1
|
Abstract
Rhythmic activity in the delta frequency range (0.5-3 Hz) is a prominent feature of brain dynamics. Here, we examined whether spontaneous delta oscillations, as found in invasive recordings in awake animals, can be observed in non-invasive recordings performed in humans with magnetoencephalography (MEG). In humans, delta activity is commonly reported when processing rhythmic sensory inputs, with direct relationships to behaviour. However, rhythmic brain dynamics observed during rhythmic sensory stimulation cannot be interpreted as an endogenous oscillation. To test for endogenous delta oscillations we analysed human MEG data during rest. For comparison, we additionally analysed two conditions in which participants engaged in spontaneous finger tapping and silent counting, arguing that internally rhythmic behaviours could incite an otherwise silent neural oscillator. A novel set of analysis steps allowed us to show narrow spectral peaks in the delta frequency range in rest, and during overt and covert rhythmic activity. Additional analyses in the time domain revealed that only the resting state condition warranted an interpretation of these peaks as endogenously periodic neural dynamics. In sum, this work shows that using advanced signal processing techniques, it is possible to observe endogenous delta oscillations in non-invasive recordings of human brain dynamics.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Harish Gunasekaran
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, NeuroSpin, CEA, INSERM, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Leila Azizi
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, NeuroSpin, CEA, INSERM, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Virginie van Wassenhove
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, NeuroSpin, CEA, INSERM, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Sophie K Herbst
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, NeuroSpin, CEA, INSERM, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Chaumon M, Rioux PA, Herbst SK, Spiousas I, Kübel SL, Gallego Hiroyasu EM, Runyun ŞL, Micillo L, Thanopoulos V, Mendoza-Duran E, Wagelmans A, Mudumba R, Tachmatzidou O, Cellini N, D'Argembeau A, Giersch A, Grondin S, Gronfier C, Igarzábal FA, Klarsfeld A, Jovanovic L, Laje R, Lannelongue E, Mioni G, Nicolaï C, Srinivasan N, Sugiyama S, Wittmann M, Yotsumoto Y, Vatakis A, Balcı F, van Wassenhove V. The Blursday database as a resource to study subjective temporalities during COVID-19. Nat Hum Behav 2022; 6:1587-1599. [PMID: 35970902 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-022-01419-2] [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: 11/20/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns triggered worldwide changes in the daily routines of human experience. The Blursday database provides repeated measures of subjective time and related processes from participants in nine countries tested on 14 questionnaires and 15 behavioural tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 2,840 participants completed at least one task, and 439 participants completed all tasks in the first session. The database and all data collection tools are accessible to researchers for studying the effects of social isolation on temporal information processing, time perspective, decision-making, sleep, metacognition, attention, memory, self-perception and mindfulness. Blursday includes quantitative statistics such as sleep patterns, personality traits, psychological well-being and lockdown indices. The database provides quantitative insights on the effects of lockdown (stringency and mobility) and subjective confinement on time perception (duration, passage of time and temporal distances). Perceived isolation affects time perception, and we report an inter-individual central tendency effect in retrospective duration estimation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maximilien Chaumon
- Institut du Cerveau, ICM, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, Centre MEG-EEG, Centre de NeuroImagerie Recherche (CENIR), Paris, France.
| | | | - Sophie K Herbst
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Ignacio Spiousas
- Department of Science and Technology, University of Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Sebastian L Kübel
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Freiburg, Germany.,Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg, Germany
| | | | - Şerife Leman Runyun
- Department of Psychology and Center for Translational Medicine, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Luigi Micillo
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Vassilis Thanopoulos
- Multisensory and Temporal Processing Laboratory (MultiTimeLab), Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece.,Department of History and Philosophy of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | | | - Anna Wagelmans
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Ramya Mudumba
- Department of Cognitive Science, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India
| | - Ourania Tachmatzidou
- Multisensory and Temporal Processing Laboratory (MultiTimeLab), Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
| | - Nicola Cellini
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Arnaud D'Argembeau
- Department of Psychology, Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition, Université de Liège, F.R.S.-FNRS, Liège, Belgium
| | - Anne Giersch
- Université de Strasbourg, Unité mixte INSERM U1114, Département de Psychiatrie, Hôpital civil, Strasbourg, France
| | - Simon Grondin
- École de psychologie, Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
| | - Claude Gronfier
- Waking Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Université Lyon 1, Bron, France
| | | | - André Klarsfeld
- Laboratoire Plasticité du Cerveau, CNRS UMR 8249, ESPCI Paris PSL, Paris, France
| | - Ljubica Jovanovic
- Université de Strasbourg, Unité mixte INSERM U1114, Département de Psychiatrie, Hôpital civil, Strasbourg, France.,School of Psychology, University Park, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
| | - Rodrigo Laje
- Department of Science and Technology, University of Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Elisa Lannelongue
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Giovanna Mioni
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Cyril Nicolaï
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin, Gif/Yvette, France.,Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires, Paris, France
| | - Narayanan Srinivasan
- Department of Cognitive Science, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India
| | - Shogo Sugiyama
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Marc Wittmann
- Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Yuko Yotsumoto
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Argiro Vatakis
- Multisensory and Temporal Processing Laboratory (MultiTimeLab), Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
| | - Fuat Balcı
- Department of Psychology and Center for Translational Medicine, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey.,Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | - Virginie van Wassenhove
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, NeuroSpin, Gif/Yvette, France.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Herbst SK, Obleser J, van Wassenhove V. Implicit Versus Explicit Timing-Separate or Shared Mechanisms? J Cogn Neurosci 2022; 34:1447-1466. [PMID: 35579985 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01866] [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
Time implicitly shapes cognition, but time is also explicitly represented, for instance, in the form of durations. Parsimoniously, the brain could use the same mechanisms for implicit and explicit timing. Yet, the evidence has been equivocal, revealing both joint versus separate signatures of timing. Here, we directly compared implicit and explicit timing using magnetoencephalography, whose temporal resolution allows investigating the different stages of the timing processes. Implicit temporal predictability was induced in an auditory paradigm by a manipulation of the foreperiod. Participants received two consecutive task instructions: discriminate pitch (indirect measure of implicit timing) or duration (direct measure of explicit timing). The results show that the human brain efficiently extracts implicit temporal statistics of sensory environments, to enhance the behavioral and neural responses to auditory stimuli, but that those temporal predictions did not improve explicit timing. In both tasks, attentional orienting in time during predictive foreperiods was indexed by an increase in alpha power over visual and parietal areas. Furthermore, pretarget induced beta power in sensorimotor and parietal areas increased during implicit compared to explicit timing, in line with the suggested role for beta oscillations in temporal prediction. Interestingly, no distinct neural dynamics emerged when participants explicitly paid attention to time, compared to implicit timing. Our work thus indicates that implicit timing shapes the behavioral and sensory response in an automatic way and is reflected in oscillatory neural dynamics, whereas the translation of implicit temporal statistics to explicit durations remains somewhat inconclusive, possibly because of the more abstract nature of this task.
Collapse
|
5
|
Schneider D, Herbst SK, Klatt LI, Wöstmann M. Target enhancement or distractor suppression? Functionally distinct alpha oscillations form the basis of attention. Eur J Neurosci 2021; 55:3256-3265. [PMID: 33973310 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2020] [Revised: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 05/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Recent advances in attention research have been propelled by the debate on target enhancement versus distractor suppression. A predominant neural correlate of attention is the modulation of alpha oscillatory power (~10 Hz), which signifies shifts of attention in time, space and between sensory modalities. However, the underspecified functional role of alpha oscillations limits the progress of tracking down the neurocognitive basis of attention. In this short opinion article, we review and critically examine a synthesis of three conceptual and methodological aspects that are indispensable for a mechanistic understanding of the role of alpha oscillations for attention. (a) Precise mapping of the anatomical source and the temporal response profile of neural signals reveals distinct alpha oscillatory processes that implement facilitatory versus suppressive components of attention. (b) A testable framework enables unanimous association of alpha modulation with either target enhancement or different forms of distractor suppression (active vs. automatic). (c) Linking anatomically specified alpha oscillations to behavior reveals the causal nature of alpha oscillations for attention. The three reviewed aspects substantially enrich study design, data analysis and interpretation of results to achieve the goal of understanding how anatomically specified and functionally relevant neural oscillations contribute to the implementation of facilitatory versus suppressive components of attention.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Schneider
- Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany
| | - Sophie K Herbst
- NeuroSpin, CEA, DRF/Joliot, INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Laura-Isabelle Klatt
- Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany
| | - Malte Wöstmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM), University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Herbst SK, Obleser J. Implicit temporal predictability enhances pitch discrimination sensitivity and biases the phase of delta oscillations in auditory cortex. Neuroimage 2019; 203:116198. [PMID: 31539590 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2019] [Revised: 08/23/2019] [Accepted: 09/14/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Can human listeners use implicit temporal contingencies in auditory input to form temporal predictions, and if so, how are these predictions represented endogenously? To assess this question, we implicitly manipulated temporal predictability in an auditory pitch discrimination task: unbeknownst to participants, the pitch of the standard tone could either be deterministically predictive of the temporal onset of the target tone, or convey no predictive information. Predictive and non-predictive conditions were presented interleaved in one stream, and separated by variable inter-stimulus intervals such that there was no dominant stimulus rhythm throughout. Even though participants were unaware of the implicit temporal contingencies, pitch discrimination sensitivity (the slope of the psychometric function) increased when the onset of the target tone was predictable in time (N = 49, 28 female, 21 male). Concurrently recorded EEG data (N = 24) revealed that standard tones that conveyed temporal predictions evoked a more negative N1 component than non-predictive standards. We observed no significant differences in oscillatory power or phase coherence between conditions during the foreperiod. Importantly, the phase angle of delta oscillations (1-3 Hz) in auditory areas in the post-standard and pre-target time windows predicted behavioral pitch discrimination sensitivity. This suggests that temporal predictions are encoded in delta oscillatory phase during the foreperiod interval. In sum, we show that auditory perception benefits from implicit temporal contingencies, and provide evidence for a role of slow neural oscillations in the endogenous representation of temporal predictions, in absence of exogenously driven entrainment to rhythmic input.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sophie K Herbst
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23552, Lübeck, Germany; NeuroSpin, CEA, DRF/Joliot; INSERM Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit; Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay; Bât 145Gif s/ Yvette, 91190 France.
| | - Jonas Obleser
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23552, Lübeck, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Fiedler L, Wöstmann M, Herbst SK, Obleser J. Late cortical tracking of ignored speech facilitates neural selectivity in acoustically challenging conditions. Neuroimage 2018; 186:33-42. [PMID: 30367953 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.10.057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [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: 08/06/2018] [Revised: 09/12/2018] [Accepted: 10/21/2018] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Listening requires selective neural processing of the incoming sound mixture, which in humans is borne out by a surprisingly clean representation of attended-only speech in auditory cortex. How this neural selectivity is achieved even at negative signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) remains unclear. We show that, under such conditions, a late cortical representation (i.e., neural tracking) of the ignored acoustic signal is key to successful separation of attended and distracting talkers (i.e., neural selectivity). We recorded and modeled the electroencephalographic response of 18 participants who attended to one of two simultaneously presented stories, while the SNR between the two talkers varied dynamically between +6 and -6 dB. The neural tracking showed an increasing early-to-late attention-biased selectivity. Importantly, acoustically dominant (i.e., louder) ignored talkers were tracked neurally by late involvement of fronto-parietal regions, which contributed to enhanced neural selectivity. This neural selectivity, by way of representing the ignored talker, poses a mechanistic neural account of attention under real-life acoustic conditions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lorenz Fiedler
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
| | - Malte Wöstmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Sophie K Herbst
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Jonas Obleser
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Abstract
A transient suppression of visual perception during saccades ensures perceptual stability. In two experiments, we examined whether saccades affect time perception of visual and auditory stimuli in the seconds range. Specifically, participants completed a duration reproduction task in which they memorized the duration of a 6 s timing signal during the training phase and later reproduced that duration during the test phase. Four experimental conditions differed in saccade requirements and the presence or absence of a secondary discrimination task during the test phase. For both visual and auditory timing signals, participants reproduced longer durations when the secondary discrimination task required saccades to be made (i.e., overt attention shift) during reproduction as compared to when the discrimination task merely required fixation at screen center. Moreover, greater total saccade duration in a trial resulted in greater time distortion. However, in the visual modality, requiring participants to covertly shift attention (i.e., no saccade) to complete the discrimination task increased reproduced duration as much as making a saccade, whereas in the auditory modality making a saccade increased reproduced duration more than making a covert attention shift. In addition, we examined microsaccades in the conditions that did not require full saccades for both the visual and auditory experiments. Greater total microsaccade duration in a trial resulted in greater time distortion in both modalities. Taken together, the experiments suggest that saccades and microsaccades affect seconds range visual and auditory interval timing via attention and saccadic suppression mechanisms.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Trevor B. Penney
- National University of SingaporeSingapore
- National University of SingaporeSingapore
| | | | | | | | - Esther Wu
- National University of SingaporeSingapore
| | - Sophie K. Herbst
- 4Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Shih Cheng Yen
- National University of SingaporeSingapore
- National University of SingaporeSingapore
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Herbst SK, Javadi AH, van der Meer E, Busch NA. How long depends on how fast--perceived flicker dilates subjective duration. PLoS One 2013; 8:e76074. [PMID: 24194829 PMCID: PMC3806760 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0076074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [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: 03/21/2013] [Accepted: 08/20/2013] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
How do humans perceive the passage of time and the duration of events without a dedicated sensory system for timing? Previous studies have demonstrated that when a stimulus changes over time, its duration is subjectively dilated, indicating that duration judgments are based on the number of changes within an interval. In this study, we tested predictions derived from three different accounts describing the relation between a changing stimulus and its subjective duration as either based on (1) the objective rate of changes of the stimulus, (2) the perceived saliency of the changes, or (3) the neural energy expended in processing the stimulus. We used visual stimuli flickering at different frequencies (4-166 Hz) to study how the number of changes affects subjective duration. To this end, we assessed the subjective duration of these stimuli and measured participants' behavioral flicker fusion threshold (the highest frequency perceived as flicker), as well as their threshold for a frequency-specific neural response to the flicker using EEG. We found that only consciously perceived flicker dilated perceived duration, such that a 2 s long stimulus flickering at 4 Hz was perceived as lasting as long as a 2.7 s steady stimulus. This effect was most pronounced at the slowest flicker frequencies, at which participants reported the most consistent flicker perception. Flicker frequencies higher than the flicker fusion threshold did not affect perceived duration at all, even if they evoked a significant frequency-specific neural response. In sum, our findings indicate that time perception in the peri-second range is driven by the subjective saliency of the stimulus' temporal features rather than the objective rate of stimulus changes or the neural response to the changes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sophie K. Herbst
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Berlin, Germany
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Amir Homayoun Javadi
- Institute of Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences, University College, London, United Kingdom
| | - Elke van der Meer
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Berlin, Germany
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Niko A. Busch
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Berlin, Germany
- Institut für Medizinische Psychologie, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Abstract
How do observers judge the passage of time at a short time-scale? Humans are not equipped with a dedicated sensory system for perceiving durations in the same way as they are equipped with systems for perceiving light and sound. Thus, subjective duration depends on the sensory and cognitive processes triggered by sensory input, eg visual or auditory stimuli. Previous studies have demonstrated that the dynamics of this sensory input (eg the rate of stimulus presentation) affect duration judgments. However, it is yet unclear whether automatic or attentive processing of such dynamics accounts for their effect on subjective duration. Automatic and attentive stimulus processing can be distinguished when stimuli are presented in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm. The second of two targets embedded in an RSVP stream often fails to attract participants' attention and escapes conscious detection, in spite of being automatically processed at a perceptual level. In the present study, we presented RSVP streams and combined a target detection task with a prospective duration judgment task. We demonstrate in three experiments that the number of subjectively perceived target stimuli (and not the number of objectively presented targets) determines subjective duration of the entire RSVP sequence. Target stimuli which escape attentional selection did not affect perceived duration. This finding indicates that attentive rather than automatic processing of stimulus dynamics leads to the subjective time dilation of dynamic stimuli.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sophie K Herbst
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstrasse 56, 10099 Berlin, Germany
| | - Elke van der Meer
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstrasse 56, 10099 Berlin, Germany
| | - Niko A Busch
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstrasse 56, 10099 Berlin, Germany
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| |
Collapse
|