The organization and dynamics of corticostriatal pathways link the medial orbitofrontal cortex to future behavioral responses

2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (10) ◽  
pp. 2457-2469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy D. Verstynen
Keyword(s):  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Color Word ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Behavioral Adaptation ◽  
Indirect Pathway ◽  
Adaptive Process ◽  
Corticostriatal Projections ◽  
Bold Responses ◽  
The Face

Accurately making a decision in the face of incongruent options increases the efficiency of making similar congruency decisions in the future. Contextual factors like reward can modulate this adaptive process, suggesting that networks associated with monitoring previous success and failure outcomes might contribute to this form of behavioral updating. To evaluate this possibility, a group of healthy adults ( n = 30) were tested with functional MRI (fMRI) while they performed a color-word Stroop task. In a conflict-related region of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), stronger BOLD responses predicted faster response times (RTs) on the next trial. More importantly, the degree of behavioral adaptation of RTs was correlated with the magnitude of mOFC-RT associations on the previous trial, but only after accounting for network-level interactions with prefrontal and striatal regions. This suggests that congruency sequencing effects may rely on interactions between distributed corticostriatal circuits. This possibility was evaluated by measuring the convergence of white matter projections from frontal areas into the striatum with diffusion-weighted imaging. In these pathways, greater convergence of corticostriatal projections correlated with stronger functional mOFC-RT associations that, in turn, provided an indirect pathway linking anatomical structure to behavior. Thus distributed corticostriatal processing may mediate the orbitofrontal cortex's influence on behavioral updating, even in the absence of explicit rewards.

scholarly journals The organization and dynamics of corticostriatal pathways link the medial orbitofrontal cortex to future decisions

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Verstynen
Keyword(s):  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Color Word ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Anatomical Structure ◽  
Conflict Adaptation ◽  
Indirect Pathway ◽  
Adaptive Process ◽  
Bold Responses ◽  
Corticostriatal Circuits ◽  
The Face

Accurately making a decision in the face of incongruent options increases the efficiency of making similar congruency decisions in the future. This adaptive process is modulated by reward, suggesting that ventral corticostriatal circuits may contribute to the process of conflict adaptation. To evaluate this possibility, a group of healthy adults (N=30) were tested using functional MRI (fMRI) while they performed a color-word Stroop task. In a conflict-related region of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), stronger BOLD responses predicted faster response times (RTs) on the next trial. More importantly, the degree of behavioral conflict adaptation on RTs was correlated with the magnitude of mOFC-RT associations on the previous trial, but only after accounting for network-level interactions with prefrontal and striatal regions. This suggests that conflict adaptation may rely on interactions between distributed corticostriatal circuits. The convergence of white matter projections from frontal areas into the striatum was measured using diffusion weighted imaging. In these pathways, greater convergence of coticostriatal projections correlated with stronger functional mOFC-RT associations that, in turn, provided an indirect pathway that linked anatomical structure to behavior. Thus distributed corticostriatal processing may mediate the orbitofrontal cortex’s influence on behavioral updating, even in the absence of explicit rewards.

Emotion Recognition of Facial Expressions Presented in Profile

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110184
Author(s):  
Paola Surcinelli ◽  
Federica Andrei ◽  
Ornella Montebarocci ◽  
Silvana Grandi
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Recognition Accuracy ◽  
Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽  
Profile View ◽  
The Face ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Face Stimuli ◽  
Affective Information

Aim of the research The literature on emotion recognition from facial expressions shows significant differences in recognition ability depending on the proposed stimulus. Indeed, affective information is not distributed uniformly in the face and recent studies showed the importance of the mouth and the eye regions for a correct recognition. However, previous studies used mainly facial expressions presented frontally and studies which used facial expressions in profile view used a between-subjects design or children faces as stimuli. The present research aims to investigate differences in emotion recognition between faces presented in frontal and in profile views by using a within subjects experimental design. Method The sample comprised 132 Italian university students (88 female, Mage = 24.27 years, SD = 5.89). Face stimuli displayed both frontally and in profile were selected from the KDEF set. Two emotion-specific recognition accuracy scores, viz., frontal and in profile, were computed from the average of correct responses for each emotional expression. In addition, viewing times and response times (RT) were registered. Results Frontally presented facial expressions of fear, anger, and sadness were significantly better recognized than facial expressions of the same emotions in profile while no differences were found in the recognition of the other emotions. Longer viewing times were also found when faces expressing fear and anger were presented in profile. In the present study, an impairment in recognition accuracy was observed only for those emotions which rely mostly on the eye regions.

To Confront or to Avoid

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 734-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan S. Kemper ◽  
Anna-Kaisa Newheiser
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Inference ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Avoidance Response ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Moral Norm ◽  
Moral Foundations ◽  
Moral Foundations Theory ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Strategic Action ◽  
The Face

What do people want to do in response to witnessing someone violate a moral norm? Prior research posits that violations of distinct norms elicit specific emotions, specifically anger and disgust. We examined whether moral violations analogously elicit distinct behavioral responses, focusing on desires to confront and avoid moral violators. Participants read scenarios depicting harmful and impure actions (Study 1) or violations of all six content domains proposed by Moral Foundations Theory (Study 2). Bayesian inference revealed that participants expressed distinctively high levels of desire to avoid (vs. confront) violators of purity norms. Violations of other moral norms did not similarly elicit unique patterns of avoidance or confrontation. Thus, behavioral responses to moral violators depend in part on which norm was violated, with impure acts eliciting a uniquely strong avoidance response. Moral judgment can serve as a precursor to strategic action in the face of perceived immorality.

Object-Selective Cortex Exhibits Performance-Independent Repetition Suppression

2006 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 995-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rory Sayres ◽  
Kalanit Grill-Spector
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Repetition Suppression ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Bold Responses ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Time Required

Object-selective cortical regions exhibit a decreased response when an object stimulus is repeated [repetition suppression (RS)]. RS is often associated with priming: reduced response times and increased accuracy for repeated stimuli. It is unknown whether RS reflects stimulus-specific repetition, the associated changes in response time, or the combination of the two. To address this question, we performed a rapid event-related functional MRI (fMRI) study in which we measured BOLD signal in object-selective cortex, as well as object recognition performance, while we manipulated stimulus repetition. Our design allowed us to examine separately the roles of response time and repetition in explaining RS. We found that repetition played a robust role in explaining RS: repeated trials produced weaker BOLD responses than nonrepeated trials, even when comparing trials with matched response times. In contrast, response time played a weak role in explaining RS when repetition was controlled for: it explained BOLD responses only for one region of interest (ROI) and one experimental condition. Thus repetition suppression seems to be mostly driven by repetition rather than performance changes. We further examined whether RS reflects processes occurring at the same time as recognition or after recognition by manipulating stimulus presentation duration. In one experiment, durations were longer than required for recognition (2 s), whereas in a second experiment, durations were close to the minimum time required for recognition (85–101 ms). We found significant RS for brief presentations (albeit with a reduced magnitude), which again persisted when controlling for performance. This suggests a substantial amount of RS occurs during recognition.

scholarly journals Sex Categorization of Faces: The Effects of Age and Experience

i-Perception ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 204166951983041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Hillairet de Boisferon ◽  
Eve Dupierrix ◽  
Lesley Uttley ◽  
Lisa M. DeBruine ◽  
Benedict C. Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Processing Time ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Bias Effect ◽  
Age Bias ◽  
Male Response ◽  
Specific Category ◽  
External Cues ◽  
The Face ◽  
Sex Categorization

The face own-age bias effect refers to the better ability to recognize the face from one's own age compared with other age groups. Here we examined whether an own-age advantage occurs for faces sex categorization. We examined 7- and 9-year-olds' and adults' ability to correctly categorize the sex of 7- and 9-year-olds and adult faces without external cues, such as hair. Results indicated that all ages easily classify the sex of adult faces. They succeeded in classifying the sex of child faces, but their performance was poorer than for adult faces. In adults, processing time increased, and a response bias ( male response) was elicited for child faces. In children, response times remained constant, and no bias was observed. Experience with specific category of faces seems to offer some advantage in speed of processing. Overall, sex categorization is more challenging for child than for adult faces due to their reduced sexual dimorphic facial characteristics.

Activation of Monkey Locus Coeruleus Neurons Varies With Difficulty and Performance in a Target Detection Task

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 361-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janusz Rajkowski ◽  
Henryk Majczynski ◽  
Edwin Clayton ◽  
Gary Aston-Jones
Keyword(s):  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Target Detection ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Early Response ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Correct Rejection ◽  
Small Magnitude ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Target Detection Task

We previously reported that noradrenergic neurons in the monkey locus coeruleus (LC) are activated selectively by target stimuli in a target detection task. Here, we varied the discrimination difficulty in this task and recorded impulse activity of LC neurons to analyze LC responses on error trials and in relation to behavioral response times (RTs). In easy and difficult discrimination conditions, LC neurons responded preferentially to target stimuli with phasic activation. These responses consistently preceded behavioral responses regardless of task difficulty. Latencies for LC and behavioral responses increased similarly for difficult compared with easy discrimination trials. LC response latencies were also shorter for fast RT trials compared with slow RT trials regardless of difficulty, indicating a close temporal relationship between LC and behavioral responses. This relationship was confirmed with response-locked histograms of LC activity, which yielded more temporally synchronized LC responses than stimulus-locked histograms. Population histograms of LC activity revealed that nontarget stimuli resulting in false alarm responses produced phasic LC activation (although smaller than for target-hit trials), and nontarget stimuli resulting in correct rejection responses yielded a small inhibition in LC activity. Population analyses also revealed that LC responses included an early, small excitatory component that was not previously detected. This early response was nondiscriminative because it was similar for target and nontarget stimulus trials. These results indicate that LC neurons exhibit early small magnitude responses that are closely linked to sensory stimuli. In addition, these cells show a later, larger magnitude response that is temporally linked to behavioral responses. These and other results lead us to hypothesize that LC responses are driven by decision processes and help facilitate subsequent behavioral responses.

scholarly journals Online Dating in New Zealand: Why and how do people use Tinder?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kate Mickleson
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Mate Selection ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Online Dating ◽  
Experimental Simulation ◽  
Investment Theory ◽  
The Face ◽  
Ideal Standards ◽  
Parental Investment Theory ◽  
The Right

<p>Online dating is becoming increasingly popular all over the world. However there is a dearth of research investigating online dating in New Zealand. The research presented here explores the prevalence of online dating in New Zealand, examining motivations, attitudes and outcomes associated with online dating (Study 1). It also investigates mate selection in an online dating context using a simulation of the popular mobile dating app, Tinder (Study 2). In Study 1, students from Victoria University of Wellington completed a survey developed by the author along with scales measuring individual differences on ideal standards and sociosexual orientation. As predicted, Study 1 found that online dating is prevalent in this sample (especially using Tinder), attitudes towards it were generally positive, and those using it more were more likely to be single, more sociosexually unrestricted, and rate physical attractiveness as more important in potential partners. Study 2 investigated the use of Tinder more specifically through an experimental simulation of this mobile dating app. Participants were presented with series of attractive and unattractive faces and asked to indicate whether they would hypothetically seek further contact (click heart icon to the right of the face) or uninterested (click cross icon to the left of the face). Response times and selections were recorded. As expected, men selected more faces than women, and responded equally rapidly regardless of the attractiveness of the face. In contrast, women responded significantly faster to the unattractive faces than the attractive faces. Results were predicted and interpreted in light of parental investment theory and in the context of prior research on both online dating and speed dating.</p>

scholarly journals Motion can amplify the face-inversion effect

Psihologija ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Thornton ◽  
Emma Mullins ◽  
Kara Banahan
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Random Sequence ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Face Inversion ◽  
The Face ◽  
Static Images

The face-inversion effect (FIE) refers to increased response times or error rates for faces that are presented upside-down relative to those seen in a canonical, upright orientation. Here we report one situation in which this FIE can be amplified when observers are shown dynamic facial expressions, rather than static facial expressions. In two experiments observers were asked to assign gender to a random sequence of un-degraded static or moving faces. Each face was seen both upright and inverted. For static images, this task led to little or no effect of inversion. For moving faces, the cost of inversion was a response time increase of approximately 100 ms relative to upright. Motion thus led to a disadvantage in the context of inversion. The fact that such motion could not be ignored in favour of available form cues suggests that dynamic processing may be mandatory. In two control experiments a difference between static and dynamic inversion was not observed for whole-body stimuli or for human-animal decisions. These latter findings suggest that the processing of upside-down movies is not always more difficult for the visual system than the processing of upside-down static images.

Specific and Nonspecific Neural Activity during Selective Processing of Visual Representations in Working Memory

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hwamee Oh ◽  
Hoi-Chung Leung
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Parietal Lobe ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Delay Period ◽  
The Face

In this fMRI study, we investigated prefrontal cortex (PFC) and visual association regions during selective information processing. We recorded behavioral responses and neural activity during a delayed recognition task with a cue presented during the delay period. A specific cue (“Face” or “Scene”) was used to indicate which one of the two initially viewed pictures of a face and a scene would be tested at the end of a trial, whereas a nonspecific cue (“Both”) was used as control. As expected, the specific cues facilitated behavioral performance (faster response times) compared to the nonspecific cue. A postexperiment memory test showed that the items cued to remember were better recognized than those not cued. The fMRI results showed largely overlapped activations across the three cue conditions in dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC, dorsomedial PFC, posterior parietal cortex, ventral occipito-temporal cortex, dorsal striatum, and pulvinar nucleus. Among those regions, dorsomedial PFC and inferior occipital gyrus remained active during the entire postcue delay period. Differential activity was mainly found in the association cortices. In particular, the parahippocampal area and posterior superior parietal lobe showed significantly enhanced activity during the postcue period of the scene condition relative to the Face and Both conditions. No regions showed differentially greater responses to the face cue. Our findings suggest that a better representation of visual information in working memory may depend on enhancing the more specialized visual association areas or their interaction with PFC.

Rapid Onset Relational Memory Effects Are Evident in Eye Movement Behavior, but Not in Hippocampal Amnesia

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 1690-1705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah E. Hannula ◽  
Jennifer D. Ryan ◽  
Daniel Tranel ◽  
Neal J. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Rapid Onset ◽  
Memory Effects ◽  
Movement Behavior ◽  
Hippocampal Damage ◽  
Test Display ◽  
Relational Memory ◽  
The Face

Little is known about the mechanisms by which memory for relations is accomplished, or about the time course of the critical processes. Here, eye movement measures were used to examine the time course of subjects' access to and use of relational memory. In four experiments, participants studied faces superimposed on scenic backgrounds and were tested with three-face displays superimposed on the scenes viewed earlier. Participants exhibited disproportionate viewing of the face originally studied with the scene, compared to other equally familiar faces in the test display. When a preview of a previously viewed scene was provided, permitting expectancies about the to-be-presented face to emerge, disproportionate viewing was manifested within 500–750 msec after test display onset, more than a full second in advance of explicit behavioral responses, and occurred even when overt responses were not required. In the absence of preview, the viewing effects were delayed by approximately 1 sec. Relational memory effects were absent in the eye movement behavior of amnesic patients with hippocampal damage, suggesting that these effects depend critically on the hippocampal system. The results provide an index of memory for face-scene relations, indicate the time by which retrieval and identification of these relations occur, and suggest that retrieval and use of relational memory depends critically on the hippocampus and occurs obligatorily, regardless of response requirements.

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