BCN is the official Publication of Neuroscience Departments of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. BCN is an international multidisciplinary journal that publishes editorials, original full‐length research articles, short communications, reviews, methodological papers, commentaries, perspectives and “news and reports” in the broad fields of developmental, molecular, cellular, systems, computational, behavioral, cognitive, and clinical neurosciences. Manuscripts submitted to BCN should describe novel results generated by experiments that were guided by clearly defined aims or hypotheses and should not have appeared or submitted to any other journals. BCN’s aim is to provide serious ties in interdisciplinary communication, accessibility to a broad readership internationally, effective peer review process, and independence from all possible non scientific interests. BCN also tries to empower national, regional and international collaborative networks in the field of neuroscience and to be the voice of the Iranian and regional neuroscience community in the world of neuroscientists. BCN is a new journal dedicated to neuroscience field which intends to become an indexed and cited peer reviewed journal and to meet its quality standards in near future. To achieve this aim, BCN asks for support from all Iranian Neuroscientists doing research around the word in submitting manuscripts in all aspects of neuroscience research. We need your comments and valuable inputs. We are also asking Iranian Neuroscientists who are principle investigators to nominate as reviewers and/or editors in the different areas of neuroscience in BCN.

Objective: Abstinence-based therapy (ABT) and methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) are common methods of treatment in heroin dependence as both suppress subjective feeling of drug craving. However, it is not clear whether the neural basis of craving suppression is similar in both types of treatments. In this study, we compared brain activation during pictorial presentation of heroin-related cues in ABT and MMT groups to understand the neural basis of drug craving in these groups. Methods: Three groups of subjects (successful ABT and MMT clients and healthy control) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging, while heroin-related cues and neutral cues were presented to them. In addition, subjective cue-elicited craving has been measured using drug drive questionnaire before and after imaging. Result: Self-report of craving was not different between ABT and MMT groups before and after scanning. Anterior cingulate cortex and inferior frontal gyrus showed higher activations in ABT than in healthy control. Inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus showed higher activity in ABT than in MMT. Lingual gyrus and cerebellum showed higher activity in MMT than in healthy control. Conclusions: Heroin avoidance may be achieved by MMT or ABT; however, the neural mechanism underlying these therapeutic methods differs.

Introduction. Binaural beats (BBs) are phantom sound illusions perceived when two sounds of slightly different frequencies are separately transmitted to the ears. It is suggested that some BB frequencies might entrain the brain and enhance certain cognitive functions such as working memory or attention. Nevertheless, studies in this regard are very scarce, quite controversial, and merely covering a very small portion of this vast field of research (e.g., testing only a few BB frequencies), not to mention adopting some limited methodologies (e.g., no assessment of the loudness of the BB sound, adopting only between‐subject analyses, and testing only one perceptual modality). Hence, we aimed to assess the potential effects of alpha, beta, and gamma BBs on cognitive‐behavioral parameters of working memory and attention examined simultaneously in two different modalities (visuospatial and auditory‐verbal). Methods. This within‐subject five‐arm randomized placebo‐controlled clinical trial included 155 trials in 31 healthy right‐handed subjects (17 women, 14 men, 30.84 ± 6.16 years old). Each subject listened to 8‐minute sessions of 10 Hz, 16 Hz, and 40 Hz binaural beats versus 240 Hz pure tone and silence (in random orders). In each 8‐minute block, they played a dual 2‐back task with feedback enabled. Their cognitive‐behavioral parameters (working memory capacities, signal detection measures (hit rate, false alarm rate, sensitivity, and response bias), and reaction speed measures (response time and intrasubject response time variability)) were calculated. The effects of the sound interventions and short‐term training on these working memory and attention measures were assessed statistically using mixed‐model linear regressions, repeated‐measures ANOVAs and ANCOVAs, Bonferroni post hoc tests, and one‐sample t‐tests (α = 0.05). Results. The following are some major statistically significant findings (P ≤ 0.05): In the visuospatial modality, the 10 Hz BB reduced the response time and intrasubject response time variability and reduced the extent of decline over time in the case of visuospatial working memory, sensitivity, and hit rate. In the auditory‐verbal modality, the 10 Hz intervention reduced the hit rate, false alarm rate, and sensitivity. The 10 Hz intervention also caused the lowest intermodality discrepancies in hit rates and false alarm rates, the highest response time discrepancies, and negative discrepancies in working memories and sensitivities (indicating the superiority of the visuospatial modality). The response biases tended to be liberal‐to‐neutral in the verbal modality and rather conservative in the visuospatial modality. Reactions were faster in the visuospatial modality than the auditory‐verbal one, while the intrasubject variability of reaction times was smaller in the auditory‐verbal modality. Short‐term training can increase the hit rate, working memory, and sensitivity and can decrease the false alarm rate and response time. Aging and reduced sound intervention volume may slow down responses and increase the intrasubject variability of response time. Faster reactions might be correlated with greater hit rates, working memories, and sensitivities and also with lower false alarm rates. Conclusions. The 8‐minute alpha‐band binaural beat entrainment may have a few, slight enhancing effects within the visuospatial modality, but not in both modalities combined. Short‐term training can improve working memory and some cognitive parameters of attention. Some BB interventions can affect the intermodality discrepancies. There may be differences between the two modalities in terms of the response speeds and intrasubject response time variabilities. Aging can slow down the response, while increasing the volume of audio interventions may accelerate it.

Background: Breast cancer is now the most significant health issue in women, threatening diverse aspects of human health, including mental health and cognitive function. This research aimed to validate the Persian version of Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) in Iranian women with breast cancer. Methods: We gathered data on 229 women with breast cancer in Tehran through convenience sampling. They completed a demographic questionnaire, the Persian version of MAAS, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and DASS-21. SPSS-22 analyzed the Pearson correlation between the Persian version of MAAS, general self-efficacy, and DASS-21. Also, LISREL 8.8 was used to analyze the internal structure of the MAAS. Results: Findings from the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the model with one factor fits well with the data (sbχ2=4.29 (P=0.36); SRMR=0.058; CFI=1.0; NFI=0.91; IFI=0.95; RFI=0.97; GFI=0.90; RMSEA=0.069). Significant negative correlations were found between MAAS and DASS-21 scores for anxiety (r=-0.51), depression (r=-0.48) and stress (r=-0.49), indicating an acceptable divergent validity. There was also a positive relationship between MAAS and general self-efficacy (r=0.37; P<0.01). Conclusion: The Persian version of MAAS seems to be a valid scale for evaluating the extent of mindfulness of Iranian women with breast cancer.