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‘You are what you eat’. It’s a saying that we’ve all heard time and time again. The notion that good nutrition is essential for adequate growth and sound physical wellbeing is very well established. Further, in recent years, there has been an overwhelming increase in research dedicated to better understanding how nutritional factors influence cognition and behaviour. For example, several studies have suggested that higher foetal exposure to omega-3 fatty acids and B vitamins such as folate promotes neurodevelopment. B vitamins may also play a role in neurocognitive functioning in later life, with some suggestion that lower vitamin B levels are associated with increased risk of dementia (although randomised controlled trials investigating B vitamin supplementation as a cognitive enhancer in the elderly have provided inconclusive evidence as to the benefits of such therapy for dementia). In fact, the nutritional underpinnings of Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders of cognitive ageing is becoming a much researched topic. In addition, consumption of several other foods has been found to convey more acute cognitively enhancing effects. For example, ingestion of carbohydrates (e.g. glucose), caffeine, resveratrol and several ‘nutraceutical’ herbal extracts has been associated with short-term improvements in cognitive performance. Beyond specific micronutrients and macronutrients, the current literature seems to support anecdotal evidence that consumption of a balanced breakfast is crucial to various measures of school performance, including attention in the classroom. What is clear from this emerging literature is that the relationship between nutritional status and neurocognitive functioning at various stages of the lifespan is complex. An aim of this Research Topic is to bring together some recent empirical findings, reviews and commentaries of the literature to date and opinion pieces relating to future directions for this burgeoning field.

Neuroimaging --- Brain --- nutrition --- Diet --- neurocognitive functioning

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"In the past 25 years, the frontal lobes have dominated human neuroscience research. Functional neuroimaging studies have revealed their importance to brain networks involved in nearly every aspect of mental and cognitive functioning. Studies of patients with focal brain lesions have expanded on early case study evidence of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive changes associated with frontal lobe brain damage. The role of frontal lobe function and dysfunction in human development (in both children and older adults), psychiatric disorders, the dementias, and other brain diseases has also received rapidly increasing attention. In this useful text, 14 leading frontal lobe researchers review and synthesize the current state of knowledge on frontal lobe function, including structural and functional brain imaging, brain network analysis, aging and dementia, traumatic brain injury, rehabilitation, attention, memory, and consciousness. The book therefore provides a state-of-the-art account of research in this exciting area, and also highlights a number of new findings by some of the world's top researchers"-- "In this text 14 researchers review and synthesize the current state of knowledge on frontal lobe function, including structural and functional brain imaging, brain network analysis, aging and dementia, traumatic brain injury, rehabilitation, attention, memory, and consciousness. The book provides a state-of-the-art account of research in this area and highlights a number of new findings"--

Frontal Lobe --- Cognition. --- Behavior. --- Neuroimaging. --- physiology. --- physiopathology.

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Sigmund Freud was a trained neuroanatomist and wrote his first psychoanalytical theory in neuroscientific terms. Throughout his life, he maintained the belief that at some distant day in the future, all psychoanalytic processes could be tied to a neural basis: “We must recollect that all of our provisional ideas in psychology will presumably one day be based on an organic substructure” (Freud 1914, On Narcissism: An Introduction). Fundamental Freudian concepts reveal their foundation in the physiological science of his time, most importantly among them the concept of libidinous energy and the homeostatic “principle of constancy”. However, the subsequent history of psychoanalysis and neuroscience was mainly characterized by mutual ignorance or even opposition; many scientists accused psychoanalytic viewpoints not to be scientifically testable, and many psychoanalysts claimed that their theories did not need empirical support outside of the therapeutic situation. On this historical background, it may appear surprising that the recent years have seen an increasing interest in re-connecting psychoanalysis and neuroscience in various ways: By studying psychodynamic consequences of brain lesions in neurological patients, by investigating how psychoanalytic therapy affects brain structure and function, or even by operationalizing psychoanalytic concepts in well-controlled experiments and exploring their neural correlates. These empirical studies are accompanied by theoretical work on the philosophical status of the “neuropsychoanalytic” endeavour. In this volume, we attempt to provide a state-of-the-art overview of this new exciting field. All types of submissions are welcome, including research in patient populations, healthy human participants and animals, review articles on some empirical or theoretical aspect, and of course also critical accounts of the new field. Despite this welcome variability, we would like to suggest that all contributions attempt to address one (or both) of two main questions, which should motivate the connection between psychoanalysis and neuroscience and that in our opinion still remain exigent: First, from the neuroscientific side, why should researchers in the neurosciences address psychoanalytic ideas, and what is (or will be) the impact of this connection on current neuroscientific theories? Second, from the psychoanalytic side, why should psychoanalysts care about neuroscientific studies, and (how) can current psychoanalytical theory and practice benefit from their results? Of course, contributors are free to provide a critical viewpoint on these two questions as well.

Neurosciences. --- Neuroscience --- Neuropsychoanalysis --- psychodynamic psychotherapy --- psychoanalysis --- neuroimaging

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Neuroimaging. --- Nervous system --- Imaging. --- Diseases --- Organs (Anatomy) --- Neurosciences --- Nervous System Diseases --- Neuroimaging --- diagnosis. --- methods.

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This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

Science: general issues --- Neurosciences --- brain aging --- Alzheimer’s disease --- metabolic neuroimaging biomarkers --- vascular neuroimaging biomarkers