Reduced Cognitive Control Demands after Practice of Saccade Tasks in a Trial Type Probability Manipulation

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 368-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan E. Pierce ◽  
Jennifer E. McDowell
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Trial Type ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Practice Group ◽  
Task Practice ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Cognitive control is engaged to facilitate stimulus–response mappings for novel, complex tasks and supervise performance in unfamiliar, challenging contexts—processes supported by pFC, ACC, and posterior parietal cortex. With repeated task practice, however, the appropriate task set can be selected in a more automatic fashion with less need for top–down cognitive control and weaker activation in these brain regions. One model system for investigating cognitive control is the ocular motor circuitry underlying saccade production, with basic prosaccade trials (look toward a stimulus) and complex antisaccade trials (look to the mirror image location) representing low and high levels of cognitive control, respectively. Previous studies have shown behavioral improvements on saccade tasks after practice with contradictory results regarding the direction of functional MRI BOLD signal change. The current study presented healthy young adults with prosaccade and antisaccade trials in five mixed blocks with varying probability of each trial type (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% anti vs. pro) at baseline and posttest MRI sessions. Between the scans, participants practiced either the specific probability blocks used during testing or only a general 100% antisaccade block. Results indicated an overall reduction in BOLD activation within pFC, ACC, and posterior parietal cortex and across saccade circuitry for antisaccade trials. The specific practice group showed additional regions including ACC, insula, and thalamus with an activation decrease after practice, whereas the general practice group showed a little change from baseline in those clusters. These findings demonstrate that cognitive control regions recruited to support novel task behaviors were engaged less after practice, especially with exposure to mixed task contexts rather than a novel task in isolation.

Modulation of cognitive control levels via manipulation of saccade trial-type probability assessed with event-related BOLD fMRI

2016 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 763-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan E. Pierce ◽  
Jennifer E. McDowell
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Trial Type ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Blood Oxygenation ◽  
Bold Signal ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Imaging Results ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Cognitive control supports flexible behavior adapted to meet current goals and can be modeled through investigation of saccade tasks with varying cognitive demands. Basic prosaccades (rapid glances toward a newly appearing stimulus) are supported by neural circuitry, including occipital and posterior parietal cortex, frontal and supplementary eye fields, and basal ganglia. These trials can be contrasted with complex antisaccades (glances toward the mirror image location of a stimulus), which are characterized by greater functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal in the aforementioned regions and recruitment of additional regions such as dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The current study manipulated the cognitive demands of these saccade tasks by presenting three rapid event-related runs of mixed saccades with a varying probability of antisaccade vs. prosaccade trials (25, 50, or 75%). Behavioral results showed an effect of trial-type probability on reaction time, with slower responses in runs with a high antisaccade probability. Imaging results exhibited an effect of probability in bilateral pre- and postcentral gyrus, bilateral superior temporal gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus. Additionally, the interaction between saccade trial type and probability revealed a strong probability effect for prosaccade trials, showing a linear increase in activation parallel to antisaccade probability in bilateral temporal/occipital, posterior parietal, medial frontal, and lateral prefrontal cortex. In contrast, antisaccade trials showed elevated activation across all runs. Overall, this study demonstrated that improbable performance of a typically simple prosaccade task led to augmented BOLD signal to support changing cognitive control demands, resulting in activation levels similar to the more complex antisaccade task.

scholarly journals Correlates of Stimulus-Response Congruence in the Posterior Parietal Cortex

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gijsbert Stoet ◽  
Lawrence H. Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Motor Command ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Primate Behavior ◽  
Task Context ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Additional Processing ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Time Required

Primate behavior is flexible: The response to a stimulus often depends on the task in which it occurs. Here we study how single neurons in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) respond to stimuli which are associated with different responses in different tasks. Two rhesus monkeys performed a task-switching paradigm. Each trial started with a task cue instructing which of two tasks to perform, followed by a stimulus requiring a left or right button press. For half the stimuli, the associated responses were different in the two tasks, meaning that the task context was necessary to disambiguate the incongruent stimuli. The other half of stimuli required the same response irrespective of task context (congruent). Using this paradigm, we previously showed that behavioral responses to incongruent stimuli are significantly slower than to congruent stimuli. We now demonstrate a neural correlate in the PPC of the additional processing time required for incongruent stimuli. Furthermore, we previously found that 29% of parietal neurons encode the task being performed (task-selective cells). We now report differences in neuronal timing related to congruency in task-selective versus task nonselective cells. These differences in timing suggest that the activity in task nonselective cells reflects a motor command, whereas activity in task-selective cells reflects a decision process.

scholarly journals S140. CHARACTERISTICS OF COGNITIVE CONTROL SPECIALIZATION IN HEALTHY AND PATIENT POPULATIONS

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S89-S89
Author(s):  
Anita Kwashie ◽  
Yizhou Ma ◽  
Andrew Poppe ◽  
Deanna Barch ◽  
Cameron Carter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Goal Maintenance ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Abstract Background Cognitive control mechanisms enable an individual to regulate, coordinate, and sequence thoughts and actions to obtain desired outcomes. A theory of control specialization posits that proactive control is necessary for anticipatory planning and goal maintenance and recruits sustained lateral prefrontal activity, whereas reactive control, essential for adapting to transient changes, marshals a more extensive brain network (Braver, 2012). Increased task errors and reduced frontoparietal activity in proactive contexts is observed in severe psychopathology, including schizophrenia (Poppe et al., 2016), leading to the prediction that patients rely on reactive control more when performing such tasks. However, evidence of primate prefrontal ‘switch’ neurons, active during both proactive and reactive contexts, challenges the notion that cognitive control relies on discrete processing networks (Blackman et al., 2016). To examine this contradiction, we sought to characterize the distinctiveness between proactive and reactive control in healthy and patient populations using the Dot Pattern Expectancy Task (DPX). We also examined if a bias toward proactive or reactive control predicted behavioral metrics. Methods 44 individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and 50 matched healthy controls (HC) completed 4 blocks of the DPX during a 3-Tesla fMRI scan (Poppe et al., 2016). Participants followed the ‘A-then-X’ rule, in which they pressed one button whenever an A cue followed an X probe, and pressed a different button for any other non-target stimulus sequence. We examined bilateral frontoparietal ROIs from the literature for evidence of cognitive control specialization as well as whole-brain analyses. Subsequent nonparametric tests and measures of neural response variation strengthened our interpretations. Participant d’-context (dependent on task accuracy) measured their tendency to engage in proactive control. Results Behavioral data revealed that HC participants showed a greater proclivity for proactive control than did their SZ counterparts. HC reaction time outpaced SZ reaction time in trials requiring successful marshalling of proactive control. Preliminary neuroimaging analyses suggest marginal between-group differences in control specialization. HC specialization appeared to be most apparent in diffuse frontal lateral regions, and bilateral posterior parietal cortex. Within the SZ group, specialization was most evident in bilateral posterior parietal cortex. Between-group control specialization differences were most apparent in right hemisphere frontal regions. Superior frontal gyrus and medial temporal lobe activity during proactive processes accounted for modest variance in d’-context. Discussion There were significant between-group differences in goal maintenance behavioral metrics such as reaction time and a tendency to engage in proactive control. Control specialization occurred more diffusely in controls compared to patient counterparts. However, activity in these regions had minimal ability to predict behavioral metrics. Overall, the relatively small size of control-specific areas compared to regions involved in dual processing offers support for the malleable nature of regions implicated in human cognitive control.

Representation of Eye Position in the Human Parietal Cortex

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 2169-2177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian L. Williams ◽  
Andrew T. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Block Design ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Eye Position ◽  
Posterior Aspect ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Neurons that signal eye position are thought to make a vital contribution to distinguishing real world motion from retinal motion caused by eye movements, but relatively little is known about such neurons in the human brain. Here we present data from functional MRI experiments that are consistent with the existence of neurons sensitive to eye position in darkness in the human posterior parietal cortex. We used the enhanced sensitivity of multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) techniques, combined with a searchlight paradigm, to isolate brain regions sensitive to direction of gaze. During data acquisition, participants were cued to direct their gaze to the left or right for sustained periods as part of a block-design paradigm. Following the exclusion of saccade-related activity from the data, the multivariate analysis showed sensitivity to tonic eye position in two localized posterior parietal regions, namely the dorsal precuneus and, more weakly, the posterior aspect of the intraparietal sulcus. Sensitivity to eye position was also seen in anterior portions of the occipital cortex. The observed sensitivity of visual cortical neurons to eye position, even in the total absence of visual stimulation, is possibly a result of feedback from posterior parietal regions that receive eye position signals and explicitly encode direction of gaze.

scholarly journals From visual affordances in monkey parietal cortex to hippocampo–parietal interactions underlying rat navigation

1997 ◽  
Vol 352 (1360) ◽  
pp. 1429-1436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Arbib
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Graph Model ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Formal Similarity ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Level Model ◽  
Saccade Task

This paper explores the hypothesis that various subregions (but by no means all) of the posterior parietal cortex are specialized to process visual information to extract a variety of affordances for behaviour. Two biologically based models of regions of the posterior parietal cortex of the monkey are introduced. The model of the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) emphasizes its roles in dynamic remapping of the representation of targets during a double saccade task, and in combining stored, updated input with current visual input. The model of the anterior intraparietal area (AIP) addresses parietal–premotor interactions involved in grasping, and analyses the interaction between the AIP and premotor area F5. The model represents the role of other intraparietal areas working in concert with the inferotemporal cortex as well as with corollary discharge from F5 to provide and augment the affordance information in the AIP, and suggests how various constraints may resolve the action opportunities provided by multiple affordances. Finally, a systems–level model of hippocampo–parietal interactions underlying rat navigation is developed, motivated by the monkey data used in developing the above two models as well as by data on neurons in the posterior parietal cortex of the monkey that are sensitive to visual motion. The formal similarity between dynamic remapping (primate saccades) and path integration (rat navigation) is noted, and certain available data on rat posterior parietal cortex in terms of affordances for locomotion are explained. The utility of further modelling, linking the World Graph model of cognitive maps for motivated behaviour with hippocampal–parietal interactions involved in navigation, is also suggested. These models demonstrate that posterior parietal cortex is not only itself a network of interacting subsystems, but functions through cooperative computation with many other brain regions.

scholarly journals Distinct effects of prefrontal and parietal cortex inactivations on an accumulation of evidence task in the rat

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C Erlich ◽  
Bingni W Brunton ◽  
Chunyu A Duan ◽  
Timothy D Hanks ◽  
Carlos D Brody
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Integration Time ◽  
Detailed Model ◽  
Evidence Accumulation ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Cortical Regions

Numerous brain regions have been shown to have neural correlates of gradually accumulating evidence for decision-making, but the causal roles of these regions in decisions driven by accumulation of evidence have yet to be determined. Here, in rats performing an auditory evidence accumulation task, we inactivated the frontal orienting fields (FOF) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC), two rat cortical regions that have neural correlates of accumulating evidence and that have been proposed as central to decision-making. We used a detailed model of the decision process to analyze the effect of inactivations. Inactivation of the FOF induced substantial performance impairments that were quantitatively best described as an impairment in the output pathway of an evidence accumulator with a long integration time constant (>240 ms). In contrast, we found a minimal role for PPC in decisions guided by accumulating auditory evidence, even while finding a strong role for PPC in internally-guided decisions.

scholarly journals A cortical cell ensemble in the posterior parietal cortex controls past experience-dependent memory updating

2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akinobu Suzuki ◽  
Sakurako Kosugi ◽  
Emi Murayama ◽  
Eri Sasakawa ◽  
Noriaki Ohkawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Cortical Cell ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Past Experience ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Current Information ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWhen processing current sensory inputs, animals refer to related past experiences. Current information is then incorporated into the related neural network to update previously stored memories. However, the neuronal mechanism underlying the impact of memories of prior experiences on current learning is not well understood. Here, we found that a cellular ensemble in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) that is activated during past experience mediates an interaction between past and current information to update memory through a PPC-anterior cingulate cortex circuit in mice. Moreover, optogenetic silencing of the PPC ensemble immediately after retrieval dissociated the interaction without affecting individual memories stored in the hippocampus and amygdala. Thus, a specific subpopulation of PPC cells represents past information and instructs downstream brain regions to update previous memories.

scholarly journals Neurometabolite Changes in Hyperthyroid Patients Before and After Antithyroid Treatment: An in vivo1H MRS Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mukesh Kumar ◽  
Sadhana Singh ◽  
Poonam Rana ◽  
Pawan Kumar ◽  
Tarun Sekhri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Antithyroid Treatment ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Hyperthyroid Patients

Purpose: Patients with hyperthyroidism have frequent neuropsychiatric symptoms such as lack of attention, concentration, poor memory, impaired executive functions, depression, and anxiety. These neurocognitive impairments such as memory, attention, and executive functions appear to be associated with dysfunction in brain regions. This study was conducted to investigate the metabolic changes in the brain subcortical regions, i.e., posterior parietal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), in patients with hyperthyroidism before and after antithyroid treatment using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS).Materials and Methods: We collected neuropsychological and 1H MRS data from posterior parietal cortex and DLPFC, in both control (N = 30) and hyperthyroid (N = 30) patients. In addition, follow-up data were available for 19 patients treated with carbimazole for 30 weeks. The relative ratios of the neurometabolites were calculated using the Linear Combination Model (LCModel). Analysis of co-variance using Bonferroni correction was performed between healthy controls and hyperthyroid patients, and a paired t-test was applied in patients at baseline and follow-up. Spearman’s rank-order correlation was used to analyze bivariate associations between thyroid hormone levels and metabolite ratios, and the partial correlation analysis was performed between neuropsychological scores and metabolite ratios, with age and sex as covariates, in the patients before and after treatment.Results: Our results revealed a significant decrease in choline/creatine [glycerophosphocholine (GPC) + phosphocholine (PCh)/creatine (tCr)] in both the posterior parietal cortex and DLPFC in hyperthyroid patients, and these changes were reversible after antithyroid treatment. The posterior parietal cortex also showed significantly reduced glutamate/creatine (Glu/tCr), (glutamate + glutamine)/creatine (Glx/tCr), and increased glutathione/creatine (GSH/tCr) ratios in the hyperthyroid patients over control subjects. In DLPFC, only (N-acetyl aspartate + N-acetyl aspartyl-glutamate)/creatine (NAA + NAAG)/tCr was increased in the hyperthyroid patients. After antithyroid treatment, (GPC + PCh)/tCr increased, and Glx/tCr decreased in both brain regions in the patients at follow-up. Gln/tCr in the posterior parietal cortex was decreased in patients at follow-up. Interestingly, (GPC + PCh)/tCr in DLPFC showed a significantly inverse correlation with free tri-iodothyronine (fT3) in hyperthyroid patients at baseline, whereas NAA/tCr showed positive correlations with fT3 and free thyroxine (fT4) in hyperthyroid patients before and after antithyroid treatment, in the posterior parietal cortex. In DLPFC, only (NAA + NAAG)/tCr showed positive correlations with fT3 and fT4 in the patients before treatment.Conclusion: The overall findings suggest that all the brain metabolite changes were not completely reversed in the hyperthyroid patients after antithyroid treatment, even after achieving euthyroidism.

scholarly journals Distinct behavioral effects of prefrontal and parietal cortex inactivations on an accumulation of evidence task in the rat

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C Erlich ◽  
Bingni W Brunton ◽  
Chunyu A Duan ◽  
Timothy D Hanks ◽  
Carlos D Brody
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Integration Time ◽  
Detailed Model ◽  
Evidence Accumulation ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Cortical Regions

Numerous brain regions have been shown to have neural correlates of gradually accumulating evidence for decision-making, but the causal roles of these regions in decisions driven by accumulation of evi- dence have yet to be determined. Here, in rats performing an auditory evidence accumulation task, we inactivated the frontal orienting fields (FOF) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC), two rat cortical regions that have neural correlates of accumulating evidence and that have been proposed as central to decision-making. We used a detailed model of the decision process to analyze the effect of inactivations. Inactivation of the FOF induced substantial performance impairments that were quantitatively best de- scribed as an impairment in the output pathway of an evidence accumulator with a long integration time constant (>240ms). In contrast, we found a minimal role for PPC in decisions guided by accumulating auditory evidence, even while finding a strong role for PPC in internally-guided decisions.

scholarly journals The Contribution of the Left Posterior Parietal Cortex to Proactive and Reactive Cognitive Control

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 608
Author(s):  
Brandon Ashinoff ◽  
Joy Geng ◽  
Foyzul Rahman ◽  
Caitlin Carruthers ◽  
Diana Maler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Left Posterior ◽  
Posterior Parietal
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