Brainstem Frequency-Following Responses and Cortical Event-Related Potentials during Attention

1993 ◽  
Vol 76 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1231-1241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary C. Galbraith ◽  
John M. Kane
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Specific Task ◽  
Directed Attention ◽  
Auditory Evoked Response ◽  
Cortical Responses ◽  
Task Requirements ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response

Human brainstem frequency-following responses (FFRs) and cortical event-related potentials (ERPs) were evoked by a low-frequency (230 Hz) tone during directed attention. ERPs showed significant amplitude differences consistent with expected attention effects, viz., largest to attended stimuli and smallest to ignored stimuli. The ERP data thereby confirm that attention effectively modulated cortical responses. The FFR, however, did not differ between conditions. The present results agree with one earlier FFR study and a majority of studies using click stimuli to elicit the brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER). However, several BAER studies and two recent FFR studies have shown that attention can influence human brainstem responses. The present results are therefore interpreted in the context of specific task requirements that optimize early selective attention effects.

scholarly journals Repetitive transcanial magnetic stimulation (RTMS) modulates event-related potential (ERP) indices of attention in autism

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Casanova ◽  
Joshua Baruth ◽  
Ayman El-Baz ◽  
Allan Tasman ◽  
Lonnie Sears ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Related Potentials

AbstractIndividuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have previously been shown to have significantly augmented and prolonged event-related potentials (ERP) to irrelevant visual stimuli compared to controls at both early and later stages (e.g., N200, P300) of visual processing and evidence of an overall lack of stimulus discrimination. Abnormally large and indiscriminative cortical responses to sensory stimuli may reflect cortical inhibitory deficits and a disruption in the excitation/inhibition ratio. Low-frequency (≤ 1HZ) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been shown to increase inhibition of stimulated cortex by the activation of inhibitory circuits. It was our prediction that after 12 sessions of low-frequency rTMS applied bilaterally to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortices in individuals with ASD there would be a significant improvement in ERP indices of selective attention evoked at later (i.e., 200–600 ms) stages of attentional processing as well as an improvement in motor response error rate. We assessed 25 participants with ASD in a task of selective attention using illusory figures before and after 12 sessions of rTMS in a controlled design where a waiting-list group of 20 children with ASD performed the same task twice. We found a significant improvement in both N200 and P300 components as a result of rTMS as well as a significant reduction in response errors. We also found significant reductions in both repetitive behavior and irritability according to clinical behavioral questionnaires as a result of rTMS. We propose that rTMS has the potential to become an important therapeutic tool in ASD research and treatment.

scholarly journals Frequency Sensitivity of Neural Responses to English Verb Argument Structure Violations

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jona Sassenhagen ◽  
Ryan Blything ◽  
Elena V. M. Lieven ◽  
Ben Ambridge
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Verb Argument Structure ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Intransitive Verbs

How are verb-argument structure preferences acquired? Children typically receive very little negative evidence, raising the question of how they come to understand the restrictions on grammatical constructions. Statistical learning theories propose stochastic patterns in the input contain sufficient clues. For example, if a verb is very common, but never observed in transitive constructions, this would indicate that transitive usage of that verb is illegal. Ambridge et al. (2008) have shown that in offline grammaticality judgements of intransitive verbs used in transitive constructions, low-frequency verbs elicit higher acceptability ratings than high-frequency verbs, as predicted if relative frequency is a cue during statistical learning. Here, we investigate if the same pattern also emerges in on-line processing of English sentences. EEG was recorded while healthy adults listened to sentences featuring transitive uses of semantically matched verb pairs of differing frequencies. We replicate the finding of higher acceptabilities of transitive uses of low- vs. high-frequency intransitive verbs. Event-Related Potentials indicate a similar result: early electrophysiological signals distinguish between misuse of high- vs low-frequency verbs. This indicates online processing shows a similar sensitivity to frequency as off-line judgements, consistent with a parser that reflects an original acquisition of grammatical constructions via statistical cues. However, the nature of the observed neural responses was not of the expected, or an easily interpretable, form, motivating further work into neural correlates of online processing of syntactic constructions.

Directed and Motivated Attention during Processing of Natural Scenes

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1753-1761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Ferrari ◽  
Maurizio Codispoti ◽  
Rossella Cardinale ◽  
Margaret M. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
Directed Attention ◽  
Positive Potential ◽  
New Information ◽  
Motivated Attention ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Emotional Pictures ◽  
The Relationship

Visual attention can be voluntarily oriented to detect target stimuli in order to facilitate goal-directed behaviors. Other visual stimuli capture attention because of motivational significance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between directed and motivated attention using event-related potentials. Affectively engaging pictures were presented either as target stimuli or as nontargets in a categorization task. Results indicated that both task relevance and emotional significance modulated the late positive potential (LPP) over centro-parietal sensors. Effects of directed and motivated attention on the LPP were additive, with the largest centro-parietal positivity found for emotional pictures that were targets of directed attention, and the least for neutral pictures that were nontargets. Taken together, the data provide new information regarding the relationship between motivated and directed attention, and suggest that the LPP reflects the operation of attentional neural circuits that are utilized by both top-down and bottom-up processes.

scholarly journals Depressive rumination is correlated with brain responses during self-related processing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tzu-Yu Hsu ◽  
Tzu-Ling Liu ◽  
Paul Z. Cheng ◽  
Hsin-Chien Lee ◽  
Timothy J. Lane ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Unipolar Depression ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Late Event ◽  
Oscillatory Power ◽  
Related Aspect ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Central Symptom

AbstractBackgroundRumination, a tendency to focus on negative self-related thoughts, is a central symptom of depression. Studying the self-related aspect of such symptoms is challenging due to the need to distinguish self effects per se from the emotional content of task stimuli. This study employs an emotionally neutral self-related paradigm to investigate possible altered self processing in depression and its link to rumination.MethodsPeople with unipolar depression (MDD; n = 25) and controls (n = 25) underwent task-based EEG recording. Late event-related potentials were studied along with low frequency oscillatory power. EEG metrics were compared between groups and correlated with depressive symptoms and reported rumination.ResultsThe MDD group displayed a difference in late potentials across fronto-central electrodes between self-related and non-self-related conditions. No such difference was seen in controls. The magnitude of this difference was positively related with depressive symptoms and reported rumination. MDD also had elevated theta oscillation power at central electrodes in self-related conditions, which was not seen in controls.ConclusionsRumination appears linked to altered self-related processing in depression, independently of stimuli-related emotional confounds. This connection between self-related processing and depression may point to self-disorder being a core component of the condition.

Event-Related Potentials During Memory Search and Selective Attention to Letter Size and Conjunctions of Letter Size and Color

1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 529-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albertus A. Wijers ◽  
Gijsbertus Mulder ◽  
Tsunetaka Okita ◽  
Lambertus J.M. Mulder
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Memory Search ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Letter Size

Selective attention in the presence of music: An event-related potentials (ERP) study

1988 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 307-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dafina Dalbokova ◽  
Pentcho Kolev ◽  
Rumyana Kristeva
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Related Potentials

scholarly journals Effects of Attention on Neuroelectric Correlates of Auditory Stream Segregation

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel S. Snyder ◽  
Claude Alain ◽  
Terence W. Picton
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Auditory Scene Analysis ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Stream Segregation ◽  
Auditory Stream ◽  
Auditory Stream Segregation ◽  
Auditory Evoked Response ◽  
Related Potentials

A general assumption underlying auditory scene analysis is that the initial grouping of acoustic elements is independent of attention. The effects of attention on auditory stream segregation were investigated by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants either attended to sound stimuli and indicated whether they heard one or two streams or watched a muted movie. The stimuli were pure-tone ABA-patterns that repeated for 10.8 sec with a stimulus onset asynchrony between A and B tones of 100 msec in which the A tone was fixed at 500 Hz, the B tone could be 500, 625, 750, or 1000 Hz, and was a silence. In both listening conditions, an enhancement of the auditory-evoked response (P1-N1-P2 and N1c) to the B tone varied with f and correlated with perception of streaming. The ERP from 150 to 250 msec after the beginning of the repeating ABA-patterns became more positive during the course of the trial and was diminished when participants ignored the tones, consistent with behavioral studies indicating that streaming takes several seconds to build up. The N1c enhancement and the buildup over time were larger at right than left temporal electrodes, suggesting a right-hemisphere dominance for stream segregation. Sources in Heschl's gyrus accounted for the ERP modulations related to f-based segregation and buildup. These findings provide evidence for two cortical mechanisms of streaming: automatic segregation of sounds and attention-dependent buildup process that integrates successive tones within streams over several seconds.

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