244 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures in Neuroscience. Search the index →
WASTE indexes published research — it does not host or republish full papers. Each entry is a metadata record compiled from open scholarly databases; the abstract is shown in full only where the paper is openly licensed, otherwise a short excerpt under fair use. Classifications are automated and approximate.
Sophie E. Field, Annabel J. Curle, Roger A. Barker · 2024 · Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs
INTRODUCTION: Huntington's Disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative disease for which there is currently no disease-modifying treatment. One of several underlying mechanisms proposed to be involved in HD pathogenesis is inflammation;…
View details →Sang‐Rae Lee, Hong J. Lee, Sang-Hoon Cha et al. · 2015 · Cell Transplantation
Cellular fate of human neural stem cells (hNSCs) transplanted in the brain of nonhuman primates (NHPs) with no immunosuppression was determined at 22 and 24 months posttransplantation (PTx) regarding survival, differentiation, and tumorigenesis. Survival of hNSCs labeled with magnetic nanoparticles was successfully detected around injection sites in the brain at 22 months PTx by MRI. Histological examination of brain sections with H&E and Prussian blue staining at 24 months revealed that most of the grafted hNSCs were found located along the injection tract. Grafted hNSCs were found to differe
View details →David R. Roalf, Martijn Figee, Desmond J. Oathes · 2024 · Translational Psychiatry
Although neuroimaging has been widely applied in psychiatry, much of the exuberance in decades past has been tempered by failed replications and a lack of definitive evidence to support the utility of imaging to inform clinical decisions. There are multiple promising ways forward to demonstrate the relevance of neuroimaging for psychiatry at the individual patient level. Ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging is developing as a sensitive measure of neurometabolic processes of particular relevance that holds promise as a new way to characterize patient abnormalities as well as variability
View details →Ryan Smith, Claire A. Lavalley, S Taylor et al. · 2023 · Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
BACKGROUND: Decision-making under approach-avoidance conflict (AAC; e.g., sacrificing quality of life to avoid feared outcomes) may be affected in multiple psychiatric disorders. Recently, we used a computational (active inference) model…
View details →María Valdés Hernández, Lucia Ballerini, Andreas Glatz et al. · 2019 · Brain Imaging and Behavior
Brain iron deposits (IDs) are indicative of microvessel dysfunction which may predispose to small vessel disease (SVD) brain damage and worsen cognition later in life. Visible perivascular spaces in the centrum semiovale (CSO-PVS) are SVD features linked with microvessel dysfunction. We examined possible associations of CSO-PVS volume and count with brain IDs and cognitive abilities in 700 community-dwelling individuals from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 who underwent detailed cognitive testing and multimodal brain MRI at mean age 72.7 years. Brain IDs were assessed automatically followed by m
View details →Karam Khateeb, Zhaojie Yao, Viktor Kharazia et al. · 2019
Ischemic stroke is a major cause of disability among adults worldwide. Despite its prevalence, few effective treatment options exist to alleviate sensory and motor dysfunctions that result from stroke. In the past, rodent models of stroke…
View details →Klára Marečková, Amy Miles, Zhijie Liao et al. · 2022 · NeuroImage Clinical
BACKGROUND: Prenatal stress influences brain development and mood disorder vulnerability. Brain structural covariance network (SCN) properties based on inter-regional volumetric correlations may reflect developmentally-mediated shared…
View details →A. V. Dyomina, Anna A. Kovalenko, Maria V. Zakharova et al. · 2022 · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are expressed predominantly on neurons and glial cells and are involved in the modulation of a wide range of signal transduction cascades. Therefore, different subtypes of mGluRs are considered a promising target for the treatment of various brain diseases. Previous studies have demonstrated the seizure-induced upregulation of mGluR5; however, its functional significance is still unclear. In the present study, we aimed to clarify the effect of treatment with the selective mGluR5 antagonist 3-[(2-methyl-1,3-thiazol-4-yl)ethynyl]-pyridine (MTEP) on epile
View details →Sean Coulborn, Howard Bowman, R. Chris Miall et al. · 2020 · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Mind-wandering is associated with switching our attention to internally directed thoughts and is by definition an intrinsic, self-generated cognitive function. Interestingly, previous research showed that it may be possible to modulate its propensity externally, with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) targeting different regions in the default mode and executive control networks. However, these studies used highly heterogeneous montages (targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL), or both concurrently), often showed contradicting
View details →Marina Terkourafi, Benjamin Weissman, Joseph Roy · 2020 · International Review of Pragmatics
Abstract Research on the effect of face-orientation on scalar implicatures has claimed that face-threatening contexts are one type of context in which scalar implicatures are not warranted. However, that research has been based on the two…
View details →Adrienne L. Romer, Diego A. Pizzagalli · 2021 · Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science
A general psychopathology factor (p factor) captures shared variance across mental disorders in diverse samples and may partly reflect executive dysfunction. Higher p factor scores have been related to structural alterations within the…
View details →Lloyd Christopher Smith · 2026 · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
This paper forms part of Mirror Programme, Volume I: Observerhood. Mirror Mathematics II develops the formal threshold layer of the Mirror Mathematics arc. Building on Mirror Mathematics I, it asks when a self-model becomes observer-relevant rather than merely predictive, self-referential or descriptive. The paper introduces a minimal Mirror observer predicate grounded in self-model reliability, action-guidance, cost-sensitive repair and positive viability coupling under perturbation. The central condition is expressed through a salience functional measuring whether the expected viability bene
View details →Adam Maxwell Sparks, Pat Barclay · 2015 · Letters on Evolutionary Behavioral Science
The effect of exposure to eye images on various behaviors has been explained as a response to an invalid cue of observation. This interpretation has been supported by an experiment showing that a short exposure to eye images increased…
View details →Shan-Chuan Teng, Yunn-Wen Lien · 2022 · PLoS ONE
Mind wandering has been argued to be beneficial for breaking through mental impasses, which leads to better creative performance upon a second attempt (i.e., the incubation effect). However, the evidence is inconsistent. Different from the propensity for mind wandering that has been the focus of past studies, in this study we further examined the role of diversity (i.e., non-repetitiveness of mind wandering respective to its content) and types of mind wandering along the dimensions of intentionality and awareness during incubation when engaging in a 0-back task (a mind wandering-prone conditio
View details →Megan Willis, Andrea I. Costantino, Michael A. Nitsche et al. · 2019 · Frontiers in Neuroscience
There has been increasing interest in the utility of transcranial electrical stimulation as a tool to enhance cognitive abilities. In the domain of face perception, enhancements have been reported for both transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and high-frequency transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) targeting the occipitotemporal cortex. In a series of two experiments, we attempted to replicate these findings for face identity perception, and extend on previous studies, to determine if similar enhancements are also observed for object and facial expression perception. In Experi
View details →Jedidiah Siev, Shelby E. Zuckerman, Joseph J. Siev · 2018 · Social Psychology
Abstract. In a widely publicized set of studies, participants who were primed to consider unethical events preferred cleansing products more than did those primed with ethical events ( Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006 ). This tendency to…
View details →Ellen Bialystok · 2020 · Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices
The controversy over whether bilingualism has consequences for mind and brain shows no sign of abating. A steady stream of research reporting both positive results supporting the claim for beneficial effects of bilingualism and null…
View details →Takatsugu Aihara, Takeshi OGAWA, Takeaki Shimokawa et al. · 2017 · PLoS ONE
Humans often utilize past experience to solve difficult problems. However, if past experience is insufficient to solve a problem, solvers may reach an impasse. Insight can be valuable for breaking an impasse, enabling the reinterpretation or re-representation of a problem. Previous studies using between-subjects designs have revealed a causal relationship between the anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) and non-verbal insight, by enhancing the right ATL while inhibiting the left ATL using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). In addition, neuroimaging studies have reported a correlation be
View details →Lidia Y. X. Wong, Stephen J. Gray, David A. Gallo · 2018 · Cognitive Neuroscience
We report 4 experiments aiming to replicate and extend the finding that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex after encoding and just prior to retrieval improves accuracy on an episodic…
View details →Amit Walia, Matthew Shew, Jordan Varghese et al. · 2023 · JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery
Importance: Cochlear implantation produces remarkable results in postlingual deafness, although auditory outcomes vary. Electrocochleography (ECochG) has emerged as a valuable tool for assessing the cochlear-neural substrate and evaluating…
View details →Hye-Won Yang, Danyeong Kim, YoungSoon Yang et al. · 2025 · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
TREM2 (triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2) is a membrane-bound receptor primarily expressed on microglia in the central nervous system (CNS). TREM2 plays a crucial role in regulating immune responses, phagocytosis, lipid metabolism, and inflammation. Mutations in the TREM2 gene have been linked to various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Nasu–Hakola disease (NHD). These mutations are suggested to impair microglial activation and reduce the ability to clear amyloid aggregates, leading to ex
View details →Patrick Vermersch, Laura Airas, Thomas Berger et al. · 2025 · Frontiers in Immunology
Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease affecting the central nervous system (CNS), characterized by inflammation and neurodegeneration. The pathophysiology of MS, especially its progressive forms, involves various cellular components, including microglia, the primary resident immune cells of the CNS. This review discusses the role of microglia in neuroinflammation, tissue repair, and neural homeostasis, as well as their involvement in MS and explores potential therapeutic strategies targeting microglial function. Methods: A literature search conducted in August 202
View details →Barbara Schmidt, Luisa Keßler, Clay B. Holroyd et al. · 2019 · Psychophysiology
A recent study claims that participants wearing a bike helmet behave riskier in a computer-based risk task compared to control participants without a bike helmet. We hypothesized that wearing a bike helmet reduces cognitive control over risky behavior. To test our hypothesis, we recorded participants' EEG brain responses while they played a risk game developed in our laboratory. Previously, we found that, in this risk game, anxious participants showed greater levels of cognitive control as revealed by greater frontal midline theta power, which was associated with less risky decisions. Here, we
View details →Aung Naing, Alain P. Algazi, Gerald S. Falchook et al. · 2022 · Cancer
BACKGROUND: Targeting programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO1) pathways is an appealing option for cancer treatment. METHODS: The open-label, phase 1/2 ECHO-203 study evaluated the safety, tolerability,…
View details →Marcello Sartarelli · 2016 · PLoS ONE
Evidence showing that on average left-handed (L), who are 10% in a population, tend to earn less than others is solely based on survey data. This paper is the first to test the relationship between handedness and earnings experimentally and also to assess whether the mechanism underlying it is predominantly cognitive or psychological. Data on 432 undergraduate students show that L do not obtain significantly different payoffs, a proxy for earnings, in a stylised labour market with multiple principals and agents. Similarly, scores in the Cognitive Reflection Test are not significantly different
View details →Onurcan Yılmaz, Hasan G. Bahçekapılı · 2015 · PLoS ONE
Scientific and religious thinking compete with each other on several levels. For example, activating one generally weakens the other. Since priming religion is known to increase moral behaviour and moral sensitivity, priming science might be expected to have the opposite effect. However, it was recently demonstrated that, on the contrary, science priming increases moral sensitivity as well. The present set of studies sought to replicate this effect and test two explanations for it. Study 1 used a sentence unscrambling task for implicitly priming the concept of science but failed to replicate i
View details →Alessandra S. Souza, Theresa Thaler, Heinrich R. Liesefeld et al. · 2020 · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance
Emotion is assumed to change how people process information by modulating attentional focus. Two recent studies (Spachtholz et al., 2014; Xie & Zhang, 2016) reported that self-reported negative emotion boosted the precision with which…
View details →Brett Mercier, Dylan Wiwad, Paul K. Piff et al. · 2020 · Collabra Psychology
Does belief in free will increase support for economic inequality? Five studies using diverse measures and methods tested this question. Study 1 finds belief in free will is associated with increased support for inequality. Study 2 manipulates belief in free will and does not find evidence that this changes support for inequality. Studies 3 and 4 find that people are more willing to support inequality in a hypothetical universe where free will exists compared to one where it does not (dz = 0.10–0.13), indicating that people believe the existence of free will justifies inequality. However, a be
View details →Alice Foucart, Holly P. Branigan, Ellen Gurman Bard · 2010 · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition
Determiner selection requires the retrieval of the noun's syntactic features (e.g., gender) and sometimes of its phonological features. Miozzo and Caramazza (1999) argued that the selection of determiners in Germanic languages is more…
View details →Caitlin E. Hill, Danika M. Brodak, Mary Bartlett Bunge · 2012 · Journal of Neurotrauma
Several recent studies suggest that predegenerated nerves (PDNs) or dissociated PDNs (dPDNs) can improve behavioral and histological outcomes following transplantation into the injured rat spinal cord. In the current study we tested the…
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