BACKGROUND In functional brain imaging studies, exposure to cues related to cocaine, opiates, and alcohol in dependent individuals is associated with activation of the anterior cingulate gyrus, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Craving for these substances positively correlates with activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and anter...

Feedback processing is crucial for successful performance adjustment following changing task demands. The present event-related fMRI study was aimed at investigating the developmental differences in brain regions associated with different aspects of feedback processing. Children age 8-11, adolescents age 14-15, and adults age 18-24 performed a rule switch task resembling the Wisconsin Card Sort...

The neural mechanisms whereby placebo conditioning leads to placebo analgesia remain unclear. In this study we aimed to identify the brain structures activated during placebo conditioning and subsequent placebo analgesia. We induced placebo analgesia by associating a sham treatment with pain reduction and used fMRI to measure brain activity associated with three stages of the placebo response: ...

BACKGROUND Little is known about how functional imaging changes in bipolar disorder relate to different phases of the illness. AIMS To compare cognitive task activation in participants with bipolar disorder examined in different phases of illness. METHOD Participants with bipolar disorder in mania (n = 38), depression (n = 38) and euthymia (n = 38), as well as healthy controls (n = 38), und...

Human choice behavior often reflects a competition between inflexible computationally efficient control on the one hand and a slower more flexible system of control on the other. This distinction is well captured by model-free and model-based reinforcement learning algorithms. Here, studying human subjects, we show it is possible to shift the balance of control between these systems by disrupti...

Behavioral studies in monkeys and humans suggest that systematic and variable errors of memory-guided saccades reflect distinct neuronal computations in primate spatial memory. We recorded memory-guided saccades with a 2-s delay in three patients with unilateral ischemic lesions of the frontal eye field and in three patients with unilateral ischemic lesions of the frontal eye field and the dors...

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been reported to be a new treatment option for treatment-resistant depression. In Japan, there has been limited research into its feasibility, efficacy, and tolerability. We have launched a trial of rTMS for treating medication-resistant major depressive disorder and bipolar depression. We are investigating low-frequency rTMS to the right ...

BACKGROUND Studies have demonstrated that fear memories can be modified using non-invasive methods. Recently, we demonstrated that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is capable of enhancing fear memories. Here, we examined the effects of cathodal tDCS of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during fear reconsolidation in humans....

Corruption often involves bribery, when a briber suborns power-holder to gain advantages usually at cost of moral transgression. Despite its wide presence in human societies, the neurocomputational basis bribery remains elusive. Here, using model-based fMRI, we investigated neural substrates how decides accept or reject bribe. Power-holders considered two types brought by taking bribes: connivi...

In a sham-controlled design (n = 12), slow repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was applied to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 20 min, and the subsequent effects on mood and the EEG spectrum were investigated, Analysis revealed a significant left hemisphere increase in EEG theta activity at 25-35 and 55-65 min after stimulation. In addition, participants reported sig...