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Van Schependom J, Baetens K, Nagels G, Olmi S, Beste C. Neurophysiological avenues to better conceptualizing adaptive cognition. Commun Biol 2024; 7:626. [PMID: 38789522 PMCID: PMC11126671 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06331-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2024] [Accepted: 05/14/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024] Open
Abstract
We delve into the human brain's remarkable capacity for adaptability and sustained cognitive functioning, phenomena traditionally encompassed as executive functions or cognitive control. The neural underpinnings that enable the seamless navigation between transient thoughts without detracting from overarching goals form the core of our article. We discuss the concept of "metacontrol," which builds upon conventional cognitive control theories by proposing a dynamic balancing of processes depending on situational demands. We critically discuss the role of oscillatory processes in electrophysiological activity at different scales and the importance of desynchronization and partial phase synchronization in supporting adaptive behavior including neural noise accounts, transient dynamics, phase-based measures (coordination dynamics) and neural mass modelling. The cognitive processes focused and neurophysiological avenues outlined are integral to understanding diverse psychiatric disorders thereby contributing to a more nuanced comprehension of cognitive control and its neural bases in both health and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeroen Van Schependom
- AIMS Lab, Center for Neurosciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Electronics and Informatics (ETRO), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Kris Baetens
- Brain, Body and Cognition, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Guy Nagels
- AIMS Lab, Center for Neurosciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
- UZ Brussel, Department of Neurology, Brussels, Belgium
- St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Simona Olmi
- CNR-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
| | - Christian Beste
- Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
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Diao M, Demchenko I, Asare G, Chen Y, Debruille JB. Quantifying the effects of practicing a semantic task according to subclinical schizotypy. Sci Rep 2024; 14:2900. [PMID: 38316943 PMCID: PMC10844607 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-53468-4] [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: 01/31/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024] Open
Abstract
The learning ability of individuals within the schizophrenia spectrum is crucial for their psychosocial rehabilitation. When selecting a treatment, it is thus essential to consider the impact of medications on practice effects, an important type of learning ability. To achieve this end goal, a pre-treatment test has to be developed and tested in healthy participants first. This is the aim of the current work, which takes advantage of the schizotypal traits present in these participants to preliminary assess the test's validity for use among patients. In this study, 47 healthy participants completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) and performed a semantic categorization task twice, with a 1.5-hour gap between sessions. Practice was found to reduce reaction times (RTs) in both low- and high-SPQ scorers. Additionally, practice decreased the amplitudes of the N400 event-related brain potentials elicited by semantically matching words in low SPQ scorers only, which shows the sensitivity of the task to schizotypy. Across the two sessions, both RTs and N400 amplitudes had good test-retest reliability. This task could thus be a valuable tool. Ongoing studies are currently evaluating the impact of fully deceptive placebos and of real antipsychotic medications on these practice effects. This round of research should subsequently assist psychiatrists in making informed decisions about selecting the most suitable medication for the psychosocial rehabilitation of a patient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingyi Diao
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Department of Neurosciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Ilya Demchenko
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Department of Neurosciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Gifty Asare
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Yelin Chen
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - J Bruno Debruille
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada.
- Department of Neurosciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
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Alonso-Sánchez MF, Limongi R, Gati J, Palaniyappan L. Language network self-inhibition and semantic similarity in first-episode schizophrenia: A computational-linguistic and effective connectivity approach. Schizophr Res 2023; 259:97-103. [PMID: 35568676 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2022.04.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Revised: 04/28/2022] [Accepted: 04/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION A central feature of schizophrenia is the disorganization and impoverishment of language. Recently, we observed higher semantic similarity in first-episode-schizophrenia (FES) patients. In this study, we investigate if this aberrant similarity relates to the 'causal' connectivity between two key nodes of the word production system: inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the semantic-hub at the ventral anterior temporal lobe (vATL). METHODS Resting-state fMRI scans were collected from 60 participants (30 untreated FES and 30 healthy controls). The semantic distance was measured with the CoVec semantic tool based on GloVe. A spectral dynamic causal model with Parametrical Empirical Bayes was constructed modelling the intrinsic self-inhibitory and extrinsic-excitatory connections within the brain regions. We estimated the parameters of a fully connected model with the semantic distance as a covariate. RESULTS FES patients chose words with higher semantic similarity when describing the pictures compared to the HC group. Among patients, an increased semantic similarity was related with an increase in intrinsic connections within both the vATL and IFG, suggesting that reduced 'synaptic gain' in these regions likely contribute to aberrant sampling of the semantic space during discourse in schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS Lexical impoverishment relates to increased self-inhibition in both the IFG and vATL. The associated reduction in synaptic gain may relate to reduced precision of locally generated neural activity, forcing the choice of words that are already 'activated' in a lexical network. One approach to improve word sampling may be via promoting synaptic gain via supra-physiological stimulation within the Broca's-vATL network; this proposal needs verification.
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Affiliation(s)
- María Francisca Alonso-Sánchez
- CIDCL, Fonoaudiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile; Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
| | - Roberto Limongi
- Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Joseph Gati
- Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; Centre for Youth Mental Health Service Innovation, Research and Training, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Medical Biophysics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lena Palaniyappan
- Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; Centre for Youth Mental Health Service Innovation, Research and Training, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Medical Biophysics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
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Reber TP, Mackay S, Bausch M, Kehl MS, Borger V, Surges R, Mormann F. Single-neuron mechanisms of neural adaptation in the human temporal lobe. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2496. [PMID: 37120437 PMCID: PMC10148801 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38190-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2021] [Accepted: 04/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/01/2023] Open
Abstract
A central function of the human brain is to adapt to new situations based on past experience. Adaptation is reflected behaviorally by shorter reaction times to repeating or similar stimuli, and neurophysiologically by reduced neural activity in bulk-tissue measurements with fMRI or EEG. Several potential single-neuron mechanisms have been hypothesized to cause this reduction of activity at the macroscopic level. We here explore these mechanisms using an adaptation paradigm with visual stimuli bearing abstract semantic similarity. We recorded intracranial EEG (iEEG) simultaneously with spiking activity of single neurons in the medial temporal lobes of 25 neurosurgical patients. Recording from 4917 single neurons, we demonstrate that reduced event-related potentials in the macroscopic iEEG signal are associated with a sharpening of single-neuron tuning curves in the amygdala, but with an overall reduction of single-neuron activity in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and parahippocampal cortex, consistent with fatiguing in these areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas P Reber
- Faculty of Psychology, UniDistance Suisse, Brig, Switzerland.
- Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany.
| | - Sina Mackay
- Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany
| | - Marcel Bausch
- Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany
| | - Marcel S Kehl
- Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany
| | - Valeri Borger
- Department of Neurosurgery, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany
| | - Rainer Surges
- Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany
| | - Florian Mormann
- Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany
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Williams AB, Liu X, Hsieh F, Hurtado M, Lesh T, Niendam T, Carter C, Ranganath C, Ragland JD. Memory-Based Prediction Deficits and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Dysfunction in Schizophrenia. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2023; 8:71-78. [PMID: 35618258 PMCID: PMC10036169 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2022] [Revised: 05/05/2022] [Accepted: 05/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Theories suggest that people with schizophrenia (SZ) have problems generating predictions based on past experiences. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and hippocampus participate in memory-based prediction. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate DLPFC and hippocampal function in healthy control (HC) subjects and people with SZ during memory-based prediction. METHODS Prior to scanning, HC subjects (n = 54) and people with SZ (n = 31) learned 5-object sequences presented in fixed or random orders on each repetition. During scanning, participants made semantic decisions (e.g., "Can this object fit in a shoebox?") on a continuous stream of objects from fixed and random sequences. Sequence prediction was demonstrated by faster semantic decisions for objects in fixed versus random sequences because memory could be used to anticipate and more efficiently process semantic information about upcoming objects in fixed sequences. Representational similarity analyses were used to determine how each sequence type was represented in the posterior hippocampus and DLPFC. RESULTS Sequence predictions were reduced in individuals with SZ relative to HC subjects. Representational similarity analyses revealed stronger memory-based predictions in the DLPFC of HC subjects than people with SZ, and DLPFC representations correlated with more successful predictions in HC subjects only. For the posterior hippocampus, voxel pattern similarity was increased for fixed versus random sequences in HC subjects only, but no significant between-group differences or correlations with prediction success were observed. CONCLUSIONS Individuals with SZ are capable of learning temporal sequences; however, they are impaired using memory to predict upcoming events as efficiently as HC subjects. This deficit appears related to disrupted neural representation of sequence information in the DLPFC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley B Williams
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
| | - Xiaonan Liu
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, California; Departments of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
| | - Frank Hsieh
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California; Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
| | - Mitzi Hurtado
- Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
| | - Tyler Lesh
- Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
| | - Tara Niendam
- Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
| | - Cameron Carter
- Departments of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California; Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
| | - Charan Ranganath
- Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, California; Departments of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California
| | - J Daniel Ragland
- Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California.
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Impairment of semantic composition in schizophrenia: An ERP study with lexical stimuli. Neuropsychologia 2022; 171:108241. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108241] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2021] [Revised: 04/12/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Almeida VN. The neural hierarchy of consciousness. Neuropsychologia 2022; 169:108202. [PMID: 35271856 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2021] [Revised: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 03/01/2022] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
The chief undertaking in the studies of consciousness is that of unravelling "the minimal set of neural processes that are together sufficient for the conscious experience of a particular content - the neural correlates of consciousness". To this day, this crusade remains at an impasse, with a clash of two main theories: consciousness may arise either in a graded and cortically-localised fashion, or in an all-or-none and widespread one. In spite of the long-lasting theoretical debates, neurophysiological theories of consciousness have been mostly dissociated from them. Herein, a theoretical review will be put forth with the aim to change that. In its first half, we will cover the hard available evidence on the neurophysiology of consciousness, whereas in its second half we will weave a series of considerations on both theories and substantiate a novel take on conscious awareness: the levels of processing approach, partitioning the conscious architecture into lower- and higher-order, graded and nonlinear.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor N Almeida
- Faculdade de Letras, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Av. Pres. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil.
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