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Aue T, Dricu M, Singh L, Moser DA, Raviteja K. Enhanced Sensitivity to Optimistic Cues is Manifested in Brain Structure: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:1170-1181. [PMID: 34128051 PMCID: PMC8599192 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2021] [Revised: 04/25/2021] [Accepted: 06/14/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent research shows that congruent outcomes are more rapidly (and incongruent less rapidly) detected when individuals receive optimistic rather than pessimistic cues, an effect that was termed optimism robustness. In the current voxel-based morphometry study, we examined whether optimism robustness has a counterpart in brain structure. The participants' task was to detect two different letters (symbolizing monetary gain or loss) in a visual search matrix. Prior to each onset of the search matrix, two different verbal cues informed our participants about a high probability to gain (optimistic expectancy) or lose (pessimistic expectancy) money. The target presented was either congruent or incongruent with these induced expectancies. Optimism robustness revealed in the participants' reaction times correlated positively with gray matter volume (GMV) in brain regions involved in selective attention (medial visual association area, intraparietal sulcus), emphasizing the strong intertwinement of optimistic expectancies and attention deployment. In addition, GMV in the primary visual cortex diminished with increasing optimism robustness, in line with the interpretation of optimism robustness arising from a global, context-oriented perception. Future studies should address the malleability of these structural correlates of optimism robustness. Our results may assist in the identification of treatment targets in depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatjana Aue
- Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Mihai Dricu
- Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Laura Singh
- Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Dominik A Moser
- Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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Xia L, Chen H, Dong J, Luo S, Feng L. Decline of Orientation and Direction Sensitivity in the Aging Population. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:643414. [PMID: 33897356 PMCID: PMC8064032 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.643414] [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: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 03/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
While the aging population is growing, our knowledge regarding age-related deterioration of visual perception remains limited. In the present study, we investigated the effects of aging on orientation and direction sensitivity in a healthy population using a weighted up–down adaptive method to improve the efficiency and reliability of the task. A total of 57 healthy participants aged 22–72 years were included and divided into old and young groups. Raw experimental data were processed using a psychometric method to determine the differences between the two groups. In the orientation task, the threshold of the discrimination angle and bias (i.e., the difference between the perceived midpoint from the logistic function and the reference point) was increased, while the lapsing rate (i.e., 1—the maximum logistic function) did not significantly change in the old group compared with the young group. In the motion direction task, the threshold, bias, and lapsing rate were significantly increased in the old group compared with the young group. These results suggest that the decreased ability of old participants in discrimination of stimulus orientation and motion direction could be related to the impaired function of visual cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lin Xia
- Department of Ophthalmology, First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Branch of National Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Hefei, China
| | - He Chen
- Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Jiong Dong
- Department of Ophthalmology, First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Branch of National Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Hefei, China
| | - Sha Luo
- Department of Ophthalmology, First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Branch of National Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Hefei, China
| | - Lixia Feng
- Department of Ophthalmology, First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Branch of National Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Hefei, China
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Yang Y, Chen K, Rosa MGP, Yu HH, Kuang LR, Yang J. Visual response characteristics of neurons in the second visual area of marmosets. Neural Regen Res 2021; 16:1871-1876. [PMID: 33510095 PMCID: PMC8328785 DOI: 10.4103/1673-5374.303043] [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] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
The physiological characteristics of the marmoset second visual area (V2) are poorly understood compared with those of the primary visual area (V1). In this study, we observed the physiological response characteristics of V2 neurons in four healthy adult marmosets using intracortical tungsten microelectrodes. We recorded 110 neurons in area V2, with receptive fields located between 8° and 15° eccentricity. Most (88.2%) of these neurons were orientation selective, with half-bandwidths typically ranging between 10° and 30°. A significant proportion of neurons (28.2%) with direction selectivity had a direction index greater than 0.5. The vast majority of V2 neurons had separable spatial frequency and temporal frequency curves and, according to this criterion, they were not speed selective. The basic functional response characteristics of neurons in area V2 resemble those found in area V1. Our findings show that area V2 together with V1 are important in primate visual processing, especially in locating objects in space and in detecting an object’s direction of motion. The methods used in this study were approved by the Monash University Animal Ethics Committee, Australia (MARP 2009-2011) in 2009.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yin Yang
- Department of Ophthalmology, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital; College of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
| | - Ke Chen
- School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
| | - Marcello G P Rosa
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Hsin-Hao Yu
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Li-Rong Kuang
- Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
| | - Jie Yang
- College of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China; Department of Neurology, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
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Ye R, Liu X. How the known reference weakens the visual oblique effect: a Bayesian account of cognitive improvement by cue influence. Sci Rep 2020; 10:20269. [PMID: 33219255 PMCID: PMC7680155 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-76911-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2018] [Accepted: 11/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
This paper investigates the influence of a known cue on the oblique effect in orientation identification and explains how subjects integrate cue information to identify target orientations. We design the psychophysical task in which subjects estimate target orientations in the presence of a known oriented reference line. For comparison the control experiments without the reference are conducted. Under Bayesian inference framework, a cue integration model is proposed to explain the perceptual improvement in the presence of the reference. The maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters of our model are obtained. In the presence of the reference, the variability and biases of identification are significantly reduced and the oblique effect of orientation identification is obviously weakened. Moreover, the identification of orientation in the vicinity of the reference line is consistently biased away from the reference line (i.e., reference repulsion). Comparing the predictions of the model with the experimental results, the Bayesian Least Squares estimator under the Variable-Precision encoding (BLS_VP) provides a better description of the experimental outcomes and captures the trade-off relationship of bias and precision of identification. Our results provide a useful step toward a better understanding of human visual perception in context of the known cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renyu Ye
- State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Institute of Nano Science and Department of Mathematics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China
- School of Mathematics and Physics, Anqing Normal University, Anqing, 246133, China
| | - Xinsheng Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Institute of Nano Science and Department of Mathematics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China.
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Conde-Ocazionez SA, Jungen C, Wunderle T, Eriksson D, Neuenschwander S, Schmidt KE. Callosal Influence on Visual Receptive Fields Has an Ocular, an Orientation-and Direction Bias. Front Syst Neurosci 2018; 12:11. [PMID: 29713267 PMCID: PMC5911488 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2018.00011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2017] [Accepted: 03/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
One leading hypothesis on the nature of visual callosal connections (CC) is that they replicate features of intrahemispheric lateral connections. However, CC act also in the central part of the binocular visual field. In agreement, early experiments in cats indicated that they provide the ipsilateral eye part of binocular receptive fields (RFs) at the vertical midline (Berlucchi and Rizzolatti, 1968), and play a key role in stereoscopic function. But until today callosal inputs to receptive fields activated by one or both eyes were never compared simultaneously, because callosal function has been often studied by cutting or lesioning either corpus callosum or optic chiasm not allowing such a comparison. To investigate the functional contribution of CC in the intact cat visual system we recorded both monocular and binocular neuronal spiking responses and receptive fields in the 17/18 transition zone during reversible deactivation of the contralateral hemisphere. Unexpectedly from many of the previous reports, we observe no change in ocular dominance during CC deactivation. Throughout the transition zone, a majority of RFs shrink, but several also increase in size. RFs are significantly more affected for ipsi- as opposed to contralateral stimulation, but changes are also observed with binocular stimulation. Noteworthy, RF shrinkages are tiny and not correlated to the profound decreases of monocular and binocular firing rates. They depend more on orientation and direction preference than on eccentricity or ocular dominance of the receiving neuron's RF. Our findings confirm that in binocularly viewing mammals, binocular RFs near the midline are constructed via the direct geniculo-cortical pathway. They also support the idea that input from the two eyes complement each other through CC: Rather than linking parts of RFs separated by the vertical meridian, CC convey a modulatory influence, reflecting the feature selectivity of lateral circuits, with a strong cardinal bias.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Christiane Jungen
- Department of Cardiology and Electrophysiology, University Heart Centre, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Thomas Wunderle
- Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in Cooperation with Max Planck Society, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - David Eriksson
- Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | | | - Kerstin E. Schmidt
- Brain Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil
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