scholarly journals Collicular circuits for flexible sensorimotor routing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunyu A. Duan ◽  
Marino Pagan ◽  
Alex T. Piet ◽  
Charles D. Kopec ◽  
Athena Akrami ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Behavioral Performance ◽  
Task Context ◽  
Dynamical Models ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Spatial Response ◽  
Demand Changes ◽  
Response Choices

SUMMARYHistorically, cognitive processing has been thought to rely on cortical areas such as prefrontal cortex (PFC), with the outputs of these areas modulating activity in lower, putatively simpler spatiomotor regions, such as the midbrain superior colliculus (SC). Using a rat task in which subjects switch rapidly between task contexts that demand changes in sensorimotor mappings, we report a surprising role for the SC in non-spatial cognitive processes. Before spatial response choices could be formed, neurons in SC encoded task context more strongly than neurons in PFC, and bilateral SC silencing impaired behavioral performance. Once spatial choices could begin to be formed, SC neurons encoded the choice faster than PFC, while bilateral SC silencing no longer impaired choices. A set of dynamical models of the SC replicates our findings. Our results challenge cortically-focused views of cognition, and suggest that ostensibly spatiomotor structures can play central roles in non-spatiomotor cognitive processes.

scholarly journals Invariant timescale hierarchy across the cortical somatosensory network

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. e2021843118
Author(s):  
Román Rossi-Pool ◽  
Antonio Zainos ◽  
Manuel Alvarez ◽  
Sergio Parra ◽  
Jerónimo Zizumbo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Neural Coding ◽  
Cortical Area ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Task Context ◽  
Dynamical Feature ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Clear Differentiation ◽  
Different Sources

The ability of cortical networks to integrate information from different sources is essential for cognitive processes. On one hand, sensory areas exhibit fast dynamics often phase-locked to stimulation; on the other hand, frontal lobe areas with slow response latencies to stimuli must integrate and maintain information for longer periods. Thus, cortical areas may require different timescales depending on their functional role. Studying the cortical somatosensory network while monkeys discriminated between two vibrotactile stimulus patterns, we found that a hierarchical order could be established across cortical areas based on their intrinsic timescales. Further, even though subareas (areas 3b, 1, and 2) of the primary somatosensory (S1) cortex exhibit analogous firing rate responses, a clear differentiation was observed in their timescales. Importantly, we observed that this inherent timescale hierarchy was invariant between task contexts (demanding vs. nondemanding). Even if task context severely affected neural coding in cortical areas downstream to S1, their timescales remained unaffected. Moreover, we found that these time constants were invariant across neurons with different latencies or coding. Although neurons had completely different dynamics, they all exhibited comparable timescales within each cortical area. Our results suggest that this measure is demonstrative of an inherent characteristic of each cortical area, is not a dynamical feature of individual neurons, and does not depend on task demands.

Achievement in School in Relation to Simultaneous and Sequential Cognitive Processes among Young Egyptian Students

1997 ◽  
Vol 84 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1139-1148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fadia Z. Elwan
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
School Achievement ◽  
Reading Scores ◽  
Sequential Processing ◽  
Simultaneous Synthesis ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Reading Decoding

The present study was designed to examine whether a relationship exists between scores on simultaneous and sequential cognitive processes, on one hand, and performance on the Reading Decoding and Arithmetic subtests of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K–ABC), on the other hand, using a sample of 170 Egyptian school children in Grades 1, 3, and 5. To examine the differential magnitudes of the relationship between scores for cognitive processing and school achievement a two by two (simultaneous × sequential) analysis of variance was calculated with reading decoding and arithmetic scores as dependent variables. The results indicated that cognitive processing, especially simultaneous synthesis, is related to arithmetic as well as decoding during reading. Scores on sequential processing were not significantly related to scores for decoding reading and may not be important as simultaneous processing for mathematical skills. The findings were interpreted in the context of the Arabic orthographic system and in view of the nature of the cognitive and mathematical tasks employed in this study.

scholarly journals Parallel cognitive processing streams in human prefrontal cortex: Parsing areal-level brain network for response inhibition

Cell Reports ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (12) ◽  
pp. 109732
Author(s):  
Takahiro Osada ◽  
Akitoshi Ogawa ◽  
Akimitsu Suda ◽  
Koji Nakajima ◽  
Masaki Tanaka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Response Inhibition ◽  
Brain Network

scholarly journals The Perceptual and Cognitive Processes That Govern Egg Rejection in Hosts of Avian Brood Parasites

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Hanley ◽  
Samantha L. Rutledge ◽  
Juliana Villa
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Null Model ◽  
Egg Rejection ◽  
Egg Recognition ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Receptor Noise

Hosts of avian brood parasites are under intense selective pressure to prevent or reduce the cost of parasitism. Many have evolved refined egg discrimination abilities, which can select for eggshell mimicry in their parasite. A classic assumption underlying these coevolutionary dynamics is that host egg recognition depends on the perceivable difference between their own eggs and those of their parasite. Over the past two decades, the receptor noise-limited (RNL) model has contributed to our understanding of these coevolutionary interactions by providing researchers a method to predict a host’s ability to discriminate a parasite’s egg from its own. Recent research has shown that some hosts are more likely to reject brown eggs than blue eggs, regardless of the perceived differences to their own. Such responses suggest that host egg recognition may be due to perceptual or cognitive processes not currently predictable by the RNL model. In this perspective, we discuss the potential value of using the RNL model as a null model to explore alternative perceptual processes and higher-order cognitive processes that could explain how and why some hosts make seemingly counter-intuitive decisions. Further, we outline experiments that should be fruitful for determining the perceptual and cognitive processing used by hosts for egg recognition tasks.

scholarly journals Task dependence of neural representations of global scene properties but not scene categories in the prefrontal cortex

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaelan Jung ◽  
Dirk B. Walther
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Scene Perception ◽  
Sound Level ◽  
Task Context ◽  
Complex Scene ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
Scene Content ◽  
The Brain

AbstractNatural scenes deliver rich sensory information about the world. Decades of research has shown that the scene-selective network in the visual cortex represents various aspects of scenes. It is, however, unknown how such complex scene information is processed beyond the visual cortex, such as in the prefrontal cortex. It is also unknown how task context impacts the process of scene perception, modulating which scene content is represented in the brain. In this study, we investigate these questions using scene images from four natural scene categories, which also depict two types of global scene properties, temperature (warm or cold), and sound-level (noisy or quiet). A group of healthy human subjects from both sexes participated in the present study using fMRI. In the study, participants viewed scene images under two different task conditions; temperature judgment and sound-level judgment. We analyzed how different scene attributes (scene categories, temperature, and sound-level information) are represented across the brain under these task conditions. Our findings show that global scene properties are only represented in the brain, especially in the prefrontal cortex, when they are task-relevant. However, scene categories are represented in the brain, in both the parahippocampal place area and the prefrontal cortex, regardless of task context. These findings suggest that the prefrontal cortex selectively represents scene content according to task demands, but this task selectivity depends on the types of scene content; task modulates neural representations of global scene properties but not of scene categories.

scholarly journals The Function of Paraventricular Thalamic Circuitry in Adaptive Control of Feeding Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gorica D. Petrovich
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Hippocampal Formation ◽  
Energy State ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Behavioral Choice ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Set Up

The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) is a complex area that is uniquely embedded across the core feeding, reward, arousal, and stress circuits. The PVT role in the control of feeding behavior is discussed here within a framework of adaptive behavioral guidance based on the body’s energy state and competing drives. The survival of an organism depends on bodily energy resources and promotion of feeding over other behaviors is adaptive except when in danger or sated. The PVT is structurally set up to respond to homeostatic and hedonic needs to feed, and to integrate those signals with physiological and environmental stress, as well as anticipatory needs and other cognitive inputs. It can regulate both food foraging (seeking) and consumption and may balance their expression. The PVT is proposed to accomplish these functions through a network of connections with the brainstem, hypothalamic, striatal, and cortical areas. The connectivity of the PVT further indicates that it could broadcast the information about energy use/gain and behavioral choice to impact cognitive processes—learning, memory, and decision-making—through connections with the medial and lateral prefrontal cortical areas, the hippocampal formation, and the amygdala. The PVT is structurally complex and recent evidence for specific PVT pathways in different aspects of feeding behavior will be discussed.

Personalization With Digital Technology

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Z. Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
New Learning ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Innovative Learning

How to personalize learners' learning with digital technology so that learners derive optimal experiences in learning is a key question facing learning scientists, cognitive psychologists, teachers, and professional instructional designers. One of the challenges surrounding personalization and digital technology is how to promote learners' cognitive processes at a deeper level so that they become optimally engaged in critical and creative thinking, making inferences in learning, transferring knowledge to new learning situations, and constructing new knowledge during innovative learning process. This chapter examines the literature relating to deep cognitive processes and the idiosyncratic features of digital technology that support learners' deep cognitive processes in learning. Guidelines pertaining to personalization with digital technology in regard to deep cognitive processing are proposed, followed by the discussions on future research with a focus on verifying the theoretical constructs proposed in the guidelines.

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