npj Science of Learning

Response inhibition, the ability to suppress contextually inappropriate actions, is a cornerstone of cognitive control and is commonly assessed using paradigms such as the go/no-go task. However, traditional go/no-go paradigms rely on binary outcomes such as commission errors, which offer limited insight into the dynamic, graded behavioral adjustments underlying successful stopping. The present study developed a novel mouse-tracking go/no-go paradigm with a dynamic start to capture inhibitory processes during ongoing execution. Twenty-three healthy young adults completed the task in two sessions separated by approximately one week to evaluate the test-retest reliability of standard behavioral measures (error rates and reaction times), and three kinematic features: path length, mean velocity, and mean acceleration. Results revealed robust differences between go and no-go trials across all measures. Successful inhibition was characterized by significantly shorter path lengths and reduced mean velocity and acceleration compared to go trials. Critically, all measures demonstrated moderate-to-good test-retest reliability across sessions, with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from .75 to .85 for go trials and from .59 to .83 for no-go trials. These findings establish construct validity and psychometric reliability of the current mouse-tracking go/no-go paradigm. The demonstrated stability of these measures provides the methodological foundation for their use in cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intervention research targeting inhibitory control.

Goal-directed behavior often requires sustained effort across a sequence of interdependent decisions, yet the determinants of persistence in such contexts remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated how individuals regulate persistence in a novel sequential effort-based task in which they controlled an avatar through successive checkpoints to reach a final goal and could make repeated attempts following failure. At each attempt, participants could choose either to persist in the same task or to disengage toward an easier but less rewarding alternative. We found that decisions to persist or disengage were jointly shaped by multiple interacting factors. Disengagement increased with task difficulty and lower skill level. It also increased with repeated attempts and time-on-task, indexing fatigue, and with accumulated errors, indexing lack of progress. Conversely, proximity to the goal promoted persistence and shaped decision dynamics by reducing choice conflict during persistence decisions and increasing hesitation during disengagement near the goal. Notably, clearing the first checkpoint produced a sharp increase in persistence, suggesting that early success plays a pivotal role. Furthermore, persistence reflected both retrospective and prospective evaluations of effort, with prior investment promoting commitment and anticipated effort reducing it. Finally, disengagement was preceded by short-term performance decline but not by gradual increases in decision conflict, suggesting relatively abrupt strategy shifts following repeated failures. Together, these findings provide a comprehensive account of persistence in sequential effortful tasks, showing that decisions to persist or disengage are jointly shaped by multiple factors related to fatigue, (lack of) progress, goal proximity, and early success.

Humans possess an astounding ability to acquire complex movement sequences with limited practice. Motor sequence learning engages a distributed network of brain regions that show distinct learning-related changes: the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is predominantly involved early in learning, whereas the primary motor cortex (M1) becomes increasingly engaged later in learning. Because motor regions mature relatively earlier than the PFC during development, we examined how children and adults differ in the time course of neural changes underlying motor sequence learning. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we compared brain activation in children (7-10 years, N = 39, 17 female) and adults (20-32 years, N = 39, 19 female) during an associative visuomotor learning task. In both age groups, response times decreased with sequence repetition, with greater reductions in adults than in children. Across age groups, early learning was associated with heightened PFC activation, whereas later learning was characterized by increased activation in left M1 and bilateral supplementary motor area. Children and adults showed comparable decreases in PFC activation and PFC-M1 connectivity with sequence repetition. In contrast, adults exhibited larger learning-related increases in activation and stability of multivariate patterns in left M1. Together, these findings indicate that although both age groups engage the PFC similarly to support increased control demands in early learning, children show less pronounced modulation of M1 activation and representational similarity, suggesting that M1s capacity to form stable, sequence-related representations may still be developing in middle childhood. Significance StatementAlthough motor sequence learning has been widely studied in adults, less is known about how brain activation changes as learning progresses during childhood. This question is particularly relevant because prefrontal cortex (PFC) and primary motor cortex (M1) both support motor learning, but mature at different rates, with PFC developing relatively later than M1. Here, we used functional MRI to compare children (7-10 years) and adults performing a motor sequence learning task. We found no age-related differences in PFC engagement early in learning; instead children showed less refinement of M1 activation and neural representations over the course of learning than adults. These findings provide new insight into how the brain supports motor learning throughout development.

Summary paragraphA hallmark of learning is the need for sensory stimuli (Ginns, 2015; McGraw et al., 2009; Reinwein, 2012; Spence, 1950) so that learning is fundamentally based on sensory input signals affecting behaviour, physiology, and neurology. If behavioural measures of learning can be causally linked to physiological and neurological variables, a broader understanding of the mechanisms related to learning in schools, learning disabilities, and learning and health issues may emerge (McGraw et al., 2009). Despite decades of research on the physiological/neurological variable of sympathetic activation, learning, and achievement (Horvers et al., 2021), any causal relation remains unclear (Cowley et al., 2014; Mason et al., 2020; Pijeira-Diaz et al., 2016; Sung et al., 2023; Yu et al., 2024) and issues with instrument validation remain (Costantini et al., 2023; Hu et al., 2024; Milstein & Gordon, 2020; Van Der Mee et al., 2021). Here we investigate the effect of sensory input on sympathetic activation by using validated instruments for skin conductance measurement (Batista et al., 2019) and whether sympathetic activation is connected to learning in a cognitive laboratory context and an ecologically valid classroom context. In both contexts, we found a physiological variable which correlated with learning and that sensory input affected this variable while student movement did not. These sensory inputs varied depending on the different instructional activities the students participated in. Together, these findings bring us one step closer to a model linking sensory input to behavioural, physiological, and neurological variables.

The Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST) is highly sensitive to age-related cognitive decline in humans and has been adapted for rodents using 3D objects, where aged animals show deficits in discriminating similar lures. To improve translational alignment with human testing and increase automation, we developed a touchscreen-based rat analog using a morphed Object-Cued Spatial Choice (OCSC) task with 2D image stimuli. Young (4-month) and aged (21-month) male and female Fischer 344 x Brown Norway hybrid rats were trained in Bussey-Saksida touchscreen chambers and tested on discrimination performance using image pairs that varied parametrically in feature overlap. We also assessed perirhinal cortical engagement in a subset of animals using Arc expression as a readout of activity-related principal cell firing following low-and high-overlap task epochs. Across shaping and procedural training, aged rats required more errors to reach criterion on one stimulus set, but both age groups successfully acquired the task. During morph testing, performance declined systematically as stimulus similarity increased, confirming that the task manipulated discrimination difficulty. However, contrary to expectations, young and aged rats performed similarly across overlap conditions, with no significant age-related impairment. In the Arc experiment, discrimination accuracy was again reduced by greater stimulus overlap, but Arc expression in perirhinal cortex did not differ reliably by age or overlap condition, although expression was associated with behavioral accuracy and deep layers showed higher ensemble similarity than superficial layers. These findings indicate that, while the touchscreen morph OCSC task is sensitive to stimulus similarity, it does not detect the robust age-related mnemonic discrimination deficits previously observed with 3D object-based rodent MST paradigms, underscoring the importance of considering ethological relevance when designing translational cognitive assays.

Internal forward models predict the sensory consequences of motor commands; however, whether the anticipated availability of post-action feedback contributes to the precision of the action itself remains unknown. We manipulated the predictability of post-release visual occlusion in skilled basketball players. Participants performed three-point shots while wearing liquid-crystal shutter goggles. The study tested three conditions: a no-occlusion baseline, certain-occlusion condition in which players knew that their vision would be occluded at ball release in every trial, and random-occlusion condition in which they could not predict whether an occlusion would occur. Shooting accuracy declined in the certain-occlusion condition relative to the no-occlusion condition (49.2% vs 41.7%). The random-occlusion condition did not differ from the baseline (46.1%). Within the random condition, the accuracy in occluded trials were virtually identical to that in non-occluded trials (46.6% vs 46.2%), even though the immediate visual occlusion was the same as in the certain-occlusion condition. These results demonstrate that it is not the absence of post-action information per se that disrupts motor execution, but the prior certainty that action consequences will be unavailable. We interpret this finding as a prospective influence of anticipated consequence loss, whereby motor execution depends on whether the prediction-outcome loop remains closable.

Cognitive maps encode spatial relationships between locations and support flexible navigation. However, how these mental representations form in the absence of visual experience remains unclear. Here, we introduce a multisensory virtual navigation paradigm that allows to track the temporal dynamics of non-visual cognitive map formation. Sixteen early blind (EB), 17 late blind (LB), and 29 sighted controls (SC) learned the layout of a tactile maze. Participants repeatedly performed virtual pointing (estimating directions between locations) and navigation (reaching locations) tasks, which measured cognitive maps across multiple stages of learning. This method also enabled algorithmic inference of cognitive maps, providing insights into how mental distortions are progressively corrected. Although there were no group differences in average navigation performance, EB showed slower knowledge accumulation compared to LB and SC. In addition, both EB and LB had difficulties translating cognitive maps into first-person perspectives, resulting in reduced pointing and cognitive map accuracy. Yet, cognitive map accuracy improved progressively in all groups and a subset of EB and LB achieved expert-level performance with high navigation and pointing precision. In sum, this study provides a scalable framework for tracking alterations in cognitive map formation in blindness and other neurological conditions. Importantly, it demonstrates that cognitive map formation in the absence of vision is experience-dependent and trainable. Spatial disadvantages often observed in EB and LB thus do not reflect cognitive deficits but result from adaptive behavioral strategies constraining the use of allocentric cognitive maps.

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) exhibit high clinical overlap, but categorical diagnostic boundaries obscure their shared, dynamic physiological vulnerabilities during real-world sensory processing. Methods: We analyzed multimodal eye-tracking synchrony in a large transdiagnostic pediatric cohort (N = 2,026) during naturalistic viewing of four distinct media paradigms. A novel 2D complex correlation framework captured gaze inter-subject correlation (ISC) magnitude and spatiotemporal phase divergence, while 1D pupil ISC measured autonomic arousal synchrony. Linear models evaluated dimensional (RDoC) and categorical (2x2 ANCOVA) diagnostic frameworks alongside rigorous medication and severity controls. Results: Dimensional models revealed a domain-general vulnerability: autistic traits independently predicted widespread reductions across gaze synchrony in all media contexts, and pupillary synchrony in narrative-driven contexts, whereas continuous ADHD traits showed minimal independent effects. In contrast, severe spatiotemporal misalignment (phase divergence) did not scale dimensionally but emerged strictly at clinical boundaries, reflecting highly idiosyncratic spatial locking in isolated ASD. Furthermore, categorical models demonstrated a robust, non-additive interaction: the clinical co-occurrence of ADHD paradoxically buffered against this severe spatiotemporal decoupling. Crucially, this protective phenotype was localized strictly to character-driven social narratives and remained highly significant after rigorously adjusting for daily stimulant medication, outlier instability, and baseline autism trait severity. Conclusions: These findings validate model-free physiological synchrony as a candidate transdiagnostic biomarker. Rather than compounding impairment, comorbid ASD and ADHD reflect competing, non-additive neurocognitive strategies that yield distinct, context-dependent visual phenotypes.

It has been proposed that bilinguals have better executive function (EF) arising from the constant selection of one language while inhibiting the other, and gray matter has been found to differ in bilinguals in regions linked to EF (frontal-parietal and subcortical structures). Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with poorer EF and neuroanatomical differences underlying EF. Given the EF advantage in bilinguals, we investigated whether a bilingual experience affects EF performance and brain structure differentially in those with ADHD. Using the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study, we compared early Spanish-English bilinguals and English-speaking monolinguals with and without ADHD. ANOVAs for the Flanker, Working Memory, and Card Sort Tasks revealed no main effects of Language Experience (Bilingual versus Monolingual), a main effect of Diagnostic Group for Card Sort (ADHD worse than Controls), and no interaction effects on performance for any task. ANOVAs for gray matter volume (GMV) revealed a main effect of Language Experience in many regions, a main effect of Diagnostic Group in some regions, but no interactions. GMV in left thalamus was affected by both ADHD and bilingualism, but the effect of ADHD was not significantly diminished or enhanced by the dual-language experience. For cortical thickness, there was a main effect of Language Experience in several regions, no main effect of Diagnostic Group, and no interactions. Taken together, bilingualism has some impact on EF performance, a strong impact on neuroanatomy, but there was no disproportionate impact by bilingualism on the differences caused by ADHD for any measure. Research HighlightsExecutive function and brain structure differ in ADHD and in bilinguals, prompting the need to investigate interactive effects. Bilingualism did not disproportionately affect performance differences in ADHD for executive function, nor for gray matter volume or for cortical thickness differences in ADHD. Gray matter volume was less in ADHD than non-ADHD, as well as greater in bilinguals than monolinguals in the left thalamus, but without interaction effect. These independent effects indicate that the brain basis of ADHD is not impacted by a dual-language experience.

Interlimb skill generalization, defined as the transfer of a newly learned skill from the trained to the untrained limb, represents a fundamental aspect of human motor behavior with significant implications for rehabilitation and athletic training. Skill generalization is influenced by processes that drive learning and interact with the newly acquired memory. For instance, in our recent work, we reported that performing a secondary, cognitively demanding task immediately after a short skill-training session impaired skill generalization when the untrained arm was tested 24-hour later. This suggests that working memory (WM) interacts with the early stage of skill memory consolidation processes and thereby impacts skill generalization. Motivated by this finding, in the current study, we investigate how WM interacts with reactivated skill memory and its subsequent impact on skill generalization, tested 24 or 48-hour post skill training. We recruited right-handed young participants (n=95) who performed a fast, accurate reaching task with their dominant right arm during a short training session (50 trials) on Day-1. After 24-hour on Day-2, depending on the group type, participants had a brief skill reactivation session (10 trials or no reactivation) and then performed the WM task (or a control task) with their right arm. Interlimb generalization to the untrained left arm was assessed either immediately after the WM/control task on Day-2 or after a 24-hour gap on Day-3. We found that, engaging in the WM task (compared to the control task) after skill reactivation on Day-2 enhanced immediate generalization. Conversely, when generalization was tested 24-hour later on Day-3, the same WM engagement impaired skill generalization. These findings demonstrate that WM engagement during the post-reactivation phase has a time-dependent influence on interlimb generalization. WM can facilitate immediate generalization, possibly by sustaining neural processes that promote skill memory generalization across effectors. However, when a 24-hour time gap is introduced, generalization is disrupted following WM engagement, possibly because of interference between underlying neural processes involved in WM and reactivation-induced (re)consolidation of the skill memory. This study highlights the delicate interplay among WM, motor memory reactivation dynamics, and skill generalization and suggests a time-dependent interplay of neural processes critical for optimizing outcomes in motor learning and clinical rehabilitation protocols.

Understanding speech in noisy environments (SPIN) is an important everyday ability, and engaging in musical activities has been proposed as a factor that may support this ability. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying a potential musical advantage in SPIN perception remain unclear. Here we investigated whether musical sophistication is associated with better SPIN perception in a large population-based sample, and whether this relationship is mediated by auditory working memory (AWM), verbal working memory (VWM), or non-verbal intelligence. We recruited 203 participants and measured SPIN perception at both word and sentence levels. Musical sophistication was assessed using the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI). AWM was measured using delayed matching of tone frequency or the modulation rate of amplitude modulated white noise, VWM was based on backward digit span task, and non-verbal intelligence used matrix reasoning. Mediation analyses revealed that AWM fully mediated the relationship between musical sophistication and SPIN perception, whereas VWM showed no mediation effect. Non-verbal intelligence showed a partial mediating effect. Additional control analyses using structural equation modelling revealed that the indirect effect through AWM remained significant after accounting for age, hearing thresholds, and non-verbal intelligence. Together, these findings suggest that individuals with greater musical sophistication demonstrate better daily life listening abilities, and that superior auditory working memory may be the key cognitive mechanism underlying this advantage.

Study ObjectivesSleep spindles are implicated in memory consolidation. Yet direct evidence linking spindle dynamics to declarative memory outcomes remains limited. We thus tested whether targeted memory reactivation (TMR) time-locked to sleep spindles enhances declarative memory, and whether the temporal organization of stimulated spindles-trains versus isolated events-is selectively associated with distinct memory outcomes. MethodsTwenty-eight healthy young adults learned image locations from two categories (animals, clothing) in a grid, each paired with a distinct auditory cue. During overnight NREM sleep, one cue was replayed time-locked to spindles detected in real-time using a closed-loop system (TMR condition); the other served as the non-reactivated control (No-TMR condition). Category-cue assignment was counterbalanced. Post-sleep recall, recognition accuracy, and movement time were assessed. ResultsRecall accuracy was significantly higher in the TMR than the No-TMR condition (93.96% vs. 90.61%, p = .024), whereas recognition accuracy (p = .139) and movement time (p = .651) did not differ. Stimulation intensity within spindle trains correlated with the TMR effect on recall (Spearman {rho} = .531, p = .004), whereas the proportion of isolated spindle stimulations correlated with the TMR effect on recognition ({rho} = .563, p = .002). Cross-associations were not significant. ConclusionsSpindle-locked TMR enhances recall-based declarative memory retention. The selective association between spindle temporal clustering and memory outcomes suggests that train-embedded and isolated spindles support different aspects of memory consolidation, highlighting spindle temporal context as a functionally relevant dimension of sleep-dependent memory processing.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) can expand undergraduates access to research and motivate students to stay in science. Yet, little research has examined how CURE instruction shapes student motivation. We leveraged a motivation-related characterization of non-content talk of 48 CURE and non-CURE instructors to predict the motivation-related outcomes of 462 students. We fit a series of multi-level models (MLM) in which we regressed students post-course scientific self-efficacy, task values, scientific identity, and science-related intentions onto instructors self-efficacy and task values-related talk, controlling for students pre-course levels. We also fit an MLM to explore whether instructors relationship-building talk (immediacy talk) was associated with students rapport with their instructor. Instructors self-efficacy talk did not affect students self-efficacy, and instructors immediacy talk had a marginally positive but non-significant association with students rapport ratings. Instructors task values talk positively influenced students scientific identity and some but not all of their task values. Instructors task values talk also positively influenced students intentions to pursue a science career, but not graduate education or research careers. Collectively, these results suggest that instructors task values talk may underpin some of the motivational effects of CURE instruction, but that task values talk need not be limited to CUREs. HIGHLIGHTWe examine whether instructor talk predicts students motivational outcomes in CURE and non-CURE lab courses. Self-efficacy talk had no effect on student self-efficacy. Task values talk positively affected students science identity and career intentions, and some value beliefs. Immediacy talk was marginally related to student-instructor rapport.

Preterm birth is associated with alterations in early caregiver-infant regulation, with potential consequences for socio-emotional and physiological development. However, the mechanisms through which early interactional experience shapes these processes remain unclear. Here, we tested whether a structured dyadic intervention could modify co-regulatory dynamics across physiological, behavioral, and relational levels. Fifty-four 7-month-old preterm infants and their parents were assigned to either a shared book reading intervention (n = 22) or an active control condition based on a shared building activity (n = 32) and compared with 39 full-term infants. The intervention consisted of an 8-week program of shared book reading, designed to structure parent-infant interaction. Physiological synchrony was assessed at the dyadic level, alongside infants autonomic regulation and cardiovascular signal complexity. Behavioral engagement and parental attachment representations were also evaluated. Results showed that mother-infant physiological synchrony emerged selectively within the interactional context trained by the intervention and only in the intervention group. This context-specific synchrony was accompanied by modulation of vagal activity and increased cardiovascular complexity in preterm infants, consistent with enhanced flexibility of autonomic control. At the behavioral and relational levels, intervention infants showed increased initiating joint attention, while parents reported higher secure attachment. These findings support a model of experience-dependent early synchrony, in which repeated dyadic interaction through shared book reading shapes the coupling between interpersonal coordination and individual physiological regulation. By linking synchrony, autonomic flexibility, and social engagement, this study identifies a mechanism through which early caregiving experience can organize developmental trajectories following prematurity.

Impaired reading, i.e., alexia, is common after left hemisphere stroke. The most common deficit in alexia is a difficulty reading aloud pronounceable novel words, also called pseudowords. While semantic and phonological processes both subserve reading real words, pseudoword reading deficits in alexia are typically ascribed to phonological deficits alone. Some theories, however, suggest that pseudoword reading relies in part on lexical-semantic knowledge, such that semantic deficits could also contribute to poor pseudoword reading in alexia. Leveraging a large sample of left-hemisphere stroke survivors, we examine the cognitive and neural substrates of pseudoword reading accuracy and two error types: lexicalization errors, where a pseudoword is incorrectly read as a real word, and nonword errors, where a pseudoword is read as an incorrect nonword. 76 left-hemisphere stroke survivors read 60 pseudowords aloud, and performed two pseudoword repetition tasks to assess phonological processing and two picture naming tasks to assess mappings between lexical semantics and phonology. Regression models assessed how pseudoword repetition and naming related to overall accuracy and rates of lexicalization and nonword errors in pseudoword reading. Voxel-based and connectome lesion-symptom mapping localized the neural territory responsible for these errors. Both pseudoword repetition and naming independently related to pseudoword reading accuracy. Pseudoword repetition but not naming deficits predicted higher rates of lexicalization errors, while naming but not pseudoword repetition deficits predicted higher rates of nonword errors. Greater nonword error rate also predicted smaller imageability effects in real word reading (t(71)=-3.2, p=0.002). Lexicalization errors were associated with lesions to and disconnections of the left putamen and basal ganglia. Nonword errors were associated with lesions to the superior and middle temporal gyri, as well as broad temporo-parietal disconnections, overlapping with previous lesion-mapping results implicating these regions in semantic contributions to word reading. These results suggest that lexicalization errors result from impaired planning and execution of novel motor plans, causing a reliance on the well-learned motor plans associated with lexical items. In contrast, greater rates of nonword errors, relative to lexicalization errors, occur when semantic contributions to reading are impaired. Overall, these findings demonstrate that semantic processes are involved in reading pseudowords, at least in stroke alexia. These findings support connectionist accounts of reading in which damage in the direct orthography to phonology route for reading leads to reliance on semantic representations, even for pseudowords, suggesting a reinterpretation of pseudoword reading as a pure measure of phonological reading deficits.

Singing is an innate human behaviour present across cultures and the lifespan. Despite lacking direct biological advantages, its ubiquity suggests that it is intrinsically rewarding. This research aimed to investigate the underlying factors that explain variability in sensitivity to deriving reward and enjoyment from natural singing in the general population. In Study 1 (n = 606), an initial pool of items describing daily, non-professional singing behaviours were administered to an international adult sample. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a unidimensional structure of 20 items with acceptable model fit, organized into five facets representing distinct domains of singing-related rewards: 1) pleasure and emotional evocation, 2) social singing reward, 3) singing frequency, 4) mood regulation through singing, and 5) inattentional singing during routine tasks. In Study 2 (n = 430), confirmatory factor analysis in a new sample supported this structure. When both samples were combined (n = 1036), the unidimensional model defined by these five facets showed acceptable to excellent goodness-of-fit indices, supporting the conceptualization of singing reward as a multidimensional construct with differentiated facets. This led to the Barcelona-Aarhus Natural Singing Engagement Questionnaire (BANSEQ), which demonstrated excellent reliability ( = .94) and population-level stability. Study 3 (n = 1036) tested the convergent validity of BANSEQ with measures of music reward and engagement and identified sociodemographic and psychological correlates across the five facets of singing reward. Overall, these findings characterize the sources of individual differences in the hedonic experience of natural singing and propose BANSEQ as a robust psychometric tool for its assessment in the general population.

Time perception difficulties are frequently reported in Autism Spectrum Disorder, yet empirical findings remain inconsistent. A key methodological limitation is the failure to separate perceptual sensitivity from decision-making strategies. We applied Signal Detection Theory (SDT) to a subsecond duration discrimination task (100 and 500 ms) in 65 non-clinical adults varying in autistic traits, assessed via the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of its subscales. Autistic traits did not predict reduced perceptual sensitivity (d'): temporal discrimination remained intact across the full autism-trait continuum, with Bayesian analyses providing converging evidence against a perceptual deficit. Instead, a PCA-derived cognitive component -- combining heightened Attention to Detail with reduced Imagination -- was systematically associated with a shift in decision bias (c). Individuals with this profile showed a graded attenuation of standard-based anchoring, with ordinal position progressively filling the gap. This shift operated consistently across both temporal scales, as confirmed by trial-level generalized linear mixed modelling, and reflects a quantitative redistribution of anchoring weight rather than a categorical switch in strategy. These findings reframe temporal "rigidity" in ASD not as a perceptual deficit, but as a suboptimal yet internally consistent decision-making style favouring within-trial information over accumulated representational knowledge. Lay AbstractMany autistic people report difficulties with time in daily life, but scientists have long disagreed on whether this reflects a genuine perceptual problem. This study found that autistic traits do not impair the basic ability to judge duration. Instead, people with more autistic traits tend to rely on which event came first, rather than accumulating experience across trials to refine their judgments -- a less effective but internally consistent strategy.

I ntroduction: Prospective memory (PM) deficits in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) significantly impact academic and daily functioning. Through two experiments, this study investigated how cognitive load and encoding strategies modulate PM performance. Methods: Experiment 1 included 43 children (21 ADHD, 22 typically developing) who completed an n-back task under high and low cognitive load. Experiment 2 included 44 children with ADHD who were randomly assigned to either a standard encoding group or an implementation intention encoding group, also completing the n-back task under both load conditions. Results: Experiment 1 showed that children with ADHD had significantly lower PM accuracy than typically developing peers. Signal detection analysis revealed that this deficit stemmed from a more conservative response bias rather than impaired perceptual sensitivity. Unexpectedly, PM accuracy and perceptual sensitivity were higher under high cognitive load than low load for both groups. Experiment 2 demonstrated that implementation intention encoding significantly enhanced PM accuracy and perceptual sensitivity in children with ADHD, with stable effects across load conditions and no interference with ongoing task performance. Discussion: These findings indicate that PM deficits in children with ADHD reflect a conservative response strategy rather than an inability to detect target cues. Implementation intention encoding provides an effective, load-independent cognitive strategy for enhancing PM performance. These results offer novel insights into the cognitive mechanisms underlying PM deficits in ADHD and provide evidence-based guidance for targeted interventions.

Motor skills such as bicycle riding are considered robust and transferable across bicycle types. However, when the steering direction is inverted (reversed bicycle) control is disrupted to the extent that the bicycle cannot be ridden. With sufficient practice, the reversed bicycle can be learned, but this learning appears to produce impairment of normal bicycle riding suggesting modification of this long-established motor memory. Here we investigate the learning process of riding a reversed bicycle over four days of practice, while repeatedly assessing normal bicycle performance to measure any potential interference. Introduction of the reversed bicycle disrupted predictive control, reflected in a consistently increased time lag in the steering-roll coupling during reversed bicycle trials. This increase in delay suggests that predictive behavior in normal bicycle riding cannot be transferred to the reversed bicycle. With training, some participants successfully learned to ride the reversed bicycle by gradually reorganizing this coupling, whereas others failed to acquire this inverted coupling. Notably, even short-term exposure to the reversed bicycle interfered with normal bicycle riding, reducing distance ridden and increasing variability in steering rate. Together, we show that even a highly practiced whole-body motor skill is susceptible to rapid interference when control dynamics are altered.

Learning in adulthood is embedded in everyday social life, in which periods of psychosocial stress alternate with recovery. The autonomic nervous system regulates how the body responds to environmental demands, yet individuals differ markedly in this regulation. It remains unknown whether such individual differences in bodily regulation modulate the ability to learn probabilistic patterns from sensory input. Here, we investigated statistical learning of probabilistic patterns in speech streams in a six-hour experiment incorporating psychosocial stress and recovery to approximate everyday conditions. Sixty-five adults were exposed to novel speech streams in high- and low-stress contexts, with learning assessed immediately after exposure and following a rest period. Heart rate variability was recorded throughout the experiment to capture individual differences in autonomic reactivity to stress and recovery. From these measures, we constructed composite proxies of sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) nervous system reactivity. Individuals with congruent SNS-PNS reactivity--either jointly high or jointly low--showed superior statistical learning outcomes across stress contexts. SNS reactivity preferentially supported encoding, whereas PNS reactivity supported consolidation. Moreover, the effect of SNS activation during speech exposure on statistical learning depended on individuals SNS reactivity profiles. These findings demonstrate that individual differences in bodily regulation are tightly linked to the ability to learn statistical dependencies in stressful environments. Overall, the findings highlight the essential role of brain-body-environment interactions in statistical learning.