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Wang X, Shi S, Bao Y. Parallel processes of temporal control in the supplementary motor area and the frontoparietal circuit. Psych J 2024; 13:355-368. [PMID: 38105556 PMCID: PMC11169752 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Durations in the several seconds' range are cognitively accessible during active timing. Functional neuroimaging studies suggest the engagement of the basal ganglia (BG) and supplementary motor area (SMA). However, their functional relevance and arrangement remain unclear because non-timing cognitive processes temporally coincide with the active timing. To examine the potential contamination by parallel processes, we introduced a sensory control and a motor control to the duration-reproduction task. By comparing their hemodynamic functions, we decomposed the neural activities in multiple brain loci linked to different cognitive processes. Our results show a dissociation of two cortical neural circuits: the SMA for both active timing and motor preparation, followed by a prefrontal-parietal circuit related to duration working memory. We argue that these cortical processes represent duration as the content but at different levels of abstraction, while the subcortical structures, including the BG and thalamus, provide the logistic basis of timing by coordinating the temporal framework across brain structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuanyu Wang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
- Graduate School of Systemic NeurosciencesLudwig‐Maximilians‐Universität MünchenMunichGermany
| | - Shunyu Shi
- School of Psychological and Cognitive SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Yan Bao
- School of Psychological and Cognitive SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig‐Maximilians‐Universität MünchenMunichGermany
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental HealthPeking UniversityBeijingChina
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2
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Zhao C, Mu N, Zhang J, Bao Y. The temporal transition zone: A gradual approach to a subjective set-point within the three-second time window. Psych J 2024; 13:369-375. [PMID: 38679463 PMCID: PMC11169761 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.755] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2024] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024]
Abstract
Even though in physics "time" is considered to be continuous, how the brain and mind deal with time might be different. It has been proposed that in cognition, time windows provide logistic platforms for information processing, such as the low-frequency 3-s time window. The following series of behavioral experiments may shed light on the dynamics within such a time window. Using a duration reproduction paradigm, we first replicated a pattern of reproduced duration observed in a previous single-case study. Specifically, the reproduction increases as the pause between standard duration and reproduction increases, but only within the time window of some 3 s; when the pause goes beyond 4 s, the reproduction reaches a plateau of a subjective set-point. This increasing phase is named the "temporal transition zone." Three more experiments were performed to test the features of the transition zone as a low-frequency time window. It is also observed with different standard durations (2, 3, 4.5 s, in Experiment 2), and even when the frequency of the auditory stimuli was different in standard and reproduction (300 Hz in standard duration and 400 Hz in reproduction, in Experiment 4). The transition zone was observed only with pause durations of 2 to 3 s; when the shortest pause duration was 5 s, the transition zone was no longer observed, and the reproduction was stable at the subjective set-point (in Experiment 3). Taken together, we suggest that the temporal transition zone indicates a pre-semantic logistic platform to organize and process the information flow; in such a time window of some 3 seconds, the identity of an ongoing event is substantiated, building the "subjective present."
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Affiliation(s)
- Chen Zhao
- Institute of Medical PsychologyLudwig Maximilian UniversityMunichGermany
| | - Nan Mu
- Institute of Medical PsychologyLudwig Maximilian UniversityMunichGermany
| | - Jiyuan Zhang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Yan Bao
- Institute of Medical PsychologyLudwig Maximilian UniversityMunichGermany
- School of Psychological and Cognitive SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental HealthPeking UniversityBeijingChina
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3
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Bao Y, Zhang D, Zhao C, Pöppel E, Zabotkina V. An Aesthetic Frame for Three Modes of Knowing. Psych J 2022; 11:636-644. [DOI: 10.1002/pchj.588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Yan Bao
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences Peking University Beijing China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health Peking University Beijing China
- Institute of Medical Psychology Ludwig Maximilian University Munich Munich Germany
| | - Dongxue Zhang
- Institute of Medical Psychology Ludwig Maximilian University Munich Munich Germany
| | - Chen Zhao
- Institute of Medical Psychology Ludwig Maximilian University Munich Munich Germany
| | - Ernst Pöppel
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences Peking University Beijing China
- Institute of Medical Psychology Ludwig Maximilian University Munich Munich Germany
| | - Vera Zabotkina
- Russian State University of the Humanities Moscow Russia
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4
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Zeng Y, Wang X, Silveira S, von Trott Zu Solz J, Simmank F, Zaytseva Y, Bao Y, Paolini M. Symmetric in the striate but asymmetric in the extrastriate cortex when processing three-quarter faces: Neural underpinnings for aesthetic appreciations. Psych J 2022; 11:720-728. [PMID: 35359029 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.539] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2021] [Revised: 01/08/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Faces and their aesthetic appreciation are a core element of social interaction. Although studies have been made on facial processing when looking at faces with different perspectives, a direct comparison of faces in the left to the right perspective is missing. Portraits in classical Western art indicate a preference of the left compared to the right perspective, but the neural underpinnings of such an asymmetry still have to be clarified. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the current study focuses on the processing of three-quarter faces seen with different perspectives. Seventeen participants were asked to passively look at photographs of six male and six female faces with a neutral expression; the photographs were taken from the left, right, and frontal perspectives while keeping their focus on the eyes. The results showed that specific brain areas were involved in processing the three-quarter faces in either symmetric or asymmetric ways. Viewing left and right three-quarter faces resulted in two mirror-like activations in the striate cortex corresponding to the symmetric layout of the left and right perspectives. Viewing the left face resulted additionally in an enhanced activation also in the left extrastriate cortex. The right perspective of male faces elicited a lower activation compared to other perspectives in face-selective areas of the brain. Our findings suggest that the preference of the left three-quarter face emerges already in the early visual pathway presumably prior to facial identification, emotional processing, and aesthetic appreciation. Our observations may have general importance in disentangling different neural components and processing stages in the spatiotemporal characteristics of artistic expressions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yifan Zeng
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Department of General and Experimental Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Xuanyu Wang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Sarita Silveira
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Social Neuroscience Lab, Max-Planck Society, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jana von Trott Zu Solz
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Fabian Simmank
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Yuliya Zaytseva
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic.,Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Yan Bao
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Marco Paolini
- Department of Radiology, University Hospital, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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Izadifar M, Yang T, Paolini M, Formuli A, Bao Y. Composing in the scanner: A functional magnetic resonance imaging single case study on visual and auditory imagery. Psych J 2022; 11:684-690. [PMID: 35166023 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2021] [Revised: 12/23/2021] [Accepted: 12/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
"Seeing with the mind's eye" and "hearing with the mind's ear" are two common indicators of musical imagery, and they can be referred to as "visual" and "auditory" musical imagery. However, a question remains open, that is, whether visual and auditory imagery of the same musical composition share the same neural mechanisms. Moreover, how can neural mechanisms guarantee the temporal flow of "musical imagery"? To answer these questions, we report here a preliminary single case study using functional magnetic resonance imaging with an eminent composer who imagined one of his compositions in two states of mind as compared to his resting-state activity. In the visual imagery condition, he imagined visually the score of his composition in a continuous way. In the auditory imagery condition, he imagined auditorily the same musical composition with pauses. In spite of the modality and temporal differences, the two types of mental imagery showed similar temporal durations for the same musical composition. However, different patterns of neural activation were observed for visual and auditory imagery with one important exception, that is, a common activation pattern was observed in the left medial temporal gyrus in both visual and auditory imagery. We speculate that the left medial temporal gyrus may play an important role in the creation of apparent temporal continuity in musical imagery and perhaps even in conscious information processing in general.
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Affiliation(s)
- Morteza Izadifar
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Taoxi Yang
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Marco Paolini
- Department of Radiology, University Hospital, LMU Munich
| | - Arusu Formuli
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Yan Bao
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
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Abstract
The present study investigates effects of conventionally metered and rhymed poetry on eyemovements
in silent reading. Readers saw MRRL poems (i.e., metrically regular, rhymed
language) in two layouts. In poem layout, verse endings coincided with line breaks. In prose
layout verse endings could be mid-line. We also added metrical and rhyme anomalies. We
hypothesized that silently reading MRRL results in building up auditive expectations that
are based on a rhythmic “audible gestalt” and propose that rhythmicity is generated through
subvocalization. Our results revealed that readers were sensitive to rhythmic-gestalt-anomalies
but showed differential effects in poem and prose layouts. Metrical anomalies in particular
resulted in robust reading disruptions across a variety of eye-movement measures in
the poem layout and caused re-reading of the local context. Rhyme anomalies elicited
stronger effects in prose layout and resulted in systematic re-reading of pre-rhymes. The
presence or absence of rhythmic-gestalt-anomalies, as well as the layout manipulation, also
affected reading in general. Effects of syllable number indicated a high degree of subvocalization.
The overall pattern of results suggests that eye-movements reflect, and are closely
aligned with, the rhythmic subvocalization of MRRL. This study introduces a two-stage approach to the analysis of long MRRL stimuli and contributes
to the discussion of how the processing of rhythm in music and speech may overlap.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judith Beck
- Cognitive Science, University of Freiburg,, Germany
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Sütterlin C, Yu X. Aristotle's dream: Evolutionary and neural aspects of aesthetic communication in the arts. Psych J 2021; 10:224-243. [PMID: 33442957 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.416] [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: 06/22/2020] [Revised: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 10/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Art in general perception is something that transcends our notion of reality. In view of the earliest findings in Paleolithic sites, their abstract appearance and sometimes ceremonial context increased their status of a secret language. Even the first figurative cave paintings remained in a context of an encoded semantic whole. The highly symbolic value of art seemed invulnerable. It was just the claim for "mimesis" in Greek antiquity (Plato) that urged artists to "realistically" depict what can be seen-as to stay in track of eternal messages behind. This devaluated the artistic oeuvre to a purely imitating craft and had to overcome at once several inherent obstacles. First, that reality (the phenomenal world) is in general only a pale reflection of what lays behind (Platonic ideas) and second, that the human eye, unlike the human mind, cannot penetrate to more than ephemeral impressions. Moreover, it mixed up reality with what we are able to see (i.e. visual perception), thus supposing a pinpoint representation of the world by our senses. Aristotle was the first to qualify art as picturing more than we usually are meant to see, filling the gap between the sensual and the spiritual world. Aristotelian aesthetics includes concepts of reduction and selection of composition and emotion, thus a summarized view within any performance of poetics or painting. And it took centuries to close the gap between natural and aesthetic perception or art. Life sciences in the 20th century discovered the evolutionary basis of sensory perception as being highly biased and organized, concept as emotion-driven and thus, mentally equipped as well. This sets a new approach in our understanding of perception, art, and aesthetics as an ongoing communication in process on common bases. Art may cooperate or disagree, but never can cut the nexus with its perceptual prejudices and substrate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christa Sütterlin
- Human Ethology Group, Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany
| | - Xinchi Yu
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China
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von Brück M. Aesthetic principles, the arts, and the interpretation of culture. Psych J 2021; 10:200-209. [PMID: 33442963 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.406] [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: 06/24/2020] [Revised: 09/13/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Culture is symbolism. Symbols allow a distance between perception and interpretation and create space for intentional action. Science, the arts, and religions are different cultural strategies to transcend sensual perception and open up the search and representation of structures and relations in and yet beyond sensual experience. The arts demonstrate, interpret, and invent such connectivities. Knowing, feeling, and representing hidden structures influence the very ways of perception, which are categorized in theories of perception called aesthetics. The processual and non-dual character of perception can be modeled not only on the basis of the well-known distinctions in European epistemologies (based on Platonic and Aristotelian modes of thinking) but on the Buddhist theory of skandhas, which might be able to transcend the dualism of matter and mind. The dynamics of perception will be explained on this basis using the categories of beauty and sublime and veiling and revealing (unveiling). The central category of aesthetic processes is similarity or variation, being expressed in fractal proportions and relationships in the processes of knowing and feeling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael von Brück
- Human Science Center, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.,Catholic University of Linz, Linz, Austria
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