Cognitive and Motor Loops of the Human Cerebro-cerebellar System

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 2663-2676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juha Salmi ◽  
Karen Johanne Pallesen ◽  
Tuomas Neuvonen ◽  
Elvira Brattico ◽  
Antti Korvenoja ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Diffusion Weighted Mri ◽  
Motor Functions ◽  
Diffusion Weighted ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
Load Increase ◽  
Crus I

We applied fMRI and diffusion-weighted MRI to study the segregation of cognitive and motor functions in the human cerebro-cerebellar system. Our fMRI results show that a load increase in a nonverbal auditory working memory task is associated with enhanced brain activity in the parietal, dorsal premotor, and lateral prefrontal cortices and in lobules VII–VIII of the posterior cerebellum, whereas a sensory-motor control task activated the motor/somatosensory, medial prefrontal, and posterior cingulate cortices and lobules V/VI of the anterior cerebellum. The load-dependent activity in the crus I/II had a specific relationship with cognitive performance: This activity correlated negatively with load-dependent increase in RTs. This correlation between brain activity and RTs was not observed in the sensory-motor task in the activated cerebellar regions. Furthermore, probabilistic tractography analysis of the diffusion-weighted MRI data suggests that the tracts between the cerebral and the cerebellar areas exhibiting cognitive load-dependent and sensory-motor activity are mainly projected via separated pontine (feed-forward tracts) and thalamic (feedback tracts) nuclei. The tractography results also indicate that the crus I/II in the posterior cerebellum is linked with the lateral prefrontal areas activated by cognitive load increase, whereas the anterior cerebellar lobe is not. The current results support the view that cognitive and motor functions are segregated in the cerebellum. On the basis of these results and theories of the function of the cerebellum, we suggest that the posterior cerebellar activity during a demanding cognitive task is involved with optimization of the response speed.

scholarly journals Aberrant modulation of brain activity underlies impaired working memory following traumatic brain injury

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbie S. Taing ◽  
Matthew E. Mundy ◽  
Jennie L. Ponsford ◽  
Gershon Spitz
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Specific Working

AbstractImpaired working memory capacity is a common and disabling consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that is caused by aberrant neural processing. However, due to high heterogeneity in results across studies, it is challenging to conclude whether impaired working memory in this population is driven by neural hypo- or hyper-activation, and the extent to which deficits are perpetuated by specific working memory subprocesses. Using a combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and working memory paradigm, we tested the hypothesis that the pattern of neural activation subserving working memory following TBI would interact with both task demands and specific working memory subcomponents: encoding, maintenance, and retrieval. Behaviourally, we found that working memory deficits were confined to the high cognitive load trials. Our results confirmed our key prediction. Overall, TBI participants showed reduced brain activity while performing the working memory task. However, interrogation of the subcomponents of working memory revealed a more nuanced pattern of activation. When we simply averaged across all task trials, regardless of cognitive load or subcomponent, TBI participants showed reduced neural activation. When examined more closely, patterns of brain activity following TBI were found to interact with both task demands and working memory subcomponent. Participants with TBI demonstrated an inability to appropriately modulate brain activity between low and high demand conditions necessary during encoding and maintenance stages. Therefore, we demonstrate that conclusions about aberrant neural processing are dependent upon the level of analysis and the extent to which general cognitive domains can be parcellated into its constituent parts.

scholarly journals Measures of states of consciousness during attentional and cognitive load

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
André S. Nilsen ◽  
Bjørn E. Juel ◽  
Johan F. Storm
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Conscious State ◽  
Auditory Pattern ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Attentional Load ◽  
Brain States

AbstractBackgroundDeveloping and testing methods for reliably assessing states of consciousness in humans is important for both basic research and clinical purposes. Several potential measures, partly grounded in theoretical developments, have been proposed, and some of them seem to reliably distinguish between conscious and unconscious brain states. However, the degrees to which these measures may also be affected by changes in brain activity or conditions that can occur within conscious brain states have rarely been tested. In this study we test whether several of these measures are modulated by attentional load and related use of cognitive resources.MethodsWe recorded EEG from 12 participants while they passively received three types of stimuli: (1) transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses (for measuring perturbational complexity), (2) auditory stimuli (for detection of auditory pattern deviants), or (3) audible clicks from a clock (spontaneous EEG, for measures of signal diversity and functional connectivity). We investigated whether the measures significantly differed between the passive condition and a attentional and cognitively demanding working memory task.ResultsOur results showed that in the attention-based auditory P3b ERP measure (global auditory pattern deviant) was significantly affected by increased attentional and cognitive load, while the various measures based on spontaneous and perturbed EEG were not affected.ConclusionMeasures of conscious state based on complexity, diversity, and effective connectivity, are not affected by attentional and cognitive load, suggesting that these measures can be used to test both for the presence and absence of consciousness.

Cognitive task during fatiguing exercise increases the sensory-motor performance in professional dancers

2019 ◽  
Vol 178 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ömer Pamuk ◽  
Mehmet A. Özçelik ◽  
Neşe Toktaş ◽  
Aliye Gündoğdu ◽  
İ. Ethem Hindistan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
Fatiguing Exercise ◽  
Professional Dancers

scholarly journals Eye Movements in Response to Pain-Related Feelings in the Presence of Low and High Cognitive Loads

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Ramtin Zargari Marandi ◽  
Camilla Ann Fjelsted ◽  
Iris Hrustanovic ◽  
Rikke Dan Olesen ◽  
Parisa Gazerani
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Pain Perception ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Load Level ◽  
Task Load ◽  
Pupillary Responses ◽  
Movement Characteristics

The affective dimension of pain contributes to pain perception. Cognitive load may influence pain-related feelings. Eye tracking has proven useful for detecting cognitive load effects objectively by using relevant eye movement characteristics. In this study, we investigated whether eye movement characteristics differ in response to pain-related feelings in the presence of low and high cognitive loads. A set of validated, control, and pain-related sounds were applied to provoke pain-related feelings. Twelve healthy young participants (six females) performed a cognitive task at two load levels, once with the control and once with pain-related sounds in a randomized order. During the tasks, eye movements and task performance were recorded. Afterwards, the participants were asked to fill out questionnaires on their pain perception in response to the applied cognitive loads. Our findings indicate that an increased cognitive load was associated with a decreased saccade peak velocity, saccade frequency, and fixation frequency, as well as an increased fixation duration and pupil dilation range. Among the oculometrics, pain-related feelings were reflected only in the pupillary responses to a low cognitive load. The performance and perceived cognitive load decreased and increased, respectively, with the task load level and were not influenced by the pain-related sounds. Pain-related feelings were lower when performing the task compared with when no task was being performed in an independent group of participants. This might be due to the cognitive engagement during the task. This study demonstrated that cognitive processing could moderate the feelings associated with pain perception.

scholarly journals Brain Activity-Based Metrics for Assessing Learning States in VR under Stress among Firefighters: An Explorative Machine Learning Approach in Neuroergonomics

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 885
Author(s):  
Maher Abujelala ◽  
Rohith Karthikeyan ◽  
Oshin Tyagi ◽  
Jing Du ◽  
Ranjana K. Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Classification Problem ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Information Encoding ◽  
Machine Learning Approach ◽  
Encoding And Retrieval

The nature of firefighters` duties requires them to work for long periods under unfavorable conditions. To perform their jobs effectively, they are required to endure long hours of extensive, stressful training. Creating such training environments is very expensive and it is difficult to guarantee trainees’ safety. In this study, firefighters are trained in a virtual environment that includes virtual perturbations such as fires, alarms, and smoke. The objective of this paper is to use machine learning methods to discern encoding and retrieval states in firefighters during a visuospatial episodic memory task and explore which regions of the brain provide suitable signals to solve this classification problem. Our results show that the Random Forest algorithm could be used to distinguish between information encoding and retrieval using features extracted from fNIRS data. Our algorithm achieved an F-1 score of 0.844 and an accuracy of 79.10% if the training and testing data are obtained at similar environmental conditions. However, the algorithm’s performance dropped to an F-1 score of 0.723 and accuracy of 60.61% when evaluated on data collected under different environmental conditions than the training data. We also found that if the training and evaluation data were recorded under the same environmental conditions, the RPM, LDLPFC, RDLPFC were the most relevant brain regions under non-stressful, stressful, and a mix of stressful and non-stressful conditions, respectively.

scholarly journals Brain hemodynamic response in Examiner–Examinee dyads during spatial short-term memory task: an fNIRS study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Panico ◽  
Stefania De Marco ◽  
Laura Sagliano ◽  
Francesca D’Olimpio ◽  
Dario Grossi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
The Real

AbstractThe Corsi Block-Tapping test (CBT) is a measure of spatial working memory (WM) in clinical practice, requiring an examinee to reproduce sequences of cubes tapped by an examiner. CBT implies complementary behaviors in the examiners and the examinees, as they have to attend a precise turn taking. Previous studies demonstrated that the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) is activated during CBT, but scarce evidence is available on the neural correlates of CBT in the real setting. We assessed PFC activity in dyads of examiner–examinee participants while completing the real version of CBT, during conditions of increasing and exceeding workload. This procedure allowed to investigate whether brain activity in the dyads is coordinated. Results in the examinees showed that PFC activity was higher when the workload approached or reached participants’ spatial WM span, and lower during workload conditions that were largely below or above their span. Interestingly, findings in the examiners paralleled the ones in the examinees, as examiners’ brain activity increased and decreased in a similar way as the examinees’ one. In the examiners, higher left-hemisphere activity was observed suggesting the likely activation of non-spatial WM processes. Data support a bell-shaped relationship between cognitive load and brain activity, and provide original insights on the cognitive processes activated in the examiner during CBT.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document