scholarly journals Warning Signals Influence Motor Processing

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 1600-1609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jillian H. Fecteau ◽  
Douglas P. Munoz
Keyword(s):  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Warning Signal ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Target Task ◽  
Motor Processing ◽  
Fixation Marker ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Do So

When observers initiate responses to visual targets, they do so sooner when a preceding stimulus indicates that the target will appear shortly. This consequence of a warning signal may change neural activity in one of four ways. On the sensory side, the warning signal may speed up the rate at which the target is registered by the brain or enhance the magnitude of its signal. On the motor end, the warning signal may lower the threshold required to initiate a response or speed up the rate at which activity accumulates to reach threshold. Here, we describe which explanation is better supported. To accomplish this end, monkeys performed different versions of a cue-target task while we monitored the activity of visuomotor and motor neurons in the superior colliculus. Although the cue target task was designed to measure the properties of reflexive spatial attention, there are two events in this task that produce nonspecific warning effects: a central reorienting event (brightening of central fixation marker) that is used to direct attention away from the cue, and the presentation of the cue itself. Monopolizing on these tendencies, we show that warning effects are associated with several changes in neural activity: the target-related response is enhanced, the threshold for initiating a saccade is lowered, and the rate at which activity accumulates toward threshold rises faster. Ultimately, the accumulation of activity toward threshold predicted behavior most closely. In the discussion, we describe the implications and limitations of these data for theories of warning effects and potential avenues for future research.

Cognitively Based Compassion Training

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer S. Mascaro ◽  
Lobsang Tenzin Negi ◽  
Charles L. Raison
Keyword(s):  
Immune Function ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Stress Physiology ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Beneficial Impact ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Initial Research

Recent research has examined the beneficial impact of kindness-based meditation practices, including cognitively-based compassion training (CBCT). Here we provide a theoretical and practical account of CBCT and review the emerging evidence that it affects the brain and body in ways that are relevant for health. Initial research demonstrated that CBCT alters immune function and stress physiology, and augments empathy as well as the neural activity supporting it. More recent studies indicate that CBCT is differentially effective, depending on the population that practices. We suggest directions for future research to best examine the apparently complex effects of CBCT on health and well-being.

scholarly journals Neural Mechanisms of Bias and Sensitivity in Animal Models of Decision Making

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Nishida ◽  
Muneyoshi Takahashi ◽  
Gary D. Bird ◽  
Jan Lauwereyns
Keyword(s):  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Future Research ◽  
General Increase ◽  
Neural Recordings ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Action Mechanisms ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Basic Features ◽  
The Brain

Animals perceive stimuli in their environment and are required to make motor responses according to this perception. The perception-to-action mechanisms rely on the accumulation of neural activity in specific areas of the brain that need to reach a threshold in order for the action to be initiated. These mechanisms can be influenced by various types of information and prospective outcomes; that is, contextual factors can speed up or slow down the processes. Here we describe how behavioral paradigms coupled with neural recordings can illustrate two basic features of the speeding up (or slowing down) of the perception-to-action mechanisms. The features are bias (a general increase in decision activity prior to stimulus onset) and sensitivity (a change in the cumulative firing rate up to a decision point). We thenpropose the direction for future research emphasizing the need to examine bias and sensitivity with a focus on dynamics.

scholarly journals Metacognition facilitates the exploitation of unconscious brain states

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurelio Cortese ◽  
Hakwan Lau ◽  
Mitsuo Kawato
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Pattern Analysis ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
High Dimensional ◽  
Multivoxel Pattern Analysis ◽  
Brain States ◽  
Optimal Action ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Do So

AbstractCan humans be trained to make strategic use of unconscious representations in their own brains? We investigated how one can derive reward-maximizing choices from latent high-dimensional information represented stochastically in neural activity. In a novel decision-making task, reinforcement learning contingencies were defined in real-time by fMRI multivoxel pattern analysis; optimal action policies thereby depended on multidimensional brain activity that took place below the threshold of consciousness. We found that subjects could solve the task, when their reinforcement learning processes were boosted by implicit metacognition to estimate the relevant brain states. With these results we identified a frontal-striatal mechanism by which the brain can untangle tasks of great dimensionality, and can do so much more flexibly than current artificial intelligence.

scholarly journals Brain size predicts learning abilities in bees

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 201940
Author(s):  
Miguel Á. Collado ◽  
Cristina M. Montaner ◽  
Francisco P. Molina ◽  
Daniel Sol ◽  
Ignasi Bartomeus
Keyword(s):  
Brain Size ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Learning Capacity ◽  
Enormous Variation ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

When it comes to the brain, bigger is generally considered better in terms of cognitive performance. While this notion is supported by studies of birds and primates showing that larger brains improve learning capacity, similar evidence is surprisingly lacking for invertebrates. Although the brain of invertebrates is smaller and simpler than that of vertebrates, recent work in insects has revealed enormous variation in size across species. Here, we ask whether bee species that have larger brains also have higher learning abilities. We conducted an experiment in which field-collected individuals had to associate an unconditioned stimulus (sucrose) with a conditioned stimulus (coloured strip). We found that most species can learn to associate a colour with a reward, yet some do so better than others. These differences in learning were related to brain size: species with larger brains—both absolute and relative to body size—exhibited enhanced performance to learn the reward-colour association. Our finding highlights the functional significance of brain size in insects, filling a major gap in our understanding of brain evolution and opening new opportunities for future research.

Introduction

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-103
Author(s):  
David W. Green
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Electrophysiological Methods ◽  
Neuroimaging Techniques ◽  
Do So

The papers in this Special Issue focus on the use of neuroimaging techniques to answer questions about the neural representation, processing and control of two languages. Neuropsychological data from bilingual aphasics remain vital if we are to establish the neural basis of language (see Paradis, 1995) but lesion-deficit studies alone cannot tell us how neural activity relates to ongoing language processing. Modern neuroimaging methods provide a means to do so. There are two broad classes of such methods: electrophysiological methods allow us to answer questions about when a particular process occurs whereas haemodynamic methods allow us to answer the complementary question of where in the brain such a process is carried out. Before giving a thumb-nail sketch of the papers in this Special Issue, I briefly discuss each class of method.

Collaborative Remembering in Dementia: A Focus on Joint Activities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars-Christer Hydén ◽  
Mattias Forsblad
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Joint Activities ◽  
Do So ◽  
Dementia Diseases

In this chapter we consider collaborative remembering and joint activates in everyday life in the case of people living with dementia. First, we review past research of practices that scaffolds the participation of persons with dementia in everyday chores under different stages of dementia diseases. We do so by suggesting three analytical types of scaffolding: when the scaffolding practices (i) frame the activity, (ii) guide actions, or (iii) are part of repair activities. Second, we review two aspects of collaborative remembering that are especially important in the case of dementia: training of scaffolding practices, and the sustaining and presentation of identities through collaborative storytelling. Finally, theoretical and methodological tendencies of the research field are summarized and future research needs are formulated.

Neural and Environmental Modulation of Motivation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Influence ◽  
Environmental Intervention ◽  
Argument Proceeds ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Moral Difference ◽  
Do So

Interventions that modify a person’s motivations through chemically or physically influencing the brain seem morally objectionable, at least when they are performed nonconsensually. This chapter raises a puzzle for attempts to explain their objectionability. It first seeks to show that the objectionability of such interventions must be explained at least in part by reference to the sort of mental interference that they involve. It then argues that it is difficult to furnish an explanation of this sort. The difficulty is that these interventions seem no more objectionable, in terms of the kind of mental interference that they involve, than certain forms of environmental influence that many would regard as morally innocuous. The argument proceeds by comparing a particular neurointervention with a comparable environmental intervention. The author argues, first, that the two dominant explanations for the objectionability of the neurointervention apply equally to the environmental intervention, and second, that the descriptive difference between the environmental intervention and the neurointervention that most plausibly grounds the putative moral difference in fact fails to do so. The author concludes by presenting a trilemma that falls out of the argument.

Innovations in Objectively Measuring Corruption in Public Procurement

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihály Fazekas ◽  
Luciana Cingolani ◽  
Bence Tóth
Keyword(s):  
Public Procurement ◽  
Risk Indicators ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Measurement Instruments ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Government Purchases ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Supplier Risk ◽  
Expert Surveys ◽  
Do So

While there is continued interest in measuring governance, disagreement on how best to do so has only grown over time. To provide pointers at innovative and rigorous indicator building, this chapter documents innovations in measuring a particularly challenging governance dimension: corruption in public procurement. In hopes of inspiring future research, the chapter critically reviews objective corruption proxies using administrative data on government purchases falling in four broad categories: tendering risk indicators, political connections indicators, supplier risk indicators, and contracting body risk indicators. The findings indicate that the best measurement instruments focus on the transaction level (micro level) while allowing for consistent aggregations for time series and cross-country comparisons. Such actionable indicators capture behaviour as directly as possible rather than remaining at the country level. They also retain the relational or transactional aspects of governance, revealing a much more dynamic picture than widely used population and expert surveys.

scholarly journals Providing trial results to participants in phase III pragmatic effectiveness RCTs: a scoping review

Trials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Bruhn ◽  
Elle-Jay Cowan ◽  
Marion K. Campbell ◽  
Lynda Constable ◽  
Seonaidh Cotton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Scoping Review ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Search Strategy ◽  
Phase Iii ◽  
Future Research ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Emotional Effects ◽  
Trial Participants ◽  
Narrative Description ◽  
Do So

Abstract Background There is an ethical imperative to offer the results of trials to those who participated. Existing research highlights that less than a third of trials do so, despite the desire of participants to receive the results of the trials they participated in. This scoping review aimed to identify, collate, and describe the available evidence relating to any aspect of disseminating trial results to participants. Methods A scoping review was conducted employing a search of key databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) from January 2008 to August 2019) to identify studies that had explored any aspect of disseminating results to trial participants. The search strategy was based on that of a linked existing review. The evidence identified describes the characteristics of included studies using narrative description informed by analysis of relevant data using descriptive statistics. Results Thirty-three eligible studies, including 12,700 participants (which included patients, health care professionals, trial teams), were identified and included. Reporting of participant characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity) across the studies was poor. The majority of studies investigated dissemination of aggregate trial results. The most frequently reported mode of disseminating of results was postal. Overall, the results report that participants evaluated receipt of trial results positively, with reported benefits including improved communication, demonstration of appreciation, improved retention, and engagement in future research. However, there were also some concerns about how well the dissemination was resourced and done, worries about emotional effects on participants especially when reporting unfavourable results, and frustration about the delay between the end of the trial and receipt of results. Conclusions This scoping review has highlighted that few high-quality evaluative studies have been conducted that can provide evidence on the best ways to deliver results to trial participants. There have been relatively few qualitative studies that explore perspectives from diverse populations, and those that have been conducted are limited to a handful of clinical areas. The learning from these studies can be used as a platform for further research and to consider some core guiding principles of the opportunities and challenges when disseminating trial results to those who participated.

scholarly journals Shining a Light on the Mechanisms of Sleep for Memory Consolidation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle A. Frazer ◽  
Yesenia Cabrera ◽  
Rockelle S. Guthrie ◽  
Gina R. Poe
Keyword(s):  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Nrem Sleep ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sleep Spindles ◽  
Slow Oscillations ◽  
Theta Waves ◽  
Learning Tasks

Abstract Purpose of review This paper reviews all optogenetic studies that directly test various sleep states, traits, and circuit-level activity profiles for the consolidation of different learning tasks. Recent findings Inhibiting or exciting neurons involved either in the production of sleep states or in the encoding and consolidation of memories reveals sleep states and traits that are essential for memory. REM sleep, NREM sleep, and the N2 transition to REM (characterized by sleep spindles) are integral to memory consolidation. Neural activity during sharp-wave ripples, slow oscillations, theta waves, and spindles are the mediators of this process. Summary These studies lend strong support to the hypothesis that sleep is essential to the consolidation of memories from the hippocampus and the consolidation of motor learning which does not necessarily involve the hippocampus. Future research can further probe the types of memory dependent on sleep-related traits and on the neurotransmitters and neuromodulators required.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document