Topic: resting-state functional connectivity

Over the last decade, research on curiosity – the desire to seek new information – has been rapidly growing. Several studies have shown that curiosity elicits activity within the dopaminergic circuit and thereby enhances hippocampus-dependent learning. However, given this new field of research, we do not have a good understanding yet of (i) how curiosity-based learning changes across the lifespan, (ii) why some people show better learning improvements due to curiosity than others, and (iii) whether lab-based research on curiosity translates to how curiosity affects information seeking in real

Although substance use disorders (SUDs) occur commonly in patients with schizophrenia and significantly worsen their clinical course, the neurobiological basis of SUDs in schizophrenia is not well understood. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand the mechanisms underlying SUDs in schizophrenia in order to identify potential targets for therapeutic intervention. Since drug use usually begins in adolescence, it is also important to understand the long-term effects of adolescent drug exposure on schizophrenia- and reward- related behaviors and circuitry. This talk will combine pharmac

Research has identified structural differences between monolinguals and bilinguals in brain regions underlying language, and memory. This is consistent with the Declarative/Procedural language model, which proposes that hippocampal-based and basal ganglia-based networks subserve language learning and processing.Whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (FC) of bilateral hippocampi and caudate nuclei was analyzed in 117 participants with diverse multilingual language experience, to assess relationships of FC with performance on verbal declarative memory and procedural memory tasks, and