0000000000236400
AUTHOR
Hugo D. Critchley
Social and motivational functioning is not critically dependent on feedback of autonomic responses: neuropsychological evidence from patients with pure autonomic failure.
Social, emotional and motivational behaviours are associated with production of automatic bodily responses. Re-representation in the brain through feedback of autonomic and skeletomuscular arousal is proposed to underlie "feeling states". These influence emotional judgments and bias motivational decision-making and guide social interactions. Consistent with this hypothesis, dissocial behaviour and deficits on emotional and motivation tasks are associated with blunted bodily responses in patients with orbitofrontal brain lesions or developmental psychopathy. To determine the critical dependence of social and emotional behaviours on bodily responses mediated by the autonomic nervous system, w…
Trait impulsivity associated with altered resting-state functional connectivity within the somatomotor network
Knowledge of brain mechanisms underlying self-regulation can provide valuable insights into how people regulate their thoughts, behaviors, and emotional states, and what happens when such regulation fails. Self-regulation is supported by coordinated interactions of brain systems. Hence, behavioral dysregulation, and its expression as impulsivity, can be usefully characterized using functional connectivity methodologies applied to resting brain networks. The current study tested whether individual differences in trait impulsivity are reflected in the functional architecture within and between resting-state brain networks. Thirty healthy individuals completed a self-report measure of trait im…
Social and emotional functions in three patients with medial frontal lobe damage including the anterior cingulate cortex
INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to explore social and emotional functions in patients with medial frontal damage including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). METHODS: Three patients with medial frontal lobe lesions primarily involving the ACC performed tasks on motivational decision making, emotional facial expression recognition, and social cognition, including theory of mind (ToM). Their performance on these tasks was compared with age and education matched healthy controls. RESULTS: Patient performance on the motivational decision making and social situations tasks did not differ from controls. Selective emotional facial expression recognition impairment for fear was evident in…
Cognitive functioning after medial frontal lobe damage including the anterior cingulate cortex: A preliminary investigation
Two patients with medial frontal lobe damage involving the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) performed a range of cognitive tasks, including tests of executive function and anterior attention. Both patients lesions extended beyond the ACC, therefore caution needs to be exerted in ascribing observed deficits to the ACC alone. Patient performance was compared with age and education matched healthy controls. Both patients showed intact intellectual, memory, and language abilities. No clear-cut abnormalities were noted in visuoperceptual functions. Speed of information processing was mildly reduced only in Patient 2 (bilateral ACC lesion). The patients demonstrated weak or impaired performance on…
Cognitive functioning in orthostatic hypotension due to pure autonomic failure.
Psychophysiological science proposes close interactions between cognitive processes and autonomic responses, yet the consequences of autonomic failure on cognitive functioning have not been documented. This pilot study investigates, for the first time, the cognitive profile of 14 patients with Pure Autonomic Failure (PAF). Each patient was administered a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests and neuroimaging investigation. A number of patients (n = 6) presented with cognitive impairment. The two most frequent types of impairment were: deficits of speed and attention, and executive functioning. Impairments of free recall memory, intellectual functioning, nominal and calculation f…