scholarly journals Cortical sources of the auditory attentional blink

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 812-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawei Shen ◽  
Dominique T. Vuvan ◽  
Claude Alain

Attentional blink (AB) refers to the situation where correctly identifying a target impairs the processing of a subsequent probe in a sequence of stimuli. Although the AB often coincides with a modulation of scalp-recorded cognitive event-related potentials (ERPs), the neural sources of this effect remain unclear. In two separate experiments, we used classical LORETA analysis recursively applied (CLARA) to estimate the neural sources of ERPs elicited by an auditory probe when it immediately followed an auditory target (i.e., AB condition), when no auditory target was present (i.e., no-AB condition), and when the probe followed an auditory target but occurred outside of the AB time window (i.e., no-AB condition). We observed a processing deficit when the probe immediately followed the target, and this auditory AB was accompanied by reduced P3b amplitude. Contrasting brain electrical source activity from the AB and no-AB conditions revealed reduced source activity in the medial temporal region as well as in the temporoparietal junction (extending into inferior parietal lobe), ventromedial prefrontal cortex, left anterior thalamic nuclei, mammillary body, and left cerebellum. The results indicate that successful probe identification following a target relies on a widely distributed brain network and further support the suggestion that the auditory AB reflects the failure of the probe to reach short-term consolidation. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Within a rapid succession of auditory stimuli, the perception of a predefined target sound often impedes listeners’ ability to detect another target sound that is presented close in succession. This attentional blink may be related to activity in brain areas supporting attention and memory. We show that the auditory attentional blink is associated with brain activity changes in a network including the medial temporal lobe, parietal cortex, and prefrontal cortex. This study suggests that a problem in the interaction between attention and memory underlies the auditory attentional blink.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawei Shen ◽  
Dominique T Vuvan ◽  
Claude Alain

Attentional blink (AB) refers to the situation where correctly identifying a target impairs the processing of a subsequent probe in a sequence of stimuli. Although the AB often coincides with a modulation of scalp-recorded cognitive event-related potentials (ERPs), the neural sources of this effect remain unclear. In two separate experiments, we used classical LORETA analysis recursively applied (CLARA) to estimate the neural sources of ERPs elicited by an auditory probe when it immediately followed an auditory target (i.e., AB condition), when no auditory target was present (i.e., no-AB condition), and when the probe followed an auditory target but occurred outside of the AB time window (i.e., no-AB condition). We observed a processing deficit when the probe immediately followed the target, and this auditory AB was accompanied by reduced P3b amplitude. Contrasting brain electrical source activity from the AB and no-AB conditions revealed reduced source activity in the medial temporal region as well as in the temporoparietal junction (extending into inferior parietal lobe), ventromedial prefrontal cortex, left anterior thalamic nuclei, mammillary body, and left cerebellum. The results indicate that successful probe identification following a target relies on a widely distributed brain network and further support the suggestion that the auditory AB reflects the failure of the probe to reach short-term consolidation.


1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 598-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charan Ranganath ◽  
Ken A. Paller

Previous neuropsychological and neuroimaging results have implicated the prefrontal cortex in memory retrieval, although its precise role is unclear. In the present study, we examined patterns of brain electrical activity during retrieval of episodic and semantic memories. In the episodic retrieval task, participants retrieved autobiographical memories in response to event cues. In the semantic retrieval task, participants generated exemplars in response to category cues. Novel sounds presented intermittently during memory retrieval elicited a series of brain potentials including one identifiable as the P3a potential. Based on prior research linking P3a with novelty detection and with the frontal lobes, we predicted that P3a would be reduced to the extent that novelty detection and memory retrieval interfere with each other. Results during episodic and semantic retrieval tasks were compared to results during a task in which subjects attended to the auditory stimuli. P3a amplitudes were reduced during episodic retrieval, particularly at right lateral frontal scalp locations. A similar but less lateralized pattern of frontal P3a reduction was observed during semantic retrieval. These findings support the notion that the right prefrontal cortex is engaged in the service of memory retrieval, particularly for episodic memories.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-09
Author(s):  
Jan Rouke Kuipers ◽  
William A. Phillips

Pupillometry has been found to be correlated with activity of cholinergic and noradrenergic neuromodulator systems. These systems regulate the level of cortical arousal and therefore perception, attention, and memory. Here, we tested how different types of pupil size variance (prestimulus baseline and prestimulus hippus power) may correlate with behavioral and electrophysiological brain responses (ERPs). We recorded pupil size and ERPs while participants were presented with a series of words and then asked whether they had been in the initial list when they were later presented intermixed with unpresented words. We found that a smaller prestimulus baseline pupil size during the study phase was associated with better memory performance. Study items also evoked a larger P3 response at presentation and a greater old/new memory ERP effect at test when prestimulus pupil size was small rather than large. Prestimulus hippus power was found to be a between-subjects factor affecting the robustness of memory encoding with less power being associated with a greater old/new memory ERP effect. These results provide evidence relating memory and ERPs to variables defined on pupil size that are thought to reflect varying states of parasympathetic and sympathetic arousal.


1986 ◽  
Vol 148 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Barrett ◽  
W. C. McCallum ◽  
P. V. Pocock

Late components of brain event-related potentials reflect aspects of selective attention, stimulus evaluation, and possibly memory update mechanisms. Several of these components were measured during an auditory target detection task, performed by 20 schizophrenic and 20 normal subjects. Both the amplitude of those components and a more general late amplitude measure were significantly reduced in schizophrenics, for both target and non-target stimuli. One general late amplitude measure, from the scalp vertex, could alone correctly classify 85% of patients and 95% of controls. The source of these differences may lie in a protracted positive potential shift.


Author(s):  
Shozo Tobimatsu

There are two major parallel pathways in humans: the parvocellular (P) and magnocellular (M) pathways. The former has excellent spatial resolution with color selectivity, while the latter shows excellent temporal resolution with high contrast sensitivity. Visual stimuli should be tailored to answer specific clinical and/or research questions. This chapter examines the neural mechanisms of face perception using event-related potentials (ERPs). Face stimuli of different spatial frequencies were used to investigate how low-spatial-frequency (LSF) and high-spatial-frequency (HSF) components of the face contribute to the identification and recognition of the face and facial expressions. The P100 component in the occipital area (Oz), the N170 in the posterior temporal region (T5/T6) and late components peaking at 270-390 ms (T5/T6) were analyzed. LSF enhanced P100, while N170 was augmented by HSF irrespective of facial expressions. This suggested that LSF is important for global processing of facial expressions, whereas HSF handles featural processing. There were significant amplitude differences between positive and negative LSF facial expressions in the early time windows of 270-310 ms. Subsequently, the amplitudes among negative HSF facial expressions differed significantly in the later time windows of 330–390 ms. Discrimination between positive and negative facial expressions precedes discrimination among different negative expressions in a sequential manner based on parallel visual channels. Interestingly, patients with schizophrenia showed decreased spatial frequency sensitivities for face processing. Taken together, the spatially filtered face images are useful for exploring face perception and recognition.


NeuroImage ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Dietl ◽  
P. Trautner ◽  
M. Staedtgen ◽  
M. Vannuchi ◽  
A. Mecklinger ◽  
...  

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 1367-1375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Brass ◽  
Markus Ullsperger ◽  
Thomas R. Knoesche ◽  
D. Yves von Cramon ◽  
Natalie A. Phillips

Cognitive control processes enable us to adjust our behavior to changing environmental demands. Although neuropsychological studies suggest that the critical cortical region for cognitive control is the prefrontal cortex, neuro-imaging studies have emphasized the interplay of prefrontal and parietal cortices. This raises the fundamental question about the different contributions of prefrontal and parietal areas in cognitive control. It was assumed that the prefrontal cortex biases processing in posterior brain regions. This assumption leads to the hypothesis that neural activity in the prefrontal cortex should precede parietal activity in cognitive control. The present study tested this assumption by combining results from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) providing high spatial resolution and event-related potentials (ERPs) to gain high temporal resolution. We collected ERP data using a modified task-switching paradigm. In this paradigm, a situation where the same task was indicated by two different cues was compared with a situation where two cues indicated different tasks. Only the latter condition required updating of the task set. Task-set updating was associated with a midline negative ERP deflection peaking around 470 msec. We placed dipoles in regions activated in a previous fMRI study that used the same paradigm (left inferior frontal junction, right inferior frontal gyrus, right parietal cortex) and fitted their directions and magnitudes to the ERP effect. The frontal dipoles contributed to the ERP effect earlier than the parietal dipole, providing support for the view that the prefrontal cortex is involved in updating of general task representations and biases relevant stimulus-response associations in the parietal cortex.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alon Zivony ◽  
Dominique Lamy

Reporting the second of two targets is impaired when these appear in close succession, a phenomenon known as the attentional blink (AB). Despite decades of research, what mechanisms are affected by the AB remains unclear. Specifically, two central issues remain open: Does the AB disrupt attentional processes or reflect a structural limitation in working memory encoding? Does it disrupt perceptual processing or only post-perceptual processes? We address these questions by reviewing event-related potentials (ERP) studies of the AB. The findings reveal that the core influence of the AB is by disrupting attentional engagement (indexed by N2pc). As a consequence, while early processing (indexed by P1\N1) is spared, semantic processing (indexed by N400) and working memory (WM) encoding (indexed by P3b) are compromised: minor disruptions to attentional engagement weaken but do not eliminate semantic processing, whereas they prevent encoding in WM. Thus, semantic processing can survive the blink, whereas encoding in WM does not. To accommodate these conclusions, we suggest a Disrupted Engagement and Perception (DEaP) account of the attentional blink.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang-Yu Chang ◽  
Winnugroho Wiratman ◽  
Yoshikazu Ugawa ◽  
Shunsuke Kobayashi

The decisions we make are sometimes influenced by interactions with other agents. Previous studies have suggested that the prefrontal cortex plays an important role in decision-making and that the dopamine system underlies processes of motivation, motor preparation, and reinforcement learning. However, the physiological mechanisms underlying how the prefrontal cortex and the dopaminergic system are involved in decision-making remain largely unclear. The present study aimed to determine how decision strategies influence event-related potentials (ERPs). We also tested the effect of levodopa, a dopamine precursor, on decision-making and ERPs in a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled investigation. The subjects performed a matching-pennies task against an opposing virtual computer player by choosing between right and left targets while their ERPs were recorded. According to the rules of the matching-pennies task, the subject won the trial when they chose the same side as the opponent, and lost otherwise. We set three different task rules: (1) with the alternation (ALT) rule, the computer opponent made alternating choices of right and left in sequential trials; (2) with the random (RAND) rule, the opponent randomly chose between right and left; and (3) with the GAME rule, the opponent analyzed the subject’s past choices to predict the subject’s next choice, and then chose the opposite side. A sustained medial ERP became more negative toward the time of the subject’s target choice. A biphasic potential appeared when the opponent’s choice was revealed after the subject’s response. The ERPs around the subject’s choice were greater in RAND and GAME than in ALT, and the negative peak was enhanced by levodopa. In addition to these medial ERPs, we observed lateral frontal ERPs tuned to the choice direction. The signals emerged around the choice period selectively in RAND and GAME when levodopa was administered. These results suggest that decision processes are modulated by the dopamine system when a complex and strategic decision is required, which may reflect decision updating with dopaminergic prediction error signals.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document