Distinct functional classes of excitatory neurons in mouse V1 are differentially modulated by learning and task engagement

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.1101/533463 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Joseph B. Wekselblatt ◽

Cristopher M. Niell

Keyword(s):

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Task Engagement ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Two Photon ◽

Neural Representations ◽

Excitatory Neurons ◽

Before And After ◽

Functional Classes ◽

Insight Into ◽

And Task

AbstractLearning can cause significant changes in neural responses to relevant stimuli, in addition to modulation due to task engagement. However, it is not known how different functional types of excitatory neurons contribute to these changes. To address this gap, we performed two-photon calcium imaging of excitatory neurons in layer 2/3 of mouse primary visual cortex before and after learning of a visual discrimination. We found that excitatory neurons show striking diversity in the temporal dynamics of their response to visual stimuli during the behavior, and based on this we classified them into transient, sustained, and suppressed groups. Notably, these functionally defined cell classes exhibit different visual stimulus selectivity and modulation by locomotion, and were differentially affected by training condition. In particular, we observed a decrease in the number of transient neurons responsive during behavior after learning, while both transient and sustained cells showed an increase in modulation due to task engagement after learning. The identification of functional diversity within the excitatory population, with distinct changes during learning and task engagement, provides insight into the cortical pathways that allow context-dependent neural representations.

Task-Related Hemodynamic Responses Are Modulated by Reward and Task-engagement

10.1101/463042 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mariana M. B. Cardoso ◽

Bruss Lima ◽

Yevgeniy B. Sirotin ◽

Aniruddha Das

Keyword(s):

Blood Volume ◽

Vascular Tone ◽

Task Engagement ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Intrinsic Signal ◽

High Reward ◽

Task Period ◽

Fixation Task ◽

Hemodynamic Measurements ◽

And Task

AbstractHemodynamic recordings from visual cortex contain powerful endogenous task-related responses that may reflect task-engagement distinct from attention. We tested this hypothesis with hemodynamic measurements (intrinsic-signal optical imaging) from monkey V1, while the animals’ engagement in a periodic fixation task over several hours was varied though reward size, and as animals took breaks. With higher rewards, animals appeared more task-engaged; task-related responses were more temporally precise at the task period (~ 10-20 seconds), and modestly stronger. Surprisingly, 2-5-minute blocks of high-reward trials led to ramp-like decreases in mean local blood volume; these reversed with ramp-like increases during low reward. The blood volume increased even more sharply when the animal shut his eyes and disengaged completely from the task (5-10 minutes). We propose a mechanism that controls vascular tone, likely along with local neural responses, with phasic and tonic components tied to task-engagement.

Representation of Visual Landmarks in Retrosplenial Cortex

10.1101/811430 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Lukas F. Fischer ◽

Raul Mojica Soto-Albors ◽

Friederike Buck ◽

Mark T. Harnett

Keyword(s):

Visual Information ◽

Receptive Fields ◽

Spatial Relationship ◽

Retrosplenial Cortex ◽

Task Engagement ◽

Reference Points ◽

Behavioral Task ◽

Motor Responses ◽

Two Photon ◽

Insight Into

AbstractThe process by which visual information is incorporated into the brain’s spatial framework to represent landmarks is poorly understood. Studies in humans and rodents suggest that retrosplenial cortex (RSC) plays a key role in these computations. We developed an RSC-dependent behavioral task in which head-fixed mice learned the spatial relationship between visual landmark cues and hidden reward locations. Two-photon imaging revealed that these cues served as dominant reference points for most task-active neurons and anchored the spatial code in RSC. Presenting the same environment but decoupled from mouse behavior degraded encoding fidelity. Analyzing visual and motor responses showed that landmark codes were the result of supralinear integration. Surprisingly, V1 axons recorded in RSC showed similar receptive fields. However, they were less modulated by task engagement, indicating that landmark representations in RSC are the result of local computations. Our data provide cellular- and network-level insight into how RSC represents landmarks.

Regional and network neural activity reflect men’s preference for greater socioeconomic status during impression formation

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-76847-z ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Denise M. Barth ◽

Bradley D. Mattan ◽

Tzipporah P. Dang ◽

Jasmin Cloutier

Keyword(s):

Socioeconomic Status ◽

Impression Formation ◽

Task Engagement ◽

Low Ses ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Brain Responses ◽

Co Activation ◽

Pls Analysis ◽

And Gender ◽

And Task

AbstractEvidence from social psychology suggests that men compared to women more readily display and pursue control over human resources or capital. However, studying how status and gender shape deliberate impression formation is difficult due to social desirability concerns. Using univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses (n = 65), we examined how gender and socioeconomic status (SES) may influence brain responses during deliberate but private impression formation. Men more than women showed greater activity in the VMPFC and NAcc when forming impressions of high-SES (vs. low-SES) targets. Seed partial least squares (PLS) analysis showed that this SES-based increase in VMPFC activity was associated with greater co-activation across an evaluative network for the high-SES versus low-SES univariate comparison. A data-driven task PLS analysis also showed greater co-activation in an extended network consisting of regions involved in salience detection, attention, and task engagement as a function of increasing target SES. This co-activating network was most pronounced for men. These findings provide evidence that high-SES targets elicit neural responses indicative of positivity, reward, and salience during impression formation among men. Contributions to a network neuroscience understanding of status perception and implications for gender- and status-based impression formation are discussed.

Predicting cognitive vigilance performance from cerebral blood flow velocity and task engagement

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e577942012-004 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Lauren E. Reinerman ◽

Gerald Matthews ◽

Joel S. Warm ◽

Lisa K. Langheim

Keyword(s):

Blood Flow ◽

Cerebral Blood Flow ◽

Flow Velocity ◽

Blood Flow Velocity ◽

Cerebral Blood Flow Velocity ◽

Task Engagement ◽

Vigilance Performance ◽

And Task

Performance-avoid goal orientation and task engagement: Moderating effect of self-efficacy

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e644232010-001 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah C. Bienkowski ◽

Aaron M. Watson ◽

Eric A. Surface

Keyword(s):

Goal Orientation ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Task Engagement ◽

Moderating Effect ◽

And Task

Post-Drive Standing Balance of Vehicle Passengers Using Wearable Sensors: The Effect of On-Road Driving and Task Performance

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21154997 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (15) ◽

pp. 4997

Author(s):

Victor C. Le ◽

Monica L. H. Jones ◽

Kathleen H. Sienko

Keyword(s):

Task Performance ◽

Postural Sway ◽

Wearable Sensors ◽

Standing Balance ◽

Balance Performance ◽

Real Time Traffic ◽

Balance Exercises ◽

Before And After ◽

The Relationship ◽

And Task

Postural sway has been demonstrated to increase following exposure to different types of motion. However, limited prior studies have investigated the relationship between exposure to normative on-road driving conditions and standing balance following the exposure. The purpose of this on-road study was to quantify the effect of vehicle motion and task performance on passengers’ post-drive standing balance performance. In this study, trunk-based kinematic data were captured while participants performed a series of balance exercises before and after an on-road driving session in real-time traffic. Postural sway for all balance exercises increased following the driving session. Performing a series of ecologically relevant visual-based tasks led to increases in most post-drive balance metrics such as sway position and velocity. However, the post-drive changes following the driving session with a task were not significantly different compared to changes observed following the driving session without a task. The post-drive standing balance performance changes observed in this study may increase vulnerable users’ risk of falling. Wearable sensors offer an opportunity to monitor postural sway following in-vehicle exposures.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus before and after COVID-19 Lockdown: How the Perception of Disease Changes through the Lenses of Narrative Medicine

Healthcare ◽

10.3390/healthcare9060726 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 726

Author(s):

Fulvia Ceccarelli ◽

Venusia Covelli ◽

Giulio Olivieri ◽

Francesco Natalucci ◽

Fabrizio Conti

Keyword(s):

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus ◽

Lupus Erythematosus ◽

Narrative Medicine ◽

Good Control ◽

Final Analysis ◽

Point Of View ◽

Systemic Lupus ◽

Before And After ◽

Text Content ◽

Insight Into

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic contributes to the burden of living with different diseases, including Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). We described, from a narrative point of view, the experiences and perspectives of Italian SLE adults during the COVID-19 emergency, by distinguishing the illness experience before and after the lockdown. Methods: Fifteen patients were invited to participate. Illness narratives were collected between 22 and 29 March 2020 using a written modality to capture patients’ perspectives before and after the COVID-19 lockdown. We performed a two-fold analysis of collected data by distinguishing three narrative types and a qualitative analysis of content to identify the relevant themes and sub-themes reported. Results: Eight narratives included in the final analysis (mean length 436.9 words) have been written by eight females (mean age 43.3 ± 9.9 years, mean disease duration 13.1 ± 7.4 years). Six patients provided a quest narrative, one a chaos and the remaining one a restitution narrative. By text content analysis, we identified specific themes, temporally distinct before and after the lockdown. Before COVID-19, all the patients referred to a good control of disease, however the unexpected arrival of the COVID-19 emergency broke a balance, and patients perceived the loss of health status control, with anxiety and stress. Conclusions: We provided unique insight into the experiences of people with SLE at the time of COVID-19, underlining the perspective of patients in relation to the pandemic.

Temporal dynamics of encrusting communities during the Late Devonian: a case study from the Central Devonian Field, Russia

Paleobiology ◽

10.1017/pab.2017.8 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 550-568 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Michał Zatoń ◽

Tomasz Borszcz ◽

Michał Rakociński

Keyword(s):

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Small Sample ◽

Time Interval ◽

Faunal Turnover ◽

Central Devonian Field ◽

Before And After ◽

Substrate Size ◽

Mass Extinction Event ◽

Diversity Dynamics

AbstractIn this study we focused on the dynamics of encrusting assemblages preserved on brachiopod hosts collected from upper Frasnian and lower Famennian deposits of the Central Devonian Field, Russia. Because the encrusted brachiopods come from deposits bracketing the Frasnian/Famennian (F/F) boundary, the results also shed some light on ecological differences in encrusting communities before and after the Frasnian–Famennian (F-F) event. To explore the diversity dynamics of encrusting assemblages, we analyzed more than 1300 brachiopod valves (substrates) from two localities. Taxon accumulation plots and shareholder quorum subsampling (SQS) routines indicated that a reasonably small sample of brachiopod host valves (n=50) is sufficient to capture the majority of the encrusting genera recorded at a given site. The richness of encrusters per substrate declined simultaneously with the number of encrusting taxa in the lower Famennian, accompanied by a decrease in epibiont abundance, with a comparable decrease in mean encrustation intensity (percentage of bioclasts encrusted by one or more epibionts). Epibiont abundance and occupancy roughly mirror each other. Strikingly, few ecological characteristics are correlated with substrate size, possibly reflecting random settlement of larvae. Evenness, which is negatively correlated with substrate size, shows greater within-stage variability among samples than between Frasnian and Famennian intervals and may indicate the instability of early Famennian biocenoses following the faunal turnover. The occurrence distribution of encrusters points to nonrandom associations and exclusions among several encrusting taxa. However, abundance and occupancy of microconchids remained relatively stable throughout the sampled time interval. The notable decline in abundance (~60%) and relatively minor decline in diversity (~30%) suggest jointly that encrusting communities experienced ecological collapse rather than a major mass extinction event. The differences between the upper Frasnian and lower Famennian encrusting assemblages may thus record a turnover associated with the F-F event.

Effects of stimulus and task structure on temporal perceptual learning

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-80192-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Rannie Xu ◽

Russell M. Church ◽

Yuka Sasaki ◽

Takeo Watanabe

Keyword(s):

Temporal Discrimination ◽

Discrimination Performance ◽

Task Structure ◽

Comparison Task ◽

Interval Representation ◽

Before And After ◽

Temporal Intervals ◽

Context Specific ◽

Temporal Learning ◽

And Task

AbstractOur ability to discriminate temporal intervals can be improved with practice. This learning is generally thought to reflect an enhancement in the representation of a trained interval, which leads to interval-specific improvements in temporal discrimination. In the present study, we asked whether temporal learning is further constrained by context-specific factors dictated through the trained stimulus and task structure. Two groups of participants were trained using a single-interval auditory discrimination task over 5 days. Training intervals were either one of eight predetermined values (FI group), or random from trial to trial (RI group). Before and after the training period, we measured discrimination performance using an untrained two-interval temporal comparison task. Our results revealed a selective improvement in the FI group, but not the RI group. However, this learning did not generalize between the trained and untrained tasks. These results highlight the sensitivity of TPL to stimulus and task structure, suggesting that mechanisms of temporal learning rely on processes beyond changes in interval representation.

Discoloration of Historical Plastic Objects: New Insight into the Degradation of β-Naphthol Pigment Lakes

Polymers ◽

10.3390/polym13142278 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 2278

Author(s):

Anna Micheluz ◽

Eva Mariasole Angelin ◽

João Almeida Lopes ◽

Maria João Melo ◽

Marisa Pamplona

Keyword(s):

Light Exposure ◽

Molecular Structures ◽

Conservation Science ◽

Organic Pigment ◽

Organic Pigments ◽

Before And After ◽

The Individual ◽

Determining Factor ◽

Insight Into ◽

Historical Samples

Light is a determining factor in the discoloration of plastics, and photodegradation processes can affect the molecular structures of both the polymer and colorants. Limited studies focused on the discoloration of heritage plastics in conservation science. This work investigated the discoloration of red historical polyethylene (PE) objects colored with PR 48:2 and PR 53:1. High-density and low-density PE reference polymers, neat pigment powders, and historical samples were assessed before and after accelerated photoaging. The applied methodology provided insight into the individual light-susceptibility of polyethylenes, organic pigment lakes, and their combined effect in the photoaging of historical plastic formulations. After light exposure, both PE references and historical samples yellowed, PR53:1 faded, and PR 48:2 darkened; however, both organic pigments faded severely in the historical samples. This highlights the role played by the plastic binder likely facilitating the pigment photofading. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry techniques—EGA-MS, PY-GC/MS, and TD-GC/MS—were successfully employed for characterizing the plastic formulations and degradation. The identification of phthalic compounds in both aged β-naphthol powders opens new venues for studies on their degradation. This work’s approach and analytical methods in studying the discoloration of historical plastics are novel, proving their efficacy, reliability, and potentiality.