Biology subjects

Lamberton, F.

Publications and source records attributed to Lamberton, F..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Motivational control is implemented by a cingulo-prefrontal pathway

The neuronal connections between the midcingulate cortex (MCC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) are associated with multiple cognitive functions, including rapid and long-term adaptive processes. Here we show that DREADD-mediated activation of MCC to dlPFC projection in macaques led to increased engagement in a foraging task, but did not alter their trial-to-trial adaptive strategy. We conclude that a critical role for MCC-dlPFC pathway is in the temporally extended control of behaviour rather than in rapid adaptation.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Human medial pulvinar is involved in face and tactile processing and dynamically adjusts its cortical connectivity based on ongoing stimulation

Optimal processing of our surrounding environment relies on our ability to detect and integrate external information through multiple sensory modalities to build a coherent representation of the world. Interactions between cortical and subcortical structures contribute to this process. In this context, there is growing evidence that the pulvinar plays a crucial role in visual and face processing. In contrast, its role in auditory, voice and tactile processing has been poorly investigated. Here, we use fMRI localizer tasks to describe pulvinar functional organization and functional connectivity with the brain during face, voice and tactile processing. We reproduce the activation of the ventral part of the medial pulvinar in face perception and we describe an increased pulvinar connectivity with face processing areas and a decreased connectivity with low level visual areas during face processing. In addition, we describe activations of the medial pulvinar during air-puff face, hands and feet tactile stimulations and changes in pulvino-cortical connectivity as a function of which body part is being stimulated. No activations are observed during either voice or non-voice stimulations. Overall, this supports a role of medial pulvinar in multisensory processing and the modulation of cortical areas as a function of the sensory context.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

The technical-reasoning network is recruited when people observe others make or teach how to make tools: An fMRI study

Cumulative technological culture is defined as the increase in efficiency and complexity of tools and techniques over generations. While the role of social cognitive skills in cultural transmission has been long acknowledged, recent accounts have emphasized that non-social cognitive skills such as technical reasoning, a form of causal reasoning aimed at understanding the physical world, are also at work during the social transmission of technical content. Here we contribute to this double process approach by reporting an fMRI study about the neurocognitive origins of social learning. Participants were shown videos depicting tool-making episodes in three social-learning conditions: Reverse engineering, Observation and Teaching. Our results showed that the technical-reasoning network, centred around the Area PF of the left inferior parietal cortex, was preferentially activated when watching tool-making episodes. Additionally, the teaching component was related to an activation of the right middle temporal gyrus. We propose that technical reasoning is at the heart of our technological culture and that the role of social cognition and teaching is to improve the learners technical reasoning by helping them concentrate on important parts of the technology. Thus, both technical reasoning and social-cognitive skills may play a key role in the cultural evolution of our technologies.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Shaping the physical world to our ends: The left PF technical-cognition area

Our propensity to materiality, which consists in using, making, creating, and passing on technologies, has enabled us to shape the physical world according to our ends. To explain this proclivity, scientists have calibrated their lens to either low-level skills such as motor cognition or high-level skills such as language or social cognition. Yet, little has been said about the intermediate-level cognitive processes that are directly involved in mastering this materiality, that is, technical cognition. We aim to focus on this intermediate level for providing new insights into the neurocognitive bases of human materiality. Here we show that a technical-reasoning process might be specifically at work in physical problem-solving situations. We found via two distinct neuroimaging studies that the area PF (parietal F) within the left parietal lobe is central for this reasoning process in both tool-use and non-tool-use physical problem-solving and can work along with social-cognitive skills to resolve day-to-day interactions that combine social and physical constraints. Our results demonstrate the existence of a specific cognitive module in the human brain dedicated to materiality, which might be the supporting pillar allowing the accumulation of technical knowledge over generations. Intensifying research on technical cognition could nurture a comprehensive framework that has been missing in fields interested in how early and modern humans have been interacting with the physical world through technology, and how this interaction has shaped our history and culture.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Non-invasive real-time access to spatial attention information from 3T fMRI BOLD signals

Access to higher cognitive functions in real-time remains very challenging, because these functions are internally driven and their assessment is based onto indirect measures. In addition, recent finding show that these functions are highly dynamic. Previous studies using intra-cortical recordings in monkeys, succeed to access the (x,y) position of covert spatial attention, in real-time, using classification methods applied to monkey prefrontal multi-unit activity and local field potentials. In contrast, the direct access to attention with non-invasive methods is limited to predicting the attention localisation based on a quadrant classification. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility to track covert spatial attention localization using non-invasive fMRI BOLD signals, with an unprecedented spatial resolution. We further show that the errors produced by the decoder are not randomly distributed but concentrate on the locations neighbouring the cued location and that behavioral errors correlate with weaker decoding performance. Last, we also show that the voxels contributing to the decoder precisely match the visual retinotopic organization of the occipital cortex and that single trial access to attention is limited by the intrinsic dynamics of spatial attention. Taken together, these results open the way to the development of remediation and enhancement neurofeedback protocols targeting the attentional function.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Cognitive control of orofacial and vocal responses in the human frontal cortex

The frontal cortical areas critical for human speech production, i.e. the ventrolateral frontal cortex (cytoarchitectonic areas 44 and 45; VLF) and the dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMF) comprising the mid-cingulate cortex (MCC) and the pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA), exist in non-human primates and are implicated in cognitive vocal control functions. The present functional neuroimaging study seeks to define the basic roles of these VLF-DMF network regions in primate vocal production and how they might have been adapted for human speech. We demonstrate that area 44 and the MCC are respectively involved in the cognitive selection of orofacial, non-speech vocal and verbal responses, and the feedback-driven adaptation of these responses - roles that are likely preserved across primates. In contrast, area 45 and preSMA have roles that are specific to human speech: area 45 contributes to active verbal retrieval during learning, while preSMA is involved in processing verbal feedback during orofacial/vocal adaptations.

neuroscience↗