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Tünçok E, Carrasco M, Winawer J. Spatial attention alters visual cortical representation during target anticipation. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.03.02.583127. [PMID: 38496524 PMCID: PMC10942396 DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.02.583127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
Attention enables us to efficiently and flexibly interact with the environment by prioritizing some image features in preparation for responding to a stimulus. Using a concurrent psychophysics- fMRI experiment, we investigated how covert spatial attention affects responses in human visual cortex prior to target onset, and how it affects subsequent behavioral performance. Performance improved at cued locations and worsened at uncued locations, relative to distributed attention, demonstrating a selective tradeoff in processing. Pre-target BOLD responses in cortical visual field maps changed in two ways: First, there was a stimulus-independent baseline shift, positive in map locations near the cued location and negative elsewhere, paralleling the behavioral results. Second, population receptive field centers shifted toward the attended location. Both effects increased in higher visual areas. Together, the results show that spatial attention has large effects on visual cortex prior to target appearance, altering neural response properties throughout and across multiple visual field maps.
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2
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Pan WN, Zhao YW, Luo ZX, Chen Y, Cai YC. Attention modulates early visual processing: An association between subjective contrast perception and early C1 ERP component. Psychophysiology 2024; 61:e14507. [PMID: 38146152 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Revised: 11/26/2023] [Accepted: 11/28/2023] [Indexed: 12/27/2023]
Abstract
The question of whether spatial attention can modulate initial afferent activity in area V1, as measured by the earliest visual event-related potential (ERP) component "C1", is still the subject of debate. Because attention always enhances behavioral performance, previous research has focused on finding evidence of attention-related enhancements in visual neural responses. However, recent psychophysical studies revealed a complex picture of attention's influence on visual perception: attention amplifies the perceived contrast of low-contrast stimuli while dampening the perceived contrast of high-contrast stimuli. This evidence suggests that attention may not invariably augment visual neural responses but could instead exert inhibitory effects under certain circumstances. Whether this bi-directional modulation of attention also manifests in C1 and whether the modulation of C1 underpins the attentional influence on contrast perception remain unknown. To address these questions, we conducted two experiments (N = 67 in total) by employing a combination of behavioral and ERP methodologies. Our results did not unveil a uniform attentional enhancement or attenuation effect of C1 across all subjects. However, an intriguing correlation between the attentional effects of C1 and contrast appearance for high-contrast stimuli did emerge, revealing an association between attentional modulation of C1 and the attentional modulation of contrast appearance. This finding offers new insights into the relationship between attention, perceptual experience, and early visual neural processing, suggesting that the attentional effect on subjective visual perception could be mediated by the attentional modulation of the earliest visual cortical response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wang-Nan Pan
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yu-Wan Zhao
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Zi-Xi Luo
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yue Chen
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yong-Chun Cai
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
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3
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Alais D, Coorey J, Blake R, Davidson MJ. A new 'CFS tracking' paradigm reveals uniform suppression depth regardless of target complexity or salience. eLife 2024; 12:RP91019. [PMID: 38682887 PMCID: PMC11057872 DOI: 10.7554/elife.91019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/01/2024] Open
Abstract
When the eyes view separate and incompatible images, the brain suppresses one image and promotes the other into visual awareness. Periods of interocular suppression can be prolonged during continuous flash suppression (CFS) - when one eye views a static 'target' while the other views a complex dynamic stimulus. Measuring the time needed for a suppressed image to break CFS (bCFS) has been widely used to investigate unconscious processing, and the results have generated controversy regarding the scope of visual processing without awareness. Here, we address this controversy with a new 'CFS tracking' paradigm (tCFS) in which the suppressed monocular target steadily increases in contrast until breaking into awareness (as in bCFS) after which it decreases until it again disappears (reCFS), with this cycle continuing for many reversals. Unlike bCFS, tCFS provides a measure of suppression depth by quantifying the difference between breakthrough and suppression thresholds. tCFS confirms that (i) breakthrough thresholds indeed differ across target types (e.g. faces vs gratings, as bCFS has shown) - but (ii) suppression depth does not vary across target types. Once the breakthrough contrast is reached for a given stimulus, all stimuli require a strikingly uniform reduction in contrast to reach the corresponding suppression threshold. This uniform suppression depth points to a single mechanism of CFS suppression, one that likely occurs early in visual processing because suppression depth was not modulated by target salience or complexity. More fundamentally, it shows that variations in bCFS thresholds alone are insufficient for inferring whether the barrier to achieving awareness exerted by interocular suppression is weaker for some categories of visual stimuli compared to others.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Alais
- School of Psychology, The University of SydneySydneyAustralia
| | - Jacob Coorey
- School of Psychology, The University of SydneySydneyAustralia
| | - Randolph Blake
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt UniversityNashvilleUnited States
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4
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Chandrasekaran AN, Vermani A, Gupta P, Steinmetz N, Moore T, Sridharan D. Dissociable components of attention exhibit distinct neuronal signatures in primate visual cortex. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadi0645. [PMID: 38306428 PMCID: PMC10836731 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi0645] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2023] [Accepted: 01/04/2024] [Indexed: 02/04/2024]
Abstract
Attention can be deployed in multiple forms and facilitates behavior by influencing perceptual sensitivity and choice bias. Attention is also associated with a myriad of changes in sensory neural activity. Yet, the relationship between the behavioral components of attention and the accompanying changes in neural activity remains largely unresolved. We examined this relationship by quantifying sensitivity and bias in monkeys performing a task that dissociated eye movement responses from the focus of covert attention. Unexpectedly, bias, not sensitivity, increased at the focus of covert attention, whereas sensitivity increased at the location of planned eye movements. Furthermore, neuronal activity within visual area V4 varied robustly with bias, but not sensitivity, at the focus of covert attention. In contrast, correlated variability between neuronal pairs was lowest at the location of planned eye movements, and varied with sensitivity, but not bias. Thus, dissociable behavioral components of attention exhibit distinct neuronal signatures within the visual cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ayesha Vermani
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
| | - Priyanka Gupta
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
| | - Nicholas Steinmetz
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Tirin Moore
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Devarajan Sridharan
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
- Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
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5
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Wang X, Nandy AS, Jadi MP. Laminar compartmentalization of attention modulation in area V4 aligns with the demands of visual processing hierarchy in the cortex. Sci Rep 2023; 13:19558. [PMID: 37945642 PMCID: PMC10636153 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-46722-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 11/04/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Attention selectively enhances neural responses to low contrast stimuli in visual area V4, a critical hub that sends projections both up and down the visual hierarchy. Veridical encoding of contrast information is a key computation in early visual areas, while later stages encoding higher level features benefit from improved sensitivity to low contrast. How area V4 meets these distinct information processing demands in the attentive state is unknown. We found that attentional modulation in V4 is cortical layer and cell-class specific. Putative excitatory neurons in the superficial layers show enhanced boosting of low contrast information, while those of deep layers exhibit contrast-independent scaling. Computational modeling suggested the extent of spatial integration of inhibitory neurons as the mechanism behind such laminar differences. Considering that superficial neurons are known to project to higher areas and deep layers to early visual areas, our findings suggest that the interactions between attention and contrast in V4 are compartmentalized, in alignment with the demands of the visual processing hierarchy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiang Wang
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
| | - Anirvan S Nandy
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
| | - Monika P Jadi
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA.
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA.
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Klímová M, Bloem IM, Ling S. Attention preserves the selectivity of feature-tuned normalization. J Neurophysiol 2023; 130:990-998. [PMID: 37706234 PMCID: PMC10648940 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00194.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2023] [Revised: 08/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Attention and divisive normalization both contribute to making visual processing more efficient. Attention selectively increases the neural gain of relevant information in the early visual cortex, resulting in stronger perceived salience for attended regions or features. Divisive normalization improves processing efficiency by suppressing responses to homogeneous inputs and highlighting salient boundaries, facilitating sparse coding of inputs. Theoretical and empirical research suggest a tight link between attention and normalization, wherein attending to a stimulus results in a release from normalization, thereby allowing for an increase in neural response gain. In the present study, we address whether attention alters the qualitative properties of normalization. Specifically, we examine how attention influences the feature-tuned nature of normalization, whereby suppression is stronger between visual stimuli whose orientation contents are similar, and weaker when the orientations are different. Ten human observers viewed stimuli that varied in orientation content while we acquired fMRI BOLD responses under two attentional states: attending toward or attending away from the stimulus. Our results indicate that attention does not alter the specificity of feature-tuned normalization. Instead, attention seems to enhance visuocortical responses evenly, regardless of the degree of orientation similarity within the stimulus. Since visuocortical responses exhibit adaptation to statistical regularities in natural scenes, we conclude that while attention can selectively increase the gain of responses to attended items, it does not appear to alter the ecologically relevant correspondence between orientation differences and strength of tuned normalization.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The magnitude of visuocortical BOLD responses scales with orientation differences in visual stimuli, with the strongest response suppression for collinear stimuli and least suppression for orthogonal, in a way that appears to match natural scene statistics. We examined the effects of attention on this feature-tuned property of suppression and found that while attending to a stimulus increases the overall gain of visuocortical responses, the qualitative properties of feature-tuning remain unchanged, suggesting attention preserves tuned normalization properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michaela Klímová
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
| | - Ilona M Bloem
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York City, New York, United States
| | - Sam Ling
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
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Itthipuripat S, Phangwiwat T, Wiwatphonthana P, Sawetsuttipan P, Chang KY, Störmer VS, Woodman GF, Serences JT. Dissociable Neural Mechanisms Underlie the Effects of Attention on Visual Appearance and Response Bias. J Neurosci 2023; 43:6628-6652. [PMID: 37620156 PMCID: PMC10538590 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2192-22.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Revised: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/13/2023] [Indexed: 08/26/2023] Open
Abstract
A prominent theoretical framework spanning philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience holds that selective attention penetrates early stages of perceptual processing to alter the subjective visual experience of behaviorally relevant stimuli. For example, searching for a red apple at the grocery store might make the relevant color appear brighter and more saturated compared with seeing the exact same red apple while searching for a yellow banana. In contrast, recent proposals argue that data supporting attention-related changes in appearance reflect decision- and motor-level response biases without concurrent changes in perceptual experience. Here, we tested these accounts by evaluating attentional modulations of EEG responses recorded from male and female human subjects while they compared the perceived contrast of attended and unattended visual stimuli rendered at different levels of physical contrast. We found that attention enhanced the amplitude of the P1 component, an early evoked potential measured over visual cortex. A linking model based on signal detection theory suggests that response gain modulations of the P1 component track attention-induced changes in perceived contrast as measured with behavior. In contrast, attentional cues induced changes in the baseline amplitude of posterior alpha band oscillations (∼9-12 Hz), an effect that best accounts for cue-induced response biases, particularly when no stimuli are presented or when competing stimuli are similar and decisional uncertainty is high. The observation of dissociable neural markers that are linked to changes in subjective appearance and response bias supports a more unified theoretical account and demonstrates an approach to isolate subjective aspects of selective information processing.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Does attention alter visual appearance, or does it simply induce response bias? In the present study, we examined these competing accounts using EEG and linking models based on signal detection theory. We found that response gain modulations of the visually evoked P1 component best accounted for attention-induced changes in visual appearance. In contrast, cue-induced baseline shifts in alpha band activity better explained response biases. Together, these results suggest that attention concurrently impacts visual appearance and response bias, and that these processes can be experimentally isolated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sirawaj Itthipuripat
- Neuroscience Center for Research and Innovation, Learning Institute, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
- Big Data Experience Center, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
| | - Tanagrit Phangwiwat
- Neuroscience Center for Research and Innovation, Learning Institute, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
- Big Data Experience Center, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
- Computer Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
| | - Praewpiraya Wiwatphonthana
- Neuroscience Center for Research and Innovation, Learning Institute, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
- SECCLO Consortium, Department of Computer Science, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, 02150, Finland
| | - Prapasiri Sawetsuttipan
- Neuroscience Center for Research and Innovation, Learning Institute, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
- Big Data Experience Center, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
- Computer Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
| | - Kai-Yu Chang
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California–San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-1090
| | - Viola S. Störmer
- Department of Psychological and Brain Science, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
| | - Geoffrey F. Woodman
- Department of Psychology, Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience, and Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235
| | - John T. Serences
- Neurosciences Graduate Program, Department of Psychology, University of California–San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-1090
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8
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Borgomaneri S, Zanon M, Di Luzio P, Cataneo A, Arcara G, Romei V, Tamietto M, Avenanti A. Increasing associative plasticity in temporo-occipital back-projections improves visual perception of emotions. Nat Commun 2023; 14:5720. [PMID: 37737239 PMCID: PMC10517146 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41058-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2021] [Accepted: 08/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/23/2023] Open
Abstract
The posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is a critical node in a network specialized for perceiving emotional facial expressions that is reciprocally connected with early visual cortices (V1/V2). Current models of perceptual decision-making increasingly assign relevance to recursive processing for visual recognition. However, it is unknown whether inducing plasticity into reentrant connections from pSTS to V1/V2 impacts emotion perception. Using a combination of electrophysiological and neurostimulation methods, we demonstrate that strengthening the connectivity from pSTS to V1/V2 selectively increases the ability to perceive facial expressions associated with emotions. This behavior is associated with increased electrophysiological activity in both these brain regions, particularly in V1/V2, and depends on specific temporal parameters of stimulation that follow Hebbian principles. Therefore, we provide evidence that pSTS-to-V1/V2 back-projections are instrumental to perception of emotion from facial stimuli and functionally malleable via manipulation of associative plasticity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Borgomaneri
- Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari", Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Cesena Campus, Cesena, Italy.
| | - Marco Zanon
- Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari", Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Cesena Campus, Cesena, Italy
- Neuroscience Area, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy
| | - Paolo Di Luzio
- Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari", Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Cesena Campus, Cesena, Italy
| | - Antonio Cataneo
- Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari", Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Cesena Campus, Cesena, Italy
| | | | - Vincenzo Romei
- Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari", Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Cesena Campus, Cesena, Italy
- Facultad de Lenguas y Educación, Universidad Antonio de Nebrija, Madrid, 28015, Spain
| | - Marco Tamietto
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy.
- Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
| | - Alessio Avenanti
- Centro studi e ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari", Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Cesena Campus, Cesena, Italy.
- Centro de Investigación en Neuropsicología y Neurociencias Cognitivas, Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca, Chile.
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9
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Son S, Lim KB, Yoo J, Song P, Kim J. Cognitive Impairment in a Child With Anti-N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis: A Case Report. BRAIN & NEUROREHABILITATION 2023; 16:e12. [PMID: 37554261 PMCID: PMC10404809 DOI: 10.12786/bn.2023.16.e12] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2022] [Revised: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 02/28/2023] [Indexed: 08/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate-receptor encephalitis is a complex autoimmune inflammatory neurological disorder that presents with epileptic seizures and rapid functional deterioration, including movement disorders and cognitive impairment, especially in young patients. Despite aggressive initial treatment with immune therapy, such as corticosteroids, intravenous immunoglobulin, and plasmapheresis, patients often need intensive rehabilitative therapies for their long-lasting deficits. We report a pediatric case of anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis in Korea that presented with symptoms of muscle weakness of the four extremities, dysarthria, dysphagia, and cognitive impairment in the acute phase. The patient underwent 4 weeks of comprehensive rehabilitative treatment, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, swallowing rehabilitation therapy, cognitive rehabilitation therapy, and speech therapy. At the follow-up evaluation after 4 weeks of treatment, she showed significant improvements in limb muscle strength, balance ability, swallowing, language function, and the ability to perform activities of daily living. However, when assessed using the Korean Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV, there was little improvement in cognitive function, particularly in working memory. While only a few cases have reported the progression of cognitive function using a standardized cognitive evaluation tool in patients with anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis, this present case report adds to the accumulation of evidence of neurocognitive deficits in these patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seongsik Son
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital, Goyang, Korea
| | - Kil-Byung Lim
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital, Goyang, Korea
| | - Jeehyun Yoo
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital, Goyang, Korea
| | - Pamela Song
- Department of Neurology, Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital, Goyang, Korea
| | - Jiyong Kim
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital, Goyang, Korea
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10
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Chapman AF, Chunharas C, Störmer VS. Feature-based attention warps the perception of visual features. Sci Rep 2023; 13:6487. [PMID: 37081047 PMCID: PMC10119379 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-33488-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2022] [Accepted: 04/13/2023] [Indexed: 04/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Selective attention improves sensory processing of relevant information but can also impact the quality of perception. For example, attention increases visual discrimination performance and at the same time boosts apparent stimulus contrast of attended relative to unattended stimuli. Can attention also lead to perceptual distortions of visual representations? Optimal tuning accounts of attention suggest that processing is biased towards "off-tuned" features to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio in favor of the target, especially when targets and distractors are confusable. Here, we tested whether such tuning gives rise to phenomenological changes of visual features. We instructed participants to select a color among other colors in a visual search display and subsequently asked them to judge the appearance of the target color in a 2-alternative forced choice task. Participants consistently judged the target color to appear more dissimilar from the distractor color in feature space. Critically, the magnitude of these perceptual biases varied systematically with the similarity between target and distractor colors during search, indicating that attentional tuning quickly adapts to current task demands. In control experiments we rule out possible non-attentional explanations such as color contrast or memory effects. Overall, our results demonstrate that selective attention warps the representational geometry of color space, resulting in profound perceptual changes across large swaths of feature space. Broadly, these results indicate that efficient attentional selection can come at a perceptual cost by distorting our sensory experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angus F Chapman
- Department of Psychology, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92092, USA.
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 64 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
| | - Chaipat Chunharas
- Cognitive Clinical and Computational Neuroscience Lab, KCMH Chula Neuroscience Center, Thai Red Cross Society, Department of Internal Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand
| | - Viola S Störmer
- Department of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
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Srinivasan K, Lowet E, Gomes B, Desimone R. Stimulus representations in visual cortex shaped by spatial attention and microsaccades. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.02.25.529300. [PMID: 36909549 PMCID: PMC10002663 DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.25.529300] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/02/2023]
Abstract
Microsaccades (MSs) are commonly associated with spatially directed attention, but how they affect visual processing is still not clear. We studied MSs in a task in which the animal was randomly cued to attend to a target stimulus and ignore distractors, and it was rewarded for detecting a color change in the target. We found that the enhancement of firing rates normally found with attention to a cued stimulus was delayed until the first MS directed towards that stimulus. Once that MS occurred, attention to the target was engaged and there were persistent effects of attention on firing rates for the remainder of the trial. These effects were found in the superficial and deep layers of V4 as well as the lateral pulvinar and IT cortex. Although the tuning curves of V4 cells do not change depending on the locus of spatial attention, we found pronounced effects of MS direction on stimulus representations that persisted for the length of the trial in V4. In intervals following a MS towards the target in the RF, stimulus decoding from population activity was substantially better than in intervals following a MS away from the target. Likewise, turning curves of cells were substantially sharper following a MS towards the target in the RF. This sharpening appeared to result from both a "refreshing" of the initial transient sensory response to stimulus onset, and a magnification of the effects of attention in this condition. MSs to the target also enhanced the neuronal response to the behaviorally relevant target color change and led to faster reaction times. These results thus reveal a major link between spatial attention, object processing and its coordination with eye movements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karthik Srinivasan
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Eric Lowet
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Bruno Gomes
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém-Pa, Brazil
| | - Robert Desimone
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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12
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Motor-effector dependent modulation of sensory-motor processes identified by the multivariate pattern analysis of EEG activity. Sci Rep 2023; 13:3161. [PMID: 36823312 PMCID: PMC9950042 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-30324-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 02/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Sensory information received through sensory organs is constantly modulated by numerous non-sensory factors. Recent studies have demonstrated that the state of action can modulate sensory representations in cortical areas. Similarly, sensory information can be modulated by the type of action used to report perception; however, systematic investigation of this issue is scarce. In this study, we examined whether sensorimotor processes represented in electroencephalography (EEG) activities vary depending on the type of effector behavior. Nineteen participants performed motion direction discrimination tasks in which visual inputs were the same, and only the effector behaviors for reporting perceived motion directions were different (smooth pursuit, saccadic eye movement, or button press). We used multivariate pattern analysis to compare the EEG activities for identical sensory inputs under different effector behaviors. The EEG activity patterns for the identical sensory stimulus before any motor action varied across the effector behavior conditions, and the choice of motor effectors modulated the neural direction discrimination differently. We suggest that the motor-effector dependent modulation of EEG direction discrimination might be caused by effector-specific motor planning or preparation signals because it did not have functional relevance to behavioral direction discriminability.
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13
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Wu X, Zhang T, Wang A, Zhang M. Different gain modulations of selective attention at short and long cue-target delays. Scand J Psychol 2023. [PMID: 36786056 DOI: 10.1111/sjop.12899] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2022] [Revised: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 01/02/2023] [Indexed: 02/15/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies have tested attentional gain patterns, for example, within the normalization model of attention (NMoA), by altering the relative sizes of the attention field and stimuli. Existing studies have not investigated whether the gain patterns of altering the relative exogenous cue size as compared with the target stimuli matches the prediction of NMoA and whether these gain patterns exist in the late stage of attentional processing. To resolve these questions, the present study maintained the target grating size and changed the exogenous cue size in both short and long cue-target onset asynchronies (CTOAs) conditions. The results revealed response gain for small cue/large target size conditions and contrast gain for large cue/small target size conditions, which was consistent with the NMoA. However, we observed the decrease in the contrast gain factor only with long CTOAs, regardless of whether the cue size was relatively small or large. This indicated that NMoA-related effects based on the relative attentional field dominated in the early stage and that the contrast gain dominated in the late stage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaogang Wu
- Department of Psychology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China
| | - Tianyang Zhang
- Medical College of Soochow University, School of Public Health, Suzhou, China
| | - Aijun Wang
- Department of Psychology, Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Suzhou, China
| | - Ming Zhang
- Department of Psychology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China
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14
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Ye Z, Ding J, Tu Y, Zhang Q, Chen S, Yu H, Sun Q, Hua T. Suppression of top-down influence decreases both behavioral and V1 neuronal response sensitivity to stimulus orientations in cats. Front Behav Neurosci 2023; 17:1061980. [PMID: 36844652 PMCID: PMC9944033 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1061980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023] Open
Abstract
How top-down influence affects behavioral detection of visual signals and neuronal response sensitivity in the primary visual cortex (V1) remains poorly understood. This study examined both behavioral performance in stimulus orientation identification and neuronal response sensitivity to stimulus orientations in the V1 of cat before and after top-down influence of area 7 (A7) was modulated by non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Our results showed that cathode (c) but not sham (s) tDCS in A7 significantly increased the behavioral threshold in identifying stimulus orientation difference, which effect recovered after the tDCS effect vanished. Consistently, c-tDCS but not s-tDCS in A7 significantly decreased the response selectivity bias of V1 neurons for stimulus orientations, which effect could recover after withdrawal of the tDCS effect. Further analysis showed that c-tDCS induced reduction of V1 neurons in response selectivity was not resulted from alterations of neuronal preferred orientation, nor of spontaneous activity. Instead, c-tDCS in A7 significantly lowered the visually-evoked response, especially the maximum response of V1 neurons, which caused a decrease in response selectivity and signal-to-noise ratio. By contrast, s-tDCS exerted no significant effect on the responses of V1 neurons. These results indicate that top-down influence of A7 may enhance behavioral identification of stimulus orientations by increasing neuronal visually-evoked response and response selectivity in the V1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zheng Ye
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Jian Ding
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China,School of Basic Medical, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Yanni Tu
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Qiuyu Zhang
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Shunshun Chen
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Hao Yu
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Qingyan Sun
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China
| | - Tianmiao Hua
- College of Life sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China,*Correspondence: Tianmiao Hua,
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15
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Jing C, Jin H, Li W, Wu Z, Chen Y, Huang D. Temporal attention affects contrast response function by response gain. Front Hum Neurosci 2023; 16:1020260. [PMID: 36760226 PMCID: PMC9905113 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.1020260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2022] [Accepted: 12/31/2022] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Orienting attention to a specific point in time has been shown to improve the contrast sensitivity at the attended time point and impair it earlier or later. This phenomenon could be explained by temporal attention increasing the effective contrast of the target presented at the attended time point which leads to changes in contrast psychometric function by contrast gain. Another explanation is that temporal attention multiplicatively amplifies the amplitude of behavioral or neural response to contrast, resulting in alterations in contrast psychometric function by response gain. To explore the underlying mechanism, we adopted a temporal cueing orientation discrimination task using audio pre-cues composed of different frequency components to induce different attentional allocations in the time domain and targets of various contrast intensities to measure contrast psychometric functions. Obtained psychometric functions for contrast sensitivity were fitted for different conditions with discrepant attentional states in time. We found that temporal attention manipulated by cue affected contrast psychometric function by response gain, indicating that multiplying the contrast response of the visual target occurring at the selected point in time by a fixed factor is a crucial way for temporal attention to modulate perceptual processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chengxu Jing
- School of Automation and Electronic Information, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Sichuan, China,Artificial Intelligence Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Sichuan, China
| | - Hongyuan Jin
- School of Automation and Electronic Information, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Sichuan, China
| | - Wenxia Li
- School of Automation and Electronic Information, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Sichuan, China
| | - Zhouhao Wu
- School of Automation and Electronic Information, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Sichuan, China
| | - Yao Chen
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - Dan Huang
- School of Automation and Electronic Information, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Sichuan, China,Artificial Intelligence Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Sichuan, China,*Correspondence: Dan Huang ✉
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16
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Kınıklıoğlu M, Boyaci H. Increasing the spatial extent of attention strengthens surround suppression. Vision Res 2022; 199:108074. [PMID: 35717748 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2022.108074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Revised: 04/20/2022] [Accepted: 04/27/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Here we investigate how the extent of spatial attention affects center-surround interaction in visual motion processing. To do so, we measured motion direction discrimination thresholds in humans using drifting gratings and two attention conditions. Participants were instructed to limit their attention to the central part of the stimulus under the narrow attention condition, and to both central and surround parts under the wide attention condition. We found stronger surround suppression under the wide attention condition. The magnitude of the attention effect increased with the size of the surround when the stimulus had low contrast, but did not change when it had high contrast. Results also showed that attention had a weaker effect when the center and surround gratings drifted in opposite directions. Next, to establish a link between the behavioral results and the neuronal response characteristics, we performed computer simulations using the divisive normalization model. Our simulations showed that using smaller versus larger multiplicative attentional gain and parameters derived from the medial temporal (MT) area of the cortex, the model can successfully predict the observed behavioral results. These findings reveal the critical role of spatial attention on surround suppression and establish a link between neuronal activity and behavior. Further, these results also suggest that the reduced surround suppression found in certain clinical disorders (e.g., schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder) may be caused by abnormal attention mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Merve Kınıklıoğlu
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey; Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center & National Magnetic Resonance Research Center (UMRAM), Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey.
| | - Huseyin Boyaci
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey; Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center & National Magnetic Resonance Research Center (UMRAM), Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey; Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey; Department of Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
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17
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Ghosh S, Maunsell JHR. Neuronal correlates of selective attention and effort in visual area V4 are invariant of motivational context. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabc8812. [PMID: 35687684 PMCID: PMC9187239 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc8812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2021] [Accepted: 04/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Task demands can differentially engage two fundamental attention components: selectivity (spatial bias) and effort (total nonselective attentional intensity). The relative contributions and interactions of these components in modulating neuronal signals remain unknown. We recorded V4 neurons while monkeys' spatially selective attention and effort were independently controlled by adjusting either task difficulty or reward size at two locations. Neurons were robustly modulated by either selective attention or effort. Notably, increasing overall effort to improve performance at a distant site reduced neuronal responses even when performance was unchanged for receptive field stimuli. This interaction between attentional selectivity and effort was evident in single-trial spiking and can be explained by divisive normalization of spatially distributed behavioral performance at the single-neuron level. Changing motivation using task difficulty or reward produced indistinguishable effects. These results provide a cellular-level mechanism of how attention components integrate to modulate sensory processing in different motivational contexts.
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18
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Behavioral and ERP Evidence that Object-based Attention Utilizes Fine-grained Spatial Mechanisms. Cortex 2022; 151:89-104. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.02.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2021] [Revised: 12/17/2021] [Accepted: 02/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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19
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Vinke LN, Bloem IM, Ling S. Saturating Nonlinearities of Contrast Response in Human Visual Cortex. J Neurosci 2022; 42:1292-1302. [PMID: 34921048 PMCID: PMC8883860 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0106-21.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2021] [Revised: 11/29/2021] [Accepted: 12/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Response nonlinearities are ubiquitous throughout the brain, especially within sensory cortices where changes in stimulus intensity typically produce compressed responses. Although this relationship is well established in electrophysiological measurements, it remains controversial whether the same nonlinearities hold for population-based measurements obtained with human fMRI. We propose that these purported disparities are not contingent on measurement type and are instead largely dependent on the visual system state at the time of interrogation. We show that deploying a contrast adaptation paradigm permits reliable measurements of saturating sigmoidal contrast response functions (10 participants, 7 female). When not controlling the adaptation state, our results coincide with previous fMRI studies, yielding nonsaturating, largely linear contrast responses. These findings highlight the important role of adaptation in manifesting measurable nonlinear responses within human visual cortex, reconciling discrepancies reported in vision neuroscience, re-establishing the qualitative relationship between stimulus intensity and response across different neural measures and the concerted study of cortical gain control.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Nonlinear stimulus-response relationships govern many essential brain functions, ranging from the sensory to cognitive level. Certain core response properties previously shown to be nonlinear with nonhuman electrophysiology recordings have yet to be reliably measured with human neuroimaging, prompting uncertainty and reconsideration. The results of this study stand to reconcile these incongruencies in the vision neurosciences, demonstrating the profound impact adaptation can have on brain activation throughout the early visual cortex. Moving forward, these findings facilitate the study of modulatory influences on sensory processing (i.e., arousal and attention) and help establish a closer link between neural recordings in animals and hemodynamic measurements from human fMRI, resuming a concerted effort to understand operations in the mammalian cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louis N Vinke
- Graduate Program for Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129
| | - Ilona M Bloem
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York City, New York 10012
| | - Sam Ling
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
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20
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Ding J, Ye Z, Xu F, Hu X, Yu H, Zhang S, Tu Y, Zhang Q, Sun Q, Hua T, Lu ZL. Effects of top-down influence suppression on behavioral and V1 neuronal contrast sensitivity functions in cats. iScience 2022; 25:103683. [PMID: 35059603 PMCID: PMC8760559 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103683] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Revised: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 12/20/2021] [Indexed: 02/09/2023] Open
Abstract
To explore the relative contributions of higher-order and primary visual cortex (V1) to visual perception, we compared cats' behavioral and V1 neuronal contrast sensitivity functions (CSF) and threshold versus external noise contrast (TvC) functions before and after top-down influence of area 7 (A7) was modulated with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). We found that suppressing top-down influence of A7 with cathode-tDCS, but not sham-tDCS, reduced behavioral and neuronal contrast sensitivity in the same range of spatial frequencies and increased behavioral and neuronal contrast thresholds in the same range of external noise levels. The neuronal CSF and TvC functions were highly correlated with their behavioral counterparts both before and after the top-down suppression. Analysis of TvC functions using the Perceptual Template Model (PTM) indicated that top-down influence of A7 increased both behavioral and V1 neuronal contrast sensitivity by reducing internal additive noise and the impact of external noise. Top-down suppression lowers both behavioral and V1 neuronal CSF functions Top-down suppression raises both behavioral and V1 neuronal TvC functions The neuronal CSFs and TvCs are highly correlated with their behavioral counterparts Top-down influence lowers internal additive noise and impact of external noise in V1
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Ding
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Zheng Ye
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Fei Xu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Xiangmei Hu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Hao Yu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Shen Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Yanni Tu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Qiuyu Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Qingyan Sun
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Tianmiao Hua
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China
| | - Zhong-Lin Lu
- Divison of Arts and Sciences, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai 200122, China.,Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.,NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai 200062, China
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21
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Westerberg JA, Sigworth EA, Schall JD, Maier A. Pop-out search instigates beta-gated feature selectivity enhancement across V4 layers. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:e2103702118. [PMID: 34893538 PMCID: PMC8685673 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2103702118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual search is a workhorse for investigating how attention interacts with processing of sensory information. Attentional selection has been linked to altered cortical sensory responses and feature preferences (i.e., tuning). However, attentional modulation of feature selectivity during search is largely unexplored. Here we map the spatiotemporal profile of feature selectivity during singleton search. Monkeys performed a search where a pop-out feature determined the target of attention. We recorded laminar neural responses from visual area V4. We first identified "feature columns" which showed preference for individual colors. In the unattended condition, feature columns were significantly more selective in superficial relative to middle and deep layers. Attending a stimulus increased selectivity in all layers but not equally. Feature selectivity increased most in the deep layers, leading to higher selectivity in extragranular layers as compared to the middle layer. This attention-induced enhancement was rhythmically gated in phase with the beta-band local field potential. Beta power dominated both extragranular laminar compartments, but current source density analysis pointed to an origin in superficial layers, specifically. While beta-band power was present regardless of attentional state, feature selectivity was only gated by beta in the attended condition. Neither the beta oscillation nor its gating of feature selectivity varied with microsaccade production. Importantly, beta modulation of neural activity predicted response times, suggesting a direct link between attentional gating and behavioral output. Together, these findings suggest beta-range synaptic activation in V4's superficial layers rhythmically gates attentional enhancement of feature tuning in a way that affects the speed of attentional selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob A Westerberg
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240;
| | | | - Jeffrey D Schall
- Centre for Vision Research, Vision: Science to Applications Program, Department of Biology and Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
| | - Alexander Maier
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240
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22
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Goddard E, Carlson TA, Woolgar A. Spatial and Feature-selective Attention Have Distinct, Interacting Effects on Population-level Tuning. J Cogn Neurosci 2021; 34:290-312. [PMID: 34813647 PMCID: PMC7613071 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Attention can be deployed in different ways: When searching for a taxi in New York City, we can decide where to attend (e.g., to the street) and what to attend to (e.g., yellow cars). Although we use the same word to describe both processes, nonhuman primate data suggest that these produce distinct effects on neural tuning. This has been challenging to assess in humans, but here we used an opportunity afforded by multivariate decoding of MEG data. We found that attending to an object at a particular location and attending to a particular object feature produced effects that interacted multiplicatively. The two types of attention induced distinct patterns of enhancement in occipital cortex, with feature-selective attention producing relatively more enhancement of small feature differences and spatial attention producing relatively larger effects for larger feature differences. An information flow analysis further showed that stimulus representations in occipital cortex were Granger-caused by coding in frontal cortices earlier in time and that the timing of this feedback matched the onset of attention effects. The data suggest that spatial and feature-selective attention rely on distinct neural mechanisms that arise from frontal-occipital information exchange, interacting multiplicatively to selectively enhance task-relevant information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin Goddard
- University of New South Wales.,Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Thomas A Carlson
- Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,University of Sydney
| | - Alexandra Woolgar
- Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,University of Cambridge
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23
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Ding J, Hu X, Xu F, Yu H, Ye Z, Zhang S, Pan H, Pan D, Tu Y, Zhang Q, Sun Q, Hua T. Suppression of top-down influence decreases neuronal excitability and contrast sensitivity in the V1 cortex of cat. Sci Rep 2021; 11:16034. [PMID: 34362965 PMCID: PMC8346540 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-95407-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
How top-down influence affects neuronal activity and information encoding in the primary visual cortex (V1) remains elusive. This study examined changes of neuronal excitability and contrast sensitivity in cat V1 cortex after top-down influence of area 7 (A7) was modulated by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). The neuronal excitability in V1 cortex was evaluated by visually evoked field potentials (VEPs), and contrast sensitivity (CS) was assessed by the inverse of threshold contrast of neurons in response to visual stimuli at different performance accuracy. We found that the amplitude of VEPs in V1 cortex lowered after top-down influence suppression with cathode-tDCS in A7, whereas VEPs in V1 did not change after sham-tDCS in A7 and nonvisual cortical area 5 (A5) or cathode-tDCS in A5 and lesioned A7. Moreover, the mean CS of V1 neurons decreased after cathode-tDCS but not sham-tDCS in A7, which could recover after tDCS effect vanished. Comparisons of neuronal contrast-response functions showed that cathode-tDCS increased the stimulus contrast required to generate the half-maximum response, with a weakly-correlated reduction in maximum response but not baseline response. Therefore, top-down influence of A7 enhanced neuronal excitability in V1 cortex and improved neuronal contrast sensitivity by both contrast gain and response gain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Ding
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Xiangmei Hu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Fei Xu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Hao Yu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Zheng Ye
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Shen Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Huijun Pan
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Deng Pan
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Yanni Tu
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Qiuyu Zhang
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Qingyan Sun
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China
| | - Tianmiao Hua
- College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China.
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24
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de Souza BOF, Cortes N, Casanova C. Pulvinar Modulates Contrast Responses in the Visual Cortex as a Function of Cortical Hierarchy. Cereb Cortex 2021; 30:1068-1086. [PMID: 31408095 PMCID: PMC7132966 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhz149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2018] [Revised: 05/26/2019] [Accepted: 06/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The pulvinar is the largest extrageniculate visual nucleus in mammals. Given its extensive reciprocal connectivity with the visual cortex, it allows the cortico-thalamocortical transfer of visual information. Nonetheless, knowledge of the nature of the pulvinar inputs to the cortex remains elusive. We investigated the impact of silencing the pulvinar on the contrast response function of neurons in 2 distinct hierarchical cortical areas in the cat (areas 17 and 21a). Pulvinar inactivation altered the response gain in both areas, but with larger changes observed in area 21a. A theoretical model was proposed, simulating the pulvinar contribution to cortical contrast responses by modifying the excitation-inhibition balanced state of neurons across the cortical hierarchy. Our experimental and theoretical data showed that the pulvinar exerts a greater modulatory influence on neuronal activity in area 21a than in the primary visual cortex, indicating that the pulvinar impact on cortical visual neurons varies along the cortical hierarchy.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nelson Cortes
- School of Optometry, Université de Montréal, Quebec, CP 6128 Canada
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25
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Schneider KA, Malik I. A three-response task reveals how attention alters decision criteria but not appearance. J Vis 2021; 21:30. [PMID: 34038507 PMCID: PMC8164366 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.5.30] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Accepted: 05/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Whether attention alters appearance or just changes decision criteria continues to be controversial. When subjects are forced to choose which of two equal targets, one of which has been pre-cued, has a higher contrast, they tend to choose the cued target. This has been interpreted as attention increasing the apparent contrast of the cued target. However, when subjects must decide whether the two targets have equal or unequal contrast, they respond veridically with no apparent effect of attention. The discrepancy between these comparative and equality judgments is explained by attention altering the decision criteria but not appearance. We supposed that when subjects are forced to choose which of two apparently equal targets has the higher contrast, they tend to proportion their uncertainty in favor of the cued target. To test this hypothesis, we used a three-response task, in which subjects chose which target had the higher contrast but also had the option to report that the targets appeared equal. This task disentangled potential attention effects on appearance from those on the decision criteria. We found that subjects with narrower criteria about what constituted equal contrast were more likely to choose the cued target, supporting the uncertainty stealing hypothesis. Across the population, the effects of the attentional cue are explained as changes in the decision criteria and not changes in appearance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keith A Schneider
- Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA
- Center for Biological & Brain Imaging, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA
| | - Ibrahim Malik
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Center for Biological & Brain Imaging, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA
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26
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Li HH, Pan J, Carrasco M. Different computations underlie overt presaccadic and covert spatial attention. Nat Hum Behav 2021; 5:1418-1431. [PMID: 33875838 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01099-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2020] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Perception and action are tightly coupled: visual responses at the saccade target are enhanced right before saccade onset. This phenomenon, presaccadic attention, is a form of overt attention-deployment of visual attention with concurrent eye movements. Presaccadic attention is well-documented, but its underlying computational process remains unknown. This is in stark contrast to covert attention-deployment of visual attention without concurrent eye movements-for which the computational processes are well characterized by a normalization model. Here, a series of psychophysical experiments reveal that presaccadic attention modulates visual performance only via response gain changes. A response gain change was observed even when attention field size increased, violating the predictions of a normalization model of attention. Our empirical results and model comparisons reveal that the perceptual modulations by overt presaccadic and covert spatial attention are mediated through different computations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hsin-Hung Li
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA. .,Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Jasmine Pan
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.,Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
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27
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Effects of muscarinic and nicotinic receptors on contextual modulation in macaque area V1. Sci Rep 2021; 11:8384. [PMID: 33863988 PMCID: PMC8052350 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-88044-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2020] [Accepted: 04/05/2021] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Context affects the salience and visibility of image elements in visual scenes. Collinear flankers can enhance or decrease the perceptual and neuronal sensitivity to flanked stimuli. These effects are mediated through lateral interactions between neurons in the primary visual cortex (area V1), in conjunction with feedback from higher visual areas. The strength of lateral interactions is affected by cholinergic neuromodulation. Blockade of muscarinic receptors should increase the strength of lateral intracortical interactions, while nicotinic blockade should reduce thalamocortical feed-forward drive. Here we test this proposal through local iontophoretic application of the muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine and the nicotinic receptor antagonist mecamylamine, while recording single cells in parafoveal representations in awake fixating macaque V1. Collinear flankers generally reduced neuronal contrast sensitivity. Muscarinic and nicotinic receptor blockade equally reduced neuronal contrast sensitivity. Contrary to our hypothesis, flanker interactions were not systematically affected by either receptor blockade.
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28
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Tebbe AL, Friedl WM, Alpers GW, Keil A. Effects of affective content and motivational context on neural gain functions during naturalistic scene perception. Eur J Neurosci 2021; 53:3323-3340. [PMID: 33742482 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2020] [Revised: 03/02/2021] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Visual scene processing is modulated by semantic, motivational, and emotional factors, in addition to physical scene statistics. An open question is to what extent those factors affect low-level visual processing. One index of low-level visual processing is the contrast response function (CRF), representing the change in neural or psychophysical gain with increasing stimulus contrast. Here we aimed to (a) establish the use of an electrophysiological technique for assessing CRFs with complex emotional scenes and (b) examine the effects of motivational context and emotional content on CRFs elicited by naturalistic stimuli, including faces and complex scenes (humans, animals). Motivational context varied by expectancy of threat (a noxious noise) versus safety. CRFs were measured in 18 participants by means of sweep steady-state visual evoked potentials. Results showed a facilitation in visuocortical sensitivity (contrast gain) under threat, compared with safe conditions, across all stimulus categories. Facial stimuli prompted heightened neural response gain, compared with scenes. Within the scenes, response gain was smaller for scenes high in emotional arousal, compared with low-arousing scenes, consistent with interference effects of emotional content. These findings support the notion that motivational context alters the contrast sensitivity of cortical tissue, differing from changes in response gain (activation) when visual cues themselves carry motivational/affective relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna-Lena Tebbe
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Center for the Study of Emotion & Attention, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Wendel M Friedl
- Center for the Study of Emotion & Attention, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Georg W Alpers
- Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Andreas Keil
- Center for the Study of Emotion & Attention, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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29
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Baek J, Dosher BA, Lu ZL. Visual attention in spatial cueing and visual search. J Vis 2021; 21:1. [PMID: 33646298 PMCID: PMC7938002 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.3.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2020] [Accepted: 01/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
To characterize internal processes of an observer conducting perceptual tasks, we developed an observer model that combines the perceptual template model (PTM), the attention mechanisms in the PTM framework (Lu & Dosher, 1998), and uncertainty of signal detection theory (Green & Swets, 1966). The model was evaluated with a visual search experiment conducted in a range of external noise, signal contrast, and target-distractor similarity conditions. In each trial, eight Gabor patches were shown in each of two brief intervals, with one target at a different orientation from the distractors in one of the presentations. Subjects were precued to a subset of the stimuli (1, 2, 4, or 8) and asked to report (a) which interval contained the target and (b) where the target was. Individual roles of uncertainty and of attention in visual search were investigated by comparing models with and without an attention component. The results showed that decision uncertainty alone was sufficient to account for the set-size effect, even in conditions with high target-distractor similarity. Our theoretical model and empirical results provide a coherent picture regarding how visual information is selected and processed during feature search.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jongsoo Baek
- Yonsei Institute of Convergence Technology, Yonsei University, Incheon, South Korea
| | - Barbara Anne Dosher
- Department of Cognitive Sciences and Institute of Mathematical Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Zhong-Lin Lu
- Division of Arts and Sciences, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
- Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University, NY, USA
- NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
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30
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Das A, Ray S. Effect of Cross-Orientation Normalization on Different Neural Measures in Macaque Primary Visual Cortex. Cereb Cortex Commun 2021; 2:tgab009. [PMID: 34095837 PMCID: PMC8152940 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgab009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2020] [Revised: 01/26/2021] [Accepted: 01/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Divisive normalization is a canonical mechanism that can explain a variety of sensory phenomena. While normalization models have been used to explain spiking activity in response to different stimulus/behavioral conditions in multiple brain areas, it is unclear whether similar models can also explain modulation in population-level neural measures such as power at various frequencies in local field potentials (LFPs) or steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) that is produced by flickering stimuli and popular in electroencephalogram studies. To address this, we manipulated normalization strength by presenting static as well as flickering orthogonal superimposed gratings (plaids) at varying contrasts to 2 female monkeys while recording multiunit activity (MUA) and LFP from the primary visual cortex and quantified the modulation in MUA, gamma (32-80 Hz), high-gamma (104-248 Hz) power, as well as SSVEP. Even under similar stimulus conditions, normalization strength was different for the 4 measures and increased as: spikes, high-gamma, SSVEP, and gamma. However, these results could be explained using a normalization model that was modified for population responses, by varying the tuned normalization parameter and semisaturation constant. Our results show that different neural measures can reflect the effect of stimulus normalization in different ways, which can be modeled by a simple normalization model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aritra Das
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
| | - Supratim Ray
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
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31
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Representational dynamics preceding conscious access. Neuroimage 2021; 230:117789. [PMID: 33497774 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117789] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2020] [Revised: 12/08/2020] [Accepted: 01/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Our senses are continuously bombarded with more information than our brain can process up to the level of awareness. The present study aimed to enhance understanding on how attentional selection shapes conscious access under conditions of rapidly changing input. Using an attention task, EEG, and multivariate decoding of individual target- and distractor-defining features, we specifically examined dynamic changes in the representation of targets and distractors as a function of conscious access and the task-relevance (target or distractor) of the preceding item in the RSVP stream. At the behavioral level, replicating previous work and suggestive of a flexible gating mechanism, we found a significant impairment in conscious access to targets (T2) that were preceded by a target (T1) followed by one or two distractors (i.e., the attentional blink), but striking facilitation of conscious access to targets shown directly after another target (i.e., lag-1 sparing and blink reversal). At the neural level, conscious access to T2 was associated with enhanced early- and late-stage T1 representations and enhanced late-stage D1 representations, and interestingly, could be predicted based on the pattern of EEG activation well before T1 was presented. Yet, across task conditions, we did not find convincing evidence for the notion that conscious access is affected by rapid top-down selection-related modulations of the strength of early sensory representations induced by the preceding visual event. These results cannot easily be explained by existing accounts of how attentional selection shapes conscious access under rapidly changing input conditions, and have important implications for theories of the attentional blink and consciousness more generally.
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32
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Parto Dezfouli M, Zarei M, Constantinidis C, Daliri MR. Task-specific modulation of PFC activity for matching-rule governed decision-making. Brain Struct Funct 2021; 226:443-455. [PMID: 33398431 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-020-02191-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 11/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Storing information from incoming stimuli in working memory (WM) is essential for decision-making. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role to support this process. Previous studies have characterized different neuronal populations in the PFC for working memory judgements based on whether an originally presented stimulus matches a subsequently presented one (matching-rule decision-making). However, much remains to be understood about this mechanism at the population level of PFC neurons. Here, we hypothesized differences in processing of feature vs. spatial WM within the PFC during a matching-rule decision-making task. To test this hypothesis, the modulation of neural activity within the PFC during two types of decision-making tasks (spatial WM and feature WM) in comparison to a passive fixation task was determined. We discovered that neural population-level activity within the PFC is different for the match vs. non-match condition exclusively in the case of the feature-specific decision-making task. For this task, the non-match condition exhibited a greater firing rate and lower trial-to-trial variability in spike count compared to the feature-match condition. Furthermore, the feature-match condition exhibited lower variability compared to the spatial-match condition. This was accompanied by a faster behavioral response time for the feature-match compared to the spatial-match WM task. We attribute this lower across-trial spiking variability and behavioral response time to a higher task-relevant attentional level in the feature WM compared to the spatial WM task. The findings support our hypothesis for task-specific differences in the processing of feature vs. spatial WM within the PFC. This also confirms the general conclusion that PFC neurons play an important role during the process of matching-rule governed decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohsen Parto Dezfouli
- School of Cognitive Sciences (SCS), Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran. .,Neuroscience and Neuroengineering Research Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran, Iran.
| | - Mohammad Zarei
- School of Cognitive Sciences (SCS), Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran.,School of Electrical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
| | - Christos Constantinidis
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA
| | - Mohammad Reza Daliri
- School of Cognitive Sciences (SCS), Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran. .,Neuroscience and Neuroengineering Research Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran, Iran.
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33
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Chivukula S, Zhang CY, Aflalo T, Jafari M, Pejsa K, Pouratian N, Andersen RA. Neural encoding of actual and imagined touch within human posterior parietal cortex. eLife 2021; 10:61646. [PMID: 33647233 PMCID: PMC7924956 DOI: 10.7554/elife.61646] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2020] [Accepted: 02/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
In the human posterior parietal cortex (PPC), single units encode high-dimensional information with partially mixed representations that enable small populations of neurons to encode many variables relevant to movement planning, execution, cognition, and perception. Here, we test whether a PPC neuronal population previously demonstrated to encode visual and motor information is similarly engaged in the somatosensory domain. We recorded neurons within the PPC of a human clinical trial participant during actual touch presentation and during a tactile imagery task. Neurons encoded actual touch at short latency with bilateral receptive fields, organized by body part, and covered all tested regions. The tactile imagery task evoked body part-specific responses that shared a neural substrate with actual touch. Our results are the first neuron-level evidence of touch encoding in human PPC and its cognitive engagement during a tactile imagery task, which may reflect semantic processing, attention, sensory anticipation, or imagined touch.
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Affiliation(s)
- Srinivas Chivukula
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States,Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center, Chen Institute for Neuroscience, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States,Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los AngelesLos AngelesUnited States
| | - Carey Y Zhang
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States,Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center, Chen Institute for Neuroscience, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States
| | - Tyson Aflalo
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States,Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center, Chen Institute for Neuroscience, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States
| | - Matiar Jafari
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States,Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center, Chen Institute for Neuroscience, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States,Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los AngelesLos AngelesUnited States
| | - Kelsie Pejsa
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States,Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center, Chen Institute for Neuroscience, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States
| | - Nader Pouratian
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States,Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center, Chen Institute for Neuroscience, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States,Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los AngelesLos AngelesUnited States
| | - Richard A Andersen
- Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States,Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center, Chen Institute for Neuroscience, California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaUnited States
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34
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Differential impact of endogenous and exogenous attention on activity in human visual cortex. Sci Rep 2020; 10:21274. [PMID: 33277552 PMCID: PMC7718281 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-78172-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2020] [Accepted: 11/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
How do endogenous (voluntary) and exogenous (involuntary) attention modulate activity in visual cortex? Using ROI-based fMRI analysis, we measured fMRI activity for valid and invalid trials (target at cued/un-cued location, respectively), pre- or post-cueing endogenous or exogenous attention, while participants performed the same orientation discrimination task. We found stronger modulation in contralateral than ipsilateral visual regions, and higher activity in valid- than invalid-trials. For endogenous attention, modulation of stimulus-evoked activity due to a pre-cue increased along the visual hierarchy, but was constant due to a post-cue. For exogenous attention, modulation of stimulus-evoked activity due to a pre-cue was constant along the visual hierarchy, but was not modulated due to a post-cue. These findings reveal that endogenous and exogenous attention distinctly modulate activity in visuo-occipital areas during orienting and reorienting; endogenous attention facilitates both the encoding and the readout of visual information whereas exogenous attention only facilitates the encoding of information.
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35
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Layer-dependent multiplicative effects of spatial attention on contrast responses in human early visual cortex. Prog Neurobiol 2020; 207:101897. [DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2020.101897] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2020] [Revised: 07/05/2020] [Accepted: 08/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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36
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Bennett M. An Attempt at a Unified Theory of the Neocortical Microcircuit in Sensory Cortex. Front Neural Circuits 2020; 14:40. [PMID: 32848632 PMCID: PMC7416357 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2020.00040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2020] [Accepted: 06/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The neocortex performs a wide range of functions, including working memory, sensory perception, and motor planning. Despite this diversity in function, evidence suggests that the neocortex is made up of repeating subunits ("macrocolumns"), each of which is largely identical in circuitry. As such, the specific computations performed by these macrocolumns are of great interest to neuroscientists and AI researchers. Leading theories of this microcircuit include models of predictive coding, hierarchical temporal memory (HTM), and Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART). However, these models have not yet explained: (1) how microcircuits learn sequences input with delay (i.e., working memory); (2) how networks of columns coordinate processing on precise timescales; or (3) how top-down attention modulates sensory processing. I provide a theory of the neocortical microcircuit that extends prior models in all three ways. Additionally, this theory provides a novel working memory circuit that extends prior models to support simultaneous multi-item storage without disrupting ongoing sensory processing. I then use this theory to explain the functional origin of a diverse set of experimental findings, such as cortical oscillations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Max Bennett
- Independent Researcher, New York, NY, United States
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37
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Arabkheradmand G, Zhou G, Noto T, Yang Q, Schuele SU, Parvizi J, Gottfried JA, Wu S, Rosenow JM, Koubeissi MZ, Lane G, Zelano C. Anticipation-induced delta phase reset improves human olfactory perception. PLoS Biol 2020; 18:e3000724. [PMID: 32453719 PMCID: PMC7250403 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000724] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2020] [Accepted: 04/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Anticipating an odor improves detection and perception, yet the underlying neural mechanisms of olfactory anticipation are not well understood. In this study, we used human intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) to show that anticipation resets the phase of delta oscillations in piriform cortex prior to odor arrival. Anticipatory phase reset correlates with ensuing odor-evoked theta power and improvements in perceptual accuracy. These effects were consistently present in each individual subject and were not driven by potential confounds of pre-inhale motor preparation or power changes. Together, these findings suggest that states of anticipation enhance olfactory perception through phase resetting of delta oscillations in piriform cortex. Use of human intracranial electroencephalography methods, including rare direct recordings from human olfactory cortex, shows that anticipation of odor resets the phase of delta oscillations prior to the arrival of an odor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ghazaleh Arabkheradmand
- Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Guangyu Zhou
- Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Torben Noto
- Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Qiaohan Yang
- Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Stephan U. Schuele
- Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Josef Parvizi
- Laboratory of Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University Palo Alto, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Jay A. Gottfried
- University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Shasha Wu
- University of Chicago, Department of Neurology, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Joshua M. Rosenow
- Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Mohamad Z. Koubeissi
- George Washington University, Department of Neurology, Washington DC, United States of America
| | - Gregory Lane
- Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Christina Zelano
- Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
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38
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Itthipuripat S, Chang KY, Bong A, Serences JT. Stimulus visibility and uncertainty mediate the influence of attention on response bias and visual contrast appearance. J Vis 2020; 19:8. [PMID: 31826253 PMCID: PMC6908139 DOI: 10.1167/19.14.8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Although attention is known to improve the efficacy of sensory processing, the impact of attention on subjective visual appearance is still a matter of debate. Although recent studies suggest that attention can alter the appearance of stimulus contrast, others argue that these changes reflect response bias induced by attention cues. Here, we provide evidence that attention has effects on both appearance and response bias. In a comparative judgment task in which subjects reported whether the attended or unattended visual stimulus had a higher perceived contrast, attention induced substantial baseline-offset response bias as well as small but significant changes in subjective contrast appearance when subjects viewed near-threshold stimuli. However, when subjects viewed suprathreshold stimuli, baseline-offset response bias decreased and attention primarily changed contrast appearance. To address the possibility that these changes in appearance might be influenced by uncertainty due to the attended and unattended stimuli having similar physical contrasts, subjects performed an equality judgment task in which they reported if the contrast of the two stimuli was the same or different. We found that, although there were still attention-induced changes in contrast appearance at lower contrasts, the robust changes in contrast appearance at higher contrasts observed in the comparative judgment task were diminished in the equality judgment task. Together, these results suggest that attention can impact both response bias and appearance, and these two types of attention effects are differentially mediated by stimulus visibility and uncertainty. Collectively, these findings help constrain arguments about the cognitive penetrability of perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sirawaj Itthipuripat
- Learning Institute, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand.,Futuristic Research in Enigmatic Aesthetics Knowledge Laboratory, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand.,Department of Psychology and Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience, and Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.,Department of Psychology and Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Kai-Yu Chang
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Ashley Bong
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - John T Serences
- Department of Psychology and Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.,Kavli Foundation for the Brain and Mind, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
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39
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Zazio A, Schreiber M, Miniussi C, Bortoletto M. Modelling the effects of ongoing alpha activity on visual perception: The oscillation-based probability of response. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 112:242-253. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.01.037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2019] [Revised: 01/14/2020] [Accepted: 01/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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40
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Speed A, Del Rosario J, Mikail N, Haider B. Spatial attention enhances network, cellular and subthreshold responses in mouse visual cortex. Nat Commun 2020; 11:505. [PMID: 31980628 PMCID: PMC6981183 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14355-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2019] [Accepted: 01/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Internal brain states strongly modulate sensory processing during behaviour. Studies of visual processing in primates show that attention to space selectively improves behavioural and neural responses to stimuli at the attended locations. Here we develop a visual spatial task for mice that elicits behavioural improvements consistent with the effects of spatial attention, and simultaneously measure network, cellular, and subthreshold activity in primary visual cortex. During trial-by-trial behavioural improvements, local field potential (LFP) responses to stimuli detected inside the receptive field (RF) strengthen. Moreover, detection inside the RF selectively enhances excitatory and inhibitory neuron responses to task-irrelevant stimuli and suppresses noise correlations and low frequency LFP fluctuations. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings reveal that detection inside the RF increases synaptic activity that depolarizes membrane potential responses at the behaviorally relevant location. Our study establishes that mice display fundamental signatures of visual spatial attention spanning behavioral, network, cellular, and synaptic levels, providing new insight into rapid cognitive enhancement of sensory signals in visual cortex. Extensive research in primates shows that attention to space improves behavioural performance as well as neural responses to stimuli in that location. Here, the authors establish a visual spatial attention task in mice and report on attentional modulation of behaviour, as well as neural correlates from subthreshold responses in single cells to spikes and LFP at network level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anderson Speed
- Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | | | - Navid Mikail
- Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Bilal Haider
- Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
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41
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Mechanisms underlying gain modulation in the cortex. Nat Rev Neurosci 2020; 21:80-92. [PMID: 31911627 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-019-0253-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 111] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Cortical gain regulation allows neurons to respond adaptively to changing inputs. Neural gain is modulated by internal and external influences, including attentional and arousal states, motor activity and neuromodulatory input. These influences converge to a common set of mechanisms for gain modulation, including GABAergic inhibition, synaptically driven fluctuations in membrane potential, changes in cellular conductance and changes in other biophysical neural properties. Recent work has identified GABAergic interneurons as targets of neuromodulatory input and mediators of state-dependent gain modulation. Here, we review the engagement and effects of gain modulation in the cortex. We highlight key recent findings that link phenomenological observations of gain modulation to underlying cellular and circuit-level mechanisms. Finally, we place these cellular and circuit interactions in the larger context of their impact on perception and cognition.
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42
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Abstract
Retinal degenerative diseases caused by photoreceptor cell death are major causes of irreversible vision loss. As only primates have a macula, the nonhuman primate (NHP) models have a crucial role not only in revealing biological mechanisms underlying high-acuity vision but also in the development of therapies. Successful translation of basic research findings into clinical trials and, moreover, approval of the first therapies for blinding inherited and age-related retinal dystrophies has been reported in recent years. This article explores the value of the NHP models in understanding human vision and reviews their contribution to the development of innovative therapeutic strategies to save and restore vision.
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43
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Bloem IM, Ling S. Normalization governs attentional modulation within human visual cortex. Nat Commun 2019; 10:5660. [PMID: 31827078 PMCID: PMC6906520 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13597-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2018] [Accepted: 11/12/2019] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Although attention is known to increase the gain of visuocortical responses, its underlying neural computations remain unclear. Here, we use fMRI to test the hypothesis that a neural population’s ability to be modulated by attention is dependent on divisive normalization. To do so, we leverage the feature-tuned properties of normalization and find that visuocortical responses to stimuli sharing features normalize each other more strongly. Comparing these normalization measures to measures of attentional modulation, we demonstrate that subpopulations which exhibit stronger normalization also exhibit larger attentional benefits. In a converging experiment, we reveal that attentional benefits are greatest when a subpopulation is forced into a state of stronger normalization. Taken together, these results suggest that the degree to which a subpopulation exhibits normalization plays a role in dictating its potential for attentional benefits. Attention is known to enhance relevant information in our environment, yet its underlying neural computations remain unclear. Here, the authors provide evidence that the degree to which a neural population can normalize itself results in greater potential for attentional benefits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilona M Bloem
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. .,Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
| | - Sam Ling
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.,Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
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Kanamaru T, Aihara K. Acetylcholine-mediated top-down attention improves the response to bottom-up inputs by deformation of the attractor landscape. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0223592. [PMID: 31589648 PMCID: PMC6779248 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2019] [Accepted: 09/24/2019] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
To understand the effect of attention on neuronal dynamics, we propose a multi-module network, with each module consisting of fully interconnected groups of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. This network shows transitive dynamics among quasi-attractors as its typical dynamics. When the release of acetylcholine onto the network is simulated by attention, the transitive dynamics change into stable dynamics in which the system converges to an attractor. We found that this network can reproduce three experimentally observed properties of attention-dependent response modulation, namely an increase in the firing rate, a decrease in the Fano factor of the firing rate, and a decrease in the correlation coefficients between the firing rates of pairs of neurons. Moreover, we also showed theoretically that the release of acetylcholine increases the sensitivity to bottom-up inputs by changing the response function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takashi Kanamaru
- Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Kogakuin University, Tokyo, Japan
- * E-mail:
| | - Kazuyuki Aihara
- International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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Itthipuripat S, Sprague TC, Serences JT. Functional MRI and EEG Index Complementary Attentional Modulations. J Neurosci 2019; 39:6162-6179. [PMID: 31127004 PMCID: PMC6668200 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2519-18.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2018] [Revised: 04/12/2019] [Accepted: 05/16/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) are two noninvasive methods commonly used to study neural mechanisms supporting visual attention in humans. Studies using these tools, which have complementary spatial and temporal resolutions, implicitly assume they index similar underlying neural modulations related to external stimulus and internal attentional manipulations. Accordingly, they are often used interchangeably for constraining understanding about the impact of bottom-up and top-down factors on neural modulations. To test this core assumption, we simultaneously manipulated bottom-up sensory inputs by varying stimulus contrast and top-down cognitive modulations by changing the focus of spatial attention. Each of the male and female subjects participated in both fMRI and EEG sessions performing the same experimental paradigm. We found categorically different patterns of attentional modulation on fMRI activity in early visual cortex and early stimulus-evoked potentials measured via EEG (e.g., the P1 component and steady-state visually-evoked potentials): fMRI activation scaled additively with attention, whereas evoked EEG components scaled multiplicatively with attention. However, across longer time scales, a contralateral negative-going potential and oscillatory EEG signals in the alpha band revealed additive attentional modulation patterns like those observed with fMRI. These results challenge prior assumptions that fMRI and early stimulus-evoked potentials measured with EEG can be interchangeably used to index the same neural mechanisms of attentional modulations at different spatiotemporal scales. Instead, fMRI measures of attentional modulations are more closely linked with later EEG components and alpha-band oscillations. Considered together, hemodynamic and electrophysiological signals can jointly constrain understanding of the neural mechanisms supporting cognition.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT fMRI and EEG have been used as tools to measure the location and timing of attentional modulations in visual cortex and are often used interchangeably for constraining computational models under the assumption that they index similar underlying neural processes. However, by varying attentional and stimulus parameters, we found differential patterns of attentional modulations of fMRI activity in early visual cortex and commonly used stimulus-evoked potentials measured via EEG. Instead, across longer time scales, a contralateral negative-going potential and EEG oscillations in the alpha band exhibited attentional modulations similar to those observed with fMRI. Together, these results suggest that different physiological processes assayed by these complementary techniques must be jointly considered when making inferences about the neural underpinnings of cognitive operations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sirawaj Itthipuripat
- Neurosciences Graduate Program,
- Learning Institute
- Futuristic Research in Enigmatic Aesthetics Knowledge Laboratory, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
- Department of Psychology, Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience, and Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, and
| | - Thomas C Sprague
- Neurosciences Graduate Program,
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9660
| | - John T Serences
- Neurosciences Graduate Program
- Department of Psychology
- Kavli Foundation for the Brain and Mind, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093
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Representation of shape, space, and attention in monkey cortex. Cortex 2019; 122:40-60. [PMID: 31345568 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2018] [Revised: 02/26/2019] [Accepted: 06/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Attentional deficits are core to numerous developmental, neurological, and psychiatric disorders. At the single-cell level, much knowledge has been garnered from studies of shape and spatial properties, as well as from numerous demonstrations of attentional modulation of those properties. Despite this wealth of knowledge of single-cell responses across many brain regions, little is known about how these cellular characteristics relate to population level representations and how such representations relate to behavior; in particular, how these cellular responses relate to the representation of shape, space, and attention, and how these representations differ across cortical areas and streams. Here we will emphasize the role of population coding as a missing link for connecting single-cell properties with behavior. Using a data-driven intrinsic approach to population decoding, we show that both 'what' and 'where' cortical visual streams encode shape, space, and attention, yet demonstrate striking differences in these representations. We suggest that both pathways fully process shape and space, but that differences in representation may arise due to their differing functions and input and output constraints. Moreover, differences in the effects of attention on shape and spatial population representations in the two visual streams suggest two distinct strategies: in a ventral area, attention or task demands modulate the population representations themselves (perhaps to expand or enhance one part at the expense of other parts) while in a dorsal area, at a population representation level, attention effects are weak and nearly non-existent, perhaps in order to maintain veridical representations needed for visuomotor control. We show that an intrinsic approach, as opposed to theory-driven and labeled approaches, is useful for understanding how representations develop and differ across brain regions. Most importantly, these approaches help link cellular properties more tightly with behavior, a much-needed step to better understand and interpret cellular findings and key to providing insights to improve interventions in human disorders.
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Thiele A, Bellgrove MA. Neuromodulation of Attention. Neuron 2019; 97:769-785. [PMID: 29470969 PMCID: PMC6204752 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.01.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 168] [Impact Index Per Article: 33.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2017] [Revised: 10/26/2017] [Accepted: 01/02/2018] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Attention is critical to high-level cognition and attention deficits are a hallmark of neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders. Although years of research indicates that distinct neuromodulators influence attentional control, a mechanistic account that traverses levels of analysis (cells, circuits, behavior) is missing. However, such an account is critical to guide the development of next-generation pharmacotherapies aimed at forestalling or remediating the global burden associated with disorders of attention. Here, we summarize current neuroscientific understanding of how attention affects single neurons and networks of neurons. We then review key results that have informed our understanding of how neuromodulation shapes these neuron and network properties and thereby enables the appropriate allocation of attention to relevant external or internal events. Finally, we highlight areas where we believe hypotheses can be formulated and tackled experimentally in the near future, thereby critically increasing our mechanistic understanding of how attention is implemented at the cellular and network levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Thiele
- Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
| | - Mark A Bellgrove
- Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences (MICCN) and School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
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Banerjee S, Grover S, Ganesh S, Sridharan D. Sensory and decisional components of endogenous attention are dissociable. J Neurophysiol 2019; 122:1538-1554. [PMID: 31268805 PMCID: PMC6843089 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00257.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Endogenous cueing of attention enhances sensory processing of the attended stimulus (perceptual sensitivity) and prioritizes information from the attended location for guiding behavioral decisions (spatial choice bias). Here, we test whether sensitivity and bias effects of endogenous spatial attention are under the control of common or distinct mechanisms. Human observers performed a multialternative visuospatial attention task with probabilistic spatial cues. Observers' behavioral choices were analyzed with a recently developed multidimensional signal detection model (the m-ADC model). The model effectively decoupled the effects of spatial cueing on sensitivity from those on spatial bias and revealed striking dissociations between them. Sensitivity was highest at the cued location and not significantly different among uncued locations, suggesting a spotlight-like allocation of sensory resources at the cued location. On the other hand, bias varied systematically with cue validity, suggesting a graded allocation of decisional priority across locations. Cueing-induced modulations of sensitivity and bias were uncorrelated within and across subjects. Bias, but not sensitivity, correlated with key metrics of prioritized decision-making, including reaction times and decision optimality indices. In addition, we developed a novel metric, differential risk curvature, for distinguishing bias effects of attention from those of signal expectation. Differential risk curvature correlated selectively with m-ADC model estimates of bias but not with estimates of sensitivity. Our results reveal dissociable effects of endogenous attention on perceptual sensitivity and choice bias in a multialternative choice task and motivate the search for the distinct neural correlates of each.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Attention is often studied as a unitary phenomenon. Yet, attention can both enhance the perception of important stimuli (sensitivity) and prioritize such stimuli for decision-making (bias). Employing a multialternative spatial attention task with probabilistic cueing, we show that attention affects sensitivity and bias through dissociable mechanisms. Specifically, the effects on sensitivity alone match the notion of an attentional "spotlight." Our behavioral model enables quantifying component processes of attention, and identifying their respective neural correlates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sanjna Banerjee
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
| | - Shrey Grover
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
| | - Suhas Ganesh
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
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Neuronal Effects of Spatial and Feature Attention Differ Due to Normalization. J Neurosci 2019; 39:5493-5505. [PMID: 31068439 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2106-18.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2018] [Revised: 04/28/2019] [Accepted: 04/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Although spatial and feature attention have differing effects on neuronal responses in visual cortex, it remains unclear why. Response normalization has been implicated in both types of attention (Carandini and Heeger, 2011), and single-unit studies have demonstrated that the magnitude of spatial attention effects on neuronal responses covaries with the magnitude of normalization effects. However, the relationship between feature attention and normalization remains largely unexplored. We recorded from individual neurons in the middle temporal area of rhesus monkeys using a task that allowed us to isolate the effects of feature attention, spatial attention, and normalization on the responses of each neuron. We found that the magnitudes of neuronal response modulations due to spatial attention and feature attention are correlated; however, whereas modulations due to spatial attention are correlated with normalization strength, those due to feature attention are not. Additionally, spatial attention modulations are stronger with multiple stimuli in the receptive field, whereas feature attention modulations are not. These findings are captured by a model in which spatial and feature attention share common top-down attention signals that nonetheless result in differing sensory neuron response modulations because of a spatially tuned sensory normalization mechanism. This model explains previously reported commonalities and differences between these two types of attention by clarifying the relationship between top-down attention signals and sensory normalization. We conclude that similar top-down signals to visual cortex can have distinct effects on neuronal responses due to distinct interactions with sensory mechanisms.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Subjects use attention to improve their visual perception in several ways, including by attending to a location in space or to a visual feature. Prior studies have found both commonalities and differences between the effects of spatial and feature attention on neuronal responses in visual cortex, although it is unclear what mechanisms could explain this range of effects. Normalization, a computation by which neuronal responses are modified by stimulus context, has been implicated in many neuronal mechanisms throughout the brain. Here we propose that normalization provides a simple explanation for how spatial and feature attention could share common top-down attention signals that still affect sensory neuron responses differently.
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A Normalization Circuit Underlying Coding of Spatial Attention in Primate Lateral Prefrontal Cortex. eNeuro 2019; 6:eN-NWR-0301-18. [PMID: 31001577 PMCID: PMC6469883 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0301-18.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2018] [Revised: 02/14/2019] [Accepted: 02/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) neurons signal the allocation of voluntary attention; however, the neural computations underlying this function remain unknown. To investigate this, we recorded from neuronal ensembles in the LPFC of two Macaca fascicularis performing a visuospatial attention task. LPFC neural responses to a single stimulus were normalized when additional stimuli/distracters appeared across the visual field and were well-characterized by an averaging computation. Deploying attention toward an individual stimulus surrounded by distracters shifted neural activity from an averaging regime toward a regime similar to that when the attended stimulus was presented in isolation (winner-take-all; WTA). However, attentional modulation is both qualitatively and quantitatively dependent on a neuron’s visuospatial tuning. Our results show that during attentive vision, LPFC neuronal ensemble activity can be robustly read out by downstream areas to generate motor commands, and/or fed back into sensory areas to filter out distracter signals in favor of target signals.
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