In addition to material rewards (such as money, food, and liquid), various social signals, including facial attractiveness, are perceived as incentives. Although material and monetary rewards are known to enhance various aspects of cognitive performance, it is not clear whether and how social signals affect cognition. The present study focused on facial attractiveness and investigated its effects on working memory. In addition, we used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to characterize the activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), an area known to be involved in the processing of reward-related cues in working memory. Our results show that compared to the non-reward condition, the cue for attractive faces enhanced working memory performance, but DLPFC activation did not differ between these two conditions. These results provide new evidence that facial attractiveness enhances verbal working memory performance and function via neural mechanisms different from those characterized for other types of rewarding cues.

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The worldwide pandemic of childhood obesity is now recognized as a serious public health concern. Several recent studies have indicated that childhood obesity is inversely associated with academic achievement, suggesting that maintaining a healthy weight likely be important for cognitive development. However, evidence regarding such an association between childhood obesity and cognitive function is still scarce, and the findings remain controversial. Accordingly, my colleagues and I examined the association between childhood obesity and behavioral and event-related brain potential measures of higher-order cognitive functions (i.e., executive control), which are thought to be closely associated with academic achievement. This short review describes these studies. Our main findings indicate that childhood obesity is negatively associated with inhibitory control and action monitoring, which are key aspects of executive control.

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Many neurons in the human somatosensory cortex (Area 7 of Brodmann) possess an intensely negative-charged surface coat consisting of perineuronal sulfated proteoglycans which were stained with cationic iron colloid. This surface coat was stained doubly with cationic iron colloid and Golgi's silver nitrate. The result indicates that the perineuronal sulfated proteoglycans are identical with Golgi's reticular coating, whose existence and nature have previously been controversial. The result also suggests that Golgi's silver nitrate stains the core proteins of proteoglycans.

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Sections of the retrosplenial cortex from adult and newborn mouse brains were observed with a light microscope. The retrosplenial cortex of the adult animals contained many neurons (10% of the total), including some dark neurons, with perineuronal sulfated proteoglycans detectable with cationic iron colloid and aldehyde fuchsin. The retrosplenial cortex of the adult animals also contained many neurons (10% of the total) with cell surface glycoproteins reactive to lectin Vicia villosa, soybean or Wisteria floribunda agglutinin. Double staining showed that the majority (75%) of the neurons labeled with lectins were stained with cationic iron colloid, and that some (25%) of them were not stained with this colloid. Double staining also showed that some (25%) of the neurons stained with cationic iron colloid were not labeled with lectins. These findings indicate that the perineuronal sulfated proteoglycans are, at least partly, independent from the cell surface glycoproteins. Observations of the sections from the newborn animals revealed that the perineuronal sulfated proteoglycans were produced by the associated satellite astrocytes 3-4 weeks after birth, and that the cell surface glycoproteins were produced by the associated nerve cells at earlier stages, or 2-3 weeks after birth. Dark neurons began to appear 3-4 weeks after birth. These dark neurons or their Golgi complexes were also reactive to lectins, suggesting the production of cell surface glycoproteins.

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認知制御は、環境適応のために行動を調整する能力であり、先行的制御モード（トップダウン的）と反応的制御モード（ボトムアップ的）からなる。事象がいつ生起するかを予測できない状況で、認知制御がどのように機能するかは明らかではない。本研究では、事象の生起タイミングの予測可能性の高低によって、認知制御の働きが異なるかを調べた。ターゲットに先行して手がかりが呈示されるcued go/no-go課題を用い、タイミング予測可能性（高：手がかりとターゲット間の遅延が一定、低：遅延が可変）と手がかり（高情報：Goターゲットが高確率で呈示、低情報：Go・No-goターゲットが等確率で呈示）を操作した。その結果、両タイミング予測可能性条件において、高情報手がかり時のGoターゲットに対する反応時間が低情報手がかり時よりも短かった（タイミング予測可能性と手がかりの交互作用なし）。つまり、認知制御はタイミング予測可能性に影響されにくいと考えられる。

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Visual attention refers to cognitive functions for selecting task-relevant information and filtering out task-irrelevant information. Psychological research on visual attention has utilized congruency effects observed in Stimulus-Response compatibility paradigms, such as the Stroop task, the Flanker task, and the Simon task as the benchmark for investigating cognitive control. A number of studies (e.g., Egner, 2007) have demonstrated that the congruency effect is larger when congruent trials appear frequently within a given block than when they appear infrequently. This phenomenon is termed the proportion congruency (PC) effect, which is considered to reflect fluctuations in visual selectivity. Recently, however, a number of researchers have challenged the view that the PC effect reflects the modulation of visual selectivity. Schmidt (2013) for example argued that the PC effect is driven by performance improvements based on learning predictive relationships between stimuli and responses, rather than by the modulation of visual selectivity. It is notably unclear whether performance improvements are caused by increased contingency of a specific stimulus-response, or high response frequency resulting from the increased contingency in a block. This study was designed to examine the effect of response frequency on Simon task performance by manipulating the number of responses (pushing response buttons) to a target in the Simon task. More specifically, right-handed undergraduate and graduate students (N = 16) were requested to press a key once for a specific target (e.g., red circle) and press the key twice for the other target (e.g., green circle). Our results demonstrated that reaction times and error rates were not dependent on the number of reactions. This finding suggests that performance improvement is caused by contingency learning of stimulus-response pairs and not by the high response frequency.

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Occupational vehicular accidents involving truck drivers represent a serious threat to both work safety and public health. Indonesian Government Regulation (Peraturan Pemerintah Tentang Kendaraan dan Pengemudi) No. 44 1993 is a primary tool used to regulate safe travel for commercial vehicles. The purpose of this present study is to investigate contributing factors to truck accidents and to identify crash driver characteristics that had been responsible for the accident. A total of 106 crash truck drivers in Gempol Surabaya toll road were interviewed. The results show that the most important factors contributing to truck accidents are the limited level of education of the truck drivers, regulation violation and weak physical driver lead to drowsy driving. Then, higher level of education for the commercial drivers should be required and traffic law enforcement should be seriously applied.

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Neurons of intracerebellar nuclei in the mouse brain were demonstrated to possess a marked surface coat, formed 3-4 weeks after birth, which was stainable with cationic iron colloid or aldehyde fuchsin. Neurons with a similar surface coat were noted as relay or local interneurons in rather restricted areas such as the occipital cortex, retrosplenial cortex, zona incerta, hippocampal subiculum and spinal posterior horn. Dark neurons with condensed cytoplasm were also shown to be covered with the surface coat.
The surface coat was stained doubly with cationic iron colloid and aldehyde fuchsin. Digestion with hyaluronidase eliminated the stainability of the surface coat to both agents. Combined digestion with chondroitinase ABC, heparitinase and keratanase eliminated the cationic iron colloid staining of the surface coat, but did not interfere with the aldehyde fuchsin staining of the surface coat.
Electron microscopy of ultrathin sections revealed that the iron particles indicating sulfated proteoglycans were preferentially deposited in the perineuronal tissue spaces. Many neurons in the hippocampal subiculum possessed cell surface glycoproteins which were labeled with lectin Vicia villosa or soybean agglutinin and formed 1-2 weeks after birth. Double staining revealed that these lectin-labeled neurons were identical in part with the neurons reactive to the cationic iron colloid.
Dark neurons began to appear 3-4 weeks after birth. The formation of perineuronal sulfated proteoglycans and the appearance of dark neurons, both occurring during the weaning period, may reflect the morphological and physiological completion of the brain. Dark neurons are suggested to be exhausted cells that are restored to light or normal neurons after sleep.

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本研究の目的は，競合と自動的な反応の活性化の抑制との関係を明らかにすることである．14名の実験参加者は単語刺激(‘ひだり’，‘みぎ’)の表示色に対してボタンを押し分ける課題に取り組んだ．課題に関連のない刺激属性(刺激の呈示位置と単語の意味)は参加者が反応すべき位置と一致する場合と競合する場合とがあった．われわれは競合の量が異なる3つの刺激条件を設定した．競合なし条件では，刺激の呈示位置も単語の意味も反応すべき位置に一致した．小競合条件では，単語の意味だけが反応すべき位置と競合した．大競合条件では，刺激の呈示位置と単語の意味の両方の刺激属性が反応すべき位置と競合した．自動的な正反応の活性化の促進効果が反映される競合なし条件における反応時間は，前試行における競合の量が大きいほど増加した．自動的なエラー反応の活性化が反映される大競合条件におけるエラー率は前試行における競合の量が大きいほど減少した．これらの結果から，競合の検出処理は競合の量に基づいて自動的な反応の活性化の抑制を調節していることが示唆された．

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The neural basis of dual-tasking, including simultaneous, overlapping, and successive dual-tasking, is discussed. There are three main points. The first is concerned with the neural correlates of executive functions, such as resource allocation and task management in dual-tasking. The roles of the prefrontal regions are discussed, as well as the possibility that the executive functions might emerge as interactions of the posterior brain regions. Second, multiple functions of the inferior frontal regions are discussed in terms of temporal order coordination, working memory, and language. The possibility that they might be related to a central bottle-neck in information processing is also discussed. The third point is related to the reduction of activation in the posterior brain regions during dual-tasking, as well as its implication in resource limitation in human cognition and dual-task interference.

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In human life, discrimination of a target voice from other voices or sounds is indispensable, and inability for such discrimination results in sensory aphasia. To investigate the neuronal basis of the attentional system for human voices, we evaluated brain activity during listening comprehension tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3T. Diotic listening comprehension tasks, in which a narration was superimposed by another given by the same speaker (SV experiment) or by a different speaker (DV experiment), were presented to normal volunteers. The story indicated in the baseline task blocks, in which only one narration was presented, was intensively followed during the superimposed task blocks. In each experiment, 6 task blocks, 3 blocks for each condition, and 7 rest blocks were alternatively repeated, and the contrast of the superimposed condition to the baseline condition in each session was obtained. In the DV experiment, compared with the control condition, activation in Wernicke's area (BA22) was increased. In the SV experiment, activation in the frontal association cortex (BA6, BA9/ 46, BA32, BA13/47) was additionally increased. These results suggested that difficulty in phonological processing to discriminate human voices calls for further semantic, syntactic, and prosodic processing, as well as augmented selective attention.

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須藤ら（2020）の結果を受けて原田ら（2020）は，AX-CPT70課題（

, 2012）を用いてcue-probe間ISIに予測不可な揺れがある場合を検討し，その結果，高齢者では正答率は高く保たれるが，反応時間において課題成績が低下することを報告した。本研究ではこの現象をさらに検討するため，高齢者32名（平均年齢 74.88歳，SD＝4.24）を対象に，原田ら（2020）と同様の実験室実験を実施，アルファベット1文字を刺激とする場合と日本語の名詞1語（ひらがな表記）を刺激とする場合との比較も併せて行った。その結果，いずれの刺激，いずれの項目条件下でも，テスト時の「突然早く提示された刺激」に対する反応の遅延を示した。一方，正答率においては，第1段階（学習段階）で長ISI試行vs短ISI試行のいずれを経験したかによってテスト段階でのリズムの揺れに対する結果が異なり，構えの学習の影響が存在すること，さらにそこではわずかに文字条件と名詞条件の差異があることが示された。鷹阪ら（2021）との比較から，刺激変動事態によるチョーキングへの反応には大きな加齢変化があることが示唆された。

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須藤ら（2020）は，AX-CPT70課題（

, 2012）を用いて，cue-probe間ISIに変動を加え，予測不可な揺れがある場合を検討した。その結果，若年成人において，長ISI での試行に慣れた後で短ISIが突然提示される条件下では，チョーキングとも考えられる正答率低下が観察されたとした。これに対し，原田ら（2020）は同様の実験を，高齢者を対象として行った場合に，ほぼ100 %の正答率が得られたが，反応時間での課題成績低下があると報告した。この2実験では，高齢者は実験室実験であったのに対し，若年者はオンライン実験であったため，実験形態の違いがこうした差異を生み出している可能性が否定できない。そこで本研究では，新たに若年者32名（平均年齢 20.63歳，SD＝0.94）を対象に，原田ら（2020）と同様の実験室実験を実施した。その結果，須藤ら（2020）に見られたようなBX試行での正答率の低下は，正答率・反応時間の双方において見られなかった。この結果は，実験形態の違いがAX-CPT70課題遂行に影響を与える可能性を示唆している。こうしたオンライン実験で出現する現象が考察された。

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須藤ら（2020）は大学生を対象として，認知制御の二重過程の検討のためのAX-CPT70課題（

，2012）を用いて，cue-probe間ISIに課題リズムの揺れがある場合を検討し，長ISI （5s） での試行に慣れた後，短ISI（1s）が突然提示されると，偽試行であるAY，BXに正答率低下がみられたことを報告している。認知制御機能は加齢による影響を大きく受けるとされることから，この課題リズムの揺れに伴うチョーキング現象と認知的加齢の関係性を明らかにするため，同様の実験を健康な高齢者16名（男女同数，平均69.38歳，SD 5.32, MMSE 27以上）を対象として行った（ただし長ISIを3s，短ISIを1sに変更；実験室にて実施）。その結果，1）高齢者の正答率は極めて高く，チョーキングの影響は見られなかったが，2）反応時間において，特にBX試行での反応がリズムの揺れの結果として延伸することが示され，3）同様の結果は短ISI試行に「慣れた」後，課題リズムの揺れがある状態での短ISI条件でもBX，BY試行において見られた。課題リズムの揺れによるチョーキングは年齢に関わらず認知制御に影響しているが，その表れ方には加齢による変化が見られたと考えられる。

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時間制限や情動喚起によるチョーキング状況が認知制御を妨害することが報告されている（Beilock ＆ Carr, 2001等）。本研究では，認知制御の二重メカニズム（

, 2012）の観点から，時間制限によるチョーキングによるプロアクティブ・リアクティブ制御への影響をAX-CPT70 を用いて若年者対象のオンライン実験で検討した。実験1（43名）では，チョーキングの誘発としてCue-ProbeのISIが5sのSingle条件ブロックの後，5sと 1s のISIがランダムなMix条件ブロックがでる課題リズムの揺れを設定された。この手続きでは，長ISI（5s）に慣れた後，突然出てくる短ISI（1s）でチョーキングが生じる。実験1の結果，偽試行（AY，BX試行）においてmix条件の1s試行での正答率低下が認められた。実験2（32名）では，Single条件ブロックのISIを 1s とする以外は実験1と同様の手続きを用いた。実験2の結果，AY，BX試行ではmix条件の 1s と 5s 試行の間に正答率の違いは認められなかった。以上からは，課題リズムの揺れによってチョーキングが誘発されること，チョーキングによる主たる目標情報（AX反応）が，頑強に維持・出力されるというプロアクティブ・リアクティブ制御の妨害効果が示唆された。

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