective on phygital marketing experiences. In particular, we argue that the approach to studying first-personal experiences within the phygital domain can be significantly refined by adopting this perspective. Research limitations/implications: One of the primary goals of this paper is to stimulate a novel approach to interpretivist phygital research, and in doing so, provide a foundation by which the impact of phygital interventions can be empirically tested through neuroscience, and through which future research into this topic can be developed. As such, the success of such an approach is yet untested. Originality/value: Phygital marketing is distinguished by its focus on the quality of subjective first-personal consumer experiences, but few papers to date have explored how neuroscience can be used as a tool for exploring these inner landscapes. This paper addresses this lacuna by providing a novel perspective on "interpretivist neuroscience" and proposes ways that current neuroscientific models can be used as a practical methodology for addressing these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near-death experiences (NDEs) and psychedelic drug experiences (YDEs) enable access to dimensions of non-ordinary sensation, perception, and insight beyond typical day-to-day phenomenology. Both are associated with a dissolution of conventional spatio-temporal conceptual distinctions, and a corresponding sense of connectedness and unity. Moreover, NDEs and YDEs have shown a remarkable ability to reduce the anxiety that people associate with death. In two recent papers, we showed that multi-person virtual reality experiences (VREs) designed within the 'numadelic' aesthetic (where bodies are represented as light energy rather than material objects) can elicit psychometric results comparable to YDEs. It nevertheless remains an open question why numadelic aesthetics achieve the observed results, especially given that the vast majority of VREs represent bodies as typically perceived in the 'real-world'. This article describes the origins of the numadelic aesthetic from subjective accounts of NDE phenomenology, and attempts to unravel mechanistic aspects of the numadelic aesthetic by embedding it within a more general theoretical framework. Specifically, we elaborate a 2-axis schematic grounded in predictive coding models of cognition and matter-energy ideas from physics. One axis tracks 'structural specificity', and the other tracks 'symbolic rigidity'. The majority of VREs, which emphasize photorealistic fidelity to content derived from 'day-to-day' phenomenology, are characterized by high structural specificity and high symbolic rigidity. Such approaches collapse imaginative potential into a limited low-entropy space of 'exogenous' possibility, unlike the high-entropy brain states associated with YDEs. In contrast, aesthetic domains characterized by low structural specificity and low symbolic rigidity are less concerned with fidelity to phenomenological priors, offering an expansive, 'uncollapsed' high-entropy possibility space into which participants can project meaning and corresponding endogenous insights can arise (e.g., as occurs in NDEs and YDEs). Situated within this theoretical framing, the numadelic aesthetic emerges as a practical example of an un-collapsed approach to representation, helping to explain the experimental observations within previous papers. Moreover, the theoretical framing suggests various experimental tests, and lays the groundwork for applying numadelic aesthetics to model NDEs, to help address the anxiety often associated with death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations that embrace innovative business strategies position themselves well for success. In this evolving technological landscape, businesses are increasingly focused on understanding consumer behaviors and preferences to tailor their products and services effectively. Notably, integrating neuroscience has become pivotal in achieving these goals, requiring its incorporation throughout various business processes. This comprehensive research review conducts a meta-analysis, synthesizing findings from numerous studies on applying neuroscience across diverse business domains. The primary objective is to identify innovative neuroscience approaches that can significantly revolutionize businesses. Through a meticulous literature exploration using PRISMA analysis, we discerned broad themes and further refined them into critical sub-themes. This thematic categorization enables a focused examination of each area of business research. The findings in this study uncovered vital intersections between neuroscience and business, offering valuable insights for corporations and researchers. In essence, the integration of neuroscientific techniques and artificial intelligence (AI)-based softwares into business practices is no longer optional, but a necessity for businesses to stay competitive in today's fast-paced world. This study, therefore, plays a crucial role in connecting the state-of-the-art tools and techniques in neuroscience and traditional business practices. It paves the way for a new era of business operations, where science and technology work hand in hand with commerce to create a more prosperous and sustainable future. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the importance of incorporating neuroscience techniques and newly developed AI-based softwares into business practices. This integration can yield precise and favorable outcomes, offering businesses the tools to thrive in an ever-changing market environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the development of UNESCO's Mahatma Gandhi Institute on Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), examining its record from global, national and institutional perspectives. The global perspective encompasses challenges to UNESCO's attempts to articulate a distinctive, humanistic vision in competition with other multilateral bodies. The national perspective relates to India, which hosts MGIEP, provides the bulk of its funding and exerts significant influence over its governance. Consideration is also given to the relationship between MGIEP's work and Mahatma Gandhi's ideas. Finally, the institutional perspective relates both to the author's own experience with MGIEP, and to information gained through interviews with others involved with the institute. It is argued that MGIEP's story illuminates challenges to attempts, within India and internationally, to sustain a humanistic vision of education in the face of powerful countervailing interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the debate on consciousness has been conditioned by the idea of bottom-up emergence, which has influenced scientific research and raised a few obstacles to any attempt to bridge the explanatory gap. The analysis and explanation of vision conducted according to the accredited methodologies of scientific research in terms of physical stimuli, objectivity, methods, and explanation has encountered the resistance of subjective experience. Moreover, original Gestalt research into vision has generally been merged with cognitive neuroscience. Experimental phenomenology, building on the legacy of Gestalt psychology, has obtained new results in the fields of amodal contours and color stratifications, light perception, figurality, space, so-called perceptual illusions, and subjective space and time. Notwithstanding the outcomes and the impulse given to neuroscientific analyses, the research carried out around these phenomena has never directly confronted the issue of what it means to be conscious or, in other words, the nature of consciousness as self-referentiality. Research has tended to focus on the percept. Therefore, explaining the non-detachability of parts in subjective experience risks becoming a sort of impossible achievement, similar to that of Baron Munchausen, who succeeds in escaping unharmed from this quicksand by pulling himself out by his hair. This paper addresses how to analyze seeing as an undivided whole by discussing several basic dimensions of phenomenal consciousness on an experimental basis and suggesting an alternative way of escaping this quicksand. This mind-set reversal also sheds light on the organization and dependence relationships between phenomenology, psychophysics, and neuroscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The web was conceived in 1997 with the goal of universal accessibility. However, it still presents obstacles for users with diverse abilities. Although interactions in digital environments have improved the quality of life for many people, they remain a source of limitations and frustrations, up to twice as much for users with total visual impairment, which is commonly known as blindness. This article emphasizes the need to provide designers and developers with methodologies and tools that consider users with different abilities in all stages and from the beginning of the design, redesign, and development of digital products and services on the web, collecting their needs and goals and delving into their reactions and emotions. While an approach based on persona archetypes can optimally represent each group of users with disabilities throughout website design processes, serving as a communication and empathy tool for development teams and stakeholders, it is essential that this tool considers all dimensions involved in the experiences of people with disabilities. This conceptual paper develops a methodology that provides designers with a persona tool that effectively captures the goals and emotions of these users in their interaction with the web. This methodology proposal is multidimensional and holistic. It addresses conscious and subconscious dimensions, combines traditional user experience and neuroscientific techniques, focuses on total visual impairment, the most challenging in digital environments, and makes it adaptable to other disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain tumors are one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Different types of brain tumors are known, so the choice of treatment depends directly on the type of tumor. The classification of brain tumors is very important as a complex and challenging problem in the field of image processing. Today, deep learning methods are used to classify brain tumors. In addition to being able to detect and automatically classify all types of brain tumors, these methods significantly reduce the diagnosis time and increase accuracy. In this paper, a deep learning-based model is proposed to classify brain tumors into three classes: glioma, meningioma, and pituitary tumor. In the first phase, the pre-trained network ResNet50 is used to extract features from MRI images. In the second phase, by proposing two attention mechanisms (depth-separable convolution-based channel attention mechanism and an innovative multi-head-attention mechanism), the most effective spatial and channel features are extracted and integrated. Finally, the classification phase is performed. Evaluations on the Figshare dataset showed an accuracy of 99.32%, which performs better than existing models. Therefore, the proposed model can accurately classify brain tumors and help neurologists and physicians make accurate diagnostic decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immersive Virtual Reality (I-VR) is becoming increasingly prevalent in today's society and is a technology that is being used more and more in educational contexts and whose potential for learning has been widely discussed. Taking into account the latest research in neuroscience, we want to explore the potential of using immersive virtual environments to facilitate deep learning in educational contexts that invoke the value of experience, imitation and repetition. Neurodidactics seems to offer the most interesting insights into how participation in a virtual reality session can positively affect learning processes: this suggests that it is worth focusing on the learning processes that can be generated by this emerging technology. The paper concludes with some practical suggestions for design, addressing both the didactic experience and the learning objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neuroscience of creativity is built on a tacit and near universal assumption that is false. Paradoxically, this is not contentious; once made explicit, the assumption is readily conceded as false. Psychology regards creativity as made up of many complex, multifaceted, and varied cognitive and emotional processes deployed across many different domains. But we instead think of, and treat, creativity as if it were a single, separate, cohesive, and discrete thing--as in, Einstein had it. In a straightforward extension of this fallacy, cognitive neuroscientists have looked for uniquely creative cognition that (1) is distinct from all other kinds of cognition and (2) has a proprietary neural substrate. In other words, a standalone and monolithic creativity faculty in the brain that manages only creativity and all creativity. First, this paper brings into sharp focus the nature and ubiquity of this fallacy. It then outlines the alternative theoretical position that is (1) based on fundamental neural principles and (2) predicated on taking seriously the concept of creativity as complex and diverse. Like morality or secretiveness, it holds that creativity does not exist as its own, specialized entity in the brain. Instead, its neurocognitive mechanisms are distributed, embedded, and varied; that is, creativity is everywhere and multiply realizable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an enhanced version of our previously developed bio-optical transceiver, presenting a significant advancement in nanosensor technology. Using self-assembled polymers, this nanodevice is capable of electron detection while maintaining biocompatibility, an essential feature for in vivo medical biosensors. This enhancement finds significance in the field of infectious disease control, particularly in the early detection of respiratory viruses, including high-threat pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2. The proposed system harnesses bioluminescence by converting electric signaling to visible blue light, effectively opening the path of linking nano-sized mechanisms to larger-scale systems, thereby pushing the boundaries of in vivo biomedical sensing. The performance evaluation of our technology is analytical and is based on the use of Markov chains, through which we assess the bit error probability. The calculated improvements indicate that this technology qualifies as a forerunner in terms of supporting the communication needs of smaller, safer, and more efficient manufactured sensor technologies for in vivo medical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of bioluminescence as a reporter for physiology in neuroscience is as old as the discovery of the calcium-dependent photon emission of aequorin. Over the years, luciferases have been largely replaced by fluorescent reporters, but recently, the field has seen a renaissance of bioluminescent probes, catalyzed by unique developments in imaging technology, bioengineering, and biochemistry to produce luciferases with previously unseen colors and intensity. This is not surprising as the advantages of bioluminescence make luciferases very attractive for noninvasive, longitudinal in vivo observations without the need of an excitation light source. Here, we review how the development of dedicated and specific sensor-luciferases afforded, among others, transcranial imaging of calcium and neurotransmitters, or cellular metabolites and physical quantities such as forces and membrane voltage. Further, the increased versatility and light output of luciferases have paved the way for a new field of functional bioluminescence optogenetics, in which the photon emission of the luciferase is coupled to the gating of a photosensor, e.g., a channelrhodopsin and we review how they have been successfully used to engineer synthetic neuronal connections. Finally, we provide a primer to consider important factors in setting up functional bioluminescence experiments, with a particular focus on the genetic model Caenorhabditis elegans, and discuss the leading challenges that the field needs to overcome to regain a competitive advantage over fluorescence modalities. Together, our paper caters to experienced users of bioluminescence as well as novices who would like to experience the advantages of luciferases in their own hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic discourse surrounding tourism's interdisciplinary approach has long piqued the interest of the scholarly community. More recently, attention has pivoted towards the intersection of neuroscience and neuromarketing within the realm of tourism, giving rise to the concept of "neurotourism". This emergence requires a comprehensive elucidation of the relevance of neuromarketing and neuroscience to the field of tourism, thereby addressing the imperative to bridge existing knowledge gaps. In light of this, the present paper endeavours to fulfil this objective by synthesizing global research in this domain. The study adopts an interdisciplinary approach, employing a hybrid systematic review methodology that encompasses a literature review encompassing nine key indicators and a bibliometric analysis through co-word analysis of author keywords. In total, our investigation unearthed 45 papers from Scopus, each exploring the application of neuroscience and neuromarketing theories and methods within the context of tourism. Among these, three papers delve into the concept of neurotourism. In this paper, we underscore the deep connection between neuroscience, neuroscientific methodologies, and neuromarketing within the realm of tourism research. The outcomes of this research significantly enhance our comprehension of the current state of neurotourism research, revealing both existing voids and emerging areas of interest. Furthermore, this study introduces a pioneering methodological approach, fusing Scival topic prominence and hybrid systematic review techniques into bibliometric analysis. Ultimately, our findings illuminate a notable research lacuna, presenting a fertile terrain for prospective investigations. Additionally, we deliberate on current trends and propose directions for future research within the neurotourism landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, findings from research in neuroscience of morality will be reviewed to consider the purposes of moral education. Particularly, I will focus on two main themes in neuroscience, novel neuroimaging and experimental investigations, and Bayesian learning mechanism. First, I will examine how neuroimaging and experimental studies contributed to our understanding of psychological mechanisms associated with moral functioning while addressing methodological concerns. Second, Bayesian learning mechanism will be introduced to acquire insights about how moral learning occurs in human brains. Based on the reviewed neuroscientific research on morality, I will examine how evidence can support the model of moral education proposed by virtue ethics, Neo-Aristotelian moral philosophy in particular. Particularly, two main aims of virtue ethics-based moral education, the habituation of virtues and the cultivation of phronesis, will be discussed as the important purposes of moral education based on neuroscientific evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies of the human dopamine transporter reveal how it binds to molecules such as dopamine and cocaine. Dopamine imbalances underlie some brain conditions and these data will aid targeted drug design.Insights into how molecules bind to the human dopamine transporter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the domain of radiological diagnostics, accurately detecting and classifying brain tumors from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans presents significant challenges, primarily due to the complex and diverse manifestations of tumors in these scans. In this paper, a convolutional-block-based architecture has been proposed for the detection of multiclass brain tumors using MRI scans. Leveraging the strengths of CNNs, our proposed framework demonstrates robustness and efficiency in distinguishing between different tumor types. Extensive evaluations on three diverse datasets underscore the model's exceptional diagnostic accuracy, with an average accuracy rate of 97.52%, precision of 97.63%, recall of 97.18%, specificity of 98.32%, and F1-score of 97.36%. These results outperform contemporary methods, including state-of-the-art (SOTA) models such as VGG16, VGG19, MobileNet, EfficientNet, ResNet50, Xception, and DenseNet121. Furthermore, its adaptability across different MRI modalities underlines its potential for broad clinical application, offering a significant advancement in the field of radiological diagnostics and brain tumor detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we situate the act of listening in the context of children's rights whilst highlighting the benefits of this practice on the psychological and neurological development of children. After unpacking the concept of listening and the role it plays in adult-child communication, we share the results of a scoping review where we examined neuroscientific studies pointing to the benefits of listening and what relevance such evidence has for children's rights implementation. As such, this paper shows that when adults listen to children in the context of safe, nurturing, and empathic interactions, children draw tangible benefits to many areas of their development. We conclude proposing enhancing adults' capacity for listening as a strategy to contribute to the fulfillment of the rights of children of all ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present motivation and practical steps necessary to find parameter estimates of joint models of behavior and neural electrophysiological data. This tutorial is written for researchers wishing to build joint models of human behavior and scalp and intracranial electroencephalographic (EEG) or magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data, and more specifically those researchers who seek to understand human cognition. Although these techniques could easily be applied to animal models, the focus of this tutorial is on human participants. Joint modeling of M/EEG and behavior requires some knowledge of existing computational and cognitive theories, M/EEG artifact correction, M/EEG analysis techniques, cognitive modeling, and programming for statistical modeling implementation. This paper seeks to give an introduction to these techniques as they apply to estimating parameters from neurocognitive models of M/EEG and human behavior, and to evaluate model results and compare models. Due to our research and knowledge on the subject matter, our examples in this paper will focus on testing specific hypotheses in human decision-making theory. However, most of the motivation and discussion of this paper applies across many modeling procedures and applications. We provide Python (and linked R) code examples in the tutorial and appendix. Readers are encouraged to try the exercises at the end of the document.

The field is taking a leap forward thanks to innovative technologies, such as artificial intelligence. Researchers must improve consent procedures and public involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychodynamic psychotherapy does not feature in current treatment guidelines for attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the United Kingdom. However, there is some psychoanalytic understanding of the disorder, which is corroborated in current neuroscientific theory, and supports clinicians in thinking beyond the behaviourally biased diagnosis and treatment models. One of the core features of ADHD is distortions in chronoception. This clinical paper therefore explores the psychoanalytic and neuroscientific theories of time perception as a way of exploring a discrete element of the complex idea of executive functioning more generally. It supports therapists approaching such executive dysfunction and to reconsider the treatment guidelines. A case example is used to explore how a transference‐, affect‐ and relationally‐focussed therapy can effect lasting change for people with ADHD in a way that behavioural and medication approaches do not. It is argued that such an intervention can improve oscillatory attention between subjective‐ and objective‐time and increase the capacity to self‐contain emotions. This brings patients into alignment with reality and restarts their psychic development towards themselves, others, the parental couple and grieving, which stalled in infancy. The internalised schema of the 50‐minute therapy session also provides a frame of reference for future tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clonal selection theory (CST) is the centrepiece of the current paradigm used to explain immune recognition and memory. Throughout the past decades, the original CST had been expanded and modified to explain new experimental evidences since its original publication by Burnet. This gave origin to new paradigms that govern experimental immunology nowadays, such as the associative recognition of antigen model and the stranger/danger signal model. However, these new theories also do not fully explain experimental findings such as natural autoimmune immunoglobulins, idiotypic networks, low and high dose tolerance, and dual‐receptor T and B cells. To make sense of these empirical data, some authors have been trying to change the paradigm of immune cognition using a systemic approach, analogies with brain processing and concepts from second‐order cybernetics. In the present paper, we review the CST and some of the theories/hypotheses derived from it, focusing on immune recognition. We point out their main weaknesses and highlight arguments made by their opponents and believers. We conclude that, until now, none of the proposed theories can fully explain the totality of immune phenomena and that a theory of everything is needed in immunology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The good regulator theorem and the internal model principle are sometimes cited as mathematical proofs that an agent needs an internal model of the world in order to have an optimal policy. However, these principles rely on a definition of “internal model” that is far too permissive, applying even to cases of systems that do not use an internal model. As a result, these principles do not provide evidence (let alone a proof) that internal models are necessary. The paper also diagnoses what is missing in the GRT and IMP definitions of internal model, which is that models need to make predictions that represent variables in the target system (and these representations need to be usable by an agent so as to guide behavior). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a renewed interest in the clinical applications of psychedelics, with increasing use for a variety of psychiatric conditions. Individuals often describe psychedelic sessions as among the most significant experiences in their lives, emphasising the sense of awe, connectedness, and spiritual transformation they undergo. They can also feel they are experiencing truth and becoming aware of reality in deeper ways than ever before. As elusive as it is inescapable, Wilfred Bion’s ‘O’ denotes contact with absolute truth, approachable through an intuitive awareness of reality that goes beyond cognitive strategies seeking to ‘know’. The state of mind cultivated to enter into such realms, to reach O, and indeed to achieve mystical experiences under psychedelics, is one of surrender and transcendence of a cognitively weighted, sensorially bound interfacing with reality. This paper outlines the neurophenomenology of psychedelic use, the concept of O, and their clinical significance vis-à-vis contemporary psychodynamic thinking. As our understanding deepens regarding the changes associated with use of psychedelics, we can draw parallels between acquisition of insight and subsequent reshaping of one’s templates and perspectives taking place through use of these drugs, and the process that occurs over the course of a psychoanalysis or psychodynamic therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial introducing a collection of articles that explore the intersection of cultural psychology and neuroscience. The articles cover various topics, such as the impact of digital technologies on brain function, the role of culture in donation behavior, and the use of machine learning to predict cognitive functions. The authors emphasize the importance of understanding cross-cultural differences in cognition and perception in a rapidly changing world. The aim of this research topic is to provide new insights and theoretical frameworks for understanding these differences in a post-pandemic world. [Extracted from the article]

Project Management is one of the main supply chains today. The project manager's responsibility is to develop a project team but he is focused on the application of methods and tools and doesn't take into consideration the fact that the human factor has a 70% impact on project success. On the other hand, Neuroleadership is a powerful tool that can be used by Project Management Professionals to understand better the human factors that impact on the project lifecycle. The purpose of that paper is to explore the application of the RELISH Model as team development tool by Project Managers in Bulgaria. The research is done among project management professionals in Bulgaria, project managers and project team members. The survey method with questions for quantitative analysis is used and the primary data is obtained directly from the respondents by a web-based questionnaire created in Google Forms and distributed by the Researcher's LinkedIn and Facebook personal profiles, and PMI Bulgaria Chapter communication channels. This study reports Seeing the facts as the most satisfied need with mean 3.8, followed by Leading the pack (3.76) and Hope for the future (3.66). Relatedness and Interpersonal Connection means are almost equal around 3.5. Expression is the need with the lowest mean level of 3.33. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active neurons can stimulate the clearance of their own metabolic waste by driving changes to ion gradients in the surrounding fluid and by promoting the pulsation of nearby blood vessels.Neurons stimulate the brain's waste disposal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The initial version of the article by Clithero, Karmarkar, Nave, and Plassmann (Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2024) was critiqued by open comments from a small group of scholars. Their suggestions encouraged the authors to clarify challenging relationships between brain processes and emotions, beliefs, and actions. The revision expanded fMRI and EEG to include measures of vision, facial expression, breathing, heart rhythms, and blood chemistry. The paper provides multiple avenues of joint work between neurological and psychological scholars. The comments below reflect different reactions to the final article. Wes Hutchinson acknowledges that neuroscience insights complement cognitive measures that generate explicit measures of thought, emotion, or preferences, but he warns that repeated measures over time are problematic for both types of measurement, and the inherent complexity of brain–behavior relationships is often underestimated. With both orientations, understanding the functioning of human behavior is akin to making sense of an orchestra, where the interactive blending of different instruments and musicians reflects a complex activity that generates sounds, emotions, and stories. Both consumer neuroscientists and psychologists need to broaden their paradigmatic approaches with bodily measures and advanced psychological procedures to overcome challenges to joint progress. Martin Reiman asserts that despite difficulties with measures that have different levels of abstraction or velocity, research has provided remarkable associations between brain activity and consumer behavior. Effective studies merging brain and behavior can effectively proceed with studies that differ in two dimensions: first, by altering the number of variables, and second, by shifting whether the scientific paradigm is inductive or deductive. In its simple form, the Excavation path explores brain activity when a person is exposed to specific statements or emotions. In its most challenging form, Integrative Studies generate predictions from theories that test the convergent validity of divergent measures and leverage skills from different researchers. Studies reflecting high levels on one dimension but low levels on the other can also provide fruitful research opportunities. Brian Knutson, like Reimann, counters the idea that consumer psychology has not lived up to its promises. He references studies showing that activity from very specific areas of the brain reliably predicts choices better than explicit ratings or choices. Such research generates deductions from increasingly precise neural maps that enable confirmation of theory. That said, he acknowledges that consumer neuroscience is not able to identify a brain button that would alter choice through manipulated neurostimulation. However, since human brains are similar across people, the depth of neural insights that are consistent across a small sample of 40 respondents may generate greater insights than conventional marketing research with 2000 respondents. The cost of neuroscience will further decrease with gains in reliability, validity, and generalizability, particularly if augmented with bodily measures. He acknowledges that the theoretical side has developed more slowly than applications, particularly applications that are supported by sponsoring organizations more satisfied with local insights than general models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper aimed to analyze quantitatively the trends of four major schools of thought in scientific Psychology (neuroscience, cognitivism, behaviorism, psychoanalysis) and their intersections, covering the period from 1979 to 2020. We utilized a rigorous methodology across three distinct sources: Mainstream Psychology (MP), Highly Influential Journal (HIJ), and non-English papers (NEP). Our findings align with previous research in two aspects: psychoanalysis and behaviorism have significantly declined, cognitivism remains a prominent trend. However, we deviate from prior studies by recognizing that neuroscience may be considered the most influential trend and that trends exhibit less linearity than previously assumed. We also acknowledge the significance of NEP, which manifest an independent pattern as compared to the other sources and that may reveal what happens in the "periphery" of Psychology. It is noteworthy that NEP demonstrated a still lively contribution from psychoanalysis. Our study also highlights the insularity and lack of cross-fertilization among psychological subdisciplines, despite the widespread claims to the contrary. It eventually supports the inference that scientific Psychology is a non-paradigmatic or pre-paradigmatic discipline, pointing out the dominance of applied psychology and confuting the notion of overarching "grand theories". • Methodological Advancement : The paper introduces an improved methodology for analyzing trends in four major schools of thought in psychology. • Dominance of Neuroscience : Our findings suggest that neuroscience can be considered the most influential trend in scientific psychology. • Decline in Psychoanalysis and Behaviorism : Psychoanalysis and behaviorism exhibit significant declines in prominence. • Prominence of Cognitivism : Cognitivism continues to maintain a prominent position in psychology. • Stability and Dispersion : Trends in psychology exhibit more stability and dispersion than previously assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Would the neuroscientist who does not feel pain know what he is studying? In this paper, the author analyzes the subjective ontology of conscious mental states and its origin – the subject’s first-person perspective. The ontology of the mental is irreducibly first-person ontology. In the thought experiment with neuroscientist Peter, it will be shown that a comprehensive science of consciousness requires a combined approach, as the phenomena of neuroscience are internally defined. The asymmetry between first-person and third-person perspectives regarding mental states will be strongly emphasized. The third part of the paper will offer a perspectival approach to the hard problem of consciousness. In conclusion, a truly objective science of subjectivity, a genuine science of consciousness, would have to engage scientifically with the subject’s egocentric first-person perspective.

This special issue attempts to integrate personality, psychopathology, and neuroscience as means to improve understanding of specific traits and trait structures in humans. The key strategy is to dive into comparative research using a range of species to provide simple models. This strategy has, as its foundation, the fact that the most basic functions, and their supporting neural systems, are highly conserved in evolution. The papers collected in the issue show that, from fish, through rats, to primates, the homologies in brain systems and underlying functions (despite species-specific forms of expression) allow simpler cases to provide insights into the neurobiology behind more complex ones including human. Our introductory editorial paper to this special issue took a bottom-up approach, starting with the genetics of conserved brain systems and working up to cognition. Here, we deconstruct the different aspects of personality, progressing from more complex ones in primates to least complex in fish. With the primate section, we summarize papers that discuss the factors that contribute to sociability in primates and how they apply to healthy and pathological human personality traits. In the rat section, the focus is driven by psychopathology and the way that “high” strains selected for extreme behaviors can illuminate the neurobiology of motivated responses to environmental cues. The section on fish summarizes papers that look into the most fundamental emotional reactions to the environment that are governed by primitive and conserved brain structures. This raises metatheoretical questions on the nature of traits and to a section that asks “which animals have personalities.” We believe that the issue as a whole provides a nuanced answer to this question and shines a new, comparative, light on the interpretation of personality structure and the effects on it of evolution.

Near-death experiences (NDEs) and psychedelic drug experiences (YDEs) enable access to dimensions of non-ordinary sensation, perception, and insight beyond typical day-to-day phenomenology. Both are associated with a dissolution of conventional spatio-temporal conceptual distinctions, and a corresponding sense of connectedness and unity. Moreover, NDEs and YDEs have shown a remarkable ability to reduce the anxiety that people associate with death. In two recent papers, we showed that multi-person virtual reality experiences (VREs) designed within the ‘numadelic’ aesthetic (where bodies are represented as light energy rather than material objects) can elicit psychometric results comparable to YDEs. It nevertheless remains an open question why numadelic aesthetics achieve the observed results, especially given that the vast majority of VREs represent bodies as typically perceived in the ‘real-world’. This article describes the origins of the numadelic aesthetic from subjective accounts of NDE phenomenology, and attempts to unravel mechanistic aspects of the numadelic aesthetic by embedding it within a more general theoretical framework. Specifically, we elaborate a 2-axis schematic grounded in predictive coding models of cognition and matter-energy ideas from physics. One axis tracks ‘structural specificity’, and the other tracks ‘symbolic rigidity’. The majority of VREs, which emphasize photorealistic fidelity to content derived from ‘day-to-day’ phenomenology, are characterized by high structural specificity and high symbolic rigidity. Such approaches collapse imaginative potential into a limited low-entropy space of ‘exogenous’ possibility, unlike the high-entropy brain states associated with YDEs. In contrast, aesthetic domains characterized by low structural specificity and low symbolic rigidity are less concerned with fidelity to phenomenological priors, offering an expansive, ‘uncollapsed’ high-entropy possibility space into which participants can project meaning and corresponding endogenous insights can arise (e.g., as occurs in NDEs and YDEs). Situated within this theoretical framing, the numadelic aesthetic emerges as a practical example of an un-collapsed approach to representation, helping to explain the experimental observations within previous papers. Moreover, the theoretical framing suggests various experimental tests, and lays the groundwork for applying numadelic aesthetics to model NDEs, to help address the anxiety often associated with death.

Studies reveal how neuronal populations in the fruit fly brain work together to compare the direction of a goal with the direction that the fly is facing, and convert this into a signal that steers the fly towards its target.Fly brains compare directional information while steering to a goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new wave of research is unpicking the relationship between cancer and neurons — and looking for ways to stop the crosstalk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the socialization process in family and school contexts, children display a wide variety of social behaviors with parents and peers. Yet the developmental trajectory, the predictors and outcomes, and the neural basis of those social behaviors are largely under-investigated. To address these problems, we invited experts in the field to submit their latest findings to tell this story. The current Special Issue is a collection of papers highlighting the complexity for various social behaviors, with a focus on the complex mechanisms that link social behaviors to child socio-emotional adjustment and mediating/moderating factors among the associations. Thirteen papers illustrate empirical work in the field, two papers present new methodological concerns, and one paper that provides a comprehensive review of the literature.

Neural activity in human brains rapidly restructures to reflect hidden relationships needed to adapt to a changing environment. Surprisingly, trial-and-error learning and verbal instruction induce similar changes.Mental maps of associated items are rapidly assembled by the human brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neuroscience of volition is an emerging subfield of the brain sciences, with hundreds of papers on the role of consciousness in action formation published each year. This makes the state-of-the-art in the discipline poorly accessible to newcomers and difficult to follow even for experts in the field. Here we provide a comprehensive summary of research in this field since its inception that will be useful to both groups. We also discuss important ideas that have received little coverage in the literature so far. We systematically reviewed a set of 2220 publications, with detailed consideration of almost 500 of the most relevant papers. We provide a thorough introduction to the seminal work of Benjamin Libet from the 1960s to 1980s. We also discuss common criticisms of Libet's method, including temporal introspection, the interpretation of the assumed physiological correlates of volition, and various conceptual issues. We conclude with recent advances and potential future directions in the field, highlighting modern methodological approaches to volition, as well as important recent findings. • We systematically reviewed 2220 papers related to the neuroscience of volition. • We detail Libet's work including the seminal "free will" experiments. • We discuss and categorize the extensive criticisms of Libet's experiments. • We present key philosophical issues relevant to the neuroscience of volition. • We examine contemporary techniques, methods, and findings related to volition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To conceptualise biological and mental processes, often a dynamical systems perspective is suggested. In addition to dynamics, the structure of the contextual makeup or world configuration (of an organism or brain) plays a crucial role too, as well as adaptivity of the processes. This paper provides a conceptual perspective where the structure, dynamics, and adaptivity of these processes are distinguished and related to each other via adaptive dynamical systems. Moreover, it is shown how networks can be used to represent this conceptual perspective. Here an adaptive dynamical system of any order of adaptivity can be covered where any level can exert control over the level below. The approach is illustrated by case studies for higher-order adaptive evolutionary processes. One of these case studies shows a fifth-order adaptive dynamical system that models how due to bad environmental influences at a young age, epigenetic effects can lead to a lifelong mental disorder.

This paper tests the similarity in neural responses across repeated words and morphosyntactic features both within and between two languages. Prior work using priming has revealed robust cross-linguistic lexical effects and effects for shared grammatical form, such as argument structure; these methods have been less successful when applied to morphosyntactic features. Combining machine-learning based neural decoding with EEG data collected from Korean-English bilinguals we, first, replicate prior work showing successful classification of lexical items from EEG signals. We then extend this to demonstrate successful classification of morphosyntactic features of number and tense. Finally, we find that EEG decoding in one language does not successfully generalize to another, even when temporal differences are considered. Taken together, these results point to stable EEG representations for lexical items and morphosyntactic features, but suggest that these representations are different between the two languages investigated here.

Google scientists have modelled a fragment of the human brain at nanoscale resolution, revealing cells with previously undiscovered features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single gene in astrocytes can constrain repetitive behaviours, indicating that these cells are regulators of behavioural disruption in conditions such as Huntington’s disease and obsessive–compulsive disorder.Astrocytes temper neuronal excitability to control repetitive behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]