We defined emotional support as subjectively perceived support, which is independent from actually received support and structural aspects of social networks and as such excludes influences of increased physical and cognitive activation on cognition.
The lack of an effect on brain metabolism with the neutral non-task suggests that this dose of MP without a concomitant cognitive activation does not affect brain activity.
Because physical and cognitive activation stimulated by social contacts can also influence cognition, we included both factors as potential confounders.
Nakamura, K. & Colby, C. L. Visual, saccade-related, and cognitive activation of single neurons in monkey exstrastriate area V3A.
The findings are discussed in light of the cognitive activation theory of stress.
Cognitive activation increases neuronal firing rate, increasing the endogenous neurotransmitter level.
Supporting evidence for this notion has been collected with neuroimaging methods during various cognitive activation tasks.
Colby, C. L., Duhamel, J. R. & Goldberg, M. E. Visual, presaccadic, and cognitive activation of single neurons in monkey lateral intraparietal area.
Thus, the pattern of cognitive activation observed in gamblers under AMPH would be expected to skew decisions toward more gambling (eg 'play another round') and to suppress gambling-irrelevant, adaptive behaviors (eg go home).
Design: We developed alcohol expectancy models using a cognitive paradigm designed to maximize cognitive activation of expectancies, in order to delineate dimensions of alcohol expectancies.
Using our recently developed amplitude-modulated continuous ASL CASLL) perfusion fMRI protocol, we assessed the feasibility of a higher level cognitive activation study in twelve healthy subjects.
