While many neuroimaging studies have considered verbal and visual short-term memory (STM) as relying on neurally segregated short-term buffer systems, the present study explored the existence of shared neural correlates supporting verbal and visual STM. We hypothesized that networks involved in attentional and executive processes as well as networks involved in serial order processing underlie STM for both verbal and visual list information, with neural specificity restricted to sensory areas involved in processing the specific items to be retained. Participants were presented sequences of nonwords or unfamiliar faces, and they had to maintain and recognize order or item information. For encoding and retrieval phases, null conjunction analysis revealed an identical fronto-parieto-cerebellar network comprising the left intraparietal sulcus, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the bilateral cerebellum, irrespective of information type and modality. A network centered around the right intraparietal sulcus supported STM for order information, in both verbal and visual modalities. Modality-specific effects were observed in left superior temporal and mid-fusiform areas associated with phonological and orthographic processing during the verbal STM tasks, and in right hippocampal and fusiform face processing areas during the visual STM tasks, these modality effects being most pronounced when storing item information. The present results suggest that STM emerges from the deployment of modality-independent attentional and serial ordering processes towards sensory networks underlying the processing and storage of modality specific item information. 226 words 3

a b s t r a c tThis study examined cognitive representations of routine action, through the assessment of level of agency, in individuals with sub-clinical checking. The level of agency stems from Action Identification Theory [Vallacher, R. R., Wegner, D. M. (1989). Levels of personal agency: Individual variation in action identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57, 660-671], which states that how actions are usually identified (based on instrumental aspects or purpose) reflects the predominant accessibility of internal representation (movements executed vs. goal pursued). Furthermore, this framework proposed that altered action regulation is related to low-level of agency (i.e., action identification at an instrumental level). In the current study, the main result indicated that checking symptoms were related to a low-level of agency, that is, individuals with sub-clinical checking identified habitual actions on the basis of instrumental aspects. This seems to indicate that checkers may act with a lack of goal representations. The results are discussed in terms of the role of low-level of agency in checking phenomena and related cognitive dysfunction.

Short-term memory (STM) for order information, as compared to STM for item information, has been shown to be a critical determinant of language learning capacity. The present fMRI study asked whether the neural substrates of order STM can serve as markers for bilingual language achievement. Two groups of German-French bilinguals differing in second language proficiency were presented STM tasks probing serial order or item information. During order STM but not item STM tasks, the high proficiency group showed increased activation in the lateral orbito-frontal and the superior frontal gyri associated with updating and grouped rehearsal of serial order information. Functional connectivity analyses for order encoding showed a functional network involving the left IPS, the right IPS and the right superior cerebellum in the high proficiency group while the low proficiency group showed enhanced connectivity between the left IPS and bilateral superior temporal and temporo-parietal areas involved in item processing. The present data suggest that low proficiency bilinguals activate STM networks for order in a less efficient and differentiated way, and this may explain their poorer storage and learning capacity for verbal sequences.

a b s t r a c tResearch on self-agency emphasizes the importance of a comparing mechanism, which scans for a match between anticipated and actual outcomes, in the subjective experience of doing.This study explored the ''feeling of doing" in individuals with checking symptoms by examining the mechanism involved in the experienced agency for outcomes that matched expectations. This mechanism was explored using a task in which the subliminal priming of potential action-effects (emulating outcome anticipation) generally enhances people's feeling of causing these effects when they occur, due to the unconscious perception of a match between primed and observed outcomes. The main result revealed a negative relationship between checking and self-agency for observed outcomes that were primed prior to actions. This suggests that checking individuals fail to grasp the correspondence between actual outcomes of their actions and expected ones. We discuss the possible role of undermined self-agency in checking phenomena and its relationship with cognitive dysfunction.

This article examines individual variability in sexual desire and sexual satisfaction by exploring the relation between these sexual aspects and sexual attitudes (implicit and explicit) and by taking gender into account, as this has been shown to be an influential factor. A total of 28 men and 33 women living in heterosexual relationships completed questionnaires assessing sexual desire (dyadic, solitary), sexual satisfaction, and explicit sexual attitudes. An adapted version of the Affect Misattribution Procedure was used to assess implicit sexual attitudes. Results showed higher levels of dyadic and solitary sexual desire in men than in women. No gender differences were found regarding sexual satisfaction or sexual attitudes. High dyadic sexual desire was associated with positive implicit and explicit sexual attitudes, regardless of gender. However, solitary sexual desire was significantly higher in men than women and was associated, in women only, with positive implicit sexual attitudes, suggesting that solitary sexual desire may fulfill different functions in men and women. Finally, sexual satisfaction depended on the combination of explicit and implicit sexual attitudes in both men and women. This study highlights the importance of considering both implicit and explicit sexual attitudes to better understand the mechanisms underlying individual variability in sexual desire and satisfaction.

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Perception results from a combination of actual data and interpretive schemata based on preexisting knowledge. Thus, ensuing subjective experience depends on the dynamic interplay between data-driven and conceptually driven processing. A chronic imbalance between these two sources of stimulus encoding is likely to be maladaptive and could underlie cognitive and behavioral disturbances similar to those observed in schizotypy, especially if the balance is tipped too far toward conceptually driven processing (i.e., Internal encoding style). This study aimed to examine the relationships between encoding style and various dimensions of schizotypy by using a questionnaire that evaluates the extent to which preexisting schemata (versus cues from the outside world) affect encoding processes. Consistent with previous findings, the authors' results revealed that both Cognitive-Perceptual and Disorganization dimensions were related to an internal mode of encoding, suggesting that individuals with these features may be characterized by a disposition to biases at early stages of encoding.