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Davidson MJ, Verstraten FAJ, Alais D. Walking modulates visual detection performance according to stride cycle phase. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2027. [PMID: 38453900 PMCID: PMC10920920 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45780-4] [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: 06/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/05/2024] [Indexed: 03/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Walking is among our most frequent and natural of voluntary behaviours, yet the consequences of locomotion upon perceptual and cognitive function remain largely unknown. Recent work has highlighted that although walking feels smooth and continuous, critical phases exist within each step for the successful coordination of perceptual and motor function. Here, we test whether these phasic demands impact upon visual perception, by assessing performance in a visual detection task during natural unencumbered walking. We finely sample visual performance over the stride cycle as participants walk along a smooth linear path at a comfortable speed in a wireless virtual reality environment. At the group-level, accuracy, reaction times, and response likelihood show strong oscillations, modulating at approximately 2 cycles per stride (~2 Hz) with a marked phase of optimal performance aligned with the swing phase of each step. At the participant level, Bayesian inference of population prevalence reveals highly prevalent oscillations in visual detection performance that cluster in two idiosyncratic frequency ranges (2 or 4 cycles per stride), with a strong phase alignment across participants.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - David Alais
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
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Raposo I, Szczepanski SM, Haaland K, Endestad T, Solbakk AK, Knight RT, Helfrich RF. Periodic attention deficits after frontoparietal lesions provide causal evidence for rhythmic attentional sampling. Curr Biol 2023; 33:4893-4904.e3. [PMID: 37852264 PMCID: PMC10842514 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.065] [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: 05/23/2023] [Revised: 08/08/2023] [Accepted: 09/26/2023] [Indexed: 10/20/2023]
Abstract
Contemporary models conceptualize spatial attention as a blinking spotlight that sequentially samples visual space. Hence, behavior fluctuates over time, even in states of presumed "sustained" attention. Recent evidence has suggested that rhythmic neural activity in the frontoparietal network constitutes the functional basis of rhythmic attentional sampling. However, causal evidence to support this notion remains absent. Using a lateralized spatial attention task, we addressed this issue in patients with focal lesions in the frontoparietal attention network. Our results revealed that frontoparietal lesions introduce periodic attention deficits, i.e., temporally specific behavioral deficits that are aligned with the underlying neural oscillations. Attention-guided perceptual sensitivity was on par with that of healthy controls during optimal phases but was attenuated during the less excitable sub-cycles. Theta-dependent sampling (3-8 Hz) was causally dependent on the prefrontal cortex, while high-alpha/low-beta sampling (8-14 Hz) emerged from parietal areas. Collectively, our findings reveal that lesion-induced high-amplitude, low-frequency brain activity is not epiphenomenal but has immediate behavioral consequences. More generally, these results provide causal evidence for the hypothesis that the functional architecture of attention is inherently rhythmic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabel Raposo
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University Medical Center Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; International Max Planck Research School for the Mechanisms of Mental Function and Dysfunction, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Sara M Szczepanski
- Department of Psychology and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Kathleen Haaland
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of New Mexico Health Sciences, Albuquerque, NM 87102, USA
| | - Tor Endestad
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, 0373 Oslo, Norway; RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time, and Motion, University of Oslo, 0371 Oslo, Norway
| | - Anne-Kristin Solbakk
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, 0373 Oslo, Norway; RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time, and Motion, University of Oslo, 0371 Oslo, Norway; Department of Neurosurgery, Oslo University Hospital, 0372 Oslo, Norway; Department of Neuropsychology, Helgeland Hospital, 8656 Mosjøen, Norway
| | - Robert T Knight
- Department of Psychology and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Randolph F Helfrich
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University Medical Center Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
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Fiebelkorn IC. There Is More Evidence of Rhythmic Attention than Can Be Found in Behavioral Studies: Perspective on Brookshire, 2022. J Cogn Neurosci 2022; 35:128-134. [PMID: 36306250 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01936] [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
Recent research indicates periodicity in attention-related sampling and switching, with some of the initial findings coming from behavioral studies. Brookshire [Brookshire, G. Putative rhythms in attentional switching can be explained by aperiodic temporal structure. Nature Human Behaviour, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01364-0], points out that widely used approaches to testing for rhythms in behavioral times series can misclassify consistent aperiodic patterns in temporal structure as periodic patterns. Evidence for rhythmic attention, however, is not limited to behavioral data. Here, I briefly discuss (i) issues with differentiating periodic and aperiodic structure in both behavioral and neural time series, (ii) findings from neural data that are consistent with rhythmic sampling and switching during attentional deployment, and (iii) whether alternative approaches to establishing periodicity in behavioral time series, recommended by Brookshire are appropriate for this particular research topic.
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