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Acker L, Wong MK, Wright MC, Reese M, Giattino CM, Roberts KC, Au S, Colon-Emeric C, Lipsitz LA, Devinney MJ, Browndyke J, Eleswarpu S, Moretti E, Whitson HE, Berger M, Woldorff MG. Preoperative electroencephalographic alpha-power changes with eyes opening are associated with postoperative attention impairment and inattention-related delirium severity. Br J Anaesth 2024; 132:154-163. [PMID: 38087743 PMCID: PMC10797508 DOI: 10.1016/j.bja.2023.10.037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Revised: 10/11/2023] [Accepted: 10/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND In the eyes-closed, awake condition, EEG oscillatory power in the alpha band (7-13 Hz) dominates human spectral activity. With eyes open, however, EEG alpha power substantially decreases. Less alpha attenuation with eyes opening has been associated with inattention; thus, we analysed whether reduced preoperative alpha attenuation with eyes opening is associated with postoperative inattention, a delirium-defining feature. METHODS Preoperative awake 32-channel EEG was recorded with eyes open and eyes closed in 71 non-neurological, noncardiac surgery patients aged ≥ 60 years. Inattention and other delirium features were assessed before surgery and twice daily after surgery until discharge. Eyes-opening EEG alpha-attenuation magnitude was analysed for associations with postoperative inattention, primarily, and with delirium severity, secondarily, using multivariate age- and Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE)-adjusted logistic and proportional-odds regression analyses. RESULTS Preoperative alpha attenuation with eyes opening was inversely associated with postoperative inattention (odds ratio [OR] 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.57, 0.94; P=0.038). Sensitivity analyses showed an inverse relationship between alpha-attenuation magnitude and inattention chronicity, defined as 'never', 'newly', or 'chronically' inattentive (OR 0.76, 95% CI: 0.62, 0.93; P=0.019). In addition, preoperative alpha-attenuation magnitude was inversely associated with postoperative delirium severity (OR 0.79, 95% CI: 0.65, 0.95; P=0.040), predominantly as a result of the inattention feature. CONCLUSIONS Preoperative awake, resting, EEG alpha attenuation with eyes opening might represent a neural biomarker for risk of postoperative attentional impairment. Further, eyes-opening alpha attenuation could provide insight into the neural mechanisms underlying postoperative inattention risk.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leah Acker
- Department of Anaesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Duke-UNC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Durham, NC, USA.
| | - Megan K Wong
- Department of Anaesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Mary C Wright
- Department of Anaesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Melody Reese
- Department of Anaesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | | | - Sandra Au
- Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Cathleen Colon-Emeric
- Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Duke-UNC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Durham, NC, USA; Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Lewis A Lipsitz
- Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Gerontology, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Michael J Devinney
- Department of Anaesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Jeffrey Browndyke
- Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Geriatrics Research Education and Clinical Center, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Sarada Eleswarpu
- Department of Anaesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Eugene Moretti
- Department of Anaesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Heather E Whitson
- Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Duke-UNC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Durham, NC, USA; Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Geriatrics Research Education and Clinical Center, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Miles Berger
- Department of Anaesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA; Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Duke-UNC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Division of Behavioural Medicine & Neurosciences, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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Chung YS, van den Berg B, Roberts KC, Woldorff MG, Gaffrey MS. Electrical brain activations in young children during a probabilistic reward-learning task are associated with behavioral strategy. bioRxiv 2023:2023.10.16.562326. [PMID: 37905129 PMCID: PMC10614771 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.16.562326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2023]
Abstract
Both adults and children learn through feedback which events and choices in the environment are associated with higher probability of reward. This probability reward-learning ability is thought to be supported by the development of fronto-striatal reward circuits. Recent developmental studies have applied computational models of reward learning to investigate such learning in children. However, there has been limited development of task tools capable of measuring the cascade of neural reward-learning processes in children. Using a child-version of a probabilistic reward-learning task while recording event-related-potential (ERP) measures of electrical brain activity, this study examined key processes of reward learning in preadolescents (n=30), namely: (1) reward-feedback sensitivity, as measured by the early reward-related frontal ERP positivity, (2) rapid attentional shifting of processing toward favored visual stimuli, as measured by the N2pc component, and (3) longer-latency attention-related responses to reward feedback as a function of behavior strategies (i.e., Win-Stay-Lose-Shift), as measured by the central-parietal P300. Consistent with our prior work in adults, the behavioral findings indicate that preadolescents could learn stimulus-reward outcome associations, but at varying levels of performance. Neurally, poor preadolescent learners (those with slower learning rates) showed greater reward-related positivity amplitudes relative to good learners, suggesting greater reward sensitivity. We also found attention shifting towards to-be-chosen stimuli, as evidenced by the N2pc, but not to more highly rewarded stimuli. Lastly, we found an effect of behavioral learning strategies (i.e., Win-Stay-Lose-Shift) on the feedback-locked P300 over the parietal cortex. These findings provide novel insights into the key neural processes underlying reinforcement learning in preadolescents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Sun Chung
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Reuben-Cooke Building, 417 Chapel Drive, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | | | - Kenneth C. Roberts
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708 USA
| | - Marty G. Woldorff
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Reuben-Cooke Building, 417 Chapel Drive, Durham, NC 27708, USA
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708 USA
| | - Michael S. Gaffrey
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Reuben-Cooke Building, 417 Chapel Drive, Durham, NC 27708, USA
- Children’s Wisconsin, 9000 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI, 53226
- Medical College of Wisconsin, Division of Pediatric Psychology and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI, 53226
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3
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Gjorgieva E, Morales-Torres R, Cabeza R, Woldorff MG. Neural retrieval processes occur more rapidly for visual mental images that were previously encoded with high-vividness. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:10234-10244. [PMID: 37526263 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Revised: 06/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Visual mental imagery refers to our ability to experience visual images in the absence of sensory stimulation. Studies have shown that visual mental imagery can improve episodic memory. However, we have limited understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying this improvement. Using electroencephalography, we examined the neural processes associated with the retrieval of previously generated visual mental images, focusing on how the vividness at generation can modulate retrieval processes. Participants viewed word stimuli referring to common objects, forming a visual mental image of each word and rating the vividness of the mental image. This was followed by a surprise old/new recognition task. We compared retrieval performance for items rated as high- versus low-vividness at encoding. High-vividness items were retrieved with faster reaction times and higher confidence ratings in the memory judgment. While controlling for confidence, neural measures indicated that high-vividness items produced an earlier decrease in alpha-band activity at retrieval compared with low-vividness items, suggesting an earlier memory reinstatement. Even when low-vividness items were remembered with high confidence, they were not retrieved as quickly as high-vividness items. These results indicate that when highly vivid mental images are encoded, the speed of their retrieval occurs more rapidly, relative to low-vivid items.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Gjorgieva
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Ricardo Morales-Torres
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Roberto Cabeza
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Departtment of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
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4
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Reese M, Christensen S, Anolick H, Roberts KC, Wong MK, Wright MC, Acker L, Browndyke JN, Woldorff MG, Berger M. EEG pre-burst suppression: characterization and inverse association with preoperative cognitive function in older adults. Front Aging Neurosci 2023; 15:1229081. [PMID: 37711992 PMCID: PMC10499509 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1229081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 08/01/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The most common complication in older surgical patients is postoperative delirium (POD). POD is associated with preoperative cognitive impairment and longer durations of intraoperative burst suppression (BSup) - electroencephalography (EEG) with repeated periods of suppression (very low-voltage brain activity). However, BSup has modest sensitivity for predicting POD. We hypothesized that a brain state of lowered EEG power immediately precedes BSup, which we have termed "pre-burst suppression" (preBSup). Further, we hypothesized that even patients without BSup experience these preBSup transient reductions in EEG power, and that preBSup (like BSup) would be associated with preoperative cognitive function and delirium risk. Data included 83 32-channel intraoperative EEG recordings of the first hour of surgery from 2 prospective cohort studies of patients ≥age 60 scheduled for ≥2-h non-cardiac, non-neurologic surgery under general anesthesia (maintained with a potent inhaled anesthetic or a propofol infusion). Among patients with BSup, we defined preBSup as the difference in 3-35 Hz power (dB) during the 1-s preceding BSup relative to the average 3-35 Hz power of their intraoperative EEG recording. We then recorded the percentage of time that each patient spent in preBSup, including those without BSup. Next, we characterized the association between percentage of time in preBSup and (1) percentage of time in BSup, (2) preoperative cognitive function, and (3) POD incidence. The percentage of time in preBSup and BSup were correlated (Spearman's ρ [95% CI]: 0.52 [0.34, 0.66], p < 0.001). The percentage of time in BSup, preBSup, or their combination were each inversely associated with preoperative cognitive function (β [95% CI]: -0.10 [-0.19, -0.01], p = 0.024; -0.04 [-0.06, -0.01], p = 0.009; -0.04 [-0.06, -0.01], p = 0.003, respectively). Consistent with prior literature, BSup was significantly associated with POD (odds ratio [95% CI]: 1.34 [1.01, 1.78], p = 0.043), though this association did not hold for preBSup (odds ratio [95% CI]: 1.04 [0.95, 1.14], p = 0.421). While all patients had ≥1 preBSup instance, only 20.5% of patients had ≥1 BSup instance. These exploratory findings suggest that future studies are warranted to further study the extent to which preBSup, even in the absence of BSup, can identify patients with impaired preoperative cognition and/or POD risk.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melody Reese
- Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
- Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, United States
| | | | - Harel Anolick
- Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Kenneth C. Roberts
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Megan K. Wong
- School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Mary Cooter Wright
- Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Leah Acker
- Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | | | - Marty G. Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Miles Berger
- Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
- Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
- Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
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5
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Gjorgieva E, Geib BR, Cabeza R, Woldorff MG. The influence of imagery vividness and internally-directed attention on the neural mechanisms underlying the encoding of visual mental images into episodic memory. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:3207-3220. [PMID: 35945684 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac270] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Revised: 06/10/2022] [Accepted: 06/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Attention can be directed externally toward sensory information or internally toward self-generated information. Using electroencephalography (EEG), we investigated the attentional processes underlying the formation and encoding of self-generated mental images into episodic memory. Participants viewed flickering words referring to common objects and were tasked with forming visual mental images of the objects and rating their vividness. Subsequent memory for the presented object words was assessed using an old-new recognition task. Internally-directed attention during image generation was indexed as a reduction in steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs), oscillatory EEG responses at the frequency of a flickering stimulus. The results yielded 3 main findings. First, SSVEP power driven by the flickering word stimuli decreased as subjects directed attention internally to form the corresponding mental image. Second, SSVEP power returned to pre-imagery baseline more slowly for low- than high-vividness later remembered items, suggesting that longer internally-directed attention is required to generate subsequently remembered low-vividness images. Finally, the event-related-potential difference due to memory was more sustained for subsequently remembered low- versus high-vividness items, suggesting that additional conceptual processing may have been needed to remember the low-vividness visual images. Taken together, the results clarify the neural mechanisms supporting the encoding of self-generated information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Gjorgieva
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Benjamin R Geib
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Roberto Cabeza
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
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6
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Pinhas M, Paulsen DJ, Woldorff MG, Brannon EM. Neurophysiological signatures of approximate number system acuity in preschoolers. Trends Neurosci Educ 2023; 30:100197. [PMID: 36925266 DOI: 10.1016/j.tine.2022.100197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2022] [Revised: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND A hallmark of the approximate number system (ANS) is ratio dependence. Previous work identified specific event-related potentials (ERPs) that are modulated by numerical ratio throughout the lifespan. In adults, ERP ratio dependence was correlated with the precision of the numerical judgments with individuals who make more precise judgments showing larger ratio-dependent ERP effects. The current study evaluated if this relationship generalizes to preschoolers. METHOD ERPs were recorded from 56 4.5 to 5.5-year-olds while they compared the numerosity of two sequentially presented dot arrays. Nonverbal numerical precision, often called ANS acuity, was assessed using a similar behavioral task. RESULTS Only children with high ANS acuity exhibited a P2p ratio-dependent effect onsetting ∼250 ms after the presentation of the comparison dot array. Furthermore, P2p amplitude positively correlated with ANS acuity across tasks. CONCLUSION Results demonstrate developmental continuity between preschool years and adulthood in the neural basis of the ANS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michal Pinhas
- Department of Psychology, Ariel University, Ariel 4070000, Israel.
| | - David J Paulsen
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Elizabeth M Brannon
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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Abstract
To adaptively interact with the uncertainties of daily life, we must match our level of cognitive flexibility to situations that place different demands on our ability to focus on the current task while remaining sensitive to cues that signal other, more urgent tasks. Such cognitive-flexibility adjustments in response to changing contextual demands (metaflexibility) have been observed in cued task-switching paradigms, where the performance cost incurred by switching versus repeating tasks (switch cost) scales inversely with the proportion of switches (PS) within a block of trials. However, the neural underpinnings of these adjustments in cognitive flexibility are not well understood. Here, we recorded 64-channel EEG measures of electrical brain activity as participants switched between letter and digit categorization tasks in varying PS contexts, from which we extracted ERPs elicited by the task cue and EEG alpha-power differences during both the cue-to-target interval and the resting precue period. The temporal resolution of EEG/ERPs allowed us to test whether contextual adjustments in cognitive flexibility are mediated by tonic changes in processing mode, or by changes in phasic, task-cue-triggered processes. We observed reliable modulation of behavioral switch cost by PS context that were mirrored in both cue-evoked ERP and time-frequency effects, but not in blockwide precue EEG changes. These results indicate that different levels of cognitive flexibility are instantiated in response to the presentation of task cues, rather than by being maintained as a tonic neural-activity state difference between low- and high-switch contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Audrey Siqi-Liu
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke Univeristy, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Tobias Egner
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke Univeristy, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Marty G. Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke Univeristy, Durham, NC, USA,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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Acker L, Ha C, Zhou J, Manor B, Giattino CM, Roberts K, Berger M, Wright MC, Colon-Emeric C, Devinney M, Au S, Woldorff MG, Lipsitz LA, Whitson HE. Electroencephalogram-Based Complexity Measures as Predictors of Post-operative Neurocognitive Dysfunction. Front Syst Neurosci 2021; 15:718769. [PMID: 34858144 PMCID: PMC8631543 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2021.718769] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 10/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Physiologic signals such as the electroencephalogram (EEG) demonstrate irregular behaviors due to the interaction of multiple control processes operating over different time scales. The complexity of this behavior can be quantified using multi-scale entropy (MSE). High physiologic complexity denotes health, and a loss of complexity can predict adverse outcomes. Since postoperative delirium is particularly hard to predict, we investigated whether the complexity of preoperative and intraoperative frontal EEG signals could predict postoperative delirium and its endophenotype, inattention. To calculate MSE, the sample entropy of EEG recordings was computed at different time scales, then plotted against scale; complexity is the total area under the curve. MSE of frontal EEG recordings was computed in 50 patients ≥ age 60 before and during surgery. Average MSE was higher intra-operatively than pre-operatively (p = 0.0003). However, intraoperative EEG MSE was lower than preoperative MSE at smaller scales, but higher at larger scales (interaction p < 0.001), creating a crossover point where, by definition, preoperative, and intraoperative MSE curves met. Overall, EEG complexity was not associated with delirium or attention. In 42/50 patients with single crossover points, the scale at which the intraoperative and preoperative entropy curves crossed showed an inverse relationship with delirium-severity score change (Spearman ρ = -0.31, p = 0.054). Thus, average EEG complexity increases intra-operatively in older adults, but is scale dependent. The scale at which preoperative and intraoperative complexity is equal (i.e., the crossover point) may predict delirium. Future studies should assess whether the crossover point represents changes in neural control mechanisms that predispose patients to postoperative delirium.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leah Acker
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
- Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Christine Ha
- Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Junhong Zhou
- Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew Senior Life and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Division of Gerontology, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Brad Manor
- Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew Senior Life and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Division of Gerontology, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Charles M Giattino
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Ken Roberts
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Miles Berger
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
- Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Mary Cooter Wright
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Cathleen Colon-Emeric
- Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
- Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Michael Devinney
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Sandra Au
- Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Lewis A Lipsitz
- Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew Senior Life and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Division of Gerontology, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Heather E Whitson
- Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
- Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States
- Geriatrics Research Education and Clinical Center, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, United States
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Park J, Godbole S, Woldorff MG, Brannon EM. Context-Dependent Modulation of Early Visual Cortical Responses to Numerical and Nonnumerical Magnitudes. J Cogn Neurosci 2021; 33:2536-2547. [PMID: 34407187 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01774] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Whether and how the brain encodes discrete numerical magnitude differently from continuous nonnumerical magnitude is hotly debated. In a previous set of studies, we orthogonally varied numerical (numerosity) and nonnumerical (size and spacing) dimensions of dot arrays and demonstrated a strong modulation of early visual evoked potentials (VEPs) by numerosity and not by nonnumerical dimensions. Although very little is known about the brain's response to systematic changes in continuous dimensions of a dot array, some authors intuit that the visual processing stream must be more sensitive to continuous magnitude information than to numerosity. To address this possibility, we measured VEPs of participants viewing dot arrays that changed exclusively in one nonnumerical magnitude dimension at a time (size or spacing) while holding numerosity constant and compared this to a condition where numerosity was changed while holding size and spacing constant. We found reliable but small neural sensitivity to exclusive changes in size and spacing; however, exclusively changing numerosity elicited a much more robust modulation of the VEPs. Together with previous work, these findings suggest that sensitivity to magnitude dimensions in early visual cortex is context dependent: The brain is moderately sensitive to changes in size and spacing when numerosity is held constant, but sensitivity to these continuous variables diminishes to a negligible level when numerosity is allowed to vary at the same time. Neurophysiological explanations for the encoding and context dependency of numerical and nonnumerical magnitudes are proposed within the framework of neuronal normalization.
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Krasich K, Gjorgieva E, Murray S, Bhatia S, Faber M, De Brigard F, Woldorff MG. The Impact of Error-Consequence Severity on Cue Processing in Importance-Biased Prospective Memory. Cereb Cortex Commun 2021; 2:tgab056. [PMID: 34676368 PMCID: PMC8527855 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgab056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2021] [Revised: 08/26/2021] [Accepted: 08/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Prospective memory (PM) enables people to remember to complete important tasks in the future. Failing to do so can result in consequences of varying severity. Here, we investigated how PM error-consequence severity impacts the neural processing of relevant cues for triggering PM and the ramification of that processing on the associated prospective task performance. Participants role-played a cafeteria worker serving lunches to fictitious students and had to remember to deliver an alternative lunch to students (as PM cues) who would otherwise experience a moderate or severe aversive reaction. Scalp-recorded, event-related potential (ERP) measures showed that the early-latency frontal positivity, reflecting the perception-based neural responses to previously learned stimuli, did not differ between the severe versus moderate PM cues. In contrast, the longer-latency parietal positivity, thought to reflect full PM cue recognition and post-retrieval processes, was elicited earlier by the severe than the moderate PM cues. This faster instantiation of the parietal positivity to the severe-consequence PM cues was then followed by faster and more accurate behavioral responses. These findings indicate how the relative importance of a PM can be neurally instantiated in the form of enhanced and faster PM-cue recognition and processing and culminate into better PM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristina Krasich
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Eva Gjorgieva
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Samuel Murray
- Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Shreya Bhatia
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Myrthe Faber
- Dept. of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands
| | - Felipe De Brigard
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
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11
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Vo KD, Siqi-Liu A, Chaire A, Li S, Demeter E, Egner T, Woldorff MG. Neural Dynamics of Conflict Control in Working Memory. J Cogn Neurosci 2021; 33:2079-2092. [PMID: 34496023 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Attention and working memory (WM) have classically been considered as two separate cognitive functions, but more recent theories have conceptualized them as operating on shared representations and being distinguished primarily by whether attention is directed internally (WM) or externally (attention, traditionally defined). Supporting this idea, a recent behavioral study documented a "WM Stroop effect," showing that maintaining a color word in WM impacts perceptual color-naming performance to the same degree as presenting the color word externally in the classic Stroop task. Here, we employed ERPs to examine the neural processes underlying this WM Stroop task compared to those in the classic Stroop and in a WM-control task. Based on the assumption that holding a color word in WM would (pre-)activate the same color representation as by externally presenting that color word, we hypothesized that the neural cascade of conflict-control processes would occur more rapidly in the WM Stroop than in the classic Stroop task. Our behavioral results replicated equivalent interference behavioral effects for the WM and classic Stroop tasks. Importantly, however, the ERP signatures of conflict detection and resolution displayed substantially shorter latencies in the WM Stroop task. Moreover, delay-period conflict in the WM Stroop task, but not in the WM control task, impacted the ERP and performance measures for the WM probe stimuli. Together, these findings provide new insights into how the brain processes conflict between internal representations and external stimuli, and they support the view of shared representations between internally held WM content and attentional processing of external stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Alondra Chaire
- German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany
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12
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Bachman MD, Hunter MN, Huettel SA, Woldorff MG. Disruptions of Sustained Spatial Attention Can Be Resistant to the Distractor's Prior Reward Associations. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:666731. [PMID: 34393738 PMCID: PMC8363301 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.666731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2021] [Accepted: 07/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Attention can be involuntarily biased toward reward-associated distractors (value-driven attentional capture, VDAC). Yet past work has primarily demonstrated this distraction phenomenon during a particular set of circumstances: transient attentional orienting to potentially relevant stimuli occurring in our visual environment. Consequently, it is not well-understood if reward-based attentional capture can occur under other circumstances, such as during sustained visuospatial attention. Using EEG, we investigated whether associating transient distractors with reward value would increase their distractibility and lead to greater decrements in concurrent sustained spatial attention directed elsewhere. Human participants learned to associate three differently colored, laterally presented squares with rewards of varying magnitude (zero, small, and large). These colored squares were then periodically reintroduced as distractors at the same lateral locations during a demanding sustained-attention rapid-serial-visual-presentation (RSVP) task at the midline. Behavioral and neural evidence indicated that participants had successfully learned and maintained the reward associations to the distractors. During the RSVP task, consistent with prior work, we found that the distractors generated dips in the instantaneous amplitude of the steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) elicited by the midline RSVP stimuli, indicating that the distractors were indeed transiently disrupting sustained spatial attention. Contrary to our hypotheses, however, the magnitude of this dip did not differ by the magnitude of the distractor’s reward associations. These results indicate that while sustained spatial attention can be impaired by the introduction of distractors at another location, the main distraction process is resistant to the distractors’ reward associations, thus providing evidence of an important boundary condition to value-driven attentional capture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew D Bachman
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States.,Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Madison N Hunter
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Scott A Huettel
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States.,Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States.,Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States.,Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
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13
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VanDusen KW, Eleswarpu S, Moretti EW, Devinney MJ, Crabtree DM, Laskowitz DT, Woldorff MG, Roberts KC, Whittle J, Browndyke JN, Cooter M, Rockhold FW, Anakwenze O, Bolognesi MP, Easley ME, Ferrandino MN, Jiranek WA, Berger M. The MARBLE Study Protocol: Modulating ApoE Signaling to Reduce Brain Inflammation, DeLirium, and PostopErative Cognitive Dysfunction. J Alzheimers Dis 2021; 75:1319-1328. [PMID: 32417770 DOI: 10.3233/jad-191185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Perioperative neurocognitive disorders (PND) are common complications in older adults associated with increased 1-year mortality and long-term cognitive decline. One risk factor for worsened long-term postoperative cognitive trajectory is the Alzheimer's disease (AD) genetic risk factor APOE4. APOE4 is thought to elevate AD risk partly by increasing neuroinflammation, which is also a theorized mechanism for PND. Yet, it is unclear whether modulating apoE4 protein signaling in older surgical patients would reduce PND risk or severity. OBJECTIVE MARBLE is a randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled phase II sequential dose escalation trial designed to evaluate perioperative administration of an apoE mimetic peptide drug, CN-105, in older adults (age≥60 years). The primary aim is evaluating the safety of CN-105 administration, as measured by adverse event rates in CN-105 versus placebo-treated patients. Secondary aims include assessing perioperative CN-105 administration feasibility and its efficacy for reducing postoperative neuroinflammation and PND severity. METHODS 201 patients undergoing non-cardiac, non-neurological surgery will be randomized to control or CN-105 treatment groups and receive placebo or drug before and every six hours after surgery, for up to three days after surgery. Chart reviews, pre- and postoperative cognitive testing, delirium screening, and blood and CSF analyses will be performed to examine effects of CN-105 on perioperative adverse event rates, cognition, and neuroinflammation. Trial results will be disseminated by presentations at conferences and peer-reviewed publications. CONCLUSION MARBLE is a transdisciplinary study designed to measure CN-105 safety and efficacy for preventing PND in older adults and to provide insight into the pathogenesis of these geriatric syndromes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Donna M Crabtree
- Duke Office of Clinical Research, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | - Marty G Woldorff
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Kenneth C Roberts
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - John Whittle
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Jeffrey N Browndyke
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Mary Cooter
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | - Oke Anakwenze
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | - Mark E Easley
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | | | - Miles Berger
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.,Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.,Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
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14
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Geib BR, Cabeza R, Woldorff MG. Linking the Rapid Cascade of Visuo-Attentional Processes to Successful Memory Encoding. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:1861-1872. [PMID: 33270818 PMCID: PMC7945012 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2019] [Revised: 08/17/2020] [Accepted: 08/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
While it is broadly accepted that attention modulates memory, the contribution of specific rapid attentional processes to successful encoding is largely unknown. To investigate this issue, we leveraged the high temporal resolution of electroencephalographic recordings to directly link a cascade of visuo-attentional neural processes to successful encoding: namely (1) the N2pc (peaking ~200 ms), which reflects stimulus-specific attentional orienting and allocation, (2) the sustained posterior-contralateral negativity (post-N2pc), which has been associated with sustained visual processing, (3) the contralateral reduction in oscillatory alpha power (contralateral reduction in alpha > 200 ms), which has also been independently related to attentionally sustained visual processing. Each of these visuo-attentional processes was robustly predictive of successful encoding, and, moreover, each enhanced memory independently of the classic, longer-latency, conceptually related, difference-due-to memory (Dm) effect. Early latency midfrontal theta power also promoted successful encoding, with at least part of this influence being mediated by the later latency Dm effect. These findings markedly expand current knowledge by helping to elucidate the intimate relationship between attentional modulations of perceptual processing and effective encoding for later memory retrieval.
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Affiliation(s)
- B R Geib
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - R Cabeza
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - M G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
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15
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de Haan T, van den Berg B, Woldorff MG, Aleman A, Lorist MM. Diminished Feedback Evaluation and Knowledge Updating Underlying Age-Related Differences in Choice Behavior During Feedback Learning. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:635996. [PMID: 33746726 PMCID: PMC7973460 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.635996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Accepted: 02/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
In our daily lives, we continuously evaluate feedback information, update our knowledge, and adapt our behavior in order to reach desired goals. This ability to learn from feedback information, however, declines with age. Previous research has indicated that certain higher-level learning processes, such as feedback evaluation, integration of feedback information, and updating of knowledge, seem to be affected by age, and recent studies have shown how the adaption of choice behavior following feedback can differ with age. The neural mechanisms underlying this age-related change in choice behavior during learning, however, remain unclear. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the relation between learning-related neural processes and choice behavior during feedback learning in two age groups. Behavioral and fMRI data were collected, while a group of young (age 18–30) and older (age 60–75) adults performed a probabilistic learning task consisting of 10 blocks of 20 trials each. On each trial, the participants chose between a house and a face, after which they received visual feedback (loss vs. gain). In each block, either the house or the face image had a higher probability of yielding a reward (62.5 vs. 37.5%). Participants were instructed to try to maximize their gains. Our results showed that less successful learning in older adults, as indicated by a lower learning rate, corresponded with a higher tendency to switch to the other stimulus option, and with a reduced adaptation of this switch choice behavior following positive feedback. At the neural level, activation following positive and negative feedback was found to be less distinctive in the older adults, due to a smaller feedback-evaluation response to positive feedback in this group. Furthermore, whereas young adults displayed increased levels of knowledge updating prior to adapting choice behavior, we did not find this effect in older adults. Together, our results suggest that diminished learning performance with age corresponds with diminished evaluation of positive feedback and reduced knowledge updating related to changes in choice behavior, indicating how such differences in feedback processing at the trial level in older adults might lead to reduced learning performance across trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tineke de Haan
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Berry van den Berg
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - André Aleman
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Monicque M Lorist
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.,Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
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16
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van den Berg B, de Jong M, Woldorff MG, Lorist MM. Caffeine Boosts Preparatory Attention for Reward-related Stimulus Information. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 33:104-118. [PMID: 32985946 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The intake of caffeine and the prospect of reward have both been associated with increased arousal, enhanced attention, and improved behavioral performance on cognitive tasks, but how they interact to exert these effects is not well understood. To investigate this question, we had participants engage in a two-session cued-reward cognitive task while we recorded their electrical brain activity using scalp electroencephalography. The cue indicated whether monetary reward could be received for fast and accurate responses to a color-word Stroop stimulus that followed. Before each session, participants ingested decaffeinated coffee with either caffeine (3-mg/kg bodyweight) or placebo (3-mg/kg bodyweight lactose). The behavioral results showed that both caffeine and reward-prospect improved response accuracy and speed. In the brain, reward-prospect resulted in an enlarged frontocentral slow wave (contingent negative variation, or CNV) and reduced posterior alpha power (indicating increased cortical activity) before stimulus presentation, both neural markers for preparatory attention. Moreover, the CNV enhancement for reward-prospect trials was considerably more pronounced in the caffeine condition as compared to the placebo condition. These interactive neural enhancements due to caffeine and reward-prospect were mainly visible in preparatory attention activity triggered by the cue (CNV). In addition, some interactive neural enhancements in the processing of the Stroop target stimulus that followed were also observed. The results suggest that caffeine facilitates the neural processes underlying attentional preparation and stimulus processing, especially for task-relevant information.
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17
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Donohue SE, Harris JA, Loewe K, Hopf J, Heinze H, Woldorff MG, Schoenfeld MA. Electroencephalography reveals a selective disruption of cognitive control processes in craving cigarette smokers. Eur J Neurosci 2020; 51:1087-1105. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2019] [Revised: 10/20/2019] [Accepted: 11/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E. Donohue
- Department of Neurology Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology Magdeburg Germany
| | - Joseph A. Harris
- Department of Neurology Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology Magdeburg Germany
- Department of Psychology Bradley University Peoria IL USA
| | - Kristian Loewe
- Department of Neurology Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Magdeburg Germany
- Department of Computer Science Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Germany
| | - Jens‐Max Hopf
- Department of Neurology Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology Magdeburg Germany
| | - Hans‐Jochen Heinze
- Department of Neurology Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology Magdeburg Germany
| | - Marty G. Woldorff
- Department of Neurology Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology Magdeburg Germany
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Duke University Durham NC USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Duke University Durham NC USA
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Duke University Durham NC USA
| | - Mircea A. Schoenfeld
- Department of Neurology Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology Magdeburg Germany
- Kliniken Schmieder Heidelberg Germany
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18
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van den Berg B, Geib BR, San Martín R, Woldorff MG. A key role for stimulus-specific updating of the sensory cortices in the learning of stimulus-reward associations. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2020; 14:173-187. [PMID: 30576533 PMCID: PMC6374612 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsy116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2018] [Revised: 10/19/2018] [Accepted: 10/31/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Successful adaptive behavior requires the learning of associations between stimulus-specific choices and rewarding outcomes. Most research on the mechanisms underlying such processes has focused on subcortical reward-processing regions, in conjunction with frontal circuits. Given the extensive stimulus-specific coding in the sensory cortices, we hypothesized they would play a key role in the learning of stimulus-specific reward associations. We recorded electrical brain activity (using electroencephalogram) during a learning-based decision-making gambling task where, on each trial, participants chose between a face and a house and then received feedback (gain or loss). Within each 20-trial set, either faces or houses were more likely to predict a gain. Results showed that early feedback processing (~200-1200 ms) was independent of the choice made. In contrast, later feedback processing (~1400-1800 ms) was stimulus-specific, reflected by decreased alpha power (reflecting increased cortical activity) over face-selective regions, for winning-vs-losing after a face choice but not after a house choice. Finally, as the reward association was learned in a set, there was an increasingly stronger attentional bias towards the more likely winning stimulus, reflected by increasing attentional orienting-related brain activity and increasing likelihood of choosing that stimulus. These results delineate the processes underlying the updating of stimulus-reward associations during feedback-guided learning, which then guide future attentional allocation and decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Berry van den Berg
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States.,Department of Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Benjamin R Geib
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Rene San Martín
- Centro de Neuroeconomia, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
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19
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Abstract
The contents of working memory (WM) guide visual attention toward matching features, with visual search being faster when the target and a feature of an item held in WM spatially overlap (validly cued) than when they occur at different locations (invalidly cued). Recent behavioral studies have indicated that attentional capture by WM content can be modulated by cognitive control: When WM cues are reliably helpful to visual search (predictably valid), capture is enhanced, but when reliably detrimental (predictably invalid), capture is attenuated. The neural mechanisms underlying this effect are not well understood, however. Here, we leveraged the high temporal resolution of ERPs time-locked to the onset of the search display to determine how and at what processing stage cognitive control modulates the search process. We manipulated predictability by grouping trials into unpredictable (50% valid/invalid) and predictable (100% valid, 100% invalid) blocks. Behavioral results confirmed that predictability modulated WM-related capture. Comparison of ERPs to the search arrays showed that the N2pc, a posteriorly distributed signature of initial attentional orienting toward a lateralized target, was not impacted by target validity predictability. However, a longer latency, more anterior, lateralized effect-here, termed the "contralateral attention-related negativity"-was reduced under predictable conditions. This reduction interacted with validity, with substantially greater reduction for invalid than valid trials. These data suggest cognitive control over attentional capture by WM content does not affect the initial attentional-orienting process but can reduce the need to marshal later control mechanisms for processing relevant items in the visual world.
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20
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Bugden S, Woldorff MG, Brannon EM. Cover Image. Hum Brain Mapp 2019. [DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24256] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
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21
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Berger M, Oyeyemi D, Olurinde MO, Whitson HE, Weinhold KJ, Woldorff MG, Lipsitz LA, Moretti E, Giattino CM, Roberts KC, Zhou J, Bunning T, Ferrandino M, Scheri RP, Cooter M, Chan C, Cabeza R, Browndyke JN, Murdoch DM, Devinney MJ, Shaw LM, Cohen HJ, Mathew JP. The INTUIT Study: Investigating Neuroinflammation Underlying Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction. J Am Geriatr Soc 2019; 67:794-798. [PMID: 30674067 DOI: 10.1111/jgs.15770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2018] [Revised: 12/20/2018] [Accepted: 12/20/2018] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Every year, up to 40% of the more than 16 million older Americans who undergo anesthesia/surgery develop postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) or delirium. Each of these distinct syndromes is associated with decreased quality of life, increased mortality, and a possible increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. One pathologic process hypothesized to underlie both delirium and POCD is neuroinflammation. The INTUIT study described here will determine the extent to which postoperative increases in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) levels and monocyte numbers are associated with delirium and/or POCD and their underlying brain connectivity changes. DESIGN Observational prospective cohort. SETTING Duke University Medical Center, Duke Regional Hospital, and Duke Raleigh Hospital. PARTICIPANTS Patients 60 years of age or older (N = 200) undergoing noncardiac/nonneurologic surgery. MEASUREMENTS Participants will undergo cognitive testing before, 6 weeks, and 1 year after surgery. Delirium screening will be performed on postoperative days 1 to 5. Blood and CSF samples are obtained before surgery, and 24 hours, 6 weeks, and 1 year after surgery. CSF MCP-1 levels are measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and CSF monocytes are assessed by flow cytometry. Half the patients will also undergo pre- and postoperative functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. 32-channel intraoperative electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings will be performed to identify intraoperative EEG correlates of neuroinflammation and/or postoperative cognitive resilience. Eighty patients will also undergo home sleep apnea testing to determine the relationships between sleep apnea severity, neuroinflammation, and impaired postoperative cognition. Additional assessments will help evaluate relationships between delirium, POCD, and other geriatric syndromes. CONCLUSION INTUIT will use a transdisciplinary approach to study the role of neuroinflammation in postoperative delirium and cognitive dysfunction and their associated functional brain connectivity changes, and it may identify novel targets for treating and/or preventing delirium and POCD and their sequelae. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:794-798, 2019.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miles Berger
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.,Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.,Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Deborah Oyeyemi
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.,Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Mobolaji O Olurinde
- Department of Anesthesiology, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Heather E Whitson
- Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.,Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Kent J Weinhold
- Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Lewis A Lipsitz
- Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Boston, Massachusetts.,Division of Gerontology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Eugene Moretti
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Charles M Giattino
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Kenneth C Roberts
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Junhong Zhou
- Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Boston, Massachusetts.,Division of Gerontology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Thomas Bunning
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Michael Ferrandino
- Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Randall P Scheri
- Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Mary Cooter
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Cliburn Chan
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Roberto Cabeza
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Jeffrey N Browndyke
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - David M Murdoch
- Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Michael J Devinney
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Leslie M Shaw
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Harvey Jay Cohen
- Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.,Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Joseph P Mathew
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
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22
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Truong TK, Roberts KC, Woldorff MG, Song AW. Toward direct MRI of neuro-electro-magnetic oscillations in the human brain. Magn Reson Med 2019; 81:3462-3475. [PMID: 30652351 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.27654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2018] [Revised: 11/12/2018] [Accepted: 12/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE Neuroimaging techniques are widely used to investigate the function of the human brain, but none are currently able to accurately localize neuronal activity with both high spatial and temporal specificity. Here, a new in vivo MRI acquisition and analysis technique based on the spin-lock mechanism is developed to noninvasively image local magnetic field oscillations resulting from neuroelectric activity in specifiable frequency bands. METHODS Simulations, phantom experiments, and in vivo experiments using an eyes-open/eyes-closed task in 8 healthy volunteers were performed to demonstrate its sensitivity and specificity for detecting oscillatory neuroelectric activity in the alpha-band (8-12 Hz). A comprehensive postprocessing procedure was designed to enhance the neuroelectric signal, while minimizing any residual hemodynamic and physiological confounds. RESULTS The phantom results show that this technique can detect 0.06-nT magnetic field oscillations, while the in vivo results demonstrate that it can image task-based modulations of neuroelectric oscillatory activity in the alpha-band. Multiple control experiments and a comparison with conventional BOLD functional MRI suggest that the activation was likely not due to any residual hemodynamic or physiological confounds. CONCLUSION These initial results provide evidence suggesting that this new technique has the potential to noninvasively and directly image neuroelectric activity in the human brain in vivo. With further development, this approach offers the promise of being able to do so with a combination of spatial and temporal specificity that is beyond what can be achieved with existing neuroimaging methods, which can advance our ability to study the functions and dysfunctions of the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Trong-Kha Truong
- Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Kenneth C Roberts
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Allen W Song
- Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
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23
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Bugden S, Woldorff MG, Brannon EM. Shared and distinct neural circuitry for nonsymbolic and symbolic double-digit addition. Hum Brain Mapp 2018; 40:1328-1343. [PMID: 30548735 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2018] [Revised: 10/03/2018] [Accepted: 10/19/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Symbolic arithmetic is a complex, uniquely human ability that is acquired through direct instruction. In contrast, the capacity to mentally add and subtract nonsymbolic quantities such as dot arrays emerges without instruction and can be seen in human infants and nonhuman animals. One possibility is that the mental manipulation of nonsymbolic arrays provides a critical scaffold for developing symbolic arithmetic abilities. To explore this hypothesis, we examined whether there is a shared neural basis for nonsymbolic and symbolic double-digit addition. In parallel, we asked whether there are brain regions that are associated with nonsymbolic and symbolic addition independently. First, relative to visually matched control tasks, we found that both nonsymbolic and symbolic addition elicited greater neural signal in the bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS), bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, and the right superior parietal lobule. Subsequent representational similarity analyses revealed that the neural similarity between nonsymbolic and symbolic addition was stronger relative to the similarity between each addition condition and its visually matched control task, but only in the bilateral IPS. These findings suggest that the IPS is involved in arithmetic calculation independent of stimulus format.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie Bugden
- Psychology Department, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
| | - Elizabeth M Brannon
- Psychology Department, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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24
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DeWind NK, Park J, Woldorff MG, Brannon EM. Numerical encoding in early visual cortex. Cortex 2018; 114:76-89. [PMID: 29983159 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.03.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2017] [Revised: 03/13/2018] [Accepted: 03/27/2018] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
The ability to estimate numerosity in a visual array arose early in evolution, develops early in human development, and is correlated with mathematical ability. Previous work with visually presented arrays indicates that the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) represents number. However, it is not clear if the number signal originates in IPS or is propagated from earlier visual areas. Previous work from our group has demonstrated a rapidly instantiated representation of number in low-level regions of visual cortex using the high temporal resolution of event-related electro-encephalography (EEG). Here, we use a rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm and find convergent evidence for a number signal in low-level visual cortex (areas V1, V2, and V3). Employing a stringent set of stimulus controls, we demonstrate that this signal cannot be explained by the total extent of the array, the density of the items in the array, the aggregate visual area of the items, the size of individual items, the proportion of the array covered by items, nor the overall scale of the array and items. Our findings thus provide strong support for the hypothesis that number is rapidly and directly encoded early in the visual processing stream.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas K DeWind
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - Joonkoo Park
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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25
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Harris JA, Donohue SE, Ilse A, Ariel Schoenfeld M, Heinze HJ, Woldorff MG. EEG measures of brain activity reveal that smoking-related images capture the attention of smokers outside of awareness. Neuropsychologia 2018; 111:324-333. [PMID: 29427572 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.02.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2017] [Revised: 01/04/2018] [Accepted: 02/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The capture of attention by substance-related stimuli in dependent users is a major factor in the maintenance and/or cessation of substance use. The present study examined the automaticity of this process in smokers, as well as the effects of craving. Event-related potential (ERP) measures of spatial-attention allocation (N2pc) and extended target processing (SPCN) were isolated during an object-substitution masking (OSM) task that disrupted the perceptual visibility of smoking-related and office-related targets. Each participant completed two experimental sessions: one in which they were deprived of nicotine for a period of several hours prior to the session (craving), and one before which they were allowed to smoke (non-craving). Results were consistent with an account of automatic attentional capture by smoking-related images outside of awareness, with masked trials yielding a selective enhancement of the attention-sensitive N2pc in response to these images, but in the absence of a corresponding behavioral enhancement on those trials. Finally, the manipulation of craving appeared to increase the overall task demand, yielding an enhancement of the SPCN component across target type and masking conditions. Together, these results suggest that smoking-related visual stimuli in the environment can capture the attention of smokers outside of awareness, in what seems to be an automatic process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph A Harris
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
| | - Sarah E Donohue
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Arne Ilse
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - M Ariel Schoenfeld
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Klinikum Schmieder Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Hans-Jochen Heinze
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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26
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Giattino CM, Alam ZM, Woldorff MG. Neural processes underlying the orienting of attention without awareness. Cortex 2017; 102:14-25. [PMID: 28826603 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.07.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2017] [Revised: 05/20/2017] [Accepted: 07/16/2017] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Despite long being of interest to both philosophers and scientists, the relationship between attention and perceptual awareness is not well understood, especially to what extent they are even dissociable. Previous studies have shown that stimuli of which we are unaware can orient spatial attention and affect behavior. Yet, relatively little is understood about the neural processes underlying such unconscious orienting of attention, and how they compare to conscious orienting. To directly compare the cascade of attentional processes with and without awareness of the orienting stimulus, we employed a spatial-cueing paradigm and used object-substitution masking to manipulate subjects' awareness of the cues. We recorded EEG during the task, from which we extracted hallmark event-related-potential (ERP) indices of attention. Behaviorally, there was a 61 ms validity effect (invalidly minus validly cued target RTs) on cue-aware trials. On cue-unaware trials, subjects also had a robust validity effect of 20 ms, despite being unaware of the cue. An N2pc to the cue, a hallmark ERP index of the lateralized orienting of attention, was observed for cue-aware but not cue-unaware trials, despite the latter showing a clear behavioral validity effect. Finally, the P1 sensory-ERP response to the targets was larger when validly versus invalidly cued, even when subjects were unaware of the preceding cue, demonstrating enhanced sensory processing of targets following subliminal cues. These results suggest that subliminal stimuli can orient attention and lead to subsequent enhancements to both stimulus sensory processing and behavior, but through different neural mechanisms (such as via a subcortical pathway) than stimuli we perceive.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles M Giattino
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
| | - Zaynah M Alam
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
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27
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Park J, van den Berg B, Chiang C, Woldorff MG, Brannon EM. Developmental trajectory of neural specialization for letter and number visual processing. Dev Sci 2017; 21:e12578. [DOI: 10.1111/desc.12578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2016] [Accepted: 04/07/2017] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joonkoo Park
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; University of Massachusetts; USA
- Commonwealth Honors College, University of Massachusetts; USA
| | - Berry van den Berg
- Department of Neuroscience; University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen; The Netherlands
| | | | - Marty G. Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience; Duke University; USA
- Department of Psychiatry; Duke University; USA
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience; Duke University; USA
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28
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Fornaciai M, Brannon EM, Woldorff MG, Park J. Numerosity processing in early visual cortex. Neuroimage 2017; 157:429-438. [PMID: 28583882 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.05.069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2017] [Revised: 05/26/2017] [Accepted: 05/31/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022] Open
Abstract
While parietal cortex is thought to be critical for representing numerical magnitudes, we recently reported an event-related potential (ERP) study demonstrating selective neural sensitivity to numerosity over midline occipital sites very early in the time course, suggesting the involvement of early visual cortex in numerosity processing. However, which specific brain area underlies such early activation is not known. Here, we tested whether numerosity-sensitive neural signatures arise specifically from the initial stages of visual cortex, aiming to localize the generator of these signals by taking advantage of the distinctive folding pattern of early occipital cortices around the calcarine sulcus, which predicts an inversion of polarity of ERPs arising from these areas when stimuli are presented in the upper versus lower visual field. Dot arrays, including 8-32dots constructed systematically across various numerical and non-numerical visual attributes, were presented randomly in either the upper or lower visual hemifields. Our results show that neural responses at about 90ms post-stimulus were robustly sensitive to numerosity. Moreover, the peculiar pattern of polarity inversion of numerosity-sensitive activity at this stage suggested its generation primarily in V2 and V3. In contrast, numerosity-sensitive ERP activity at occipito-parietal channels later in the time course (210-230ms) did not show polarity inversion, indicating a subsequent processing stage in the dorsal stream. Overall, these results demonstrate that numerosity processing begins in one of the earliest stages of the cortical visual stream.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele Fornaciai
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.
| | | | | | - Joonkoo Park
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA; Commonwealth Honors College, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.
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29
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Giattino CM, Gardner JE, Sbahi FM, Roberts KC, Cooter M, Moretti E, Browndyke JN, Mathew JP, Woldorff MG, Berger M. Intraoperative Frontal Alpha-Band Power Correlates with Preoperative Neurocognitive Function in Older Adults. Front Syst Neurosci 2017; 11:24. [PMID: 28533746 PMCID: PMC5420579 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2017.00024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 86] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2017] [Accepted: 04/05/2017] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Each year over 16 million older Americans undergo general anesthesia for surgery, and up to 40% develop postoperative delirium and/or cognitive dysfunction (POCD). Delirium and POCD are each associated with decreased quality of life, early retirement, increased 1-year mortality, and long-term cognitive decline. Multiple investigators have thus suggested that anesthesia and surgery place severe stress on the aging brain, and that patients with less ability to withstand this stress will be at increased risk for developing postoperative delirium and POCD. Delirium and POCD risk are increased in patients with lower preoperative cognitive function, yet preoperative cognitive function is not routinely assessed, and no intraoperative physiological predictors have been found that correlate with lower preoperative cognitive function. Since general anesthesia causes alpha-band (8–12 Hz) electroencephalogram (EEG) power to decrease occipitally and increase frontally (known as “anteriorization”), and anesthetic-induced frontal alpha power is reduced in older adults, we hypothesized that lower intraoperative frontal alpha power might correlate with lower preoperative cognitive function. Here, we provide evidence that such a correlation exists, suggesting that lower intraoperative frontal alpha power could be used as a physiological marker to identify older adults with lower preoperative cognitive function. Lower intraoperative frontal alpha power could thus be used to target these at-risk patients for possible therapeutic interventions to help prevent postoperative delirium and POCD, or for increased postoperative monitoring and follow-up. More generally, these results suggest that understanding interindividual differences in how the brain responds to anesthetic drugs can be used as a probe of neurocognitive function (and dysfunction), and might be a useful measure of neurocognitive function in older adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles M Giattino
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke UniversityDurham, NC, USA.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke UniversityDurham, NC, USA
| | - Jacob E Gardner
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke UniversityDurham, NC, USA
| | - Faris M Sbahi
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke UniversityDurham, NC, USA.,Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical CenterDurham, NC, USA
| | | | - Mary Cooter
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical CenterDurham, NC, USA
| | - Eugene Moretti
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical CenterDurham, NC, USA
| | - Jeffrey N Browndyke
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical CenterDurham, NC, USA
| | - Joseph P Mathew
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical CenterDurham, NC, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke UniversityDurham, NC, USA.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke UniversityDurham, NC, USA.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical CenterDurham, NC, USA.,Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical CenterDurham, NC, USA
| | - Miles Berger
- Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical CenterDurham, NC, USA
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30
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Geib BR, Stanley ML, Dennis NA, Woldorff MG, Cabeza R. From hippocampus to whole-brain: The role of integrative processing in episodic memory retrieval. Hum Brain Mapp 2017; 38:2242-2259. [PMID: 28112460 PMCID: PMC5460662 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23518] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2016] [Revised: 12/19/2016] [Accepted: 01/04/2017] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Multivariate functional connectivity analyses of neuroimaging data have revealed the importance of complex, distributed interactions between disparate yet interdependent brain regions. Recent work has shown that topological properties of functional brain networks are associated with individual and group differences in cognitive performance, including in episodic memory. After constructing functional whole-brain networks derived from an event-related fMRI study of memory retrieval, we examined differences in functional brain network architecture between forgotten and remembered words. This study yielded three main findings. First, graph theory analyses showed that successfully remembering compared to forgetting was associated with significant changes in the connectivity profile of the left hippocampus and a corresponding increase in efficient communication with the rest of the brain. Second, bivariate functional connectivity analyses indicated stronger interactions between the left hippocampus and a retrieval assembly for remembered versus forgotten items. This assembly included the left precuneus, left caudate, bilateral supramarginal gyrus, and the bilateral dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus. Integrative properties of the retrieval assembly were greater for remembered than forgotten items. Third, whole-brain modularity analyses revealed that successful memory retrieval was marginally significantly associated with a less segregated modular architecture in the network. The magnitude of the decreases in modularity between remembered and forgotten conditions was related to memory performance. These findings indicate that increases in integrative properties at the nodal, retrieval assembly, and whole-brain topological levels facilitate memory retrieval, while also underscoring the potential of multivariate brain connectivity approaches for providing valuable new insights into the neural bases of memory processes. Hum Brain Mapp 38:2242-2259, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin R. Geib
- Department of Psychology and NeuroscienceDuke UniversityDurhamNorth Carolina
| | - Matthew L. Stanley
- Department of Psychology and NeuroscienceDuke UniversityDurhamNorth Carolina
| | - Nancy A. Dennis
- Department of PsychologyPennsylvania State UniversityUniversity ParkPennsylvania
| | - Marty G. Woldorff
- Department of Psychology and NeuroscienceDuke UniversityDurhamNorth Carolina
| | - Roberto Cabeza
- Department of Psychology and NeuroscienceDuke UniversityDurhamNorth Carolina
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31
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McKay CC, van den Berg B, Woldorff MG. Neural cascade of conflict processing: Not just time-on-task. Neuropsychologia 2016; 96:184-191. [PMID: 28017818 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.12.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2016] [Revised: 12/18/2016] [Accepted: 12/21/2016] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
In visual conflict tasks (e.g., Stroop or flanker), response times (RTs) are generally longer on incongruent trials relative to congruent ones. Two event-related-potential (ERP) components classically associated with the processing of stimulus conflict are the fronto-central, incongruency-related negativity (Ninc) and the posterior late-positive complex (LPC), which are derived from the ERP difference waves for incongruent minus congruent trials. It has been questioned, however, whether these effects, or other neural measures of incongruency (e.g., fMRI responses in the anterior cingulate), reflect true conflict processing, or whether such effects derive mainly from differential time-on-task. To address this question, we leveraged high-temporal-resolution ERP measures of brain activity during two behavioral tasks. The first task, a modified Erikson flanker paradigm (with congruent and incongruent trials), was used to evoke the classic RT and ERP effects associated with conflict. The second was a non-conflict control task in which, participants visually discriminated a single stimulus (with easy and hard discrimination conditions). Behaviorally, the parameters were titrated to yield similar RT effects of conflict and difficulty (27ms). Neurally, both within-task contrasts showed an initial fronto-central negative-polarity wave (N2-latency effect), but they then diverged. In the difficulty difference wave, the initial negativity led directly into the posterior LPC, whereas in the incongruency contrast the initial negativity was followed a by a second fronto-central negative peak (Ninc), which was then followed by a considerably longer-latency LPC. These results provide clear evidence that the longer processing for incongruent stimulus inputs do not just reflect time-on-task or difficulty, but include a true conflict-processing component.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cameron C McKay
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20057, USA
| | - Berry van den Berg
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Department of Neuroscience, University of Groningen, Univ Med Ctr Groningen, NL-9713 AW Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
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32
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van den Berg B, Appelbaum LG, Clark K, Lorist MM, Woldorff MG. Visual search performance is predicted by both prestimulus and poststimulus electrical brain activity. Sci Rep 2016; 6:37718. [PMID: 27901053 PMCID: PMC5128787 DOI: 10.1038/srep37718] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2016] [Accepted: 10/26/2016] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
An individual’s performance on cognitive and perceptual tasks varies considerably across time and circumstances. We investigated neural mechanisms underlying such performance variability using regression-based analyses to examine trial-by-trial relationships between response times (RTs) and different facets of electrical brain activity. Thirteen participants trained five days on a color-popout visual-search task, with EEG recorded on days one and five. The task was to find a color-popout target ellipse in a briefly presented array of ellipses and discriminate its orientation. Later within a session, better preparatory attention (reflected by less prestimulus Alpha-band oscillatory activity) and better poststimulus early visual responses (reflected by larger sensory N1 waves) correlated with faster RTs. However, N1 amplitudes decreased by half throughout each session, suggesting adoption of a more efficient search strategy within a session. Additionally, fast RTs were preceded by earlier and larger lateralized N2pc waves, reflecting faster and stronger attentional orienting to the targets. Finally, SPCN waves associated with target-orientation discrimination were smaller for fast RTs in the first but not the fifth session, suggesting optimization with practice. Collectively, these results delineate variations in visual search processes that change over an experimental session, while also pointing to cortical mechanisms underlying performance in visual search.
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Affiliation(s)
- Berry van den Berg
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States.,University of Groningen, Univ Med Ctr Groningen, Department of Neuroscience, NL-9713 AW Groningen, The Netherlands.,Department of Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.,BCN-NeuroImaging Center, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Lawrence G Appelbaum
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, United States
| | - Kait Clark
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 3AT, United Kingdom
| | - Monicque M Lorist
- University of Groningen, Univ Med Ctr Groningen, Department of Neuroscience, NL-9713 AW Groningen, The Netherlands.,Department of Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.,BCN-NeuroImaging Center, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, United States
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33
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Donohue SE, Harris JA, Heinze HJ, Woldorff MG, Schoenfeld MA. An electrophysiological marker of the desire to quit in smokers. Eur J Neurosci 2016; 44:2735-2741. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2016] [Revised: 08/25/2016] [Accepted: 08/25/2016] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E. Donohue
- Department of Neurology; Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg; Leipziger Strasse 44 39120 Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology; Magdeburg Germany
| | - Joseph A. Harris
- Department of Neurology; Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg; Leipziger Strasse 44 39120 Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology; Magdeburg Germany
| | - Hans-Jochen Heinze
- Department of Neurology; Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg; Leipziger Strasse 44 39120 Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology; Magdeburg Germany
| | - Marty G. Woldorff
- Department of Neurology; Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg; Leipziger Strasse 44 39120 Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology; Magdeburg Germany
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience; Duke University; Durham NC USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Duke University; Durham NC USA
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience; Duke University; Durham NC USA
| | - Mircea A. Schoenfeld
- Department of Neurology; Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg; Leipziger Strasse 44 39120 Magdeburg Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology; Magdeburg Germany
- Kliniken Schmieder Heidelberg; Heidelberg Germany
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34
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Langford ZD, Krebs RM, Talsma D, Woldorff MG, Boehler CN. Strategic down-regulation of attentional resources as a mechanism of proactive response inhibition. Eur J Neurosci 2016; 44:2095-103. [PMID: 27306544 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2016] [Revised: 06/10/2016] [Accepted: 06/13/2016] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Efficiently avoiding inappropriate actions in a changing environment is central to cognitive control. One mechanism contributing to this ability is the deliberate slowing down of responses in contexts where full response cancellation might occasionally be required, referred to as proactive response inhibition. The present electroencephalographic (EEG) study investigated the role of attentional processes in proactive response inhibition in humans. To this end, we compared data from a standard stop-signal task, in which stop signals required response cancellation ('stop-relevant'), to data where possible stop signals were task-irrelevant ('stop-irrelevant'). Behavioral data clearly indicated the presence of proactive slowing in the standard stop-signal task. A novel single-trial analysis was used to directly model the relationship between response time and the EEG data of the go-trials in both contexts within a multilevel linear models framework. We found a relationship between response time and amplitude of the attention-related N1 component in stop-relevant blocks, a characteristic that was fully absent in stop-irrelevant blocks. Specifically, N1 amplitudes were lower the slower the response time, suggesting that attentional resources were being strategically down-regulated to control response speed. Drift diffusion modeling of the behavioral data indicated that multiple parameters differed across the two contexts, likely suggesting the contribution from independent brain mechanisms to proactive slowing. Hence, the attentional mechanism of proactive response control we report here might coexist with known mechanisms that are more directly tied to motoric response inhibition. As such, our study opens up new research avenues also concerning clinical conditions that feature deficits in proactive response inhibition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zachary D Langford
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, 9000, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Ruth M Krebs
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, 9000, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Durk Talsma
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, 9000, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - C N Boehler
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, 9000, Ghent, Belgium
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35
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Demeter E, De Alburquerque D, Woldorff MG. The effects of ongoing distraction on the neural processes underlying signal detection. Neuropsychologia 2016; 89:335-343. [PMID: 27378439 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.06.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2016] [Revised: 06/29/2016] [Accepted: 06/30/2016] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Distraction can impede our ability to detect and effectively process task-relevant stimuli in our environment. Here we leveraged the high temporal resolution of event-related potentials (ERPs) to study the neural consequences of a global, continuous distractor on signal-detection processes. Healthy, young adults performed the dSAT task, a translational sustained-attention task that has been used across different species and in clinical groups, in the presence and absence of ongoing distracting stimulation. We found the presence of distracting stimuli impaired participants' ability to behaviorally detect task-relevant signal stimuli and greatly affected the neural cascade of processes underlying signal detection. Specifically, we found distraction reduced an anterior and a posterior early-latency N2 ERP component (~140-220ms) and modulated long-latency, detection-related P3 components (P3a: ~200-330ms, P3b: 300-700ms), even to correctly detected targets. These data provide evidence that distraction can induce powerful alterations in the neural processes related to signal detection, even when stimuli are behaviorally detected.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elise Demeter
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, United States.
| | | | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, United States
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36
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Harris JA, Donohue SE, Schoenfeld MA, Hopf JM, Heinze HJ, Woldorff MG. Reward-associated features capture attention in the absence of awareness: Evidence from object-substitution masking. Neuroimage 2016; 137:116-123. [PMID: 27153978 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2016] [Revised: 04/01/2016] [Accepted: 05/01/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Reward-associated visual features have been shown to capture visual attention, evidenced in faster and more accurate behavioral performance, as well as in neural responses reflecting lateralized shifts of visual attention to those features. Specifically, the contralateral N2pc event-related-potential (ERP) component that reflects attentional shifting exhibits increased amplitude in response to task-relevant targets containing a reward-associated feature. In the present study, we examined the automaticity of such reward-association effects using object-substitution masking (OSM) in conjunction with MEG measures of visual attentional shifts. In OSM, a visual-search array is presented, with the target item to be detected indicated by a surrounding mask (here, four surrounding squares). Delaying the offset of the target-surrounding four-dot mask relative to the offset of the rest of the target/distracter array disrupts the viewer's awareness of the target (masked condition), whereas simultaneous offsets do not (unmasked condition). Here we manipulated whether the color of the OSM target was or was not of a previously reward-associated color. By tracking reward-associated enhancements of behavior and the N2pc in response to masked targets containing a previously rewarded or unrewarded feature, the automaticity of attentional capture by reward could be probed. We found an enhanced N2pc response to targets containing a previously reward-associated color feature. Moreover, this enhancement of the N2pc by reward did not differ between masking conditions, nor did it differ as a function of the apparent visibility of the target within the masked condition. Overall, these results underscore the automaticity of attentional capture by reward-associated features, and demonstrate the ability of feature-based reward associations to shape attentional capture and allocation outside of perceptual awareness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph A Harris
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
| | - Sarah E Donohue
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Mircea A Schoenfeld
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Jens-Max Hopf
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Hans-Jochen Heinze
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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37
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San Martín R, Kwak Y, Pearson JM, Woldorff MG, Huettel SA. Altruistic traits are predicted by neural responses to monetary outcomes for self vs charity. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016; 11:863-76. [PMID: 27030510 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2015] [Accepted: 03/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Human altruism is often expressed through charitable donation-supporting a cause that benefits others in society, at cost to oneself. The underlying mechanisms of this other-regarding behavior remain imperfectly understood. By recording event-related-potential (ERP) measures of brain activity from human participants during a social gambling task, we identified markers of differential responses to receipt of monetary outcomes for oneself vs for a charitable cause. We focused our ERP analyses on the frontocentral feedback-related negativity (FRN) and three subcomponents of the attention-related P300 (P3) brain wave: the frontocentral P2 and P3a and the parietal P3b. The FRN distinguished between gains and losses for both self and charity outcomes. Importantly, this effect of outcome valence was greater for self than charity for both groups and was independent of two altruism-related measures: participants' pre-declared intended donations and the actual donations resulting from their choices. In contrast, differences in P3 subcomponents for outcomes for self vs charity strongly predicted both of our laboratory measures of altruism-as well as self-reported engagement in real-life altruistic behaviors. These results indicate that individual differences in altruism are linked to individual differences in the relative deployment of attention (as indexed by the P3) toward outcomes affecting other people.
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Affiliation(s)
- René San Martín
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA Centro de Neuroeconomía, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago 8370076, Chile
| | - Youngbin Kwak
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - John M Pearson
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Scott A Huettel
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Durham, NC 27710, USA
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38
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Abstract
Distracting stimuli in the environment can pull our attention away from our goal-directed tasks. fMRI studies have implicated regions in right frontal cortex as being particularly important for processing distractors [e.g., de Fockert, J. W., & Theeuwes, J. Role of frontal cortex in attentional capture by singleton distractors. Brain and Cognition, 80, 367-373, 2012; Demeter, E., Hernandez-Garcia, L., Sarter, M., & Lustig, C. Challenges to attention: A continuous arterial spin labeling (ASL) study of the effects of distraction on sustained attention. Neuroimage, 54, 1518-1529, 2011]. Less is known, however, about the timing and sequence of how right frontal or other brain regions respond selectively to distractors and how distractors impinge upon the cascade of processes related to detecting and processing behaviorally relevant target stimuli. Here we used EEG and ERPs to investigate the neural consequences of a perceptually salient but task-irrelevant distractor on the detection of rare target stimuli embedded in a rapid, serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream. We found that distractors that occur during the presentation of a target interfere behaviorally with detection of those targets, reflected by reduced detection rates, and that these missed targets show a reduced amplitude of the long-latency, detection-related P3 component. We also found that distractors elicited a right-lateralized frontal negativity beginning at 100 msec, whose amplitude negatively correlated across participants with their distraction-related behavioral impairment. Finally, we also quantified the instantaneous amplitude of the steady-state visual evoked potentials elicited by the RSVP stream and found that the occurrence of a distractor resulted in a transient amplitude decrement of the steady-state visual evoked potential, presumably reflecting the pull of attention away from the RSVP stream when distracting stimuli occur in the environment.
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39
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Donohue SE, Appelbaum LG, McKay CC, Woldorff MG. The neural dynamics of stimulus and response conflict processing as a function of response complexity and task demands. Neuropsychologia 2016; 84:14-28. [PMID: 26827917 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.01.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2015] [Revised: 01/26/2016] [Accepted: 01/28/2016] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Both stimulus and response conflict can disrupt behavior by slowing response times and decreasing accuracy. Although several neural activations have been associated with conflict processing, it is unclear how specific any of these are to the type of stimulus conflict or the amount of response conflict. Here, we recorded electrical brain activity, while manipulating the type of stimulus conflict in the task (spatial [Flanker] versus semantic [Stroop]) and the amount of response conflict (two versus four response choices). Behaviorally, responses were slower to incongruent versus congruent stimuli across all task and response types, along with overall slowing for higher response-mapping complexity. The earliest incongruency-related neural effect was a short-duration frontally-distributed negativity at ~200 ms that was only present in the Flanker spatial-conflict task. At longer latencies, the classic fronto-central incongruency-related negativity 'N(inc)' was observed for all conditions, but was larger and ~100 ms longer in duration with more response options. Further, the onset of the motor-related lateralized readiness potential (LRP) was earlier for the two vs. four response sets, indicating that smaller response sets enabled faster motor-response preparation. The late positive complex (LPC) was present in all conditions except the two-response Stroop task, suggesting this late conflict-related activity is not specifically related to task type or response-mapping complexity. Importantly, across tasks and conditions, the LRP onset at or before the conflict-related N(inc), indicating that motor preparation is a rapid, automatic process that interacts with the conflict-detection processes after it has begun. Together, these data highlight how different conflict-related processes operate in parallel and depend on both the cognitive demands of the task and the number of response options.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E Donohue
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
| | - Lawrence G Appelbaum
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
| | - Cameron C McKay
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
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40
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Abstract
When a stimulus is associated with a reward, it becomes prioritized, and the allocation of attention to that stimulus increases. For low-level features, such as color, this reward-based allocation of attention can manifest early in time and as a faster and stronger shift of attention to targets with that color, as reflected by the N2pc (a parieto-occipital electrophysiological component peaking at ∼250 msec). It is unknown, however, if reward associations can similarly modulate attentional shifts to complex objects or object categories, or if reward-related modulation of attentional allocation to such stimuli would occur later in time or through a different mechanism. Here, we used magnetoencephalographic recordings in 24 participants to investigate how object categories with a reward association would modulate the shift of attention. On each trial, two colored squares were presented, one in a target color and the other in a distractor color, each with an embedded object. Participants searched for the target-colored square and performed a corner discrimination task. The embedded objects were from either a rewarded or non-rewarded category, and if a rewarded-category object were present within the target-colored square, participants could earn extra money for correct performance. We observed that when the target color contained an object from a rewarded versus a non-rewarded category, the neural shift of attention to the target was faster and of greater magnitude, although the rewarded objects were not relevant for correct task performance. These results suggest that reward associations of complex objects can rapidly modulate attentional allocation to a target.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E Donohue
- Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg.,Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Jens-Max Hopf
- Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg.,Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | | | - Mircea A Schoenfeld
- Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg.,Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Hans-Jochen Heinze
- Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg.,Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg.,Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.,Duke University
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41
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Donohue SE, Green JJ, Woldorff MG. The effects of attention on the temporal integration of multisensory stimuli. Front Integr Neurosci 2015; 9:32. [PMID: 25954167 PMCID: PMC4407588 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2015.00032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2014] [Accepted: 04/07/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
In unisensory contexts, spatially-focused attention tends to enhance perceptual processing. How attention influences the processing of multisensory stimuli, however, has been of much debate. In some cases, attention has been shown to be important for processes related to the integration of audio-visual stimuli, but in other cases such processes have been reported to occur independently of attention. To address these conflicting results, we performed three experiments to examine how attention interacts with a key facet of multisensory processing: the temporal window of integration (TWI). The first two experiments used a novel cued-spatial-attention version of the bounce/stream illusion, wherein two moving visual stimuli with intersecting paths tend to be perceived as bouncing off rather than streaming through each other when a brief sound occurs near in time. When the task was to report whether the visual stimuli appeared to bounce or stream, attention served to narrow this measure of the TWI and bias perception toward “streaming”. When the participants’ task was to explicitly judge the simultaneity of the sound with the intersection of the moving visual stimuli, however, the results were quite different. Specifically, attention served to mainly widen the TWI, increasing the likelihood of simultaneity perception, while also substantially increasing the simultaneity judgment accuracy when the stimuli were actually physically simultaneous. Finally, in Experiment 3, where the task was to judge the simultaneity of a simple, temporally discrete, flashed visual stimulus and the same brief tone pip, attention had no effect on the measured TWI. These results highlight the flexibility of attention in enhancing multisensory perception and show that the effects of attention on multisensory processing are highly dependent on the task demands and observer goals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah E Donohue
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University Durham, NC, USA ; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg Magdeburg, Germany ; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Jessica J Green
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University Durham, NC, USA ; Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University Durham, NC, USA ; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg Magdeburg, Germany ; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology Magdeburg, Germany ; Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Durham, NC, USA
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42
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Abstract
When attending for impending visual stimuli, cognitive systems prepare to identify relevant information while ignoring irrelevant, potentially distracting input. Recent work (Marini et al., 2013) showed that a supramodal distracter-filtering mechanism is invoked in blocked designs involving expectation of possible distracter stimuli, although this entails a cost (distraction-filtering cost) on speeded performance when distracters are expected but not presented. Here we used an arrow-flanker task to study whether an analogous cost, potentially reflecting the recruitment of a specific distraction-filtering mechanism, occurs dynamically when potential distraction is cued trial-to-trial (cued distracter-expectation cost). In order to promote the maximal utilization of cue information by participants, in some experimental conditions the cue also signaled the possibility of earning a monetary reward for fast and accurate performance. This design also allowed us to investigate the interplay between anticipation for distracters and anticipation of reward, which is known to engender attentional preparation. Only in reward contexts did participants show a cued distracter-expectation cost, which was larger with higher reward prospect and when anticipation for both distracters and reward were manipulated trial-to-trial. Thus, these results indicate that reward prospect interacts with the distracter expectation during trial-by-trial preparatory processes for potential distraction. These findings highlight how reward guides cue-driven attentional preparation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Marini
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, NC, USA ; Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
| | - Berry van den Berg
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, NC, USA ; Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, NC, USA ; Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA ; Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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43
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Abstract
To make sense of our dynamic and complex auditory environment, we must be able to parse the sensory input into usable parts and pick out relevant sounds from all the potentially distracting auditory information. Although it is unclear exactly how we accomplish this difficult task, Gamble and Woldorff [Gamble, M. L., & Woldorff, M. G. The temporal cascade of neural processes underlying target detection and attentional processing during auditory search. Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y.: 1991), 2014] recently reported an ERP study of an auditory target-search task in a temporally and spatially distributed, rapidly presented, auditory scene. They reported an early, differential, bilateral activation (beginning at 60 msec) between feature-deviating target stimuli and physically equivalent feature-deviating nontargets, reflecting a rapid target detection process. This was followed shortly later (at 130 msec) by the lateralized N2ac ERP activation, that reflects the focusing of auditory spatial attention toward the target sound and parallels the attentional-shifting processes widely studied in vision. Here we directly examined the early, bilateral, target-selective effect to better understand its nature and functional role. Participants listened to midline-presented sounds that included target and nontarget stimuli that were randomly either embedded in a brief rapid stream or presented alone. The results indicate that this early bilateral effect results from a template for the target that utilizes its feature deviancy within a stream to enable rapid identification. Moreover, individual-differences analysis showed that the size of this effect was larger for participants with faster RTs. The findings support the hypothesis that our auditory attentional systems can implement and utilize a context-based relational template for a target sound, making use of additional auditory information in the environment when needing to rapidly detect a relevant sound.
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Abstract
Humans are endowed with an intuitive number sense that allows us to perceive and estimate numerosity without relying on language. It is controversial, however, as to whether there is a neural mechanism for direct perception of numerosity or whether numerosity is perceived indirectly via other perceptual properties. In this study, we used a novel regression-based analytic method, which allowed an assessment of the unique contributions of visual properties, including numerosity, to explain visual evoked potentials of participants passively viewing dot arrays. We found that the human brain is uniquely sensitive to numerosity and more sensitive to changes in numerosity than to changes in other visual properties, starting extremely early in the visual stream: 75 ms over a medial occipital site and 180 ms over bilateral occipitoparietal sites. These findings provide strong evidence for the existence of a neural mechanism for rapidly and directly extracting numerosity information in the human visual pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joonkoo Park
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003, USA.,Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
| | | | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience.,Department of Neurobiology.,Department of Psychiatry.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham NC 27708, USA
| | - Elizabeth M Brannon
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience.,Department of Psychiatry.,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham NC 27708, USA
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45
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Park J, Chiang C, Brannon EM, Woldorff MG. Experience-dependent hemispheric specialization of letters and numbers is revealed in early visual processing. J Cogn Neurosci 2014; 26:2239-49. [PMID: 24669789 PMCID: PMC4261939 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Recent fMRI research has demonstrated that letters and numbers are preferentially processed in distinct regions and hemispheres in the visual cortex. In particular, the left visual cortex preferentially processes letters compared with numbers, whereas the right visual cortex preferentially processes numbers compared with letters. Because letters and numbers are cultural inventions and are otherwise physically arbitrary, such a double dissociation is strong evidence for experiential effects on neural architecture. Here, we use the high temporal resolution of ERPs to investigate the temporal dynamics of the neural dissociation between letters and numbers. We show that the divergence between ERP traces to letters and numbers emerges very early in processing. Letters evoked greater N1 waves (latencies 140-170 msec) than did numbers over left occipital channels, whereas numbers evoked greater N1s than letters over the right, suggesting letters and numbers are preferentially processed in opposite hemispheres early in visual encoding. Moreover, strings of letters, but not single letters, elicited greater P2 ERP waves (starting around 250 msec) than numbers did over the left hemisphere, suggesting that the visual cortex is tuned to selectively process combinations of letters, but not numbers, further along in the visual processing stream. Additionally, the processing of both of these culturally defined stimulus types differentiated from similar but unfamiliar visual stimulus forms (false fonts) even earlier in the processing stream (the P1 at 100 msec). These findings imply major cortical specialization processes within the visual system driven by experience with reading and mathematics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joonkoo Park
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University
| | - Crystal Chiang
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University
- Trinity College of Arts & Science, Duke University
| | - Elizabeth M. Brannon
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University
| | - Marty G. Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University
- Department of Psychiatry, Duke University
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46
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San Martín R, Appelbaum LG, Huettel SA, Woldorff MG. Cortical Brain Activity Reflecting Attentional Biasing Toward Reward-Predicting Cues Covaries with Economic Decision-Making Performance. Cereb Cortex 2014; 26:1-11. [PMID: 25139941 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhu160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Adaptive choice behavior depends critically on identifying and learning from outcome-predicting cues. We hypothesized that attention may be preferentially directed toward certain outcome-predicting cues. We studied this possibility by analyzing event-related potential (ERP) responses in humans during a probabilistic decision-making task. Participants viewed pairs of outcome-predicting visual cues and then chose to wager either a small (i.e., loss-minimizing) or large (i.e., gain-maximizing) amount of money. The cues were bilaterally presented, which allowed us to extract the relative neural responses to each cue by using a contralateral-versus-ipsilateral ERP contrast. We found an early lateralized ERP response, whose features matched the attention-shift-related N2pc component and whose amplitude scaled with the learned reward-predicting value of the cues as predicted by an attention-for-reward model. Consistently, we found a double dissociation involving the N2pc. Across participants, gain-maximization positively correlated with the N2pc amplitude to the most reliable gain-predicting cue, suggesting an attentional bias toward such cues. Conversely, loss-minimization was negatively correlated with the N2pc amplitude to the most reliable loss-predicting cue, suggesting an attentional avoidance toward such stimuli. These results indicate that learned stimulus-reward associations can influence rapid attention allocation, and that differences in this process are associated with individual differences in economic decision-making performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- René San Martín
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Centro de Neuroeconomía, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago 8370076, Chile
| | - Lawrence G Appelbaum
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Scott A Huettel
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
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47
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Gamble ML, Woldorff MG. The Temporal Cascade of Neural Processes Underlying Target Detection and Attentional Processing During Auditory Search. Cereb Cortex 2014; 25:2456-65. [PMID: 24711486 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhu047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The posterior visual event-related potential (ERP) component, the N2pc, has been widely used to study lateralized shifts of attention within visual arrays. Recently, Gamble and Luck (2011) reported an auditory analog of this activity (the fronto-central "N2ac"), reflecting the lateralized focusing of attention toward a Target sound among 2 simultaneous auditory stimuli. Here, we directed an electrophysiological approach toward understanding auditory Target search within a more complex auditory environment in which rapidly occurring sounds were distributed across both time and space. Trials consisted of ten 40-ms monaural sounds rapidly presented to the 2 ears: 8 medium-pitch tones and 2 deviant sounds (one high and one low). For each block, one deviant type was designated as the Target, which participants needed to identify within each trial to discriminate its tonal quality. The extracted electrophysiological results included a very early enhancement, starting at approximately 50 ms, of a bilateral negative-polarity auditory brain response to the designated Target Deviant (compared with the Nontarget Deviant), followed at approximately 130 ms by the N2ac activity reflecting the lateralized focusing of attention toward that Target. The results delineate the tightly orchestrated sequence of neural processes underlying the detection of, and focusing of attention toward, Target sounds in complex auditory scenes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marissa L Gamble
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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Pinhas M, Donohue SE, Woldorff MG, Brannon EM. Electrophysiological evidence for the involvement of the approximate number system in preschoolers' processing of spoken number words. J Cogn Neurosci 2014; 26:1891-904. [PMID: 24702455 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Little is known about the neural underpinnings of number word comprehension in young children. Here we investigated the neural processing of these words during the crucial developmental window in which children learn their meanings and asked whether such processing relies on the Approximate Number System. ERPs were recorded as 3- to 5-year-old children heard the words one, two, three, or six while looking at pictures of 1, 2, 3, or 6 objects. The auditory number word was incongruent with the number of visual objects on half the trials and congruent on the other half. Children's number word comprehension predicted their ERP incongruency effects. Specifically, children with the least number word knowledge did not show any ERP incongruency effects, whereas those with intermediate and high number word knowledge showed an enhanced, negative polarity incongruency response (N(inc)) over centroparietal sites from 200 to 500 msec after the number word onset. This negativity was followed by an enhanced, positive polarity incongruency effect (P(inc)) that emerged bilaterally over parietal sites at about 700 msec. Moreover, children with the most number word knowledge showed ratio dependence in the P(inc) (larger for greater compared with smaller numerical mismatches), a hallmark of the Approximate Number System. Importantly, a similar modulation of the P(inc) from 700 to 800 msec was found in children with intermediate number word knowledge. These results provide the first neural correlates of spoken number word comprehension in preschoolers and are consistent with the view that children map number words onto approximate number representations before they fully master the verbal count list.
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Appelbaum LG, Boehler CN, Davis LA, Won RJ, Woldorff MG. The dynamics of proactive and reactive cognitive control processes in the human brain. J Cogn Neurosci 2013; 26:1021-38. [PMID: 24345171 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
In this study, we leveraged the high temporal resolution of EEG to examine the neural mechanisms underlying the flexible regulation of cognitive control that unfolds over different timescales. We measured behavioral and neural effects of color-word incongruency, as different groups of participants performed three different versions of color-word Stroop tasks in which the relative timing of the color and word features varied from trial to trial. For this purpose, we used a standard Stroop color identification task with equal congruent-to-incongruent proportions (50%/50%), along with two versions of the "Reverse Stroop" word identification tasks, for which we manipulated the incongruency proportion (50%/50% and 80%/20%). Two canonical ERP markers of neural processing of stimulus incongruency, the frontocentral negative polarity incongruency wave (NINC) and the late positive component (LPC), were evoked across the various conditions. Results indicated that color-word incongruency interacted with the relative feature timing, producing greater neural and behavioral effects when the task-irrelevant stimulus preceded the target, but still significant effects when it followed. Additionally, both behavioral and neural incongruency effects were reduced by nearly half in the word identification task (Reverse Stroop 50/50) relative to the color identification task (Stroop 50/50), with these effects essentially fully recovering when incongruent trials appeared only infrequently (Reverse Stroop 80/20). Across the conditions, NINC amplitudes closely paralleled RTs, indicating this component is sensitive to the overall level of stimulus conflict. In contrast, LPC amplitudes were largest with infrequent incongruent trials, suggesting a possible readjustment role when proactive control is reduced. These findings thus unveil distinct control mechanisms that unfold over time in response to conflicting stimulus input under different contexts.
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Appelbaum LG, Donohue SE, Park CJ, Woldorff MG. Is one enough? The case for non-additive influences of visual features on crossmodal Stroop interference. Front Psychol 2013; 4:799. [PMID: 24198800 PMCID: PMC3813948 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00799] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2013] [Accepted: 10/10/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
When different perceptual signals arising from the same physical entity are integrated, they form a more reliable sensory estimate. When such repetitive sensory signals are pitted against other competing stimuli, such as in a Stroop Task, this redundancy may lead to stronger processing that biases behavior toward reporting the redundant stimuli. This bias would therefore, be expected to evoke greater incongruency effects than if these stimuli did not contain redundant sensory features. In the present paper we report that this is not the case for a set of three crossmodal, auditory-visual Stroop tasks. In these tasks participants attended to, and reported, either the visual or the auditory stimulus (in separate blocks) while ignoring the other, unattended modality. The visual component of these stimuli could be purely semantic (words), purely perceptual (colors), or the combination of both. Based on previous work showing enhanced crossmodal integration and visual search gains for redundantly coded stimuli, we had expected that relative to the single features, redundant visual features would have induced both greater visual distracter incongruency effects for attended auditory targets, and been less influenced by auditory distracters for attended visual targets. Overall, reaction times were faster for visual targets and were dominated by behavioral facilitation for the cross-modal interactions (relative to interference), but showed surprisingly little influence of visual feature redundancy. Post-hoc analyses revealed modest and trending evidence for possible increases in behavioral interference for redundant visual distracters on auditory targets, however, these effects were substantially smaller than anticipated and were not accompanied by a redundancy effect for behavioral facilitation or for attended visual targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lawrence G Appelbaum
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Durham, NC, USA ; Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University Durham, NC, USA
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