Goals and task difficulty expectations modulate striatal responses to feedback.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: DePasque Swanson S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4072914 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BACKGROUND:There is growing recognition that chronic cocaine users have alterations in sensorimotor control that are positively related to low frontal-striatal connectivity within the motor system. These frontal-striatal motor circuits however, are modulated by circuits governing attention, which are also disrupted in cocaine users. This study's aim was to determine if sensorimotor control deficits are positively related to the difficulty of a motor task or exist independent of the increasing cognitive demand. METHODS:Functional MRI data was collected from 40 individuals (20 non-treatment seeking chronic cocaine users, 20 age and gender matched non-drug using controls) as they mimicked an unpredictable finger-tapping sequence at various speeds. Dependent measures included task accuracy, percent BOLD signal change in sensorimotor regions of interest (ROIs), and functional connectivity (temporal correlations) between ROIs. RESULTS:In both groups, as speed increased, the BOLD signal change increased in the primary motor cortex, supplementary motor area (SMA), cerebellum, and anterior cingulate cortex. Compared to controls, cocaine user SMA-Caudate and ACC-Putamen connectivity was lower at all speeds in the contralateral hemisphere. Furthermore, as speed increased there was a decrease in connectivity between additional ROI pairs among users. CONCLUSIONS:These data support previous observations of sensorimotor performance deficits and dorsal frontal-striatal connectivity impairments among cocaine users. While previous studies demonstrate these deficits when performing a finger-tapping task at a single speed, we show that these same impairments exist at multiple levels of task difficulty. These data suggest that previously observed frontal-striatal connectivity in cocaine users during sensorimotor task performance are stable and not directly related to cognitive demands of the task.
| S-EPMC5896281 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Early visual cortex exhibits widespread hemodynamic responses in the absence of visual stimulation, which are entrained to the timing of a task and not predicted by local spiking or local field potential. Such task-related responses (TRRs) covary with reward magnitude and physiological signatures of arousal. It is unknown, however, if TRRs change on a trial-to-trial basis according to behavioral performance and task difficulty. If so, this would suggest that TRRs reflect arousal on a trial-to-trial timescale and covary with critical task and behavioral variables. We measured functional magnetic resonance imaging blood-oxygen-level-dependent (fMRI-BOLD) responses in the early visual cortex of human observers performing an orientation discrimination task consisting of separate easy and hard runs of trials. Stimuli were presented in a small portion of one hemifield, but the fMRI response was measured in the ipsilateral hemisphere, far from the stimulus representation and focus of spatial attention. TRRs scaled in amplitude with task difficulty, behavioral accuracy, reaction time, and lapses across trials. These modulations were not explained by the influence of respiration, cardiac activity, or head movement on the fMRI signal. Similar modulations with task difficulty and behavior were observed in pupil size. These results suggest that TRRs reflect arousal and behavior on the timescale of individual trials.
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Project description:People tell lies not only for their own self-interests but sometimes also to help others. Little is known about the ways in which different types of goals modulate behaviors and neural responses in deception. The present study investigated the neural processes associated with spontaneous deception that occurs with altruistic reasons (i.e. the money would be donated to charity), self-serving reasons (i.e. the participant receives all of the money) and mixed goals (i.e. the money would be equally split between the participant and the charity). Altruistic motivation for deception reduced the intensity of moral conflict and the subsequent mental cost of resolving this conflict, reflected by a smaller N2-P3 effect in the purely altruistic condition. When making decisions about whether to lie, self-interest was a stronger motivator than others' interests, and the participants tended to lie more for themselves than for others. When the lie could be mutually beneficial for both of the self and others, the participants tended to lie even when they knew that they could be easily caught, but they actually lied for their own self-interest rather than for altruistic reasons. These findings shed light on the neural basis of 'good lies' and decision-making in mutually beneficial situations.
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Project description:Deficits in temporal judgment in schizophrenia have been observed in behavioral and electrophysiological studies for years. The functional neuroanatomy of temporal judgment in schizophrenia is, however, poorly understood. Recent neurophysiological research suggests that timing deficits in this population may not be widespread across all timing tasks, but specifically associated with high levels of difficulty. We evaluated differences between individuals with schizophrenia (N=16) and healthy subjects (N=18) during a temporal discrimination task at two levels of difficulty. Subjects were studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3T while discriminating tone durations. Behaviorally, the schizophrenia group performed worse than the control group at both levels of difficulty. Similarly, group differences in patterns of brain activation were observed across both difficulty conditions. In the easy condition, individuals with schizophrenia showed less activation in the supplementary motor area and insula/opercula, regions known to be involved in temporal processing. These group differences increased in the difficult condition. In addition, the striatum was less active in individuals with schizophrenia in the difficult condition. Comparing the difficult to easy conditions revealed robust differences in the bilateral striatum and the insula/opercula, suggesting that the striatum plays a key role in temporal processing deficits in schizophrenia, especially under difficult conditions. These observations suggest that temporal judgment deficits reflect widespread neuroanatomical network involvement in schizophrenia, some of which are not directly related to task difficulty. These findings shed light on disparate findings in the timing literature regarding the role of task difficulty in temporal judgment deficits in schizophrenia.
| S-EPMC4105224 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Humans attend to social cues in order to understand and predict others' behavior. Facial expressions and gaze direction provide valuable information to infer others' mental states and intentions. The present study examined the mechanism of gaze following in the context of participants' expectations about successive action steps of an observed actor. We embedded a gaze-cueing manipulation within an action scenario consisting of a sequence of naturalistic photographs. Gaze-induced orienting of attention (gaze following) was analyzed with respect to whether the gaze behavior of the observed actor was in line or not with the action-related expectations of participants (i.e., whether the actor gazed at an object that was congruent or incongruent with an overarching action goal). In Experiment 1, participants followed the gaze of the observed agent, though the gaze-cueing effect was larger when the actor looked at an action-congruent object relative to an incongruent object. Experiment 2 examined whether the pattern of effects observed in Experiment 1 was due to covert, rather than overt, attentional orienting, by requiring participants to maintain eye fixation throughout the sequence of critical photographs (corroborated by monitoring eye movements). The essential pattern of results of Experiment 1 was replicated, with the gaze-cueing effect being completely eliminated when the observed agent gazed at an action-incongruent object. Thus, our findings show that covert gaze following can be modulated by expectations that humans hold regarding successive steps of the action performed by an observed agent.
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Project description:IntroductionMany dental students find the amount of direct feedback they receive in dental school to be both unfamiliar and uncomfortable, as many new hand-skill courses are added to familiar lecture courses and traditional paper-and-pencil tests. In turn, when students react poorly to routine professional feedback, dental school faculty often complain they are too fragile. To address this clear gap in expectations between students and faculty in regard to feedback activities, this half-day workshop was developed for use during student orientation.MethodsIn this workshop, students learn the theory of deliberate practice and the role that professional feedback will play in their training. Small-group workshops discuss past student experiences with feedback and use an origami exercise to explore student reactions to feedback. As is commonly done in technique courses, discussions about self- and peer assessment raise students' comfort levels with respect to sharing their work with their peers. Additionally, addressing feedback issues early in their professional education makes students aware of feedback's necessity in their professional development and helps them to deal with the emotional impact.ResultsWhen we evaluated this course in 2014 and 2015, students rated this activity significantly higher than other orientation activities.DiscussionAfter several years of working with students who have had this orientation, faculty and administrators consider it highly valuable for setting expectations about feedback. They have also experienced fewer student concerns and complaints regarding feedback issues.
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Project description:Previous research revealed that people's judgments of causality between a target cause and an outcome in null contingency settings can be biased by various factors, leading to causal illusions (i.e., incorrectly reporting a causal relationship where there is none). In two experiments, we examined whether this causal illusion is sensitive to prior expectations about base-rates. Thus, we pretrained participants to expect either a high outcome base-rate (Experiment 1) or a low outcome base-rate (Experiment 2). This pretraining was followed by a standard contingency task in which the target cause and the outcome were not contingent with each other (i.e., there was no causal relation between them). Subsequent causal judgments were affected by the pretraining: When the outcome base-rate was expected to be high, the causal illusion was reduced, and the opposite was observed when the outcome base-rate was expected to be low. The results are discussed in the light of several explanatory accounts (associative and computational). A rational account of contingency learning based on the evidential value of information can predict our findings.
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Project description:EEG alpha-band activity is generally thought to represent an inhibitory state related to decreased attention and play a role in suppression of task-irrelevant stimulus processing, but a competing hypothesis suggests an active role in processing task-relevant information - one in which phase dynamics are involved. Here we used simultaneous EEG-fMRI and a whole-brain analysis to investigate the effects of prestimulus alpha activity on the event-related BOLD response during an auditory oddball task. We separately investigated the effects of the posterior alpha rhythm's power and phase on activity related to task-relevant stimulus processing and also investigated higher-level decision-related processing. We found stronger decision-related BOLD activity in areas late in the processing stream when subjects were in the high alpha power state prior to stimulus onset, but did not detect any effect in primary sensory regions. Our phase analysis revealed correlates in the bilateral thalamus, providing support for a thalamo-cortical loop in attentional modulations and suggesting that the cortical alpha rhythm acts as a cyclic modulator of task-related responses very early in the processing stream. Our results help to reconcile the competing inhibition and active-processing hypotheses for ongoing alpha oscillations and begin to tease apart the distinct roles and mechanisms underlying their power and phase.
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Project description:Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been widely used in human cognitive neuroscience to examine the causal role of distinct cortical areas in perceptual, cognitive and motor functions. However, it is widely acknowledged that the effects of focal cortical stimulation can vary substantially between participants and even from trial to trial within individuals. Recent work from resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies has suggested that spontaneous fluctuations in alertness over a testing session can modulate the neural dynamics of cortical processing, even when participants remain awake and responsive to the task at hand. Here we investigated the extent to which spontaneous fluctuations in alertness during wake-to-sleep transition can account for the variability in neurophysiological responses to TMS. We combined single-pulse TMS with neural recording via electroencephalography (EEG) to quantify changes in motor and cortical reactivity with fluctuating levels of alertness defined objectively on the basis of ongoing brain activity. We observed rapid, non-linear changes in TMS-evoked responses with decreasing levels of alertness, even while participants remained responsive in the behavioural task. Specifically, we found that the amplitude of motor evoked potentials peaked during periods of EEG flattening, whereas TMS-evoked potentials increased and remained stable during EEG flattening and the subsequent occurrence of theta ripples that indicate the onset of NREM stage 1 sleep. Our findings suggest a rapid and complex reorganization of active neural networks in response to spontaneous fluctuations of alertness over relatively short periods of behavioural testing during wake-to-sleep transition.
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Project description:Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an illness that affects patients on multiple levels, both physically and psychologically. While there is a growing body of evidence for the efficacy of self-management among patients with COPD, little evidence is available on the optimal content and methods for delivering self-management support.The purpose of this study was to address gaps in the literature on self-management support by examining patients' responses to questions about goals, needs, and expectations regarding self-management using qualitative methods in a broadly representative sample of patients with moderate to severe COPD. By focusing on patients' perceptions of their needs, we hoped to guide development of cognitive-behavioural interventions for self-management support.Patients >45 years of age with a physician diagnosis of COPD were recruited as part of a larger randomised controlled trial designed to determine the effectiveness of a lifestyle behavioural intervention to increase physical activity. In-depth interviews were conducted at baseline data collection using 10 standardised open-ended questions tailored to examine factors relevant to self-management support including concerns, fears, learning needs, barriers, facilitators, and goals. All interviews were audio recorded and analysed using qualitative methods. Responses were coded by three raters into thematic categories.A sample of 47 interviews with patients of mean age 68.4 years, 53% male, 87% white were used in the analysis. The distribution of spirometric impairment based on percent predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) was moderate (57.5%), severe (31.9%), and very severe (10.6%). In response to questions targeting needs and goals for care, three main themes (loss, fear, and desire for improved care) and seven associated sub-themes were identified. Because of breathlessness and fatigue as well as symptoms from conditions other than COPD, patients reported the loss of ability to participate in pleasurable and necessary activities of daily living and the desire to recover at least some of their functioning. They expressed problems with social isolation and uncertainty about their prognosis, as well as the hope to improve. In addition, fearful experiences associated with uncontrolled breathlessness and a wish for greater understanding and knowledge about treatment were major concerns.These qualitative results suggest that the content of self-management support for patients with COPD should focus on addressing patients' fears associated with the uncertainty, progression, and suffering of their disease, their expectations about overcoming or replacing losses, their needs for improved health literacy and their desire for improved care. These responses indicate areas where cognitive-behavioural intervention should focus in order to enhance patient self-efficacy, motivation, and behavioural change for improved self-management.
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