scholarly journals A causal role for the right frontal eye fields in value comparison

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Krajbich ◽  
Andres Mitsumasu ◽  
Rafael Polania ◽  
Christian C Ruff ◽  
Ernst Fehr
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
The Right

Recent studies have suggested close functional links between overt visual attention and decision making. This suggests that the corresponding mechanisms may interface in brain regions known to be crucial for guiding visual attention – such as the frontal eye field (FEF). Here, we combined brain stimulation, eye tracking, and computational approaches to explore this possibility. We show that inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the right FEF has a causal impact on decision making, reducing the effect of gaze dwell time on choice while also increasing reaction times. We computationally characterize this putative mechanism by using the attentional drift diffusion model (aDDM), which reveals that FEF inhibition reduces the relative discounting of the non-fixated option in the comparison process. Our findings establish an important causal role of the right FEF in choice, elucidate the underlying mechanism, and provide support for one of the key causal hypotheses associated with the aDDM.

scholarly journals A causal role for the right frontal eye fields in value comparison

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andres Mitsumasu ◽  
Ian Krajbich ◽  
Rafael Polania ◽  
Christian C. Ruff ◽  
Ernst Fehr
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
The Right

AbstractRecent studies have suggested close functional links between visual attention and decision making. This suggests that the corresponding mechanisms may interface in brain regions known to be crucial for guiding visual attention – such as the frontal eye field (FEF). Here, we combined brain stimulation, eye tracking and computational approaches to explore this possibility. We show that inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the right FEF has a causal impact on decision-making, reducing the effect of gaze dwell time on choice while also increasing reaction times. We computationally characterize this putative mechanism by using the attentional drift diffusion model (aDDM), which reveals that FEF inhibition reduces the relative discounting of the non-fixated option in the comparison process. Our findings establish an important causal role of the right FEF in choice, elucidate the underlying mechanism, and provide support for one of the key causal hypotheses associated with the aDDM.

The role of the right frontal eye field in overt visual attention deployment as assessed by free visual exploration

2015 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 37-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Cazzoli ◽  
Simon Jung ◽  
Thomas Nyffeler ◽  
Tobias Nef ◽  
Pascal Wurtz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Visual Exploration ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Attention Deployment ◽  
The Right

A causal role of the frontal eye field in visual stability during optokinetic stimulation: TMS-EEG evidence

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 451
Author(s):  
A. Mastropasqua ◽  
J. Dowsett ◽  
M. Dieterich ◽  
P. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Causal Role ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Optokinetic Stimulation ◽  
Visual Stability ◽  
Eye Field

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Human Frontal Eye Field: Effects on Visual Perception and Attention

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1109-1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Hélène Grosbras ◽  
Tomáš Paus
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Visual Detection ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Target Onset ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
The Right

When looking at one object, human subjects can shift their attention to another object in their visual field without moving the eyes. Such shifts of attention activate the same brain regions as those involved in the execution of eye movements. Here we investigate the role of one of the main cortical oculomotor area, namely, the frontal eye field (FEF), in shifts of attention. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a technique known to disrupt transiently eye-movements preparation. We hypothesized that if the FEF is a necessary element in the network involved in shifting attention without moving the eyes, then TMS should also disrupt visuospatial attention. For each volunteer, we positioned the TMS coil over the probabilistic anatomical location of the FEF, and we verified that single pulses delayed eye movements. We then applied TMS during a visuospatial attention task. In this task, a central arrow directed shifts of attention and the subject responded by a keypress to a subsequent visual peripheral target without moving the eyes from the central fixation point. In a few trials, the cue was invalid or uninformative, yielding slower responses than when the cue was valid. We delivered single pulses either 53 msec before or 70 msec after target onset. Contrary to our prediction, the main effect of the stimulation was a decrease in reaction time when it was applied 53 msec before target onset. TMS over the left hemisphere facilitated responses to targets in the right hemifield only and for all cueing conditions, whereas TMS over the right hemisphere had a bilateral effect for valid and neutral but not invalid cueing. Thus, TMS interfered with shift of attention only in the case of right hemisphere stimulation: it increased the cost of invalid cueing. Our results suggest that TMS over the FEF facilitates visual detection, and thereby reduces reaction time. This finding provides new insights into the role of the human FEF in processing visual information. The functional asymmetry observed for both facilitation of visual detection and interference with shifts of attention provides further evidence for the dominance of the right hemisphere for those processes. Our results also underline that the disruptive or facilitative effect of TMS over a given region depends upon the behavioral context.

scholarly journals Saccades, attentional orienting and disengagement: the effects of anodal tDCS over right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and frontal eye field (FEF)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Diana ◽  
Patrick Pilastro ◽  
Edoardo N. Aiello ◽  
Aleksandra K. Eberhard-Moscicka ◽  
René M. Müri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Gap Effect ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
The Right

ABSTRACTIn the present work, we applied anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and frontal eye field (FEF) of the right hemisphere in healthy subjects to modulate attentional orienting and disengagement in a gap-overlap task. Both stimulations led to bilateral improvements in saccadic reaction times (SRTs), with larger effects for gap trials. However, analyses showed that the gap effect was not affected by tDCS. Importantly, we observed significant effects of baseline performance that may mediate side- and task-specific effects of brain stimulation.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Evan Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Agent Causation ◽  
The Right

This chapter lays out the book’s central question: Assuming agency reductionism—that is, the thesis that the causal role of the agent in all agential activities is reducible to the causal role of states and events involving the agent—is it possible to construct a defensible model of libertarianism? It is explained that most think the answer is negative and this is because they think libertarians must embrace some form of agent-causation in order to address the problems of luck and enhanced control. The thesis of the book is that these philosophers are mistaken: it is possible to construct a libertarian model of free will and moral responsibility within an agency reductionist framework that silences that central objections to libertarianism by simply taking the best compatibilist model of freedom and adding indeterminism in the right junctures of human agency. A brief summary of the chapters to follow is given.

scholarly journals The role of the right temporo-parietal junction in social decision-making

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 3072-3085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Bitsch ◽  
Philipp Berger ◽  
Arne Nagels ◽  
Irina Falkenberg ◽  
Benjamin Straube
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
The Right ◽  
Social Decision Making

scholarly journals Salience by Competitive and Recurrent Interactions: Bridging Neural Spiking and Computation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Edward Cox ◽  
Thomas Palmeri ◽  
Gordon D. Logan ◽  
Philip L. Smith ◽  
Jeffrey Schall
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Interaction Model ◽  
Saccade Target ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Visual Neurons ◽  
Discharge Rates ◽  
Neural Spiking ◽  
Eye Field

Decisions about where to move the eyes depend on neurons in Frontal Eye Field (FEF). Movement neurons in FEF accumulate salience evidence derived from FEF visual neurons to select the location of a saccade target among distractors. How visual neurons achieve this salience representation is unknown. We present a neuro-computational model of target selection called Salience by Competitive and Recurrent Interactions (SCRI), based on the Competitive Interaction model of attentional selection and decision making (Smith & Sewell, 2013). SCRI selects targets by synthesizing localization and identification information to yield a dynamically evolving representation of salience across the visual field. SCRI accounts for neural spiking of individual FEF visual neurons, explaining idiosyncratic differences in neural dynamics with specific parameters. Many visual neurons resolve the competition between search items through feedforward inhibition between signals representing different search items, some also require lateral inhibition, and many act as recurrent gates to modulate the incoming flow of information about stimulus identity. SCRI was tested further by using simulated spiking representations of visual salience as input to the Gated Accumulator Model of FEF movement neurons (Purcell et al., 2010; Purcell, Schall, Logan, & Palmeri, 2012). Predicted saccade response times fit those observed for search arrays of different set size and different target-distractor similarity, and accumulator trajectories replicated movement neuron discharge rates. These findings offer new insights into visual decision making through converging neuro-computational constraints and provide a novel computational account of the diversity of FEF visual neurons.

On the cutting edge of glioblastoma surgery: where neurosurgeons agree and disagree on surgical decisions

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Domenique M. J. Müller ◽  
Pierre A. Robe ◽  
Hilko Ardon ◽  
Frederik Barkhof ◽  
Lorenzo Bello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Extent Of Resection ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Tumor Location ◽  
Patient Treatment ◽  
Study Cohort ◽  
Surgical Decision ◽  
Probability Maps ◽  
The Right ◽  
Surgical Decision Making

OBJECTIVE The aim of glioblastoma surgery is to maximize the extent of resection while preserving functional integrity. Standards are lacking for surgical decision-making, and previous studies indicate treatment variations. These shortcomings reflect the need to evaluate larger populations from different care teams. In this study, the authors used probability maps to quantify and compare surgical decision-making throughout the brain by 12 neurosurgical teams for patients with glioblastoma. METHODS The study included all adult patients who underwent first-time glioblastoma surgery in 2012–2013 and were treated by 1 of the 12 participating neurosurgical teams. Voxel-wise probability maps of tumor location, biopsy, and resection were constructed for each team to identify and compare patient treatment variations. Brain regions with different biopsy and resection results between teams were identified and analyzed for patient functional outcome and survival. RESULTS The study cohort consisted of 1087 patients, of whom 363 underwent a biopsy and 724 a resection. Biopsy and resection decisions were generally comparable between teams, providing benchmarks for probability maps of resections and biopsies for glioblastoma. Differences in biopsy rates were identified for the right superior frontal gyrus and indicated variation in biopsy decisions. Differences in resection rates were identified for the left superior parietal lobule, indicating variations in resection decisions. CONCLUSIONS Probability maps of glioblastoma surgery enabled capture of clinical practice decisions and indicated that teams generally agreed on which region to biopsy or to resect. However, treatment variations reflecting clinical dilemmas were observed and pinpointed by using the probability maps, which could therefore be useful for quality-of-care discussions between surgical teams for patients with glioblastoma.

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