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Matta PM, Glories D, Alamia A, Baurès R, Duclay J. Mind over muscle? Time manipulation improves physical performance by slowing down the neuromuscular fatigue accumulation. Psychophysiology 2024; 61:e14487. [PMID: 38015102 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14487] [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] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2023] [Revised: 09/14/2023] [Accepted: 10/26/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
While physical performance has long been thought to be limited only by physiological factors, many experiments denote that psychological ones can also influence it. Specifically, the deception paradigm investigates the effect of psychological factors on performance by manipulating a psychological variable unbeknownst to the subjects. For example, during a physical exercise performed to failure, previous results revealed an improvement in performance (i.e., holding time) when the clock shown to the subjects was deceptively slowed down. However, the underlying neurophysiological changes supporting this performance improvement due to deceptive time manipulation remain unknown. Here, we addressed this issue by investigating from a neuromuscular perspective the effect of a deceptive clock manipulation on a single-joint isometric task conducted to failure in 24 healthy participants (11 females). Neuromuscular fatigue was assessed by pre- to post-exercise changes in quadriceps maximal voluntary torque (Tmax ), voluntary activation level (VAL), and potentiated twitch (TTW ). Our main results indicated a significant performance improvement when the clock was slowed down (Biased: 356 ± 118 s vs. Normal: 332 ± 112 s, p = .036) but, surprisingly, without any difference in the associated neuromuscular fatigue (p > .05 and BF < 0.3 for Tmax , VAL, and TTW between both sessions). Computational modeling showed that, when observed, the holding time improvement was explained by a neuromuscular fatigue accumulation based on subjective rather than actual time. These results support a psychological influence on neuromuscular processes and contribute significantly to the literature on the mind-body influence, by challenging our understanding of fatigue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre-Marie Matta
- ToNIC, Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, INSERM, UPS, Toulouse, France
- CerCo, Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
| | - Dorian Glories
- ToNIC, Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, INSERM, UPS, Toulouse, France
| | - Andrea Alamia
- CerCo, Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
| | - Robin Baurès
- CerCo, Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
| | - Julien Duclay
- ToNIC, Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, INSERM, UPS, Toulouse, France
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2
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Alamia A, VanRullen R. A Traveling Waves Perspective on Temporal Binding. J Cogn Neurosci 2024; 36:721-729. [PMID: 37172133 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
Brain oscillations are involved in many cognitive processes, and several studies have investigated their role in cognition. In particular, the phase of certain oscillations has been related to temporal binding and integration processes, with some authors arguing that perception could be an inherently rhythmic process. However, previous research on oscillations mostly overlooked their spatial component: how oscillations propagate through the brain as traveling waves, with systematic phase delays between brain regions. Here, we argue that interpreting oscillations as traveling waves is a useful paradigm shift to understand their role in temporal binding and address controversial results. After a brief definition of traveling waves, we propose an original view on temporal integration that considers this new perspective. We first focus on cortical dynamics, then speculate about the role of thalamic nuclei in modulating the waves, and on the possible consequences for rhythmic temporal binding. In conclusion, we highlight the importance of considering oscillations as traveling waves when investigating their role in cognitive functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Alamia
- CNRS Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition (CERCO, UMR 5549), Toulouse, France
| | - Rufin VanRullen
- CNRS Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition (CERCO, UMR 5549), Toulouse, France
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3
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Timmermann C, Roseman L, Haridas S, Rosas FE, Luan L, Kettner H, Martell J, Erritzoe D, Tagliazucchi E, Pallavicini C, Girn M, Alamia A, Leech R, Nutt DJ, Carhart-Harris RL. Human brain effects of DMT assessed via EEG-fMRI. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2218949120. [PMID: 36940333 PMCID: PMC10068756 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2218949120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Psychedelics have attracted medical interest, but their effects on human brain function are incompletely understood. In a comprehensive, within-subjects, placebo-controlled design, we acquired multimodal neuroimaging [i.e., EEG-fMRI (electroencephalography-functional MRI)] data to assess the effects of intravenous (IV) N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) on brain function in 20 healthy volunteers. Simultaneous EEG-fMRI was acquired prior to, during, and after a bolus IV administration of 20 mg DMT, and, separately, placebo. At dosages consistent with the present study, DMT, a serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) agonist, induces a deeply immersive and radically altered state of consciousness. DMT is thus a useful research tool for probing the neural correlates of conscious experience. Here, fMRI results revealed robust increases in global functional connectivity (GFC), network disintegration and desegregation, and a compression of the principal cortical gradient under DMT. GFC × subjective intensity maps correlated with independent positron emission tomography (PET)-derived 5-HT2AR maps, and both overlapped with meta-analytical data implying human-specific psychological functions. Changes in major EEG-measured neurophysiological properties correlated with specific changes in various fMRI metrics, enriching our understanding of the neural basis of DMT's effects. The present findings advance on previous work by confirming a predominant action of DMT-and likely other 5-HT2AR agonist psychedelics-on the brain's transmodal association pole, i.e., the neurodevelopmentally and evolutionarily recent cortex that is associated with species-specific psychological advancements, and high expression of 5-HT2A receptors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Timmermann
- Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, W12 0NN London, UK
| | - Leor Roseman
- Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, W12 0NN London, UK
| | - Sharad Haridas
- Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, W12 0NN London, UK
| | - Fernando E Rosas
- Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, W12 0NN London, UK
- Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, United Kingdom
- Centre for Complexity Science, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
- Center for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9BX, United Kingdom
| | - Lisa Luan
- Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, W12 0NN London, UK
| | - Hannes Kettner
- Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, W12 0NN London, UK
| | - Jonny Martell
- Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, W12 0NN London, UK
| | - David Erritzoe
- Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, W12 0NN London, UK
| | - Enzo Tagliazucchi
- Departamento de Física, Latin American Brain Health Institute, Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, 3485 Santiago, Chile
- Universidad de Buenos Aires and Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Carla Pallavicini
- Universidad de Buenos Aires and Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Manesh Girn
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada
| | | | - Robert Leech
- Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College, London WC2R 2LS, UK
| | - David J Nutt
- Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, W12 0NN London, UK
| | - Robin L Carhart-Harris
- Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, W12 0NN London, UK
- Psychedelics Division - Neuroscape, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143
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4
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Alamia A, Terral L, D'ambra MR, VanRullen R. Distinct roles of forward and backward alpha-band waves in spatial visual attention. eLife 2023; 12:85035. [PMID: 36876909 PMCID: PMC10059684 DOI: 10.7554/elife.85035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [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: 11/18/2022] [Accepted: 03/05/2023] [Indexed: 03/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous research has associated alpha-band [8-12Hz] oscillations with inhibitory functions: for instance, several studies showed that visual attention increases alpha-band power in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the attended location. However, other studies demonstrated that alpha oscillations positively correlate with visual perception, hinting at different processes underlying their dynamics. Here, using an approach based on traveling waves, we demonstrate that there are two functionally distinct alpha-band oscillations propagating in different directions. We analyzed EEG recordings from three datasets of human participants performing a covert visual attention task (one new dataset with N=16, two previously published datasets with N=16 and N=31). Participants were instructed to detect a brief target by covertly attending to the screen's left or right side. Our analysis reveals two distinct processes: allocating attention to one hemifield increases top-down alpha-band waves propagating from frontal to occipital regions ipsilateral to the attended location, both with or without visual stimulation. These top-down oscillatory waves correlate positively with alpha-band power in frontal and occipital regions. Yet, different alpha-band waves propagate from occipital to frontal regions and contralateral to the attended location. Crucially, these forward waves were present only during visual stimulation, suggesting a separate mechanism related to visual processing. Together, these results reveal two distinct processes reflected by different propagation directions, demonstrating the importance of considering oscillations as traveling waves when characterizing their functional role.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Alamia
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Faculté de Médecine de Purpan, CNRS, UMR5549, Toulouse, France
| | | | | | - Rufin VanRullen
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Faculté de Médecine de Purpan, CNRS, UMR5549, Toulouse, France
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5
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Alamia A, Mozafari M, Choksi B, VanRullen R. On the role of feedback in image recognition under noise and adversarial attacks: A predictive coding perspective. Neural Netw 2022; 157:280-287. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2022.10.020] [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] [Received: 04/25/2022] [Revised: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Vaishnav M, Cadene R, Alamia A, Linsley D, VanRullen R, Serre T. Understanding the Computational Demands Underlying Visual Reasoning. Neural Comput 2022; 34:1075-1099. [PMID: 35231926 DOI: 10.1162/neco_a_01485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2021] [Accepted: 12/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Visual understanding requires comprehending complex visual relations between objects within a scene. Here, we seek to characterize the computational demands for abstract visual reasoning. We do this by systematically assessing the ability of modern deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to learn to solve the synthetic visual reasoning test (SVRT) challenge, a collection of 23 visual reasoning problems. Our analysis reveals a novel taxonomy of visual reasoning tasks, which can be primarily explained by both the type of relations (same-different versus spatial-relation judgments) and the number of relations used to compose the underlying rules. Prior cognitive neuroscience work suggests that attention plays a key role in humans' visual reasoning ability. To test this hypothesis, we extended the CNNs with spatial and feature-based attention mechanisms. In a second series of experiments, we evaluated the ability of these attention networks to learn to solve the SVRT challenge and found the resulting architectures to be much more efficient at solving the hardest of these visual reasoning tasks. Most important, the corresponding improvements on individual tasks partially explained our novel taxonomy. Overall, this work provides a granular computational account of visual reasoning and yields testable neuroscience predictions regarding the differential need for feature-based versus spatial attention depending on the type of visual reasoning problem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohit Vaishnav
- Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute, Université de Toulouse, 31052 Toulose, France.,Carney Institute for Brain Science, Department of Cognitive Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, U.S.A.
| | - Remi Cadene
- Carney Institute for Brain Science, Department of Cognitive Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, U.S.A.
| | - Andrea Alamia
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, 31052 Toulouse, France
| | - Drew Linsley
- Carney Institute for Brain Science, Department of Cognitive Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, U.S.A.
| | - Rufin VanRullen
- Artificial and Natural Intelligence, Toulouse Institute, Université de Toulouse, and Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, 31052 Toulouse, France
| | - Thomas Serre
- Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute, Université de Toulouse, 31052 Toulouse, France.,Carney Institute for Brain Science, Department of Cognitive Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, U.S.A.
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7
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van Bree S, Alamia A, Zoefel B. Oscillation or not-Why we can and need to know (commentary on Doelling and Assaneo, 2021). Eur J Neurosci 2021; 55:201-204. [PMID: 34817088 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2021] [Revised: 10/25/2021] [Accepted: 11/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sander van Bree
- Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Institute for Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.,Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Andrea Alamia
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, CNRS, Toulouse, France.,CerCo, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France
| | - Benedikt Zoefel
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, CNRS, Toulouse, France.,CerCo, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France
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8
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Luo C, VanRullen R, Alamia A. Conscious perception and perceptual echoes: a binocular rivalry study. Neurosci Conscious 2021; 2021:niab007. [PMID: 33815830 PMCID: PMC8007850 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niab007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [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: 08/06/2020] [Revised: 01/21/2021] [Accepted: 03/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Alpha rhythms (∼10Hz) in the human brain are classically associated with idling activities, being predominantly observed during quiet restfulness with closed eyes. However, recent studies demonstrated that alpha (∼10Hz) rhythms can directly relate to visual stimulation, resulting in oscillations, which can last for as long as one second. This alpha reverberation, dubbed perceptual echoes (PE), suggests that the visual system actively samples and processes visual information within the alpha-band frequency. Although PE have been linked to various visual functions, their underlying mechanisms and functional role are not completely understood. In this study, we investigated the relationship between conscious perception and the generation and the amplitude of PE. Specifically, we displayed two coloured Gabor patches with different orientations on opposite sides of the screen, and using a set of dichoptic mirrors, we induced a binocular rivalry between the two stimuli. We asked participants to continuously report which one of two Gabor patches they consciously perceived, while recording their EEG signals. Importantly, the luminance of each patch fluctuated randomly over time, generating random sequences from which we estimated two impulse-response functions (IRFs) reflecting the PE generated by the perceived (dominant) and non-perceived (suppressed) stimulus, respectively. We found that the alpha power of the PE generated by the consciously perceived stimulus was comparable with that of the PE generated during monocular vision (control condition) and higher than the PE induced by the suppressed stimulus. Moreover, confirming previous findings, we found that all PEs propagated as a travelling wave from posterior to frontal brain regions, irrespective of conscious perception. All in all our results demonstrate a correlation between conscious perception and PE, suggesting that the synchronization of neural activity plays an important role in visual sampling and conscious perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Canhuang Luo
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition (CerCo) - Place du Docteur Baylac Pavillon Baudot 31059 Toulouse, France
| | - Rufin VanRullen
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition (CerCo) - Place du Docteur Baylac Pavillon Baudot 31059 Toulouse, France
- Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées - siège social 41 Allées Jules Guesde - 31013 Toulouse, France
| | - Andrea Alamia
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition (CerCo) - Place du Docteur Baylac Pavillon Baudot 31059 Toulouse, France
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9
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Alamia A, Gauducheau V, Paisios D, VanRullen R. Comparing feedforward and recurrent neural network architectures with human behavior in artificial grammar learning. Sci Rep 2020; 10:22172. [PMID: 33335190 PMCID: PMC7747619 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-79127-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
In recent years artificial neural networks achieved performance close to or better than humans in several domains: tasks that were previously human prerogatives, such as language processing, have witnessed remarkable improvements in state of the art models. One advantage of this technological boost is to facilitate comparison between different neural networks and human performance, in order to deepen our understanding of human cognition. Here, we investigate which neural network architecture (feedforward vs. recurrent) matches human behavior in artificial grammar learning, a crucial aspect of language acquisition. Prior experimental studies proved that artificial grammars can be learnt by human subjects after little exposure and often without explicit knowledge of the underlying rules. We tested four grammars with different complexity levels both in humans and in feedforward and recurrent networks. Our results show that both architectures can "learn" (via error back-propagation) the grammars after the same number of training sequences as humans do, but recurrent networks perform closer to humans than feedforward ones, irrespective of the grammar complexity level. Moreover, similar to visual processing, in which feedforward and recurrent architectures have been related to unconscious and conscious processes, the difference in performance between architectures over ten regular grammars shows that simpler and more explicit grammars are better learnt by recurrent architectures, supporting the hypothesis that explicit learning is best modeled by recurrent networks, whereas feedforward networks supposedly capture the dynamics involved in implicit learning.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Dimitri Paisios
- CerCo, CNRS, 31055, Toulouse, France
- Laboratoire Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie, CNRS, Université Toulouse, Toulouse, France
| | - Rufin VanRullen
- CerCo, CNRS, 31055, Toulouse, France
- ANITI, Université de Toulouse, 31055, Toulouse, France
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10
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11
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Abstract
Psychedelic drugs are potent modulators of conscious states and therefore powerful tools for investigating their neurobiology. N,N, Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) can rapidly induce an extremely immersive state of consciousness characterized by vivid and elaborate visual imagery. Here, we investigated the electrophysiological correlates of the DMT-induced altered state from a pool of participants receiving DMT and (separately) placebo (saline) while instructed to keep their eyes closed. Consistent with our hypotheses, results revealed a spatio-temporal pattern of cortical activation (i.e. travelling waves) similar to that elicited by visual stimulation. Moreover, the typical top-down alpha-band rhythms of closed-eyes rest were significantly decreased, while the bottom-up forward wave was significantly increased. These results support a recent model proposing that psychedelics reduce the 'precision-weighting of priors', thus altering the balance of top-down versus bottom-up information passing. The robust hypothesis-confirming nature of these findings imply the discovery of an important mechanistic principle underpinning psychedelic-induced altered states.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Christopher Timmermann
- Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory (C3NL), Faculty of Medicine, Imperial CollegeLondonUnited Kingdom
- Centre for Psychedelic Research, Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
| | - David J Nutt
- Centre for Psychedelic Research, Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
| | - Rufin VanRullen
- Cerco, CNRS Université de ToulouseToulouseFrance
- Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute (ANITI)ToulouseFrance
| | - Robin L Carhart-Harris
- Centre for Psychedelic Research, Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
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12
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Abstract
Predictive coding is a key mechanism to understand the computational processes underlying brain functioning: in a hierarchical network, higher levels predict the activity of lower levels, and the unexplained residuals (i.e., prediction errors) are passed back to higher layers. Because of its recursive nature, we wondered whether predictive coding could be related to brain oscillatory dynamics. First, we show that a simple 2-level predictive coding model of visual cortex, with physiological communication delays between levels, naturally gives rise to alpha-band rhythms, similar to experimental observations. Then, we demonstrate that a multilevel version of the same model can explain the occurrence of oscillatory traveling waves across levels, both forward (during visual stimulation) and backward (during rest). Remarkably, the predictions of our model are matched by the analysis of 2 independent electroencephalography (EEG) datasets, in which we observed oscillatory traveling waves in both directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Alamia
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition (CerCo), CNRS, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
| | - Rufin VanRullen
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition (CerCo), CNRS, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
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13
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Alamia A, Ricci M, Kim J, Serre T, Van-Rullen R. Differential involvement of EEG oscillations in identity vs. spatial-relation reasoning tasks. J Vis 2019. [DOI: 10.1167/19.10.44b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Alamia
- Cerco, CNRS Université de Toulouse, Toulouse 31055 (France)
| | - Matthew Ricci
- Brown University, Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences. 190 Thayer Street. Providence, RI 029012 (USA)
| | - Junkyung Kim
- Brown University, Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences. 190 Thayer Street. Providence, RI 029012 (USA)
| | - Thomas Serre
- Brown University, Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences. 190 Thayer Street. Providence, RI 029012 (USA)
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Alamia A, Solopchuk O, Zénon A. Strong Conscious Cues Suppress Preferential Gaze Allocation to Unconscious Cues. Front Hum Neurosci 2018; 12:427. [PMID: 30459582 PMCID: PMC6232777 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [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: 07/17/2018] [Accepted: 10/01/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual attention allows relevant information to be selected for further processing. Both conscious and unconscious visual stimuli can bias attentional allocation, but how these two types of visual information interact to guide attention remains unclear. In this study, we explored attentional allocation during a motion discrimination task with varied motion strength and unconscious associations between stimuli and cues. Participants were instructed to report the motion direction of two colored patches of dots. Unbeknown to participants, dot colors were sometimes informative of the correct response. We found that subjects learnt the associations between colors and motion direction but failed to report this association using the questionnaire filled at the end of the experiment, confirming that learning remained unconscious. The eye movement analyses revealed that allocation of attention to unconscious sources of information occurred mostly when motion coherence was low, indicating that unconscious cues influence attentional allocation only in the absence of strong conscious cues. All in all, our results reveal that conscious and unconscious sources of information interact with each other to influence attentional allocation and suggest a selection process that weights cues in proportion to their reliability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Oleg Solopchuk
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Alexandre Zénon
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
- UMR5287 Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine (INCIA), CNRS, Bordeaux, France
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15
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Solopchuk O, Alamia A, Dricot L, Duque J, Zénon A. cTBS disruption of the supplementary motor area perturbs cortical sequence representation but not behavioural performance. Neuroimage 2017; 163:34-40. [PMID: 28899743 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.09.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2017] [Accepted: 09/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroimaging studies have repeatedly emphasized the role of the supplementary motor area (SMA) in motor sequence learning, but interferential approaches have led to inconsistent findings. Here, we aimed to test the role of the SMA in motor skill learning by combining interferential and neuroimaging techniques. Sixteen subjects were trained on simple finger movement sequences for 4 days. Afterwards, they underwent two neuroimaging sessions, in which they executed both trained and novel sequences. Prior to entering the scanner, the subjects received inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the SMA or a control site. Using multivariate fMRI analysis, we confirmed that motor training enhances the neural representation of motor sequences in the SMA, in accordance with previous findings. However, although SMA inhibition altered sequence representation (i.e. between-sequence decoding accuracy) in this area, behavioural performance remained unimpaired. Our findings question the causal link between the neuroimaging correlate of elementary motor sequence representation in the SMA and sequence generation, calling for a more thorough investigation of the role of this region in performance of learned motor sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oleg Solopchuk
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium; INCIA, 33076 Bordeaux, France.
| | - Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Laurence Dricot
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Julie Duque
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Alexandre Zénon
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium; INCIA, 33076 Bordeaux, France
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16
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Filbrich L, Alamia A, Verfaille C, Berquin A, Barbier O, Libouton X, Fraselle V, Mouraux D, Legrain V. Biased visuospatial perception in complex regional pain syndrome. Sci Rep 2017; 7:9712. [PMID: 28852115 PMCID: PMC5574889 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-10077-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2016] [Accepted: 08/04/2017] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic pain condition associating sensory, motor, trophic and autonomic symptoms in one limb. Cognitive difficulties have also been reported, affecting the patients’ ability to mentally represent, perceive and use their affected limb. However, the nature of these deficits is still a matter of debate. Recent studies suggest that cognitive deficits are limited to body-related information and body perception, while not extending to external space. Here we challenge that statement, by using temporal order judgment (TOJ) tasks with tactile (i.e. body) or visual (i.e. extra-body) stimuli in patients with upper-limb CRPS. TOJ tasks allow characterizing cognitive biases to the advantage of one of the two sides of space. While the tactile TOJ tasks did not show any significant results, significant cognitive biases were observed in the visual TOJ tasks, affecting mostly the perception of visual stimuli occurring in the immediate vicinity of the affected limb. Our results clearly demonstrate the presence of visuospatial deficits in CRPS, corroborating the cortical contribution to the CRPS pathophysiology, and supporting the utility of developing rehabilitation techniques modifying visuospatial abilities to treat chronic pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lieve Filbrich
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Charlotte Verfaille
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Anne Berquin
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.,University Hospital Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Olivier Barbier
- University Hospital Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium.,Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Xavier Libouton
- University Hospital Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium.,Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Virginie Fraselle
- University Hospital Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium.,Faculty of Motor Sciences, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Dominique Mouraux
- Faculty of Motor Sciences, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.,University Hospital Erasme, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Valéry Legrain
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
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17
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Filbrich L, Alamia A, Blandiaux S, Burns S, Legrain V. Shaping visual space perception through bodily sensations: Testing the impact of nociceptive stimuli on visual perception in peripersonal space with temporal order judgments. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0182634. [PMID: 28777824 PMCID: PMC5544212 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2017] [Accepted: 07/22/2017] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Coordinating spatial perception between body space and its external surrounding space is essential to adapt behaviors to objects, especially when they are noxious. Such coherent multisensory representation of the body extended into external space is conceptualized by the notion of peripersonal reference frame, mapping the portion of space in which somatic and extra-somatic inputs interact closely. Studies on crossmodal interactions between nociception and vision have been scarce. Here we investigated how the perception of visual stimuli, especially those surrounding the body, can be impacted by a nociceptive and potentially harmful stimulus inflicted on a particular body part. In two temporal order judgment tasks, participants judged which of two lateralized visual stimuli, presented either near or far from the body, had been presented first. Visual stimuli were preceded by nociceptive stimuli, either applied unilaterally (on one single hand) or bilaterally (on both hands simultaneously). In Experiment 1 participants' hands were always placed next to the visual stimuli presented near the trunk, while in Experiment 2 they could also be placed next to the visual stimuli presented far from the trunk. In Experiment 1, the presence of unilateral nociceptive stimuli prioritized the perception of visual stimuli presented in the same side of space as the stimulated hand, with a significantly larger effect when visual stimuli were presented near the body than when presented farther away. Experiment 2 showed that these visuospatial biases were related to the spatial congruency between the hand on which nociceptive stimuli were applied and the visual stimuli, independently of the relative distance of both the stimulated hand and the visual stimuli from the trunk. Indeed, nociceptive stimuli mostly impacted the perception of the closest visual stimuli. It is hypothesized that these crossmodal interactions may rely on representations of the space directly surrounding specific body parts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lieve Filbrich
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Séverine Blandiaux
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Soline Burns
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Valéry Legrain
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
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18
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Filbrich L, Alamia A, Burns S, Legrain V. Erratum to: Orienting attention in visual space by nociceptive stimuli: investigation with a temporal order judgment task based on the adaptive PSI method. Exp Brain Res 2017; 235:2901. [PMID: 28676919 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-017-5020-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Lieve Filbrich
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Avenue Mounier 53, boite COSY B1.53.04, 1200, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Avenue Mounier 53, boite COSY B1.53.04, 1200, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Soline Burns
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Avenue Mounier 53, boite COSY B1.53.04, 1200, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Valéry Legrain
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Avenue Mounier 53, boite COSY B1.53.04, 1200, Brussels, Belgium
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19
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Vanderclausen C, Filbrich L, Alamia A, Legrain V. Investigating peri-limb interaction between nociception and vision using spatial depth. Neurosci Lett 2017; 654:111-116. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.05.060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2017] [Revised: 05/16/2017] [Accepted: 05/28/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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20
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Filbrich L, Alamia A, Burns S, Legrain V. Orienting attention in visual space by nociceptive stimuli: investigation with a temporal order judgment task based on the adaptive PSI method. Exp Brain Res 2017; 235:2069-2079. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-017-4951-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2017] [Accepted: 03/29/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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21
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Alamia A, Solopchuk O, Zénon A. Predictive coding through the lens of the pupil. Front Neurosci 2017. [DOI: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2017.94.00109] [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: 11/13/2022] Open
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22
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Derosiere G, Zénon A, Alamia A, Duque J. Primary motor cortex contributes to the implementation of implicit value-based rules during motor decisions. Neuroimage 2016; 146:1115-1127. [PMID: 27742597 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.10.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [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: 07/26/2016] [Revised: 09/14/2016] [Accepted: 10/05/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
In the present study, we investigated the functional contribution of the human primary motor cortex (M1) to motor decisions. Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) was used to alter M1 activity while participants performed a decision-making task in which the reward associated with the subjects' responses (right hand finger movements) depended on explicit and implicit value-based rules. Subjects performed the task over two consecutive days and cTBS occurred in the middle of Day 2, once the subjects were just about to implement implicit rules, in addition to the explicit instructions, to choose their responses, as evident in the control group (cTBS over the right somatosensory cortex). Interestingly, cTBS over the left M1 prevented subjects from implementing the implicit value-based rule while its implementation was enhanced in the group receiving cTBS over the right M1. Hence, cTBS had opposite effects depending on whether it was applied on the contralateral or ipsilateral M1. The use of the explicit value-based rule was unaffected by cTBS in the three groups of subject. Overall, the present study provides evidence for a functional contribution of M1 to the implementation of freshly acquired implicit rules, possibly through its involvement in a cortico-subcortical network controlling value-based motor decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerard Derosiere
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Alexandre Zénon
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Julie Duque
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
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23
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Alamia A, Solopchuk O, Olivier E, Zenon A. Non-parametric Algorithm to Isolate Chunks in Response Sequences. Front Behav Neurosci 2016; 10:177. [PMID: 27708565 PMCID: PMC5030762 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [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: 02/10/2016] [Accepted: 09/02/2016] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Chunking consists in grouping items of a sequence into small clusters, named chunks, with the assumed goal of lessening working memory load. Despite extensive research, the current methods used to detect chunks, and to identify different chunking strategies, remain discordant and difficult to implement. Here, we propose a simple and reliable method to identify chunks in a sequence and to determine their stability across blocks. This algorithm is based on a ranking method and its major novelty is that it provides concomitantly both the features of individual chunk in a given sequence, and an overall index that quantifies the chunking pattern consistency across sequences. The analysis of simulated data confirmed the validity of our method in different conditions of noise, chunk lengths and chunk numbers; moreover, we found that this algorithm was particularly efficient in the noise range observed in real data, provided that at least 4 sequence repetitions were included in each experimental block. Furthermore, we applied this algorithm to actual reaction time series gathered from 3 published experiments and were able to confirm the findings obtained in the original reports. In conclusion, this novel algorithm is easy to implement, is robust to outliers and provides concurrent and reliable estimation of chunk position and chunking dynamics, making it useful to study both sequence-specific and general chunking effects. The algorithm is available at: https://github.com/artipago/Non-parametric-algorithm-to-isolate-chunks-in-response-sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain Bruxelles, Belgique
| | - Oleg Solopchuk
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain Bruxelles, Belgique
| | - Etienne Olivier
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain Bruxelles, Belgique
| | - Alexandre Zenon
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain Bruxelles, Belgique
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24
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Torta DM, Tatu MK, Cotroneo D, Alamia A, Folegatti A, Trojan J. Prism adaptation contrasts perceptual habituation for repetitive somatosensory stimuli. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2016; 165:24-33. [PMID: 26896790 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.01.009] [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: 02/18/2015] [Revised: 11/24/2015] [Accepted: 01/19/2016] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Prism adaptation (PA) is a non-invasive procedure that requires performing a visuo-motor pointing task while wearing prism goggles inducing a visual displacement of the pointed target. This procedure involves a reorganization of sensorimotor coordination, and induces long-lasting effects on numerous higher-order cognitive functions in healthy volunteers and neglect patients. Prismatic displacement (PD) of the visual field can be induced when prisms are worn but no sensorimotor task is required. In this case, it is unlikely that any subsequent reorganization takes place. The effects of PD are short-lived in the sense that they last as long as prisms are worn. In this study we aimed, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, at investigating whether PA and PD induce changes in the perception of intensity of nociceptive and non- nociceptive somatosensory stimuli. We induced, in healthy volunteers, PD (experiment 1), or PA (experiment 2) and asked participants to rate the intensity of the stimuli applied to the hand undergoing the visuo-proprioceptive conflict (experiment 1) or adaptation (experiment 2). Our results indicate that: 1) the visuo-proprioceptive conflict induced by PD does not reduce the perceived intensity of the stimuli, 2) PA prevents perceptual habituation for both nociceptive and non-nociceptive somatosensory stimuli. Moreover, to investigate the possible underlying mechanisms of the effects of PA we conducted a third experiment in which stimuli were applied both at the adapted and the non-adapted hand. In line with the results of experiment 2, we found that perceptual habituation was prevented for stimuli applied onto the adapted hand. Moreover, we observed the same finding for stimuli applied onto the non-adapted hand. This result suggests that the detention of habituation is not merely driven by changes in spatial attention allocation. Taken together, these data indicate that prisms can affect the perceived intensity of somatosensory stimuli, but only when PA is induced.
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Affiliation(s)
- D M Torta
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Italy; Institute of Neuroscience, IoNS, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - M K Tatu
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Italy; Institute of Neuroscience, IoNS, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - D Cotroneo
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Italy
| | - A Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, IoNS, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - A Folegatti
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Italy
| | - J Trojan
- Department of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
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25
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Solopchuk O, Alamia A, Olivier E, Zénon A. Chunking improves symbolic sequence processing and relies on working memory gating mechanisms. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2016; 23:108-12. [PMID: 26884228 PMCID: PMC4755266 DOI: 10.1101/lm.041277.115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [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: 12/02/2015] [Accepted: 12/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Chunking, namely the grouping of sequence elements in clusters, is ubiquitous during sequence processing, but its impact on performance remains debated. Here, we found that participants who adopted a consistent chunking strategy during symbolic sequence learning showed a greater improvement of their performance and a larger decrease in cognitive workload over time. Stronger reliance on chunking was also associated with higher scores in a WM updating task, suggesting the contribution of WM gating mechanisms to sequence chunking. Altogether, these results indicate that chunking is a cost-saving strategy that enhances effectiveness of symbolic sequence learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oleg Solopchuk
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Etienne Olivier
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Alexandre Zénon
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium
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26
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Abstract
Visual attention seems essential for learning the statistical regularities in our environment, a process known as statistical learning. However, how attention is allocated when exploring a novel visual scene whose statistical structure is unknown remains unclear. In order to address this question, we investigated visual attention allocation during a task in which we manipulated the conditional probability of occurrence of colored stimuli, unbeknown to the subjects. Participants were instructed to detect a target colored dot among two dots moving along separate circular paths. We evaluated implicit statistical learning, i.e., the effect of color predictability on reaction times (RTs), and recorded eye position concurrently. Attention allocation was indexed by comparing the Mahalanobis distance between the position, velocity and acceleration of the eyes and the two colored dots. We found that learning the conditional probabilities occurred very early during the course of the experiment as shown by the fact that, starting already from the first block, predictable stimuli were detected with shorter RT than unpredictable ones. In terms of attentional allocation, we found that the predictive stimulus attracted gaze only when it was informative about the occurrence of the target but not when it predicted the occurrence of a task-irrelevant stimulus. This suggests that attention allocation was influenced by regularities only when they were instrumental in performing the task. Moreover, we found that the attentional bias towards task-relevant predictive stimuli occurred at a very early stage of learning, concomitantly with the first effects of learning on RT. In conclusion, these results show that statistical regularities capture visual attention only after a few occurrences, provided these regularities are instrumental to perform the task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain Bruxelles, Belgium
| | - Alexandre Zénon
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain Bruxelles, Belgium
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27
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Alamia A, Solopchuk O, D'Ausilio A, Van Bever V, Fadiga L, Olivier E, Zénon A. Disruption of Broca's Area Alters Higher-order Chunking Processing during Perceptual Sequence Learning. J Cogn Neurosci 2016; 28:402-17. [PMID: 26765778 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00911] [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] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Because Broca's area is known to be involved in many cognitive functions, including language, music, and action processing, several attempts have been made to propose a unifying theory of its role that emphasizes a possible contribution to syntactic processing. Recently, we have postulated that Broca's area might be involved in higher-order chunk processing during implicit learning of a motor sequence. Chunking is an information-processing mechanism that consists of grouping consecutive items in a sequence and is likely to be involved in all of the aforementioned cognitive processes. Demonstrating a contribution of Broca's area to chunking during the learning of a nonmotor sequence that does not involve language could shed new light on its function. To address this issue, we used offline MRI-guided TMS in healthy volunteers to disrupt the activity of either the posterior part of Broca's area (left Brodmann's area [BA] 44) or a control site just before participants learned a perceptual sequence structured in distinct hierarchical levels. We found that disruption of the left BA 44 increased the processing time of stimuli representing the boundaries of higher-order chunks and modified the chunking strategy. The current results highlight the possible role of the left BA 44 in building up effector-independent representations of higher-order events in structured sequences. This might clarify the contribution of Broca's area in processing hierarchical structures, a key mechanism in many cognitive functions, such as language and composite actions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Luciano Fadiga
- Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy.,University of Ferrara
| | - Etienne Olivier
- Université catholique de Louvain.,Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
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28
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Alamia A, Orban de Xivry JJ, San Anton E, Olivier E, Cleeremans A, Zenon A. Unconscious associative learning with conscious cues. Neurosci Conscious 2016; 2016:niw016. [PMID: 30397511 PMCID: PMC6210405 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niw016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [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: 01/12/2016] [Revised: 06/14/2016] [Accepted: 08/10/2016] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite extensive research, the very existence of unconscious learning in humans remains much debated. Skepticism arises chiefly from the difficulty in assessing the level of awareness of the complex associations learned in classical implicit learning paradigms. Here, we show that simple associations between colors and motion directions can be learned unconsciously. In each trial, participants had to report the motion direction of a patch of colored dots but unbeknownst to the participants, two out of the three possible colors were always associated with a given direction/response, while one was uninformative. We confirm the lack of awareness by using several tasks, fulfilling the most stringent criteria. In addition, we show the crucial role of trial-by-trial feedback, and that both the stimulus-response (motor) and stimulus-stimulus (perceptual) associations were learned. In conclusion, we demonstrate that simple associations between supraliminal stimulus features can be learned unconsciously, providing a novel framework to study unconscious learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Kinesiology, Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Estibaliz San Anton
- Consciousness, Cognition, and Computation Group, Centre de Recherche Cognition et Neurosciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Etienne Olivier
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Axel Cleeremans
- Consciousness, Cognition, and Computation Group, Centre de Recherche Cognition et Neurosciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Alexandre Zenon
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
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29
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Zénon A, Klein PA, Alamia A, Boursoit F, Wilhelm E, Duque J. Increased Reliance on Value-based Decision Processes Following Motor Cortex Disruption. Brain Stimul 2015; 8:957-64. [PMID: 26279406 DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2015.05.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [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: 02/07/2015] [Revised: 05/13/2015] [Accepted: 05/22/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND During motor decision making, the neural activity in primary motor cortex (M1) encodes dynamically the competition occurring between potential action plans. A common view is that M1 represents the unfolding of the outcome of a decision process taking place upstream. Yet, M1 could also be directly involved in the decision process. OBJECTIVE Here we tested this hypothesis by assessing the effect of M1 disruption on a motor decision-making task. METHODS We applied continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) to inhibit either left or right M1 in different groups of subjects and included a third control group with no stimulation. Following cTBS, participants performed a task that required them to choose between two finger key-presses with the right hand according to both perceptual and value-based information. Effects were assessed by means of generalized linear mixed models and computational simulations. RESULTS In all three groups, subjects relied both on perceptual (P < 0.0001) and value-based information (P = 0.003) to reach a decision. Yet, left M1 disruption led to an increased reliance on value-based information (P = 0.03). This result was confirmed by a computational model showing an increased weight of the valued-based process on the right hand finger choices following left M1 cTBS (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION These results indicate that M1 is involved in motor decision making, possibly by weighting the final integration of multiple sources of evidence driving motor behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandre Zénon
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | | | - Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - François Boursoit
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Emmanuelle Wilhelm
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Julie Duque
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
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30
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Zénon A, Corneil BD, Alamia A, Filali-Sadouk N, Olivier E. Counterproductive effect of saccadic suppression during attention shifts. PLoS One 2014; 9:e86633. [PMID: 24466181 PMCID: PMC3900577 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086633] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2013] [Accepted: 12/16/2013] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
During saccadic eye movements, the processing of visual information is transiently interrupted by a mechanism known as "saccadic suppression" [1] that is thought to ensure perceptual stability [2]. If, as proposed in the premotor theory of attention [3], covert shifts of attention rely on sub-threshold recruitment of oculomotor circuits, then saccadic suppression should also occur during covert shifts. In order to test this prediction, we designed two experiments in which participants had to orient towards a cued letter, with or without saccades. We analyzed the time course of letter identification score in an "attention" task performed without saccades, using the saccadic latencies measured in the "saccade" task as a marker of covert saccadic preparation. Visual conditions were identical in all tasks. In the "attention" task, we found a drop in perceptual performance around the predicted onset time of saccades that were never performed. Importantly, this decrease in letter identification score cannot be explained by any known mechanism aligned on cue onset such as inhibition of return, masking, or microsaccades. These results show that attentional allocation triggers the same suppression mechanisms as during saccades, which is relevant during eye movements but detrimental in the context of covert orienting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandre Zénon
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Brian D. Corneil
- Departments of Physiology & Pharmacology, Psychology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
- Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | | | - Etienne Olivier
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
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31
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di Giacomo E, Alamia A, Manzutto S, Aspesi F, Lazzari M, Riboldi G, Clerici M. 1774 – Female perspective of borderline personality disorder and depression. Eur Psychiatry 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/s0924-9338(13)76750-6] [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] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
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