scholarly journals Experience-Specific Dimensions of Consciousness (Observable in Flexible and Spontaneous Action Planning Among Animals)

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelica Kaufmann
Keyword(s):  
Action Planning ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
Animal Consciousness ◽  
Temporal Properties ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Sliding Scale ◽  
Spontaneous Action

The multidimensional framework to the study of consciousness, which comes as an alternative to a single sliding scale model, offers a set of experimental paradigms for investigating dimensions of animal consciousness, acknowledging the compelling urge for a novel approach. One of these dimensions investigates whether non-human animals can flexibly and spontaneously plan for a future event, and for future desires, without relying on reinforcement learning. This is a critical question since different intentional structures for action in non-human animals are described as served by different neural mechanisms underpinning the capacity to represent temporal properties. And a lack of appreciation of this variety of intentional structures and neural correlates has led many experts to doubt that animals have access to temporal reasoning and to not recognize temporality as a mark of consciousness, and as a psychological resource for their life. With respect to this, there is a significant body of ethological evidence for planning abilities in non-human animals, too often overlooked, and that instead should be taken into serious account. This could contribute to assigning consciousness profiles, across and within species, that should be tailored according to an implemented and expansive use of the multidimensional framework. This cannot be fully operational in the absence of an additional tag to its dimensions of variations: the experience-specificity of consciousness.

Neural Correlates of Syntactic Processing in Two-Year-Olds

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 1667-1678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regine Oberecker ◽  
Manuela Friedrich ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Late Positivity ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
First Pass ◽  
Anterior Negativity

Event-related brain potential (ERP) studies of sentence processing in adults have shown that phrase-structure violations are associated with two ERP components: an early left anterior negativity (ELAN) and a late, centro-parietal positivity (P600). Although the ELAN reflects highly automatic first-pass sentence parsing, the P600 has been interpreted to reflect later, more controlled processes. The present ERP study investigates the processing of phrase-structure violations in children below three years of age. Both children (mean age of 2.8 years) and adults passively listened to short active sentences that were either correct or syntactically incorrect. Adults displayed an ELAN that was followed by a P600 to the syntactic violation. Children also demonstrated a biphasic ERP pattern consisting of an early left hemispheric negativity and a late positivity. Both components, however, started later and persisted longer than those observed in adults. The left lateralization of the children's negativity suggests that this component can be interpreted as a child-specific precursor to the ELAN observed in adults. The appearance of the early negativity indicates that the neural mechanisms of syntactic parsing are present, in principle, during early language development.

scholarly journals Neural correlates of beauty retouching to enhance attractiveness of self-depictions in women

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chisa Ota ◽  
Tamami Nakano
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Facial Attractiveness ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Amygdala Activity ◽  
Increased Activity

AbstractBeauty filters, while often employed for retouching photos to appear more attractive on social media, when used in excess cause images to give a distorted impression. The neural mechanisms underlying this change in facial attractiveness according to beauty retouching level remain unknown. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging in women as they viewed photos of their own face or unknown faces that had been retouched at three levels: no, mild, and extreme. The activity in the nucleus accumbens (NA) exhibited a positive correlation with facial attractiveness, whereas amygdala activity showed a negative correlation with attractiveness. Even though the participants rated others’ faces as more attractive than their own, the NA showed increased activity only for their mildly retouched own face and the amygdala exhibited greater activation in the others’ faces condition than the own face condition. Moreover, amygdala activity was greater for extremely retouched faces than for unretouched or mildly retouched faces for both conditions. Frontotemporal and cortical midline areas showed greater activation for one’s own than others’ faces, but such self-related activation was absent when extremely retouched. These results suggest that neural activity dynamically switches between the NA and amygdala according to perceived attractiveness of one’s face.

Task Planning of Assembly of Flexible Objects and Vision-Based Verification

Robotica ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Miura ◽  
Katsushi Ikeuchi
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Assembly System ◽  
Automated Manufacturing ◽  
Laser Range Finder ◽  
Automated Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Laser Range ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Rubber Belt ◽  
Flexible Objects

The ability of manipulating flexible objects, such as rubber belts and paper sheets, is important in automated manufacturing systems. This paper describes a novel approach to vision-guided assembly of flexible objects. The operation dealt with in this paper is to assemble a rubber belt with fixed pulleys. By analyzing possible states of the belt based on the empirical knowledge of the belt, we can derive a method to have not only the action planning but also the visual verification planning. We have implemented a belt assembly system using the two manipulators and a laser range finder as the sensor, and succeeded in performing the belt-pulley assembly. The extension of our approach to other kinds of assembly of flexible objects is also discussed.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal neural correlates of brain-computer interface learning

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Constance Corsi ◽  
Mario Chavez ◽  
Denis Schwartz ◽  
Nathalie George ◽  
Laurent Hugueville ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Good Control ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Computer Interfaces ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Communication Control

AbstractBrain-computer interfaces have been largely developed to allow communication, control, and neurofeedback in human beings. Despite their great potential, BCIs perform inconsistently across individuals. Moreover, the neural processes activated by training that enable humans to achieve good control remain poorly understood. In this study, we show that BCI skill acquisition is paralleled by a progressive reinforcement of task-related activity and by the reduction of connectivity between regions beyond those primarily targeted during the experiments. Notably, these patterns of activity and connectivity reflect growing automaticity and predict future BCI performance. Altogether, our findings provide new insights in the neural mechanisms underlying BCI learning, which have implications for the use of this technology in a broad range of real-life applications.

scholarly journals Understanding visual attention with RAGNAROC: A Reflexive Attention Gradient through Neural AttRactOr Competition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brad Wyble ◽  
Chloe Callahan-Flintoft ◽  
Hui Chen ◽  
Toma Marinov ◽  
Aakash Sarkar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Lower Priority ◽  
Reflexive Attention ◽  
Visual Hierarchy ◽  
New Information ◽  
Suppression Effects

AbstractA quintessential challenge for any perceptual system is the need to focus on task-relevant information without being blindsided by unexpected, yet important information. The human visual system incorporates several solutions to this challenge, one of which is a reflexive covert attention system that is rapidly responsive to both the physical salience and the task-relevance of new information. This paper presents a model that simulates behavioral and neural correlates of reflexive attention as the product of brief neural attractor states that are formed across the visual hierarchy when attention is engaged. Such attractors emerge from an attentional gradient distributed over a population of topographically organized neurons and serve to focus processing at one or more locations in the visual field, while inhibiting the processing of lower priority information. The model moves towards a resolution of key debates about the nature of reflexive attention, such as whether it is parallel or serial, and whether suppression effects are distributed in a spatial surround, or selectively at the location of distractors. Most importantly, the model develops a framework for understanding the neural mechanisms of visual attention as a spatiotopic decision process within a hierarchy and links them to observable correlates such as accuracy, reaction time, and the N2pc and PD components of the EEG. This last contribution is the most crucial for repairing the disconnect that exists between our understanding of behavioral and neural correlates of attention.

scholarly journals Neural correlates of ingroup bias for prosociality in rats

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal ◽  
Jocelyn M Breton ◽  
Huanjie Sheng ◽  
Kimberly LP Long ◽  
Stella Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Ingroup Bias ◽  
Helping Others ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Shared Network ◽  
In Vivo Calcium Imaging ◽  
Central Network

Prosocial behavior, in particular helping others in need, occurs preferentially in response to distress of one’s own group members. In order to explore the neural mechanisms promoting mammalian helping behavior, a discovery-based approach was used here to identify brain-wide activity correlated with helping behavior in rats. Demonstrating social selectivity, rats helped others of their strain (‘ingroup’), but not rats of an unfamiliar strain (‘outgroup’), by releasing them from a restrainer. Analysis of brain-wide neural activity via quantification of the early-immediate gene c-Fos identified a shared network, including frontal and insular cortices, that was active in the helping test irrespective of group membership. In contrast, the striatum was selectively active for ingroup members, and activity in the nucleus accumbens, a central network hub, correlated with helping. In vivo calcium imaging showed accumbens activity when rats approached a trapped ingroup member, and retrograde tracing identified a subpopulation of accumbens-projecting cells that was correlated with helping. These findings demonstrate that motivation and reward networks are associated with helping an ingroup member and provide the first description of neural correlates of ingroup bias in rodents.

Effort-cost decision-making in psychosis and depression: could a similar behavioral deficit arise from disparate psychological and neural mechanisms?

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 889-904 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Culbreth ◽  
E. K. Moran ◽  
D. M. Barch
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Behavioral Deficit ◽  
Current Review ◽  
Potential Contributor ◽  
Reward Responsivity ◽  
Recent Experimental Work

Motivational impairment is a common feature of both depression and psychosis; however, the psychological and neural mechanisms that give rise to motivational impairment in these disorders are poorly understood. Recent research has suggested that aberrant effort-cost decision-making (ECDM) may be a potential contributor to motivational impairment in both psychosis and depression. ECDM refers to choices that individuals make regarding the amount of ‘work’ they are willing to expend to obtain a certain outcome or reward. Recent experimental work has suggested that those with psychosis and depression may be less willing to expend effort to obtain rewards compared with controls, and that this effort deficit is related to motivational impairment in both disorders. In the current review, we aim to summarize the current literature on ECDM in psychosis and depression, providing evidence for transdiagnostic impairment. Next, we discuss evidence for the hypothesis that a seemingly similar behavioral ECDM deficit might arise from disparate psychological and neural mechanisms. Specifically, we argue that effort deficits in psychosis might be largely driven by deficits in cognitive control and the neural correlates of cognitive control processes, while effort deficits in depression might be largely driven by reduced reward responsivity and the associated neural correlates of reward responsivity. Finally, we will provide some discussion regarding future directions, as well as interpretative challenges to consider when examining ECDM transdiagnostically.

scholarly journals The future of human cerebral cartography: a novel approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1668) ◽  
pp. 20140171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Frackowiak ◽  
Henry Markram
Keyword(s):  
Scale Model ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Brain Structure And Function ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Different Levels

Cerebral cartography can be understood in a limited, static, neuroanatomical sense. Temporal information from electrical recordings contributes information on regional interactions adding a functional dimension. Selective tagging and imaging of molecules adds biochemical contributions. Cartographic detail can also be correlated with normal or abnormal psychological or behavioural data. Modern cerebral cartography is assimilating all these elements. Cartographers continue to collect ever more precise data in the hope that general principles of organization will emerge. However, even detailed cartographic data cannot generate knowledge without a multi-scale framework making it possible to relate individual observations and discoveries. We propose that, in the next quarter century, advances in cartography will result in progressively more accurate drafts of a data-led, multi-scale model of human brain structure and function. These blueprints will result from analysis of large volumes of neuroscientific and clinical data, by a process of reconstruction, modelling and simulation. This strategy will capitalize on remarkable recent developments in informatics and computer science and on the existence of much existing, addressable data and prior, though fragmented, knowledge. The models will instantiate principles that govern how the brain is organized at different levels and how different spatio-temporal scales relate to each other in an organ-centred context.

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