Behavioral Responses to Sensory Stimuli During Play at Community-Based Events

We previously reported that noradrenergic neurons in the monkey locus coeruleus (LC) are activated selectively by target stimuli in a target detection task. Here, we varied the discrimination difficulty in this task and recorded impulse activity of LC neurons to analyze LC responses on error trials and in relation to behavioral response times (RTs). In easy and difficult discrimination conditions, LC neurons responded preferentially to target stimuli with phasic activation. These responses consistently preceded behavioral responses regardless of task difficulty. Latencies for LC and behavioral responses increased similarly for difficult compared with easy discrimination trials. LC response latencies were also shorter for fast RT trials compared with slow RT trials regardless of difficulty, indicating a close temporal relationship between LC and behavioral responses. This relationship was confirmed with response-locked histograms of LC activity, which yielded more temporally synchronized LC responses than stimulus-locked histograms. Population histograms of LC activity revealed that nontarget stimuli resulting in false alarm responses produced phasic LC activation (although smaller than for target-hit trials), and nontarget stimuli resulting in correct rejection responses yielded a small inhibition in LC activity. Population analyses also revealed that LC responses included an early, small excitatory component that was not previously detected. This early response was nondiscriminative because it was similar for target and nontarget stimulus trials. These results indicate that LC neurons exhibit early small magnitude responses that are closely linked to sensory stimuli. In addition, these cells show a later, larger magnitude response that is temporally linked to behavioral responses. These and other results lead us to hypothesize that LC responses are driven by decision processes and help facilitate subsequent behavioral responses.

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Use of similar sensory stimuli in the community-based treatment of self-stimulatory behavior in an adult disabled by autism

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/0005-7916(86)90049-2 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 121-125 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Marcia Datlow Smith

Keyword(s):

Community Based ◽

Sensory Stimuli

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Neurons in the Thalamic CM-Pf Complex Supply Striatal Neurons With Information About Behaviorally Significant Sensory Events

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.2001.85.2.960 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 85 (2) ◽

pp. 960-976 ◽

Cited By ~ 261

Author(s):

Naoyuki Matsumoto ◽

Takafumi Minamimoto ◽

Ann M. Graybiel ◽

Minoru Kimura

Keyword(s):

Behavioral Responses ◽

Striatal Neurons ◽

Task Context ◽

Sensory Stimuli ◽

Response Characteristics ◽

Sensory Responsiveness ◽

Input System ◽

Tonically Active Neurons ◽

Long Latency ◽

Sensory Responses

The projection from the thalamic centre médian–parafascicular (CM-Pf) complex to the caudate nucleus and putamen forms a massive striatal input system in primates. We examined the activity of 118 neurons in the CM and 62 neurons in the Pf nuclei of the thalamus and 310 tonically active neurons (TANs) in the striatum in awake behaving macaque monkeys and analyzed the effects of pharmacologic inactivation of the CM-Pf on the sensory responsiveness of the striatal TANs. A large proportion of CM and Pf neurons responded to visual (53%) and/or auditory beep (61%) or click (91%) stimuli presented in behavioral tasks, and many responded to unexpected auditory, visual, or somatosensory stimuli presented outside the task context. The neurons fell into two classes: those having short-latency facilitatory responses (SLF neurons, predominantly in the Pf) and those having long-latency facilitatory responses (LLF neurons, predominantly in the CM). Responses of both types of neuron appeared regardless of whether or not the sensory stimuli were associated with reward. These response characteristics of CM-Pf neurons sharply contrasted with those of TANs in the striatum, which under the same conditions responded preferentially to stimuli associated with reward. Many CM-Pf neurons responded to alerting stimuli such as unexpected handclaps and noises only for the first few times that they occurred; after that, the identical stimuli gradually became ineffective in evoking responses. Habituation of sensory responses was particularly common for the LLF neurons. Inactivation of neuronal activity in the CM and Pf by local infusion of the GABAA receptor agonist, muscimol, almost completely abolished the pause and rebound facilitatory responses of TANs in the striatum. Such injections also diminished behavioral responses to stimuli associated with reward. We suggest that neurons in the CM and Pf supply striatal neurons with information about behaviorally significant sensory events that can activate conditional responses of striatal neurons in combination with dopamine-mediated nigrostriatal inputs having motivational value.

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Group Behavior: Social Context Modulates Behavioral Responses to Sensory Stimuli

Current Biology ◽

10.1016/j.cub.2015.03.052 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 25 (11) ◽

pp. R467-R469

Author(s):

Sara M. Wasserman ◽

Mark A. Frye

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Behavioral Responses ◽

Group Behavior ◽

Sensory Stimuli

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The Lower Bounds of Cognition: What Do Spinal Cords Reveal?

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195304787.003.0006 ◽

2009 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Colin Allen ◽

James W. Grau ◽

Mary W. Meagher

Keyword(s):

Instrumental Conditioning ◽

Behavioral Responses ◽

Science Research ◽

Learning System ◽

Animal Science ◽

Sensory Stimuli ◽

Interesting Learning ◽

The Relationship ◽

Philosophical Understanding

This article examines the role of the spinal cords in cognition. It reviews animal science research that challenges the view that behavioral responses to sensory stimuli that do not involve brain mediation are fixed, automatic, and non-cognitive in nature. This research has shown the spinal cord to be a flexible and interesting learning system in its own right. This article discusses the consequences of these findings for philosophical understanding of the relationship between learning, cognition, and even consciousness. The article also explains the relevant concepts of instrumental conditioning and antinociception and conditioned antinociception.

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fMRI-based detection of alertness predicts behavioral response variability

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.62376 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah E Goodale ◽

Nafis Ahmed ◽

Chong Zhao ◽

Jacco A de Zwart ◽

Pinar S Özbay ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Body ◽

Behavioral Responses ◽

Task Engagement ◽

Time Resolved ◽

Stimulus Interval ◽

Sensory Stimuli ◽

Health And Disease ◽

Statistical Detection ◽

Neural Variability ◽

Behavior And Cognition

Levels of alertness are closely linked with human behavior and cognition. However, while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows for investigating whole-brain dynamics during behavior and task engagement, concurrent measures of alertness (such as EEG or pupillometry) are often unavailable. Here, we extract a continuous, time-resolved marker of alertness from fMRI data alone. We demonstrate that this fMRI alertness marker, calculated in a short pre-stimulus interval, captures trial-to-trial behavioral responses to incoming sensory stimuli. In addition, we find that the prediction of both EEG and behavioral responses during the task may be accomplished using only a small fraction of fMRI voxels. Furthermore, we observe that accounting for alertness appears to increase the statistical detection of task-activated brain areas. These findings have broad implications for augmenting a large body of existing datasets with information about ongoing arousal states, enriching fMRI studies of neural variability in health and disease.

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Neural Mechanisms of Audiovisual Integration in Integrated Processing for Verbal Perception and Spatial Factors

Advances in Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering - Biomedical Engineering and Cognitive Neuroscience for Healthcare ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-2113-8.ch034 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 327-336

Author(s):

Yulin Gao ◽

Weiping Yang ◽

Jingjing Yang ◽

Takahashi Satoshi ◽

Jinglong Wu

Keyword(s):

Behavioral Responses ◽

Spatial Location ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽

Audiovisual Integration ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Future Research ◽

Sensory Stimuli ◽

Integrated Processing ◽

The Relationship

People perceive information from the outside world using several sensory organs rather than through a single one. First, relevant information is processed in the corresponding sensory area independently and then integrated in a multi-sensory processing cerebral region. The integration process influences the later behavioral responses to the sensory stimuli. Based on previous research, this chapter summarizes the neural mechanisms and the influencing factors of audiovisual integration. These include the relationship between the spatial location of auditory stimuli, visual stimuli, and verbal perception. According to research in neurology, the main neural mechanisms of audiovisual integration are from the superior temporal sulcus in the rear left region of the human brain. In the future, research on the combination of virtual reality technology and audiovisual integration should be continued to enable the research achievements to have more ecological effects.

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Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18000274 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

Author(s):

Kevin Arceneaux

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Behavioral Responses ◽

History Of ◽

Economic Beliefs

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

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