Front. Optoelectron.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-021-1090-y

MINI REVIEW

Relationship between circadian rhythm and brain

cognitive functions

Shiyang XU, Miriam AKIOMA, Zhen YUAN (✉)

Faculty of Health Sciences, Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau SAR, China

© Higher Education Press 2021

Abstract Circadian rhythms are considered a master- documented several hundred years before. However,
stroke of natural selection, which gradually increase the circadian rhythms have been described for hundreds of
adaptability of species to the Earth’s rotation. Importantly, years. For example, in the 18th century, Jean Jacques, an
the nervous system plays a key role in allowing organisms astronomer, recorded that the leaves of mimosa plants
to maintain circadian rhythmicity. Circadian rhythms affect opened during the day and closed at night [3]. Moreover,
multiple aspects of cognitive functions (mainly via numerous studies have inspected, classified, and recog-
arousal), particularly those needed for effort-intensive nized the essence of the biological clock, elucidating that
cognitive tasks, which require considerable top-down not only physiologic functions but also the brain cognitive
executive control. These include inhibitory control, work- functions are regulated by the inner circadian rhythm [4,5].
ing memory, task switching, and psychomotor vigilance. In particular, these studies also demonstrated that the
This mini review highlights the recent advances in circadian rhythm has a significant influence on cognitive
cognitive functioning in the optical and multimodal performance, which peaks during the day and drops at
neuroimaging fields; it discusses the processing of brain night [6]. Recently, Walker et al. [7] reported that circadian
cognitive functions during the circadian rhythm phase and disruption may not be the sole cause of mood disorders;
the effects of the circadian rhythm on the cognitive however, it may elicit or exacerbate symptoms in
component of the brain and the brain circuit supporting individuals with a predisposition to mental disorders.
cognition. However, individual differences, such as gender, age, IQ,
and educational, and cultural background, might affect the
Keywords circadian rhythm, cognition, optical neuroi- relationship between the circadian rhythm and cognitive
maging, multimodal neuroimaging functions [8–11]. More importantly, the relationship in the
metabolic fluctuation phase between the brain and
circadian rhythms in our body systems is still unclear.
1 Introduction Most of the cells in the body have circadian molecular
clocks, e.g., the gut. Eating late and operating cellphones at
For thousands of years, living organisms have evolved in night, for example, are known to disrupt the circadian
synchrony with the day–night cycle [1]. Most species, rhythm [12,13]. Moreover, recent studies have shown that
from single-celled organisms to humans, individually have the sleep quality in specific populations (e.g., surgical
an internal circadian clock that modulates critical function nurses) is related to the CLOCK genes [14].
phases, such as sleep, metabolism, hormone levels, core Recently, neuroimaging technologies, such as functional
body temperature, behavior, and cognitive function. The near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and other multimodal
eminent chronobiology scholar, Jeffrey Hall, and his techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging
colleagues won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (fMRI), diffuse optical tomography (DOT), and an
in 2017 in recognition of their meaningful discoveries electroencephalogram (EEG), have been employed to
concerning the mechanisms that control diurnal rhythms at determine the effect of circadian rhythms on brain
the molecular level [2]. This phenomenon had been cognitive functions [1,2].
fNIRS is an optical, non-invasive neuroimaging tech-
nology that can measure the changes in the concentration
Received August 30, 2020; accepted February 2, 2021 of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin in the brain
E-mail: [email protected] tissue after neuron activation [15]. This is accomplished by
2 Front. Optoelectron.

irradiating the head with near-IR light (650–950 nm) and functions”, and “cognitive task”. The selected articles are
accessing the brain tissue via the relative biological tissue listed in Table S1, see Electronic Supplementary Material.
transparency. With the development and use of multi-
channel and wearable devices for cognitive experiments,
fNIRS has enabled important progress in the understanding 2 Relationship between circadian rhythm
of the functional brain activities and higher cognitive and brain cognitive functions
functions in adults and infants. The fMRI technique is a
category of imaging methods that use strong magnetic 2.1 Attention
fields developed for displaying time-varying alterations
and metabolism changes, common in the increase or Attention refers to the function that allocates limited
decrease in blood oxygenation during the performance of cognitive processing resources to the environment [19].
an experimental task [16]. DOT is an imaging approach Attention can also be categorized into selective alertness,
that uses near-IR light to illuminate the structure of the soft phasic alertness, tonic attention, and vigilance in accor-
tissue. The most valuable and common application of this dance with each function [20]. Selective attention is a
technique is for the detection of tumors in the breast and function that filters the stimulus of perceptions from the
brain [17]. As an electrophysiological monitoring method, environment, which keeps us focusing on the pertinent
the EEG is widely used to record the electrical activity of information. Phasic alertness refers to the function that
the brain, which results from ionic currents within the prepares for a specific incoming event under the exception.
neurons of the brain. EEG is a non-invasive monitoring Tonic alertness reflects the general level of alertness and
method for recording the electrical activity of the brain; the the basic activation of the cognitive system of an
process mostly involves attaching electrodes to the scalp. individual. Finally, vigilance is the ability to continue
The EEG records evoked potentials (EP), which includes focusing on one object for a relatively long period. Studies
the averaged EEG activity time-locked to presenting in forced desynchronization and sleep deprivation have
auditory, somatosensory, or visual stimuli. Moreover, the suggested that circadian effects and time awake alterations
event-related potentials (ERPs) refer to the averaged EEG may impact tonic alertness [21], phasic alertness, and
responses that are time-locked to more complex processing selective attention [12]. Nevertheless, studies related to
of stimuli [18]. sustained attention are controversial, since the circadian
The focus of this mini review is to summarize the recent rhythmicity and awake time changes can be observed in
advances in the investigation of the relationship between some studies [22], but not in others [23].
brain cognitive functions and the circadian rhythm using The activation state of attention depends on the activity
neuroimaging techniques. First, the cognitive process of of the cerebral cortices. Notably, tonic alertness is
attention during the circadian rhythm phase will be influenced by the reticular activating system, which
introduced and highlighted. Following this, the influence regulates the general activation level of the entire forebrain
of the diurnal rhythm on cognitive functions, including [24], while the frontal and the parietal cortex are
working memory, cognitive flexibility, and switching, will interpreted as the core components of the system
be demonstrated. Most importantly, the future of research supporting phasic alertness [25]. Unlike tonic alertness
perspectives and the neural implications of the circadian and phasic alertness, selective attention is recognized as
rhythm will be stated clearly in the final section. following a top-down pathway in the cortex, and it
Two main electronic databases: PubMed and Web of correlates with the prefrontal and parietal control regions
Science, were inspected to extract studies published in the [26–28].
English language; the studies were in areas related to the Valdez et al. [29] investigated the circadian variations of
relationship between the circadian rhythm and brain selective alertness, phasic attention, and tonic alertness,
cognitive functions. Notably, there were no time limita- concluding that these processes suffer a performance hit
tions on the publication since no meta-analysis of the from 4:00 AM to 7:00 AM. Another research proposed by
studies on the circadian rhythm and the brain cognitive Pablo concluded that tonic alertness might peak in the
functions had been conducted. A search strategy was morning (around 10:00 AM–12:00 AM) and decrease
established for each database with a combination of free immediately after that [6]. Riley [30] found that the
text and controlled MeSH keywords. Moreover, additional attention span of an individual may increase to a peak
psychological web-based databases and specialized jour- between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM and subsequently
nals, such as PsycINFO and Google search for gray decrease progressively. Moreover, the peak time of
literature, were exploited. Furthermore, the reference lists selective attention is recognized to be around midday
of the studies retrieved from the database were screened for [6,31]. Nicholls et al. [32] explored the diurnal variations in
relevant studies. The three research steps were conducted the visuospatial attention and the limited effect of circadian
without time limitations. The search keywords included variation. However, not all researchers support the idea that
“circadian rhythm”, “neuroimaging”, “brain”, “cognitive circadian variation can be modulated by attention [33].
 Shiyang XU et al. Relationship between circadian rhythm and brain cognitive functions 3

There is empirical evidence suggesting that cognitive thalamic hyperactivation was inversely correlated with the
functions are closely related to the body temperature, activation of the parietal cortex after sleep deprivation
which is recognized as an important indicator of the during a visuospatial attention task, highlighting that the
metabolic rhythm. Primarily, the body temperature may attentional networks were potentially impaired. Moreover,
increase during the day and decrease in the evening [1]. the sleep-deprived participant had lower accuracy in the
The close relationship between the body core temperature task. Chee et al. [48] explored the endogenous attention
and cognitive performance has also been confirmed by function under sleep deprivation and suggested the
other researchers [34–36]. Additionally, researchers dis- decrease in the frontal-parietal top-down control concern-
covered more factors that may impact the changes in the ing attention and the extrastriate visual cortex process. De
attention function caused by the circadian rhythm, such as Havas et al. [49] proposed that significant selection may
chronotype (the behavioral manifestation of the underlying decrease in the default mode network for functional
circadian rhythms of myriad physical processes) [31] and connectivity after sleep deprivation (see Fig. 1). Muto
task difficulty [37]. et al. [50] examined the sustained attention task related to
Studies based on the manipulation of the desynchroniza- 42 h of sleep deprivation and found that the subcortical
tion of the circadian rhythm of participants while areas regulated by the circadian rhythms, which are
researchers separate the subject’s inherent circadian followed by the melatonin profile and the cortical
rhythm demonstrated that the ability to sustain attention responses, were influenced by the circadian rhythms in a
might weaken, followed by lowered activation of the different phase.
corresponding cortex, as well as the neural networks that
are affected by sleep deprivation. For example, the Stroop 2.2 Working memory
tasks related to prefrontal cortex functions have been found
to be affected by one night of sleep deprivation [38–40]. Working memory is an essential component of the
Therefore, it was observed that tonic alertness, selective cognitive system that holds and stores extracted informa-
attention, sustained attention, and vigilance are sensitive to tion. It can be divided into long-term memory and short-
sleep deprivation, which might result in the impairment of term memory, depending on the length of the memory to be
the attention function [41–43]. Moreover, sleep depriva- stored [51]. A long-term memory may be longer than one
tion affected the visual search task, which required the day, while a short-term memory can vary from a few
attention function [44]. Recent neuroimaging studies using seconds to a few hours. There is also strong evidence of the
fMRI techniques have found that the activation of the important role of short-term memory in advanced
prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex is highly hindered cognitive processes, such as reasoning, language compre-
by sleep deprivation, and this has implications for hension, learning, and problem solving. Studies in the
cognitive processes driven by these regions [45,46]. cognition field affirm that the working memory is the most
Furthermore, the neural network of attention is affected appropriate name considering function because short-term
by sleep deprivation. Tomasi et al. [47] observed that the and long-term memories are distinguished by time length

Fig. 1 Effect of state on Default Mode Network functional connectivity. The extensive functional connectivity decreased after sleep
deprivation (adapted from Ref. [49]). dMPFC: dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, vMPFC: ventromedial frontal cortex, RLTC: right lateral
temporal cortex, RIPL: right inferior parietal lobe, PCC: posterior cingulate cortex, LIPL: left inferior parietal lobe, and LLTC: left lateral
temporal cortex
4 Front. Optoelectron.

[52]. From a cognitive perspective, the role of the working studies have shown that the working memory load is
memory is to hold and manipulate the information in the related to the fluctuation of the working memory capacity
mind for further processing. Regarding neural mechan- during the day. Folkard [63] found that the performance of
isms, neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that tasks an easy working memory load task is correlated with the
involving the working memory are highly connected to the temperature change; however, this phenomenon disappears
prefrontal cortex activation [53,54]. Furthermore, studies if the working memory load increases considerably. Many
have shown that damage or lesion in the prefrontal cortex factors can exert influence, including the decision process
may cause a decrease in the working memory performance [64], which may determine the change in the curve of
[55]. circadian rhythmicity. Nevertheless, we certainly must
According to Gerstner and Yin [56], the regulation of consider the metabolic activity as the fundamental base of
memory formation by the circadian rhythms and effects of the circadian rhythm. Interestingly, a variable number of
the day–time cycle is phylogenetically preserved in many studies have found ambiguous results for the changes in
species and is also associated with the cycling levels of cognitive functions during the day and at night. Further,
melatonin, independent of the changes in the behavioral these results did not lead to an accurate conclusion under a
conditions, such as wakefulness and sleepiness. A recent different group of participants or with different tasks. The
study by Domagalik et al. on sustained attention and the application of precise technologies that can reflect the
visuospatial working memory in circadian rhythmicity cortex activity and the collaborative cortex may be an
revealed that the reduction of blue light exposure led to a advantageous approach for inspecting those previous
significant decrease in performance. In other words, the cases. The activity of the prefrontal cortex is considered
reaction time was slow when the exposure to blue light was a reflection of the working memory process, and it could be
reduced [57]. combined with traditional protocol in future studies.
Previous studies based on the working memory declared Neuroimaging studies related to the circadian rhythm
that the capacity of working memory tasks usually reaches and the working memory are considered as the relatively
the peak at noon [23,58], which correlates with the common studies associated with sleep deprivation and
metabolic activity in the brain, thus promoting the changes circadian rhythm desynchronization. For instance, the
in the capacity of the working memory. These relevant healthy participants were asked to follow a sleep-
findings confirm the close relationship between the deprivation protocol, which was manipulated by the
working memory and temperature, which is considered researcher. Chee and Choo [65] found that the anterior
as an indicator of the metabolic activity [36]. The working medial frontal and posterior cingulate regions in young
memory ability appears to improve when the temperature healthy subjects are deactivated after sleep deprivation (see
reaches the peak and weaken when the temperature Fig. 2). Moreover, the left frontal lobe is activated when
decreases in the circadian rhythm fluctuation according the working memory is exhausted after sleep deprivation.
to the desynchrony protocol. Vedhara et al. [59] reported The results of the sleep deprivation study involving young
the level of salivary cortisol as another important indicator healthy subjects were similar to those of previous studies,
of the circadian rhythmicity and its association with the displaying that the activation of the left anterior cingulate
working memory. Therefore, it is important to emphasize cortex was suppressed. Concurrently, the activation of the
that the circadian rhythm also affects the results of the left and right middle occipital gyrus is strengthened during
working memory measurement since it requires a relatively a working memory task after sleep deprivation. The
long testing period [60]. interaction effect between the working memory load and
Although the fluctuation of the working memory sleep deprivation has been also observed in the left inferior
capacity during the day and at night is not always the frontal and right middle frontal gyrus, as well as the right
same under different situations, the individual differences insula [66]. Mu et al. [67] found that both groups, i.e., the
between the participant groups and the difference in the sleep-deprivation group and the resting group, exhibited
tasks applied have a significant influence on the changes in significantly reduced whole brain activation, compared
the working memory capacity. First, we must identify two with the baseline. Chee et al. [68] affirmed that not only the
different groups related to the circadian rhythm: “morn- superior parietal regions but also the left thalamus
ingness” and “eveningness,” according to the different experience a reduction in task-related activation after
activity peaks during the day. Second, the different ages of sleep deprivation during a working memory task. Lim’s
the group possibly contributed to the impact of the findings [69] also indicated that the bilateral parietal
circadian rhythm on the working memory. regions experience deactivation after sleep deprivation.
Studies have shown that children reach their peak of Despite the fMRI studies, Honma et al. [70] conducted an
cognitive functions in the morning, while adults achieve experiment using fNIRS and concluded that the activity of
their best performance in a similar task at night [61]. Rowe the right prefrontal cortex indicates an attempt to resist
et al. [62] suggested that the age differences in the visual sleepiness during a working memory task in a sleep-
working memory span are determined by the time of the deprivation situation.
test and the interference of other factors. Furthermore, In recent studies related to circadian rhythm disorders,
 Shiyang XU et al. Relationship between circadian rhythm and brain cognitive functions 5

same color (e.g., the word “PURPLE” colored in purple)

[75].
The equivalent brain regions of these cognitive func-
tions have been shown to have a deep relationship with the
fluctuation of the circadian rhythm. A current study on
high-order cognitive functions demonstrated that the
inhibition ability decreases in the early evening, compared
to the constant routine protocol [76]. The inhibition ability
may reach the peak in the afternoon, while the lowest point
is observed in the early morning, according to the
Sustained Attention to Response Test [77]. Furthermore,
the study concludes that the aspect related to the active
control appears to be more sensitive to the circadian
rhythm than the automatic aspects of cognitive functions.
Nevertheless, this study could not separate the effect of the
Fig. 2 Reduced task-related deactivation in the anterior medial homeostatic pressure from the increase in the waking time.
frontal and posterior cingulate regions after sleep deprivation. Harrison et al. [78] applied a forced desynchronization
Region of interest from which the extent of deactivation was protocol to divide the circadian rhythm and the homeo-
determined. Reproduced from Ref. [65] static pressure. All the subjects were instructed to have 28
h per “day” in this experiment. Consequently, the results
patients diagnosed with mental impairments were recruited showed the significant effect of the waking period without
to have their cortical activation analyzed by neuroimaging the circadian effect on the performance of the inhibition
methods. McKenna and Eyler, after reviewing the task. Bratzke et al. [79] evaluated the impact of sleep
literature on bipolar disorder and its deficits in the deprivation and the circadian effect on the inhibition ability
prefrontal cortex, found that sleep and circadian rhythms using the Stroop and Simon task. Although the interference
may be involved in this system, potentially suggesting that effect remained unaffected across 40 h under the wakeful-
the ability of the working memory was impaired [71]. The ness status, the study proposed that the circadian rhythm
findings of Thomas et al. [72] suggest that the working might not be affected by the inhibition ability. Finally,
memory might be affected by obstructive sleep-disordered Sagaspe et al. [39] did not find meaningful discrepancies in
breathing, and the reason for the weakening of the working the effect of day and night changes on the inhibition ability
memory competency is related to the loss of function in the utilizing a Stroop task.
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. McKenna et al. [73] The frontal cortex is considered as the corresponding
examined the association between the circadian rhythm brain region for cognitive conflicts and inhibition [78].
and euthymic bipolar disorder desynchrony using fMRI Lately, Schmidt et al. [80] assessed the influence of the
approaches. The results indicated that the circadian rhythm circadian rhythm and the chronotype on the conflict
variable was significantly associated with the degree of processing ability, including the corresponding cerebral
deficit in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and supramar- activity in a constant routine protocol. The hemodynamic
ginal gyri. Drummond et al. [74] explored the working responses of the evening chronotype precipitates remain
memory ability in patients with primary insomnia and constant or increase in the subjective morning. In contrast,
compared them with those of a healthy control group. the morning chorotype reduces in the morning categories
Subsequently, it was confirmed that the task-related under the same situation. The relationship between sleep
working memory regions were deactivated in the primary pressure and the circadian process is confounded, and their
insomnia patients, and the effect of the modulation of the impact on the cognitive process is not easily distinguished.
right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation was reduced This is because the relationship between them is complex,
as the task difficulty increased. and they may affect each other. Consequently, new
protocols, tools, and techniques to study the current topics
2.3 Cognitive conflicts and inhibition are undeniably required to achieve accurate results.

Cognitive conflict refers to the function that manages 2.4 Cognitive flexibility and switching
contradiction and restrains irrelevant information from the
working memory, and it is indispensable for the cognitive Cognitive flexibility is the mental ability to adjust or adapt
system of humans. A pragmatic example is the Stroop task, to the changes in environmental requirements [81]. In
where the name of a random color (e.g., purple) is printed neuroimaging studies, the ability of cognitive flexibility
against an inconsistent different color (e.g., the word and switching is commonly associated with the prefrontal
“PURPLE” colored in red). It would be undoubtedly more cortex [82].
difficult to distinguish, rather than if it were written in the There are only a few studies related to the influence of
6 Front. Optoelectron.

the circadian rhythms on cognitive flexibility. In one of cognitive functions. This previous study, as well as other
these studies [83], the time-of-day protocol and the investigations, such as the one conducted by Wieth and
constant routine protocol were used to measure the ability Zacks [90], confirmed that the participants would solve the
of task switching [83–85]. As a result, it was verified that problem of insight efficiently when testing at a non-
the participants performed poorly in the cognitive optimal time.
flexibility task in the morning. Bratzke et al. [79] led an Overall, following the studies listed above, it is possible
investigation into the effects of circadian rhythm and sleep to establish that even advanced cognitive functions
loss on the switching task efficiency. This study revealed combine effects and their differential roles in cognitive
that the switching task competence is influenced by sleep processes, including fundamental cognitive components,
stress and circadian rhythms. Ramírez et al. [86] suggested such as attention and working memory, and this could have
that flexibility is modulated by sustained attention, which different effects on the circadian rhythm of advanced
may be affected by the circadian rhythms. Recently, the cognitive functions.
cognitive flexibility of shift workers who had to work at
night showed a reduction in the earlier circadian phase. It is
important to accentuate that cognitive inhibition and 3 General discussion
flexibility are essential for problem solving and creativity.
In this review, we summarized many studies concerning
2.5 Cognitive association and creativity the relationship between the circadian rhythm and
cognitive functions. These studies were divided into
For Mednick [87], creative thinking is “a form of subcategories, such as attention, working memory, and
associating elements into new combinations that either higher-order functions, according to the order of cognitive
meet specific requirements or are, in some way, useful. The processing. Generally, the circadian rhythm influences the
more mutually remote the elements of the new combina- cognitive functions; however, the results of previous
tion, the more creative the process or solution.” Thus, the studies are still inconsistent. From a neuroimaging
association ability is the fundamental base of creativity. A perspective, the corresponding regions are related to the
neuroimaging research using a word-pair associate task diurnal activity of cognitive performance. Additionally, the
demonstrated that the hippocampal activity (see Fig. 3) brain network connection is modulated by the circadian
mediates the circadian rhythms and associative memory rhythm.
process [88]. However, the studies on creativity indicated There are different activity curves on the cognitive
that creativity itself does not relate to the circadian functions including attention, working memory, and the
tendency of the association ability. May [89] examined higher-order cognitive functions, since the peaks related to
the association processes, where each participant was the performance of different cognitive functions are
instructed to find an answer word (SPACE) linked to given distributed differently throughout the day. This suggests
three associated cue words (e.g., SHIP OUTER CRAWL), that attention and working memory have slightly similar
and the results showed that the patterns of impaired versus regulations. According to the previous studies listed above,
preserved performance over the day are consistent with an the participants had their best performance in attention and
inhibitory-deficit account of synchrony effects, which working memory in the afternoon, while the worst
would be disrupted at the best time for the essential performance was observed in the early morning. Further,

Fig. 3 Mediation model demonstrates that the relationship between circadian activity rhythm consistency and associative recognition
accuracy was mediated by hippocampal activity. Standardized beta values are included on the model paths in black. The gray value on the
path represents the standardized beta value before the hippocampal activity was included in the model. The scatterplots show paths A and
B, which illustrate the relationships between hippocampal activity, circadian activity rhythm consistency, and associative recognition
accuracy. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. Adapted from Ref. [88]
 Shiyang XU et al. Relationship between circadian rhythm and brain cognitive functions 7

the higher-order cognitive functions are not consistent with well as FDCT 025/2015/A1 and FDCT 0011/2018/A1 Grants from the Macau
regulation, such as inhibition and creativity. On the Government.
contrary, with the attention and the working memory, the Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available
ability of inhibition and creativity might be stronger in the in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-021-
subjective morning rather than in the subjective afternoon. 1090-y and is accessible for authorized users.
Therefore, this phenomenon might be explained by the
inhibition-based model [91]. Inhibitory processes, in the
case of the filter of the working memory, act by restraining References
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Research, 2009, 18(2): 167–172

Miriam Akioma is a full-time Ph.D.
85. Shinkai S, Watanabe S, Kurokawa Y, Torii J. Salivary cortisol for
research scholar at the Centre for Cognitive
monitoring circadian rhythm variation in adrenal activity during
and Brain Sciences in Faculty of Health
shiftwork. International Archives of Occupational and Environ-
Sciences, University of Macau, China. She
mental Health, 1993, 64(7): 499–502
holds Master’s degree in Applied Linguis-
86. Ramírez C, García A, Valdez P. Identification of circadian rhythms
tics, and Specialization in Developmental
in cognitive inhibition and flexibility using a Stroop task. Sleep and
Psychology. Her current research focuses
Biological Rhythms, 2012, 10(2): 136–144
on neuroimaging techniques for mapping
87. Mednick S A. The associative basis of the creative process.
the neural mechanisms and correlates
Psychological Review, 1962, 69(3): 220–232
related to language production, and comprehension in the bilingual
88. Sherman S M, Mumford J A, Schnyer D M. Hippocampal activity
brain. For that, she makes use of recent high-technologies such as
mediates the relationship between circadian activity rhythms and
fNIRS, EEG, fMRI, and eye-tracking.
memory in older adults. Neuropsychologia, 2015, 75: 617–625
89. May C P. Synchrony effects in cognition: the costs and a benefit.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1999, 6(1): 142–147 Zhen Yuan is an associate professor with
90. Wieth M B, Zacks R T. Time of day effects on problem solving: Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at Uni-
When the non-optimal is optimal. Thinking & Reasoning, 2011, 17 versity of Macau (UM), China. He also has
(4): 387–401 the second appointment as the Interim
91. West R, Murphy K J, Armilio M L, Craik F I, Stuss D T. Effects of Director of Centre for Cognitive and
time of day on age differences in working memory. Journals of Brain Sciences at UM. His academic
Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, investigation is focused on cutting-edge
2002, 57(1): 3–10 research and development in laser, ultra-
92. Lu F M, Yuan Z. PET/SPECT molecular imaging in clinical sound and EEG/fMRI-related biomedical
neuroscience: recent advances in the investigation of CNS diseases. technologies as well as their clinical/pre-clinical applications in
Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery, 2015, 5(3): 433–447 cognitive neuroscience and brain disorders. He has achieved national
93. Chen B, Moreland J, Zhang J. Human brain functional MRI and DTI and international recognition through over 200 SCI publications in
visualization with virtual reality. Quantitative Imaging in Medicine high ranked journals in his field. He is the editorial board member of
and Surgery, 2011, 1(1): 11–16 Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery, editor of Journal of
Innovative Optical Health Sciences, senior associate editor of BMC
Shiyang Xu is a Ph.D. student at Faculty of
Medical Imaging, and associate editor of Frontiers in Human
Health Sciences, Centre for Cognitive and
Neuroscience. He is a senior member of OSA and SPIE, and
Brain Sciences, University of Macau,
committee member of Chinese Biomedical Optical Society.
China. He received the Master’s degree in
Developmental and Educational Psychol-
ogy from Shaanxi Normal University,
China. He concentrates on the neuroima-
ging (EEG/fNIRS) with disease and chil-
dren development.