Axon-carrying dendrites, AcDs, have been reported in hippocampus to be privileged dendrites which can directly feed synaptic inputs into an axonal output bypassing the soma and escaping somatic inhibition. In non-primate neocortex, 15–20% of the pyramidal cells have basal AcDs and comparable proportions occurred in organotypic cortex cultures. How does an axon happen to emerge from a dendrite? Very immature migrating pyramidal...

The inferior olive (IO) is an important region for motor learning and movement coordination. IO activity carried by the climbing fiber (CF) projection to the Purkinje neurons in the cerebellar cortex drives the complex spike activity, central to theories of cerebellar function. Unlike many other neurons in the olivo-cerebeller system, IO neurons are not spontaneously active but rather spike in response to inputs from various r...

Savings refer to faster relearning upon re-exposure to a previously experienced movement perturbation. One theory posits that the brain recognizes past errors, enabling more efficient learning from them. If this is the case, there should be a modification in the neural response to errors during re-exposure to the perturbation. To investigate this hypothesis, we used fMRI to measure brain activity as participants adapted to a v...

In the adult mammalian nervous system, sex differences can be manifested independently or in concert with sex-specific hormone cycles, such as the rat estrous cycle. Biological sex and related cycles influence neuronal properties in many brain regions, including the striatum, encompassing the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core, NAc shell, and caudate-putamen (CPu). While neuron soma size and density are commonly assessed in the cont...

The Hippo signalling cascade is an evolutionarily conserved pathway critical for the development of numerous organ systems and is required for the development of many parts of the mammalian nervous system, including the cerebellum. The Hippo pathway converges, via the nuclear YAP/TAZ co-transcription factors, on transcription factors of the TEA Domain (TEAD) family (TEAD1-4) and promotes the expression of pro-proliferative gen...

To determine how language is implemented in the brain, it is important to know which brain areas are primarily engaged in language processing and which are not. Existing protocols for localizing language are typically univariate, treating each small unit of brain volume as independent. One prominent example that focuses on the overall language network in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) uses a contrast between neur...

We explored the resting state functional connectivity correlates of apathy assessed as a multidimensional construct, using behavioral metrics, in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). We recorded the behavior of 20 bvFTD patients and 16 healthy controls in a close-to-real-life situation including a free phase (FP—in which actions were self-initiated) and a guided phase (GP—in which initiation of actions was facil...

Night monkeys ( Aotus ) are the only genus of monkeys within the Simian lineage that successfully occupy a nocturnal environmental niche. Their behavior is supported by their sensory organs’ distinctive morphological features; however, little is known about their evolutionary adaptations in sensory regions of the cerebral cortex. Here, we investigate this question by exploring the cortical organization of night monkeys using h...

Previous research using functional MRI identified brain regions associated with sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), a proposed normal phenotype trait. To further validate SPS, to characterize it anatomically, and to test the usefulness in psychology of methodologies that assess axonal properties, the present study correlated SPS proxy questionnaire scores (adjusted for neuroticism) with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measure...

Current research on self-identity suggests that the self is settled in a unique mental representation updated across the lifespan in autobiographical memory. Spatio-temporal brain dynamics of these cognitive processes are poorly understood. ERP studies revealed early (N170-N250) and late (P3-LPC) waveforms modulations tracking the temporal processing of global face configuration, familiarity processes, and access to autobiogra...

While arithmetic training reduces fronto-temporo-parietal activation related to domain-general processes in typically developing (TD) children, we know very little about the training-related neurocognitive changes in children with mathematical disabilities (MD), who seek evidenced-based educational interventions. In a within-participant design, a group of 20 children (age range = 10–15 years old) with MD underwent 2 weeks of a...

The sagittal stratum is a prominent and macroscopically clearly visible white-matter structure within occipital and parietal lobes with a highly organized structure of parallel fibers running in rostro-caudal direction. Apart from the major tract running through, i.e., the optic radiation, the source and arrangement of other fibers within the sagittal stratum is only partially understood. Recent diffusion imaging studies in-vi...

Empathy, among other social-cognitive processes, changes across adulthood. More specifically, cognitive components of empathy (understanding another’s perspective) appear to decline with age, while findings for affective empathy (sharing another’s emotional state) are rather mixed. Structural and functional correlates underlying cognitive and affective empathy in aging and the extent to which valence affects empathic response...