Posters will be able to be presented live in-person in the venues at the Hyatt (hooray!).
In addition, we will provide online presentation opportunities for all poster presenters.
Poster Sessions
There are seven live in-person Poster Sessions, each two hours in length. The presenting author must post materials and be present at least one full hour during the assigned session and at least one other author is expected to be present during the remainder of the session.
*Please note that CNS 2023 is an in-person event to be held March 25-28 in San Francisco, CA.
Poster Boards
The available space to present your in-person poster on the poster board is 4 feet tall (121 centimeters tall) by 8 feet wide (242 centimeters wide). Because poster sessions can be crowded, it is best to present your material in columns (vertically), instead of rows (horizontally), so that viewers do not have to cross back and forth in front of each other to read the poster. Posters are easiest to read using high contract colors (for example, black lettering on a white background). Pushpins are provided for mounting your poster to the poster board. See also Poster Guidelines.
Poster Printing
Cognitive Neuroscience Society has teamed up with PhdPosters.com to bring you discounted poster costs and free on-site conference pick-up! PhdPosters.com has been providing the highest quality research posters at the lowest prices for over 12 years. To take advantage of this offer, please go to http://www.sfphdposters.com/CNS2023!
Poster Schedule
In-person poster sessions are scheduled for Saturday-Tuesday in Pacific Concourse Exhibition Hall of the San Francisco Hyatt Regency. All attendees must present their CNS 2023 name badge to enter the exhibit hall. Do not leave personal items in the poster room.
The presenting author must be present during the assigned session. You may post your materials on the board assigned to you at any time after the “Set-up Begins” time (listed below), but before the beginning of the assigned poster session. You must remove your poster promptly no later than the time listed above in “Take-down Complete.” Any posters left up after the “Take-down Complete” time may be discarded.
Note that presenters are asked to set up poster in advance of their session and to leave their poster up for a period following their session (see your specific session for hours). This is to allow attendees to view posters outside the formal session times. Remove your poster promptly at take down complete time, so that the next presenter may set up their poster.
Only registered poster presenters, wearing a CNS 2023 meeting badge, for the current session and exhibitors will be allowed in the exhibit hall during set up and take-down hours. No attendee or exhibitor will be allowed to enter the exhibit hall after the Closed for the Day- No Entry hours.
Poster Session
Date
Setup Begins
Session
Tear-Down
Take-Down Completed
No Entry Hours
A
Saturday, March 25
12:00 pm – 12:30 pm
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm
6:00 pm*
Closed for the Day- No Entry hours 6:00 pm – Sunday, 7:30 am
B
Sunday, March 26
7:30 am – 8:00 am
8:00 am – 10:00 am
11:30 am – 11:45 am
11:45 am*
Closed for lunch- No Entry hours 11:45 am-1:30 pm
C
Sunday, March 26
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
7:00 pm – 7:15 pm
7:15 pm*
Closed for the Day- No Entry hours 7:15 pm – Monday, 7:30 am
D
Monday, March 27
7:30 am – 8:00 am
8:00 am – 10:00 am
11:30 am – 11:45 am
11:45 am*
Closed for lunch- No Entry hours 11:45 am - 1:30 pm
E
Monday, March 27
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm
2:30 pm – 4:30 pm
5:30 pm – 5:45 pm
5:45 pm*
Closed for the Day- No Entry hours 5:45 pm – Tuesday, 7:30 am
F
Tuesday, March 28
7:30 am – 8:00 am
8:00 am – 10:00 am
11:45 am - Noon
Noon*
Closed for the Day- No Entry hours 12 noon.
* No attendee or exhibitor will be allowed to enter the exhibit hall after the Closed for the Day- No Entry hours.
Session
Poster #
Presenter
Authors
Poster Title
Abstract
Keywords
Details
A
1
Jeremy Loebach, St. Olaf College
Stephanie Sanchez, St Olaf College; Mike Guzman, St. Olaf College Rayan Elahi, St. Olaf College
Modifying the Paced Serial Addition Task to Investigate Auditory Cognition Using Pupillometry
The Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (Gronwall and Sampson, 1974) is susceptible to effects of age and hearing loss. In this study we modified the PASAT for use with a wider range of individuals with varying hearing abilities. The PASAT presents a series of spoken digits at 2 or 3 second ISIs. The listener must encode the first and second digits, report the sum, add the third digit to the second, and so on. Since hearing impaired individuals often have a high number of timed out trials, we added 4 and 5 second ISI conditions to allow more time to process the information. We added a 1 second ISI condition to create a greater challenge for younger normal hearing listeners. We made the test adaptive, with fewer trials when the participant is performing well and more trials when performing poorly, allowing us to better study loaded conditions without fatigue effects. Finally, we collected pupillary responses to measure the allocation of cognitive resources. We tested 20 participants to address the specific question of whether using the modified PASAT could assess resource allocation across the five conditions of the test in normal hearing individuals. We found that cognitive load increased with task difficulty, with significantly larger pupil dilations for shorter ISIs (1<2<3<4<5), smaller dilations on correct trials, and larger dilations on error trials. A response windowed analysis demonstrated that these differences were pronounced in earlier epochs, indicating better mediation of cognitive load and application of auditory cognitive resources.
ATTENTION: Auditory
A
2
Eshed Rabinovitch, The Gonda Center for Multidisciplinary Brain Research, Bar I
Paz Har-Shai Yahav, The Gonda Center for Multidisciplinary Brain Research, Bar I; Adi Korisky, The Gonda Center for Multidisciplinary Brain Research, Bar I Renana Vaknin-Harel, The Gonda Center for Multidisciplinary Brain Research, Bar I; Roi Gueta, School of Engineering, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Sharon Gannot, School of Engineering, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Elana Zion-Golumbic, The Gonda Center for Multidisciplinary Brain Research, Bar I
Neural decoding of selective attention to speech from real-space recorded acoustic mixtures
The human ability to focus on a single speech stream out of many is often studied in laboratory settings where participants sit still and are asked to listen to concurrent, well controlled, speech stimuli, that are presented through earphones (often dichotically). Participants are instructed to selectively attend to one speaker and ignore another, and the neural signatures of this selective attention can be extracted from their neural response. _x000D_
_x000D_
This project strives to pave the way towards investigation of selective attention to speech under more ecological conditions. One challenge in pivoting to real-world studies is that researchers will not have access to the 'clean' audio of each speaker, but rather this will need to be inferred from the mixture (just as done by the auditory system). _x000D_
We present data from a selective-attention paradigm to concurrent speech where speech was presented over loudspeakers rather than headphones. _x000D_
We compare auditory attention decoding using both linear (TRF) and non-linear (DNN) approaches, applied using either the clean speech audio of the two speakers (known a-priori to the researchers), or a derivation of the speech audio of both speakers after segregating them using a beamforming approach. We show comparable results for both methods, demonstrating the feasibility of applying attention-decoding techniques in real-life contexts outside the lab.
ATTENTION: Auditory
A
3
Marwa Antar, East Carolina University
Lana Wang, East Carolina University; John Christopher Mizelle, East Carolina University Sunghan Kim, East Carolina University
Graph-based Network Analysis of Visually Evoked Event-related Potential in Mild Cognitive Impairment
Dementia is a prevalent disease among the elderly involving a loss of memory. Early detection of dementia in its early stages of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can slow down the progression of cognitive dysfunction. This study aims to examine differences in connectivity patterns between different brain regions of senior citizens with and without signs of MCI. A visual oddball task is used to elicit Event-related potentials (ERPs) that can be directly related to cognitive processes such as attention and memory encoding. Then, we apply functional connectivity analysis (FCA) to those ERPs to estimate phase synchronization between channels using a phase-based functional connectivity measure called weighted phase-lag index (wPLI). Functional connectivity level can only be assessed between two brain regions at a time. Thus, we apply Graph Theoretical Analysis (GTA) to FCA results to obtain more holistic perspective of neural network interactions, where the channels and FCA results are represented in nodes and connecting edges, respectively. This topographical representation allows the comparison of FC levels between multiple channels simultaneously, where higher density of adjacent edges indicate better segregation of information processing in separate brain regions, while higher density of edges connecting distant channels indicate better integration between brain regions for global information processing. A healthy brain network exhibits a balanced state between segregation and integration levels described as the level of centrality of the network. MCI brain networks are expected to have lower level of integration signifying symptoms of cognitive decline.
ATTENTION: Development & aging
A
4
Ralph Andrews, Trinity College Dublin
Michael Melnychuk, Trinity College Dublin; Alexa Holfelda, Bern University Catherine Moran, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; Paul Dockree, Trinity College Dublin
Enhanced Respiratory Entrainment in Older Adults associated with greater focus during sustained attention
Respiration phase has been shown to modulate task performance and perception over a range of cognitive domains. To determine the extent to which sustained attention is similarly modulated, we investigated task event-related respiratory patterns in a paradigm which has previously shown differences in focus/mind wandering between younger (18-35 y/o) and older (65-80 y/o) adults. The task involved detecting gradual changes in stimulus contrast and responding to thought probes, which assessed self-report focus. Further, building on previous work evidencing respiratory-pupillary coupling, we extracted pupil diameter (PD) over the same epochs, and calculated phase coherence between these signals. Older adults self-reported significantly more focus as well as exhibiting higher respiratory entrainment to target presentation and response. Respiratory patterns around thought probe presentation and response were also significantly more consistent and pronounced. These findings were paralleled by significantly higher changes in PD amplitude over the same periods in the older adults. A significant negative correlation was found between respiratory entrainment to target responses and the mean skewness of the participants' reaction time distribution. Phase coherence between respiration and PD (bandpass filtered), however, did not differ significantly between the two groups at the block (phase-locking value; older = 0.146 ± 0.012; younger = 0.145 ± 0.016) or task event levels. We interpret these findings as evidence for a higher attunement of respiratory (and pupil) dynamics to task events as a strategy for higher focus in the older adults, resulting in stronger anticipation and reaction to task events.
ATTENTION: Development & aging
A
5
Andy Kim, University of Southern California
B. Rael Cahn, University of Southern California; Santiago Morales, University of Southern California Mara Mather, University of Southern California
The effects of resonance breathing on locus coeruleus activity in young and older adults.
Locus coeruleus (LC) functional connectivity is altered in older adults, signifying dysregulated noradrenergic activity. However, it is unclear whether this LC dysfunction is a consequence of elevated or suppressed noradrenergic activity. We hypothesize that older adults (aged 50-80) exhibit elevated noradrenergic activity compared to young adults (aged 18-30). To reduce arousal and noradrenergic activity, young and older adults completed an intervention in which they breathe at their resonance frequency to elicit the baroreflex loop and drive parasympathetic activity. We recorded pupil size and event-related potentials (ERPs) at rest and while participants completed passive and active 3-stimulus auditory oddball tasks (standard, target, distractor). During the active auditory oddball task, young adults showed decreased pupil sizes while resonance breathing but not among older adults. Furthermore, young adults showed decreased P3a and P3b ERP area amplitudes by the target tone which measures voluntary attentional control, while older adults demonstrated decreased amplitudes by the distractor tone which measures involuntary attention capture. Our findings demonstrate that decreasing arousal via resonance breathing modulates pupillometric and electroencephalography measures of noradrenergic activity. Furthermore, these results indicate differential effects of reduced arousal on young and older adults, specifically with mechanisms of attentional control and how they are modulated by the parasympathetic system in aging.
ATTENTION: Development & aging
A
6
Jessica Ip, Brown University
William C. Heindel, Brown University; Elena K. Festa, Brown University
Age-Related Effects of Audiovisual Semantic Congruency on Living and Nonliving Object Perception
This EEG study investigated age-related effects of irrelevant congruent or incongruent audio semantic information on living and nonliving visual object perception. Thirty-one young adults (YA, Mean Age = 20.8) and thirty-seven older adults (OA, Mean Age = 72.4) made speeded orientation judgments to real-world objects in upright or inverted orientations that were presented simultaneously with either a semantically congruent or incongruent sound (e.g., a cow or fire truck presented with the sound 'moo'). Overall, YAs and OAs both responded faster to living compared to nonliving objects in both the upright and inverted conditions, and YAs were overall faster at responding to upright and inverted objects compared to OAs. For living objects, YAs displayed a significant effect of semantic congruency on P200 amplitude under inverted but not upright conditions. In contrast, OAs displayed a significant P200 congruency effect under both upright and inverted conditions, suggesting a greater need for allocation of top-down attentional processes to resolve perceptual ambiguity. For nonliving objects, YAs displayed a significantly more negative N400 amplitude during the incongruent trials compared to the congruent trials under both upright and inverted conditions, reflecting greater post-perceptual semantic integration demands under incongruent conditions. OAs similarly displayed a significant N400 congruency effect under inverted conditions but not under upright conditions. Taken together, these results suggest that OAs employ greater top-down selective attentional processes to resolve conflicts in audiovisual semantic integration of canonical objects, whereas YAs rely more on bottom-up perceptual processes that are particularly supported by representations of living objects.
ATTENTION: Development & aging
A
7
Lucas Weyrich, Creighton University / Boys Town National Research Hospital
Cognitive Interference Subtypes Differentially Modulate Alpha and Gamma Oscillatory Dynamics in Children
The brain undergoes tremendous structural and functional changes between late childhood and early adolescence, including the reorganization of several attention networks. These networks are critical for maintaining attention to task-relevant stimuli in the presence of interference and have been probed using paradigms that separately index different types of interference. Herein, we examined the developmental trajectory of these networks using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 37 typically developing youth (11 ? 13 years; 19 males). During MEG, participants completed a multisource interference task that included flanker-type (stimulus-stimulus), Simon (stimulus-response), and multi-source (flanker + Simon) interference, as well as a control condition. MEG data were analyzed using a data-driven approach to identify oscillatory responses for beamformer source reconstruction, which resulted in alpha (6 ? 14 Hz, 350 ? 650 ms) and gamma (72 ? 92 Hz, 150 ? 400 ms) source maps per condition. Our key findings indicated differential neural responses between conditions within both frequency bands. Specifically, we found stronger alpha oscillations in the Simon and multi-source conditions relative to the flanker and control conditions in cerebellar and occipital cortices, as well as increased gamma activity in the flanker and multisource conditions relative to the control condition in the superior parietal cortices and the temporo-parietal junction. The current data suggests regional and spectral specificity serving the processing of distinct types of cognitive interference, with alpha activity being sensitive to stimulus-response and gamma being linked to stimulus-stimulus interference, while oscillations in both spectral ranges were involved in the multi-source condition.
ATTENTION: Development & aging
A
8
Francisco Cervantes Constantino, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable
Rodrigo Caramés Harcevnicow, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable; Alejandra Carboni, Universidad de la Repáblica, Uruguay Thaiz Sánchez-Costa, Universidad de la Repáblica, Uruguay
Crossmodal dynamics of uncertain reward-driven distraction via frequency tagging
Background: Value-modulated attentional capture (VMAC) is the automatic disposition towards stimuli paired in the past with reward. Evidence suggests that its effects are modality-specific and, because temporal coding is key to audiovisual (AV) processing, we investigate if VMAC biases sustain over time in crossmodal, dynamic contexts. Methods: We probe auditory encoding under the influence of reward-associated visual dynamic distractors. As part of an AV task, participants listen to 9 or 11 Hz amplitude-modulated (AM) white noise segments, undergoing electroencephalography (EEG). Two types of visual object are displayed centrally, briefly (6 s) flickering at 9 and 11 Hz each. Participants (N=34) are instructed to determine the object matching the AM noise presentation. Crucially, as part of the flicker display, a group of irrelevant dots is also presented peripherally and may contain a feature (color) that was reward-associated at an unrelated task. Results: The presence of previously rewarded color biases participant behavior by reducing hit rates in the AV task (p=0.03), indicating VMAC. Second, neural responses synchronize with greater coherence at high-value distractor and AM-related rhythm rates. Subject-wise, performance drops correlate with such auditory coherence increases (p=0.04). Third, colors set on nonprobabilistic (constant) reward learning fail to lead to such effects (p=0.56) whereas they succeed on probabilistic learning (p=0.002), underscoring the role of reward uncertainty. Conclusions: Under crossmodal VMAC, auditory processing may favor interaction with the dynamic stream of a previously desirable visual distractor, even at the expense of task-relevant object selection.
ATTENTION: Multisensory
A
9
Tyler Statema, University of California Davis
Soukhin Das, University of California Davis; Sreenivasan Meyyappan, University of California Davis Mingzhou Ding, University of California Davis; George R. Mangun, University of California Davis
Neural Mechanisms of Cross-Modal Selective Attention for Auditory and Visual Stimuli_x000D_
Studies have shown that attention can operate across different sensory modalities, such as vision and audition, and play a crucial role in our ability to integrate and process multisensory information. However, the neural mechanisms underlying cross-modal attention remain largely unknown. We used event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures to investigate the neural basis of cross-modal attention and its effects on the perception of auditory and visual stimuli. In our cross-modal attention task, participants were presented with valid or invalid auditory and visual cues (80% predictive) to indicate whether they needed to pay attention to the auditory or visual modality to assess a visual grating or distinguish an auditory tone of an upcoming target. The extracted ERPs for auditory and visual target processing (cued vs uncued) were compared separately. The results showed the effects of attention on auditory N100 over central and parietal areas, auditory P300 over frontal and central areas for auditory targets, and a late positive potential (LPP) over parietal areas. In addition, for visual targets, attentional effects for visual N1-P2, and visual P300 over posterior and occipital areas, along with posterior visual LPP were also observed. Further, individuals with higher reaction times (RTs) for attended auditory and visual targets showed greater P300 amplitudes over the frontal sites. These results suggest the effects of attention during both early modulations of sensory processing and further representation of stimuli. Taken together, ERPs combined with behavioral measures and the correlation between them provide new insights into cross-modal attentional control and selection.
ATTENTION: Multisensory
A
10
Soukhin Das, University of California Davis
Sreenivasan Meyyappan, University of California Davis; Mingzhou Ding, University of Florida George R. Mangun, University of California Davis
Decoding Neural Patterns Associated with Cross-Modal Attention to Auditory and Visual Stimuli
Attention can operate across different sensory modalities, such as vision and audition, and play a _x000D_
crucial role to integrate and process multisensory information. Recent studies have suggested that alpha _x000D_
oscillations in the 8-12 Hz range play a role in cross-modal attentional control, but this remains a topic of _x000D_
debate. In our study, we investigated the neural basis of cross-modal attention and its alpha-mediated _x000D_
changes in focal cortical excitability. We recorded EEG from 27 human participants performing a cued _x000D_
cross-modal attention task. In our task, participants were cued (aurally or visually) on a trial-by-trial basis _x000D_
to direct attention toward either auditory or visual modality to assess different targets in that modality _x000D_
(visual gratings or auditory tones respectively). Support vector machine decoding of alpha power revealed _x000D_
distinct patterns, during early (100-300ms) and late (>600ms) latencies in the cue-to-target foreperiod, _x000D_
where EEG alpha power differed with the to-be-attended target modality. Further, we found more robust _x000D_
decoding accuracies for the to-be-attended modality in the sensory areas- central electrodes for the auditory _x000D_
modality and parieto-occipital electrodes for the visual modality. We also found dissociable ERP signals _x000D_
that encode attentional instructions are dynamic and correlate with their respective alpha power decoding _x000D_
accuracies over central and posterior areas. We propose distinct alpha oscillations and ERP patterns _x000D_
that reflect attentional orienting signals for cross-modal stimulus anticipation. This work extends the current _x000D_
framework for decoding the neural mechanisms of cross-modal attention which involves focal cortical _x000D_
changes in alpha oscillations for anticipating auditory and visual stimuli.
ATTENTION: Multisensory
A
11
John Nadra, University of California, Davis
Mingzhou Ding, University of Florida; George Mangun, University of California, Davis
The Neural Mechanisms of Color Willed Attention
In real world vision, attention is guided by top-down (voluntary) and bottom-up (involuntary) influences. Laboratory studies of attention have predominantly investigated top-down attention using cues to direct attention, although self-generated shifts of covert spatial attention (willed attention) are increasingly of interest (e.g., Bengson et al., 2014; Nadra et al., 2022). Studies on willed attention have focused on brain activity that predicts where covert spatial attention will be allocated, but this has not been investigated in non-spatial attention. In a feature-based attention paradigm, we are investigating whether the pattern of brain electrical activity can predict which color will be attended (orange or purple). Behavioral measures indicate that attention is being adequately allocated to the different color options, with reaction time detriments when only the unattended target appears. This work is in progress, but we hypothesize that differences in EEG alpha prior to the allocation in attention will predict the intention to shift attention to a specific color. The analysis will include both EEG decoding and spectral analyses.
ATTENTION: Nonspatial
A
12
Nathalie Liegel, Leibniz Research Centre for Human Factors
Daniel Schneider, Leibniz Research Centre for Human Factors; Edmund Wascher, Leibniz Research Centre for Human Factors Laura-Isabelle Klatt, Leibniz Research Centre for Human Factors; Stefan Arnau, Leibniz Research Centre for Human Factors
Task-specificity of pre-stimulus alpha in a mental effort paradigm: Does task specification enhance effects of reward?
When good task performance is rewarded, task preparation and proactive processing is enhanced compared to situations without reward. In an EEG study, we investigate the extent to which this reward-related modulation of mental effort affects task-specific and task-unspecific processes. To this end, we are collecting data from participants engaging in a cued task switching paradigm consisting of an auditory and a visual discrimination task. A task cue either indicates that the auditory or the visual task will follow (precise cue) or is uninformative regarding the following task (imprecise cue). In half of the trials, good performance is rewarded by an extra incentive, in the other half, no extra incentive can be earned. _x000D_
A preliminary data analysis (n=15) indicates effects of both factors: Participants performed better in rewarded than in unrewarded trials, as well as in trials with precise compared to imprecise task-cues. These behavioral findings were reflected in the EEG in alpha power modulations. Alpha desynchronization during the cue-target interval was more pronounced in rewarded trials, as well as in response to precise task cues. A significant interaction of both factors could not be found, neither for the behavioral nor for the EEG data. This indicates that the alpha desynchronization associated with mental effort rather reflects superordinate resource allocation than the enhancement of task-specific processes. In addition, these preliminary results suggest that effects of reward are independent of the preciseness of task instructions, which might have implications for applied research questions.
ATTENTION: Other
A
13
Yuxi Candice Wang, Duke University
Tobias Egner, Duke University
Target detection does not influence temporal memory
Target detection has been found to enhance subsequent memory for concurrently presented stimuli under dual-task conditions. This phenomenon, the 'Attentional Boost Effect,' has been generalized across a variety of memory tests, including item recognition memory, source memory, and memory for task-irrelevant stimulus features. One interpretation is that the detection of a target constitutes an event boundary that enhances perceptual processing of concurrently presented information, analogous to the source memory enhancement effect for boundary items. In support of this idea, prior research has found locus coeruleus activity-related phasic pupil response to be associated with both target detection and event segmentation. Like event boundaries that require an update of working memory event representations or an update of task goals, responding to a target (either an overt response like a button press or a covert response like increasing a mental count) also requires working memory update. Though there are important parallels between the Attentional Boost Effect in target detection and event segmentation studies, whether target detection also impacts temporal memory in similar ways as event boundaries remains unknown. We investigated this question in a pre-registered experiment with sequential Bayes factor design by inserting targets and distractors during encoding of trial-unique object images, then comparing subsequent temporal order and distance memory for image pairs that span a target or distractor. We found that target detection enhanced recognition memory for target-concurrent images but had no effect on temporal memory. These results suggest that target detection does not disrupt inter-item associations in memory like event segmentation.
ATTENTION: Other
A
14
Daniela Gresch, University of Oxford
Sage E.P. Boettcher, University of Oxford; Freek van Ede, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Anna C. Nobre, University of Oxford
Shifting attention within and between perception and working memory
Attention enables us to prioritise and shift between sources of information, whether present in the external world, or stored as internal representations. While ample research has targeted the mechanisms of shifting attention either in perception (the external domain), or within memory (the internal domain), how attention transitions from perception to memory and vice versa remains largely unexplored. Here, we developed a novel task to capture the moment when participants shifted attention between two of four visual items - two being held in working memory, with two more anticipated in a subsequent perceptual display. This task allowed us to compare the effects of shifting within versus between the internal and external attentional domains. First, we show higher performance costs associated with shifting between domains than shifting within a domain. In addition, we used multivariate decoding of magnetencephalography data to individuate neural information linked to within- and between-domain shifts. We could not only decode the current attentional domain, but also whether participants shifted within the same or between different domains. This was the case irrespective of whether shifting from working memory to perception or vice versa. Finally, we found evidence that the decodability of both the current attentional domain and the type of shift were related to subsequent behavioural performance. Taken together, our findings uncover the behavioural consequences and neural processes associated with shifting attention between perception and working memory, and reveal how these differ from shifting attention within a domain.
ATTENTION: Other
A
15
Sage Boettcher, University Of Oxford
Berit Hartjen, Princeton University; Sabine Kastner, Princeton University; Kia Nobre, University of Oxford
Investigating sensory and motor rhythmic sampling in behaviour
Covert attention allows us to enhance the processing of relevant stimuli within our environment without the need for overt eye movements. Recent work has demonstrated that our covert attentional system rhythmically samples the environment approximately 3 to 8 times per second. Our sensory system must work in tandem with our motor system to produce fluent natural behaviour. That is, once we perceive a task-relevant stimulus, we must execute the appropriate response. Although past work has shown an important role for actions resetting perceptual sampling, it remains unclear to what extent motor responses themselves are dictated by rhythms. To investigate whether motor responses are subject to the same rhythmic sampling found in perception we designed a task that orthogonalised sensory and motor preparation. Compound cues indicated both the most likely location of an upcoming target stimulus and the most likely motor response (left or right button press). As such, cues were valid (or not) across both the sensory and motor domain. Time between the cue and the target varied between 300 and 1100 ms. This manipulation allowed us to interrogate the effects of valid sensory and valid motor (response) cues orthogonally across time. Consistent with previous work we found that sensory cues modulate behaviour in a range between 3 and 8 Hz. Interestingly, there is no indication of periodic sampling of response information.
ATTENTION: Other
A
16
Grace Bell, University of California, Davis
Lee Holcomb, University of California, Davis; Alex Cohen, University of California, Davis Kyle Astleford, University of California, Davis; George Mangun, University of California, Davis
The relationship between microsaccades and pupil response in a covert spatial attention paradigm
Orientating responses are essential to navigate our environment, particularly one that is potentially dangerous. One overt measure of orientating is the pupillary response, which has been shown to dilate under low, intermediate, and higher levels of cognition. For instance, when luminance is held constant pupil size is modulated as a function of attention. Additionally, engaging covert spatial attention requires the eyes to be still, yet small eye movements known as microsaccades are made nonetheless. These small eye movements have been proposed as an overt measure of covert spatial attention (Engbert and Kliegl 2003), and V4 firing rates were observed to increase when a microsaccade was directed towards versus away from an upcoming target (Lowet et al., 2018), further supporting an association between the two. However, it remains to be seen how the pupil interacts with microsaccades under conditions of covert spatial attention. For instance, correlations between microsaccade peak velocity and pre-microsaccadic pupillary response were observed during an emotional sound task (Wang et al. 2021); however, this was not under visual covert spatial attention conditions. Utilizing high-resolution eye tracking, the current study examined the relationship between pupillary response and microsaccades under conditions of covert spatial attention. Participants engaged in a modified Posner cueing paradigm (80% validity), and were instructed to employ covert spatial attention in order to discriminate the orientation of lines within square-wave gratings. While data collection and analysis are still ongoing, data about pupillary response, along with their relationship with microsaccades, will be presented.
ATTENTION: Spatial
A
17
Natalie Baer, Columbia University
Alfredo Spagna, Columbia University
Cueing Spatial Attention Within Visual Mental Imagery and Perception_x000D_
Is it possible to cue spatial attention within visual mental imagery? We tested this relationship against well-known effects in visual perception, by presenting 7-letter target words (750ms), containing a letter that protruded above or below an imagined number line (e.g., the letter 'g' in manager). In each trial, participants (n=10) explored the target word presented on the screen (visual word) or imagined (auditory word). A 500ms number cue (either visual or auditory/imagined) preceded the target word by 400ms, spatially orienting participants towards one of the letters. Valid cues (56 trials) oriented towards the protruding letter, while invalid cues oriented away from that letter (16 trials). A center cue (16 trials) drew participants' attention towards the 4th letter in the word, providing temporal but not spatial information. We conducted a 3-way repeated measures ANOVA with cue modality (visual, imagined), target modality (visual, imagined), and cue validity (valid, invalid, center) as factors. Participants were faster for visual compared to imagined cues (p < .05), for visual compared to imagined targets (p < .001), and for valid compared to invalid cues (p < .05), but not for center compared to valid or invalid cues (ps = .30). Further, the three-way interaction was significant (p < 0.001). Post-hoc comparisons showed faster responses for center cues and imagined targets when cues were visual compared to imagined. If confirmed, results would show that attention can be spatially cued within mental imagery, and there is a benefit from imagined compared to perceived center cues on imagined targets.
ATTENTION: Spatial
A
18
Gayathri Subramanian, Northwestern University
Spatial Memory Improvements due to Reactivation: Does the Background Context Matter?_x000D_
Authors: Subramanian, G., Paller., K.A._x000D_
Author Affiliations: Northwestern University
Spatial learning tasks used to study declarative memory often involve objects presented in different screen locations over a common background. The background serves as part of the environmental context; for example, we have used rectangular grids (Rudoy et al., 2009; Creery et al., 2015) or circular grids (Schechtman et al., 2021). Backgrounds are typically constant throughout a study and are usually thought to be relatively unimportant, but we speculated that reactivation of object memories after initial learning may also include reactivation of backgrounds. We therefore tested whether type of background can impact learning and reactivation of object locations. In Experiment 1, 18 participants were randomly assigned to two conditions; backgrounds were either a set of frames such that there was a unique frame for each object (Frames condition) or the background was always a gray gradient (Gradient condition). Reactivation after initial learning was found to improve spatial recall and no influence of background was detected. In Experiment 2, 30 participants completed three blocks of spatial learning, each with a different background condition (Frames, always a Fractal pattern, or always a Grid background). A significant reactivation benefit was found only for the Frames condition. Taken together, these results show that unique or common backgrounds in the circumstances tested have minimal effects on spatial learning and reactivation. Further studies could help substantiate this idea, but the available evidence suggests that straightforward comparisons can be made across spatial learning studies with divergent backgrounds.
ATTENTION: Spatial
A
19
Fanqi Kong, San Francisco State University
Dennis Lambert, San Francisco State University; Yanming Li, San Francisco State University Ezequiel Morsella, San Francisco State University; Mark Geisler, San Francisco State University
EEG of Mental Imagery Elicited by Distractors in the Flanker Task
Investigators have begun to document the effects in consciousness of the 'distractor' stimuli presented in response interference tasks (e.g., the Stroop task and the Eriksen flanker task). For example, the presence of such stimuli can lead to systematic 'urges to make a mistake.' These urges are strongest when the response associated with the target stimulus and the distractor are incompatible (e.g., in the Stroop task, 'RED' presented in green or, in the flanker task, > > >, target underscored). Recently, investigators have begun to examine other effects in consciousness from distractor stimuli. We present a new analyses of a study (n = 68) in which distractors elicited mental imagery (e.g., subvocalizations [saying a word in one's mind but not aloud]). In the incongruent condition of this flanker-like paradigm, distractors activated involuntary subvocalizations on a substantive proportion of the trials (M = .41, SD = .36, Range = 0 to 1), a proportion that was significantly from zero, t(67) = 9.60, ps < .001. Through EEG, we investigated the neural correlates (alpha power, alpha asymmetry, beta power) of the involuntary imagery elicited by the flankers (EEG electrodes: Cz, Fz, F3, and F4). We have also begun to investigate the 'imagery interference' effects from distractors (flankers) that are associated with the same motor response (button press with index finger) of the target but are associated with mental imagery (subvocalizations) that is incompatible with that of the target.
ATTENTION: Spatial
A
20
Madison P. Shaver, Wake Forest University
Anna B. Toledo, Wake Forest University; Anthony W. Sali, Wake Forest University
Investigating the Interaction of Fluctuations in Spatial Attentional Flexibility and Sustained Attention
An important facet of attentional control is the ability to anticipate upcoming environmental demands and adapt readiness to shift spatial attention. Additionally, the efficacy of sustained attention fluctuates over time, such that periods of low and high response time (RT) variability signify focused and unfocused states, respectively. In our in-progress study, we investigate the interaction of these attentional fluctuations, which have previously been studied in isolation, in a single paradigm. Participants completed a variant of the gradual continuous performance task (gradCPT) in which they detected frequent targets among distractors in one of two simultaneous streams, shifted or held attention in response to embedded visual cues, and made a digit categorization as a measure of shift readiness. We manipulated the shift likelihood across blocks of trials. In our pilot data, the RT cost associated with shifting attention decreased with increasing shift likelihood, demonstrating learned attentional flexibility. For future analyses, we predict that high shift likelihood blocks will have increased gradCPT RT variability and rates of attentional lapses, suggesting that learned states of flexibility decrease the likelihood of sustained attentional selection. Furthermore, we predict a U-shaped curve in the relationship between gradCPT RT variability and shift costs such that periods of lowest and highest RT variability will be associated with decreased shift readiness, reflecting focused and lapsing attention, respectively. Finally, we will test whether individual differences in trait anxiety, which have been associated with decreased cognitive flexibility, are associated with a reduced impact of shift likelihoods on sustained attention and shift readiness.
ATTENTION: Spatial
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21
Lee Holcomb, University of California, Davis
Grace Bell, University of California, Davis; Alex Cohen, University of California, Davis Kyle Astleford, University of California, Davis; George Mangun, University of California, Davis
The effects of covert spatial attention and working memory capacity on early visually-evoked potentials
While visual attention and direction of gaze can be dissociated through the engagement of covert spatial attention, it remains to be seen how early in the visual hierarchy this can be deployed. The Posner cueing paradigm has been used to examine this, as it allows for the separation of gaze position and covert attention. In EEG studies, while there is large consensus that the P1 ERP appears to be sensitive to attentional modulation, believed to arise from activity as early as V3/V3a or V4, there is less agreement about the earlier visually-evoked C1 potential thought to be generated in primary visual cortex (see special issue in Cognitive Neuroscience, 2018, Edited by Slotnick). For instance, Kelly and colleagues (2008) provided evidence that covert attention can modulate activity as early as C1. However, a replication of this failed, so the question remains. One possible reason for this discrepancy could be individual differences in WMC. For instance, WMC has been shown to be predicative of low-level tasks that necessitate attention, such as the OSPAN and change detection tasks (see Vogel and Awh, 2008). The current study utilized simultaneous high-resolution eye tracking and EEG to further investigate the relationship between WMC and attention-related modulations of early visual processing (reflected by C1). Participants engaged in a modified Posner cueing paradigm (80% validity) that presented stimuli in a gaze-contingent manner, ensuring stable retinal eccentricity. While data is still being collected, the implication of this result and those from working memory-related measures will be presented.
ATTENTION: Spatial
A
22
Damiano Grignolio, University of Birmingham
Joy Geng, University of California Davis; George Mangun, University of California Davis Clayton Hickey, University of Birmingham
Alpha desynchronization tracks the spread of attention across visual objects
Attention is sensitive to the boundaries of visual objects, such that selection of one part of a stimulus leads to the prioritization of other parts of that same object. This has been interpreted as reflecting a low-level perceptual mechanism supporting segmentation, which engenders the automatic 'spreading' of attention within objects. We used human electrophysiology to test these ideas during preparatory attention. In our paradigm, participants were auditorily cued to attend to one of 4 spatial positions located at the ends of two rectangles. Prior work has demonstrated that participants are faster to respond to a target that subsequently appears at the cued location, but that there is also a benefit when the target appears at any other location on the cued object. In our task, the rectangles were either oriented vertically, such that they were each presented in one hemifield, or horizontally, such that each subtended the vertical meridian of the display. We collected EEG data and quantified oscillatory alpha (8-12 Hz) power. We observed the well-known effect that alpha contralateral to the cued location decreased in amplitude, reflecting the deployment of attention to the cued visual hemifield. Critically, this effect was reduced when the rectangles were oriented horizontally versus vertically. We interpret this as evidence that attention-related alpha lateralization is reduced when attention spreads across objects in one visual hemifield, versus when attention spreads across visual hemifields. These results are consistent with the idea that object attention involves changes in the allocation of preparatory visual spatial attention.
ATTENTION: Spatial
A
23
Clayton Hickey, University of Birmingham
David Acunzo, University of Birmingham; Damiano Grignolio, University of Birmingham Holly Ahmed, University of Birmingham; Vinura Munasinghe, University of Birmingham
Electrophysiological indices of selective attention predict the quality of object representation in the lateral occipital cortex: Evidence from EEG decoding?? _x000D_
Attention is sensitive to the boundaries of visual objects, such that selection of one part of a stimulus leads to the prioritization of other parts of that same object. This has been interpreted as reflecting a low-level perceptual mechanism supporting segmentation, which engenders the automatic 'spreading' of attention within objects. We used human electrophysiology to test these ideas during preparatory attention. In our paradigm, participants were auditorily cued to attend to one of 4 spatial positions located at the ends of two rectangles. Prior work has demonstrated that participants are faster to respond to a target that subsequently appears at the cued location, but that there is also a benefit when the target appears at any other location on the cued object. In our task, the rectangles were either oriented vertically, such that they were each presented in one hemifield, or horizontally, such that each subtended the vertical meridian of the display. We collected EEG data and quantified oscillatory alpha (8-12 Hz) power. We observed the well-known effect that alpha contralateral to the cued location decreased in amplitude, reflecting the deployment of attention to the cued visual hemifield. Critically, this effect was reduced when the rectangles were oriented horizontally versus vertically. We interpret this as evidence that attention-related alpha lateralization is reduced when attention spreads across visual hemifields, versus when attention spreads within one visual hemifield. These results are consistent with the idea that object attention involves changes in the allocation of preparatory visual spatial attention.
ATTENTION: Spatial
A
24
Yi-Syuan Huang, National Central University
Denise Hsien Wu, National Central University
Exploration on the reliance of spatial and temporal information in a triplet segmentation task of trajectories in signers and non-signers
It is widely demonstrated that people can extract temporal and spatial regularities in the environment. Such statistical learning (SL) ability is shown to contribute to language processing and acquisition in the literature. However, whether and how language experience modulates the SL ability is still an open question. To explore this issue, we take advantage of the distinct characteristics of sign language (i.e., expressing meanings through hand movements in space) from spoken language to investigate whether signers and non-signers exhibit differential sensitivity to temporal (order) and spatial regularity. Specifically, a triplet segmentation task of trajectories of a dot moving in space with recognition questions is prepared. The foil may share the same set of three trajectories in exactly the same spatial locations but in a different order (i.e., temporally deviant), in different spatial locations but in the same order (i.e., spatially deviant), or completely different from the correct triplet. Our research in progress has already shown that the majority of non-signers performed this triplet segmentation task above the chance level. We will continue to recruit signers to compare their SL performance with that of non-signers to determine whether familiarity to sign-language enhances signers' sensitivity to regularity in trajectories. Accuracy and error types in the present design would inform us whether sensitivity to temporal and spatial regularity (and the tendency to choose temporally or spatially deviant foil) can be selectively modulated by the language experience of signers and non-signers that differentially relies on these two kinds of information.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
25
Yutaka Matsuzaki, Tohoku University
Risako Kojima, Tohoku University; Ryuta Kawashima, Tohoku University
Association of artistic brush-writing with mood and brain activity: an fNIRS study
Writing characters with a brush is a traditional calligraphy method in some parts of Asia, also used for artistic expression. This artistic use has been demonstrated to alter mood. Although the brain regions associated with brush-writing, including the relationship between resting state brain activity and brush skills have been investigated, the extent of brain activity and mood changes occurring during actual artistic brush-writing remains unknown. _x000D_
_x000D_
We used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to estimate the brain activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of 27 university students with ?3 years of experience in brush writing while doing so. There were two experimental conditions: a transcription condition in which the target character was transcribed and an expression condition in which the target character was used as basis for creative writing. Arousal and positive emotional valence were measured before and after each condition. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine. _x000D_
_x000D_
Regarding mood, there was an increase in positive emotional valence after writing but no significant differences were found between conditions. Conversely, after writing, arousal increased more in the expression condition than in the transcription condition. With respect to brain activity, the left DLPFC was more activated in the expression condition than in the transcription condition. These results suggest that artistic writing with a brush stimulates the frontal area, which also correlates to mood changes.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
26
Liya Cheng, Tohoku University
Shiori Kato, Tohoku University; Masatoshi Koizumi, Tohoku University Sachiko Kiyama, Tohoku University
Subject omission is more strongly preferred in Japanese than in Chinese: An Event-Related Potential study
East Asian languages are known to have a strong preference for phonetically empty subjects and/or objects in sentences (argument omission), insofar as their referents can be recovered from the context. However, it is unclear whether there are differences in the degree of preference for argument omission among East Asian languages. This electroencephalographic (EEG) study compared the neural activity of native Japanese and Chinese speakers while comprehending subject-omitted sentences. We prepared 30 stimulus discourses, each of which consisted of a preceding sentence (giving context) and a target sentence (to examine the effect of subject omission). We manipulated the subject in both the preceding and target sentences under a 2 * 3 factorial design: The subject in the former was either topicalized or non-topicalized, and the subject in the latter was topicalized, non-topicalized, or omitted. We recorded the EEGs of 28 native speakers of Japanese (aged 18-25 years) and 28 native speakers of Chinese (aged 21-32 years) as they read the stimuli in their native language. Analysis of event-related potentials revealed that Japanese speakers showed an enhanced positive amplitude in the occipital region at about 200-300 ms (P300) after the presentation of verb when they read the target sentences with a non-topicalized subject, compared to subject-omitted sentences (p < .05, FDR-corrected). However, this effect was not observed in Chinese. This suggests that Japanese sentences with an overt subject induce higher processing load than subject-omitted sentences. We thus demonstrated that Japanese speakers more strongly prefer subject omission than Chinese speakers.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
27
Andhika Renaldi, National Central University, Taiwan
Denise Wu, National Central University, Taiwan
Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence for distinct statistical learning mechanisms of temporal and spatial positional regularity in alphabetic and logographic readers
Motivated by different mapping characteristics between orthography and phonology between alphabetic and logographic scripts, we have developed temporal and spatial positional statistical learning (PSL) tests in which a shape appeared in a fixed temporal and spatial position within a consecutive and simultaneous pair, respectively. We found previously that logographic readers performed comparably with alphabetic readers in the temporal PSL but better than alphabetic readers in the spatial PSL test. To determine whether the behavioral difference is supported by distinct neural mechanisms, in the present study event-related potentials elicited by standard and deviant pairs (in which the shapes appeared in the opposite positions from those in the standard pairs) in the learning phase of the PSL tests were recorded from alphabetic and logographic readers. In addition to replicating our previous behavioral findings, the neurophysiological results showed that for learners whose behavioral accuracy was above the chance level, the N400 component exhibited significant difference between the standard and deviant pairs of the temporal PSL test across the scalp in logographic readers and in the right parietal area of alphabetic readers. On the other hand, the same contrast in the spatial PSL test was associated with a N400 effect in the parietal area in logographic readers but with a right-lateralized P600 effect in alphabetic readers. Taken together, the behavioral and ERP findings support the notion that logographic and alphabetic readers rely on distinct mechanisms to extract temporal and spatial regularity in the PSL tests, possibly resulting from long-term reading experience of different
LANGUAGE: Other
A
28
Jean Bodet III, University of Houston, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Ping Li, Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Arturo Hernandez, University of Houston
Neural substrates of embodied second-language learning: A virtual reality and functional near-infrared spectroscopy study
This investigation uses fNIRS to record neural activity during embodied second-language (L2) learning. I quantify embodiment in three levels -- lacking sensorimotor engagement, unrealistic sensorimotor engagement, and highly realistic sensorimotor engagement in the learning process (per past research) -- and track their impact on relevant brain regions' activity as I introduce them in the language-learning paradigm in a controlled manner. With this approach, participants learn 30 words in a new language (Hungarian), each word being learned in respective low, medium, or high embodiment trials via cues. Based on past language-learning, embodiment, and Hebbian research, I expect the increase of brain activity in sensorimotor regions (and related association regions, especially inferior parietal cortex) alongside the increase in realistic sensorimotor engagement, which should predict improved learning outcomes. This would draw a causal relationship between the ever-elusive 'embodiment' of a naturalistic setting and eventual language-learning outcomes. Interestingly, current behavioral data trends are opposite what past research would suggest, showing increasing embodiment to significantly and negatively impact learning outcomes; perhaps a result of the distraction that sensorimotor engagement introduces while trying to learn words. Upon completing data collection (December 9th, 2022, approximately 70 participants), a closer analysis of behavioral data from regression analyses will be aided by insights from neural activity to further investigate these preliminary results. This research will shed new light on the neural substrates of naturalistically embodied language learning and the applications of virtual reality in pedagogical settings.
LANGUAGE: Other
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29
Émilie Rae Hoeppner, The University of Western Ontario
Amiya Aggarwal, The University of Western Ontario; Laura Batterink, The University of Western Ontario
Harnessing Statistical Learning to Support the Discovery of Second Language Phonetic Patterns in Adult Learners
Research in adult second language learning has primarily focused on explicit, or effortful, learning, where participants must take time out of their day to attend classes or engage in focused study. However, laboratory studies have shown that the brain can automatically and implicitly recognize patterns through passive, statistical learning mechanisms. For example, when exposed to a continuous speech stream made up of repeating nonsense words, the brain automatically becomes sensitive to the syllable co-occurrence patterns in the speech stream and can use this statistical information for segmentation. The aim of the current project is to investigate the role of implicit, statistical learning mechanisms in learning phonemic patterns in a natural second language. Adult English speakers will listen to either Italian podcasts (experimental group) or English podcasts (control group) for 1 hour per day for 3 weeks while doing everyday activities. Before and after this period of passive exposure, their electroencephalographic (EEG) responses to unexposed Italian podcasts will be recorded. Characteristic EEG responses to phonetic co-occurrence patterns in the continuous speech stream will be extracted using the multivariate Temporal Response Function (mTRF) approach, which is a mathematical model that maps pre-determined, time-locked markers for linguistic measures onto the continuous EEG signal. We hypothesize that participants in the experimental group will gain sensitivity to L2 phonetic patterns, demonstrating a larger neural response as a function of phoneme surprisal in L2 speech from pre-test to post-test. These results will address whether statistical learning mechanisms can be leveraged for real-world language acquisition.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
30
Amiya Aggarwal, University of Western Ontario
…milie Hoeppner, University of Western Ontario; Laura Batterink, University of Western Ontario
Can statistical learning support speech segmentation of a natural language in adult learners?
Studies using miniature artificial languages have shown that people are able to segment words in speech based on syllable co-occurrence patterns. This ability is supported by statistical learning (SL), the process of extracting patterns in the environment simply through exposure to input, without explicit training, effort, or intention. However, it is not yet clear whether SL can scale up to support aspects of spoken language acquisition in a fully natural language learning situation. In the current study, we will test whether passive, multi-week exposure to a novel spoken second language facilitates word segmentation in adult learners. Native English speakers will listen to either Italian podcasts (experimental group) or English podcasts (control group) for an hour a day over a three-week exposure period. We will assess their EEG responses to natural, continuous Italian speech before and after this exposure period, and will derive the multivariate temporal response function (mTRF) to word boundaries from the measured EEG response. We hypothesize that exposure to spoken L2 will facilitate online speech segmentation, producing a stronger EEG word onset response over the three-week exposure period for participants in the experimental group, but not the control group. This result would provide evidence that SL, operating based on mere listening to spoken second language speech, facilitates the discovery of word boundaries in continuous speech in a fully natural language. This study will further our understanding of the actual role of SL across different aspects of language acquisition, and will also have important practical implications for L2 learning.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
31
Jacob Momsen, SDSU/UCSD
Seana Coulson, UC San Diego
Directional Anisotropy in the Kinematic Analysis of Co-Speech Movements during Discourse Processing
Speech is often accompanied by spontaneous movements of the entire body, which can influence both its perceptual and semantic processing. Here we ask whether speech-gesture integration involves an orientation dependent analysis of co-speech movement kinematics. In particular, we test the hypothesis that the neural response to biological motion unfolding in the vertical plane is disproportionately relevant for audiovisual integration during multimodal discourse processing. This ongoing investigation presents EEG data collected from 25 healthy college-aged adults as they watched clips of discourse containing either original audio and visual content (Congruent), or recombined content from unrelated discourse segments (Incongruent). Temporal response functions trained on velocity signatures derived from co-speech movements were used to generate encoding models to identify relationships between electrophysiological activity and biological motion information as a function of speech-gesture alignment. Critically, 3 separate models were trained on either direction-specific velocity signatures (one for vertical motion and one for horizontal motion) or net velocity information. A linear mixed-effects analysis (LMER) revealed a significant effect of speech-gesture congruity on encoding performance for models trained on vertical velocity information (?= -0.007; SE = 0.0015; p<0.0001), indicating better performance for congruent, relative to incongruent speech-gesture pairings. Further, only the model trained on vertical motion provided a better fit than the intercept-only model (vertical model comparison: Delta AIC = 5; p<0.01). These initial results support the presence of directional anisotropies in the kinematic analysis of co-speech movements and their relevance for discourse processing.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
32
Salome Antoine, Freie Universitat Berlin
Luigi Grisoni, Freie Universitat Berlin; Rosario Tomasello, Freie Universitat Berlin Friedemann Pulverm¸ller, Freie Universitat Berlin
Pre-stimulus brain activity predicts social-communicative function of upcoming utterances
Predictive processes are known to play a fundamental role in language processing (Pickering and Gambi, 2018; Pulverm¸ller and Grisoni, 2020). However, whether these mechanisms are manifest at each level of language processing is still debated. Specifically, predictive activity reflecting the social-communicative and pragmatic functions of language remains to be further investigated. Previous studies reported enhanced brain responses when subjects use a word to perform (Boux et al., 2021) or understand (Egorova et al., 2013) requests of the referent object, but relatively smaller ones when naming the object. The present experiment investigates such pragmatic modulation of anticipatory brain responses in subjects perceiving and understanding naming and request interactions. 29 participants took part in the EEG experiment, they were instructed to carefully watch comic-book-style interaction scenes. Trials started with a context question and object pictures displayed on the screen, raising the expectation that words from a specific semantic category (food or tool) would subsequently be used to either name or request one of the objects. Starting 200ms before naming/request onset, a larger anticipatory potential was observed when a word appeared in a request context, compared with naming. As this is the neurophysiological difference expectable from a range of previous works this suggests that anticipatory brain activity can index predictions about the socio-communicative function of upcoming utterances. Moreover, a significant interaction between semantic categories and brain response topography was found in the last 600ms before naming/request onset. Thus, both semantic and pragmatic predictions appear to be manifest in anticipatory brain responses.
Evaluation of inter-cognitive interaction in healthy subjects and perspectives in Rasmussen encephalitis after hemispherotomy: a behavioral network approach
Traditionally, cognitive functions (i.e., language, memory, executive functions, social cognition) are considered distinct in terms of involved mechanisms and brain representations. However, current research tends to consider cognitive domains as intertwined, working in interaction in larger neurocognitive networks. In the present study, we aim to characterize such inter-cognitive functioning via behavioral measures for different cognitive domains, adopting a network perspective based on graph theory (GT). For this purpose, 165 healthy young adults (97 female) completed a battery of behavioral tasks (LEXTOMM; Language, Executive Functions, Theory of Mind, Memory). A cross-correlation matrix between each task performance (%CR, RT ms) was computed to assess inter-cognitive influences. Network analyses were then proposed to investigate this cognitive landscape from an integrative perspective. Correlations between tasks emphasize the interplay between language, memory, and executive abilities in healthy functioning. Furthermore, GT metrics highlighted a structured cognitive network (global efficiency = 0.13; clustering coefficient = 0.06), with the semantics being the major hub, followed by syntax, memory, and inhibition. As a preliminary work, we also applied GT analyses to a clinical population including 12 adult patients who underwent hemispherotomy in childhood to treat Rasmussen's encephalitis. Results suggest a less structured cognitive network (global efficiency = 0.16; clustering coefficient = 0.14) with hub displacement in patients (i.e., flexibility, semantic, phonology, and visuo-perceptive tasks revealing as major hubs) suggesting significant cognitive restructuration associated with brain reorganization. Focusing both on healthy subjects and on clinical populations, GT approaches offer interesting perspectives for the comprehension of cognitive network organization and reorganization.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
34
Elaina Jahanfard, UC Davis
Tamara Swaab, UC Davis
Do Spanish-English bilinguals pre-activate lower-level lexical features when predicting in L2?_x000D_
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There is abundant evidence to suggest that predictive processing facilitates language comprehension in monolinguals by pre-activating linguistic representations for upcoming language input (e.g., Kuperberg & Yeager, 2016). Moreover, this process has been well documented to be neurally indexed by the N400 ERP component. Despite the global ubiquity of bilingualism, studies that examine the extent to which specific features of words are pre-activated when bilinguals process their second language (L2) are more limited. Previous work suggests that Spanish-English bilinguals show greater facilitation of information at the word form level than monolinguals do (Hoshino & Kroll, 2008). But these studies did not address whether these facilitatory effects can be attributed to pre-activation of the word form information. The proposed study aims to address this question by examining prediction during word processing in 50 Spanish-English bilinguals (highly proficient in L2) while EEG is being recorded. Participants will be presented with 480 prime-target word pairs that are either related (circus-clown) or unrelated (trim-clown), and must generate a prediction of the target word prior to being presented with it. If bilinguals pre-activate lexical form in their L2, we should see facilitated processing of accurately predicted target words relative to semantically related target words, indicating processing benefits of lexical pre-activation. This finding is instrumental in having a basic understanding of the ways in which bilinguals may process language differently than their monolingual counterparts. It consequently allows for current models of processing to be appropriately adjusted to fit a more universal representation of language users- bilinguals.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
35
Eliza Reedy, Carnegie Mellon University
Jawaad Belkhir, University of Pittsburgh; Theodor Cucu, Carnegie Mellon University Arka Mallela, University of Pittsburgh; Anna Keresztesy, Carnegie Mellon University; Luke Henry, University of Pittsburgh; Jorge Gonzalez-Martinez, University of Pittsburgh; Bradford Mahon, Carnegie Mellon University
Temporal alignment of word retrieval processes in auditory versus visual confrontation naming
Visual and auditory naming tasks have been widely used to study word retrieval in clinical populations. Direct comparison of neural activity during these two tasks is hindered by the fact that auditory stimuli present task-relevant information over the duration of the stimulus, while pictures are presented at a single moment. Temporally extended stimuli are a particular obstacle for high temporal resolution methods such as electrocorticography (ECoG). Key time points in auditorily presented stimuli must be identified for word retrieval processes during auditory naming to be compared with word retrieval processes in picture naming. We present a pilot study testing whether signal from auditory naming tasks aligned based on normed disambiguation points explains greater variance in gamma band activity than signal from auditory naming tasks aligned based on stimulus onset or offset. Surgical epilepsy patients with implanted stereoelectrocorticography (SEEG) electrodes complete a naming task with interwoven trials of naming from pictures, naming from auditory definitions, and naming from typical sounds of objects. Pilot data were collected from healthy controls demonstrating wider variance in response time for auditory stimuli than visual stimuli. For all auditorily presented stimuli (definitions and typical sounds), disambiguation points were normed in a separate experiment recording response accuracy from partial playback of stimuli. We investigate broad-band gamma activity in temporal lobe electrodes believed to be responsive to lexical and semantic level processing. Activity aligned with auditory disambiguation points, auditory stimulus onset, and auditory stimulus onset is compared to activity aligned with stimulus onset for picture-naming. In Progress.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
36
Daisy Lei, The Pennsylvania State University
Janet G. van Hell, The Pennsylvania State University
Learning novel word meanings in bilinguals' second language: An ERP study
The complementary learning systems theory hypothesizes that novel words are initially encoded as episodic memory traces in the hippocampal system, separate from one's lexicon (Davis & Gaskell, 2009). After a period of consolidation (e.g. overnight sleep), these memory traces are gradually integrated into one's lexicon and achieve stable and longer-term neocortical representations. Lindsay and Gaskell (2010) extended this theory to second language (L2) word learning and hypothesized that the measurable effects of consolidation of L2 novel words after sleep may be reduced or lacking, because L2 schemata may be weakly established compared to the L1's. In this study, L2 English speakers were trained on novel English (pseudo)words paired with a novel meaning and image to examine whether there are overnight consolidation effects unique to L2 learners compared to monolingual English learners (data from Lei et al., 2022). Participants were trained on one set of novel words and meanings on Day-1 and another set on Day-2. They were tested on all trained words via an EEG-recorded semantic priming task. Consolidation was examined in N400 and LPC time-windows. L2 learners' ERP data demonstrated LPC semantic priming effects for novel words trained on both Day-1 and Day-2 whereas monolingual learners showed this effect only for Day-1 words but not for Day-2 words. Bilingual learners demonstrate earlier semantic priming effects for recently learned words than monolingual leaners, suggesting that despite a less established L2 schema relative to L1, prior language learning experience plays an important role in learning and encoding novel word meanings.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
37
Marta Urbaniak, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences
Malgorzata Paczynska, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities; Alfonso Caramazza, Department of Psychology, Harvard University Lukasz Bola, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences
Plasticity of grammatical and semantic word processing networks in brains of congenitally blind individuals
All over the world, language processing involves similar regions in the human brain. Intriguingly, one population escapes this universal pattern - in blind individuals, linguistic stimuli activate not only the canonical language network, but also the 'visual' cortex. Theoretical implications of this finding are still debated. First, it is unclear what properties of linguistic stimuli are represented in the blind visual cortex. Second, it is unknown if blindness induces reorganization also in canonical language regions. To address these questions, we enrolled 20 congenitally blind and 20 sighted participants in an fMRI experiment, in which they made morphological changes (singular-to-plural transformations) to concrete, abstract, and pseudo nouns and verbs. We used multi-voxel pattern classification to reveal brain regions representing word grammatical class (nouns/verbs) and semantic status (abstract/concrete/pseudo) in the two groups. We observed robust between-group differences in the canonical language network. The representation of grammatical class was stronger in left inferior frontal, superior temporal, and ventral temporal cortices in the blind participants, compared to the sighted participants. Conversely, the representation of word semantic status was stronger in superior temporal cortices in the sighted, compared to the blind. The visual areas in both groups represented word semantic status, but not grammatical class. Overall, we show that blindness induces reorganization not only in visual areas, but also in the canonical language network. We also suggest that the neural representation underlying activations observed in visual areas of blind individuals might not be qualitatively different from the representation computed in these areas in the sighted.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
38
Nields Janssen, Universidad de La Laguna
Sara Seoane, Universidad de La Laguna; Michael Yassa, University of California, Irvine
Hippocampal subfield activity during sentence reading
Recent studies have shown that the hippocampus, an area of the brain typically associated with memory, is also involved in language tasks. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to localize brain activity in the subfields of the hippocampus during a language task. Our participants silently read sets of three sentences that formed short stories, and we collected high-resolution structural and functional imaging data. _x000D_
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To accurately locate fMRI signals in the hippocampus, we employed a non-standard analysis approach that was data-driven, minimized signal smoothing, and used native-space ROI-based statistical analysis techniques. Our results showed that the left-lateralized cortical language network activated by sentence reading was co-activated with the presubiculum subfield in the body of the hippocampus and the CA3 subfield in the head of the hippocampus. In addition, de-activations in cortical regions during sentence reading were associated with de-activations in the CA1 head and body of the hippocampus. _x000D_
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These findings confirm the involvement of the hippocampus in language tasks and suggest new ways in which the hippocampal subfields may contribute to sentence reading. This research has significant implications for our understanding of the role of the hippocampus in language processing.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
39
Cheng-Hung Hsin, Academia Sinica
Chia-Ying Lee, Academia Sinica
The predictability effect on the N400 and LPC during spoken sentence comprehension under noisy conditions
Context-based lexical prediction is crucial to semantic integration during speech comprehension. The present study examined how ambient noise influences the predictability effect on the N400 and late positive component (LPC) during speech comprehension. Twenty-seven participants performed a comprehension task for spoken sentences that ended with a high- or low-predictability word in clear and noisy conditions (hereinafter referred to as 'clear speech' and 'noisy speech,' respectively) during EEG recordings. As demonstrated by cluster-based permutation tests and linear mixed models analysis, the results on clear speech showed the predictability effect on the N400, in which low-predictability words elicited a larger N400 amplitude than did high-predictability words in the central-parietal and frontal-central regions. Noisy speech revealed a delayed and significantly reduced predictability effect on the N400 in the central-parietal regions. Moreover, noisy speech showed a predictability effect on the LPC in the central-parietal regions. These results suggest that listeners engage different neural mechanisms to attain comprehension outcomes according to the acoustic conditions of a listening environment. Crucially, listeners seem to comprehend noisy speech with a second-pass effort to repair phonological word form through phonetic reanalysis, thus mitigating the impact of decreased predictive efficiency in a noisy environment.
LANGUAGE: Semantic
A
40
Tomoki Uno, National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities
Marc Teichmann, Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière; Kouji Takano, National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities Mio Yokoi, National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities; Kimihiro Nakamura, National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities
The anterior temporal semantic hub in the left and right hemispheres: A unified system or two separate systems for meaning?
Recent research indicates that the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in the left and right hemispheres acts as a supra-modal hub for verbal and nonverbal semantic information. However, it remains unclear whether (1) left and right ATLs are respectively specialized for verbal and nonverbal semantic processing or (2) bilateral ATLs equally contribute to multimodal semantic processing. In the present study, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to elucidate the interhemispheric specialization of ATLs in semantic processing. Participants made word vs. non-word judgment (lexical decision) or object vs. non-object judgment (object decision) about visual stimuli immediately after they received TMS at the left ATL, right ATL or vertex. In both tasks, targets were preceded by semantically related or unrelated primes. In preliminary analyses we observed that TMS of the left ATL, compared to that of the vertex, reduced the magnitude of semantic priming for words but not for objects, suggesting that verbal and nonverbal semantic systems are respectively represented in the left and right ATL. By contrast, TMS of the right ATL tended to increase the magnitude of priming for both words and objects, whereas this modulatory effect of TMS was much greater for objects. Coupled with the well-known hemispheric rivalry model, this finding suggests that nonverbal semantics is also represented in the left ATL. These results suggest that (1) nonverbal semantics is bilaterally represented in the ATL and (2) the left ATL is specialized for verbal semantics and plays a leading role in the generation of semantic priming.
LANGUAGE: Semantic
A
41
Harshada Vinaya, University of California San Diego
Shang-En Huang, University of California San Diego; Haoyin Xu, University of California San Diego Seana Coulson, University of California San Diego
Action strength norms predict concreteness effects in a regression ERP study
Grounded theories of meaning suggest understanding a word (e.g., 'antennas'), involves sensorimotor activation related to acquiring the relevant concept (e.g., the concept of antennas). Here we explore the relationship between ERP concreteness effects and ratings of people's embodied interaction with concepts from the Lancaster sensorimotor norms. EEG was recorded from 18 healthy adults as they performed a property verification task. Multiple regression was employed to predict the voltage elicited at each of the 29 electrode sites at each timepoint from word onset until 600ms after. False discovery rate was used to correct for multiple comparisons. In our first regression model, predictors included two language statistics taken from the Brysbaert norms: concreteness ratings and word frequency. In line with the literature, concreteness was associated with fronto-central negativity from 300-500ms in this model. In addition to language statistics, our second regression included action strength ratings reflecting whether people know about the concept by performing actions with their foot/leg, hand/arm, or head. The foot/leg predictor was associated with a negativity at left anterior electrode sites 300-400ms. The hand/arm predictor was associated with a centroparietal negativity 300-400ms, larger over the right hemisphere. For the head predictor, we observed right anterior negativity 450-600ms. In the second model, concreteness did not predict any significant activity. Findings suggest previous reports of the concreteness effect may result in part from sensorimotor activations related to embodied interaction with objects.
LANGUAGE: Semantic
A
42
Agnes (Yang) Gao, University of California Davis
Timothy Trammel, University of California Davis; Tamara Swaab, University of California Davis Matthew Traxler, University of California Davis
Multilevel pre-activation of lexical features during prediction-driven word production: an ERP study (in progress)
Successful lexical predictions can pre-activate the meaning and various features of the upcoming word (Gao et al., 2022). However, the underlying process of prediction is unknown. The current ERP study uses a novel self-generated predictive naming task to decipher the content and the precise timing of prediction and how it influences the processing of features of the upcoming word. _x000D_
_x000D_
Participants (N=3, in progress) read 480 sets of prime target word pairs that are semantically related (circus-CLOWN) or unrelated (trim-CLOWN). There are also 125 filler sets of word-pseudoword pairs. Participants will verbally name one word that comes into mind after seeing the prime and before seeing the target. Based on the relation between named words and target words, we will compare the N400 across four conditions: accurately named related to target, inaccurately named related to target, inaccurately named unrelated to target, no response. _x000D_
_x000D_
We expect to see: 1)no N400 when the target is accurately named; 2)reduced N400 responses when a related alternative word to the target is named and also when no word was named; 3)increased N400 responses for inaccurately named unrelated trials due to prediction error and semantic mismatch. Moreover, for both accurately and inaccurately named related trials, the processing of lexical features will be facilitated (i.e., reduced N400) since the features will have been either fully pre-activated by an accurate prediction or partially pre-activated via spreading activation from a related word. Finally, we plan to decode pre-activation of semantic, orthographic, phonological and visual features prior to the target onset.
LANGUAGE: Semantic
A
43
Fatemeh Tabari, Louisiana State University
Karim Johari, Louisiana State University; Rutvik Desai, University of South Carolina
Temporal Features of Concepts are Subserved by Time Perception Network ?in the Human Brain: An EEG/HD-tDCS Study
Evidence suggests that action and sensory features of concepts are grounded in the corresponding sensory-motor areas in the human brain. However, whether temporal features of concepts are grounded in the time perception network in a similar way is not known. Here we addressed this gap in 21 neurologically intact participants in an EEG/tDCS study. Subjects participated in two counterbalanced sessions and received cathodal and sham HD-tDCs over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC). The choice of rDLPFC cortex was based on previous study that demonstrated this area is involved in the perception of time. Following stimulation, EEG data was recorded while subjects performed semantic and temporal judgement tasks. In the semantic task, subjects were asked to judge which of two event nouns had greater duration and similarly judge size of object nouns. In the temporal task, they compared the duration of two sounds. Semantic control conditions were valence judgments for event and object nouns. We found that 1) HD-tDCS improved accuracy and reaction time for time perception and event noun duration judgment. 2) Larger event-related potentials (ERPs) were elicited in the right prefrontal and parietal electrodes for event duration vs. object size. 3) Temporal judgement task elicited ERPs with similar topographical distributions compared to event noun duration judgement. 4) cathodal, but not sham, stimulation significantly modulated ERPs over rDLPFC for event noun duration and time perception. These findings suggest that temporal features of concepts are grounded in the time perception network, and the rDLPFC plays a functional role in this process.
LANGUAGE: Semantic
A
44
Maya Yablonski, Stanford University
Iliana Karipidis, University of Zurich; Emily Kubota, Stanford University Jason Yeatman, Stanford University
Subregions of the visual word form area show distinct patterns of functional connectivity
The visual word form area (VWFA) is a region of left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) which selectively responds to text. Recent findings suggest that the VWFA comprises at least two distinct subregions: the more posterior VWFA-1 is sensitive to visual features, while the more anterior VWFA-2 processes higher level language information. Complementary evidence suggests that these subregions also differ in their structural white matter connections. Here, we explore whether these two subregions exhibit different patterns of functional connectivity, and whether these patterns have relevance for reading development. We address these questions using two complementary datasets: Using the Natural Scenes Datasets (NSD; Allen et al, 2022) we identify word-selective responses in high-quality adult data, and investigate functional connectivity patterns of VWFA-1 and VWFA-2 defined at the individual level. We then turn to the Healthy Brain Network (HBN; Alexander et al., 2017) database to assess whether these patterns replicate in a large developmental sample (N=224, age range 5-21y), and to what extent they relate to reading development. In both datasets, we find that VWFA-1 is strongly correlated with bilateral visual regions including VOTC and posterior parietal cortex. In contrast, VWFA-2 is functionally connected to language regions in the frontal and lateral parietal lobes, particularly bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Further, the connectivity strength between VWFA-1 and frontal language regions increases with age, while no correlations were observed with reading ability. Together our findings support the distinction between subregions of the VWFA, showing that adjacent regions are coupled with distinct brain networks.
LANGUAGE: Other
A
45
Maxime Carrière, Freie Universität
Rosario Tomasello, Freie Universität; Friedemann Pulverm¸ller, Freie Universität
Verbal Working Memory depends on Network Architecture: Generalization across Brain-constrained Network Models
Humans are able to learn and use a broad range of words and other symbols, whereas Monkeys are limited to acquiring small vocabularies of signs, including sounds and gestures. Earlier works showed this difference may depend on network's architecture, and especially the specifically connectivity features of areas in the left-perisylvian cortex known to be relevant for language. We are here asking whether these observations generalize across different model types and can be confirmed (1) in brain-constrained models mimicking a larger range of cortical areas, including perisylvian as well as additional areas relevant for sensorimotor, conceptual and semantic processing (2) in both meanfield models and networks of spiking integrate-and-fire neurons, and (3) in models implementing important features of the connectivity of human and monkey brains. While all models built distributed cell assemblies (CAs), CA sizes were larger in the meanfield than in the spiking models. Furthermore, larger cell assemblies emerged in the 'Human model' (HM) than it the 'monkey model' (MM). The duration of the phase where activity was held in the CAs differed significantly and substantially between models, with much longer reverberation times for humans than monkey's architectures and for mean field than spiking models. These results confirm that the difference in brain architecture between monkeys and humans, especially the connectivity provided by the arcuate fascicle, may be crucial for maintenance of reverberatory activity in word related cell assemblies and thus for the emergence of working memory specifically for spoken words.
LANGUAGE: Semantic
A
46
Ryuto Tashima, Tohoku University
Ayano Yagi, Hiroshima Shudo University; Rui Nouchi, Tohoku University Ryuta Kawashima, Tohoku University
The role of curiosity and the testing effect in memory performance.
Motivation and memory strategy plays a critical role in enhancing memory performance. More curious information is easier to memorize. And taking tests multiple times enhances memory performance as well, which is called the testing effect. However, the relationship between curiosity and the testing effect is poorly understood. We investigated the interaction between curiosity and the testing effect on memory performance in terms of behavioral and neural mechanisms. In the experiment, we recruited 20 healthy right-handed university students. We asked them to solve trivia questions to elicit curiosity and measured their brain activities by fMRI. Then, participants were asked to perform two types of learning on the same day: reading the correct answers aloud (reading condition) or recalling the answers (test condition). Finally, they took recognition memory tests with fMRI scan one week later. As expected, we found a significant curiosity effect and the testing effect. Participants recalled more correct answers in the test condition than in the reading condition. Regarding curiosity, they recalled more correct answers of high curiosity than those of low curiosity. For the brain activations, we found a significantly greater activation around the lateral ventricles during the test condition. On the other hand, we found significantly greater activations in regions including the anterior insula, thalamus proper and middle cingulate gyrus during the reading condition. In addition, we found a significantly greater activations in the precuneus and thalamus proper in the lower curiosity condition.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Semantic
A
47
Christina Yu, Duke University
Shenyang Huang, Duke University; Cortney Howard, Duke University Roberto Cabeza, Duke University; Simon Davis, Duke University
Similarity and Distinctiveness of Memory Representations Predict Subsequent Memory for Different Semantic Categories
Most fMRI studies comparing the neural correlates of different semantic categories (e.g, living vs nonliving) have not investigated subsequent episodic memory of the stimuli and most subsequent memory fMRI have not examined differences among semantic categories. Filling this void, we focused on the intersection of semantic and episodic memory and examined subsequent memory for four different semantic categories (living animate, living inanimate, nonliving large, nonliving small). Participants encoded 300 object pictures (e.g. a picture of a tree) and later recalled the name of the object (e.g, 'tree'). For each semantic category, we measured correlations in activation patterns among all pairs of pictures within the category and identified regions where higher correlations (representational similarity) or lower correlations (representational distinctiveness) predicted subsequent memory for the category. For nonliving objects, representational similarity predicted subsequent memory in the left IFG, as well as in fusiform gyrus, right parahippocampal gyrus, and left retrosplenial cortex. In contrast, the left IFG showed the opposite effect for living animate objects, where memory was predicted by representational distinctiveness, which may underly known effects of distinctiveness in successful encoding. Taken together, the results demonstrate that the effects of representation similarity on subsequent memory can vary across semantic categories, and different semantic categories may rely of different aspects of memory representations.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Semantic
A
48
Victoria-Grace Padilla, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Sharice Clough, Vanderbilt University; Greta Melega, University of East Anglia Louis Renoult, University of East Anglia; Melissa Duff, Vanderbilt University; Annick F.N. Tanguay, Vanderbilt University
Semantic future thinking in adults with moderate-severe traumatic brain Injury
General knowledge about the world (i.e., general semantics) and personal knowledge (i.e., _x000D_
personal semantics) play a critical role in the imagination of future events (D'Argembeau, 2020). _x000D_
In this study, we utilized an adapted Semantic Autobiographical Interview (SAI) to _x000D_
comprehensively assess knowledge about the future in traumatic brain injury (TBI). Sixteen _x000D_
people with chronic, moderate-severe TBI and eleven uninjured comparison participants _x000D_
completed the SAI. Participants elaborated about public events that could occur during a future _x000D_
life chapter (for general semantics) and also elaborated on what the life chapter might be _x000D_
from a personal standpoint (for a personal semantics). We scored responses using the _x000D_
Autobiographical Interview scheme (Renoult et al., 2020) to quantify the amount and types of _x000D_
details produced during each task. Findings indicate that future general and personal semantic _x000D_
information is less detailed in the TBI group relative to uninjured peers. Participants with TBI _x000D_
estimated their future chapters to be shorter and more distant in the future than their uninjured _x000D_
peers. The groups did not differ in the feeling of connection with their future self. These findings _x000D_
suggest that individuals with TBI may envision a future that lacks precision, despite similarities _x000D_
in the feeling of self-continuity. Whereas previous research has focused on episodic memory _x000D_
impairments following TBI, our findings show deficits extend to general and personal semantics _x000D_
in TBI, consistent with a strong association between semantic and episodic aspects within _x000D_
declarative memory. These findings advance our knowledge of post-TBI memory disorders and _x000D_
reveals the dynamic work of identity (re)construction post-injury.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Semantic
A
49
Alex Ilyés, Eötvös Loránd University
Borbála Paulik, Research Centre for Natural Sciences; Márton Munding, Eötvös Loránd University; Bálint Forgács, Eötvös Loránd University; Attila Keresztes, Research Centre for Natural Sciences
A high-resolution fMRI investigation of the role of hippocampal pattern separation of conceptually similar memory traces
Hippocampal pattern separation is a process orthogonalizing highly similar memory traces via sparse encoding in the dentate gyrus subfield of the hippocampus. It contributes to encoding and retrieving highly specific memories. In humans, the Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST) is widely used to provide a behavioral proxy for pattern separation by assessing mnemonic discrimination. Because the MST is almost exclusively used with visuo-spatial stimuli, it is unclear whether pattern separation is a domain-general computation that acts on representations beyond visuo-spatial ones. Recent findings suggest that the hippocampus is also sensitive to semantic distance in conceptual space, hinting at the possibility that pattern separation also acts on conceptual representations. To test this assumption, using an adapted version of the MST in a behavioral study (n=40) we first showed that mnemonic discrimination of adjective-noun phrases increases as a function of semantic distance between phrases. Next, in an ongoing high-resolution fMRI study using the same task, we test whether this effect reflects pattern separation. Using univariate analyses, we ask whether the dentate gyrus-CA3, compared to other hippocampal subfields shows higher sensitivity to conceptual similarity between to-be-remembered phrases - a hallmark of pattern separation. Next, we test whether pattern separation is modulated as a function of neural representations of semantic distance. To achieve this, in a separate fMRI session, we assess representational similarity of phrases within the hippocampus and link it to univariate indices of pattern separation. Our results will lead to a better understanding of the scope of hippocampal pattern separation in humans.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Semantic
A
50
Erin Welch, Duke University
Lifu Deng, Duke University; Margaret McAlllister, Duke University Christina Yu, Duke University; Shenyang Huang, Duke University; Ricardo Morales Torres, Duke University; Cortney Howard, Duke University; Simon Davis, Duke University; Roberto Cabeza, Duke University
Schema Effects on Memory Representation: Aging and MCI
Accumulating evidence suggests age-related differences in neural representation during memory encoding and retrieval, hinting at possible differences in cognitive strategies. Here, we investigated the effect of schema on memory for visual objects in healthy young adults (YAs) and older adults (OAs) using scene-object pairs during encoding with varying schematic congruency (e.g., congruent: farm - tractor; incongruent: outer space - llama). Representational similarity analysis was performed on encoding and retrieval phases. Both age groups showed higher memory performance in the schema-congruent condition, and age and schema effects were found in neural representations of visual and semantic information during encoding. Consistent with our previous study, YAs showed significantly stronger representation of low-level visual information in medial occipital cortex than OAs. Furthermore, such representation of visual information was reduced in the congruent condition for YAs, the congruency effect being absent in OAs. At the same time, there was a significant age-by-congruency effect in semantic information represented in the anterior temporal lobe, as OAs showed an increase in semantic representation during the encoding of congruent pairs, while YAs showed a decrease. Planned analyses will investigate potential schema effects found in the neural representations of mild cognitively impaired (MCI) older adults at encoding. In sum, this study may offer insights into age differences in neural representation when schema-related processing is engaged during memory encoding and retrieval.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Semantic
A
51
Ryan Hammonds, University of California, San Diego
Blanca Martin-Burgos, University of California, San Diego; Trevor McPherson, University of California, San Diego Richard Gao, T¸bingen University; Bradley Voytek, University of California, San Diego
Estimating Neuronal Timescales in Sleep
Neuronal timescales are functionally dynamic and hierarchically distributed across the cortex. Recent evidence has implicated alterations in neuronal timescales in a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Methods for quantifying timescales involve fitting an exponential decay to the autocorrelation function (ACF), a Lorentzian to power spectral density (PSD), or direct estimates from autoregressive (AR) coefficients. Here, we examine the dynamics of timescales in sleep and wake states in the local field potential (LFPs) and spike trains of rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), as well as in invasive human hippocampal and frontal cortex. A novel timescale estimation method, involving the conversion of AR coefficients to PSD, is used to improve estimates of dynamic timescales from short time windows. This AR-PSD method is validated on simulated LFPs and spike trains, and used to show a significant slowing of timescales as rats and humans transition from wakefulness to non-REM sleep.
METHODS: Electrophysiology
A
52
Wen Li, University of California, Davis
Cameron Carter, University of California, Davis; Megan Boudewyn, University of California, Santa Cruz
Delayed Prediction during Language Comprehension in Schizophrenia: An Electrophysiological Investigation
Deficits in cognitive control, including the ability to maintain information continuously, are well-established in schizophrenia. We hypothesized that this may lead to difficulties using context to generate predictions about upcoming words during comprehension. We focused on the N400 and post-N400 positivity (PNP) associated with encountering unpredictable (compared to predictable) words in context. To the extent that participants with schizophrenia generate predictions during comprehension, we expected significant N400 and PNP effects. However, if the use of context to generate predictions about upcoming words is impaired in schizophrenia, we expected reduced or delayed effects of predictability compared to controls. _x000D_
METHODS: Participants listened to three-sentence stories while EEG was recorded (N=17 participants with schizophrenia; N=15 matched controls, with analysis of additional participants in progress). The surprisal of target words in the final sentences were calculated as a measure of context-based expectedness. Surprisal is computationally derived to capture word expectedness based on context structure and word characteristics (Oh et al., 2021). _x000D_
RESULTS: N400: Group significantly interacted with Surprisal (p<0.05), with control participants showing a significantly larger N400 effect of Surprisal than patients. PNP: Group significantly interacted with Surprisal (p<0.05), with patients showing a significantly larger PNP effect of Surprisal than controls. _x000D_
INTERPRETATION: The results suggest that patients with schizophrenia show delayed effects of prediction during comprehension compared to controls. Further, this pattern of results suggests an increased 'cost' of unfulfilled predictions in the patient group (reflected by the larger PNP), and a reduced 'benefit' of facilitation for predictable words (reflected by the smaller N400).
METHODS: Electrophysiology
A
53
Mohammad Soleyman Nejad, University of Manitoba
Thomas Rawliuk, University of Manitoba; Louise Andrea Viernes Torre, University of Manitoba Ryan Giuliano, University of Manitoba
Fluctuations in Resting EEG Covary with Concurrent Cardiac Measurements in Children and Adults_x000D_
Neurovisceral Integration is a framework characterizing the autonomic and central nervous systems' interactivity in different environmental settings. This framework marks a relationship between the central and the autonomic nervous system through cardiac activity. Although the neuro-cardiac imaging literature suggests a distinct pattern of neurovisceral integration while performing various tasks, applying this framework to the resting state calls for more investigation. To this end, during two separate experiments, the neuro-cardiac activity of 61 adults and 123 preschool children between the age of 4?6 years was measured using electrocardiogram (ECG) and electroencephalogram (EEG). Multilevel modeling was used to characterize fluctuations in cardiac markers (interbeat interval; high-frequency heart rate variability, HF-HRV; pre-ejection period, PEP) as a function of four canonical EEG bandwidths (delta, 0.5 ? 3 Hz; theta, 3 ? 7 Hz; alpha, 7 ? 12 Hz; beta, 12 ? 20 Hz). Results from the sample of adults show that delta wave fluctuations significantly predicted changes in the cardiac interbeat interval and HF-HRV, while alpha and beta waves predicted changes in HF-HRV and PEP. Similarly, in preschool children, HF-HRV, and PEP were predicted from resting EEG power in delta, theta, alpha, and beta bandwidths. The present findings are among the first to demonstrate a relationship between concurrent cardiac and neural measures at rest and lay a methodological foundation for future studies utilizing the neurovisceral integration framework. _x000D_
_x000D_
Keywords: neurovisceral integration, heart rate variability, pre-ejection period, electroencephalogram, autonomic nervous system
METHODS: Electrophysiology
A
54
Patrick Bloniasz, Boston University
Matthew Perez, Bowdoin College; Makoto Miyakoshi, University of California San Diego Hyeonseok Kim, University of California San Diego; Yang Tian, Tsinghua University; Erika Nyhus, Bowdoin College
Simulation Analysis of Event-Related Causality and Renormalized Partial Directed Coherence in Electroencephalography and Magnetoencephalography
Functional connectivity analysis is the study of how distinct brain regions interact to facilitate complex cognition. Commonly, Fourier domain analyses such as power or coherence make use of electrophysiological (Electroencephalography and Magnetoencephalography) measures to uncover functional networks that synchronize at particular frequencies. To detect direction in a functional network, a class of methods called Granger causal (GC) measures can be used. While GC techniques are theoretically invariant to frequency filters (Barnett and Seth 2011), it has been previously shown that such methods are highly sensitive to preprocessing steps in heterogeneous ways and that certain preprocessing steps can lead to high rates of spurious or missed causalities (e.g., Florin et al. 2010). Despite their widespread use, two of the most common GC methods, renormalized partial directed coherence (rPDC) and event-related causality (ERC), have not been adequately studied in relation to common preprocessing steps. The present study evaluated the ability of rPDC and ERC to uncover simulated ground-truth connectivity in the presence of Gaussian noise by extending the simulation framework in the EEGLab plugin, Source Information Toolbox (SIFT). The simulations investigated various combinations of high, low, and band-pass zero-phase FIR filters, as well as different independent component analysis algorithms (Picard, Infomax, AMICA) to see how each combination impacts the performance of rPDC and ERC. The results show that rPDC and ERC are highly and distinctly sensitive to common preprocessing steps leading to spurious or missed causalities. These results suggest the importance of considering preprocessing steps in conducting and interpreting GC-based results.
METHODS: Electrophysiology
A
55
Yu Zhang, WRIISC and VA Palo Alto Health Care System
Matthew Moore, WRIISC and VA Palo Alto Health Care System; David Clark, VA Palo Alto Health Care System Peter Bayley, WRIISC and VA Palo Alto Health Care System; J. Wesson Ashford, WRIISC and VA Palo Alto Health Care System; Ansgar Furst, WRIISC and VA Palo Alto Health Care System
Diffusion Tensor Imaging Measures Reveal Impaired Glymphatic Functions in Gulf War Illness
Chronic multisystem illness (CMI), which includes chronic fatigue, sleep difficulty, pain, neurological, respiratory and gastrointestinal problems is common in veterans after returning from the Gulf War (GW) and is also called GW illness (GWI). There is no knowledge about glymphatic system functions in GWI pathology. Diffusion tensor imaging-derived analysis along the perivascular space (DTI-ALPS) is one of the popular approaches to evaluate the activity of the glymphatic system. The objective of this study is to identify impairment of glymphatic system functions using DTI-ALPS in veterans suffering from GWI. _x000D_
_x000D_
In this cross-sectional study, ALPS-indices were measured in imaging data of 178 GW (19 less severe and 159 more severe symptoms) veterans from War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (WRIISC), and 125 age-matched healthy controls (HC) from multiple public research databases. Clinical definition and severities of CMI, chronic fatigue syndromes, sleep difficulty, pain intensity, and other medical conditions were evaluated for GW veterans. Statistical analyses were performed with age as a confounding factor. _x000D_
_x000D_
Compared with control (HC + asymptomatic veterans), the GW veteran group had substantially lower ALPS-indices (Cohen's d = 1.17; p < 0.0001). In all GW veterans, significant negative correlations between ALPS-indices and fatigue severity as well as pain intensities were observed. Receiver operating characteristic curve identified that ALPS-indices can be a good diagnostic measure for classifying CMI, fatigue, pain and sleep apnea. _x000D_
_x000D_
In conclusion, DTI-ALPS index analysis revealed substantially impaired glymphatic clearance in symptomatic Gulf War veterans and could be an important feature of Gulf War illness pathology.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
A
56
Madeleine Goldberg, National Institutes of Health
Shau-Ming Wei, National Institutes of Health; Katherine Cole, National Institutes of Health J. Shane Kippenhan, National Institutes of Health; Michael Gregory, National Institutes of Health; Christina Recto, National Institutes of Health; Isabel Wilder, National Institutes of Health; Destiny Wright, National Institutes of Health; Lynnette Nieman, National Institutes of Health; Jack Yanovski, National Institutes of Health; Peter Schmidt, National Institutes of Health; Karen Berman, National Institutes of Health
Developmental Trajectory of Reward-Related Brain Activations in Typically Developing Children
Adolescence is a period of significant brain development, increased risk-taking behaviors, and the emergence of a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Prefrontal cortex and striatum are integral to reward processing functions and undergo significant maturation throughout adolescence. However, the typical developmental patterns of these regions during this critical period are poorly understood. Here, we longitudinally studied developmental trajectories of reward-related brain function in healthy children, beginning at age 8 when they were ascertained by clinicians to be prepubertal, as they progressed through the pubertal transition to age 18. As part of the larger NIMH Intramural Longitudinal Study of the Endocrine and Neurobiological Events Accompanying Puberty, 526 3T fMRI scans were collected from 129 healthy children (55 girls, age=11.91±2.68 years; 74 boys, age=11.79±2.57) performing a monetary incentive delay task. Data were analyzed longitudinally across development in a voxel-wise manner using AFNI's 3dMSS tool to perform mixed-effects spline-based modeling. Age-related changes in neural activation (pFDR<0.01) were found in medial prefrontal, orbitofrontal, and dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC) cortices during reward anticipation; and during reward receipt in ventral striatum, hippocampus, and DLPFC. Resulting spline models showed that for all regions, the degree of activation was highest at age 8 and decreased through age 18. These data contribute to previous evidence suggesting that brain regions underlying reward processing show age-related functional changes during adolescence. Future longitudinal investigations, using this same cohort, will include disentangling sex differences, effects of pubertal hormones, and the role of pubertal stage and tempo on reward-related brain development throughout this dynamic developmental period.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
A
57
Matthew Moore, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System
Yu Zhang, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System; Ansgar Furst, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System
Magnetic resonance-based multimodal imaging patterns associated with health concerns in veterans
The neural correlates of many chronic health concerns veterans experience post-deployment remain unclear. Multimodal brain imaging provides the possibility of examining the neural correlates of such health concerns in comprehensive ways by jointly characterizing structural and functional features of the brain. Hence, this study investigated multimodal features of structural, functional, and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging from veterans and healthy controls (HC). Veteran data were acquired at the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (n = 47), and HC data were acquired from a public research database (n = 118). As an example of a target health concern, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was examined based on screening information obtained from veterans (41 endorsing PTSD symptoms, 6 not endorsing PTSD symptoms) and HC (without PTSD). Multimodal data fusion was performed to integrate gray matter volume (GMV), amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF), and fractional anisotropy (FA) maps from participants. Results identified components that significantly differentiated veterans with PTSD symptoms from controls (HC and veterans without PTSD symptoms) across imaging modalities. Patterns indicated that veterans with PTSD symptoms showed modulated GMV, ALFF, and FA in regions distributed across the brain compared with controls. These results suggest that multimodal biomarkers of conditions such as PTSD can be detected and characterized to better understand the complex neural correlates of health concerns in veterans. Ongoing work expands on these findings and examines multimodal imaging associations with other veteran health concerns.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
A
58
Nicolas Adams, East Carolina University
Kim Sunghan, East Carolina University
Utilization of EEG and functional connectivity to demonstrate the relationship between musical training, cognition, and memory.
This study at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC is seeking to determine whether there are any differences between the functional brain networks in the brain between musicians and nonmusicians. It is hypothesized that musicians may have optimized small-worldness in their mental networks through their musical training. If so, we seek to determine which areas of the musician's mind becomes more integrated and strengthened. _x000D_
_x000D_
There will be two categories of subjects: Musicians and Nonmusicians. The study will seek to incorporate a minimum of 15 individuals per classification. Subjects will be recruited primarily from the ECU campus as well as the surrounding city of Greenville. The experimental procedure will involve a baseline scan of each subject, an auditory test, a musical listening portion, a short-term memory test, and a long-term memory test. _x000D_
_x000D_
It is hypothesized that musicians will be able to perform better during the auditory and memory tests; however, the goal of the research is to determine whether or not musicians will display a difference in functional brain networks during each task compared to nonmusicians. This study will utilize functional connectivity to perform this analysis and visualize which regions of the brain are more integrated and strengthened due to musical training.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
A
59
Pavla Cermakova, Charles University
Adam Chlape?ka, Charles University; Lenka Andryskova, Masaryk University Milan Brazdil, Masaryk University; Klara Mareckova, Masaryk University
Parental education, cognition and functional connectivity of the salience network
The aim was to investigate the association of parental education with cognitive ability in childhood and young adulthood and determine, whether functional connectivity of the salience network underlies this association. We studied participants of the Czech arm of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood who underwent assessment of their cognitive ability at age 8 (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) and 28/29 years (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) and measurement with resting state functional MRI at age 23/24 years. We estimated the associations of parental education with cognitive ability and functional connectivity between the seeds in the salience network and other voxels in the brain. We found that lower education of both mothers and fathers is associated with lower verbal IQ, performance IQ and full scale IQ of the offspring at age 8 years. Only mother¥s education is associated with performance IQ at age 28/29. Lower mother¥s education correlates with greater functional connectivity between the right rostral prefrontal cortex and a cluster of voxels in occipital cortex, which, in turn, was associated with lower performance IQ at age 28/29. We conclude that the impact of parental education, particularly father¥s, on offspring¥s cognitive ability weakens during the lifecourse. Functional connectivity between the right rostral prefrontal cortex and occipital cortex may be a biomarker underlying the transmission of mother¥s education on performance IQ of their offspring.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
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60
Kriti Achyutuni, University of California, Berkeley
Savannah Cookson, University of California, Berkeley; Mark D'Esposito, University of California, Berkeley
Estimating the Minimum Sample Size for Reliable Group-Level Connectivity Matrices Using Subjects from The Human Connectome Project
In recent years, there has been increasing emphasis on the development of large datasets analyzed using network-based methods. Much of this work averages across all subjects to increase power and stability, so the large subject numbers go largely unleveraged. Here, we aimed to find a minimum viable sample size over which we can reliably assign brain regions to networks. Recently, Marek and colleagues (2022) assessed reliability of group-level connectivity matrices across sample sizes using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) reproducible matched samples (ARMS) datasets. Their results were reliable in groups of 9 or 10 subjects; however, their study lacks generalizability to new populations due to factors including group matching, an adolescent population, and low resolution sampling bins. Here, we further investigated the reproducibility of group-level connectivity matrices using the Human Connectome Project (HCP) dataset. We split the data into two halves. We then calculated network matrices for each group, including all subjects in the first group and manipulated sample size in the second group ranging from 1 to 100 but clustered around 10. For each sample size, we calculated the average Pearson correlation of the group-level connectivity matrix for both groups and a 99% confidence interval. Very high agreement was reached with 7 to 8 subjects (r > .9 at 99% confidence). These results verify the reliability of connectivity matrices even for very small group sizes, creating opportunities to generate many samples from single large datasets for use with classical statistical methods.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
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61
Angela Gori, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY
Chiang-Shan Li, Yale University School of Medicine; Sien Hu, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY
Age-related changes in the resting state functional connectivity of hippocampus and the effects of academic achievement
The hippocampus (HC) is widely implicated in cognitive aging, and education represents a _x000D_
modifiable risk factor of age-related pathologies. This study evaluated the resting state functional _x000D_
connectivity (rsFC) of the HC in relation to academic achievement in 83 healthy participants _x000D_
aged 18-85 years (59 women). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral _x000D_
data were obtained from the Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample. Participants completed a _x000D_
5-minute resting fMRI scan and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Second Edition _x000D_
Abbreviated (WIAT-IIA) outside the scanner. Participants were divided into four groups: older _x000D_
adults (>50 years) with high WIAT score (>103), or OH; older adults with lower WIAT score _x000D_
(OL); younger adults with high WIAT score (YH); and with lower WIAT score (YL). We _x000D_
computed whole brain rsFC of the HC for regression with age across all subjects. Negative _x000D_
correlations of age with HC connectivity were found with the right superior frontal gyrus (rSFG), _x000D_
medial SFG (mSFG), right middle frontal gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, and right angular _x000D_
gyrus. ANOVAs on the HC rsFC's showed a significant main effect of age but not of WIAT. _x000D_
There were significant interactions between age and WIAT in HC-rSFG and HC-mSFG rsFC. _x000D_
Post-hoc comparisons showed significant differences between OL and YL in HC-rSFG and HC- _x000D_
mSFG rsFC; particularly, OL showed the lowest HC-rSFG and HC-mSFG rsFC among all _x000D_
groups. These results highlighted non-linear changes in the hippocampal connectivities with _x000D_
frontal regions in relation to academic accomplishment and underscores the importance of _x000D_
studying the roles of education in cognitive aging.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
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62
Samantha Marshall, Western University
Lindsay Nagamatsu, Western University
Examining electrical brain activity using mobile electroencephalography in older adults and Parkinson's disease during_x000D_
mobility in a real-world environment
Cognitive resources, such as attention, are required for safe mobility and navigation through the environment. Previous neuroimaging research in older adults and adults with Parkinson's disease has shown that mobility impairments are associated with attention deficits. However, previous work in these populations have been limited to assessing attention while participants are stationary and/or in unnaturalistic settings, which may not reflect real-world circumstances. Mobile neuroimaging has made it possible to observe brain activity outside of standard laboratory environments while participants are in motion. Therefore, our in-progress research uses mobile electroencephalography to examine and compare brain activity in laboratory and naturalistic environments across four participant groups: 1) younger adults, 2) older adults without a history of falls, 3) older adults with a history of falls, and 4) older adults diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In the naturalistic setting, participants are required to navigate, actively assess, and pay attention to the surrounding environment. We hypothesize that adults without mobility impairments will display higher levels of alpha and beta brain activity compared to adults with mobility impairments. Higher alpha activity would indicate that participants are calmer and more relaxed, while higher beta activity would indicate that participants are alert and attending to the environment. These findings have the potential to expand current understandings of brain function in older adults, Parkinson's disease, fall risk, and human mobility using real-world methods and technology. This may inform interventions to address fall risk to increase quality of life among these populations.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
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63
Youstina Tadros, Belmont University
Prathyusha Gowri Srinivasan, Belmont University; Keirsten Howard, Belmont University Hannah Potts, Belmont University; Carole Scherling, Belmont University
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) for Investigating Broca's Function & Lateralization
Language hemispheric dominance associated with handedness is one of the most consistent findings in neuroscience (Knecht 2000). EEG and fMRI have tangibly demonstrated the presence of left hemispheric dominance in dextral individuals, and right hemispheric or bilateral dominance in sinistral individuals (Bidula 2017; Loring 1989). Such techniques have been valuable in discovery and surgery planning but have high-motion artifacts and accessibility challenges. The advancement of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has provided a novel platform to non-invasively monitor and measure brain activity. Particularly, this method detects hemodynamic changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin (HbO and HbD, respectively) by emitting low levels of infrared light (Helmet 2013). Confirmatory studies must systematically investigate standard findings to demonstrate fNIRS' efficacy. Sixty undergraduates (47 females; mean age (SD)= 19.55(1.32)) completed the Edinburgh handedness survey and engaged in a verbal word-production task (bilateral Broca's area, 8x8 montage). Results indicated a positive relationship between higher right-hand laterality and increased left hemispheric HbO concentrations during word production. Study recruitment is ongoing to increase the size of the left-hand dominant participant pool, as well as additional probing of activity in the angular gyrus. Better understanding of fNIRS' ability to detect brain activity during different cognitive tasks is important in establishing this technique's diagnostic and research power for future studies. This is especially important considering this tool's high mobility, which increases accessibility for studies in groups outside of WEIRD cohorts.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
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64
Naga Thovinakere, McGill University
Maiya Geddes, McGill University
Mechanistic Predictions of Future Physical Activity Behaviours from Baseline Brain Structure and Function
There is overwhelming evidence that increased exercise in older age improves cognitive, affective and physical wellbeing, and may prevent progression of age-related illnesses. Exercise-related interventions involving brisk walking have demonstrated to have rehabilitative and protective effects on cognitive functioning in older adults. Nevertheless, in spite of the overwhelming health benefits of physical activity, many adults are sedentary. Understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of successful behaviour change can help improve future intervention developments and precision medicine approaches. Therefore, in this present study in progress, we are investigating the hypothesis that baseline brain structure and function will successfully predict future changes in physical activity behaviour. 4,734 cognitively normal, low-active midlife adults with a new cardiovascular risk factor diagnosis at baseline were sampled from the UK Biobank, a large population longitudinal cohort, for this analysis. We aim to use baseline neuroimaging, and baseline self-reported physical activity measures to predict future changes in physical activity behaviour. We predict that reward valuation and self-regulation brain networks (ventromedial prefrontal cortex [vmPFC]; ventral striatum [VS] and insula) will predict future change in physical activity behaviour. We also predict that a multimodal model that combines behavioural and neuromarkers is expected to provide the greatest predictive value of future long-term physical activity behavior change at the individual level. By moving beyond group-level differences, to focus on single-participants, we can provide evidence-based rationale of what treatment is most likely to help individuals.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
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65
John Veillette, University of Chicago
Letitia Ho, University of Chicago; Howard Nusbaum, University of Chicago
Adaptive Sample Size Determination for Neuroimaging using Sequential Analyses
The statistical power in neuroscience studies is generally estimated to be quite low. Further, neuroimaging and M/EEG studies routinely fail to report a sample size justification ? possibly because there is not an agreed upon approach for performing power analyses that is applicable to the wide array of statistical approaches used in modern neuroimaging. Low power implies a low probability of detecting true effects, and it counterintuitively lowers the probability that an effect is true if significant. Metanalyses suggest much larger sample sizes are needed to reliably detect effects, which would impose substantial costs upon researchers. We propose, as a partial solution, the adoption of sequential analyses to determine sample size. Under this approach, interim analyses are performed during data collection, and collection is stopped when enough evidence has been accrued to reject the null or a maximum (prespecified) sample size has seen reached. Sequential analyses are commonplace in clinical trials due to their efficiency; high-powered studies can be performed with a much smaller expected sample size than fixed-sample designs, since the probability of early stopping is substantial. However, corrections used to control the false-positive rate across multiple looks in clinical trials apply to univariate test statistics under normality assumptions, making them unsuitable for the high-dimensional setting encountered in neuroimaging. We propose a permutation scheme that generalizes common neuroimaging test statistics (e.g. cluster extent, TFCE, t-max, network-based statistic) into valid sequential tests, and we provide a Python package for performing these tests and discuss its use in specific cases.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
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66
Shreya Rajagopal, University of Michigan
Adriene Beltz, University of Michigan; Benjamin Hampstead, University of Michigan Thad Polk, University of Michigan
Estimating Individual Trajectories of Structural and Cognitive Decline in Mild Cognitive Impairment
Some patients with Mild Cognitive impairment (MCI) progress to Dementia of the Alzheimer's type (converters), but others do not (non-converters). We sought to distinguish between these two groups based on changes in brain structure over time and to investigate if these changes are associated with cognitive decline. We performed factor analysis on behavioral measures from 694 MCI subjects in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) Neuropsychological Battery and identified three factors that roughly mapped on to memory, visuospatial processing, and executive function. We then fit longitudinal growth curve models to individual trajectories of decline in these cognitive factors and in Hippocampus and Entorhinal cortex (EC) volume with age. The rate of decline in all three cognitive factors was significantly steeper in the converters than non-converters. Likewise, Hippocampus and EC volumes decreased significantly faster in converters than non-converters. Furthermore, the individual rates of change of both the Hippocampus and Entorhinal Cortex volumes were significantly correlated with rates of change in all three cognitive factors. We also tested whether the differences in rates of changes in volumes of the Hippocampus and EC prior to conversion would predict progression to Dementia. A logistic regression model with cohort as outcome and ventricle volume as a nuisance covariate revealed that Hippocampus slopes were significant predictors of progression but EC slopes were not. Our results suggest that rates of change in both Hippocampus and EC volume are reliable biomarkers, both of progression to dementia, and of cognitive decline.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
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67
Christian Haselgrove, NITRC
Richard Brash, NITRC; Albert Crowley, NITRC David Kennedy, NITRC; Abby Paulson, NITRC; Nina Preuss, NITRC
The NITRC Triad of Services: Software, Data, and Compute
The NeuroImaging Tools and Resources Collaboratory (NITRC) is a neuroimaging knowledge environment for MR, PET/SPECT, CT, EEG/MEG, optical imaging, clinical neuroinformatics, computational neuroscience, and imaging genomics tools and resources. _x000D_
_x000D_
Located on the web at www.nitrc.org, the Resources Registry (NITRC-R) promotes software tools and resources, vocabularies, test data, and databases, thereby extending the impact of previously funded, neuroimaging informatics contributions to a broader community. NITRC-R gives researchers greater and more efficient access to the tools and resources they need, better categorizing and organizing existing tools and resources, facilitating interactions between researchers and developers, and promoting better use through enhanced documentation and tutorials-all while directing the most recent upgrades, forums, and updates. All services freely downloadable, NITRC-R offers over 1,300 public resources; NITRC-Image Repository (NITRC-IR) offers 17 data projects, 11,559 subjects, and 13,282 imaging sessions, and NITRC Computational Environment (NITRC-CE) provides cloud-based computation services downloadable to local machines or via commercial cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services. _x000D_
_x000D_
NITRC is an established knowledge environment for the neuroimaging community where tools and resources are presented in a coherent and synergistic environment. NITRC is a trusted source for the identification of resources in this global community. With over 12,400 citations on Google Scholar, NITRC has supported 50,000 registered users, served up 12.3 million total, and of that, 10.4 million data downloads, to 2 million users generating 4.2 million sessions. In addition to untold downloaded Virtual Machines, NITRC-CE currently supports over 310 subscriptions on AWS Marketplace running over 611,400 compute hours.
METHODS: Other
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68
Justine Hansen, McGill University
Ross Markello, Komodo Health; Zhen-Qi Liu, McGill University Vincent Bazinet, McGill University; Golia Shafiei, University of Pennsylvania; Laura Suarez, McGill University; Nadia Blostein, McGill University; Jakob Seidlitz, University of Pennsylvania; Sylvain Baillet, McGill University; Theodore Satterthwaite, University of Pennsylvania; Mallar Chakravarty, McGill University; Armin Raznahan, National Institute of Mental Health; Bratislav Misic, McGill University
neuromaps: structural and functional interpretation of brain maps.
The development of advanced neuroimaging techniques has made it possible to annotate the brain in increasingly rich detail. In parallel, the open science movement has given researchers from diverse disciplines access to an unprecedented number of human brain maps. Integrating multimodal, multiscale human brain maps is necessary for broadening our understanding of brain structure and function. However, data are often shared in disparate coordinate systems, precluding systematic and accurate comparisons. Furthermore, no data sharing platforms integrate standardized analytic workflows. Here we introduce neuromaps, an open-access Python software toolbox for contextualizing human brain maps. Neuromaps currently features over 40 curated brain maps, including genomic, neuroreceptor, microstructural, electrophysiological, developmental, and functional ontologies. The toolbox implements functionalities for generating high-quality transformations between four standard neuroimaging coordinate systems (MNI152, fsaverage, fsLR, CIVET), and can parcellate vertex- and voxel-level data according to a specified brain atlas. Robust quantitative assessment of map-to-map similarity is enabled via a suite of spatial autocorrelation-preserving null models, including permutation-based and generative models. Neuromaps combines open-access data with transparent functionality for standardizing and comparing brain maps, providing a systematic workflow for comprehensive structural and functional annotation enrichment analysis of the human brain. Collectively, neuromaps represents a step towards creating systematized knowledge and rapid algorithmic decoding of the multimodal multiscale architecture of the brain.
METHODS: Other
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69
Leonhard Schreiner, Johannes Kepler University Linz / g.tec medical engineering
Micah Ching, g.tec medical engineering GmbH; Christoph Guger, g.tec medical engineering GmbH
Finger movement decoding using an ultra-high-density EEG system_x000D_
In current BCI research, high EEG electrode density is of great interest. Therefore, we investigate the neural representations of single-finger movements using ultra-high-density EEG electrodes. The system used in this work is based on flexible electrode grids with an electrode diameter of 5.9 mm and a distance of 8.6 mm between electrode centers. In five healthy subjects, 256 electrodes were placed over the sensorimotor cortex contralateral to the hand side of the finger movements. All subjects performed voluntary movements of the individual fingers. The alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) bands were used for feature extraction from the EEG. Event-related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/S) was calculated to produce ultra-high-density topography plots. Topographies representing each of the five fingers were created based on the MNI head model. The spatio-temporal dynamics provide a more detailed understanding of the neural distribution of each finger compared to standard EEG recordings. A focal point overlying the sensorimotor cortex around the standard 10-20 position C3 shows the highest activation for all five fingers. Because the 30 electrodes selected had overlaps between fingers, 18 electrodes were color-coded according to the finger with the greatest ERD. In conventional EEG systems, this area of approximately 50 mm by 50 mm would be covered by only one or two electrodes. It is expected that the implementation of real-time BCI feedback will improve the performance of future applications.
METHODS: Other
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71
Henry Burgess, Washington University in St. Louis
Joseph Barnby, Royal Holloway, University of London; Peter Dayan, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics Linda Richards, Washington University in St. Louis
Realizing Dynamic Cognitive Tasks with Cloud-based Computation
Human cognition is richly dynamic. Examining this quantitatively requires tasks that pose evolving and context-dependent problems to participants. As most behavioral testing is moving online, it is necessary to develop computational tools that permit interactive computations. We present a new methodology which allows for flexible and sophisticated forms of dynamic task evolution and offers a pleasing experience for participants and developers alike. Utilizing strengths from both visual, interactive languages (JavaScript) and sophisticated analytic languages (R, Python), we implement a client-server architecture in which all computationally intense operations for an online neurocognitive task are deferred from running in the browser to running in a cloud-based server. The server receives all data from a participant's behavior in the task, allowing later stages of the task to be updated dynamically to pose appropriate problems to the participant. The Application Programming Interface (API) to interact with the server uses a customizable R script to process received data from the participant, allowing any specified computations to be performed before returning data to the browser-based JavaScript task, facilitating tight control over the state of the task. This methodology is intended to minimize the computational limitations of visual programming while retaining interactive and visually pleasing task presentation. We suggest that this offers a unique solution to cognitive testing online and in the lab. A containerized implementation of this methodology is open-source and available on GitHub to minimize all effort in setting up the task: https://github.com/Brain-Development-and-Disorders-Lab/task_server_container
METHODS: Other
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72
Peter Bright, Anglia Ruskin University
Kennedy Cadman, Anglia Ruskin University; Martina Finessi, Anglia Ruskin University Ian van der Linde, Computing and Information Science
Development of tools for estimating premorbid cognitive abilities in visually impaired and blind adults
Comparison of premorbid IQ estimates against objective measures of current IQ on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale ? Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) enables the magnitude of cognitive impairment to be evaluated in neurological patients, and is useful for research, diagnostic and clinical management purposes. Tests incorporating oral pronunciation of visually presented phonologically irregular words are commonly used to produce premorbid IQ estimates, following robust evidence that vocabulary correlates well with general intellectual ability and is relatively preserved in most non-aphasic neurological conditions. However, those with vision loss (whether limited or severe) are disadvantaged on these tests, leading to difficulties in estimating their premorbid ability, and thereby compromising diagnostic precision, clinical management and assessment for research purposes. We explored the viability of tests converted from visual to auditory presentation, while controlling for the likely additional demands on short-term/working memory. Using a genetic algorithm (GA)-based method, we identified optimal subsets of words from premorbid IQ word pronunciation and lexical decision tests that provide statistically reliable and robust estimates of objective WAIS-IV performance. These orally presented stimulus subsets are likely to benefit cognitive and clinical neuroscience requiring the assessment of visually impaired and blind individuals.
METHODS: Other
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73
Veena Kander, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Joanne Hardman, Department of Education, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Jo Wilmshurst, Department of Paediatric Neurology, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Online paediatric EEG handbook: a survey on its usefulness
There is inadequate paediatric EEG training amongst doctors and technicians involved in the care of children with epilepsy in sub-Saharan Africa (Kander, 2021). An entry level handbook was originally developed for healthcare practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa. It has subsequently been encompassed as a resource on the International Child Neurology Teaching Network (ICNTN) making it accessible across the world covering high to low-income countries. Aim: To investigate the usefulness of a paediatric online EEG handbook. Method: A survey of the ICNApedia online EEG handbook was circulated in December 2021, with recurrent eblasts, via the research electronic data capture (Redcap) from the University of Cape Town to all participants who registered for the handbook (n=108; n= 39 countries). Ethical approval from UCT, Cape Town, South Africa (481/2018). Results: By June 2022, 64% fully and 36% partially completed the survey. Responses were from 25 countries: n=8 high income, n=7 upper-middle income, n=7 lower-middle income and n=3 from low-income. Of the 50 participants, most (n=35) had successfully completed the handbook. Seven of the survey respondents had partially and eight did not completed the handbook. Final results supported that the handbook was a good steppingstone to learning EEGs, especially supporting the unique area of paediatrics. Conclusion: In resource limited settings non-specialist clinicians are often required to provide extended services including EEG interpretation. To date the survey supports that the handbook is supporting this niche skills area.
Modeling multi-talker speech comprehension in normal and hearing-impaired listeners
Human speech encompasses a hierarchy of linguistic units, including phonemes, syllables, words, phrases and sentences. Understanding how these units of different time scales are encoded in the brain remains a challenging problem. This hierarchical encoding of different linguistic units is even less understood in adverse listening conditions, such as at cocktail parties where multiple speakers are talking concurrently. To simultaneously estimate the impact of multiple linguistic units on comprehension capacities, we adopted a hierarchical multiscale Long Short-Term Memory network (HM-LSTM) that is specifically designed to learn linguistic units at different levels of granularity, with five hidden LSTM layers corresponding to the phoneme, syllable, word, phrase and sentence levels respectively. We trained our model on the WenetSpeech corpus and extracted the five hidden layers' activities of the texts from a Chinese translation of the novel 'The Little Prince'. We collected EEG data while both normal-hearing adults and adults with extended high-frequency (EHF) hearing loss listened to two speakers read two different sections of 'The Little Prince' simultaneously for about 20 minutes in total, focusing on one speaker for 10 minutes each. We correlated our model activity for the five levels of linguistic information from phonemes to sentences with the EEG responses using representational similarity analysis (RSA). Our results suggest that compared to normal-hearing listeners, hearing-impaired listeners are worse at tracking linguistic information at the phoneme and syllable level at the shorter temporal scales and the sentence level at the longer temporal scales during multi-talker speech comprehension.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition
A
75
Sydney Smith, University of California San Diego
Ali Rigby, University of California San Diego; Keith Doelling, Institut Pasteur, Paris Bradley Voytek, University of California San Diego
Investigating the mechanisms of precise predictive timing: behavior and intracranial EEG
Our sensory environment is rich with repetitive stimuli that we can perceive and use to predict upcoming events. Our brains can accomplish this via temporal predictive coding, one example of which is oscillatory entrainment, in which ongoing, low frequency cortical oscillations in human EEG and MEG can become synchronized to a rhythmic stream of sensory inputs. Previous investigations have observed instances of entrainment of low frequency oscillations in the delta (1-4 Hz) band, often coupled to activity in the higher frequency beta (13-30 Hz) band. However, observations of cross-frequency interactions have recently been shown to also potentially be caused by nonsinusoidal oscillations. Here, we hypothesize that cross-frequency delta-to-beta coupling in anticipatory perception might be better explained by nonsinusoidal oscillations. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the nonsinusoidal waveforms of these oscillations are driven by the temporal coincidence of excitatory top-down and bottom-up postsynaptic currents converging onto auditory cortex. That is, these nonsinusoidal oscillations could be the product of top-down modulation of neural excitability in the auditory cortex, serving a potential mechanistic role in the precision of temporal predictions. To investigate the possible occurrence of nonsinusoidal entrained oscillations in temporal predictive coding, we designed a novel anticipatory perception task. Here, we share behavioral data from 6 healthy subjects and 8 epilepsy patients with implanted intracranial electrodes performing this task. We also share analyses in progress of iEEG data investigating the role of waveform shape in precise temporal prediction.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition
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76
Yang-Teng Fan, Yuan Ze University
Tsai-Tsen Liao, Taipei Medical University; Shang-Yueh Tsai, National Chengchi University Chung-Hsin Chiang, National Chengchi University; Shih-Han Chou, Taipei Medical University Hospital; Chenyi Chen, Taipei Medical University; Yawei Cheng, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
The interplay of the GABAA receptor polymorphisms and excitatory?inhibitory brain metabolite levels linked to autism spectrum conditions (ASC)
Multiple lines of work have accumulated to support disruption of the excitatory-inhibitory (E-I) balance contributes to ASC pathogenesis. However, direct evidence of the link among the genetic variations, E-I brain metabolite levels, and major ASC characteristics is lacking. We recruited 172 participants (63 ASC and 109 neurotypical controls) through evaluations of sensory features and autistic traits, as well as levels of regional brain metabolite concentrations by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). DNA from buccal cells was used to test the genotypes of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in GABAbeta3 gene. All participants were stratified based on their levels of sensory responsivity into two subgroups (those with and without sensory over-responsivity, or SOR and NSOR, respectively). Behaviorally, the SOR group were more likely to be diagnosed with ASC and had more severe autistic traits than the NSOR group. The MRS results showed that elevated glutamate-glutamine (Glx)/GABA ratios within auditory cortex, somatosensory cortex, and prefrontal cortex (PFC) were observed in the SOR group, and an increased E-I ratios within the PFC correlated with both degrees of sensory responsivity and autistic traits. Mediation analysis revealing the PFC E-I levels served as a mediator for severity of sensory responsivity-autistic symptoms relation in the SOR group. Genetic data further indicated that higher genotypic and allelic frequencies of the GABAbeta3 SNPs (rs1426217) was observed in the SOR group. These findings altogether highlight the interactions among the polymorphisms of the GABAbeta3, the prefrontal E-I balance, and ASC-relevant symptoms, and also have important implications for early detection and intervention of ASC.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Development & aging
A
77
LUCA FALCIATI, UNIVERSITY OF BRESCIA
SILVIA RIO, UNIVERSITY OF BRESCIA; CLAUDIO MAIOLI, UNIVERSITY OF BRESCIA FRANCESCO NEGRO, UNIVERSITY OF BRESCIA; DEBORA BRIGNANI, UNIVERSITY OF BRESCIA
Positive expectations need time to improve joint flexibility
Studies on the placebo effect have shown that positive expectations improve postural control and motor performance and reduce perceived fatigability and discomfort. This study was aimed at investigating whether joint flexibility could be improved by a placebo procedure making use of sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Thirty young healthy volunteers (age=22.3±1.7) took part in two experimental sessions, one week apart: a placebo condition and a control condition. The order of the sessions was balanced across participants. At the beginning of the first session, positive expectations were generated by verbal suggestions on the advantages induced by tDCS on motor performance. Hamstring flexibility was measured by a Sit and Reach Test (SRT) in three blocks, interspersed with 5 minutes of mobility exercises. In the placebo condition, but not in the control condition, mobility exercises were performed during the application of sham tDCS. In addition to SRT, subjective parameters of perceived exertion and pain, and treatment expectations and efficacy were measured by means of visual-analogue or numeric-rating scales. Results revealed that in both conditions, positive expectation reduced perceived exertion and pain during SRT. By contrast, the efficacy of placebo on hamstring flexibility showed an order effect: a significant increase of flexibility occurred only when the placebo condition was administered as second session one week after the explanation of verbal suggestions. A second experiment testing the role of timing as a function of the baseline levels of flexibility is ongoing. These effects have potential implications to foster post-trauma recovering and motor skill learning.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Motor control
A
78
Pierre Gianferrara, Carnegie Mellon University
Shawn Betts, Carnegie Mellon University; Jon Fincham, Carnegie Mellon University John Anderson, Carnegie Mellon University
Cortical and Cerebellar Contributions to Sensorimotor Learning Across Speeds in a Finger Pressing Task
Motor skill learning is a complex process that involves cortical-subcortical loops that connect motor regions to the basal ganglia and the cerebellum (Ungerleider et al., 2002). One example of a fine motor skill is motor timing. Past cerebellar studies on motor timing, sensorimotor synchronization, and motor adaptation have uncovered a role of the cerebellum in periodic tapping and in skill learning via the computation of sensory prediction errors (Ivry & Keele, 1989; Shadmehr et al., 2010). The goal of this project is to shed light on the cortical and cerebellar mechanisms underlying sensorimotor learning during the acquisition of sub-second motor timing skills. In an fMRI experiment, participants learned to adjust the speed of their button presses in the scanner based on auditory information that they attended to through earphones. The goal of the task was to complete as many trials of 64 correctly timed button presses as possible during 8 blocks of 5 minutes. We explored four speed ranges: namely the [200-400 ms], [400-600 ms], [600-800 ms], and the [800-1000 ms] ranges, which switched twice within each trial. In this poster presentation, we will introduce contrasts across the four speeds and the two learning phases ('steady-state' vs. 'transition' phases). In addition, we will present functional connectivity analyses across cortical regions, such as the posterior parietal cortex, and cerebellar regions, such as lateral cerebellar regions (e.g., Crus I). Our results provide novel insights into the specific sensorimotor mechanisms that underlie adaptive cognitive and motor skill acquisition across speeds.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Motor control
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79
Hsin-Ping Tien, National Central University
Erik Chang, National Central University
Does Motor Imagery Require More Cognitive Resource Than Motor Execution?
While early theory and evidence has focused on similarities between motor imagery and execution, more recent studies emphasize distinct cognitive control mechanisms they required. Most studies differentiating processes underlying imagery and execution mainly rely on self-report of movement duration which is subject to various sources of confounding. The current study adopted a dual-task paradigm, with repetition priming as the primary task to objectively estimate the strength of the short-lived stimulus-response binding, and three secondary tasks including visuospatial memory maintenance, serial order maintenance, and motor suppression to differentially interfere with the repetition effect. Assuming that motor imagery requires higher degree of or even different types of memory maintenance from physical execution, we expect weaker repetition effect for the imagery which should not be correlated with the repetition effect of execution. Preliminary outcomes demonstrated significant repetition effects in both imagery and execution which were not correlated with each other, suggesting limited shared underlying processes between them. However, types of secondary tasks did not interact with the mode of action in the strength of repetition effect. In other words, the difference between imagery and execution in the strength of short-lived S-R binding remained consistent across different types of interference, showing no sign of differential involvement of memory maintenance for imagery and execution. Taken together, the current study in progress introduced an objective way of comparing motor imagery and execution, and sheds lights on issues in closely examining the cognitive resources required by these two modes of action.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Motor control
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80
Frank Garcea, University of Rochester
Emma Strawderman, University of Rochester; Joseph Barone, University of Rochester William Burns, University of Rochester; Stephen Meyers, Unviersity of Rochester; Tyler Schmidt, University of Rochester; Kevin Walter, Unviersity of Rochester; Webster Pilcher, University of Rochester; Bradford Mahon, Carnegie Mellon University
Resting State Functional Connectivity Lesion-Symptom Mapping of the Tool Use Network
Tool use is a cognitive and motor function supported by a network of brain regions including the left ventral premotor cortex (L.PMv) and the left supramarginal gyrus (L.SMG). When using a tool, an action must be selected (L.PMv) and tool manipulation knowledge must be retrieved (L.SMG) in order to implement the tool use action. The L.PMv and L.SMG are structurally connected via the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (L.SLF). We hypothesized that lesions to the L.SLF would be associated with reduced resting state functional connectivity between the L.PMv and L.SMG. To test this hypothesis, 64 participants with left hemisphere glioma (tumors infiltrating the white matter) were recruited to take part in a tool picture naming fMRI scan, resting state fMRI, and a T1 anatomical scan. The L.PMv and L.SMG were localized on a participant-by-participant basis using the tool picture naming data; these areas were then entered as seed regions in a resting state functional connectivity analysis. Each participant's lesion was hand-drawn on the T1 anatomical scan and normalized into MNI space, permitting an investigation of the lesion sites associated with reduced resting state functional connectivity. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that lesions to the L.SLF were associated with reduced resting state functional connectivity between the L.PMv and L.SMG. These data are the first in a series of analyses using resting state functional connectivity and lesion-symptom mapping to investigate how gliomas can induce connectome-wide functional connectivity disruptions among regions involved in the selection and implementation of everyday actions.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Motor control
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81
Maggie Baird, Occidental College
Aleksandra Sherman, Occidental College; Carmel Levitan, Occidental College
Individual differences in multisensory illusory perception
We examined individual differences across two auditory-visual illusions: the McGurk Effect and the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion (SIFI). In the McGurk effect, visual information changes what participants hear; when the sound signal 'ba' is paired with a face mouthing 'va', participants often report hearing a fused sound like 'tha'. For the SIFI, sound changes visual perception; when a single visual flash is accompanied by two beeps presented in quick succession, many people report perceiving a second flash even though only one was presented. We were interested in the extent to which people experienced each of these illusions, whether their perceptual experiences were stable over time, and what brain states contribute to illusory perception. 49 undergraduate participants completed two experimental sessions while their brain activity was recorded using EEG; both sessions included a block of each illusion as well as several types of control trials. We found robust individual variability across both illusions such that some participants always, never, or sometimes experienced the illusions. Susceptibility was stable over time such that across both sessions, people remained either 'seers', 'non-seers', or 'sometimes-seers'. For the SIFI specifically, prior trial type was predictive of whether they would experience the illusion. Moreover, we found neural differences in both central and occipital sites between 'seers' and 'non-seers'. We also report trial-by-trial based EEG analyses demonstrating differences between propensity to experience the two illusions. This study supports and extends the growing literature surrounding individual variability in perception of multisensory illusions.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Multisensory
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82
Caroline Danforth, University of Central Arkansas
Nick Paternoster, University of Central Arkansas; David Whitney, University of California, Berkeley Amrita Puri, University of Central Arkansas; Santani Teng, Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute
Investigating cross-modal transfer between echoic, visual, and haptic information in object discrimination tasks
Active echolocation allows blind individuals to explore their surroundings, similar to dolphins and other echolocating animals. Echolocators learn to emit sounds, such as mouth clicks, and examine the returning echoes to reveal information about their surroundings, including the location, size, shape, and material composition of objects. Here, we investigated the cross-modal transfer between acoustic echoes and other senses. First, in a delayed match-to-sample task, blind expert echolocators and sighted control participants inspected everyday and novel target objects using echolocation, then distinguished the target object from a distractor using only haptic information. Although accuracy was low (~60%), both groups performed significantly above chance, demonstrating successful echo-haptic transfer and suggesting the task is very difficult. In a follow-up experiment, we briefly presented blurred images of the novel stimuli to sighted participants (N=22), who then performed the same haptic discrimination task. Visuo-haptic discrimination performance was equivalent to echo-haptic discrimination when the images were blurred with a 4∞ wide Gaussian filter, or ~2∞ visual angle. Notably, four outlying participants' thresholds showed a resolution about twice that of the group, or ~1∞ visual angle. By quantifying the acuity of echo-based object discrimination, we can better understand the quality of echoacoustic information that transfers to other sensory modalities. This may contribute to potential improvements in and expansions of the assistive techniques and technology available for blind individuals.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Multisensory
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83
Rachel Poulain, University of Toulouse 2
Magali Batty, University of Toulouse 2; Celine Cappe, University of Toulouse 3
Hearing/Seeing it approaching: neural correlates of multisensory looming cues integration in the autistic personality
There is an evident lack of understanding of how autistic individuals integrate multiple sensory inputs, whereas multisensory integration (MSI) may have cascading effects on the development of higher-level skills such as socio-communicative functioning. Multisensory dynamic information reflects naturalistic sensory experiences, given that our environment involves moving stimulation of more than one sensory modality at a time. Especially, depth movement informs about crucial social (approaching to interact) and non-social (avoiding threats/collisions) information. Given that autistic characteristics are distributed on a spectrum over clinical and general populations, our work aimed at exploring the MSI neural correlates of depth cues in the autistic personality spectrum using a behavioral experiment with electro-encephalographic (EEG) recordings. To do so, the autistic profile of participants from the general population was assessed using questionnaires. Participants performed a detection task of auditory and/or visual depth moving stimuli. To explore the relationship between the indexes of MSI and autistic traits, specific models were applied to reaction times and EEG signals. A first behavioral experiment highlighted MSI particularities in the high autistic personality, specifically when a looming movement was presented. The preliminary results of our second study using EEG showed early widespread indexes of MSI, which seems to be induced by the looming condition. Moreover, results suggested less robust multisensory integration, especially in the looming condition for the high autistic personality. Results will be discussed in light of autism theories and support evidence that low-level stages of MSI could operate with different dynamics all along the autistic personality spectrum.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Multisensory
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84
Dian Lu, Stanford University
Josef Parvizi, Stanford University; James Stieger, Stanford University Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University; Vivek Buch, Stanford University
Causal Evidence for the Processing of Bodily Self in the Anterior Precuneus
The posteromedial cortex (PMC), comprising the precuneus, posterior cingulate, and retrosplenial regions, is known to be engaged in various self-referential functions. Recent observations have also suggested a link between PMC dysfunction and self-dissociation. To test the causal relevance of specific PMC locations for self-referential processing, we recruited nine neurosurgical participants with bilaterally implanted PMC electrodes. We applied focal electrical stimulation within discrete PMC sites while probing changes in the participants' subjective states. We found that, in all nine participants, the electrical perturbation of the anterior precuneus (aPCu), but not the other PMC sites, caused apparent dissociative changes in the physical and spatial bodily domain involving the head, trunk, and legs, with possible lateralization effect (i.e., dropping with left and floating with right hemisphere stimulations). The responsive aPCu sites did not exhibit a change in neuronal population activity during an experimental condition of cued autobiographical recall. Furthermore, resting-state fMRI data and effective connectivity with single-pulse electrical stimulation procedures confirmed that the responsive aPCu sites were distinct from, but closely connected with, the adjacent PMC nodes of the default mode network. Based on these data, we conclude that the aPCu is a distinct functional unit within the PMC and causally important for processing self-referential information in the physical and spatial domains. Future larger scale experimental studies are needed to explore how operations of distinct neuronal populations within the PMC are integral to various cognitive processes that require a reference to self in its various dimension.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Multisensory
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85
Elisabetta Ambron, University of Pennsylvania
Rand Williamson, Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute; Maxim Karrenbach, University of Washington Jing-Sheng Li, University of Washington; Erik Rombokas, University of Washington; H Branch Coslett, University of Pennsylvania; Laurel Buxbaum, Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute
Efficacy and mechanisms of virtual reality treatment of phantom leg pain
Approximately 90% of individuals with limb amputation experience the persistent sensation of the missing extremity, known as a phantom limb, and up to 85% experience debilitating pain in the missing limb, termed phantom limb pain (PLP). We previously demonstrated that Virtual Reality (VR) with active leg movements and vision of a virtual limb significantly reduces phantom limb pain in subjects with below the knee amputations. In this clinical trial, we are testing the efficacy and mechanisms of VR treatment of phantom leg pain. Individuals with lower limb amputation and PLP are randomly assigned to an 8 session VR treatment with Active VR or a commercially-available VR pain treatment (REAL i-SeriesÆ) and asked to rate their PLP before and after each session. Using ultra-high resolution (7T) functional magnetic resonance imaging, precise somatosensory and motor maps of the limb are obtained at the beginning and at the end of the treatment to test for possible treatment-related changes in cortical representation of the lower limb. Our preliminary data show a beneficial effect of VR treatment for PLP and advance theoretical understanding of the mechanisms and functional neuroanatomy of PLP.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Multisensory
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86
Roberta Vastano, University of Miami
Eva Widerstrom-Noga, University of Miami
Spinal Cord Injury and Neuropathic Pain reduce Multisensory Integration
Our perceptions and actions require the integration of cross-modal stimuli. This process, called multisensory integration (MSI) generates a facilitatory effect on perception and action, known as multisensory enhancement effect. MSI requires intact sensorimotor mechanisms, absence of unisensory imbalance and exposure to cross-modal cues. Following spinal cord injury (SCI) sensorimotor impairments can impact the MSI experience. However, whether MSI is impaired following an SCI, as well as the impact of neuropathic pain, remains largely unknown. _x000D_
To address this knowledge gap, we tested MSI using a target detection task in which participants with SCI (with and without neuropathic pain) and controls responded to unimodal (Visual, Tactile or Auditory) and bimodal stimuli (Visuo-Tactile, Audio-Tactile or Audio-Visual). To quantify the multisensory enhancement effect, we computed the independent race model. _x000D_
We found that the violation of the race model only occurred in control participants, meaning that in all conditions a multisensory enhancement effect was present (bimodal conditions faster than race model), while SCI participants with and without neuropathic pain showed a reduced multisensory enhancement effect. However neuropathic pain seemed to play a crucial role in reducing MSI. _x000D_
Our results suggest that in SCI aberrant sensorimotor processing, together with a potentially reduced multisensory experience and unisensory imbalance, can affect the efficacy of MSI generating sub-additive effects. The study of impaired MSI mechanisms following SCI, may facilitate the development of novel rehabilitation approaches. Specifically, this knowledge could facilitate the development of rehabilitation strategies to 'boost' the multisensory experience and prevent extensive cortical reorganization underlying neuropathic pain.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Multisensory
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87
Tatiana Matyushkina, UC Davis
Tatiana Matyushkina, UC Davis, Center for Mind and Brain; Sharon Coffey-Corina, UC Davis, Center for Mind and Brain Lee Miller, UC Davis, Center for Mind and Brain; David Corina, UC Davis, Center for Mind and Brain
Cortical tracking of speech in the presence of visual distractor in children with CI and hearing children: longitudinal study
Cross-modal neuroplasticity has been observed in profoundly deaf adults with congenital hearing loss whereby cortical auditory regions have shown sensitivity to visual functions (Finney et. al., 2001; Scott et. al., 2014). Some have argued that this reorganization may pose challenges to development of speech perception (Giraud et al., 2001, Glick et al., 2017). Of particular interest is to understand the developmental time-course of cross-modal plasticity and whether early audiological interventions such as cochlear implants mitigate these interactions in pediatric populations. We are using predictive modelling (mTRF toolbox by Crosse et al. (2015)) to quantify the relationship between features of speech stream and cortical EEG signals while infants process speech in the context of co-occurring peripheral visual stimulation. In this study the participants watched a silent cartoon presented in the middle on the screen while two concentric checkered rings in the background were flickering at different frequencies (7.5 and 12 Hz) and ambient speech stream unrelated to the cartoon was playing. We analyze how two speech stream features; speech amplitude envelope and spectrographic content are tracked in this setting. We examine how cortical tracking of the speech stream features changes over time in 8 CI children compared to their hearing counterparts. Previous preliminary analysis has revealed differences in TRFs for envelope tracking between hearing children and children with CI showing larger latency for the positive peak between 0 and 100 ms as well as higher scores for envelope decoding (Matyushkina et al., 2021). The present paper extends these preliminary findings.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Multisensory
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88
Yiyuan Huang, The University of Tokyo
Zenas Chao, The University of Tokyo; Shinsuke Koike, The University of Tokyo
Neural representations of temporal prediction signals in multiple time scales: An EEG study_x000D_
Predicting when an event will take place allows us to appropriately react to the ever-changing environment. This temporal prediction can be established by learning the statistical structure in sensory experience, which can be described by the probability distribution of the foreperiod (the interval between the cue and target), or p(FP). However, sequential events often consist of statistical structures of different timescales, i.e. p(FP) can be conditioned on earlier events, and it remains unclear how multi-scale temporal prediction is learned and represented in the brain. Here, we combine EEG recordings with a novel foreperiod paradigm where two consecutive foreperiods, FP1 and FP2, are chunked as a sequence. This design allows us to evaluate whether temporal prediction of FP2 is established based on p(FP2) unconditionally or conditionally on FP1, i.e. p(FP2|FP1). We model the underlying dynamics by the hazard function (HF which describes how prediction of the target to occur is continuously updated when it has not occurred yet) based on the unconditional and conditional probability distributions. Within a regression analysis, we find that the reaction time to the target is optimally explained by both the unconditional and conditional HFs, suggesting a multi-scale integration. Furthermore, EEG analysis shows that the unconditional and conditional HFs are represented before the target in the beta (25-35 Hz) and alpha (9-12Hz) frequency bands, respectively. Our findings reveal that temporal prediction is established by multi-timescale experience, which is encoded in the brain by neuronal oscillations of different frequencies.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Other
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89
Mathieu Guillaume, Stanford University
Ethan Roy, Stanford University; Amandine Van Rinsveld, Stanford University Gillian S. Starkey, Goucher College; Melina R. Uncapher, University of California San Francisco; Bruce D. McCandliss, Stanford University
Groupitizing reflects conceptual developments in math cognition and inequities in math achievement from childhood through adolescence
Late-emerging developmental changes in numerical cognition may be relevant to understanding math learning and math achievement disparities. 'Groupitizing' (McCandliss, et al., 2010) is an increasingly recognized component of non-symbolic numerical cognition that captures how elementary-school children increasingly integrate grouping cues and concepts (e.g., large sets are comprised of smaller sets in many ways) into their implicit non-symbolic enumeration processes. Here we investigate how groupitizing co-develops with math achievement from elementary- through middle-school in a large diverse sample (n= 1,209, 3rd to 8th grade, mean age = 10.5 years). Groupitizing showed large, linear, developmental effects across each successive school year studied. Groupitizing also emerged as the strongest predictor of overall math achievement, and was shown to recruit the same cognitive processes as mathematics. Finally, groupitizing played a central mediating role in the powerful relationship between socioeconomic status and mathematics achievement.
Driving is a very complex task that requires a number of different cognitive processes, including not only motor and visuospatial abilities, but also higher-level executive functioning abilities such as planning and multi-tasking. Surprisingly, very little research has focused on identifying the cognitive and neural correlates of driving. In the current study, we tested both left and right hemisphere stroke patients, as well as 20 age-matched controls, in a state-of-the-art driving simulator that measured a variety of driving errors, such as collisions, speeding, lane deviations, and missed stop signs. Participants were also tested on a cognitive battery that assessed visuospatial processing (e.g., visual search/selective attention), language functioning, as well as planning and multi-tasking ability. One objective was to identify cognitive correlates of driving errors, such as spatial attention biases, aphasia, and divided attention difficulties. Another objective was to identify brain regions associated with different types of driving errors. This project is still in progress. Preliminary results showed that left-hemisphere stroke patients had more collisions and speed exceedances, while right-hemisphere stroke patients had more difficulty staying in their lane. Both left and right hemisphere patients demonstrated deficits in directing attention contralesionally, and greater contralesional attention impairment was associated with increased collisions and poorer driving performance overall. Relationships between driving performance (different types of driving errors), neuropsychological test scores, and lesion territories will be further discussed.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Other
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91
April Pilipenko, University of California, Santa Cruz
Jason Samaha, University of California, Santa Cruz; Antonia Gergen, University of California, Santa Cruz Nitu Gupta, University of California, Santa Cruz; Shirin Afrakhteh, University of California, Santa Cruz; Alex Feghhi, University of California, Santa Cruz
Effects of spontaneous alpha-band activity on visual detection across the perceptual contrast response function
A large body of research supports the notion that alpha-band (8-13 Hz) oscillations in the visual system reflect a process of neuronal inhibition. For instance, when pre-stimulus alpha amplitude is high just prior to the presentation of a near-threshold stimulus, the stimulus is detected less frequently and with lower subjective awareness and confidence. However, the suppressive effect of ongoing alpha activity on behavior across a range of stimulus levels spanning an individual's psychometric function is less clear as most studies have used a single near-threshold stimulus intensity. In this study, we address whether pre-stimulus alpha activity exerts an additive or multiplicative effect on the contrast-response function linking stimulus detection to stimulus contrast. Using a forced-choice detection task, observers judged the presence or absence of peripheral Gabor patches presented at 6 interleaved and individualized contrast levels (including contrast = 0 trials) spanning floor to near-ceiling detection levels. Our preliminary analysis of hit rates and d' during states of high and low pre-stimulus alpha suggests a multiplicative change, whereby hit rates and d' are increased during states of low alpha amplitude, but only at higher stimulus intensities. Our data imply that strong alpha power inhibits perceptual detection by a divisive scaling of contrast responses, rather than by an additive suppression factor.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
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92
Kara Blacker, Naval Medical Research Unit - Dayton
Elizabeth Shoda, Leidos; Cammi Borden, Oak Ridge Institute of Science & Education
The Effects of Acute Hypoxia on Visual Processing: A Simultaneous fNIRS/EEG Investigation
Previous work has shown that the visual system is particularly sensitive to the effects of hypoxic hypoxia, but the mechanism(s) underlying this effect remain unclear. This study investigated the impact of hypoxia on cerebral oxygenation and event-related potentials in visual cortex using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalogram (EEG), respectively. Participants (n=31) completed three counterbalanced sessions under the following conditions: 21% oxygen (control), 11.7% oxygen (15k ft simulated altitude), and 9.7% oxygen (20k ft simulated altitude). Participants alternated between a modified Cone Contrast Test (CCT) and passively viewing a pattern reversal checkerboard stimulus. There was a decrease in the amplitude of the visual P100 during the 20k condition compared to our normoxia control. For fNIRS, in visual cortex, we found significant decreases in oxygenated hemoglobin (OHb) and increases in deoxygenated Hb for normoxia compared to both hypoxia conditions and for 15k ft compared to 20k ft. For the CCT results, participants performed numerically worse at 20k compared to normoxia, but only at a trend level of significance. No changes between 15k and normoxia were observed. The relationship between P100 amplitude and changes in OHb concentrations will be assessed to examine how hypoxia influences neurovascular coupling in visual cortex. These results suggest that hypoxia mildly impairs the visual system at the level of visual cortex, but additional work is needed to examine the role of subcortical and retinal processing. Understanding how hypoxia affects vision is critical for developing enhanced training protocols for military aviators who may encounter hypoxia at altitude.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
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93
Tim Näher, Ernst-Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience
Yufeng Zhang, Ernst-Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience; Pascal Fries, Ernst-Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience
Rhythms for Vision: Temporal dynamics of primate saccades
Many overt exploration and sampling behaviors show theta-rhythmic modulation. This prominently applies to rodent whisking and sniffing, but has been debated for primate saccadic eye movements. Saccades bring the high-acuity fovea to behaviorally relevant information in the environment. While previous evidence has suggested that this re-orienting movement shows at least some degree of rhythmicity, recent studies have proposed that the observed dynamics can be explained by an unrhythmic and purely self-paced process. We developed a free-viewing foraging paradigm to investigate saccadic rhythmicity with controlled visual stimulation. The task requires the animal to search for a hidden item in a hexagonal grid of physically identical potential targets. Parameterizing the grid allows quantifying how visual scene statistics affect the temporal profile of saccadic eye movements during the search. Preliminary results indicate that when bottom-up input is controlled for, saccades, as overt expressions of shifts in attention, show strong rhythmicity at 4-5 Hz. These results contribute to the debate about the rhythmicity of primate saccadic behavior by determining to what degree saccadic rhythmicity depends on image statistics or follows an inherent, scene-invariant rhythm.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
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94
Audrey Morrow, University of California Santa Cruz
Wei Dou, University of California Santa Cruz; Jason Samaha, University of California Santa Cruz
Individual Alpha Frequency Appears Unrelated to the Latency of Early Visual Responses
Research has shown that alpha phase prior to stimulus onset predicts stimulus detection and that the frequency of alpha can predict temporal properties of perception. These findings have bolstered the idea that alpha-band oscillations reflect rhythmic sampling of visual information, however the mechanisms of this are unclear. Recently, two contrasting hypotheses have been proposed, rhythmic and discrete perception. According to the rhythmic perception account, alpha oscillations impose phasic inhibition on perceptual processing and primarily modulate the amplitude or strength of visual responses and thus the likelihood of stimulus detection. The discrete perception account proposes that alpha activity discretizes perceptual inputs thereby reorganizing the timing (not only the strength) of perceptual and neural processes. In this paper, we sought neural evidence for the discrete perception account by assessing the correlation between individual alpha frequencies (IAF) and the latency of early visual-evoked ERP components. If alpha cycles were responsible for shifting neural events in time, then we may expect higher alpha frequencies to be associated with earlier afferent visual ERPs. Participants viewed large checkerboard stimuli presented to either the upper or lower visual field that were designed to elicit a large C1 ERP response (thought to index feedforward primary visual cortex activation). We found no significant correlation between IAF and the C1 latency, or subsequent ERP component latencies, suggesting that the timing of these visual-evoked potentials was not modulated by alpha
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
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95
Maycee McClure, Columbia University
Alfredo Spagna, Columbia University
Precision: Developing a Novel Parameter that Quantifies Performance on Random Dot Kinematograms
Global pooling is the process of inferring a direction from individual moving parts, and is studied using random dot kinematograms (RDKs), a paradigm requiring participants to report the majority direction (e.g., leftward or rightward) of moving dots. Performance is analyzed across coherence levels (i.e., percentage of dots moving in a single direction) with higher values associated with better performance. Yet, previous results are inconsistent, especially when comparing performance between groups, possibly due to lack of sensitive measures previously used (e.g., accuracy). We introduce a new measure of performance: Precision, defined as the standard deviation of angle difference within correct answers. This parameter derives from discrete global pooling models, and could be interpreted alongside traditional performance parameters. We tested precision with a global pooling RDK, in which participants were asked to estimate the majority direction of moving dots over 360∞. Correct answers were defined by angle differences between reported and actual direction below 45∞. Preliminary results (n = 10) showed that accuracy varied significantly with coherence (pholm <.01, 2-tailed, non-parametric test), while precision did not (p = .06; Bonferroni-corrected post-hoc comparisons ps ? .30). This fits the discrete model hypothesis, which predicts that precision does not vary with coherence, and is justified as a separate performance indicator in RDKs. Our new parameter has applications in various fields, including better characterization of motion perception deficits in autism spectrum disorder. We demonstrate that precision reflects underlying cognitive mechanisms of pooling beyond what can be inferred from analyzing accuracy alone.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
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96
Jisub Bae, Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
Oliver James, Institute for Basic Science (IBS); Yee Joon Kim, Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
The influence of subjective visibility on illusory contour perception: An EEG study
Previous attentional blink study demonstrated perceptual integration without conscious access. However, it is unclear how systematically illusory contour perception can occur independently of subjective visibility. We investigated this by generating five types of stimuli consisting of an image with four pacman-shaped inducers: four illusory conditions with inducers configuring isosceles right triangles and a control condition with random inducer orientation, but neither forming triangles nor a square. To influence consciousness, we only manipulated the ISI between target and backward mask with their contrast level fixed. At the end of each trial, participants were instructed to report one of five possible target shapes and then rate its subjective visibility. We recorded participants' 128-channel EEG and divided EEG trials into high-visibility(HV) and low-visibility(LV) groups according to visibility ratings and behavioral performance accuracy. Preliminary Kanizsa vs. control EEG classification analysis showed that perceptual integration emerged transiently around 150ms post-target onset, subsided quickly, and reappeared during a late period from 300 to 800ms post-target onset for HV trials whereas perceptual integration occurred very briefly around 450ms post-target onset for LV trials. The subjective visibility-dependent perceptual integration dynamics of the same physical target suggest that brief perceptual integration can still occur through long-range integration during a late period even though masking interferes with local recurrence-based perceptual integration during an early period.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
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97
Adam Steel, Dartmouth College
Brenda Garcia, Dartmouth College; Edward Silson, University of Edinburgh Caroline Robertson, Dartmouth College
A retinotopic reference frame structures communication between visual and memory systems
We encode the visual world retinotopically, imposing a spatial reference frame on visual information processing. However, models of brain organization posit that abstract, amodal codes replace retinotopic coding as information propagates from visual to memory systems. This raises a puzzle for visual memory: how can mnemonic and visual information interact if they are represented in different reference frames? We addressed this question by mapping population receptive fields (pRFs) with fMRI in 15 participants. In addition to retinotopic coding in the visual system, including the scene perception areas (occipital place area (OPA) and parahippocampal place area (PPA)), we observed retinotopic coding anterior to visually-responsive cortex. A large proportion of these anterior pRFs were located immediately anterior to OPA and PPA, in memory-responsive cortex (Steel et al, 2022). We characterized these anterior pRFs by localizing each participant's OPA, PPA, and place memory areas (lateral (LPMA) and ventral (VPMA)) (Steel et al, 2022). Unlike prototypical positive pRFs in OPA and PPA, the pRFs in LPMA and VPMA were inverted, such that they exhibited spatially-selective negative BOLD responses. The visual field representation of negative pRFs in mnemonic areas closely matched their perceptual counterparts', suggesting a common reference frame. Finally, during visual memory recall, trial-wise activity of the positive and negative pRFs within the perceptual and memory areas was negatively correlated, suggesting a push-pull dynamic between these neural systems. These results suggest that retinotopic coding persists in mnemonic cortex previously considered amodal, which may provide a robust reference frame aligning perceptual and memory neural systems.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
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98
Ratna Sharma, All India Institute of Medical Sciences
Angel Zacharia, All India Institute of Medical Sciences; Simran Kaur, All India Institute of Medical Sciences
Altered cingulate functional connectivity impairs visual cognition in response to negative incongruence
Visual perception is greatly influenced by the object-context associations and valence of the stimuli. The presence of a negatively charged object or an unfamiliar contextual association in natural scenes leads to impaired cognitive performance. The current study investigates the functional connectivity differences between familiar/congruent and unfamiliar/incongruent object-context associations with negative valence. Pictures depicting negative incidents were selected and corresponding incongruent pictures were created by replacing one object in the scene without changing the valence. The designed pictures were validated for both congruency and valence by taking rating scores and 6 congruent-incongruent picture pairs were selected. The perceptual dominance of the selected picture pairs was measured using an intermittent binocular rivalry task (BR) performed by 60 healthy volunteers (18-35 yrs) with simultaneous high-density 128-channel EEG. The functional connectivity was calculated between 84 Brodmann's areas across 7 frequency bands 150 ms from the stimulus onset using standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) algorithm and compared using t-tests. Negative incongruent stimuli were found to have significantly higher predominance implying attentional selection and lower functional connectivity in theta (3-8 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) bands. The connectivity of cingulate-gyrus, which is important for the processing of valence was significantly low with precentral-gyrus, middle-frontal-gyrus and paracentral-lobule, which the process attention, memory, and incongruence. These results suggest that, although negative incongruence has the attentional advantage, the functional connections are reduced and this could be a possible reason for the performance reduction when faced with negative incongruence.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
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99
Xiaojue Zhou, University of California Irvine
Brandon Hackney, University of California Irvine; Sajjad Torabian, University of California Irvine John Pyles, University of Washington; Emily Grossman, University of California Irvine
Decode the Unseen: Classifying Action Representations During the Anticipatory Interval in the Action Observation Network (AON)
Action prediction theory is a theoretical framework about the viewer's mental model such that the prediction errors, which are observed as increased BOLD response in the pSTS, are indicated as signals for re-evaluation to fit action into a new environment. In this model, the pSTS is hypothesized to be influenced by IFG through a top-down generative process, much in the same way that conceptual expectations influence motor planning and goal processing during physical movements. To date there have not been studies that systematically evaluate the prediction process during action observation. One of the reasons may be because the prediction and perceptual encoding processes often co-occur rapidly, therefore the neural response of these two processes may be blended. In this study we independently measured information available in the neural representations during the mental planning phase (n=30), before sensory coding and evaluated the information in the prediction interval and compared it to sensory encoding interval's. In the current study we gave subjects the cue of the upcoming whole body action performed by an avatar, and then the subjects responded as quickly as possible when the stimuli started. Behavioral results showed that subjects utilized the cue by responding faster when given a valid cue (p < 0.02). Classification results showed that leave one run out MVPA classification accuracies of actions during the movie interval are significant in the right pSTS and right IFG when subjects were given action cues compared to when subjects were not given any cue (p < 0.05).
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
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100
Esra Al, Columbia University
Sameer Sheth, Baylor College of Medicine; Saskia Haegens, Columbia University
Heartbeats influence visual perception in the absence of distractors
Cardiac signals have been shown to influence the perception of sensory stimuli. For example, previous studies reported that visual, tactile, and auditory perception, assessed by either reaction times or detection performance, decreased during the systolic compared to the diastolic phase of the cardiac cycle. It is unknown how these cardiac effects on sensory detection are influenced by distractors in the environment. Here, we investigate how the cardiac phase influences reaction times to visual stimulus in the presence and absence of distractors in the environment. Furthermore, using EcOG, we investigate how this interaction is reflected in broadband high-frequency activity (BHA) and visual-evoked potentials (VEP). In 18 epilepsy patients, our preliminary results show that in the absence of distractors, subjects were slower at reacting to visual stimuli during systole compared to diastole. Furthermore, mean VEPs were observed to be attenuated between 118-132 ms following stimulus during systole compared to diastole in the absence of distractors. Furthermore, BHA levels ( 70-150 Hz) between 50-114 ms were observed to lower during systole when there were no distractors in the environment. These effects show that the influence of heartbeats on perception depends on the cognitive load.
Louise Barne, UCL; Andrea Desantis, Aix Marseille Université, ONERA, Guillaume Masson, Aix Marseille Université
Actively generated stimuli are more precisely reproduced: a psychophysics and EEG study
Being an agent structures the way we experience our environment. It has been shown that voluntary actions produce outcomes that are attenuated in terms of their perception and cortical response compared to externally generated outcomes. This study combines visual psychophysics and EEG to investigate the influence of intentionality and prediction on the processing of sensory outcomes. Three types of outcomes are compared: those predicted by a voluntary action, those predicted by a forced action and those predicted by a stimulus. The outcome is a grating whose orientation is (to some extent) predicted by the action/stimulus preceding it. Participants' task is to indicate whether the grating is brighter than another visual grating presented at trial onset. They also reproduce the orientation of the grating following the action/stimulus. _x000D_
Interestingly, our behavioral results do not replicate the classical sensory attenuation result, since gratings generated by one's actions were not reported as less bright than those predicted by a stimulus. However actively generated stimuli were more precisely reproduced. Our EEG analyses will therefore focus on two aspects. First, to characterize the sensory processing of actively or passively generated gratings. Second, to evaluate what neural mechanisms underly this improved behavioral performance, and how it relates to the neural sharpening hypothesis of sensory attenuation. _x000D_
Lastly, our study will contribute to the characterization of the serial dependence effect. It is known that our visual system is influenced by past information when perceiving a stimulus, but how does this mechanism take into account intentionality and agency?
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
A
102
Wei Dou, University of California, Santa Cruz
Shirin Afrakhteh, University of California, Santa Cruz; Kamryn Callwood, University of California, Santa Cruz Alex Feghhi, University of California, Santa Cruz; Jason Samaha, University of California, Santa Cruz
Metacognitive Introspection Modulates Evidence Accumulation for Decision Making
Metacognitive introspection is referred to the ability to introspect upon the effectiveness of one's performance and it has been studied as confidence in the outcome of a choice. Our previous research revealed that the centro-parietal positive (CPP), an event-related potential (ERP) component mapping accumulated evidence accumulation for perceptual decision making, predicts one's confidence in the decision. It remains unclear, however, if the act of introspecting about confidence alters the way evidence is actually accumulated for the first-order decision. In this current study, we examined whether the CPP, the neural signature of the decision variable, exhibits different dynamics when participants do or do not have to rate confidence in their decision. Fourteen participants perform a dot-motion discrimination task while electrical brain activity (via EEG) is recorded. On half of the trials, participants only reported the decision about the direction of the motion. On the other half of the trials, after participants reported the decision, they rated their confidence in the decision. The presentation of the two conditions was counterbalanced across participants. The results showed that, for participants who performed the decision-only trials first, the CPP built up faster on the decision-only trials than on the confidence-rating trials within a cluster from 240 ms to 420 ms after stimulus onset (two-tailed tests with p < . 05, cluster corrected). This introspection effect on CPP went away in the group of participants who performed confidence-rating trials first. It indicates that metacognitive introspection could accelerate the process of evidence accumulation for decision formation.
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
A
103
Prerna Dash, Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hyderabad
Veenu Wadhwa, Department of Human Development and Childhood Studies, Institute of Home Economics University of Delhi, Delhi, India
PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision
Effect of Agenesis and damage of Corpus Callosum on Visual Memory
School of Life Sciences, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysore, Karnataka, India
B
1
Peiwen Yeh, Kaohsiung Medical University
Peiwen Yeh, Kaohsiung Medical University
Neural evidence for affective priming of facial expressions on the processing emotional words in late childhood.
Previous work from adults has demonstrated that the processing of emotion words is modulated by preceding facial expressions. To understand the developmental changes in the processing of emotional words, the exploratory study measured the processing of emotion-laden and emotion-label words combined with facial expressions in 11 to 14-year-old typically developing children/adolescents (N=27). In the study, Chinese two-character words were present in a valence decision task, with factors of word type (emotion-label versus emotion-laden words) and emotion valence (positive, negative). We also manipulated a factor of emotionally facial prime, either emotionally congruent or incongruent with words, preceding each word. The current data have shown reduced N400 amplitudes (300 to 400 ms after words) for emotion-label words with emotionally congruent faces than with emotionally incongruent ones, in regardless of valence. The N400 congruency effect was observed for negative but not for positive emotion-laden words. However, the LPC congruency effect (500 to 600 ms) was only elicited for positive emotion-laden words, with enhanced amplitudes for emotionally incongruent pairs than for emotionally congruent pairs. These findings suggest that facial information enhances the comprehending emotion-label words in children/adolescents. Comparatively, the population may not benefit understanding positive emotion-laden expressions from the additional visual information.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging
B
2
Alana Montanez, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Amanda Kessler, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Katie Davis, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Barry Gordon, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Derek Smith, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Behavioral Dynamics in a Group Class Setting in Adults with Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Neurotypical individuals in social situations characteristically interact and learn from those interactions. Although social deficits are characteristic of many neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, social situations that do occur might also prove to be particularly valuable for these individuals. Having a quantitative measure of such interactions would be a useful foundation for understanding just if and how these occur, and evaluating attempts at increasing their frequency and optimizing their impact. To this end, we examined the behavioral dynamics of adults with neurodevelopmental disorders in an art class aimed at promoting social interaction. Methods: Twenty hours of class were video recorded and later coded in 30-second time frames using an original coding scheme. The codes for each of the three participants were then clustered based on the Hamming distance in event code vectors using K-medoids. Clusters were interpreted as representing behavioral states. We examined how a given student's behavioral state depended upon the current and preceding states exhibited by his/her peers using multinomial logistical regression models. Results: Students exhibited a statistically significant tendency to repeat states; that is, they tended to dwell in a state for an extended period of time. As expected for this population, the behavior of other students had only a limited effect on a given student's behavioral state(s). However, there was considerable individual variability. Moreover, the analyses suggested a way to improve social interactions by modifying the structure of the class.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging
B
3
Leonard Faul, Duke University
Lucas Bellaiche, Duke University; John Graner, Duke University Moria Smoski, Duke University; Kevin LaBar, Duke University
Attentional positivity bias is moderated by age, depression, and emotion regulation strategy use: an eye-tracking study
Effective emotion regulation is critical for maintaining emotional health in the face of adverse events that accumulate over the lifespan, and these abilities are thought to be maintained or even improved in older adults alongside the emergence of attentional biases to positive information. However, such beneficial maturation effects may be moderated by individual differences in depression and emotion regulation strategy use, although empirical investigations in this area remain scarce. Accordingly, to examine these relations, we analyzed eye-tracking data from 44 healthy controls (35-74 years old, 27 F) and 28 participants with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (35-68 years old, 23 F) during an image-viewing task consisting of neutral-neutral, negative-neutral, and positive-neutral image pairs. Emotional bias scores were calculated based on the ratio of time spent viewing the emotional image versus the neutral image. Results indicate that control participants exhibited a stronger emotional bias to positive images than negative images, whereas MDD participants showed no difference. Next, we examined whether age and emotion regulation strategy use (reappraisal versus suppression, measured with the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire) moderated these effects. In control participants, but not MDD participants, increased use of reappraisal in daily life was associated with an increased positivity bias, although this effect was stronger in middle-to-older aged adults and was absent in younger adults. In sum, our findings indicate that the emergence of an attentional positivity bias in older adults is related to the frequent application of reappraisal-based regulatory strategies, but only in the absence of depression.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging
B
4
Alexander Belden, Northeastern University
Milena Quinci, Northeastern University; Suzanne Hanser, Berklee College of Music Nancy Donovan, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Maiya Geddes, Mcgill University; Psyche Loui, Northeastern University
Auditory and Reward Connectivity in Young and Older Adults During Music Listening and Rest
The intrinsic organization of functional brain networks are known to change with age, and are affected by perceptual input and task conditions. Here, we compare functional activity and connectivity of auditory and reward systems during music listening and rest between young (N=24) and older (N=24) adults, using whole brain regression, seed-based connectivity, and ROI-ROI connectivity analyses. We found that although auditory and reward regions follow expected patterns of activation in response to music listening across both groups, younger adults show higher within-network connectivity of auditory and reward regions as compared to older adults. We also show that music listening can reduce this age-related difference, especially in individuals showing high self-reported musical reward. Furthermore, young adults showed higher connectivity between auditory network and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) that was specific to music listening and varied as a function of self-reported musical liking. Meanwhile, older adults showed higher between-network connectivity, including to lingual and inferior frontal gyri. Finally, connectivity between auditory and reward regions was higher during well-liked musical stimuli, and especially higher when listening to music selected by the participant. These results highlight the roles of aging and reward sensitivity on auditory and reward networks. Results may inform the design of music-based interventions in aging populations, and improve our understanding of functional network dynamics as a whole.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging
B
5
Narutoshi Sato, Tohoku University
Yutaka Matsuzaki, Tohoku University; Ryuta Kawashima, Tohoku university
Relationship between neuroticism and neural activation during two cognitive emotion regulation strategies
Recent studies have suggested that emotion regulation strategy called acceptance is helpful for patients with anxiety or depression. Few studies to date have investigated the neural basis of emotion regulation in neuroticism, who tend to be more difficult to down-regulate negative emotions. In addition, few studies have used images of social situations as stimuli. Because people with high neuroticism tend to experience negative affect in interpersonal situations, it is better to capture emotion regulation in social situations to clarify their difficulty. In this study, we examined the neural basis of emotion regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, and their relationship to neuroticism using images of social situations as stimuli. Thirty healthy college students underwent fMRI while attempting to downregulate negative emotions using one of three strategies: view, acceptance, and reappraisal. Subjects did not have excessive levels of depression or anxiety on questionnaires such as the CES-D or STAI. Stimuli were images of social situations selected from existing image databases such as IAPS. Personality trait was measured by NEO-FFI. This experiment was approved by Institutional Review Board of the Smart-Aging Research Center of Tohoku University, Japan. As a result, there was a statistically significant relationship between neural activation in the precuneus of acceptance versus view and neuroticism scores. There was also a relationship between neural activation in the precuneus of reappraisal versus acceptance and neuroticism scores. The results suggest that personality traits such as neuroticism may alter the involvement of self-related processing in emotion regulation strategies.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
6
Sumeet Jaswal, University of British Columbia
Alyssa Sutherland, University of British Columbia; Todd Handy, University of British Columbia
Assessing Cognitive-Affective Sensitivity in Misokinesia: An ERP Study
Little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms of misokinesia, which is a challenging visual-based phenomenon defined by a strong emotional response to the sight of someone else's small and repetitive fidgeting-like movements. The present study examined whether those self-reporting misokinesia sensitivity may manifest atypical cognitive-affective reactivity to visual stimuli. Participants (N = 46) were recruited from a student population, and were asked to (1) perform an emotional oddball task while their EEG responses to the visual targets (angry, happy, or neutral faces) were recorded, and (2) complete the Misokinesia Assessment Questionnaire (MkAQ) to quantify the extent to which they experience negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions to visual triggers. In a between-group design, we then compared cognitive-affective reactivity to the faces in those scoring low vs. high on the MkAQ, as measured via the amplitude of the P300 ERP component. While we did observe trends in our data suggesting that participants with high misokinesia sensitivity may show greater cognitive-affective reactivity to emotional faces, the effect was non-significant. A follow-up analysis correlating MkAQ score with an emotional-neutral difference score in P300 amplitude for both angry and happy faces also showed non-significant correlations in both comparisons, suggesting that our initial null result could not be ascribed simply to the lower statistical power of a between-group design. Taken together, our findings thus suggest that misokinesia sensitivity may not be associated with heightened cognitive-affective reactivity to visual stimuli in general.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
7
Anna Smith, Duke University
Ting Ho, Duke University; Felipe De Brigard, Duke University Elizabeth Marsh, Duke University
Dissociating the effects of processing fluency from aesthetic experience in visual art viewing
This research is currently being piloted. _x000D_
What differentiates an 'aesthetic experience' from 'liking?' One possibility derives from the 'evocative' nature of art, which suggests a role of memory retrieval in aesthetic experience. This proposed research seeks to investigate the role of one memory phenomenon, processing fluency, in both aesthetic experience and 'liking.' Although 'aesthetic experience' has been defined in its small literature as involving 'more than preference, encompassing a variety of emotional responses' (Vessel et al., 2013), it is still often measured according to how much participants 'like' a work of art (e.g., Cutting, 2003). Here, we designed a mere exposure paradigm in which participants viewed paintings either once, twice, or three times. Half of participants then judged the paintings on the basis of how much they 'liked' it, and half responded on the basis of how much they were 'moved.' We predict that repeated exposures to a painting will increase levels of 'liking' but not of being 'moved,' indicating that the feeling of being moved by an aesthetic experience encompasses more than processing fluency. If we see the predicted divergence, we believe that empirical aesthetics researchers should move beyond using 'liking' and other preference judgments to measure aesthetic experience. Furthermore, it motivates future work uncovering how other memory phenomena, such as autobiographical memory retrieval or recollection, engender the feeling of being moved.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
8
Remington Mallett, Northwestern University
Kristin E.G. Sanders, University of Notre Dame; Jessica D. Payne, University of Notre Dame Ken A. Paller, Northwestern University
Can sleep be improved via targeted memory reactivation for stress reduction?
Sleep quality has downstream consequences for waking health. The importance of a sufficient sleep quantity each night is widely acknowledged, but mental and physiological aspects of sleep are also critical contributors. These sleep-quality factors are not as easy to measure but may be key to developing improved interventions for enhancing sleep quality. Slow waves during non-REM sleep are thought to be particularly relevant for various aspects of sleep health. We thus developed procedures to attempt to enhance slow-wave physiology and cognition using Targeted-Memory-Reactivation procedures. These well-established procedures can systematically alter sleep cognition. Following pre-sleep training, sounds are unobtrusively delivered during sleep to reactivate specific information acquired prior to sleep. Here, participants learned a relaxation-induction procedure and then slept overnight with polysomnographic monitoring. Audio cues from the relaxation procedure were then replayed during early stages of slow-wave sleep. Preliminary results showed that relaxation was induced pre-sleep. During sleep, slow-wave characteristics were compared for periods following cue presentations versus periods with no stimulation. Preliminary analyses suggest that cue presentation altered slow-wave characteristics (e.g., amplitude and duration). In-progress analyses are also investigating relationships between slow-wave physiology and subjective reports of sleep quality. If the current study can show that cognitive processing and sleep physiology can be manipulated to improve sleep quality and subsequent waking health outcomes, this study will open the door to valuable new strategies for improving sleep and its repercussions.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
9
Prathyusha Gowri Srinivasan, Belmont University
Farris Turner, Belmont University; John Anderson, Belmont University Brigham Finch, Belmont University; Carole Scherling, Belmont University; Michael Oliver, Belmont University
Hear Here: Emotional Laterality can also be probed by auditory words.
Hemispheric lateralization suggests hemispheric specialization in processing mental states and behaviors. Previous work reveals a left-hemipheric laterality in processing speech and language, whereas meaning and emotions are right-lateralized. Recognizing contralaterality in visual/auditory processing is important to understanding hemispheric dominance. The valence-specific hypothesis posits separation of affect amongst hemispheres (left=positive; right=negative), specifically with visual presentations of facial emotional stimuli. Yet, lateralization for emotional auditory stimuli is under-studied. Auditory processing not only relates to language, but also memory and decision-making, making it critical to understand this medium's hemispheric dominance in emotional processing. The current study employed a dichotic listening paradigm (49 undergraduates: 38 Females; Age=19.5years) to obtain accuracy and reaction times (RT) when judging auditory stimuli with negative, positive, or neutral connotations. Words were drawn from the Affective Norms for English Words database. Results revealed support for the valence-specific hypothesis, with faster RTs for right-projected positive words (t(46)=2.017, p=0.025) and left-projected negative words (t(46)=1.931, p=0.030), in females only. Sex did not determine accuracy; with non-emotional words more accurately identified versus emotional, F(2,141)=49.354, p<0.001. Decreased accuracy for emotional words indicates judgement variability, likely related to individual perceptions. Findings contribute to affective neuroscience literature, which heavily focuses on emotional visual cues. As well, it suggests a possible sex influence on the lateralization of emotional auditory stimuli. This is important since emotional experiences involves more than one sensory input. Since poor emotional processing can lead to emotional dysregulation, understanding of processing through multiple mediums is critical for development of treatments and interventions for emotional regulation.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
10
Taylor Orsini, Drexel University
Evangelia G. Chrysikou, Drexel University
Ancillary Effects of High-Definition tDCS on Psychophysiology and Cognition in Adults Under Pharmacological Treatment for Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are characterized by dysfunction in the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex (PFC). In the PFC specifically, previous research has indicated an imbalance between the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), wherein the left dlPFC is hypoactive, whereas the right dlPFC is hyperactive. Several cognitive deficits are also associated with anxiety disorders-including, poor concentration, defective learning and working memory, and longer decision-making latencies. Although psychopharmacological treatments, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and benzodiazepines, have shown to have positive effects for symptom reduction, little investigation has been dedicated to their impact on the cognitive deficits associated with the disease. An alternative therapeutic intervention for psychiatric disorders, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), has shown positive results for cognition in healthy and clinical populations. We investigated the ancillary effects of high-definition (HD) 4 x 1 tDCS on psychophysiology and cognition in patients with anxiety disorders who were treated with psychopharmacological agents, specifically SSRIs and benzodiazepines. Participants clinically diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and who were either unmedicated, prescribed and taking an SSRI, or prescribed and taking a benzodiazepine received HD-tDCS in a within-subjects design under three different conditions: sham, active anodal tDCS over the left dlPFC, and active cathodal tDCS over the right dlPFC. During stimulation, participants completed the Symbol Digit Modalities Test and the N-Back task (2-back), while undergoing the 'Threat-of-Scream' paradigm. Multilevel regression analysis revealed effects of HD-tDCS on anxiety symptom severity and performance on cognitive batteries than sham stimulation, particularly for the SSRI treatment subgroup.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
11
Alexandra Kelly, Drexel University
Priya Dudhat, Drexel University; Evangelia G. Chrysikou, Drexel University
Multiple Dimensions Contribute to Embodied Processing of Emotion Concepts
Grounded theories of cognition would predict that processing concepts such as emotions, which are inherently associated with a variety of bodily states, would rely embodied simulations. Here, we manipulated attention to respiratory rate and used a feature-verification task to assess the degree to which such simulations are involved when processing emotion, concrete, and abstract (but non-emotion-related) concepts. Participants were guided through a mindful breathing exercise and instructed to pay attention to the sensations of breath for the duration of the task. They reported an estimate of number of breaths taken during the preceding minute at intervals throughout the experiment, while we continuously recorded respiration rate. A separate control group tracked the presence of an unrelated visual distractor while making feature judgements. Using a linear mixed effects model to analyze the data, we found evidence of an interference effect where attention to respiration slowed reaction time for emotion concepts. This effect is driven by multiple dimensions of interoceptive ability, including individual differences in baseline interoceptive sensibility and task-concurrent engagement of those resources.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
12
Hannah Apostolou, University of Alabama
Ian McDonough, University of Alabama
A Comparison of Modern Measures of Brain Volume: An Examination of Loneliness Across the Lifespan
In aging populations, increasing amounts of older adults are reporting high levels of loneliness. Previous research has demonstrated that people reporting more loneliness have smaller gray matter volumes using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Although popular, VBM measures intensity of gray matter signal rather than volume, per se. Other common measures of brain volume that abide by more traditional calculations, measured through programs such as FreeSurfer, might offer a complementary perspective on how loneliness impacts brain structure. The present study aims to examine how these measures differ and uncover the unique contributions each measure offers to research on loneliness and brain structure. Researchers used data from the Alabama Brain Study on Risk for Dementia that collected structural magnetic resonance imaging, cognition, and psychosocial questionnaires in adults aged 20-30 and 50-74, to assess loneliness across the lifespan. We examined how feelings of loneliness was differentially related to these two measures of brain structure and, in turn, how such declines in brain structure were related to cognition. We hypothesize that higher levels of loneliness will be associated with smaller brain volumes, and in turn, lower levels of cognition. Multiple regression analyses were performed in SPSS to assess the relationship between gray matter volume and loneliness in both measures. We expect these relationships to be correlated with cognitive outcomes such that higher levels of loneliness and deterioration in brain structure will be correlated with lower levels of cognition, regardless of age.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
13
Olivia Cook, University of Louisville
Siraj Lyons, University of Louisville; Brendan Depue, University of Louisville
Cognitive and Motor Neural Network Interaction during Threat Response
Based on prior literature, we propose a neural network model for cognitive and motor system interactions during threat approach/exposure. Our model was composed of three general neural groupings: 1) attention to threat, facilitated by visual cortex and a frontoparietal network consisting of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and inferior frontal junction (IFJ), 2) the amygdala and anterior insula (AI), which are consistently implicated in affect and emotional reactivity when detecting/processing threat, and 3) the periaqueductal grey (PAG), which contributes to defensive behaviors (i.e., fight, flight, freeze) by sending dense projections to the supplementary motor area (SMA) and premotor cortex via the thalamus. The PAG, then can presumably serve as a priming mechanism for motor reactivity during threat response. We used the CONN toolbox to examine our model's functional connectivity and network dynamics using graph theory on fMRI data from a social threat task. Network dynamics of global/local efficiency, cost, clustering, centrality, path length and degree of the aforementioned ROIs were assessed. Results indicated that the IPS, IFJ and AI showed both short and long integration (local/global efficiency and centrality). The vPM showed high local efficiency, but low centrality. Conversely, the PAG and amygdala showed low levels of efficiency and cost, however the amygdala exhibited the highest degree of centrality. These results suggest that the frontoparietal network and insula are rich-club hubs (information integration across the network) and that the amygdala is a connector hub, possibly helping integrate the premotor cortex, to prime the overall system for threat detection and response.
Enhanced encoding and recognition of emotionally laden words in Mandarin: ERP and behavioral evidence
People often show a distinct neural response†to emotionally charged linguistic stimuli compared to neutral words as well as higher recall†for the former, as shown in numerous studies of written word processing. These effects have been less widely documented in auditory processing. The present ERP study compared processing for auditory and written stimuli as a function of Valence and Arousal, to directly examine the effect of modality of presentation. Target words were selected from the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW) datasets and translated into Mandarin.††Frequency of occurrence was matched across Positive, Negative and Neutral words.††EEG was recorded while 25 right-handed Mandarin native speakers rated auditory words according to their valence (1: very negative - 5: very positive), followed by a surprise recognition task, where words were presented in written form. For auditory words, ERPs demonstrated a larger positivity, subsequent to the offset of stimuli, in response to Negative compared to Neutral stimuli, reflecting a sustained attention to their emotional property. No ERP effects were found for Positive auditory words,†suggesting that they were less salient to listeners in the absence of emotional prosody.††For written words, we found a positive correlation between Valence and recognition rate, confirming the emotion-memory effect. ERPs showed that both Positive and Negative written words induced automatic attention, reflected by an enhanced P2 component. Interestingly, decreased N400 was found for Negative words (but not for Positive words), suggesting facilitated processing during the recognition task due to deeper encoding during the previous auditory processing.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
15
Lorika Shkreli, University of Oxford
Theodora Thoroddsen, University of Oxford; Marieke Martens, University of Oxford Malte Kobelt, Ruhr-Universtität Bochum; Michael Browning, University of Oxford; Philip J Cowen, University of Oxford; Andrea Reinecke, University of Oxford
Angiotensin-II antagonist enhances parahippocampal processing during memory encoding in high-anxious individuals
Hypertensive medication targeting the renin-angiotensin system, such as the angiotensin-II antagonist 'losartan', have been associated with improving fear extinction, learning and memory in animal models of anxiety. However, the translation to humans and basic neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. We aimed to investigate the neural effects of Losartan on memory encoding using functional-magnet-resonance imaging (fMRI). In a double-blind randomised design, 40 high-anxious volunteers received either a single dose losartan (50mg) or placebo, one hour before undergoing an fMRI scan. During the first encoding phase prior to the fMRI scan, participants repeatedly classified pictures of animals and landscapes. During the second encoding phase including fMRI, participants were presented with the previously encoded 'familiar' images and not previously seen 'novel' images to be classified as animals or landscapes and memorized. One hour after the fMRI scan, memory performance was assessed using a recognition test. Whole-brain analyses showed that Losartan enhanced BOLD activity for familiar images in the parahippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex, and caudate. For novel images, Losartan enhanced BOLD activity in the parahippocampus only. There were no effects on a hippocampus region-of-interest analysis or behavioral memory performance. Overall, rather than enhancing hippocampal memory formation itself, Losartan seems to modify parahippocampal processing during memory encoding. While the parahippocampus is one of the main inputs to the hippocampus, it is linked to processing of spatial, scene and context information. The lack of effects on memory performance might be related to an acute dose of Losartan being insufficient to cause behavioural effects.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
16
Sophie Sun, McGill University
Madeleine Sharp, McGill University
Identifying the shared and distinct cognitive mechanisms underlying mood and behavioural symptoms in Parkinson?s disease using a reward learning task
Apathy, anhedonia, depression, and impulsivity are prevalent symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). These symptoms have been linked to impairments in reward learning and dopamine dysfunction, including in PD patients. However, a striking feature of these symptoms is how variably they manifest, despite a link to the dopamine system, which is uniformly affected across patients. One possibility is that dopamine modulates multiple cognitive mechanisms involved in reward learning (beyond reward sensitivity), and that impairments in these processes may be differentially predictive of the different purportedly dopamine-related mood and behavioural symptoms of PD. _x000D_
To address this, we tested a preliminary sample of 36 PD patients and 25 controls on a standard probabilistic reward learning task. We used a Bayesian hierarchical reinforcement learning drift diffusion model to extract performance parameters reflecting different processes. Participants also completed questionnaires measuring apathy, anhedonia, depression, and impulsivity. Scores were correlated to task performance and model parameters. _x000D_
PD patients showed less improvement over time, but model-derived learning rates did not differ between groups. In PD patients, faster learning rates were associated with greater apathy and greater impulsivity. Drift rates were lower in PD patients, but this was not associated with symptoms. Bias for the more rewarding stimulus did not differ between patients and controls and was associated with lower depression scores in both groups. _x000D_
These preliminary results suggest that behavioural symptoms in PD relate to different cognitive mechanisms underlying reward learning. Future directions involve relating performance parameters and symptoms to neuroimaging measures of neurodegeneration in the dopaminergic system.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
17
Dahlia Kassel, Northern Michigan University
John Foley, Northern Michigan University; Andrew Hauler, Northern Michigan University; Caleb Coughtry-Carpenter, Northern Michigan University; Grace Westric, Northern Michigan University; Joshua Carlson, Northern Michigan University; Lin Fang, Northern Michigan University; Makayla Mattson, Northern Michigan University
Resting-state functional connectivity patterns linked to individual differences in interpretation bias for emotional information
In the last decade, a growing number of studies have shown that cognitive biases, such as attentional bias and interpretational bias, are associated with the development and maintenance of depression and anxiety. Relative to healthy controls, individuals that are vulnerable for affective disorders prioritize their attentional focus on more negative stimuli and interpret ambiguous emotional information as more negative. Although there has been a great effort in recent years to identify the neural mechanisms of cognitive bias, the literature on the neural correlates of interpretation bias is still scarce. Therefore, in the current study, we assessed the neural correlates of interpretation bias. Interpretational bias was measured with the Scramble Sentence Task. In this task, six words were presented on the screen in a single line. Participants were instructed to mentally unscramble the sentence to form a grammatically correct and meaningful statement using five of the six words as quickly as possible. The proportion of positively unscrambled sentences to the total number of correctly unscrambled sentences was used as the index of interpretational bias. Moreover, to investigate the neural mechanism of cognitive bias, resting-state functional MRI data were collected. We found that interpretation bias may relate to connectivity between cognitive control (e.g., superior frontal gyrus) and emotion processing regions (e.g., amygdala and insula).Specifically, resting-state functional connectivity between the right lateral prefrontal cortex and left-posterior parietal cortex, as well as the supramarginal gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex, were associated with interpretation bias.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
18
Zhaohan Wu, Florida State University
Yuqi You, Zhejiang University; Joshua Brown, Florida State University Wen Li, Florida State University
Cortical E/I imbalance precipitates sensory cortical hyperactivity in trait-anxious individuals
Hypervigilance to environmental threat is a hallmark system of anxiety and stress disorders, and anomalies in sensory processing of environmental input have been increasingly associated with these disorders. To elucidate the neural basis, we examined sensory processing in the primary visual cortex and cortical excitation and inhibition (E/I) balance, as a function of trait anxiety. Participants (n=51) underwent resting-state EEG recordings, followed by two simple orientation discrimination tasks using high-frequency, high-contrast achromatic and isoluminant chromatic stimuli (Gabor patches), respectively, to specifically evoke V1 responses. Indeed, both tasks evoked a clear event-related potential (ERP) component (C1) known to reflect V1 responses. Importantly, in both tasks, magnitudes of C1 were correlated with trait anxiety (Achromatic r= 0.38, p = 0.006; Chromatic r= 0.29, p= 0.037). This result confirmed that anxiety is associated with hyperactivity in the basic sensory cortex. Moreover, intrinsic E/I balance, measured by the aperiodic (1/f-like) exponent of resting-state EEG power spectrum, significantly modulated the relationship between C1 and trait anxiety in both tasks (Achromatic partial r = 0.32, p =0.045; Chromatic partial r = 0.36, p =0.024). Thus, a bias towards excitation (reflected by a steeper aperiodic slope) enhanced the relationship between the C1 component and trait anxiety. These results therefore reveal that E/I imbalance may reflect a neural vulnerability towards sensory cortical hyperactivity in anxious individuals. Together, these findings present some of the first neural insights into sensory anomalies in anxiety, promoting the development of new interventions to target basic sensory processes.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
19
Tamari Shalamberidze, University of Alberta
Kyle Nash, University of Alberta; Jeremy Caplan, University of Alberta
Frontal Midline Theta Oscillations in Trait Anxiety and Episodic Memory
Anxiety and memory are typically studied separately, but they are both associated with frontal midline theta oscillations (FMT) in the EEG. We ask what the functional relationship is among trait anxiety, episodic memory, and FMT, hypothesizing that trait anxiety is negatively associated with memory-related theta oscillations and negatively associated with memory performance. Memory was tested with associative recognition. Anxiety was assessed according to State/Trait Anxiety Inventory, Ten-Item Personality Inventory, and BIS/BAS scale. EEG was recorded during the memory task and at rest (two cycles alternating 1 minute eyes open and 1 minute eyes closed). Preliminary analyses replicated the significant subsequent memory effect, where FMT at study was greater for later remembered than forgotten pairs. The FMT subsequent memory effect, in turn, was negatively correlated with one measure of trait anxiety. Follow-up analyses will further test whether this pattern characterizes two independent oscillatory sources of memory and anxiety separately modifying a single source. Overall, the study will help better understand the role of oscillations in emotion and cognition.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
20
Mei E, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience
Acute exercise modulates fear generalization and extinction
Fear generalization is the main pathogenic mechanism of anxiety disorder. Fear extinction is the basic mechanism of exposure therapy for anxiety disorder. One of the hottest topics is to find effective regulation methods to reduce fear extinction recurrence and over-generalization of fear feeling at present, and it will enable to alleviate anxiety. A moderate-intensity treadmill exercise can have a positive impact on anxiety patients. Nevertheless, the effect of exercise on fear generalization is ambiguous. Additionally, animal studies have shown that a voluntary exercise can enhance the consolidation of fear extinction memory in male rats, but the effect of acute exercise on human fear extinction recall as well as the cognitive neural mechanism behind it have not been fully discussed. Unveil the mechanism of the influence of acute exercise on fear generalization\extinction may be of great importance for the prevention and treatment of anxiety-related disorders. The study first explored whether acute exercise had an impact on fear generalization. Then, behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the effect of acute exercise on extinction recall of fear and the neural mechanism. Results suggest that the beneficial effect of acute exercise may be time-dependent. Future studies need to further investigate the acute exercise effect of time.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding
B
21
Eduardo Gonzalez-Alemañy, Cuban Neuroscience Center
María A. Bobes León, Cuban Neuroscience Center, La Habana , Cuba; Jorge Armony, McGill Univesity, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal , Canada; Anelin Rodríguez Olivera, Institute of Sports Medicine, Cerro Pelado, La Habana , Cuba; Luis González Carballido, Institute of Sports Medicine, Cerro Pelado, La Habana , Cuba; Yanely Acosta Ymas, Cuban Neuroscience Center, La Habana , Cuba; Dianela Milán Ricketts, University of Havana, La Habana , Cuba
High performance athletes in combat sports: understanding the neural bases of aggression.
Most neuroimaging studies of aggression and violence have focused on violent criminals or cases of antisocial behavior and/or psychopathy, samples essentially constituted by men. These studies have reported alterations in the fronto-limbic network associated with aggressive behavior in individuals with pathological forms of aggression such as antisocial personality disorder (APD) and psychopathy. However, aggression could has positive connotations, as for instance in combat sports, where violent behavior is not only accepted but, in fact necessary to achieve the main objective of winning the competition. Importantly, the aggressive attitude against the opponent in combat sports is still required to follow certain rules and it is usually constrained to the context of match. Thus, in order to gain a full understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings of aggression and violence in humans, it is imperative to determine to what extent the results obtained in pathological aggression also apply to "positive" aggression, or whether other processes and circuits are involved. Here we examine the aggressive traits and neural circuitry associate to positive aggression (that accompanied by good behavior and social acceptance), by studying combat-sport athletes, in particular a group of judo world ranking female athletes. First, aggressive traits were measure by applying a battery of scales to judo athletes and three different control groups: athletes not involved in combat-sports (weight lifting), non-athletes, and criminal offenders. Second, MRI was recorded in judo female athletes and non-athletes controls and VBM was used to compare gray matter between groups, and its relationship with the levels of aggressiveness in the sample.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding
B
22
Kevin Wilson, Gettysburg College
Kaitlin M. Lewin, Gettysburg College; Paige E. Merz, Gettysburg College Taylor-Jo Russo, Gettysburg College; M. Nicole Buckley, Gettysburg College; Sofia S. Taipina, Gettysburg College; Olivia L. Biggs, Gettysburg College; Fabio Lo, Gettysburg College; Kristina M. Heliodoro, Gettysburg College
Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to the Right Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Does Not Impact Aggressive Responses Following Social Exclusion
Evidence suggests that the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) plays a significant role in regulating emotional responses following adverse events such as social exclusion. For example, recent non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) studies confirm that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the rVLPFC reduces aggressive responses compared to sham stimulation after social exclusion. These findings suggest that upregulating rVLPFC affords greater inhibition of negative emotional states evoked by social exclusion. However, it remains unclear whether downregulating rVLPFC through NIBS would have the opposite effect. That is, does cathodal tDCS to the rVLPFC increase aggressive behaviors relative to sham stimulation following social exclusion? Here, we examined the polarity-specific effects of rVLPFC stimulation on aggressive behavior following social exclusion. Participants (n = 128) received either cathodal or sham tDCS stimulation to the rVLPFC (1.5 mA; 20 min) while engaging in a Cyberball paradigm, which resulted in them experiencing social inclusion or exclusion. Afterwards, they received the opportunity to aggress toward another player (using a commonly employed hot-sauce paradigm). Socially excluded participants were significantly more aggressive than socially included participants. However, there was no significant difference in aggressive behaviors between participants who received cathodal and sham tDCS, nor was there a significant interaction between social exclusion and tDCS. Our results suggest that decreasing rVLPFC neuronal excitability through tDCS does not increase aggressive responses following social exclusion. They also add to a growing literature demonstrating that opposite polarity tDCS manipulations do not result in complementary effects on cognition and behavior in all circumstances.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding
B
23
Odessa Deng, Harvard University
Nick Kathios, Northeastern University; Psyche Loui, Northeastern University
Auditory and Reward System Activity for Vocal and Instrumental Music in Cognitively Healthy Young and Older Adults
Pleasurable music listening experiences involve the interaction between auditory and reward systems. While behavioral studies have shown that vocal melodies are more arousing and memorable than instrumental melodies, and neuroimaging work has shown selective auditory activation for sung music versus instrumental music, little is known about how vocal music specifically engages the reward system. Here we compared neural activation in response to music with and without the human voice. We conducted a secondary analysis of a music-based intervention project in which fMRI data was collected from young adults (n = 33, ages 18-25) and older adults (n = 21, ages 56-89) as they listened to both self-selected and researcher-selected musical excerpts. Whole-brain univariate fMRI analyses comparing responses to both researcher- and self-selected vocal versus non-vocal music revealed greater activation in auditory regions (Heschl's gyrus, posterior and anterior superior temporal gyrus, and posterior middle temporal gyrus), reward regions (orbitofrontal cortex, anterior insula), and default mode network (posterior cingulate, precuneus), surviving voxel-height and cluster-size FDR-corrections at the 0.05 level. The magnitude of these activations did not differ across younger and older age cohorts. Further, differences in response to vocal music in the auditory network remained significant when considering only researcher-selected music and revealed more reward activity (pallidum, putamen), suggesting that results are not explained by self-selection or familiarity. These results highlight differential auditory and reward activations in response to vocal music, offering evidence that voice-selective activation in the human brain may extend beyond the auditory network towards the reward network as well.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding
B
24
Yi Ding, Tohoku University
Ryo Ishibashi, Tohoku University; Tsuneyuki Abe, Tohoku University Akio Honda, Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology; Motoaki Sugiura, Tohoku University
Major Coping-behavior and Risk-perception Factors for the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Psychobehavioral Characteristics
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) dramatically changed people's behavior patterns. Many behaviors have emerged to prevent infection and address general adversities resulting from implementing protective measures. However, the concept of coping behavior has not been distinguished from risk perception, nor is there a comprehensive picture of which demographic, risk-perception, and psychobehavioral factors influence the major coping-behavior factors. In this study, we recruited 2,885 Japanese participants. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis to identify major coping-behavior and risk-perception factors from 50 candidate items and a hierarchical multiple regression analysis to investigate factors associated with each coping-behavior factor. The results of the exploratory factor analysis suggested four types of coping-behavior factors (CB1 [mask-wearing], CB2 [information-seeking], CB3 [resistance to social stagnation], and CB4 [infection-prevention]) and three risk-perception factors (RP1 [shortages of daily necessities], RP2 [medical concerns], and RP3 [socioeconomic concerns]). These seven factors were related to infection prevention (CB1, CB4, RP2) and general adversity coping behavior (CB2, CB3, RP1, RP3). Moreover, the hierarchical multiple regression analysis results showed that CB1 was positively associated with female sex and etiquette. CB2 was positively related to RP1 and RP3. CB3 was positively related to RP1 and leadership, and negatively associated with etiquette. CB4 was positively associated with female sex, etiquette, and active well-being. Thus, infection prevention was promoted by gender (as female) and etiquette, and general adversity coping behavior was facilitated by the daily necessity shortages. This parsimonious model may help to elucidate essential social dynamics and provide a theoretical framework for coping behavior during a pandemic.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other
B
25
Haoyu Zhang, Tsinghua University
Huashuo Liu, Tsinghua University; Zhuoran Li, Tsinghua University Dan Zhang, Tsinghua University
Inter-brain neural coupling for cooperation and competition in a motion-sensing sports game: an fNIRS hyperscanning study_x000D_
Cooperation and competition, representing two basic modes of social interaction, are crucial to human beings. However, the neural substrates underlying them remain to be clarified. The functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning technique, which permits simultaneous measurement and inter-brain coupling analyses of hemodynamic activity in multiple interacting individuals, promises to shed new light on the mechanisms of cooperation and competition, especially in a naturalistic setting. In this study, we explored the cross-channel interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) between dyads during cooperation and competition in a motion-sensing tennis game. Compared with the resting-state condition, significantly higher INS were observed mainly across the parietal and occipital regions during both the cooperation and competition conditions. Importantly, higher INS were found between the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of one participant and motor-related areas of the other during competition than that during cooperation, suggesting a more intensive involvement of cognitive processes such as inferring the opponent's actions during competitive social interaction. These results add to our understanding of the neural base of naturalistic cooperation and competition.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other
B
26
Malgorzata Krawczyk, Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Psychology
?ukasz Okruszek, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences
There?s more to ASD than theory of mind - neural activity associated with processing communicative interactions from point light motion in neurodivergent and typically developing groups_x000D_
Social cognitive deficits have for a long time been associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and a large body of evidence exists for functional impairments within so called 'social brain', superior temporal sulcus (STS) and medial prefrontal cortex. However, the extent to which reading social cues on different levels of complexity from biological motion is impaired in people with ASD remains an open question. _x000D_
_x000D_
Therefore, we performed a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) study with 49 adult participants: 26 high-functioning individuals with ASD without intellectual disability and 23 typically developing participants. We incorporated a novel biological motion paradigm ‚?? Social Perception and Interaction Task presenting participants with point-light stimuli divided into four conditions with different load of social information: 1) Communicative (COM) 2) Emotional (EMO) 3)Individual actions (IND) 4)Scrambled motion of point-lights. Block design was used and participants were asked to categorize each three videos presented consecutively. The task was completed during a scanning session in a 3-T scanner. _x000D_
Acquired data were preprocessed according to standard pipeline and analyzed with a full-factorial model in Statistical Parametric Mapping Software (SPM-12). The model revealed that activation evoked by biological motion (communication, emotion and individual actions altogether) in TD group was more robust than in ASD within left central, temporal and insular regions. Interestingly, contrary to our expectations, difference in activity of posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and mPFC was not observed. _x000D_
The obtained results will be discussed in light of current conceptualizations of ASD and its neural underpinnings.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other
B
27
Chad Osteen, Loyola University Chicago
Nicolle Leon-Araujo, Loyola University Chicago; Chinedum Ekeh, Loyola University Chicago Calior Bestwick, Loyola University Chicago; DJ Capetillo, Loyola University Chicago; Sydney Samoska, Loyola University Chicago; Robert G Morrison, Loyola University Chicago
The Effect of Default Mode Network Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Open-Minded Cognition
Open-Minded Cognition (OMC) refers to the extent to which an individual is willing to consider others' ideas and perspectives that may differ from their own. OMC has been shown to be highly correlated with Openness to Experience (Price et al., 2015) which Beaty and colleagues (2016) found to be related with Default Mode Network (DMN) global efficiency. The Earned Dogmatism Effect asserts that individuals are more likely to be closed-minded to others' ideas and information when they perceive themselves to have greater expertise on a topic relative to others (Ottati et al., 2018). In this study we investigate if 1) the DMN is also important for OMC, and 2) whether enhancing the probability of firing in the DMN via tDCS could enhance OMC and thereby decrease the Earned Dogmatism Effect. University students were randomly assigned to either a stimulation (30-min) or sham (20s at beginning and end) condition of high density anodal tDCS to electrodes targeting Posterior Cingulate, a major hub of the DMN, and asked to recall two real situations where they knew more than (high expertise) and about the same as (low expertise) someone else about a topic. We measured participants situation-specific OMC (SOMC) following each recalled situation. We predicted that individuals in the high expertise condition will show greater openness (i.e., SOMC) when they receive tDCS to Posterior Cingulate. Preliminary results indicate support for replication of the Earned Dogmaticism Effect of recall and the novel effect of stimulation condition on SOMC.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other
B
28
Amin Dehghani, Dartmouth College
Carmen Bango, Dartmouth College; Tor D. Wager, Dartmouth College
Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and Social Manipulation on Pain Response_x000D_
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive neuromodulatory technique widely used for its potential effects on brain network dynamics and behaviors. Previous tDCS studies on pain-relief have high variability in their results, possibly originating from the use of different stimulation types and ignored psychological factors. In the field of brain stimulation, psychological factors (including expectation and social manipulation) are rarely investigated. Placebo effects like expectation synergize with real treatment and can have large effect sizes. In this single-blind, randomized cross-over study, we aimed to investigate the effects of anodal/cathodal tDCS of the left motor cortex (M1) and positive/negative social manipulations on pain responses in 20 healthy participants. The study consisted of five different sessions, including an initial pain calibration to find two temperatures and two skin sites on the right forearm for heat stimulation. The remaining four sessions consisted of anodal/cathodal and positive/negative social modeling with pain trials before and after tDCS and with 6-7 day intervals between sessions. The social modeling manipulation consisted of simple text and video presentation of a mock previous participant's positive or negative experience with tDCS. Analysis results using a general linear mixed-effects model revealed main effects of tDCS and social modeling on pain perception (p<.05). Pain responses were lower following anodal vs. cathodal stimulation and following positive vs. negative social modeling. There was no interaction between tDCS and social modeling. This study suggests that M1 anodal stimulation has analgesic effects on heat pain, and that social modeling can enhance/diminish these effects.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other
B
29
Mamiko Yamazaki, Tohoku University
Rui Nouchi, Tohoku University; Hikaru Takeuchi, Tohoku University Takamitsu Shinada, Tohoku University; Ryoichi Yokoyama, Kobe University; Yuka Kotozaki, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine; Seishu Nakagawa, Tohoku University; Sugiko Hanawa, Tohoku University; Atsushi Sekiguchi, National Institute of Mental Health; Carlos Miyauchi, Tohoku University; Kohei Sakaki, Tohoku University; Kelssy Kawata, Tohoku University; Ryuta Kawashima, Tohoku University
Neuroanatomical bases of self-identity formulation: results of a voxel-based morphometry study in a large sample of healthy young adults_x000D_
_x000D_
'Notes'_x000D_
Additional co-authors are listed below._x000D_
Takayuki Nozawa, Toyama University_x000D_
Susumu Yokota, Kyushu University
Establishing self-identity is one of the major psychosocial tasks in adolescence. Several psychological studies have reported that the degree of self-identity established influenced occupational decision-making, mental health, positive attitude for studying, and quality of life in the healthy young population. However, the neural basis involved in self-identity remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between self-identity scale and regional gray matter volume (rGMV) using voxel-based morphometry. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tohoku Univ. Grad. School of Medicine. One thousand one hundred twenty-two right-handed healthy adolescents participated in this study. The Japanese identity scale was used to measure individual differences in identity formulation. The scale has 2 subscales; identity formulation scale (IFS) and identity basis scale (IBS). The relationship between rGMV and each identity scale score was examined using whole-brain multiple regression analysis. Total intracranial volume(TIV), age, and gender were used as covariates and adjusted the model. The Threshold-Free Cluster Enhancement (TFCE) technique was used for all these analyses. All TFCE-based analyses were considered significant at p<0.05 family-wise error (FWE). A whole-brain multiple regression analysis revealed that the IFS score was significantly and positively correlated with rGMV in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the right fusiform gyrus . We found no significant negative correlations between rGMV and IFS or IBS scores. The present results suggest an essential role of the DLPFC and fusiform gyrus in the identity formulation in the healthy young population.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Self perception
B
30
Paulo Barraza, CIAE Universidad de Chile
Eugenio Rodriguez, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
The teacher's mind: executive functions and mentalizing skills in expert teachers and adult non-teachers.
Teaching is a complex cognitive skill fundamental to the development of cultures and a key component of the educational system. Despite its importance, the cognitive processes that support expert teaching are largely unknown. To shed light on this issue, in this study we explored the relationship between high-quality teaching skills and the performance in executive functions and mentalizing tasks in a sample of expert teachers and a matched group of non-teacher adults. We found that, compared to the control group, expert teachers are more accurate in tasks involving the use of cognitive flexibility, working memory, and executive control of attention, as well as exerting greater cognitive effort in tasks that engage higher-order affective mentalizing processes. These findings reveal an interesting relationship of mutual determination between the development of expert-level teaching skills y and the specialization of higher-level cognitive processes such as executive functions and affective mentalization.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
31
Kristina Munelith-Souksanh, University of Ottawa
Annick Tanguay, University of Ottawa; Galit Karpov, Rutgers University Ann-Kathrin Johnen, Birmingham City University; Louis Renoult, University of East Anglia; Patrick Davidson, University of Ottawa
An event-related potential investigation of the relation between depressive symptoms and future-oriented self-knowledge
In people with high depressive symptoms, negative self-beliefs (e.g., 'I am unworthy') could contribute to a negative self-schema and increase the risk for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Here, we use the N400 event-related potential to investigate self-related semantic processing of positive and negative traits in relation to depressive symptoms. Semantically congruent stimuli elicit a smaller N400 amplitude as they are less demanding to process semantically (vs. incongruent). Accordingly, people with MDD have a smaller mean N400 amplitude relative to controls when thinking about negative traits, suggesting negative traits are congruent with their negative self-schema (Kiang et al., 2017). A non-clinical sample judged 50 positive and 50 negative traits on the relevance to the present or future self; some participants were lower on symptoms of depression (LSD; n = 23; CESD ? 15) and others were higher on symptoms of depression (HSD; n = 19; CESD ? 16). Our findings are consistent with the presence of a positive present self-schema in the LSD group, but not in the HSD group: The mean N400 amplitude was smaller for positive than negative traits in the LSD group but did not differ based on valence for the HSD group. The N400 amplitude did not differ based on valence for the future self-schema. Moreover, both groups displayed optimism regarding their future self. Thus, the N400 could be sensitive to subjective differences in self-schema for the present self even in a non-clinical sample. Future-oriented semantic processing could be more resilient to depressive symptoms.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Self perception
B
32
Zeguo Qiu, The University of Queensland
Hongfeng Xia, The University of Queensland; Stefanie I. Becker, The University of Queensland; Zachary Hamblin-Frohman, The University of Queensland; Alan J. Pegna, The University of Queensland
Where is Wally and How Quickly Do We Know It? Fixation-related Electrical Potentials during a Free Visual Exploration Task Reveal the Timing of Visual Awareness
Emotional faces are shown to attract spatial attention more easily than their neutral counterparts. However, it remains poorly understood how emotion processing interacts with visual awareness. Here for the first time, we used a free visual exploration task while recording participants’ electroencephalography and eye-movement simultaneously. We examined the fixation-related potentials (FRP) for target fearful and neutral face images in situations where participants were aware or unaware of the target stimuli. Based on participants’ fixations and behavioural responses, FRP epochs were classified into (a) the multiple-fixations aware condition, (b) the first-sight aware condition, and (c) the unaware condition. Compared to both the first-sight aware and the unaware conditions, the P100 decreased in the multiple-fixations aware condition, which likely resulted from a reduction in the extent of spatial attention oriented towards the target after multiple fixations. Importantly, we showed that the P300 increased across fixations on the target during visual search, likely reflecting the accumulation of evidence. Once sufficient evidence was accumulated regarding the expression of the target face, awareness then emerged at around 120 ms, with a conscious processing of emotions occurring in the 170 ms time range (N170) and beyond. These results suggest that an early negative deflection in the electrophysiological signals is likely the earliest electrical correlate of awareness in visual search, and that emotion processing requires visual awareness.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
B
33
Thomas Kim, Stony Brook University
Michelle Syty, Stony Brook University; Faye Wang, Stony Brook University Shaoyu Ge, Stony Brook University
The progression of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in Alzheimer's disease mice.
An important aspect of cognitive function in the hippocampus is neurogenesis, the addition of newly generated neurons to existing circuits. Despite efforts to understand adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) in Alzheimer's disease (AD), there is still conflicting results on how AHN is affected throughout the progression of AD. Therefore, we used a new second generation amyloid precursor protein knock-in mouse model, which overcomes previous limitations. We first used immunofluorescence staining with Doublecortin (DCX), a marker for neurogenesis in 2-, 4-, and 6-months AD mice and control wild type (WT) mice. We observed an accelerated decrease in DCX+ cells in AD mice compared to WT mice starting at 4 months. To further dissect this change in AHN, we injected 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU). To look at the proliferation rate of the newborn cells, we sacrificed the mice 48 hours post injection, and to look at the survival rate, we sacrificed the mice 14 days post injection. At 4 months, we observed a decrease in BrdU+ cells only in survival. However, we observed a decrease in BrdU+ cells for both proliferation and survival at 6 months. Finally, we looked at the activity-induced addition of new neurons through an enriched environment (EE) as this is an important aspect of structural and functional neuroplasticity in the hippocampus. We observed that the EE-induced increase of AHN was intact in both AD and WT mice throughout the ages. These results provide a foundation for future studies aimed at identifying novel therapeutic targets for preventing cognitive decline in AD.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
B
34
Imogen Stead, The University of Queensland
Mariam Omar, The University of Queensland; Annemaree Carroll, The University of Queensland Dragan Rangelov, The University of Queensland; Jason Mattingley, The University of Queensland
A Combined Computational Modelling and Brain Imaging Study of Visual Attention, Decision Making and Inhibitory Control in Adolescence
Adolescence is a time of immense change biologically, cognitively, and emotionally. Much previous research has characterized impairments across these diverse psychological domains amongst individuals with developmental and acquired neurological conditions, including autism and attention-deficit disorder. By contrast, relatively less effort has been devoted to understanding cognition and brain function across adolescence in neurotypical individuals. Moreover, few studies have used computational modelling approaches to uncover the latent processes involved in regulating cognitive functions. We recently completed a large-scale, cross-sectional study of 252 neurotypical adolescents aged 13-19-years. Each participant completed a battery of experimental tasks designed to characterise visual selective attention, decision making and inhibitory control, and we used computational modelling to quantify key latent parameters associated with task performance, such as distractibility, rate of evidence accumulation, decision thresholds and stopping efficiency. In a separate testing session, each adolescent participant underwent magnetic resonance imaging so that we could characterise grey and white matter volume and microstructure, as well as functional resting state activity. Analyses are ongoing, but early findings point to unique trajectories of development across the domains of attention, decision making and inhibitory control. Our goal is to relate these trajectories to associated changes in brain structure and function within local areas and across distributed neural networks.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
B
35
Jennifer Hanna Al-Shaikh, University of Western Ontario
Olivia Ghosh-Swaby, University of Western Ontario; Ali Khan, University of Western Ontario Jane Thornton, University of Western Ontario; Lindsay Nagamatsu, University of Western Ontario
Hippocampal Subfield Volume & Cognitive Function in Older Adults with Prediabetes
Older adults with prediabetes are at higher risk for cognitive impairment. Prediabetes in middle age is associated with smaller hippocampal tail volumes and reduced executive function, which often depends on working memory to facilitate decision making. It remains unknown whether hippocampal subfield volume is directly correlated with cognitive function in prediabetes and aging. Our study will examine the relationship between hippocampal subfield volume, working memory, and executive function in this population to generate a predictive model of cognitive performance based on hippocampal volume. 70 older adults with prediabetes will complete demographic, depression, cognitive impairment, comorbidity, and MRI screening questionnaires. Prediabetes will be confirmed through a diabetes questionnaire and fasting glucose levels. Working memory will be assessed using the Digit Span test and executive function will be assessed using the Trail Making test and the Stroop test. Participants will then undergo 3T MRI scanning to acquire high-resolution T1 images of the hippocampus, which will be analyzed and segmented using HippUnfold. We hypothesize that reduced executive function and working memory will be correlated with smaller hippocampus tail volume. Data collection is currently underway for this in-progress study. Findings will provide insight into how prediabetes and age influence brain health and function. As comorbidity and life expectancy increase, this will highlight the need for prediabetes prevention strategies. Furthermore, this study may drive the future investigation of mechanisms that may increase the risk of cognitive decline and hippocampal atrophy in this population.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
B
36
Vicky Chang, University of Western Ontario
Abolfazl Avan, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences; Mark Daley, University of Western Ontario Vladimir Hachinski, University of Western Ontario
Causal Inference in Dementia Prevention Using Data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging *In Progress
With an aging global population, dementia incidence is growing at an alarming rate. Current data shows that at least 40% of dementias are attributable to modifiable risk factors and thus preventable. To inform policymakers and clinicians which risk factors should be targeted to have the greatest impact on dementia prevention, we require a causal analysis of the data. Our research aims to use the principles of causality to determine the relative weighting of protective and harmful factors in the development of cognitive impairment. We will use the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), which is a long-term national study following 50, 000 individuals between ages 45 and 85. Demographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle, and clinical data were acquired through interviews, and cognitive function was assessed at baseline and follow-ups. To estimate the causal effect, we trained machine learning models using the CLSA data to predict the incidence of cognitive impairment. Each model was trained on a combination of risk factors and demographic characteristics. The accuracy of the resulting predictions was found to be more accurate than that of standard bivariate analyses. We expect that because machine learning models consider demographic characteristics along with risk factors, we will discover combinations and conclusions that standard analyses will miss. While standard analyses only look at part of the data to identify correlations, we will apply a causal inference to interpret the weights assigned to each risk factor to discern the relative importance that diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, hypertension, diabetes, have on cognitive impairment.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
B
37
Kevin Jones, University of California San Francisco
Avery Ostrand, University of California San Francisco; Adam Gazzaley, University of California San Francisco Theodore Zanto, University of California San Francisco
At-home neuromodulation to facilitate cognitive control in older adults with mild cognitive impairment
Individuals with multi-domain amnestic mild cognitive impairment (md-aMCI) have an elevated risk of dementia and may benefit from interventions targeting cognitive function. In this study, 30 older adults aged 60-80 years with md-aMCI were randomized to 8 sessions of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) with simultaneous cognitive control training (CCT). The intervention took place within the participant's home without direct researcher assistance. Half of the participants received prefrontal theta tACS during CCT and the other half received control tACS. We observed high tolerability and adherence for at-home tACS+CCT. Within 1-week, only those who received theta tACS exhibited improved cognitive control abilities. Results indicate that neuromodulation is feasible for in-home settings, which can be conducted by the patient, thereby enabling treatment in difficult to reach populations. Importantly, tACS with CCT may facilitate cognitive control abilities in md-aMCI, warranting larger clinical trials research.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
B
38
Zhimei Niu, University of Texas in Austin
Andreana Haley, University of Texas in Austin; Alexandra Clark, University of Texas in Austin Audrey Duarte, University of Texas in Austin
Regional brain volumetric analysis in diverse racial groups: Age and depression interactions on executive processes
Emerging evidence suggests that age and depression may interact to produce a 'double jeopardy' for cognitive impairment, primarily episodic memory, and executive functioning, in cognitively unimpaired aging. Yet, the underlying cause of this double jeopardy is unknown. Few studies have assessed mid-life, despite the increase rate of depression during this age period. Further, few have recruited for or considered racial/ethnic diversity of subjects, despite evidence of more severe cognitive outcomes in racial/ethnic minorities with depression. In the current study, we investigated the impact of age on depression-related cognitive impairment and the underlying brain volumes in middle-aged non-Hispanic White, Mexican and African American adults. The result shows a significant interaction between age and depression for executive functioning. Yet, the interaction was significant for middle-aged Mexican and African American adults, but not in non-Hispanic Whites. Furthermore, volumes of the orbital frontal cortex (OFC), ventrolateral OFC and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were significantly correlated with executive functioning and level of depression in Mexican and African American adults across age, but not in non-Hispanic Whites. These results suggest that the negative impact of depression on cognition may be exacerbated by age and that racial/ethnic minorities may be particularly sensitive to this double jeopardy effect. We will discuss health and psychosocial mediators of these relationships.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
B
39
Kenneth Oparaji, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), Nigeria
Azubuike Nwaji, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine,
Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), Nigeria; Blessing Anyaoha, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine,
Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), Nigeria; Williams Ibegbunam, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine,
Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), Nigeria; Chijiuwa Onyemauchechukwu, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine,
Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), Nigeria; Promise Nwachukwu, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine,
Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), Nigeria; Ejeatuluchukwu Obi, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Health Sciences, Nnamdi
Azikiwe University (NAU) Nnewi Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria.; Omamuyovwi Ijomone, Department of Human Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Federal
University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, Nigeria
Mixed ginger (Zingiber officinale) and garlic (Allium sativum) juice attenuates hippocampal astrocytic response and other markers of hippocampal function in lead-induced Wistar rats.
CONTEXT: Pb intoxication has been reported to produce cellular modifications that may disturb neuronal function. Limitations of chelation therapy have increased interest in the therapeutic potential of phytonutrients on the affected brain. OBJECTIVE: This research study investigated the role of the mixed extracts of garlic and ginger in ameliorating lead induced toxicity on the hippocampal astrocytic population, dopamine levels, oxidative stress markers, and cognitive functions in adult female Wistar rats. METHODS: The twenty-five (25) animals used for this study were grouped as follows: normal control group (rat chow and water ad libitum), untreated low dose Pb acetate group II (25mg/kg), untreated high dose Pb group III (100mg/kg), group IV administered mixed ginger/garlic juice only (200mg/kg), group V receiving low dose Pb plus ginger/garlic extract (25mg/Kg lead acetate + 200mg/kg ginger/garlic juice), and the high dose Pb plus ginger/garlic extract group VI (100mg/Kg lead acetate + 200mg/kg ginger/garlic juice). Treatment lasted for 21 days after which the animals were humanely euthanized; their hippocampi excised from the brain, mechanically homogenized, and the parameters of interest evaluated using standard methods. Data obtained was analyzed using one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). FINDINGS: GFAP immunohistochemistry confirmed increased astrocytic reactivity in the lead- treated rats. Intervention with the mixed supplement indicated statistically significant mean±SEM values compared to the lead-only exposed groups (p_<_0.05). Equally, the ginger- garlic only group showed the highest weight gain as well as better use of learning and recognition memory vis-à-vis the neurobehavioural protocol - Novel Object Recognition Test (NORT). Furthermore, there were decreased levels of lipid peroxidation, and increased superoxide dismutase and catalase activities in the animals that were co-treated with the mixed regimen. CONCLUSION: At the end of the study, garlic and ginger supplementation showed potential in ameliorating lead-induced toxicity on memory and other bio-indices of hippocampal function in
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
B
40
Brandon Watanabe, Texas A&M University
Hanan Guzman, Texas A&M University; Michael Imburgio, Texas A&M University Joseph Orr, Texas A&M University
The effect of practice on task-set inertia and neural task set representations in EEG
The ability to quickly and accurately switch between tasks is important for the efficient control of goal-oriented actions. One critical component of how well one can switch or repeat tasks is 'task-set inertia,' the idea that the most recent task has a carry-over influence on subsequent task performance. This benefits performance when the task repeats, but slows performance when needing to switch tasks. We sought to further manipulate the contribution of task set inertia by having subjects extensively practice with half of the stimuli before performing the main experiment. We hypothesized that practiced stimuli would show faster reaction times compared to unpracticed stimuli. Moreover, we hypothesized that P3 amplitude and EEG frontal theta power will be reduced on practiced vs. unpracticed stimuli, reflecting decreased demands on cognitive control due to memory retrieval for these stimuli. With data collected from 31 participants, behaviorally we found that practiced tasks are indeed faster, but practice did not affect switch costs. Planned EEG analyses include linear modeling of P3 amplitude and theta power as a function of task transition and practice as well as Inter-Trial Phase Coherence. We will also use Drift Diffusion Modeling of the EEG data in order to understand the EEG correlate of task set inertia. In particular, we will focus on how practice influences the accumulation of evidence for the current task. This study will show how memory processes influence task set preparation.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
B
41
Stefan Arnau, IfADo
Nathalie Liegel, IfADo; Edmund Wascher, IfADo
Cognitive effort affects the strategic level of task-processing during cued task-switching
Task-engagement depends on motivation. Most times, individuals do not perform as good as they could. While the theoretically attainable level of performance is determined by the skill of the individual, the realized level of performance also depends on a set of intervening cognitive processes which are jointly referred to as cognitive effort. Cognitive effort scales with the expected outcome of successful task-engagement. Neuroscientific studies provided evidence that modulations of effort not just alter task-processing quantitatively but may also lead to a shift of the processing strategy. In an EEG study using a cued task switch paradigm, we further investigate this observation by manipulating the participants' motivation using monetary incentives. The 26 participants performed in a visual search task, in which they had to either identify the stimulus with diverging color or the one with diverging orientation. Response times were significantly faster in the high versus low reward condition. The results of a time-frequency analysis of the EEG data using cluster-based permutation testing show that frontal theta power was increased in the high reward versus the low reward trials, specifically during the cue-target interval. Also, parietal alpha power was decreased throughout the trial, primarily at parietal recording sites. A source level analysis using beamforming localizes this effect in occipital and parietal regions. This indicates a shift from reactive to proactive cognitive engagement, thus a shift in the processing strategy.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
B
42
Juan Balcazar, Texas A&M
Joseph Orr, Texas A&M University
The Role of Reward in Voluntary Task-Switching: Evidence from Eye tracking & EEG
Cognitive flexibility is frequently measured with the voluntary task-switching (VTS) paradigm. In the VTS paradigm, a higher proportion of voluntary task switches is said to reflect higher cognitive flexibility. Studies by Frober, Dreisbach and colleagues (2019, 2020) demonstrate that changing reward (increasing or decreasing reward) is associated with greater flexibility than stable rewards. In our ongoing work, we examine VTS under deterministic reward conditions, in which 40 participants used feedback to learn fixed-point contingency values (1 or 10 cents) associated with cues. We used eye-tracking to investigate the pupillary dynamics and gaze fixations across each trial. Behavioral results show individuals switch more when reward changes (increases or decreases) and switch less (more stability) when reward remains unchanged. Results show a cue-locked pupillary signal for reward anticipation: dilation increases when reward increased vs. decreased, consistent with previous studies. Additionally, we examined EEG frequency power for delta (.2-2hz) and theta (4-8hz) oscillations during the reward cue and feedback period in order to investigate reward anticipation and feedback processing. We also investigate if theta rhythms change across the feedback period. We are also interested in the P2 component during the cue period associated with reward magnitude (high vs. low reward trials) and the correlation between pupil dilation (switch vs repeat trials) and the contingent negative variation (CNV) component. Overall, by using simultaneous EEG and eye-tracking, our research helps reveal the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms associated with VTS as a measure of overall cognitive flexibility.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
B
43
Beatrice Lomeo, Texas A&M University
Daniela Porro, Texas A&M University; Joseph Orr, Texas A&M University
??The role of Reward Expectancy in guiding Cognitive Flexibility_x000D_
Recent evidence suggests that trial to trial changes in reward value influence cognitive flexibility. However, this has primarily been investigated with deterministic reward, i.e., reward cues that are always valid. Yet many real-world rewards are not so predictable. Therefore, we investigated the influence of different levels of reward expectancy on cognitive flexibility. We used a voluntary task switching design where subjects were shown rewards that were high in reward expectancy (80% valid) or low in reward expectancy (60% valid). Prior to performing task switching, subjects completed a training where they learned the reward expectancies associated with different colored shapes. To date, the sample includes over 250 psychology undergraduate students at Texas A&M, with some performing the task in person and some online. Subjects switched tasks more often under high vs. low reward expectancies. They also tended to switch more when they received a higher-than-expected reward and were more likely to repeat the task when they failed to meet speed deadlines. As both of these outcomes could be considered worse-than-expected, it is interesting that they had such different effects on behavior. We will use modeling to better understand how reward prediction error influences flexibility. With a final target sample size of 500 students, we plan to examine effects of gender, substance use, and BIS/BAS scores on how reward is used to guide cognitive flexibility. Preliminary results suggest that compared to male subjects, females are slower, more accurate, and are less responsive to negative reward outcomes.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
B
44
Hanan Guzman, Texas A&M University
Brandon Watanabe, Texas A&M University; Michael Imburgio, Texas A&M University Joseph Orr, Texas A&M University
The effect of practice on task-set inertia and neural task set representations in fMRI
As a core dimension of executive function, task switching is essential to focus, plan, and complete multiple tasks in parallel. The idea that cognitive functions are maintained from a preceding task conceptualized as task-set inertia, has critical influence on the effort and outcome of a current task. Tasks that are similar to each other benefit from cognitive processes that are actively maintained, while tasks that are characteristically different lead to poorer and slower performance while switching between the tasks. With this precedent, we aim to examine the influence of practicing a set of similar stimuli prior to engaging in a task switching exercise. We anticipate that practice would increase the task-set inertia by strengthening the associations between practice stimuli and experimental stimuli. Additionally, we are specifically interested to see if this increase in inertia is reflected in patterns of brain activity associated with task representations. We collected behavioral and multiband fMRI data from 40 participants which were processed with HCP pipelines. Behaviorally, responses were better for practiced than non-practiced stimuli. To directly examine the effect of task alternation type and practice we will conduct an ROI analysis in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, fusiform face area, and parahippocampal place area. Further, we plan to examine multivariate brain patterns to examine how practice affects task set representations in the brain and examine the neural underpinnings of task set inertia.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
B
45
Jason Smucny, University of California Davis
Tim Hanks, University of California Davis; Tyler Lesh, University of California Davis Randy O'Reilly, University of California Davis; Cameron Carter, University of California Davis
Altered Associations between Task Ability and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Activation during a Cognitive Control Task in Schizophrenia
The contributions of disrupted brain activity to altered behavior during cognitive control in schizophrenia (SZ) are poorly understood. Using the drift diffusion model (DDM), we examined relationships between the drift rate (DR) parameter as an index of evidence accumulation and task ability with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation during the AX Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT), a task designed to measure proactive cognitive control (CC), in SZ. 1.5 and 3T fMRI AX-CPT data were analyzed from 118 healthy controls (HCs) and 151 people with recent onset schizophrenia (SZ). Individual performance was fit using a DDM, allowing the DR (a parameter that depends on both accuracy and reaction time) to vary between task conditions. Association between left and right DLPFC activation with DR (with field strength and sex as covariates) were examined using mixed effects models. Across all participants, significant positive relationships were observed between CC-associated activation and DR for both the left (F=11.34, p<.001) and right (F=6.55, p=.011) DLPFC. Furthermore, significant activation*DR interactions were observed for both the left (F=8.77, p=.003) and right (F=5.37, p=.021) DLPFC, in which greater positive associations were observed between activation and DR in HCs vs. people with SZ. These findings suggest that task ability and CC-associated DLPFC activation are less well-linked in SZ and have important implications for understanding the neurobiology of CC deficits in the illness.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
B
46
Guochun Yang, University of Iowa
Jiefeng Jiang, University of Iowa
Task sequences are flexibly encoded as sequential and associative memory
In daily life, we often need to remember a series of task events. For example, we may have several meetings scheduled sequentially. To clearly remember their time, we can either keep each meeting-time association in mind, or to infer the time from consecutive meetings which we remember more clearly. The former is straightforward and thus is more efficient, but also more effortful because associating each event a separate time increases our memory load; the latter is less effortful since all events can share a single sequential memory, but learning such a sequence requires a longer time. We propose that associative memory and sequential memory of task events are both encoded in our brain, and they can be flexibly applied in different situations. To test this hypothesis, we designed a series of experiments, in which participants were first trained to remember two task sequences, and then were asked to retrieve certain positions of the two sequences. To explain their behavioral performance, we built a computational model that captures the retrieval of task sequences and the learning of associations. Results showed that participants applied sequential memory more frequently in the early stage, since it is the only way they can apply; in the later stage, they applied associative memory more frequently, as they can gradually learn the cue-event associations through feedback. In sum, we found that the sequential task events can be flexibly encoded in our memory and how they are retrieved depends on the situation.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
B
47
Alma Rahimidarabad, University of Western Ontario
Azar Ayaz, University of Western Ontario; Lian Buwadi, University of Western Ontario Gianna Jeyarajan, University of Western Ontario; Matthew Heath, University of Western Ontario
Cerebral blood flow and executive function changes in response to active and passive exercise
A single bout of aerobic exercise improves executive function (EF) by increasing cerebral blood flow (CBF), which enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of related networks. Research by our team has shown that passive exercise, wherein an individual's limbs are moved via an external force, increases CBF and provides a postexercise EF benefit in line with traditional aerobic exercise. This is thought to reflect the activation of mechanoreceptive muscle afferents to the primary somatosensory cortex that induces cerebral autoregulation. In this in-progress study (N=7), we sought to determine whether the frequency of afferent stimulation during passive exercise influences the magnitude of CBF change and postexercise EF benefit. Participants completed five 20-minute single bouts of 'low' (55 rpm) and 'high' (85 rpm) active and passive cycling, as well as a non-exercise control condition. For all conditions, transcranial doppler ultrasound estimated changes in CBF via middle cerebral artery blood velocity and pre- to postexercise changes in EF evaluated via the antisaccade task. Results to date suggest that passive and active condition CBF changes scale in relation to pedalling frequency, with a larger magnitude observed in the former condition. In terms of EF, for passive exercise, the high-but not low-pedalling rate provided a reliable postexericse reduction in antisaccade reaction times, whereas for active exercise, both low and high pedalling frequencies provided this reduction. Findings provide an important basis for understanding brain-behavioural relations and support a link between the magnitude and nature of CBF changes and associated postexercise EF benefits.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
B
48
Christine A. Leonards, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre
Ben J. Harrison, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville,Victoria, Australia; Alec J. Jamieson, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville,Victoria, Australia; Trevor Steward, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville,Victoria, Australia; Christopher G. Davey, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Altered task-induced activity and functional connectivity in the frontocingulate cortex as a marker of depression and treatment response
It is well-established that activity suppression in the brain’s default mode network (DMN) during externally-oriented tasks facilitates efficient goal-directed task performance. In depression, this suppression effect is altered with evidence showing that people with depression fail to suppress DMN activity, particularly in the frontocingulate cortex, to the same extent as healthy individuals. Importantly, emerging research indicates that those who show less frontocingulate suppression during externally-directed tasks are less likely to respond to treatment. However, the reasons for this aberrant suppression in depression is unclear and the links to treatment outcomes are not fully understood. In this study, we investigated modulation of frontocingulate task-induced suppression in people (aged 15-25 years) with depression (N=81) and matched healthy controls (N=94) during baseline pre-treatment performance of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) cognitive task. Depressed patients were randomized to receive 12-weeks cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) plus either fluoxetine or placebo, of which 36 responded to treatment (responders) and 45 did not (non-responders). We found significant differential task-induced suppression between the depressed and healthy control groups in the frontocingulate cortex and broader DMN. We further found that healthy controls, treatment responders and non-responders showed significant differences in functional connectivity in the frontocingulate cortex extending to cortical and subcortical regions implicated in task-related and affective processes. These findings have important implications for extending our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying symptomatology and treatment-resistance in depression, as well as aid in identifying difficult-to-treat depression that may require targeted and individualised treatment approaches to promote better outcomes.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
B
49
Ricardo Morales-Torres, Duke University
Erik Wing, Rotman Research Institute; Lifu Deng, Duke University Simon Davis, Duke University; Roberto Cabeza, Duke University
Visual recognition memory of complex scenes is driven by high-level, but not by low-level, visual representations
When seeing a scene, we concurrently process different types of visual information: from mostly sensory (color and texture) to mostly categorical (objects and arrangements) features. The role that sensory and categorical visual representations play in predicting subsequent memory has been mainly studied using simple objects, but their role in memory for complex scenes is still unclear. To be able to answer how visual features impact scene memory, we ran an experiment in which subjects inside the scanner encoded scenes (i.e., the picture of a barn) and then, after a brief delay, were asked to recognize the encoded image from 3 categorically related lures (i.e., three pictures of barns). To model sensory and categorical visual features we used an early and a late layer of a deep convolutional neural network. Using this model, we estimated dissimilarity between the encoded scene and each of the 3 lure scenes and averaged these 3 dissimilarity values to assess the difference between target and lure images. The average visual memory performance for each item was positively correlated with the average visual dissimilarity between that item and its respective lures-but only in categorical features, and not with low-level sensory features. Consistent with these results, visual memory performance was driven only by the cortical representation of categorical features, specifically in the angular gyrus and temporal lobe. Our results suggest that even in a purely image-based test of memory, the recognition of complex scenes relies more on encoding more abstract than basic sensory features of an image.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
50
James Antony, Cal Poly, SLO
Jacob van Dam, Cal Poly, SLO; Alexander Barnett, University of Toronto Kelly Bennion, Cal Poly, SLO
Neurobiological models of learning emphasize the importance of prediction errors (surprises) for memory formation. These effects have focused on memory for information surrounding a momentary surprising event; however, it is less clear whether surprise that unfolds across multiple events and timescales impacts memory. We asked basketball fans about their most positive and negative memories of individual plays, games, and seasons, allowing surprise measurements spanning seconds, hours, and months. We used advanced analytics on National Basketball Association play-by-play data and betting odds spanning 17 seasons, >22K games, >5.6M plays to compute and align the estimated surprise values of each memory. We found that surprising events biased positive memories on the scale of seconds and months and negative memories across all three timescales. Critically, game and season memories could not be explained by surprise at shorter timescales, suggesting that long-term, multi-event surprise influences memory. These results expand the role of surprise in models of learning and reinforce its relevance in real-world domains.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
51
Loris Naspi, Humboldt University of Berlin
Paola Gega, Humboldt University of Berlin; Roberto Cabeza, Duke University
Is false recognition in aging due to an emphasis on semantic information at encoding? An fMRI study
According to the semantic categorization account, older adults' overreliance on pre-existing semantic knowledge at encoding causes false recognition by reducing the quality of visual representations. Alternatively, the impaired perceptual encoding hypothesis suggests that older adults demonstrate reduced encoding of visual details that would allow successful discrimination of similar lures, irrespective of the copresence of semantic information. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated whether older adults' emphasis on pre-existing semantic knowledge at encoding impaired visual encoding while increasing false recognition, as well as the brain regions engaged. Participants encoded unique fonts associated with words (meaningful condition) and pseudowords (meaningless condition), making a pleasantness decision task. At retrieval, participants were shown asked to judge the font as 'old' or 'new' with confidence levels. We will use: 1) representational similarity analysis at encoding with a computational model of vision (HMAX/VGG16) to reveal whether the age-related dedifferentiation for visual representations in early and late visual cortex is caused by an overreliance on semantic representations; 2) encoding-retrieval similarity to investigate whether the reduction of distinctiveness of the encoded fonts in the meaningful condition is reflected as an increased neural pattern similarity in regions known to support false recognition. Preliminary behavioural results showed that, consistent with semantic categorization account, older adults committed more false alarms when the fonts were encoded in a meaningful letter string ('word') than in a meaningless one ('pseudoword'). The study potentially suggests that the age-related dedifferentiation for visual representations can be reduced if older adults do not emphasize semantic information.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
52
Shenyang Huang, Duke University
Cortney M. Howard, Duke University; Mariam Hovhannisyan, The University of Arizona Roberto Cabeza, Duke University; Simon W. Davis, Duke University
Hippocampal interactions with visual and semantic representations in the cortex support subsequent perceptual and conceptual memory
fMRI studies of episodic memory have found that subsequent memory is associated with increased univariate activation in the hippocampus and multivariate representation of visual and semantic stimulus features in cortical regions. Nonetheless, it remains unclear how hippocampal functions integrate with distinct cortical representations to facilitate successful encoding. We collected fMRI data while participants encoded images of real-world objects, and then tested their memory for object concepts and image exemplars (i.e., conceptual and perceptual memory). We quantified hippocampal engagement on each trial in four distinct ways: activation level (univariate activity), neural pattern similarity (correlation in activity patterns across objects), and representational strength (using representational similarity analysis, separately for visual and semantic features). While patterns of cortical visual and semantic representations replicated well-known cortical regions (e.g., visual: occipital cortex; semantic: angular gyrus), we found no evidence of visual or semantic representation in the hippocampus. Critically, hippocampal function modulated the impact of cortical representations on subsequent memory in a memory-specific manner, such that hippocampal modulation of visual (or semantic) representations boosted perceptual (or conceptual) memory in regions associated with visual (or semantic) processing. In predicting perceptual memory, hippocampal activity augmented the effects of visual representations in medio-ventral and lateral occipital regions. In predicting conceptual memory, hippocampal activity enhanced the effect of semantic representations in left inferior frontal gyrus and hippocampal semantic representation boosted the effect of semantic representations in angular gyrus. Collectively, these results suggest the particular contribution of hippocampal modulations on cortical representations specific to the type of information and memory demands.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
53
Melinda Sabo, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Fa
Daniel Schneider, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Fa
The role of attentional selection in goal-directed episodic memory reactivation
Goal-directed memory reactivation involves the prioritisation of information relevant for the current behavioural goal. Compared to incidental reactivation, this process has been associated with stronger fronto-parietal activity, a marker of cognitive control. On the other hand, as suggested by the Attention to Memory Model, parietal areas play an important role in guiding attention during episodic memory (EM) retrieval. This raises the question whether goal-directed memory reactivation is rather supported by attentional selection. Thus, the aim of the current study was to test this assumption via electroencephalogram. We designed an EM experiment, in which subjects were required to learn the association between an object and two positions on the screen. In the next phase, the same objects were presented, and participants were asked to intrinsically retrieve (i.e., think about) one or both of the associated positions, as indicated by the cue. In the selective cue condition only one of the previous positions was relevant, while the neutral cue suggested that both positions remained relevant. Finally, the retrieval phase required subjects to report one associated position. Behavioral results indicated faster responses during retrieval for selective trials, potentially due to the previously successful information selection. Furthermore, decoding results of the second phase yielded a stronger increase of decoding accuracy after the selective cue. Finally, a stronger theta power increase was observed after the selective cue, revealing the need for more attentional control resources for selecting the relevant position over the irrelevant one. We conclude that goal-directed reactivation is realised through attentional selection mechanisms.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
54
Lydia Jiang, University of Toronto; Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest
Mrinmayi Kulkarni, Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest; Jessica Robin, Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Anika Choi, University of Toronto; Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest; Bradley Buchsbaum, Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest; Rosanna Olsen, Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest
Scene Selective Regions In The Medial Temporal Lobe Are Also Recruited For Non-Scene Specific Integration Across Episodes
Medial temporal lobe (MTL) subregions are recruited for flexible integration of disparate elements across episodes to form new associations. We examined whether involvement of these subregions depended on the category of items forming the memory associations. Participants completed interleaved study-test phases of an associative inference in memory (AIM) task requiring rapid integration of information across experiences while undergoing fMRI scanning. During each study block, they encoded 16 overlapping scene-object or face-object pairs (8 AB pairs and 8 partially-overlapping BC pairs). A/C items were always objects, but the linking B item was either a face or a scene. During test, memory for the direct (AB, BC pairs) and indirect associations (inferred AC pairs) was tested. MTL subregions exhibiting category selectivity were identified based on an independent localizer scan in which scenes, faces, and objects were presented individually, while participants performed a 1-back task. Results from the AIM task indicated that during the encoding of overlapping pairs, scene-selective subregions (anterior hippocampal head, entorhinal and parahippocampal cortices) were recruited to support integration of pairs linked via scenes and faces. On the other hand, face-selective regions (CA1 and hippocampal tail) supported integration of face-object, but not scene-object pairs. During retrieval, some scene- and some face-selective regions were involved in integration of pairs involving both categories. These results suggest that MTL subregions specialized for processing scenes support encoding of non-scene stimuli, particularly when integration demands are high, highlighting the importance of these regions in binding operations required for flexible associative memory.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
55
Catherine Carpenter, The Pennsylvania State University
Nancy Dennis, The Pennsylvania State University
Neural similarity of schematic information overrides new information, irrespective of target or lure information.
Schemas provide us with a means for organizing the world around us. As such, they allow us to make assumptions about our environment based upon previous experiences and aid in memory organization and retrieval. However, a reliance on schemas may also result in increased rates of false memories (Lampinen et al., 2001). Neuroimaging work has linked schematic processing in memory tasks to neural activity in prefrontal, visual and temporal regions (van Kesteran et al., 2010; Webb et al., 2016). Yet, it is unclear what type of processing in these regions underlies such memory errors. The current study sought to understand whether similarity between neural patterns associated with unstudied schematic lures and that of schematic targets might underlie schematic false memories. Specifically, participants studied schematic scenes (e.g., bathroom) in which critical schema-related objects (e.g., sink) were missing from the scene. Representation similarity analysis (RSA) was used during retrieval to determine whether schema membership (targets and schematic lures) or object history (schematic lures and novel lures) drove lure processing. The results suggest that in both occipital regions (middle and inferior occipital gyrus) and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, schematic similarity and not object history drives neural processing of schematic lures, leading to their high rates of false alarms. Previous work asserts that object history is critical to activation in these visual regions and the current results expand upon that idea, suggesting that object history may not be a critical determinant of assessing novelty if the information is schematically related to studied information.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
56
Arlene Lormestoire, Columbia University
Alexa Tompary, University of Pennsylvania; Lila Davachi, Columbia University
Post-encoding replay during awake rest promotes memory integration across overlapping sequences
Memory integration, or the ability to combine information encountered at different _x000D_
times, leads to cognitive representations of associations between memories. Such integration _x000D_
allows us to flexibly infer novel relationships among events (Schlichting et al., 2015). A separate _x000D_
line of work has also demonstrated that spontaneous memory reactivation during post-encoding _x000D_
rest promotes memory retention (Tambini & Davachi, 2019). However, it is unclear how such _x000D_
reactivation contributes to memory integration. To examine how post-encoding reactivation _x000D_
facilitates integration across related event sequences, we presented participants with _x000D_
overlapping sequences composed of different endings that shared the same antecedents _x000D_
(e.g., A-B-C1, A-B-C2). For each triplet, A and B were sequentially presented 100% of the time, _x000D_
whereas B was followed by one of two items (C1 or C2) 50% of the time. After a brief period of _x000D_
rest, participants performed an implicit priming task to measure integration. Response _x000D_
priming between C items that shared the same antecedents served as an implicit behavioral _x000D_
marker for memory integration across overlapping sequences. To estimate memory reactivation _x000D_
during post-encoding rest, patterns of neural activity associated with each item in the _x000D_
sequence were correlated with neural activity during post-encoding rest. Although A and B items _x000D_
were shown an equal number of times, we observed significantly higher replay for B items in the _x000D_
lateral occipital cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex. Further, increased B replay _x000D_
facilitated response priming for overlapping C items. Altogether, results suggest that replay of _x000D_
events accompanied by ambiguous transition probabilities promotes integration across _x000D_
overlapping sequences.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
57
Ruben Van Genugten, Northeastern University
Daniel Schacter, Harvard University
Automated Scoring of the Autobiographical Interview with Natural Language Processing
The Autobiographical Interview has been used in more than two hundred studies to assess the content of autobiographical memories. In a typical experiment, participants recall memories, which are then scored manually for internal details (episodic details from the central event) and external details (largely non-episodic details). Scoring these narratives requires a significant amount of time. As a result, large studies with this procedure are often impractical, and even conducting small studies is time-consuming. To reduce scoring burden and enable larger studies, we developed an approach to automatically score responses with natural language processing. We fine-tuned an existing language model (distilBERT) to identify the amount of internal and external content in each sentence. These predictions were aggregated to obtain internal and external content estimates for each narrative. We evaluated our model by comparing manual scores with automated scores in five datasets. We found that our model performed well across datasets. In four datasets, we found a strong correlation between internal detail counts and the amount of predicted internal content. In these datasets, manual and automated external scores were also strongly correlated, and we found minimal misclassification of content. In a fifth dataset, our model performed well after additional preprocessing. To make automated scoring available to other researchers, we provide a Colab notebook that is intended to be used without additional coding.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
58
Steven Martinez, Temple University
Katelyn Cliver, Temple University; William Mitchell, Temple University Helen Schmidt, Temple University; Chelsea Helion, Temple University; Jason Chein, Temple University; Vishnu Murty, Temple University
Linguistic cues of memory accuracy differ for low-threat and high-threat memories.
Without access to the details of an event, we judge the veracity of memories on how they are expressed. Moreover, how threat shapes the linguistic expression of memory recall, and how this may relate to memory accuracy, has yet to be explored. 53 participants (ages 18-35: M = 21.1 years) completed an in-person haunted house tour which included low-threat and high-threat segments. We examined how threat influenced subjective properties of memory recall and how those properties related to memory accuracy. Subjective properties of memory recall were characterized in LIWC, an automated algorithm that codes for linguistic categories including Authenticity and Analytical Thinking. Authenticity, defined as perceived genuineness, is high when individuals speak spontaneously and low when individuals monitor their speech. Analytical Thinking, defined as formal thinking, is high when individuals think logically and low when individuals think intuitively. _x000D_
_x000D_
Results indicated that both the subjective properties and veridicality of memory were affected by the threat manipulation. Authenticity (p = .00019), Analytical Thinking (p. = .098), as well as memory accuracy (p = .0019), were all higher for high-threat segments. Results also indicated that the relationship between subjective properties and memory accuracy differed by threat condition. For high-threat segments, memory accuracy did not affect Authenticity (p = .54) or Analytical Thinking (p = .21). For low-threat segments, as memory accuracy improved, Authenticity increased (p = .006) and Analytical Thinking decreased (p = .011). _x000D_
_x000D_
These findings highlight the importance of considering both the objective and subjective properties of memory when assessing emotional memory.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
59
Serra Favila, Columbia University
Mariam Aly, Columbia University
Hippocampal differentiation and visual cortex anticipation resolve competition during memory-guided attention
Memory can guide attention, improving our ability to quickly identify or detect visual stimuli in complex environments. However, many of our memories contain overlapping features, which can trigger memories to compete in guiding behavior. How does the brain overcome memory competition to effectively guide attention? We designed a memory-guided attention task that required human participants to recall scene-location memories to predict the location of search targets (small visual distortions) on the following trial. Critically, all scenes had a visually similar, and therefore competing, scene that guided search to a different location. Analysis of eye movements confirmed that participants effectively used memory to improve visual search but experienced interference between competing memories. Using fMRI, we tested the hypothesis that the hippocampus would differentiate competing memories, allowing visual cortex to anticipate the correct target location and guide precise eye movements. Hippocampal activity patterns for competing memories were less correlated than activity patterns for unrelated memories, and stronger hippocampal memory differentiation was related to better visual search. We then examined activity in visual cortex to determine whether eye movements were predicted by spatially selective preparatory activity. Anticipatory activation of the target location in visual cortex predicted accurate search performance on the next trial, whereas activation of the competing location predicted poor performance. Ongoing analyses aim to relate memory differentiation in the hippocampus to spatial anticipation in visual cortex. These results suggest that the hippocampus may resolve competition between similar memories, enabling visual cortex to anticipate task-relevant locations to prepare efficient behavior.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
60
Stephanie Simpson, University of Toronto; Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest
Mona Eskandaripour, Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest; Brian Levine, University of Toronto; Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest
Effects of aging, neurodegenerative disease, and MTL damage on autobiographical memory recall: A meta-analytic review of the Autobiographical Interview
The Autobiographical Interview is a standardized method of assessing memory for real-life past experiences. It is widely used to derive separate measures of internal (episodic) and external (non-episodic) details from freely recalled autobiographical narratives. This study aims to synthesize the literature on the Autobiographical Interview across the spectrum of healthy aging and neuropathology-related cognitive decline. Focusing on 46 studies with 1821 participants, we conducted a meta-analysis to quantify the pattern of details generated during autobiographical memory recall from healthy younger and older adults as well as patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's Disease (AD), and medial temporal lobe (MTL) lesions. Summary statistics for internal and external details along with inferential statistics concerning group differences were extracted from each article. We observed that the Autobiographical Interview is not only sensitive to the effects of normal aging, but also to cognitive decline associated with neurodegenerative disease and extensive MTL damage, with large effects on the generation of episodic details. These data demonstrate that: 1) fewer internal details were generated in aging and patients with suspected (MCI, AD) and confirmed (lesions) MTL-related neuropathology, 2) but only healthy older adults over-produced external details relative to controls. Results from this study extend the canonical episodic memory impairment observed in neurodegenerative disease and MTL lesions to naturalistic measures of memory that are more representative of real life. This work also sheds light on how mnemonic profiles of recovered episodic and non-episodic content can differentiate groups across the spectrum of age- and neuropathology-related impairment.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
61
Monica Thieu, Emory University
Lauren Wilkins, Princeton University; Mariam Aly, Columbia University
Episodic-Semantic Linkage for $1000: Episodic memory bolsters acquisition of new semantic knowledge in trivia experts
Some people exhibit impressive memory for a wide array of semantic knowledge. What makes these trivia experts better able to learn and retain novel facts? We investigated whether episodic memory can bolster learning of novel semantic information in trivia experts. We hypothesized that trivia expertise would be linked to stronger associative binding between complex semantic information and episodic features of an encoding event. 133 participants varying in trivia expertise completed a museum-themed memory task, in which they encoded two 'exhibits' of naturalistic facts paired with related photos. Afterward, participants were tested on cued recall of facts, forced-choice memory for photos, and forced-choice memory for each fact's encoding exhibit. As expected, greater trivia expertise was correlated with higher cued recall for novel facts. Among all participants, source memory for the museum exhibit predicted greater likelihood of fact recall. Conversely, photo memory dissociated trivia experts and non-experts: trivia experts were more likely to successfully recall a fact if they also correctly identified its associated photo, whereas fact recall and photo memory were unrelated among non-experts. These findings suggest that associative episodic memory might scaffold acquisition of new semantic memories in trivia experts They add to a burgeoning line of work highlighting shared cognitive and neural underpinnings of episodic and semantic memories. Finally, our work shows the value of studying trivia experts: a special population that can shed light on the mechanisms of memory.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
62
Craig Poskanzer, Columbia University
Mariam Aly, Columbia University
Switching between external and internal attention in hippocampal networks
Everyday experience requires processing external signals from the world around us and internal information retrieved from memory. To do both, the brain must fluctuate between states that are optimized for external vs. internal attention. Here, we focus on the hippocampus as a region that may serve at the interface between these forms of attention, and ask how it switches between prioritizing sensory signals from the external world vs. internal signals related to memories and thoughts. Pharmacological, computational, and animal studies have identified input from the cholinergic basal forebrain as important for biasing the hippocampus towards processing external information, whereas complementary research has suggested the dorsal attention network (DAN) may aid in allocating attentional resources towards accessing internal information. We therefore tested the hypothesis that the basal forebrain and DAN drive the hippocampus towards external and internal attention, respectively. We used data from 29 participants (17 female) who completed 2 attention tasks during fMRI. One task primarily required external attention ('explicitly instructed' task); the other required switching between external and internal attention ('memory-guided' task). We discovered that background connectivity between the basal forebrain and hippocampus was stronger during the explicitly instructed vs. memory-guided task. In contrast, DAN-hippocampus background connectivity was stronger during the memory-guided vs. explicitly instructed task. Finally, the strength of DAN-hippocampus connectivity correlated with performance on the memory-guided but not explicitly instructed task. Together, these results provide evidence that the hippocampus may switch between external and internal states by preferentially communicating with the basal forebrain and DAN.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
63
Malte Kobelt, Ruhr-University Bochum
Gerd Waldhauser, Ruhr-University Bochum; Aleksandra Rupietta, Ruhr-University Bochum Rebekka Heinen, Ruhr-University Bochum; Henrik Kessler, Fulda Clinic; Nikolai Axmacher, Ruhr-University Bochum
Tracking the neural representations of trauma-analogue experiences from encoding to memory intrusions
Unwanted memory intrusions of traumatic experiences are a hallmark symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder. Here, we use the trauma film paradigm and pattern similarity analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to investigate how trauma-analogue experiences are represented in the brain and how these representations are reactivated during memory intrusions. _x000D_
Participants watched film clips of traumatic material and content-matched neutral episodes in the MR scanner. Subsequently, they reported involuntary memory intrusions during a resting phase. _x000D_
Encoding of trauma-analogue experiences was associated with higher activity in wide-spread visual areas but lower activation in semantic areas compared to neutral events. Enhanced neural processing in visual areas, but not in semantic areas, predicted the number of memory intrusions across participants. Using pattern similarity analyses, we found that neural representations of trauma-analogue experiences were more generalized in visual areas, while trauma representations in semantic areas were more specific compared to neural representations of neutral events. _x000D_
Prior to memory intrusions, pattern similarity in visual areas again increased between different memory intrusions suggesting generalized, trauma-unspecific visual representations. At the same time, memory intrusions reactivated specific neural representations of that same episode in anterior cingulate cortex. _x000D_
Our results suggest simultaneous involvement of multiple representational formats with different characteristics of specificity and generalization in visual areas and the anterior cingulate cortex during memory intrusions. Linking these representational characteristics to precise trauma memory phenomena, e.g., cue generalization, in the future may help unravel the neural pathway of memory intrusions and provide a mechanistic basis for novel treatment options.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
64
John Thorp, Columbia University
Alyssa Sinclair, Duke University; Morgan Barense, University of Toronto R Alison Adcock, Duke University; Lila Davachi, Columbia University
Hippocampo-cortical replay during rest shapes memory updating
Our understanding of when and how memories update is a burgeoning area of research. Prior work has shown that partial reminders open up a window in which memories can be modified. Recent neuroimaging work has provided evidence that hippocampal univariate activity after these reminders relates to the extent to which memories are updated. We were interested in whether and how partial reminders facilitate reconsolidation by examining neural processes associated with memory consolidation. To this end, we examined post-reminder memory replay during rest and assessed the number and systems-level coordination of replay events using fMRI. Replay was examined locally in the hippocampus as well as across different whole-brain networks. We found that the frequency of replay events for interrupted videos was generally significantly enhanced compared to uninterrupted, or full, videos across both the hippocampus and cortical networks. Similarly, we found that the proportion of simultaneous, coordinated replays between the hippocampus and cortical networks was generally greater for interrupted videos than full videos. Critically, the number and coordination of replay events in some of these areas protected against errors for interrupted videos but led to errors for full videos. Future analyses will explore and characterize the specific relationships between post-reminder memory replay and later memory distortions.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
65
Courtney Jimenez, Dartmouth College
Meghan Meyer, Columbia University
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex (DMPFC) Prioritizes Social Learning at Rest
As we move through everyday life, we come across an abundance of information. Yet, some experiences stick with us while others are forgotten. Is certain information from encoding prioritized in memory? If so, how? One possibility is that social information-that is, information about people-may be prioritized via consolidation mechanisms at rest. Here, we implement a multivariate neural pattern reinstatement analysis with naturalistic stimuli to show that the amount of social reinstatement in the DMPFC is significantly related to social memory performance. Additionally, we show that nonsocial reinstatement in the lVLPFC is significantly related to nonsocial memory performance. Critically, a linear mixed effects model reveals that the correlation between the number of DMPFC social pattern reinstatements and social memory performance is driven by early rest. We don't see evidence of the same temporal prioritization in the relationship between the number of lVLPFC nonsocial pattern reinstatements and nonsocial memory performance. Further, we replicate findings that implicate the hippocampus in a general consolidation function at rest. We find that the amount of correct pattern reinstatement in the right hippocampus at rest is negatively correlated with overall memory performance. Collectively, these results suggest that the link between neural pattern reinstatement during rest and subsequent memory may be supported by different prefrontal regions for social (DMPFC) and non-social (lVLPFC) memory. These results provide evidence that the DMPFC, a key region of the default network, prioritizes the consolidation of social information for memory during earlier moments of rest.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
66
Andreea Zaman, King's College London
Ruby Morton, King's College London; Lauren White, King's College London Paige Seath, King's College London; Caroline Catmur, King's College London; Mihaela Zaman, King's College London
The role of the Angular Gyrus in episodic recognition, familiarity, and the subjective experience of recollection
Functional neuroimaging studies and studies of patients with parietal lesions suggest a role for the left angular gyrus (AnG) in episodic memory. An increasing amount of evidence indicates its role is concerned with the subjective experience of recollection. Using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), we examine the precise contribution of the left AnG on subjective ratings of recollection in a task probing the integrity of visuospatial relationships in episodic memory. Fifty-four participants will watch a short London sightseeing video while wearing a head-camera. The perspective from which they watch the video will be manipulated to see different scenes from different visuospatial perspectives. We will then deliver rTMS to AnG or a Vertex control site to perturb normal neuronal function. An hour later, participants will recollect the event and rate components of reliving, field/observer perspective, visual imagery, vividness, mental time travel, and emotionality of the encoded event. These components underlie the subjective experience of recollection. Participants will then view images purported to be from the London video event to rate the familiarity of these scenes and choose whether they are taken from their head-camera. We predict a main effect of the stimulation, with AnG stimulation reducing familiarity, accuracy, and confidence when distinguishing head-camera images that match participants' visuospatial experience at encoding. Those in the AnG group will score lower on the subjective experience components. These predicted outcomes support the role of AnG in the subjective experience of recollection, linking it to the integrity of the visuospatial information available when remembering.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
67
Susan Benear, New York University
Michael Evans, First Place for Youth; Gail Rosenbaum, Geisinger Health Catherin Hartley, New York University
Valence biases in reinforcement learning and autobiographical memory
The positive and negative consequences of our actions allow us to learn how to adjust our future behavior - a process referred to as reinforcement learning. However, valenced outcomes can influence individuals' future choices differently, with some overweighting surprising positive outcomes (i.e., prediction errors) and others overweighting surprising negative outcomes. Such valence biases in learning have been associated with corresponding biases in episodic memory, such that individuals with positive learning biases are also more likely to recall images associated with positive prediction errors and vice versa. However, whether valence biases in learning predict biases in autobiographical memory remains unclear. Here, we will examine whether participants' valence biases in reinforcement learning relate to the degree of specificity in their autobiographical recall of subjectively 'good' and 'bad' memories from their own lives, using existing data from 48 adults who completed reinforcement learning and autobiographical memory tasks online. We predict that participants with a positive learning bias will provide greater detail in their recall of good relative to bad memories, and participants with a negative learning bias will show the opposite pattern. We also predict that participants who use fewer valenced words when recalling bad memories will show a greater decrease in the subjective negativity of these recalled events relative to the time at which they occurred. Understanding biases in autobiographical memory has implications for mental health, as depressed individuals recall negative memories more readily and with greater detail than healthy controls, and these memories tend to retain their affective intensity across time.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
68
Sunjae Shim, Stanford University
Franck Mugisho, Columbia University; Christopher Baldassano, Columbia University; Lila Davachi, Columbia University
Event Segmentation from Working Memory Dynamics in the Absence of Prediction Error
How people segment an experience into separate events has long-term impacts on the way that it is remembered. A leading theory of event segmentation predicts that event boundaries are triggered by prediction errors caused by unexpected stimuli. However, recent studies have raised doubts about whether prediction error is necessary for event segmentation. In this study, we tested whether event boundaries can be triggered without prediction error by manipulating working memory demands. In experiment 1, participants were shown a sequence of random images and asked to detect repeats within the current event. The signal to start a new event could either appear unpredictably or be entirely predictable, with a continuous display of the number of images remaining in each event. Participants then performed a temporal order task for pairs of images that had originally appeared three items apart, either within the same event or across an event boundary. We found a boundary-related memory effect in both the predictable and unpredictable event boundary conditions, with higher accuracy and faster reaction times for the within-event comparisons. In experiments 2a and 2b, event boundaries were always predictable, and participants performed either the (event-related) repeat-detection task from experiment 1 or a (non-event-related) 2-back task. We observed higher accuracy for within-event comparisons only when the working memory task was event related. Both of these experiments support an alternative theory of event segmentation, in which boundaries are critically related to working memory dynamics rather than prediction error.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
69
Eitan Schechtman, University of California Irvine
James W Antony, California Polytechnic State University
Reap while you sleep: consolidation of memories differs by how they were sown
Newly formed memories are spontaneously reactivated during sleep, leading to their strengthening. This reactivation process can be manipulated by reinstating learning-related stimuli during sleep, a technique termed targeted memory reactivation. Numerous studies have found that delivering cues during sleep improves memory for simple associations, in which one cue reactivates one tested memory. However, real-life memories often live in rich, complex networks of associations. In this review, we will examine recent forays into investigating how targeted sleep reactivation affects memories within complex paradigms, in which one cue can reactivate multiple tested memories. A common theme across studies is that reactivation consequences do not merely depend on whether memories reside in complex arrangements, but on how memories interact with one another during acquisition. We therefore emphasize how intricate study design details that alter the nature of learning and/or participant intentions impact the outcomes of sleep reactivation. In some cases, complex networks of memories interact harmoniously to bring about mutual memory benefits; in other cases, memories may interact antagonistically and produce selective impairments in retrieval. Ultimately, although this burgeoning area of research has yet to be systematically explored, results suggest that the fate of reactivated stimuli within complex arrangements depends on how they were learned.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
71
Eva Gjorgieva, Duke University
Tobias Egner, Duke University; Marty Woldorff, Duke University; Roberto Cabeza, Duke University
Investigating fluctuations of sustained attention and their effects on memory
Sustained attention (SA) is the ability to maintain cognitive focus on a task over an extended period of time. SA fluctuates over time, and failures of SA can occur in various ways. For example, while listening to a lecture, our attention may be diverted to the movement of a nearby person (external distractor) or to random thoughts (internal distractor). Using a combination of fMRI and pupillometry, we investigated SA fluctuations and their influence on subsequent memory. A series of object images were presented, each in front of a background image of a face or house. Participants were instructed to ignore the background image and attend only to the objects, responding with one button press on 90% of trials, and an alternate button for toy-object images (10% of trials). In a subsequent forced-choice recognition phase, each seen object was paired with a new object of the same name, and participants selected the seen object while rating their confidence. Subsequent memory analyses yielded reduced activity in parahippocampal place area, fusiform face area, and retrosplenial cortex, suggesting that suppressing attention to irrelevant objects/houses and unrelated thoughts (default mode network-DMN) improved subsequent memory. Later remembered items were also associated with increased activity in the lateral occipital complex, slower RTs, likely reflecting greater encoding processing, and larger pupil size, which has been previously associated with SA. Taken together, these results clarify the neural mechanisms of SA and suppression of external and internal distractions, and how they impact episodic encoding.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
72
Nina Ehrhardt, University Medicine Greifswald
Guglielmo Lucchese, University Medicine Greifswald; Agnes Flˆel, University Medicine Greifswald; Daria Antonenko, University Medicine Greifswald
Theta-Gamma Phase-Amplitude Coupling During Sequence Memory Encoding in Healthy Older Adults
Sequence memory is subject to age-related decline, but the underlying processes are not fully understood. Nesting of gamma oscillations to phases of theta provides a possible mechanism for coding sequential order. The coupling magnitude between theta phase and gamma amplitude (phase-amplitude coupling; PAC) inversely correlates with the item position within sequences in young adults (Heusser et al., 2016). To investigate whether this coding of serial order can be found in healthy older adults, we recorded EEG in 32 participants (60-80 years) during a sequence memory task. The modulation index (MI) as measure of PAC was modeled, with decreasing values for increasing picture positions, and used as regressor to predict actual MIs for each trial, sensor and subject. Resulting t-values were put into a cluster-based permutation analysis. The modeled MI predicted actual coupling values according to picture position (t(20) > 0.44, p < .05). Inspection of the distribution of gamma (30-45 Hz) amplitude over theta (4-8 Hz) phases revealed that for correctly remembered sequences, gamma amplitude during encoding of pictures presented early in a sequence was highest during earlier theta phases than for pictures later in a sequence. Crucially, for incorrectly remembered sequences, this modulation of gamma power by theta phase according to picture position was missing. Our results replicate the findings of Heusser et al. (2016) in healthy older adults, suggesting similar processes for encoding of sequences. Additionally, many incorrectly remembered sequences with disorganized theta-gamma coding suggest less precision with age, providing a possible explanation for decline in sequence memory.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
73
Andreja Stajduhar, University of Toronto
Devin Sodums, Rotman Research Institute; Brian Levine, University of Toronto
Reduced Episodic Recollection Does Not Correspond to Reduced Cortical Thickness
Processes of autobiographical memory (AM), like internal detail production and recollection, are reliant on different brain regions (i.e., hippocampal subfields, angular gyrus, and medial prefrontal cortex) and are dissociated from each other (Polombo et al., 2018; Bonnici et al., 2013; Miller et al., 2017). Individuals with severely deficient autobiographical memory (SDAM) show enlarged hippocampal subfields and reduced integrity of the fornix, suggesting that the same systems responsible for detail recovery fail to ignite recollection due to reduced hippocampal-neocortical connectivity. Most research on cortical involvement in recollection has involved functional neuroimaging. As SDAM is a congenital condition, it provides an opportunity to investigate structural anatomical correlates of reduced recollection at the trait level. In a sample of 19 controls and 19 SDAM individuals, we examined whole-brain volume to determine if reduced recollection corresponds to reduced cortical thickness. The nonrotated PLS was statistically non-significant (p = 0.2398), suggesting that there are no differences in cortical thickness between groups. Both detail recovery and subjective re-experiencing are considered key to episodic AM. These two processes are strongly associated in most healthy adults. Assessing the neural correlates of these processes in cases where they dissociate will enhance understanding of the multifaceted nature of episodic memory.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
74
Cory Inman, University of Utah
Luis Garcia, University of Southern California; Uros Topalovic, UCLA; Mauricio Vallejo Martelo, UCLA; Matthias Stangl, UCLA; Tyler Davis, University of Utah; Martina Hollearn, University of Utah; Justin Campbell, University of Utah; Lensky Augustin, University of Utah; Dawn Eliashiv, UCLA; Nick Hasulak, Phoenix Research Consulting; Sonja Hiller, UCLA; Nanthia Suthana, UCLA
Theta oscillations in the human temporal lobe change at event boundaries during real-world navigation
The ultimate goal of neuroscience is to understand and explain real-world behavior in terms of brain activity, and to use these insights to develop therapeutic approaches for neural disorders. Traditional neuroimaging methods, like fMRI, require participants to be stationary, which limits the complexity and realism of research studies. By using mobile recording devices synchronized with intracranial EEG recordings in epilepsy patients with an implanted deep brain recording system (NeuroPace Responsive Neurostimulator; RNS), we can study the neural basis of everyday human activities such as navigation and real-world memory encoding in a more natural way that captures the complexity, scale, and functional characteristics of real-world experiences. We asked five RNS participants to learn a 0.75-mile route around campus with the explicit instruction to remember the route well enough to navigate back to the beginning. Subjects walked the route 7-8 times across two days, with the 1st walk guided (encoding) and 6-7 of the walks navigated by the participant themselves (navigation retrieval; 28.5 total miles). Local field potential data between 1-85 Hz was continuously collected throughout each participant's walk synchronized with a suite of 1st person experience sensors at millisecond precision. Findings across all participants suggest that theta band power significantly increases when participants are navigating outdoors relative to indoor navigation. We also find evidence that temporal lobe theta and beta band power changes immediately around spatial event boundaries. Taken together, these initial neural findings support our hypotheses that medial and lateral temporal lobe activity changes around real-world event boundaries.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other
B
75
Yunji Park, Stanford University
Hyesang Chang, Stanford University; Yuan Zhang, Stanford University; Flora Schwartz, Stanford University; Teresa Iuculano, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Vinod Menon, Stanford University
Cognitive tutoring induces distinct patterns of changes in neural representations in children with and without mathematical difficulties.
Mathematical difficulties (MD), a learning disability characterized by deficiency in understanding numerical information despite their intact cognitive abilities, are often linked to deficits in number sense, the ability to understand relations across different forms of numerical magnitudes. Here, we developed a 4-week integrated number sense (INS) tutoring program designed to enhance understanding of relations across non-symbolic and symbolic numbers in children with and without MD. A neural representational similarity (NRS) analysis was employed to assess the degree of neural mapping across the two numerical formats (cross-format NRS). Following INS tutoring, all children showed improvements on non-symbolic and symbolic number processing efficiency, with children with MD further improving on arithmetic skills. Critically, our INS tutoring induced normalization of cross-format NRS in the children with MD to the level comparable to typically developing children in learning-related brain areas including the medial temporal lobe and basal ganglia. Notably, our multivariate classification analysis revealed distinguishable patterns of changes in cross-format NRS in response to INS tutoring between children with and without MD. These results suggest that a cognitive intervention focusing on integration between different numerical formats can induce significant improvement in children's numerical skills and neural representational plasticity in all children, with distinguishable patterns of brain plasticity depending on children's initial math ability. More broadly, our findings highlight the effectiveness of targeted interventions on cognitive and neural plasticity in early childhood and provide new insights into neurocognitive mechanisms of children's learning.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Skill Learning
B
76
Molly Rowlands, University of Cambridge
Michael Anderson, University of Cambridge
The retrieval stopping model of fear extinction: A meta-analysis of fMRI studies
Associating threat responses with predictors of negative outcomes is critical for survival. These associations become maladaptive when fear is elicited inappropriately, as observed in anxiety and stress-related disorders. Such circumstances require modification of learned associations to control the expression of fear, a process often studied via Pavlovian fear extinction. In fear extinction, a fear trigger is repeatedly exposed in a safe environment, gradually reducing emotional responding. In parallel, however, other work has focused on retrieval stopping as a mechanism by which people control unwanted memories. In retrieval stopping research, people are repeatedly exposed to reminders to an unwelcome memory and try to stop retrieval, a process that gradually reduces intrusions and alters negative affect for suppressed traces. Parallels between retrieval stopping and extinction have recently been highlighted in the retrieval stopping hypothesis of fear extinction (Anderson & Floresco, 2021). This theory posits that extinction spontaneously recruits retrieval stopping to control affect during exposure to triggers. Here, we assessed a key prediction of this hypothesis: neural networks engaged during retrieval stopping are engaged during extinction. Via a PROSPERO-registered fMRI meta-analysis of over 70 studies and 2,000 participants, we examine activations evoked during fear extinction learning and retrieval stopping. Using novel meta-analytic software (seed-based d-mapping) combining whole-brain statistical maps with peak co-ordinates, we test whether regions implicated in retrieval stopping (right dorsolateral and mid-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), are activated during extinction. By testing the retrieval stopping hypothesis, we aim to reconceptualize century-old models of fear extinction to better understand effective treatments.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
B
77
Shahd Fares, McGill University
Dietlind Stolle, McGill University; Signy Sheldon, McGill University Lesley Fellows, McGill University
Behavioral and Eye Gaze Patterns in Political Decision Making
Voting choices are fundamental to modern democracy. In this political process, both personal and policy traits of political candidates likely influence the evaluations and choices of individual voters. Such choices are complex, requiring consideration of multiple attributes. Cognitive neuroscience has studied the behavioural mechanisms and brain basis of multi-attribute economic decision making. Leveraging insights from the study of complex object recognition, recent work provides evidence for distinctions between holistic (configural) and additive (elemental) valuation processes, revealed by different behavioural and gaze patterns during deliberation and supported by distinct brain circuits. Whether this distinction holds for political choice is not known. We are investigating this question with a simple voting choice experiment. We are analyzing behavioural (reaction time, choice) and eye-tracking (gaze fixations and transitions) patterns in healthy eligible voters choosing between two candidates per trial. We hypothesize that manipulating the information presented (characterizing the candidate by both their personal and policy attributes or solely using their policy attributes) will predispose individuals to prioritize configural or elemental valuation processes, betrayed by distinct information acquisition patterns. This in progress study will contribute knowledge about the factors that engage putative neurobiologically distinct decision mechanisms in voting, paving the way towards a better neuroscientific understanding of political choice.
THINKING: Decision making
B
78
Courtney Durdle, University of California, Santa Barbara
Sara Leslie, University of California, Santa Barbara; Evan Layher, University of California, Santa Barbara Kaitlyn Deen, University of California, Santa Barbara; Jessica Simonson, University of California, Santa Barbara; Luna Li, University of California, Santa Barbara; Miguel Eckstein, University of California, Santa Barbara; Michael Miller, University of California, Santa Barbara
Resting-State Functional Connectivity as a Predictor for Shifting Memory-Based Decision Criterion _x000D_
There is a large amount of recognition memory research investigating individual differences for decision thresholds, or criterion. The ability to shift these criterion thresholds (criterion shift) to be more conservative or liberal has the potential to improve decision outcomes, especially in situations with uncertainty. Currently, the tendency to criterion shift appears to be a stable cognitive trait, yet there is limited knowledge as to why this stability is observed. Previous research has found that widespread frontoparietal activity is associated with maintaining conservative versus liberal criterion during recognition memory tasks. The present study will investigate whether resting-state functional connectivity is able to predict the extent an individual shifts criteria across conservative and liberal manipulations. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data were acquired from thirty participants while they completed a criterion-shifting recognition memory task and at rest. The regions of interest for the functional connectivity analysis, derived from whole-brain group averaged data in the target versus non-target response trials between conservative and liberal criteria conditions, include the intraparietal sulcus and anterior insula. The seed-based functional connectivity analysis is predicted to reveal that frontoparietal connectivity, during rest, correlates with the extent an individual shifts criteria.
THINKING: Decision making
B
79
Sara Leslie, UCSB
Courtney Durdle, UCSB; Patrick Sweeney, UCSB Joyce He, UCSD; Kaitlyn Deen, UCSB; Jessica Simonson, UCSB; Michael Miller, UCSB
Identifying Distinct and Shared Neural Activity Associated with Adaptive Decision-Making and Metacognition
The ability to strategically change decision criteria when decision parameters are changed, such as known probabilities or payoffs, has demonstrated both intra-individual stability and inter-individual variability. The shifting of decision criteria may relate to confidence judgments; when confidence judgements are more metacognitively accurate, and thus better tuned to objective performance, they may allow for more optimal adjustments to decision thresholds. Previous work has found metacognitive efficiency to correlate with criterion shifting in recognition memory tasks with changing reward structure. Studies examining the neural correlates of criterion shifting have implicated regions in the frontoparietal network; these regions have been independently associated with confidence judgments and metacognition. To better characterize the separability and overlap of the neural substrates of metacognitive accuracy, confidence judgments, and criterion placement, particularly in the frontoparietal network, we will analyze functional MRI data collected from individuals as they complete a recognition memory task involving confidence judgements in different criterion conditions. A manipulation of stimuli similarity will be used to dissociate confidence judgments and recognition memory performance, allowing an analysis of confidence separable from discriminability. Multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) techniques will be used to examine spatial activity patterns associated with the factors of interest; representational similarity analysis (RSA) will be used to assess the extent to which patterns of neural activity are shared or distinct for confidence judgments and criterion placement.These analyses of shared and distinct patterns of neural activity will facilitate further exploration and interpretation of the relationship between metacognition and adaptive decision-making.
THINKING: Decision making
B
80
Christina Boardman, University of California Santa Barbara
Evan Layher, University of California Santa Barbara; Jean Vattel, Army Futures Command Michael Miller, University of California Santa Barbara
Title: Shifting Expectations: Criterion shift association of Electroencephalography, in a recognition memory security patrol paradigm.
Depending on the situation, it may be prudent to switch between a liberal and a conservative criterion. For instance, security personnel should maintain a liberal criterion when questioning individuals at a security checkpoint. However, when use of physical force on suspected individuals is anticipated, a conservative criterion should be used to minimize the risk of harming a potentially innocent person. Here we use EEG to explore the temporal and oscillatory dynamics associated with individual variations when maintaining a conservative versus liberal criterion during a recognition security patrol task. Among 59 participants, previously screened for criterion shifting performance (46 female, aged 17-29), we found that maintaining a conservative versus liberal criterion is associated with a modest increase in frontal power (F=4.046, p<0.05) in the Late Positive Potential (LPP) range (600-800ms post-stimulus). Additionally, visual inspection showed that waveforms varied greatly between participants. Our behavioral results indicate that among participants who do shift there is considerable individual variation. To understand the effects of individual variation we created correlations between Event-Related Spectral Perturbation power (1-30 Hz) and the difference between individuals' liberal and conservative criterion placement. After we separated low and moderate discriminability, we found a modest correlation between individual tendency to maintain a conservative versus liberal criterion and mid-posterior delta (1-3Hz) band power (r=0.41, p<0.001) from 200-600ms post-stimulus. Overall, our results suggest potential EEG correlates of criterion shifting. Currently, we are exploring decoding techniques in order to develop more robust models of this relationship.
THINKING: Decision making
B
81
Chih-Yin Lu, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
Shih-Wei Wu, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
Fixed or stochastic? Testing the stochasticity of reference dependency in human decision making
Reference dependency is a fundamental building block in human decision making. People perceive a future outcome, such as the potential of a salary raise or the prospect of getting a new job offer, as gain or loss relative to some reference point. However, the nature of what constitutes as reference point remains controversial. At the center of the debate is whether reference point is indeed a fixed point or instead is stochastic. To address this question, human subjects (n=16) performed a lottery decision task where reference point was systematically manipulated (fixed or stochastic). On each trial, the subjects chose between two options, with one option - referred to as the reference option - repeatedly appearing in every trial throughout a block of trials. In one session, the reference option was a sure gain (fixed reference point), while in the other session the reference option was a monetary gamble (stochastic reference point). We found that subjects' decisions were significantly affected by the interaction of reference point (fixed or stochastic) and expected value. In the low expected-value regime, the subjects tended to be risk averse when the reference option was a fixed sure gain, but were risk neutral when the reference option was a monetary gamble. However, this pattern was reversed in the high expected-value regime. While these results ruled out the possibility that reference point is a fixed value, they only partially support the current theory for stochastic reference point and call for further investigations on reference-dependent computations.
THINKING: Decision making
B
82
Gili Katabi, Tel-Aviv University
Gili Katabi, Tel-Aviv University; Nitzan Shahar, Tel-Aviv University
Computational modeling of value-based learning among individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a disorder with marked deficits in the ability to act in a persistent manner, which affect the ability to complete everyday tasks (e.g., studying for a test or doing homework) that require multiple actions to be made before the end goal can be obtained. A fundamental idea in computational reinforcement-learning is that the end value of task completion is mentally transmitted to initiatory actions. Mental transmission of value from the end goal to initiatory actions, allows the individual to 'know' internally the value of actions that are distant in time from the desired goal. Here, we use computational reinforcement-learning to explore value assignment to initiatory actions in ADHD. 54 undergraduate students (ADHD/TD) completed a sequential-decision task where they were asked to make each trial several actions to gain rewards. Our analysis suggests intact value learning in ADHD for actions that were taken at the end of a trial, but a marked deficits in their ability to mentally transmit these values to initiatory actions, compared with their TD peers. Our analysis further shows that inefficient value estimation for initiatory actions was directly linked with higher reaction-time variability in ADHD, which is a well-known attention phenotype in these individuals. Remarkably, for actions in the end of the trial, where value learning was intact, group differences wiped-out completely, to a point where the two groups could not be distinct in their behavior. We discuss the contribution computational reinforcement-learning might be able to provide for ADHD research.
THINKING: Decision making
B
83
Alexander Paunov, NeuroSpin
Dalin Guo, University of California San Diego; Maëva L'Hôtellier, NeuroSpin Zoe He, University of California San Diego; Angela Yu, University of California San Diego; Florent Meyniel, NeuroSpin
Uncertainty-based and heuristic exploration is supported by distinct but interacting neural substrates
Decision-making in noisy and changing environments is characterized by a basic tradeoff between immediate reward and longer-term information gain, known as the exploration-exploitation dilemma. Previous work has shown that humans engage in different forms of directed exploration, but the representations and neural mechanisms that support their use remain unknown. In a novel bandit task, we find evidence for distinct but interacting heuristic and uncertainty-based forms of directed exploration and relate them to dissociable neural substrates with fMRI. Our task addresses two key challenges. First, reward and uncertainty are often inversely related because more rewarding options are sampled more frequently. We interleave forced choices to better decorrelate them. Second, we dissociate different drivers of exploratory choices through intermittent changes in reward levels and noise. We find that (i) decisions are mostly reward-driven; when controlling for reward difference, (ii) subjects exhibit a heuristic ‘win-stay-lose-shift’ exploration strategy; (iii) exploration is also guided by uncertainty, and this effect is variable across subjects (seeking vs avoiding) but stable across testing sessions; and (iv) uncertainty modulates the use of the heuristic strategy: when more uncertain, subjects rely more on the heuristic. In addition, we find independent support that subjects maintain accurate exploration-guiding uncertainty representations: occasional explicit reports track with ideal observer uncertainty. In preliminary fMRI results, we localize the neural correlates of these exploratory strategies to partly dissociable brain regions and find evidence for distinct roles of uncertainty representations in learning and choice.
THINKING: Decision making
B
84
Siraj Lyons, University of Louisville
Brendan Depue, University of Louisville
Behavioral approach is linked to increased neural communication between frontostriatal and insular regions under risk.
Behavioral approach is marked by increased activation and neurotransmission of/to certain brain regions to induce reward seeking behavior. A validated way to measure behavioral approach is quantifying the personality traits of reward seeking through the Behavioral Approach System scale (BAS). Behavioral data suggests that increased scores on the BAS correlate with decision-making deficits, worse on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Neuroimaging data has consistently associated performance on the IGT with frontostriatal and salience networks. The present study examined the relationship between BAS subscales (Reward, Drive, Fun-Seeking) and functional connectivity (FC) between frontostriatal and salience intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) when considering risky choices. Twenty-four participants completed the BAS and fMRI was conducted during a modified IGT. Reward scores correlated with increased positive FC between the OFC-NAcc (t(20) = 3.07, pFDR = 0.034) and increased negative OFC-amygdala FC, t(20) = -2.85, pFDR = 0.034, when selecting risky cards. When comparing playing vs. passing choices from bad decks, Drive scores were correlated with increased negative FC between the left OFC-bilateral insula [(left), t(20) = -3.13, pFDR = 0.026, (right), t(20) = -2.98, pFDR = 0.026] when selecting risky cards. Similarly, Drive scores additionally correlated with increased negative FC between the right OFC-left insula, t(20) = -3.09, pFDR = 0.039. Results indicate that when making risky decisions, increases in reward-seeking personality traits are associated with: 1) increases in positive FC between brain regions evaluating reward-contingences, and 2) increases in negative FC between brain regions that signal risk.
THINKING: Decision making
B
85
Jing-Yu Chuang, National Taiwan University
Joshua Oon Soo Goh, National Taiwan University
The Brain Seeks Novelty to Perpetuate Stability
Understanding how the human brain processes has always been a fundamental challenge. The free-energy principle proposes a unified theory that the brain constantly minimizes its free energy as the entropy of the environment increases. Self-organizing systems tend to reduce surprise; however, previous studies also suggest that humans actively seek novelty in recreational activities such as aesthetic experiences and have higher preferences for information with intermediate complexity. The present study proposes that self-organizing systems seek novelty according to the encountered uncertainty level to maintain homeostasis. To validate this, 33 young adults took part in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment in which they listened to monophonic melodies with various uncertainty (entropy) levels in the probe phase, decided whether they wanted to listen to it again, and listened to the monophonic melodies in the outcome phase which were probabilistically determined by their own decisions. Behaviorally, our results suggest reliable preferences for information with intermediate uncertainty. Neurally, we observed a positive linear effect in the bilateral caudate as well as a positive quadratic effect in the bilateral frontal regions, putamen, and mid cingulate. In addition, we found a more robust neural activation in the default mode network (DMN) regions when the brain is satisfied with the uncertainty level of the information, and a more robust activation in the task regions when the brain detects insufficient or excessive uncertainty and activates the exploration state. Overall, our findings indicate that the brain constantly balances its default state and exploration state to reach equilibrium.
THINKING: Decision making
B
86
Johan Nakuci, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jason Samaha, University of California Santa Crus; Dobromir Rahnev, Georgia Institute of Technology
Brain signatures during perceptual decision-making index variations in internal processing and decision boundary
Recent studies have suggested that humans and animals switch between different modes of processing during perceptual decision-making tasks. However, meaningful variations in internal processing remain difficult to discover and characterize. Here we utilize a data-driven clustering method based on modularity-maximation to identify consistent spatial-temporal EEG activity patterns across individual trials and relate this activity to behavioral performance. Subjects (N = 25) performed a motion direction discrimination task with six interleaved levels of motion coherence. We identified two subtypes of trials, Subtype 1 and Subtype 2. Subtype 1 contained event-related potentials with significant positive amplitude in occipital but negative amplitude in frontal areas over the 300 ms of stimulus presentation, whereas Subtype 2 exhibited the opposite pattern. Further, these patterns extended beyond the window of stimulus presentation. Surprisingly, even though the first subtype occurred more frequently with lower motion coherences (Z = -4.06; p = 4.72 x 10-5), it was nonetheless associated with faster response times (RT: Subtype 1 = 926 ± 3ms; Subtype 2 = 952 ± 4ms; t-value = -6.97; p = 3.29 x10-12). Modeling with the drift diffusion model suggested that the first subtype was characterized by higher decision boundary (DB Subtype 1: 1.5 ± 0.20; Subtype 2: 1.55 ± 0.20; t-value = -3.81; p = 0.001). These results demonstrate that brain activity measured with EEG can be used to distinguish subtypes of trials differing in their underlying internal processes, opening up a new way to identify brain states relevant to cognition and behavior.
THINKING: Decision making
B
87
Deborah Marciano, University of California, Berkeley
Ludovic Bellier, University of California, Berkeley; Ida Mayer, University of California, Berkeley Ming Hsu, University of California, Berkeley; Robert T. Knight, University of California, Berkeley
BEHAVIORAL AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF MOMENT-TO-MOMENT CHANGES IN EXPECTATIONS
Expectations are often dynamic: sports fans know expectations change fast as games unfold. Yet expectations are traditionally studied as static. Here we provide electrophysiological and behavioral evidence that expectations vary from moment to moment. In Study 1 (EEG, N=37, 150 trials) subjects played a slot-machine game. They chose one item on the left reel, the right reel spun and decelerated to a stop. If the items matched, subjects lost $0.25; otherwise, they won $0.10. We classify wins by whether the machine stopped 1 item before a match (Narrow Escape Before, NEB), 1 item after (NEA) or more (Full Escape, FE). We found that EEG for NEB differed from the other wins 500ms before the machine stopped (p<.01). NEB also elicited larger P3 after the stop (0<.001), suggesting a bigger reward prediction error (RPE). Subjects reported feeling happier after NEB (p<0.03). Study 2 (N=30, 36 trials) used a new task to behaviorally measure expectations. On each trial, subjects chose between a sure amount or betting on a slot machine. They could change their choice as often as they wanted while the machine spun. Bonuses depended on their choice at a random timepoint, incentivizing them to choose based on their expectations at each moment. We found that different wins elicited different expectation trajectories, which predict EEG activity (p<.001). Our studies provide the first evidence of moment-to-moment changes in expectations, and suggest that RPEs could be the mechanism behind the Near Miss Effect. Studying expectations' dynamics is critical given expectations' influence on cognition.
THINKING: Decision making
B
88
Luna Li, University of California, Santa Barbara
Evan Layher, University of California, Santa Barbara; Michael Miller, University of California, Santa Barbara
Strategic and Implicitly Reinforced Criterion Shifting in Recognition Memory: An Individual Differences Perspective
There are considerable individual differences in how much people change their memory decision criterion when motivated to do so. A more implicit form of criterion manipulation, the false positive feedback (FPF) paradigm, can also induce adaptive criterion shifts via selective reinforcement of false feedback to memory judgments. FPF-induced criterion shifting was proposed to be a distinct process compared to a strategic one, but no published studies to date have directly compared the two while accounting for individual differences. _x000D_
_x000D_
In three behavioral experiments with direct, within-persons comparisons, we found that strategic and FPF-induced criterion shifting are moderately correlated within the same individuals, but only when the explicit information provided in the strategic paradigm was genuine (not false/misleading). Results suggest that both strategic and FPF-induced criterion shifting may have been similarly driven by stable individual differences in criterion shifting tendencies, but with mixed evidence on whether feedback reinforcement was possibly a result of explicit, top-down strategizing. In a follow-up EEG study, we examine elements in memory decision-making where strategic and false feedback-reinforced criterion shifting may converge (and diverge), namely in effortfulness, error monitoring, (false) familiarity, and confidence.
THINKING: Decision making
B
89
Matthew Bachman, University of Toronto
Azadeh HajiHosseini, University of Toronto; Sophie Faessen, University of Toronto Cendri Hutcherson, University of Toronto
A neuro-temporal decoding investigation of multi-attribute decision making
Decision making frequently requires calculating and combining the different attributes of each option. Prior research has characterized the spatial distribution of multi-attribute decision making by applying machine learning algorithms to fMRI data. Notably, these studies have reported activation in perceptual regions, in addition to those more commonly involved in the calculation of value. However, fMRI's low temporal resolution has limited our ability to disassociate between the relative timing of perceptual and value signals. Our study fills this gap by applying machine learning algorithms to high-temporal resolution EEG data collected during a multi-attribute decision making task. To accomplish this, 40 participants first learned to associate different faces and colors with varying amounts of positive and negative values. Participants then saw combined face-color stimuli, which they had to accept or reject based on the summed value of the face and color attributes. These points were later converted into bonus money, thereby incentivizing participants to accurately accept positive total values and reject negative ones. Linear support vector machine classifiers were trained by the EEG data during the choice period to decode when it could significantly predict activation for each condition. Preliminary analyses indicate that both the perceptual and value attributes for faces and colors could be significantly decoded above chance. The integrated face-color value was relatively slower but tended to be maintained for longer periods of time. These results suggest a temporal distinction between the formation of perceptual and value signals in multi-attribute decision making that can be confirmed by further, in-progress analyses.
THINKING: Decision making
B
90
Samantha Gualtieri, University of Toronto
Amy Finn, University of Toronto
Now you see them, now you don't: Developmental reversals in a classic memory game
Children's ability to remember information is worse than adults' and improves greatly throughout childhood. Despite this, children often have more unique memories and outperform adults on certain tasks. One instance that has puzzled researchers is children's better performance in a classic memory game, Concentration. In this game, participants flip over two cards at a time and are tasked with uncovering a matching pair on the same turn. Although adults anecdotally report that children outperform them, the empirical evidence has not documented a consistent advantage for children. Though these mixed findings likely result from inconsistencies across methods, prior work has also overlooked the importance of search strategies on memory. Search strategies are likely crucial to performance as they determine which items are sampled or resampled, and these strategies are generally known to change across development and predict memory in adults. In the current study, we therefore examine if developmental differences in search strategies contribute to memory advantages in a sample of 4- to 9-year-old children and adults. We predict a linear increase in performance with age, with younger children (4- to 6-year-olds) taking the most turns, older children (7- to 9-year-olds) taking fewer turns, and adults taking the least number of turns to find all the matching pairs. We predict that younger children will tend to resample cards more than their older counterparts, and although this results in less efficient performance overall, it will benefit children's memories and lead to better memory for specific locations.
THINKING: Development & aging
B
91
Jillian Graham, Belmont University
Cassandra Morrison, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Inst.; Michael Oliver, Belmont University
Honey, you're thinking too much: An investigation into sex differences in Subjective Cognitive Decline
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative dementia characterized by progressive declines in cognition leading to behavioral changes affecting activities of daily living. These declines are associated with pathological changes, leading to neurodegeneration throughout the brain. Current research has been successful in identifying several risk (e.g., age, biological sex) and protective (e.g., education) factors for AD. Additionally, factors such as subjective cognitive decline (SCD) may be potential markers for early detection of disease progression. SCD is the self-reported experience of worsening memory and other cognitive function in individuals who otherwise have no objective cognitive decline. Moreover, SCD is considered a sign of preclinical AD since individuals who endorse SCD have been shown to have increased neurodegeneration (e.g., hippocampal atrophy) and risk of AD. Given the well-established disparities in cognitive abilities varying by sex, the purpose of this study was to investigate if the relationship between SCD and cognition differed by biological sex. 832 participants (636 females) obtained from the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, were followed over a 15-year period. Results revealed that women with SCD had significantly higher global cognition, episodic memory, and perceptual speed, and significantly lower perceptual orientation compared to men at baseline. Longitudinally, women exhibited significantly faster decline in all domains except working memory. Our findings suggest that SCD may be an early indicator of cognitive decline and that biological sex should be taken into consideration. Overall, these findings suggest that women may have increased AD-related pathology compared to men resulting in greater cognitive decline detectable via SCD.
THINKING: Development & aging
B
92
Savannah Campbell, Belmont University
Molly Georgas, Belmont University; Arwen Rolinitis, Belmont University Michael Oliver, Belmont University; Carole Scherling, Belmont University
Can your past predict your future behaviors? Investigating the Impact of Childhood Experiences.
Negative experiences in childhood are called Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), with research demonstrating higher ACEs correlating with negative attentional bias and higher physiological activity. While ACEs studies focus primarily on children and adolescents, emerging adults are understudied. This study investigated differences in hostility attribution biases between high and low ACEs in 44 emerging adults (age= 19.68 [1.43]). The Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire (AIHQ) presented scenarios with varying levels of fault and required participants to attribute fault intentions via a Likert scale. Measurements of pulse and skin conductance provided benchmarks of task engagement. It was hypothesized that ACEs would increase fault attribution, along with concurrent higher pulse and skin conductance responses. A DotProbe task aimed to reveal faster reaction times for angry faces in those reporting ACEs. Results did not reveal significant relationships between ACEs and fault attribution (r(42)= 0.233, p= 0.128). A main effect indicated higher pulse amplitude for high ACEs compared to low ACES on the AIHQ, regardless of fault attribution F(1, 44)= 5.66, p= 0.022. Last, a main effect revealed slower DotProbe reaction times for individuals reporting ACEs (413.7 [11.11]) compared to no ACEs (377.8 [12.5]), F(2, 44)= 4.61, p= 0.038), for both happy and angry facial stimuli. Although high ACEs revealed higher pulse reactivity when providing judgements, no concurrent cognitive appraisals of fault were revealed. However, ACEs reveal negative attentional biases, which seem non-modulatory of fault attributions. Such research is important to understanding effects of ACEs on behavior and biology, and to promote research in emerging adults.
THINKING: Development & aging
B
93
Nathan Petro, Boys Town National Research Hospital
Giorgia Picci, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Christine Embury, Boys Town National Research Hospital Lauren Ott, University of California - San Diego; Samantha Penhale, University of Florida; Maggie Rempe, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Yu-Ping Wang, Tulane University; Julia Stephens, Mind Research Network; Vince Calhoun, Georgia State University; Gaelle Doucet, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Tony Wilson, Boys Town National Research Hospital
Developmental differences in functional organization of multispectral connectivity
Assessing brain connectivity during rest has become a widely used approach to identify changes in functional brain organization during development. Generally, this work has demonstrated that brain activity shifts from more local to more distributed processing from childhood into adolescence. However, the majority of this work has been based on fMRI measures, whereas multispectral functional connectivity, as measured using M/EEG, is less well characterized. In the current study, we examined spontaneous cortical activity using MEG from 101 typically developing youth (9-15 years-old; 51 female) during eyes-closed rest. MEG source images were computed and connectivity was estimated in the canonical delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands using the imaginary part of the phase coherence, which was computed between 200 brain regions defined by the Schaefer cortical atlas. The resulting connectivity matrices were submitted to a Louvain-like locally greedy algorithm to segregate nodes into communities based on mesoscale edge-weights. Our findings indicated that delta and alpha connectivity matrices were divided into more communities as a function of increasing age. We used edge-wise regressions and permuted significance thresholds to assess age differences in these connectivity matrices. Connectivity weights predominantly decreased with age in both frequency bands, with delta-band differences largely implicated in limbic cortical regions and alpha band differences in attention and cognitive networks. These results are consistent with previous work where the brain shifts from a more local to distributed functional organization across development and highlight spectrally-specific changes in high-tier association cortex.
THINKING: Development & aging
B
94
Gaelle Doucet, Boys Town National Research Hospital
Jordanna Kruse, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Katrina Myers, Boys Town National Research Hospital Noah Hamlin, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Joanna Arch, University of Colorado Boulder; Jessica Andrews-Hanna, University of Arizona
Healthy aging impacts the construction but not the elaboration of social prospective thoughts
The default-mode network (DMN) supports imagining episodic future scenarios and its regional constitution changes over the lifespan. The aim of this study was to investigate the DMN during the generation of social prospective thoughts using functional MRI (fMRI) from adolescence to late adulthood. Further, we tested whether different life stages (i.e., adolescence, early adulthood, late adulthood) were associated with differences in the DMN activation while constructing and elaborating prospective thoughts. To do so, we recruited a total of 146 healthy participants (27 adolescents: mean(sd) age=14.86(2.07) years, 14 males; 79 young adults: age=24.26(3.44) years, 33 males; 40 older adults: age=62.20(6.31) years, 16 males). The social prospection fMRI task consisted of two runs composed of 27 pseudo-random scenarios, each. Scenarios shown were positive or negative social events, or a control (non-social) scenario to imagine. Participants were instructed to press a button immediately after constructing the scenario and elaborate for the remaining time (total: 11sec). There was no significant difference in reaction times to construct events between groups. As expected, the fMRI results showed activation in the DMN during social scenarios, compared to control scenarios, across all participants. However, older adults showed an overall reduction of activation in the whole DMN while constructing social scenarios relative to young adults. No other age differences were revealed, including during the elaboration phase. The present findings provide evidence that healthy aging impacts social future thinking, particularly the construction phase, and may help identify biological factors that influence the generation of social prospective thoughts.
THINKING: Development & aging
B
95
Jacek Grela, Jagiellonian University
Jakub Janarek, Jagiellonian University; Zbigniew Drogosz, Jagiellonian University Jeremi K. Ochab, Jagiellonian University; Pawel Oswiecimka, nstitute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences; Maciej A. Nowak, Jagiellonian University; Dante R. Chialvo, Universidad Nacional de San Mart?n
Do strokes affect the brain?s critical state? A theoretical perspective.
In recent tests of brain criticality in stroke patients, it was suggested that lesions cause a non-critical state of _x000D_
neural dynamics, and the critical state might subsequently be restored in parallel with a patient's post-stroke _x000D_
behavioral recovery (Rocha et al.). We propose an alternative interpretation in which the brain remains in the _x000D_
critical state at all times; however, as a result of a stroke, it may effectively become divided into two or more weakly _x000D_
connected regions, mimicking the lack of criticality. This interpretation is corroborated by toy simulations of the _x000D_
Ising model and a more realistic Haimovici-Tagliazucchi-Chialvo model based on the Hagmann et al.'s connectome _x000D_
with 'artificial strokes' performed by removing connections between two subsystems. In such models, standard _x000D_
indicators of criticality based on cluster size analysis are found to behave similarly to those in models based on _x000D_
real-world MRI scans of stroke patients. Our study suggests that the lack of the peak in the second largest cluster, _x000D_
signaling the loss of criticality, may be an artifact of the division of the original system into weakly connected parts.
THINKING: Other
B
96
Masayo Noda, Kinjo Gakuin University
Hiroki Tanabe, Nagoya University; Ayumi Yoshioka, National Institute for Physiological Sciences Masato Kimura, KONICA MINOLTA, INC
Neural substrates of loss: Comparing with the amount of financial losses
People need to adapt to situations in which they experience losses. The present study examined the neural substrates involved in judgments of monetary losses when the amount of price varies. Participants were asked to participate in a game of purchasing stocks while using a MRI scanner. In the experiment, participants received a financial loss in two ways, over four successive times and the equivalent amount of losses at just one instance. The brain regions were compared when the participants received the losses for the first time over four times (5-day condition) with the equivalent amount of losses at one instance (2-day condition). The results showed that significant brain regions for the 5-day condition as opposed to the 2-day condition was left central operculum. In addition, ROI analyses revealed that significant activation was observed in the left superior temporal gyrus and insula. In the 5-day condition, participants were received the losses for the first time over four successive times. It appeared that participants expected to receive sequential losses when they received losses for the first time. Therefore, the activation of the brain regions related to losses were observed. It is suggested that greater activation of those brain regions is found when people expect to receive subsequent losses compared to they receive substantial losses at one instance.
THINKING: Other
B
97
Lin-han Huang, National Taiwan University
Isu Cho, Brandeis University; Angela Gutchess, Brandeis University Joshua Oon Soo Goh, National Taiwan University
Cultural differences in resting-state functional connectivity of East Asian and Western brains_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_
An increasing number of studies demonstrate the presence of cross-cultural differences in _x000D_
brain structure and function that correspond to psychological differences. Specifically, neural _x000D_
correlates of holistic vs. analytic processing styles in East Asians and Westerners, respectively, _x000D_
are thought to reflect the influence of the respective sociocultural environments. Nevertheless, _x000D_
whether culture-related differences are present in brain resting-state functional connectivity _x000D_
(rsFC) remains unclear. In this study, we examined degree centrality, the strength of connection _x000D_
of each node with other nodes, in rsFC of 49 Taiwanese (24 females, mean (SD) age = _x000D_
23.18(2.32)) and 45 Americans (24 females, mean (SD) age =21.60(3.3). Participants underwent _x000D_
resting-state functional MRI in identical 3T Siemens PRISMA scanners across sites sampling the _x000D_
local communities. Whole-brain voxel-wise univariate contrasts demonstrated greater degree _x000D_
centrality in frontal and occipital lobes for the Americans compared to the Taiwanese. Evaluation _x000D_
of degree centrality t-value distributions revealed generally higher magnitudes with a narrower _x000D_
spread for the Americans in contrast to lower magnitudes with a skewed spread for the _x000D_
Taiwanese across various brain regions. We speculate that these findings reflect baseline brain _x000D_
functional connectivity differences corresponding to culture-specific information processing _x000D_
styles. Western analytic mindset emphasizes maintaining one dominant functional brain state at a _x000D_
time, leading to the formation of neural network hubs with singular stronger resonance with _x000D_
other areas. By contrast, East Asian holistic thinking emphasizes linkages between brain states at _x000D_
a given time, resulting in more distributed hubs in the brain with more asynchronous activities.
THINKING: Other
B
98
Dillon Plunkett, Harvard University; Northeastern University
Joshua Greene, Harvard University
Evidence for Crossmodal Translation of Complex Ideas in Left Lateral Posterior Temporal Cortex
Mark Twain is riding a kayak down the Great Pyramid of Giza. Even though you'd never read that sentence before, you immediately understood its specific, improbable meaning. Moreover, you can imagine that scene, despite never having seen it. This example highlights three defining features of human cognition. First, thought is compositional. We can combine familiar conceptual components in precise ways to build novel composite thoughts. Second, we can represent ideas in different formats-including both symbolic, language-like representations and depictive mental images. Third, the brain can translate complex ideas between representational formats. How does the brain accomplish this? We investigated using an individual-focused approach, collecting over 25 hours of fMRI data from each of three participants as they compared the meanings of ideas conveyed in images and sentences. We identified several cortical regions-most notably the left lateral posterior temporal cortex (LPTC)-that were preferentially engaged in each participant when they matched items across formats (i.e., matching sentence-to-image, versus sentence-to-sentence or image-to-image). Prior research has provided evidence for modality-independent semantic representations in LPTC, but those findings were compatible with modality-specific representations evoked by stimuli of both modalities. The present results provide stronger evidence for amodal representation, with increased activity specific to translation of composite ideas across formats. In follow-up MVPA analyses, we sought evidence for structured combinations of amodal representations (sentences in a 'Language of Thought', rather than just words), but found none.
THINKING: Other
B
99
Karen R. Konkoly, Northwestern University
Daniel Morris, Northwestern University; Remington Mallett, Northwestern University Ken A. Paller, Northwestern University
Experimentally inducing dream content during REM sleep to promote creative problem-solving
Dreams have been a source of inspiration and creativity for millennia. Investigations of the contributions of dreams to creativity, on the other hand, have been limited by the difficulty of experimentally manipulating REM-sleep dreams. However, a few studies showed that memory reactivation during deep sleep, or during sleep-onset dreams, can promote creativity. Here, we provoked dreams about unsolved riddles to test whether REM-sleep dreams can contribute to producing creative solutions the next morning or after a longer delay. We recruited individuals for overnight sessions who claimed to be frequent lucid dreamers (aware that they are dreaming during their dreams). Before sleep, they attempted to solve a set of riddles, each associated with a unique sound. Half of the sounds of the unsolved riddles were presented again, very softly, during REM sleep (when possible, during a lucid dream signaled by eye movements). Participants were told to attempt to solve a riddle if they heard its sound in their sleep. Dream content pertaining to a cued riddle was solicited in 8 of 14 sessions. Whereas it is well-known that sounds can be incorporated into dreams and change dream content, here we induced dreams for the specific goal of reactivating memories of pre-sleep experiences. Data from a larger number of dreamers is needed, but our results show that this methodology holds promise for clarifying the role of dreams in problem-solving, memory, and other aspects of waking cognition.
THINKING: Problem solving
B
100
Simone Luchini, The Pennsylvania State University
Roger Beaty, The Pennsylvania State University; Yangping Li, Shaanxi Normal University Hannah Merseal, The Pennsylvania State University
Excitatory transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been
Excitatory transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been shown to alter the temporal dynamics of creative idea generation, accelerating the process of producing original ideas. The executive control network, which includes the DLPFC as one of its main hubs, has also been linked to creative thinking via its functional connectivity with the default mode network. Yet whether executive and default network interaction may explain accelerated creative performance under tDCS remain unclear. In an ongoing combined fNIRS-tDCS study, participants are assigned to either a real stimulation (n = 15) or sham stimulation condition (n = 15), then complete verbal and visuospatial creative thinking tasks. Both groups complete two sessions, an initial baseline condition and a later online-stimulation condition, allowing us to examine within- and between-person differences. In the online-stimulation condition, excitatory tDCS is applied over the left DLPFC-with concurrent fNIRS recording neural activity within hubs of the executive and default networks-to investigate how causally activating DLPFC impacts creative performance and functional connectivity with the default network. Behavioral performance on the verbal and drawing tasks will be objectively assessed via previously validated machine learning techniques. At the behavioral level, we hypothesize that, compared to sham stimulation, left DLFPC stimulation will lead to higher quality ideas that are produced faster-extending past work on verbal creativity to visuospatial creativity. At the neural level, we hypothesize that left DLPFC stimulation will lead to stronger connectivity between other hub regions within the executive control and default mode networks.
THINKING: Problem solving
B
101
Dong Ho Kim, Drexel University
Julie Milovanovic, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Rosiejo Genzola, Drexel University Maddie Navea, Drexel University; John Gero, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Evangelia G. Chrysikou, Drexel University
Neural Correlates of Learning Preferences and Individual Differences in Design Fixation:_x000D_
Preliminary Evidence from Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)_x000D_
Problem solving in design is frequently susceptible to fixation, restrictions and mistakes introduced in the design process due to previous practice or examples, that often impede the generation of effective design solutions. Individual differences in learning tendencies during concept building might underlie one's susceptibility to design fixation. In this exploratory study, we investigated the impact of learning preferences and domain differences in design fixation. We hypothesized that an exemplar-based approach to learning-reflected in brain activity patterns-would reinforce the impact of examples in design tasks, by increasing the salience of the example design features relative to the abstract relationships that unite them. In contrast, an abstraction-based approach to learning-reflected in different patterns of neural activity-may emphasize the abstract design rules governing the example designs, thus offering protection from design fixation to their features. Based on prior literature, we further hypothesized that differences in domain expertise between mechanical engineering and product design would mitigate these effects. Mechanical engineering or product design students participated in two experimental sessions. In the first session, they completed multiple learning and individual differences behavioral assessments; in the second session, they underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan (fMRI) while completing learning and design tasks using a tablet compatible for the brain imaging environment. Participants' thought processes were also captured through concurrent verbal protocols during the scan. We discuss preliminary findings that reflect neural correlates of individual differences in design fixation.
THINKING: Problem solving
B
102
Valerie Klein, University of California Davis
Xuanjun (Jason) Gong, University of California Davis; Michael Andrews, University of California Davis William Weisman, University of California Davis; Richard Huskey, University of California Davis; Jorge Peña, University of California Davis; Sophia Sarieva, University of California Davis; Raymond Kang, University of California Davis; Ralf Schmälzle, Michigan State University; Jeffrey T. Hancock, Stanford
Collaborative Tasks And Intersubject Correlation: A Naturalistic Hyperscanning Paradigm Using AR Tangram and Muse EEG
Interactional synchrony, described as mirroring the actions or facial expressions of people we interact with, is linked with task performance. This phenomenon ties closely with inter-brain synchrony, which is when one's brain activity synchronizes with others' brain activities during social interaction. A commonly used method for studying these phenomena is EEG-based hyperscanning. We use ARTangram, a mobile-phone-based application that uses augmented reality to allow pairs of participants to simultaneously complete a naturalistic tangram shape-matching task. Tangram matching is a procedure that measures trust, mutual understanding, coordination, and partner impression. In this hyperscanning study, we recorded EEG data using the MUSE headset while pairs of participants completed three rounds of the ARTangram task. Intersubject correlation (ISC) was calculated for each electrode for each session in each pair of participants. Preliminary MANOVA results show that ISCs do not significantly vary between sessions for the electrodes. A regression model with ISCs, time spent on each session, and session as independent variables significantly explains task performance (number of correctly matched shapes; F(6, 31) = 3.051, p = 0.0183, Adjusted R2 = 0.25). Both AF8 ISCs (b = 18.160, se = 6.876, t = 2.641, p = 0.013) and session (b = 1.364, se = 0.573, t = 2.381, p = 0.024) have a significant positive effect on task performance. These preliminary results showcase that ARTangram performance increases are a function of session (performance increases over time) and ISCs in the AF8 electrode (which has previously been associated with linguistic processing).
THINKING: Problem solving
B
103
WITHDRAWN
B
104
Evie Touring, Drexel University
Taylor J. Orsini, Drexel University; Kent Hubert, University of Arkansas Maria Mukhanova, Columbia University; Evangelia G. Chrysikou, Drexel University
Effects of HD-tDCS Over Prefrontal and Parietal Cortex for Creative Thinking in a Real-World Object Use Task
Cognitive neuroscience studies of creativity typically employ divergent thinking tasks that prioritize bottom-up processes to generate novel responses. However, real-world creative problem solving is also guided by top-down thinking that puts an emphasis on the goal to be achieved. Here, we used the Alternative Objects Task (AOT)-a novel task designed to simulate real-world problem solving. Guided by functional neuroimaging findings, we employed high definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the left frontopolar cortex, as well as the inferior parietal lobule (precuneus), to investigate causally the impact of transient changes in activity in these regions for problem solving performance on the AOT. Participants were presented with a series of goals and generated either a common or an uncommon object that could satisfy each, while undergoing either excitatory (anodal), inhibitory (cathodal), or sham 4 x 1 high-definition tDCS at 1.5 mA over either left frontopolar cortex or left inferior parietal cortex. Analyses of variance on the effect of tDCS on response fluency, reaction times, and semantic distance revealed significant interactions between task and stimulation type across measures, highlighting complementary prefrontal and parietal cortex contributions to creative thinking.
THINKING: Problem solving
C
1
Marie-Anick Savard, Concordia University
Mickael L.D. Deroche, Concordia University; Emily B.J. Coffey, Concordia University
The effect of voluntary attentional control on emotional reactions to sound in people with and without misophonia
In the presence of trigger sounds, people with misophonia demonstrate exaggerated emotional responses and heightened autonomic arousal. In other contexts, top-down cognitive processes can modulate physiological arousal to emotional stimuli. Although recent findings have highlighted the importance of higher-level cognitive processes in misophonia, we have little insight into how these processes could be used to modulate misophonic responses. Attentional processes are a good candidate for a potential in-the-moment coping mechanism, especially given reports that individuals with misophonia sometimes attend to music to divert their attention from triggers. Here, we explored how physiological responses in misophonia could be modulated by selectively attending to dichotically-presented musical excerpts, or triggers. _x000D_
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Participants with misophonia and healthy controls completed a task in which they were presented with music (unfamiliar piano pieces) in one ear while neutral sounds, generally unpleasant sounds, or typical trigger sounds played in the other ear. During each trial, a visual prompt indicated which ear (left or right) participants should attend to. Measure of physiological arousal (i.e., pupil dilation, heart rate variability, skin conductance responses) were continuously recorded throughout the experiment. _x000D_
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We report differences in physiological responses in people with and without misophonia, as they selectively attend to trigger and control sounds presented simultaneously and separately. _x000D_
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Our study represents a first investigation of the effectiveness of voluntary attentional modulation on misophonic reactions. We aim to increase our insight into how high-level processes are involved in misophonia, and how they can be used to modulate problematic reactions.
ATTENTION: Auditory
C
2
Patrik Wikman, University of Helsinki
Viljami Salmela, University of Helsinki; Miika Leminen, Helsinki University Hospital Matti Laine, ≈bo Akademi University; Kimmo Alho, University of Helsink
Attentional modulation of spatiotemporal neural signatures during audiovisual speech processing
Recent studies using electrophysiological speech envelope reconstruction (SER) have renewed interest in the cocktail party phenomenon by showing that auditory neurons entrain to selectively attended speech. Yet, the full spatial and temporal scale of such neural effects in naturalistic audiovisual settings with multiple sound sources remain poorly understood. We collected functional brain imaging (fMRI; N = 19) and electroencephalography (EEG; N=19) data while participants viewed audiovisual video clips of lifelike dialogues with concurrent distracting speech in the background. Dialogues were presented in a full-factorial design comprising task (listen to the dialogues vs. ignore them), audiovisual quality and semantic coherence. For the fMRI data we conducted searchlight (6 mm2) pairwise decoding between all conditions. For the EEG data we estimated both temporal response functions (TRFs) and SER for each condition across the EEG channels. We replicated that SER accuracy was strongly enhanced by attention. However, the strength of attention related modulation depended on the auditory and visual quality of the dialogues and their semantic coherence. SER accuracy also showed distinct temporal modulation, rising towards the middle of the dialogue, and thereafter decreasing, corroborating previous fMRI results. Next, we used EEG-fMRI fusion, utilizing correlations between representational similarity matrices from the fMRI decoding analyses and the TRFs. This analysis showed that the bidirectional information flow from the auditory cortex to frontotemporal regions was idiosyncratic for the attended speech and the non-attended speech. Our results emphasize the dynamic nature of attention, with task-demands and task-automatization as important facets of attention related neural signatures.
ATTENTION: Auditory
C
3
Grace M. Desmond, Brown University
Romy Frömer, Brown University; Mingjian He, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Isaac Y. Kim, Brown University; William C. Heindel, Brown University; Elena K. Festa, Brown University
Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processes Underlying LC-NA System Activity Revealed by Simultaneous Pupillometry and EEG
This combined EEG/pupillometry study examined whether activity within the locus coeruleus-noradrenergic (LC-NA) system can be elicited by infrequent stimuli under both bottom-up (stimulus driven) and top-down (internally driven) conditions, indexed respectively by an auditory phasic alerting task and an auditory oddball task. The alerting task utilizes an infrequent, task-irrelevant tone presented shortly before the appearance of a target stimulus and is thought to reflect the integrity of bottom-up arousal processes, whereas the oddball task requires participants to respond to an infrequent, task-relevant tone and is thought to reflect the integrity of top-down monitoring processes. Thirty-one young adults between the ages of 18-25 years completed both tasks with 64-channel EEG recording. Event-related potentials (ERPs) for the P3a and P3b were examined for electrodes of interest along the frontal midline as a marker of top-down processing of stimuli. Pupil dilation was simultaneously recorded during both tasks as a marker of stimulus-evoked LC-NA activity. As expected, both the alerting and oddball tasks elicited increased pupil dilation in response to infrequent stimuli consistent with increased activity within the LC-NA system. Despite these comparable pupillary responses, however, the two tasks displayed distinct ERP profiles: In the alerting task, the behaviorally-irrelevant infrequent tone produced no significant modulatory effect on the P3a or P3b, whereas in the oddball task, the behaviorally-relevant infrequent tone significantly modulated the magnitude of the P3a and P3b. Taken together, these findings indicate that stimulus-evoked activity within the LC-NA system can be elicited by both bottom-up and top-down processes.
ATTENTION: Auditory
C
4
Yasra Arif, Boys Town National Research Hospital
Hannah Okelberry, Boys Town National Research hospital; Hallie Johnson, Boys Town National Research Hospital Madelyn Willett, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Alex Wiesman, McGill University; Tony Wilson, Boys Town National Research Hospital
Aging modulates the impact of cognitive interference subtypes on dynamic connectivity within a distributed motor network
The effects of interference on cognitive control are known to increase in healthy aging. Extensive research has investigated age-related declines in cognitive control in two well-known cognitive interference subtypes (i.e., Flanker and Simon). However, the majority of studies have focused on frontoparietal attention networks and far less is understood about the impact of advancing age on the motor response-related dynamics in the face of potential distractors. To study the effects of healthy aging on the interaction of these attention networks with motor circuity, we used an adapted version of the multisource interference task (MSIT) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 72 healthy participants (age range: 28-63 years). The resulting data were examined in the time‚?êfrequency domain using a beamformer for image reconstruction, and whole‚?êbrain spectrally constrained coherence was employed to map network-level connectivity. Our results indicated stronger beta connectivity between bilateral primary motor (M1) and right occipital cortices, as well as stronger gamma fronto-motor interhemispheric coherence during flanker interference with advancing age. Regarding Simon interference, stronger beta interactions were observed between left M1 and right temporal cortices and right M1 and left parietal regions as a function of increasing age. Finally, the superadditive effect of simultaneously presented interference subtypes (i.e., flanker + Simon) indicated weaker beta coherence between right M1 and left premotor cortices with increasing age. Together, these novel findings broadly suggest exhaustion of age-related compensatory adaptations in the fronto-parieto-motor network in instances of higher cognitive interference demands.
ATTENTION: Development & aging
C
5
Schea Fissel Brannick, Midwestern University
Nicholas Dovorany, Midwestern University; Arianna LaCroix, Purdue University
Differential effects of music on attention in aging adults
Attention is a foundational cognitive process that is susceptible to age-related deterioration. Research on healthy aging indicates that two of three attentional subsystems, alerting and executive control, are susceptible to age-related declines while orienting remains relatively preserved. In younger adults, listening to 'happy' classical music acutely improves cognitive performance, likely by increasing arousal and mood. However, few studies have explored the impact of such benefits for aging adults. This study explored the short-term effects of classical music listening on attention in 57 middle and older-aged adult participants. Participants were randomized to one of three between-subjects, 10-minute listening conditions: No-music (silence), happy-music, sad-music. We measured attention using behavioral (reaction time) and eye-movement (spontaneous eye-blinking) responses on the Attention Network Task, which we administered before and after the listening condition. Spontaneous eye-blinking patterns signal task demand/difficulty and the direction of attentional focus (internal/external). We predicted that happy-music, but not no-music or sad-music, would increase alerting and executive control. Compared to sad and no-music conditions, happy-music increased alerting attention, and unexpectedly, orienting attention, particularly for high-demand (incongruent) trials. Following happy-music, participants responded faster and deployed fewer attentional resources on alerting and orienting trials. Interestingly, sad-music improved executive control performance, especially on incongruent trials. The eye-movement data suggest that participants' attentional focus following sad-music listening was internally directed, which conferred performance benefits on executive control trials, particularly those requiring (internal) conflict resolution. Overall, our results suggest that happy and sad music increase different aspects of attention in older adults.
ATTENTION: Development & aging
C
6
Catherine Reed, Claremont McKenna College
Heather Shipley, Claremont McKenna College; Chandlyr Denaro, Claremont McKenna College Alison Harris, Claremont McKenna College; Alan Hartley, Claremont McKenna College
Influence of Aging and Cognitive Load on Alpha-band Oscillation
Nearly a century ago, the first human measurements of brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG) identified oscillatory neural rhythms over parietal cortex between the frequencies of 8 and 14 Hz-the so-called alpha rhythm. However, despite extensive research linking alpha-band oscillations to psychological processes such as controlled knowledge access and attentional selection, the extent to which alpha-rhythms vary across states (e.g., cognitive load) has remained subject to debate. In addition, changes in alpha-band oscillations have been associated with aging possibly as a result of white-matter degeneration in regions within the default mode network (DMN), but most of this work has examined resting alpha and not task-related alpha. Here we compared alpha-band oscillations across two different age groups, younger (n = 30; 18-30 years) and older (n = 30; 57-90 years), in terms of both between-group measures of alpha power and individual variation in peak alpha frequency (PAF). We measured alpha-band oscillations across four tasks associated with increasing cognitive load: resting with eyes closed, resting with eye open, passive visual oddball, and active visual oddball. Across tasks there appeared to be overall lower PAF and alpha power in the older age group. Age also appeared to interact with increased cognitive load (i.e., across tasks). Aging affects communication within the DMN as well as other areas of the brain used in task-related activities associated with attentional control. Age may also reduce the ability of the brain to modulate alpha-band oscillations to mediate ongoing internally directed cognitive processes.
ATTENTION: Development & aging
C
7
Nicolas Poirel, Université de Paris, GIP Cyceron, Institut Universitaire de France
Gaelle E. Doucet, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Creighton University School of Medicine; Jordanna A. Krusce, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Noah Hamlin, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Carole Peyrin, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc;
Neural correlates underlying local and global processing during visual search across adulthood
Visual processing relies on the identification of both local and global features of visual stimuli. While well investigated at the behavioral level, the underlying brain mechanisms are less clear, especially in the context of aging. Using fMRI, we investigated the neural correlates underlying local and global processing in early and late adulthood (N=77, aged 19-77). Participants completed a visual search task with hierarchical global/local stimuli made of squares and/or circles. Participants were instructed to detect a target (a square) at either a local (small) or global (large) level, in the presence or absence of other global/local distractors. At the behavioral level, older participants were slower than younger participants to detect local targets, specifically in presence of distractors. At the brain level, while both local and global processing were associated with occipital activation, local processing also recruited the anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, that are core regions of the salience network. However, while the presence of distractors in the local condition elicited specifically stronger activation within the right anterior insula for the young group, it was not observed for older participants. In addition, older participants showed less activation than younger participants in the occipital cortex for the most complex conditions. Our findings suggest that the brain correlates during global/local processing change with aging and are discussed in terms of top-down reduction effects from the saliency network on primary visual areas, that may lead to specific difficulties to process local visual details in older adults.
ATTENTION: Development & aging
C
8
Miriam Taza, McGill University
Taylor W. Schmitz, University of Western Ontario; Roni Setton, Harvard University Laetitia Mwilambwe-Tshilobo, McGill University; Gary R. Turner, York University; R. Nathan Spreng, McGill University
Age-Related Differences in the Relationship Between the Basal Forebrain Volume, Functional Connectivity, and Cognition
The basal forebrain (BF) comprises large cholinergic projection neurons that innervate the entire cortical mantle. Acetylcholine is involved in low-frequency sleep-wake cycles of alertness, in addition to a rapid modulation of cortical processes involved in attention. The cholinergic BF is impacted early in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. However, age-related differences in the relationships between BF structure, functional connectivity, and attention are poorly understood. Neuropsychological assessment of cognition, anatomical and resting-state multi-echo functional MRI were analyzed in a sample of 145 younger (mean age=22y, SD=3y) and 75 older (mean age=68y, SD=6y), cognitively intact, healthy adults. In older adults, BF volume was smaller than younger adults (p<.01) and was related to a measure of executive attention (self-ordered search), where larger BF volume was associated with faster reaction time (r =-.24, p<.01) and higher task accuracy (r =.23, p<.05), after accounting for sex, age, education, and intracranial volume. No associations were observed for episodic memory, vocabulary or processing speed (p's>.20). Age-group differences were also observed in a multivariate partial least squares analysis comparing BF connectivity with known cortico-cortical resting state networks (p<.001). In young adults, the magnitude of BF connectivity was higher in regions of the limbic, salience, and somatomotor networks. In contrast, older adults showed greater BF connectivity to regions of the default network. These results provide novel evidence that functional connectivity between the BF and neocortex changes with advancing age, and that these functional changes are related to BF structural integrity and executive attention.
The allocation of attention relies on coordinated neural activity distributed across different regions or networks. However, when dividing attention across multiple tasks, it is unclear to what degree task-specific dynamics are present in the overall network profile of the brain. Past work has largely explored how dividing attention influences modulation of activity in task-relevant regions. Here, however, we remove this stimulus-evoked component of the neural response and instead explore how intrinsic (background) functional connectivity during divided attention across tasks reflects individual, task-related processes. Specifically, participants were given three basic tasks involving visual (luminance change), auditory (tone change), or mnemonic (retrieved visual detail) information. These tasks were performed either in isolation (undivided attention) or paired concurrently (divided attention). Background connectivity analyses were then used to assess the pattern of connectivity present during undivided attention for each task and then compare that to cases of divided attention. We found that a model trained to classify single task background connectivity patterns during undivided attention could robustly decode the presence of both tasks during divided attention. Further, a model trained to predict behavior (accuracy) of single tasks during undivided attention successfully generalized to predict behavior when attention was divided. Together, these results suggest that background functional connectivity successfully captures single task brain-behavior relationships and that such relationships remain preserved when attention is divided across multiple tasks. More broadly, our findings are consistent with the notion that network-level interactions enable diverse attentional states, regardless of the number of attentional goals.
ATTENTION: Multisensory
C
10
Kira Wegner-Clemens, George Washington University
George Malcolm, University of East Anglia; Sarah Shomstein, George Washington University
Search efficiency scales with semantic relatedness in audiovisual contexts
Semantic information strongly influences attention in visual scenes. However, its role in audiovisual contexts remains unclear. Recent studies demonstrated that a task-irrelevant sound improves search for a matched visual target (e.g., hearing a bark allows participants to find an image of a dog more quickly). However, the extent to which a non-match but semantically related sound modulates attentional selection remains an open question. To elucidate the role of semantic processing beyond exact matches in audiovisual search, 109 participants searched for visual targets in an image array while a task-irrelevant sound played simultaneously. The task irrelevant sound could either exactly match the visual target or be one of 9 other sounds that varied in their relatedness to the visual target, as defined by a database of crossmodal semantic judgements (the Sight Sound Semantics database). As semantic relatedness between sounds and target images increases, search times decrease (r=-0.27; p=0.009). In prior studies, only sounds that exactly matched images increased search performance, which may reflect a prioritization of stimuli that co-occur in time and space (e.g., often when you hear a meow sound, you also see a cat so you prioritize all cat representations). Our results show that there is a graded effect of semantic relatedness, which means that sounds can modulate prioritization to images even outside of exact co-occurrence in time and space, suggesting a robust influence of semantic information across modalities than previously thought.
ATTENTION: Multisensory
C
11
Lindsey Hasak, Stanford University
Blair Kaneshiro, Stanford University; Trang Nguyen Grant, Stanford University Fang Wang, Stanford University; Alexandra Yakovleva, Stanford University; Vladimir Vildavski, Stanford University; Anthony Norcia, Stanford University; Bruce McCandliss, Stanford University
Steady-State EEG Measures How Directed Attention Impacts Audiovisual Integration of Letters and Speech Sounds
An early step in learning to read is integrating relatively new visual information - written letters - with familiar auditory information, speech sounds. Unifying this unique sensory information into one automatic representation is termed audiovisual (AV) integration. Neural traces of AV integration effects are impacted by bottom-up sensory information and top-down processes such as attention and language experience. The current study aimed to measure how changes in directed attention impact AV integration in English-speaking adults (n = 28). All conditions presented visual letter and speech sound pairs simultaneously at 2 Hz. In each condition, AV pairs were presented as either all congruent, all incongruent, or alternating between congruences at 1 Hz. Across conditions, participants were instructed to attend either to the visual or AV information and indicate a 1-back repetition while EEG was recorded. Both repetition tasks encouraged participants to attend to the stimuli without focusing attention on congruence. A data reduction technique, Reliable Components Analysis (RCA) was trained across the conditions to compute shared spatial components by maximizing trial-to-trial covariance. At 2 Hz, all conditions produced two maximally reliable components with topographies associated with visual and auditory processes, respectively. Preliminary results indicate that when attending to only visual information, the components do not significantly differ across conditions. However, preliminary results also suggest that the alternating condition drove a congruence effect at 1 Hz when participants attended to AV information. This data suggests directing attention to different sensory information impacts multisensory integration of letters and speech sounds in English.
ATTENTION: Multisensory
C
12
Elena Gherri, University of Bologna
Fabiola Rosaria Fiorino, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia; Cristina Iani, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Sandro Rubichi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
The allocation of attention in a tactile search task: the impact of set-size on the N140cc
Visual search studies have demonstrated that the time needed to find a target amongst distractors can increase as a function of the number of items in the search array (i. e., set-size). While the allocation of attention in a search task has been extensively investigated and debated in the visual domain, little is known about these mechanisms in touch. Initial behavioural evidence has reported conflicting results, with some studies showing increased response times as a function of set-size, while others reporting no such modulation. In the present study, to investigate the allocation of attention to potentially relevant stimuli we measured the N140cc during a tactile search task in which the set-size of the search array was manipulated. The N140cc is a lateralized component of event-related brain potentials recently described as a psychophysiological marker of attention allocation in tactile search tasks. Participants had to localize the target, a singleton frequency, while ignoring one, three or five homogeneous distractors. Results showed that error rates linearly increased as a function of set size, while response times were not linearly affected. Notably, the amplitude of the N140cc decreased as the number of distractors increased. While attention was systematically directed to the target in the 2-items array, search became increasingly unguided when the set-size increased. The increasingly variable allocation of attention to different items across trials with larger set-sizes resulted in overall smaller N140cc. Consistent with existing behavioural evidence, these findings highlight systematic differences between the visual and the tactile attentional systems.
ATTENTION: Other
C
13
Ido Davidesco, University of Connecticut
Sarah Gilmore, University of Connecticut; Charles Wasserman, University of Connecticut Kristin Simmers, University of Connecticut; Vaishnavi Sivaprasad, University of Connecticut
How Internal Attention Impacts Learning from Online Lectures
Maintaining attention for long periods of time (for example, during an online lecture) is challenging because attention, by its nature, is dynamic and often fluctuates between perceptually guided and self-generated thoughts (external and internal attention, respectively). This in-progress study examined the hypothesis that providing learners with opportunities to shift their attention internally during a lecture can improve their learning. To test this hypothesis, two pilot studies were conducted: (1) an online study with 42 undergraduate students recruited via Prolific; and (2) An EEG study with 9 undergraduate students. In both studies, participants watched one or two 30-minute pre-recorded science lectures, divided into six 5-minute segments. In the experimental condition, internal attention ('thinking') periods were inserted between lecture segments. During these periods, participants were instructed to quietly think about a lecture-related prompt for 60 seconds before typing their answers. In the comparison condition, participants were simply asked to press a button to advance from one lecture segment to the next. Preliminary results from the online study indicate that participants learned better from lectures interspersed with thinking periods compared to uninterrupted lectures, as indicated by their answers to open-ended pre-post test questions. Ongoing analysis of the EEG data demonstrates that EEG power in the alpha band (8-12Hz) was higher during uninterrupted lectures compared to lectures interspersed with internal attention periods. These findings suggest that providing structured opportunities for students to shift their attention internally can improve their overall attentiveness and learning.
ATTENTION: Other
C
14
Henri Etel Skinner, University of California, Santa Barbara
Riddhima Chandra, University of California, Santa Barbara; Barry Giesbrecht, University of California, Santa Barbara
Dissociating Sources of Sustained Attention Failures via Reward
[In Progress] _x000D_
The vigilance decrement is the characteristic decline in performance across time in sustained attention tasks (Mackworth, 1948). Overload theories propose this decrement is caused by a depletion of attentional resources (Smith et al., 2004), while underload theories propose the decrement is caused by waning motivation (Pattyn et al., 2008). Here we investigated the relative contributions of resource depletion and motivation to performance on a sustained attention task by introducing a monetary reward. Subjects viewed sequentially appearing grey-scaled images of faces and cars (800 ms) and made a discrimination response only to images appearing for a longer duration (1200 ms, 10% trials). Subjects received performance-based feedback after each ~5 minute block either in terms of points (no reward group) or money they would receive (reward group). The reward manipulation improved overall accurate target discriminations, but did not completely eliminate the vigilance decrement observed within a block. These results suggest that both resource depletion and waning motivation contribute to the vigilance decrement and are consistent with models that suggest sustained attention performance is determined by an executive allocation of attention that weighs both the motivational and resource dependent costs and benefits of sustaining attention to a particular task (Esterman et al., 2014). These results are now being replicated in an ongoing EEG study to relate these behavioral findings to neural correlates. The current hypothesis is activity in the alpha band will positively correlate with lapsing attention and will be attenuated overall in the reward condition (O'Connell et al., 2009).
ATTENTION: Other
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15
Johnny Dubois, University of Toronto
Marlie Tandoc, University of Pennsylvania; Amy Finn, University of Toronto
A little lapse (in attention) goes a long way: categorizing novel stimuli benefits from sustained attention failures
The ability to sustain attention underpins success in many abilities, from motor skills (like driving) to remembering words for a memory test. But are attentional lapses always bad? Our research (Decker et al., in press, PB&R) suggests that sustained attention lapses can actually boost learning for seemingly-irrelevant information. Here, we explore whether the benefits of these failures extend to category learning, since this knowledge can be used during encounters with novel information. _x000D_
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In our study, participants saw images of birds belonging to 6 categories. They were asked to report which direction the bird was facing (left versus right), and also to learn the category to which each bird belonged (in order to complete a subsequent categorization test). At test, participants saw images of birds from the same 6 categories (half novel, and half seen at study). For each image, participants were required to click on the name of the category that bird belonged to. _x000D_
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During study, we tracked trial-level fluctuations in sustained attention using a previously validated (Decker et al.) metric of mean reaction time on previous trials. Specifically, any trial with an RT more deviant than a participant's individual mean RT was labeled 'out of the zone'-reflecting a poorer attention state. Our metric of sustained attention was the percentage of trials each participant spent out of the zone. Critically, participants who spent more time out of the zone showed the best categorization ability for novel images. These findings suggest that lapses in attention provide learning benefits for categorical knowledge.
ATTENTION: Other
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16
Noah Reardon, The Ohio State University
Layla Unger, The Ohio State University; Vladimir Sloutsky, The Ohio State University
Incidental Exposure Optimizes Attention to Features that are Relevant to Category Membership
Categories simplify and help us interact with our environment. Most research on category learning has explicitly taught categories and found that adults selectively attend to the smallest number of features that determine category membership. However, much exposure to real-world categories occurs incidentally, without an explicit intention to learn. Moreover, categories are typically associated with clusters of features that occur together; for example, trees tend to have a trunk, branches, and leaves. Recent evidence suggests that incidental exposure improves subsequent category learning from explicit teaching. One explanation for this may be that attention is drawn to features that cluster together and are thus relevant to category membership. _x000D_
To test whether incidental exposure optimizes attention to relevant features, we tasked participants with learning to categorize unfamiliar creatures. Category membership depended on the appearance of a cluster of 'relevant' features. Critically, before this task, participants were exposed to the creatures during a simple game in either an Incidental condition, in which they saw creatures belonging to two categories, or a Baseline condition, in which they saw randomized creatures. Eye tracking was used to examine attention to irrelevant versus relevant features. _x000D_
Results suggest that participants in the Incidental condition began attending to relevant features during the exposure phase. Moreover, those who continued paying attention to these features excelled at category learning. In contrast, Baseline participants gradually refocused their attention to relevant features after being explicitly taught categories. This study provides evidence that incidental exposure optimizes attention to features that are relevant to category membership.
ATTENTION: Other
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17
Jason Samaha, University of California, Santa Cruz
Does spatial attention operate rhythmically? No evidence for behavioral oscillations in detection criterion or sensitivity.
Recent evidence suggests that spatial attention periodically vacillates between processing cued locations and exploring un-cued ones. Behavioral evidence for this effect has largely come from spatial cueing tasks where near-threshold targets are presented at varying densely-sampled time intervals following cue onset. Several studies have now observed that hit rates time series can fluctuate around a theta (4-7 Hz) rhythm, indicative of a rhythmic attention sampling process. However, under signal detection theory (SDT), changes in hit rates alone could either be caused by criterion shifts or sensitivity changes (d'). The goal of the present study was to tease apart the contributions of criterion and sensitivity effects to rhythmic attentional sampling by presenting near-threshold grating targets embedded in noise along with noise-only trials in order to compute SDT metrics. 30 observers underwent two testing sessions comprising over 53,000 trials of a cued spatial attention task with varying cue-target-intervals and 80% valid cues. Despite finding robust effects of attention on d' and reaction time, Fourier decomposition of the behavioral time series did not indicate the presence of any theta-rhythmic component in d' or sensitivity, nor in the more standard metric of hit rate. These results highlight possible task or analytical conditions to which theta-rhythmic attentional sampling may not generalize.
ATTENTION: Spatial
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18
Grace Wang, University of Toronto
Jed Meltzer, University of Toronto
Attentional Modulation of Functional Lateralization Biases with Verbal and Nonverbal Stimuli
Each brain hemisphere specializes in processing different types of information: words and language processing have a left-hemisphere advantage, whereas face processing and visuospatial attention have a rightward lateralization. However, it is difficult to predict lateralization patterns when presented stimuli engage with multiple functions lateralized across the hemispheres. The current study aims to investigate lateralized attentional biases across different stimuli, testing whether attention reorientation is effective at enhancing performance across hemispheres for verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Our online study employs the divided visual field paradigm and a modified 'Posner task' to investigate attentional modulation of hemispheric biases through either a face detection task or a lexical decision task. Our findings demonstrated the expected hemispheric dominance with the different stimuli, along with performance enhancement with valid spatial cueing. Surprisingly, the attentional cueing effects are more salient for meaningful stimuli (e.g., word and upright face stimuli), such that the cueing effect was strongly attenuated for pseudowords and upside-down faces. Similarly, hemispheric lateralization effects were stronger for 'real' stimuli. These findings indicate that both hemispheric lateralization and spatial cueing involve a top-down process, such that recognition of words and faces can be enhanced, but rejection of invalid word-like and face-like stimuli cannot. An improved understanding of the mechanisms behind hemispheric advantages can elucidate the significance of altered patterns of lateralization in neurological and psychiatric disorders.
ATTENTION: Spatial
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19
Marcia Grabowecky, Northwestern University
Patrick Zacher, Northwestern University
The time to shift attention is influenced by the number of shifts made
How quickly can we covertly shift the focus of visual attention? The existing literature has primarily focused on the minimum time to accomplish a single shift of attention, but does this estimate also apply to multiple shifts of attention? We measured the time of sequential attention shifts that did not require cue interpretation and controlled for stimulus processing time. We varied the number of attention shifts required to identify a target digit without increasing working memory load and used a staircase method to assess threshold shifting times in sequential shift and no-shift conditions. Results showed that shifting time in a sequence of shifts is dependent on the total number of shifts in the sequence. A sequence composed of a single shift of spatial attention (e.g., from a left to a right location) can be completed in about 124 ms, while each shift in an eight-shift sequence (e.g., L>R>L>R>L> R>L>R>L) requires around 300 ms to complete. The cost associated with an additional shift of spatial attention appears to asymptote in sequences requiring four or more shifts. Additional experiments showed that the number of shifts, rather than the distance travelled between shifts is a critical variable, and that shifts within a visual field are slower than shifts between visual fields. Data collected from Northwestern University undergraduates and from Tibetan Buddhist monks suggest that the way in which spatial attention is trained and used may also dramatically affect attention shifting times.
ATTENTION: Spatial
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20
Nadene Dermody, University of Cambridge
Romy Lorenz, University of Cambridge; John Duncan, University of Cambridge Alexandra Woolgar, University of Cambridge
Spatial and feature-selective attention interact to drive selective coding in frontoparietal cortex: data from healthy controls and focal lesion patients
Attending to a location (spatial attention) or to a particular object feature (feature attention) have distinct neural effects and are usually studied separately. Here, we asked how these types of attention interact to affect information coding in a frontoparietal 'multiple-demand' (MD) network posited to play a critical role in attentional control. Participants (N=30, 16 female, 14 male, mean age=27.2) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they covertly attended to one of two objects, presented left and right of a fixation cross (spatial attention manipulation), and reported the attended object's colour ('red' or 'green') or shape ('X-shaped' or 'flat') (feature attention manipulation) via button press. We used multivariate pattern analysis to quantify coding of attended and unattended stimulus information. We found a significant multiplicative interaction between spatial and feature attention on information coding in MD (F(1,30)=69.924, p<.001) and visual cortices (F(1,30)=17.304, p<.001). Moreover, stimulus decoding was above chance for only the attended feature of the attended object (BF10>100). We additionally found multivariate representations reflected both stimulus information and task difficulty along two orthogonal dimensions. Our results suggest spatial and feature attention interact multiplicatively, selectively enhancing coding of the attended feature of the attended object. Rather than boosting processing of whole objects or relevant features across space, selective attention in the MD system appeared to reflect all-or-nothing tuning to behaviourally relevant information. We are currently collecting data from patients with focal brain lesions to examine if and how this selective prioritisation changes after damage to the MD system.
ATTENTION: Spatial
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21
David Acunzo, University of Birmingham
Damiano Grignolio, University of Birmingham; Clayton Hickey, University of Birmingham
Electrophysiological indices of selective attention predict the quality of object representation in the lateral occipital cortex: a concurrent EEG-fMRI study
In human vision, selective attention acts to filter incoming information to make sure that downstream systems like decision making and motor control are not overwhelmed. This appears to involve target-centred mechanisms that act to accentuate information about attended stimuli, but also distractor-centred mechanisms that reduce information about salient unattended stimuli. Results from human electrophysiology suggest these target-centred and distractor-centred operations can be tracked in the N2pc and distractor positivity (Pd) components of the visual ERP. But the impact of these operations on brain dynamics is poorly understood, particularly in the case of distractor suppression. To test current interpretation of the N2pc and Pd, and to better characterize the neural mechanisms underlying these components, we measured EEG and fMRI concurrently as participants completed a simple visual search task involving natural stimuli categories (foods, vehicles, animals, tools). Using multivariate methods on the fMRI signal, we quantified the amount of categorical information represented in visual cortex and found that this was predicted by dynamics in the N2pc and Pd, as well as by associated univariate activity in the fMRI signal. The results provide a comprehensive picture of the neural systems supporting selective visual attention and novel insight on the role and mechanistic implementation of distractor suppression.
ATTENTION: Spatial
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22
Cheol Soh, University of Iowa
Cathleen Moore, University of Iowa; Nathan Chalkley, Universityof Iowa Jan Wessel, University of Iowa
Elucidating the role of subthalamic nucleus in the inhibitory control of attentional and perceptual representations
Unexpected perceptual events can interrupt active processing across different sensory modalities and cognitive domains, including visual selective attention. Visual selective attention can be indexed using the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP), which is an oscillatory EEG signal that is larger over parieto-visual cortices contralateral to attended visual stimuli. Our recent work (Soh and Wessel, Cerebral Cortex 2021) showed that the SSVEP to both attended and unattended visual stimuli is suppressed after unexpected sounds, and that this suppression is mediated by scalp-recorded activity from the same neural generator that is active during the stopping of movement. This suggests that the inhibition of both motor and attentional representations may share a neural mechanism. Here, we aimed to test this causally. In humans, the subthalamic nucleus (STN) of the basal ganglia is key to the inhibition of movement. We aimed to test whether inactivating the STN by using deep-brain stimulation in 16 Parkinson's patients would reduce the inhibitory influence of unexpected perceptual events on the SSVEP. A cross-modal SSVEP oddball task was performed twice, once with STN-DBS on (STN inactivated) and once without STN-DBS. We found that STN-DBS both increased the attentional tuning effect of the SSVEP and reduced the suppression of the (unattended) SSVEP after unexpected events. Together, these results suggest that modulating inhibitory control processes through STN-DBS has a significant influence on the dynamic control of active attentional representations.
ATTENTION: Spatial
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23
Mathieu Landry, Universite de Montreal
Jason Da Silva Castanheira, McGill University; karim Jerbi, Universite de Montreal
Early differential and later similar effects between exogenous and endogenous attention facilitate perception during visual processing
Exogenous and endogenous attention represent different forms of visuospatial attention: Whereas the former reflects involuntary shifts of attention following a salient event, the latter corresponds to the voluntary orienting of attention resources based on the goals and intentions of individuals. Previous work shows that these attention processes map onto distinct, albeit not fully separable, functional systems. Here, we investigated differences and similarities between exogenous and endogenous attention along the visual stream by combining spatial cueing tasks, electroencephalography, and multivariate pattern analysis. We aimed to determine when and where the effects of exogenous and endogenous attention were maximally different and maximally similar during the processing of a target event. We assessed similarity between them by examining whether classifiers trained to decode one form of attention generalizes to the other one. We observed that the maximal difference between them occurred early after visual inputs, while both attention processes yielded maximal similarity immediately thereafter. Using principal component analysis, we also performed single-trial event-related potentials analysis in the context of a mediation modelling to determine whether these early and late effects of exogenous and endogenous attention along the visual stream contribute to the facilitation effects observed at the behavioural level. This analysis confirmed that two components - an early posterior contralateral and a more anterior central one - contribute to shaping the cueing effects of exogenous and endogenous attention via early and late visual processing. These findings highlight that exogenous and endogenous attention operate via different and shared neural processes.
ATTENTION: Spatial
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24
Xiaoli Zhang, The George Washington University
Andrew J. Collegio, The George Washington University; Dwight J. Kravitz, The George Washington University Sarah Shomstein, The George Washington University
Uncertainty modulates task-irrelevant object representations in human early visual cortex
Recent behavioral evidence suggests that object representations constrain attention only when spatial location of the target is uncertain, making a direct prediction that spatial uncertainty should modulate the strength of object representations (Shomstein, Zhang, & Dubbelde, 2022). This prediction, however, is counter to the established 'binding' theories of attention postulating that binding an object's features necessitates selecting its location. To test this prediction, we obtained fMRI data and focused on changes in neural activity patterns in object-selective lateral occipital complex (LOC), spatial-selective intraparietal sulcus (IPS), and early visual cortex (EVC), as a function of spatial uncertainty. One vertically-shaped object was presented at the center of the screen. Two Gabor patches were superimposed respectively over the center fixation and one end of the object. Participants reported whether the patches' orientations matched. Uncertainty of the peripheral Gabor patch location was manipulated: (1) high uncertainty - target appeared 50% on either end; (2) low uncertainty - target appeared 75% on one end. Using multivoxel pattern analysis, we found that while task-irrelevant, object identities could be decoded significantly above chance in EVC. Critically, this decoding accuracy was higher in high than low spatial uncertainty condition. This finding runs counter to 'binding' theories positing that spatial attention automatically 'glues' and facilitates object representations. This discrepancy, likely coming from the task-irrelevant nature of objects in our study, suggests that current models of attention should be revised to incorporate contributions from task-irrelevant aspects of the environment which may dynamically interact with ongoing cognitive selection processes.
ATTENTION: Spatial
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25
Nursima Ünver, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey; University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Eren Günseli, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey
The effects of divided attention on long-term memory retrieval
Previous studies observed an asymmetry between the effects of attention on long-term memory (LTM) encoding vs. retrieval. While divided attention has resulted in decrements in encoding to LTM, it has minimal or no effect on retrieval performance. Several theories have been proposed to explain this asymmetry, suggesting that retrieval is automatic or differences between tasks are used for retrieval. This study examined another possibility that tasks requiring more precise representations may be more susceptible to detrimental effects of divided attention by using the continuous report paradigm. Participants (N=19) learned 180 object-orientation associations and retrieved those orientations in either divided attention or full attention conditions. Mixture modeling fit on error distribution has shown that under DA condition, guess rate was higher while the standard deviation remain the same. These results suggest that dividing attention during retrieval reduces the accessibility of memoranda while the precision remains intact.
ATTENTION: Spatial, LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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26
WITHDRAWN
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27
Natalia Wieczorek, San Francisco State University
Sarah Brauer, San Francisco State Univeristy; Jamie Bueno, San Francisco State University Ezequiel Morsella, San Francisco State University; Zaviera Panlilio, University at Buffalo; Anthony Velasquez, San Francisco State Univeristy
Stimulus-Elicited Involuntary Cognitions: Response Conflict, Habituation, and Word-Frequency Effects
Researchers have begun to investigate the subjective effects (e.g., urges, mental imagery) elicited in response interference paradigms such as the Stroop and Eriksen flanker tasks. In these tasks, trial-by-trial 'urges to err' (8-point scale) are strongest during trials featuring response conflict. We conducted a secondary analysis on the urges-to-err from a variant of the flanker task (n = 20) having both response conflict and conditional discriminations. A simple discrimination would be 'press red button when you hear a beep.' Conditional discrimination would be 'press red button only if you hear a beep AND see a flashing light.' Urges were stronger for conditional discriminations (M = 2.74 ms, SD = 1.61) than simple discriminations (M = 2.31 ms, SD = 2.93), F(1, 19) = 13.95, p < .001. We also developed task variants in which Stimulus X = Response A, and Stimulus Y = Response B, but the co-presence X and Y must yield Response C. Distractor stimuli can activate, not only urges but mental imagery (subvocalizations). Participants (n = 47) were presented with pairs of line drawings (e.g., DOOR and KITE) and instructed not to think of the name of any of the two objects. Subvocalizations were more likely for high-frequency names (e.g., DOOR, M = .81) than low-frequency names (e.g., KITE, M = .73), p < .001. We investigated whether these effects can habituate. These tasks, requiring only a button press on the part of the subject, are amenable to neuroimaging.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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28
Chia-Chuan Yu, The University of Texas at Austin
Suyen Liu, National Chung Cheng University; Darla Castelli, The University of Texas at Austin
Emotional Interference in Inhibitory Control among Violent Offenders
Inhibitory control is a crucial element of executive function that involves controlling prepotent actions. Violent behaviors have been linked to decreased motor inhibition, emotional dysregulation, and altered neuroelectric activities. However, the interaction between these impairments in violent offenders remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the neuroelectric responses and behavioral performance of inhibitory control among violent offenders using event-related potentials (ERPs) and an emotional stop signal task that consists of negative and neutral emotional conditions. This task adopted the images from the International Affective Picture System to induce emotional interference. Two ERPs components associated with inhibition (i.e. N2 and P3) and stop signal reaction time (SSRT) were compared between violent and non-violent offenders. Despite the visual inspection showing a greater P3 amplitude in the neutral condition among violent offenders compared to the non-violent group, statistical results revealed insignificant differences in ERPs components between groups and emotional conditions. Nonetheless, behavioral data showed a trend toward significant interaction between the factors of the group and emotional setting (p = .06). The post-hoc comparisons demonstrated that the difference in SSRT between emotional conditions was approaching significant for the non-violent group (p = .07) with a faster SSRT in the negative condition. Interestingly, although insignificant (p = .36), this pattern was reversed for the violent offenders. In conclusion, the declined inhibition and altered neuroelectric activity were not found in the current study, but our results suggested that the impact of emotional stimuli on inhibition might be changed for individuals who committed violent crimes.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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29
Byoung-Kyong Min, Korea University
Yukyung Kim, Korea University; Jeongwook Kwon, Korea University Je-Hyeop Lee, Korea University; Je-Choon Park, Korea University; Hyoungkyu Kim, Korea University; Jeehye Seo, Korea University
Improved inhibitory-control performance by out-of-phase transcranial alternating current stimulation between dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices
Transcranial current stimulation is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique used to enhance human cognitive function. In this study, we investigated whether a theta-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) with a phase lag between dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices improved inhibitory-control performance. Twenty-two healthy participants were recruited for this study. They were instructed to perform a Stroop task before and after the tACS treatment. The tACS was exposed for 9 minutes per session: one for the in-phase (0 degree) and the other for the out-of-phase (180 degree) between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). We analyzed the reaction times between the in-phase and out-of-phase conditions as compared with the no-treatment condition. We observed that both tACS conditions showed significantly reduced reaction times in the congruent condition (no-treatment, 679.1 ms; in-phase, 639.5 ms, t(21) = 2.31, p < 0.05; out-of-phase, 630.6 ms, t(21) = 2.99, p < 0.01). However, in the incongruent condition, only the out-of-phase condition yielded a significant reduction in reaction times (no-treatment, 732.9 ms; out-of-phase, 683.3 ms, t(21) = 2.28, p < 0.05). This finding may suggest that out-of-phase theta-frequency tACS between lDLPFC and dACC plays a disinhibitory regulation role across lDLPFC and dACC during the incongruent condition, resulting in enhancement of inhibitory task performance.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Lydia Dorokhova, Aix Marseille University
Kep Kee Loh, McGill University; Jean-Luc Anton, Aix Marseille University Julien Sein, Aix Marseille University; Bruno Nazarian, Aix Marseille University; Pascal Belin, Aix Marseille University; Elin Runnqvist, Aix Marseille University
Monitoring: tracing the evolutionary link from movement to cognition
While there is a large literature aiming at mapping the cognitive and neural substrates underpinning motor actions, movement monitoring specifically (enabling fluent and flawless motor actions) has received little attention. Here we examined monitoring of complex movements effectuated by two different body parts: hand and tongue movements. These two body parts are known to be evolutionarily important for tool manipulation and gestural communication (hand) as well as verbal communication (tongue). Investigating the monitoring of complex hand and tongue movements might be interesting to increase our understanding of how monitoring of complex actions such as speech and language have arisen as certain theories propose that such monitoring recycle mechanisms of motor control. In our experiment, participants produced recurrent movements in the fMRI scanner in 'free movement' and 'high monitoring' conditions ('move trying not to touch the fMRI bed/walls of the mouth'). We used 1) an exclusive masking procedure to highlight regions that were active for movement monitoring but not for movement alone; and then 2) an inclusive masking procedure to highlight regions that were active across both types of movement monitoring. _x000D_
Preliminary results indicate that both tongue and hand movement monitoring _x000D_
engaged frontal, parietal and cerebellar regions that have been argued to _x000D_
form a functional network enabling internal modeling. Both hand and tongue _x000D_
movement monitoring further engaged frontal regions previously linked to _x000D_
feedback control or conflict monitoring. These results support the hypothesis _x000D_
that mechanisms such as internal modeling and feedback control may have _x000D_
emerged gradually during evolution from simpler motor reflexes.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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31
Lauren Giuffre, Western University
Gianna Jeyarajan, Western University; Chloe Edgar, Western University Samantha Marshall, Western University; Azar Ayaz, Western University; Matthew Heath, Western University
Cerebral blood flow velocity and postexercise executive function benefits in nicotine vaping (In-Progress)
Since the introduction of electronic nicotine delivery systems nicotine consumption among adults has increased. Although the physiological effects of nicotine vaping are widely unknown, evidence indicates that chronic cigarette smoking alters cerebral blood flow (CBF) and is linked to long-term cognitive deficits correlated with pack years. Previous work has shown that an exercise-based increase in CBF reliably improves executive function (EF) in healthy young and older adults. The goal of this 'in progress' work is to determine whether a single bout of aerobic exercise differentially impacts CBF reactivity and postexercise EF in young adults with (vaping group) and without (control group) (>3 years) vaping behaviour. Participants (N=20/group) will complete three experimental sessions: (1) a VO2peak test to determine cardiorespiratory fitness and estimated lactate threshold (LT), (2) a 20-minute bout of moderate intensity aerobic exercise (i.e., 80% of LT) via cycle ergometer, and (3) a 20-minute non-exercise control. For both groups, vaping craving and EF will respectively be assessed via the Questionnaire of Vaping Craving and antisaccade task (i.e., a measure of executive function) at pre- and postexercise assessments. Transcranial Doppler ultrasound will provide an estimate of blood flow velocity through the middle cerebral artery. We hypothesize that the vaping group will show a diminished CBF reactivity to exercise compared to controls and that this will be linked to a decreased postexercise EF benefit. Moreover, we hypothesize following a single bout of exercise the vaping group will report a decrease in nicotine craving.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Zhennuo Wu, University of Chicago
Shashwath Meda, Hartford Hospital; Carol Tamminga, UT Southwestern Brett Clementz, University of Georgia; Matcheri Keshavan, Harvard University; Godfrey Pearlson, Yale University; Elliot Gershon, University of Chicago; Sarah Keedy, University of Chicago
Association between resting-state fMRI and inhibitory control among psychosis patients and healthy populations
Inhibitory control is a cognitive function that facilitates adaptive behavior and is often impaired in psychotic disorders. Prior resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) studies in healthy people have shed light on key brain regions for inhibition performance. It is possible, but untested, that the association between RS-fMRI and inhibition performance seen in healthy controls extends to psychosis and helps predict the range of performance observed. Such understanding helps characterize neural system alterations in psychosis, which are likely heterogeneous. We selected data from the RS-fMRI scans, and performance on a stop signal task (SST) administered separately from archival data. We plan to analyze local synchronization of spontaneous brain activity measured by regional homogeneity (ReHo) averaged within each of several regions-of-interest (ROIs) identified in prior studies as key for inhibitory control. From the SST, stop signal reaction time (SSRT) will be calculated using the horse-race model. We will perform correlation analyses between ReHo values and the SSRT, and test for differences in these associations between the patient and healthy groups. We expect to see positive correlations between SSRT and components of the default mode network (DMN) and bilateral inferior frontal cortex (IFC). We expect to replicate prior findings of key brain regions being significantly correlated with SST performance among healthy people. We expect these correlations to be significantly weaker for some psychosis subgroups with greater inhibition impairments. The difference in the correlation between groups suggests a potential effect of spontaneous brain activity to explain decreased inhibition performance in psychotic patients.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Folly Folivi, Mt. Holyoke College
Catherine Reed, Claremont McKenna College; Cindy Bukach, University of Richmond Jane Couperus, Mt. Holyoke College
Interrelationship Between Impulsivity, Error-Related Negativity (ERN) and a Behavioral Flanker Task: An Event-Related Potential Investigation
Impulsivity is a symptom associated with various psychological disorders (e.g. Moeller et al., 2001). Impulsive individuals are characterized by a lack of premeditation, risky decision-making, and preference for immediate rewards (Khemiri et al., 2021; Martin et al., 2009; Moeller et al., 2001). While research uses self-report (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale), behavioral measures (disinhibition/attentional paradigms), and event-related potentials (P3, N2pc, ERN) as measures of impulsivity, few studies have integrated these measures. This study aims to assess the interrelationship between impulsivity and the error-related negativity (ERN) using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and a behavioral flanker task. A population-based sample (n=232) of young adults completed the BIS-11 and completed a flanker task while event-related potentials were collected. Correlational analysis revealed that among the BIS subscales, the attentional impulsiveness subscale was significantly correlated with ERN amplitude, r(230)= .14, p = .032. Additionally, accuracy on the flanker task (which also assesses attention) revealed a trend towards a significant correlation with ERN amplitude, r(230)= .14, p = .079. When both measures were included in a regression analysis, it revealed that both measures were significant predictors of ERN amplitude, F(2, 229) = (3.63), p = .028, R2 = .03, R2Adjusted = .02. Further analysis revealed that while attentional impulsivity significantly contributed to the model, t(229) = 2.03, p = .044, the behavioral flanker task did not, t(229) = -1.60, p = .110. Consistent with previous findings, these results indicate that high impulsive individuals lack the ability to inhibit responses that are inappropriate in a specific environment.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Casey Imperio, CUNY: The graduate center
Elizabeth Chua, Brooklyn College
Brain stimulation at home: The effects of remote brain stimulation on memory and metamemory monitoring.
Assessing the contents of your memory, or metamemory monitoring, is important for learning and memory. Prior work showed improved metamemory accuracy with High Definition transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), using a semantic memory task with feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments. HD-tDCS was chosen for initial testing because it is more focal than conventional tDCS. However, with remote supervision (rs) participants can self-administer conventional tDCS, typically after initial in-office training. To maximize the flexibility of rs-tDCS, we attempted training over Zoom. Thus, the goals of the current study were to: 1) test feasibility of using Zoom-trained rs-tDCS at home for memory and metamemory tests, 2) test if conventional tDCS over the left DLPFC increases memory or metamemory accuracy in a semantic memory test, and 3) test if conventional tDCS over the right or left DLPFC increases memory or metamemory accuracy in an episodic memory test. Training sessions were conducted over Zoom, and 36/37 participants were successful at learning to use the tDCS device at home. Data collection is near completion, and 32/36 people completed all 6 rs-tDCS sessions. This study is double-blind to stimulation condition, and data collection is not fully complete. However, preliminary analyses based on visit order show matched recall and recognition performance for both the semantic and episodic tests. For metamemory, higher FOK ratings were given for correctly recognized trials compared to incorrect trials. We anticipate being able to unblind the data and analyze stimulation effects in early 2023.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Gianna Jeyarajan, University of Western Ontario
Lindsay Nagamatsu, University of Western Ontario; Matthew Heath, University of Western Ontario
Cerebral Hemodynamics During the Preparatory Phase of an Antisaccade Following Acute Aerobic Exercise
Inhibitory control is an executive function (EF) component responsible for suppressing a standard response and executing a volitional non-standard alternative. Antisaccades represent an exemplar inhibitory control task given the requirement to inhibit a standard response (prosaccade) and evoke a response mirror-symmetrical to a target. A single bout of aerobic exercise has been shown to decrease antisaccade - but not prosaccade - reaction times (RTs). This has been linked to an exercise-based increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF) that is thought to improve the efficiency of EF networks supporting antisaccades. To our knowledge, no studies have examined whether a single bout of aerobic exercise modulates the cerebral hemodynamic changes associated with the preparation of a directionally correct antisaccade. This in progress study will examine the preparatory phase hemodynamic response associated with prosaccades and antisaccades completed prior to and immediately following a 20-minute session of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, and will also employ a non-exercise control. For each saccade trial, a colour-coded central fixation indicating the nature of an upcoming response will be presented for 5 seconds after which a target will appear. During the interval between task and response cueing (preparatory phase) functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound will be used to measure middle cerebral artery blood velocity. Furthermore, prosaccade and antisaccade metrics will be measured via video-based eye-tracking. It is hypothesized that postexercise CBF will increase during the preparatory phase of antisaccades and that this cortical hemodynamic response will be correlated with the magnitude of a postexercise reduction in antisaccade RTs.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Athena May, University of Connecticut
Lauren Miller, University of Connecticut; Hannah Morrow, University of Connecticut Eiling Yee, University of Connecticut
Conditions of Control: Investigating the effect of individual differences in ADHD symptoms on efficacy of tDCS for improving inhibitory control
Does anodal tDCS over left prefrontal cortex improve inhibitory control? Previous evidence demonstrated contradictory results, attributed to variation in task used and stimulation parameters (Imburgio & Orr, 2018). Efficacy of tDCS may also depend on baseline inhibitory control. Individuals with ADHD often exhibit lower inhibitory control, possibly due to hypoactivation in prefrontal cortex (Smith et al., 2006). Anodal tDCS has been shown to improve inhibitory ability in ADHD patients, and this improvement is stronger for ADHD patients compared to controls (Nejati et al., 2020; Breitling et al., 2016). We examined the effect of anodal stimulation (montage: F3-RSO) over prefrontal cortex on inhibitory control, measured via Flanker and Stroop. Baseline Flanker and Stroop performances were measured pre-stimulation. Afterward, anodal or sham stimulation began (between participants), and participants repeated Flanker and Stroop during stimulation. Participants then completed an ADHD symptom questionnaire. Pilot data showed an effect of anodal stimulation on RTs for incongruent trials in Stroop; specifically, those who received anodal stimulation responded faster compared to sham. However, this pattern reversed when factoring in ADHD, such that those who received anodal stimulation and scored higher on the ADHD questionnaire were slower to respond to incongruent trials post-stimulation. Flanker results showed no difference between stimulation conditions in incongruent RTs, but there was a trend toward an interaction. Specifically, those who received anodal stimulation and had higher ADHD scores had faster incongruent RTs post-stimulation. If patterns persist, it suggests that enhanced effects of anodal tDCS on inhibitory control depends on baseline abilities and task.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Lian Buwadi, University of Western Ontario
Azar Ayaz, University of Western Ontario; Alma Darabad, University of Western Ontario Gianna Jeyarajan, University of Western Ontario; Matthew Heath, University of Western Ontario
Cortical Hemodynamic and Executive Function Changes Linked to Combined Exercise and Meditation Training
Executive function (EF) includes the core components of response inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, and is a high-level cognitive construct essential for activities of daily living. Convergent evidence has demonstrated that single bouts of aerobic exercise and meditation benefit EF and the former benefit has been linked to an exercise-based increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF) that improves the efficiency of EF networks. Interestingly, there is limited evidence examining whether an intervention combining exercise and meditation provides an additive EF and CBF reactivity. Accordingly, this in-progress study will examine separate 20-minute sessions involving: (1) moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, (2) guided breathing meditation, (3) combined exercise and meditation, and (4) a non-exercise and non-mediation control. Prior to and immediately following each session, EF will be assessed via antisaccades given their mediation via frontoparietal networks that show task-based changes following a single bout of exercise. Transcranial Doppler ultrasound will be used to measure blood velocity through the middle cerebral artery and will serve to determine whether putative EF benefits are linked to the magnitude of intervention-based change in CBF. In terms of a research prediction, if a combined exercise and meditation intervention renders a larger CBF change than exercise or meditation alone, then it is predicted that the intervention will be associated with the largest post-intervention benefit.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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WooTek Lee, University of Iowa
Jiefeng Jiang, University of Iowa; Eliot Hazeltine, University of Iowa
Decoding integration and generalization of hierarchical task representation.
Humans are able to learn countless complex tasks efficiently. Possible reasons for this efficient learning might include 1. The ability to integrate already learned simple tasks to learn new complex tasks, and 2. The ability to generalize tasks to learn new, yet similar tasks. Our previous research supported these two accounts with behavioral data (Lee, Hazeltine, & Jiang, 2022). However, how the neural basis of integration and generalization in task learning is not yet investigated. Here, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) signals while participants are learning simple and complex feature selection tasks. After applying representation similarity analysis (RSA) to preliminary EEG data (N=23), we found strong evidence of integration of already learned simple tasks to learn complex tasks efficiently. Additionally, future EEG analysis to test the generalization effect will be discussed.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Haley Keglovits, Brown University
Apoorva Bhandari, Brown University; Emily Chicklis, Brown University; David Badre, Brown University
Task structure shapes the geometry of control representations in PFC
Control representations in human PFC are posited to enable flexible mappings from inputs to outputs in diverse task contexts. However, the relationship between the geometry of PFC representations and the structure of the tasks is poorly understood. One hypothesis is that PFC representational geometry is optimized to increase separability along all possible axes of variance, allowing maximal flexibility of readout at the cost of poor generalization. Alternatively, PFC may learn specialized representations for each task with the geometry shaped by the task's structure. We tested these alternatives in humans using within-subject, deep-sampling fMRI and pattern analysis to uncover representational geometry in lateral PFC during two tasks with distinct rule structures. Across participants, the two tasks used the same stimuli and response options, but they differed in the rule structure that mapped stimuli to abstract categories. One task specified a hierarchical mapping, while the other specified a non-linear, flat mapping. Employing representational similarity and decoding analysis, we show a task's rule structure strongly influences the geometry of PFC control representations. For the hierarchical task, lateral PFC geometry was organized into distinct subspaces based on context (upper level of hierarchy). Separability within each subspace was preferentially enhanced along the axis encoding the context-relevant stimulus feature. In contrast, for the flat task, separability was enhanced along one dominant axis of variance that represents the latent rule-defined category. In summary, we conclude that task structure shapes the geometry of control representations in human PFC.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Isaac Y. Kim, Brown University
Elena K. Festa, Brown University; Grace M. Desmond, Brown University; Mingjian He, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; William C. Heindel, Brown University; Romy Frˆmer, Brown University
Distinct EEG markers of higher-level rule selection and lower-level response selection in a hierarchical cognitive control task
Humans can flexibly respond according to different rules in different contexts. The present study investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support flexible rule and response selection, respectively, within a complex hierarchical control task. EEG from thirty-two participants (18-25 years of age) was recorded while they viewed a series of colored digits. Depending on the color, participants either indicated whether the presented digit was odd or even (parity judgment rule) or whether it was greater or less than 5 (magnitude judgment rule). For some stimuli, the two rules required the same response (congruent trials), and for others, the two rules required different responses (incongruent trials). Consecutive trials either followed the same rule (repeat trials) or different rules (switch trials), and the frequency of switches varied by block (25% or 50%). Consistent with previous work, participants showed both switch and incongruency costs. They were significantly less accurate and responded slower on switch compared to repeat trials, more so when switch frequency was low, and for incongruent compared to congruent trials. These costs were associated with distinct neural signatures in event-related potentials (ERP). Switch trials evoked a greater N2 amplitude, which is sensitive to high-level rule mismatch detection, compared to repeat trials. Conversely, and consistent with sensitivity to competing rules providing conflicting evidence in response selection, incongruent trials evoked a blunted amplitude of the subsequent P3b compared to congruent trials. These findings highlight distinct, sequential cognitive and neural mechanisms along the response hierarchy that support flexible decision-making.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Nathan Caines, University of California Santa Cruz
Megan Boudewyn, university of California Santa Cruz; Cameron Carter, university of California Davis
Enhanced Attentional Control during Stroop Task Performance: a tDCS Study
INTRODUCTION: The current study aimed to test the hypothesis that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) targeting the prefrontal cortex (PFC) will enhance attentional control, leading to reductions in attention lapse rate during a cognitive task. Attentional control refers to the ability to maintain attention on-task, which we consider to be part of an expanded model of cognitive control supported by PFC. _x000D_
METHODS: We examined error rates and self-reported attentional state while participants completed the Stroop task, after receiving 20 minutes of 2 mA PFC-targeted tDCS, compared to sham, using a within-participants design (N=29). _x000D_
RESULTS: We observed a significant effect of tDCS on both of these measures. Specifically, reduced error rates on congruent trials were observed following active stimulation compared to sham. In addition, the effect tDCS on self-reports of attentional state significantly interacted with Stroop task block, such that on-task behavior was increased following active stimulation compared to sham in early task blocks, but was reduced in all tDCS conditions in later task blocks. _x000D_
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that PFC-tDCS can reduce behavioral markers of attention lapsing on the Stroop task, such as the error rate for congruent trials (in which errors may be largely attributable to lapses of attention), as well as self-reported lapses of attention in response to attention probes presented during task completion. These results are in line with a growing literature that suggests that PFC-tDCS enhances cognitive control processes we consider to be closely related to attentional control, including the maintenance of task-relevant goals over time.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Pria Daniel, University of California San Diego
Anastasia Kiyonaga, University of California San Diego
Beta oscillations in task switching (BOTS): Evidence for a clear-out role of sensorimotor beta
Cognitive flexibility is critical for adaptive function. Experimental tasks that require regular switching between stimulus-response rules (i.e., task switching) are a proxy for this ability. Beta oscillations (12-30 Hz) are implicated in cognition and action, but theoretical perspectives on the beta contribution to switching are inconsistent. A 'clear-out' framework predicts that beta flushes prior task-set rules and supports switching, while a 'status-quo' framework predicts that beta maintains prior rules and supports stability. We adjudicate between these perspectives in a scalp EEG study, where we take advantage of the established post-movement beta rebound (PMBR) in contralateral sensorimotor cortex after a response. If task-set rules are held in sensorimotor working memory, we predict that beta dynamics in sensorimotor cortex will track with switch performance. If beta power precedes faster switching, that suggests a clear-out role, but if it precedes slower switching, that suggests a maintenance role. Here, participants respond to number stimuli using one of two rules, indicated by a color cue, and we manipulate the proportion of switch trials across blocks (25%, 50%, 75%). We find that better switch performance on the current trial is preceded by stronger PMBR from the previous trial. This is consistent with a 'clear-out' role for sensorimotor beta to facilitate switching. This interpretation is further corroborated by our observation that blocks with more frequent switching have more PMBR overall. This work will help clarify the elusive role of beta oscillations in complex cognitive processing, and in clinical disorders marked by switching deficits and pathological beta.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Rhiannon Cowan, University of Utah
Tyler Davis, University of Utah; Bornali Kundu, University of California, San Francisco; John Rolston, Harvard University; Shervin Rahimpour, University of Utah; Elliot Smith, University of Utah
Flexible encoding of working memory representations in human neuronal populations
Maintaining goal-directed behaviors relies on the ability to update actions based on fluctuating contexts. This requires optimization of working memory (WM) processes to update target representations and ignore irrelevant stimuli. While cognitive frameworks use executive functions to explain goal maintenance, less is known about neuronal representations of WM, particularly how the brain encodes pre-defined targets and changes as a function of task rules. We hypothesize that performance is modulated by task difficulty, which is reflected via differences in neuronal firing rates (FR) in associated brain areas. Furthermore, pre-cue brain states may modulate goal orientation and pre-cue salience may modulate outcomes. Human neurosurgical patients (N = 12) performed an N-Back task with affective stimuli (M = 490 ± 193 trials per participant) during intracranial microelectrode recordings. We examined FR responses to emotional and neutral stimuli across N-Back blocks. Accuracy significantly decreased as task difficulty increased between one-Back (M = 86.0 ± 13.8 %) and two-Back (M = 39.9 ± 19.4 %), (p?< .001), and zero-Back (M = 98.8 ± 2.6 %) and two-Back (p < .01); no differences were seen for stimuli affect. We recorded 91 total units (M = 7.6 ± 5.1 per subject) and found FR differences between target and distractor stimuli and encoding for pre-defined and sequence-based targets in right anterior hippocampus, orbital frontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex. The findings suggest the importance of these brain regions for preferential encoding of pre-defined and sequence-based target stimuli and highlight the involvement of theta phase activity in goal-directed behavior.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Atsushi Kikumoto, Brown University
Apoorva Bhandari, Brown University; Kazuhisa Shibata, RIKEN Center of Brain Science; Takahiro Nishio, RIKEN Center of Brain Science; Sara Matsui, RIKEN Center of Brain Science; Saki Homma, RIKEN Center of Brain Science; David Badre, Brown University
Conjunctive Control Representations Expressed in a Stable and High-dimensional Representational Geometry Lead to Efficient Action Selection
Flexible action selection depends on cognitive control processes that map similar inputs to different output actions by integrating goals and contexts. Thus, control representations must reliably disambiguate similar neural states and make task-critical information available to downstream readouts for specific actions. This process will be limited by features of the neural computations, including its geometry and dynamics. Here, we assessed how controlled actions are influenced by the representational dimensionality and the temporal stability of a dynamic control representation by applying several kinds of time-resolved decoding analyses to EEG. Participants performed a rule-based response selection task with a response-deadline that provided variable preparation time intervals before a response. Shorter intervals forced subjects to make responses at premature stages of neural trajectories for action selection. We tested the hypothesis that a temporally stable, yet high-dimensional, representational geometry provides a stable subspace to prepare conjunctive representations of all relevant task variables (stimulus, rule, and response). These conjunctive representations in turn facilitate rapid and reliable action selection. Specifically, responses made before stabilization cannot take full advantage of enhanced separability provided by high representational dimensionality and will be more likely to produce errors. We found that encoding of conjunctive subspaces of task variables was strongly enhanced by the expansion of representational dimensionality. Furthermore, early development of a more stable and higher dimensional representational geometry led to faster and more accurate action selection. These results provide evidence that highly separable yet temporally stable dynamics in coding of action representations are important for efficient goal-contingent action selection.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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Ziqi Zhao, Brown University
Rachel Ratz-Lubashevsky, Brown University; Michael Frank, Brown University; David Badre, Brown University
Neural system supporting selective gating in working memory
Selective working memory (WM) gating is thought to be an important process for managing information in WM in order to support flexible behavior. Selective input gating chooses information to be maintained in WM and updates it to specific locations in memory based on its role. Selective output gating prioritizes information from specific locations in the WM to guide behavior. Neural network models of selective working memory gating highlight canonical cortico-striatal circuits as important for selective WM gating. Further, this gating system is structured hierarchically in order to address multiple levels of task contingency and employs shared computational principles across the hierarchical levels. Previous studies support the general association of gating with cortico-striatal circuitry, but its predictions regarding selective gating have yet to be fully tested. Here, we tested hypotheses regarding selective working memory gating:(1) selective input and output gating are associated with activity in cortico-striatal systems, and (2) different cortico-striatal loops are associated with gating at different levels of hierarchical contingency. To test these hypotheses, we scanned human participants with fMRI while they performed the Continuous Memory Gating Task that permits manipulation of selective input and output gating at multiple levels (Rac-Lubashevsky and Frank, 2021). We observed that fronto-parietal control networks and striatum were active for selective input and output gating demands. Further, manipulation of different gating demands at different hierarchical levels was associated with distinct fronto-parietal networks previously associated with hierchical control. These findings provide novel, specific support for the cortico-striatal model of hierarchical selective working memory gating.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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Alyssa Guthrie, Duke University
Alyssa Sinclaire, Duke University; Rachael Wright, Duke University; Elizabeth Marsh, Duke University; Gregory Samanez-Larkin, Duke University; R. Alison Adcock, Duke University
Reframing Error Reduces Learning Deficits From Prediction Error in High Anxiety Individuals
Mistakes are inevitable; however, we can learn from mistakes to refine knowledge. Prediction error (PE) is a surprise signal that drives neural systems for learning. Anxiety can disrupt learning, memory formation, and test performance. We predicted that individuals with high state anxiety would show abnormal patterns of learning from PE, particularly if they experienced failure at the beginning of a task. However, we predicted that a brief pre-learning intervention-a message that reframed mistakes as opportunities for learning-would mitigate the harmful effects of anxiety. To vary whether participants experienced failure before an upcoming task, we manipulated whether the practice questions were easy or difficult. Next, participants read one of three messages: the Positive message described how errors are beneficial for learning, the Negative message was a warning about accuracy, and the Neutral message was the control condition. Afterwards, participants completed a trivia learning task; we defined PE as confidence in an incorrect answer before feedback was revealed. Participants then completed trivia memory tests after a short delay (N=214) and a one-week delay (N=194). Anxious participants struggled to prioritize learning from surprising feedback; the effect of PE driving learning was weakened, especially after the difficult practice trivia. However, the Positive message strengthened the effect of PE on learning, especially for individuals with high anxiety. Overall, we found that anxiety disrupted learning from error, especially after early experiences of failure, but a novel learning mindset intervention rescued these deficits. This study has practical applications for improving learning experiences for high-anxiety students.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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Amanda Martinez-Lincoln, Vanderbilt University
Andrea Burgess, Vanderbilt University; Laurie Cutting, Vanderbilt University
Individual differences in executive functions predict neurocognitive differences in discourse processing of narrative versus expository texts
Reading comprehension requires the integration of reading-specific (word decoding, language comprehension) and domain-general skills (executive functioning, EF) [1-6]. The recruitment of EF during reading may be due, in part, to variations in task demands and individual differences. For instance, expository texts may require additional EF resources compared to narrative texts, which typically are easier to comprehend than expository texts, even when matched on text features such as word frequency, sentence length, etc.. [7]. EF is also associated with reading such that individuals with low reading ability tend to exhibit poor EF [8, 9]; additionally, poor readers may rely more greatly on EF as a compensatory mechanism for reading skills [10], yielding a complex interaction between EF and reading. The current study aimed to examine the role of EF in reading narrative versus expository texts. Behavioral and brain imaging data were collected for 34 children (M=9.41 years; SD=0.36 years) to determine whether children's executive functioning influenced regional brain activity distinctly for narrative versus expository text. Preliminary findings indicated a group difference between children with low EF versus children with high EF for expository text compared to baseline in EF-related brain areas, including right DLPFC. However, there were no group differences for narrative texts, suggesting that distinct types of texts vary in their neurocognitive demands. Findings from the current study can inform theoretical models of reading comprehension and, in turn, inform the development and implementation of effective interventions that address students' specific academic needs.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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Xavier Celaya, Arizona State University
Alexis Torres, Arizona State University; Samuel McClure, Arizona State University; Gi-Yeul Bae, Arizona State University; Leonardo da Silva Barbosa, Virginia Tech; Terry Lohrenz, Virginia Tech; Thomas Twomey, Virginia Tech; Seth Batten, Virginia Tech; Gene Brewer, Arizona State University; Read Montague, Virginia Tech
Using Machine-Learning Enhanced Voltammetry to Assess Dopaminergic Signaling During Working Memory Gating & Maintenance
Dopaminergic signaling is proposed to be critical for gating items into working memory and for maintaining representational content over delays in the presence of distracting information. However, the role of dopamine in working memory has yet to be fully understood due to measurement limitations in humans. The use of fast-scan cyclic voltammetry augmented with machine learning enables researchers to track neuromodulator release in awake humans with sub-second temporal resolution. Specifically, using this technique affords researchers the capability to record dopamine responses at 10hz thereby providing a more precise characterization of phasic and tonic dopamine release in cortical areas that have been associated with working memory gating and maintenance functions. In the present study, we recorded dopamine release in the lateral anterior cingulate cortex of medication-resistant epilepsy patients during the performance of a visual working memory task. Here we report the relation between phasic and tonic dopamine release in the anterior cingulate cortex during encoding and delay periods of the task as a function of set size (2, 4, or 6 items) as well as conditionalized on correct and incorrect responses. The goal of this ongoing project is to collect and model direct dopamine recordings during delay periods of canonical working memory tasks to better characterize the role of phasic and tonic dopamine release in working memory.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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Kaitlin Lord, Vanderbilt University
Annick Tanguay, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Sharice Clough, Vanderbilt University Medical Center Ryan Miller, Vanderbilt University; Devron Burks, Vanderbilt University; Melissa Duff, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Sarah Brown-Schmidt, Vanderbilt University
Conversational memory in aging
Although numerous lab-based memory tests show age-differences in memory for specific events (i.e., episodic memory), the presence and severity of memory deficits are variable and context-dependent. Assessing memory using naturalistic tasks is critical for identifying the functional impact of age-related memory changes in everyday life. One such task is dyadic conversation which is central to social participation, relationship maintenance, and serves as a major source of information. In this study, 18 dyads composed of an older adult (the target) and a familiar adult communication partner (e.g., spouse, child, friend) engaged in a 15-minute unscripted conversation (Target: M age = 74.44, SD = 5.14, range: 65-82, Partner: M age = 63.28, SD = 15.02, range: 31-83). Targets and partners recalled the conversation separately after no delay. All scored ‚?• 23 on a screener for mild cognitive impairment, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Older adult targets accurately recalled M = 14.78% (SD = 4.54) of the conversation. Only about half of older adult targets' recall was accurate; the other statements were added information, meta-comments, summaries, and inaccurate recall. Overall participants demonstrated the benefits of generation effects regardless of age; participants were more likely to recall what they said than what they heard in the conversation. Interestingly, MoCA score and age interacted: Both a lower MoCA score and older age predicted poorer recall, but some older adults with better MoCA scores performed as good or better than younger participants. These findings demonstrate that conversational memory could be sensitive to cognitive impairment in aging.
LANGUAGE: Development & aging
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Lauren Russell, Georgetown University
Jana Reifegerste, Georgetown University; Michael Ullman, Georgetown University
Why do we have such difficulty recalling people?s names as we get older? A neurocognitive hypothesis
We have increasing difficulty recalling people's names as we get older. However, the reasons for these declines have been unclear. We propose that they may be largely explained by declines in declarative memory and its neural correlates, particularly the hippocampus. This hypothesis (DAD: Declarative Aging Deficit hypothesis) is motivated by two lines of research. First, lexical knowledge is learned in the medial temporal lobe (MTL; at least until the knowledge undergoes neocortical systems consolidation), with particular reliance on the hippocampus when knowledge is tested with recall (vs. comprehension), including for proper names. Second, declarative memory and the MTL decline with age, especially recall (vs. comprehension) and the hippocampus. Thus, DAD predicts particular declines for lexical abilities that depend on the hippocampus, that is, for recall (vs. comprehension), especially before knowledge has undergone systems consolidation (e.g., for names learned more recently). We asked 90 native U.S. English speakers aged 18-84 to name pictures of 120 famous people (30 people famous before 1930; ten famous people from each decade from 1930-2010). Unlike in previous studies, overall proper name recall did not decline with age. Instead, there was a positive effect of age on recall accuracy for names from early decades (e.g., pre-1930s, 1930s, etc.), which became increasingly negative for names from the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, crucially controlling for which names were known to individual participants. Thus, consistent with DAD, older adults were better than younger adults at naming people from earlier decades, while the reverse was true for more recent decades.
LANGUAGE: Development & aging
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Tengwen Fan, Louisiana State University
Will Decker, Louisiana State University; Julie Schneider, Louisiana State University
Domain-Specific Neural Profiles of Statistical Learning of Speech and Tone in Young Children
Statistical learning (SL) is the ability to extract regularities from the environment and is considered foundational to early language acquisition (Kuhl, 2004). However, our understanding of how SL is represented in developing brains is severely lacking, despite evidence that auditory SL is detectable as early as 8-months (Saffran et al., 1996). The present study aims to identify the functional neural profiles of auditory SL of linguistic and non-linguistic regularities among children. Thirty children (Mage = 6.45 years, SDage = 1.05 years) completed an auditory fMRI SL task containing interwoven sequences of structured and random speech/tones (Schneider et al., 2020). Group-Constrained Subject-Specific (GCSS) analyses were conducted to identify brain regions supporting SL while simultaneously addressing inter-subject variability (Julian et al., 2012; Fedorenko et al., 2010). Conjunction analyses were conducted to explore whether regions engaged during linguistic and non-linguistic SL overlap. Processing of structured versus random speech sequences resulted in activation of the cluster of left Superior Temporal Gyrus/Angular Gyrus, right Cerebellum, right Superior Temporal Gyrus, right Inferior Frontal Gyrus, and right Frontal Pole in 60% or more of children. The left Frontal Pole and Cingulate Gyrus were activated for structured versus random tone sequences in 60% or more of children. Conjunction analyses failed to identify any region that was activated across both domains. These findings are the first to identify brain regions supporting SL of linguistic and non-linguistic regularities in the developing brain. Interestingly, regions did not overlap across both domains, indicating auditory SL in young children may be domain specific.
LANGUAGE: Development & aging
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Philip Lai, University of Nebraska Kearney
Language and Communication in School-age Children with Cortical and Subcortical Brain Injuries
Children with early brain injury provide a unique opportunity to study the neural basis of communication. Few studies have investigated the social phenotypes of these children during school-age as the majority of studies occur before the age of 6. The purpose of this study is to explore if children with left (LHI) or right hemisphere brain (RHI) injury are similar in how they behave/communicate at school age or are they more similar to their typically developing (TD) peers. The children studied are between the ages of 7-14 and the dataset includes a 7?10-minute interview from 7 LHI children, 8 RHI children, and 8 TD children. Within the early brain injury group are 4 children with subcortical brain injury and 11 without any subcortical injuries. The procedures included coding social interactions using Eudico Linguistic Annotator software to observe various communicative behaviors. Results showed that LHI children did not talk as much as the other two groups, a result similar to adults with Broca's aphasia. A second result found that subcortical damage, rather than Broca's area or Wernicke's area resulted in more communicative deficits. Interestingly, the children with subcortical damage struggled with producing gestures compared to peers with no subcortical damage. Lastly, the TD children performed well in producing facial expressions, whereas children with brain injuries had delays/deficits. Insights from this study adds unique knowledge to our understanding of communication as well as contribute to better-informed treatment methods in the future.
LANGUAGE: Development & aging
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Mingyu Yuan, UC Berkeley
Mingyu Yuan, UC Berkeley
An Information-Theoretic Approach to Language Decline
Progressive cognitive decline is accompanied with impairment in language processing. Detecting cognitive decline from linguistic behaviors has become a challenging yet promising research direction. Grounded in information theory, this project proposes that information density of speech predicts different stages of cognitive decline. This project analyzes transcribed speech data of the cookie-theft picture description task from the Pitt Corpus, which includes data from controls (N=243), patients diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Decline (N=43), Possible Alzheimer's disease (N=21), and Probable Alzheimer's disease (N=236). Information density of speech is operationally defined as Kolmogorov Complexity (KC) and Surprisal. The former measures the complexity of a text, approximately represented by the ratio between the original file size and the file size after compression. A text with redundant and repeated words, which are likely speech errors, would result in lower ratio as compression removes repetition. The latter is based on the contextual probability of an upcoming word given the context. A text with speech errors would have lower word-by-word predictability as a speech error is not likely to occur in a coherent, grammatical, and meaningful utterance. For each participant's response to the task, KC and mean surprisal of all words in the response were computed. Two linear mixed-effects models were built with age, gender, diagnostic type as predictors and participant as random intercept. Results show that diagnostic type is a significant predictor of KC (p=0.03) and surprisal (p<0.001). Follow-up research is ongoing to see if complexity and predictability at utterance level would suggest any meaningful predictions.
LANGUAGE: Development & aging
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Emily M. Akers, San Diego State University
Katherine J. Midgley, San Diego State University; Phillip J. Holcomb, San Diego State University Karen Emmorey, San Diego State University
The effects of intent to learn: the neural response to highly iconic signs in hearing non-signers
Iconicity refers to the overlap in mapping between the form of a word or sign and its meaning. Prior studies have shown that iconicity effects are task dependent. Here we examined the hypothesis that intent to learn the meaning of a sign would differentially impact the event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded to highly iconic and non-iconic American Sign Language (ASL) signs. The iconic signs were all transparent (easily guessable) for non-signers (e.g., DRINK looks like the act of drinking from a cup). Hearing non-signers watched a series of video clips of iconic (n = 50) and non-iconic (n = 50) signs and were asked to detect an occasional (12% of trials) grooming gesture (e.g., rubbing hands). Two groups who were naÔve to ASL participated. One group knew they would go on to learn the meaning of the 100 signs, while the second group had no expectation to learn. There were effects of iconicity in both groups, but those with an intent to learn the signs showed a greater negativity to iconic signs starting at 400ms after video onset compared to non-iconic signs across the posterior half of electrode sites. The group without an intent to learn showed smaller and later (starting ~800ms after video onset) iconicity effects across only the far posterior electrode sites. We interpret greater negativity for iconic than non-iconic signs as indicating more semantic processing for iconic signs. Thus, the intent to learn the ASL signs increased sensitivity to the meaning of iconic signs.
LANGUAGE: Lexicon
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Jacklyn Jardel, San Diego State University
Jamie Reena, San Diego State University; Emily M Akers, San Diego State University Phillip J Holcomb, San Diego State University
ERP Masked Priming Effects in Covert Spatial Attention
Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies report reduced N250's (orthographic access) and N400's (lexico-semantic processing) when target words are repeats of the preceding masked-prime word compared to unrelated targets and masked-primes. The current study investigates masked-priming with a cued covert spatial attention paradigm. Participants fixate their gaze on a cross in the center of the screen, then focus their peripheral attention to a cued location either above or below fixation where a brief masked-prime and subsequent visible target word is displayed, all while maintaining their gaze fixated on center-screen. Randomized consonant strings were shown in the alternative location. Participants are instructed to press a button for occasional animal 'probe' words to monitor their engagement with stimuli. We are interested in ERP differences among repetition trials (prime and target are the same) and unrelated trials (prime and target differ). In an earlier experiment, participants were shown validly-cued primes and targets for half of the trials, and invalidly-cued primes with validly-cued targets in remaining trials. Typical N250 and N400 priming effects were obtained when primes and targets were both in the cued location, but these effects weakened when only the target was validly cued. In the current experiment, half of the trials utilize validly cued primes and targets, while the remaining half invalidly cue both the prime and target. Preliminary results show similar N250 and N400 effects for both the valid and invalidly cued trials, suggesting cue validity had no effect and participants spread attention across the two possible prime/target locations.
LANGUAGE: Lexicon
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Niels Schiller, Leiden University
Shaoyu Wang, Leiden University
Processing grammatical features in a second language: behavioral and ERP evidence
Speech production includes the translation of semantic concepts into words that can be articulated. The relationship between words is often marked by means of grammatical features, such as grammatical gender, number, or - in Mandarin Chinese - classifiers. Classifiers are used to categorise the words in the lexicon. The production of nouns in some contexts needs to be preceded by noun-class specific classifiers, similar to articles in Germanic languages. This study investigated the processing of lexico-syntactic classifier features in Dutch (L1) late learners of Mandarin (L2). Dutch native speakers overtly named pictures and produced noun phrases in their L2 Mandarin while their EEG was monitored. We manipulated two factors, i.e., classifier congruency and semantic relatedness, in a picture-word interference paradigm. Our results demonstrated faster naming in classifier congruent and semantically unrelated conditions compared to classifier incongruent and semantically related conditions. Electrophysiological data yielded N400 effects, in the classifier incongruent relative to the congruent condition, and in the semantically unrelated relative to the related condition, in line with the behavioral results. These findings suggest that Dutch late learners of Mandarin were sensitive to grammatical feature processing during noun phrase production in their L2.
LANGUAGE: Lexicon
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57
Yun-Han Hsu, National Taiwan University
Janice Fon, National Taiwan University; Chia-Lin Lee, National Taiwan University
Perception of Onset Sibilant Variants in Taiwan Mandarin: An ERP Study
Although previous behavioral studies on pronunciation variants showed a canonical form advantage, claiming that canonical forms are processed faster than variants [e.g. Pitt (2009)], results of Chuang and Fon (2011) on Mandarin sibilant variants sided more with Sumner and Samuel (2009) in that visual words were processed slower following infrequent variants than frequent variants or canonical forms. This study further examines when variant frequency effect emerges during the early stages of processing using the ERP technique. Forty-two native speakers viewed 120 sibilant-initial words following their auditorily presented canonical or variant pronunciations. An analogous set of 60 nonexistent pseudo-variants was also included as a reference. Results showed that, relative to the canonical pronunciations, infrequent and pseudo, but not frequent, variants elicited larger N400 responses at the audio stimuli, suggesting greater effort in lexical access for both. Nevertheless, responses to subsequent visual words showed enhanced P2 for both frequent and infrequent variants relative to the canonical forms, but no such difference was found for N400 responses, indicating elevated attention following both variants but similar semantic facilitation from the audio stimuli for both types of variants and their canonical forms after a short delay. By contrast, responses to visual words following the pseudo-variants showed enhanced P2 and LPC, reflecting attention and conscious recollection of the prime-target relationship. Our findings thus suggest that the variant frequency effect observed in the behavioral study by Chuang and Fon (2011) emerges during lexical access prompted by variant pronunciation, and is quickly annihilated after visual presentation.
LANGUAGE: Lexicon
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58
Yaqiong Xiao, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience
Yaqiong Xiao, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience; Aiwen Yi, Foshan Fosun Chancheng Hospital Lu Song, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience; Peng Wang
ERP evidence of lexical-semantic processing in preschool children with language delays
Lexical-semantic processing is a critical language ability acquired by the first few years of life. While this language skill has been extensively explored in typical and at risk infants and toddlers, and school-age children with atypical language development using the Event-Related Potential (ERP) technique, no ERP evidence has been provided for preschool children with language delays. To fill in the gap, in this ERP study, we investigated the neural mechanisms underlying lexical-semantic processing in a cohort of Chinese preschool children (4 ± 1.2 years; range: 2-6 years) with and without language delays (TD: n = 20; LD: n = 17) using a picture-word matching paradigm, during which pictures were displayed followed by the matched (M) or mismatched (MM) word. We found significant group x region interactions in both early (200-400 ms) and middle time windows (400-700 ms). The post-hoc t-tests showed significant group difference (TD vs. LD) in the left posterior region in middle time window. Further, the analysis of power spectral density revealed significant group difference (TD vs. LD) in theta power in the right frontal region. These findings suggest both atypical semantic processing (as indexed by reduced N400 effect) and atypical fundamental cognitive ability (i.e., attention, as indexed by decreased theta power) are associated with language delays in preschool children examined here. Our study provides preliminary neural evidence for atypical lexical-semantic processing in preschool children with LD, which offers new insights into early interventions for language delay in this population.
LANGUAGE: Lexicon
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59
Nathaniel Braswell, Claremont McKenna College
Megan Zirnstein, Pomona College
Investigating the dynamic influences of bilingual language regulation and physiological regulation on domain-general cognitive control
Much of the literature on bilingualism and cognitive control assumes that experience with negotiating cross-language competition, due to parallel activation, will lead to changes in domain general cognitive control ability. However, recent work (Zirnstein et al., 2018; Kroll et al., 2022) suggests that there may be individual differences in bilinguals' ability to regulate the parallel activation states of their languages. In addition, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that physiological self-regulation (as indexed by changes in heart rate variability) predicts performance on cognitive control tasks (Colzato et al., 2018; Forte et al., 2019). In this study, we investigate (a) the potential relationship between bilingual language regulation (as indexed by a blocked picture naming task) and physiological self-regulation, and (b) how these two regulatory measures collectively influence domain-general cognitive control ability. ECG data was recorded from Spanish-English bilinguals who completed a picture-naming task-measuring inhibition and disinhibition of the first language (L1)-and the Dot Pattern Expectancy task (DPX), a braille version of the AX-CPT (Jones et al., 2010; Otto et al., 2014). Auditory tones on incorrect DPX trials induced a mild stress response, from which measures of physiological self-regulation were derived and compared to ECG recording of rest periods before and after administration of the DPX. Results indicate that performance on the DPX was predicted by both bilingual language regulation and physiological measures. This suggests that the literature on bilingual language control should be expanded to include the dynamic relationship between physiological self-regulation and regulation of the activation states of multiple languages.
LANGUAGE: Other
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60
Zhanao Fu, University of Toronto
Philip Monahan, University of Toronto, University of Toronto Scarborough
Asymmetric late discriminative negativities reveal multiple levels of specification in speech sound representations
The brain appears to represent speech sounds with features that correspond to phonetic properties. Features group speech sounds into classes, e.g., the feature [high] groups high vowels (e.g., [? ?]) relative to non-high vowels (e.g., [? ?]). A common method to investigate features in the brain is the oddball paradigm. Different speech sound classes with opposite feature values can elicit asymmetric neurophysiological responses in oddball paradigms, e.g., mid vowels may elicit a larger response relative to their high counterparts; these asymmetries are typically observed in the mismatch negativity (MMN) or the late discriminative negativity (LDN). Such asymmetries have been accounted for by assuming that one of the feature values is underspecified; however, previous studies have only investigated two levels of specification in phonemes. It is unclear whether the brain supports multiple levels of specification. Using an oddball paradigm in EEG with native English-speaking participants, we examined three English vowels [? ? ?] that need to be differentiated with at least two binary features. We assessed whether there are asymmetries in the pairs [? ?] and [? ?]. Results indicate that the mid-front vowel [?] elicits a smaller LDN amplitude when paired with the mid-central vowel [?] and a larger LDN amplitude when paired with the high front vowel [?]. As such, the brain appears to represent vowels with multiple levels of specification ([?] > [?] > [?]), and the more peripheral a vowel is, the more specified it is.
LANGUAGE: Other
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61
Tania Delgado, University of California, San Diego
Seana Coulson, University of California, San Diego
Investigating the role of compositionality in an artificial language: An event-related potential study
Words of a language demonstrate regularities that are functionally systematic. To address how this systematicity may have emerged, researchers have simulated the evolution of language in the lab by asking participants to learn an artificial language, reproduce what they have learned as best as they can, and transmit it to new learners. Here we investigate how compositional structure impacts the brain response to words in an artificial language learning task. The meaning space of the artificial language consists of short animations of moving shapes, whereas the signals of the language were a subset of the words generated in a widely cited iterated language learning study. Half of the words in our artificial language were randomly generated and lack systematic relationships to other words, while the other half 'evolved' after generations of transmission and demonstrate morphological structure. We collected scalp-recorded EEG while participants view training sets of signal-meaning pairs and perform a match-vs-mismatch classification task. We will compare the event-related potentials (ERP) elicited by the unstructured versus structured words in matching and mismatching contexts. If a morphological system is more learnable, we expect to find smaller N400 mismatch effects on the unstructured words than for the structured words whose morphemes relate systematically to the meaning space. The results of this study will address how morphological structure impacts language learning and may illuminate the roles of learning and transmission in the emergence and evolution of linguistic structure.
LANGUAGE: Other
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62
Brennan Terhune-Cotter, San Diego State University
Katherine Midgley, San Diego State University; Phillip Holcomb, San Diego State University Karen Emmorey, San Diego State University
The Influence of Parafoveal Words on Foveal Word Processing in Deaf Readers
Evidence for simultaneous processing of multiple words in parallel has come from parafoveal-on-foveal (PoF) orthographic integration effects elicited using flanker paradigms, which observe changes in ERPs to rapidly presented words in the fovea depending on the identity of words which flank the target word (i.e., appear on either side). Flanker studies have not yet been used with the deaf population; however, studies have shown that deaf people have a wider perceptual span across the visual field in both reading-based and nonlinguistic tasks. Such an attentional reallocation may influence higher-level reading behavior by amplifying the perceptual influence of parafoveal words. We conducted a lexical decision task in which the central target word was sometimes accompanied by flanker words which were either identical to or different from the target item; ERPs of deaf signers were compared to hearing non-signing controls matched on age and reading skill. Both groups exhibited robust PoF effects (increased negativity for different vs. identical or no flankers) starting around 200ms, but the groups did not differ with respect to flanker modulations for the N250 and N400 components, which respectively reflect sublexical and lexicosemantic processing. The N250 PoF effect appeared slightly earlier for the deaf group. A follow-up study is underway to assess whether a group difference in PoF effects will arise if flankers are presented further in the visual periphery, within the zone of eccentricity in which orthographic processing differences have been reported for deaf and hearing readers in eye-tracking studies (e.g., Belanger et al., 2012).
LANGUAGE: Other
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63
Chanyuan Gu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Ping Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
The neural basis of naturalistic expository reading in bilinguals: evidence from inter-subject synchronization pattern
In realistic scenarios, reading is more complicated than single-word or single-sentence reading commonly used in previous studies. However, there has been little discussion about the neural basis of naturalistic reading in bilinguals. The current study leveraged the naturalistic neuroimaging approach to examine neural responses toward naturalistic reading. We recruited fifty-two native English speakers and Fifty-six Chinese-English speakers to read expository texts in English. We adopted the fixation-related fMRI methodology to obtain simultaneous eye movements and BOLD signals so that participants were able to perform a self-paced reading task. Inter-subject correlation (ISC) analysis that measures the neural response consistency via correlating BOLD signals across subjects was applied to reveal brain synchronizations. Our findings found that 1) During naturalistic reading, the two groups both showed significant brain synchronizations in widespread brain regions located in bilateral frontal, temporal, occipital, and parietal lobes; 2) Compared with native English speakers, Chinese-English speakers exhibited greater brain synchronizations in regions implicated in memory retrieval and attentional control, including the bilateral inferior temporal gyri, the right middle temporal gyrus, the posterior parietal cortex, the left middle frontal gyrus; 3) Compared with Chinese-English speakers, native English speakers exhibited greater brain synchronizations in regions associated with lower-level language subprocesses and higher-level language comprehension, consisting of bilateral occipital regions, the left postcentral gyrus, the right insula, and the left middle temporal gyrus. Taken together, bilinguals engage more neural resources to cope with the requirements of executive function during naturalistic text reading, which may further limit available neural resources supporting language processing.
LANGUAGE: Other
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64
Mio Yokoi, National rehabilitation center for persons with disabilities
Kouji Takano, National rehabilitation center for persons with disabilities; Tomoki Uno, National rehabilitation center for persons with disabilities Kimihiro Nakamura, National rehabilitation center for persons with disabilities
Neural systems for phonology contribute to the act of writing
Phonological knowledge plays a pivotal role in most aspects of language processing, but it remains unclear whether it is required for writing. This is especially the case for phonologically opaque writing systems, e.g., Japanese logograms (kanji), where each character represents several different sounds. The present study used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate whether left-hemisphere neural systems associated with phonology contribute to the act of writing. Participants orally named target pictures ('naming') or wrote down their names ('writing') while they received single-pulse TMS at the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) associated with articulatory codes, supramarginal gyrus (SMG) associated with letter-to-sound translation or superior temporal gyrus (STG) associated with speech perception. Each target was preceded by a syllabic character (kana) prime which represented the initial syllable of the target name or a different syllable. By manipulating the phonological overlap between primes and targets, we measured the impact of TMS on facilitatory effects of phonological priming for each task for each site. In preliminary analyses, we found that TMS of PMv, as well as that of SMG, disrupted phonological priming during naming. By contrast, writing in kana was disrupted by TMS of SMG, whereas writing in kanji was impaired by TMS of STG. These findings suggest that neural systems for phonology contribute to word production differentially according to the functional demands of tasks and support the view that phonology plays a non-specific modulatory role to enhance neurocognitive systems involved in reading and writing.
LANGUAGE: Other
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65
Sophie Jano, University of South Australia
Zachariah Cross, University of South Australia; Alex Chatburn, University of South Australia Matthias Schlesewsky, University of South Australia; Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, University of South Australia
Expecting the unexpected: A reanalysis of a multi-laboratory study with an investigation of prior word surprisal
Recent accounts suggest that the perceptual processing of language is facilitated by the prediction of upcoming information. However, how predictions are represented in the brain, and the extent to which prediction underlies linguistic processing, is unclear. The present study sought to examine the neural activity relating to prediction during sentence comprehension, via a reanalysis of Nieuwland and colleagues' (2018) replication of DeLong et al. (2005). Participants (n = 356) were presented with article/noun sentence continuations that varied according to word predictability whilst their electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. The present reanalysis measured frontal event-related potentials preceding the critical words, post-word N400 patterns, and inter-individual differences in intrinsic neural activity. Lexical surprisal was calculated as a measure of word predictability using Generative Pre-trained Transformer-2 (GPT-2). Linear mixed-effects regressions revealed larger N400 amplitudes to surprising nouns for those with low individual alpha frequencies (IAFs), suggesting that such individuals may be more inclined to update their predictive models as compared to high IAF individuals. Exploratory analyses supported DeLong et al.'s (2005) findings, revealing greater N400 amplitudes to articles with high versus low surprisal. This relationship was weakened when the surprisal of the two prior words increased, suggesting that repeated exposure to surprising information may prompt the brain to 'expect the unexpected.' These findings have important implications for existing neurocognitive models of language, by suggesting that prediction should not be studied in isolation. Rather, individual neural factors and the accumulation of predictability over time should be accounted for.
LANGUAGE: Other
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66
Holly Zaharchuk, The Pennsylvania State University
Abby Walker, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Janet Van Hell, The Pennsylvania State University
Tracking the time-course of cross-dialect comprehension with ERPs: Comparing Southern and Mainstream US-accented speech perception
Listeners use social context to adapt to variation in speech. Despite this adaptability in speech perception, research with mono-dialectal speakers of Mainstream US English (MUSE) has demonstrated a consistent advantage for within-dialect (D1-D1) communication over cross-dialect (D1-D2) communication in terms of accuracy, speed, and cognitive effort. However, since bi-dialectal speakers with substantial exposure to more than one dialect are understudied. it is unclear whether the within-dialect advantage is due to production experience, comprehension experience, perceptions of prestige, or a combination of these factors. To investigate the mechanisms that underlie bi-dialectal speech perception, we are conducting a series of auditory EEG/ERP experiments with mono-dialectal MUSE participants and bi-dialectal Southern US English (SUSE) participants that differ in the predictability of the upcoming accent. In the first experiment presented here, we established an unpredictable dialect context by presenting auditory stimuli in MUSE and SUSE accents in random order. Mono-dialectal MUSE participants performed a cover task while they listened to real words and pseudowords in both accents. Results indicate that phonetic and lexico-semantic access are disrupted in D1-D2 communication. Between 150-300ms, MUSE real words elicited larger P200 effects than SUSE real words, reflecting less effortful phonetic access for the D1 accent. Between 300-500ms, SUSE tokens elicited stronger N400 effects than MUSE tokens, reflecting more effortful lexico-semantic access for the D2 accent, regardless of word type. These findings contribute to the linguistic diversification of traditional speech perception models and set the stage for future experiments that manipulate socio-indexical factors and accent predictability.
LANGUAGE: Other
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67
Carly Leannah, Gallaudet University
Lorna Quandt, Gallaudet University; Melody Schwenk, Gallaudet University Athena Willis, Gallaudet University
Deafness and ASL Fluency Each Differentially Impact Biological Motion Perception_x000D_
Some evidence suggests that native American Sign Language (ASL) users show faster and less effortful biological motion perception than hearing non-signers. This finding may be due to deaf signers' expertise in extracting relevant information from complex human movements. However, we do not yet understand if this advantage is due to signed language experience or the experience of being deaf. We created point-light display (PLD) motion stimuli and designed three tasks. The Random Dot Motion task presents random moving dots, and the participants judge whether more dots are moving left or right. Person Perception shows biological human PLDs and scrambled PLDs, and participants determine if a person is present. Action Identification shows biological human PLDs, both right-side-up and inverted, and asks participants to determine whether the action involves using a ball. We gathered accuracy and reaction time from 230 respondents with varying ASL fluencies (non-signers to fluent signers) and hearing statuses (n = 80 Deaf; 21 Hard-of-hearing; 130 Hearing). Participants performed the three tasks during an online experiment. We analyzed data using bivariate analyses and linear mixed models. We found that Deaf respondents performed significantly more accurately than the other groups on the Action Identification task. We also found that while holding Hearing Status constant, higher ASL Fluency led to a faster and more accurate performance on Action Identification. We found other significant effects of Hearing Status, Age, Age of ASL Acquisition, and ASL Fluency which will be discussed further. These data demonstrate the combinatorial effects of sign language use and
LANGUAGE: Other
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68
Joseph Salvo, Northwestern University
Maya Lakshman, Northwestern University; Ania M. Holubecki, Northwestern University Zeynep Saygin, Ohio State University; Rodrigo M. Braga, Northwestern University
The transmodal distributed language network includes an inferior temporal region that shows selectivity for visual word-forms
Modern estimates of the language network include association regions beyond the classic perisylvian areas. The entire distributed network shows responses to spoken or written language, and is identifiable using functional connectivity (FC) within individuals. The network often includes an underemphasized basal region half-way down the posterior-anterior axis of the inferior temporal cortex (ITC). This region is intriguing due to its anatomical proximity to the visual word-form areas (VWFA), which show selectivity for visual stimuli resembling written words. We investigated the relationship between this basal language network area and the VWFA. We recruited 8 healthy adults fluent in English for 8 MRI sessions. Multi-echo 3T functional MRI data were collected to improve signal-to-noise in the ITC. Tasks included an auditory language localizer, a visual category localizer, and a passive fixation task for network estimation. Data were processed using the 'iProc' pipeline, optimized for within-individual data alignment and minimizing smoothing, and were projected to the fsaverage6 surface. In each participant, seed-based FC, data-driven clustering, and a contrast from the auditory language localizer identified a shared set of distributed regions on the lateral surface. All participants demonstrated a language-active region halfway down the ITC's posterior-anterior axis. For all but one participant, this region overlapped with regions showing selectivity for letter strings without established meaning in English, in the visual category task. Neither face nor scene-selective regions overlapped consistently with the basal language region. Our results suggest that the hierarchy for recognizing visual word-forms converges with the transmodal distributed language network in the ITC.
LANGUAGE: Other
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69
Maryam Mahmoudi, University of Minnesota
A feasibility study: application of brain-computer interface in augmentative and alternative communication for non-speaking individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities
Neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) are characterized by cognitive, communication, and/or motor impairments. Communication impairment is one of the main areas of problems specifically in some subgroups of NDD. Considering motor disabilities and/or multiple disabilities experienced by some individuals with NDD (e.g., individuals with Rett syndrome, autism with significant intellectual disabilities), augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices can be difficult to use even using eye tracking devices. This project aims to use a brain-computer interface (BCI) in AAC for individuals with NDD who are nonspeaking. We will utilize BCI to adapt current AAC devices to make AAC more accessible for the NDD group. We chose a steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP) paradigm. During this paradigm, a screen displays four pictures while four LEDs flicker with 8, 10, 12, and 15 Hz, respectively. A total of 10 pictures (i.e., AAC) will be selected for the task. Each session will include 100 trials and each picture will be presented 10 times. Each trial time is equal to 5 seconds including 3 seconds picture presentation followed by a 2-second rest black/white screen. Overall, 3 sessions will be presented by having a 5-minute break between sessions. Eight channels of EEG signals in occipital and parietal areas will be acquired based on a 10-20 standard system. After the preprocessing, EEG signals will be classified using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) into one of the four classes. Further, the Accuracy (Acc) and Information transfer rate (ITR) will be reported. The research and clinical implications will be presented.
LANGUAGE: Other
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71
Min Kyung Hong, Vanderbilt University
Katherine Aboud, Vanderbilt University
A real-time neurobiological model of discourse comprehension: a fused fMRI/EEG study
To successfully comprehend a written text, the brain must coordinate widespread brain networks. However, the brain network sequences underlying successful comprehension are poorly understood, partly due to methodological limitations of single imaging modalities. The present study identifies real-time brain networks that support reading comprehension. We examined typical adults as they read medical passages in the MRI and, in a separate session, while EEG data was collected. Using joint independent component analysis, a novel application of fused MRI/EEG analysis, we identified the neural pipeline of brain activations in the 1000ms following comprehension of scientific information. This process was supported by the following progression of activations after the sentence-final word: [~100ms] primary visual areas; [~200ms] visual word form area and temporal poles; [~250ms] frontal attention and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; [~350ms] posterior default mode network (DMN; bilateral middle temporal and angular gyrus, posterior cingulate); [~500ms] ventral DMN (hippocampus and retrosplenial); [~600ms] inferior frontal gyrus. Our findings point to critical early tradeoffs between visual word processing and situation model comprehension networks, which then converge to memory and post-hoc meaning integration networks. Interestingly, our findings trace different DMN comprehension sub-systems to different time points during processing. Through this refined spatial and temporal information, the present study is the first, to our knowledge, to provide a real-time, data-driven neurobiological framework for discourse processing. The present approach can be used in the future to study 1.) how these patterns dynamically evolve over the course of the text, and 2.) individual differences in these signals across clinical groups.
LANGUAGE: Other
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72
Megan Hillis, Dartmouth College
Brianna Aubrey, Dartmouth College; Yeongji Lee, Dartmouth College Julien Blanchet, Dartmouth College; Qijia Shao, Columbia University; Xia Zhou, Columbia University; Devin Balkcom, Dartmouth College; David Kraemer, Dartmouth College
Decoding knowledge of newly-learned language from neural representations of semantic meaning
How is learning new information reflected in the brain? The acquisition of knowledge over the course of learning is often measured through behavioral tests, (e.g., pencil-and-paper tests), however, prior work has demonstrated that data-driven neuroimaging methods can pick up on meaningful changes in neural representations that reflect learning in a number of conceptual domains, including physics and engineering, computer science, and foreign language. Across two studies, we examine the use of these methods for decoding newly-learned information in this case focusing on hearing English speakers learning American Sign Language (ASL). In the first study, novice participants underwent very brief training (three 30-minute lessons) to learn a set of nouns in ASL, then completed a semantic task during fMRI scanning where the stimuli were presented in the newly-learned language (ASL), a well-known language (English), and an unstudied language (Russian). Using multivariate pattern analysis methods including representational similarity analysis (RSA) and decoding techniques, we found evidence at the group level of neural patterns related to semantic categorization when stimuli were presented in ASL and English, but not in the unstudied language (Russian). Then, in a follow-up study, we investigate the ability of data-driven neural scores derived from a similar analysis to predict behavioral scores at the individual level. Our results provide evidence for the ability of multivariate neuroimaging analysis approaches to detect shifts in understanding even in the earliest stages of language learning.
LANGUAGE: Other
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73
Shaoyun Yu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Chanyuan Gu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Kexin Huang, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Ping Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Representations from deep language models capture neural patterns in naturalistic reading of scientific texts: cognitive plausibility and neural relevance
Recent evidence indicates that DLMs' (deep language models) computational mechanisms can serve as models for language functions in the brain (Goldstein et al., 2022). However, design choices in DLMs are often driven by NLP (natural language processing) task performance rather than cognitive plausibility. Alajrami and Aletras (2022) compared carefully controlled DLMs, suggesting that non-linguistically motivated training only led to small disadvantages in NLP tasks, therefore questioning the importance of cognitively plausible training. This study investigated the impact of a model's cognitive plausibility by leveraging data from the Reading Brain project (Li et al., 2022), a large-scale fMRI and eye-tracking study of naturalistic scientific text reading (https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds003974). For each text, sentences revolve around a common scientific concept and are semantically related. For each sentence, we estimated the participants' neural activation and computed sentence embeddings from five BERT-based models with decreasing cognitive plausibility of training methods (Masked Language Modeling, Manipulated Word Detection, First Character Prediction, ASCII Codes Summation Prediction, and Random Token Classification; see Alajrami & Aletras, 2022; Yamaguchi et al., 2021). fMRI-based RSA analysis and cross-validated SVM classification (accuracy=0.914 ±0.012) suggested that sentences about the same concept were represented similarly. We found the best correlations between the model of Masked Language Modeling and our fMRI-based patterns (r=0.266, [0.248, 0.283]), while models trained with less cognitively plausible methods produced less informative embeddings and significantly worse correlations. The results suggest that cognitive plausibility contributes to a model's neural relevance, a crucial aspect for computational models to achieve human-like understanding of language.
LANGUAGE: Other
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74
Yu Jin Rah, Seoul National University
Jung Han Shin, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; Sang Ah Lee, Seoul National University
Contributions of boundary representations in the hippocampus and visual scene network to individual differences in episodic memory organization
Spatial boundaries such as walls and doorways have been reported to influence the way we organize our memories into discrete events. However, a clear understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying such boundary-based modulation of episodic memory has been elusive due to the variability of this effect across tasks and individuals. Given past studies demonstrating that boundaries are processed both in the hippocampal formation and visual scene network, we investigated individual differences in the neurocognitive response to spatial boundaries while subjects performed an episodic memory task in the fMRI scanner. 46 subjects (22 females, mean age 24.6) were asked to first view sequential events consisting of 5 different objects moving one-by-one into buckets distributed around a virtual room and later, after an interference task, re-enact the events as shown. For each of 5 runs, one trial occurred in a room with a freestanding wall in the middle, while the other did not. Overall, we found that activation in the hippocampal formation was higher in the boundary trials and that higher activation of the hippocampus, Occipital Place Area (OPA), Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA), and retrosplenial cortex during encoding resulted in better performance. Participants whose memory was enhanced by the presence of the boundary also showed increased boundary-related activation of the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, OPA, and PPA during memory retrieval. These findings suggest that the way in which we individually represent the visual boundary layout of our environments can influence the way we organize and remember the events we experience in them.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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75
Roni Setton, Harvard University
Jordana Wynn, University of Victoria; Daniel L. Schacter, Harvard University
Repetition effects on eye-tracking, vividness ratings, and brain activity during future simulation
Recent evidence suggests that eye movements play a role in scene construction when individuals imagine future experiences. Less is known about how age-related changes to eye movements impact future simulation. Using a repetition suppression paradigm during fMRI scanning, we have previously shown decreases and increases in neural activity linked to specific features of imagined events in younger adults. Here we aim to i) examine whether eye movements predict these brain changes, and ii) investigate the effects of aging. Twenty-five younger adults (ages 18-32) imagined future events involving familiar people and locations while their eyes were tracked outside of the scanner. Each event was imagined twice. Participants then underwent fMRI while imagining both new and repeated events. The fMRI results replicated prior findings, providing further evidence for robust brain changes specific to the objective features (repetition suppression) as well as the subjective familiarity (repetition enhancement) of future simulations. Vividness ratings and eye-tracking measures collected outside the scanner differentially predicted brain activity associated with objective versus subjective features of simulation. Recruitment of older adults (ages 65+) is underway. We predict that aging will result in reduced repetition suppression but comparable repetition enhancement, mirroring behavioral findings on objective and subjective memory content. Vividness and eye-tracking relationships to brain activity may therefore be altered. The present study provides novel evidence concerning the link between eye movements and neural repetition effects in young adults. It should also inform our understanding of age-related changes in eye movements and brain activity during future simulation.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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76
Jordan Chamberlain, The Pennsylvania State University
Indira Turney, Columbia University; Jonathan Hakun, The Pennsylvania State University Ashley Steinkrauss, The Pennsylvania State University; Lesley Ross, Clemson University; Brenda Kirchhoff, Saint Louis University; Nancy Dennis, The Pennsylvania State University
Investigation of the neural effects of memory training to reduce false memories in older adults
The growing population of older adults emphasizes the need to develop interventions that prevent or delay some of the cognitive decline that accompanies aging. In particular, as memory impairment is the foremost cognitive deficit affecting older adults, it is vital to develop interventions that improve memory function. This study addressed the problem of false memories in aging by training older adults to use details of past events during memory retrieval to distinguish targets from related lures. We examined the neural basis of a retrieval-based monitoring strategy by assessing changes in univariate BOLD activity and discriminability of targets and lures pre and post training. Results showed training-related decreases in false memory rates with no alterations to hit rates. Training and practice were associated with altered recruitment of a frontoparietal monitoring network as well as benefits to neural discriminability within network regions. Participants with lower baseline neural discriminability between target and lure items exhibited the largest changes in neural discriminability. Collectively, our results highlight the benefits of training for reductions of false memories in aging. They also provide an understanding of the neural mechanisms that support these reductions. Ultimately, the current results assist in informing future cognitive interventions aiming to reduce the frequency of memory errors in older adults.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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77
Tyler Santander, University of California, Santa Barbara
Evan Layher, University of California, Santa Barbara; Michael Miller, University of California, Santa Barbara
Using dense-sampling to reveal distributed representations of familiarity and decisional processes in recognition memory
Recognition memory judgments are often based on a mere sense of familiarity. Under signal detection theory, uncertainty is resolved by weighing the available evidence against a decision criterion: the familiarity threshold needed before responding 'old' or 'new' to a memory probe. Over two decades of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research has mapped the neural correlates of memory processes, but in many of the seminal contrasts (e.g., the Old > New effect), it is difficult to distinguish between activations that are specifically related to the memory content itself, more epiphenomenal decision-making factors, or perhaps both. To address this, we scanned two individuals using dense-sampling, precision fMRI methods (Study 1: 16 sessions, Study 2: 31 sessions), in a fully-crossed, 4 x 4 design. Familiarity strength at test was varied by showing stimuli multiple times during encoding (Study 1: 1/2/4/8x, Study 2: 1/3/6/9x); decision criteria were manipulated via monetary penalties for critical errors. All correct responses received two cents, but misses or false alarms could incur one- or eight-cent penalties to induce different levels of liberal or conservative decision criteria, respectively. We then used representational similarity analyses to investigate the extent to which various brain regions were sensitive to the objective 'old' or 'new' status of test items, the strength of familiarity, and the placement of the decision criterion. Preliminary results from in-progress analyses show a number of frontoparietal and dorsal attention areas that specifically represent memory vs. decisional processes, perhaps finally allowing us to disentangle the long-standing Old > New effect.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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78
Soroush Mirjalili, The University of Texas at Austin
Audrey Duarte, The University of Texas at Austin
Investigating episodic memory as a multi-dimensional cognitive process
Episodic memory is a multifaceted process in which different psychological processes, including perception, selective, and sustained attention collectively determine whether an event will be later remembered. While the neural underpinnings of episodic memory failures and successes have been investigated using neuroimaging techniques, no study has decoded the multiple cognitive functions contributing to episodic memory. In order to have a better understanding of the various cognitive facets underlying successful episodic memory encoding, we investigated it as a multidimensional cognitive process. We collected electroencephalography (EEG) while young subjects performed 3 'source tasks': sustained attention, selective attention, and perception, and used a cognitive function classifier (i.e., which source task an EEG signal is associated with) to decode their contributions, on a trial-by-trial basis, to 'target' EEG signals reflecting successful episodic memory encoding. Preliminary results suggest that behavioral performance on these source tasks significantly predicted episodic memory performance. Moreover, we trained a cognitive domain classifier on the EEG associated with the source tasks and tested that classifier on the target EEG to quantify the contribution of each source task to the target task (i.e., using the classifier's evidence score associated with each source task). We found that by decoding the source tasks' contribution to the target EEG signals, all these source tasks significantly contribute to the target EEG signals. Overall, the results confirm the memory's multidimensionality on behavioral and neural levels.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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79
Troy Houser, University of Oregon
Dagmar Zeithamova, University of Oregon
Successful generalization of conceptual knowledge after training to remember specific events
In the real world, people are able to both encode memories for specific details and extract statistical regularities across multiple experiences. However, in the lab, memory for specific experiences and generalization across experiences are typically studied in distinct lines of research, under different instructions. Here, we asked whether people would spontaneously form category knowledge whilst trying to remember specific events. Stimuli were binary dimension cartoon animals. Participants first learned 8 animal-scene associations through observational learning. While scenes were unique to each animal, they all depicted either mountains or forests. After an animal-scene association test, participants completed a surprise categorization test, where they had to guess for old and new animals if they live in mountains or forests. Results showed successful generalization of category labels to new exemplars. Moreover, we fit two computational categorization models to individual subject data: a prototype model that assumes novel experiences are categorized according to similarity to ideal category center and an exemplar model that assumes novel experiences are categorized according to the summed similarity to previously encountered exemplars. Behavioral model fits indicated that about half of participants relied on prototype information when generalizing category labels to new animals, suggesting they had formed generalized representations despite focusing on specific details. These findings indicate that people may form specific and generalized memories in parallel.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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80
Evan Grandoit, Northwestern University
Paul Reber, Northwestern University
No enhancement of episodic memory from visual statistical learning detected when using a forced-choice recognition test
The structure of the way we experience our environment influences how our memories of those experiences are formed and retrieved (Schooler & Anderson, 1991; Raaijmakers & Shiffrin, 1981). Recent studies exploring the effect, imposing specific structure on memory by manipulating sequential order, have reported conflicting results either enhancing (Otsuka & Saiki, 2016) or impairing memory (Sherman & Turk-Browne, 2020). To further explore this phenomenon, we tested the effect of imposing consistent sequential order on episodic memory for novel colorful kaleidoscope images. Amazon MTurk participants (n=50) saw 24 kaleidoscope images in 4-item groups repeated 24 times (576 total items), with 6 groups presented in consistent order and 6 groups in random order each presentation. To direct attention to the images, participants performed a shape-detection task for a triangle overlaid on the kaleidoscope image on half the trials. The shapes were consistently associated with images so that the triangle presentation was also consistent for the sequenced items. Participants were then tested for recognition of the 24 kaleidoscope images in a forced-choice test with similar foils. Participants were reliably more accurate at detecting the overlaid shapes within the repeating sequences compared to the new sequences. However, recognition memory was not reliably different for images in the two sequence conditions indicating neither an enhancing nor impairing effect of regular sequential order on episodic memory. These results suggest that sequential order effects on memory do not rapidly emerge for abstract non-meaningful stimuli, or the effect is not large enough to detect with forced-choice memory tests.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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81
Karen Sasmita, Cornell University
Khena M. Swallow, Cornell University
Hippocampal connectivity with regions involved in processing internal and external information during event perception.
Processing everyday experience involves dividing continuous streams of information into discrete events (event segmentation). Current accounts of event segmentation suggest that it reflects the accuracy of predictions made by actively held representations of ongoing experience (event models). When the event model fails to support accurate predictions about one's experience, it may be updated to better reflect the current situation, generating event boundaries. Updating event models consequently should involve increased sampling of sensory information from the external world, scaffolded by and integrated with information from internally held event schemata. To examine this possibility, we analyzed changes in functional connectivity between regions associated with the maintenance and updating of event models (hippocampus) and those associated with the processing of sensory information (Visual Central network; Schaefer et al., 2018) and schematic knowledge (mPFC) while 16 participants watched a 50-minute episode of Sherlock Holmes (Chen et al., 2017). We found an overall increase in functional connectivity between hippocampal subfields CA1 and both the Visual Central network and mPFC at time points that have been associated with event boundaries (scene changes). These findings suggest that the hippocampus samples information from both internal and external sources of information when event models are updated at scene changes.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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82
Nelly Matorina, University of Toronto
Yi Lin Wang, University of Toronto; Javid Guliyev, University of Toronto Morgan Barense, University of Toronto, Rotman Research Institute
The contextualization of recent and remote autobiographical memories
Autobiographical memories are encoded in a spatial context. How does the relationship between the memory and the corresponding spatial context change over time? One theory suggests that during sleep and dreaming, autobiographical memories become decontextualized through the fragmentation of salient elements, which assists in the integration of memories into existing memory networks (Horton & Malinowski, 2015). In this study, we sought to test whether remote autobiographical memories were less contextualized than recent autobiographical memories. 348 participants recalled two recent memories (within last 2 weeks), two remote memories (between January 2019 and February 2020), and answered several questions addressing memory contextualization. Preliminary results showed that remote memories were more difficult to imagine in a new location than recent memories, b = -0.19, t(968) = -5.02, p < .001, suggesting that remote memories were more closely linked to their encoding context. Participants also indicated that remote memories would be more changed by imagining them in a new location compared to recent memories, b = -0.11, t(965) = -2.84, p = .005. These two measures of contextualization were highly correlated, r = 0.45, t(1199) = 17.58, p < .001. Contrary to our predictions, we found that remote memories were more contextualized than recent memories, suggesting that the connection between an autobiographical memory and its encoding context is strengthened over time.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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83
Mar Yebra, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Andrea G.P. Schjetan, Krembil Research Institute, Toronto Western Hospital; Araceli R. Cardenas, Krembil Research Institute, Toronto Western Hospital Lakshmi N. Govindarajan, Carney Institute of Brain Science, Brown University; Clayton Mosher, Department of Neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; Yousef Salimpour, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Department of Neurology; Taufik A. Valiante, Krembil Research Institute, Toronto Western Hospital; Suneil Kalia, Krembil Research Institute, Toronto Western Hospit; William Anderson, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Department of Neurology; Adam Mamelak, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; Ueli Rutishauser, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Evidence accumulation by single units in the human Medial Temporal Lobe during memory-based decisions.
How we integrate mnemonic information of declarative memories to make memory-based decisions (MBD) is unknown. We hypothesize that memory selective neurons in Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL) areas in humans integrate memory-derived evidence (MDE). We conducted behavioral experiments and modelling while recording from 2077 single neurons in MTL in 30 epileptic patients across 39 sessions. They were presented with faces masked with 2-D Gaussian bubble filters to cover the face with different levels of difficulty. They indicated if a face was Old (O), previously seen, or New (N), never seen. RT, accuracy, and confidence scaled with difficulty. Using dPCA we could decode memory decision and difficulty at the neuronal population level. 217 neurons were Memory Selective (MS), exhibiting different responses in O vs N stimuli. We focused our analyses on the neurons that increased their response for O stimuli relative to N (116) with firing rate greater than 0.5 Hz (54/116). Using a Hierarchical Bayesian DDM comparison, we found that a model fitting drift rate (v), threshold (a), starting point (z), and non-decision time (t) parameters letting v and t vary by condition (new/old, easy/hard) was the best model explaining behavior. The slopes of the firing rate and the non-decision time for old trials were predicted, respectively, by v and t model parameters fitted to the behavioral data of a given subject. These findings suggest that MTL MS neurons adjust their MDE integration starting time and the speed of modulation as predicted by a DDM model fit to behavior.
Lateral Parietal and Temporal Lobe Contributions to Associative Memory: Strategic, Not Representational
The angular gyrus (AG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG) are considered to be important components of the Core Recollection Network, an ensemble of brain regions suppoting rich episodic rembering, including memory for associations. In previous research, we demonstrated that stroke damage to AG and MTG caused impairments in cued recall of pair associate learning, especially for cross-modal associations. To determine whether these areas play a representational or strategic role, we conducted an additional study using the same materials, but testing associative retrieval by associative recognition. Unlike the case for cued recall, lesions neither of AG nor of MTG were implicated in associative deficits. In contrast, those regions were required for effective identification of new or recombined stimulus pairs specifically when bias caused by semantic relatedness challenged accuracy. The difference between lesion effects on cued recall and associative recognition suggests that AG and MTG contributions to the Core Recollection Network are in the processes of recollection, rather than in associative representation, even for multimodal representations.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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85
Jana Reifegerste, Georgetown University
Karim Johari, Louisiana State University; Michael Ullman, Georgetown University
Effects of handedness on episodic memory: Evidence from a non-verbal task
Effects of handedness have been understudied in cognitive neuroscience, particularly in domains other than language. Nevertheless, some intriguing patterns appear to be emerging. Prior research has suggested that handedness may impact performance at episodic memory, with non-right-handed individuals outperforming right-handers in a variety of tasks. A closer look at the literature suggests that many of these studies have used verbal study material (e.g., word-list learning) and/or examined verbal responses (e.g., verbal recall). Here we investigated the extent to which handedness (Edinburgh Handedness Inventory) affects episodic memory in a data set of 253 participants in a non-verbal recognition memory task, following incidental encoding. Half of the items were line-drawings of real objects (e.g., hairbrush) and the other half were made-up objects that were not easily nameable. Preliminary analyses indicate differences in recognition-memory performance for the two object types. Handedness effects (increasing performance with increasing left-handedness) were stronger for real (nameable) objects than for made-up (non-nameable) objects, for which they were indeed absent. Moreover, the handedness effects for real objects appear to be non-linear, with particular memory advantages for ambidextrous individuals, who outperformed both left-handed and right-handed participants. To summarize, we find evidence that memory benefits for non-right-handers may vary as a function of the nameability (verbalizability) of the study material, and that they may in part be driven by particular advantages for ambidextrous individuals. Explanatory accounts of these findings will be discussed.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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86
Isabel Leiva, Temple University
Chelsea Helion, Temple University; Vishnu Murty, Temple University
Characterizing the relationship between intrusive memory reactivation and memory generalization using a laboratory-based model of rumination.
Memories are not static but modified over the lifespan of a memory, such that continuous reactivation of an event can lead to more gist-like memories at the expense of episodic details. A common form of memory reactivation, especially in clinical populations, is rumination, an intrusive form of memory reactivation. While clinical literature has shown a relationship between rumination and memory transformation, these studies have not been able to provide a mechanistic account of how rumination may result in memory generalization. Here, we aim to model this process by analyzing the effect of forced rumination of a controlled event on a normative population to characterize the relationship between rumination and memory generalization. In Study 1, we probed individuals' beliefs about the relationship between these two factors, showing counter to our hypothesis that individuals predicted more accurate, sensory-detailed memories for events that underwent rumination. Study 2 is ongoing, and thus we only describe the design. In session one, Participants are asked to listen to two audio clips of negative events. Between sessions they are then forced to ruminate on one of the two events for the following 72 hours via pseudo-randomly timed text message prompts. Participants are then asked to recall both clips (Rumination, Control). We believe that rumination, like other forms of memory reactivation, will result in memories with less perceptual details, focusing more on the emotional detail. We believe these findings will provide a more mechanistic foundation to understand relationships between rumination and memory deficits in depression/anxiety.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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87
Gabriela Vélez Largo, McGill University
Abdelhalim Elshiekh, McGill University; Sricharana Rajagopal, Douglas Mental Health University Institute Toscane HamaÔde, McGill University; Stamatoula Pasvanis, Douglas Mental Health University Institute; M. Natasha Rajah, McGill University, Douglas Mental Health University Institut
Individual differences in the effect of lapses of attention on subsequent spatial context memory
Individuals vary widely in their ability to form episodic memories in rich spatial contextual detail. The ability to sustain attention during encoding may account for these differences. Yet, it remains unclear how trial-by-trial fluctuations in attention at encoding impact subsequent spatial context memory. In the present study, 42 healthy young adults (mean age = 26.3 +/- 4.3, 22 females) completed the novel fMRI Attention At Encoding Task. Participants were instructed to encode colored photographs of common objects and their left/right spatial location, while responding as quickly as possible to a central fixation cross that expanded in size at a random duration after each encoding trial. Response times (RTs) to the fixation cross preceding and following the object were hypothesized to reflect individuals' attention levels pre-stimulus and post-stimulus, respectively. Results indicated that longer and more variable post-stimulus RT, but not pre-stimulus RT, predicted poorer spatial context memory. The magnitude of this effect significantly varied across participants and was modulated by their levels of mind wandering, task-switching ability, and self-reports of everyday cognitive failures. Furthermore, longer post-stimulus RT was related to reduced deactivation of medial frontal gyrus and the posterior cingulate cortex during encoding. Reduced deactivation in these brain regions at encoding was also negatively correlated with subsequent memory. Together, these findings advance our understanding about the impact of lapses of attention on associative spatial context memory, and its contribution to individual differences in episodic memory.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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88
Christopher Iyer, Stanford University
Tyler Bonnen, Stanford University; Anthony Wagner, Stanford University
Towards a Multiple-Systems Account of Race-Related Biases in Recognition Memory
Human memory is biased. What we remember is structured by our understanding of the world around us, including our perceptions of race. In seeking to understand the psychological and neural mechanisms of race-related memory bias, researchers often make three critical simplifications. First, researchers trade off between stimuli that are naturalistic (face images) and ones that are well-controlled (artificial faces). Second, researchers deploy stereotypical race classifications that treat bias as independent of observer perceptions of race. Third, researchers usually operationalize bias in a single behavioral metric (e.g., memory accuracy for group A minus accuracy for group B)-potentially obscuring the concert of interacting systems that support such memory behaviors. Here, we extend this research in these three key ways. First, we develop a novel stimulus set of 3D-renderings of diverse face images, balancing naturalistic appearance with a high degree of experimental control (e.g., normalizing low-level perceptual features, customizing viewing angles and lighting conditions). Second, we use an independent classification task to capture the subjectivity of race perceptions. Third, we implement a novel paradigm to control participants' encoding strategies and probe behavioral bias at both encoding and retrieval, in order to disentangle biases in perception from those in memory representations themselves. In preliminary data, we unexpectedly find the absence of canonical ingroup-favoring memory biases, suggesting an attenuation of bias by our novel stimuli or paradigm. Further research will determine the source of this attenuation and what insights it can offer into how to uproot these biases in our cognition.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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89
James Stieger, Stanford University
Josef Parvizi, Stanford University
CROSS REGIONAL MECHANISMS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY IN THE HUMAN BRAIN
Remembering personal past events requires the coordination of activity across cortical and subcortical areas in the subsecond temporal scale. However, the spatiotemporal mechanisms of fast interactions across different regions of the human brain remain less understood. Here, we explored the electrophysiological activity of neuronal populations in four key regions of memory processing, namely the hippocampus (HPC), anterior thalamic nuclei (ANT), posteromedial cortex (PMC), and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in 30 participants engaged in two experiments probing autobiographical retrieval. Our results, replicated across the two experiments, revealed a consistent electrophysiological signature of cross-regional interactions with a temporal order and asymmetric effective connectivity, the direction of which predicted the strength of co-engagement across the regions during memory retrieval. The profile of neural activity and their interplay clearly suggests an important role for HPC and the ANT in facilitating muti-regional co-engagement during autobiographical remembering. Novel insights about the orchestrated electrophysiological interplay across different regions of the human brain, in the sub-second temporal window, as documented here can critically inform and guide the existing and future theoretical models of memory processing and self-referential information processing in the brain.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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90
Jessie Chien, University of Southern California
Teal Eich, University of Southern California
Similarity and Dissimilarity Encoding in Memory Specificity in Young and Older Adults
Focusing on how items are dissimilar to each other, as opposed to how they are similar to each other, has been shown to benefit encoding. This distinctiveness processing, further, may not be age-invariant: older adults do not seem to benefit to the same degree as younger adults. When the dissimilarity between items within the same semantic category is emphasized, retrieval practice leads to a larger retrieval-induced forgetting effect than when similarity is highlighted. These results suggest that similarity and dissimilarity processing at encoding may influence the degree to which competing memories are inhibited. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between attentional focus at encoding and older and younger adults' episodic memory in the face of both feature and temporal similarity where mnemonic discrimination and inhibitory processes may be required to resolve interference. Participants focused on either the similarity or dissimilarity between two simultaneously-presented items that varied in perceptual similarity. They were then told to remember only one of the items (target) for a memory test, which queried whether the probed items was or was not the target item. We found that focusing on the similarity between items at encoding resulted in significantly greater overall error rates, whereas focusing on the dissimilarity did not. Interestingly, we did not find age-related differences across any examined measure. These findings indicate the differential role of similarity and dissimilarity processing in memory specificity where mnemonic discrimination and inhibitory mechanism are involved to resolve interference.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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91
Karen Miceli, Duke University
Karen Miceli, Duke University; Ricardo Morales Torres, Duke University Ari Khoudary, University of California Irvine; Natasha Parikh, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Felipe De Brigard, Duke University
Perceived Plausibility Modulates Hippocampal Activity in Episodic Counterfactual Thinking
Episodic counterfactual thinking (eCFT) occurs when one imagines alternative outcomes to past autobiographical experiences, while episodic future thinking occurs when one imagines events that may happen to oneself in the future. Plausibility, or the likelihood that an event may occur, serves as an important component in both eCFT and episodic future thinking. While prior research has shown that eCFT and episodic future thinking share similar activation patterns within several brain regions and networks, how plausibility modulates neural activity in eCFT remains unclear. Past research has shown that in episodic future thinking, plausibility negatively modulates activity in the left anterior hippocampus. However, to our knowledge, no study has yet investigated whether or not hippocampal activity is modulated by plausibility in eCFT. To answer this question, this study combines multiple fMRI datasets in order to investigate how plausibility modulates hippocampal activity in eCFT, as well as how these results compare to those regarding episodic future thinking. Our results show that plausibility parametrically modulates left hippocampal activity. Specifically, they suggest that as ratings of eCFT plausibility increase, so does activity in left hippocampus. Consistent with behavioral evidence showing distinct trajectories in judgments of perceived plausibility between episodic future and counterfactual thinking, these neural results suggest a differential involvement of left hippocampus in these two kinds of episodic hypothetical simulations.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
C
92
Jia-Hou Poh, Duke University
R.Alison Adcock, Duke University
Lingering novelty signal facilitates the formation of enduring episodic memory
Detection of novelty has been proposed to initiate cascades of neuromodulatory activity beneficial for memory formation. Two key mechanisms proposed are cholinergic modulation of an 'encoding state' and dopaminergic tagging for the consolidation of lasting memories. While studies in humans have provided evidence of enhanced encoding following novelty detection, there is scarce evidence for memory persistence in humans. To examine if the persistence of memory is influenced by the detection of novelty in a preceding image, we analyzed data from the Natural Scenes Dataset. Participants (N = 8) performed multiple sessions of a continuous recognition task (Old/New judgment) where images were presented thrice with repetition intervals ranging from 0 to over 300 days. Analyses included only intervals where recognition accuracy was above chance. On initial presentation, participants were highly accurate in judging that an image is New, but they were also less likely to indicate so if it was preceded by a familiar image (p <.001), suggesting lingering mnemonic signals that influence the subjective experience of novelty. Retrieval was examined using recognition accuracy on the 1st repetition (i.e. 2nd presentation). Unsurprisingly, recognition decreased with longer intervals (p <.001). Crucially, images preceded by a Novel image during the first presentation showed a slower rate of decay compared to images preceded by an Old image (p <.001). These findings demonstrate that the lingering effects of novelty facilitate the formation of enduring memory. Ongoing fMRI analyses will examine how subjective novelty and memory persistence relate to the engagement of neuromodulatory networks during encoding.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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93
Victoria Schelkun, Columbia University
David Clewett, University of California Los Angeles; Lila Davachi, Columbia University
Hippocampal and cortical activity mechanisms of episodic memory
Though our experiences unfold continuously, they are remembered as individual episodes. Prior work suggests that ongoing contextual stability supports temporal integration of sequential information, and that event boundaries disrupt ongoing integration thus leading to discrete episodes in memory. Event boundaries have been associated with robust effects on memory, yet it remains to be fully understood how the neural mechanisms at and around event boundaries support this process. In this study, we sought to characterize how activity patterns change in response to event boundaries, and how this subsequently affects memory. Participants underwent fMRI scanning while they viewed sequences of images that were organized into events defined by an associated auditory and motor context. Participants were later tested for item memory and temporal memory. We found that activity profiles in hippocampal and event-related cortical regions reflect the event structure, such that event boundaries are associated with a momentary shift in activation in these regions. Furthermore, trial-by-trial hippocampal activity is related to later memory strength and is moderated by associated cortical activity. We then computed levels of pattern separation in hippocampal subfields via measures of similarity between patterns of activity to test for differences in relational encoding representations as a function of the event structure. We find that the dentate gyrus engages in greater pattern separation within events than across events, suggesting a mechanism by which individual items become integrated into an episode in memory. These results shed new light on the dynamic hippocampal and cortical mechanisms by which event boundaries organize memory.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic
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94
Haopei Yang, Western University
Ken McRae, Western University; Stefan Kohler, Western University
Perirhinal cortex automatically tracks multiple types of familiarity regardless of task-relevance
Perirhinal cortex (PrC) has long been implicated in familiarity assessment for object concepts. However, studies have focused mainly on changes in familiarity induced by recent exposure in laboratory settings. There is an increasing appreciation of other types of familiarity signals, in particular graded familiarity accumulated throughout one's lifetime. In prior work that investigated neural correlates of lifetime familiarity, PrC has been shown to track familiarity ratings when participants make related judgements. A theoretically important characteristic of familiarity is its proposed automaticity. Support for automaticity comes from documented modulation of behavioral performance, and of PrC signals, by recent exposure under conditions in which this exposure is not task-relevant. In the current study, we tested whether PrC also tracks lifetime familiarity of object concepts automatically, and whether lifetime familiarity influences behavior even when it is not task-relevant. Neurotypical participants provided animacy judgements about object concepts presented at differing frequencies in a study phase. In a subsequent test phase, they made graded judgements of recent or lifetime familiarity. Behavioral performance showed sensitivity to both types of familiarity irrespective of task relevance. Similarly, across five sets of fMRI analyses, PrC consistently tracked recent and lifetime familiarity of object concepts regardless of task relevance. Critically, whereas other temporal-lobe regions showed isolated familiarity effects, none of them tracked familiarity with the same consistency. These findings demonstrate that PrC automatically tracks multiple types of familiarity. They support models that assign a broad role in the representation of object concepts to this structure.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other
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95
Akul Satish, University of York
Vanessa Keller, University of York; Sumaiyah Raza, University of Cambridge Shona Fitzpatrick, University of York; Aidan Horner, University of York
Theta and alpha oscillations in the hippocampus and medial parietal cortex support the formation of location-based representations
Our ability to navigate in a new environment depends on learning new locations. Mental representations of locations are quickly accessible during navigation and allow us to know where we are regardless of our current viewpoint. Recent fMRI research has found these representations in the retrosplenial cortex and medial temporal lobe, previously theorised to be key brain regions involved in spatial navigation. Here, we used MEG to investigate oscillatory activity related to forming location-based representations. Participants viewed videos revealing that two perceptually-distinct scenes belonged to the same location. This 'overlap' video allowed participants to bind the two distinct scenes together into a more coherent location-based representation. Participants also viewed control 'non-overlap' videos where two distinct scenes from two different locations were shown, where no location-based representation can be formed. In a post-video behavioural task, participants successfully matched the two viewpoints shown in the overlap videos, but not the non-overlap videos, indicating they successfully learned the locations in the overlap condition. Comparing oscillatory activity between the overlap and non-overlap videos, we saw greater theta and alpha power during presentation of the overlap videos, specifically at time-points when we expected scene integration to occur. These oscillations localised to regions in the medial parietal cortex (precuneus and retrosplenial cortex) and the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus. Therefore, we find that theta and alpha oscillations in the hippocampus and medial parietal cortex are implicated in forming location-based representations that are crucial for successful spatial navigation.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other
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96
Ran Zhu, Tongji University
Zhourui Wu, Tongji University; Liming Cheng, Tongji University
Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to mental abnormalities. However, the mechanism of SCI-induced dementia remains debatable. Asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) mediated dementia by enhancing amyloid plaque and Tau hyperphosphorylation, indicating that it played an important role in neurodegeneration. Here we revealed that SCI stimulated AEP activation in mice with T9 contusion injury. Activated-AEP cleaved APP and Tau, resulting in APP C586 and Tau N368 formations, and consequentially accelerated A? deposit and Tau hyperphosphorylation, respectively. At 9 months following injury, mice demonstrated a severe deterioration in cognitive-behavioral function, which was corroborated by accumulated AD-specific pathologies. Surprisingly, activated AEP was found in the brains of mice with SCI. In contrast, AEP knockout reduced SCI-induced neuronal death and neuroinflammation, resulting in cognitive-behavioral restoration. Interestingly, compared to the full-length proteins, truncated Tau N368 and APP C586 were easier to bind to each other. These AEP-processed fragments can not only be induced to pre-formed fibrils, but also amplified their abilities of spreading and neurotoxicity in vitro. Furthermore, as a critical transcription factor of AEP, C/EBP? was activated in injured spinal cord. Elevated C/EBP? level, microglia population and inflammatory cytokines were also noticed in the brains of SCI mice. Moreover, administration with the AEP-specific inhibitor, compound #11, was shown to decelerate A? accumulation, tauopathy and C/EBP? level in both spinal cord and brain of SCI mice. Thus, this study highlights the fact that SCI is a potential risk factor for dementia, as well as the possibility that C/EBP?-AEP axis may play a role in SCI-induced cognitive impairment.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other
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97
Nicholas Ruiz, Temple University
Devlin Eckardt, Temple University; Lisa Briand, Temple University Mathieu Wimmer, Temple University; Vishnu Murty, Temple University
Human Models of Craving: Instrumental Behavior and Self Reports of Craving
Incubation of drug craving is a phenomenon where craving for a reward intensifies over extended periods of abstinence. In rodent models, animals learn to make lever presses to receive a reward (i.e. drugs of abuse or sucrose). Craving is expressed by measuring how often rodents perform the reward-related instrumental behavior, in absence of reward reinforcement. A wealth of literature reveals rodents express higher craving at late stages of forced-abstinence compared to early stages. While this model has been highly replicated in animals across numerous drug types, homologous studies in humans relied purely on self-reports of craving. Thus, in humans, there is a disconnect between the subjective feelings of cravings and actions to seek those incentives. Here, we developed a novel paradigm to characterize the sense of craving for reward into an instrumental behavior more akin to the rodent models. Participants (n = 103) listed their 10 favorite food items and 10 neutral food items, and rated each item for craving, liking, and time since last consumption. Participants then completed a task where they would respond to each item with button presses, the amount of which indicated how much they desired to later describe an experience with that food. We found that subjective craving predicted button presses above and beyond liking (p < 0.001). Further, we found craving was predicted by time passed since last consumption above and beyond liking (p = 0.003). This study provides the first step in establishing a translational link between animal and human models of craving.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other
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98
Ashwin Harimohan, Western University
Laura Batterink, Western University
Detecting Neural Signals Related to Memory Consolidation in Humans during Sleep_x000D_
During sleep, newly formed memories are spontaneously and repeatedly reactivated, leading to the strengthening and stabilization of the memory traces. Specific memories can also be externally reactivated by presenting memory-related cues during sleep, a technique referred to as targeted memory reactivation (TMR). Due to methodological challenges, there is currently very limited direct neural evidence for content-specific memory reactivation in humans during sleep. To provide such evidence, we are currently using simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to capture cue-evoked neural activity in specific a priori-defined cortical areas associated with learning. Participants (18-35 years old) learn a spatial memory task that has been shown to invoke a strong lateralized EEG signal over the motor cortex in previous investigations (Wang et al., 2019). Associated auditory cues are paired with each item of the memory task (e.g. 'moo' sound for cow) (Rudoy et al., 2009). During a 90-minute nap, half of the auditory cues are played during slow wave sleep to invoke TMR. Building on previous EEG findings, we expect that TMR cues presented during sleep will elicit an increase in contralateral BOLD response over motor cortex and increased spindle activity. We also anticipate that items that more strongly elicit these neural signals will show a stronger TMR benefit on the post-nap test. Preliminary results (n = 7) indicate a general trend of contralateral BOLD activity during task performance as well as during presentation of cues during sleep . These findings would support the predominant theory that reactivation of new memories
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other
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99
Erika Yamazaki, Northwestern University
Nathan Whitmore, Massachussetts Institute of Technology; Ken Paller, Northwestern University
Weakening Memories with Conjoint Memory Reactivation and Sleep Disruption
Sleep is a crucial time for memory consolidation, when memories are reactivated and potentially strengthened. Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR) is an experimental technique that improves memory by using sensory stimuli to elicit replay of specific memories. Recent evidence has demonstrated that TMR can both strengthen and weaken recently acquired memories; weakening tends to occur when stimuli trigger an arousal from sleep (Whitmore and Paller, 2022). An open question is whether memories that have already undergone some consolidation over multiple days can be modified by TMR. To address this question, we conducted a study where participants learned locations of objects, and each object was associated with a distinct sound. One week later, participants returned to the laboratory for an afternoon nap, when we reactivated half of the objects by playing the associated sound loudly enough to disrupt sleep. We predicted that objects reactivated with sleep disruption would show greater forgetting after sleep than those not reactivated. Analysis is currently in progress. Results from this study will provide insights on mechanisms of memory reactivation, on effects of sleep disruption on memory, and on the feasibility of using TMR for altering remote memories.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other
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100
Pin-Wei Chen, National Central University
Erik C. H. Chang, National Central University; Denise H. Wu, National Central University
Does the hippocampus contribute to statistical learning through pattern separation? An fMRI study of representational similarity
The ability of statistical learning (SL) enables us to capture regularities from noisy inputs even without awareness. Previous literature highlighted the role of the hippocampus in SL, with evidence showing that it is tuned to form conjunctive representations for associative pairs embedded in a continuous stream. Our previous behavioral study further found that SL is correlated with pattern separation, a function of episodic memory that is supported by the hippocampus. These results leave an open-question of whether the hippocampus would also enhance the distinction between activity patterns of items across event boundaries. In the present fMRI study, 37 participants were exposed to triplets of shapes in a continuous stream, and the brain regions engaged during this learning phase were identified as functional regions of interest (ROIs) in individual participants. Within the functional ROIs (mainly in the visual areas) and anatomical ROI (i.e., the hippocampus), the neural representation of individual shapes before and after learning is compared using representational similarity analysis (RSA), which is still in progress. In addition to replicating the increased representational similarity among shapes within the same triplet, we aim to determine whether the representational similarity among shapes in different triplets would decrease. Moreover, we would be able to examine whether the similarity between shapes reflects their distance within the same triplet. Overall, the present study is promising to offer a novel insight into the contribution of the hippocampus to SL, which is supported by both bottom-up adaptation in modality-specific cortexes and top-down modulation from higher-level brain regions.
LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other
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101
Jamie Mitchell, Stanford University
Jamie Mitchell, Stanford University; Alex White, Barnard College Maya Yablonski, Stanford University; Kenny Tang, Vanderbilt University; Jason Yeatman, Stanford University
Group-Level Template Labels Obscure Individual Text-Selective Response in Left Ventral Temporal Cortex_x000D_
Ventral temporal cortex (VTC) contains a mosaic of regions that selectively respond to specific categories of visual stimuli. In humans, text evokes a response in a distinct region in left VTC that develops over time as individuals learn to read. While there is consistency in the general location of text-selective responses (within the posterior portion of the occipitotemporal sulcus - OTS), we hypothesized that there is also substantial variability across individuals in both the size, precise anatomical location, and configuration of these categorically-selective regions. Here, we sought to determine the implications of individual vs. group analysis for studying text-selective responses. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), participants completed two different tasks while viewing images of text, faces, limbs, objects, and pseudo-fonts. Analyzing fMRI responses on each individual's cortical surface revealed categorically-selective regions of interest (ROIs) of consistent size and configuration for each category of stimulus irrespective of the task. ROIs that respond selectively to text (i.e., visual word form area) were localized on and near the left OTS in all participants. However, despite this consistency, text-selective ROIs varied in size (range 199-1953 vertices) and configuration across individuals. As a result, data analysis in template-space obscured the text-selective responses. Specifically, group average responses around the OTS in fsaverage-space were not selective for words due to the between-subject variation in face-, limb-, object- and text-selective patches. Thus, we conclude that the use of group-level average or template ROIs can lead to faulty conclusions about the functional architecture of high-level visual cortex.
METHODS: Neuroimaging
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102
Norah Wolk, Northwestern University
Daniel Morris, Northwestern University; Yasmeen Nahas, Northwestern University Ken A. Paller, Northwestern University; Remington Mallett, Northwestern University
Reactivating mindfulness during REM sleep to influence dream content
People typically become aware that a dream was indeed 'just a dream' only after awakening. Lucid dreams are an uncommon exception, when the dreamer is aware of the dream as it occurs. Lucid dreams are thought to involve abnormally high metacognition during dreaming and increased prefrontal cortex activity relative to non-lucid dreams, and they are associated with control over dream content, suggesting their potential for nightmare therapy. A critical research challenge is to induce lucid dreams in the laboratory. Previous research indicated that sensory cueing to reactivate a mental state during an early-morning nap induces lucid dreams effectively, but the ideal mental state to reactivate is unknown. We propose that mindfulness may activate relevant cognition and be key to awareness of dreaming, so we tested whether reactivating mindfulness during REM sleep leads to increased induction success. EEG was used to track sleep stages and verify lucid dreams. Participants went to sleep and were awakened after ~5 hours to complete a mindfulness activity paired with a specific audio cue. After they went back to sleep, EEG was monitored for signs of REM sleep, and cues were then replayed to reactivate memories of the mindfulness task. Control participants followed a similar procedure, but were presented with a control cue unassociated with mindfulness. Preliminary results (N=8) indicate that mindfulness cues presented in REM sleep promote lucid dreams, but data collection is still in progress.
THINKING: Other
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103
Abigail Roman, Northwestern University
Remington Mallett, Northwestern University
Automatic sleep staging for nap studies
Sleep is essential for physical and mental health. Thus, there is high demand for quantifying human sleep in research and clinical settings. Current measurement standards include grouping sleep into stages (e.g., NREM, REM) based on changes in neural, muscular, and respiratory activity during sleep. For decades, polysomnographic (PSG) data has been visually inspected by humans to identify sleep stages. This process is limited in many ways. It is time-intensive, often taking hours for an individual to stage a single night of sleep. Furthermore, trained raters often stage the same PSG data differently. To overcome these limitations, many groups have developed staging algorithms to identify sleep stages with more efficiency and systematicity. Staging algorithms are commonly trained and tested on data from overnight sleep sessions. However, much of sleep research involves staging nap sessions, where sleep architecture differs substantially. Currently, it is unknown if automated-staging algorithms trained on overnight sleep sessions will generalize to staging naps. In the current proposal, we aim to test whether YASA ? a sleep-staging algorithm shown highly effective at staging overnights ? is also effective at staging sleep in nap studies. We applied YASA to publicly available nap data and used a suite of agreement methods to evaluate its performance against human raters. Our results suggest that YASA is highly effective at staging sleep from nap studies. Sleep researchers might consider using automatic sleep staging to save costs and increase consistency in their nap study designs.
THINKING: Other
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104
Yasmeen Nahas, Northwestern University
Remington Mallett, Northwestern University; Kalina Christoff, University of British Columbia Ken Paller, Northwestern University; Caitlin Mills, University of Minnesota
How dynamic is the stream of consciousness? Thoughts move less freely under cognitive control
Mental content is generated throughout the day and into the night. Understanding what influences the trajectory of thought ? how thoughts continuously unfold over time, and how this might be controlled ? has important implications for the diagnosis and treatment of thought disorders, such as schizophrenia. A recent model ? the Dynamic Framework of Thought ? hypothesizes that frontoparietal control network activity and cognitive control place a constraint on thought variability. Specifically, cognitive states with low prefrontal activity (e.g., mind-wandering, dreaming) are proposed to consist of thoughts that move more freely. While there is strong neurophysiological evidence in support of this model, phenomenological measures of thought variability across these categories are scarce. A primary goal of the Dynamic Framework of Thought model is to relate neurophysiological data to underlying thought processes. However, measurements of thought variability are scarce. Here, we sought to evaluate a rich measure of thought variability separately across cognitive states. Thought variability was evaluated in both sleep (i.e., dreaming) and waking (i.e., mind wandering) by calculating the semantic distance between sequential sentences of subjective experience. Our results show that higher levels of cognitive control are associated with decreased thought variability. During wake, lower levels of mind-wandering were associated with reduced thought variability, as were dreams with higher metacognition. These results suggest that cognitive control limits thought variability, and that this is a common principle across the 24-hour cycle of thought generation.
THINKING: Other
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105
Sneha Sheth, University of British Columbia
Lawrence Ward, University of British Columbia; Matthew Dixon, Stanford University Rebecca Todd, University of British Columbia; Evan Thompson, University of British Columbia; Kalina Christoff, University of British Columbia
Experience sampling during fMRI reveals distinct dynamics in the stream of thought
One of the most striking features of human consciousness is its ability to foster an ongoing and seemingly continuous stream of thought. How do mental states unfold over time as the mind moves from one thought to another? The Dynamics of Thought framework has suggested a taxonomy of thought based entirely on the way it moves over time (i.e. strength and type of constraints applied on thought) rather than features of its content (e.g., task-relatedness). We empirically tested two kinds of dynamics proposed in this framework: deliberately constrained and relatively unconstrained (i.e. spontaneous) thought. Our study attempted to characterize the brain regions and networks involved in these phenomenally distinct transitions between mental states. In our experience sampling paradigm, participants were asked to let their thoughts unfold naturally as they were intermittently probed to rate their thoughts on the degree of free-movement and active-direction while in an fMRI scanner. Results show that regions of the medial-temporal subcomponent of the default-mode network, specifically, the hippocampus and parahippocampus, were more engaged during relatively unconstrained thought. Regions of the Fronto-Parietal Control Network were more associated with constrained thought. Our findings suggest that executive regions are more associated with strong constraints on the stream of thought whereas default network regions, specifically the medial temporal subcomponent, are more active when constraints on the stream of thought are relatively weak. Our study also validates the effectiveness of a combined approach of experience sampling and fMRI in the context of subtle thought dynamics.
THINKING: Other
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106
Joman Y Natsheh, Children's Specialized Hospital
Ekaterina Dobryakova, Kessler Foundation; Michael Dacanay, Kessler Foundation John DeLuca, Kessler Foundation
Neurocognitive Correlates of Action-Control in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Aside from inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity, patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) display reinforcement learning (RL) impairments. Dysfunction in RL has been proposed to have a key role in symptoms of ADHD and its principles are employed in behavioral ADHD treatment. However, there is a lack of mechanistic understanding of RL processes in ADHD. Our study aims to characterize cognitive and brain function patterns of action-control, as an RL mechanism, in children with ADHD. Action-control is guided by two systems, habitual and goal-directed behaviors. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the striatum are implicated in action-control. Specifically, the anterior caudate mediates goal-directed behavior, whereas the posterior putamen mediates habitual behavior. Research notes alterations in structure and function of corticostriatal circuits in ADHD. We predict that children with ADHD will have a deficit in action-control with an underlying imbalance of corticostriatal circuits. Based on outcome devaluation paradigms, we validated a child-friendly computer-based task. We tested off-medication children (6-10 years) with ADHD and matched healthy controls (HCs). The testing session consisted of completing the task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and administration of neuropsychological and ADHD symptom scales. Our findings demonstrate that children with ADHD are more reliant on habitual than goal-directed behavior and show lower activation in vmPFC and anterior caudate regions compared to HCs during action-control paradigms. This research will broaden understanding of neural circuits underlying cognitive symptoms of ADHD, and elucidate potential treatment approaches to create a balance between ADHD symptom relief and remediation of cognitive deficits.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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1
Calli Smith, Boston Children's Hospital
Catherine Stamoulis, Harvard Medical School/Boston Children's Hospital
Neural and Environmental Correlates of Empathetic Behaviors in Adolescence _x000D_
Empathy, a critical aspect of prosocial behaviors, is supported by neural circuits that are shaped partially by environmental and experiential factors (including youth-parent/peer relationships, and parental beliefs), particularly in adolescence. Using resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) and survey data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, we investigated associations between functional network topologies supporting the social brain (reward, frontoparietal control, social, limbic, default-mode, and empathy-specific circuits), caregiver warmth, parental belief on the importance of showing affection, and having a best friend, and empathetic behaviors/emotions. Early longitudinal rs-fMRI from participants with data both at baseline and 2-year follow-up (n=1769; 51.2% females), and cross-sectional data from baseline (n = 5130; median age = 120 months, 52.6% females), and follow-up (n = 3239; median age = 144 months 50.0% female) were analyzed. Caregiver warmth, importance of showing affection, and topological efficiency, robustness and/or stability or right social, affective empathy, and/or bilateral reward networks were positively associated with being helpful and caring for others, across cohorts (p<0.05, Cohen's f?0.14). At baseline, having a best friend, and connectivity of the left social network were correlated with feeling guilty after misbehaving (p<0.04, f<0.10). At follow-up, importance of showing affection, having a best friend, and lower long-range connectivity in bilateral frontoparietal control networks were correlated with being considerate (p<0.05, f<0.11). These results suggest that parental affection and warmth, and strong peer relationships, together with properties of extensive functional networks may support empathetic behaviors/emotions.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging
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Ashley Wade, National Taiwan University
Joshua Ooh Son Goh, National Taiwan University; Susan Shur-Fen Gau, National Taiwan University Yi-Ling Chien, National Taiwan University
Differential Functional Connectivity Between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development over Each Year of the Adolescent Period
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been associated with neural overgrowth and reduced pruning processes during the early childhood period. Such pathological neurodevelopment impacts functional connectivity (FC) in the brain of children with ASD, which has been characterized by stronger short-range connections within brain regions and weaker long-range connections between brain regions in patients relative to typically developing (TD) controls. However, how FC in ASD patients is modulated over age as the individual continues to mature and has more social experiences that shape brain processes remains unclear. This study evaluates resting-state FC between 76 ASD and 78 TD participants year-by-year over the adolescent period (9-19 yrs). Brain regional blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal time-series were cross-correlated for each individual and a 2-year sliding window was applied over each age to examine group differences in resulting correlation coefficients. Linear regression analyses also validated continuous age-related trends of group differences in FC. These analyses jointly revealed that, relative to the TD group, ASD patients had lower FC within intra-frontal, frontal-occipital, and temporal-insular connections between ages 12-14 yrs, but higher FC between ages 15-17 yrs. By contrast, a temporal-parietal connection evinced higher FC in ASD between 10-12 yrs, but lower FC in ASD between 15-16 yrs, when compared to TD. Moreover, higher temporal-parietal FC correlated with lower social awareness scores. Our findings highlight the importance of considering each developmental year in how the ASD brain changes in FC and social awareness adaptation in diagnostics and when applying interventions at these different adolescent years.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging
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Masoud Seraji, University of Texas at Austin
Taylor James, Emory University; Audrey Duarte, University of Texas at Austin
Habitual emotion regulation contributes to emotional episodic encoding particularly with increasing age
The ability to regulate negative emotions can promote wellbeing and impact memory for negative events. Regulation involves the recruitment of top-down control processes that act to dampen affective reactivity. fMRI evidence suggests that recruitment of lateral and medial PFC regions during negative emotional encoding and PFC-amygdala coupling underly successful regulation. Some evidence has shown these activity patterns are spontaneously engaged by older adults during negative event encoding, potentially contributing to their reduced negative memory biases. Whether these patterns are reflective of individual differences in habitual, daily life emotion regulation, is unknown. In the current fMRI study, we scanned 56 adults, across the adult lifespan, as they rated emotional intensity of negative, neutral, and positive images and subsequently completed a recognition memory task. In addition, we measured emotion regulation with Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and examined individual differences in habitual reappraisal (ERQR) and suppression (ERQS). Across age, greater VLPFC and DMPFC activity for negative compared to neutral event encoding was positively predicted by both ERQR and ERQS. Importantly, this pattern was strongest for older individuals reporting the greatest ERQR and ERQS. We can conclude that, the ability to regulate the negative emotions in daily life in older adults is directly related to the brain activity patterns in the lateral and medial PFC regions.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging
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Nicholas Kathios, Northeastern University
Laurel Gabard-Durnam, Northeastern University; Psyche Loui, Northeastern University
Age-Specific Effects of Music Encoding on Reward and Memory Systems in Healthy and Cognitively Impaired Aging
Older adults recall the most autobiographical memories from when they were between the ages of 10-30 years (the 'reminiscence bump' effect). While music-evoked autobiographical memories are most common in response to music from this time period, older adults also show lifelong preferences for this music. This suggests that music from this developmental window has the potential to target both reward and memory systems in aging populations. Here, we compared neural activation and functional connectivity elicited by music first experienced at three stages of the lifespan: during participants' childhood (0-12), adolescence (13-18), and adulthood (21-45). We collected fMRI data from older adults (ages 54-79) who were either cognitively healthy (n = 20) or cognitively impaired (either mild cognitive impairment [MCI] or subjective cognitive decline [SCD], n = 8) while they listened to both self- and researcher-selected music. In the cognitively impaired group, early-encoded music (from childhood and adolescence) elicited greater activity in the hippocampus and reward regions (caudate and putamen) than late-encoded music (from adulthood). Early-encoded music also elicited greater functional connectivity between the reward system and medial prefrontal cortex compared to adulthood music in this group. In the cognitively healthy older adults, adolescent music elicited greater within-network connectivity of the reward system and with the posterior cingulate and precuneus compared to both childhood and adulthood music, surviving FDR cluster-size correction at the 0.05 level. These results highlight the importance and lasting impacts of developmental timing of reward and memory encoding while underscoring the utility of early-encoded music in music-based interventions.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging
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Jiwon Chun, The Catholic University of Korea
Jihye Choi, The Catholic University of Korea; Arom Pyeon, The Catholic University of Korea Min Kyung Hu, The Catholic University of Korea; Hyun Cho, The Catholic University of Korea; In Young Choi, The Catholic University of Korea; Jung-Seok Choi, Samsung Medical Center; Kook-Jin Ahn, The Catholic University of Korea; Jong-Ho Nam, The Catholic University of Korea; Dai-Jin Kim, The Catholic University of Korea
Altered brain activity of salience network in adolescence during facial emotion processing
In this study, we aim to identify different brain activities and functional connectivity among middle adolescents (MA), late adolescence (LA), and adults toward others' happy and angry face stimuli. _x000D_
Twenty-five MA (10 females, 14.12 ± 1.74 years), thirty-three LA (12 females, 22.64 ± 1.62 years), and thirty-three adults (13 females, 30.06 ± 3.33 years) participated in this study. _x000D_
There were four conditions; happy face followed by happy face (HH), angry face followed by happy face (AH), angry followed by angry face (AA), and happy face followed by angry face (HA). The task sequence was separated into two sessions. It was composed of a rapid event-related design in which the duration of each trial was 1,500 ms, and the inter-trial intervals were varied from 500 to 4,500 ms. _x000D_
In the region of interest (ROI) analysis for exploring the activation differences of the bilateral ACC, and bilateral insula, the MA showed less activity in the emotional face compared to LA and Adults. In terms of the activity in the left DLPFC, both MA and LA revealed less activity in the emotional face compared to Adults. In the AH, we observed stronger dACC connectivity with the right insula in MA and LA than in adults. In the HA, MA had lower connectivity between dACC and insula than LA and Adults. _x000D_
It is possible that emotional sensitivity and protracted development of cognitive control during adolescence may make those at this stage of life differently reactive compared to adults towards facial expression.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging
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Keirsten Howard, Belmont University
Prathyusha Gowri Srinivasan, Belmont University; Youstina Tadros, Belmont University Hannah Potts, Belmont University; Carole Scherling, Belmont University
Can you HAND-le these emotions? An investigation on hemispheric dominance with exposure to visual stimuli. _x000D_
Hemispheric dominance, like those related to handedness, has implications in clinical settings. For example, it predicts language lateralization, with right-handers showing left-hemispheric dominance and left-handers presenting more variable designations. Such lateralization extends to affective mechanisms. Emotional processing is widespread in the brain, but higher-order judgements are frequently localized in prefrontal cortices, as addressed by two theories. The Valence-Specific hypothesis involves judgment of emotional qualities (left hemisphere= positive; right hemisphere= negative). The Approach-Withdrawal hypothesis explains motivational behavior (left hemisphere= approach; right hemisphere= withdrawal). The current study aims to understand emotional hemispheric lateralization, in conjunction with handedness. We hypothesize right-handers showing higher activity in the left hemisphere when viewing positively-valenced and approachable faces. Connected to fNIRs (8x8 montage, bilateral prefrontal), 60 participants (age= 19.6[1.3]; 47F, 53 dextral) completed a novel forced-choice task, Facial Emotional Valence Assessment (FEVA). Five separate emotional blocks were presented (happy, sad, anger, disgust and fear), each containing 11 primary stimuli with 4 interspersed single presentations of other emotions (habituation control). After preprocessing (Homer3), data was topographically analyzed to extract hemispheric dominance for each block. Preliminary results on right-handers demonstrate higher oxy-hemoglobin in the left hemisphere when viewing happy faces, and stronger right activity for all other emotions. However, anger demonstrated higher bilateral activity compared to the other negative emotions (sad, disgust and fear), supporting this emotion's approach quality. Data collection is ongoing, focusing on increasing the left-hand dominant pool. Overall, such work contributes to the affective neuroscience literature and guides targeted interventions for clinical groups experiencing emotional deficits.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
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Ian McDonough, The University of Alabama
Hillary Erwin, The University of Alabama; Hannah Apostolou, The University of Alabama Alissa McIntyre, The University of Alabama; Martha Crowther, The University of Alabama; Rebecca Allen, The University of Alabama
Different Lifetime Periods of Stress Uniquely Predict Brain Function During Working Memory and Episodic Retrieval Tasks
Self-reports of recent chronic stress have been linked to smaller brain volumes in limbic and prelimbic brain regions in adults. However, such assessments of recent stress fail to capture the unique effects of stress at different lifetime periods. Recent work in our lab has reconceptualized chronic stress as revealed by retrospective reports of internal stress at different lifetime periods. In the present study, we validated the use of such lifetime retrospective reports of stress with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a sample of middle-aged Black Americans-a group socially disadvantaged and that often faces chronic stress. While brain structure showed weak correlations with any lifetime period of stress, a gradient of lifetime period on brain activity was found with the strongest effects for childhood stress, weak effects during young adulthood, and no effects for recent stress. The childhood effects were concentrated in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) across the two memory tasks, consistent with research in children showing the late development of mPFC in memory processing. These findings suggest that measures of recent stress are not sufficient to characterize their effects of on brain activity and that childhood stress has long-term impacts on brain functioning in middle-age. These findings have implications for factors that increase risks for late-life neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease that are elevated in minoritized groups.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
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Lyla Hawari, McGill University
Mario Bogdanov, McGill University; Lara Ekin Telli, McGill University Nasri Balit, McGill University; Madeleine Sharp, McGill University
The Effect of Acute Stress on Cognition in Parkinson's Disease Patients and Older Adults [IN PROGRESS]
It is a widely observed phenomenon that patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are very sensitive to stress. Recent evidence from a large cohort study also suggests that patients experience higher stress than older adults without PD. However, it remains unknown whether the subjectively enhanced susceptibility to stress in PD is associated with enhanced activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, and whether it has direct effects on cognitive function. To address this gap, we compared stress responses in PD patients and older healthy controls (HC). Participants underwent two sessions, an acute stress induction, using the socially evaluated cold pressor task, and a control session. Stress responses were measured using salivary cortisol, heart rate, blood pressure and self-reported affect at multiple timepoints. To evaluate the effects of stress on cognitive performance, participants completed several tasks measuring working memory and executive function. Analyses conducted on a preliminary sample of 30 participants show that both groups exhibited a significant increase in self-reported stress and systolic blood pressure after the stress manipulation compared to the control manipulation. Furthermore, consistent with previous research on the effect of stress in older adults, preliminary results suggest a beneficial effect of stress on working memory performance seen in the HC but not in the PD patients. _x000D_
_x000D_
Future analyses will focus on comparing cortisol responses and relating them to the effects of stress on cognition. Because stress is a potentially modifiable factor, identifying whether PD is associated with increased physiological stress reactivity and increased downstream cognitive effects has important clinical implications.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
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Marne White, Washington University in St. Louis
Deanna Wu, Washington University in St. Louis; Samuel Wang, Washington University in St. Louis Jeremy Jacobson, Washington University in St. Louis; Natee Viravan, Mahidol University; Yanli Lin, Washington University in St. Louis; Todd Braver, Washington University in St. Louis
Contrasting mindfulness state induction effects on cognitive control and emotion regulation
Prior research has demonstrated salutary effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) on cognitive function. However, MBIs include practice of distinct mindfulness skills, including open monitoring (OM) and focused attention (FA). Further, OM and FA are thought to reflect distinct mindfulness states that are presumed to produce differentiable effects on cognitive control and emotion regulation. Yet surprisingly, this hypothesis has not been directly and systematically tested (i.e., using rigorous within-subject factorial designs). To address this gap, we acquired electroencephalogram (EEG) data during separate guided mindfulness inductions followed by task performance. Across 3 testing conditions (OM, FA, active control [C]), 30 novice participants listened to brief OM/FA guided meditations or a TED talk (C), then immediately performed an affective picture viewing and flanker task sequentially, with explicit instructions to maintain the guided mindfulness state (OM, FA) during both tasks. Analyses tested three key preregistered hypotheses: 1) OM (relative to FA/C) reduces emotional reactivity, indexed by attenuated late positive potential amplitudes across time; and enhance conscious error awareness, as indexed by larger error positivity amplitudes; 2) FA (relative to OM/C) heightens early error detection, as indexed via larger error-related negativity amplitudes; and enhances executive attention, as indexed by reduced behavioral interference and magnitude of P3 congruency effect; and 3) FA and OM result in differentiable spectral power signatures relative to C. The study design highlights the power of factorially combining mindfulness state inductions with cognitive/affective task assessments, and using EEG to index the neural mechanisms that may link the two.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
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Dhaval Bhatt, Dartmouth College
Jeremy Huckins, Dartmouth College; Andrew Campbell, Dartmouth College Meghan Meyer, Columbia University
Differences in conversation behaviour relate to the resting state functional connectivity of Left-IFG
Among the types of social interactions humans engage in, in-person conversations play a key role in maintaining social networks (Dunbar, 2018) and regulating behaviour (Orehek & Lakey, 2011). Yet, how real-world conversations impact neurophysiology remains vastly underspecified. To begin to fill this gap, we combined mobile sensing with resting-state fMRI. Specifically, participants in this study had an app on their smartphones that passively quantified the amount of conversation they engaged in (detected via their phone's microphones) for ~4 months. Participants also completed a resting state fMRI scan around the midpoint of their mobile sensing data collection. We were then able to ask: 1) how do conversation patterns during the previous months relate to neurophysiology on the day of the scan and 2) do resting state patterns during the scan predict future conversation behaviour? We show that the average duration of conversations during the prior month (but not future month) relate to resting state functional connectivity profiles _x000D_
between default mode network (DMN) regions and the left inferior frontal gyrus (L-IFG), a node in the dorsomedial DMN subsystem. Additionally, inter-subject representational similarity analysis (IS-RSA) revealed that people with similar day-of-scan resting state functional connectivity profiles between LIFG and other DMN regions engage in similar, subsequent conversation patterns the following week. Our results suggest a two-way relationship between conversation behaviour and neurophysiology. Specifically, functional connections between the LIFG, consistently associated with language and self-regulation, and DMN regions consistently associated with social cognition, are impacted by past and shape future conversation behaviour.
Inter-subject variability in post-encoding default network connectivity explains affects of social memories
Often after interpersonal conversations, each of us recalls the experience differently; some fondly, some with disdain; some are inspired, some deflated. Previous studies have investigated the role of the brain's default mode network (DMN) in variable interpretations of similar social experiences (Finn et al., 2018), yet the network's role post-encoding has largely been overlooked. Given the importance of post-encoding DMN connectivity in social memory consolidation (Collier & Meyer, 2020), here we asked if people remember the same social experience fondly versus with disdain, in part, because of how their DMN consolidates the experience after encoding. To test this, subjects (N=40) underwent fMRI while completing a baseline rest scan, encoding videos of people sharing emotional information, and a post-encoding rest scan. Next, they freely recalled everything they remembered. We calculated inter-subject similarity in timecourse correlations between DMN regions in each experimental phase and sentiment analysis on recall data. Representational similarity analysis between a) subject-by-subject connectivity similarity during post-encoding rest and b) by-subject memory affect showed that subjects with negative memories exhibited similar DMN connectivity, while those with positive memories exhibited idiosyncratic DMN connectivity. Temporal analyses revealed this post-encoding effect occurs quickly, immediately after encoding. Importantly, we found no effect when analyzing video-watching or baseline rest, ruling out perceptual or trait-level resting state explanations. Connectivity outside the DMN yielded null results, further suggesting specificity to DMN. The findings suggest individual differences in DMN connectivity immediately after social encoding may explain why some recall the same social experience fondly while others with disdain.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
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Samuel Cooper, University of Texas at Austin
Augustin Hennings, Princeton University; Sophia Bibb, University of Texas at Austin Joseph Dunsmoor, University of Texas at Austin
Decoded reinstatement of latent associative structure is associated with neural generalization of learned threat
Despite relevance to exposure therapy for PTSD, fear spreading through latent associations amongst established semantic networks (e.g., fear spreading to an abstract category, such as 'dangerous people') is minimally addressed in common treatment protocols. We investigated how latent associative structures can facilitate the transfer of threat from one to the other (i.e., generalization) using an aversive preconditioning fMRI experiment and multivariate pattern analyses. Thirty-five psychiatrically healthy participants first learned the association between one of two categories (animals or tools) and a shape (circle or square). Next, one of the previously encountered shapes was paired with a shock (CS+); the other shape was a safe control stimulus (CS-) - this resulted in a latent associative structure, in which shock was indirectly related to one of the previously encountered categories (PS+) via its previous CS+ association, while the other category (PS-) remained unassociated with shock. We tested these associations in a subsequent generalization test, in which participants encountered novel PS+ and PS- exemplars. Based on rodent literature, we predicted that multivariate indices of threat would indicate generalization to the PS+ (relative to PS-), despite never directly pairing the PS+ with the shock. Decoded PS+ patterns during threat learning (CS+) were uniquely related to basolateral amygdala activity during generalization. Additionally, increased neural pattern similarity within the PS+ category was observed within threat-related medial temporal and prefrontal structures during the generalization phase. Results are discussed in the context of current theories of abstract threat generalization and its relevance to improving exposure therapy for PTSD.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
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13
Rachael Wright, Duke University
Shabnam Hakimi, Duke University; Laura Yost, Duke University Jeff MacInnes, Duke University; Kathryn Dickerson, Duke University; Kevin LaBar, Duke University; R. Alison Adcock, Duke University
Learning to motivate: Whole-brain engagement during real-time fMRI neurofeedback of the ventral tegmental area
People often attempt to motivate themselves using specific thoughts and imagery, with mixed effectiveness. Real-time fMRI neurofeedback training can help individuals link specific mental processes with brain activity. We have previously demonstrated that individuals can learn to upregulate and sustain BOLD activation in the ventral tegmental area during neurofeedback using self-relevant motivational thoughts and imagery. The present study aimed to replicate these findings in a larger sample and extend these findings by examining whole-brain activation (compared to original partial-volume data) during and following neurofeedback. In a pilot sample (n=17) from our ongoing study, participants were instructed to motivate themselves while increasing a thermometer display of real-time VTA fMRI signal (activate trials) or to count backwards (count trials). To demonstrate learning, participants completed Pre-test and Post-test trials of VTA self-activation without neurofeedback before and after training. Whole-brain and ROI analyses replicated the prior finding that individuals can learn to increase VTA activity during real-time neurofeedback. Whole-brain analyses revealed significant activation in regions involved in episodic simulation (inferior parietal lobule, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobule, precuneus), reward (midbrain), emotional memory and learning (hippocampus, striatum, amygdala), and visual processing. ROI analyses also showed significant activation in the nucleus accumbens during neurofeedback training. Examinations of post > pre-training change in activation during self-motivation (without neurofeedback) revealed reduced recruitment of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and greater recruitment of the cingulate cortex. Collectively, these findings suggest that neurofeedback training reorganizes prefrontal engagement during self-motivation, potentially contributing to learning to strategically increase VTA activation.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
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14
Jingyi Wang, University of California, Santa Barbara
Regina Lapate, University of California, Santa Barbara
Time and emotion modulate the intrinsic functional organization of lateral prefrontal cortex
Control signals in lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) are thought to be organized along a rostro-caudal axis of temporal abstraction, with rostral LPFC (frontopolar cortex/FP) supporting abstract and temporal context-dependent forms of cognitive control (Badre and D'Esposito, 2007; Badre and Nee, 2018). Prior work suggests that the similarity structure of intervoxel functional connectivity patterns in LPFC reflects its intrinsic functional organization, which constrains abstract, goal-directed cognition (Waskom et al., 2017). Here, we used dense sampling fMRI to examine whether the intrinsic functional architecture of LPFC differentially reflects changes in temporal context along the rostro-caudal axis. We also examined whether mood changes differentially explained LPFC functional connectivity patterns given evidence that emotional valence encoding in FP modulates goal-directed cognition (Lapate et al. 2022). Two participants (n=1 Female, 23-y-old; n=1 Male, 26-y-old) underwent daily resting-state scans for n=30 consecutive days. We correlated changes in the similarity of intra-regional functional connectivity patterns in LPFC with changes in elapsed time. We found that the similarity of functional connectivity patterns in FP tracked (and correlated negatively with) elapsed time elapsed over a 30-day period-an association that was attenuated in mid-LPFC, and absent in caudal PFC regions. Moreover, emotional-state changes differentially explained the similarity structure of functional connectivity patterns in LPFC, with the strongest association found in FP, which progressively attenuated in caudal regions. Collectively, these results indicate that time and emotion differentially modulate the intrinsic functional architecture along the rostro-caudal axis of LPFC.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
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15
Mengsi Li, UCSB
Brooke Schwartzman, UCSB; Julia Pratt, UCSB Regina Lapate, UCSB
The persistence of affect and temporal memory across event boundaries
Everyday life is filled with dynamic shifts between the emotional and the mundane. Emotional responses often persist beyond the initial emotional provocation, biasing appraisal of neutral stimuli in the environment irrespective of context (Lapate et al. 2017). Acute contextual changes typically produce 'event boundaries', which alter temporal coding and memory structure (Davachi & DuBrow, 2015). However, precisely how contextual shifts modulate the dynamics and persistence of emotional responses is unknown. We designed a novel event-boundary EEG task in which participants viewed emotional-event sequences comprising four positive or negative images, which were interleaved with novel neutral faces. At the end of each sequence, participants rated neutral-face likeability. Memory for temporal order and distance for emotional-image pairs shown within and across sequences was measured. We found that emotional-image pairs shown across vs. within-sequences produced poorer order memory and greater temporal distance judgments, replicating well-known event-boundary effects, which were amplified by emotional-valence shifts. Despite event boundaries, emotional responses often persisted into new temporal contexts, biasing neutral-face appraisals according to the valence of the preceding sequence. The temporal persistence of emotion was reflected in the temporal dynamics of theta oscillations: theta power decreased over negative but not positive event sequences, an effect that persisted into the subsequent neutral face epoch. Reduced theta power in response to neutral faces processed following negative sequences was associated with reduced affective spillover, suggesting a role for theta in the intrinsic and temporal-context sensitive regulation of affect over time.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions
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16
Gloria Mendoza Franco, Aalto University
Matthias Aulbach, Paris London Universität Salzburg; Ville J. Harjunen, University of Helsinki Inga Jasinskaja, University of Helsinki; Anna Peltola, Aalto University; J. Niklas Ravaja, University of Helsinki; Matilde Tassinari, University of Helsinki; Saana Vainio, Aalto University; Iiro P. Jääskeläinen, Aalto University
Identification of emotional responses towards threat and different stereotypes using fMRI data and an MVPA approach
Different emotional responses are expected from social encounters with outgroup members. The Stereotype Content Model (SCM) predicts specific emotions associated with different stereotypes. Those emotional responses have been measured mainly using self-report questionnaires. We used a Multivariate Pattern Analysis (MVPA) approach to identify the emotions elicited by simulated social encounters with people representing different stereotypes in Finland. We used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data measured while watching 360 videos showing people with different ethnic backgrounds approaching the camera, representing approach behavior that violated the personal space of the subjects. Data recorded in an emotional imagery task was used to train an emotion classifier, which was then used to predict participants' emotional states while watching the videos. Emotional responses associated with the different stereotypes and modulation by the threatening behavior of actors were the expected outcomes. The results show that the classifier can identify brain patterns from 14 basic and social emotions above chance levels. The predictions of the emotional responses while watching the videos show a clear threat-related response of the participants toward approaching actors.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding
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17
Vesa Putkinen, Turku PET Centre, University of Turku
Lauri Nummenmaa, Turku PET Centre, University of Turku
PLEASURABLE MUSIC MODULATES µ-OPIOID SYSTEM ACIVITY IN THE BRAIN
Introduction. The µ-opioid system contributes to pleasure derived from biologically salient rewards as such food and physical contact. µ-opioid receptor (MOR) activation has also been proposed to mediate music-induced pleasure. However, there is currently no in vivo imaging evidence supporting the involvement of MORs in musical hedonia. _x000D_
_x000D_
Methods. We measured MOR activation in 15 female participants with [11C]carfentanil PET. Subjects were scanned while they listened to pleasurable music and in a neutral baseline condition. Before the music scan, participants listened to self-selected pleasurable music for 15 minutes and they continued listening to the music throughout the scan. Self-reports on pleasure were obtained every 10 minutes. Before the baseline scan, the subjects spent 15 min alone in the preparation room and no sensory stimulation was presented during the scan. _x000D_
_x000D_
Results. Whole-brain analysis of the PET data revealed that music listening increased [11C]carfentanil binding potential (BPND) in several brain regions including brainstem, thalamus, ventral striatum, temporal pole and orbitofrontal cortex. _x000D_
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Conclusions. Our results provide first neuroimaging evidence that listening to pleasurable music modulates MOR system activation. These results indicate that the µ-opioid system also governs complex aesthetic rewards in addition to biologically salient ones.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding
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18
Anna Duong, Brown University
Aaron Kucyi, Drexel University; Julian Quabs, University of Dusseldorf Zoe Lusk, Stanford University; Josef Parvizi, Stanford
Functional and cytoarchitectonic mapping of subparts in human insula that are active during experimental tasks and involved in electrically elicited anxiety and pain_x000D_
Few clinical electrical stimulation studies have applied causal evidence to previously known insula subparts and none have yet to map these subjective correlates onto recent findings of specific anatomical cytoarchitectonic maps of the human insula. Additionally, it is yet to be determined if the electrically induced subjective state changes are related to activations seen during experimental settings. The study addresses these unknowns in 16 patients with intracranial electrodes. 117 pairs of electrodes were stimulated across various insula regions in which 40 sites(34%) induced a change in conscious experience in the categories of pain/temperature (53%), visceral/autonomic (20%), somatosensory (13%), anxiety/emotion (12%), and taste/olfactory sensations (5%). These reports showed a lateralization effect, with visceral/emotional responses from the anterior insula concentrated in the left hemisphere and pain/temperature and somatosensory changes in the posterior insula concentrated in the right hemisphere. These findings are supported by probabilistic cytoarchitectonic mapping demonstrating a clear anterior-posterior difference in responses. Interestingly, sites with emotional or viscerosensory responses coalesced in the cytoarchitectonic area ld6. Recordings during a previously validated experimental task (gradCPT) in the region of reported anxiety/heightened arousal documented significant time-locked high-frequency broadband activations when odd stimuli were presented and even higher when the subject made errors in their responses. Our findings provide the first causal evidence linking the subjective changes induced by electrical perturbation of a specific subpopulation of neurons in specific cytoarchitectonic regions of the human insula with their activation profile during experimentally controlled conditions.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding
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19
Shir Genzer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Desmond Ong, University of Texas at Austin; Jamil Zaki, Stanford University Anat Perry, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Sensorimotor simulation via mu rhythm suppression is associated with greater empathic accuracy
When people encounter others' emotions, they engage multiple brain systems, including parts of the sensorimotor cortex associated with motor simulation. Simulation-related brain activity has been found to be associated with empathy and social cognition, predominantly using simplified tasks. However, these tasks fail to capture the dynamic and complex nature of real social interaction, leaving open the questions of whether and how sensorimotor simulation contributes to complex empathic judgments. In this study, we combine a naturalistic empathic-accuracy paradigm with a reliable index of sensorimotor cortex-based simulation: EEG suppression of oscillatory activity in the mu (8-13 Hz) frequency band. In two studies, participants passively watched nine naturalistic video-clips of people ('targets') describing emotional life events. Participants viewed these clips with (i)video and sound; (ii)video only; or (iii)sound only, and were instructed to infer the targets' feelings. Then, they viewed the video-clips for the second time outside the EEG setup, and continuously rated how they believed the target felt. We operationalized empathic accuracy as the correlation between participants' inferences and targets' self-report (collected beforehand from the targets). In Experiment 1 (US sample), across all conditions, right-lateralized mu suppression tracked empathic accuracy. In Experiment 2 (Israeli sample), this was replicated only when using individualized frequency bands and only for the visual stimuli. Lastly, we will discuss a current EEG study aimed at differentiating between the role of mu suppression in affective versus cognitive empathy. Our results provide novel evidence that motor simulation plays an essential role in higher-level inferences about others' emotions.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other
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20
Xinxu Shen, Temple University
Vishnu Murty, Temple University; David Smith, Temple University
State anxiety dampens the relationship of surprise with hedonic utility and curiosity
The brain encodes surprise differently under positive and negative affective states, suggesting that the behavioral manifestation of surprise is susceptible to affective context. Thus, we predict that surprise will be perceived differently under negative affective states, like intolerance of uncertainty. To test this hypothesis, we designed a longitudinal behavioral study where 74 participants watched 20 magic clips (10 high curiosity, 10 low curiosity), rated hedonic value and how surprised they were at each clip once a week for three weeks. Participants also completed individual difference. We measured negative affective context using the intolerance of uncertainty questionnaire. Using mixed effect models, we found a significant interaction between negative affective context and surprise on hedonic value of magic clips (t = 3.23, p = 0.01), such that greater intolerance of uncertainty decreased the hedonic value of surprise. Further, we found a significant interaction between context and curiosity on surprise (t = 3.83, p < 0.01), such that high curiosity elicited more surprise when participants were experiencing low intolerance of uncertainty. Together, our findings suggest that while curiosity may evoke surprise leading to greater hedonic value, when individuals are in negative affective states neither curiosity or surprise may be experienced as valuable.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other
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21
Toru Ishii, Stanford University
Makoto Kawai, Stanford University; Isabelle Cotto, Stanford University Ruth O'hara, Stanford University
Association of Depressive/anxiety Symptoms and Increase of Rapid-eye-movement Sleep in the Evening Chronotype
Growing evidence has revealed the relationship between sleep and emotional brain function. Specifically, rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep is reported to play a crucial role in emotional memory processing based on amygdala responsivity. Meanwhile, the evening chronotype is associated with depression and anxiety symptoms of individuals with mood disorders. The biological clock shifts toward the morning type with age, and the sleep architecture also alters. However, the influence of alterations in chronotype on emotional brain function has yet to be uncovered. We aimed to elucidate the relationship between chronotype and REM sleep from the viewpoint of emotional processing. Community-dwelling 128 healthy older adults were assessed chronotypes, and depressive and anxiety symptoms using Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), respectively. All participants underwent ambulatory polysomnography for sleep assessments. Scores for GDS and BAI significantly negatively correlated with MEQ scores (R2=0.08, p=0.001; R2=0.12, p<0.001, respectively). Group comparison between evening and morning preferences demonstrated that the time spent in the REM stage was longer in the former group (d=0.45, p=0.012). Total sleep time and the other sleep stage durations did not show significant differences. Our results demonstrate that the evening chronotype is associated with more subclinical symptoms of depression and anxiety in older adults. The percentage of REM sleep stage is longer in the evening chronotype group than in the morning and intermediate types, suggesting the involvement of REM sleep in the emotional state. The results may contribute to a better understanding of emotional processing during sleep.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other
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22
Imogen Weigall, University of South Australia
Zachariah Cross, University of South Australia; Matthias Schlesewsky, University of South Australia Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, University of South Australia; Ruchi Sinha, University of South Australia
Exploring EEG-based resting-state and task-related neural predictors of team performance
Electrophysiological activity recorded during task engagement and at rest may afford insight into how neurophysiological markers predict team decision-making in complex environments. Research demonstrates that individuals completing a team task show synchronised brain activity (inter-brain synchrony, IBS), particularly in the alpha frequency range (8-12 Hz). At an individual level, decision-making performance can be predicted by individual differences in characteristics of resting-state brain activity. Less is known regarding whether IBS is predictive of optimal team decision-making and whether this relationship is modulated by inter-individual differences in resting-state brain activity. This study investigated how the composition of dyads' resting-state neural metrics, alongside measures of IBS, predict team performance in a dynamic, collaborative task. Thirty-one dyads were fitted with EEG, configured to record neural activity simultaneously. Participants engaged in a cooperative, online kitchen management task requiring the mimicry of the role of chefs in a simulated restaurant. Preliminary analyses revealed similarity in team members' aperiodic 1/f intercept predicted superior team performance across time and task complexity. Alpha IBS was not directly predictive of team performance; however, increasing alpha IBS alongside heterogeneous compositions of the aperiodic intercept was associated with poorer performance during learning. Here, alpha IBS may reflect common neurophysiological mechanisms underlying attentional processing, while differences in aperiodic intercept may reflect higher-level information processing strategies. Our findings provide promising initial evidence that neurophysiological activity predicts team performance. Such work may serve as a viable option for quantifying and informing optimal team performance and composition.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other
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23
Danika Geisler, Dartmouth
Meghan Meyer, Columbia
Self-focused by default: Spontaneous medial prefrontal cortex and DMN core subsystem activity during rest predicts the desire to think about the self
People are particularly self-focused. Yet, the basic brain mechanisms that bias us towards self-focus remain unclear. In the main task of our fMRI session, each trial started with a pre-trial jittered rest, then the trial in which subjects chose who (themselves, a designated friend, or Biden) they wanted to think about in a later task. Parametric modulation analysis of the pre-trial jitter activation with response time to the next trial as the parametric modulator revealed the MPFC during pretrial rest more strongly predicted self (vs friend and Biden) decisions. In other words, stronger 'default' MPFC activation during brief rest biases self-focus on a moment-by-moment basis. Additionally, multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) revealed that spatial patterns in the MPFC during pre-trial rest predict the subsequent choice to think about the self (vs. others) on the next trial. We additionally found that the DMN core is able to predict the subsequent choice to focus on the self (vs. others) more accurately than a) other DMN subsystems and b) the whole brain. Finally, we applied the DMN core MVPA pattern to each TR of a resting state scan that occurred prior to the experimental tasks. During this rest scan, participants periodically rated the extent to which they were thinking about themselves. Participants with DMN core patterns during rest that were highly similar to the pre-trial MVPA pattern reported being the most self-focused during their rest scan. The current results suggest that 'defaulting back' to the MPFC and DMN core subsystem nudges us toward self-focus.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other
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Mathew Rocha Hammerstrom, University of Victoria
Olave Krigolson, University of Victoria
The Impact of Self-Relevance on Neural Signals Reflecting Attention, Perception and Reward Learning
Humans preferentially process self-related information. Typically, this is shown in experiments where participants exhibit enhanced attention and perception of self-related stimuli. More recently, this self-bias has been demonstrated in gambling experiments, where reward learning signals are larger for self-gambles than gambles for unknown others. However, little is known about whether this learning advantage is extended to known others, and if this process is sensitive to a continuum of self-relevance. To address this, we recorded electroencephalographic (EEG) data from 30 undergraduate student participants who played a simple two-choice 'bandit' gambling game where a photo presented before each gamble indicated whether it benefited either the participant, an individual they knew, or a stranger. EEG data were analyzed for components elicited by target photos, reflecting attention and perception, and gambling outcomes, reflecting reward learning. Our primary goal was to examine the relationships between self-relevance and these components. In addition, we also sought to determine whether any differences in reward learning were reflective of attentional and perceptual biases prompted by cues of who a given gamble was for. Results demonstrated a linear relationship between self-relevance and the amplitude of the reward positivity - a reward processing component of the human event-related brain potential. Further, we found that the amplitude of the reward positivity was successfully predicted by the amplitude of perceptual, but not attentional components. These findings provide further evidence that our reward learning system is sensitive to others with varying self-relevance, which may be a function of biases in perception.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Self perception
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25
Joshua Brown, Florida State University
Kevin Clancy, Florida State University; Wen Li, Florida State University
Dynamic upregulation of the default mode network via transcranial alternating current stimulation.
Prior research has shown that the default mode network (DMN), an intrinsic connectivity network characteristic of rest and introspection, can be upregulated using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) targeting the alpha (8-12Hz) oscillatory band. However, traditional static analyses may overlook more complex organizations of intrinsic connectivity networks over time. Here, we deploy data-driven Hidden Markov modeling (HMM) to identify dynamic brain states in resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected before and after 20 minutes of Active (or Sham) alpha-tACS stimulation in healthy individuals (n/n = 17/19). This dynamic network analyses revealed 7 brain states showing functional interactions between regions of interest across multiple canonical networks. Importantly, alpha-tACS reduced the prevalence of a low-DMN state (p<0.05), whereas the Sham group had no change in network dynamics from baseline. Consistent with known roles in attention, this low-DMN state predicted poorer performance on an attention task administered during stimulation, while a salience network (SN) state correlated positively with task performance (p's <0.01). Together, these results suggest that alpha-tACS applied to the occipito-parietal cortex can support the reorganization of large-scale networks and specifically upregulate the DMN by facilitating disengagement from a low-DMN state. Considering deficits found in several psychiatric disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder, these findings may provide a means to rescue pathological suppression of the DMN.
EMOTION & SOCIAL: Self perception
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Nancy Rodas De Leon, University of California, Merced
Elif Isbell, University of California, Merced
Is there a 'bilingualism effect' on neural indices of cognitive control
Bilingualism may influence brain functions supporting cognitive control as bilingual individuals frequently use their cognitive control skills to resolve conflict between languages (Bialystok, 2017). Supporting this claim, previous research demonstrated that bilinguals and monolinguals may adopt different strategies and allocate attentional resources differently to reach the same behavioral outcome (Grundy et al., 2017). However, it remains unclear whether there can be a 'bilingualism effect' on brain functions supporting cognitive control, even in the absence of any observable behavioral differences. To address this gap, the present study examines differences in neural and behavioral indices of cognitive control in monolingual and bilingual adults from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Building on the 'bilingualism effect' framework, we expect to find differences in the magnitude and timing of neural indices of cognitive control between bilingual and monolingual individuals, rather than behavioral differences. To test this hypothesis, we are collecting ERP data from monolingual and heterogenous bilingual adults using 3 standardized paradigms from ERP CORE: Active Visual Oddball, Flanker, and Simple Visual Search (Kappenman et al., 2021). An adaptation of the Language Social and Background questionnaire is used as the measure of bilingualism (bilinguals: at least 60% proficiency in speaking and understanding of both languages; monolinguals: less than 25% proficiency in speaking and understanding a second language). The data collection is in progress (planned sample size to be presented at CNS: n = 25 per group). The findings of this study will enhance our understanding of neural indices of cognitive control in adults with diverse language experiences.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
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Glenn Sherard, The University of Texas at Dallas
Glenn Sherard, The University of Texas at Dallas; Paulina Skolasinska, The University of Texas at Dallas Evan Smith, The University of Texas at Dallas; Shuo Qin, The University of Texas at Dallas; Chandramallika Basak, The University of Texas at Dallas
Unpredictable cuing in working memory updating training changes connectivity of default mode and cognitive networks: ViCTOR trial in healthy aging
With a steadily rising proportion of the population who are aged over 65 yr, it is increasingly prudent to seeks means of boosting older adults' abilities to live independently. In healthy aging, there is a natural deterioration in executive function, a component of cognition necessary for everyday tasks such as attending to nearby cars while driving. Training in high attentional control tasks shows promise for slowing this deterioration. In the current study, 39 healthy older adults were engaged with 20 hours of training in either a predictably-cued, low attentional control version of a laboratory-designed working memory based task (Predictable), or an unpredictably-cued, high attentional control version (Unpredictable); 29 older adults completed this training and were included in analyses. Seed-to-voxel whole-brain analyses examined the resting-state functional connectivity within and between three brain networks strongly pertinent to attentional control: fronto-parietal (FP) regions, default mode network (DMN) regions, and salience (Sal) regions. One FP hub, the left posterior parietal cortex ‚?? and one DMN hub, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex ‚?? showed an increased connectivity with the right frontal pole / superior frontal gyrus for the Unpredictable group ‚?? a region implicated in cognitive control. Such changes were not significant in the Predictable training group. Unpredictable training also showed decreased connectivity between posterior cingulate cortex (a DMN hub) and anterior cingulate cortex (a Sal hub) at post-training compared to Predictable training group. In addition to changes in resting-state connectivity, changes in task connectivity for the trained task will be discussed.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
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28
Po-Kai Wang, National Taiwan University
Yi-Hsiu Lee, National Taiwan University; Jing-Yu Chuang, National Taiwan University Ting-Syuen Wang, National Taiwan University; Cody Li-Sheng Wang, National Taiwan University; Wen-Chieh Chao, National Taiwan University; Chih-Yi Chen, National Taiwan University; Yu-Shiang Su, National Taiwan University; Joshua Oon Soo Goh, National Taiwan University
Different Strategic Neural Correlates Representing Distances Implicates Age-related Distortions in Spatial Navigation
Spatial navigation is one of the cognitive functions compromised in aging. Older adults require more time to construct a cognitive map and make more mistakes reaching target locations. Previous studies implicate inaccurate distance judgement as a cause. Older adults underestimate actual distances more than younger adults as actual distances increase. Such underestimation in distance judgement imply that older adults may have distortions in mental representations of space. In the present study, we investigated the neural correlates of distance representation in younger and older adults using a distance judgement paradigm within a virtual environment with eight landmarks. Participants freely navigated the virtual environment and encoded the map to criterion. After the cognitive map is acquired, participants were tested on the environment while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Specifically, for a given start landmark, participants provided their estimates of distances to target landmarks and also navigated there. Compared to younger adults, older adults under- and over-estimated closer and farther distances, respectively. Representational similarity analyses revealed distance representations in visual systems in younger adults but frontal systems in older adults. Our findings show how a shift in neural navigational strategy underlies older adult distance representations during spatial navigation.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
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29
Jo„o VerÌssimo, University of Lisbon
Paul Verhaeghen, Georgia Institute of Technology; Noreen Goldman, Princeton University Maxine Weinstein, Georgetown University; Michael Ullman, Georgetown University
Aging yields improvements as well as declines across attention and executive functions
Although many cognitive abilities decline during aging, others remain well preserved. Some even improve, due to lifelong experience. The critical capacities of attention and executive functions have been widely posited to decline with aging. However, these capacities are composed of multiple components, and so multifaceted aging outcomes (including declines, stability, and improvements) might be expected. Indeed, prior findings suggest that whereas certain attention/executive functions clearly decline, others do not, with hints that some might even improve. We tested aging effects on the alerting, orienting, and executive (inhibitory) networks posited by Posner and Petersen's influential theory of attention, with the Attention Network Task, in a cross-sectional study of a large sample (N=702) of participants aged 58-98. Linear and nonlinear analyses revealed that whereas the efficiency of the alerting network decreased with age, orienting and executive inhibitory efficiency increased, at least until age mid/late-70s. Multiple sensitivity analyses indicated the patterns were robust. We propose that the observed age-related changes across the three networks can be explained by a combination of neurobiologically-based mechanisms, including declines, maintenance, compensation, and reserve (particularly from lifelong experience and practice). More generally, the results suggest variability in age-related changes across attention and executive functions. Even though aging is widely viewed as leading to cognitive declines, it in fact yields multifaceted outcomes, including a range of benefits.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
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30
Zachary Gemelli, Rhode Island Hospital
Elena Festa, Brown University; William Heindel, Brown University Spencer Price, Brown University; Laura Korthauer, Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School Brown Uni
Age-Related Differences in Electrophysiological Dynamics on a Flanker and Semantic Retrieval Task
This project characterized age-related differences in electrophysiological dynamics of two frontal control networks: a dorsal control network indexed by the flanker interference task and a ventral network indexed by a controlled semantic retrieval task in which semantic associative strength and cognitive load are varied across conditions. Thirty young adults (YA; M age = 21.1 years) and 28 healthy older adults (OA; M age = 70.0 years) completed the tasks with simultaneous 64-channel EEG recording. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and spectral perturbations (ERSPs) were examined for electrodes of interest in the frontal midline (both tasks) and left frontal regions (semantic retrieval). On the flanker task, YAs displayed a larger N2 ERP component and increased theta power for incongruent compared to congruent trials, whereas OAs showed no difference in N2 size or theta power between trial types. On the semantic retrieval task, YAs displayed a larger N4 ERP and sustained frontal midline negativity around 600ms post-baseline for word pairs with low semantic associative strength compared to higher associative strength. In contrast, OAs showed no differences in the low compared to high associative strength condition but showed greater frontal midline ERP negativity at 600ms post-baseline at higher than lower cognitive loads. Despite no ERP differences in left frontal electrodes across conditions, both groups showed lower left frontal theta power for the high cognitive load condition compared to lower cognitive loads. These findings suggest age-related modulatory deficits within dorsal and ventral control networks. Future studies will examine associations in OA at risk for Alzheimer's disease.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
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Sina Schwarze, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Neda Khosravani, Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Silvia Bunge, University of California at Berkeley Yana Fandakova, University of Trier
Practice-induced Changes in Frontoparietal Activation and Representations During Task Switching in Children
With age, children become better at flexibly switching between tasks and adapting their behavior to changing environments. Children's difficulties with task switching diminish with practice, but the underlying neural correlates are largely unknown. We examined whether task-switching practice led to more efficient rule processing in frontoparietal regions, reflected in reduced brain activation and more distinct task-set representations, as previously shown in adults. _x000D_
Children (8?11 years) practiced intensive single-tasking (ST, N=40/30 with/without MRI) or task-switching (SW, N=40/26) for nine weeks, or were in a passive control group (N=39 with MRI). Task switching was measured on four occasions (pre-training, after three weeks, six weeks, and post-training) in the MRI scanner/simulator in ST and SW children. The control group completed the pre- and post-training assessments. With practice, SW children showed greater increases in drift rates during task switching than ST and control children, suggesting faster evidence accumulation for the correct response. These behavioral improvements in SW children were accompanied by activation decreases in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the superior parietal lobe across single and intermixed task blocks. Multivariate pattern analyses showed that task-set decoding accuracy was higher on trials that repeated the same task compared to switch trials, but did not change with practice. These results provide preliminary evidence that more efficient task processing with task-switching practice is more likely related to general improvements in meta-control processes, as evident in reduced activation in brain regions supporting the management of relevant rules rather than to increasing distinctiveness of the specific task-set representations.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
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Andrew Lynn, Vanderbilt University
Laura Barquero, Vanderbilt University; Gavin Price, University of Exeter Laurie Cutting, Vanderbilt University
Kindergartner?s executive function abilities are associated with their neural representations of symbolic magnitude
Kindergarteners learn how symbolic magnitudes relate to one another while their executive function abilities are improving dramatically. In the present study, we tested whether kindergartener's executive function abilities are related to their neural representations of symbolic magnitude. We tested 43 kindergarteners (M = 5.7 years) on flanker (executive attention) and dimensional change card sorting tasks (DCCS, cognitive flexibility) out of the scanner and a symbolic number comparison task in the scanner (magnitude processing). We calculated magnitude representations using a whole-brain representational similarity analysis approach by correlating the activation patterns for small (e.g., 2 and 5) and large (e.g., 4 and 5) ratio conditions during symbolic number comparison. Less similar activation patterns between ratio conditions indicates a region better distinguishes conditions and is evidence of neural magnitude processing. We submitted magnitude representation maps to separate whole brain regressions with executive function performance (i.e., flanker or DCCS) as predictors. Higher flanker scores showed stronger symbolic magnitude representations across the right parietal lobe, and the medial occipital and frontal lobes. Higher DCCS scores showed stronger symbolic magnitude representation in the bilateral frontal lobe and left temporal pole. Our findings demonstrate (1) the value of employing multivariate neuroimaging methods for detecting individual differences in brain-behavior relationships underlying numerical development, and (2) different executive functions may act via distinct neural substrates to shape children's emerging symbolic number processing.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging
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Joshua Upshaw, University of Arkansas
Darya Zabelina, University of Arkansas
Creating mindful enhancements: The role of mindfulness meditation in improving cognitive control to reduce smartphone related distractions for divergent creative thinkers.
Would the Starry Night or the Mona Lisa have been completed if the artists were texting and posting on social media? Did they practice mindfulness meditation, and did this help them ignore distractions? We may never know how their creative minds worked; however, insights from neuroscience research discovered links between creative cognition and greater neural activity for internally (vs. externally) directed attention and increased functional connectivity between the executive and default networks. Thus, creative cognition is supported by one's capacity to selectively focus and shift attention between internal and external states, a process requiring cognitive control. Cognitive control, the ability to focus on a present-moment goal while ignoring distractions, has been shown to be enhanced by mindfulness meditation, and may be necessary for ignoring smartphone notifications while engaged in creative processes. The present study investigated relationships between divergent creative thinking and neural markers of cognitive control using N2 ERPs and theta/beta ratio spectral power. Neural activity was measured while participants completed a Navon letter oddball paradigm, in which letter stimuli were preceded by smartphone notification sounds, computer generated sounds, or silence. Prior to the task, participants completed a 3-minute mindfulness (MBI) or control intervention. Results revealed that participants in the MBI (vs. control) group had a significant positive relationship between the number of creative ideas generated and the N2 oddball effect, particularly for smartphone sound trials. This suggests that people who generate more creative ideas are more likely to experience enhanced cognitive control for ignoring smartphone distractions after practicing mindfulness.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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McKinney Pitts, Florida State University
Derek Nee, Florida State University
Investigating the control organization of the lateral prefrontal cortex by timescale and focus
Cognitive control directs intentional behavior enabling adaptation and flexibility. Prior research has shown that cognitive control is multifaceted with different processes mapping to distinct parts of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC). However, the operational constructs that organize such processes remain elusive. Previously, we found that control processes can be organized as a function of timescale; present-oriented processes engage caudal LPFC, while future-oriented processes engage the rostral LPFC. This organization is confounded by focus. Present-oriented processes are more closely concerned with action (external), while future-oriented processes are more closely associated with memory (internal). Hence, whether the rostral-caudal axis of the PFC is fundamentally driven by timescale (present vs. future) or focus (external vs. internal) remains unclear. Here, we designed a paradigm that varies whether control processes are present- vs. future-oriented, and action vs. memory-oriented. Present-oriented control requires linking a stimulus to a memorandum to select the correct action in the moment (sensorimotor control). Future-oriented control requires either sustaining a task set to guide future action (action; episodic control) or a memorandum to guide future stimulus associations (memory; temporal control). Preliminary data indicate that present-oriented sensorimotor control engages caudal LPFC consistent with prior data. Future-oriented temporal control (memory) engages rostral areas of the LPFC. However, future-oriented episodic control (action) engages areas along the entire LPFC. Such data suggest that the lateral PFC shows differential engagement both as a function of timescale (present vs future) and focus (action vs memory) with markedly widespread engagement when control is both future and action oriented.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Michelle Kassel, University of California, San Francisco/San Francisco VAMC
Philip Insel, University of California, San Francisco; Derek Satre, University of California, San Francisco / Kaiser Permanente J. Craig Nelson, University of California, San Francisco; Duygu Tosun, University of California, San Francisco; R. Scott Mackin, University of California, San Francisco/San Francisco VAMC
Differential Associations of Executive Control Performance and Network Connectivity between Monolingual and Bilingual Older Adults with Late Life Depression
While late life depression (LLD) negatively impacts executive control (EC) performance and underlying neural circuitry, bilingualism has contrarily shown positive effects on similar EC processes; yet the interaction of LLD vulnerability and bilingual resilience factors on EC remains unexplored despite the potential for EC dysfunction to persist in bilingual LLD, prompting tailored interventions. Fourteen bilingual (B-LLD) and 42 monolingual LLD (M-LLD) participants matched on age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, and depression severity (GRID-Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) underwent EC tasks and diffusion tensor imaging. Fractional anisotropy (FA) was calculated for the Central Executive (CEN: superior longitudinal fasciculus) and Salience (SN: anterior limb of the internal capsule) networks using the Johns-Hopkins-University-White-Matter-Labels-Atlas. Regressions evaluated differences between M-LLD and B-LLD on EC performance (Trail-Making-Test-Part-B [TMT-B]; Verbal-Fluency; Stroop-Interference), SN and CEN integrity, and associations between EC performance with SN and CEN integrity. B-LLD performed worse than M-LLD on the TMT-B (p=.017). There were no group differences in Verbal-Fluency, Stroop-Interference, or FA of the SN and CEN. However, EC performance was differentially associated with SN and CEN integrity in B-LLD relative to M-LLD. Greater CEN FA was associated with better Verbal-Fluency (p=.005), Stroop-Interference (p=.006), and TMT-B (p=.011) in both groups (main effect). Conversely, an interaction demonstrated that for B-LLD only, higher SN FA was associated with poorer Verbal-Fluency (p=.0007), with similar, albeit non-significant, patterns for Stroop-Interference and TMT-B. Results suggest that EC dysfunction persists in B-LLD and is related to unique neural circuitry patterns, warranting further investigation to identify novel treatment targets tailored for B-LLD.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Alexandria Meyer, Florida State University
Derek E. Nee, Florida State University
Examining effects of cTBS to the prefrontal cortex on cognitive control using fMRI
Cognitive control is the ability to guide behaviors in an intentional, goal-directed manner when habit will not suffice. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is crucial in the successful implementation of cognitive control, but the mechanistic contributions of distinct areas of the PFC to cognitive control remains elusive. Correlative techniques are limited in their ability to provide mechanistic insight, so direct, causal tests are needed to understand how the PFC supports cognitive control. Here, we contrasted the effect of continuous theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) delivered to two PFC sites (lateral frontal pole and mid-dorsolateral PFC) and a control site (S1) in a within-subjects cross-over design to provide causal evidence for their role in cognitive control. Task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to localize PFC targets, and effects of cTBS on cognitive control was assessed via post-cTBS fMRI scans during a comprehensive control task that manipulated multiple cognitive control demands in a single paradigm. Stimulation intensity was matched across sites using simulated e-fields. Although cTBS is hypothesized to lead to inhibitory effects on neural activity, cTBS to either PFC target did not lead to any detectable decreases in cognitive control related activations relative to the control site. Instead, we found some evidence to suggest that cTBS to the PFC increased activation relative to the control site. These findings add to the increasing body of research which suggest cTBS has a more nuanced effect on neural activation than would be predicted by a simple inhibitory model.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Michael Freund, Washington University in St. Louis
Todd Braver, Washington University in St. Louis
EEG decoding of task rules and conflict history effects in the Stroop task
Theories of cognitive control often assign a central role for the neural coding of explicitly instructed contextual rules in working memory. Some models further propose task rule coding as a common mechanism mediating even implicit, incremental attentional biases, such as adaptations to conflict history in interference tasks like the Stroop. To test this hypothesis, we collected EEG data during a hybrid Stroop/switching experiment, while participants were instructed to use a contextual rule (name color, read word) in short blocks comprised of varying proportions of conflicting trials (mostly congruent, MC; mostly incongruent, MI). Participants (N=27) exhibited reduced behavioral Stroop interference in MI versus MC blocks, replicating the robust proportion congruency effect that is a signature of adaptations to conflict history. Single-trial multivariate decoding was used to identify neural coding of task rules and conflict (current-trial congruency). Rule coding emerged soon after stimulus onset (100 ms), and during a narrow time-window (300-400 ms), predicted faster single-trial response times, which suggests a mechanism of cognitive control. Interestingly, conflict history did not detectibly impact the strength of rule coding. In contrast, conflict coding emerged relatively late (400 ms), peaking 50 ms prior to the response, and was modulated by several factors, in a manner that mirrored changes in behavior. These results suggest that while attention can be jointly guided by explicit rules and conflict history, these sources of guidance may be implemented through independent coding schemes. Planned analyses and further data collection will aim to provide additional support for this hypothesis.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Thomas Biba, University of Toronto
Keisuke Fukuda, University of Toronto; Bjorn Herrmann, Rotman Research Institute Taufik Valiante, Krembil Research Institute; Katherine Duncan, University of Toronto
Rhythmic oscillations between task sets delineate stable versus flexible cognitive control
The ability to multitask underpins cognitive control, yet how we flexibly switch between task sets remains unknown. One challenge is characterizing how cognitive stability, the propensity to efficiently perform a task amidst distraction, trades off with cognitive flexibility. Attention research provides a clue; people rhythmically alternate between sampling cued and un-cued spatial locations in phase with theta oscillations in frontoparietal networks. Here we adapted the behavioral oscillation approach to assess if people likewise rhythmically prepare for different tasks. In our task switching paradigm, participants perform one of two object classification judgments (size or indoor/outdoor) depending on the color of the preceding cue, meant to reset putative neural oscillations. Critically, we systematically varied the cue-to-object stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; 200-1100ms; 28 increments of 33ms) to reconstruct a time-course of how classification performance varied during the milliseconds following the cue (N=120). Analyses revealed theta oscillations in reaction time on both tasks (in/out: 5-8Hz, p<0.05; size: 5-6Hz, p<0.001). Remarkably, theta phases were roughly 180 degrees offset between the two tasks (Mc=-174.8, rho=0.25, p<0.001), as though people alternated between preparing for each task several times per second. Furthermore, the degree of phase offset between task rhythms had telling links to performance: participants with a greater phase difference between tasks (i.e. approaching 180 degrees) were faster at classifying objects in general (R2=0.06, p<0.001), but showed larger switch costs (R2=0.17, p<0.001). Our results suggest that trade-offs between cognitive stability and flexibility are respectively enabled by greater or lesser differentiation of task sets across hundreds of milliseconds.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Davide Gheza, Washington University in St Louis
Wouter Kool, Washington University in St Louis
Control mechanisms informed by neural representation of task rules
Cognitive control flexibly adapts to a multitude of contextual demands. For example, humans strengthen or relax their control settings based on their experienced proportion of interference. Here, we aimed to disentangle how they balance the processing of target and distractor information in response to changing contexts. To parse target vs. distractor processing, we developed a novel interference paradigm that parametrically varies the level of response conflict across 4 task rules. We manipulated the proportion of conflict for each rule across blocks and observed parametric proportion-congruency effects. To understand the nature of these proportion-congruency effects, we used a linear classifier to decode task-rule representations from EEG data. We obtained time-resolved classification profiles for each rule, response side, and their conjunction, with two peaks of classification accuracy corresponding to rule's cue and response processing, respectively. Neural congruency effects emerged during the response window, suggesting that the distractors interfered with the implementation of the cued rule. Importantly, representations of the distractors were modulated by proportion congruency, indicating that interference was overcome by inhibiting distracting non-relevant stimulus features, rather than boosting relevant ones. _x000D_
Representation dissimilarity profiles confirmed this pattern of results based on multi-class classification. Interestingly, the classification features were characterized by a selective frontal-midline theta (FMT) burst in the early response window (0-500ms). FMT showed parametric congruency effects, was blunted during mostly congruent blocks, and was negatively correlated with response times. These results shed light onto the temporal dynamic of response conflict resolution, highlighting the central role of FMT in supporting reactive control.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching
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Azar Ayaz, The University of Western Ontario
Lian Buwadi, The University of Western Ontario; Gianna Jeyarajan, The University of Western Ontario Alma Rahimi, The University of Western Ontario; Matthew Heath, The University of Western Ontario
Cerebral Blood Flow Changes Associated with Music Listening and Aerobic Exercise: Independent Effects in Post-intervention Executive Function Benefits (In Progress)
Research has shown that a single bout of aerobic exercise (AE) across a continuum of metabolically sustainable intensities provides a postexercise executive function (EF) benefit and is linked to an exercise-based increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF). Similarly, music listening increases CBF and is thought to reflect an arousal-based increase in heart rate. Interestingly, the CBF increase during music listening is similar in magnitude to moderate intensity AE. This in-progress study will examine whether comparable changes in CBF associated with AE and music listening elicit a comparable EF benefit. Participants (n=30) will complete four experimental sessions on different days (exercise alone (EA), music alone (MA), exercise and music (EM), and a non-exercise, non-music control). The EA condition will entail a 20-minute single bout of AE via cycle ergometer, whereas the MA condition will entail the same duration session of listening to a participant-selected playlist of 'happy music'. The EM condition will entail a combined 20-minute session of AE and music listening. During each condition, transcranial Doppler ultrasound and near-infrared spectroscopy will measure baseline to steady-state changes in cortical hemodynamics. Prior to and immediately after each condition, EF will be assessed via pro- and antisaccades, and associated pupillometry will assess task-based changes in arousal. We predict the magnitude of CBF changes in EM, MA and EA conditions will be linked to the magnitude of a post-intervention decrease in antisaccade reaction times. Moreover, it is predicted that an arousal-based change in EF will differ between exercise and music listening.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Samara Morrison, University of Auckland
Christopher Erb, University of Auckland; Katie Smith, University of Auckland Paul Corballis, University of Auckland
A novel methodology for capturing the manual and neural dynamics of cognitive control
The rise of continuous behavioural measures in cognitive science represents an important methodological leap in ecological approaches to studying the mind. However, advances in our ability to measure behavioural responses continuously have not been widely incorporated into work investigating neural activity, such as electroencephalogram (EEG). Ideally, reach-tracking and EEG could be measured simultaneously. Doing so would allow researchers to investigate important questions regarding how the within-trial dynamics (how processes underlying cognitive control unfold over the trial) and cross-trial dynamics (the effect of recent experience) observed in reaching behaviour correspond to the dynamics observed in brain activity. Linking these behavioural and neural dynamics has been constrained due to the incompatibility of electromagnetic reach-tracking equipment with EEG. However, Smith et al. (2022) demonstrated that a simple 3-button response box designed to measure initiation and movement time could be used to capture the same manual dynamics as electromagnetic reach-tracking systems. Using the same response-box design, the current study aimed to simultaneously capture the manual and neural dynamics of cognitive control during a Simon Task (N = 36 adults). Our findings revealed that the same patterns of effects observed in initiation times are reflected in the size of the N2 event-related potential. Further, our findings revealed different patterns of P300 peak voltage based on whether a response type was repeated or switched across trials. Taken together, this study introduces an accessible and effective methodology for capturing manual and neural dynamics simultaneously and provides evidence as to why this approach is so important.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Shraddha Shende, Illinois State University
Raksha Mudar, University of Illinois
Neural Changes Underlying Inhibitory Control in Older Adults with Age-Related Hearing Loss
Emerging evidence suggests behavioral alterations in inhibitory control in older adults with mild age-related hearing loss (ARHL). Whether there are underlying alterations in the neurophysiological mechanisms linked to these behavioral changes in inhibitory control remain unexplored. The current study examined event-related potentials (ERPs) linked to two Go/NoGo tasks (Single-Car/Object-Animal) in 17 older adults with unaided mild ARHL and 25 age- and education-matched normal hearing (NH) controls. N2 and P3 ERP components were examined in addition to their association with speech-in-noise (SiN) recognition. Findings revealed different neural patterns in processing of NoGo versus Go trials in ARHL and NH controls. Mild ARHL group showed longer NoGo N2 latency relative to Go N2 latency on the Single-Car task. The NH group showed higher P3 amplitude for NoGo versus Go trials on the Object-Animal task, but this differentiation was lacking in the ARHL group. Our findings suggest that unaided mild ARHL impacts differential neural processing of Go/NoGo trials, suggesting alterations in neurophysiological mechanisms underlying inhibitory control. Additionally, poorer recognition of SiN in ARHL was related to higher P3 amplitude on Object-Animal task, suggesting that those with worse central hearing have to exert greater neural effort on inhibitory control tasks. The study findings add to literature on ARHL and cognition by providing evidence for neural alterations in inhibitory control even in mild ARHL and indicate a link between these changes and complex listening functions.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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William Alexander, Florida Atlantic University
Flexible and Reliable Strategies for Cognitive Control
Cognitive control generally refers to the ability to flexibly update cognitive strategies to promote appropriate behavior. Theories of cognitive control frequently invoke a normative strategy stating that attention should be allocated maximally toward a target stimulus dimension and away from distractor dimensions. Behavioral effects reported in the literature are often interpreted as a failure of this strategy: individuals attend to distractor dimensions due to, e.g., fatigue, noise, or inability to exert sufficient control. Computational models based on the normative strategy are able to account for a range of empirical results. However, their ability to do so often depends on hard-wired information, e.g., target and distractor labels are provided. Consequently, the behavior of such a model is inflexible - the model continues to follow the initial strategy even if the target and distractor dimensions are covertly switched. Here, I describe a new model of cognitive control that resolves this issue by ignoring labels from the outset. The Learned Attention for Control (LAC) model proposes that cognitive control effects derive from continually monitoring the reliability of task dimensions and preferentially allocating attention to dimensions that better predict correct behavior. Besides accounting for a diverse array of control effects, the model's behavior tracks covert shifts in target identity and effects task switches without explicit information provided by the modeler. The LAC model reinterprets apparent failures of the normative account as a deliberate strategy that optimally utilizes information to inform behavior.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Kenneth Paap, San Francisco State University
Regina Anders-Jefferson, San Francisco State University; Nithya Balakrishnan, San Francisco State University Cassandra Geraty, San Francisco State University; Rin Iosilevsky, San Francisco State University; John Majoubi, San Francisco State University; Mauricio Molina, San Francisco State University; Cassia Reeddig, San Francisco State University; Kathleen Rivera-Franco, San Francisco State University
The Ultimate Test for a Bilingual Advantage in Executive Functioning, Self-Control, or Attention Control_x000D_
The longest, most heated and exciting debate in cognitive science over the past 15 years is the hypothesis that bilingualism enhances domain-general executive-functioning (Paap, 2023). Hundreds of empirical studies have been distilled into a dozen meta-analyses that converge on the conclusion that the magnitude of the advantage is very small and not distinguishable from zero when corrected for publication bias (Paap et al., 2020). However, bilingual advantages may be hiding in the plain sight of self-reports of self-control in everyday life or may consistently occur when the chronic inadequacy of the validity and reliability of performance-based measures is fixed. Latent variables for (1) self-control were derived from five self-report measures -- Brief Self Control scale, the Urgency, Premeditation, and Perseverance subscales of the UPPS, and the Attention Control Scale; (2) traditional performance-based measures of executive functioning -- antisaccade, mixing-costs, and switching costs from a color-shape switching task; and (3) the new Squared versions of the flanker, Simon, and Stroop tasks developed by Engle's lab. The latter is critical to the debate because the Squared tasks, unlike the original versions of these classic tasks, are reported to have excellent test-retest reliability and form a coherent latent variable. The test has excellent power (45 participants in each group with a final goal of 100) and bilingualism is also treated as a continuous variable with many predictors: L2 proficiency, age-of-acquisition, entropy, frequency of switching within conversations, frequency of switching within utterances, percentage use of each language, and number of languages used. _x000D_
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EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Mario Hervault, University of Iowa
Jan Wessel, University of Iowa
Comparing the electrophysiological dynamics of inhibitory control between action-stopping and -changing in humans
In the course of daily living, shifting environmental demands often require us to abort our current mind state and reactively update our behavior. The neurocognitive dynamics underlying such inhibitory control have notably been derived from tasks calling for the imperative stopping of a motor response. A major gap in the literature pertains to how the brain implements the inhibitory mechanisms that replace an obsolete response with other goal-relevant actions. Across three experiments, participants responded quickly to a Go stimulus, which was sometimes followed by an infrequent and unexpected signal instructing them to stop or change one or two dimensions of the response. Based on cortico-spinal excitability recordings (CSE) derived from TMS, muscular recordings from EMG, and brain activity assessed via EEG, our comprehensive investigation characterizes the inhibitory dynamics engaged in updating responses. Both stopping and changing were associated with a broad, early (150 ms) non-selective CSE suppression, which was of shorter duration when the response had to be changed. Behavioral stopping latencies and partial EMG on stopped responses indicated that a fast response update was permitted by a faster but weaker response inhibition in changing (< 200 ms) as compared to stopping. Whole scalp EEG decoding, theta-band power analysis, and the frontocentral P3 ERP suggested that the correlates of later, more selective inhibition (> 200 ms) differed between stopping and changing. We discuss these findings in the context of recently proposed two-stage theories of action-stopping and inhibitory control.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Patrick Bissett, Stanford University
Sunjae Shim, Stanford University; Jaime Ali Rios, Stanford University Henry Jones, University of Chicago; McKenzie Hagen, University of Washington; Jeanette Mumford, Stanford University; James Shine, University of Sydney; Russell Poldrack, Stanford University
Characterizing cognitive control networks using a precision neuroscience approach
Behavior, performance, brain functions, and brain anatomy all show substantial variability across individuals. However, the standard approach in cognitive neuroscience has been to acquire small amounts of data (e.g., 1-hour) on dozens of subjects and average across all of these key sources of variability. Recent work has highlighted a new approach ? dense sampling ? that seeks to precisely capture brain network architecture in individuals by collecting substantially more data per subject, supporting individual-subject level conclusions. However, existing dense sampling initiatives have two key shortcomings: they include few subjects, thus limiting generalizability of findings, and most current dense sampling studies focus primarily on resting state fMRI, which renders interpretation of the results notoriously difficult. _x000D_
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We present an in-progress data acquisition in which 60 subjects will each come in for 12, 1-hour MRI scans to repeatedly complete a battery of 8 cognitive control tasks. These tasks putatively capture the constructs of response inhibition, selective attention, working memory, task switching, and performance monitoring. With this precision neuroscience approach, we aim to uncover novel links between performance and functional brain network architecture across tasks, constructs, and sessions that are essential for controlled and flexible behavior. We also propose a new method we call Targeted Network Attacks that involves choosing tailored combinations of two tasks that rely on overlapping neural architectures that when combined will challenge and perhaps overload specific brain network features. As of December 2022, we have completed 6 of the proposed 60 subjects.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Tala Elsabbagh, San Francisco State University
Latoya Wright-Wilson, San Francisco State University; Sarah Brauer, San Francisco State University Ezequiel Morsella, San Francisco State University
The Habituation of Higher-Order Conscious Processes: Evidence from Mental Arithmetic_x000D_
A recurring idea in neuroscience is that one is conscious only of the 'outputs' of modular, mental operations (e.g., depth perception), but not of the operations themselves. Such 'entry into consciousness' has been investigated with the reflexive imagery task (RIT). In the basic version of the task, subjects are presented with visual objects and instructed not to subvocalize (i.e., say in one's head) the names of these objects. Subjects cannot suppress these subvocalizations on a majority of the trials. It has been proposed that, if RIT effects resemble a reflex, then perhaps they will habituate as reflexes do. In the 'habituation' variant of the RIT, the same stimulus object (e.g., CAT) is presented on ten consecutive trials (ten 'instantiations'), in order to induce habituation (i.e., a weakened RIT effect). It remains unknown whether such habituation effects arise for stimulus-elicited processes that depend, not on subvocalization, but on more complex processes (e.g., mental arithmetic). To illuminate this issue, we conducted three extensions of the 'habituation' RIT that involve, on each trial, the participant (n = 20 per experiment) trying not to add two numbers (e.g., 14 and 2). With these stimuli, we replicated the pattern of results observed in the 'habituation' variant of the RIT, F (9, 171) = 11.51, p < .0001 (Experiment 1). This paradigm was designed to be compatible with neuroimaging technologies. Understanding the boundary conditions of the RIT effect and its habituation illuminates the limits of unconscious processing.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Benjamin Rangel, University of Iowa
Jan Wessel, University of Iowa
Surprise-induced inhibition of active task set representations
Simple tasks, such as opening your front door, involve multiple neural representations - the external situation (your house/door), the associated actions (insert/twist key & twist knob), and the expected outcome (door opens). These lower representations are purportedly combined into higher-order, conjunctive representations (opening your front door), which are stored and retrieved at later times to facilitate repeated behaviors. Previous research has demonstrated that such conjunctive representations are also retrieved when the situation or context is similar but not identical, resulting in the preparation or execution of inappropriate actions - and hence a 'partial-repetition cost' (PRC, e.g., reaching for your key at your friend's front door; Rangel et al., JNeuro 2022). Here, we used the PRC to test whether surprising, task-unrelated events, prior to the response, can inhibit the formation or later retrieval of conjunctive representations. Surprising events are known to inhibit active working memory contents (Wessel et al., Nature Communications 2016), and we hypothesized that this may include task sets. Forty-five adult humans performed a task-switching paradigm while undergoing EEG recordings, which we used to decode neural signals indexing conjunctive task set representations (Kikumoto & Mayr, PNAS 2020). In line with prior work, the partial repetition of task set features between two spaced trials lead to a deficit on reaction time. However, this PRC was completely abolished when a surprising event occurred after the formation of the initial task set's conjunctive representation. This suggests that surprising events can inhibit the strength of active task sets, and consequently their retrieval.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Raphael Geddert, Duke University
John Pearson, Duke University; Tobias Egner, Duke University
A computational model of adaptive control over cognitive stability and flexibility
It is often necessary to focus on a particular task while avoiding distraction (cognitive stability), like reading a book in a busy coffee shop, and also to switch between tasks based on changing circumstances (cognitive flexibility), like answering an unexpected phone call. Contrary to the traditional assumption that there must be an obligatory tradeoff between stability and flexibility, recent work documents that humans can maintain stability levels (ability to ignore distractors) while increasing flexibility (ability to task switch), and vice versa. A formal model of how cognitive stability and flexibility are independently regulated is lacking, however. Here, we combined reinforcement learning and drift diffusion modeling to capture strategic adaptations in task switching and distractor suppression in a cued task-switching experiment. Learning of independent changes in the proportion of incongruent and switch trials was modeled via reinforcement learning, and learned proportion estimates were mapped onto independent stability and flexibility levels via a sigmoid function. Stability and flexibility levels were then allowed to affect drift diffusion parameters. Model simulation was able to reproduce empirical data patterns, and Bayesian model fitting found that drift rates were uniquely related to stimulus congruency and congruency proportion, while non-decision time was uniquely related to task switching and switch proportion. Finally, in-progress model comparison is adjudicating between this independent-learner model and a single-learner model with a yoked 'stability-flexibility tradeoff' in how well they fit empirical data. The results will have important implications for our understanding of the architecture of cognitive control.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Yoojeong Choo, University of Iowa
Alec Mather, Sony; Jan Wessel, University of Iowa
Commonalities and differences between error- and surprise processing revealed by post-trial behavioral slowing and EEG decoding analysis
The ability to adapt behavior after making an error is one of the key aspects of cognitive control. It involves not only the detection of errors, but also the adjustment of subsequent actions. Error commission typically causes people to slow down their subsequent actions (post-error slowing, PES), especially because most errors typically result from premature responding. However, some (Notebaert et al., 2009) have suggested that PES is merely a side-effect of the unexpected nature of errors in typical psychological experiments and would hence be better described in terms of post-surprise slowing (PSS). Indeed, the brain networks involved in processing errors and error-unrelated surprise show substantial overlap (Wessel et al., 2012). In the current study, we investigated whether the processes leading to post-trial action slowing differed between errors and error-unrelated surprise. Based on the adaptive orienting theory (Wessel, 2018), we predicted that both errors and surprise would be followed by action slowing at short response-stimulus intervals. However, we hypothesized that at longer intervals, when the brain had time to distinguish the source of the surprise, only errors would be followed by action slowing. Across two experiments, that is exactly what we found. Furthermore, PES in the longer intervals was reflected in sustained ERP activity and could be distinguished from error-unrelated surprise activity using EEG decoding analysis, with the strongest contributions coming from lateral frontal, occipital and sensorimotor electrodes. These findings suggest that errors and surprise initially share common processing, but after additional processing time, error-specific, adaptive processes take over.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Maité Crespo GarcÌa, University of Cambridge
Dace Ap?valka, University of Cambridge; Xu Lei, Southwest University, China Michael Anderson, University of Cambridge
Inhibitory Control of Hippocampal Activity by the Prefrontal Cortex Achieved by Medial Septal Pacemaker Suppression
Long-term memory studies indicate that removing unwanted memories from awareness relies on top-down inhibitory processes driven by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, like those implemented during behavioural control. When these processes are deficient, individuals may be afflicted by recurrent negative thoughts or memories from traumatic events. Unfortunately, the anatomical pathways and neurobiological mechanisms enabling people to suppress retrieval processes in the hippocampus (HC) to regulate unwanted memories are still not fully understood. In this study, we investigated whether voluntarily stopping retrieval may be accomplished via the suppression of the medial septum (MS), a critical pacemaker for hippocampal theta oscillations. To test this idea, we acquired simultaneous EEG-fMRI recordings as participants performed a memory suppression task. Consistent with previous studies, we found during retrieval suppression a) BOLD response reductions within hand-traced MS/HC ROIs, and b) theta power desynchronization in hippocampal sources. Then, we tested whether these effects were correlated through EEG-informed fMRI coupling, PLS and canonical correlation analyses. PLS identified HC voxels showing significant coupling with HC theta during retrieval suppression, which was higher than during voluntary retrieval. Canonical correlation analyses identified a component per participant showing significant correlation between single-trial MS BOLD responses and hippocampal theta power within the time window of theta power suppression. We evaluated the consistency of these correlations using a group-level cross-validation method. Our results support the hypothesis that suppressing unwanted memories activates inhibitory prefrontal pathways that enable the suppression of MS, which disrupts retrieval processes mediated by hippocampal theta oscillations.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control
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Sage Sherman, University of Colorado Boulder
Maya Greenstein, University of Colorado Boulder; Mathias Basner, Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania Torin Clark, University of Colorado Boulder; Allison Anderson, University of Colorado Boulder
Investigating External Sensory Noise Effects on Cognition
Stochastic resonance (SR) is a phenomenon where adding noise to a system can improve a weak nonlinear signal's throughput. SR has been extensively shown to improve sensory perception and some limited research shows noise can also improve aspects of higher order processing, like working memory. However, it is unknown whether SR can improve overall cognition in humans, as it is comprised of multiple elements, like searching and abstraction. Thus, this study aims to investigate broad cognitive performance while applying auditory white noise (AWN), noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation (nGVS), or both applied simultaneously. We measured cognitive performance (n=13 subjects) while completing seven tasks in the Cognition Test Battery (CTB). Performance in speed, accuracy, and efficiency was observed. A subjective questionnaire regarding preference for working in noisy environments was also collected. We did not find broad cognitive performance improvement under the influence of noise (p > 0.1). However, there was a significant interaction between subject and noise condition on overall cognitive performance (p = 0.023), indicating that some subjects exhibited cognitive changes with the administration of noise. Across all metrics, noisy environment preference trended to be an indicator of whether subjects exhibited SR cognitive benefits with a significant finding in efficiency (p=0.048). Our results suggest that using noise to improve cognition is not applicable for a broad population; however, the effect of noise differs across individuals. Further, subjective preference for working in noisy environments may be a means to identify which individuals are sensitive to SR cognitive benefits.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Jaime Ali Rios, Stanford University
Patrick Bissett, Stanford University; Russell Poldrack, Stanford University
Uncovering the structure of sequential control through data-driven ontology discovery
The cognitive control literature describes an array of psychological constructs measured by a variety of cognitive tasks. However, there is little that connects these measures across different paradigms, and this leaves a dimension unexplored within the cognitive control landscape. Recent work has applied computational and statistical methodologies to establish a data driven approach for constructing ontologies that link the plethora of cognitive measures to abstract latent structures. We hope to use a data-driven ontology to help link sequential control measures spanning several cognitive control tasks within a unifying framework. _x000D_
We present an in-progress analysis that makes use of an existing dataset of 522 participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk who completed a battery of 22 self-report surveys and 37 behavioral tasks. We apply exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical clustering to a set of cognitive control measures across 24 of these tasks to extract a latent factor structure. The task measures we focus on revolve around sequential control i.e., measures that span a sequence of behavior such as post-error slowing, the congruency sequence effect, etc. This analytical framework allows us to look at the relationship between several sequential control measures by seeing how they map onto these latent factors as well as the relationship between the same sequential control measures across different tasks, uncovering novel links across tasks and constructs.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Elle Murata, University of California, Santa Barbara
Hannah Grotzinger, University of California, Santa Barbara; Gabriella Natividad, University of California, San Diego Andrea Gabay, University of California, San Diego; Morgan Fitzgerald, University of California, San Diego; Averi Giudicessi, Boston University; Sanjay Agarwal, University of California, San Diego; Matthew S. Panizzon, University of California, San Diego; Emily G. Jacobs, University of California, Santa Barbara
Impact of Ovarian Hormone Suppression on Cognitive Function and Brain Structure
Ovarian hormone suppression (OHS), a widely used treatment for endometriosis, offers a unique clinical scenario for studying the impact of hormonal changes on the brain and behavior. OHS is achieved with a Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone analogue, dramatically depleting ovarian hormones (up to 80%). Following OHS, sex hormone levels gradually return to normal; thus, the treatment allows for temporary, reversible induction of a postmenopausal-like estradiol status. Here, we investigate short-term effects of OHS on regional and global brain morphology, mood, and cognition. Women in the OHS group are observed at a pre-treatment baseline visit and at a follow-up visit 3-months into treatment. The control group is scanned over the same time period under naturally cycling conditions (NC) or progesterone-only hormonal contraception (HC). Women ages 18-40 years (current n=33) completed a neuropsychological battery, multimodal MRI protocol, and serological hormone assessments at each visit. All three groups (OHS, HC, NC) demonstrated similar levels of depression and anxiety at baseline. The OHS group showed reduced processing speed compared to the HC control group (p=0.008), with no other differences observed for NIH Toolbox-based cognitive assessments at baseline. The OHS group experienced pronounced progression of menopause-like symptoms from baseline to follow-up compared to HC (p=0.02) and NC (p=0.03) control groups. Structural MRI analyses will compare whole-brain and regionally-specific (medial temporal lobe) assessments of cortical thickness and grey/white matter volume. By modeling a core aspect of reproductive aging, ovarian hormone depletion, this project will help clarify the role of ovarian hormones in shaping brain architecture and cognition.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Olivia Keaton, Univ of South Carolina Aiken
Alexandra Roach, University of South Carolina Aiken
COVID-19 and its negative, potentially long-term impact on executive function (task-switching, inhibitory control, attention), mood, and anxiety
Recent studies have reported cognitive deficits in individuals who had COVID-19 that correlated with hospitalization status (Becker et al., 2021), with age (Baselar, et al., 2022) or when compared to covid-naÔve individuals (Ariza et al., 2022). Many of these studies have used neuropsychological batteries to assess cognitive dysfunction. This study assessed executive function using computer-based tasks designed to recruit specific cognitive control networks and compared accuracy and reaction times to various self-report data (surveys/questionnaires). We aimed to determine the potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on cognitive control processes. We implemented an online study that included questionnaires for demographics and COVID-19 status, as well as had each participant complete continuous performance tasks using PsyToolkit (Stoet, 2010, 2017) to determine 1) if we could see a difference in performance between non-COVID and COVID groups, and 2) whether effects of COVID-19 could still be seen as much as 2 years after a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. We looked at group differences in accuracy and reaction time on a flanker task (inhibitory control), a goal-switching task (working memory), and a sustained attention task (attention), as well as assessed the impact of duration (in days) since the last positive result for COVID-19. Additionally, we aimed to see if a history of COVID-19 led to higher reported depressive symptoms using the Personal Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), or higher reported anxiety using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder measure (GAD-7). We expect COVID-19 to negatively impact executive function, mood, and anxiety. This project is In Progress.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Hope Nyarady, University at Buffalo
David Shucard, University at Buffalo; Praveen Arany, University at Buffalo Thomas Mang, University at Buffalo; Janet Shucard, University at Buffalo; Thomas Covey, University at Buffalo
Domain-specific relationships between cognitive deficits and post-concussion symptoms following mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are among the most common acquired brain injuries in individuals under the age of 45. Cognitive deficits are a common secondary effect from TBIs and can be evaluated through the use of subjective symptom reporting and objective neuropsychological testing. However, the relationship between TBI patients' perception of their symptoms and performance on objective tests of cognition has not been well-established. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate how the severity of self-reported post-concussion symptoms relate to objective measures of neuropsychological performance, in individuals who had recently suffered from a mild TBI. Correlation analyses were performed to identify significant relationships between the self-reported post-concussion symptoms and neuropsychological test performance through distinct domains obtained from both measures. The analyses indicated that as the severity of self-reported physical, sensory, mental functioning, and cognitive symptoms increased, there was poorer performance on cognitive scores for verbal and visual-spatial short-term memory, and information processing speed. Also, several individual tests were observed to be particularly sensitive to individual differences in symptom scores. Performance on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Trial 1 (HVLT), Spatial and Digit Span Forward tests, and the Stroop Color test were significantly associated with self-reported symptoms in the physical, sensory, mental functioning, and cognitive domains. These findings support the notion that subjective symptoms reported by mild TBI patients can predict deficits within specific cognitive domains, measured through objective neuropsychological assessment. These results provide preliminary evidence that follow-up neuropsychological testing may be beneficial for patients that report certain symptoms.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Christopher Pirrung, University of New Mexico
Garima Singh, University of New Mexico; Jeremy Hogeveen, University of New Mexico Davin Quinn, University of New Mexico; James Cavanagh, University of New Mexico
Source Estimation of the Reward Positivity and Related Resting State Network Activity in Major Depressive Disorder
Anhedonia is a complex symptom of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) that presents itself through multiple behavioral phenotypes of diminished reward processing. In order to better understand this deficit, we aim to look at a marker of reward that is sensitive to information content and valence, the Reward Positivity (RewP). The source of this signal is, however, up for debate. This study used concurrent EEG and MEG to establish the source of the RewP as a distributed network involving ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), and insulae. Additionally, only vmPFC showed a deficit in MDD. fMRI resting state functional connectivity analysis of these regions showed that these areas are all highly correlated with each other and with the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a known, subcortical center of reward processing. Group comparisons of functional connectivity showed no differences between the MEG-derived regions and NAcc. Functional connectivity between vmPFC and aMCC was found to anticorrelate with MASQ ‚?? General Depression scores within the MDD+ group, but not MASQ ‚?? Anhedonia scores. These findings suggest that while vmPFC activation in response to reward may be diminished in MDD, the resting state network involved remains largely intact, perhaps with the exception of those with extreme symptom severity.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Chiara Gramegna, University of Milano-Bicocca
Massimo Clerici, University of Milano-Bicocca; Nadia Bolognini, University of Milano-Bicocca
Neuromodulation of aggressiveness: a tDCS experiment
Violence is a major public health problem throughout the world, influenced by cultural and environmental factors. A growing body of research has proved the existence of specific neural substrates underlying different forms of violent behaviour. Especially relevant are the dysfunctions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), due to its involvement in inhibition, cognitive control, and moral judgement. Different studies have demonstrated that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), by modulating the excitability of the prefrontal cortex, may reduce aggressive tendencies. In the present study, 30 healthy subjects underwent two experimental sessions, during which they received either active bilateral (left cathodal/right anodal) or placebo (sham-tDCS) tDCS over the DLPFC, while performing a behavioural task measuring aggressive predisposition (i.e., the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm - PSAP). Analyses of the data indicate that active tDCS over the DLPFC tends to reduce aggressive tendencies, as indexed by slower reaction times (RTs) in the pattern of hostile responses (i.e., subtraction of points from the online opponent) at the PSAP (F2,48 = 72.94, p < .001). Moreover, a positive association between the number of subtractions at the PSAP and the score at the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire was found (? = .33, p = .01), highlighting the usefulness of this task in populations with higher trait aggression. The present study provides evidence of the potential of non-invasive electrical brain stimulation to reduce aggressive tendencies, giving new insight into how to implement the tDCS treatment in the clinical practice to reduce aggressiveness and social dangerousness in populations at risk.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Katherine Michon, University of Michigan
Shijie Qu, University of Michigan; Violet Zhou, University of Michigan Jahla Osborne, University of Michigan; Thad Polk, University of Michigan
Using Precision Neuroimaging to Explore the Neural Organization of Cognitive Control
Most neuroimaging studies rely on group analysis in normalized space, which can miss aspects of brain organization that differ in different individuals. Recent precision imaging approaches attempt to address this concern by densely imaging individual participants and these studies have uncovered previously unseen details of neural architecture. In this project, we used precision neuroimaging to explore the neural organization of cognitive control. We scanned two individuals for nine hours each while they completed an unusually large battery of cognitive control-related tasks, allowing us to construct detailed, person-specific maps of neural organization. Furthermore, both individuals performed all the tasks twice in different sessions, so that we could construct these maps from independent datasets within each individual. We found that the neural organization of cognitive control was highly reliable when analyzing independent datasets within each person, but that the organization observed in each person was quite different from that in the other person. Furthermore, the large set of contrasts (88, each estimated twice) allowed us to probe the function of specific brain regions in detail. We found regions associated with specific functions (e.g., inhibition, deliberate vs. automatic control) in both individuals, but these regions were sufficiently far apart in the two individuals that they would likely be missed by a traditional group analysis. These results demonstrate how precision neuroimaging approaches may be used to probe person-specific neural organization and provide support for recent arguments that these approaches can further our understanding of the neural architecture of cognitive control.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Alina Sophie Nostadt, Ruhr-University Bochum / University Hospital Bergmannsheil
Michael Nitsche, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Fa; Martin Tegenthoff, Ruhr-University Bochum / University Hospital Bergmannsheil Silke Lissek, Ruhr-University Bochum / University Hospital Bergmannsheil
Effects of dopaminergic receptor stimulation upon processing of contextual information and the renewal effect
In conditioning theories, the renewal effect describes the context-dependent recovery of an extinguished response. The dopaminergic system is well known to participate in learning and attentional aspects of conditioning. It is assumed to be involved in extinction learning and renewal, likewise it directs attention to salient stimuli. Previous studies have shown that dopaminergic D2-like receptor stimulation results in higher renewal rates and correlates with more prominent activation of hippocampus during extinction and recall. The influence of the dopaminergic system and context-related factors of the renewal effect are still unknown. In our fMRI study, we investigated the effects of a single dose of the D2-like agonist Bromocriptine on behavioural and neural correlates of the renewal effect and individual context processing. 60 participants learned, extinguished, and recalled stimulus-outcome associations. 90 min before the start of our experiment either 1.25 mg bromocriptine or placebo was administered orally. We used a modified version of a predictive learning task that was originally designed for context-related extinction learning without a fear component which is suited to reliably evoke a renewal effect. Eye movement and gaze behaviour was recorded using an eye-tracking device. Contrary to our hypothesis, the modified version of our predictive learning task with salient contextual cues reduced context-dependent renewal performance irrespective of dopaminergic receptor stimulation. However, we revealed differences in task solving strategies and individual types of context-exploration based on their gaze behaviour and behavioural performance. We assume that enhanced context-exploration and individual task solving strategies reduced renewal irrespective of dopaminergic D2-like receptor stimulation.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Mattia Federico Pagnotta, University of California, Berkeley
Justin Riddle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Mark D'Esposito, University of California, Berkeley
Delta-band oscillations in the frontoparietal network support cognitive control for abstract rules
Cognitive control allows guiding behavior according to environmental context and internal goals. During cognitive control tasks, fMRI analyses reveal increased activation in the frontoparietal network and EEG analyses reveal increased amplitude of neural oscillations in the delta/theta-band (2-3/4-7 Hz) under frontal electrodes. While some studies proposed that the peak frequency of frontal cortex oscillations shifts depending on task demands, other studies proposed instead that delta synchrony is specifically associated with the control of abstract rules, while theta-band activity reflects the number of rules that must be maintained, i.e., the set-size. We tested these predictions using EEG and fMRI data, in a task that manipulated the level of task rules abstraction and the set-size. Results from source-space EEG analysis showed increased delta power with increased task abstraction, in frontal, parietal, and motor/premotor areas, where we identified an oscillatory peak in the power spectra that was distinct from the aperiodic signal (1/f component). Despite a trend towards theta power increase with increased set-size in medial frontal areas, we did not find significant theta effects. An EEG connectivity analysis showed increased top-down delta signals with increased task abstraction from lateral prefrontal to motor/premotor and inferior parietal cortices. A similar pattern of functional connectivity was observed in an fMRI analysis, which further revealed that connectivity from lateral prefrontal to parietal cortex was mediated by the caudate nucleus. Our results confirm the specificity of delta synchrony for the control of abstract rules and support the notion that the frontoparietal network operates through multiplexed neural processes.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Laura Yost, Duke University
Laura Yost, Duke University; JiaHou Poh, Duke University Rachael N. Wright, Duke University; Shabnam Hakimi, Duke University; Ben Muzekari, Duke University; Kelly Eom, Duke University; John Thorp, Duke University; Jeff J. MacInnes, Duke University; Kathryn E. Dickerson, Duke University; R. Alison Adcock, Duke University
Changes in cognitive-behavioral outcomes after real-time fMRI VTA neurofeedback training in individuals with ADHD
The cognitive deficits associated with the core symptoms of ADHD are theorized to reflect underlying circuitry dysfunction in circuitry and neurochemical transmission, chiefly dopamine pathways. The underlying deficits in motivation are likely due to alterations in the dopamine system, including the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA), which may further contribute to issues with working memory, attention, and impulse control. In the present study, adults with ADHD (N=12) underwent four sessions of a real-time neurofeedback training intervention targeted at increasing BOLD activation in the VTA using internally-driven motivational thoughts and imagery. Prior to the start of training and following neurofeedback training, participants completed three cognitive measures developed by CANTAB: Spatial Working Memory (SWM), Rapid Visual Information processing (RVP) and the Stop Signal Task (SST) and Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfrt). Preliminary results using the EEfRT, a task sensitive to dopamine function, indicate improved effort-based decision making and increased willingness to exert effort when adaptive over the course of four neurofeedback training sessions. Following neurofeedback training, effort expenditure was greater as compared to the baseline session (p=0.024) and willingness to choose higher effort options increased (p=0.032). Ongoing analyses will relate individual improvements in effort-based decision making after training to improvements in these components of the CANTAB battery and individual fMRI neurofeedback outcomes to assess the specificity of cognitive changes associated with VTA neurofeedback training in individuals with ADHD.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Eun Hyun Seo, Chosun University
Hyung-Jun Yoon, Chosun University; Kun Ho Lee, Chosun University
Verbal fluency performance is associated with cognitive reserve in preclinical Alzheimer?s disease
Background: _x000D_
Verbal fluency (VF) task were widely used test in measuring language and executive functions. Based on the previous studies, VF appears to be decline in the early stages of cognitive change in old adults. In the current study we investigated if VF could play a significant role in cognitively normal (CN) elders with high cognitive reserve (CR). _x000D_
Methods: We included CN participants only if they showed a significant amyloid-beta (afl) deposition from the Gwangju Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia Cohort in Korea. We defined as individuals with high CR if they stayed cognitively normal over the follow-up period (43.37±23.27 month). Verbal fluency was assessed using total scores on the animal fluency in 1 minute and letter fluency (Korean alphabet '?') in 1 minute. Cox proportional hazards models, with the forward conditional method, were conducted to investigate the associations between VF and CR. _x000D_
Results: In the study, 94 individuals with high CR were identified. Twenty-four individuals with low CR were also included. High CR group showed higher performance in VF (p=0.008), naming test (p= 0.014), digit span backward (p=0.012), Trail Making Test part B (p=0.017) than control group. Cox regression revealed only VF was significantly associated with conversion to MCI (HR=3.02, p=0.033) _x000D_
Conclusions: Individuals with high CR could cope better with AD pathology. Our preliminary results suggest that CR might work by enabling to be more cognitively flexible and effectively control. Especially, preserved VF performance may play an important role in constituting high CR.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Stefan Arnau, IfADo
Daniel Schneider, IFADO; Stefan Arnau, IfADo Stephan Getzmann, IfADo
Psychophysiological determinants of vigilance in basically awake people
High and constant attention levels are safety relevant in many professions. For piloting or monitoring activities it is important to maintain a high attention level to prevent accidents. Vigilance, a core construct in this context, is defined as the ability to maintain attention over prolonged periods of time, although core tests of vigilance last no longer than 10 minutes. Nevertheless, reliable measurement of vigilance decrements has been reported e.g. in sleep deprived individuals. Fine grained effects in basically awake subjects are hardly ever reported so far. Here we report data of a psychomotor vigilance test applied in about 600 not sleep deprived participants. Based on extensive EEG analysis, we attempted to identify causes and effects of vigilance modulations. With the help of a cluster analysis, we found three types of deviating vigilance behavior. SLOW subjects, such who commit ERRORS and a small group with increased decrement of response times with time on task (SLOPE). Both for SLOW and SLOPE reliable decrease in N2 and P3 amplitudes as well as increased latencies were observed. The SLOPE group additionally showed enhanced frontal alpha power preceding stimulus onsets. The ERROR group did not deviate from the vigilant group with respect to EEG parameters, indicating that errors are before most local slips in attention. Also within the vigilant group, ERP parameters varied with the level of vigilance. The results indicate that decrements of vigilance appear before most due to a rapid loss of attentional control and are not directly linked to mental fatigue.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Donnisa Edmonds, Northwestern University
Joey Salvo, Northwestern University; Qiaohan Yang, Northwestern University Maya Lakshman, Northwestern University; Christina Zelano, Northwestern University; Kendrick Kay, University of Minnesota; Rodrigo Braga, Northwestern University
High-resolution 7T functional MRI reveals that the distributed cortical network involved in social cognition includes regions in the amygdala and entorhinal cortex
Individual-level estimation of brain networks using functional connectivity reveals that the canonical default network (DN) comprises at least two parallel distributed networks, DN-A and DN-B. The networks have been functionally dissociated, implicating DN-B, which includes the temporoparietal junction, in social cognitive processes (DiNicola et al., 2020). Although DN-B is adjacent to DN-A throughout the cortex, DN-A prominently includes regions along the posterior medial temporal lobe (MTL), including parahippocampal cortex and subiculum, whereas no adjacent MTL DN-B region has been described. Here, we tested whether DN-B contains regions in the anterior MTL using high-field, high-resolution, 7T functional MRI data (TR = 1.6 s, 1.8 mm isotropic resolution) from 6 extensively sampled participants from the Natural Scenes Dataset. After quality control, each subject provided 30 - 175 minutes of resting-state data. Seed-based functional connectivity successfully replicated the distinction between DN-A and DN-B as parallel distributed networks, including the parahippocampal and subicular regions of DN-A. Furthermore, we reliably observed previously unidentified regions belonging to DN-B in the anterior MTL in all 6 subjects. These regions were bilateral in most individuals and were located at or near the amygdala and entorhinal cortex. Some subjects displayed evidence of distinct, interdigitated DN-A and DN-B regions organized along the posterior-anterior axis. The results (i) support that these two distributed cortical networks are differentiated by preferential connections to the posterior and anterior MTL, (ii) link the social cognitive functions of DN-B with those of the amygdala, and (iii) underscore the value of individual-level network estimation using high-field MRI.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Kent Hubert, University of Arkansas
Darya Zabelina, University of Arkansas
Diminishing Creative Returns: Predicting Optimal Creative Performance via Individual Differences in Executive Functioning
A robust finding in creativity research is that during idea generation, later (vs. earlier) responses on a divergent thinking task tend to be more creative, while the number of responses start off quickly, and then slow down over time, termed the serial order effect. Divergent thinking and time may follow a diminishing returns curve, where there is an optimal amount of time that should be spent while generating ideas. Using spline regressions, we modeled the serial order effect to find the point of diminishing returns and point of maximum yield for fluency and originality in a semantic divergent thinking task. These spline models were used to test individual differences in executive functions (Inhibition, Updating, and Shifting) on the temporal dynamics of divergent thinking for fluency and originality, as previous research suggests that executive processes may interact with the serial order effect. We found that Shifting affected the point of diminishing fluency returns to occur later for individuals with higher shifting ability. Overall EF and better Updating ability were found to significantly decrease the time it takes for an individual to begin giving more original responses. Future directions and implications are discussed.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Emily M. Harriott, Vanderbilt University
Tin Q. Nguyen, Vanderbilt University; Bennett A. Landman, Vanderbilt University Laura A. Barquero, Vanderbilt University; Laurie E. Cutting, Vanderbilt University
White Matter Tract Integrity and Academic Achievement in Childhood
A significant number of children struggle to learn to read, learn to do math, or even both, as reading and math disorders are hypothesized to perhaps be comorbid. Thus, understanding the structural and functional neurobiological correlates of reading and math is of interest. Indeed, understanding the potential overlap between the skills and brain regions (and the pathways between those regions) involved in reading and those involved in math could help inform reading and math interventions. Neuroimaging can assist in this; diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) in particular can provide insight into the pathways involved in reading and math. DWI has previously been used to investigate relationships between white matter tracts and reading ability and skills, and a few studies have investigated relationships between white matter tracts and math skills. Yet, few if any studies have compared reading and math skills in the same children, especially using DWI methods. In a large sample of 202 children (M=7.79 years; SD=0.58 years) we investigated the relationships between fractional anisotropy (FA), a DWI metric quantifying the direction of water molecule movement along white matter tracts (thought to reflect tract integrity), and reading and math skills. We used TRACULA to identify all eighteen white matter tracts and calculate FA values. Regression analyses with each tract's FA value were run to predict reading and math skills. While analyses are ongoing, we found several relationships between subskills of reading and FA and subskills of math and FA.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Xiaochen Zheng, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
Mona Garvert, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences; Hanneke den Ouden, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Roshan Cools, Radboud University Medical Center
The neural architecture of generative compositionality: how do we infer the meaning of 'un-reject-able-ish'
The ability to generalize previously learned information to novel situations is key for adaptive behavior. Here, we investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the ability to infer novel compositional word meanings using a novel behavioral paradigm. Participants were trained on compositional word meaning from an artificial language comprising extant stems ('good') and novel affixes ('kla'). The meaning of the compositional words depended on the position of the novel affix ('goodkla = bad', 'klahorse = pony'). We then asked them to infer the meaning of novel compositional words ('whitekla =?', 'klacat =?') which were either congruent or incongruent with the rule ('klawhite' is incongruent because a small version of 'white' does not exist). During fMRI, participants performed a semantic priming task in which the novel words served as congruent or incongruent primes ('whitekla') and their synonyms ('black') served as targets. Our results show that people are able to generate novel compositional meanings on the fly, successfully inferring meanings of congruent versus incongruent words. Repetition suppression effects at target were greater when primed with congruent than incongruent words in the left inferior frontal gyrus, suggesting the novel meanings to be derived at this linguistic 'building' hub. Analysis of congruent versus incongruent prime-related activity revealed a broad frontal-parietal network, including hippocampus, the brain area commonly associated with generalization of structural relationships. We argue that generative compositionality in language recruits a domain-general network shared with action planning, compositional vision and constructive relational memory, while the newly inferred meanings are represented in more language-specific regions.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other
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Hayate Oonishi, Hokkaido University
Koichi Yokosawa, Hokkaido University
Differential Theta Brain Activities Depending on the Memory Strategies in Visual Working Memory
In our lives, it is essential to recognize, memorize, and process the direction of an object. Visual working memory (VWM) is an important function that is responsible for the temporarily retention and processing of visual information. Although there are many previous studies on the neural basis of VWM, there are few studies in well-controlled memory strategies. In this study, we attempted to clarify the differences in the neural basis of phonological and visuo-spatial strategies, using the VWM task which involves in memorizing the direction with both phonological and visuo-spatial strategies. We recorded magnetoencephalograms of participants who performed sequential VWM tasks with controlled memory strategies, focusing on theta (5-7 Hz) brain rhythms in retention period, which are frequently reported to be associated with working memory. To observe temporal details of difference in brain activity, we conducted cluster-based permutation test (CBPT) and calculated effect sizes (Cohen's d). The results of the CBPT revealed that theta amplitudes were significantly larger during the retention period when the phonological strategy was used (p=0.024). From the clusters depicted, ROIs were set for the right prefrontal and parietal/occipital regions. The effect sizes were calculated at each time point to determine at which time point the differences were larger. It was found that theta amplitude differences in prefrontal in the former of retention and parietal/occipital in the latter of retention were larger (d>0.8). These results suggest that theta activities in prefrontal and parietal/occipital execute the manipulations of phonological information related to the directions.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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Simran Kaur, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
Chaithanya Leon, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; Shaon Dastidar, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi YatanPalSingh Balhara, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; Ratna Sharma, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; Prashant Tayade, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; Suriya Muthukrishnan, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
Prestimulus EEG microstate and its sources reveal an aberrant default mode network in subjects with addictive disorders.
Aberrant network activity between default-mode-network (DMN) and fronto-parietal-attentional network (FAN) can lead to working memory deficits. These neuronal networks can be investigated using EEG microstates and can influence post-stimulus processing of stimuli, characterized by topography of momentary scalp electric field. We investigated EEG microstate and its cortical sources in patients with addictive disorder compared to controls using Sternberg task. Thirty patients of addictive disorder (alcohol (AlAd), opioid (OpAd)) and matched controls were recruited. All subjects performed forty trials of task with simultaneous acquisition of 128 channel EEG and microstate analysis was done for prestimulus segment using Cartool software. _x000D_
Working memory deficits (higher reaction time and lower accuracy) were seen in patients with addictive disorder compared to controls. Microstate analysis revealed four topographic maps, with lower mean duration of Map2 and 3 in AlAd and OpAd compared to controls. Map2 matches canonical MapC (switching between DMN and FAN), reflecting inappropriate switching during task whereas Map3 matches with canonical MapB (visual processing) highlighting reduced synchronised activities by neural generators. Source analysis revealed higher activity in areas of DMN (known to be active when person is idle, not engaged in task in addictive patients) and temporal areas (suggestive of sustained attention for compulsive-drug-seeking behavior). A significant correlation was seen between reaction time and current source density in alcohol addiction. _x000D_
Thus, inability to suppress DMN areas, inhibits the reallocation of neural resources to executive areas, leading to working memory deficits in subjects with addictive disorders as reflected by prestimulus EEG microstate and its sources.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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WITHDRAWN
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Katherine Boere, The University of Victoria
Olav Krigolson, The University of Victoria; Francesca Anderson, The University of Victoria
Mapping the Relationship between Cognitive Load and Performance in Multitasking Environments Using Mobile Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)
Cognitive load represents the amount of processing resources required by a given task. Individuals vary in both their processing capacity and performance on such tasks. However, cognitive load is limited, and exceeding one's boundaries often leads to reduced performance and, in turn, errors. This study uses mobile functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate the relationship between cognitive load, prefrontal cortical activation, and performance in multitasking environments. Thirty participants played Tetris in randomized blocks of two conditions: one or three games concurrently. Here, we demonstrate a difference in self-perceived cognitive load ratings between single and multitasking conditions, which inversely relates to game performance. In addition and contrary to our a priori hypothesis, higher prefrontal cortex activation was found in the single-game condition compared to multitasking. This result suggests that reaching cortical activation boundaries in multitasking scenarios may not be the performance-limited factor. Instead, the attentional shifts required in multitasking may prevent the user from utilizing their total cognitive capacity and, in turn, be responsible for performance degradation and errors. This finding is particularly relevant to pilots who face incredibly complex and multitasking demanding environments, requiring optimal cognitive resource utilization to ensure safety. Thus, our results validate using mobile fNIRS to assess cognitive performance and highlight potential real-world applications.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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Josset Yarbrough, Northwestern University
Lingxiao Shi, Northwestern University; Kaustav Chattopadhyay, University of California, Berkeley Vasanth Kommu, University of California, Berkeley; Robert Knight, University of California, Berkeley; Elizabeth Johnson, Northwestern University
Dissociable Frontal Midline and Posterior Signatures of Mismatch Detection in Working Memory
Working memory (WM) is a form of higher-order cognitive control where one rapidly stores and retrieves incoming information. Converging evidence points to frontal midline (FM) N200 event-related potentials (ERP) and theta activity (FM?; 3-8 Hz) in detecting novelty and error, but it is unknown whether FM activities support mismatch detection during working memory (WM). Here, we investigate mismatch detection in a WM task designed to test everyday what, where, and when associations. We recorded EEG activity from 36 adults (18.6-43 years; 21 F/15 M) while they performed a sequential delayed match-to-sample WM task in which the test sequence matched the study sequence or mismatched on one dimension (shape identity, spatial location, temporal order). To isolate signatures of mismatch detection, trials were aligned to the first mismatched shape in the test sequence and compared to match trials using cluster-based permutation tests. Results reveal concurrent FM sustained Late Positive Potential (LPP) and FM? power and phase resetting effects, consistent with models of FM control, as well as posterior P300 effects preceding increased power in the alpha-beta range. We did not observe negative FM ERP effects. These findings reveal that WM mismatch detection involves dissociable FM and posterior activities and suggest that FM LPPs constitute a novel signature of mismatch detection in real-world WM.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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Lingxiao Shi, Northwestern University
Kaustav Chattopadhyay, University of California, Berkeley; Vasanth Kommu, University of California, Berkeley Robert Knight, University of California, Berkeley; Elizabeth Johnson, Northwestern University
Frontal-posterior theta-alpha oscillations underlie cognitive control in working memory
Research in the burgeoning field of network neuroscience yields a picture of how cognitive functions such as working memory (WM) arise from carefully orchestrated interactions among brain regions, particularly the prefrontal and lateral parietal cortices. While many studies report specific brain regions involved in WM, how they communicate with each other to implement WM is largely unknown. To investigate oscillatory network signatures of WM, our study uses scalp EEG to measure brain activity in 36 healthy adults (18.6-43.0 years; 21 F, 15 M) performing a sequential WM delayed match-to-sample task. To isolate signatures of cognitive control (CC) with high temporal precision, we compared the study (i.e., sample) and test (delayed match) sequences using cluster-based permutation tests, keeping other variables including timing and visual demands the same. Results showed: (1) frontal and posterior power and functional connectivity signatures of CC supported by theta-alpha oscillations (4-12 Hz); (2) positive correlations (p<0.05) between regional power and the connectedness of interregional hubs in the theta-alpha band; and (3) signatures of CC explain inter-individual differences in subsequent behavioral outputs as indexed by response time. Collectively, our results demonstrate that theta-alpha oscillatory networks underpin successful WM performance and suggest that regional signatures of CC are rooted in these large-scale brain networks.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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Bo-Cheng Kuo, National Taiwan University
Fang-Wen Chen, National Taiwan University; Freek van Ede, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
How do EEG signatures of working memory capacity depend on memory content?
The neural basis of working memory (WM) capacity is often studied by considering differences between individuals in capacity and EEG signatures of WM maintenance. Besides individual differences, capacity may also differ across memory materials within a given individual. Here we addressed how lateralized and global EEG signatures of WM maintenance and capacity scale with the nature of to-be-remembered materials (English letters, regular shapes, and abstract shapes). Participants (n = 30) performed a delayed response task with high and low WM load while recording EEG. Behavioural measurements confirmed that WM capacity varied with memory materials, showing a lower capacity for more complex stimuli than simpler stimuli. In accordance with this observation, concurrent EEG measurements revealed that memory materials also affected the contralateral delay activity (CDA) during the retention interval. We found a larger load-dependent CDA for simple stimuli and a plateau at low load for more complex stimuli. Moreover, when considering low-load trials which were below the observed capacity plateau for all materials, we found that the CDA was larger for abstract shapes than for other stimuli. Time-frequency analyses further confirmed the load-dependent alpha-power attenuation during the retention interval that scaled with load in a content-specific manner, but only so for global (non-lateralized) posterior alpha power. This was not true for the lateralization of alpha power during the retention interval, unlike what we observed for the CDA. These data show how WM capacity, and its neural basis, are content-dependent, and reveal interesting dissociations between CDA and alpha-oscillation signatures of visual WM.
EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Working memory
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Daniel Schneider, IfADo
Marlene Rösner, IfADo; Melinda Sabo, IfADo Laura Klatt, IfADo; Edmund Wascher, IfADo
Predictive coding in working memory: EEG evidence for prospective motor codes under task uncertainty
The basic role of our memory system is to predict the future based on past information. Investigations have shown that selecting certain memorized information for a future motor-based task entails the transition from a purely sensory to a prospective sensorimotor representation in working memory. Here, we investigated whether such motor codes are also generated when there is still uncertainty about a future task. Participants stored the orientation and location of a grating and subsequent cues (selective vs. neutral) indicated which feature would be probed. Only later in the trial were participants cued to prepare either for a task requiring the comparison of the stored feature to a memory probe (recognition task) or for a con
