scholarly journals Electrophysiological Signatures of Numerosity Encoding in a Delayed Match-to-Sample Task

2022 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanlu Fu ◽  
Serena Dolfi ◽  
Gisella Decarli ◽  
Chiara Spironelli ◽  
Marco Zorzi
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
General System ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Numerical Magnitude ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Retention Period ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Neural Signature ◽  
Mixed Format

The number of elements in a small set of items is appraised in a fast and exact manner, a phenomenon called subitizing. In contrast, humans provide imprecise responses when comparing larger numerosities, with decreasing precision as the number of elements increases. Estimation is thought to rely on a dedicated system for the approximate representation of numerosity. While previous behavioral and neuroimaging studies associate subitizing to a domain-general system related to object tracking and identification, the nature of small numerosity processing is still debated. We investigated the neural processing of numerosity across subitizing and estimation ranges by examining electrophysiological activity during the memory retention period in a delayed numerical match-to-sample task. We also assessed potential differences in the neural signature of numerical magnitude in a fully non-symbolic or cross-format comparison. In line with behavioral performance, we observed modulation of parietal-occipital neural activity as a function of numerosity that differed in two ranges, with distinctive neural signatures of small numerosities showing clear similarities with those observed in visuospatial working memory tasks. We also found differences in neural activity related to numerical information in anticipation of single vs. cross-format comparison, suggesting a top-down modulation of numerical processing. Finally, behavioral results revealed enhanced performance in the mixed-format conditions and a significant correlation between task performance and symbolic mathematical skills. Overall, we provide evidence for distinct mechanisms related to small and large numerosity and differences in numerical encoding based on task demands.

EXPRESS: Spatial-numerical associations from a novel paradigm support the Mental Number Line account

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110087
Author(s):  
Lauren Aulet ◽  
Sami R Yousif ◽  
Stella Lourenco
Keyword(s):  
Memory Task ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Numerical Magnitude ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Subject Design ◽  
Multiple Tasks

Multiple tasks have been used to demonstrate the relation between numbers and space. The classic interpretation of these directional spatial-numerical associations (d-SNAs) is that they are the product of a mental number line (MNL), in which numerical magnitude is intrinsically associated with spatial position. The alternative account is that d-SNAs reflect task demands, such as explicit numerical judgments and/or categorical responses. In the novel ‘Where was The Number?’ task, no explicit numerical judgments were made. Participants were simply required to reproduce the location of a numeral within a rectangular space. Using a between-subject design, we found that numbers, but not letters, biased participants’ responses along the horizontal dimension, such that larger numbers were placed more rightward than smaller numbers, even when participants completed a concurrent verbal working memory task. These findings are consistent with the MNL account, such that numbers specifically are inherently left-to-right oriented in Western participants.

The Faces of Development: A Review of Early Face Processing over Childhood

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 1426-1442 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Taylor ◽  
M. Batty ◽  
R. J. Itier
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Different Sources

The understanding of the adult proficiency in recognizing and extracting information from faces is still limited despite the number of studies over the last decade. Our knowledge on the development of these capacities is even more restricted, as only a handful of such studies exist. Here we present a combined reanalysis of four ERP studies in children from 4 to 15 years of age and adults (n = 424, across the studies), which investigated face processing in implicit and explicit tasks. We restricted these analyses to what was common across studies: early ERP components and upright face processing across all four studies and the inversion effect, investigated in three of the studies. These data demonstrated that processing faces implicates very rapid neural activity, even in young children— at the P1 component—with protracted age-related change in both P1 and N170, that were sensitive to the different task demands. Inversion produced latency and amplitude effects on the P1 from the youngest group, but on N170 only starting in mid childhood. These developmental data suggest that there are functionally different sources of the P1 and N170, related to the processing of different aspects of faces.

Spatial-numerical associations from a novel paradigm support the mental number line account

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren S Aulet ◽  
Sami Ryan Yousif ◽  
Stella F. Lourenco
Keyword(s):  
Memory Task ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Numerical Magnitude ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Subject Design ◽  
Multiple Tasks

Multiple tasks have been used to demonstrate the relation between numbers and space. The classic interpretation of these directional spatial-numerical associations (d-SNAs) is that they are the product of a mental number line (MNL), in which numerical magnitude is intrinsically associated with spatial position. The alternative account is that d-SNAs reflect task demands, such as explicit numerical judgments and/or categorical responses. In the novel ‘Where was The Number?’ task, no explicit numerical judgments were made. Participants were simply required to reproduce the location of a numeral within a rectangular space. Using a between-subject design, we found that numbers, but not letters, biased participants’ responses along the horizontal dimension, such that larger numbers were placed more rightward than smaller numbers, even when participants completed a concurrent verbal working memory task. These findings are consistent with the MNL account, such that numbers specifically are inherently left-to-right oriented in Western participants.

scholarly journals Temporal dissociation of neural activity underlying synesthetic and perceptual colors

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (6) ◽  
pp. e2020434118
Author(s):  
Lina Teichmann ◽  
Tijl Grootswagers ◽  
Denise Moerel ◽  
Thomas A. Carlson ◽  
Anina N. Rich
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Color Perception ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Classification Models ◽  
Neural Signature

Grapheme-color synesthetes experience color when seeing achromatic symbols. We examined whether similar neural mechanisms underlie color perception and synesthetic colors using magnetoencephalography. Classification models trained on neural activity from viewing colored stimuli could distinguish synesthetic color evoked by achromatic symbols after a delay of ∼100 ms. Our results provide an objective neural signature for synesthetic experience and temporal evidence consistent with higher-level processing in synesthesia.

The Case of the Cognitive (Opti)miser: Electrophysiological Correlates of Working Memory Maintenance Predict Demand Avoidance

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 1550-1561
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Nador ◽  
Assaf Harel ◽  
Ion Juvina ◽  
Brandon Minnery
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Irrelevant Distractors ◽  
Filtering Efficiency ◽  
Task Irrelevant

People are often considered cognitive misers. When given a free choice between two tasks, people tend to choose tasks requiring less cognitive effort. Such demand avoidance (DA) is associated with cognitive control, but it is still not clear to what extent individual differences in cognitive control can account for variations in DA. We sought to elucidate the relation between cognitive control and cognitive effort preferences by investigating the extent to which sustained neural activity in a task requiring cognitive control is correlated with DA. We hypothesized that neural measures of efficient filtering will predict individual variations in demand preferences. To test this hypothesis, we had participants perform a delayed-match-to-sample paradigm with their ERPs recorded, as well as a separate behavioral demand-selection task. We focused on the ERP correlates of cognitive filtering efficiency (CFE)—the ability to ignore task-irrelevant distractors during working memory maintenance—as it manifests in a modulation of the contralateral delay activity, an ERP correlate of cognitive control. As predicted, we found a significant positive correlation between CFE and DA. Individuals with high CFE tended to be significantly more demand avoidant than their low-CFE counterparts. Low-CFE individuals, in comparison, did not form distinct cognitive effort preferences. Overall, our results suggest that cognitive control over the contents of visual working memory contribute to individual differences in the expression of cognitive effort preferences. This further implies that these observed preferences are the product of sensitivity to cognitive task demands.

scholarly journals Isolating Discriminant Neural Activity in the Presence of Eye Movements and Concurrent Task Demands

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Touryan ◽  
Vernon J. Lawhern ◽  
Patrick M. Connolly ◽  
Nima Bigdely-Shamlo ◽  
Anthony J. Ries
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Concurrent Task ◽  
Task Demands

Task demands modulate sustained and transient neural activity during visual-matching tasks

NeuroImage ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Darcy Burgund ◽  
Heather M. Lugar ◽  
Bradley L. Schlaggar ◽  
Steven E. Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Visual Matching

Does predictive cueing of encoding stimulus duration modulate alpha power and facilitate visual working memory performance in younger and older adults?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Sghirripa ◽  
Lynton Graetz ◽  
Nigel Rogasch ◽  
John Semmler ◽  
Mitchell Goldsworthy
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Retention Period ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Oscillatory Power

Both selective attention and visual working memory (WM) performance are vulnerable to age related decline. Older adults perform worse on, and are less able to modulate oscillatory power in the alpha frequency range (8-12 Hz) than younger adults in WM tasks involving predictive cues about ‘where’ or ‘when’ a stimulus will be present. However, no study has investigated whether alpha power is modulated by cues predicting ‘how long’ an encoding duration will be. To test this, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) while 24 younger (aged 18-33 years) and 23 older (aged 60-77 years) adults completed a modified delay match-to-sample task where participants were cued to the duration (either 0.1 s or 0.5 s) of an encoding stimulus consisting of 4 coloured squares. We found: (1) predictive cues increased WM capacity, but long encoding duration trials led to reduced WM capacity in both age groups, compared to short encoding duration trials; (2) no evidence for differences in preparatory alpha power between predictive and neutral cues for either short or long encoding durations, but preparatory alpha suppression was weaker in older adults; (3) retention period oscillatory power differed between short and long encoding duration trials, but these differences were no longer present when comparing the trial types from the onset of the encoding stimulus; and (4) oscillatory power in the preparatory and retention periods were not related to task performance. Our results suggest that preparatory alpha power is not modulated by predictive cues towards encoding duration during visual WM, however, reductions in alpha/beta oscillatory power during visual WM retention may be linked to the encoding stimulus, rather than a process specific to WM retention.

scholarly journals An objective and reliable electrophysiological marker for implicit trustworthiness perception

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-346
Author(s):  
Derek C Swe ◽  
Romina Palermo ◽  
O Scott Gwinn ◽  
Gillian Rhodes ◽  
Markus Neumann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Face Images ◽  
Neural Signature ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Facial Trustworthiness

Abstract Trustworthiness is assumed to be processed implicitly from faces, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of research has only involved explicit trustworthiness judgements. To answer the question whether or not trustworthiness processing can be implicit, we apply an electroencephalography fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) paradigm, where electrophysiological cortical activity is triggered in synchrony with facial trustworthiness cues, without explicit judgements. Face images were presented at 6 Hz, with facial trustworthiness varying at 1 Hz. Significant responses at 1 Hz were observed, indicating that differences in the trustworthiness of the faces were reflected in the neural signature. These responses were significantly reduced for inverted faces, suggesting that the results are associated with higher order face processing. The neural responses were reliable, and correlated with explicit trustworthiness judgements, suggesting that the technique is capable of picking up on stable individual differences in trustworthiness processing. By demonstrating neural activity associated with implicit trustworthiness judgements, our results contribute to resolving a key theoretical debate. Moreover, our data show that FPVS is a valuable tool to examine face processing at the individual level, with potential application in pre-verbal and clinical populations who struggle with verbalization, understanding or memory.

scholarly journals Mindfulness meditation alters neural activity underpinning working memory during tactile distraction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Yufeng Wang ◽  
Gabrielle Freedman ◽  
Kavya Raj ◽  
Bernadette Mary Fitzgibbon ◽  
Caley Sullivan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Tactile Stimulation ◽  
Mindfulness Meditation ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Alpha Activity ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Attentional Function ◽  
Tactile Stimuli

AbstractEvidence suggests that mindfulness meditation (MM) improves selective attention and reduces distractibility by enhancing top-down neural modulation. Altered P300 and alpha neural activity from MM have been identified and may reflect the neural changes that underpin these improvements. Given the proposed role of alpha activity in supressing processing of task-irrelevant information, it is theorised that altered alpha activity may underlie increased availability of neural resources in meditators. The present study investigated attentional function in meditators using a cross-modal study design, examining the P300 during working memory (WM) and alpha activity during concurrent distracting tactile stimuli. Thirty-three meditators and 27 healthy controls participated in the study. Meditators showed a more frontal distribution of P300 neural activity following WM stimuli (p = 0.005, η² = 0.060) and more modulation of alpha activity at parietal-occipital regions between single (tactile stimulation only) and dual task demands (tactile stimulation plus WM task) (p < 0.001, η² = 0.065). Additionally, meditators performed more accurately than controls (p = 0.038, η² = 0.067). The altered distribution of neural activity concurrent with improved WM performance suggests greater attentional resources dedicated to task related functions such as WM in meditators. Thus, meditation-related neural changes are likely multi-faceted involving both altered distribution and also amplitudes of brain activity, enhancing attentional processes depending on task requirements.

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