Span, CRUNCH, and Beyond: Working Memory Capacity and the Aging Brain Nils J. Schneider-Garces, Brian A. Gordon, Carrie R. Brumback-Peltz, Eunsam Shin, Yukyung Lee, Bradley P. Sutton, Edoardo L. Maclin, Gabriele Gratton, and Monica Fabiani D o w n l o a d e d Abstract ■ Neuroimaging data emphasize that older adults often show greater extent of brain activation than younger adults for similar

Effects of 10 Hz rTMS on the Neural Efficiency of Working Memory Gilbert Preston1, Erik Anderson1, Claudio Silva1 Terry Goldberg2, and Eric M. Wassermann3 Abstract ■ Working memory ( WM) has been described as short-term retention of information that is no longer accessible in the en- vironment, and the manipulation of this information for sub- sequent use in guiding behavior. WM is viewed as a

Neural Systems underlying Lexical Competition: An Eye Tracking and fMRI Study Giulia Righi, Sheila E. Blumstein, John Mertus, and Michael S. Worden Abstract ■ The present study investigated the neural bases of phonologi- cal onset competition using an eye tracking paradigm coupled with fMRI. Eighteen subjects were presented with an auditory target (per esempio., beaker) and a visual display containing a pictorial representation of the target

Eight Problems for the Mirror Neuron Theory of Action Understanding in Monkeys and Humans Gregory Hickok D o w n l o a d e d Abstract & The discovery of mirror neurons in macaque frontal cortex has sparked a resurgence of interest in motor/embodied theo- ries of cognition. This critical review examines the evidence in support of one of these theories, namely, that mirror

Beyond Hemispheric Dominance: Brain Regions Underlying the Joint Lateralization of Language and Arithmetic to the Left Hemisphere Philippe Pinel1,2,3 and Stanislas Dehaene1,2,3,4 Abstract & Language and arithmetic are both lateralized to the left hemisphere in the majority of right-handed adults. Yet, does this similar lateralization reflect a single overall constraint of brain organization, such an overall ‘‘dominance’’ of the left linguistic and symbolic operations? Is

Concurrent Sound Segregation Is Enhanced in Musicians Benjamin Rich Zendel and Claude Alain Abstract & The ability to segregate simultaneously occurring sounds is fundamental to auditory perception. Many studies have shown that musicians have enhanced auditory perceptual abilities; Tuttavia, the impact of musical expertise on segregating con- currently occurring sounds is unknown. Therefore, we exam- ined whether long-term musical training can improve listeners’ ability to

Anticipating Conflict Facilitates Controlled Stimulus-response Selection A´ngel Correa1,2, Anling Rao2, and Anna C. Nobre2 Abstract & Cognitive control can be triggered in reaction to previous conflict, as suggested by the finding of sequential effects in conflict tasks. Can control also be triggered proactively by presenting cues predicting conflict (‘‘proactive control’’)? We exploited the high temporal resolution of ERPs and con- trolled for sequential effects to

Seeing Sounds and Hearing Colors: An Event-related Potential Study of Auditory–Visual Synesthesia Aviva I. Goller1, Leun J. Otten2, and Jamie Ward1 Abstract & In auditory–visual synesthesia, sounds automatically elicit conscious and reliable visual experiences. It is presently un- known whether this reflects early or late processes in the brain. It is also unknown whether adult audiovisual synesthe- sia resembles auditory-induced visual illusions that can some-

Cross-modal Emotional Attention: Emotional Voices Modulate Early Stages of Visual Processing Tobias Brosch, Didier Grandjean, David Sander, and Klaus R. Scherer Abstract & Emotional attention, the boosting of the processing of emotionally relevant stimuli, ha, up to now, mainly been in- vestigated within a sensory modality, for instance, by using emotional pictures to modulate visual attention. In real-life environments, Tuttavia, humans typically encounter simulta- neous

Hemispheric Differences in Frontal and Parietal Influences on Human Occipital Cortex: Direct Confirmation with Concurrent TMS–fMRI Christian C. Ruff, Felix Blankenburg, Otto Bjoertomt, Sven Bestmann, Nikolaus Weiskopf, and Jon Driver D o w n l o a d e d Abstract & We used concurrent TMS–fMRI to test directly for hemi- spheric differences in causal influences of the right or left fronto-parietal cortex on activity

Dissociation of Frontal and Medial Temporal Lobe Activity in Maintenance and Binding of Sequentially Presented Paired Associates Jena B. Hales, Sarah L. Israel, Nicole C. Swann, and James B. Brewer D o w n l o a d e d Abstract lobe are critical & Substructures of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the medial-temporal for associating objects presented over time. Previous studies showing frontal and

A Brain Mechanism for Facilitation of Insight by Positive Affect Karuna Subramaniam, John Kounios, Todd B. Parrish, and Mark Jung-Beeman Abstract & Previous research has shown that people solve insight or creative problems better when in a positive mood (assessed or induced), although the precise mechanisms and neural sub- strates of this facilitation remain unclear. We assessed mood and personality variables in 79 participants before

The Case of Pretense: Observing Actions and Inferring Goals Ricarda I. Schubotz1 and D. Yves von Cramon2 Abstract & When we observe an action, we know almost immediately what goal is pursued by the actor. Strikingly, this applies also to pretend action (pantomime), which provides relevant informa- tion about the manipulation itself but not about the manipulated objects. The present fMRI study addressed the issue

Both a Nicotinic Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) and a Noradrenergic SNP Modulate Working Memory Performance when Attention is Manipulated Pamela M. Greenwood1, Ramya Sundararajan2, Ming-Kuan Lin2, Reshma Kumar1, Karl J. Fryxell2, and Raja Parasuraman1 D o w n l o a d e d Abstract & We investigated the relation between the two systems of visuospatial attention and working memory by examining the effect of

When Elephants Fly: Differential Sensitivity of Right and Left Inferior Frontal Gyri to Discourse and World Knowledge Laura Menenti1, Karl Magnus Petersson1,2, Rene´ Scheeringa1, and Peter Hagoort1,2 D o w n l o a d e d Abstract & Both local discourse and world knowledge are known to in- fluence sentence processing. We investigated how these two sources of information conspire in language comprehension. Two

Brain Responses to Biological Relevance Christine M. Tipper1, Todd C. Handy1, Barry Giesbrecht2, and Alan Kingstone1 Abstract & This study examines whether orienting attention to biolog- ically based social cues engages neural mechanisms distinct from those engaged by orienting to nonbiologically based non- social cues. Participants viewed a perceptually ambiguous stim- ulus presented centrally while performing a target detection task. By having participants alternate between

Autobiographical Memory and Patterns of Brain Atrophy in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Margaret C. McKinnon1,2, Elena I. Nica3, Pheth Sengdy3, Natasa Kovacevic3, Morris Moscovitch3,4, Morris Freedman3,4,7,8, Bruce L. Miller4, Sandra E. Black3,4,5, and Brian Levine3,4,6 D o w n l o a d e d Abstract & Autobiographical memory paradigms have been increasingly used to study the behavioral and neuroanatomical correlates of human remote memory. Although

Infection, Incest, and Iniquity: Investigating the Neural Correlates of Disgust and Morality Jana Schaich Borg1, Debra Lieberman2, and Kent A. Kiehl3,4 Abstract & Disgust, an emotion related to avoiding harmful substances, has been linked to moral judgments in many behavioral studies. Tuttavia, the fact that participants report feelings of disgust when thinking about feces and a heinous crime does not necessarily indicate that the same