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Sengupta A, Banerjee S, Ganesh S, Grover S, Sridharan D. The right posterior parietal cortex mediates spatial reorienting of attentional choice bias. Nat Commun 2024; 15:6938. [PMID: 39138185 PMCID: PMC11322534 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51283-z] [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: 09/20/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2024] [Indexed: 08/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Attention facilitates behavior by enhancing perceptual sensitivity (sensory processing) and choice bias (decisional weighting) for attended information. Whether distinct neural substrates mediate these distinct components of attention remains unknown. We investigate the causal role of key nodes of the right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC) in the forebrain attention network in sensitivity versus bias control. Two groups of participants performed a cued attention task while we applied either inhibitory, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (n = 28) or 40 Hz transcranial alternating current stimulation (n = 26) to the dorsal rPPC. We show that rPPC stimulation - with either modality - impairs task performance by selectively altering attentional modulation of bias but not sensitivity. Specifically, participants' bias toward the uncued, but not the cued, location reduced significantly following rPPC stimulation - an effect that was consistent across both neurostimulation cohorts. In sum, the dorsal rPPC causally mediates the reorienting of choice bias, one particular component of visual spatial attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ankita Sengupta
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India
| | - Sanjna Banerjee
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India
- Foundation of Art and Health India, Bangalore, 560066, India
| | - Suhas Ganesh
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India
- Verily Life Sciences, San Francisco, CA, 94080, USA
| | - Shrey Grover
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Devarajan Sridharan
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India.
- Department of Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India.
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Prakash SS, Mayo JP, Ray S. Dissociation of attentional state and behavioral outcome using local field potentials. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.08.05.552102. [PMID: 37609148 PMCID: PMC10441331 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.05.552102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/24/2023]
Abstract
Successful behavior depends on attentional state and other factors related to decision-making, which may modulate neuronal activity differently. Here, we investigated whether attentional state and behavioral outcome (i.e., whether a target is detected or missed) are distinguishable using the power and phase of local field potential (LFP) recorded bilaterally from area V4 of monkeys performing a cued visual attention task. To link each trial's outcome to pairwise measures of attention that are typically averaged across trials, we used several methods to obtain single-trial estimates of spike count correlation and phase consistency. Surprisingly, while attentional location was best discriminated using gamma and high-gamma power, behavioral outcome was best discriminated by alpha power and steady-state visually evoked potential. Power outperformed absolute phase in attentional/behavioral discriminability, although single-trial gamma phase consistency provided reasonably high attentional discriminability. Our results suggest a dissociation between the neuronal mechanisms that regulate attentional focus and behavioral outcome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Surya S Prakash
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, 560012
| | - J Patrick Mayo
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 15219
| | - Supratim Ray
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, 560012
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Chandrasekaran AN, Vermani A, Gupta P, Steinmetz N, Moore T, Sridharan D. Dissociable components of attention exhibit distinct neuronal signatures in primate visual cortex. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadi0645. [PMID: 38306428 PMCID: PMC10836731 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi0645] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2023] [Accepted: 01/04/2024] [Indexed: 02/04/2024]
Abstract
Attention can be deployed in multiple forms and facilitates behavior by influencing perceptual sensitivity and choice bias. Attention is also associated with a myriad of changes in sensory neural activity. Yet, the relationship between the behavioral components of attention and the accompanying changes in neural activity remains largely unresolved. We examined this relationship by quantifying sensitivity and bias in monkeys performing a task that dissociated eye movement responses from the focus of covert attention. Unexpectedly, bias, not sensitivity, increased at the focus of covert attention, whereas sensitivity increased at the location of planned eye movements. Furthermore, neuronal activity within visual area V4 varied robustly with bias, but not sensitivity, at the focus of covert attention. In contrast, correlated variability between neuronal pairs was lowest at the location of planned eye movements, and varied with sensitivity, but not bias. Thus, dissociable behavioral components of attention exhibit distinct neuronal signatures within the visual cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ayesha Vermani
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
| | - Priyanka Gupta
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
| | - Nicholas Steinmetz
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Tirin Moore
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Devarajan Sridharan
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
- Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
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Gupta P, Sridharan D. Presaccadic attention does not facilitate the detection of changes in the visual field. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002485. [PMID: 38271460 PMCID: PMC10810526 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Planning a rapid eye movement (saccade) changes how we perceive our visual world. Even before we move the eyes visual discrimination sensitivity improves at the impending target of eye movements, a phenomenon termed "presaccadic attention." Yet, it is unknown if such presaccadic selection merely affects perceptual sensitivity, or also affects downstream decisional processes, such as choice bias. We report a surprising lack of presaccadic perceptual benefits in a common, everyday setting-detection of changes in the visual field. Despite the lack of sensitivity benefits, choice bias for reporting changes increased reliably for the saccade target. With independent follow-up experiments, we show that presaccadic change detection is rendered more challenging because percepts at the saccade target location are biased toward, and more precise for, only the most recent of two successive stimuli. With a Bayesian model, we show how such perceptual and choice biases are crucial to explain the effects of saccade plans on change detection performance. In sum, visual change detection sensitivity does not improve presaccadically, a result that is readily explained by teasing apart distinct components of presaccadic selection. The findings may have critical implications for real-world scenarios, like driving, that require rapid gaze shifts in dynamically changing environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Priyanka Gupta
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
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Chinchani AM, Paliwal S, Ganesh S, Chandrasekhar V, Yu BM, Sridharan D. Tracking momentary fluctuations in human attention with a cognitive brain-machine interface. Commun Biol 2022; 5:1346. [PMID: 36481698 PMCID: PMC9732358 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-04231-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2021] [Accepted: 11/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Selective attention produces systematic effects on neural states. It is unclear whether, conversely, momentary fluctuations in neural states have behavioral significance for attention. We investigated this question in the human brain with a cognitive brain-machine interface (cBMI) for tracking electrophysiological steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs) in real-time. Discrimination accuracy (d') was significantly higher when target stimuli were triggered at high, versus low, SSVEP power states. Target and distractor SSVEP power was uncorrelated across the hemifields, and target d' was unaffected by distractor SSVEP power states. Next, we trained participants on an auditory neurofeedback paradigm to generate biased, cross-hemispheric competitive interactions between target and distractor SSVEPs. The strongest behavioral effects emerged when competitive SSVEP dynamics unfolded at a timescale corresponding to the deployment of endogenous attention. In sum, SSVEP power dynamics provide a reliable readout of attentional state, a result with critical implications for tracking and training human attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abhijit M. Chinchani
- grid.34980.360000 0001 0482 5067Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA India ,grid.17091.3e0000 0001 2288 9830Present Address: University of British Columbia, 2329 West Mall, Vancouver, BC Canada
| | - Siddharth Paliwal
- grid.34980.360000 0001 0482 5067Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA India ,grid.36425.360000 0001 2216 9681Present Address: Stony Brook University, 100 Nicolls Rd, Stony Brook, NY USA
| | - Suhas Ganesh
- grid.34980.360000 0001 0482 5067Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA India ,grid.497059.6Present Address: Verily Life Sciences, 269 E Grand Ave, South San Francisco, CA USA
| | - Vishnu Chandrasekhar
- grid.34980.360000 0001 0482 5067Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA India ,grid.147455.60000 0001 2097 0344Present Address: Carnegie Mellon University, 319 Morewood Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA USA
| | - Byron M. Yu
- grid.147455.60000 0001 2097 0344Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA USA
| | - Devarajan Sridharan
- grid.34980.360000 0001 0482 5067Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA India ,grid.34980.360000 0001 0482 5067Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA India
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Booras A, Stevenson T, McCormack CN, Rhoads ME, Hanks TD. Change point detection with multiple alternatives reveals parallel evaluation of the same stream of evidence along distinct timescales. Sci Rep 2021; 11:13098. [PMID: 34162943 PMCID: PMC8222317 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-92470-y] [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: 11/30/2020] [Accepted: 06/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
In order to behave appropriately in a rapidly changing world, individuals must be able to detect when changes occur in that environment. However, at any given moment, there are a multitude of potential changes of behavioral significance that could occur. Here we investigate how knowledge about the space of possible changes affects human change point detection. We used a stochastic auditory change point detection task that allowed model-free and model-based characterization of the decision process people employ. We found that subjects can simultaneously apply distinct timescales of evidence evaluation to the same stream of evidence when there are multiple types of changes possible. Informative cues that specified the nature of the change led to improved accuracy for change point detection through mechanisms involving both the timescales of evidence evaluation and adjustments of decision bounds. These results establish three important capacities of information processing for decision making that any proposed neural mechanism of evidence evaluation must be able to support: the ability to simultaneously employ multiple timescales of evidence evaluation, the ability to rapidly adjust those timescales, and the ability to modify the amount of information required to make a decision in the context of flexible timescales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexa Booras
- grid.27860.3b0000 0004 1936 9684Center for Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Davis, CA USA
| | - Tanner Stevenson
- grid.27860.3b0000 0004 1936 9684Center for Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Davis, CA USA
| | - Connor N. McCormack
- grid.27860.3b0000 0004 1936 9684Center for Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Davis, CA USA
| | - Marie E. Rhoads
- grid.27860.3b0000 0004 1936 9684Center for Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Davis, CA USA ,grid.19006.3e0000 0000 9632 6718Department of Neuroscience, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA USA
| | - Timothy D. Hanks
- grid.27860.3b0000 0004 1936 9684Center for Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Davis, CA USA ,grid.27860.3b0000 0004 1936 9684Department of Neurology, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA USA
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Subcortical connectivity correlates selectively with attention's effects on spatial choice bias. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:19711-19716. [PMID: 31492811 PMCID: PMC6765279 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1902704116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Forebrain mechanisms of visuospatial attention have been widely studied. Yet, how the midbrain contributes to attention remains comparatively unknown. Here, we examined the role of the superior colliculus (SC), a vertebrate midbrain structure, in attention. Does the SC control sensitivity to attended information, or enable biasing choices toward attended information, or both? We mapped structural connections of the human SC with neocortical regions and found that the strengths of these connections correlated with, and were strongly predictive of, individuals’ choice bias, but not sensitivity. Taken together with previous animal studies, our results suggest that the human SC may play an evolutionarily conserved role in controlling choice bias during visual attention. Neural mechanisms of attention are extensively studied in the neocortex; comparatively little is known about how subcortical regions contribute to attention. The superior colliculus (SC) is an evolutionarily conserved, subcortical (midbrain) structure that has been implicated in controlling visuospatial attention. Yet how the SC contributes mechanistically to attention remains unknown. We investigated the role of the SC in attention, combining model-based psychophysics, diffusion imaging, and tractography in human participants. Specifically, we asked whether the SC contributes to enhancing sensitivity (d′) to attended information, or whether it contributes to biasing choices (criteria) in favor of attended information. We tested human participants on a multialternative change detection task, with endogenous spatial cueing, and quantified sensitivity and bias with a recently developed multidimensional signal detection model (m-ADC model). At baseline, sensitivity and bias exhibited complementary patterns of asymmetries across the visual hemifields: While sensitivity was consistently higher for detecting changes in the left hemifield, bias was higher for reporting changes in the right hemifield. Remarkably, white matter connectivity of the SC with the neocortex mirrored this pattern of asymmetries. Specifically, the asymmetry in SC–cortex connectivity correlated with the asymmetry in choice bias, but not in sensitivity. In addition, SC–cortex connectivity strength could predict cueing-induced modulation of bias, but not of sensitivity, across individuals. In summary, the SC may be a key node in an evolutionarily conserved network for controlling choice bias during visuospatial attention.
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Sagar V, Sengupta R, Sridharan D. Dissociable sensitivity and bias mechanisms mediate behavioral effects of exogenous attention. Sci Rep 2019; 9:12657. [PMID: 31477747 PMCID: PMC6718663 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-42759-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2018] [Accepted: 04/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Attention can be directed endogenously, based on task-relevant goals, or captured exogenously, by salient stimuli. While recent studies have shown that endogenous attention can facilitate behavior through dissociable sensitivity (sensory) and choice bias (decisional) mechanisms, it is unknown if exogenous attention also operates through dissociable sensitivity and bias mechanisms. We tested human participants on a multialternative change detection task with exogenous attention cues, which preceded or followed change events in close temporal proximity. Analyzing participants’ behavior with a multidimensional signal detection model revealed clear dissociations between exogenous cueing effects on sensitivity and bias. While sensitivity was, overall, lower at the cued location compared to other locations, bias was highest at the cued location. With an appropriately designed post-cue control condition, we discovered that the attentional effect of exogenous pre-cueing was to enhance sensitivity proximal to the cue. In contrast, exogenous attention enhanced bias even for distal stimuli in the cued hemifield. Reaction time effects of exogenous cueing could be parsimoniously explained with a diffusion-decision model, in which drift rate was determined by independent contributions from sensitivity and bias at each location. The results suggest a mechanistic schema of how exogenous attention engages dissociable sensitivity and bias mechanisms to shape behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vishak Sagar
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, C. V. Raman Avenue, Bangalore, 560012, India
| | - Ranit Sengupta
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, C. V. Raman Avenue, Bangalore, 560012, India
| | - Devarajan Sridharan
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, C. V. Raman Avenue, Bangalore, 560012, India.
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Huda R, Goard MJ, Pho GN, Sur M. Neural mechanisms of sensorimotor transformation and action selection. Eur J Neurosci 2018; 49:1055-1060. [PMID: 30019473 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2018] [Revised: 06/22/2018] [Accepted: 07/02/2018] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Ray Guillery made major contributions to our understanding of the development and function of the brain. One of his principal conceptual insights, developed together with Murray Sherman [S.M. Sherman & R.W. Guillery (2001) Exploring the Thalamus. Elsevier, Amstrerdam; S. Sherman & R. Guillery (2006) Exploring the Thalamus and Its Role in Cortical Functioning. Academic Press, New York, NY; S.M. Sherman & R.W. Guillery (2013) Functional Connections of Cortical Areas: A New View from the Thalamus. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA and then in his last book (R. Guillery (2017) The Brain as a Tool: A Neuroscientist's Account. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK)], was that the brain is a 'tool' to understand the world. In this view, the brain does not passively process sensory information and use the result to inform motor outputs. Rather, sensory and motor signals are widely broadcast and inextricably linked, with ongoing sensorimotor transformations serving as the basis for interaction with the outside world. Here, we describe recent studies from our laboratory and others which demonstrate this astute framing of the link among sensation, perception, and action postulated by Guillery and others [G. Deco & E.T. Rolls (2005) Prog Neurobiol, 76, 236-256; P. Cisek & J.F. Kalaska (2010) Annu Rev Neurosci, 33, 269-298]. Guillery situated his understanding in the deeply intertwined relationship between the thalamus and cortex, and importantly in the feedback from cortex to thalamus which in turn influences feed-forward drive to cortex [S.M. Sherman & R.W. Guillery (2001) Exploring the Thalamus. Elsevier, Amstrerdam; S. Sherman & R. Guillery (2006) Exploring the Thalamus and Its Role in Cortical Functioning. Academic Press, New York, NY]. We extend these observations to argue that brain mechanisms for sensorimotor transformations involve cortical and subcortical circuits that create internal models as a substrate for action, that a key role of sensory inputs is to update such models, and that a major function of sensorimotor processing underlying cognition is to enable action selection and execution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rafiq Huda
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Michael J Goard
- Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.,Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Gerald N Pho
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Mriganka Sur
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
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