Prolactinomas have been reported to impair cognition in broad aspects. However, few studies investigated the influence of prolactinomas on cognitive flexibility never mentioning the underlying neural and electrophysiological mechanism. We recorded scalp electroencephalography (EEG) in a colour-shape switching task. Patients with prolactinomas showed longer reaction time in switch trials and larger switch costs relative to healthy controls (HCs). Compared to HCs who showed stronger frontal theta activity in switch trials, the generally weak frontal theta activity in patients implied that they could not afford the executive control to configure task sets. Meanwhile, machine-learning based classification revealed that patients manifested non-selective brain patterns in response to different task types (colour vs. shape task) and different task states (switch vs. repeat state), which collectively suggested the cognitive dysfunction in preparation for a changing environment. Compared to HCs who showed stronger frontoparietal synchronization in switch trials, this enhanced frontoparietal connectivity was disrupted among patients with severe prolactinomas. This finding implicated greater hyperprolactinemia was linked to a larger decrease in cognitive performance. Taken together, the present study highlighted frontal theta power, and frontoparietal connectivity at theta band as the electrophysiological markers of the impaired cognitive flexibility and task control in patients with prolactinomas.

Midfrontal theta activity is crucial for attentional and cognitive control. However, its causal role in facilitating visual search, particularly from the perspective of distractor inhibition, is yet to be discovered. We applied theta band transcranial alternate current stimulation (tACS) over frontocentral regions when participants searched for targets among heterogeneous distractors with foreknowledge of distractor features. The results demonstrated improved visual search performance in the theta stimulation group compared to the active sham group. Moreover, we observed the facilitation effect of the distractor cue only in participants who exhibited larger inhibition benefits, which further confirms the role of theta stimulation in precise attentional control. Taken together, our results provide compelling causal evidence for the involvement of midfrontal theta activity in memory-guided visual search.

Salient experiences open temporal windows that boost otherwise mundane memories encoded before and after pivotal events. A proposed feature of this phenomenon is its selectivity: Salient stimuli preferentially strengthen weak memories that share semantic connections. However, evidence in humans remains inconclusive, and a key question persists: Which factors determine the presence and magnitude of memory enhancement within current neurobiological and behavioral frameworks? We present results from 10 independent studies with a total of 648 participants and provide clear evidence of both retroactive and proactive enhancements in weak memories, directly addressing ongoing debates about the existence of these effects. Notably, stronger salience learning facilitates proactive, but not retroactive, memory enhancement, challenging prevailing theories about salience’s role in these processes. Instead, retroactive enhancement depends on the proximity between incidentally encoded and conditioned stimuli in a high-level feature embedding extracted from a convolutional neural network, revealing a graded prioritization mechanism. These findings offer insights into the mechanisms driving the consolidation of everyday experiences.

We summarize the development of a realtime visualization of first-order Ambisonics (FOA) B-Format signal for extended reality (XR). We describe a new method of displaying an FOA sound field’s intensity and sound sources. The process involves decoding Ambisonics for a spherical lattice, mapping the frequency spectrum to a color representation, and projecting the dynamic intensity of the sound field in 3D space. The goal is to create an immersive auditory and visual experience that a typical user can intuitively understand.