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medial prefrontal cortex

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·February 24, 2021·5 min read

New Experiences Enhance Learning by Resetting Key Brain Circuit

Novel experiences dampen previous memory representations in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, facilitating flexible strategy encoding in mice.

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·November 27, 2020·6 min read

Regions of the Brain Where Serotonin Promotes Patience Revealed

A new study reveals specific brain regions that individually promote patience through the action of serotonin.

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·November 2, 2020·3 min read

How the Brain Allows Actions Based on Social Cues

Information flow between the ventromedial premotor cortex and medial prefrontal cortex makes it possible for monkeys to correctly identify social cues.

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·September 1, 2020·4 min read

Study Sheds Light on Brain Mechanism Activated by Uncertainty

Neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex respond more to loss than to gain. Avoidance of risk-taking is affected by an area of the hippocampus that is associated with memory and anxiety. The findings suggest a close relationship between memory processing and decision making when risk is present, especially in stressful situations. The fresh insights might help guide new psychiatric therapies for disorders marked by excessive avoidance, such as anxiety, and depression, and also mania and addiction, where excessive risk-taking is a common feature.

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·August 31, 2020·4 min read

Researchers Discover a Specific Brain Circuit Damaged by Social Isolation During Childhood

Social isolation experienced during childhood has an impact on adult brain function and behavior. Following two weeks of social isolation immediately following weaning in male mice, researchers noticed a failure in activation of medial prefrontal cortex neurons projecting to the posterior paraventricular thalamus during social exposure in adulthood. Findings suggest medial prefrontal cortex neurons required for sociability are profoundly affected by social isolation at a young age.

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·August 11, 2020·5 min read

Aging Memories May Not Be ‘Worse,’ Just ‘Different’

Aging may alter neural processes for remembering continuous real-world experiences and segmenting memories.

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·August 4, 2020·4 min read

Greater Excitability in Social Brain Regions of Autistic Men Compared to Women

Males with autism have atypically enhanced excitation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). This area of the brain is associated with social cognition and self-reflection. Autistic women showed a more intact mPFC response, which was associated with a better ability to camouflage social difficulties in real-world settings.

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·July 14, 2020·4 min read

Autism Researchers Map Brain Circuitry of Social Preference

Study reveals how two neural circuits dictate the choice between social approach and avoidance. The network connecting the infralimbic cortex to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) impairs social behavior if there is a decrease in neural activity. Another network connecting the prelimbic cortex to the BLA similarly impairs social behavior if the neural activity is increased.

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·June 16, 2020·4 min read

Your brain shows if you are lonely or not

In the medial prefrontal cortex, loneliness is associated with a reduced representational similarity between the self and others. Feeling socially disconnected may be mirrored by a self-representation of being a "loner."

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·June 15, 2020·1 min read

Loneliness alters your brain’s social network

Loneliness alters how the brain represents relationships, a new study reports.

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·March 27, 2020·3 min read

The brain and socially motivated behavior

The lateral hypothalamus is an integral component of social brain networks. It shapes socially motivated behaviors via functional coordination with neocortical regions.

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·March 9, 2020·5 min read

Our brains can predict the virality of online videos, without us even knowing it

Scanning people's brains when watching videos, researchers found both neural and behavioral responses to the content could predict how long others would watch the same video on the internet.