The characterization of the salivary proteome and advances in biotechnology create an opportunity for developmental scientists to measure multi‐level components of biological systems in oral fluids and identify relationships with developmental processes and behavioral and social forces. The implications for developmental science are profound because from a single oral fluid specimen, information can be obtained about a broad array of biological systems and the genetic polymorphisms related to their function. The purpose of this review is to provide a conceptual and tactical roadmap for investigators interested in integrating these measurement tools into research on adolescent health and development.

Implicit sequence learning is a fundamental mechanism that underlies the acquisition of motor, cognitive and social skills. The relationship between implicit learning and executive functions is still debated due to the overlapping fronto-striatal networks. According to the framework of competitive neurocognitive networks, disrupting specific frontal lobe functions, such as executive functions, increases performance on implicit learning tasks. The aim of our study was to explore the nature of such a relationship by investigating the effect of long-term regular alcohol intake on implicit sequence learning. Since alcohol dependency impairs executive functions, we expected intact or even better implicit learning in patient group compared to the healthy controls based on the competitive relationship between these neurocognitive networks. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the long-term effects of alcohol dependency both on implicit learning and on executive functions requiring different but partly overlapping neurocognitive networks. Here, we show weaker executive functions but intact implicit learning in the alcohol-dependent group compared to the controls. Moreover, we found negative correlation between these functions in both groups. Our results confirm the competitive relationship between the fronto-striatal networks underlying implicit sequence learning and executive functions and suggest that the functional integrity of this relationship is unaltered in the alcohol-dependent group despite the weaker frontal lobe functions.

Objective: Memory deficits are frequent among patients with epilepsies affecting the temporal lobe. Hippocampal interictal epileptic discharges (hIEDs), the presumed epileptic exaggeration of sharp wave-ripples (SWRs), are known to contribute to memory dysfunction, but the potential underlying mechanism is unknown.The precise temporal coordination between hippocampal SWRs and corticothalamic spindles during sleep is critical for memory consolidation. Moreover, previous investigation indicated that hIEDs induce neocortical spindlelike oscillation.In the present study, we aimed to assess the influence of hIEDs on neocortical spindles. Methods:We analyzed the spindle characteristics (duration, amplitude, frequency) of 21 epilepsy patients implanted with foramen ovale (FO) electrodes during a whole night sleep. Scalp sleep spindles were categorized based on their temporal relationship to hIEDs detected on the FO electrodes. Three groups were created: (1) spindles coinciding with hIEDs, (2) spindles "induced" by hIEDs, and(3) spindles without hIED co-occurrence. Results:We found that spindles co-occurring with hIEDs had altered characteristics in all measured properties, lasted longer by 126 ± 48 ms (mean ± SD), and had higher amplitude by 3.4 ± 3.2 μV, and their frequency range shifted toward the higher frequencies within the 13-15-Hz range. Also, hIED-induced spindles had identical oscillatory properties to spindles without any temporal relationships with hIEDs. In more than half of our subjects, clear temporal coherence was revealed between hIEDs and spindles, but the direction of the coupling was patient-specific. Significance:We investigated the effect of hippocampal IEDs on neocortical spindle activity and found spindle alterations in cases of spindle-hIED cooccurrence, but not in cases of hIED-initiated spindles. We propose that this is a marker of a pathologic process, where IEDs may have direct effect on spindle generation. It could mark a potential mechanism whereby IEDs disrupt memory | 2257 SÁKOVICS et al.

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Jelen tanulmány különböző neurokognitív folyamatok versengő kapcsolatát vizsgálja az implicit tanulás és a végrehajtó funkciók működésének bemutatásán keresztül. Az implicit tanulásról ma már tudjuk, hogy — a végrehajtó funkciókat működtető frontális területekkel átfedésben — a fronto-striatális hálózat működésén alapszik. Ez az átfedés egymással kooperáló és kompetitív folyamatokat is eredményezhet. Két kognitív folyamat versengő kapcsolatát többféle kísérleti elrendezésben is lehet vizsgálni, például az egyik folyamat gyengítésével vagy egy olyan vizsgálati populáció választásával, amelyben az egyik vagy a másik funkcióért felelős agyi terület sérült. Jelen áttekintő tanulmány célja, hogy az utóbbi években megjelent, ezeket a módszereket használó kutatásokon keresztül bemutassa az implicit tanulás és a végrehajtó funkciók kapcsolatát. A felsorakoztatott eredmények alapján a frontális lebeny függő végrehajtó funkciók és az implicit tanulás között negatív kapcsolat áll fenn, tehát a gyengébb végrehajtó funkciók jobb implicit tanulási képességgel járhatnak együtt. Ennek a versengő kapcsolatnak a hátterében a felhasznált kognitív erőforrások átfedése állhat. A kognitív folyamatok interaktív szemlélete a kognitív funkciókat más funkciókkal való interakcióban vizsgálja, ami hozzájárulhat a pszichológiai funkciók jobb megértéséhez általában véve. Ez a szemléleti keret segíthet az atipikus fejlődési mintázatok és kognitív nehézségek jobb megértésében és fejlesztő módszerek kidolgozásában.

Michael S. Gazzaniga, Richard B. Ivry and George R. Mangun Cognitive neuroscience: The biology of the mind (International student edition) (4th ed.) Trevor W. Robbins, Barry J. Everitt and David J. Nutt The neurobiology of addiction Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010, 318 pp. ISBN: 978-0-1995-6215-2

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Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show altered learning and memory. A number of recent studies have debated whether procedural learning in ASD is intact or not. Our aim was to further assess the question of whether the implicit, non-conscious form of procedural learning in ASD children is intact or not, furthermore, how shifts towards a more explicit, attention-demanding task setting can alter this performance. We administered a modified version of the Alternating Serial Reaction Time (ASRT) Task to children with ASD and IQ- and age-matched typically developing (TD) children. The task consisted of alternating blocks of cued (explicit) and uncued (implicit probe) blocks, and was repeated after a 16-hour delay. We found that ASD and TD children showed similar sequence-specific learning in cued explicit blocks, however, on the uncued probe blocks ASD children performed better compared to TD children. After the 16-hour delay both groups showed retention of the previously acquired knowledge. Finally, when we investigated the performance in different parts of the blocks, we found that ASD children did not show an effect of fatigue by the second part of the blocks. Our results suggest that children with ASD have increased implicit procedural learning skills compared to TD children. Differences in cued (explicit) and uncued (implicit) settings indicate that children with ASD are not affected by the lack of explicit instructions in probe blocks, suggesting a resistance for changes in task settings. These findings can help in a more thorough planning of cognitive therapeutic setups for ASD children.