scholarly journals Subcortical functions in cognition: Toward a consensus

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1027-1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRUCE CROSSON ◽  
KATHLEEN Y. HAALAND
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
And Behavior

Behavioral neurologists and neuropsychologists have debated the role of the thalamus and basal ganglia in cognition and behavior for more than a century (e.g., Bucy, 1942; Marie, 1906; Penfield & Roberts, 1959; Wernicke, 1874). However, over these 100-plus years, there is little consensus regarding whether or how these structures contribute to cognition. Fortunately, recent research findings are rapidly changing this state of affairs. It is now obvious we will not understand how the brain controls complex activities until we understand the contribution of these deep brain structures. In healthy and brain-damaged individuals, application of methodologies such as semantic priming, event related potentials, and functional neuroimaging to the question of subcortical functions is beginning to resolve this conundrum. This symposium demonstrates the utility of combining these different approaches. It features empirical work from six laboratories that have engaged in systematic inquiries regarding the role of the thalamus and basal ganglia in cognition. This body of work represents both new directions and convergence of recent findings in the quest to integrate our understanding of this complex issue.

scholarly journals Expectancy of Stress-Reducing Aromatherapy Effect and Performance on a Stress-Sensitive Cognitive Task

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Chamine ◽  
Barry S. Oken
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Stress Reduction ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
N200 Amplitude ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
And Performance

Objective. Stress-reducing therapies help maintain cognitive performance during stress. Aromatherapy is popular for stress reduction, but its effectiveness and mechanism are unclear. This study examined stress-reducing effects of aromatherapy on cognitive function using the go/no-go (GNG) task performance and event related potentials (ERP) components sensitive to stress. The study also assessed the importance of expectancy in aromatherapy actions.Methods. 81 adults were randomized to 3 aroma groups (active experimental, detectable, and undetectable placebo) and 2 prime subgroups (prime suggesting stress-reducing aroma effects or no-prime). GNG performance, ERPs, subjective expected aroma effects, and stress ratings were assessed at baseline and poststress.Results. No specific aroma effects on stress or cognition were observed. However, regardless of experienced aroma, people receiving a prime displayed faster poststress median reaction times than those receiving no prime. A significant interaction for N200 amplitude indicated divergent ERP patterns between baseline and poststress for go and no-go stimuli depending on the prime subgroup. Furthermore, trends for beneficial prime effects were shown on poststress no-go N200/P300 latencies and N200 amplitude.Conclusion. While there were no aroma-specific effects on stress or cognition, these results highlight the role of expectancy for poststress response inhibition and attention.

Pathology, Phenomenology and the Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia

1987 ◽  
Vol 151 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Ventral Striatum ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Schizophrenic Symptom ◽  
Dopamine Hypothesis ◽  
Dopamine Innervation

The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia implies that positive schizophrenic symptoms should be understandable by reference to brain structures receiving a dopamine innervation, or in terms of the functional role of dopamine itself. The basal ganglia, ventral striatum, septo-hippocampal system, and prefrontal cortex, sites of mesotelencephalic dopamine innervation, are examined and it is argued that their dysfunction could form the basis of particular schizophrenic symptom classes. The postulated involvement of dopamine in reinforcement processes might further assist such interpretations. This type of analysis can be extended to other categories of schizophrenic psychopathology.

Prediction and integration in native and second-language processing of elliptical structures

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN ◽  
JOSEPH KIRKHAM ◽  
FRANK WIJNEN
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Frontal Negativity ◽  
Related Potentials

According to recent views of L2-sentence processing, L2-speakers do not predict upcoming information to the same extent as do native speakers. To investigate L2-speakers’ predictive use and integration of syntactic information across clauses, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from advanced L2-learners and native speakers while they read sentences in which the syntactic context did or did not allow noun-ellipsis (Lau, E., Stroud, C., Plesch, S., & Phillips, C. (2006). The role of structural prediction in rapid syntactic analysis. Brain and Language, 98, 74–88.) Both native and L2-speakers were sensitive to the context when integrating words after the potential ellipsis-site. However, native, but not L2-speakers, anticipated the ellipsis, as suggested by an ERP difference between elliptical and non-elliptical contexts preceding the potential ellipsis-site. In addition, L2-learners displayed a late frontal negativity for ungrammaticalities, suggesting differences in repair strategies or resources compared with native speakers.

scholarly journals Functional neuroimaging of human vocalizations and affective speech

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 554-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sascha Frühholz ◽  
David Sander ◽  
Didier Grandjean
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Motor Responses ◽  
Human Specific

AbstractNeuroimaging studies have verified the important integrative role of the basal ganglia during affective vocalizations. They, however, also point to additional regions supporting vocal monitoring, auditory–motor feedback processing, and online adjustments of vocal motor responses. For the case of affective vocalizations, we suggest partly extending the model to fully consider the link between primate-general and human-specific neural components.

scholarly journals Effects of handedness on olfactory event-related potentials in a simple olfactory task

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-153
Author(s):  
Marie Gottschlich ◽  
Thomas Hummel
Keyword(s):  
Hydrogen Sulfide ◽  
Ethyl Alcohol ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Chemical Senses ◽  
Phenyl Ethyl Alcohol ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
The Rose

The purpose of the present study was to re-investigate the influence of handedness on simple olfactory tasks to further clarify the role of handedness in chemical senses. Similar to language and other sensory systems, effects of handedness should be expected. Young, healthy subjects participated in this study, including 24 left-handers and 24 right-handers, with no indication of any major nasal or health problems. The two groups did not differ in terms of sex and age (14 women and 10 men in each group). They had a mean age of 24.0 years. Olfactory event-related potentials were recorded after left or right olfactory stimulation with the rose-like odor phenyl ethyl alcohol (PEA) or the smell of rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide, H2S). Results suggested that handedness has no major influence on amplitude or latency of olfactory event-related potentials when it comes to simple olfactory tasks.

scholarly journals Social Exclusion Down-Regulates Pain Empathy at the Late Stage of Empathic Responses: Electrophysiological Evidence

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Fan ◽  
Jing Jie ◽  
Pinchao Luo ◽  
Yu Pang ◽  
Danna Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Controlled Processing ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Central Regions ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
And Behavior

Social exclusion has a significant impact on cognition, emotion, and behavior. Some behavioral studies investigated how social exclusion affects pain empathy. Conclusions were inconsistent, and there is a lack of clarity in identifying which component of pain empathy is more likely to be affected. To investigate these issues, we used a Cyberball task to manipulate feelings of social exclusion. Two groups (social exclusion and social inclusion) participated in the same pain empathy task while we recorded event-related potentials (ERP) when participants viewed static images of body parts in painful and neutral situations. The results showed early N2 differentiation between painful and neutral pictures in the central regions in both groups. The pattern at the late controlled processing stage was different. Parietal P3 amplitudes for painful pictures were significantly smaller than those for neutral pictures in the social exclusion group; they did not differ in the social inclusion group. We observed a parietal late positive potential (LPP) differentiation between painful and neutral pictures in both groups. LPP amplitudes were significantly smaller in the social exclusion group than those in the social inclusion group for painful stimuli. Our results indicate that social exclusion does not affect empathic responses during the early emotional sharing stage. However, it down-regulates empathic responses at the late cognitive controlled stage, and this modulation is attenuated gradually. The current study provides neuroscientific evidence of how social exclusion dynamically influences pain empathy.

scholarly journals Dissociable electrophysiological correlates of semantic access of motor and non-motor concepts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodika Sokoliuk ◽  
Sara Calzolari ◽  
Damian Cruse
Keyword(s):  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Specific Role ◽  
Cortical Activation ◽  
Motor Action ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Action Verbs ◽  
Healthy Participants

AbstractThe notion of semantic embodiment posits that concepts are represented in the same neural sensorimotor systems that were involved in their acquisition. However, evidence in support of embodied semantics – in particular the hypothesised contribution of motor and premotor cortex to the representation of action concepts – is varied. Here, we tested the hypothesis that, consistent with semantic embodiment, sensorimotor cortices will rapidly become active while healthy participants access the meaning of visually-presented motor and non-motor action verbs. Event-related potentials revealed early differential processing of motor and non-motor verbs (164-203ms) within distinct regions of cortex likely reflecting rapid cortical activation of differentially distributed semantic representations. However, we found no evidence for a specific role of sensorimotor cortices in supporting these representations. Moreover, we observed a later modulation of the alpha band (8-12Hz) from 555-785ms over central electrodes, with estimated generators within the left superior parietal lobule, which may reflect post-lexical activation of the object-directed features of the motor action concepts. In conclusion, we find no evidence for a specific role of sensorimotor cortices when healthy participants judge the meaning of visually-presented action verbs. However, the relative contribution of sensorimotor cortices to action comprehension may vary as a function of task goals.

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