scholarly journals State-dependent control of cortical processing speed via gain modulation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wyrick ◽  
Luca Mazzucato
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Gain Modulation ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Information Processing Speed ◽  
Afferent Projections ◽  
Cell Type Specific

AbstractTo thrive in dynamic environments, animals can generate flexible behavior and rapidly adapt responses to a changing context and internal state. Examples of behavioral flexibility include faster stimulus responses when attentive and slower responses when distracted. Contextual modulations may occur early in the cortical hierarchy and may be implemented via afferent projections from top-down pathways or neuromodulation onto sensory cortex. However, the computational mechanisms mediating the effects of such projections are not known. Here, we investigate the effects of afferent projections on the information processing speed of cortical circuits. Using a biologically plausible model based on recurrent networks of excitatory and inhibitory neurons arranged in cluster, we classify the effects of cell-type specific perturbations on the circuit’s stimulus-processing capability. We found that perturbations differentially controlled processing speed, leading to counter-intuitive effects such as improved performance with increased input variance. Our theory explains the effects of all perturbations in terms of gain modulation, which controls the timescale of the circuit dynamics. We tested our model using large-scale electrophysiological recordings from the visual hierarchy in freely running mice, where a decrease in single-cell gain during locomotion explained the observed acceleration of visual processing speed. Our results establish a novel theory of cell-type specific perturbations linking connectivity, dynamics, and information processing via gain modulations.

scholarly journals Do Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Cardiovascular Disease Explain Sex Differences in Cognitive Functioning in Old Age?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Maria van Zutphen ◽  
Judith Johanna Maria Rijnhart ◽  
Didericke Rhebergen ◽  
Majon Muller ◽  
Martijn Huisman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Cardiovascular Disease ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Cardiovascular Risk ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Cardiovascular Risk Factors ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Information Processing Speed

Background: Sex differences in cognitive functioning in old age are known to exist yet are still poorly understood. Objective: This study examines to what extent differences in cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease between men and women explain sex differences in cognitive functioning. Methods: Data from 2,724 older adults from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam were used. Information processing speed and episodic memory, measured three times during six years of follow-up, served as outcomes. The mediating role of cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease was examined in single and multiple mediator models. Determinant-mediator effects were estimated using linear or logistic regression, and determinant-outcome and mediator-outcome effects were estimated using linear mixed models. Indirect effects were estimated using the product-of-coefficients estimator. Results: Women scored 1.58 points higher on information processing speed and 1.53 points higher on episodic memory. Several cardiovascular risk factors had small mediating effects. The sex difference in information processing speed was mediated by smoking, depressive symptoms, obesity, and systolic blood pressure. The sex difference in episodic memory was mediated by smoking, physical activity, and depressive symptoms. Effects of smoking, LDL cholesterol, and diabetes mellitus on information processing speed differed between men and women. Conclusion: Differences in cardiovascular risk factors between women and men partially explained why women had better cognitive functioning. A healthy cardiovascular lifestyle seems beneficial for cognition and sex-specific strategies may be important to preserve cognitive functioning at older age.

Habituation Rate and Free Exploration Tempo in 4-Month-Old Infants

1983 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Germaine Pecheux ◽  
Roger Lécuyer
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Style ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Individual Characteristic ◽  
Information Processing Speed ◽  
Habituation Rate ◽  
Geometric Patterns ◽  
Free Exploration ◽  
Methodological Aspects ◽  
Common Situation

If rate of habituation reflects information processing speed and is a stable individual characteristic, fast habituators should habituate relatively quickly to any stimulus, and slow habituators relatively slowly. Moreover, rate of habituation should be related to the baby's tendency to explore in any common situation. To examine these inferences, 24 four-month-old infants were habituated to four stimuli (two geometric patterns and two faces) successively, in two sessions, and observed in a free-exploration situation. The number of trials required to reach criterion in the habituation situations were not correlated, but total looking times to criterion were. Also, slow habituators stayed in the exploration situation for a relatively longer time and also explored a new toy for a longer time. Methodological aspects of habituation are discussed, and an interpretation of habituation sequences in terms of cognitive style is suggested.

scholarly journals Cerebral small-vessel disease and decline in information processing speed, executive function and memory

Brain ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (9) ◽  
pp. 2034-2041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels D. Prins ◽  
Ewoud J. van Dijk ◽  
Tom den Heijer ◽  
Sarah E. Vermeer ◽  
Jellemer Jolles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Small Vessel Disease ◽  
Cerebral Small Vessel Disease ◽  
Small Vessel ◽  
Information Processing Speed ◽  
Vessel Disease

Reduced information processing speed as primum movens for cognitive decline in MS

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Van Schependom ◽  
Marie B D’hooghe ◽  
Krista Cleynhens ◽  
Mieke D’hooge ◽  
Marie-Claire Haelewyck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Age At Onset ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Cognitive Domain ◽  
Information Processing Speed ◽  
Survival Curves ◽  
Cross Sectional

Background: Cognitive impairment affects half of the multiple sclerosis (MS) patient population and is an important contributor to patients’ daily activities. Most cognitive impairment studies in MS are, however, cross-sectional or/and focused on the early disease stages. Objective: We aim to assess the time course of decline of different cognitive domains. Methods: We collected neuropsychological data on 514 MS patients to construct Kaplan-Meier survival curves of the tests included in the Neuropsychological Screening Battery for MS (NSBMS) and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT). Cox-proportional hazard models were constructed to examine the influence of MS onset type, age at onset, gender, depression and level of education on the time course, expressed as age or disease. Results: Survival curves of tests focusing on information processing speed (IPS) declined significantly faster than tests with less specific demands of IPS. Median age for pathological decline was 56.2 years (95% CI: 54.4–58.2) on the SDMT and 63.9 years (95% CI: 60–66.9) on the CLTR, a memory task. Conclusion: In conclusion, IPS is the cognitive domain not only most widely affected by MS but it is also the first cognitive deficit to emerge in MS.

scholarly journals Quantitative synapse analysis for cell-type specific connectomics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dika A. Kuljis ◽  
Khaled Zemoura ◽  
Cheryl A. Telmer ◽  
Jiseok Lee ◽  
Eunsol Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Apical Dendrite ◽  
Automated Detection ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Disease States ◽  
Specific Localization ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Dendritic Branches ◽  
Circuit Function

AbstractAnatomical methods for determining cell-type specific connectivity are essential to inspire and constrain our understanding of neural circuit function. We developed new genetically-encoded reagents for fluorescence-synapse labeling and connectivity analysis in brain tissue, using a fluorogen-activating protein (FAP)-or YFP-coupled, postsynaptically-localized neuroligin-1 targeting sequence (FAP/YFPpost). Sparse viral expression of FAP/YFPpost with the cell-filling, red fluorophore dTomato (dTom) enabled high-throughput, compartment-specific localization of synapses across diverse neuron types in mouse somatosensory cortex. High-resolution confocal image stacks of virally-transduced neurons were used for 3D reconstructions of postsynaptic cells and automated detection of synaptic puncta. We took advantage of the bright, far-red emission of FAPpost puncta for multichannel fluorescence alignment of dendrites, synapses, and presynaptic neurites to assess subtype-specific inhibitory connectivity onto L2 neocortical pyramidal (Pyr) neurons. Quantitative and compartment-specific comparisons show that PV inputs are the dominant source of inhibition at both the soma and across all dendritic branches examined and were particularly concentrated at the primary apical dendrite, a previously unrecognized compartment of L2 Pyr neurons. Our fluorescence-based synapse labeling reagents will facilitate large-scale and cell-type specific quantitation of changes in synaptic connectivity across development, learning, and disease states.

scholarly journals Comparative Analysis of Cognitive Characteristics of Young Adolescents with Artistic and Intellectual Giftedness

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-123
Author(s):  
E.I. Donii ◽  
N.B. Shumakova
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Number Sense ◽  
Young Adolescents ◽  
Information Processing Speed ◽  
Cognitive Characteristics ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Intellectually Gifted ◽  
Artistically Gifted ◽  
Gifted Adolescents

The work is aimed at identifying specific manifestations of creativity and basic cognitive characteristics in young adolescents with artistic and intellectual giftedness. The relevance of the study is due to lack of study of the issue of cognitive manifestations of different types of giftedness in early adolescence, in which the issue of specialization of education is often resolved. The study involved 54 intellectually gifted adolescents (M = 11.4 years old) and 32 artistically gifted peers (M = 11.2 years old). The study used the following methods: a computerize d battery of test tasks for studying bas ic cognitive characteristics (“number sense”, visua l working memory and information processing speed), "Raven’s Progressive Matrixes”, “Verbally-figura l creativity test”, drawing tests of Urban and "Horizon Line ". The results confirm the hypothesis about the specificity of creativity in younger adolescents with different types of giftedness (intellectual and artistic). Intellectually gifted younger adolescents show higher rates of divergent verbal creativity compared to their artistically gifted peers; and artistically gifted younger adolescents surpass their intellectually gifted peers in terms of picturesque (figurative) creativity and are distinguished by their highquality originality, revealing a high emotional expressiveness and creative approach to the implementation of the plan. No statistically significant intergroup differences in the basic indicators of cognitive development and general intelligence were found, although artistically gifted adolescents better than their intellectually gifted peers compare asymmetrically expressed amounts (“number sense”), but they are inferior in terms of information processing speed.

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