scholarly journals Prefrontal Cortex Activation During Motor Sequence Learning Under Interleaved and Repetitive Practice: A Two-Channel Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarten A. Immink ◽  
Monique Pointon ◽  
David L. Wright ◽  
Frank E. Marino

Training under high interference conditions through interleaved practice (IP) results in performance suppression during training but enhances long-term performance relative to repetitive practice (RP) involving low interference. Previous neuroimaging work addressing this contextual interference effect of motor learning has relied heavily on the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methodology resulting in mixed reports of prefrontal cortex (PFC) recruitment under IP and RP conditions. We sought to clarify these equivocal findings by imaging bilateral PFC recruitment using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) while discrete key pressing sequences were trained under IP and RP schedules and subsequently tested following a 24-h delay. An advantage of fNIRS over the fMRI BOLD response is that the former measures oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin changes independently allowing for assessment of cortical hemodynamics even when there is neurovascular decoupling. Despite slower sequence performance durations under IP, bilateral PFC oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin values did not differ between practice conditions. During test, however, slower performance from those previously trained under RP coincided with hemispheric asymmetry in PFC recruitment. Specifically, following RP, test deoxygenated hemoglobin values were significantly lower in the right PFC. The present findings contrast with previous behavioral demonstrations of increased cognitive demand under IP to illustrate a more complex involvement of the PFC in the contextual interference effect. IP and RP incur similar levels of bilateral PFC recruitment, but the processes underlying the recruitment are dissimilar. PFC recruitment during IP supports action reconstruction and memory elaboration while RP relies on PFC recruitment to maintain task variation information in working memory from trial to trial. While PFC recruitment under RP serves to enhance immediate performance, it does not support long-term performance.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharda S. Anroedh ◽  
Rohit M. Oemrawsingh ◽  
Robert-Jan van Geuns ◽  
Jin M. Cheng ◽  
Hector M. Garcia-Garcia ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 701
Author(s):  
Cheng-Hsuan Chen ◽  
Kuo-Kai Shyu ◽  
Cheng-Kai Lu ◽  
Chi-Wen Jao ◽  
Po-Lei Lee

The sense of smell is one of the most important organs in humans, and olfactory imaging can detect signals in the anterior orbital frontal lobe. This study assessed olfactory stimuli using support vector machines (SVMs) with signals from functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data obtained from the prefrontal cortex. These data included odor stimuli and air state, which triggered the hemodynamic response function (HRF), determined from variations in oxyhemoglobin (oxyHb) and deoxyhemoglobin (deoxyHb) levels; photoplethysmography (PPG) of two wavelengths (raw optical red and near-infrared data); and the ratios of data from two optical datasets. We adopted three SVM kernel functions (i.e., linear, quadratic, and cubic) to analyze signals and compare their performance with the HRF and PPG signals. The results revealed that oxyHb yielded the most efficient single-signal data with a quadratic kernel function, and a combination of HRF and PPG signals yielded the most efficient multi-signal data with the cubic function. Our results revealed superior SVM analysis of HRFs for classifying odor and air status using fNIRS data during olfaction in humans. Furthermore, the olfactory stimulation can be accurately classified by using quadratic and cubic kernel functions in SVM, even for an individual participant data set.


2008 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 188-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Schreppel ◽  
Johanna Egetemeir ◽  
Martin Schecklmann ◽  
Michael M. Plichta ◽  
Paul Pauli ◽  
...  

Gesture ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 196-222
Author(s):  
Michela Balconi ◽  
Angela Bartolo ◽  
Giulia Fronda

Abstract The interest of neuroscience has been aimed at the investigation of the neural bases underlying gestural communication. This research explored the intra- and inter-brain connectivity between encoder and decoder. Specifically, adopting a “hyperscanning paradigm” with the functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) cerebral connectivity in oxygenated (O2Hb) and deoxygenated (HHb) hemoglobin levels were revealed during the reproduction of affective, social, and informative gestures of different valence. Results showed an increase of intra- and inter-brain connectivity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for affective gestures, in superior frontal gyrus for social gestures and in frontal eyes field for informative gestures. Moreover, encoder showed a higher intra-brain connectivity in posterior parietal areas more than decoder. Finally, an increasing of inter-brain connectivity more than intra-brain (ConIndex) was observed in left regions for positive gestures. The present research has explored how the individuals neural tuning mechanisms turn out to be strongly influenced by the nature of specific gestures.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoko Hasegawa ◽  
Ayumi Sakuramoto ◽  
Joe Sakagami ◽  
Masako Shiramizu ◽  
Tatsuya Suzuki ◽  
...  

Abstract Evidence indicates that distinct brain regions are associated with various emotional states. Cortical activity may be modulated by emotional states that are triggered upon chewing with various flavors. We examined cortical activity during chewing with different tastes/odors using multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Thirty-six right-handed subjects participated in a crossover-design trial. Subjects chewed flavorful (palatable) or less flavorful (unpalatable) gum for 5 minutes. During gum-chewing these subjects experienced positive and negative emotions, respectively. Subjects rated the taste/odor/deliciousness of each gum with a visual analog scale. Bilateral hemodynamic responses in the frontal to parietal lobes, bilateral masseter muscle activation, and heart rate were measured during gum-chewing. Data changes during gum-chewing were evaluated. Subjects’ ratings of the tastes and odors of each gum differed (p<0.001). Hemodynamic response changes were significantly elevated in the bilateral primary sensorimotor cortex during gum-chewing, in comparison to resting. The hemodynamic responses of wide brain regions showed little difference between the gum conditions; however, a difference was detected in the corresponding left frontopolar/dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Muscle activation and heart rate were not significantly different between the gum conditions. Differential processing in the left prefrontal cortex might be responsible for emotional states caused by palatable and unpalatable foods.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zilu Liang

People with mental stress often experience disturbed sleep, suggesting stress-related abnormalities in brain activity during sleep. However, no study has looked at the physiological oscillations in brain hemodynamics during sleep in relation to stress. In this pilot study, we aimed to explore the relationships between bedtime stress and the hemodynamics in the prefrontal cortex during the first sleep cycle. We tracked the stress biomarkers, salivary cortisol, and secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) on a daily basis and utilized the days of lower levels of measured stress as natural controls to the days of higher levels of measured stress. Cortical hemodynamics was measured using a cutting-edge wearable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system. Time-domain, frequency-domain features as well as nonlinear features were derived from the cleaned hemodynamic signals. We proposed an original ensemble algorithm to generate an average importance score for each feature based on the assessment of six statistical and machine learning techniques. With all channels counted in, the top five most referred feature types are Hurst exponent, mean, the ratio of the major/minor axis standard deviation of the Poincaré plot of the signal, statistical complexity, and crest factor. The left rostral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) was the most relevant sub-region. Significantly strong correlations were found between the hemodynamic features derived at this sub-region and all three stress indicators. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is also a relevant cortical area. The areas of mid-DLPFC and caudal-DLPFC both demonstrated significant and moderate association to all three stress indicators. No relevance was found in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. The preliminary results shed light on the possible role of the RLPCF, especially the left RLPCF, in processing stress during sleep. In addition, our findings echoed the previous stress studies conducted during wake time and provides supplementary evidence on the relevance of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in stress responses during sleep. This pilot study serves as a proof-of-concept for a new research paradigm to stress research and identified exciting opportunities for future studies.


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