Reward is thought to attenuate forgetting through the automatic effect of dopamine on hippocampal memory traces. Here we report a conceptual replication of previous results where we did not observe this effect of reward. Participants encoded eight lists of pictures and recalled picture content immediately or the next day. They were informed that…

We used a technique known as reach tracking to investigate how individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) relate to the functioning of two processes proposed to underlie cognitive control: a threshold adjustment process that temporarily inhibits motor output in response to signals of conflict and a controlled selection process that…

Nonassociative learning is considered simple because it depends on presentation of a single stimulus, but it likely reflects complex molecular signaling. To advance understanding of the molecular mechanisms of one form of nonassociative learning, habituation, for ethologically relevant signals we examined song recognition learning in adult zebra…

Young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a high prevalence (~40 %) of anxiety disorders compared to their non-ASD peers. It is unclear whether cognitive and biological processes associated with anxiety in ASD are analogous to anxiety in typically developing (TD) populations. In this study 55 boys with ASD (34 with a co-occurring…

Some studies conducted on ADHD have found a statistically significant relationship between those diagnosed with the disorder and a higher susceptibility to abuse alcohol. However, other studies have found no such correlation, or have found this to be true of only a nonstatistically significant subset of the population of individuals with ADHD.…

The present study tested whether the hypothesis that high levels of progesterone (P) have a decoupling effect on the function of the brain hemispheres (Hausmann & Gunturkun, 2000) also extends to attentional functions, referential connections between verbal and nonverbal representations and the degree to which implicit motivational needs match a…

Cognitive deficits and particularly deficits in working memory (WM) capacity are common features in neuropsychiatric disorders. Understanding the underlying mechanisms through which WM capacity can be improved is therefore of great importance. Several lines of research indicate that dopamine plays an important role not only in WM function but also…

The mammalian olfactory system is well established for its remarkable capability of undergoing experience-dependent plasticity. Although this process involves changes at multiple stages throughout the central olfactory pathway, even the early stages of processing, such as the olfactory bulb and piriform cortex, can display a high degree of…

Background: Allelic variation in the promoter region of a gene that encodes tryptophan hydroxylase isoform 2 (TPH2), a rate-limiting enzyme of serotonin synthesis in the central nervous system, has been associated with variations in cognitive function and vulnerability to affective spectrum disorders. Little is known about the effects of this gene…

Emotionality as well as cognitive abilities contribute to the acquisition and retrieval of memories as well as to the consolidation of long-term potentiation (LTP), a cellular model of memory formation. However, little is known about the timescale and relative contribution of these processes. Therefore, we tested the effects of weak water maze…

More than ever before, leaders within the field of education are looking to research on basic processes to inform and improve educational practices. Success requires building a reciprocal relationship between the field of education and research on learning and development, similar to what exists between biology and medicine. Key to this effort is…

Organization is believed to be related to understanding and memory. Whether this belief was applicable in biochemical education was examined about two years after students had experienced biochemistry classes in their first year. The ability of organizing information in biochemistry was judged from the number of correct links of 886 biochemical…

Stressful events frequently comprise both neutral and emotionally arousing information, yet the impact of stress on emotional and neutral events is still not fully understood. The hippocampus and frontal cortex have dense concentrations of receptors for stress hormones, such as cortisol, which at high levels can impair performance on hippocampally…

Combined activation of dopamine D1- and NMDA-glutamate receptors in the nucleus accumbens has been strongly implicated in instrumental learning, the process in which an individual learns that a specific action has a wanted outcome. To assess dopaminergic activity, we presented rats with two sessions (30 trials each) of a one-lever appetitive…

The present study was aimed at simultaneously determining on the same subject, the effects of stress on retrieval of flexible (contextual or temporal) or stable (spatial) information. Three behavioral paradigms carried out in a four-hole board were designed as follows: (1) Simple Discrimination (SD), in which mice learned a single discrimination;…