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Doing more with less: meta-reasoning and meta-learning in humans and machines
Publication date: October 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 29Author(s): Thomas L Griffiths, Frederick Callaway, Michael B Chang, Erin Grant, Paul M Krueger, Falk LiederArtificial intelligence systems use an increasing amount of computation and data to solve very specific problems. By contrast, human minds solve a wide range of problems using a fixed amount of computation and limited experience. We identify two abilities that we see as crucial to this kind of general intelligence: meta-reasoning (deciding how to allocate computational resources) and meta-learning (modeling the learning environment ...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - February 27, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

The Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity
Publication date: August 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 28Author(s): Steven W ColeGene expression profiling studies of people exposed to chronic threat have identified a Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA) in circulating immune cells. This physiological pattern is characterized by upregulated expression of genes involved in inflammation and downregulated expression of genes involved in Type I interferon responses. The CTRA is mediated by beta-adrenergic signaling pathways that transduce sympathetic nervous system activity into changes in transcription factor activity and hemat...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - February 26, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Neuroimmune regulation of female reproduction in health and disease
Publication date: August 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 28Author(s): Erin A Fuller, Simin Younesi, Soniya Xavier, Luba SominskyFemale reproductive development and function are tightly regulated by immune and endocrine interactions centrally, peripherally and locally within the utero-ovarian environment. This hormonal-immune cross talk is implicated in the major milestones of female reproduction, including ovarian development, ovulation, menstruation, implantation and pregnancy. Excessive immune activation and hyperinflammatory states appear to be associated with several immune-based reproductive...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - February 25, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Psychological stress, immunity, and asthma: developing a paradigm for effective therapy and prevention
Publication date: August 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 28Author(s): Gailen D MarshallAsthma is increasing in incidence and prevalence worldwide in an alarming fashion. Accompanying this increase in asthma incidence and disease activity is living in an increasingly stressful, sedentary, polluted environment, all of which may be contributing to the immune imbalances associated with asthma. All individuals experience stress in their lives which, in measured amounts, is actually necessary and healthy. However, in excess amounts, intensity, duration or even character, stress can alter multiple physi...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - February 25, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Nutritional psychoneuroimmunology: is the inflammasome a critical convergence point for stress and nutritional dysregulation?
Publication date: August 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 28Author(s): Albert E Towers, Gregory G FreundPsychoneuroimmunology (PNI) aims to elucidate mechanisms by which the immune system can influence behavior. Given the complexity of the brain, studies using inbred rodents have shed critical insight into the presumed vagaries of the human condition. This is particularly true for stress modeling where adverse stimuli, conditions and/or interactions elicit patterned behavioral reactions that can translate across species. As example, sickness behaviors are as easily recognized in mice as they are i...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - February 25, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Early life stress and metabolism
Publication date: August 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 28Author(s): Sajida Malik, Sarah J SpencerExposure to stress is a normal and constant facet of life. However, excessive or chronic stress at particular phases of brain development can have lasting detrimental effects on many aspects of physiology, including appetite regulation and metabolism. A specific window of vulnerability to the lasting effects of stress is the early life period, in utero and immediately postnatally. At these times, excessive psychological stress, such as parental withdrawal or a bereavement in the family, can influenc...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - February 25, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Epigenetic perpetuation of the impact of early life stress on behavior
Publication date: August 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 28Author(s): Linda Witek Janusek, Dina Tell, Herbert L MathewsThere is growing support for epigenetic perpetuation of early life stressful experiences on offspring behavior. Evidence primarily exists for maternal psychosocial experiences (i.e. mood and exposure to stress, adversity, or trauma) to associate with epigenetic modification to offspring genes involved in neurobehavioral pathways (i.e. glucocorticoid, oxytocin, and serotonin system genes). Such epigenetic modifications associate with altered infant neurobehavioral developmental pr...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - February 22, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Musical creativity and the motor system
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): David Bashwiner, Donna BaconAcross the neuroscientific literature, a surprisingly consistent finding in studies of musical creativity is the involvement of motor regions. These regions—premotor cortex, the supplementary and pre-supplementary motor areas, and posterior inferior frontal gyrus—are implicated in higher-level capacities, such as motor sequencing and planning, rather than primary motor control, and are furthermore implicated in cognitive capacities not directly linked to overt motor behavior. Nevertheless, their co...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - January 23, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Implications of large-sample neuroimaging studies of creativity measured by divergent thinking
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Hikaru Takeuchi, Ryuta KawashimaIn this review, we review recent studies that have investigated the neural bases of individual differences in creativity measured by divergent thinking (CMDT and relevant cognitive characteristics) with large samples (N > several hundreds) and reviews. The effect sizes of all observed correlations in these studies were weak. In some findings of volumetry, globally spread weak effects were observed. In some other findings, significant and robust interactions between sex and CMDT were observed, i...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - January 20, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Editorial overview: Epigenetics, genomic imprinting and behaviour
Publication date: Available online 12 January 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral SciencesAuthor(s): William Davies, Lawrence Wilkinson (Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences)
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - January 13, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Analogues of mental simulation and imagination in deep learning
Publication date: October 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 29Author(s): Jessica B HamrickMental simulation — the capacity to imagine what will or what could be — is a salient feature of human cognition, playing a key role in a wide range of cognitive abilities. In artificial intelligence, the last few years have seen the development of methods which are analogous to mental models and mental simulation. This paper outlines recent methods in deep learning for constructing such models from data and learning to use them via reinforcement learning, and compares such approaches t...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - January 5, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Reconciling deep learning with symbolic artificial intelligence: representing objects and relations
Publication date: October 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 29Author(s): Marta Garnelo, Murray ShanahanIn the history of the quest for human-level artificial intelligence, a number of rival paradigms have vied for supremacy. Symbolic artificial intelligence was dominant for much of the 20th century, but currently a connectionist paradigm is in the ascendant, namely machine learning with deep neural networks. However, both paradigms have strengths and weaknesses, and a significant challenge for the field today is to effect a reconciliation. A central tenet of the symbolic paradigm is that intelligen...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - January 5, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

The twofold model of creativity: the neural underpinnings of the generation and evaluation of creative ideas
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Oded M Kleinmintz, Tal Ivancovsky, Simone G Shamay-TsooryIt is increasingly acknowledged that creativity involves two phases: a generation phase and an evaluation phase. The two-fold model assumes a cyclic motion between the generation and the evaluation of ideas, as common or deviant ideas are rejected, and novel and appropriate ideas receive further attention and elaboration.Here we synthesize recent neuroimaging findings into an extended two-fold model, and emphasize the important role of the evaluation phase. The model aims t...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - December 18, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

On the necessity of abstraction
Publication date: October 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 29Author(s): George KonidarisA generally intelligent agent faces a dilemma: it requires a complex sensorimotor space to be capable of solving a wide range of problems, but many tasks are only feasible given the right problem-specific formulation. I argue that a necessary but understudied requirement for general intelligence is the ability to form task-specific abstract representations. I show that the reinforcement learning paradigm structures this question into how to learn action abstractions and how to learn state abstractions, and disc...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - December 15, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Mind-wandering as creative thinking: neural, psychological, and theoretical considerations
Publication date: June 2019Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 27Author(s): Kieran CR Fox, Roger E BeatyCreative thinking is understood via a dual-process model involving the generation of creative ideas followed by their subsequent evaluation and refinement. Creative products must also meet a dual-criterion definition requiring that they be both novel and useful. Mind-wandering consists of self-generated thoughts unrelated to a task or the surrounding environment, involving a relatively spontaneous generation stage sometimes (but not always) followed by a more deliberate stage in which thoughts are eval...
Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - December 11, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research