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Three-dimensional multiple object tracking (3D-MOT) is a perceptual-cognitive training system based on a 3D virtual environment. This is the first study to examine the effects of 3D-MOT training on attention, working memory, and visual information processing speed as well as using functional brain imaging on a normative population. Twenty university-aged students were recruited and divided into a training (NT) and nonactive control (CON) group. Cognitive functions were assessed using neuropsychological tests, and correlates of brain functions were assessed using quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG). Results indicate that 10 sessions of 3D-MOT training can enhance attention, visual information processing speed, and working memory, and also leads to quantifiable changes in resting-state neuroelectric brain function.

During language comprehension, listeners often anticipate upcoming information. This can draw listeners’ overt attention to visually presented objects before the objects are referred to. We investigated to what extent the anticipatory mechanisms involved in such language-mediated attention rely on specific verbal factors and on processes shared with other domains of cognition. Participants listened to sentences ending in a highly predictable word (e.g., “In 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon”) while viewing displays containing three unrelated distractor objects and a critical object, which was either the target object (e.g., a moon), an object with a similar shape (e.g., a tomato), or an unrelated control object (e.g., rice). Language-mediated anticipatory eye movements were observed to targets and to shape competitors. Importantly, looks to the shape competitor were systematically related to individual differences in anticipatory attention, as indexed by a spatial cueing task: Participants whose responses were most strongly facilitated by predictive arrow cues also showed the strongest effects of predictive language input on their eye movements. By contrast, looks to the target were related to individual differences in vocabulary size and verbal fluency. The results suggest that verbal and nonverbal factors contribute to different types of language-mediated eye movements. The findings are consistent with multiple-mechanism accounts of predictive language processing.

Background Genetic factors have been suggested to affect the efficacy of working memory training. However, few studies have attempted to identify the relevant genes. Methods In this study, we first performed a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to identify brain regions that were specifically affected by working memory training. Sixty undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either the adaptive training group (N = 30) or the active control group (N = 30). Both groups were trained for 20 sessions during 4 weeks and received fMRI scans before and after the training. Afterward, we combined the data from the 30 participants in the RCT study who received adaptive training with data from 71 additional participants who also received the same adaptive training but were not part of the RCT study (total N = 101) to test the contribution of the COMT Val158/108Met polymorphism to the interindividual difference in the training effect within the identified brain regions. Results In the RCT study, we found that the adaptive training significantly decreased brain activation in the left prefrontal cortex (TFCE‐FWE corrected p = .030). In the genetic study, we found that compared with the Val allele homozygotes, the Met allele carriers' brain activation decreased more after the training at the left prefrontal cortex (TFCE‐FWE corrected p = .025). Conclusions This study provided evidence for the neural effect of a visual–spatial span training and suggested that genetic factors such as the COMT Val158/108Met polymorphism may have to be considered in future studies of such training. The adaptive spatial span training decreased brain activation in the prefrontal and parietal cortex. The COMT Val158Met polymorphism modulated the left frontal plasticity induced by training.

Many people who have suffered a stroke will experience sensorimotor impairments that disrupt their performance of motor skills, including balance and gait. Furthermore, stroke-induced brain damage can Result in visual disorders that may significantly impact performance of normal daily activities. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effects, on balance, of visual-spatial training as an add-on intervention to conventional neurorehabilitation in patients with subacute stroke without neglect; secondarily, it aimed to assess the effects of this training on activities of daily living. Thirty inpatients (17 M, age: 57.3±12.9 years) with a diagnosis of subacute stroke (< 180 days) were enrolled in this study and randomized into two groups: the visual-spatial training group and a control group. All patients were evaluated, using the Tinetti Balance and Gait Scale (TBG), the Berg Balance Scale, computerized posturography, and the Barthel Index (BI), both before (T0) and after (T1) four weeks of training sessions. In addition to conventional neurorehabilitation, each group performed a total of twelve 20-minute rehabilitation sessions (3 times/week for 4 weeks). Significant TIME x GROUP interactions were recorded in the experimental group with respect to the control group for the TBG score [F (1,18) =15.59; p = 0.0004] and BI score [F (1,28) =6.35; p = 0.01]. Both groups recorded non-significant improvements on the instrumental postural assessment. These data suggest that visualspatial training as an add-on intervention to conventional neurorehabilitation could be an effective complementary strategy to improve balance and activities of daily living.

Search asymmetry is characterized by the detection of a feature-present target amidst feature-absent distractors being efficient and unaffected by the number of distractors, whereas detection of a feature-absent target amidst feature-present distractors is typically inefficient and affected by the number of distractors. Although studies have attempted to investigate this phenomenon with infants (e.g., Adler, Inslicht, Rovee-Collier, & Gerhardstein in Infant Behavioral Development, 21, 253–272, 1998 ; Colombo, Mitchell, Coldren, & Atwater in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 19 , 98–109, 1990 ), due to methodological limitations, their findings have been unable to definitively establish the development of visual search mechanisms in infants. The present study assessed eye movements as a means to examine an asymmetry in responding to feature-present versus feature-absent targets in 3-month-olds, relative to adults. Saccade latencies to localize a target (or a distractor, as in the homogeneous conditions) were measured as infants and adults randomly viewed feature-present (R among Ps), feature-absent (P among Rs), and homogeneous (either all Rs or all Ps) arrays at set sizes of 1, 3, 5, and 8. Results indicated that neither infants’ nor adults’ saccade latencies to localize the target in the feature-present arrays were affected by increasing set sizes, suggesting that localization of the target was efficient. In contrast, saccade latencies to localize the target in the feature-absent arrays increased with increasing set sizes for both infants and adults, suggesting an inefficient localization. These findings indicate that infants exhibit an asymmetry consistent with that found with adults, providing support for functional bottom-up selective attention mechanisms in early infancy.

A major role of vision is to guide navigation, and navigation is strongly driven by vision 1 – 4 . Indeed, the brain’s visual and navigational systems are known to interact 5 , 6 , and signals related to position in the environment have been suggested to appear as early as in the visual cortex 6 , 7 . Here, to establish the nature of these signals, we recorded in the primary visual cortex (V1) and hippocampal area CA1 while mice traversed a corridor in virtual reality. The corridor contained identical visual landmarks in two positions, so that a purely visual neuron would respond similarly at those positions. Most V1 neurons, however, responded solely or more strongly to the landmarks in one position rather than the other. This modulation of visual responses by spatial location was not explained by factors such as running speed. To assess whether the modulation is related to navigational signals and to the animal’s subjective estimate of position, we trained the mice to lick for a water reward upon reaching a reward zone in the corridor. Neuronal populations in both CA1 and V1 encoded the animal’s position along the corridor, and the errors in their representations were correlated. Moreover, both representations reflected the animal’s subjective estimate of position, inferred from the animal’s licks, better than its actual position. When animals licked in a given location—whether correctly or incorrectly—neural populations in both V1 and CA1 placed the animal in the reward zone. We conclude that visual responses in V1 are controlled by navigational signals, which are coherent with those encoded in hippocampus and reflect the animal’s subjective position. The presence of such navigational signals as early as a primary sensory area suggests that they permeate sensory processing in the cortex. When running through a virtual reality corridor, a mouse’s position is represented in both the hippocampus (as expected) and the primary visual cortex, for places that are visually identical.

Topological networks lie at the heart of our cities and social milieu. However, it remains unclear how and when the brain processes topological structures to guide future behaviour during everyday life. Using fMRI in humans and a simulation of London (UK), here we show that, specifically when new streets are entered during navigation of the city, right posterior hippocampal activity indexes the change in the number of local topological connections available for future travel and right anterior hippocampal activity reflects global properties of the street entered. When forced detours require re-planning of the route to the goal, bilateral inferior lateral prefrontal activity scales with the planning demands of a breadth-first search of future paths. These results help shape models of how hippocampal and prefrontal regions support navigation, planning and future simulation. The hippocampus is known to support navigation, but how it processes possible paths to aid navigation is unknown. Here Javadi et al . show that entering streets drives hippocampal activity corresponding to the number of future paths, and that prefrontal activity corresponds to path-planning demands.

Hippocampal place cells are spatially tuned neurons that serve as elements of a ‘cognitive map’ in the mammalian brain 1 . To detect the animal’s location, place cells are thought to rely upon two interacting mechanisms: sensing the position of the animal relative to familiar landmarks 2 , 3 and measuring the distance and direction that the animal has travelled from previously occupied locations 4 – 7 . The latter mechanism—known as path integration—requires a finely tuned gain factor that relates the animal’s self-movement to the updating of position on the internal cognitive map, as well as external landmarks to correct the positional error that accumulates 8 , 9 . Models of hippocampal place cells and entorhinal grid cells based on path integration treat the path-integration gain as a constant 9 – 14 , but behavioural evidence in humans suggests that the gain is modifiable 15 . Here we show, using physiological evidence from rat hippocampal place cells, that the path-integration gain is a highly plastic variable that can be altered by persistent conflict between self-motion cues and feedback from external landmarks. In an augmented-reality system, visual landmarks were moved in proportion to the movement of a rat on a circular track, creating continuous conflict with path integration. Sustained exposure to this cue conflict resulted in predictable and prolonged recalibration of the path-integration gain, as estimated from the place cells after the landmarks were turned off. We propose that this rapid plasticity keeps the positional update in register with the movement of the rat in the external world over behavioural timescales. These results also demonstrate that visual landmarks not only provide a signal to correct cumulative error in the path-integration system 4 , 8 , 16 – 19 , but also rapidly fine-tune the integration computation itself. Evidence from hippocampal place cells shows that path-integration gain, previously thought to be a constant factor in the computation of location, is flexible and can be rapidly fine-tuned.

According to the ATOM (A Theory Of Magnitude), formulated by Walsh more than fifteen years ago, there is a general system of magnitude in the brain that comprises regions, such as the parietal cortex, shared by space, time and other magnitudes. The present meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies used the Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) method in order to determine the set of regions commonly activated in space and time processing and to establish the neural activations specific to each magnitude domain. Following PRISMA guidelines, we included in the analysis a total of 112 and 114 experiments, exploring space and time processing, respectively. We clearly identified the presence of a system of brain regions commonly recruited in both space and time that includes: bilateral insula, the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), the right frontal operculum and the intraparietal sulci. These regions might be the best candidates to form the core magnitude neural system. Surprisingly, along each of these regions but the insula, ALE values progressed in a cortical gradient from time to space. The SMA exhibited an anterior-posterior gradient, with space activating more-anterior regions (i.e., pre-SMA) and time activating more-posterior regions (i.e., SMA-proper). Frontal and parietal regions showed a dorsal-ventral gradient: space is mediated by dorsal frontal and parietal regions, and time recruits ventral frontal and parietal regions. Our study supports but also expands the ATOM theory. Therefore, we here re-named it the ‘GradiATOM’ theory (Gradient Theory of Magnitude), proposing that gradient organization can facilitate the transformations and integrations of magnitude representations by allowing space- and time-related neural populations to interact with each other over minimal distances.

Despite considerable interest in the role of spatial intelligence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) achievement, little is known about the ontogenetic origins of individual differences in spatial aptitude or their relation to later accomplishments in STEM disciplines. The current study provides evidence that spatial processes present in infancy predict interindividual variation in both spatial and mathematical competence later in development. Using a longitudinal design, we found that children's performance on a brief visuospatial change-detection task administered between 6 and 13 months of age was related to their spatial aptitude (i.e., mental-transformation skill) and mastery of symbolic-math concepts at 4 years of age, even when we controlled for general cognitive abilities and spatial memory. These results suggest that nascent spatial processes present in the first year of life not only act as precursors to later spatial intelligence but also predict math achievement during childhood.