scholarly journals Parietal and Motor Cortical Dynamics Differentially Shape the Computation of Choice History Bias

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne E Urai ◽  
Tobias H Donner
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Random Sequence ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Action Preparation ◽  
Motor History ◽  
Gamma Band Activity ◽  
Band Activity

Humans and other animals tend to systematically repeat (or alternate) their previous choices, even when judging sensory stimuli presented in a random sequence. Choice history biases may arise from action preparation in motor circuits, or from perceptual or decision processing in upstream areas. Here, we combined source-level magnetoencephalographic (MEG) analyses of cortical population dynamics with behavioral modeling of a visual decision process. We disentangled two neural history signals in human motor and posterior parietal cortex. Gamma-band activity in parietal cortex tracked previous choices throughout the trial and biased evidence accumulation toward choice repetition. Action-specific beta-band activity in motor cortex also carried over to the next trial and biased the accumulation starting point toward alternation. The parietal, but not motor, history signal predicted the next trial's choice as well as individual differences in choice repetition. Our results are consistent with a key role of parietal cortical signals in shaping choice sequences.

scholarly journals Sequential sensory and decision processing in posterior parietal cortex

eLife ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilhem Ibos ◽  
David J Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Cortex Area ◽  
Visual Matching ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Decisions about the behavioral significance of sensory stimuli often require comparing sensory inference of what we are looking at to internal models of what we are looking for. Here, we test how neuronal selectivity for visual features is transformed into decision-related signals in posterior parietal cortex (area LIP). Monkeys performed a visual matching task that required them to detect target stimuli composed of conjunctions of color and motion-direction. Neuronal recordings from area LIP revealed two main findings. First, the sequential processing of visual features and the selection of target-stimuli suggest that LIP is involved in transforming sensory information into decision-related signals. Second, the patterns of color and motion selectivity and their impact on decision-related encoding suggest that LIP plays a role in detecting target stimuli by comparing bottom-up sensory inputs (what the monkeys were looking at) and top-down cognitive encoding inputs (what the monkeys were looking for).

scholarly journals Beta-band activity and connectivity in sensorimotor and parietal cortex are important for accurate motor performance

NeuroImage ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 164-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae W. Chung ◽  
Edward Ofori ◽  
Gaurav Misra ◽  
Christopher W. Hess ◽  
David E. Vaillancourt
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Band Activity

scholarly journals Distinct oscillatory frequencies underlie excitability of human occipital and parietal cortex

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Samaha ◽  
Olivia Gosseries ◽  
Bradley R. Postle
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Cortical Excitability ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Cortical Inhibition ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Near Threshold

AbstractMagnetic stimulation (TMS) of human occipital and posterior parietal cortex can give rise to visual sensations called phosphenes, but neural correlates of phosphene perception preceding and succeeding stimulation of both areas are unknown. Using near-threshold TMS with concurrent electroencephalography (EEG) recordings, we uncover oscillatory brain dynamics that covary, on single trials, with the perception of phosphenes following occipital and parietal TMS. Prestimulus power and phase predominantly in the alpha-band (8-13 Hz) predicted occipital TMS phosphenes, whereas higher frequency beta-band (13-20 Hz) power (but not phase) predicted parietal TMS phosphenes. TMS evoked responses related to phosphene perception were similar across stimulation sites and were characterized by an early (200 ms) posterior negativity and a later (>300 ms) parietal positivity in the time domain and an increase in low-frequency (~5-7 Hz) power followed by a broadband decrease in alpha/beta power in the time-frequency domain. These correlates of phosphene perception closely resemble known electrophysiological correlates of conscious perception using near-threshold visual stimuli and speak to the possible early onset of visual consciousness. The differential pattern of prestimulus predictors of phosphene perception suggest that distinct frequencies reflect cortical excitability within different cortical regions, and that the alpha-band rhythm, long thought of as a general index of cortical inhibition, may not reflect excitability of posterior parietal cortex.Significance statementAlpha-band oscillations are thought to reflect cortical excitability and are therefor suggested to play an important role in gating information transmission across cortex. We directly probe cortical excitability in human occipital and parietal cortex and observed that whereas alpha-band dynamics indeed reflect excitability of occipital areas, beta-band activity was most predictive of parietal cortex excitability. Differences in the state of cortical excitability predicted perceptual outcomes, which were manifest in both early and late patterns of evoked activity, shedding light on the neural correlates of consciousness. Our findings prompt revision of the notion that alpha activity reflects inhibition across all of cortex and suggests instead that excitability in different regions is reflected in distinct frequency bands.

scholarly journals Alpha-to-beta- and gamma-band activity reflect predictive coding in affective visual processing

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Strube ◽  
Michael Rose ◽  
Sepideh Fazeli ◽  
Christian Büchel
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Gamma Band ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Picture Processing ◽  
Gamma Band Activity ◽  
Spectral Patterns ◽  
Band Activity

AbstractProcessing of negative affective pictures typically leads to desynchronization of alpha-to-beta frequencies (ERD) and synchronization of gamma frequencies (ERS). Given that in predictive coding higher frequencies have been associated with prediction errors, while lower frequencies have been linked to expectations, we tested the hypothesis that alpha-to-beta ERD and gamma ERS induced by aversive pictures are associated with expectations and prediction errors, respectively. We recorded EEG while volunteers were involved in a probabilistically cued affective picture task using three different negative valences to produce expectations and prediction errors. Our data show that alpha-to-beta band activity after stimulus presentation was related to the expected valence of the stimulus as predicted by a cue. The absolute mismatch of the expected and actual valence, which denotes an absolute prediction error was related to increases in alpha, beta and gamma band activity. This demonstrates that top-down predictions and bottom-up prediction errors are represented in typical spectral patterns associated with affective picture processing. This study provides direct experimental evidence that negative affective picture processing can be described by neuronal predictive coding computations.

scholarly journals Posterior parietal cortex represents sensory history and mediates its effects on behavior

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athena Akrami ◽  
Charles D. Kopec ◽  
Mathew E. Diamond ◽  
Carlos Brody
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Sensory Stimulus ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Neural Firing ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Sensory History ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Many models of cognition and of neural computations posit the use and estimation of prior stimulus statistics1–4: it has long been known that working memory and perception are strongly impacted by previous sensory experience, even when that sensory history is irrelevant for the current task at hand. Nevertheless, the neural mechanisms and brain regions necessary for computing and using such priors are unknown. Here we report that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is a critical locus for the representation and use of prior stimulus information. We trained rats in an auditory Parametric Working Memory (PWM) task, and found that rats displayed substantial and readily quantifiable behavioral effects of sensory stimulus history, similar to those observed in humans5,6 and monkeys7. Earlier proposals that PPC supports working memory8,9 predict that optogenetic silencing of this region would impair behavior in our working memory task. Contrary to this prediction, silencing PPC significantly improved performance. Quantitative analyses of behavior revealed that this improvement was due to the selective reduction of the effects of prior sensory stimuli. Electrophysiological recordings showed that PPC neurons carried far more information about sensory stimuli of previous trials than about stimuli of the current trial. Furthermore, the more information about previous trial sensory history in the neural firing rates of a given rat’s PPC, the greater the behavioral effect of sensory history in that rat, suggesting a tight link between behavior and PPC representations of stimulus history. Our results indicate that the PPC is a central component in the processing of sensory stimulus history, and open a window for neurobiological investigation of long-standing questions regarding how perception and working memory are affected by prior sensory information.

scholarly journals Painful cutaneous laser stimuli induce event-related gamma-band activity in the lateral thalamus of humans

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (5) ◽  
pp. 1564-1573 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Kim ◽  
J. H. Chien ◽  
C. C. Liu ◽  
F. A. Lenz
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Pain ◽  
Gamma Band ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Gamma Activation ◽  
High Gamma ◽  
Gamma Band Activity ◽  
Cross Frequency Coupling ◽  
Induce Event ◽  
Band Activity ◽  
Deep Brain

Although the thalamus is an important module in “pain networks,” there are few studies of the effect of experimental pain upon thalamic oscillations. We have now examined the hypothesis that, during a series of painful cutaneous laser stimuli, thalamic signals will show stimulus-related gamma-band spectral activity, which is modulated by attention to vs. distraction from the painful stimulus. When the series of laser stimuli was presented, attention was focused by counting the laser stimuli (count laser task), while distraction was produced by counting backward (count back plus laser task). We have studied the effect of a cutaneous laser on thalamic local field potentials and EEG activity during awake procedures (deep brain stimulation implants) for the treatment of essential tremor. At different delays after the stimulus, three low gamma- (30–50 Hz) and two high gamma-band (70–90 Hz) activations were observed during the two tasks. Greater high-gamma activation was found during the count laser task for the earlier window, while greater high-gamma activation was found during the count back plus laser task for the later window. Thalamic signals were coherent with EEG signals in the beta band, which indicated significant synchrony. Thalamic cross-frequency coupling analysis indicated that the phase of the lower frequency activity (theta to beta) modulated the amplitude of the higher frequency activity (low and high gamma) more strongly during the count laser task than during the count back plus laser task. This modulation might result in multiplexed signals each encoding a different aspect of pain.

Spatio-temporal updating in the posterior parietal cortex

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Kenji Kansaku
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
The Body ◽  
Control Network ◽  
Seed Region ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Frontoparietal Control Network

Adopting an unusual posture can sometimes give rise to paradoxical experiences. For example, the subjective ordering of successive unseen tactile stimuli delivered to the two arms can be affected when people cross them. A growing body of evidence highlights the role played by the parietal cortex in spatio-temporal information processing when sensory stimuli are delivered to the body or when actions are executed; however, little is known about the neural basis of such paradoxical feelings. We demonstrate increased fMRI activation in the left posterior parietal cortex when human participants adopted a crossed hands posture with their eyes closed. When participants performed tactile temporal order judgments (TOJs), we observed a positive association between activity in this area and the degree of reversal in TOJs resulting from crossing arms. The strongest positive association was observed in the left intraparietal sulcus (IPS) (Wada et al., 2011). We then examined connectivity of the IPS to determine the functional anatomy of the arm crossing effect, as well as connectivity using a seed region in the posterior cingulate cortex to evaluate default mode network (DMN) for comparison. The regions showing connectivity with the IPS overlapped with regions within the DMN but the IPS also showed connectivity with other brain areas within the frontoparietal control network (Ora et al., 2012). The IPS, which can be considered a gateway connecting the DMN to the frontoparietal control network, may therefore be critically involved in monitoring limb position and in spatio-temporal binding when serial events are delivered to the limbs.

scholarly journals Somatosensory responses to nothing: an MEG study of expectations during omission of tactile stimulations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lau M. Andersen ◽  
Daniel Lundqvist
Keyword(s):  
Index Finger ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Secondary Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Inferior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Somatosensory Responses ◽  
The Right ◽  
Gamma Band Activity ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Band Activity

AbstractThe brain builds up expectations to future events based on the patterns of past events. This function has been studied extensively in the auditory and visual domains using various oddball paradigms, but only little exploration of this phenomenon has been done in the somatosensory domain. In this study, we explore how expectations of somatosensory stimulations are established and expressed in neural activity as measured with magnetoencephalography. Using tactile stimulations to the index finger, we compared conditions with actual stimulation to conditions with omitted stimulations, both of which were either expected or unexpected.Our results show that when a stimulation is expected but omitted, a time-locked response occurs ∼135 ms subsequent to the expected stimulation. This somatosensory response to “nothing” was source localized to the secondary somatosensory cortex and to the insula. This provides novel evidence of the capability of the brain of millisecond time-keeping of somatosensory patterns across intervals of 3000 ms.Our results also show that when stimuli are repeated and expectations are established, there is associated activity in the theta and beta bands. These theta and beta band expressions of expectation were localized to the primary somatosensory area, inferior parietal cortex and cerebellum. Furthermore, there was gamma band activity in the right insula for the first stimulation after an omission, which indicates the detection of a new stimulation event after an expected pattern has been broken.Finally, our results show that cerebellum play a crucial role in predicting upcoming stimulation and in predicting when stimulation may begin again.

scholarly journals Sensory feedback-dependent coding of arm position in local field potentials of the posterior parietal cortex

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul VanGilder ◽  
Ying Shi ◽  
Gregory Apker ◽  
Christopher A. Buneo
Keyword(s):  
Local Field ◽  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Spectral Power ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Arm Position ◽  
Multisensory Interactions ◽  
Band Activity ◽  
Spiking Activity

Although multisensory integration is crucial for sensorimotor function, it is still unclear how sensory cues provided by the visual and proprioceptive systems are combined in the brain during motor behaviors. Here we characterized the effects of multisensory interactions on local field potential (LFP) activity obtained from the superior parietal lobule (SPL) as non-human primates performed an arm position maintenance task with either unimodal (proprioceptive) or bimodal (visual-proprioceptive) sensory feedback. Based on previous analyses of spiking activity, and observations that LFP and spikes are highly correlated in some cortical areas, we hypothesized that evoked LFP responses would be tuned to arm location but would be suppressed on bimodal trials, relative to unimodal trials. We also expected to see a substantial number of recording sites with enhanced beta band spectral power for only one set of feedback conditions, as was previously observed for spiking activity. We found that evoked activity and beta band power were tuned to arm location at many individual sites, though this tuning often differed between unimodal and bimodal trials. At the population level, both evoked and beta band activity were consistent with feedback-dependent tuning to arm location, while beta band activity also showed evidence of suppression on bimodal trials. The results suggest that multisensory interactions can alter the tuning and gain of arm position-related LFP activity in the SPL and that this activity can be used to decode the arm location under varying sensory conditions.

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