scholarly journals Delineating implicit and explicit processes in neurofeedback learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Muñoz-Moldes ◽  
Axel Cleeremans
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
Explicit Processes ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

Neurofeedback allows humans to self-regulate neural activity in specific brain regions and is considered a promising tool for psychiatric interventions. Recently, methods have been developed to use neurofeedback implicitly, prompting a theoretical debate on the role of awareness in neurofeedback learning. We offer a critical review of the role of awareness in neurofeedback learning, with a special focus on recently developed neurofeedback paradigms. We detail differences in instructions and propose a fine-grained categorization of tasks based on the degree of involvement of explicit and implicit processes. Finally, we review the methods used to measure awareness in neurofeedback and propose new candidate measures. We conclude that explicit processes cannot be eschewed in most current implicit tasks that have explicit goals, and suggest ways in which awareness could be better measured in the future. Investigating awareness during learning will help understand the learning mechanisms underlying neurofeedback learning and will help shape future tasks.

Implicit and Explicit Learning: Differential Effects of Affective States

1994 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill H. Rathus ◽  
Arthur S. Reber ◽  
Louis Manza ◽  
Michael Kushner
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Performance Deficits ◽  
Explicit Processes ◽  
Human Functioning ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Implicit And Explicit Learning ◽  
Subclinical Depression

Two experiments using a standard artificial grammar paradigm were conducted to examine the role of affective states, specifically anxiety and depression, on implicit learning. The main purpose was to broaden the range of human functioning explored through the application of the robustness principle in the evolutionary framework recently developed by Reber which predicts that cognitive processes which rely upon unconscious, implicit processes should be less affected by affective states than those which rely upon conscious, explicit processes. In Study 1 ( N = 60), high test anxiety was associated with performance deficits in the explicit components of the task; no differences were found in the implicit phases of the task. In Study 2 ( N = 160), varying levels of subclinical depression were unrelated to both implicit and explicit functioning. The contrasting findings of the two studies are discussed in terms of the differential cognitive effects and adaptive implications of these two affective states.

scholarly journals Dissociable oscillatory networks support gain and loss processing in human orbitofrontal cortex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Saez ◽  
Jack Lin ◽  
Edward Chang ◽  
Josef Parvizi ◽  
Robert T. Knight ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Neural Oscillations ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Neuronal Ensembles ◽  
Gain And Loss

AbstractHuman neuroimaging and animal studies have linked neural activity in orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to valuation of positive and negative outcomes. Additional evidence shows that neural oscillations, representing the coordinated activity of neuronal ensembles, support information processing in both animal and human prefrontal regions. However, the role of OFC neural oscillations in reward-processing in humans remains unknown, partly due to the difficulty of recording oscillatory neural activity from deep brain regions. Here, we examined the role of OFC neural oscillations (<30Hz) in reward processing by combining intracranial OFC recordings with a gambling task in which patients made economic decisions under uncertainty. Our results show that power in different oscillatory bands are associated with distinct components of reward evaluation. Specifically, we observed a double dissociation, with a selective theta band oscillation increase in response to monetary gains and a beta band increase in response to losses. These effects were interleaved across OFC in overlapping networks and were accompanied by increases in oscillatory coherence between OFC electrode sites in theta and beta band during gain and loss processing, respectively. These results provide evidence that gain and loss processing in human OFC are supported by distinct low-frequency oscillations in networks, and provide evidence that participating neuronal ensembles are organized functionally through oscillatory coherence, rather than local anatomical segregation.

scholarly journals Predicting Contamination Aversion Using Implicit and Explicit Measures of Disgust and Threat Overestimation

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Rouel ◽  
Richard J. Stevenson ◽  
Evelyn Smith
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Measures ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Contamination Fear ◽  
Harmful Substances ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Explicit Measures

Explicit measures of disgust and threat overestimation have consistently been found to be involved in contamination aversion. However, evidence of the involvement of these factors at the implicit level is mixed, and the role of both responses has not been looked at concurrently. This study aimed to compare the ability of implicit and explicit measures of disgust and threat overestimation to predict contamination aversion and whether this depends on the type of contaminant. Sixty-five participants completed explicit and implicit measures of disgust and threat overestimation, as well as several measures of contamination aversion, including obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and contamination fear and avoidance of contaminants directly associated with disease (direct contaminants) and harmful substances (harm contaminants). It was found that both explicit disgust and explicit threat overestimation predicted contamination-fear obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Explicit disgust predicted contamination fear and avoidance of direct contaminants, whereas explicit threat overestimation predicted contamination fear and avoidance of harm contaminants. The involvement of implicit processes was weak, with some suggestion of difficulty disengaging predicting avoidance of contaminants. Implications for understanding dysfunctional contamination aversion are discussed.

Connectivity-Related Roles of Contralesional Brain Regions for Motor Performance Early after Stroke

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Hensel ◽  
Caroline Tscherpel ◽  
Jana Freytag ◽  
Stella Ritter ◽  
Anne K Rehme ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Anterior Intraparietal Sulcus

Abstract Hemiparesis after stroke is associated with increased neural activity not only in the lesioned but also in the contralesional hemisphere. While most studies have focused on the role of contralesional primary motor cortex (M1) activity for motor performance, data on other areas within the unaffected hemisphere are scarce, especially early after stroke. We here combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to elucidate the contribution of contralesional M1, dorsal premotor cortex (dPMC), and anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS) for the stroke-affected hand within the first 10 days after stroke. We used “online” TMS to interfere with neural activity at subject-specific fMRI coordinates while recording 3D movement kinematics. Interfering with aIPS activity improved tapping performance in patients, but not healthy controls, suggesting a maladaptive role of this region early poststroke. Analyzing effective connectivity parameters using a Lasso prediction model revealed that behavioral TMS effects were predicted by the coupling of the stimulated aIPS with dPMC and ipsilesional M1. In conclusion, we found a strong link between patterns of frontoparietal connectivity and TMS effects, indicating a detrimental influence of the contralesional aIPS on motor performance early after stroke.

scholarly journals Explicit knowledge and learning in SLA

AILA Review ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 7-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Roehr
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Explicit Processes ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
Explicit Processing ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Explicit And Implicit Knowledge

SLA researchers agree that explicit knowledge and learning play an important role in adult L2 development. In the field of cognitive linguistics, it has been proposed that implicit and explicit knowledge differ in terms of their internal category structure and the processing mechanisms that operate on their representation in the human mind. It has been hypothesized that linguistic constructions which are captured easily by metalinguistic descriptions can be learned successfully through explicit processes, resulting in accurate use. However, increased accuracy of use arising from greater reliance on explicit processing may lead to decreased fluency. Taking these hypotheses as a starting point, I present a case study of an adult L2 learner whose development of oral proficiency was tracked over 17 months. Findings indicate that explicit knowledge and learning have benefits as well as limitations. Use of metalinguistic tools was associated with increased accuracy; moreover, there was no obvious trade-off between accuracy and fluency. At the same time, resource-intensive explicit processing may impose too great a cognitive load in certain circumstances, apparently resulting in implicit processes taking over. I conclude that explicit and implicit knowledge and learning should be considered together in order to gain a full understanding of L2 development.

Role of implicit and explicit processes in learning from examples: A synergistic effect.

1989 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1083-1100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Mathews ◽  
Ray R. Buss ◽  
William B. Stanley ◽  
Fredda Blanchard-Fields ◽  
et al
Keyword(s):  
Synergistic Effect ◽  
Learning From Examples ◽  
Explicit Processes ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

scholarly journals Separation of multiple motor memories through implicit and explicit processes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gefen Dawidowicz ◽  
Yuval Shaine ◽  
Firas Mawase
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Learning ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Motor Behaviors ◽  
Explicit Processes ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Dependent Learning ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Acquisition of multiple motor skills without interference is a remarkable ability in sport and daily life. During adaptation to opposing perturbations, a common paradigm to study this ability, each perturbation can be successfully learned when a dynamical contextual cue, such as a follow-through movement, is associated with the direction of the perturbation. It is still unclear, however, to what extent this context-dependent learning engages the cognitive strategy-based explicit process and the implicit process that occurs without conscious awareness. Here, we designed four reaching experiments to untangle the individual contributions of the explicit and implicit components while participants learned opposing visuomotor perturbations, with a second unperturbed follow-through movement that served as a contextual cue. In Exp. 1 we replicated previous adaptation results and showed that follow-through movements also allow learning for opposing visuomotor rotations. For one group of participants in Exp. 2 we isolated strategic explicit learning by inducing a 2-sec time delay between movement and end-point feedback, while for another group we isolated the implicit component using the task-irrelevant error-clamp paradigm, in which participants were firmly instructed to aim their reaches directly to the target. Our data showed that opposing perturbations could be fully learned by explicit strategies; but when strategy was restricted, distinct implicit processes contributed to learning. In Exp.3, we examined whether the learned motor behaviors are influenced by the disparity between the follow-through contexts. We found that the location of follow-through targets had little effect on total learning, yet it led to more instances in which participants failed to learn the task. In Exp. 4, we explored the generalization capability to untrained novel targets. Participants showed near-flat generalization of the implicit and explicit processes to adjacent targets. Overall, our results indicate that follow-through contextual cues influence activity of both implicit and explicit processes during separation of motor memories. Furthermore, the follow-through context might activate, in part, top-down cognitive factors that influence not only the dynamics of the explicit learning but also the implicit process.

Gaze locations affect explicit process but not implicit process during visuomotor adaptation

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miya K. Rand ◽  
Sebastian Rentsch
Keyword(s):  
Visuomotor Adaptation ◽  
Visuomotor Rotation ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Visuomotor Transformations ◽  
Explicit Processes ◽  
Target Hand ◽  
Hand Coordination ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Explicit Process

The role of vision in implicit and explicit processes involved in adaptation to novel visuomotor transformations is not well-understood. We manipulated subjects' gaze locations through instructions during a visuomotor rotation task that established a conflict between implicit and explicit processes. Subjects were informed of a rotated visual feedback (45° counterclockwise from the desired target) and instructed to counteract it by using an explicit aiming strategy to the neighboring target (45° clockwise from the target). Simultaneously, they were instructed to gaze at either the desired target (target-gaze group), the neighboring target (hand-target-gaze group), or anywhere (free-gaze group) during aiming. After initial elimination of behavioral errors caused by strategic aiming, the subjects gradually overcompensated the rotation in the early practice, thereby increasing behavioral errors (i.e., a drift). This was caused by an implicit adaptation overriding the explicit strategy. Notably, prescribed gaze locations did not affect this implicit adaptation. In the late practice, the target-gaze and free-gaze groups reduced the drift, whereas the hand-target-gaze group did not. Furthermore, the free-gaze group changed gaze locations for strategic aiming through practice from the neighboring target to the desired target. The onset of this change was correlated with the onset of the drift reduction. These results suggest that gaze locations critically affect explicit adjustments of aiming directions to reduce the drift by taking into account the implicit adaptation that is occurring in parallel. Taken together, spatial eye-hand coordination that ties the gaze and the reach target influences the explicit process but not the implicit process.

scholarly journals TMS alters multivoxel patterns in the absence of overall activity changes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farshad Rafiei ◽  
Martin Safrin ◽  
Martijn E. Wokke ◽  
Hakwan Lau ◽  
Dobromir Rahnev
Keyword(s):  
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Motor Threshold ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
Site Of Stimulation

AbstractTranscranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become one of the major tools for establishing the causal role of specific brain regions in perceptual, motor, and cognitive processes. Nevertheless, a persistent limitation of the technique is the lack of clarity regarding its precise effects on neural activity. Here, we examined the effects of TMS intensity and frequency on concurrently recorded blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals at the site of stimulation. In two experiments, we delivered TMS to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in human subjects of both sexes. In Experiment 1, we delivered a series of pulses at high (100% of motor threshold) or low (50% of motor threshold) intensity, whereas in Experiment 2, we always used high intensity but delivered stimulation at four different frequencies (5, 8.33, 12.5, and 25 Hz). We found that the TMS intensity and frequency could be reliably decoded using multivariate analysis techniques even though TMS had no effect on overall BOLD activity at the site of stimulation in either experiment. These results provide important insight into the mechanisms through which TMS influences neural activity.SignificanceTranscranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a promising tool for the treatment of a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, its effectiveness is still impeded by an incomplete understanding of its neural effects. One fundamental unresolved issue is whether TMS leads to local changes in overall neural activity in the absence of a task. Here we performed two experiments where TMS was delivered inside an MRI scanner while brain activity was continuously monitored. We found converging evidence for the notion that TMS affects the pattern of local activity changes but does not lead to an overall increase in activity. These results help clarify the mechanisms of how TMS affects local neural activity.

scholarly journals The Relationship of Self-efficacy and Explicit and Implicit Associations on the Intention–Behavior Gap

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Alison Divine ◽  
Tanya Berry ◽  
Wendy Rodgers ◽  
Craig Hall
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Exercise Program ◽  
Physical Activity Promotion ◽  
Implicit Associations ◽  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Activity Promotion ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Relationship Of

Background: Recent physical activity research is limited by intention–behavior discordance and is beginning to recognize the importance of automatic processes in exercise. The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of multidimensional exercise self-efficacy (SE), explicit–implicit evaluative discrepancies (EIEDs) for health, and appearance on the intention–behavior gap in exercise. Methods: A total of 141 middle-aged inactive participants (mean age = 46.12 [8.17] y) completed measures of intentions, SE, and explicit and implicit evaluations of exercise outcomes. The participants were classified as inclined actors (n = 107) if they successfully started the exercise program and inclined abstainers (n = 35) if they were not successful. Results: The inclined actors and abstainers did not differ on intentions to exercise; however, the inclined actors had higher coping SE and lower EIEDs for health. In addition, the coping SE (Exp [β] = 1.03) and EIEDs for health (Exp [β] = −0.405) were significant predictors of being an inclined actor. Conclusions: The interaction between explicit and implicit processes in regard to health motives for exercise appears to influence the successful enactment of exercise from positive intentions. As most physical activity promotion strategies focus on health as a reason to be active, the role of implicit and explicit evaluations on behavioral decisions to exercise may inform future interventions.

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