The reverse motion illusion in random dot motion displays and implications for understanding development

Across two independent developmental labs, we have been puzzled by the observation that a small proportion of our child and adult participants consistently report perceiving motion in the direction opposite to that presented in random dot motion displays, sometimes even when the motion is at 100% coherence. In this review, we first draw together existing reports of misperceptions of motion direction in random dot displays across observers in a small percentage of trials, before reporting evidence of consistent reverse motion perception in a minority of observers, including previously unreported observations from our own studies of visual development. We consider possible explanations for this reverse motion illusion, including motion induction, motion energy, correspondence noise and spatial undersampling. However, more work is required to understand the individual differences relating to this percept. We suggest that errors in perceived motion direction are likely to be more widespread than can be currently gleaned from the literature and explain why systematic study is needed, especially in children. Finally, we list some remaining open questions and call for collaborative efforts to document this phenomenon and stimulate future investigation.

Concurrent fMRI demonstrates propagation of TMS effects across task-related networks

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become an important technique in both scientific and clinical practices, and yet our understanding of how the brain responds to TMS is still limited. Concurrent neuroimaging during TMS may bridge this gap, and emerging evidence suggests widespread that modulatory effects of TMS may be best captured through changes in functional connectivity between distributed networks, rather than local changes in cortical activity. However, the relationship between TMS stimulation parameters and evoked changes in functional connectivity is unknown. In this study, 24 healthy volunteers received concurrent TMS-fMRI while performing a dot-motion direction discrimination task. An MR-compatible coil was used to apply trains of three pulses at 10 Hz rTMS over the primary visual cortex (V1) at the onset of the dot stimuli with four levels of stimulation intensity (20%, 40%, 80%, and 120% of resting motor threshold, RMT). Behavioral results demonstrated impairment of motion discrimination at 80% RMT. FMRI results yielded three findings. First, functional connectivity between visual and non-visual areas increased as a function of rTMS intensity. Second, connectivity within the visual network was positively associated with motion accuracy, while the connectivity between visual and non-visual regions was negatively associated with motion accuracy. Lastly, we found that reductions in the similarity between functional and structural connectivity associated with increasing TMS intensity were constrained to the visual network. These findings demonstrate spatially dependent nonlinear effects of TMS intensity on brain functional connectivity that proceed beyond the site of stimulation and influence associated behavior.

Perceptual uncertainty alternates top-down and bottom-up fronto-temporal network signaling during response inhibition

Response inhibition is a primary executive control function that allows the withholding of inappropriate responses, and requires appropriate perception of the external environment to achieve a behavioral goal. It remains unclear, however, how response inhibition is achieved when goal-relevant information involves perceptual uncertainty. Twenty-six human participants of both sexes performed a go/no-go task where visually presented random-dot motion stimuli involved perceptual uncertainties. The right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) was involved in response inhibition, and the middle temporal (MT) region showed greater activity when dot motions involved less uncertainty. A neocortical temporal region in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) specifically showed greater activity during response inhibition in more perceptually certain trials. In this STS region, activity was greater when response inhibition was successful than when it failed. Directional effective connectivity analysis revealed that in more coherent trials, the MT and STS regions showed enhanced connectivity to the rIFC, whereas in less coherent trials, the signal direction was reversed. These results suggest that a reversible fronto-temporal functional network guides response inhibition under perceptual uncertainty, and in this network, perceptual information in the MT is converted to control information in the rIFC via STS, enabling achievement of response inhibition.

No evidence for three functionally specialized subregions in the subthalamic nucleus: A model-based 7 T fMRI study

The subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a small, subcortical brain structure. It is a target for deep brain stimulation, an invasive treatment that reduces motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Side effects of DBS are commonly explained using the tripartite model of STN organization, which proposes three functionally distinct subregions in the STN specialized in cognitive, limbic, and motor processing. However, evidence for the tripartite model exclusively comes from anatomical studies and functional studies using clinical patients. Here, we provide the first experimental tests of the tripartite model in healthy volunteers using ultra-high field 7 Tesla (T) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). 34 participants performed a random-dot motion decision-making task with a difficulty manipulation and a choice payoff manipulation aimed to differentially affect cognitive and limbic networks. Moreover, participants responded with their left and right index finger, differentially affecting motor networks. We analysed BOLD signal in three subregions of equal volume of the STN along the dorsolateral-ventromedial axis, identified using manually delineated high resolution anatomical images. Our results indicate that all segments responded equally to the experimental manipulations, and did not support the tripartite model.

Improvement of association between confidence and accuracy after integration of discrete evidence over time

When making decisions in real-life, we may receive discrete pieces of evidence during a time period. Although subjects are able to integrate information from separate cues to improve their accuracy, confidence formation is controversial. Due to a strong positive relation between accuracy and confidence, we predicted that confidence followed the same characteristics as accuracy and would improve following the integration of information collected from separate cues. We applied a Random-dot-motion discrimination task in which participants had to indicate the predominant direction of dot motions by saccadic eye movement after receiving one or two brief stimuli (i.e., pulse(s)). The interval of two pulses (up to 1s) was selected randomly. Color-coded targets facilitated indicating confidence simultaneously. Using behavioral data, computational models, pupillometry and EEG methodology we show that in double-pulse trials: (i) participants improve their confidence resolution rather than reporting higher confidence comparing with single-pulse trials, (ii) the observed confidence follow neural and pupillometry markers of confidence, unlike in weak and brief single-pulse trials. Overall, our study showed improvement of associations between confidence and accuracy in decision results from the integration of stimulus separated by different temporal gaps.

The Discovery and Interpretation of Evidence Accumulation Stages

To improve the understanding of cognitive processing stages, we combined two prominent traditions in cognitive science: evidence accumulation models and stage discovery methods. While evidence accumulation models have been applied to a wide variety of tasks, they are limited to tasks in which decision-making effects can be attributed to a single processing stage. Here, we propose a new method that first uses machine learning to discover processing stages in EEG data and then applies evidence accumulation models to characterize the duration effects in the identified stages. To evaluate this method, we applied it to a previously published associative recognition task (Application 1) and a previously published random dot motion task with a speed-accuracy trade-off manipulation (Application 2). In both applications, the evidence accumulation models accounted better for the data when we first applied the stage-discovery method, and the resulting parameter estimates where generally in line with psychological theories. In addition, in Application 1 the results shed new light on target-foil effects in associative recognition, while in Application 2 the stage discovery method identified an additional stage in the accuracy-focused condition — challenging standard evidence accumulation accounts. We conclude that the new framework provides a powerful new tool to investigate processing stages.

A Hierarchical Attractor Network Model of perceptual versus intentional decision updates

Changes of Mind are a striking example of our ability to flexibly reverse decisions and change our own actions. Previous studies largely focused on Changes of Mind in decisions about perceptual information. Here we report reversals of decisions that require integrating multiple classes of information: 1) Perceptual evidence, 2) higher-order, voluntary intentions, and 3) motor costs. In an adapted version of the random-dot motion task, participants moved to a target that matched both the external (exogenous) evidence about dot-motion direction and a preceding internally-generated (endogenous) intention about which colour to paint the dots. Movement trajectories revealed whether and when participants changed their mind about the dot-motion direction, or additionally changed their mind about which colour to choose. Our results show that decision reversals about colour intentions are less frequent in participants with stronger intentions (Exp. 1) and when motor costs of intention pursuit are lower (Exp. 2). We further show that these findings can be explained by a hierarchical, multimodal Attractor Network Model that continuously integrates higher-order voluntary intentions with perceptual evidence and motor costs. Our model thus provides a unifying framework in which voluntary actions emerge from a dynamic combination of internal action tendencies and external environmental factors, each of which can be subject to Change of Mind.

Distractors Selectively Modulate Electrophysiological Markers of Perceptual Decisions

Current models of perceptual decision-making assume that choices are made after evidence in favor of an alternative accumulates to a given threshold. This process has recently been revealed in human electrophysiological (EEG) recordings, but an unresolved issue is how these neural mechanisms are modulated by competing, yet task-irrelevant, stimuli. In this study, we tested 20 healthy participants on a motion direction discrimination task. Participants monitored two patches of random dot motion simultaneously presented on either side of fixation for periodic changes in an upward or downward motion, which could occur equiprobably in either patch. On a random 50% of trials, these periods of coherent vertical motion were accompanied by simultaneous task-irrelevant, horizontal motion in the contralateral patch. Our data showed that these distractors selectively increased the amplitude of early target selection responses over scalp sites contralateral to the distractor stimulus, without impacting on responses ipsilateral to the distractor. Importantly, this modulation mediated a decrement in the subsequent buildup rate of a neural signature of evidence accumulation and accounted for a slowing of RTs. These data offer new insights into the functional interactions between target selection and evidence accumulation signals, and their susceptibility to task-irrelevant distractors. More broadly, these data neurally inform future models of perceptual decision-making by highlighting the influence of early processing of competing stimuli on the accumulation of perceptual evidence.

Detaching from influence in decision-making: objective and subjective freedom of choice

How much can people resist influence in choice? In this study, we explored participants’ abilities to voluntarily detach from irrelevant information to make free choices. Participants saw random-dot-motion stimuli and a colour-cue indicating whether their response should be congruent or incongruent with the direction of dot-motion. Importantly, in a third condition, the colour-cue instructed participants to detach from dot-motion direction and to freely choose how to respond. After each trial, participants rated how much they felt their decision was influenced by the stimulus. Our results showed that participants conflated opposition and independence: responses incongruent with the stimulus were systematically associated with a greater sense of freedom and detachment, whether these responses were instructed or made freely. Further, this effect seemed stronger in participants who tended to oppose the stimulus more frequently. Taken together, these results suggest that feelings of freedom rely on opposing suggestion and breaking from our habits.