scholarly journals Whole animal modelling reveals neuronal mechanisms of decision-making and reproduces unpredictable swimming in frog tadpoles

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Ferrario ◽  
Andrey Palyanov ◽  
Stella Koutsikou ◽  
wen-chang li ◽  
Steve Soffe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
3 Dimensional ◽  
Complete Chain ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms ◽  
Sensory Information Processing ◽  
Muscle Innervation ◽  
New Perspective

Animal behaviour is based on interaction between nervous, musculoskeletal and environmental systems. How does an animal process sensory stimuli, use it to decide whether and how to respond, and initiate the locomotor behaviour? We build the whole body computer models of a simple vertebrate with a complete chain of neural circuits and body units for sensory information processing, decision-making, generation of spiking activities, muscle innervation, body flexion, body-water interaction, and movement. Our Central Nervous System (CNS) model generates biologically-realistic spiking and reveals that sensory memory populations on two hindbrain sides compete for swimming initiation and first body flexion. Biomechanical 3-dimensional "Virtual Tadpole" (VT) model is constructed to evaluate if motor outputs of CNS model can produce swimming-like movements in a volume of "water". We find that whole animal modelling generates reliable and realistic swimming. The combination of CNS and VT models opens a new perspective for experiments with immobilised tadpoles.

scholarly journals From decision to action: Detailed modelling of frog tadpoles reveals neuronal mechanisms of decision-making and reproduces unpredictable swimming movements in response to sensory signals

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. e1009654
Author(s):  
Andrea Ferrario ◽  
Andrey Palyanov ◽  
Stella Koutsikou ◽  
Wenchang Li ◽  
Steve Soffe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Nerve ◽  
Biomechanical Model ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Sensory Signals ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms ◽  
Cell Recording ◽  
Muscle Innervation ◽  
Sensory Pathway ◽  
The Brain

How does the brain process sensory stimuli, and decide whether to initiate locomotor behaviour? To investigate this question we develop two whole body computer models of a tadpole. The “Central Nervous System” (CNS) model uses evidence from whole-cell recording to define 2000 neurons in 12 classes to study how sensory signals from the skin initiate and stop swimming. In response to skin stimulation, it generates realistic sensory pathway spiking and shows how hindbrain sensory memory populations on each side can compete to initiate reticulospinal neuron firing and start swimming. The 3-D “Virtual Tadpole” (VT) biomechanical model with realistic muscle innervation, body flexion, body-water interaction, and movement is then used to evaluate if motor nerve outputs from the CNS model can produce swimming-like movements in a volume of “water”. We find that the whole tadpole VT model generates reliable and realistic swimming. Combining these two models opens new perspectives for experiments.

Credo for optimality

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan A. Stocker
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Sensory Information Processing ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Additional Constraints

AbstractOptimal or suboptimal, Rahnev & Denison (R&D) rightly argue that this ill-defined distinction is not useful when comparing models of perceptual decision making. However, what they miss is how valuable the focus on optimality has been in deriving these models in the first place. Rather than prematurely abandon the optimality assumption, we should refine this successful normative hypothesis with additional constraints that capture specific limitations of (sensory) information processing in the brain.

Generalization of the resource-rationality principle to neural control of goal-directed movements

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Dounskaia ◽  
Yury P. Shimansky
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Optimality Criterion ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Human Movement ◽  
Control Optimization ◽  
Sensory Information Processing

Abstract We review evidence that the resource-rationality principle generalizes to human movement control. Optimization of the use of limited neurocomputational resources is described by the inclusion of the “neurocomputational cost” of sensory information processing and decision making in the optimality criterion of movement control. A resulting tendency to decrease this cost can account for various phenomena observed during goal-directed movements.

scholarly journals Psychophysical reverse correlation reflects both sensory and decision-making processes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gouki Okazawa ◽  
Long Sha ◽  
Braden A. Purcell ◽  
Roozbeh Kiani
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Appropriate Behavior ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Sensory Processes ◽  
Goal Directed Behavior ◽  
Evidence Integration ◽  
Sensory Mechanisms

AbstractGoal directed behavior depends on both sensory mechanisms that gather information from the outside world and decision-making mechanisms that select appropriate behavior based on that sensory information. Psychophysical reverse correlation is commonly used to quantify how fluctuations of sensory stimuli influence behavior and is generally believed to uncover the spatiotemporal weighting functions of sensory processes. Here we show that reverse correlations also reflect decision-making processes and can deviate significantly from the true sensory filters. Specifically, changes of decision bound and mechanisms of evidence integration systematically alter psychophysical reverse correlations. Similarly, trial-to-trial variability of sensory and motor delays and decision times causes systematic distortions in psychophysical kernels that should not be attributed to sensory mechanisms. We show that ignoring details of the decision-making process results in misinterpretation of reverse correlations, but proper use of these details turns reverse correlation into a powerful method for studying both sensory and decision-making mechanisms.

scholarly journals Task complexity temporally extends the causal requirement for visual cortex in perception

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthijs N Oude Lohuis ◽  
Jean L Pie ◽  
Pietro Marchesi ◽  
Jorrit S Montijn ◽  
Christiaan P J de Kock ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Late Phase ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Visual Response ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Perceptual Decision

The transformation of sensory inputs into behavioral outputs is characterized by an interplay between feedforward and feedback operations in cortical hierarchies. Even in simple sensorimotor transformations, recurrent processing is often expressed in primary cortices in a late phase of the cortical response to sensory stimuli. This late phase is engaged by attention and stimulus complexity, and also encodes sensory-independent factors, including movement and report-related variables. However, despite its pervasiveness, the nature and function of late activity in perceptual decision-making remain unclear. We tested whether the function of late activity depends on the complexity of a sensory change-detection task. Complexity was based on increasing processing requirements for the same sensory stimuli. We found that the temporal window in which V1 is necessary for perceptual decision-making was extended when we increased task complexity, independently of the presented visual stimulus. This window overlapped with the emergence of report-related activity and decreased noise correlations in V1. The onset of these co-occurring activity patterns was time-locked to and preceded reaction time, and predicted the reduction in behavioral performance obtained by optogenetically silencing late V1 activity (>200 ms after stimulus onset), a result confirmed by a second multisensory task with different requirements. Thus, although early visual response components encode all sensory information necessary to solve the task, V1 is not simply relaying information to higher-order areas transforming it into behavioral responses. Rather, task complexity determines the temporal extension of a loop of recurrent activity, which overlaps with report-related activity and determines how perceptual decisions are built.

Centralization and Effectiveness of Reward Management in Multinational Enterprises

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tekieli ◽  
Marion Festing ◽  
Xavier Baeten
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Role Identity ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Role Identities ◽  
Management Decision Making ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Subsidiary Managers ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. Based on responses from 158 reward managers located at the headquarters or subsidiaries of multinational enterprises, the present study examines the relationship between the centralization of reward management decision making and its perceived effectiveness in multinational enterprises. Our results show that headquarters managers perceive a centralized approach as being more effective, while for subsidiary managers this relationship is moderated by the manager’s role identity. Referring to social identity theory, the present study enriches the standardization versus localization debate through a new perspective focusing on psychological processes, thereby indicating the importance of in-group favoritism in headquarters and the influence of subsidiary managers’ role identities on reward management decision making.

scholarly journals Sensory over-responsivity is related to GABAergic inhibition in thalamocortical circuits

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily T. Wood ◽  
Kaitlin K. Cummings ◽  
Jiwon Jung ◽  
Genevieve Patterson ◽  
Nana Okada ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Network Connectivity ◽  
Sensory Stimulation ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Resonance Spectroscopy ◽  
Gamma Aminobutyric Acid ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Brain Responses

AbstractSensory over-responsivity (SOR), extreme sensitivity to or avoidance of sensory stimuli (e.g., scratchy fabrics, loud sounds), is a highly prevalent and impairing feature of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), anxiety, and ADHD. Previous studies have found overactive brain responses and reduced modulation of thalamocortical connectivity in response to mildly aversive sensory stimulation in ASD. These findings suggest altered thalamic sensory gating which could be associated with an excitatory/inhibitory neurochemical imbalance, but such thalamic neurochemistry has never been examined in relation to SOR. Here we utilized magnetic resonance spectroscopy and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the relationship between thalamic and somatosensory cortex inhibitory (gamma-aminobutyric acid, GABA) and excitatory (glutamate) neurochemicals with the intrinsic functional connectivity of those regions in 35 ASD and 35 typically developing pediatric subjects. Although there were no diagnostic group differences in neurochemical concentrations in either region, within the ASD group, SOR severity correlated negatively with thalamic GABA (r = −0.48, p < 0.05) and positively with somatosensory glutamate (r = 0.68, p < 0.01). Further, in the ASD group, thalamic GABA concentration predicted altered connectivity with regions previously implicated in SOR. These variations in GABA and associated network connectivity in the ASD group highlight the potential role of GABA as a mechanism underlying individual differences in SOR, a major source of phenotypic heterogeneity in ASD. In ASD, abnormalities of the thalamic neurochemical balance could interfere with the thalamic role in integrating, relaying, and inhibiting attention to sensory information. These results have implications for future research and GABA-modulating pharmacologic interventions.

The Role of the Representative: Some Empirical Observations on the Theory of Edmund Burke

1959 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 742-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Eulau ◽  
John C. Wahlke ◽  
William Buchanan ◽  
Leroy C. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
General Consensus ◽  
History Of

The problem of representation is central to all discussions of the functions of legislatures or the behavior of legislators. For it is commonly taken for granted that, in democratic political systems, legislatures are both legitimate and authoritative decision-making institutions, and that it is their representative character which makes them authoritative and legitimate. Through the process of representation, presumably, legislatures are empowered to act for the whole body politic and are legitimized. And because, by virtue of representation, they participate in legislation, the represented accept legislative decisions as authoritative. But agreement about the meaning of the term “representation” hardly goes beyond a general consensus regarding the context within which it is appropriately used. The history of political theory is studded with definitions of representation, usually embedded in ideological assumptions and postulates which cannot serve the uses of empirical research without conceptual clarification.

scholarly journals Sensor-Level Wavelet Analysis Reveals EEG Biomarkers of Perceptual Decision-Making

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 2461
Author(s):  
Alexander Kuc ◽  
Vadim V. Grubov ◽  
Vladimir A. Maksimenko ◽  
Natalia Shusharina ◽  
Alexander N. Pisarchik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Perceptual Process ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Perceptual Decision ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Band Power ◽  
Sensory Features

Perceptual decision-making requires transforming sensory information into decisions. An ambiguity of sensory input affects perceptual decisions inducing specific time-frequency patterns on EEG (electroencephalogram) signals. This paper uses a wavelet-based method to analyze how ambiguity affects EEG features during a perceptual decision-making task. We observe that parietal and temporal beta-band wavelet power monotonically increases throughout the perceptual process. Ambiguity induces high frontal beta-band power at 0.3–0.6 s post-stimulus onset. It may reflect the increasing reliance on the top-down mechanisms to facilitate accumulating decision-relevant sensory features. Finally, this study analyzes the perceptual process using mixed within-trial and within-subject design. First, we found significant percept-related changes in each subject and then test their significance at the group level. Thus, observed beta-band biomarkers are pronounced in single EEG trials and may serve as control commands for brain-computer interface (BCI).

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