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Sexual motivation (SM) is a physiological state generated by the adequate processing of sexually-relevant stimuli. Induction and maintenance of this state requires the coordinated functioning of various cortical and subcortical areas. The medial prefrontal (mPFC, the prelimbic area in rats) and posterior parietal cortices (pPC) form an attentional network involved in processing incentive stimuli. Given that the sexual incentive stimuli emitted by a receptive female are highly relevant for the male rat, it is probable that these cortices interact functionally in processing the sexual stimuli that produce SM. Thus, the objective of this study was to characterize the cortical activation and degree of electroencephalographic coupling (coherence, hEEG) between the mPFC and pPC during a sexually-motivated state in male rats. Only rats that reached this state after 1 intromission prior to EEG recording, presented a higher frequency and duration of nose pokes, and showed higher prefronto-parietal activation and EEG synchronization while close to an inaccessible receptive female. Results show that both cortices are activated and that they are functionally coupled during the processing of sexually-relevant stimuli mainly in the right hemisphere, a key condition for inducing SM. We conclude that the attentional network made up of the prefrontal and parietal cortices participates in the adequate attention to, and processing of, sexual incentive stimuli and, hence, in inducing SM in male rats., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None, (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Solving logical-mathematical word problems is a complex task that requires numerous cognitive operations, including comprehension, reasoning, and calculation. These abilities have been associated with activation of the parietal, temporal, and prefrontal cortices. It has been suggested that the reasoning involved in solving logical-mathematical problems requires the coordinated functionality of all these cortical areas. In this study was evaluated the activation and electroencephalographic (EEG) correlation of the prefrontal, temporal, and parietal regions in young men while solving logical-mathematical word problems with two degrees of difficulty: simple and complex. During the solving of complex problems, higher absolute power and EEG correlation of the alpha and fast bands between the left frontal and parietal cortices were observed. A temporal deactivation and functional decoupling of the right parietal-temporal cortices also were obtained. Solving complex problems probably require activation of a left prefrontal-parietal circuit to maintain and manipulate multiple pieces of information. The temporal deactivation and decreased parietal-temporal correlation could be associated to text processing and suppression of the content-dependent reasoning to focus cognitive resources on the mathematical reasoning. Together, these findings support a pivotal role for the left prefrontal and parietal cortices in mathematical reasoning and of the temporal regions in text processing required to understand and solve written mathematical problems.

Pregnancy is a dynamic process during which significant cognitive changes take place. It has been suggested that working memory (WM) is affected during gestation as a result of functional changes among cortical areas, such as the prefrontal and parietal cortices. This study examined cortical electroencephalographic correlations (rEEG) during performance of WM tasks in each trimester of pregnancy. Forty women were divided into 4 groups: first (T1), second (T2), and third (T3) trimester of pregnancy, and a control group of non-pregnant women. Electroencephalographic activity (EEG) was recorded from the frontopolar, dorsolateral and parietal cortices during performance of one verbal and one visuospatial working memory task. Only groups T2 and T3 showed increased onset latency in the visuospatial WM. During the verbal WM task, the T1 group showed a higher correlation between dorsolateral areas in the theta and alpha bands, as well as a lower left prefrontal-parietal correlation in the gamma band. During the visuospatial WM task, the T1 and T3 groups showed a higher left EEG correlation in the delta and alpha1 bands, whereas T2 presented a higher right prefrontal-parietal correlation in the gamma band. Although pregnancy had only a subtle effect on the visuospatial WM task, these different patterns of cortical synchronization in each trimester of pregnancy could represent adaptive mechanisms that enabled the pregnant women to focus their attention and use more cognitive resources and so adequately solve the WM tasks., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Potential age differences in the electroencephalographic (EEG) correlation (r) between the prefrontal and parietal cortices during performance of the Tower of Hanoi task were studied. In three groups of healthy males (G1, 11-13; G2, 18-20, and G3, 26-30, years of age) EEGs were recorded at baseline and during performance of the Tower of Hanoi task. The parameters of the task showed no significant differences among groups, though the majority of younger subjects failed to complete it. The G1 group showed increases only in the interparietal r. The G2 group showed an increased interhemispheric and intrahemispheric r in almost all frequency bands, while the r in G3 increased only in selected frequency bands in the right hemisphere. These findings demonstrate that the functional coupling between these two cortices shows a characteristic pattern during performance of the Hanoi task that, while specific to each age group, was not associated with the successful performance of the task., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The effects of low-dose red wine on cortical electroencephalogram (EEG) and the functional coupling between the frontal and parietal cortices during the first minutes after ingestion were studied. In a first experiment, 38 male volunteers participated in a wine/water challenge protocol in which each subject served as his own control. Wine-induced EEG changes appeared immediately after ingestion and continued for 40 min. These changes were characterized by an increase in the absolute power (AP) and relative power (RP) of fast frequencies (alpha1, alpha2, beta1 and beta2), a decrease of low frequencies (delta and theta) and a specific decrease in the degree of coupling between cortices at 20 min after wine ingestion. To determine if EEG changes were produced by the alcohol in the red wine, in a second experiment, 24 male volunteers participated in an independent wine/placebo group protocol. At 20 min post-ingestion, the red wine group showed higher power in the alpha band, lower RP of low frequencies and decreased correlation, as compared to the placebo group. These findings show that low-dose red wine produces a rapid cortical activation and decreased synchronization between the prefrontal and parietal areas, which could be associated with aroused states or altered cognitive processes, as has been described in other studies., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Breastfeeding is recognized worldwide as the best option for infant feeding. Expressing breast milk is an alternative for mothers to provide their infants all the benefits of maternal milk. During breast milk expression, mothers receive a distinct kind of sensory stimulation, because there is no direct bodily or affective interaction with their infants, many women report feeling isolated, generating a love-hate relation with pumping, and even low levels of satisfaction while expressing breast milk. While it is well known that the prefrontal, parietal, and temporal cortices play important roles in the emotional and cognitive processing of maternal stimuli, knowledge about how these cortical areas function during breastfeeding is lacking. This study was designed to characterize EEG activity in the prefrontal and parietal cortices and the affective scores of primiparous breastfeeding mothers during two conditions of milk expression: breast milk expression and direct breastfeeding. Participants reported higher valence and arousal and a pleasant state during direct breastfeeding. In the direct breastfeeding condition, both prefrontal areas showed a higher absolute power (AP) of the slow bands, with a lower AP of the alpha band in the parietal cortex. A lower correlation between frontopolar and dorsolateral areas with a higher correlation between prefrontal and parietal cortices was obtained mainly in the right hemisphere. This EEG activity could be linked to an internal state of focused attention and, simultaneously, open monitoring of the environment that suggests an integration of the motive-emotional and cognitive processes necessary for adequate mother-baby interaction during direct breastfeeding. • During direct breastfeeding, prefrontal areas showed higher absolute power in the slow bands. • EEG activity during direct breastfeeding could be related to a motivational-cognitive state. • Direct breastfeeding is a pleasurable state for the mother. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]