151
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Pupil size variations reveal covert shifts of attention induced by numbers. Psychon Bull Rev 2022; 29:1844-1853. [PMID: 35384595 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-022-02094-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The pupil light response is more than a pure reflexive mechanism that reacts to the amount of light entering the eye. The pupil size may also react to the luminance of objects lying in the visual periphery, revealing the locus of covert attention. In the present study, we took advantage of this response to study the spatial coding of abstract concepts with no physical counterpart: numbers. The participants' gaze was maintained fixed in the middle of a screen whose left and right parts were dark or bright, and variations in pupil size were recorded during an auditory number comparison task. The results showed that small numbers accentuated pupil dilation when the darker part of the screen was on the left, while large numbers accentuated pupil dilation when the darker part of the screen was on the right. This finding provides direct evidence for covert attention shifts on a left-to-right oriented mental spatial representation of numbers. From a more general perspective, it shows that the pupillary response to light is subject to modulation from spatial attention mechanisms operating on mental contents.
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152
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Tracking attentional states: Assessing the relationship between sustained and selective focused attention in visual working memory. Atten Percept Psychophys 2022; 84:715-738. [PMID: 35297019 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-021-02394-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Attention has multiple influences on visual working memory (VWM). Fluctuations in sustained attention predict VWM performance. Furthermore, focusing selective attention in VWM by retro-cuing the to-be-tested item during maintenance boosts retrieval. So far, we lack knowledge how the ability to focus selective attention relates to the state of sustained attention during the VWM trial. Here, we combined a retro-cue task and a self-rated attention protocol to test whether focusing selective attention via retro-cues: (1) mitigates spontaneous attention fluctuations, in which case retro-cues should be more helpful under low levels of self-rated attention; (2) depends on an optimal state of sustained attention, in which case retro-cue benefits should be largest under high levels of self-rated attention; or (3) is independent of sustained attention, in which case retro-cue benefits and self-rated attention effects should be additive. Our data supported the additive hypothesis. Across four experiments, self-rated attention levels predicted continuous reproduction of colors. Retro-cue trials produced better recall and higher rated attention. Critically, retro-cues improved recall to a similar extent across all levels of self-rated attention. This indicates that attention has multi-faceted and independent contributions to VWM.
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153
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Dimension of visual information interacts with working memory in monkeys and humans. Sci Rep 2022; 12:5335. [PMID: 35351948 PMCID: PMC8964748 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-09367-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2021] [Accepted: 03/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans demonstrate behavioural advantages (biases) towards particular dimensions (colour or shape of visual objects), but such biases are significantly altered in neuropsychological disorders. Recent studies have shown that lesions in the prefrontal cortex do not abolish dimensional biases, and therefore suggest that such biases might not depend on top-down prefrontal-mediated attention and instead emerge as bottom-up processing advantages. We hypothesised that if dimensional biases merely emerge from an enhancement of object features, the presence of visual objects would be necessary for the manifestation of dimensional biases. In a specifically-designed working memory task, in which macaque monkeys and humans performed matching based on the object memory rather than the actual object, we found significant dimensional biases in both species, which appeared as a shorter response time and higher accuracy in the preferred dimension (colour and shape dimension in humans and monkeys, respectively). Moreover, the mnemonic demands of the task influenced the magnitude of dimensional bias. Our findings in two primate species indicate that the dichotomy of top-down and bottom-up processing does not fully explain the emergence of dimensional biases. Instead, dimensional biases may emerge when processed information regarding visual object features interact with mnemonic and executive functions to guide goal-directed behaviour.
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154
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Jiang Y, Jessee W, Hoyng S, Borhani S, Liu Z, Zhao X, Price LK, High W, Suhl J, Cerel-Suhl S. Sharpening Working Memory With Real-Time Electrophysiological Brain Signals: Which Neurofeedback Paradigms Work? Front Aging Neurosci 2022; 14:780817. [PMID: 35418848 PMCID: PMC8995767 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.780817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2021] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 09/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Growing evidence supports the idea that the ultimate biofeedback is to reward sensory pleasure (e.g., enhanced visual clarity) in real-time to neural circuits that are associated with a desired performance, such as excellent memory retrieval. Neurofeedback is biofeedback that uses real-time sensory reward to brain activity associated with a certain performance (e.g., accurate and fast recall). Working memory is a key component of human intelligence. The challenges are in our current limited understanding of neurocognitive dysfunctions as well as in technical difficulties for closed-loop feedback in true real-time. Here we review recent advancements of real time neurofeedback to improve memory training in healthy young and older adults. With new advancements in neuromarkers of specific neurophysiological functions, neurofeedback training should be better targeted beyond a single frequency approach to include frequency interactions and event-related potentials. Our review confirms the positive trend that neurofeedback training mostly works to improve memory and cognition to some extent in most studies. Yet, the training typically takes multiple weeks with 2-3 sessions per week. We review various neurofeedback reward strategies and outcome measures. A well-known issue in such training is that some people simply do not respond to neurofeedback. Thus, we also review the literature of individual differences in psychological factors e.g., placebo effects and so-called "BCI illiteracy" (Brain Computer Interface illiteracy). We recommend the use of Neural modulation sensitivity or BCI insensitivity in the neurofeedback literature. Future directions include much needed research in mild cognitive impairment, in non-Alzheimer's dementia populations, and neurofeedback using EEG features during resting and sleep for memory enhancement and as sensitive outcome measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Jiang
- Lexington Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Lexington, KY, United States
- College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - William Jessee
- College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Stevie Hoyng
- College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Soheil Borhani
- Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States
| | - Ziming Liu
- Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States
| | - Xiaopeng Zhao
- Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States
| | - Lacey K. Price
- Lexington Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Walter High
- New Mexico Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Albuquerque, NM, United States
| | - Jeremiah Suhl
- Lexington Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Sylvia Cerel-Suhl
- Lexington Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Lexington, KY, United States
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155
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Radecke JO, Schierholz I, Kral A, Lenarz T, Murray MM, Sandmann P. Distinct multisensory perceptual processes guide enhanced auditory recognition memory in older cochlear implant users. Neuroimage Clin 2022; 33:102942. [PMID: 35033811 PMCID: PMC8762088 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.102942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2021] [Revised: 12/23/2021] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Congruent audio-visual encoding enhances later auditory processing in the elderly. CI users benefit from additional congruent visual information, similar to controls. CI users show distinct neurophysiological processes, compared to controls. CI users show an earlier modulation of event-related topographies, compared to controls.
In naturalistic situations, sounds are often perceived in conjunction with matching visual impressions. For example, we see and hear the neighbor’s dog barking in the garden. Still, there is a good chance that we recognize the neighbor’s dog even when we only hear it barking, but do not see it behind the fence. Previous studies with normal-hearing (NH) listeners have shown that the audio-visual presentation of a perceptual object (like an animal) increases the probability to recognize this object later on, even if the repeated presentation of this object occurs in a purely auditory condition. In patients with a cochlear implant (CI), however, the electrical hearing of sounds is impoverished, and the ability to recognize perceptual objects in auditory conditions is significantly limited. It is currently not well understood whether CI users – as NH listeners – show a multisensory facilitation for auditory recognition. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) and a continuous recognition paradigm with auditory and audio-visual stimuli to test the prediction that CI users show a benefit from audio-visual perception. Indeed, the congruent audio-visual context resulted in an improved recognition ability of objects in an auditory-only condition, both in the NH listeners and the CI users. The ERPs revealed a group-specific pattern of voltage topographies and correlations between these ERP maps and the auditory recognition ability, indicating a different processing of congruent audio-visual stimuli in CI users when compared to NH listeners. Taken together, our results point to distinct cortical processing of naturalistic audio-visual objects in CI users and NH listeners, which however allows both groups to improve the recognition ability of these objects in a purely auditory context. Our findings are of relevance for future clinical research since audio-visual perception might also improve the auditory rehabilitation after cochlear implantation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan-Ole Radecke
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany; Institute of Audioneurotechnology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Department of Experimental Otology, ENT Clinics, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
| | - Irina Schierholz
- Department of Otolaryngology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Andrej Kral
- Institute of Audioneurotechnology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Department of Experimental Otology, ENT Clinics, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Thomas Lenarz
- Institute of Audioneurotechnology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Department of Otolaryngology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Micah M Murray
- The LINE (The Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging of Lausanne and Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Ophthalmology, Fondation Asile des aveugles, Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Pascale Sandmann
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
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156
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Cui J, Sawamura D, Sakuraba S, Saito R, Tanabe Y, Miura H, Sugi M, Yoshida K, Watanabe A, Tokikuni Y, Yoshida S, Sakai S. Effect of Audiovisual Cross-Modal Conflict during Working Memory Tasks: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12030349. [PMID: 35326305 PMCID: PMC8946709 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12030349] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2022] [Revised: 03/01/2022] [Accepted: 03/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive conflict effects are well characterized within unimodality. However, little is known about cross-modal conflicts and their neural bases. This study characterizes the two types of visual and auditory cross-modal conflicts through working memory tasks and brain activities. The participants consisted of 31 healthy, right-handed, young male adults. The Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) and the Paced Visual Serial Addition Test (PVSAT) were performed under distractor and no distractor conditions. Distractor conditions comprised two conditions in which either the PASAT or PVSAT was the target task, and the other was used as a distractor stimulus. Additionally, oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) concentration changes in the frontoparietal regions were measured during tasks. The results showed significantly lower PASAT performance under distractor conditions than under no distractor conditions, but not in the PVSAT. Oxy-Hb changes in the bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and inferior parietal cortex (IPC) significantly increased in the PASAT with distractor compared with no distractor conditions, but not in the PVSAT. Furthermore, there were significant positive correlations between Δtask performance accuracy and ΔOxy-Hb in the bilateral IPC only in the PASAT. Visual cross-modal conflict significantly impairs auditory task performance, and bilateral VLPFC and IPC are key regions in inhibiting visual cross-modal distractors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiahong Cui
- Graduate School of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan; (J.C.); (R.S.); (H.M.); (A.W.); (Y.T.)
| | - Daisuke Sawamura
- Department of Rehabilitation Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan; (K.Y.); (S.S.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Satoshi Sakuraba
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, Sapporo 061-0293, Japan; (S.S.); (S.Y.)
| | - Ryuji Saito
- Graduate School of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan; (J.C.); (R.S.); (H.M.); (A.W.); (Y.T.)
| | - Yoshinobu Tanabe
- Department of Rehabilitation, Shinsapporo Paulo Hospital, Sapporo 004-0002, Japan;
| | - Hiroshi Miura
- Graduate School of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan; (J.C.); (R.S.); (H.M.); (A.W.); (Y.T.)
| | - Masaaki Sugi
- Department of Rehabilitation, Tokeidai Memorial Hospital, Sapporo 060-0031, Japan;
| | - Kazuki Yoshida
- Department of Rehabilitation Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan; (K.Y.); (S.S.)
| | - Akihiro Watanabe
- Graduate School of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan; (J.C.); (R.S.); (H.M.); (A.W.); (Y.T.)
| | - Yukina Tokikuni
- Graduate School of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan; (J.C.); (R.S.); (H.M.); (A.W.); (Y.T.)
| | - Susumu Yoshida
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, Sapporo 061-0293, Japan; (S.S.); (S.Y.)
| | - Shinya Sakai
- Department of Rehabilitation Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan; (K.Y.); (S.S.)
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157
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Wang S, Tripathy SP, Öğmen H. Capacity and Allocation across Sensory and Short-Term Memories. Vision (Basel) 2022; 6:vision6010015. [PMID: 35324600 PMCID: PMC8955927 DOI: 10.3390/vision6010015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2021] [Revised: 02/19/2022] [Accepted: 02/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Human memory consists of sensory memory (SM), short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM). SM enables a large capacity, but decays rapidly. STM has limited capacity, but lasts longer. The traditional view of these memory systems resembles a leaky hourglass, the large top and bottom portions representing the large capacities of SM and LTM, whereas the narrow portion in the middle represents the limited capacity of STM. The “leak” in the top part of the hourglass depicts the rapid decay of the contents of SM. However, recently, it was shown that major bottlenecks for motion processing exist prior to STM, and the “leaky hourglass” model was replaced by a “leaky flask” model with a narrower top part to capture bottlenecks prior to STM. The leaky flask model was based on data from one study, and the first goal of the current paper was to test if the leaky flask model would generalize by using a different set of data. The second goal of the paper was to explore various block diagram models for memory systems and determine the one best supported by the data. We expressed these block diagram models in terms of statistical mixture models and, by using the Bayesian information criterion (BIC), found that a model with four components, viz., SM, attention, STM, and guessing, provided the best fit to our data. In summary, we generalized previous findings about early qualitative and quantitative bottlenecks, as expressed in the leaky flask model and showed that a four-process model can provide a good explanation for how visual information is processed and stored in memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shaoying Wang
- Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80210, USA;
| | - Srimant P. Tripathy
- School of Optometry and Vision Science, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK;
| | - Haluk Öğmen
- Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80210, USA;
- Correspondence:
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158
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Sphingolipid control of cognitive functions in health and disease. Prog Lipid Res 2022; 86:101162. [DOI: 10.1016/j.plipres.2022.101162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2021] [Revised: 03/10/2022] [Accepted: 03/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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159
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Event-related potential studies of emotion regulation: A review of recent progress and future directions. Int J Psychophysiol 2022; 176:73-88. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.03.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Revised: 03/18/2022] [Accepted: 03/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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160
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Paraskevopoulou M, Rooij D, Schene AH, Batalla A, Chauvin RJ, Buitelaar JK, Schellekens AFA. Effects of family history of substance use disorder on reward processing in adolescents with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Addict Biol 2022; 27:e13137. [PMID: 35229951 PMCID: PMC9285350 DOI: 10.1111/adb.13137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2020] [Revised: 12/08/2021] [Accepted: 12/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Patients with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often develop early onset substance use disorder (SUD) and show poor treatment outcomes. Both disorders show similar reward‐processing alterations, but it is unclear whether these are associated with familial vulnerability to SUD. Our aim was to investigate effects of family history of SUD (FH) on reward processing in individuals with and without ADHD, without substance misuse. Behavioural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from a modified monetary incentive delay task were compared between participants with and without FH (FH positive [FH+]: n = 76 and FH negative [FH−]: n = 69; 76 with ADHD, aged 16.74 ± 3.14, 82 males), while accounting for continuous ADHD scores. The main analysis showed distinct positive association between ADHD scores and reaction times during neutral versus reward condition. ADHD scores were also positively associated with anticipatory responses of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, independent of FH. There were no main FH effects on brain activation. Yet, FH+ participants showed distinct neural alterations in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), dependent on ADHD. This was driven by positive association between ADHD scores and VLPFC activation during reward outcome, only in FH+. Sensitivity analysis with stricter SUD index showed hyperactivation of anterior cingulate cortex for FH+, independent of ADHD, during reward anticipation. There were no FH or ADHD effects on activation of ventral striatum in any analysis. Findings suggest both FH and ADHD effects in circuits of reward and attention/memory during reward processing. Future studies should examine whether these relate to early substance use initiation in ADHD and explore the need for adjusted SUD prevention strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Paraskevopoulou
- Department of Psychiatry, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen The Netherlands
| | - Daan Rooij
- Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Radboud University Nijmegen The Netherlands
| | - Aart H. Schene
- Department of Psychiatry, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen The Netherlands
| | - Albert Batalla
- Department of Psychiatry, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
| | - Roselyne J. Chauvin
- Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Radboud University Nijmegen The Netherlands
| | - Jan K. Buitelaar
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen The Netherlands
- Karakter Child and Adolescent Psychiatry University Centre Nijmegen The Netherlands
| | - Arnt F. A. Schellekens
- Department of Psychiatry, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen The Netherlands
- Nijmegen Institute for Scientist Practitioners in Addiction Nijmegen The Netherlands
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161
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The Functional Interactions between Cortical Regions through Theta-Gamma Coupling during Resting-State and a Visual Working Memory Task. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12020274. [PMID: 35204038 PMCID: PMC8869925 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12020274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2022] [Revised: 02/10/2022] [Accepted: 02/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Theta phase-gamma amplitude coupling (TGC) plays an important role in several different cognitive processes. Although spontaneous brain activity at the resting state is crucial in preparing for cognitive performance, the functional role of resting-state TGC remains unclear. To investigate the role of resting-state TGC, electroencephalogram recordings were obtained for 56 healthy volunteers while they were in the resting state, with their eyes closed, and then when they were engaged in a retention interval period in the visual memory task. The TGCs of the two different conditions were calculated and compared. The results indicated that the modulation index of TGC during the retention interval of the visual working memory (VWM) task was not higher than that during the resting state; however, the topographical distribution of TGC during the resting state was negatively correlated with TGC during VWM task at the local level. The topographical distribution of TGC during the resting state was negatively correlated with TGC coordinates’ engagement of brain areas in local and large-scale networks and during task performance at the local level. These findings support the view that TGC reflects information-processing and signal interaction across distant brain areas. These results demonstrate that TGC could explain the efficiency of competing brain networks.
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162
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Dijkstra N, Kok P, Fleming SM. Perceptual reality monitoring: Neural mechanisms dissociating imagination from reality. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 135:104557. [PMID: 35122782 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104557] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Revised: 01/12/2022] [Accepted: 01/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
There is increasing evidence that imagination relies on similar neural mechanisms as externally triggered perception. This overlap presents a challenge for perceptual reality monitoring: deciding what is real and what is imagined. Here, we explore how perceptual reality monitoring might be implemented in the brain. We first describe sensory and cognitive factors that could dissociate imagery and perception and conclude that no single factor unambiguously signals whether an experience is internally or externally generated. We suggest that reality monitoring is implemented by higher-level cortical circuits that evaluate first-order sensory and cognitive factors to determine the source of sensory signals. According to this interpretation, perceptual reality monitoring shares core computations with metacognition. This multi-level architecture might explain several types of source confusion as well as dissociations between simply knowing whether something is real and actually experiencing it as real. We discuss avenues for future research to further our understanding of perceptual reality monitoring, an endeavour that has important implications for our understanding of clinical symptoms as well as general cognitive function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadine Dijkstra
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, United Kingdom.
| | - Peter Kok
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - Stephen M Fleming
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, United Kingdom; Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Aging Research, University College London, United Kingdom; Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom
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163
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Baskin-Sommers A, Brazil IA. The importance of an exaggerated attention bottleneck for understanding psychopathy. Trends Cogn Sci 2022; 26:325-336. [PMID: 35120814 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2021] [Revised: 01/05/2022] [Accepted: 01/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The psychopath has long captured the imagination. A name such as Ted Bundy evokes a morbid curiosity. The crimes committed by Bundy are so cruel that it is hard to imagine how someone could do such things. In this review we discuss evidence that exaggeration in an attention bottleneck is one mechanism that makes it possible for psychopathic individuals to be adept at focusing on a single stimulus feature or goal but struggle to process multiple streams of information simultaneously. This exaggeration may partly explain the behavioral, affective, and social deficits that are apparent among psychopathic individuals. Further research on this attentional mechanism may promote a science that adequately captures the complexity of psychopathic behavior and offers new avenues for intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Inti A Brazil
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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164
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Hong JS, Lee YS, Hong M, Kim B, Joung YS, Yoo HK, Kim EJ, Lee SI, Bhang SY, Lee SY, Bahn GH, Han DH. Cognitive Developmental Trajectories in Adult ADHD Patients and Controls: A Comparative Study. J Atten Disord 2022; 26:391-407. [PMID: 33472514 DOI: 10.1177/1087054720978548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE There is an updated conceptualization of whole-lifespan attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), promoted by awareness of probable persistence of impairment into adulthood. We investigated cognition trajectories from adolescence to mid-adulthood in ADHD. METHOD Data of 240 patients with ADHD and 244 healthy controls (HCs) were obtained; clinical symptoms and neuropsychological functions were assessed using the various tests. RESULTS Compared to HCs, patients with ADHD except 35 to 44 age interval showed lower full scale intelligence quotient. They showed decreased verbal comprehensive scores except in the 35 to 44 age interval and working memory scores in all intervals. In the Comprehensive Attention Test, patients with ADHD showed increased working memory error frequencies except in the 15 to 17 age interval and divided attention omission error in all intervals. CONCLUSION Adults with ADHD showed deficits not in simple attention but in complex attention, including divided attention and working memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ji Sun Hong
- Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Young Sik Lee
- Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Minha Hong
- Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Bongseog Kim
- Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Yoo Sook Joung
- Sungkyunkwan University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hanik K Yoo
- Seoul Brain Research Institute, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Eui-Jung Kim
- Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Soyoung Irene Lee
- Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Buchun, Republic of Korea
| | - Soo Young Bhang
- Eulji University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Seung Yup Lee
- Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Geon Ho Bahn
- Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Doug Hyun Han
- Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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165
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Masarwa S, Kreichman O, Gilaie-Dotan S. Larger images are better remembered during naturalistic encoding. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2119614119. [PMID: 35046050 PMCID: PMC8794838 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2119614119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
We are constantly exposed to multiple visual scenes, and while freely viewing them without an intentional effort to memorize or encode them, only some are remembered. It has been suggested that image memory is influenced by multiple factors, such as depth of processing, familiarity, and visual category. However, this is typically investigated when people are instructed to perform a task (e.g., remember or make some judgment about the images), which may modulate processing at multiple levels and thus, may not generalize to naturalistic visual behavior. Visual memory is assumed to rely on high-level visual perception that shows a level of size invariance and therefore is not assumed to be highly dependent on image size. Here, we reasoned that during naturalistic vision, free of task-related modulations, bigger images stimulate more visual system processing resources (from retina to cortex) and would, therefore, be better remembered. In an extensive set of seven experiments, naïve participants (n = 182) were asked to freely view presented images (sized 3° to 24°) without any instructed encoding task. Afterward, they were given a surprise recognition test (midsized images, 50% already seen). Larger images were remembered better than smaller ones across all experiments (∼20% higher accuracy or ∼1.5 times better). Memory was proportional to image size, faces were better remembered, and outdoors the least. Results were robust even when controlling for image set, presentation order, screen resolution, image scaling at test, or the amount of information. While multiple factors affect image memory, our results suggest that low- to high-level processes may all contribute to image memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shaimaa Masarwa
- School of Optometry and Vision Science, Faculty of Life Science, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
- The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
| | - Olga Kreichman
- School of Optometry and Vision Science, Faculty of Life Science, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
- The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
| | - Sharon Gilaie-Dotan
- School of Optometry and Vision Science, Faculty of Life Science, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel;
- The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, United Kingdom
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166
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Ward RT, Lotfi S, Stout DM, Mattson S, Lee HJ, Larson CL. Working Memory Performance for Differentially Conditioned Stimuli. Front Psychol 2022; 12:811233. [PMID: 35145464 PMCID: PMC8821888 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.811233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 12/29/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous work suggests that threat-related stimuli are stored to a greater degree in working memory compared to neutral stimuli. However, most of this research has focused on stimuli with physically salient threat attributes (e.g., angry faces), failing to account for how a "neutral" stimulus that has acquired threat-related associations through differential aversive conditioning influences working memory. The current study examined how differentially conditioned safe (i.e., CS-) and threat (i.e., CS+) stimuli are stored in working memory relative to a novel, non-associated (i.e., N) stimuli. Participants (n = 69) completed a differential fear conditioning task followed by a change detection task consisting of three conditions (CS+, CS-, N) across two loads (small, large). Results revealed individuals successfully learned to distinguishing CS+ from CS- conditions during the differential aversive conditioning task. Our working memory outcomes indicated successful load manipulation effects, but no statistically significant differences in accuracy, response time (RT), or Pashler's K measures of working memory capacity between CS+, CS-, or N conditions. However, we observed significantly reduced RT difference scores for the CS+ compared to CS- condition, indicating greater RT differences between the CS+ and N condition vs. the CS- and N condition. These findings suggest that differentially conditioned stimuli have little impact on behavioral outcomes of working memory compared to novel stimuli that had not been associated with previous safe of aversive outcomes, at least in healthy populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard T. Ward
- Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States,Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States,*Correspondence: Richard T. Ward,
| | - Salahadin Lotfi
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States
| | - Daniel M. Stout
- Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, United States,Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - Sofia Mattson
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States
| | - Han-Joo Lee
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States
| | - Christine L. Larson
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States
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167
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Thériault R, Landry M, Raz A. EXPRESS: The Rubber Hand Illusion: Top-Down Attention Modulates Embodiment. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2022; 75:2129-2148. [PMID: 35073801 PMCID: PMC9516612 DOI: 10.1177/17470218221078858] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) creates distortions of body ownership
through multimodal integration of somatosensory and visual inputs.
This illusion largely rests on bottom-up (automatic multisensory and
perceptual integration) mechanisms. However, the relative contribution
from top-down factors, such as controlled processes involving
attentional regulation, remains unclear. Following previous work that
highlights the putative influence of higher-order cognition in the
RHI, we aimed to further examine how modulations of working memory
load and task instructions—two conditions engaging top-down cognitive
processes—influence the experience of the RHI, as indexed by a number
of psychometric dimensions. Relying on exploratory factor analysis for
assessing this phenomenology within the RHI, our results confirm the
influence of higher-order, top-down mental processes. Whereas task
instruction strongly modulated embodiment of the rubber hand,
cognitive load altered the affective dimension of the RHI. Our
findings corroborate that top-down processes shape the phenomenology
of the RHI and herald new ways to improve experimental control over
the RHI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rémi Thériault
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University 14845.,Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal.,Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Chapman University
| | - Mathieu Landry
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Chapman University 5620.,Integrated Program in Neuroscience, Montreal Neurological Institute
| | - Amir Raz
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University 5620.,Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Chapman University.,The Lady Davis Institute at the SMBD Jewish General Hospital
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168
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Peacock CE, Zhang T, David-John B, Murdison TS, Boring MJ, Benko H, Jonker TR. Gaze dynamics are sensitive to target orienting for working memory encoding in virtual reality. J Vis 2022; 22:2. [PMID: 34982104 PMCID: PMC8742516 DOI: 10.1167/jov.22.1.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Numerous studies have demonstrated that visuospatial attention is a requirement for successful working memory encoding. It is unknown, however, whether this established relationship manifests in consistent gaze dynamics as people orient their visuospatial attention toward an encoding target when searching for information in naturalistic environments. To test this hypothesis, participants' eye movements were recorded while they searched for and encoded objects in a virtual apartment (Experiment 1). We decomposed gaze into 61 features that capture gaze dynamics and a trained sliding window logistic regression model that has potential for use in real-time systems to predict when participants found target objects for working memory encoding. A model trained on group data successfully predicted when people oriented to a target for encoding for the trained task (Experiment 1) and for a novel task (Experiment 2), where a new set of participants found objects and encoded an associated nonword in a cluttered virtual kitchen. Six of these features were predictive of target orienting for encoding, even during the novel task, including decreased distances between subsequent fixation/saccade events, increased fixation probabilities, and slower saccade decelerations before encoding. This suggests that as people orient toward a target to encode new information at the end of search, they decrease task-irrelevant, exploratory sampling behaviors. This behavior was common across the two studies. Together, this research demonstrates how gaze dynamics can be used to capture target orienting for working memory encoding and has implications for real-world use in technology and special populations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ting Zhang
- Reality Labs Research; Redmond, WA, USA.,
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169
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Luo X, Azuma T, Kolberg C, Pulling KR. The effects of stimulus modality, task complexity, and cuing on working memory and the relationship with speech recognition in older cochlear implant users. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2022; 95:106170. [PMID: 34839068 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2021.106170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2020] [Revised: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The role of working memory (WM) in speech recognition of older cochlear implant (CI) users remains unclear. This study 1) examined the effects of aging and CI on WM performance across different modalities (auditory vs. visual) and cuing conditions, and 2) assessed how specific WM measures relate to sentence and word recognition in noise. METHOD Fourteen Older CI users, 12 Older acoustic-hearing (AH) listeners with age-appropriate hearing loss, and 15 Young normal-hearing (NH) listeners were tested. Participants completed two simple span tasks (auditory digit and visual letter span), two complex WM tasks (reading span and cued-modality WM with simultaneously presented auditory digits and visual letters), and two speech recognition tasks (sentence and word recognition in speech-babble noise). RESULTS The groups showed similar simple span performance, except that Older CI users had lower auditory digit span than Young NH listeners. Both older groups had similar reading span performance, but scored significantly lower than Young NH listeners, indicating age-related declines in attentional and phonological processing. A similar group effect was observed in the cued-modality WM task. All groups showed higher recall for auditory digits than for visual letters and the advantage was most evident without modality cuing. All groups displayed greater cuing benefits for visual recall than for auditory recall, suggesting that participants consistently allocated more attention to auditory stimuli regardless of cuing. For Older CI users, after controlling for the previously reported spectral resolution, auditory-uncued WM performance was significantly correlated with word recognition but not sentence recognition. CONCLUSIONS Complex WM was significantly affected by aging but not by CI. Neither aging nor CI significantly affected modality cuing benefits in the WM task. For Older CI users, complex auditory WM with attentional control may better reflect the cognitive load of speech recognition in noise than simple span or complex visual WM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Luo
- Program of Speech and Hearing Science, College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America.
| | - Tamiko Azuma
- Program of Speech and Hearing Science, College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America
| | - Courtney Kolberg
- Program of Speech and Hearing Science, College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America
| | - Kathryn R Pulling
- Program of Speech and Hearing Science, College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America
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170
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Smucny J, Dienel SJ, Lewis DA, Carter CS. Mechanisms underlying dorsolateral prefrontal cortex contributions to cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology 2022; 47:292-308. [PMID: 34285373 PMCID: PMC8617156 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-021-01089-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 86] [Impact Index Per Article: 43.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2021] [Revised: 06/25/2021] [Accepted: 06/28/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Kraepelin, in his early descriptions of schizophrenia (SZ), characterized the illness as having "an orchestra without a conductor." Kraepelin further speculated that this "conductor" was situated in the frontal lobes. Findings from multiple studies over the following decades have clearly implicated pathology of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) as playing a central role in the pathophysiology of SZ, particularly with regard to key cognitive features such as deficits in working memory and cognitive control. Following an overview of the cognitive mechanisms associated with DLPFC function and how they are altered in SZ, we review evidence from an array of neuroscientific approaches addressing how these cognitive impairments may reflect the underlying pathophysiology of the illness. Specifically, we present evidence suggesting that alterations of the DLPFC in SZ are evident across a range of spatial and temporal resolutions: from its cellular and molecular architecture, to its gross structural and functional integrity, and from millisecond to longer timescales. We then present an integrative model based upon how microscale changes in neuronal signaling in the DLPFC can influence synchronized patterns of neural activity to produce macrocircuit-level alterations in DLPFC activation that ultimately influence cognition and behavior. We conclude with a discussion of initial efforts aimed at targeting DLPFC function in SZ, the clinical implications of those efforts, and potential avenues for future development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason Smucny
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA, USA
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Samuel J Dienel
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - David A Lewis
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
| | - Cameron S Carter
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA, USA.
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
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171
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Lentz JJ, Humes LE, Kidd GR. Differences in Auditory Perception Between Young and Older Adults When Controlling for Differences in Hearing Loss and Cognition. Trends Hear 2022; 26:23312165211066180. [PMID: 34989641 PMCID: PMC8753078 DOI: 10.1177/23312165211066180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
This study was designed to examine age effects on various auditory perceptual skills using a large group of listeners (155 adults, 121 aged 60-88 years and 34 aged 18-30 years), while controlling for the factors of hearing loss and working memory (WM). All subjects completed 3 measures of WM, 7 psychoacoustic tasks (24 conditions) and a hearing assessment. Psychophysical measures were selected to tap phenomena thought to be mediated by higher-level auditory function and included modulation detection, modulation detection interference, informational masking (IM), masking level difference (MLD), anisochrony detection, harmonic mistuning, and stream segregation. Principal-components analysis (PCA) was applied to each psychoacoustic test. For 6 of the 7 tasks, a single component represented performance across the multiple stimulus conditions well, whereas the modulation-detection interference (MDI) task required two components to do so. The effect of age was analyzed using a general linear model applied to each psychoacoustic component. Once hearing loss and WM were accounted for as covariates in the analyses, estimated marginal mean thresholds were lower for older adults on tasks based on temporal processing. When evaluated separately, hearing loss led to poorer performance on roughly 1/2 the tasks and declines in WM accounted for poorer performance on 6 of the 8 psychoacoustic components. These results make clear the need to interpret age-group differences in performance on psychoacoustic tasks in light of cognitive declines commonly associated with aging, and point to hearing loss and cognitive declines as negatively influencing auditory perceptual skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer J. Lentz
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Larry E. Humes
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Gary R. Kidd
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
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172
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Zhang M, McNab F, Smallwood J, Jefferies E. OUP accepted manuscript. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:3959-3974. [PMID: 35088083 PMCID: PMC9476615 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab459] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2021] [Revised: 11/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Working memory (WM) allows goal-relevant information to be encoded and maintained in mind, even when the contents of WM are incongruent with the immediate environment. While regions of heteromodal cortex are important for WM, the neural mechanisms that relate to individual differences in the encoding and maintenance of goal-relevant information remain unclear. Here, we used behavioral correlates of two large-scale heteromodal networks at rest, the default mode (DMN) and frontoparietal (FPN) networks, to understand their contributions to distinct features of WM. We assessed each individual’s ability to resist distracting information during the encoding and maintenance phases of a visuospatial WM task. Individuals with stronger connectivity of DMN with medial visual and retrosplenial cortex were less affected by encoding distraction. Conversely, weaker connectivity of both DMN and FPN with visual regions was associated with better WM performance when target information was no longer in the environment and distractors were presented in the maintenance phase. Our study suggests that stronger coupling between heteromodal cortex and visual–spatial regions supports WM encoding by reducing the influence of concurrently presented distractors, while weaker visual coupling is associated with better maintenance of goal-relevant information because it relates to the capacity to ignore task-irrelevant changes in the environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meichao Zhang
- Address correspondence to M. Zhang, Department of Psychology, The University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK. ; E. Jefferies, Department of Psychology, The University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
| | - Fiona McNab
- Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Jonathan Smallwood
- Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
| | - Elizabeth Jefferies
- Address correspondence to M. Zhang, Department of Psychology, The University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK. ; E. Jefferies, Department of Psychology, The University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
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173
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Vicencio-Jimenez S, Bucci-Mansilla G, Bowen M, Terreros G, Morales-Zepeda D, Robles L, Délano PH. The Strength of the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in Chinchillas Is Associated With Delayed Response Performance in a Visual Discrimination Task With Vocalizations as Distractors. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:759219. [PMID: 34955720 PMCID: PMC8695804 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.759219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2021] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to perceive the world is not merely a passive process but depends on sensorimotor loops and interactions that guide and actively bias our sensory systems. Understanding which and how cognitive processes participate in this active sensing is still an open question. In this context, the auditory system presents itself as an attractive model for this purpose as it features an efferent control network that projects from the cortex to subcortical nuclei and even to the sensory epithelium itself. This efferent system can regulate the cochlear amplifier sensitivity through medial olivocochlear (MOC) neurons located in the brainstem. The ability to suppress irrelevant sounds during selective attention to visual stimuli is one of the functions that have been attributed to this system. MOC neurons are also directly activated by sounds through a brainstem reflex circuit, a response linked to the ability to suppress auditory stimuli during visual attention. Human studies have suggested that MOC neurons are also recruited by other cognitive functions, such as working memory and predictability. The aim of this research was to explore whether cognitive processes related to delayed responses in a visual discrimination task were associated with MOC function. In this behavioral condition, chinchillas held their responses for more than 2.5 s after visual stimulus offset, with and without auditory distractors, and the accuracy of these responses was correlated with the magnitude of the MOC reflex. We found that the animals’ performance decreased in presence of auditory distractors and that the results observed in MOC reflex could predict this performance. The individual MOC strength correlated with behavioral performance during delayed responses with auditory distractors, but not without them. These results in chinchillas, suggest that MOC neurons are also recruited by other cognitive functions, such as working memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergio Vicencio-Jimenez
- Departamento de Otorrinolaringología, Hospital Clínico de la Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.,Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Center for Hearing and Balance, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States.,Departamento de Neurociencia, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | | | - Macarena Bowen
- Departamento de Neurociencia, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.,Departamento de Fonoaudiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Gonzalo Terreros
- Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de O'Higgins, Rancagua, Chile
| | - David Morales-Zepeda
- Departamento de Neurociencia, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Luis Robles
- Departamento de Neurociencia, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Paul H Délano
- Departamento de Otorrinolaringología, Hospital Clínico de la Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.,Departamento de Neurociencia, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.,Facultad de Medicina, Biomedical Neuroscience Institute, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.,Centro Avanzado de Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica, AC3E, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile
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174
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Megías M, Ortells JJ, Carmona I, Noguera C, Kiefer M. Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity Modulate Electrophysiological Correlates of Semantic Negative Priming From Single Words. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:765290. [PMID: 34867229 PMCID: PMC8637919 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.765290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were registered during a semantic negative priming (NP) task in participants with higher and lower working memory capacity (WMC). On each trial participants had to actively ignore a briefly presented single prime word, which was followed either immediately or after a delay by a mask. Thereafter, either a semantically related or an unrelated target word was presented, to which participants made a semantic categorization judgment. The ignored prime produced a behavioral semantic NP in delayed (but not in immediate) masking trials, and only for participants with a higher-WMC. Both masking type and WMC also modulated ERP priming effects. When the ignored prime was immediately followed by a mask (which impeded its conscious identification) a reliable N400 modulation was found irrespective of participants' WMC. However, when the mask onset following the prime was delayed (thus allowing its conscious identification), an attenuation of a late positive ERP (LPC) was observed in related compared to unrelated trials, but only in the higher-WMC group showing reliable behavioral NP. The present findings demonstrate for the first time that individual differences in WMC modulate both behavioral measures and electrophysiological correlates of semantic NP.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Juan J Ortells
- Department of Psychology, University of Almería, Almería, Spain.,CEINSA, Health Research Center, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
| | - Isabel Carmona
- Department of Psychology, University of Almería, Almería, Spain.,CEINSA, Health Research Center, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
| | - Carmen Noguera
- Department of Psychology, University of Almería, Almería, Spain.,CEINSA, Health Research Center, University of Almería, Almería, Spain
| | - Markus Kiefer
- Department of Psychiatry, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
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175
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Turoman N, Tivadar RI, Retsa C, Murray MM, Matusz PJ. Towards understanding how we pay attention in naturalistic visual search settings. Neuroimage 2021; 244:118556. [PMID: 34492292 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2020] [Revised: 08/31/2021] [Accepted: 09/03/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Research on attentional control has largely focused on single senses and the importance of behavioural goals in controlling attention. However, everyday situations are multisensory and contain regularities, both likely influencing attention. We investigated how visual attentional capture is simultaneously impacted by top-down goals, the multisensory nature of stimuli, and the contextual factors of stimuli's semantic relationship and temporal predictability. Participants performed a multisensory version of the Folk et al. (1992) spatial cueing paradigm, searching for a target of a predefined colour (e.g. a red bar) within an array preceded by a distractor. We manipulated: 1) stimuli's goal-relevance via distractor's colour (matching vs. mismatching the target), 2) stimuli's multisensory nature (colour distractors appearing alone vs. with tones), 3) the relationship between the distractor sound and colour (arbitrary vs. semantically congruent) and 4) the temporal predictability of distractor onset. Reaction-time spatial cueing served as a behavioural measure of attentional selection. We also recorded 129-channel event-related potentials (ERPs), analysing the distractor-elicited N2pc component both canonically and using a multivariate electrical neuroimaging framework. Behaviourally, arbitrary target-matching distractors captured attention more strongly than semantically congruent ones, with no evidence for context modulating multisensory enhancements of capture. Notably, electrical neuroimaging of surface-level EEG analyses revealed context-based influences on attention to both visual and multisensory distractors, in how strongly they activated the brain and type of activated brain networks. For both processes, the context-driven brain response modulations occurred long before the N2pc time-window, with topographic (network-based) modulations at ∼30 ms, followed by strength-based modulations at ∼100 ms post-distractor onset. Our results reveal that both stimulus meaning and predictability modulate attentional selection, and they interact while doing so. Meaning, in addition to temporal predictability, is thus a second source of contextual information facilitating goal-directed behaviour. More broadly, in everyday situations, attention is controlled by an interplay between one's goals, stimuli's perceptual salience, meaning and predictability. Our study calls for a revision of attentional control theories to account for the role of contextual and multisensory control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nora Turoman
- The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; MEDGIFT Lab, Institute of Information Systems, School of Management, HES-SO Valais-Wallis University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Techno-Pôle 3, 3960 Sierre, Switzerland; Working Memory, Cognition and Development lab, Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Ruxandra I Tivadar
- The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Ophthalmology, Fondation Asile des Aveugles, Lausanne, Switzerland; Cognitive Computational Neuroscience group, Institute of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - Chrysa Retsa
- The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Micah M Murray
- The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Ophthalmology, Fondation Asile des Aveugles, Lausanne, Switzerland; CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Pawel J Matusz
- The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; MEDGIFT Lab, Institute of Information Systems, School of Management, HES-SO Valais-Wallis University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Techno-Pôle 3, 3960 Sierre, Switzerland; Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
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176
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Rosen ML, Lurie LA, Sambrook KA, Meltzoff AN, McLaughlin KA. Neural mechanisms underlying the income-achievement gap: The role of the ventral visual stream. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2021; 52:101025. [PMID: 34700196 PMCID: PMC8551593 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.101025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Revised: 09/13/2021] [Accepted: 10/18/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) households on average exhibit lower academic achievement than their higher-SES peers. We investigated a novel hypothesis that differences in early-developing sensory networks-specifically the ventral visual stream (VVS), which is involved in processing visual stimuli-contribute to SES-related disparities in executive functions (EF) and academic outcomes. We used fMRI to investigate SES-related differences in neural function in children (6-8 years, n = 62) during two attentional tasks involving attention to visual information: cued attention and memory-guided attention. Recruitment of VVS during both tasks was associated with EF and academic achievement, and SES-related differences in VVS activation during cued attention were marginally explained by differences in cognitive stimulation. VVS activation during cued attention mediated SES-related differences in academic achievement. Finally, the link between VVS activation during both tasks and academic achievement was mediated by differences in EF. We extend previous work by highlighting that: (i) early-developing visual processing regions play a role in supporting complex attentional processes, (ii) childhood SES is associated with VVS function, which is explained in part by SES-related differences in cognitive stimulation and (iii) provide preliminary evidence that individual differences in VVS function may play a role in the emergence of the income-achievement gap.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maya L Rosen
- Harvard University, Department of Psychology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Lucy A Lurie
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Kelly A Sambrook
- Harvard University, Department of Psychology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Andrew N Meltzoff
- University of Washington, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, Seattle, WA, USA; University of Washington, Department of Psychology, Seattle, WA, USA
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177
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Yu H, Wang A, Li Q, Liu Y, Yang J, Takahashi S, Ejima Y, Zhang M, Wu J. Semantically Congruent Bimodal Presentation with Divided-Modality Attention Accelerates Unisensory Working Memory Retrieval. Perception 2021; 50:917-932. [PMID: 34841972 DOI: 10.1177/03010066211052943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Although previous studies have shown that semantic multisensory integration can be differentially modulated by attention focus, it remains unclear whether attentionally mediated multisensory perceptual facilitation could impact further cognitive performance. Using a delayed matching-to-sample paradigm, the present study investigated the effect of semantically congruent bimodal presentation on subsequent unisensory working memory (WM) performance by manipulating attention focus. The results showed that unisensory WM retrieval was faster in the semantically congruent condition than in the incongruent multisensory encoding condition. However, such a result was only found in the divided-modality attention condition. This result indicates that a robust multisensory representation was constructed during semantically congruent multisensory encoding with divided-modality attention; this representation then accelerated unisensory WM performance, especially auditory WM retrieval. Additionally, an overall faster unisensory WM retrieval was observed under the modality-specific selective attention condition compared with the divided-modality condition, indicating that the division of attention to address two modalities demanded more central executive resources to encode and integrate crossmodal information and to maintain a constructed multisensory representation, leaving few resources for WM retrieval. Additionally, the present finding may support the amodal view that WM has an amodal central storage component that is used to maintain modal-based attention-optimized multisensory representations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongtao Yu
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, 12997Okayama University, Japan
| | - Aijun Wang
- Department of Psychology, Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 12582Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | | | | | | | | | - Yoshimichi Ejima
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, 12997Okayama University, Japan
| | - Ming Zhang
- Department of Psychology, Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, China; Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, 12997Okayama University, Japan
| | - Jinglong Wu
- Research Center for Medical Artificial Intelligence, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenzhen, China; Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, 12997Okayama University, Japan
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178
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Fu Y, Zhou Y, Zhou J, Shen M, Chen H. More attention with less working memory: The active inhibition of attended but outdated information. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabj4985. [PMID: 34797712 PMCID: PMC8604409 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj4985] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2021] [Accepted: 10/01/2021] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Attention has traditionally been regarded as a gateway to working memory, and almost all theoretical frameworks of attention and working memory assume that individuals always have a better memory for information that has received more attention. Here, we provide a series of counterintuitive demonstrations that show that paying more attention to a piece of information impedes, rather than enhances, the selection of this information into working memory. Experiments 1 to 5 provide converging evidence for an even weaker working memory trace of fully attended but outdated features, compared with baseline irrelevant features that were completely ignored. This indicates that the brain actively inhibits attended but outdated information to prevent it from entering working memory. Experiment 6 demonstrates that this inhibition processing is subject to executive control. These findings lead to a substantial reinterpretation of the relationship between attention and working memory.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jifan Zhou
- Corresponding author. (H.C.); (J.Z.); (M.S.)
| | - Mowei Shen
- Corresponding author. (H.C.); (J.Z.); (M.S.)
| | - Hui Chen
- Corresponding author. (H.C.); (J.Z.); (M.S.)
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179
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Asutay E, Västfjäll D. The goal-relevance of affective stimuli is dynamically represented in affective experience. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2021; 8:211548. [PMID: 34849249 PMCID: PMC8611340 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 11/01/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Affect is a continuous and temporally dependent process that represents an individual's ongoing relationship with its environment. However, there is a lack of evidence on how factors defining the dynamic sensory environment modulate changes in momentary affective experience. Here, we show that goal-dependent relevance of stimuli is a key factor shaping momentary affect in a dynamic context. Participants (N = 83) viewed sequentially presented images and reported their momentary affective experience after every fourth stimulus. Relevance was manipulated through an attentional task that rendered each image either task-relevant or task-irrelevant. Computational models were fitted to trial-by-trial affective responses to capture the key dynamic parameters explaining momentary affective experience. The findings from statistical analyses and computational models showed that momentary affective experience was shaped by the temporal integration of the affective impact of recently encountered stimuli, and that task-relevant stimuli, independent of stimulus affect, prompted larger changes in experienced pleasantness compared with task-irrelevant stimuli. These findings clearly show that dynamics of affective experience reflect goal-relevance of stimuli in our surroundings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erkin Asutay
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden
| | - Daniel Västfjäll
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden
- Decision Research, Eugene, OR, USA
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180
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Wang XJ. 50 years of mnemonic persistent activity: quo vadis? Trends Neurosci 2021; 44:888-902. [PMID: 34654556 PMCID: PMC9087306 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2021.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2021] [Revised: 08/27/2021] [Accepted: 09/07/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Half a century ago persistent spiking activity in the neocortex was discovered to be a neural substrate of working memory. Since then scientists have sought to understand this core cognitive function across biological and computational levels. Studies are reviewed here that cumulatively lend support to a synaptic theory of recurrent circuits for mnemonic persistent activity that depends on various cellular and network substrates and is mathematically described by a multiple-attractor network model. Crucially, a mnemonic attractor state of the brain is consistent with temporal variations and heterogeneity across neurons in a subspace of population activity. Persistent activity should be broadly understood as a contrast to decaying transients. Mechanisms in the absence of neural firing ('activity-silent state') are suitable for passive short-term memory but not for working memory - which is characterized by executive control for filtering out distractors, limited capacity, and internal manipulation of information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Jing Wang
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 20003, USA.
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181
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Bramlage L, Cortese A. Generalized attention-weighted reinforcement learning. Neural Netw 2021; 145:10-21. [PMID: 34710787 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2021.09.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2021] [Revised: 08/19/2021] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
In neuroscience, attention has been shown to bidirectionally interact with reinforcement learning (RL) to reduce the dimensionality of task representations, restricting computations to relevant features. In machine learning, despite their popularity, attention mechanisms have seldom been administered to decision-making problems. Here, we leverage a theoretical model from computational neuroscience - the attention-weighted RL (AWRL), defining how humans identify task-relevant features (i.e., that allow value predictions) - to design an applied deep RL paradigm. We formally demonstrate that the conjunction of the self-attention mechanism, widely employed in machine learning, with value function approximation is a general formulation of the AWRL model. To evaluate our agent, we train it on three Atari tasks at different complexity levels, incorporating both task-relevant and irrelevant features. Because the model uses semantic observations, we can uncover not only which features the agent elects to base decisions on, but also how it chooses to compile more complex, relational features from simpler ones. We first show that performance depends in large part on the ability to compile new compound features, rather than mere focus on individual features. In line with neuroscience predictions, self-attention leads to high resiliency to noise (irrelevant features) compared to other benchmark models. Finally, we highlight the importance and separate contributions of both bottom-up and top-down attention in the learning process. Together, these results demonstrate the broader validity of the AWRL framework in complex task scenarios, and illustrate the benefits of a deeper integration between neuroscience-derived models and RL for decision making in machine learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lennart Bramlage
- Faculty of Technology, Bielefeld University, 33615, Germany; Computational Neuroscience Labs, ATR Institute International, 619-0288, Japan.
| | - Aurelio Cortese
- Computational Neuroscience Labs, ATR Institute International, 619-0288, Japan.
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182
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Mason L, Ronconi A, Scrimin S, Pazzaglia F. Short-Term Exposure to Nature and Benefits for Students’ Cognitive Performance: a Review. EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s10648-021-09631-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
AbstractThere is growing interest recently in the outdoor environment surrounding schools where students spent time during breaks, in-school activities, and after-school programs. Several reviews have examined the impact of long-term exposures to nearby nature on students’ academic achievement, but none has focused on the effects of short-term contacts with nature on students’ cognitive performance. The aim of this review is to understand the context in which short-term passive exposures to greenness occur, how cognitive performance is measured, and the conditions under which cognitive benefits emerge at various educational levels. We reviewed 14 studies in the extant literature that report investigations involving students at different educational levels, from elementary school to university, in a short exposure to nature lasting from 10 to 90 min during a study day. The review shows that in 12 out of the 14 studies, across educational levels, cognitive benefits emerge in terms of directed attention restoration from mental fatigue due to contact with nature. A no-cost opportunity to sustain students’ cognition is a break in a green environment after mentally demanding activities.
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183
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Hermann P, Weiss B, Knakker B, Madurka P, Manga A, Nárai Á, Vidnyánszky Z. Neural basis of distractor resistance during visual working memory maintenance. Neuroimage 2021; 245:118650. [PMID: 34687860 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118650] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Revised: 09/10/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Visual working memory representations must be protected from the intervening irrelevant visual input. While it is well known that interference resistance is most challenging when distractors match the prioritised mnemonic information, its neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we identify two top-down attentional control processes that have opposing effects on distractor resistance. We reveal an early selection negativity in the EEG responses to matching as compared to non-matching distractors, the magnitude of which is negatively associated with behavioural distractor resistance. Additionally, matching distractors lead to reduced post-stimulus alpha power as well as increased fMRI responses in the object-selective visual cortical areas and the inferior frontal gyrus. However, the congruency effect found on the post-stimulus periodic alpha power and the inferior frontal gyrus fMRI responses show a positive association with distractor resistance. These findings suggest that distractor interference is enhanced by proactive memory content-guided selection processes and diminished by reactive allocation of top-down attentional resources to protect memorandum representations within visual cortical areas retaining the most selective mnemonic code.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petra Hermann
- Brain Imaging Centre, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest H-1117, Hungary
| | - Béla Weiss
- Brain Imaging Centre, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest H-1117, Hungary
| | - Balázs Knakker
- Brain Imaging Centre, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest H-1117, Hungary
| | - Petra Madurka
- Brain Imaging Centre, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest H-1117, Hungary
| | - Annamária Manga
- Brain Imaging Centre, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest H-1117, Hungary
| | - Ádám Nárai
- Brain Imaging Centre, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest H-1117, Hungary
| | - Zoltán Vidnyánszky
- Brain Imaging Centre, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest H-1117, Hungary.
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184
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Wurthmann S, Holle D, Obermann M, Roesner M, Nsaka M, Scheffler A, Kleinschnitz C, Naegel S. Reduced vestibular perception thresholds in persistent postural-perceptual dizziness- a cross-sectional study. BMC Neurol 2021; 21:394. [PMID: 34641808 PMCID: PMC8507224 DOI: 10.1186/s12883-021-02417-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2021] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) is the most common functional vestibular disorder. A multisensory mismatch altered by psychological influences is considered to be an important pathophysiological mechanism. Increased cortical and subcortical excitability may play a role in the pathophysiology of PPPD. We hypothesized that decreased motion perception thresholds reflect one mechanism of the abnormal vestibular responsiveness in this disorder. We investigated the vestibular perception thresholds and the vestibular ocular reflex with a rotatory chair experiment to gain insights in the processing and adaption to vestibular provocation. Methods In this cross-sectional study 26 female PPPD patients and 33 healthy female age matched controls (HC) were investigated sitting in a motorized rotary chair shielded regarding visual and acoustic stimuli. The chair was rotated for 20 minutes with slowly increasing velocity to a maximum of 72°/s. We functionally tested motion perception thresholds and vegetative responses to rotation as well as vestibular-ocular reflex thresholds. We additionally investigated several psychological comorbidities (i.e. depression, anxiety, somatosensory amplification) using validated scores. Conventional dizziness scores were obtained to quantify the experienced dizziness and impact on daily life. Results PPPD patients showed a significant reduced vestibulo-perceptual threshold (PPPD: 10.9°/s vs. HC: 29.5°/s; p<0.001) with increased motion sensitivity and concomitant vegetative response during and after the chair rotation compared to healthy controls. The extent of increased vestibular sensitivity was in correlation with the duration of the disease (p=0.043). No significant difference was measured regarding nystagmus parameters between both groups. Conclusion PPPD patients showed increased vegetative response as well as decreased vestibulo-perceptual thresholds which are related to disease duration. This is of interest as PPPD might be sustained by increased vestibular excitability leading to motion intolerance and induction of dizziness when exposed to movement. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12883-021-02417-z.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Wurthmann
- Department of Neurology and Dizziness and Vertigo Center Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstr. 55, 45147, Essen, Germany. .,Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
| | - Dagny Holle
- Department of Neurology and Dizziness and Vertigo Center Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstr. 55, 45147, Essen, Germany.,Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Mark Obermann
- Department of Neurology, Weser-Egge Hospital Höxter, University of Duisburg-Essen, Höxter, Germany
| | - Miriam Roesner
- Department of Neurology and Dizziness and Vertigo Center Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstr. 55, 45147, Essen, Germany.,Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Michael Nsaka
- Department of Neurology and Dizziness and Vertigo Center Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstr. 55, 45147, Essen, Germany.,Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Armin Scheffler
- Department of Neurology and Dizziness and Vertigo Center Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstr. 55, 45147, Essen, Germany.,Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Christoph Kleinschnitz
- Department of Neurology and Dizziness and Vertigo Center Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstr. 55, 45147, Essen, Germany.,Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Steffen Naegel
- Department of Neurology and Dizziness and Vertigo Center Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstr. 55, 45147, Essen, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle/Saale, Germany
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185
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Blakley EC, Gaspelin N, Gerhardstein P. The development of oculomotor suppression of salient distractors in children. J Exp Child Psychol 2021; 214:105291. [PMID: 34607075 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Revised: 07/10/2021] [Accepted: 08/25/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
There is considerable evidence that adults can prevent attentional capture by physically salient stimuli via proactive inhibition. A key question is whether young children can also inhibit salient stimuli to prevent visual distraction. The current study directly compared attentional capture in children (Mage = 5.5 years) and adults (Mage = 19.3 years) by measuring overt eye movements. Participants searched for a target shape among heterogeneous distractor shapes and attempted to ignore a salient color singleton distractor. The destination of first saccades was used to assess attentional capture by the salient distractor, providing a more direct index of attentional allocation than prior developmental studies. Adults were able to suppress saccades to the singleton distractor, replicating previous studies. Children, however, demonstrated no such oculomotor suppression; first saccades were equally likely to be directed to the singleton distractor and nonsingleton distractors. Subsequent analyses indicated that children were able to suppress the distractor, but this occurred approximately 550 ms after stimulus presentation. The current results suggest that children possess some level of top-down control over visual attention, but this top-down control is delayed compared with adults. Development of this ability may be related to executive functions, which include goal-directed behavior such as organized search and impulse control as well as preparatory and inhibitory cognitive functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily C Blakley
- Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA.
| | - Nicholas Gaspelin
- Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA
| | - Peter Gerhardstein
- Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA
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186
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Lim SJ, Carter YD, Njoroge JM, Shinn-Cunningham BG, Perrachione TK. Talker discontinuity disrupts attention to speech: Evidence from EEG and pupillometry. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2021; 221:104996. [PMID: 34358924 PMCID: PMC8515637 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2021.104996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2021] [Revised: 07/11/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
Speech is processed less efficiently from discontinuous, mixed talkers than one consistent talker, but little is known about the neural mechanisms for processing talker variability. Here, we measured psychophysiological responses to talker variability using electroencephalography (EEG) and pupillometry while listeners performed a delayed recall of digit span task. Listeners heard and recalled seven-digit sequences with both talker (single- vs. mixed-talker digits) and temporal (0- vs. 500-ms inter-digit intervals) discontinuities. Talker discontinuity reduced serial recall accuracy. Both talker and temporal discontinuities elicited P3a-like neural evoked response, while rapid processing of mixed-talkers' speech led to increased phasic pupil dilation. Furthermore, mixed-talkers' speech produced less alpha oscillatory power during working memory maintenance, but not during speech encoding. Overall, these results are consistent with an auditory attention and streaming framework in which talker discontinuity leads to involuntary, stimulus-driven attentional reorientation to novel speech sources, resulting in the processing interference classically associated with talker variability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sung-Joo Lim
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, United States.
| | - Yaminah D Carter
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, United States
| | - J Michelle Njoroge
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, United States
| | | | - Tyler K Perrachione
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, United States.
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187
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Wojtak W, Coombes S, Avitabile D, Bicho E, Erlhagen W. A dynamic neural field model of continuous input integration. BIOLOGICAL CYBERNETICS 2021; 115:451-471. [PMID: 34417880 DOI: 10.1007/s00422-021-00893-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 08/01/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The ability of neural systems to turn transient inputs into persistent changes in activity is thought to be a fundamental requirement for higher cognitive functions. In continuous attractor networks frequently used to model working memory or decision making tasks, the persistent activity settles to a stable pattern with the stereotyped shape of a "bump" independent of integration time or input strength. Here, we investigate a new bump attractor model in which the bump width and amplitude not only reflect qualitative and quantitative characteristics of a preceding input but also the continuous integration of evidence over longer timescales. The model is formalized by two coupled dynamic field equations of Amari-type which combine recurrent interactions mediated by a Mexican-hat connectivity with local feedback mechanisms that balance excitation and inhibition. We analyze the existence, stability and bifurcation structure of single and multi-bump solutions and discuss the relevance of their input dependence to modeling cognitive functions. We then systematically compare the pattern formation process of the two-field model with the classical Amari model. The results reveal that the balanced local feedback mechanisms facilitate the encoding and maintenance of multi-item memories. The existence of stable subthreshold bumps suggests that different to the Amari model, the suppression effect of neighboring bumps in the range of lateral competition may not lead to a complete loss of information. Moreover, bumps with larger amplitude are less vulnerable to noise-induced drifts and distance-dependent interaction effects resulting in more faithful memory representations over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weronika Wojtak
- Research Centre of Mathematics, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal.
- Research Centre Algoritmi, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal.
| | - Stephen Coombes
- Centre for Mathematical Medicine and Biology, School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
| | - Daniele Avitabile
- Department of Mathematics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- MathNeuro Team, Inria Sophia Antipolis Méditerranée Research Centre, Sophia Antipolis, France
| | - Estela Bicho
- Research Centre Algoritmi, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal
| | - Wolfram Erlhagen
- Research Centre of Mathematics, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal
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188
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McFerren A, Riddle J, Walker C, Buse JB, Frohlich F. Causal role of frontal-midline theta in cognitive effort: a pilot study. J Neurophysiol 2021; 126:1221-1233. [PMID: 34469696 PMCID: PMC8560423 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00068.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2021] [Revised: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 08/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Frontal-midline theta (FMT) oscillations are increased in amplitude during cognitive control tasks. Since these tasks often conflate cognitive control and cognitive effort, it remains unknown if FMT amplitude maps onto cognitive control or effort. To address this gap, we utilized the glucose facilitation effect to manipulate cognitive effort without changing cognitive control demands. We performed a single-blind, crossover human study in which we provided participants with a glucose drink (control session: volume-matched water) to reduce cognitive effort and improve performance on a visuospatial working memory task. Following glucose consumption, participants performed the working memory task at multiple time points of a 3-h window to sample across the rise and fall of blood glucose. Using high-density electroencephalography (EEG), we calculated FMT amplitude during the delay period of the working memory task. Source localization analysis revealed that FMT oscillations originated from bilateral prefrontal cortex. We found that glucose increased working memory accuracy during the high working memory load condition but decreased FMT amplitude. The decrease in FMT amplitude coincided with both peak blood glucose elevation and peak performance enhancement for glucose relative to water. Therefore, the positive association between glucose consumption and task performance provided causal evidence that the amplitude of FMT oscillations may correspond to cognitive effort, rather than cognitive control. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, data collection was terminated prematurely; the preliminary nature of these findings due to small sample size should be contextualized by rigorous experimental design and use of a novel causal perturbation to dissociate cognitive effort and cognitive control.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We investigated whether frontal-midline theta (FMT) oscillations tracked with cognitive control or cognitive effort by simultaneous manipulation of cognitive control demands in a working memory task and causal perturbation of cognitive effort using glucose consumption. Facilitation of performance from glucose consumption corresponded with decreased FMT amplitude, which provided preliminary causal evidence for a relationship between FMT amplitude with cognitive effort.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amber McFerren
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Carolina Center for Neurostimulation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Justin Riddle
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Carolina Center for Neurostimulation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Christopher Walker
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Carolina Center for Neurostimulation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - John B Buse
- Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Flavio Frohlich
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Carolina Center for Neurostimulation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Department of Neurology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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189
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Temptation shapes dishonesty and can alter working memory. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-021-02339-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
AbstractThis study shows that participants tend to remember an ambiguous, directional cue as biased towards stimuli associated with a high reward that can be attained dishonestly. Participants saw eight digits presented in a circular arrangement. On some trials, they were asked to report the digit (“Target Digit”) indicated by a jittery cue that was slightly biased in the direction of another digit (“Second Cued Digit”), which was either higher or lower than the Target Digit. Participants were paid based on the reported digit (higher digits meant higher pay) and not based on the accuracy of their report. In this setting, they could make self-serving mistakes by dishonestly reporting the Second Cued Digit when it was higher than the Target Digit. Replicating prior work, participants frequently made such self-serving mistakes. On other trials, after the digits disappeared, participants were asked to reproduce the direction of the jittery cue, without receiving any pay. Results showed that that participants’ reports of the cue were more biased toward high-rewarding digits than low-rewarding digits. This research provides preliminary evidence of a link between attention, dishonesty, and memory, offering an important constraint for theories in behavioral ethics.
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190
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Pilgrim MJD, Ou ZYA, Sharp M. Exploring reward-related attention selectivity deficits in Parkinson's disease. Sci Rep 2021; 11:18751. [PMID: 34548517 PMCID: PMC8455525 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97526-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Accepted: 08/24/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
An important aspect of managing a limited cognitive resource like attention is to use the reward value of stimuli to prioritize the allocation of attention to higher-value over lower-value stimuli. Recent evidence suggests this depends on dopaminergic signaling of reward. In Parkinson's disease, both reward sensitivity and attention are impaired, but whether these deficits are directly related to one another is unknown. We tested whether Parkinson's patients use reward information when automatically allocating their attention and whether this is modulated by dopamine replacement. We compared patients, tested both ON and OFF dopamine replacement medication, to older controls using a standard attention capture task. First, participants learned the different reward values of stimuli. Then, these reward-associated stimuli were used as distractors in a visual search task. We found that patients were generally distracted by the presence of the distractors but that the degree of distraction caused by the high-value and low-value distractors was similar. Furthermore, we found no evidence to support the possibility that dopamine replacement modulates the effect of reward on automatic attention allocation. Our results suggest a possible inability in Parkinson's patients to use the reward value of stimuli when automatically allocating their attention, and raise the possibility that reward-driven allocation of resources may affect the adaptive modulation of other cognitive processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew J D Pilgrim
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montréal, QC, H3A 2B4, Canada
| | - Zhen-Yi Andy Ou
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montréal, QC, H3A 2B4, Canada
| | - Madeleine Sharp
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montréal, QC, H3A 2B4, Canada.
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191
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Franz M, Schmidt B, Hecht H, Naumann E, Miltner WHR. Suggested visual blockade during hypnosis: Top-down modulation of stimulus processing in a visual oddball task. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0257380. [PMID: 34525129 PMCID: PMC8443036 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2020] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Several theories of hypnosis assume that responses to hypnotic suggestions are implemented through top-down modulations via a frontoparietal network that is involved in monitoring and cognitive control. The current study addressed this issue re-analyzing previously published event-related-potentials (ERP) (N1, P2, and P3b amplitudes) and combined it with source reconstruction and connectivity analysis methods. ERP data were obtained from participants engaged in a visual oddball paradigm composed of target, standard, and distractor stimuli during a hypnosis (HYP) and a control (CON) condition. In both conditions, participants were asked to count the rare targets presented on a video screen. During HYP participants received suggestions that a wooden board in front of their eyes would obstruct their view of the screen. The results showed that participants’ counting accuracy was significantly impaired during HYP compared to CON. ERP components in the N1 and P2 window revealed no amplitude differences between CON and HYP at sensor-level. In contrast, P3b amplitudes in response to target stimuli were significantly reduced during HYP compared to CON. Source analysis of the P3b amplitudes in response to targets indicated that HYP was associated with reduced source activities in occipital and parietal brain areas related to stimulus categorization and attention. We further explored how these brain sources interacted by computing time-frequency effective connectivity between electrodes that best represented frontal, parietal, and occipital sources. This analysis revealed reduced directed information flow from parietal attentional to frontal executive sources during processing of target stimuli. These results provide preliminary evidence that hypnotic suggestions of a visual blockade are associated with a disruption of the coupling within the frontoparietal network implicated in top-down control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcel Franz
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Barbara Schmidt
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Holger Hecht
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Ewald Naumann
- Institute of Psychology, University of Trier, Trier, Germany
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192
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Almadori E, Mastroberardino S, Botta F, Brunetti R, Lupiáñez J, Spence C, Santangelo V. Crossmodal Semantic Congruence Interacts with Object Contextual Consistency in Complex Visual Scenes to Enhance Short-Term Memory Performance. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11091206. [PMID: 34573227 PMCID: PMC8467083 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11091206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Revised: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 09/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Object sounds can enhance the attentional selection and perceptual processing of semantically-related visual stimuli. However, it is currently unknown whether crossmodal semantic congruence also affects the post-perceptual stages of information processing, such as short-term memory (STM), and whether this effect is modulated by the object consistency with the background visual scene. In two experiments, participants viewed everyday visual scenes for 500 ms while listening to an object sound, which could either be semantically related to the object that served as the STM target at retrieval or not. This defined crossmodal semantically cued vs. uncued targets. The target was either in- or out-of-context with respect to the background visual scene. After a maintenance period of 2000 ms, the target was presented in isolation against a neutral background, in either the same or different spatial position as in the original scene. The participants judged the same vs. different position of the object and then provided a confidence judgment concerning the certainty of their response. The results revealed greater accuracy when judging the spatial position of targets paired with a semantically congruent object sound at encoding. This crossmodal facilitatory effect was modulated by whether the target object was in- or out-of-context with respect to the background scene, with out-of-context targets reducing the facilitatory effect of object sounds. Overall, these findings suggest that the presence of the object sound at encoding facilitated the selection and processing of the semantically related visual stimuli, but this effect depends on the semantic configuration of the visual scene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erika Almadori
- Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Via Ardeatina 306, 00179 Rome, Italy;
| | - Serena Mastroberardino
- Department of Psychology, School of Medicine & Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy;
| | - Fabiano Botta
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain; (F.B.); (J.L.)
| | - Riccardo Brunetti
- Cognitive and Clinical Psychology Laboratory, Department of Human Sciences, Università Europea di Roma, 00163 Roma, Italy;
| | - Juan Lupiáñez
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain; (F.B.); (J.L.)
| | - Charles Spence
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK;
| | - Valerio Santangelo
- Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Via Ardeatina 306, 00179 Rome, Italy;
- Department of Philosophy, Social Sciences & Education, University of Perugia, Piazza G. Ermini, 1, 06123 Perugia, Italy
- Correspondence:
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193
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Fadaie F, Lee HM, Caldairou B, Gill RS, Sziklas V, Crane J, Bernhardt BC, Hong SJ, Bernasconi A, Bernasconi N. Atypical functional connectome hierarchy impacts cognition in temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia 2021; 62:2589-2603. [PMID: 34490890 DOI: 10.1111/epi.17032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2021] [Revised: 06/24/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is typically associated with hippocampal pathology. However, widespread network alterations are increasingly recognized and suggested to perturb cognitive function in multiple domains. Here we tested (1) whether TLE shows atypical cortical hierarchical organization, differentiating sensory and higher order systems; and (2) whether atypical hierarchy predicts cognitive impairment. METHODS We studied 72 well-characterized drug-resistant TLE patients and 41 healthy controls, statistically matched for age and sex, using multimodal magnetic resonance imaging analysis and cognitive testing. To model cortical hierarchical organization in vivo, we used a bidirectional stepwise functional connectivity analysis tapping into the differentiation between sensory/unimodal and paralimbic/transmodal cortices. Linear models compared patients to controls. Finally, we assessed associations of functional anomalies to cortical atrophy and microstructural anomalies, as well as clinical and cognitive parameters. RESULTS Compared to controls, TLE presented with bidirectional disruptions of sensory-paralimbic functional organization. Stepwise connectivity remained segregated within paralimbic and salience networks at the top of the hierarchy, and sensorimotor and dorsal attention at the bottom. Whereas paralimbic segregation was associated with atypical cortical myeloarchitecture and hippocampal atrophy, dysconnectivity of sensorimotor cortices reflected diffuse cortical thinning. The degree of abnormal hierarchical organization in sensory-petal streams covaried, with broad cognitive impairments spanning sensorimotor, attention, fluency, and visuoconstructional ability and memory, and was more marked in patients with longer disease duration and Engel I outcome. SIGNIFICANCE Our findings show atypical functional integration between paralimbic/transmodal and sensory/unimodal systems in TLE. Differential associations with paralimbic microstructure and sensorimotor atrophy suggest that system-level imbalance likely reflects complementary structural processes, but ultimately accounts for a broad spectrum of cognitive impairments. Hierarchical contextualization of cognitive deficits promises to open new avenues for personalized counseling in TLE.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Fadaie
- Neuroimaging of Epilepsy Laboratory, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Hyo M Lee
- Neuroimaging of Epilepsy Laboratory, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Benoit Caldairou
- Neuroimaging of Epilepsy Laboratory, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Ravnoor S Gill
- Neuroimaging of Epilepsy Laboratory, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Viviane Sziklas
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Joelle Crane
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Boris C Bernhardt
- Medical Imaging and Connectome Analysis Laboratory, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Seok-Jun Hong
- Neuroimaging of Epilepsy Laboratory, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Andrea Bernasconi
- Neuroimaging of Epilepsy Laboratory, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Neda Bernasconi
- Neuroimaging of Epilepsy Laboratory, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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194
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Test anxiety impairs filtering ability in visual working memory: Evidence from event-related potentials. J Affect Disord 2021; 292:700-707. [PMID: 34157666 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.05.091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2021] [Revised: 03/19/2021] [Accepted: 05/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Attentional control theory regards individuals with high anxiety as having deficits of inhibitory control when faced with distractors, especially under high-load conditions and with threatening distractors. Research on test anxiety has a long history, but the working memory (WM) characteristics of individuals with high test anxiety (HTA) remain unclear. We used two experiments to test the WM filtering ability of individuals with HTA, and the salient results were those of the contralateral delay activity amplitude rather than K score. The first experiment employed neutral distractors. HTA participants filtered distractors under low-load conditions but not under high-load conditions. Participants with low test anxiety (LTA) filtered distractors under high-load conditions but not under low-load conditions. The second experiment utilized threatening distractors. The participants with HTA exhibited deficits in their ability to filter neutral and threatening distractors, whereas the participants with LTA filtered both types of distractor.
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195
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Vo KD, Siqi-Liu A, Chaire A, Li S, Demeter E, Egner T, Woldorff MG. Neural Dynamics of Conflict Control in Working Memory. J Cogn Neurosci 2021; 33:2079-2092. [PMID: 34496023 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Attention and working memory (WM) have classically been considered as two separate cognitive functions, but more recent theories have conceptualized them as operating on shared representations and being distinguished primarily by whether attention is directed internally (WM) or externally (attention, traditionally defined). Supporting this idea, a recent behavioral study documented a "WM Stroop effect," showing that maintaining a color word in WM impacts perceptual color-naming performance to the same degree as presenting the color word externally in the classic Stroop task. Here, we employed ERPs to examine the neural processes underlying this WM Stroop task compared to those in the classic Stroop and in a WM-control task. Based on the assumption that holding a color word in WM would (pre-)activate the same color representation as by externally presenting that color word, we hypothesized that the neural cascade of conflict-control processes would occur more rapidly in the WM Stroop than in the classic Stroop task. Our behavioral results replicated equivalent interference behavioral effects for the WM and classic Stroop tasks. Importantly, however, the ERP signatures of conflict detection and resolution displayed substantially shorter latencies in the WM Stroop task. Moreover, delay-period conflict in the WM Stroop task, but not in the WM control task, impacted the ERP and performance measures for the WM probe stimuli. Together, these findings provide new insights into how the brain processes conflict between internal representations and external stimuli, and they support the view of shared representations between internally held WM content and attentional processing of external stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Alondra Chaire
- German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany
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196
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Mikhailova ES, Kurgansky AV, Nushtaeva RA, Gerasimenko NY, Kushnir AB. Intracortical Directed Connectivity for Information Retention in Visual-Spatial Working Memory. DOKLADY BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES : PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE USSR, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES SECTIONS 2021; 500:133-137. [PMID: 34731377 DOI: 10.1134/s0012496621050070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2021] [Revised: 05/11/2021] [Accepted: 05/11/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
A group of 27 healthy young adults solved a task involving the working memory (WM) activation, consisting of the comparison between the spatial orientations of two sequentially presented square-wave luminance gratings. We investigated the effective (directed) connectivity patterns between the frontal and postcentral cortical regions related to the visual system. The connectivity was assessed using vector autoregression modeling of EEG. It was shown that the strength of the top-down right-hemispheric connectivity patterns directed from the frontal cortex to the visual areas in θ frequency was significantly lower at the stage of stimulus retention in the WM than at the stage of stimulus anticipation. On the contrary, in the α band the descending influences were slightly more intense. The results of the study showed the frequency-dependent dynamics of the descending influences of the frontal cortex on visual areas and confirm that the frontal cortex plays the role of a controlling and modulating center in the brain system underlying WM.
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Affiliation(s)
- E S Mikhailova
- Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117485, Moscow, Russia.
| | - A V Kurgansky
- Institute of Developmental Physiology, Russian Academy of Education, 125009, Moscow, Russia
- Russian Presidential Academy оf National Economy аnd Public Administration, 119571, Moscow, Russia
| | - R A Nushtaeva
- Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117485, Moscow, Russia
| | - N Yu Gerasimenko
- Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117485, Moscow, Russia
| | - A B Kushnir
- Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117485, Moscow, Russia
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197
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Vandevoorde K, Orban de Xivry JJ. Does proprioceptive acuity influence the extent of implicit sensorimotor adaptation in young and older adults? J Neurophysiol 2021; 126:1326-1344. [PMID: 34346739 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00636.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to adjust movements to changes in the environment declines with aging. This age-related decline is caused by the decline of explicit adjustments. However, implicit adaptation remains intact and might even be increased with aging. Since proprioceptive information has been linked to implicit adaptation, it might well be that an age-related decline in proprioceptive acuity might be linked to the performance of older adults in implicit adaptation tasks. Indeed, age-related proprioceptive deficits could lead to altered sensory integration with an increased weighting of the visual sensory-prediction error. Another possibility is that reduced proprioceptive acuity results in an increased reliance on predicted sensory consequences of the movement. Both these explanations led to our preregistered hypothesis: we expected a relation between the decline of proprioception and the amount of implicit adaptation across ages. However, we failed to support this hypothesis. Our results question the existence of reliability-based integration of visual and proprioceptive signals during motor adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Koenraad Vandevoorde
- Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry
- Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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198
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Top-Down Attentional Processing and Relational Density Evident in Word Search Performance of Children. Behav Anal Pract 2021; 15:684-697. [DOI: 10.1007/s40617-021-00614-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
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199
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Bedini M, Baldauf D. Structure, function and connectivity fingerprints of the frontal eye field versus the inferior frontal junction: A comprehensive comparison. Eur J Neurosci 2021; 54:5462-5506. [PMID: 34273134 PMCID: PMC9291791 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2021] [Revised: 06/16/2021] [Accepted: 07/02/2021] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
The human prefrontal cortex contains two prominent areas, the frontal eye field and the inferior frontal junction, that are crucially involved in the orchestrating functions of attention, working memory and cognitive control. Motivated by comparative evidence in non-human primates, we review the human neuroimaging literature, suggesting that the functions of these regions can be clearly dissociated. We found remarkable differences in how these regions relate to sensory domains and visual topography, top-down and bottom-up spatial attention, spatial versus non-spatial (i.e., feature- and object-based) attention and working memory and, finally, the multiple-demand system. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using multivariate pattern analysis reveal the selectivity of the frontal eye field and inferior frontal junction to spatial and non-spatial information, respectively. The analysis of functional and effective connectivity provides evidence of the modulation of the activity in downstream visual areas from the frontal eye field and inferior frontal junction and sheds light on their reciprocal influences. We therefore suggest that future studies should aim at disentangling more explicitly the role of these regions in the control of spatial and non-spatial selection. We propose that the analysis of the structural and functional connectivity (i.e., the connectivity fingerprints) of the frontal eye field and inferior frontal junction may be used to further characterize their involvement in a spatial ('where') and a non-spatial ('what') network, respectively, highlighting segregated brain networks that allow biasing visual selection and working memory performance to support goal-driven behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Bedini
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
| | - Daniel Baldauf
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
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200
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Internal manipulation of perceptual representations in human flexible cognition: A computational model. Neural Netw 2021; 143:572-594. [PMID: 34332343 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2021.07.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2020] [Revised: 06/30/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Executive functions represent a set of processes in goal-directed cognition that depend on integrated cortical-basal ganglia brain systems and form the basis of flexible human behaviour. Several computational models have been proposed for studying cognitive flexibility as a key executive function and the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) that represents an important neuropsychological tool to investigate it. These models clarify important aspects that underlie cognitive flexibility, particularly decision-making, motor response, and feedback-dependent learning processes. However, several studies suggest that the categorisation processes involved in the solution of the WCST include an additional computational stage of category representation that supports the other processes. Surprisingly, all models of the WCST ignore this fundamental stage and they assume that decision making directly triggers actions. Thus, we propose a novel hypothesis where the key mechanisms of cognitive flexibility and goal-directed behaviour rely on the acquisition of suitable representations of percepts and their top-down internal manipulation. Moreover, we propose a neuro-inspired computational model to operationalise this hypothesis. The capacity of the model to support cognitive flexibility was validated by systematically reproducing and interpreting the behaviour exhibited in the WCST by young and old healthy adults, and by frontal and Parkinson patients. The results corroborate and further articulate the hypothesis that the internal manipulation of representations is a core process in goal-directed flexible cognition.
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