Male Smokers’ Behavioral and Brain Responses to Deviant Cigarette-Related Stimuli in a Two-Choice Oddball Paradigm

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 172-181
Author(s):  
Xin Zhao ◽  
Xiaoting Liu ◽  
Joseph H. R. Maes
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Response Inhibition ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Oddball Paradigm ◽  
Response Requirement ◽  
Behavioral Difference ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Different Response

Abstract. Experimental studies on smoking and response-inhibition capacity have revealed inconsistent findings, which might be due to differences in sensitivity of the behavioral paradigms used. Here we aimed to replicate the impaired response inhibition in male smokers that was found in a previous study using a two-choice oddball task. This task enables the use of response times as index of inhibition capacity and equalizes the response requirement for the different trial types. In addition, we measured event-related brain potentials to explore the nature of the cognitive processes underlying the behavioral difference. Smokers (n = 19) and non-smokers (n = 19) were asked to make a different response to frequent standard stimuli (cigarette-unrelated pictures) than to infrequent deviant stimuli (cigarette-related pictures). Compared to non-smokers, smokers took a longer time to respond to deviant but not standard stimuli. In addition, smokers, but not non-smokers, displayed a smaller N2 amplitude to deviant than standard stimuli, and only the non-smokers showed larger P3 amplitudes to deviant compared to standard stimuli. Moreover, the response time (RT) measure was differentially correlated with N2 and P3 amplitudes in smokers and non-smokers. The joint results support the notion of deviant cognitive processes in smokers compared to non-smokers that are either directly or indirectly related to response-inhibition capacity.

Do Event-Related Brain Potentials Reflect Mental (Cognitive) Operations?

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Kotchoubey
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Internal Variables ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Cognitive Operations ◽  
External Variables ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Mental Operations ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

Abstract Most cognitive psychophysiological studies assume (1) that there is a chain of (partially overlapping) cognitive processes (processing stages, mechanisms, operators) leading from stimulus to response, and (2) that components of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) may be regarded as manifestations of these processing stages. What is usually discussed is which particular processing mechanisms are related to some particular component, but not whether such a relationship exists at all. Alternatively, from the point of view of noncognitive (e. g., “naturalistic”) theories of perception ERP components might be conceived of as correlates of extraction of the information from the experimental environment. In a series of experiments, the author attempted to separate these two accounts, i. e., internal variables like mental operations or cognitive parameters versus external variables like information content of stimulation. Whenever this separation could be performed, the latter factor proved to significantly affect ERP amplitudes, whereas the former did not. These data indicate that ERPs cannot be unequivocally linked to processing mechanisms postulated by cognitive models of perception. Therefore, they cannot be regarded as support for these models.

scholarly journals Experiential and Strategic Emotional Intelligence Are Implicated When Inhibiting Affective and Non-Affective Distractors: Findings from Three Emotional Flanker N-Back Tasks

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Ming D. Lim ◽  
Damian P. Birney
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Low Load ◽  
Affective Information ◽  
Accuracy Rates

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to a set of competencies to process, understand, and reason with affective information. Recent studies suggest ability measures of experiential and strategic EI differentially predict performance on non-emotional and emotionally laden tasks. To explore cognitive processes underlying these abilities further, we varied the affective context of a traditional letter-based n-back working-memory task. In study 1, participants completed 0-, 2-, and 3-back tasks with flanking distractors that were either emotional (fearful or happy faces) or non-emotional (shapes or letters stimuli). Strategic EI, but not experiential EI, significantly influenced participants’ accuracy across all n-back levels, irrespective of flanker type. In Study 2, participants completed 1-, 2-, and 3-back levels. Experiential EI was positively associated with response times for emotional flankers at the 1-back level but not other levels or flanker types, suggesting those higher in experiential EI reacted slower on low-load trials with affective context. In Study 3, flankers were asynchronously presented either 300 ms or 1000 ms before probes. Results mirrored Study 1 for accuracy rates and Study 2 for response times. Our findings (a) provide experimental evidence for the distinctness of experiential and strategic EI and (b) suggest that each are related to different aspects of cognitive processes underlying working memory.

scholarly journals Interacting with volatile environments stabilizes hidden-state inference and its brain signatures

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurélien Weiss ◽  
Valérian Chambon ◽  
Junseok K. Lee ◽  
Jan Drugowitsch ◽  
Valentin Wyart
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Human Learning ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Uncertain Environments ◽  
Behavioral Difference ◽  
Neural Interaction ◽  
Degree Of Control ◽  
Uncertain Outcomes ◽  
State Inference

AbstractMaking accurate decisions in uncertain environments requires identifying the generative cause of sensory cues, but also the expected outcomes of possible actions. Although both cognitive processes can be formalized as Bayesian inference, they are commonly studied using different experimental frameworks, making their formal comparison difficult. Here, by framing a reversal learning task either as cue-based or outcome-based inference, we found that humans perceive the same volatile environment as more stable when inferring its hidden state by interaction with uncertain outcomes than by observation of equally uncertain cues. Multivariate patterns of magnetoencephalographic (MEG) activity reflected this behavioral difference in the neural interaction between inferred beliefs and incoming evidence, an effect originating from associative regions in the temporal lobe. Together, these findings indicate that the degree of control over the sampling of volatile environments shapes human learning and decision-making under uncertainty.

Relation between understanding and agreeing in response to one-sentence assertion*

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
YASUHIRO OZURU ◽  
DAVID BOWIE ◽  
GIULIA KAUFMAN
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Cognitive Response ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Evaluative Response ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Relationship

abstractThree quasi-experimental studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between the evaluative (i.e., agree/true) and the meta-cognitive (i.e., understand) response, and to determine which type of response people are more likely to provide when responding to one-sentence assertive statements. In Studies 1 and 2, participants performed two separate tasks in which they were asked to indicate the levels of: (i) understanding and (ii) agreement / perceived truthfulness of 126 one-sentence statements. The results indicated that participants were likely to provide a negative evaluative response (i.e., disagree/false) to a statement that they did not understand. In Study 3, participants were asked to evaluate the same 126 statements and choose between four response options: agree, disagree, understand, do not understand. The results indicated that people are more likely provide an evaluative response regardless of the understandability of a statement. The results of these studies are discussed in relation to (i) pragmatic perspective of how people infer speakers’ meaning, and (ii) cognitive processes underlying evaluative and meta-cognitive response.

Brain Responses to World Knowledge Violations: A Comparison of Stimulus- and Fixation-triggered Event-related Potentials and Neural Oscillations

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 1017-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Metzner ◽  
Titus von der Malsburg ◽  
Shravan Vasishth ◽  
Frank Rösler
Keyword(s):  
Word Meaning ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Visual Presentation ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Gamma Range ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Related Potentials

Recent research has shown that brain potentials time-locked to fixations in natural reading can be similar to brain potentials recorded during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). We attempted two replications of Hagoort, Hald, Bastiaansen, and Petersson [Hagoort, P., Hald, L., Bastiaansen, M., & Petersson, K. M. Integration of word meaning and world knowledge in language comprehension. Science, 304, 438–441, 2004] to determine whether this correspondence also holds for oscillatory brain responses. Hagoort et al. reported an N400 effect and synchronization in the theta and gamma range following world knowledge violations. Our first experiment (n = 32) used RSVP and replicated both the N400 effect in the ERPs and the power increase in the theta range in the time–frequency domain. In the second experiment (n = 49), participants read the same materials freely while their eye movements and their EEG were monitored. First fixation durations, gaze durations, and regression rates were increased, and the ERP showed an N400 effect. An analysis of time–frequency representations showed synchronization in the delta range (1–3 Hz) and desynchronization in the upper alpha range (11–13 Hz) but no theta or gamma effects. The results suggest that oscillatory EEG changes elicited by world knowledge violations are different in natural reading and RSVP. This may reflect differences in how representations are constructed and retrieved from memory in the two presentation modes.

Increased Behavioral Sensitivity to Repeated Experiences of Punishment in Children With ADHD: Experimental Studies Using the Matching Law

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (12) ◽  
pp. 1665-1665
Author(s):  
Emi Furukawa ◽  
Brent Alsop ◽  
Shizuka Shimabukuro ◽  
Paula Sowerby ◽  
Stephanie Jensen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Response Times ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Matching Law ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Children With Adhd ◽  
Behavioral Sensitivity ◽  
Operant Task ◽  
English Speaking

Background: Research on altered motivational processes in ADHD has focused on reward. The sensitivity of children with ADHD to punishment has received limited attention. We evaluated the effects of punishment on the behavioral allocation of children with and without ADHD from the United States, New Zealand, and Japan, applying the generalized matching law. Methods: Participants in two studies (Furukawa et al., 2017, 2019) were 210 English-speaking (145 ADHD) and 93 Japanese-speaking (34 ADHD) children. They completed an operant task in which they chose between playing two simultaneously available games. Rewards became available every 10 seconds on average, arranged equally across the two games. Responses on one game were punished four times as often as responses on the other. The asymmetrical punishment schedules should bias responding to the less punished alternative. Results: Compared with controls, children with ADHD from both samples allocated significantly more responses to the less frequently punished game, suggesting greater behavioral sensitivity to punishment. For these children, the bias toward the less punished alternative increased with time on task. Avoiding the more punished game resulted in missed reward opportunities and reduced earnings. English-speaking controls showed some preference for the less punished game. The behavior of Japanese controls was not significantly influenced by the frequency of punishment, despite slowed response times after punished trials and immediate shifts away from the punished game, indicating awareness of punishment. Conclusion: Punishment exerted greater control over the behavior of children with ADHD, regardless of their cultural background. This may be a common characteristic of the disorder. Avoidance of punishment led to poorer task performance. Caution is required in the use of punishment, especially with children with ADHD. The group difference in punishment sensitivity was more pronounced in the Japanese sample; this may create a negative halo effect for children with ADHD in this culture.

scholarly journals Infant cognition includes the potentially human-unique ability to encode embedding

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (11) ◽  
pp. eaar8334 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Winkler ◽  
J. L. Mueller ◽  
A. D. Friederici ◽  
C. Männel
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Infant Cognition ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Auditory Oddball ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Nested Relations ◽  
Unique Ability ◽  
Human Specific

Human cognition relies on the ability to encode complex regularities in the input. Regularities above a certain complexity level can involve the feature of embedding, defined by nested relations between sequential elements. While comparative studies suggest the cognitive processing of embedding to be human specific, evidence of its ontogenesis is lacking. To assess infants’ ability to process embedding, we implemented nested relations in tone sequences, minimizing perceptual and memory requirements. We measured 5-month-olds’ brain responses in two auditory oddball paradigms, presenting standard sequences with one or two levels of embedding, interspersed with infrequent deviant sequences violating the established embedding rules. Brain potentials indicate that infants detect embedding violations and thus appear to track nested relations. This shows that the ability to encode embedding may be part of the basic human cognitive makeup, which might serve as scaffolding for the acquisition of complex regularities in language or music.

scholarly journals Should I stay or should I go? Evidence accumulation drives decision making in human drivers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arkady Zgonnikov ◽  
David Abbink ◽  
Gustav Markkula
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Naturalistic Decision Making ◽  
Dynamic Constraints ◽  
Evidence Accumulation ◽  
Out Of Sample

Laboratory studies of abstract, highly controlled tasks point towards noisy evidence accumulation as a key mechanism governing decision making. Yet it is unclear whether the cognitive processes implicated in simple, isolated decisions in the lab are as paramount to decisions that are ingrained in more complex behaviors, such as driving. Here we aim to address the gap between modern cognitive models of decision making and studies of naturalistic decision making in drivers, which so far have provided only limited insight into the underlying cognitive processes. We investigate drivers' decision making during unprotected left turns, and model the cognitive process driving these decisions. Our model builds on the classical drift-diffusion model, and emphasizes, first, the drift rate linked to the relevant perceptual quantities dynamically sampled from the environment, and, second, collapsing decision boundaries reflecting the dynamic constraints imposed on the decision maker’s response by the environment. We show that the model explains the observed decision outcomes and response times, as well as substantial individual differences in those. Through cross-validation, we demonstrate that the model not only explains the data, but also generalizes to out-of-sample conditions, effectively providing a way to predict human drivers’ behavior in real time. Our results reveal the cognitive mechanisms of gap acceptance decisions in human drivers, and exemplify how simple cognitive process models can help us to understand human behavior in complex real-world tasks.

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