The Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Cognitive Control

From our ability to attend to many stimuli occurring in rapid succession to the transformation of memories during a night of sleep, cognition occurs over widely varying time scales spanning milliseconds to days and beyond. Cognitive processing is often influenced by several behavioral variables as well as nonlinear interactions between multiple neural systems. This frequently produces unpredictable patterns of behavior and makes understanding the underlying temporal factors influencing cognition a fruitful area of hypothesis development and scientific inquiry. Across two reviews, a perspective, and twelve original research articles covering the domains of learning, memory, attention, cognitive control, and social decision making this research topic sheds new light on the temporal dynamics of cognitive processing.

From our ability to attend to many stimuli occurring in rapid succession to the transformation of memories during a night of sleep, cognition occurs over widely varying time scales spanning milliseconds to days and beyond. Cognitive processing is often influenced by several behavioral variables as well as nonlinear interactions between multiple neural systems. This frequently produces unpredictable patterns of behavior and makes understanding the underlying temporal factors influencing cognition a fruitful area of hypothesis development and scientific inquiry. Across two reviews, a perspective, and twelve original research articles covering the domains of learning, memory, attention, cognitive control, and social decision making this research topic sheds new light on the temporal dynamics of cognitive processing.

Covering basic theory, new research, and intersections with adjacent fields, this is the first comprehensive reference work on cognitive control – our ability to use internal goals to guide thought and behavior. Draws together expert perspectives from a range of disciplines, including cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and neurology Covers behavioral phenomena of cognitive control, neuroanatomical and computational models of frontal lobe function, and the interface between cognitive control and other mental processes Explores the ways in which cognitive control research can inform and enhance our understanding of brain development and neurological and psychiatric conditions

Goal-oriented behavior requires the organization and coordination of subordinate processes, particularly when multiple processes compete for the same resources. The cognitive mechanisms enabling this coordination are referred to as cognitive control. These mechanisms encompass the allocation of attentional weights to specific facets of a task and the implementation of rules crucial for task performance. Furthermore, they can operate at various levels, from specific stimulus and action codes to more abstract features such as relational information. Notably, the transfer of states of cognitive control from one episode to the next is impaired if they do not occur within the same context. Episodic binding and retrieval frameworks posit that this context specificity of control states reflects binding between the control states and the cooccurring context, where the context subsequently serves as a retrieval cue for the bound control state. This dissertation examines three facets of abstract cognitive control. First, two studies investigated the temporal stability of abstract control states and the bindings between such control states and visual contexts. The findings indicate that abstract control states and their bindings are invariant to temporal delays of several seconds. The discussion explores the extent to which the temporal dynamics of control and bindings can be attributed to the level of abstraction of the bound features. Second, one study examines the control retrieval process, as proposed by theories of episodic binding and retrieval, to scrutinize its role as the source of effects of contextualized control. Three experiments provide decisive evidence against such a retrieval process. Instead, contextualized control appears to be more effectively explained by the disruption of maintained control states. In the discussion, I connect these findings to theories suggesting that contextual features control the updating of working memory content. The final study generalizes the insights gained from studies on contextualized attentional weighting to task control by demonstrating that abstract task rules can also be bound to visual contexts. I discuss an approach for integrating bindings acting on different levels of abstraction into a unified model of task control.

Emotion regulation has traditionally been conceived as a deliberative process, but there is growing evidence that many emotion-regulation processes operate at implicit levels. Implicit emotion regulation is initiated automatically, without conscious intention, and aims at modifying the quality of emotional responding. This special issue showcases recent advances in theorizing and empirical research on implicit emotion regulation. Implicit emotion regulation is pervasive in everyday life and contributes considerably to the effectiveness of emotion regulation. The contributions to this special issue highlight the significance of implicit emotion regulation in psychological adaptation, goal-directed behavior, interpersonal behavior, personality functioning, and mental health.

This multi-author book deals with ‘resource ecology’, which is the ecology of trophic interactions between consumers and their resources. All the chapters were subjected to intense group discussions; comments and critiques were subsequently used for writing new versions, which were peer-reviewed. Each chapter is followed by a comment. This makes the book ideal for teaching and course work, because it highlights the fact that ecology is a living and active research field.

This updated second edition provides the state of the art perspective of the theory, practice and application of modern non-invasive imaging methods employed in exploring the structural and functional architecture of the normal and diseased human brain. Like the successful first edition, it is written by members of the Functional Imaging Laboratory - the Wellcome Trust funded London lab that has contributed much to the development of brain imaging methods and their application in the last decade. This book should excite and intrigue anyone interested in the new facts about the brain gained from neuroimaging and also those who wish to participate in this area of brain science. * Represents an almost entirely new book from 1st edition, covering the rapid advances in methods and in understanding of how human brains are organized* Reviews major advances in cognition, perception, emotion and action* Introduces novel experimental designs and analytical techniques made possible with fMRI, including event-related designs and non-linear analysis

One thing that separates human beings from the rest of the animal world is our ability to control behavior by referencing internal plans, goals, and rules. This ability, which is crucial to our success in a complex social environment, depends on the purposeful generation of "task sets"--states of mental readiness that allow each of us to engage with the world in a particular way or achieve a particular aim. This book reports the latest research regarding the activation, maintenance, and suppression of task sets. Chapters from many of the world's leading researchers in task switching and cognitive control investigate key issues in the field, from how we select the most relevant task when presented with distracting alternatives, to how we maintain focus on a task ("eyes on the prize") and switch to a new one when our goals or external circumstances change. Chapters also explore the brain structures responsible for these abilities, how they develop during childhood, and whether they decline due to normal aging or neurological disorders. Of interest especially to scholars and students of cognitive psychology, the volume offers thorough, multi-disciplinary coverage of contemporary research and theories concerning this fundamental yet mysterious aspect of human brain function and behavior.