1,721,012 research outputs found
Working memory maintenance of visual and auditory spatial information relies on supramodal neural codes in the dorsal frontoparietal cortex
Get PDFThe frontoparietal attention network plays a pivotal role during working memory (WM) maintenance, especially under high-load conditions. Nevertheless, there is ongoing debate regarding whether this network relies on supramodal or modality-specific neural signatures. In this study, we used multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to evaluate the neural representation of visual versus auditory information during WM maintenance. During fMRI scanning, participants maintained small or large spatial configurations (low- or high-load trials) of either colour shades or sound pitches in WM for later retrieval. Participants were less accurate in retrieving high- vs. low-load trials, demonstrating an effective manipulation of WM load, irrespective of the sensory modality. The frontoparietal regions involved in maintaining high- vs. low-load spatial maps in either sensory modality were highlighted using a conjunction analysis. Widespread activity was found across the dorsal frontoparietal network, peaking on the frontal eye fields and the superior parietal lobule, bilaterally. Within these regions, MVPAs were performed to quantify the pattern of distinctness of visual vs. auditory neural codes during WM maintenance. These analyses failed to reveal distinguishable patterns in the dorsal frontoparietal regions, thus providing support for a common, supramodal neural code associated with the retention of either visual or auditory spatial configurations
Learning a fine sequential hand motor skill by motor imagery
Get PDFWydział Nauk SpołecznychNiniejsza rozprawa doktorska miała na celu określenie specyfiki nabywania umiejętności motorycznych za pomocą wyobrażania ruchowego z wykorzystaniem paradygmatu Go/NoGo, przezczaszkowej stymulacji prądem stałym (tDCS) oraz elektroencefalografii (EEG). Najpierw zbadano, czy uczenie się umiejętności motorycznych jest zależne od efektora, czy też nie. Wyniki wykazały, że uczenie się umiejętności motorycznych zarówno za pomocą wyobrażania ruchowego, jak i fizycznego wykonywania ruchu nie jest zależne od efektora. Następnie zbadano wpływ zwiększonej wiedzy specjalistycznej na uczenie się umiejętności motorycznych, porównując wyniki behawioralne i EEG między muzykami i nie-muzykami. Wyniki wykazały, że uczenie umiejętności motorycznych zależy od zwiększonej wiedzy tylko w przypadku uczenia się z wykorzystaniem fizycznego wykonywania ruchu. Na koniec zbadano, czy nauka umiejętności motorycznych połączona z tDCS wpłynie na efekty uczenia się sekwencyjnych umiejętności motorycznych. Wyniki wykazały, że tDCS wpływa tylko na efekty uczenia się ogólnego, ale nie na efekty uczenia się specyficznego dla sekwencji. Wyniki przedstawione w tej rozprawie wskazują, że wyobrażanie ruchowe ma korzystny wpływ na sekwencyjne uczenie motoryczne, co ma istotne konsekwencje dla terapii wykorzystujących wyobrażanie ruchowe, np. dla dzieci z porażeniem mózgowym lub pacjentów po udarze. Co więcej, wyobrażanie ruchowe może być stosowane po prostu do zwiększenia specyficznych umiejętności motorycznych (np. przez muzyków lub sportowców) w przypadku braku możliwości wykonywania ćwiczeń fizycznych lub choroby.This thesis was aimed at determining the specificity of acquiring motor skills through motor imagery using the Go/NoGo paradigm, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and electroencephalography (EEG). First, it was examined whether the learning of a motor skill with motor imagery and motor execution is effector-dependent or not. Results indicated that motor skill learning both with motor execution and motor imagery was not effector-dependent. Next, the influence of increased expertise on learning a motor skill with motor execution and motor imagery was examined by comparing behavioral and EEG results between musicians and non-musicians. Interestingly, the results indicated that learning a fine motor skill depends on increased expertise only in the case of learning with motor execution. Finally, it was investigated whether learning a fine motor skill combined with tDCS would influence the sequence-learning effects. Results revealed that tDCS affects only a-specific learning effects, but not sequence-specific learning effects. Overall, the results reported in this dissertation indicate that motor imagery has a beneficial effect on acquiring a fine sequential motor skill. The outcome of this thesis increased our understanding of crucial characteristics of motor imagery, what have relevant consequences for therapies using motor imagery, for example, for children with cerebral palsy or for patients after stroke. It may also be used to simply enhance specific motor skills (e.g., by musicians or athletes) in the case of inability of physical practice or disease
Pain and attention
Get PDFThe ability to sense pain may be considered as a prerequisite for human survival. The experience of pain helps humans to avoid the execution of actions that can seriously endanger their lives; pain is therefore evolutionarily predisposed to interrupt and capture attention. However, this supposed interconnectedness between pain and attention is still sparsely examined. The aim of this dissertation was to gain further insight in this relation between pain and attention, and more specifically the underlying mechanisms that explain how attention affects pain. The electroencephalographic (EEG) technique was employed to examine and demonstrate the effects of both attention and distraction (achieved by different attentional manipulations) on the electrophysiological responses to experimentally induced nociceptive stimuli (delivered transcutaneous or intracutaneous) in healthy pain free participants. The different studies revealed that the neural processing of pain is consistently affected by attention. However, to what extent attention affects pain is highly dependent on the type of manipulation used. Namely, only in the case of total irrelevance of nociceptive stimuli, when they occur at to be ignored locations and do not belong to the task set, then the orienting effect is no longer observed. A reduction in processing in somatosensory areas is observed when attention is directed away from the location of the pain stimuli or being occupied with a secondary task, but only if it is 100% sure that the pain stimulus can be ignored. This effect also occurs when the pain stimulus is part of the task set (i.e., when it contains target features). The studies reported in this dissertation clearly highlight the interconnectedness between pain and attention. Distraction of attention to another modality (not within the same task set) has been shown to be most effective. These results underline the high potential of attention as part of behavioural or clinical therapies in treating and coping with pain (e.g., employing mindfulness, cognitive therapy or with the application of other techniques like virtual reality)
Editorial Special Issue: Neuronus
Get PDFThis special issue of the 12th volume of Advances in Cognitive Psychology is devoted to the Neuronus conference that took place in Kraków in 2015. In this editorial letter, we will focus on a selection of the materials and some follow-up research that was presented during this conference. We will also briefly introduce the conference contributions that successfully passed an external reviewing process
Editorial to the special issue Neuronus
Get PDFDid you visit the Neuronus conferences in the years 2012 and 2013 in Kraków? if not, then you certainly should have a close examination of this special issue including this introduction to at least have a glimpse of an idea of the highly interesting topics in the field of cognitive neuroscience that were presented at these conferences. if you were there, it is for sure a good choice to focus on this special issue as well, first to refresh your minds (we know our memories are far from perfect), but especially to see what happened with research of the presenters at these conferences
Inner eye
Get PDFMoving the eyes enables the selection of relevant information from the external visual
world. Besides moving the eyes, humans and many other species also have the capability to
'look out of the comer of their eyes'. For in stance, we can attend to a pencil located in the periphery, while keeping our eyes fixated at a TV screen in front of us. A metaphor that seems suitable for this 'attending to something' is the inner eye. Several issues are addressed. First, some experiments will be reported that demonstrate the existence of this inner eye. In addition, a distinction will be made between two ways in which the inner eye can be controlled. Third, we will focus on the areas of the brain that are affected by moving the inner eye, and will also indicate the brain areas that probably play a role in the control of the inner eye. Finally, we will focus on experimental support with regard to the function that this inner eye serves. that is, one may wonder whether the function of this inner eye is simply a duplication of the function of the external eye, or does it serve another function
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Lateralized power spectra of the EEG as an index of visuospatial attention
Get PDFThe electroencephalogram (EEG) was measured in an endogenous orienting paradigm where symbolic cues indicated the likely side of to-be-discriminated targets. Combined results of eventrelated lateralizations (ERLs) and a newly derived measure from wavelet analyses that we applied on the raw EEG and individual event-related potentials (ERPs), the lateralized power spectra (LPS) and the LPS-ERP, respectively, confirmed the common view that endogenous orienting operates by anterior processes, probably originating from the frontal eye fields, modulating processing in parietal and occipital areas. the LPS data indicated that modulation takes place by increased inhibition of the irrelevant visual field and/or disinhibition of the relevant to-be-attended visual field. combined use of ERLs, the LPS, and the LPS-ERP indicated that most of the involved processes can be characterized as externally evoked, either or not with clear individual differences as some evoked effects were only visible in the LPS-ERP, whereas few processes seemed to have an internally induced nature. Use of the LPS and the LPS-ERP may be advantageous as it enables to determine the involvement of internally generated lateralized processes that are not strictly bound to an event like stimulus onset
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