scholarly journals Invariant timescale hierarchy across the cortical somatosensory network

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. e2021843118
Author(s):  
Román Rossi-Pool ◽  
Antonio Zainos ◽  
Manuel Alvarez ◽  
Sergio Parra ◽  
Jerónimo Zizumbo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Neural Coding ◽  
Cortical Area ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Task Context ◽  
Dynamical Feature ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Clear Differentiation ◽  
Different Sources

The ability of cortical networks to integrate information from different sources is essential for cognitive processes. On one hand, sensory areas exhibit fast dynamics often phase-locked to stimulation; on the other hand, frontal lobe areas with slow response latencies to stimuli must integrate and maintain information for longer periods. Thus, cortical areas may require different timescales depending on their functional role. Studying the cortical somatosensory network while monkeys discriminated between two vibrotactile stimulus patterns, we found that a hierarchical order could be established across cortical areas based on their intrinsic timescales. Further, even though subareas (areas 3b, 1, and 2) of the primary somatosensory (S1) cortex exhibit analogous firing rate responses, a clear differentiation was observed in their timescales. Importantly, we observed that this inherent timescale hierarchy was invariant between task contexts (demanding vs. nondemanding). Even if task context severely affected neural coding in cortical areas downstream to S1, their timescales remained unaffected. Moreover, we found that these time constants were invariant across neurons with different latencies or coding. Although neurons had completely different dynamics, they all exhibited comparable timescales within each cortical area. Our results suggest that this measure is demonstrative of an inherent characteristic of each cortical area, is not a dynamical feature of individual neurons, and does not depend on task demands.

scholarly journals Collicular circuits for flexible sensorimotor routing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunyu A. Duan ◽  
Marino Pagan ◽  
Alex T. Piet ◽  
Charles D. Kopec ◽  
Athena Akrami ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Behavioral Performance ◽  
Task Context ◽  
Dynamical Models ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Spatial Response ◽  
Demand Changes ◽  
Response Choices

SUMMARYHistorically, cognitive processing has been thought to rely on cortical areas such as prefrontal cortex (PFC), with the outputs of these areas modulating activity in lower, putatively simpler spatiomotor regions, such as the midbrain superior colliculus (SC). Using a rat task in which subjects switch rapidly between task contexts that demand changes in sensorimotor mappings, we report a surprising role for the SC in non-spatial cognitive processes. Before spatial response choices could be formed, neurons in SC encoded task context more strongly than neurons in PFC, and bilateral SC silencing impaired behavioral performance. Once spatial choices could begin to be formed, SC neurons encoded the choice faster than PFC, while bilateral SC silencing no longer impaired choices. A set of dynamical models of the SC replicates our findings. Our results challenge cortically-focused views of cognition, and suggest that ostensibly spatiomotor structures can play central roles in non-spatiomotor cognitive processes.

The Faces of Development: A Review of Early Face Processing over Childhood

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 1426-1442 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Taylor ◽  
M. Batty ◽  
R. J. Itier
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Different Sources

The understanding of the adult proficiency in recognizing and extracting information from faces is still limited despite the number of studies over the last decade. Our knowledge on the development of these capacities is even more restricted, as only a handful of such studies exist. Here we present a combined reanalysis of four ERP studies in children from 4 to 15 years of age and adults (n = 424, across the studies), which investigated face processing in implicit and explicit tasks. We restricted these analyses to what was common across studies: early ERP components and upright face processing across all four studies and the inversion effect, investigated in three of the studies. These data demonstrated that processing faces implicates very rapid neural activity, even in young children— at the P1 component—with protracted age-related change in both P1 and N170, that were sensitive to the different task demands. Inversion produced latency and amplitude effects on the P1 from the youngest group, but on N170 only starting in mid childhood. These developmental data suggest that there are functionally different sources of the P1 and N170, related to the processing of different aspects of faces.

scholarly journals The Function of Paraventricular Thalamic Circuitry in Adaptive Control of Feeding Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gorica D. Petrovich
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Hippocampal Formation ◽  
Energy State ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Behavioral Choice ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Set Up

The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) is a complex area that is uniquely embedded across the core feeding, reward, arousal, and stress circuits. The PVT role in the control of feeding behavior is discussed here within a framework of adaptive behavioral guidance based on the body’s energy state and competing drives. The survival of an organism depends on bodily energy resources and promotion of feeding over other behaviors is adaptive except when in danger or sated. The PVT is structurally set up to respond to homeostatic and hedonic needs to feed, and to integrate those signals with physiological and environmental stress, as well as anticipatory needs and other cognitive inputs. It can regulate both food foraging (seeking) and consumption and may balance their expression. The PVT is proposed to accomplish these functions through a network of connections with the brainstem, hypothalamic, striatal, and cortical areas. The connectivity of the PVT further indicates that it could broadcast the information about energy use/gain and behavioral choice to impact cognitive processes—learning, memory, and decision-making—through connections with the medial and lateral prefrontal cortical areas, the hippocampal formation, and the amygdala. The PVT is structurally complex and recent evidence for specific PVT pathways in different aspects of feeding behavior will be discussed.

scholarly journals Using Brunerian Learning Theory with Educational Simulations to Teach Concepts

1986 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura R. Winer ◽  
Richard F. Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Learning Theory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Spatial Visualization ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Individualized Treatment ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Educational Simulations ◽  
Single Process ◽  
Process Oriented

The present study maintains that consistently effective leaming materials can best be generated if the prescriptions instructional designers use are founded on learning theory. It is also considered critical that cognitive processes central to the task demands and strategies employed to address them be established. To be practical, we further recommend that only a single, process-oriented lesson, rather than individualized treatment, be implemented. Instructional simulations met these criteria, being tightly bound to Bruner's theoretical approach, and inherently capable of addressing aptitude deficiencies. Subjects were assessed for spatial visualization ability, grouped, randomly assigned to simulation or non-simulation treatments, and tested immediately, one week, and five weeks after instruction. The simulation significantly increased the high-aptitude learners' efficiency (and initially effectiveness), and low-aptitude learners' effectiveness. The validity of a theory-based, aptitude-enhancing, standardized approach was supported, and is discussed.

scholarly journals Power and Coherence in the EEG of the Rat: Impact of Behavioral States, Cortical Area, Lateralization and Light/Dark Phases

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 536-556
Author(s):  
Alejandra Mondino ◽  
Matías Cavelli ◽  
Joaquín González ◽  
Lucía Osorio ◽  
Santiago Castro-Zaballa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Cortical Area ◽  
Spectral Power ◽  
Adult Rats ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Basal Activity ◽  
Behavioral States ◽  
Cortical System

The sleep-wake cycle is constituted by three behavioral states: wakefulness (W), non-REM (NREM) and REM sleep. These states are associated with drastic changes in cognitive capacities, mostly determined by the function of the thalamo-cortical system, whose activity can be examined by means of intra-cranial electroencephalogram (iEEG). With the purpose to study in depth the basal activity of the iEEG in adult rats, we analyzed the spectral power and coherence of the iEEG during W and sleep in the paleocortex (olfactory bulb), and in neocortical areas. We also analyzed the laterality of the signals, as well as the influence of the light and dark phases. We found that the iEEG power and coherence of the whole spectrum were largely affected by behavioral states and highly dependent on the cortical areas recorded. We also determined that there are night/day differences in power and coherence during sleep, but not in W. Finally, we observed that, during REM sleep, intra-hemispheric coherence differs between right and left hemispheres. We conclude that the iEEG dynamics are highly dependent on the cortical area and behavioral states. Moreover, there are light/dark phases disparities in the iEEG during sleep, and intra-hemispheric connectivity differs between both hemispheres during REM sleep.

scholarly journals Sustained and Transient Processes in Event-based Prospective Memory in Adolescence and Adulthood

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1924-1945
Author(s):  
Lucía Magis-Weinberg ◽  
Ruud Custers ◽  
Iroise Dumontheil
Keyword(s):  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Strategic Monitoring ◽  
Cue Salience ◽  
Event Based

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the cognitive processes associated with remembering to perform an intended action after a delay. Varying the salience of PM cues while keeping the intended response constant, we investigated the extent to which participants relied on strategic monitoring, through sustained, top–down control, or on spontaneous retrieval via transient bottom–up processes. There is mixed evidence regarding developmental improvements in event-based PM performance after the age of 13 years. We compared PM performance and associated sustained and transient neural correlates in 28 typically developing adolescents (12–17 years old) and 19 adults (23–30 years old). Lower PM cue salience associated with slower ongoing task (OT) RTs, reflected by increased μ ex-Gaussian parameter, and sustained increases in frontoparietal activation during OT blocks, both thought to reflect greater proactive control supporting cue monitoring. Behavioral and neural correlates of PM trials were not specifically modulated by cue salience, revealing little difference in reactive control between conditions. The effect of cue salience was similar across age groups, suggesting that adolescents are able to adapt proactive control engagement to PM task demands. Exploratory analyses showed that younger, but not older, adolescents were less accurate and slower in PM trials relative to OT trials than adults and showed greater transient activation in PM trials in an occipito-temporal cluster. These results provide evidence of both mature and still maturing aspects of cognitive processes associated with implementation of an intention after a delay during early adolescence.

Modeling Strategic Behavior in Human-Automation Interaction: Why an "Aid" Can (and Should) Go Unused

1993 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Kirlik
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
System Performance ◽  
Strategic Behavior ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Task Context ◽  
Effective Operator ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Intelligent Assistant

Task-offload aids (e.g., an autopilot, an "intelligent" assistant) can be selectively engaged by the human operator to dynamically delegate tasks to automation. Introducing such aids eliminates some task demands but creates new ones associated with programming, engaging, and disengaging the aiding device via an interface. The burdens associated with managing automation can sometimes outweigh the potential benefits of automation to improved system performance. Aid design parameters and features of the overall multitask context combine to determine whether or not a task-offload aid will effectively support the operator. A modeling and sensitivity analysis approach is presented that identifies effective strategies for human-automation interaction as a function of three task-context parameters and three aid design parameters. The analysis and modeling approaches provide resources for predicting how a well-adapted operator will use a given task-offload aid, and for specifying aid design features that ensure that automation will provide effective operator support in a multitask environment.

Neurotrophic and behavioral effects of occipital cortex transplants in newborn rats

1989 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-198 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Discrimination ◽  
Cortical Area ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Behavioral Effects ◽  
Cortical Lesion ◽  
Area 17 ◽  
Newborn Rats ◽  
Opposite Hemisphere ◽  
Cortical Areas

AbstractCell suspensions of embryonic occipital cortex were transplanted into newborn rats with large unilateral visual cortex lesions. When the animals were adults, they were tested on a difficult visual discrimination, and subsequently their brains were analyzed for possible neurotrophic effects of the transplants on nonvisual cortical areas which normally form connections with the occipital cortex. Behaviorally, animals with lesions and transplants learn to discriminate between columns and rows of squares at a rate which is identical to normal rats while animals with lesions and no transplants are impaired. Volume and cell-density measures show that the transplants also rescue neurons in cortical area 8 that would normally degenerate following the cortical lesion. No such neurotrophic effect of the transplants is found in cortical area 24 or area 17 contralateral to the lesion. In rats with lesions and no transplants, there is a significant correlation between the amount of area 8 remaining after the lesion and trials to criterion on the columns-rows discrimination, a relationship that does not exist in transplant animals because of their normal learning curve and the consistent sparing of area 8. Injections of HRP into the visual cortex contralateral to the lesion result in variable numbers of labeled cells within the transplant. However, there is no consistent relationship between the number of transplant cells which project to the opposite hemisphere and learning of the discrimination. It is suggested that the learning deficit following the lesion is largely attentional and that the sparing of cortical area 8 (which in rats may include the analog of the frontal eye fields present in the primate cortex) contributes to the sparing of function.

Human symmetry detection exhibits reverse eccentricity scaling

1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 919-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER W. TYLER
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Cortical Area ◽  
Symmetry Axis ◽  
Spatial Integration ◽  
Symmetry Detection ◽  
Neural Architecture ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
General Properties ◽  
Assessment Techniques ◽  
Visual Cortical

Human symmetry detection in dense patterns exhibits a spatial integration range that becomes narrower with distance of the symmetry axis from the fovea. This narrowing violates the general properties of eccentricity that have been found for all previous visual cortical areas, tasks, and assessment techniques. This reverse eccentricity scaling may, in conjunction with the long-range matching properties for symmetry described in Tyler and Hardage (1996), imply that symmetry is processed by a specialized cortical area with non-retinotopic neural architecture.

scholarly journals Corticothalamic Projections Gate Alpha Rhythms in the Pulvinar

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelson Cortes ◽  
Reza Abbas Farishta ◽  
Hugo J. Ladret ◽  
Christian Casanova
Keyword(s):  
Cortical Area ◽  
Hierarchical Level ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Excitatory Postsynaptic Potential ◽  
Area 17 ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Area 21A ◽  
Spiking Activity

Two types of corticothalamic (CT) terminals reach the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus, and their distribution varies according to the hierarchical level of the cortical area they originate from. While type 2 terminals are more abundant at lower hierarchical levels, terminals from higher cortical areas mostly exhibit type 1 axons. Such terminals also evoke different excitatory postsynaptic potential dynamic profiles, presenting facilitation for type 1 and depression for type 2. As the pulvinar is involved in the oscillatory regulation between intercortical areas, fundamental questions about the role of these different terminal types in the neuronal communication throughout the cortical hierarchy are yielded. Our theoretical results support that the co-action of the two types of terminals produces different oscillatory rhythms in pulvinar neurons. More precisely, terminal types 1 and 2 produce alpha-band oscillations at a specific range of connectivity weights. Such oscillatory activity is generated by an unstable transition of the balanced state network’s properties that it is found between the quiescent state and the stable asynchronous spike response state. While CT projections from areas 17 and 21a are arranged in the model as the empirical proportion of terminal types 1 and 2, the actions of these two cortical connections are antagonistic. As area 17 generates low-band oscillatory activity, cortical area 21a shifts pulvinar responses to stable asynchronous spiking activity and vice versa when area 17 produces an asynchronous state. To further investigate such oscillatory effects through corticothalamo-cortical projections, the transthalamic pathway, we created a cortical feedforward network of two cortical areas, 17 and 21a, with CT connections to a pulvinar-like network with two cortico-recipient compartments. With this model, the transthalamic pathway propagates alpha waves from the pulvinar to area 21a. This oscillatory transfer ceases when reciprocal connections from area 21a reach the pulvinar, closing the CT loop. Taken together, results of our model suggest that the pulvinar shows a bi-stable spiking activity, oscillatory or regular asynchronous spiking, whose responses are gated by the different activation of cortico-pulvinar projections from lower to higher-order areas such as areas 17 and 21a.

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