scholarly journals Inhibitory and Facilitatory Cueing Effects: Competition between Exogenous and Endogenous Mechanisms

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Lim ◽  
Vivian Eng ◽  
Caitlyn Osborne ◽  
Steve M. J. Janssen ◽  
Jason Satel

Inhibition of return is characterized by delayed responses to previously attended locations when the cue-target onset asynchrony (CTOA) is long enough. However, when cues are predictive of a target’s location, faster reaction times to cued as compared to uncued targets are normally observed. In this series of experiments investigating saccadic reaction times, we manipulated the cue predictability to 25% (counterpredictive), 50% (nonpredictive), and 75% (predictive) to investigate the interaction between predictive endogenous facilitatory (FCEs) and inhibitory cueing effects (ICEs). Overall, larger ICEs were seen in the counterpredictive condition than in the nonpredictive condition, and no ICE was found in the predictive condition. Based on the hypothesized additivity of FCEs and ICEs, we reasoned that the null ICEs observed in the predictive condition are the result of two opposing mechanisms balancing each other out, and the large ICEs observed with counterpredictive cueing can be attributed to the combination of endogenous facilitation at uncued locations with inhibition at cued locations. Our findings suggest that the endogenous activity contributed by cue predictability can reduce the overall inhibition observed when the mechanisms occur at the same location, or enhance behavioral inhibition when the mechanisms occur at opposite locations.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Lim ◽  
Vivian Eng ◽  
Caitlyn Osborne ◽  
Steve M. J. Janssen ◽  
Jason Satel

Inhibition of return is characterized by delayed responses to previously attended locations when the cue-target onset asynchrony (CTOA) is long enough. However, when cues are predictive of a target’s location, faster reaction times to cued as compared to uncued targets are normally observed. In this series of experiments investigating saccadic reaction times, we manipulated cue predictability to 25% (counter-predictive), 50% (non-predictive), and 75% (predictive) to investigate the interaction between predictive endogenous facilitatory (FCEs) and inhibitory cueing effects (ICEs). Overall, larger ICEs were seen in the counter-predictive condition than in the non-predictive condition, and no ICE was found in the predictive condition. Based on the hypothesized additivity of FCEs and ICEs, we reasoned that the null ICEs observed in the predictive condition are the result of two opposing mechanisms balancing each other out, and the large ICEs observed with counter-predictive cueing can be attributed to the combination of endogenous facilitation at uncued locations with inhibition at cued locations. Our findings suggest that the endogenous activity contributed by cue predictability can reduce the overall inhibition observed when the mechanisms occur at the same location, or enhance behavioral inhibition when the mechanisms occur at opposite locations.


2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1256-1263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Dorris ◽  
Raymond M. Klein ◽  
Stefan Everling ◽  
Douglas P. Munoz

The phenomenon of inhibition of return (IOR) has generated considerable interest in cognitive neuroscience because of its putative functional role in visual search, that of placing inhibitory tags on objects that have been recently inspected so as to direct further search to novel items. Many behavioral parameters of this phenomenon have been clearly delineated, and based on indirect but converging evidence, the widely held consensus is that the midbrain superior colliculus (SC) is involved in the generation of IOR. We had previously trained monkeys on a saccadic IOR task and showed that they displayed IOR in a manner similar to that observed in humans. Here we recorded the activity of single neurons in the superficial and intermediate layers of the SC while the monkeys performed this IOR task. We found that when the target was presented at a previously cued location, the stimulus-related response was attenuated and the magnitude of this response was correlated with subsequent saccadic reaction times. Surprisingly, this observed attenuation of activity during IOR was not caused by active inhibition of these neurons because (a) they were, in fact, more active following the presentation of the cue in their response field, and (b) when we repeated the same experiment while using the saccadic response time induced by electrical micro-stimulation of the SC to judge the level of excitability of the SC circuitry during the IOR task, we found faster saccades were elicited from the cued location. Our findings demonstrate that the primate SC participates in the expression of IOR; however, the SC is not the site of the inhibition. Instead, the reduced activity in the SC reflects a signal reduction that has taken place upstream.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-60
Author(s):  
Marin Dujmović ◽  
Zvjezdan Penezić

Research into inhibition processes has been very fertile in modern psychology, especially with the more common use of advanced methods such as functional brain imaging. Despite all the advances made many questions still remain concerning the nature of inhibition processes and the very existence of inhibition. The term inhibition is widely used in everyday life with many meanings which is reflected in the many definitions and methods used to investigate inhibition in psychology. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between inhibition processes and extraversion. Participants (N=50) completed the Croatian version of the HEXACO-PI-R personality inventory (60 item version). Cognitive inhibition was measured with a location based inhibition of return task while behavioral inhibition was measured with a nonverbal Stroop-like interference task. Results show an interaction of extraversion and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) periods whereby extraverts show a greater inhibition effect at the shorter SOA periods (400, 600 ms) compared to introverts while the difference was nonsignificant at the longest SOA period (800 ms). The expected relationship between the two inhibition tasks was not observed. Implications for theories of extraversion and research concerning inibition processes are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Souto ◽  
Sabine Born ◽  
Dirk Kerzel

Inhibition of return is the name typically given to the prolonged latency of motor responses directed to a previously cued target location. There is intense debate about the origins of this effect and its function, but most take for granted (despite lack of evidence) that it depends little on forward masking. Therefore, we re-examined the role of forward masking in inhibition of return. Forward masking was indexed by slower saccadic reaction times (SRTs) when the target orientation repeated the cue orientation at the same location. We confirmed effects of orientation repetition in the absence of an attentional bias when cues were presented on both sides of fixation (bilateral presentation). The effect of orientation repetition was reduced with high target contrast, consistent with a low-level origin such as contrast gain control in early visual areas. When presenting cues on only one side of fixation (unilateral presentation), we obtained inhibition of return with longer cue-target intervals and facilitation with targets presented shortly after the cue. The effect of orientation repetition was reduced when facilitation was observed, but was as strong as with bilateral cues when inhibition of return was observed. Therefore, forward masking may contribute to the inhibition of return effect by delaying reaction times to repeated features at the same location, but is not a principal cause of inhibition of return; in agreement with previous views.


2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eyal M. Reingold ◽  
Dave M. Stampe

The present study investigated saccadic inhibition in both voluntary and stimulus-elicited saccades. Two experiments examined saccadic inhibition caused by an irrelevant flash occurring subsequent to target onset. In each trial, participants were required to perform a single saccade following the presentation of a black target on a gray background, 4° to the left or to the right of screen center. In some trials (flash trials), after a variable delay, a 33-msec flash was displayed at the top and bottom third of the monitor (these regions turned white). In all experimental conditions, histograms of flash-to-saccade latencies documented a decrease in saccadic frequency, forming a dip, time-locked to the flash and occurring as early as 60—70 msec following its onset. The fast latency of this effect strongly suggests a low-level, reflex-like, oculomotor effect, which was referred to as saccadic inhibition. A novel procedure was developed to allow comparisons of saccadic inhibition even across conditions, which in the absence of a flash (no-flash trials) produce dissimilar saccadic reaction times (SRTs) distributions. Experiment 1 examined the effects of the fixation stimulus on saccadic inhibition by contrasting three conditions: a gap condition (fixation stimulus disappeared 200 msec prior to target onset), a step condition (offset of the fixation stimulus was simultaneous with target onset), and an overlap condition (the fixation stimulus remained on for the duration of the trial). The overlap condition produced substantially stronger saccadic inhibition, relative to the gap and the step conditions. Experiment 2 contrasted the saccadic inhibition effect obtained for prosaccades (saccades aimed at the target) with the effect obtained for antisaccades (i.e., saccades aimed away from the same target). The onset of saccadic inhibition was earlier, and its magnitude was stronger, for antisaccades, relative to prosaccades. The plausibility that the superior colliculus is the neurophysiological locus of the saccadic inhibition effect was explored.


1999 ◽  
Vol 127 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Spantekow ◽  
Paul Krappmann ◽  
Stefan Everling ◽  
Hans Flohr

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p7085 ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola J Gregory ◽  
Timothy L Hodgson

Pointing with the eyes or the finger occurs frequently in social interaction to indicate direction of attention and one's intentions. Research with a voluntary saccade task (where saccade direction is instructed by the colour of a fixation point) suggested that gaze cues automatically activate the oculomotor system, but non-biological cues, like arrows, do not. However, other work has failed to support the claim that gaze cues are special. In the current research we introduced biological and non-biological cues into the anti-saccade task, using a range of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). The anti-saccade task recruits both top–down and bottom–up attentional mechanisms, as occurs in naturalistic saccadic behaviour. In experiment 1 gaze, but not arrows, facilitated saccadic reaction times (SRTs) in the opposite direction to the cues over all SOAs, whereas in experiment 2 directional word cues had no effect on saccades. In experiment 3 finger pointing cues caused reduced SRTs in the opposite direction to the cues at short SOAs. These findings suggest that biological cues automatically recruit the oculomotor system whereas non-biological cues do not. Furthermore, the anti-saccade task set appears to facilitate saccadic responses in the opposite direction to the cues.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (29) ◽  
pp. 7577-7581 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Saban ◽  
Liora Sekely ◽  
Raymond M. Klein ◽  
Shai Gabay

The literature has long emphasized the neocortex’s role in volitional processes. In this work, we examined endogenous orienting in an evolutionarily older species, the archer fish, which lacks neocortex-like cells. We used Posner’s classic endogenous cuing task, in which a centrally presented, spatially informative cue is followed by a target. The fish responded to the target by shooting a stream of water at it. Interestingly, the fish demonstrated a human-like “volitional” facilitation effect: their reaction times to targets that appeared on the side indicated by the precue were faster than their reaction times to targets on the opposite side. The fish also exhibited inhibition of return, an aftermath of orienting that commonly emerges only in reflexive orienting tasks in human participants. We believe that this pattern demonstrates the acquisition of an arbitrary connection between spatial orienting and a nonspatial feature of a centrally presented stimulus in nonprimate species. In the literature on human attention, orienting in response to such contingencies has been strongly associated with volitional control. We discuss the implications of these results for the evolution of orienting, and for the study of volitional processes in all species, including humans.


1993 ◽  
Vol 71 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 414-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.W. Simpson ◽  
W. D. Ruwe ◽  
R. D. Myers

The neuroanatomical distribution of sites in the diencephalon and mesencephalon within which a prostaglandin (PG) of the E series elicits hyperthermia was characterized in Macaca mulatta and Macaca nemestrina. In 420 experiments undertaken in 13 animals, 225 loci were examined for their reactivity to PGE1 microinjected in a dose of 30 or 100 ng given in a volume of 1.0–1.5 μL. The regions of the brainstem for injection extended rostrally from the thermosensitive cells of the anterior hypothalamic, preoptic area (AH/POA) to the caudal border of the mesencephalon. Colonic and skin temperatures of the monkeys were measured continuously by thermistor probes. A hyperthermic response of ≥0.5 °C and a latency of ≤45 min was evoked by PGE1 within sites located primarily in the AH/POA. When PGE1 was microinjected at loci located caudal to the AH/POA, the elevation in body temperature (Tb) not only was less intense but rose at a slower rate. A higher concentration of PGE1 in these caudal regions was required to induce hyperthermia comparable with that elicited at loci within the AH/POA. In a second series of experiments either 1.0–5.0 μg 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) or a concentration of 108 organisms/mL of Escherichia coli was microinjected at PGE1-reactive sites. A close anatomical concordance within the AH/POA of the animal was found in terms of the temporal characteristics and magnitude of the hyperthermia evoked by the indoleamine or lipopolysaccharide. The present results coincide with the reported neuroanatomical distribution of sites in the diencephalon and mesencephalon of other species in which PGE1 causes hyperthermia. Furthermore, these findings support the concept that the local neuronal mechanism of action of a pyrogen in the brainstem of the primate may involve phasic changes in the endogenous activity of both the serotonergic pathway and cyclo-oxygenase system in the AH/POA. In turn, their commonality of action suggests a functional similarity in their effect of shifting the set point for Tb.Key words: prostaglandin E1, hyperthermia, serotonin, Escherichia coli, anterior hypothalamus, thermoregulation, bacterial pyrogen, preoptic area, neuroanatomical localization, Macaca nemestrina, Macaca mulatta.


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