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This project aims at investigating the effect of acute physical exercise at moderate intensity on cognitive performance, cerebral blood flow, brain structure, and brain activity in older adults.

Deficits in cognitive functioning, especially in the domain of executive functioning (EF), often affect glioma patients, impacting their quality of life. As of yet, there are no clear imaging markers that can explain (and potentially predict) these cognitive issues. Most recent attempts to find such markers have utilized graph theory, considering the brain as a complex network to assess local and global properties of the brain network. Crucial for EF in particular is the network integration of the frontoparietal network (FPN). Brain networks can be derived from different imaging modalities, allowing exploration of structural networks (when using diffusion MRI) or functional networks (when using functional MRI or MEG). Most studies have focused on single-layer networks, considering the different modalities in isolation. However, each modality carries unique information. Considering them jointly may therefore be crucial to better understand how the brain network facilitates cognition. Indeed, we recently showed that, in the healthy brain, FPN integration in a multilayer network comprised of dMRI, fMRI, and MEG related significantly to EF, superseding any single-layer network measure. We then explored FPN integration of a purely functional multilayer, integrating the canonical MEG frequency bands in a glioma population, and found a similar relation with EF both pre-operatively as well as one year after tumor resection. Here, we aim to further explore the association between multilayer network organization and EF in glioma by considering a multilayer network integrating both structure (dMRI) and function (fMRI), mainly focusing on the importance of FPN integration.

Examining multimodal associations between school environment and brain structure and function.

Clinical hostility is referred to as a personality trait that includes persistent or frequent angry feelings; anger or irritability in response to minor slights or insults; and mean, nasty, or vengeful behaviour (APA, 2015). Hostility can be perceived as a transdiagnostic dimension that is clinically relevant across psychopathological classifications, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and cluster-B personality disorders (Posternak & Zimmerman, 2002). This dimension has been demonstrated to be an important predictor of psychopathological severity, disappointing treatment response, treatment drop-out and suicide. The hostility definition was coined in 2015 as part of the new hybrid diagnostic classification of personality disorders in section III of DSM-V. Early definitions of hostility were similar (e.g., Chapman, 1982), although subsequent research subdivided hostility in cognitive, affective and behavioural processes (Smith, 1992). The cognitive component of hostility includes “negative beliefs and attitudes toward others, including cynicism, denigration and mistrust” (Miller et al., 1996). The affective and behavioural components respectively refer to the transitory emotional state of anger and behavioural aggression. Deciding to reintroduce hostility as descriptor of clinical phenomena related to hostile cognition, anger and aggressive behaviour is begging the question. Nonetheless, no prior investigation has confirmed that hostile individuals more readily and similarly interpret ambiguous situations in hostile fashion, experience anger and express aggression in daily life.

Nine papers were presented at a workshop concerned with structure and process in cognition. The reports given at this conference represent detailed applications of these concepts to limited areas of experience. This work is unique in that both structure and process appear together, rather than being studied as independent concepts. All the papers may be interpreted as talking about processes that apply to structure. This represents the beginning of a new kind of work in cognitive psychology. These papers are directly concerned with semantics. This suggests that semantics is providing a setting for further work in cognition. The workshop did not produce any specific conclusions of findings. The interrelations between the structures and processes studied in each of the papers have been worked out. Each paper analyzes a limited range of phenomena. There is not one view which at the moment can cover most of the phenomena. Rather, these papers may be the basis for the future development of an adequate general theory of cognition. [Not available in hard copy due to marginal legibility of original document.] (BW/Author)

Assessing the factor structure of mindfulness, mood, and cognition items in an ecological momentary assessment battery

This project aims at investigating the effect of acute physical exercise at moderate intensity on cognitive performance, cerebral blood flow, brain structure, and brain activity in older adults.

This project aims at investigating the effect of acute physical exercise at moderate intensity on cognitive performance, cerebral blood flow, brain structure, and brain activity in older adults.

This project aims at investigating the effect of acute physical exercise at moderate intensity on cognitive performance, cerebral blood flow, brain structure, and brain activity in older adults.

This project aims at investigating the effect of acute physical exercise at moderate intensity on cognitive performance, cerebral blood flow, brain structure, and brain activity in older adults.

Experiments in cognitive science and decision theory show that the ways in which people combine concepts and make decisions cannot be described by classical logic and probability theory. This has serious implications for applied disciplines such as information retrieval, artificial intelligence and robotics. Inspired by a mathematical formalism that generalizes quantum mechanics the authors have constructed a contextual framework for both concept representation and decision making, together with quantum models that are in strong alignment with experimental data. The results can be interpreted by assuming the existence in human thought of a double-layered structure, a 'classical logical thought' and a 'quantum conceptual thought', the latter being responsible of the above paradoxes and nonclassical effects. The presence of a quantum structure in cognition is relevant, for it shows that quantum mechanics provides not only a useful modeling tool for experimental data but also supplies a structural model for human and artificial thought processes. This approach has strong connections with theories formalizing meaning, such as semantic analysis, and has also a deep impact on computer science, information retrieval and artificial intelligence. More specifically, the links with information retrieval are discussed in this paper.

This article is from Frontiers in Psychology , volume 5 . Abstract Human evolution unfolded through a rather distinctive, dynamically constructed ecological niche. The human niche is not only generally terrestrial in habitat, while being flexibly and extensively heterotrophic in food-web connections. It is also defined by semiotically structured and structuring embodied cognitive interfaces, connecting the individual organism with the wider environment. The embodied dimensions of niche-population co-evolution have long involved semiotic system construction, which I hypothesize to be an evolutionarily primitive aspect of learning and higher-level cognitive integration and attention in the great apes and humans alike. A clearly pre-linguistic form of semiotic cognitive structuration is suggested to involve recursively learned and constructed object icons. Higher-level cognitive iconic representation of visually, auditorily, or haptically perceived extrasomatic objects would be learned and evoked through indexical connections to proprioceptive and affective somatic states. Thus, private cognitive signs would be defined, not only by their learned and perceived extrasomatic referents, but also by their associations to iconically represented somatic states. This evolutionary modification of animal associative learning is suggested to be adaptive in ecological niches occupied by long-lived, large-bodied ape species, facilitating memory construction and recall in highly varied foraging and social contexts, while sustaining selective attention during goal-directed behavioral sequences. The embodied niche construction (ENC) hypothesis of human evolution posits that in the early hominin lineage, natural selection further modified the ancestral ape semiotic adaptations, favoring the recursive structuration of concise iconic narratives of embodied interaction with the environment.

This article is from Frontiers in Psychology , volume 5 . Abstract Human evolution unfolded through a rather distinctive, dynamically constructed ecological niche. The human niche is not only generally terrestrial in habitat, while being flexibly and extensively heterotrophic in food-web connections. It is also defined by semiotically structured and structuring embodied cognitive interfaces, connecting the individual organism with the wider environment. The embodied dimensions of niche-population co-evolution have long involved semiotic system construction, which I hypothesize to be an evolutionarily primitive aspect of learning and higher-level cognitive integration and attention in the great apes and humans alike. A clearly pre-linguistic form of semiotic cognitive structuration is suggested to involve recursively learned and constructed object icons. Higher-level cognitive iconic representation of visually, auditorily, or haptically perceived extrasomatic objects would be learned and evoked through indexical connections to proprioceptive and affective somatic states. Thus, private cognitive signs would be defined, not only by their learned and perceived extrasomatic referents, but also by their associations to iconically represented somatic states. This evolutionary modification of animal associative learning is suggested to be adaptive in ecological niches occupied by long-lived, large-bodied ape species, facilitating memory construction and recall in highly varied foraging and social contexts, while sustaining selective attention during goal-directed behavioral sequences. The embodied niche construction (ENC) hypothesis of human evolution posits that in the early hominin lineage, natural selection further modified the ancestral ape semiotic adaptations, favoring the recursive structuration of concise iconic narratives of embodied interaction with the environment.

Behavioral genetic results are commonly misinterpreted as implying that genetically-influenced phenotypes are immutable to environmental intervention. Although this idea has been challenged rhetorically (Goldberger, 1979), there have been few empirical investigations of whether, in practice, the magnitude of genetic influence on psychological phenotypes is associated with the responsiveness of those phenotypes to differences in environmental contexts. Here, we analyze a unique dataset that combines information on genetic differences, family socioeconomic background, adolescent brain regions, cognitive outcomes, and US state-level variation in economic policies. We inquire: Are genetic associations with brain and cognitive phenotypes associated with the extent to which state-level anti-poverty policies moderate socioeconomic disparities in these phenotypes? Previous work in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD), a large, longitudinal study of the adolescent development (Garavan et al., 2018; Jernigan et al., 2018), suggests that state-level economic contexts and policies, such as the cost of living and cash assistance programs, moderate the associations of socioeconomic status with hippocampal volume and psychopathology (Weissman et al., 2021). We will expand on this work by examining a broader array of brain regions and performance on cognitive tests, which are known to be influenced by genetic and environmental factors (e.g., Kweon et al., 2022). We will test whether the phenotypes that are more strongly associated with genetic differences show less moderation by state-level economic context.

Behavioral genetic results are commonly misinterpreted as implying that genetically-influenced phenotypes are immutable to environmental intervention. Although this idea has been challenged rhetorically (Goldberger, 1979), there have been few empirical investigations of whether, in practice, the magnitude of genetic influence on psychological phenotypes is associated with the responsiveness of those phenotypes to differences in environmental contexts. Here, we analyze a unique dataset that combines information on genetic differences, family socioeconomic background, adolescent brain regions, cognitive outcomes, and US state-level variation in economic policies. We inquire: Are genetic associations with brain and cognitive phenotypes associated with the extent to which state-level anti-poverty policies moderate socioeconomic disparities in these phenotypes? Previous work in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD), a large, longitudinal study of the adolescent development (Garavan et al., 2018; Jernigan et al., 2018), suggests that state-level economic contexts and policies, such as the cost of living and cash assistance programs, moderate the associations of socioeconomic status with hippocampal volume and psychopathology (Weissman et al., 2021). We will expand on this work by examining a broader array of brain regions and performance on cognitive tests, which are known to be influenced by genetic and environmental factors (e.g., Kweon et al., 2022). We will test whether the phenotypes that are more strongly associated with genetic differences show less moderation by state-level economic context.

Behavioral genetic results are commonly misinterpreted as implying that genetically-influenced phenotypes are immutable to environmental intervention. Although this idea has been challenged rhetorically (Goldberger, 1979), there have been few empirical investigations of whether, in practice, the magnitude of genetic influence on psychological phenotypes is associated with the responsiveness of those phenotypes to differences in environmental contexts. Here, we analyze a unique dataset that combines information on genetic differences, family socioeconomic background, adolescent brain regions, cognitive outcomes, and US state-level variation in economic policies. We inquire: Are genetic associations with brain and cognitive phenotypes associated with the extent to which state-level anti-poverty policies moderate socioeconomic disparities in these phenotypes? Previous work in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD), a large, longitudinal study of the adolescent development (Garavan et al., 2018; Jernigan et al., 2018), suggests that state-level economic contexts and policies, such as the cost of living and cash assistance programs, moderate the associations of socioeconomic status with hippocampal volume and psychopathology (Weissman et al., 2021). We will expand on this work by examining a broader array of brain regions and performance on cognitive tests, which are known to be influenced by genetic and environmental factors (e.g., Kweon et al., 2022). We will test whether the phenotypes that are more strongly associated with genetic differences show less moderation by state-level economic context.

We provide an overview of the results we have attained in the last decade on the identification of quantum structures in cognition and, more specifically, in the formalization and representation of natural concepts. We firstly discuss the quantum foundational reasons that led us to investigate the mechanisms of formation and combination of concepts in human reasoning, starting from the empirically observed deviations from classical logical and probabilistic structures. We then develop our quantum-theoretic perspective in Fock space which allows successful modeling of various sets of cognitive experiments collected by different scientists, including ourselves. In addition, we formulate a unified explanatory hypothesis for the presence of quantum structures in cognitive processes, and discuss our recent discovery of further quantum aspects in concept combinations, namely, 'entanglement' and 'indistinguishability'. We finally illustrate perspectives for future research.

Traditional cognitive science rests on a foundation of classical logic and probability theory. This foundation has been seriously challenged by several findings in experimental psychology on human decision making. Meanwhile, the formalism of quantum theory has provided an efficient resource for modeling these classically problematical situations. In this paper, we start from our successful quantum-theoretic approach to the modeling of concept combinations to formulate a unifying explanatory hypothesis. In it, human reasoning is the superposition of two processes -- a conceptual reasoning, whose nature is emergence of new conceptuality, and a logical reasoning, founded on an algebraic calculus of the logical type. In most cognitive processes however, the former reasoning prevails over the latter. In this perspective, the observed deviations from classical logical reasoning should not be interpreted as biases but, rather, as natural expressions of emergence in its deepest form.

Traditional cognitive science rests on a foundation of classical logic and probability theory. This foundation has been seriously challenged by several findings in experimental psychology on human decision making. Meanwhile, the formalism of quantum theory has provided an efficient resource for modeling these classically problematical situations. In this paper, we start from our successful quantum-theoretic approach to the modeling of concept combinations to formulate a unifying explanatory hypothesis. In it, human reasoning is the superposition of two processes -- a conceptual reasoning, whose nature is emergence of new conceptuality, and a logical reasoning, founded on an algebraic calculus of the logical type. In most cognitive processes however, the former reasoning prevails over the latter. In this perspective, the observed deviations from classical logical reasoning should not be interpreted as biases but, rather, as natural expressions of emergence in its deepest form.

Traditional cognitive science rests on a foundation of classical logic and probability theory. This foundation has been seriously challenged by several findings in experimental psychology on human decision making. Meanwhile, the formalism of quantum theory has provided an efficient resource for modeling these classically problematical situations. In this paper, we start from our successful quantum-theoretic approach to the modeling of concept combinations to formulate a unifying explanatory hypothesis. In it, human reasoning is the superposition of two processes -- a conceptual reasoning, whose nature is emergence of new conceptuality, and a logical reasoning, founded on an algebraic calculus of the logical type. In most cognitive processes however, the former reasoning prevails over the latter. In this perspective, the observed deviations from classical logical reasoning should not be interpreted as biases but, rather, as natural expressions of emergence in its deepest form.

Traditional cognitive science rests on a foundation of classical logic and probability theory. This foundation has been seriously challenged by several findings in experimental psychology on human decision making. Meanwhile, the formalism of quantum theory has provided an efficient resource for modeling these classically problematical situations. In this paper, we start from our successful quantum-theoretic approach to the modeling of concept combinations to formulate a unifying explanatory hypothesis. In it, human reasoning is the superposition of two processes -- a conceptual reasoning, whose nature is emergence of new conceptuality, and a logical reasoning, founded on an algebraic calculus of the logical type. In most cognitive processes however, the former reasoning prevails over the latter. In this perspective, the observed deviations from classical logical reasoning should not be interpreted as biases but, rather, as natural expressions of emergence in its deepest form.

One of us has recently elaborated a theory for modelling concepts that uses the state context property (SCoP) formalism, i.e. a generalization of the quantum formalism. This formalism incorporates context into the mathematical structure used to represent a concept, and thereby models how context influences the typicality of a single exemplar and the applicability of a single property of a concept, which provides a solution of the 'Pet-Fish problem' and other difficulties occurring in concept theory. Then, a quantum model has been worked out which reproduces the membership weights of several exemplars of concepts and their combinations. We show in this paper that a further relevant effect appears in a natural way whenever two or more concepts combine, namely, 'entanglement'. The presence of entanglement is explicitly revealed by considering a specific example with two concepts, constructing some Bell's inequalities for this example, testing them in a real experiment with test subjects, and finally proving that Bell's inequalities are violated in this case. We show that the intrinsic and unavoidable character of entanglement can be explained in terms of the weights of the exemplars of the combined concept with respect to the weights of the exemplars of the component concepts.

One of us has recently elaborated a theory for modelling concepts that uses the state context property (SCoP) formalism, i.e. a generalization of the quantum formalism. This formalism incorporates context into the mathematical structure used to represent a concept, and thereby models how context influences the typicality of a single exemplar and the applicability of a single property of a concept, which provides a solution of the 'Pet-Fish problem' and other difficulties occurring in concept theory. Then, a quantum model has been worked out which reproduces the membership weights of several exemplars of concepts and their combinations. We show in this paper that a further relevant effect appears in a natural way whenever two or more concepts combine, namely, 'entanglement'. The presence of entanglement is explicitly revealed by considering a specific example with two concepts, constructing some Bell's inequalities for this example, testing them in a real experiment with test subjects, and finally proving that Bell's inequalities are violated in this case. We show that the intrinsic and unavoidable character of entanglement can be explained in terms of the weights of the exemplars of the combined concept with respect to the weights of the exemplars of the component concepts.

One of us has recently elaborated a theory for modelling concepts that uses the state context property (SCoP) formalism, i.e. a generalization of the quantum formalism. This formalism incorporates context into the mathematical structure used to represent a concept, and thereby models how context influences the typicality of a single exemplar and the applicability of a single property of a concept, which provides a solution of the 'Pet-Fish problem' and other difficulties occurring in concept theory. Then, a quantum model has been worked out which reproduces the membership weights of several exemplars of concepts and their combinations. We show in this paper that a further relevant effect appears in a natural way whenever two or more concepts combine, namely, 'entanglement'. The presence of entanglement is explicitly revealed by considering a specific example with two concepts, constructing some Bell's inequalities for this example, testing them in a real experiment with test subjects, and finally proving that Bell's inequalities are violated in this case. We show that the intrinsic and unavoidable character of entanglement can be explained in terms of the weights of the exemplars of the combined concept with respect to the weights of the exemplars of the component concepts.

One of us has recently elaborated a theory for modelling concepts that uses the state context property (SCoP) formalism, i.e. a generalization of the quantum formalism. This formalism incorporates context into the mathematical structure used to represent a concept, and thereby models how context influences the typicality of a single exemplar and the applicability of a single property of a concept, which provides a solution of the 'Pet-Fish problem' and other difficulties occurring in concept theory. Then, a quantum model has been worked out which reproduces the membership weights of several exemplars of concepts and their combinations. We show in this paper that a further relevant effect appears in a natural way whenever two or more concepts combine, namely, 'entanglement'. The presence of entanglement is explicitly revealed by considering a specific example with two concepts, constructing some Bell's inequalities for this example, testing them in a real experiment with test subjects, and finally proving that Bell's inequalities are violated in this case. We show that the intrinsic and unavoidable character of entanglement can be explained in terms of the weights of the exemplars of the combined concept with respect to the weights of the exemplars of the component concepts.

Development of a unified ontology and epistemology based on the Klein Bottle supradual logophysics, applied to biology of development, second and higher order cybernetics, nonlinear systems, foundations of mathematics, cognition, genomics, biophysics, morphogenesis, etc.  In this first part of a series of articles we discuss the torsion geometry of biology, physics, cognition and perception. We discuss the relations with the non-linear morphomechanics of organisms and the integration of the body’s chiralities. We present the connections with the topology of neural networks as heterarchies and with multi-loci logics as a basis for the HyperKlein Bottle logophysics in genomics, systems theory and cognition. We discuss the link to the relational paradigm for biology, systems theory and physics. We introduce the relations of torsion with self-reference as a generating principle, and as a protosemiotic agency. We present the relations of heterarchies to cognition and systems theory. We discuss the relation between chaotic dynamics, blown-up systems, the non-linear logophysics of the KB and the paradoxical structure of the real numbers. In particular, we elaborate on the breakdown of the continuum hypothesis, the origin of singularities, particularly with respect to General Relativity, and the non-linear elasticity of biological development. We discuss the relation of computational error and the KB logophysics. We present the heterarchical logophysics and the constitution of the self as a model and of a sense or reality as a primary epistemic state further promoted to a dual ontology, which we discuss in terms of the foundations of mathematics in set theory and topoi, and the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. We introduce a fundamental Inside/Outside image-schema in cognitive semantics and discuss its pervasive role in cognition and the framing of the sciences, and give several examples of this. We introduce logical systems as formalizations of ontologies, their role in cognition, the neurosciences, cybernetics and biocomputation, and discuss their setting in terms of the positional HyperKlein Bottle logics and classical dual logic as a particular case. We develop a phenomenological approach to unified science. We discuss the time operator. We discuss the relations of the present logophysics to R.Rosen’s proposal of an approach to systems theory based on the calculus of differential forms and with regards to the topological approach to theoretical physics and Chemical Topology. We discuss the relation between the present logophysics and Spencer Brown’s Laws of Form.

Presented at !!Con West 2019: http://bangbangcon.com/west We discuss an algorithm for playing chess — or Reversi, or Tic-Tac-Toe, or indeed, any two-player, zero-sum, perfect information game — and its surprising philosophical implications for cognitive science, free will, and ourselves. #bangbangcon #bangbangconwest #bangbangconwest2019

Presented at !!Con West 2019: http://bangbangcon.com/west We discuss an algorithm for playing chess — or Reversi, or Tic-Tac-Toe, or indeed, any two-player, zero-sum, perfect information game — and its surprising philosophical implications for cognitive science, free will, and ourselves. #bangbangcon #bangbangconwest #bangbangconwest2019