Executive control over unconscious cognition: attentional sensitization of unconscious information processing

Unconsciously triggered cognitive conflict influences perceptual choice in active and sedentary individuals

Introduction

People who regularly exercise and receive training perform better when actioning unconscious cognitive tasks. The information flow triggered by a single unconscious visual stimulus has been extensively investigated, but it remains unclear whether multiple unconscious visual stimuli interact. This study aimed to explore the relationship between three simultaneous subliminal arrow stimuli (pointing in same or different directions), focusing on how they interact with each other and the subsequent priming effect on the target arrow in active and sedentary groups.

Methods

We used a priming paradigm combining flanker task to test the hypothesis. A total of 42 participants were recruited. Of these, 22 constituted the active group and 20 constituted the sedentary group.

Results

Behavioral data results revealed that the main effects of group and prime-target compatibility were significant. In the neurophysiological data, prime-target compatibility significantly influenced the latency of PP1. The amplitude of TP1 and TN2 mainly influenced the prime-flanker congruency. The prime-flanker congruency and groups interacted when the prime-target showed sufficient compatibility. The prime-flanker congruency, and the prime-target compatibility considerably influenced the TP3 amplitude in the anterior central frontal region (CZ electrode point).

Conclusion

Event-related potentials revealed the interactions between conscious processing and subliminal conflict in the early stages of perceptual and attention processing (target-related P1 potential component). These results suggest that exercise is helpful for coping with unconscious cognitive conflict.

A contribute to the default-interventionist and parallel accounts in deductive reasoning. The effect of decisional styles on logic and belief

Classical theories of reasoning equate System 1 with biases and System 2 with correct responses. Refined theories of reasoning propose the parallel model to explain the two systems. The first purpose of the present article is to give a contribution to the debate on the parallel and default-interventionfist models: we hypothesized when logic and belief conflict both logical validity and belief judgments will be affected with greater level of response errors and/or longer response times. The second purpose of this article is to assess the relationship between decisional styles and performance in deductive reasoning. Seventy-two participants participated in the experiment and completed 64 modus ponens and modus tollens syllogistic reasoning tasks. Accordingly, we found that belief and logic judgments were affected by the conflict condition, both in easy syllogisms (i.e., modus ponens) and in complex syllogisms (i.e., modus tollens). Findings showed also that participants with a rational decision-making style were more strongly influenced by logic than belief, whereas those with an intuitive decision-making style were more strongly influenced by belief than logic.

Dual-task interference: Bottleneck constraint or capacity sharing? Evidence from automatic and controlled processes

This study investigated whether the interference between two tasks in dual-task processing stems from bottleneck limitations or insufficient cognitive resources due to resource sharing. Experiment 1 used tone discrimination as Task 1 and word or pseudoword classification as Task 2 to evaluate the effect of automatic versus controlled processing on dual-task interference under different SOA conditions. Experiment 2 reversed the task order. The results showed that dual-task interference persisted regardless of task type or order. Neither experiment found evidence that automatic tasks could eliminate interference. This suggests that resource limitations, rather than bottlenecks, may better explain dual-task costs. Specifically, when tasks compete for limited resources, the processing efficiency of both tasks is significantly reduced. Future research should explore how cognitive resources are dynamically allocated between tasks to better account for dual-task interference effects.

Looking for a word or for its meaning? The impact of induction tasks on adolescents' visual search for verbal material

An eye-tracking experiment was conducted to examine whether the pre-activation of different word-processing pathways by means of semantic versus perceptual induction tasks could modify the way adults and 11- to 15-year-old adolescents searched for single target words within displays of nine words. The presence within the search displays of words either looking like the target word or semantically related to the target word was manipulated. The quality of participants' lexical representations was evaluated through three word-identification and vocabulary tests. Performing a semantic induction task rather than a perceptual one on the target word before searching for it increased search times by 15% in all age groups, reflecting an increase in both the number and duration of gazes directed to non-target words. Moreover, performing the semantic induction task increased the impact of distractor words that were semantically related to the target word on search efficiency. Participants' search efficiency increased with age because of a progressive increase in the quality of adolescents' lexical representations, which allowed participants to more quickly reject the distractors on which they fixated. Indeed, lexical quality scores explained 43% of the variance in search times independently of participants' age. In the simple visual search task used in this study, fostering semantic word processing through the semantic induction task slowed down visual search. However, the literature suggests that semantic induction tasks could, in contrast, help people find information more easily in more complex verbal environments where the meaning of words must be accessed to find task-relevant information.

The role of conscious perception in semantic processing: Testing the action trigger hypothesis

Finding that invisible primes affect categorization of visible targets (response priming) is held to demonstrate that semantic processing does not require conscious perception. However, the effects are typically very small, they do not indicate whether conscious perception enhances response priming and they often reflect visuo-motor rather than semantic processing. Here, we compared response priming elicited by liminal words when these were clearly seen vs missed, while participants categorized target animals' names. We varied task demands to induce visuo-motor vs semantic processing. Conscious perception strongly enhanced both visuo-motor and semantic response priming. In line with the Action Trigger Hypothesis, task demands modulated processing of both missed and consciously perceived primes. Finally, conscious and unconscious response priming showed diverging patterns on fast and on slow trials, a dissociation suggesting that priming was not contaminated by conscious priming. We conclude that the impact of unconscious stimuli is small and task-dependent.

The ecological validity of MET was favourable in sitting implicit sequence learning consciousness by eyes closed and eyes open resting states fMRI

The current study made participants sit to complete both the implicit sequence learning and the inclusion/exclusion tasks with the latter just after the former, and used eyes-closed and eyes-open resting states fMRI and their difference to test the ecological validity of the mutually exclusive theory (MET) in implicit-sequence-learning consciousness. (1) The behavioral and neuroimaging data did not support the process dissociation procedure, but did fit well with the MET. The correct inclusion-task response and the incorrect exclusion-task response were mutually exclusive with each other. The relevant brain areas of the two responses were either different or opposite in the eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-states and their difference. (2) ALFFs in eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-states and their difference were diversely related to the four MET knowledge in implicit sequence learning. The relevant brain areas of the four MET knowledge in the eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-state were the cerebral cortex responsible for vision, attention, cognitive control and consciousness, which could be called the upper consciousness network, and there were more relevant brain areas in the eyes-open resting-state than in the eye-closed resting-state.The relevant brain areas in ALFFs-difference were the subcortical nucleus responsible for sensory awareness, memory and implicit sequence learning, which could be called the lower consciousness network. ALFFs-difference could predict the four MET knowledge as a quantitative transition sensitivity index from internal feeling to external stimulus. (3) The relevant resting-state brain areas of the four MET knowledge were either different (for most brain areas, if some brain areas were related to one MET knowledge, they were not related to the other three MET knowledge) or opposite (for some brain areas, if some brain areas were positively related to one MET knowledge, they were negatively related to other MET knowledge). With the participants' control/consciousness level increasing from no-acquisition to controllable knowledge step by step, the positively relevant resting-state brain areas of the four MET knowledge changed from some consciousness network and the motor network, to some consciousness network and the implicit learning network, and then to some consciousness network; and the negatively relevant resting-state brain areas of the four MET knowledge changed from some consciousness network and visual perception network, to some consciousness network, then to some consciousness network and the motor network, and then to some consciousness network, the implicit learning network, and the motor network. In conclusion, the current study found the ecological validity of the MET was good in sitting posture and eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-states, ALFFs in eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-states and their difference could predict the four MET knowledge diversely, and the four MET knowledge had different or opposite relevant resting-state brain areas.

The Automatic but Flexible and Content-Dependent Nature of Syntax

Syntactic processing has often been considered an utmost example of unconscious automatic processing. In this line, it has been demonstrated that masked words containing syntactic anomalies are processed by our brain triggering event related potential (ERP) components similar to the ones triggered by conscious syntactic anomalies, thus supporting the automatic nature of the syntactic processing. Conversely, recent evidence also points out that regardless of the level of awareness, emotional information and other relevant extralinguistic information modulate conscious syntactic processing too. These results are also in line with suggestions that, under certain circumstances, syntactic processing could also be flexible and context-dependent. However, the study of the concomitant automatic but flexible conception of syntactic parsing is very scarce. Hence, to this aim, we examined whether and how masked emotional words (positive, negative, and neutral masked adjectives) containing morphosyntactic anomalies (half of the cases) affect linguistic comprehension of an ongoing unmasked sentence that also can contain a number agreement anomaly between the noun and the verb. ERP components were observed to emotional information (EPN), masked anomalies (LAN and a weak P600), and unmasked ones (LAN/N400 and P600). Furthermore, interactions in the processing of conscious and unconscious morphosyntactic anomalies and between unconscious emotional information and conscious anomalies were detected. The findings support, on the one hand, the automatic nature of syntax, given that syntactic components LAN and P600 were observed to unconscious anomalies. On the other hand, the flexible, permeable, and context-dependent nature of the syntactic processing is also supported, since unconscious information modulated conscious syntactic components. This double nature of syntactic processing is in line with theories of automaticity, suggesting that even unconscious/automatic, syntactic processing is flexible, adaptable, and context-dependent.

Task set and instructions influence the weight of figural priors: A psychophysical study with extremal edges and familiar configuration

In figure-ground organization, the figure is defined as a region that is both "shaped" and "nearer." Here we test whether changes in task set and instructions can alter the outcome of the cross-border competition between figural priors that underlies figure assignment. Extremal edge (EE), a relative distance prior, has been established as a strong figural prior when the task is to report "which side is nearer?" In three experiments using bipartite stimuli, EEs competed and cooperated with familiar configuration, a shape prior for figure assignment in a "which side is shaped?" task." Experiment 1 showed small but significant effects of familiar configuration for displays sketching upright familiar objects, although "shaped-side" responses were predominantly determined by EEs. In Experiment 2, instructions regarding the possibility of perceiving familiar shapes were added. Now, although EE remained the dominant prior, the figure was perceived on the familiar-configuration side of the border on a significantly larger percentage of trials across all display types. In Experiment 3, both task set (nearer/shaped) and the presence versus absence of instructions emphasizing that familiar objects might be present were manipulated within subjects. With familiarity thus "primed," effects of task set emerged when EE and familiar configuration favored opposite sides as figure. Thus, changing instructions can modulate the weighing of figural priors for shape versus distance in figure assignment in a manner that interacts with task set. Moreover, we show that the influence of familiar parts emerges in participants without medial temporal lobe/ perirhinal cortex brain damage when instructions emphasize that familiar objects might be present.

Reward Influences Masked Free-Choice Priming

While it is known that reward induces attentional prioritization, it is not clear what effect reward-learning has when associated with stimuli that are not fully perceived. The masked priming paradigm has been extensively used to investigate the indirect impact of brief stimuli on response behavior. Interestingly, the effect of masked primes is observed even when participants choose their responses freely. While classical theories assume this process to be automatic, recent studies have provided evidence for attentional modulations of masked priming effects. Most such studies have manipulated bottom-up or top-down modes of attentional selection, but the role of “newer” forms of attentional control such as reward-learning and selection history remains unclear. In two experiments, with number and arrow primes, we examined whether reward-mediated attentional selection modulates masked priming when responses are chosen freely. In both experiments, we observed that primes associated with high-reward lead to enhanced free-choice priming compared to primes associated with no-reward. The effect was seen on both proportion of choices and response times, and was more evident in the faster responses. In the slower responses, the effect was diminished. Our study adds to the growing literature showing the susceptibility of masked priming to factors related to attention and executive control.

Mechanisms Underlying Unconscious Processing and Their Alterations in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Neuroimaging of Zero Monetary Outcomes Contextually Framed as "No Losses" vs. "No Gains"

Although unconscious processing is a key element of mental operation, its neural correlates have not been established. Also, clinical observations suggest that unconscious processing may be involved in the pathophysiology of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but the neurobiological mechanisms underlying such impairments remain unknown. The purpose of the present study was to examine putative mechanisms underlying unconscious processing by healthy participants and to determine whether these mechanisms may be altered in PTSD patients. Twenty patients with PTSD and 27 healthy individuals were administered a validated wheel of fortune-type gambling task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Unconscious processing was elicited using unconscious contextual framing of the zero monetary outcomes as "no loss," "no gain" or as "neutral." Brief passive visual processing of the "no loss" vs. "no gain" contrast by healthy participants yielded bilateral frontal-, temporal- and insular cortices and striatal activations. Between-group comparison revealed smaller activity in the left anterior prefrontal-, left dorsolateral prefrontal-, right temporal- and right insular cortices and in bilateral striatum in PTSD patients with the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity been more pronounced in those with greater PTSD severity. These observations implicate frontal-, temporal-, and insular cortices along with the striatum in the putative mechanisms underlying unconscious processing of the monetary outcomes. Additionally, our results support the hypothesis that PTSD is associated with primary cortical and subcortical alterations involved in the above processes and that these alterations may be related to some aspects of PTSD symptomatology.

Testing the Process Dissociation Procedure by Behavioral and Neuroimaging Data: The Establishment of the Mutually Exclusive Theory and the Improved PDP

The process dissociation procedure (PDP) of implicit sequence learning states that the correct inclusion-task response contains the incorrect exclusion-task response. However, there has been no research to test the hypothesis. The current study used a single variable (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony SOA: 850 ms vs. 1350 ms) between-subjects design, with pre-task resting-state fMRI, to test and improve the classical PDP to the mutually exclusive theory (MET). (1) Behavioral data and neuroimaging data demonstrated that the classical PDP has not been validated. In the SOA = 850 ms group, the correct inclusion-task response was at chance, but the incorrect exclusion-task response occurred greater than chance. In the SOA = 850 ms group, the two responses were not correlated, but in the SOA = 1,350 ms group and putting the two groups together, the two responses were in contrast to each other. In each group, brain areas whose amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFFs) in the resting-state related to the two responses were either completely different or opposite to one another. However, the results were perfectly consistent with the MET proposed by the present study which suggests that the correct inclusion-task response is equal to the correct exclusion-task response is equal to C + A₁, and the incorrect exclusion-task response is equal to A₂. C denotes the controlled response and A₁ and A₂ denote two different automatic responses. (2) The improved PDP was proposed to categorize the 12 kinds of triplets as delineating four knowledge types, namely non-acquisition of knowledge, uncontrollable knowledge, half-controllable knowledge, and controllable knowledge with the MET. ALFFs in the resting-state could predict the four knowledge types of the improved PDP among two groups. The participants’ control of the four knowledge types (degree of consciousness) gradually improved. Correspondingly, the brain areas in the resting-state positively related to the four knowledge types, gradually changed from the sensory and motor network to the somatic sensorimotor network, and then to the implicit learning network, and then to the consciousness network. The brain areas in the resting-state negatively related to the four knowledge types gradually changed from the consciousness network to the sensory and motor network. As SOA increased, the brain areas associated with almost all the four knowledge types changed. (3) The inhomogeneous hypothesis of the MET is best suited to interpret behavioral and neuroimaging data; it states that the same components among the four knowledge types are not homogeneous, and the same knowledge types are not homogeneous between the two SOA groups.

Do you feel like me or not? This is the question: manipulation of emotional imagery modulates affective priming

Mood congruity and affective priming have been used to study the effects of affective phenomena on perception. Manipulation of mood is appropriate for investigations of long-term effects while affective priming is limited to short intervals (approximately 300 ms) between a prime and target. However, studying the influence of real-world rapidly changing emotional episodes on perception may fall between the cracks of these methods. This may be caused, inter alia, because emotional episodes are distinguished from mood experiences on one hand, but often last for longer than roughly 300 ms on the other. Thus, it is unclear what experimental approach should be taken to investigate congruency effects triggered by emotional episodes. The present study used a new variation of the evaluation decision task (EDT) combined with a script-driven imagery procedure to investigate a possible congruency relationship between the evaluator's emotional experience at a given time and observable emotional markers of others. We used 180 9-word script-driven imageries as varying valence primes (negative, positive, neutral) and asked participants to imagine themselves in the situation described in the scripts. At the last stage of a trial, all participants were asked to evaluate the mood-positive or negative-of a target face of a child in a photograph. We manipulated the reading interval (4000 ms and 1350 ms) and the subsequent blank interval (300 ms, 5000 ms, and unlimited) until target onset. Prime and target valence were congruent or incongruent. Significant congruency effects were found for both short and long reading intervals and blank intervals. However, in longer blank intervals only the interference effect reached significance. Furthermore, the interference effect was found to be significant mainly in trials beginning with a negative script.

Motor expertise affects the unconscious processing of geometric forms

Background

The unconscious processing of information is an important skill used by competitive athletes to handle the rapidly changing movements of opponents and equipment. Previous studies have shown that unconscious information processing among athletes is better than that among non-athletes in the sports-specific domain. However, it is not yet clear whether athletes also show superior unconscious information processing in the general cognitive domain.

Methods

Twenty-five competitive table tennis players (athletes) and 26 aged-matched non-athletic college students (non-athlete controls) were recruited for this study. Participants first performed a masked priming task that used geometric shapes as primes and targets to examine unconscious information processing in the general cognitive domain. As a control, participants then completed a prime identification task to determine whether they could consciously detect the priming geometric forms. Reaction times and error rates were analyzed to examine whether motor expertise influenced unconscious information processing in the general domain. Nineteen athletes and 17 non-athletes from our present study, which used general stimuli, also participated in our previous study, which used sport-specific stimuli. The strength of the unconscious response priming effect was analyzed to examine whether the effect of motor expertise on unconscious processing could be transferred from a sports-specific domain to a general domain.

Results

Signal detection analyses indicated that neither athletes nor non-athletes could consciously perceive the priming stimuli. Two-way repeated-measures analyses of variance followed by simple main effects analyses of the masked priming performance, indicating that athletes responded faster and committed fewer errors when the priming stimulus was congruent with the target stimulus. These results suggested that athletes exhibited a significant unconscious response priming effect of geometric forms. By contrast, non-athletes did not respond faster or commit fewer errors for congruent vs. incongruent conditions. No significant difference was detected between athletes and non-athletes in error rates for congruent trials, but athletes committed significantly more errors than non-athletes on incongruent trials. The strength of the unconscious response priming effect that athletes exhibited was greater than that for non-athletes, both in the present study with general stimuli and in our previous study with sport-specific stimuli.

Conclusion

The results indicated that motor expertise facilitated the unconscious processing of geometric forms, suggesting that the influence of motor expertise on unconscious information processing occurs not only for the sports-specific domain but also transfers to the general cognitive domain.

Is subliminal face processing modulated by attentional task sets? Evidence from masked priming effects in a gender decision task

Unlike classical theories of automaticity, refined theories suggest that unconscious automatic processes depend on cognitive control settings. Cognitive control influences on unconscious word and object processing are well documented, but corresponding findings in the field of face processing are heterogeneous. The present study therefore investigated, whether subliminal face priming in a gender categorization task is susceptible to feature-specific attention. Participants performed a gender decision task by orthogonally varying gender congruency (prime-target: same vs. different gender) and emotion congruency (prime-target: same vs. different emotional facial expression) using a masked priming paradigm. Perceptual vs. emotional induction tasks, performed prior to prime presentation, served to activate corresponding attentional task sets. Subliminal gender priming (faster reactions to gender-congruent primes) differed as a function of induction task and emotional congruency. Following perceptual induction, gender priming was only obtained in the emotionally congruent condition, whereas following emotional induction gender priming was observed independently of emotional congruency. In line with the classical notion of automaticity, subliminal gender priming did not depend on a specific attentional focus. However, attention to shape facilitated subliminal processing of task-irrelevant emotional facial expressions. Most likely, mutual facilitation of emotionally congruent prime and target representations enhanced gender priming compared with emotionally incongruent pairings.

Multi-Source Interference Task paradigm to enhance automatic and controlled processes in ADHD

BACKGROUND

The role of automatic and controlled processes in children with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has recently been debated. Most theories on ADHD assume that core deficits are related to controlled processes and executive function.

AIMS

The main aim of the present study is to examine automatic and controlled attention in children with ADHD, compared to TD subjects.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Twenty ADHD-I children, 20 with ADHD-C and 20 typical developing children performed the Block-Formed Multi-Source Interference Task (MSIT) both in incongruent and congruent conditions.

OUTCOME AND RESULTS

Results show that clinical groups had a poorer performance than the TD group in both conditions.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

This study demonstrated that children with ADHD exhibit a deficit both in automatic and controlled processes.

From Controlled to Automatic Processes and Back Again: The Role of Contextual Features

In cognitive psychology, classical approaches categorize automatic and controlled processes from a dichotomous point of view. Automatic processes are believed to be rigid, whereas controlled processes are thought to be flexible. New theories have softened this dichotomous view. The aim of the present study is to examine the possibility of implementing flexibility in automatic processing through reliance on contextual features. One hundred and twenty subjects (mean age 22.4, SD = 4.2), 60 male and 60 female, participated in this study. An automatic sequence task (with and without contextual features) was used to test flexibility in automatic processing. Results showed that the use of contextual cues can increase flexibility in automatic processes. The results are discussed in light of new theories on softened automaticity.

The Nature of Unconscious Attention to Subliminal Cues

Attentional selection in humans is mostly determined by what is important to them or by the saliency of the objects around them. How our visual and attentional system manage these various sources of attentional capture is one of the most intensely debated issues in cognitive psychology. Along with the traditional dichotomy of goal-driven and stimulus-driven theories, newer frameworks such as reward learning and selection history have been proposed as well to understand how a stimulus captures attention. However, surprisingly little is known about the different forms of attentional control by information that is not consciously accessible to us. In this article, we will review several studies that have examined attentional capture by subliminal cues. We will specifically focus on spatial cuing studies that have shown through response times and eye movements that subliminal cues can affect attentional selection. A majority of these studies have argued that attentional capture by subliminal cues is entirely automatic and stimulus-driven. We will evaluate their claims of automaticity and contrast them with a few other studies that have suggested that orienting to unconscious cues proceeds in a manner that is contingent with the top-down goals of the individual. Resolving this debate has consequences for understanding the depths and the limits of unconscious processing. It has implications for general theories of attentional selection as well. In this review, we aim to provide the current status of research in this domain and point out open questions and future directions.

Conditional automaticity: interference effects on the implicit memory retrieval process

Many studies have indicated that executing a secondary task during encoding has little influence on implicit memory (priming effect). However, relatively few studies have discussed the effect of interference on implicit memory during retrieval. Our previous studies found asymmetry between implicit encoding and retrieval processes, with the priming effect disrupted by retrieval interference. Therefore, the present study investigated why and how the priming effect is affected by interference at retrieval. We adopted a dual-task paradigm, with a lexical decision task as the memory task and an odd-even decision task as the interference task. The effect of interference during retrieval was assessed by comparing the performance in the interference condition with that in the full-attention condition. In Experiment 1, we observed that the priming effect was absent in the synchronous retrieval interference condition. In Experiment 2, asynchronous interference was also found to block the priming effect. To verify the assumption that the priming effect is sensitive to attentional resource competition during retrieval, we used two different manipulations (an extended stimulus interval in the dual-task paradigm, Experiment 3, and an interference inhibition manipulation, Experiment 4) known to reduce attentional distraction. In these experiments, the priming effect was protected from interference effects. We suggest that implicit memory retrieval could be regarded as a conditional automatic process that depends on a configuration of the cognitive system by attention and task sets. If the limited resources are occupied by another task, the implicit retrieval process can be impacted.

Cognitive failures in response to emotional contagion: Their effects on workplace accidents

The purpose of this study was to examine contagion of positive and negative emotions among employees as an antecedent of cognitive failures and subsequent workplace accidents. Using emotional contagion theory and the neural model of emotion and cognition, we tested the proposition that higher contagion of anger (i.e., a negative emotion accompanied by dysfunctional cognition) would be associated with greater cognitive failures, whereas higher contagion of joy (i.e., a positive emotion accompanied by pleasant information processing, attention and positive cognition) would be associated with fewer cognitive failures. In turn, cognitive failures were predicted to be related to higher rates of subsequent workplace accidents. Using a two-wave lagged design, anonymous survey data collected from N = 390 working adults in the U.S. supported the hypothesized mediation model. Specifically, emotional contagion of anger positively predicted cognitive failures, whereas emotional contagion of joy negatively predicted cognitive failures. Furthermore, cognitive failures positively predicted experienced accidents and fully mediated the relationship between contagion of joy/anger and experienced accidents. These findings suggest that lapses in cognitive functioning may be prevented by positive emotions (and enhanced by negative emotions) that employees absorb during social interactions at work and represent a more proximal source of accidents in comparison to emotions. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed in light of the globally rising rates of workplace accidents and related costs for safety.

Attentional modulation of masked semantic priming by visible and masked task cues

In contrast to classical theories of cognitive control, recent evidence suggests that cognitive control and unconscious automatic processing influence each other. First, masked semantic priming, an index of unconscious automatic processing, depends on attention to semantics induced by a previously executed task. Second, cognitive control operations (e.g., implementation of task sets indicating how to process a particular stimulus) can be activated by masked task cues, presented outside awareness. In this study, we combined both lines of research. We investigated in three experiments whether induction tasks and presentation of visible or masked task cues, which signal subsequent semantic or perceptual tasks but do not require induction task execution, comparably modulate masked semantic priming. In line with previous research, priming was consistently larger following execution of a semantic rather than a perceptual induction task. However, we observed in experiment 1 (masked letter cues) a reversed priming pattern following task cues (larger priming following cues signaling perceptual tasks) compared to induction tasks. Experiment 2 (visible letter cues) and experiment 3 (visible color cues) showed that this reversed priming pattern depended only on apriori associations between task cues and task elements (task set dominance), but neither on awareness nor on the verbal or non-verbal format of the cues. These results indicate that task cues have the power to modulate subsequent masked semantic priming through attentional mechanisms. Task-set dominance conceivably affects the time course of task set activation and inhibition in response to task cues and thus the direction of their modulatory effects on priming.

Correlation and Similarity between Cerebral and Non-Cerebral Electrical Activity for User's States Assessment

Human tissues own conductive properties, and the electrical activity produced by human organs can propagate throughout the body due to neuro transmitters and electrolytes. Therefore, it might be reasonable to hypothesize correlations and similarities between electrical activities among different parts of the body. Since no works have been found in this direction, the proposed study aimed at overcoming this lack of evidence and seeking analogies between the brain activity and the electrical activity of non-cerebral locations, such as the neck and wrists, to determine if i) cerebral parameters can be estimated from non-cerebral sites, and if ii) non-cerebral sensors can replace cerebral sensors for the evaluation of the users under specific experimental conditions, such as eyes open or closed. In fact, the use of cerebral sensors requires high-qualified personnel, and reliable recording systems, which are still expensive. Therefore, the possibility to use cheaper and easy-to-use equipment to estimate cerebral parameters will allow making some brain-based applications less invasive and expensive, and easier to employ. The results demonstrated the occurrence of significant correlations and analogies between cerebral and non-cerebral electrical activity. Furthermore, the same discrimination and classification accuracy were found in using the cerebral or non-cerebral sites for the user's status assessment.

Motor expertise modulates unconscious rather than conscious executive control

Background

Executive control, the ability to regulate the execution of a goal-directed task, is an important element in an athlete’s skill set. Although previous studies have shown that executive control in athletes is better than that in non-athletes, those studies were mainly confined to conscious executive control. Many recent studies have suggested that executive control can be triggered by the presentation of visual stimuli without participant’s conscious awareness. However, few studies have examined unconscious executive control in sports. Thus, the present study investigated whether, similar to conscious executive control, unconscious executive control in table tennis athletes is superior to that in non-athletes.

Methods

In total, 42 age-matched undergraduate students were recruited for this study; 22 nonathletic students lacking practical athletic experience comprised one group, and 20 table tennis athletes with many years of training in this sport comprised a second group. Each participant first completed an unconscious response priming task, the unconscious processing of visual-spatial information, and then completed a conscious version of this same response priming task.

Results

Table tennis athletes showed a significant response priming effect, whereas non-athletes did not, when participants were unable to consciously perceive the visual-spatial priming stimuli. In addition, the number of years the table tennis athletes had trained in this sport (a measure of their motor expertise) was positively correlated with the strength of the unconscious response priming effect. However, both table tennis athletes and non-athletes showed a response priming effect when the primes were unmasked and the participants were able to consciously perceive the visual-spatial priming stimuli.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that motor expertise modulates unconscious, rather than conscious, executive control and that motor expertise is positively correlated with unconscious executive control in table tennis athletes.

Semantic category priming from the groundside of objects shown in nontarget locations and at unpredictable times

Previous research demonstrated that familiar objects that are suggested, but not consciously perceived, on the groundside of the contours of a figure activate their semantic category during perceptual organization, at least when the figure appears at fixation at an expected time. Here, we investigate whether evidence for such semantic activation extends to stimuli presented at unpredictable times in peripheral locations. Participants categorized words shown centrally as denoting natural or artificial objects (Experiments 1 and 2a) or positive or negative concepts (Experiment 2b). Prior to the word, two distractor silhouettes appeared above and below fixation; both depicted novel figures. On experimental trials, portions of well-known (familiar) objects were suggested on the groundside of the borders of one (Experiment 1) or both (Experiment 2a and 2b) silhouettes. In Experiment 1, reaction times were slower when targets words were preceded by experimental distractor silhouettes regardless of whether the object suggested on the groundside of their borders was in the same or a different category as the object denoted by the word. Overall slowing may have occurred because (a) semantic category access by objects suggested on the groundside of experimental distractor silhouettes was sufficient to require filtering but not category-specific priming, (b) more competition for object status slowed processing of experimental compared to control silhouettes, or (c) featural differences increased the difficulty of processing the experimental versus the control silhouettes. The use of two identical experimental silhouettes in Experiment 2a allowed a semantic category priming effect to emerge, showing that the categories of objects suggested on the groundside of silhouette borders can be activated at unpredictable times in nontarget locations and in more than one location of the visual field. Experiment 2a suggested that (a) better explains the results of Experiment 1 than (b and c). Experiment 2b further ruled out explanations (b and c) as reasons for the Experiment 1 results by showing that the same pattern is not obtained when the semantic category of the objects suggested on the groundside of the experimental silhouettes borders is not task-relevant and does not require filtering. Thus, spatial prime-target congruence and temporal certainty are not necessary for priming by objects suggested on the groundside of figures. Implications for our understanding of the complex processes involved in perceptual organization are considered.

Cross-modal plasticity in the deaf enhances processing of masked stimuli in the visual modality

Compensatory changes as a result of auditory deprivation in the deaf lead to higher visual processing skills. In two experiments, we explored if such brain plasticity in the deaf modulates processing of masked stimuli in the visual modality. Deaf and normal-hearing participants responded to targets either voluntarily or by instruction. Masked primes related to the response were presented briefly before the targets at the center and the periphery. In Experiment 1, targets appeared only at the foveal region whereas, in Experiment 2, they appeared both at the fovea and the periphery. The deaf showed higher sensitivity to masked primes in both the experiments. They chose the primed response more often and also were faster during congruent responses compared to the normal hearing. These results suggest that neuroplasticity in the deaf modulates how they perceive and use information with reduced visibility for action selection and execution.

At the Core of Our Capacity to Act for a Reason: The Affective System and Evaluative Model-Based Learning and Control

Recent decades have witnessed a sea change in thinking about emotion, which has gone from being seen as a disruptive force in human thought and action to being seen as an important source of situation- and goal-relevant information and evaluation, continuous with perception and cognition. Here I argue on philosophical and empirical grounds that the role of emotion in contributing to our ability to respond to reasons for action runs deeper still: The affective system is at the core of the process of evaluatively modeling situations, actions, and outcomes, which is the foundation upon which rational deliberation and action can be built. Taking up this perspective affords new approaches to long-standing problems in the theory of reason-based action.

Alpha-Band Brain Oscillations Shape the Processing of Perceptible as well as Imperceptible Somatosensory Stimuli during Selective Attention

Attention filters and weights sensory information according to behavioral demands. Stimulus-related neural responses are increased for the attended stimulus. Does alpha-band activity mediate this effect and is it restricted to conscious sensory events (suprathreshold), or does it also extend to unconscious stimuli (subthreshold)? To address these questions, we recorded EEG in healthy male and female volunteers undergoing subthreshold and suprathreshold somatosensory electrical stimulation to the left or right index finger. The task was to detect stimulation at the randomly alternated cued index finger. Under attention, amplitudes of somatosensory evoked potentials increased 50-60 ms after stimulation (P1) for both suprathreshold and subthreshold events. Prestimulus amplitude of peri-Rolandic alpha, that is mu, showed an inverse relationship to P1 amplitude during attention compared to when the finger was unattended. Interestingly, intermediate and high amplitudes of mu rhythm were associated with the highest P1 amplitudes during attention and smallest P1 during lack of attention, that is, these levels of alpha rhythm seemed to optimally support the behavioral goal ("detect" stimuli at the cued finger while ignoring the other finger). Our results show that attention enhances neural processing for both suprathreshold and subthreshold stimuli and they highlight a rather complex interaction between attention, Rolandic alpha activity, and their effects on stimulus processing.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Attention is crucial in prioritizing processing of relevant perceptible (suprathreshold) stimuli: it filters and weights sensory input. The present study investigates the controversially discussed question whether this attention effect extends to imperceptible (subthreshold) stimuli as well. We found noninvasive EEG signatures for attentional modulation of neural events following perceptible and imperceptible somatosensory stimulation in human participants. Specifically, stimulus processing for both kinds of stimulation, subthreshold and suprathreshold, is enhanced by attention. Interestingly, Rolandic alpha rhythm strength and its influence on stimulus processing are strikingly altered by attention most likely to optimally achieve the behavioral goal.

Subliminal Emotional Words Impact Syntactic Processing: Evidence from Performance and Event-Related Brain Potentials

Recent studies demonstrate that syntactic processing can be affected by emotional information and that subliminal emotional information can also affect cognitive processes. In this study, we explore whether unconscious emotional information may also impact syntactic processing. In an Event-Related brain Potential (ERP) study, positive, neutral and negative subliminal adjectives were inserted within neutral sentences, just before the presentation of the supraliminal adjective. They could either be correct (50%) or contain a morphosyntactic violation (number or gender disagreements). Larger error rates were observed for incorrect sentences than for correct ones, in contrast to most studies using supraliminal information. Strikingly, emotional adjectives affected the conscious syntactic processing of sentences containing morphosyntactic anomalies. The neutral condition elicited left anterior negativity (LAN) followed by a P600 component. However, a lack of anterior negativity and an early P600 onset for the negative condition were found, probably as a result of the negative subliminal correct adjective capturing early syntactic resources. Positive masked adjectives in turn prompted an N400 component in response to morphosyntactic violations, probably reflecting the induction of a heuristic processing mode involving access to lexico-semantic information to solve agreement anomalies. Our results add to recent evidence on the impact of emotional information on syntactic processing, while showing that this can occur even when the reader is unaware of the emotional stimuli.

Effects of auditory stimuli on electrical activity in the brain during cycle ergometry

The present study sought to further understanding of the brain mechanisms that underlie the effects of music on perceptual, affective, and visceral responses during whole-body modes of exercise. Eighteen participants were administered light-to-moderate intensity bouts of cycle ergometer exercise. Each exercise bout was of 12-min duration (warm-up [3min], exercise [6min], and warm-down [3min]). Portable techniques were used to monitor the electrical activity in the brain, heart, and muscle during the administration of three conditions: music, audiobook, and control. Conditions were randomized and counterbalanced to prevent any influence of systematic order on the dependent variables. Oscillatory potentials at the Cz electrode site were used to further understanding of time-frequency changes influenced by voluntary control of movements. Spectral coherence analysis between Cz and frontal, frontal-central, central, central-parietal, and parietal electrode sites was also calculated. Perceptual and affective measures were taken at five timepoints during the exercise bout. Results indicated that music reallocated participants' attentional focus toward auditory pathways and reduced perceived exertion. The music also inhibited alpha resynchronization at the Cz electrode site and reduced the spectral coherence values at Cz-C4 and Cz-Fz. The reduced focal awareness induced by music led to a more autonomous control of cycle movements performed at light-to-moderate-intensities. Processing of interoceptive sensory cues appears to upmodulate fatigue-related sensations, increase the connectivity in the frontal and central regions of the brain, and is associated with neural resynchronization to sustain the imposed exercise intensity.

Can application and transfer of strategy be observed in low visibility condition?

It has been long assumed that cognitive control processes can only be applied on consciously visible stimuli, but empirical evidence is contradictory. In the present study, we investigated strategic adaptation to conflict both in unmasked and in low-visibility masked trials. Using a paradigm derived from the Stroop task, we studied the application of strategies, but also the transfer of a strategy developed in unmasked trials to masked trials, and the trial-to-trial dynamics of strategic processing. In unmasked trials, we found evidence of strategic adaptation to conflict, both in reaction times and in ERPs (N2 and P300). In masked trials we found no evidence of behavioral adaptation to conflict, but a modulation of the P300 was present in masked trials included in unmasked blocks, suggesting the existence of a transfer of strategy. Finally, trial-to-trial analyses in unmasked trials revealed a pattern suggestive of dynamic subjective adherence to the instructed strategy.

A higher-order theory of emotional consciousness

Emotional states of consciousness, or what are typically called emotional feelings, are traditionally viewed as being innately programmed in subcortical areas of the brain, and are often treated as different from cognitive states of consciousness, such as those related to the perception of external stimuli. We argue that conscious experiences, regardless of their content, arise from one system in the brain. In this view, what differs in emotional and nonemotional states are the kinds of inputs that are processed by a general cortical network of cognition, a network essential for conscious experiences. Although subcortical circuits are not directly responsible for conscious feelings, they provide nonconscious inputs that coalesce with other kinds of neural signals in the cognitive assembly of conscious emotional experiences. In building the case for this proposal, we defend a modified version of what is known as the higher-order theory of consciousness.

Task relevance differentially shapes ventral visual stream sensitivity to visible and invisible faces

Top-down modulations of the visual cortex can be driven by task relevance. Yet, several accounts propose that the perceptual inferences underlying conscious recognition involve similar top-down modulations of sensory responses. Studying the pure impact of task relevance on sensory responses requires dissociating it from the top-down influences underlying conscious recognition. Here, using visual masking to abolish perceptual consciousness in humans, we report that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses to invisible faces in the fusiform gyrus are enhanced when they are task-relevant, but suppressed when they are task-irrelevant compared to other object categories. Under conscious perceptual conditions, task-related modulations were also present but drastically reduced, with visible faces always eliciting greater activity in the fusiform gyrus compared to other object categories. Thus, task relevance crucially shapes the sensitivity of fusiform regions to face stimuli, leading from enhancement to suppression of neural activity when the top-down influences accruing from conscious recognition are prevented.

Effects in the Affect Misattribution Procedure Are Modulated by Feature-Specific Attention Allocation

Abstract. We examined whether automatic stimulus evaluation as measured by the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) is moderated by the degree to which attention is assigned to the evaluative stimulus dimension (i.e., feature-specific attention allocation, FSAA). In two experiments, one group of participants completed a standard AMP while attending to evaluative stimulus information. A second group of participants completed the AMP while attending to non-evaluative stimulus information. In line with earlier work, larger AMP effects were observed when participants were encouraged to attend to evaluative stimulus information than when they were not. These observations support the idea that the impact of FSAA on measures of automatic stimulus evaluation results from a genuine change in the degree of automatic stimulus evaluation rather than a change in the degree to which automatic stimulus evaluation is picked up by these measures.

Subjectivity: A Case of Biological Individuation and an Adaptive Response to Informational Overflow

The article presents a perspective on the scientific explanation of the subjectivity of conscious experience. It proposes plausible answers for two empirically valid questions: the 'how' question concerning the developmental mechanisms of subjectivity, and the 'why' question concerning its function. Biological individuation, which is acquired in several different stages, serves as a provisional description of how subjective perspectives may have evolved. To the extent that an individuated informational space seems the most efficient way for a given organism to select biologically valuable information, subjectivity is deemed to constitute an adaptive response to informational overflow. One of the possible consequences of this view is that subjectivity might be (at least functionally) dissociated from consciousness, insofar as the former primarily facilitates selection, the latter action.

Exploring the Behavioral, Experiential, and Conceptual Dimensions of the Self

Abstract. The self has become a prominent field of research in psychology but despite its eminent first-person character, it is typically studied from a third-person perspective. Such a third-person approach is well suited to enquire into the behavioral expression of the sense of selfhood but it does not capture the core experience – the so-called qualia nature – of the self. In the current article we illuminate the challenges that a predominant third-person approach poses to an understanding of the self. We outline two levels of analysis that can complement and enrich a third-person, behavior-focused view, namely the level of experience and the level of conceptual insight. Both these additional levels are accessible via a first-person mode of enquiry and can reveal a degree of richness about the self that reaches beyond a third-person approach. We here provide a methodological justification for such a qualitative mode of enquiry, as well as a synopsis of findings from our own first-person research which involved introspective reports of the authors’ experiences during meditation on geometrical shapes, words, and short phrases.

Cerebral mechanisms underlying the effects of music during a fatiguing isometric ankle-dorsiflexion task

The brain mechanisms by which music-related interventions ameliorate fatigue-related symptoms during the execution of fatiguing motor tasks are hitherto under-researched. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of music on brain electrical activity and psychophysiological measures during the execution of an isometric fatiguing ankle-dorsiflexion task performed until the point of volitional exhaustion. Nineteen healthy participants performed two fatigue tests at 40% of maximal voluntary contraction while listening to music or in silence. Electrical activity in the brain was assessed by use of a 64-channel EEG. The results indicated that music downregulated theta waves in the frontal, central, and parietal regions of the brain during exercise. Music also induced a partial attentional switching from associative thoughts to task-unrelated factors (dissociative thoughts) during exercise, which led to improvements in task performance. Moreover, participants experienced a more positive affective state while performing the isometric task under the influence of music.

Lost in dissociation: The main paradigms in unconscious cognition

Contemporary studies in unconscious cognition are essentially founded on dissociation, i.e., on how it dissociates with respect to conscious mental processes and representations. This is claimed to be in so many and diverse ways that one is often lost in dissociation. In order to reduce this state of confusion we here carry out two major tasks: based on the central distinction between cognitive processes and representations, we identify and isolate the main dissociation paradigms; we then critically analyze their key tenets and reported findings.

Interocular suppression prevents interference in a flanker task

Executive control of attention refers to processes that detect and resolve conflict among competing thoughts and actions. Despite the high-level nature of this faculty, the role of awareness in executive control of attention is not well understood. In this study, we used interocular suppression to mask the flankers in an arrow flanker task, in which the flankers and the target arrow were presented simultaneously in order to elicit executive control of attention. Participants were unable to detect the flanker arrows or to reliably identify their direction when masked. There was a typical conflict effect (prolonged reaction time and increased error rate under flanker-target incongruent condition compared to congruent condition) when the flanker arrows were unmasked, while the conflict effect was absent when the flanker arrows were masked with interocular suppression. These results suggest that blocking awareness of competing stimuli with interocular suppression prevents the involvement of executive control of attention.

Listening to Puns Elicits the Co-Activation of Alternative Homophone Meanings during Language Production

Recent evidence suggests that lexical-semantic activation spread during language production can be dynamically shaped by contextual factors. In this study we investigated whether semantic processing modes can also affect lexical-semantic activation during word production. Specifically, we tested whether the processing of linguistic ambiguities, presented in the form of puns, has an influence on the co-activation of unrelated meanings of homophones in a subsequent language production task. In a picture-word interference paradigm with word distractors that were semantically related or unrelated to the non-depicted meanings of homophones we found facilitation induced by related words only when participants listened to puns before object naming, but not when they heard jokes with unambiguous linguistic stimuli. This finding suggests that a semantic processing mode of ambiguity perception can induce the co-activation of alternative homophone meanings during speech planning.

The Divergent Effects of Fear and Disgust on Inhibitory Control: An ERP Study

Negative emotional stimuli have been shown to attract attention and impair executive control. However, two different types of unpleasant stimuli, fearful and disgusting, are often inappropriately treated as a single category in the literature on inhibitory control. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the divergent effects of fearful and disgusting distracters on inhibitory control (both conscious and unconscious inhibition). Specifically, participants were engaged in a masked Go/No-Go task superimposed on fearful, disgusting, or neutral emotional contexts, while event-related potentials were measured concurrently. The results showed that for both conscious and unconscious conditions, disgusting stimuli elicited a larger P2 than fearful ones, and the difference waves of P3 amplitude under disgusting contexts were smaller than that under fearful contexts. These results suggest that disgusting distracters consume more attentional resources and therefore impair subsequent inhibitory control to a greater extent. This study is the first to provide electrophysiological evidence that fear and disgust differently affect inhibitory control. These results expand our understanding of the relationship between emotions and inhibitory control.

Contributions from associative and explicit sequence knowledge to the execution of discrete keying sequences

Research has provided many indications that highly practiced 6-key sequences are carried out in a chunking mode in which key-specific stimuli past the first are largely ignored. When in such sequences a deviating stimulus occasionally occurs at an unpredictable location, participants fall back to responding to individual stimuli (Verwey & Abrahamse, 2012). The observation that in such a situation execution still benefits from prior practice has been attributed to the possibility to operate in an associative mode. To better understand the contribution to the execution of keying sequences of motor chunks, associative sequence knowledge and also of explicit sequence knowledge, the present study tested three alternative accounts for the earlier finding of an execution rate increase at the end of 6-key sequences performed in the associative mode. The results provide evidence that the earlier observed execution rate increase can be attributed to the use of explicit sequence knowledge. In the present experiment this benefit was limited to sequences that are executed at the moderately fast rates of the associative mode, and occurred at both the earlier and final elements of the sequences.

Suggestion-Induced Modulation of Semantic Priming during Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging during a primed visual lexical decision task, we investigated the neural and functional mechanisms underlying modulations of semantic word processing through hypnotic suggestions aimed at altering lexical processing of primes. The priming task was to discriminate between target words and pseudowords presented 200 ms after the prime word which was semantically related or unrelated to the target. In a counterbalanced study design, each participant performed the task once at normal wakefulness and once after the administration of hypnotic suggestions to perceive the prime as a meaningless symbol of a foreign language. Neural correlates of priming were defined as significantly lower activations upon semantically related compared to unrelated trials. We found significant suggestive treatment-induced reductions in neural priming, albeit irrespective of the degree of suggestibility. Neural priming was attenuated upon suggestive treatment compared with normal wakefulness in brain regions supporting automatic (fusiform gyrus) and controlled semantic processing (superior and middle temporal gyri, pre- and postcentral gyri, and supplementary motor area). Hence, suggestions reduced semantic word processing by conjointly dampening both automatic and strategic semantic processes.

The Neural Signature of Subliminal Visuomotor Priming: Brain Activity and Functional Connectivity Profiles

Unconscious visuomotor priming defined as the advantage in reaction time (RT) or accuracy for target shapes mapped to the same (congruent condition) when compared with a different (incongruent condition) motor response as a preceding subliminally presented prime shape has been shown to modulate activity within a visuomotor network comprised of parietal and frontal motor areas in previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. The present fMRI study investigated whether, in addition to changes in brain activity, unconscious visuomotor priming results in a modulation of functional connectivity profiles. Activity associated with congruent compared with incongruent trials was lower in the bilateral inferior and medial superior frontal gyri, in the inferior parietal lobules, and in the right caudate nucleus and adjacent portions of the thalamus. Functional connectivity increased under congruent relative to incongruent conditions between ventral visual stream areas (e.g., calcarine, fusiform, and lingual gyri), the precentral gyrus, the supplementary motor area, posterior parietal areas, the inferior frontal gyrus, and the caudate nucleus. Our findings suggest that an increase in coupling between visuomotor regions, reflecting higher efficiency of processing, is an important neural mechanism underlying unconscious visuomotor priming, in addition to changes in the magnitude of activation.