Infant cognition includes the potentially human-unique ability to encode embedding

Human cognition relies on the ability to encode complex regularities in the input. Regularities above a certain complexity level can involve the feature of embedding, defined by nested relations between sequential elements. While comparative studies suggest the cognitive processing of embedding to be human specific, evidence of its ontogenesis is lacking. To assess infants’ ability to process embedding, we implemented nested relations in tone sequences, minimizing perceptual and memory requirements. We measured 5-month-olds’ brain responses in two auditory oddball paradigms, presenting standard sequences with one or two levels of embedding, interspersed with infrequent deviant sequences violating the established embedding rules. Brain potentials indicate that infants detect embedding violations and thus appear to track nested relations. This shows that the ability to encode embedding may be part of the basic human cognitive makeup, which might serve as scaffolding for the acquisition of complex regularities in language or music.

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Skipping Breakfast Affects the Early Steps of Cognitive Processing

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000214 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 109-118

Author(s):

Andrés Antonio González-Garrido ◽

Jacobo José Brofman-Epelbaum ◽

Fabiola Reveca Gómez-Velázquez ◽

Sebastián Agustín Balart-Sánchez ◽

Julieta Ramos-Loyo

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Brain Potentials ◽

Brain Functioning ◽

Attentional Processes ◽

Electrical Brain Activity ◽

Skipping Breakfast

Abstract. It has been generally accepted that skipping breakfast adversely affects cognition, mainly disturbing the attentional processes. However, the effects of short-term fasting upon brain functioning are still unclear. We aimed to evaluate the effect of skipping breakfast on cognitive processing by studying the electrical brain activity of young healthy individuals while performing several working memory tasks. Accordingly, the behavioral results and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) of 20 healthy university students (10 males) were obtained and compared through analysis of variances (ANOVAs), during the performance of three n-back working memory (WM) tasks in two morning sessions on both normal (after breakfast) and 12-hour fasting conditions. Significantly fewer correct responses were achieved during fasting, mainly affecting the higher WM load task. In addition, there were prolonged reaction times with increased task difficulty, regardless of breakfast intake. ERP showed a significant voltage decrement for N200 and P300 during fasting, while the amplitude of P200 notably increased. The results suggest skipping breakfast disturbs earlier cognitive processing steps, particularly attention allocation, early decoding in working memory, and stimulus evaluation, and this effect increases with task difficulty.

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Event related brain potentials and cognitive processing: Implications for navy training.

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e452992004-001 ◽

1981 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gregory W. Lewis ◽

Pat-Anthony Federico ◽

Jeffrey N. Froning ◽

Marlene Calder

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processing ◽

Brain Potentials

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Brain Responses to World Knowledge Violations: A Comparison of Stimulus- and Fixation-triggered Event-related Potentials and Neural Oscillations

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00731 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 27 (5) ◽

pp. 1017-1028 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Paul Metzner ◽

Titus von der Malsburg ◽

Shravan Vasishth ◽

Frank Rösler

Keyword(s):

Word Meaning ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Visual Presentation ◽

World Knowledge ◽

N400 Effect ◽

Brain Potentials ◽

Time Frequency ◽

Gamma Range ◽

Brain Responses ◽

Related Potentials

Recent research has shown that brain potentials time-locked to fixations in natural reading can be similar to brain potentials recorded during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). We attempted two replications of Hagoort, Hald, Bastiaansen, and Petersson [Hagoort, P., Hald, L., Bastiaansen, M., & Petersson, K. M. Integration of word meaning and world knowledge in language comprehension. Science, 304, 438–441, 2004] to determine whether this correspondence also holds for oscillatory brain responses. Hagoort et al. reported an N400 effect and synchronization in the theta and gamma range following world knowledge violations. Our first experiment (n = 32) used RSVP and replicated both the N400 effect in the ERPs and the power increase in the theta range in the time–frequency domain. In the second experiment (n = 49), participants read the same materials freely while their eye movements and their EEG were monitored. First fixation durations, gaze durations, and regression rates were increased, and the ERP showed an N400 effect. An analysis of time–frequency representations showed synchronization in the delta range (1–3 Hz) and desynchronization in the upper alpha range (11–13 Hz) but no theta or gamma effects. The results suggest that oscillatory EEG changes elicited by world knowledge violations are different in natural reading and RSVP. This may reflect differences in how representations are constructed and retrieved from memory in the two presentation modes.

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Speed Considerations Can Be of Little Concern When Outsourcing Thought to External Devices

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/1541931218621004 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 62 (1) ◽

pp. 14-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Patrick P. Weis ◽

Eva Wiese

Keyword(s):

Human Computer Interaction ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Human Cognition ◽

Soft Constraint ◽

External Resources ◽

Cognitive Offloading ◽

Internal Processing ◽

Computer Interaction ◽

Outside The Box

Most research on human cognition has focused on processes “inside the box”. Recently, researchers questioned this monopoly, promoting the relevance of cognitive processing “outside the box”, for instance, when using a GPS to navigate. For processing that is distributed between internal and external resources to work efficiently, humans need good heuristics that help them decide when to use which resource. A novel human-computer-interaction paradigm was employed to explore whether people follow the “minimal memory” heuristic and offload cognitive processing onto external resources whenever possible or the “soft constraint” heuristic and offload cognitive processing only if it is associated with an overall higher speed than internal processing. Participants, despite lower speed, nearly exclusively cognized outside the box, which contradicts the soft constraint heuristic and mostly supports the minimal memory heuristic. Implications for human-technology interaction as well as alternative heuristics relevant for cognitive offloading are discussed.

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Source Localization of Subtopographic Brain Maps for Event Related Potentials (ERP)

Encyclopedia of Healthcare Information Systems ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-889-5.ch156 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 1247-1252

Author(s):

Adil Deniz Duru ◽

Ali Bayram ◽

Tamer Demiralp ◽

Ahmet Ademoglu

Keyword(s):

Source Localization ◽

Temporal Frequency ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Functional Brain Imaging ◽

Frequency Content ◽

Brain Potentials ◽

Functional Brain ◽

Brain Responses ◽

Related Potentials ◽

The Brain

Event-related potentials (ERP) are transient brain responses to cognitive stimuli, and they consist of several stationary events whose temporal frequency content can be characterized in terms of oscillations or rhythms. Precise localization of electrical events in the brain, based on the ERP data recorded from the scalp, has been one of the main challenges of functional brain imaging. Several currentDensity estimation techniques for identifying the electrical sources generating the brain potentials are developed for the so-called neuroelectromagnetic inverse problem in the last three decades (Baillet, Mosher, & Leahy, 2001; Koles, 1998; Michela, Murraya, Lantza, Gonzaleza, Spinellib, & Grave de Peraltaa, 2004; Scherg & von Cramon, 1986).

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Putting Things into Perspective

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.52.1.21 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 52 (1) ◽

pp. 21-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Carrie R. Brumback ◽

Kathy A. Low ◽

Gabriele Gratton ◽

Monica Fabiani

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Memory Span ◽

Memory Function ◽

Individual Variability ◽

Stimulus Sequence ◽

Brain Potentials ◽

Operation Span ◽

Differential Reactivity ◽

Brain Responses ◽

Local Stimulus

Abstract. An important function of working memory is the integration of incoming information into an appropriate model of the contextual situation. We hypothesized that individual variability in working-memory function (estimated using Engle’s operation-span measure) may lead to differential reactivity to a changing context. We recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and reaction-time measures to stimuli embedded in long stimulus series (two auditory discrimination tasks), and examined the participants’ responses in relation to how the current stimuli fit with the context generated by the previous stimuli. In both tasks, participants with low working-memory span scores showed larger brain responses as a function of variations in the local stimulus sequence than participants with high span scores. These data suggest that the low working-memory span group is more affected by the local stimulus sequence than the high span group, possibly because they are more easily swayed by ongoing changes and are therefore less capable of maintaining their attention on the overall sequence.

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Evolving evidence on a link between the ZMYM3 exceptionally long GA-STR and human cognition

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-76461-z ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

H. Afshar ◽

S. Khamse ◽

F. Alizadeh ◽

A. Delbari ◽

R. Najafipour ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Late Onset ◽

Selective Advantage ◽

Human Cognition ◽

Control Group ◽

Protein Coding ◽

Allele Distribution ◽

Specific Formula ◽

Cognition Impairment ◽

Male Subjects ◽

Human Specific

Abstract The human X-linked zinc finger MYM-type protein 3 (ZMYM3) contains the longest GA-STR identified across protein-coding gene 5′ UTR sequences, at 32-repeats. This exceptionally long GA-STR is located at a complex string of GA-STRs with a human-specific formula across the complex as follows: (GA)8-(GA)4-(GA)6-(GA)32 (ZMYM3-207 ENST00000373998.5). ZMYM3 was previously reported among the top three genes involved in the progression of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Here we sequenced the ZMYM3 GA-STR complex in 750 human male subjects, consisting of late-onset neurocognitive disorder (NCD) as a clinical entity (n = 268) and matched controls (n = 482). We detected strict monomorphism of the GA-STR complex, except of the exceptionally long STR, which was architecturally skewed in respect of allele distribution between the NCD cases and controls [F (1, 50) = 12.283; p = 0.001]. Moreover, extreme alleles of this STR at 17, 20, 42, and 43 repeats were detected in seven NCD patients and not in the control group (Mid-P exact = 0.0003). A number of these alleles overlapped with alleles previously found in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients. In conclusion, we propose selective advantage for the exceptional length of the ZMYM3 GA-STR in human, and its link to a spectrum of diseases in which major cognition impairment is a predominant phenotype.

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Paradigms for Recording Cognitive Brain Electrical Activity

Methods of Information in Medicine ◽

10.1055/s-0038-1634154 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 40 (03) ◽

pp. 184-189

Author(s):

H. G. McAllister ◽

R. Howard ◽

L. Hong Neo ◽

P. J. McCullagh

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processing ◽

Brain Function ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Multimedia Technology ◽

Auditory Oddball ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Pictures And Words ◽

Comparative Processing ◽

External Stimuli ◽

Abnormal Brain

Abstract:Human event-related potentials reflect cognitive processing, and are normally elicited by external events, such as acoustic sounds or visual stimuli. As such they provide an opportunity to study normal and abnormal brain function noninvasively, at sub-second resolution. Advances in multimedia technology permit specialists in informatics and neuropsychology to co-operate in the design and implementation of paradigms, which influence ERP components. The paper illustrates the progression from standard paradigms such as the auditory oddball, which can be used to study memory update through to contingent negative variation and three condition, visual paradigms which can be used to study cognitive and emotional responses. Data from a study investigating the comparative processing of target pictures and words illustrate how external stimuli influence the later cognitive potentials.

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Children Processing Music: Electric Brain Responses Reveal Musical Competence and Gender Differences

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2003.15.5.683 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 15 (5) ◽

pp. 683-693 ◽

Cited By ~ 60

Author(s):

Stefan Koelsch ◽

Tobias Grossmann ◽

Thomas C. Gunter ◽

Anja Hahne ◽

Erich Schröger ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Cognitive Representation ◽

Brain Response ◽

Tonal Music ◽

Brain Potentials ◽

Music And Language ◽

Brain Responses ◽

Process Music ◽

And Gender ◽

The Brain

Numerous studies investigated physiological correlates of the processing of musical information in adults. How these correlates develop during childhood is poorly understood. In the present study, we measured event-related electric brain potentials elicited in 5and 9-year-old children while they listened to (major–minor tonal) music. Stimuli were chord sequences, infrequently containing harmonically inappropriate chords. Our results demonstrate that the degree of (in) appropriateness of the chords modified the brain responses in both groups according to music-theoretical principles. This suggests that already 5-year-old children process music according to a well-established cognitive representation of the major–minor tonal system and according to music-syntactic regularities. Moreover, we show that, in contrast to adults, an early negative brain response was left predominant in boys, whereas it was bilateral in girls, indicating a gender difference in children processing music, and revealing that children process music with a hemispheric weighting different from that of adults. Because children process, in contrast to adults, music in the same hemispheres as they process language, results indicate that children process music and language more similarly than adults. This finding might support the notion of a common origin of music and language in the human brain, and concurs with findings that demonstrate the importance of musical features of speech for the acquisition of language.

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