scholarly journals Involuntary orienting and conflict resolution during auditory attention: The role of ventral and dorsal streams

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah J Stewart ◽  
Dawei Shen ◽  
Nasim Sham ◽  
Claude Alain
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Irrelevant Feature ◽  
Enhanced Activity ◽  
Task Irrelevant

AbstractSelective attention to sound object features such as pitch and location is associated with enhanced brain activity in ventral and dorsal streams, respectively. We examined the role of these pathways in involuntary orienting and conflict resolution using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were presented with two tones that may share, or not, the same non-spatial (frequency) or spatial (location) auditory features. In separate blocks of trials, participants were asked to attend to sound frequency or sound location and ignore the change in the task-irrelevant feature. In both attend-frequency and attend-location tasks, response times were slower when the task-irrelevant feature changed than when it stayed the same (involuntary orienting). This behavioural cost coincided with enhanced activity in the prefrontal cortex and superior temporal gyrus (STG). Conflict resolution was examined by comparing situations where the change in stimulus features was congruent (both features changed) and incongruent (only one feature changed). Participants were slower and less accurate for incongruent than congruent sound features. This congruency effect was associated with enhanced activity in the prefrontal cortex, and was greater in the right STG and medial frontal cortex during the attend-location than during the attend-frequency task. Together, these findings do not support a strict division of ‘labour’ into ventral and dorsal streams, but rather suggest interactions between these pathways in situations involving changes in task-irrelevant sound feature and conflict resolution. These findings also validate the Test of Attention in Listening task by revealing distinct neural correlates for involuntary orienting and conflict resolution.

scholarly journals Involuntary Orienting and Conflict Resolution during Auditory Attention: The Role of Ventral and Dorsal Streams

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1851-1863
Author(s):  
Hannah J. Stewart ◽  
Dawei Shen ◽  
Nasim Sham ◽  
Claude Alain
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Irrelevant Feature ◽  
Enhanced Activity ◽  
Listening Task ◽  
The Right ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Selective attention to sound object features such as pitch and location is associated with enhanced brain activity in ventral and dorsal streams, respectively. We examined the role of these pathways in involuntary orienting and conflict resolution using fMRI. Participants were presented with two tones that may, or may not, share the same nonspatial (frequency) or spatial (location) auditory features. In separate blocks of trials, participants were asked to attend to sound frequency or sound location and ignore the change in the task-irrelevant feature. In both attend-frequency and attend-location tasks, RTs were slower when the task-irrelevant feature changed than when it stayed the same (involuntary orienting). This behavioral cost coincided with enhanced activity in the pFC and superior temporal gyrus. Conflict resolution was examined by comparing situations where the change in stimulus features was congruent (both features changed) and incongruent (only one feature changed). Participants were slower and less accurate for incongruent than congruent sound features. This congruency effect was associated with enhanced activity in the pFC and was greater in the right superior temporal gyrus and medial frontal cortex during the attend-location task than during the attend-frequency task. Together, these findings do not support a strict division of “labor” into ventral and dorsal streams but rather suggest interactions between these pathways in situations involving changes in task-irrelevant sound feature and conflict resolution. These findings also validate the Test of Attention in Listening task by revealing distinct neural correlates for involuntary orienting and conflict resolution.

scholarly journals Interpersonal Synchrony Special Issue The role of anterior prefrontal cortex (area 10) in face-to-face deception measured with fNIRS

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Pinti ◽  
Andrea Devoto ◽  
Isobel Greenhalgh ◽  
Ilias Tachtsidis ◽  
Paul W Burgess ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Lie Detection ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Interpersonal Synchrony ◽  
Anterior Prefrontal Cortex

Abstract Anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC, Brodmann area 10) activations are often, but not always, found in neuroimaging studies investigating deception, and the precise role of this area remains unclear. To explore the role of the PFC in face-to-face deception, we invited pairs of participants to play a card game involving lying and lie detection while we used functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to record brain activity in the PFC. Participants could win points for successfully lying about the value of their cards or for detecting lies. We contrasted patterns of brain activation when the participants either told the truth or lied, when they were either forced into this or did so voluntarily and when they either succeeded or failed to detect a lie. Activation in the anterior PFC was found in both lie production and detection, unrelated to reward. Analysis of cross-brain activation patterns between participants identified areas of the PFC where the lead player’s brain activity synchronized their partner’s later brain activity. These results suggest that during situations that involve close interpersonal interaction, the anterior PFC supports processing widely involved in deception, possibly relating to the demands of monitoring one’s own and other people’s behaviour.

Focused Attention Modulates Visual Responses in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex

2004 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 855-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph F.X. DeSouza ◽  
Stefan Everling
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Initial Response ◽  
Single Stimulus ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Visual Responses ◽  
Enhanced Activity

Several current models propose an important role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in attention. To test the effects of attention in PFC, we recorded from PFC neurons in monkeys performing a task in which they had to attend to one hemifield and wait for a single stimulus that matched a previously presented cue. Neurons exhibited a slight decrease in their initial response and an enhanced activity late in the response to a stimulus at the cued location. The data demonstrate attentional effects on the activity of PFC neurons but they also show that single visual stimuli are initially represented in the activity of PFC neurons even when they are behaviorally irrelevant.

scholarly journals Identification of Visual Stimuli is Improved by Accompanying Auditory Stimuli: The Role of Eye Movements and Sound Location

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3126 ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 795-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie C Doyle ◽  
Robert J Snowden
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Visual Target ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Target Identification ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Auditory Signal ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Auditory Signals

Can auditory signals influence the processing of visual information? The present study examined the effects of simple auditory signals (clicks and noise bursts) whose onset was simultaneous with that of the visual target, but which provided no information about the target. It was found that such a signal enhances performance in the visual task: the accessory sound reduced response times for target identification with no cost to accuracy. The spatial location of the sound (whether central to the display or at the target location) did not modify this facilitation. Furthermore, the same pattern of facilitation was evident whether the observer fixated centrally or moved their eyes to the target. The results were not altered by changes in the contrast (and therefore visibility) of the visual stimulus or by the perceived utility of the spatial location of the sound. We speculate that the auditory signal may promote attentional ‘disengagement’ and that, as a result, observers are able to process the visual target sooner when sound accompanies the display relative to when visual information is presented alone.

scholarly journals The role of reading experience in atypical cortical tracking of speech and speech-in-noise in dyslexia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Destoky ◽  
Julie Bertels ◽  
Maxime Niesen ◽  
Vincent Wens ◽  
Marc Vander Ghinst ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Acoustic Noise ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Speech In Noise ◽  
The Right

Dyslexia is a frequent developmental disorder in which reading acquisition is delayed and that is usually associated with difficulties understanding speech in noise. At the neuronal level, children with dyslexia were reported to display abnormal cortical tracking of speech (CTS) at phrasal rate. Here, we aimed to determine if abnormal tracking is a cause or a consequence of dyslexia and if it is modulated by the severity of dyslexia or the presence of acoustic noise. We included 26 school-age children with dyslexia, 26 age-matched controls and 26 reading-level matched controls. All were native French speakers. Children's brain activity was recorded with magnetoencephalography while they listened to continuous speech in noiseless and multiple noise conditions. CTS values were compared between groups, conditions and hemispheres, and also within groups, between children with best and worse reading performance. Syllabic CTS was significantly reduced in the right superior temporal gyrus in children with dyslexia compared with controls matched for age but not for reading level. Among children with dyslexia, phrasal CTS tended to lateralize to the left hemisphere in severe dyslexia and lateralized to the right hemisphere in children with mild dyslexia and in all control groups. Finally, phrasal CTS was lower in children with dyslexia compared with age-matched controls, but only in informational noise conditions. No such effect was seen in comparison with reading-level matched controls. Overall, our results confirmed the finding of altered neuronal basis of speech perception in noiseless and babble noise conditions in dyslexia compared with age-matched peers. However, the absence of alteration in comparison with reading-level matched controls suggests that such alterations are a consequence of reduced reading experience rather than a cause of dyslexia.

scholarly journals Catecholaminergic Modulation of Semantic Processing in Sentence Comprehension

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 6426-6443
Author(s):  
Yingying Tan ◽  
Peter Hagoort
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
N400 Amplitude ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Electroencephalogram Eeg ◽  
Ca Agonist

Abstract Catecholamine (CA) function has been widely implicated in cognitive functions that are tied to the prefrontal cortex and striatal areas. The present study investigated the effects of methylphenidate, which is a CA agonist, on the electroencephalogram (EEG) response related to semantic processing using a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover, within-subject design. Forty-eight healthy participants read semantically congruent or incongruent sentences after receiving 20-mg methylphenidate or a placebo while their brain activity was monitored with EEG. To probe whether the catecholaminergic modulation is task-dependent, in one condition participants had to focus on comprehending the sentences, while in the other condition, they only had to attend to the font size of the sentence. The results demonstrate that methylphenidate has a task-dependent effect on semantic processing. Compared to placebo, when semantic processing was task-irrelevant, methylphenidate enhanced the detection of semantic incongruence as indexed by a larger N400 amplitude in the incongruent sentences; when semantic processing was task-relevant, methylphenidate induced a larger N400 amplitude in the semantically congruent condition, which was followed by a larger late positive complex effect. These results suggest that CA-related neurotransmitters influence language processing, possibly through the projections between the prefrontal cortex and the striatum, which contain many CA receptors.

scholarly journals Representation of speech categories in the primate auditory cortex

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (6) ◽  
pp. 2634-2646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joji Tsunada ◽  
Jung Hoon Lee ◽  
Yale E. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Nonhuman Primates ◽  
Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Auditory Pathway ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
The Core ◽  
Ventral Pathway

A “ventral” auditory pathway in nonhuman primates that originates in the core auditory cortex and ends in the prefrontal cortex is thought to be involved in components of nonspatial auditory processing. Previous work from our laboratory has indicated that neurons in the prefrontal cortex reflect monkeys' decisions during categorical judgments. Here, we tested the role of the superior temporal gyrus (STG), a region of the secondary auditory cortex that is part of this ventral pathway, during similar categorical judgments. While monkeys participated in a match-to-category task and reported whether two consecutive auditory stimuli belonged to the same category or to different categories, we recorded spiking activity from STG neurons. The auditory stimuli were morphs of two human-speech sounds ( bad and dad). We found that STG neurons represented auditory categories. However, unlike activity in the prefrontal cortex, STG activity was not modulated by the monkeys' behavioral reports (choices). This finding is consistent with the anterolateral STG's role as a part of functional circuit involved in the coding, representation, and perception of the nonspatial features of an auditory stimulus.

scholarly journals Role of Prefrontal Cortex during Sudoku task: fNIRS study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patil Ashlesh ◽  
K K Deepak ◽  
Kochhar Kanwal Preet
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
List Type ◽  
Heuristic Rules ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Time Activity ◽  
Increased Activity

AbstractSudoku is a popular leisure time activity that involves no math, but is based on logic based combinatorial number placement in a matrix. Many studies have been dedicated towards finding an algorithm to solve Sudoku but investigation of the neural substrates involved in Sudoku has been challenging. It is difficult to measure the brain activity during 9×9 Sudoku using traditional fMRI technique due to the procedural constraints. 16 optodes fNIRS (functional near infrared spectroscopy) forms an excellent alternative to study the activity of prefrontal cortex (PFC) during Sudoku task. Sudoku task was divided into two steps to understand the differential function of the PFC while applying heuristic rules. Classical two-way ANOVA as well as General Linear Model based approach was used to analyze the data. 28-noise free recording from right-handed participants revealed increased activity in all 16 optode locations during step 1 (3 × 3 subgrids) and step 2 (easy level 9×9 Sudoku) as compared to rest. Contrasting the step2-step1 revealed that medial regions of PFC were preferentially activated. These findings suggest the role of these regions, while applying multiple heuristic rules to solve 9×9 Sudoku puzzle.Graphical abstractHighlightsThis is first fNIRS study that tried to unravel the role of PFC during Sudoku task.Uniquely divided the Sudoku task into two steps to understand the differential role of PFC while applying multiple heuristic rules.Both the medial and lateral regions of PFC are activated during Sudoku task.However, the medial regions of PFC play a differential role, especially when we consider the row and the column rule of Sudoku.

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