scholarly journals Non-selective inhibition of the motor system following unexpected and expected infrequent events

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carly Iacullo ◽  
Darcy A. Diesburg ◽  
Jan R. Wessel
Keyword(s):  
Motor System ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Selective Inhibition ◽  
Motor Inhibition ◽  
Simple Reaction Time Task ◽  
Movement Initiation ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Behavioral Adaptations ◽  
Environmental Events

AbstractMotor inhibition is a key control mechanism that allows humans to rapidly adapt their actions in response to environmental events. One of the hallmark signatures of rapidly exerted, reactive motor inhibition is the non-selective suppression of cortico-spinal excitability (CSE): unexpected sensory stimuli lead to a suppression of CSE across the entire motor system, even in muscles that are inactive. Theories suggest that this reflects a fast, automatic, and broad engagement of inhibitory control, which facilitates behavioral adaptations to unexpected changes in the sensory environment. However, it is an open question whether such non-selective CSE suppression is truly due to the unexpected nature of the sensory event, or whether it is sufficient for an event to be merely infrequent (but not unexpected). Here, we report data from two experiments in which human subjects experienced both unexpected and expected infrequent events during a simple reaction time task while CSE was measured from a task-unrelated muscle. We found that expected infrequent events can indeed produce non-selective CSE suppression – but only when they occur during movement initiation. In contrast, unexpected infrequent events produce non-selective CSE suppression even in the absence of movement initiation. Moreover, CSE suppression due to unexpected events occurs at shorter latencies compared to expected infrequent events. These findings demonstrate that unexpectedness and stimulus infrequency have qualitatively different suppressive effects on the motor system. They also have key implications for studies that seek to disentangle neural and psychological processes related to motor inhibition and stimulus detection.

scholarly journals Manipulations of the Response-Stimulus Intervals as a Factor Inducing Controlled Amount of Reaction Time Intra-Individual Variability

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 669
Author(s):  
Paweł Krukow ◽  
Małgorzata Plechawska-Wójcik ◽  
Arkadiusz Podkowiński
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Simple Reaction Time ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Simple Reaction Time Task ◽  
Stimulus Interval ◽  
Simple Reaction ◽  
Response Stimulus

Aggrandized fluctuations in the series of reaction times (RTs) are a very sensitive marker of neurocognitive disorders present in neuropsychiatric populations, pathological ageing and in patients with acquired brain injury. Even though it was documented that processing inconsistency founds a background of higher-order cognitive functions disturbances, there is a vast heterogeneity regarding types of task used to compute RT-related variability, which impedes determining the relationship between elementary and more complex cognitive processes. Considering the above, our goal was to develop a relatively new assessment method based on a simple reaction time paradigm, conducive to eliciting a controlled range of intra-individual variability. It was hypothesized that performance variability might be induced by manipulation of response-stimulus interval’s length and regularity. In order to verify this hypothesis, a group of 107 healthy students was tested using a series of digitalized tasks and their results were analyzed using parametric and ex-Gaussian statistics of RTs distributional markers. In general, these analyses proved that intra-individual variability might be evoked by a given type of response-stimulus interval manipulation even when it is applied to the simple reaction time task. Collected outcomes were discussed with reference to neuroscientific concepts of attentional resources and functional neural networks.

Analysis of Task Difficulty under Varying Conditions of Induced Stress

1970 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry W. Thornton ◽  
Paul D. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Choice Reaction Time ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Simple Reaction Time Task ◽  
Simple Task ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Time Task ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Task Relatedness ◽  
Related Stress

Two tasks (simple and choice reaction time) were examined while varying three types of stressors (shock, threat of shock, and noise) and the stressor task relationship (i.e., task-related stress, task-unrelated stress, and no-stress). Four specific hypotheses were tested and 3 were supported in the simple reaction-time task. There were no significant differences among stressors for either task, although greater differences were reported in the simple than in the choice reaction-time task. A significant difference between the “task-relatedness” of stress levels in the simple task was interpreted as possibly due to a “coping” or “protective adaptive mechanism” in which increases in performance serve to reduce stress. Practical applications were examined.

Reaction time and spinal excitability in a simple reaction time task

1976 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia T. Michie ◽  
Alex M. Clarke ◽  
John D. Sinden ◽  
Leonard C.T. Glue
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Simple Reaction Time ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Simple Reaction Time Task ◽  
Simple Reaction ◽  
Time Task ◽  
Spinal Excitability

Acceptable Levels of Tonal and Broad-Band Repetitive and Continuous Sounds during the Performance of Nonauditory Tasks

1995 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 803-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf Landström ◽  
Anders Kjellberg ◽  
Marianne Byström
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Sound Pressure ◽  
Broad Band ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Simple Reaction Time Task ◽  
Reasoning Test ◽  
Band Noise ◽  
Time Test ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Reaction Time Test

Three groups of 24 subjects were exposed to a 1000–Hz tone or broad band noise in a sound chamber. During the exposures subjects were engaged in an easy reaction time test or a difficult grammatical reasoning test. For each exposure and work subjects adjusted the noise to a tolerance level defined by its interference with task performance. During the simple reaction-time task significantly higher sound-pressure levels were accepted than during the reasoning test. At the tonal exposure, much lower levels were accepted than during the exposure to broad-band noise. For continuous sound exposures much higher levels were accepted than for noncontinuous exposures. For tonal exposures the difference was approximately 5 dB, for the broad-band exposures approximately 9 dB. In a separate study the effects of the noncontinuity of the noise and pauses were analysed. The raised annoying effect of the noncontinuous noise was not more affected by the noncontinuity of the noise periods than by the noncontinuity of the pauses. The results imply that the annoying reactions to the sound will be increased for repetitive noise and that the reaction is highly influenced by the over-all noncontinuity of the exposure.

Evidence for interhemispheric motor-level transfer in a simple reaction time task: an EEG study

1999 ◽  
Vol 128 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 256-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregor Thut ◽  
Claude-Alain Hauert ◽  
Stéphanie Morand ◽  
Margitta Seeck ◽  
Theodor Landis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Simple Reaction Time ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Simple Reaction Time Task ◽  
Simple Reaction ◽  
Time Task

scholarly journals Neuronal Correlates of Post-Error Slowing in the Rat Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex

2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 520-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nandakumar S. Narayanan ◽  
Mark Laubach
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Simple Reaction Time ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Delay Period ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Simple Reaction Time Task ◽  
Unit Recording ◽  
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex

Rats with impaired function in dorsomedial regions of the prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) are unable to maintain a behavioral response over a delay period. Here we report that neurons in this cortical region are prominently modulated after errors in a tone-cued, simple reaction time task and that inactivation of dmPFC attenuates a slowing of reaction times that is observed following errors. Using methods for chronic single-unit recording, we found that approximately one-third of dmPFC neurons were modulated after errors, and 28% of these neurons had increased posterror firing that persisted into the delay period of the following trial. In contrast to dmPFC, no such neurons were found in motor cortex. Our results implicate the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex in a form of retrospective working memory that improves task performance following errors.

Synthesis of the contingent negative variation brain potential from noncontingent stimulus and motor elements

Science ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 208 (4448) ◽  
pp. 1165-1168 ◽  
Author(s):  
JW Rohrbaugh ◽  
K Syndulko ◽  
TF Sanquist ◽  
DB Lindsley
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Contingent Negative Variation ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Brain Potential ◽  
Motor Processes ◽  
Time Task ◽  
Motor Movements

Slow shifts in brain potential (commonly called the contingent negative variation), obtained during a warned reaction-time task with a foreperiod of 1 second, were compared with waveforms synthesized by the addition of separately obtained potentials associated with individual (nonpaired) sensory stimuli and self-initiated motor movements. The synthesized waveforms match closely the actual contingent negative variation, suggesting that it is constituted largely of separate, noncontingent elements related to sensory and motor processes.

scholarly journals Motor Resonance May Originate From Sensorimotor Experience

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 1867-1871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustín Petroni ◽  
Federico Baguear ◽  
Valeria Della-Maggiore
Keyword(s):  
Motor System ◽  
Motor Evoked Potentials ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Physical Nature ◽  
Corticospinal Excitability ◽  
Motor Resonance ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Movement Index ◽  
Static Pictures

In humans, the motor system can be activated by passive observation of actions or static pictures with implied action. The origin of this facilitation is of major interest to the field of motor control. Recently it has been shown that sensorimotor learning can reconfigure the motor system during action observation. Here we tested directly the hypothesis that motor resonance arises from sensorimotor contingencies by measuring corticospinal excitability in response to abstract non-action cues previously associated with an action. Motor evoked potentials were measured from the first dorsal interosseus (FDI) while human subjects observed colored stimuli that had been visually or motorically associated with a finger movement (index or little finger abduction). Corticospinal excitability was higher during the observation of a colored cue that preceded a movement involving the recorded muscle than during the observation of a different colored cue that preceded a movement involving a different muscle. Crucially this facilitation was only observed when the cue was associated with an executed movement but not when it was associated with an observed movement. Our findings provide solid evidence in support of the sensorimotor hypothesis of action observation and further suggest that the physical nature of the observed stimulus mediating this phenomenon may in fact be irrelevant.

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