Simone Kühn - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Simone Kühn

As humans we communicate important information through fine nuances in our facial expressions, bu... more As humans we communicate important information through fine nuances in our facial expressions, but because conscious motor representations are noisy, we might not be able to report these fine but meaningful movements. Here we measured how much explicit metacognitive information young adults have about their own facial expressions. Participants imitated pictures of themselves making facial expressions and triggered a camera to take a picture of them while doing so. They then rated confidence (how well they thought they imitated each expression). We defined metacognitive access to facial expressions as the relationship between objective performance (how well the two pictures matched) and subjective confidence ratings. Metacognitive access to facial expressions was very poor when we considered all face features indiscriminately. Instead, machine learning analyses revealed that participants rated confidence based on idiosyncratic subsets of features. We conclude that metacognitive acces...

Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior

BACKGROUND There is accumulating evidence that implicit measures improve the prediction of suicid... more BACKGROUND There is accumulating evidence that implicit measures improve the prediction of suicidality within a 6-month follow-up period in psychiatric populations. Building upon these results, we set out to expand the follow-up period and to investigate various implicit methods. METHODS Seventy-nine inpatients completed the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS) and a range of implicit measures: three implicit association tests (IATs: Death; Self-harm-Me/Others; Self-Harm-Good/Bad) and a subliminal priming task (with separate scores for negative and positive adjectives, each indicating the association between the primes "dying" and "growing"). After 18 months, we reached n = 52 patients and reassessed suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts. RESULTS In a hierarchical regression, the five implicit task indices were entered after the patient's age, gender, and BSS score at baseline. The implicit scores improved prediction of BSS scores after 18 months compared to prediction based on age, gender, and BSS score at baseline alone. However, none of the implicit measures was associated with suicide plans or attempts during the follow-up period. CONCLUSION Results suggest that implicit measures can be a useful assessment tool for the prediction of suicidal ideation, even beyond the BSS. However, long-term prediction of suicide plans or attempts using implicit measures seems limited.

Journal of Cognitive Psychology

In this article, we investigate insight problem solving by exploring the subjective AHA! experien... more In this article, we investigate insight problem solving by exploring the subjective AHA! experience as a function of restructuring of a problem. It has long been assumed that the AHA! experience is the direct consequence of restructuring. However, is this assumption justified?We will argue that a) the AHA! experience does not always result from prior restructuring and that b) solutions with accompanied AHA! do not underlie a single neurocognitive process. In this regard, we use a modified compound remote associates (CRA) paradigm designed to experimentally dissociate restructuring from the AHA! experience. Results indicate that solutions accompanied by an AHA! are often found also in absence of restructuring. This finding is explained by proposing distinct CRA solution processes that differentiate between AHA! solutions with and without restructuring. We predict that solutions with accompanied AHA! experience differ in their behavioral, neural and eye-tracking related signature as a function of restructuring. The results mostly support these predictions. These findings have implications for insight research: First, by only measuring the subjective AHA! experience especially using CRAs it cannot be implied anymore that restructuring has occurred. Second, it is vital to experimentally separate the different components of insight to better understand its underlying diverse neurocognitive processes.

Cerebral Cortex

The first version of this article included extraneous text in the affiliation of Attila Keresztes... more The first version of this article included extraneous text in the affiliation of Attila Keresztes. This has now been corrected. The publisher apologizes for the error.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Research into resting-state cognition has often struggled with the challenge of assessing inner e... more Research into resting-state cognition has often struggled with the challenge of assessing inner experience in the resting state. We employed Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES), a method aimed at generating detailed and high-fidelity descriptions of experience, to investigate how experience in the resting state can vary between internal, external, and multiple simultaneous streams. Using a large body of experiential and brain activation data acquired from five DES participants, independent raters classified sampled moments of experience according to whether they were internally directed, externally directed, or contained elements of both at the same time. In line with existing models, comparison of internal with external experience samples identified a network of regions associated with the default mode network. Regions of interest resulting from the whole-brain contrasts successfully predicted independent raters' forced-choice categorizations of samples for which experience had a simultaneous internal and external focus. The present study is distinctive in tying neural activations in the resting state to detailed descriptions of specific phenomenology, and in demonstrating how the DES method enables a particularly nuanced analysis of moments of experience, especially their ability simultaneously to incorporate both an internal and an external focus. The study represents an integration of rich phenomenology and characterizations of brain activity, tracing interpretive paths from phenomenology to neural activation and vice versa.

Appetite, Dec 1, 2016

Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) have a strong ability to limit food intake. Thus, dysfunction... more Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) have a strong ability to limit food intake. Thus, dysfunctional approach vs. avoidance behaviors towards food are evident in AN. We applied an approach-avoidance task (AAT), in which n = 41 AN patients and n = 42 controls either approached ("pull") or avoided ("push") high (HC) vs. low calorie (LC) food pictures based solely on the presented picture format (landscape vs. portrait). We tested the hypothesis that -in opposition to controls displaying an approach bias towards HC food cues- AN patients would show an avoidance bias (measured as different response times) towards HC food. Explicit ratings of food cues were also performed. We found a significant interaction "group" x "direction" (p = 0.03). rm-ANOVAs performed for each of the two groups separately showed a main effect for "direction" of motion in controls (p = 0.02), but not in AN patients (p = 0.40). The two groups did not differ in their...

Frontiers in Psychology

Schlinger (2017) provided a critique of Hurlburt et al. (2017). We thank him for setting the occa... more Schlinger (2017) provided a critique of Hurlburt et al. (2017). We thank him for setting the occasion for important clarifications of pristine inner experience and methods used to apprehend it.

NeuroImage, May 18, 2017

In the present longitudinal study, we aimed to investigate video game training associated neurona... more In the present longitudinal study, we aimed to investigate video game training associated neuronal changes in reward processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We recruited 48 healthy young participants which were assigned to one of 2 groups: A group in which participants were instructed to play a commercial video game ("Super Mario 64 DS") on a portable Nintendo DS handheld console at least 30minutes a day over a period of two months (video gaming group; VG) or to a matched passive control group (CG). Before and after the training phase, in both groups, fMRI imaging was conducted during passively viewing reward and punishment-related videos sequences recorded from the trained video game. The results show that video game training may lead to reward related decrease in neuronal activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and increase in the hippocampus. Additionally, the decrease in DLPFC activation was associated with gaming related paramet...

Frontiers in Psychology, 2015

Metacognition-augmented cognitive remediation training reduces jumping to conclusions and overcon... more Metacognition-augmented cognitive remediation training reduces jumping to conclusions and overconfidence but not neurocognitive deficits in psychosis.

PLOS ONE, 2015

We present here "Just Another Tool for Online Studies" (JATOS): an open source, crossplatform web... more We present here "Just Another Tool for Online Studies" (JATOS): an open source, crossplatform web application with a graphical user interface (GUI) that greatly simplifies setting up and communicating with a web server to host online studies that are written in Java-Script. JATOS is easy to install in all three major platforms (Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux), and seamlessly pairs with a database for secure data storage. It can be installed on a server or locally, allowing researchers to try the application and feasibility of their studies within a browser environment, before engaging in setting up a server. All communication with the JATOS server takes place via a GUI (with no need to use a command line interface), making JATOS an especially accessible tool for researchers without a strong IT background. We describe JATOS' main features and implementation and provide a detailed tutorial along with example studies to help interested researchers to set up their online studies. JATOS can be found under the Internet address: www.jatos.org.

NeuroImage, 2015

The perception of control over the environment constitutes a fundamental biological adaptive mech... more The perception of control over the environment constitutes a fundamental biological adaptive mechanism, especially during development. Previous studies comparing an active choice condition with a passive no-choice condition showed that the neural basis of this mechanism is associated with increased activity within the striatum and the prefrontal cortex. In the current study, we aimed to investigate whether subjective belief of control in an uncertain gambling situation induces elevated activation in a cortico-striatal network. We investigated 79 adolescents (age range: 13-16years) during reward anticipation with a slot machine task using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We assessed post-experimentally whether the participants experienced a subjective illusion of control on winning or losing in this task that was objectively not given. Nineteen adolescents experienced an illusion of control during slot machine gambling. This illusion of control group showed an increased neural activity during reward anticipation within a cortico-striatal network including ventral striatum (VS) as well as right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) relative to the group reporting no illusion of control. The rIFG activity was inversely associated with impulsivity in the no illusion of control group. The subjective belief about control led to an elevated ventral striatal activity, which is known to be involved in the processing of reward. This finding strengthens the notion that subjectively perceived control, not necessarily the objective presence of control, affects striatal reward-related processing.

Addiction Biology, 2015

Adolescence is a common time for initiation of alcohol use and alcohol use disorders. Importantly... more Adolescence is a common time for initiation of alcohol use and alcohol use disorders. Importantly, the neuro-anatomical foundation for later alcohol-related problems may already manifest pre-natally, particularly due to smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy. In this context, cortical gyrification is an interesting marker of neuronal development but has not been investigated as a risk factor for adolescent alcohol use. On magnetic resonance imaging scans of 595 14-year-old adolescents from the IMAGEN sample, we computed whole-brain mean curvature indices to predict change in alcohol-related problems over the following 2 years. Change of alcohol use-related problems was significantly predicted from mean curvature in left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Less gyrification of OFC was associated with an increase in alcohol use-related problems over the next 2 years. Moreover, lower gyrification in left OFC was related to pre-natal alcohol exposure, whereas maternal smoking during pregnancy had no effect. Current alcohol use-related problems of the biological mother had no effect on offsprings' OFC gyrification or drinking behaviour. The data support the idea that alcohol consumption during pregnancy mediates the development of neuro-anatomical phenotypes, which in turn constitute a risk factor for increasing problems due to alcohol consumption in a vulnerable stage of life. Maternal smoking during pregnancy or current maternal alcohol/nicotine consumption had no significant effect. The OFC mediates behaviours known to be disturbed in addiction, namely impulse control and reward processing. The results stress the importance of pre-natal alcohol exposure for later increases in alcohol use-related problems, mediated by structural brain characteristics.

Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2015

Video games contain elaborate reinforcement and reward schedules that have the potential to maxim... more Video games contain elaborate reinforcement and reward schedules that have the potential to maximize motivation. Neuroimaging studies suggest that video games might have an influence on the reward system. However, it is not clear whether reward-related properties represent a precondition, which biases an individual toward playing video games, or if these changes are the result of playing video games. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study to explore reward-related functional predictors in relation to video gaming experience as well as functional changes in the brain in response to video game training. Fifty healthy participants were randomly assigned to a video game training (TG) or control group (CG). Before and after training/control period, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was conducted using a non-video game related reward task. At pretest, both groups showed strongest activation in ventral striatum (VS) during reward anticipation. At posttest, the TG showed ve...

JAMA Psychiatry, 2014

IMPORTANCE Since pornography appeared on the Internet, the accessibility, affordability, and anon... more IMPORTANCE Since pornography appeared on the Internet, the accessibility, affordability, and anonymity of consuming visual sexual stimuli have increased and attracted millions of users. Based on the assumption that pornography consumption bears resemblance with reward-seeking behavior, novelty-seeking behavior, and addictive behavior, we hypothesized alterations of the frontostriatal network in frequent users. OBJECTIVE To determine whether frequent pornography consumption is associated with the frontostriatal network. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In a study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany, 64 healthy male adults covering a wide range of pornography consumption reported hours of pornography consumption per week. Pornography consumption was associated with neural structure, task-related activation, and functional resting-state connectivity. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Gray matter volume of the brain was measured by voxel-based morphometry and resting state functional connectivity was measured on 3-T magnetic resonance imaging scans. RESULTS We found a significant negative association between reported pornography hours per week and gray matter volume in the right caudate (P < .001, corrected for multiple comparisons) as well as with functional activity during a sexual cue-reactivity paradigm in the left putamen (P < .001). Functional connectivity of the right caudate to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was negatively associated with hours of pornography consumption. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The negative association of self-reported pornography consumption with the right striatum (caudate) volume, left striatum (putamen) activation during cue reactivity, and lower functional connectivity of the right caudate to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex could reflect change in neural plasticity as a consequence of an intense stimulation of the reward system, together with a lower top-down modulation of prefrontal cortical areas. Alternatively, it could be a precondition that makes pornography consumption more rewarding.

J Creat Behav, 2014

ABSTRACT Anecdotal reports as well as behavioral studies have suggested that creative performance... more ABSTRACT Anecdotal reports as well as behavioral studies have suggested that creative performance benefits from unconscious processes. So far, however, little is known about how creative ideas arise from the brain. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the neural correlates of creativity by means of structural MRI research. Given that unconscious and less controlled processes are important in creative thinking, structural brain research may find a positive correlation between well-established creativity measures and cortical thickness in brain structures of the default mode network (i.e., the counterpart of the cognitive control network). Individuals performed the Alternative Uses task by which an individual&#39;s cognitive flexibility and the average uniqueness and average creativity of a participant&#39;s ideas were assessed. We computed optimized voxel-based-morphometry (VBM) to explore the correlation between inter-individual differences in creativity and inter-individual differences in gray matter volume. For all creativity measures, a positive correlation was found between creative performance and gray matter volume of the default mode network. These findings support the idea that the default mode network is important in creativity, and provide neurostructural support for the idea that unconscious forms of information processing are important in creativity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

ABSTRACT Cognitive flexibility is one of the essential mental abilities underlying creative think... more ABSTRACT Cognitive flexibility is one of the essential mental abilities underlying creative thinking. Previous findings have shown that cognitive flexibility can be enhanced by schema violations, and it has been suggested that active involvement is needed for schema violations to facilitate cognitive flexibility. The possibility that identification with an actor performing a schema violation (i.e., corepresenting an active schema violation) can enhance cognitive flexibility was investigated in 2 studies. In the first study, under conditions of high or low identification, participants watched an actor preparing a sandwich. The way the actor made the sandwich followed either a schema violation or contained the normal schema of preparing a sandwich. When identification was high, watching a schema-violation-enhanced cognitive flexibility as compared to watching the corresponding normal event. No effect of schema violation occurred under conditions of low identification. As little is known about the neural correlates of schema violations, in the second study the brain activity during schema violations was explored by means of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Participants were instructed to identify with an actor and brain activity was measured while participants watched the actor performing a schema violation or the corresponding normal schema. Activity in the temporal parietal junction (TPJ), a brain region that is associated with violation of expectations, was higher in the schema-violation condition than in the normal schema condition. These findings enhance the theoretical understanding of the effects of schema violations and may provide important practical implications in various settings where creative thinking is needed.

People can inhibit an action because of an instruction by an external stimulus, or because of the... more People can inhibit an action because of an instruction by an external stimulus, or because of their own internal decision. The similarities and differences between these two forms of inhibition are not well understood. Therefore, in the present study the neural correlates of intentional and stimulus-driven inhibition were tested in the same subjects. Participants performed two inhibition tasks while lying in the scanner: the marble task in which they had to choose for themselves between intentionally acting on, or inhibiting a prepotent response to measure intentional inhibition, and the classical stop signal task in which an external signal triggered the inhibition process. Results showed that intentional inhibition decision processes rely on a neural network that has been documented extensively for stimulus-driven inhibition, including bilateral parietal and lateral prefrontal cortex and pre-supplementary motor area. We also found activation in dorsal frontomedian cortex and left inferior frontal gyrus during intentional inhibition that depended on the history of previous choices. Together, these results indicate that intentional inhibition and stimulus-driven inhibition engage a common inhibition network, but intentional inhibition is also characterized by additional context-dependent neural activation in medial prefrontal cortex.

Neuropsychologia, 2008

There seems to be a close connection between speech and action, which we experience almost daily ... more There seems to be a close connection between speech and action, which we experience almost daily when we try to support our verbal expressions with gestures. Recently, the assumption that the language system and the action system are intimately linked has received support from brain imaging research showing that imitation and language production involve the same cortical structure, namely Broca&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s area. However, if the assumption of a functional interdependency holds true, one would predict that language production and imitation should interact on the behavioural level. We have tested this assumption in a series of experiments in which we investigated the influence of an articulation task on imitation. Here we show that articulation has a specific influence on the imitation of finger movements when compared to a non-imitative stimulus-response (S-R) association. These findings provide strong experimental support for the assumption that language production and imitation share common functional mechanisms.

As humans we communicate important information through fine nuances in our facial expressions, bu... more As humans we communicate important information through fine nuances in our facial expressions, but because conscious motor representations are noisy, we might not be able to report these fine but meaningful movements. Here we measured how much explicit metacognitive information young adults have about their own facial expressions. Participants imitated pictures of themselves making facial expressions and triggered a camera to take a picture of them while doing so. They then rated confidence (how well they thought they imitated each expression). We defined metacognitive access to facial expressions as the relationship between objective performance (how well the two pictures matched) and subjective confidence ratings. Metacognitive access to facial expressions was very poor when we considered all face features indiscriminately. Instead, machine learning analyses revealed that participants rated confidence based on idiosyncratic subsets of features. We conclude that metacognitive acces...

Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior

BACKGROUND There is accumulating evidence that implicit measures improve the prediction of suicid... more BACKGROUND There is accumulating evidence that implicit measures improve the prediction of suicidality within a 6-month follow-up period in psychiatric populations. Building upon these results, we set out to expand the follow-up period and to investigate various implicit methods. METHODS Seventy-nine inpatients completed the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS) and a range of implicit measures: three implicit association tests (IATs: Death; Self-harm-Me/Others; Self-Harm-Good/Bad) and a subliminal priming task (with separate scores for negative and positive adjectives, each indicating the association between the primes "dying" and "growing"). After 18 months, we reached n = 52 patients and reassessed suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts. RESULTS In a hierarchical regression, the five implicit task indices were entered after the patient's age, gender, and BSS score at baseline. The implicit scores improved prediction of BSS scores after 18 months compared to prediction based on age, gender, and BSS score at baseline alone. However, none of the implicit measures was associated with suicide plans or attempts during the follow-up period. CONCLUSION Results suggest that implicit measures can be a useful assessment tool for the prediction of suicidal ideation, even beyond the BSS. However, long-term prediction of suicide plans or attempts using implicit measures seems limited.

Journal of Cognitive Psychology

In this article, we investigate insight problem solving by exploring the subjective AHA! experien... more In this article, we investigate insight problem solving by exploring the subjective AHA! experience as a function of restructuring of a problem. It has long been assumed that the AHA! experience is the direct consequence of restructuring. However, is this assumption justified?We will argue that a) the AHA! experience does not always result from prior restructuring and that b) solutions with accompanied AHA! do not underlie a single neurocognitive process. In this regard, we use a modified compound remote associates (CRA) paradigm designed to experimentally dissociate restructuring from the AHA! experience. Results indicate that solutions accompanied by an AHA! are often found also in absence of restructuring. This finding is explained by proposing distinct CRA solution processes that differentiate between AHA! solutions with and without restructuring. We predict that solutions with accompanied AHA! experience differ in their behavioral, neural and eye-tracking related signature as a function of restructuring. The results mostly support these predictions. These findings have implications for insight research: First, by only measuring the subjective AHA! experience especially using CRAs it cannot be implied anymore that restructuring has occurred. Second, it is vital to experimentally separate the different components of insight to better understand its underlying diverse neurocognitive processes.

Cerebral Cortex

The first version of this article included extraneous text in the affiliation of Attila Keresztes... more The first version of this article included extraneous text in the affiliation of Attila Keresztes. This has now been corrected. The publisher apologizes for the error.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Research into resting-state cognition has often struggled with the challenge of assessing inner e... more Research into resting-state cognition has often struggled with the challenge of assessing inner experience in the resting state. We employed Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES), a method aimed at generating detailed and high-fidelity descriptions of experience, to investigate how experience in the resting state can vary between internal, external, and multiple simultaneous streams. Using a large body of experiential and brain activation data acquired from five DES participants, independent raters classified sampled moments of experience according to whether they were internally directed, externally directed, or contained elements of both at the same time. In line with existing models, comparison of internal with external experience samples identified a network of regions associated with the default mode network. Regions of interest resulting from the whole-brain contrasts successfully predicted independent raters' forced-choice categorizations of samples for which experience had a simultaneous internal and external focus. The present study is distinctive in tying neural activations in the resting state to detailed descriptions of specific phenomenology, and in demonstrating how the DES method enables a particularly nuanced analysis of moments of experience, especially their ability simultaneously to incorporate both an internal and an external focus. The study represents an integration of rich phenomenology and characterizations of brain activity, tracing interpretive paths from phenomenology to neural activation and vice versa.

Appetite, Dec 1, 2016

Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) have a strong ability to limit food intake. Thus, dysfunction... more Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) have a strong ability to limit food intake. Thus, dysfunctional approach vs. avoidance behaviors towards food are evident in AN. We applied an approach-avoidance task (AAT), in which n = 41 AN patients and n = 42 controls either approached ("pull") or avoided ("push") high (HC) vs. low calorie (LC) food pictures based solely on the presented picture format (landscape vs. portrait). We tested the hypothesis that -in opposition to controls displaying an approach bias towards HC food cues- AN patients would show an avoidance bias (measured as different response times) towards HC food. Explicit ratings of food cues were also performed. We found a significant interaction "group" x "direction" (p = 0.03). rm-ANOVAs performed for each of the two groups separately showed a main effect for "direction" of motion in controls (p = 0.02), but not in AN patients (p = 0.40). The two groups did not differ in their...

Frontiers in Psychology

Schlinger (2017) provided a critique of Hurlburt et al. (2017). We thank him for setting the occa... more Schlinger (2017) provided a critique of Hurlburt et al. (2017). We thank him for setting the occasion for important clarifications of pristine inner experience and methods used to apprehend it.

NeuroImage, May 18, 2017

In the present longitudinal study, we aimed to investigate video game training associated neurona... more In the present longitudinal study, we aimed to investigate video game training associated neuronal changes in reward processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We recruited 48 healthy young participants which were assigned to one of 2 groups: A group in which participants were instructed to play a commercial video game ("Super Mario 64 DS") on a portable Nintendo DS handheld console at least 30minutes a day over a period of two months (video gaming group; VG) or to a matched passive control group (CG). Before and after the training phase, in both groups, fMRI imaging was conducted during passively viewing reward and punishment-related videos sequences recorded from the trained video game. The results show that video game training may lead to reward related decrease in neuronal activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and increase in the hippocampus. Additionally, the decrease in DLPFC activation was associated with gaming related paramet...

Frontiers in Psychology, 2015

Metacognition-augmented cognitive remediation training reduces jumping to conclusions and overcon... more Metacognition-augmented cognitive remediation training reduces jumping to conclusions and overconfidence but not neurocognitive deficits in psychosis.

PLOS ONE, 2015

We present here "Just Another Tool for Online Studies" (JATOS): an open source, crossplatform web... more We present here "Just Another Tool for Online Studies" (JATOS): an open source, crossplatform web application with a graphical user interface (GUI) that greatly simplifies setting up and communicating with a web server to host online studies that are written in Java-Script. JATOS is easy to install in all three major platforms (Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux), and seamlessly pairs with a database for secure data storage. It can be installed on a server or locally, allowing researchers to try the application and feasibility of their studies within a browser environment, before engaging in setting up a server. All communication with the JATOS server takes place via a GUI (with no need to use a command line interface), making JATOS an especially accessible tool for researchers without a strong IT background. We describe JATOS' main features and implementation and provide a detailed tutorial along with example studies to help interested researchers to set up their online studies. JATOS can be found under the Internet address: www.jatos.org.

NeuroImage, 2015

The perception of control over the environment constitutes a fundamental biological adaptive mech... more The perception of control over the environment constitutes a fundamental biological adaptive mechanism, especially during development. Previous studies comparing an active choice condition with a passive no-choice condition showed that the neural basis of this mechanism is associated with increased activity within the striatum and the prefrontal cortex. In the current study, we aimed to investigate whether subjective belief of control in an uncertain gambling situation induces elevated activation in a cortico-striatal network. We investigated 79 adolescents (age range: 13-16years) during reward anticipation with a slot machine task using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We assessed post-experimentally whether the participants experienced a subjective illusion of control on winning or losing in this task that was objectively not given. Nineteen adolescents experienced an illusion of control during slot machine gambling. This illusion of control group showed an increased neural activity during reward anticipation within a cortico-striatal network including ventral striatum (VS) as well as right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) relative to the group reporting no illusion of control. The rIFG activity was inversely associated with impulsivity in the no illusion of control group. The subjective belief about control led to an elevated ventral striatal activity, which is known to be involved in the processing of reward. This finding strengthens the notion that subjectively perceived control, not necessarily the objective presence of control, affects striatal reward-related processing.

Addiction Biology, 2015

Adolescence is a common time for initiation of alcohol use and alcohol use disorders. Importantly... more Adolescence is a common time for initiation of alcohol use and alcohol use disorders. Importantly, the neuro-anatomical foundation for later alcohol-related problems may already manifest pre-natally, particularly due to smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy. In this context, cortical gyrification is an interesting marker of neuronal development but has not been investigated as a risk factor for adolescent alcohol use. On magnetic resonance imaging scans of 595 14-year-old adolescents from the IMAGEN sample, we computed whole-brain mean curvature indices to predict change in alcohol-related problems over the following 2 years. Change of alcohol use-related problems was significantly predicted from mean curvature in left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Less gyrification of OFC was associated with an increase in alcohol use-related problems over the next 2 years. Moreover, lower gyrification in left OFC was related to pre-natal alcohol exposure, whereas maternal smoking during pregnancy had no effect. Current alcohol use-related problems of the biological mother had no effect on offsprings&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; OFC gyrification or drinking behaviour. The data support the idea that alcohol consumption during pregnancy mediates the development of neuro-anatomical phenotypes, which in turn constitute a risk factor for increasing problems due to alcohol consumption in a vulnerable stage of life. Maternal smoking during pregnancy or current maternal alcohol/nicotine consumption had no significant effect. The OFC mediates behaviours known to be disturbed in addiction, namely impulse control and reward processing. The results stress the importance of pre-natal alcohol exposure for later increases in alcohol use-related problems, mediated by structural brain characteristics.

Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2015

Video games contain elaborate reinforcement and reward schedules that have the potential to maxim... more Video games contain elaborate reinforcement and reward schedules that have the potential to maximize motivation. Neuroimaging studies suggest that video games might have an influence on the reward system. However, it is not clear whether reward-related properties represent a precondition, which biases an individual toward playing video games, or if these changes are the result of playing video games. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study to explore reward-related functional predictors in relation to video gaming experience as well as functional changes in the brain in response to video game training. Fifty healthy participants were randomly assigned to a video game training (TG) or control group (CG). Before and after training/control period, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was conducted using a non-video game related reward task. At pretest, both groups showed strongest activation in ventral striatum (VS) during reward anticipation. At posttest, the TG showed ve...

JAMA Psychiatry, 2014

IMPORTANCE Since pornography appeared on the Internet, the accessibility, affordability, and anon... more IMPORTANCE Since pornography appeared on the Internet, the accessibility, affordability, and anonymity of consuming visual sexual stimuli have increased and attracted millions of users. Based on the assumption that pornography consumption bears resemblance with reward-seeking behavior, novelty-seeking behavior, and addictive behavior, we hypothesized alterations of the frontostriatal network in frequent users. OBJECTIVE To determine whether frequent pornography consumption is associated with the frontostriatal network. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In a study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany, 64 healthy male adults covering a wide range of pornography consumption reported hours of pornography consumption per week. Pornography consumption was associated with neural structure, task-related activation, and functional resting-state connectivity. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Gray matter volume of the brain was measured by voxel-based morphometry and resting state functional connectivity was measured on 3-T magnetic resonance imaging scans. RESULTS We found a significant negative association between reported pornography hours per week and gray matter volume in the right caudate (P < .001, corrected for multiple comparisons) as well as with functional activity during a sexual cue-reactivity paradigm in the left putamen (P < .001). Functional connectivity of the right caudate to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was negatively associated with hours of pornography consumption. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The negative association of self-reported pornography consumption with the right striatum (caudate) volume, left striatum (putamen) activation during cue reactivity, and lower functional connectivity of the right caudate to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex could reflect change in neural plasticity as a consequence of an intense stimulation of the reward system, together with a lower top-down modulation of prefrontal cortical areas. Alternatively, it could be a precondition that makes pornography consumption more rewarding.

J Creat Behav, 2014

ABSTRACT Anecdotal reports as well as behavioral studies have suggested that creative performance... more ABSTRACT Anecdotal reports as well as behavioral studies have suggested that creative performance benefits from unconscious processes. So far, however, little is known about how creative ideas arise from the brain. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the neural correlates of creativity by means of structural MRI research. Given that unconscious and less controlled processes are important in creative thinking, structural brain research may find a positive correlation between well-established creativity measures and cortical thickness in brain structures of the default mode network (i.e., the counterpart of the cognitive control network). Individuals performed the Alternative Uses task by which an individual&#39;s cognitive flexibility and the average uniqueness and average creativity of a participant&#39;s ideas were assessed. We computed optimized voxel-based-morphometry (VBM) to explore the correlation between inter-individual differences in creativity and inter-individual differences in gray matter volume. For all creativity measures, a positive correlation was found between creative performance and gray matter volume of the default mode network. These findings support the idea that the default mode network is important in creativity, and provide neurostructural support for the idea that unconscious forms of information processing are important in creativity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

ABSTRACT Cognitive flexibility is one of the essential mental abilities underlying creative think... more ABSTRACT Cognitive flexibility is one of the essential mental abilities underlying creative thinking. Previous findings have shown that cognitive flexibility can be enhanced by schema violations, and it has been suggested that active involvement is needed for schema violations to facilitate cognitive flexibility. The possibility that identification with an actor performing a schema violation (i.e., corepresenting an active schema violation) can enhance cognitive flexibility was investigated in 2 studies. In the first study, under conditions of high or low identification, participants watched an actor preparing a sandwich. The way the actor made the sandwich followed either a schema violation or contained the normal schema of preparing a sandwich. When identification was high, watching a schema-violation-enhanced cognitive flexibility as compared to watching the corresponding normal event. No effect of schema violation occurred under conditions of low identification. As little is known about the neural correlates of schema violations, in the second study the brain activity during schema violations was explored by means of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Participants were instructed to identify with an actor and brain activity was measured while participants watched the actor performing a schema violation or the corresponding normal schema. Activity in the temporal parietal junction (TPJ), a brain region that is associated with violation of expectations, was higher in the schema-violation condition than in the normal schema condition. These findings enhance the theoretical understanding of the effects of schema violations and may provide important practical implications in various settings where creative thinking is needed.

People can inhibit an action because of an instruction by an external stimulus, or because of the... more People can inhibit an action because of an instruction by an external stimulus, or because of their own internal decision. The similarities and differences between these two forms of inhibition are not well understood. Therefore, in the present study the neural correlates of intentional and stimulus-driven inhibition were tested in the same subjects. Participants performed two inhibition tasks while lying in the scanner: the marble task in which they had to choose for themselves between intentionally acting on, or inhibiting a prepotent response to measure intentional inhibition, and the classical stop signal task in which an external signal triggered the inhibition process. Results showed that intentional inhibition decision processes rely on a neural network that has been documented extensively for stimulus-driven inhibition, including bilateral parietal and lateral prefrontal cortex and pre-supplementary motor area. We also found activation in dorsal frontomedian cortex and left inferior frontal gyrus during intentional inhibition that depended on the history of previous choices. Together, these results indicate that intentional inhibition and stimulus-driven inhibition engage a common inhibition network, but intentional inhibition is also characterized by additional context-dependent neural activation in medial prefrontal cortex.

Neuropsychologia, 2008

There seems to be a close connection between speech and action, which we experience almost daily ... more There seems to be a close connection between speech and action, which we experience almost daily when we try to support our verbal expressions with gestures. Recently, the assumption that the language system and the action system are intimately linked has received support from brain imaging research showing that imitation and language production involve the same cortical structure, namely Broca&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s area. However, if the assumption of a functional interdependency holds true, one would predict that language production and imitation should interact on the behavioural level. We have tested this assumption in a series of experiments in which we investigated the influence of an articulation task on imitation. Here we show that articulation has a specific influence on the imitation of finger movements when compared to a non-imitative stimulus-response (S-R) association. These findings provide strong experimental support for the assumption that language production and imitation share common functional mechanisms.