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Doll L, Dykstra AR, Gutschalk A. Perceptual awareness of near-threshold tones scales gradually with auditory cortex activity and pupil dilation. iScience 2024; 27:110530. [PMID: 39175766 PMCID: PMC11338958 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Revised: 04/16/2024] [Accepted: 07/15/2024] [Indexed: 08/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Negative-going responses in sensory cortex co-vary with perceptual awareness of sensory stimuli. Given that this awareness negativity has also been observed for undetected stimuli, some have challenged its role for perception. To address this question, we combined magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography, and pupillometry to study how sustained attention and response criterion affect the auditory awareness negativity. Participants first detected distractor sounds and denied hearing task-irrelevant near-threshold tones, which evoked neither awareness negativity nor pupil dilation. These same tones evoked both responses when task-relevant, stronger for hit but also present for miss trials. Participants then rated their perception on a six-point scale to test whether response criterion explains the presence of these responses for miss trials. Decreasing perception ratings were associated with gradually reduced evoked responses, consistent with signal detection theory. These results support the concept of an awareness negativity that is modulated by attention but does not require a non-linear threshold mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Doll
- Department of Neurology, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Andrew R. Dykstra
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
| | - Alexander Gutschalk
- Department of Neurology, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
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Whyte CJ, Redinbaugh MJ, Shine JM, Saalmann YB. Thalamic contributions to the state and contents of consciousness. Neuron 2024; 112:1611-1625. [PMID: 38754373 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.04.019] [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: 02/19/2024] [Revised: 04/11/2024] [Accepted: 04/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/18/2024]
Abstract
Consciousness can be conceptualized as varying along at least two dimensions: the global state of consciousness and the content of conscious experience. Here, we highlight the cellular and systems-level contributions of the thalamus to conscious state and then argue for thalamic contributions to conscious content, including the integrated, segregated, and continuous nature of our experience. We underscore vital, yet distinct roles for core- and matrix-type thalamic neurons. Through reciprocal interactions with deep-layer cortical neurons, matrix neurons support wakefulness and determine perceptual thresholds, whereas the cortical interactions of core neurons maintain content and enable perceptual constancy. We further propose that conscious integration, segregation, and continuity depend on the convergent nature of corticothalamic projections enabling dimensionality reduction, a thalamic reticular nucleus-mediated divisive normalization-like process, and sustained coherent activity in thalamocortical loops, respectively. Overall, we conclude that the thalamus plays a central topological role in brain structures controlling conscious experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher J Whyte
- Centre for Complex Systems, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | - James M Shine
- Centre for Complex Systems, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Yuri B Saalmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, Madison, WI, USA
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Marvan T, Phillips WA. Cellular mechanisms of cooperative context-sensitive predictive inference. CURRENT RESEARCH IN NEUROBIOLOGY 2024; 6:100129. [PMID: 38665363 PMCID: PMC11043869 DOI: 10.1016/j.crneur.2024.100129] [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: 11/11/2023] [Revised: 02/14/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
We argue that prediction success maximization is a basic objective of cognition and cortex, that it is compatible with but distinct from prediction error minimization, that neither objective requires subtractive coding, that there is clear neurobiological evidence for the amplification of predicted signals, and that we are unconvinced by evidence proposed in support of subtractive coding. We outline recent discoveries showing that pyramidal cells on which our cognitive capabilities depend usually transmit information about input to their basal dendrites and amplify that transmission when input to their distal apical dendrites provides a context that agrees with the feedforward basal input in that both are depolarizing, i.e., both are excitatory rather than inhibitory. Though these intracellular discoveries require a level of technical expertise that is beyond the current abilities of most neuroscience labs, they are not controversial and acclaimed as groundbreaking. We note that this cellular cooperative context-sensitivity greatly enhances the cognitive capabilities of the mammalian neocortex, and that much remains to be discovered concerning its evolution, development, and pathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomáš Marvan
- Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), Czech Republic
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Zhu Y, Li C, Hendry C, Glass J, Canseco-Gonzalez E, Pitts MA, Dykstra AR. Isolating Neural Signatures of Conscious Speech Perception with a No-Report Sine-Wave Speech Paradigm. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e0145232023. [PMID: 38191569 PMCID: PMC10883607 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0145-23.2023] [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: 01/24/2023] [Revised: 11/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Identifying neural correlates of conscious perception is a fundamental endeavor of cognitive neuroscience. Most studies so far have focused on visual awareness along with trial-by-trial reports of task-relevant stimuli, which can confound neural measures of perceptual awareness with postperceptual processing. Here, we used a three-phase sine-wave speech paradigm that dissociated between conscious speech perception and task relevance while recording EEG in humans of both sexes. Compared with tokens perceived as noise, physically identical sine-wave speech tokens that were perceived as speech elicited a left-lateralized, near-vertex negativity, which we interpret as a phonological version of a perceptual awareness negativity. This response appeared between 200 and 300 ms after token onset and was not present for frequency-flipped control tokens that were never perceived as speech. In contrast, the P3b elicited by task-irrelevant tokens did not significantly differ when the tokens were perceived as speech versus noise and was only enhanced for tokens that were both perceived as speech and relevant to the task. Our results extend the findings from previous studies on visual awareness and speech perception and suggest that correlates of conscious perception, across types of conscious content, are most likely to be found in midlatency negative-going brain responses in content-specific sensory areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunkai Zhu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33143
| | - Charlotte Li
- Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202
| | - Camille Hendry
- Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202
| | - James Glass
- Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202
| | | | - Michael A Pitts
- Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202
| | - Andrew R Dykstra
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33143
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Jas M, Thorpe R, Tolley N, Bailey C, Brandt S, Caldwell B, Cheng H, Daniels D, Pujol CF, Khalil M, Kanekar S, Kohl C, Kolozsvári O, Lankinen K, Loi K, Neymotin S, Partani R, Pelah M, Rockhill A, Sherif M, Hamalainen M, Jones S. HNN-core: A Python software for cellular and circuit-level interpretation of human MEG/EEG. JOURNAL OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE 2023; 8:5848. [PMID: 38939123 PMCID: PMC11210709 DOI: 10.21105/joss.05848] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/29/2024]
Abstract
HNN-core is a library for circuit and cellular level interpretation of non-invasive human magneto-/electro-encephalography (MEG/EEG) data. It is based on the Human Neocortical Neurosolver (HNN) software (Neymotin et al., 2020), a modeling tool designed to simulate multiscale neural mechanisms generating current dipoles in a localized patch of neocortex. HNN's foundation is a biophysically detailed neural network representing a canonical neocortical column containing populations of pyramidal and inhibitory neurons together with layer-specific exogenous synaptic drive (Figure 1 left). In addition to simulating network-level interactions, HNN produces the intracellular currents in the long apical dendrites of pyramidal cells across the cortical layers known to be responsible for macroscopic current dipole generation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mainak Jas
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ryan Thorpe
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Nicholas Tolley
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | | | - Steven Brandt
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | | | - Huzi Cheng
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Dylan Daniels
- Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | | | - Mostafa Khalil
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA
| | | | - Carmen Kohl
- Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Orsolya Kolozsvári
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
- Jyväskylä Centre for Interdisciplinary Brain Research, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Kaisu Lankinen
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kenneth Loi
- Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology; Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Sam Neymotin
- Center for Biomedical Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Rajat Partani
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Karnataka, India
| | - Mattan Pelah
- Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
| | - Alex Rockhill
- Department of Human Physiology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
| | - Mohamed Sherif
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Matti Hamalainen
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
| | - Stephanie Jones
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
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