Cognitive Brain Research最新文献

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder of genetic origin that has been used as a model to understand visual cognition. We have investigated early deficits in the afferent magnocellular pathway and their relation to abnormal visual dorsal processing in WS. A spatiotemporal contrast sensitivity task that is known to selectively activate that pathway was used in six WS subjects. Additionally, we have compared visual performance in 2D and 3D motion integration tasks. A novel 3D motion coherence task (using spheres with unpredictable axis of rotation) was used in order to investigate possible impairment of occipitoparietal areas that are known to be involved in 3D structure from motion (SFM) perception. We have found a significant involvement of low-level magnocellular maps in WS as assessed by the contrast sensitivity task. On the contrary, no significant differences were observed between WS and the control groups in the 2D motion integration tasks. However, all WS subjects were significantly impaired in the 3D SFM task. Our findings suggest that magnocellular damage may occur in addition to dorsal stream deficits in these patients. They are also consistent with recently described genetic and neuroanatomic abnormalities in retinotopic visual areas. Finally, selective SFM coherence deficits support the proposal that there is a specific pathway in the dorsal stream that is involved in motion processing of 3D surfaces, which seems to be impaired in this disorder.

Psychologists have linked the personality trait extraversion both to differences in reward sensitivity and to dopamine functioning, but little is known about how these differences are reflected in the functioning of the brain's dopaminergic neural reward system. Here, we show that individual differences in extraversion and the presence of the A1 allele on the dopamine D2 receptor gene predict activation magnitudes in the brain's reward system during a gambling task. In two functional MRI experiments, participants probabilistically received rewards either immediately following a behavioral response (Study 1) or after a 7.5 s anticipation period (Study 2). Although group activation maps revealed anticipation- and reward-related activations in the reward system, individual differences in extraversion and the presence of the D2 Taq1A allele predicted a significant amount of inter-subject variability in the magnitudes of reward-related, but not anticipation-related, activations. These results demonstrate a link between stable differences in personality, genetics, and brain functioning.

Alcohol consumption has been shown to increase the number of errors in tasks that require a high degree of cognitive control, such as a go/no-go task. The alcohol-related decline in performance may be related to difficulties in maintaining attention on the task at hand and/or deficits in inhibiting a prepotent response. To test these two accounts, we investigated the effects of alcohol on stimulus- and response-locked evoked potentials recorded during a go/no-go task that involved the withholding of key presses to rare targets. All participants performed the task prior to drinking and were then assigned randomly to either a control, low-dose, or moderate-dose treatment. Both doses of alcohol increased the number of errors relative to alcohol-free performance. Success in withholding a prepotent response was associated with an early-enhanced stimulus-locked negativity at inferior parietal sites, which was delayed when participants failed to inhibit the motor command. Moreover, low and moderate doses of alcohol reduced N170 and P3 amplitudes during go, no-go, and error trials. In comparison with the correct responses, errors generated large response-locked negative (Ne) and positive (Pe) waves at central sites. Both doses of alcohol reduced the Ne amplitude whereas the Pe amplitude decreased only after moderate doses of alcohol. These results are consistent with the interpretation that behavioral disinhibition following alcohol consumption involved alcohol-induced deficits in maintaining and allocating attention thereby affecting the processing of incoming stimuli and the recognition that an errant response has been made.

Humans cannot typically produce smooth eye movements in the absence of a moving stimulus. However, they can produce predictive smooth eye movements if they expect a target of a known velocity to reappear. Here, we observed that participants could extract velocity information from two simultaneously presented moving targets in order to produce a subsequent predictive smooth eye movement for one of the two targets. Subjects fixated a stationary cross during the presentation of two targets, moving rightward at different velocities. In the next presentation, a single target was presented, which participants tracked with their eyes. A static cue, presented 700 ms before the moving target, indicated which of the two targets would be presented. Predictive eye movements were of an appropriate velocity, even when participants did not know in advance which of the two targets would subsequently be cued. However, the scaling of predictive eye velocity was marginally less accurate in this divided attention condition than when participants knew the identity of the cued target in advance, or a single target was presented during fixation. In a second experiment, we found that the velocity cued on the previous trial had a greater effect than the uncued velocity on the current trial. The negligible effect of the uncued velocity indicates that participants were extremely effective at selectively reproducing one of two recently viewed velocities. However, other influences, such as past history, also affected predictive smooth eye movements.

Kainate-induced seizures result in hippocampal neurodegeneration and spatial learning deficits in rodents. Previous studies show that rofecoxib, a selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, protects against kainate-induced hippocampal cell death 3 days after seizures. Our aim was to determine whether rofecoxib attenuates visuospatial learning deficits and late neuronal death after kainate-induced seizures. Seizures were induced in Sprague–Dawley rats with kainic acid (10 mg/kg, i.p.). Eight hours later, animals received rofecoxib (10 mg/kg; n = 15) or vehicle (dimethylsulfoxide, n = 11). Animals were then treated daily for additional 2 or 9 days. Visuospatial learning was assessed in the Morris water maze (MWM) on days 5–9 after seizures. Seizure animals learned the MWM task significantly slower than non-seizure controls, but seizure animals showed higher swim speed (P < 0.05). Seizure animals receiving rofecoxib for 2 days showed no significant improvement in acquisition of the task compared to the vehicle group, even though mean latencies in the rofecoxib group were shorter from the third trial day onwards. This tendency was lost when rofecoxib was given for 9 days. TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labelling showed cell death in limbic structures 9 days after seizures. The time course of kainate-induced hippocampal cell death might be delayed by rofecoxib treatment, as the attenuation of cell death observed 3 days after seizures was no longer present after 9 days. We conclude that even though increasing evidence points to an injurious role of cyclooxygenase-2 products in acute brain injury processes, rofecoxib treatment failed to attenuate seizure-induced visuospatial learning deficits and the late phase of hippocampal neurodegeneration.

The sensory–action theory proposes that the neural substrates underlying action representations are related to a visuomotor action system encompassing the left ventral premotor cortex, the anterior intraparietal (AIP) and left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LPMT). Using fMRI, we demonstrate that semantic decisions on action, relative to non-action words, increased activation in the left AIP and LPMT irrespective of whether the words were presented in a written or spoken form. Left AIP and LPMT might thus play the role of amodal semantic regions that can be activated via auditory as well as visual input. Left AIP and LPMT did not distinguish between different types of actions such as hand actions and whole body movements, although a right STS region responded selectively to whole body movements.

Single-trial motor imagery classification is an integral part of a number of brain–computer interface (BCI) systems. The possible significance of the kind of imagery, involving rather kinesthetic or visual representations of actions, was addressed using the following experimental conditions: kinesthetic motor imagery (MIK), visual–motor imagery (MIV), motor execution (ME) and observation of movement (OOM). Based on multi-channel EEG recordings in 14 right-handed participants, we applied a learning classifier, the distinction sensitive learning vector quantization (DSLVQ) to identify relevant features (i.e., frequency bands, electrode sites) for recognition of the respective mental states. For ME and OOM, the overall classification accuracies were about 80%. The rates obtained for MIK (67%) were better than the results of MIV (56%). Moreover, the focus of activity during kinesthetic imagery was found close to the sensorimotor hand area, whereas visual–motor imagery did not reveal a clear spatial pattern. Consequently, to improve motor-imagery-based BCI control, user training should emphasize kinesthetic experiences instead of visual representations of actions.

There is growing evidence that the visual processing of human body stimuli is particular and distinct from that of other objects. This is due to implicit knowledge of anatomical and biomechanical constraints of the human body. The question arises whether body stimuli in which biomechanical constraints are violated are processed in the same way as realistic bodies. This study investigated the neural mechanisms of anatomically plausible and implausible body stimuli. Event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded in healthy participants during mental rotation of body parts. Subjects were shown pictures of body parts or whole bodies in which one element (finger, arm) could be anatomically accurate or inaccurate (e.g., left forearm attached to right upper arm). Furthermore, the body parts were rotated in 7 different orientations, from 0° to 180° in 30° increments, resulting in some possible and some impossible positions of the body parts. Analysis of the 123-channel ERPs was carried out by determining the successive segments of stable map topographies and comparing them between conditions. A particular segment appeared in the case of anatomically impossible postures at 190–230 ms followed by a segment reflecting mental rotation at 310–380 ms. Anatomically implausible positions are thus detected at a very early stage, before mental rotation occurs. Source estimations derived from the topographic data indicated that left occipital, bilateral frontal and two medial areas were activated in the case of impossible postures, whereas left parietal regions were strongly activated during mental rotation. This result contrasts with mental rotation of objects, which is considered to be a right parietal process.

The perception of visceral signals plays a crucial role in many theories of emotions. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between interoceptive awareness and emotion-related brain activity. 44 participants (16 male, 28 female) first underwent a heartbeat perception task and then were categorised either as good (n = 22) or poor heartbeat perceivers (n = 22). A total of 60 different pictures (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral) from the International Affective Picture System served as emotional stimuli. EEG (61 electrodes) and EOG were recorded during slide presentation. After each slide, the subjects had to rate emotional valence and arousal on a 9-point self-report scale. Good heartbeat perceivers scored the emotional slides significantly more arousing than poor heartbeat perceivers; no differences were found in the emotional valence ratings. The visually evoked potentials of good and poor heartbeat perceivers showed significant differences in the P300 and in the slow-wave latency ranges. Statistical analyses revealed significantly higher P300 mean amplitudes for good heartbeat perceivers (averaged across all 60 slides) than for poor heartbeat perceivers. In the slow-wave range, this effect was found for affective slides only. Heartbeat perception scores correlated significantly and positively with both the mean arousal rating as well as with the mean amplitudes in the P300 time window and the slow-wave window. Our results demonstrate a strong relationship between the perception of cardiac signals and the cortical processing of emotional stimuli, as would be postulated for example by the James–Lange theory of emotions.