Different Aspects Of Information Processing Research Articles

Apical intercalated cell cluster: A distinct sensory regulator in the amygdala.

GABAergic neurons regulate different aspects of information processing in the amygdala. Among these are clusters of intercalated cells (ITCs), which have been implicated in fear-related behaviors. Although a few of the ITC clusters have been studied, the functional role of apical ITCs (apITCs) is unknown. Here, we combine monosynaptic rabies tracing with optogenetics and demonstrate that apITCs receive synaptic input from medial geniculate nucleus (MGm), posterior intralaminar nucleus (PIN), and medial dorsal nucleus of the thalamus and from a diverse range of cortical areas including temporal association, entorhinal, insular, piriform, and somatosensory cortex. Upon fear learning, PIN/MGm inputs are strengthened, indicative of their involvement in fear behaviors. 3-D reconstruction of apITCs reveals local arborization and innervation of the dorsal striatum and lateral amygdala. We further show that apITCs provide sensory feedforward inhibition to LA principal cells, a putative mechanism for controlling plasticity during fear learning.

Interplay between components of pupil-linked phasic arousal and its role in driving behavioral choice in Go/No-Go perceptual decision-making.

In decision-making tasks, neural circuits involved in different aspects of information processing may activate the central arousal system, likely through their interconnection with brainstem arousal nuclei, collectively contributing to the observed pupil-linked phasic arousal. However, the individual components of the phasic arousal associated with different elements of information processing and their effects on behavior remain little known. In this study, we used machine learning techniques to decompose pupil-linked phasic arousal evoked by different components of information processing in rats performing a Go/No-Go perceptual decision-making task. We found that phasic arousal evoked by stimulus encoding was larger for the Go stimulus than the No-Go stimulus. For each session, the separation between distributions of phasic arousal evoked by the Go and by the No-Go stimulus was predictive of perceptual performance. The separation between distributions of decision-formation-evoked arousal on correct and incorrect trials was correlated with decision criterion but not perceptual performance. When a Go stimulus was presented, the action of go was primarily determined by the phasic arousal evoked by stimulus encoding. On the contrary, when a No-Go stimulus was presented, the action of go was determined by phasic arousal elicited by both stimulus encoding and decision formation. Drift diffusion modeling revealed that the four model parameters were better accounted for when phasic arousal elicited by both stimulus encoding and decision formation was considered. These results suggest that the interplay between phasic arousal evoked by both stimulus encoding and decision formation has important functional consequences on forming behavioral choice in perceptual decision-making.

Approaching the Distinction between Intuition and Insight.

Intuition and insight share similar cognitive and neural basis. Though, there are still some essential differences between the two. Here in this short review, we discriminated between intuition, and insight in two aspects. First, intuition, and insight are toward different aspects of information processing. Whereas intuition involves judgment about “yes or no,” insight is related to “what” is the solution. Second, tacit knowledge play different roles in between intuition and insight. On the one hand, tacit knowledge is conducive to intuitive judgment. On the other hand, tacit knowledge may first impede but later facilitate insight occurrence. Furthermore, we share theoretical, and methodological views on how to access the distinction between intuition and insight.

P.1.j.025 Sensitivity of the tests measuring information processing in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Purpose: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are two major psychiatric illnesses that may have pathophysiological common points. Although the relationships between cognitive functions, symptoms and functionality differ for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and remain to be clarified, it’s known that cognitive dysfunction is a good candidate to be a predictor of functioning in both disorders [1]. The importance of the cognitive dysfunction in psychiatric disorders has been substantially increasing, but we still need more sensitive and appropriate assessment tools [2]. Most instruments or tests assess only one domain, representing a single task. This narrow span is useful when examining a specific domain that is heavily impaired. In psychiatric disorders, however, most subjects are only slightly impaired and those tools with low sensitivity lack reliability and sensitivity in determining slight impairments. This study aims to evaluate capabilities of cognitive tests used to evaluate information processing in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Methods: Thirty-five patients with bipolar disorder (age 34.74+ 8.71 years, m/f: 18/17) and 32 schizophrenia patients (age 39.97+9.43 years, m/f: 23/9) enrolled into the study. Clinical examinations were performed with Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS). Cognitive evaluations included the Stroop Test (ST), Trail Making Test (TMT), Digit Span Test, Digit-Symbol Substitution Test (DSS), auditory and visual Reaction Time Test (RT) and Adult Memory and Intelligence Processing Battery (AMIPB). The AMIPB has raw scores and adjusted scores according to motor speed of subjects. The t test and Pearson’s correlation tests were used for statistical analyses. Results: Visual RT, TMT-B, digit span, DSS test and 1, 2, 3 and 5th subtests of the ST did not differ between groups. Auditory RT (p = 0.004), TMT-A (p = 0.024), ST 4 (p = 0.040) tests differed between groups. There was significant difference between groups in all subtests of the AMIPB. Motor (p = 0.001), total raw score (p< 0.001), and adjusted scores (p< 0.001) of the AMIPB-A and total raw score (p = 0.002), motor speed (p = 0.013) and adjusted (p = 0.001) scores differed between groups. The AMIPB showed correlations to all other cognitive measures, both in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder groups with strong significance. Discussion: The AMIPB discriminated the schizophrenia and bipolar disorder groups. These results suggest that among many different tests to measure information processing, the AMIPB is a sensitive test in quality and quantities of speed and accuracy for psychiatric disorders. The battery also include working memory demands, therefore it evaluates different aspects of information processing. Information processing is related to basic components of cognition including working memory and executive functions (judgment, decision making, etc.). Although all other tests include properties of one aspect of basic components of information processing, the AMIPB has interactions with different basic components of cognition. This wealthy of interactions may provide broader portfolio of capabilities and greater sensitivity for the battery. The AMIPB is a highly sensitive and consistent test for information processing evaluations in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Here’s Looking at You

This study represents the beginning of a systematic effort to utilize eye-movement responses in order to better understand individuals’ processing strategies during the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM). Eye movements reflect moment-by-moment spatial and temporal processing of visual information and represent a useful approach for studying the RIM with potential clinical implications. Thirteen participants responded to the Rorschach while eye movements were being monitored. Several eye-movement indices were studied which reflect different aspects of information processing. Differences among the Rorschach cards were found for several eye-movement indices. For example, fixation durations were longer during a second viewing of the cards than during the first. This is consonant with an attempt to acquire conceptually difficult information, as participants were reinterpreting the cards. Results are discussed in terms of visual information processing strategies during the RIM and the potential usefulness of eye movements as a response measure to the RIM.

Positive Affect Modulates Flexibility and Evaluative Control

The ability to interact with a constantly changing environment requires a balance between maintaining the currently relevant working memory content and being sensitive to potentially relevant new information that should be given priority access to working memory. Mesocortical dopamine projections to frontal brain areas modulate working memory maintenance and flexibility. Recent neurocognitive and neurocomputational work suggests that dopamine release is transiently enhanced by induced positive affect. This ERP study investigated the role of positive affect in different aspects of information processing: in proactive control (context maintenance and updating), reactive control (flexible adaptation to incoming task-relevant information), and evaluative control in an AX-CPT task. Subjects responded to a target probe if it was preceded by a specific cue. Induced positive affect influenced the reactive and evaluative components of control (indexed by the N2 elicited by the target and by the error-related negativity elicited after incorrect responses, respectively), whereas cue-induced proactive preparation and maintenance processes remained largely unaffected (as reflected in the P3b and the contingent negative variation components of the ERP).

MMN evidence for asymmetry in detection of IOI shortening and lengthening at behavioral indifference tempo

Most behavioral investigations indicated an indifference interval of 500–700ms, at which the detection of inter-onset interval (IOI) shortening and lengthening are equally difficult and no perceptual bias would be expected. However, some event-related potential (ERPs) studies showed that even at this behavioral indifference time, the detection of shortening and lengthening might rely on different aspects of information processing. This work was aimed to investigate whether the pre-attentive processing of local tempo perturbations, i.e., IOI shortening and lengthening, are different when the basic tempo is at the behavioral indifference area. Tempo perturbations were introduced by shortening or lengthening the third IOI by 10% of the base IOI of the 5-beat isochronous sequence. ERPs recorded in a passive experiment showed that both tempo perturbations elicited a distinct frontal mismatch negativity (MMN). The low resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) source estimation indicated a left prefrontal predominance activity around the MMN peak, implicating an important role of the frontal lobe in the processing of local tempo perturbations. Statistical analysis revealed that the MMN to IOI shortening had an earlier and greater peak than that to IOI lengthening, implying that IOI shortening might be more easily to be detected than IOI lengthening even at indifference tempo. Our results suggested that local IOI perturbations at behavioral indifference area have an asymmetric effect on the pre-attentive processing of temporal variation detection.

Olfactory Coding: Non-Linear Amplification Separates Smells

How does the nervous system encode complex sensory stimuli? A recent study reveals the fly olfactory system compensates for variability in sensory input as odor representations are restructured for enhanced discriminability and coding efficiency.

Time, action, and consciousness

Time plays a central role in consciousness, at different levels and in different aspects of information processing. Subliminal perception experiments demonstrate that stimuli presented too briefly to enter conscious awareness are nevertheless processed to some extent. Implicit learning, implicit memory, and conditioning studies suggest that the extent to which memory traces are available for verbal report and for cognitive control is likewise dependent on the time available for processing during acquisition. Differences in the time available for processing also determine not only the extent to which one becomes conscious of action, but also provides the basis for making attributions of authorship to experienced acts. In this paper, we offer a brief overview of these different findings and suggest that they can all be understood based on the fact that consciousness takes time. From this perspective, the availability of representations to conscious awareness depends on the quality of these representations – the extent to which they are strong, stable in time, and distinctive. High-quality representations occur when processes of global competition have had sufficient time to operate so as to make the system settle into the best possible interpretation of the input. Such processes implement global constraint satisfaction and critically depend on reentrant processing, through which representations can be further enriched by high-level constraints. We discuss these ideas in light of current theories of consciousness, emphasizing the fact that consciousness should be viewed as a process rather than as a static property associated with some states and not with others.

The effect of congenital deafness on duration judgment

Congenital deafness provides the opportunity to study how atypical sensory and language experiences affect different aspects of information processing, e.g., time perception. Using two methods of temporal estimation, reproduction (Exp. 1) and production (Exp. 2), the effect of deafness on duration judgment was investigated within a time domain of a few seconds. We examined 16 congenitally deaf adolescents, aged between 16 and 19 years, and 16 normally hearing subjects, matched for gender and age. In Exp. 1 subjects were asked to reproduce durations from 1 to 5.5 s, whereas in Exp. 2 they produced durations from 1 to 6 s. The results showed that in both experiments, the region of accurate estimation was significantly limited in deaf individuals, compared to normal hearing ones. Deaf adolescents judged accurately only intervals around 3 s, whereas they overestimated standards shorter than 2 s and underestimated those above 3 s. In contrast, controls correctly estimated the majority of standards applied in both experiments, with the exception of underreproduction of intervals longer than 3 s (Exp. 1). The effect of deafness on the accuracy of duration judgment can be linked to differences in the use of conventional time units, applied strategy as well as cognitive processes such as attention or working memory.

European Library Automation Group 2004 Seminar

Provides a summary of the main topics of the European Library Automation Group (ELAG) conference in Trondheim, Norway, June 2004. Notes that the title of the conference was "Interoperability: New Challenges and Solutions", but it was clear that both for organizers and participants many of the current challenges of interoperability lie in library portals. States that many of the papers presented dealt with some aspect of portal design or implementation, and others touched on issues that were clearly relevant to portal applications. Several other papers focused on different aspects of information processing in the host country

Evoked cardiac response components in cognitive processing: differential effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

We investigated the mechanism of two evoked cardiac response components associated with different aspects of information processing. Innocuous stimuli presented in an irrelevant condition elicit a simple cardiac deceleration termed ECR1. The same stimuli presented in a relevant condition (such as results from requesting subjects to silently count the stimuli) elicit a complex biphasic response with a large secondary acceleration in heart rate. This difference is attributed to the additional effect of cognitive task performance, resulting in an addition response component, ECR2. This may be realised by subtraction of the two responses. We investigated the mechanisms involved by comparing cardiac response profiles from a neurologically-impaired group with those from a control group. amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been associated with a loss of synaptic connections in the frontal lobe. Twelve ALS clinically non-demented patients were age-matched with twelve neurological patients without pathological changes in the brain. Cardiac response profiles for ECR1 and ECR2 were examined as a function of group. ECR1 did not differ between the groups, but ECR2 was significantly impaired in the ALS patients. The results are discussed in terms of different brain regions associated with these two cardiac response components. ECR1 may be associated with automatic pre attentive stimulus registration involving, in the case of auditory stimuli, the auditory analyser and associated pathways, while ECR2 appears to be a correlate of controlled executive processing, involving the frontal cortex.

Information processing style and decision making

Information processing style, often termed cognitive style, has gained prominence in the organizational behavior literature as researchers use it as a basis for studying decision making behavior, conflict, strategy development, and group processes. However, the many operational definitions and measures of cognitive style have produced inconsistent and confusing results. This study tested the interrelationship among four measures of this construct: the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, the Group Embedded Figures Test, the Learning Styles Inventory, and the Decision Style Inventory. Measures that appeared to be conceptually linked through their underlying theories were compared. Results indicate that the various measures are not strongly interrelated and appear to be measuring different aspects of information processing and decision making. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Information processing style and decision making

Information processing style, often termed cognitive style, has gained prominence in the organizational behavior literature as researchers use it as a basis for studying decision making behavior, conflict, strategy development, and group processes. However, the many operational definitions and measures of cognitive style have produced inconsistent and confusing results. This study tested the interrelationship among four measures of this construct: the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, the Group Embedded Figures Test, the Learning Styles Inventory, and the Decision Style Inventory. Measures that appeared to be conceptually linked through their underlying theories were compared. Results indicate that the various measures are not strongly interrelated and appear to be measuring different aspects of information processing and decision making. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sensory gating in rats: lack of correlation between auditory evoked potential gating and prepulse inhibition.

This study was designed to evaluate the possible similarities between two paradigms designed to measure sensory gating: (1) an auditory evoked potential (AEP), called the P50 gating paradigm; and (2) an acoustic startle (ASR), called the prepulse inhibition paradigm. These paradigms show a number of methodological, pharmacological, and neurobiological similarities, and they are both disturbed in patients with schizophrenia. In the first of three experiments, the AEP gating and the ASR gating were measured in rats. Although both AEP and ASR gating could readily be obtained, there appeared to be no correlation between the performance in these two paradigms. This lack of correlation was confirmed using a factor analytical approach, where the AEP gating and the ASR gating parameters were found to load on different factors. In the second experiment, the interstimulus interval in the ASR paradigm was increased to 500 ms (identical to the interstimulus interval of the AEP gating paradigm). This increase reduced the degree of ASR gating, although some gating could still be obtained. Again no correlation was found between AEP and ASR gating, and this was again confirmed by the factorial analysis. In the final experiment, the effects of the dopamine D2/3 agonist 7-OHDPAT were evaluated in both paradigms. This selective agonist dose dependently reduced ASR gating but had no effect on AEP gating. Together, these data strongly suggest that AEP and ASR gating measure two different aspects of information processing and indicate that both paradigms may be important for investigating the neurobiological disturbances observed in patients with psychoses.

Functional coupling and regional activation of human cortical motor areas during simple, internally paced and externally paced finger movements.

We studied the activation and interaction of cortical motor regions during simple, internally paced and externally paced right-hand finger extensions in healthy volunteers. We recorded EEGs from 28 scalp electrodes and analysed task-related coherence, task-related power and movement-related cortical potentials. Task-related coherence reflects inter-regional functional coupling of oscillatory neuronal activity, task-related power reflects regional oscillatory activity of neuronal assemblies and movement-related cortical potentials reflect summated potentials of apical dendrites of pyramidal cells. A combination of these three analytical techniques allows comprehensive evaluation of different aspects of information processing in neuronal assemblies. For both externally and internally paced finger extensions, movement-related regional activation was predominant over the contralateral premotor and primary sensorimotor cortex, and functional coupling occurred between the primary sensorimotor cortex of both hemispheres and between the primary sensorimotor cortex and the mesial premotor areas, probably including the supplementary motor area. The main difference between the different types of movement pacing was enhanced functional coupling of central motor areas during internally paced finger extensions, particularly inter-hemispherically between the left and right primary sensorimotor cortexes and between the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex and the mesial premotor areas. Internally paced finger extensions were also associated with additional regional (premovement) activation over the mesial premotor areas. The maximal task-related coherence differences between internally and externally paced finger extensions occurred in the frequency range of 20-22 Hz rather than in the range of maximal task-related power differences (9-11 Hz). This suggests that important aspects of information processing in the human motor system could be based on network-like oscillatory cortical activity and might be modulated on at least two levels, which to some extent can operate independently from each other: (i) regional activation (task-related power) and (ii) inter-regional functional coupling. We propose that internal pacing of movement poses higher demands on the motor system than external pacing, and that the motor system responds not only by increasing regional activation of the mesial premotor system, including the supplementary motor area, but also by enhancing information flow between lateral and mesial premotor and sensorimotor areas of both hemispheres, even if the movements are simple and unimanual.

Differential effects on delayed non-matching-to-position in rats of microinjections of muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine or NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 into the dorsal or ventral extent of the hippocampus

Glutamatergic NMDA and cholinergic muscarinic receptors are thought to contribute to cognitive processes mediated by the hippocampus. Evidence from lesion studies suggests that, despite cytoarchitectural uniformity within the hippocampus, information processing may not be uniform along the septo-temporal axis. The present study examined whether blockade of NMDA or muscarinic receptors in hippocampal subregions produced regional dissociations in the disruption of performance on an operant, spatial delayed non-matching-to-position (DNMTP) paradigm that also assessed vigilance. Rats were extensively pretrained on DNMTP, then bilaterally cannulated into either the dorsal or ventral hippocampus. Following retraining, scopolamine or MK-801 were administered prior to sessions. MK-801 administered into dorsal hippocampus produced delay-independent deficits in DNMTP delayed choice. Neither scopolamine administered into the dorsal or ventral hippocampus, nor MK-801 administered into the ventral hippocampus, produced significant disruption of DNMTP delayed choice. However, some dissociations were evident in other measures of vigilance. Scopolamine into the dorsal and ventral hippocampus increased errors of omission, scopolamine into the ventral hippocampus decreased sample response accuracy, and MK-801 into the dorsal hippocampus decreased sample response accuracy and increased response bias. These results are consistent with the suggestion that subregions of the hippocampus may be involved in different aspects of information processing and also suggest that the cholinergic inputs to the hippocampus may be functionally independent of NMDA receptor-mediated neurotransmission.

Differential involvement of the human temporal lobe structures in short- and long-term memory processes assessed by intracranial ERPs.

Intracranial event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited during a recognition memory task were recorded in 25 epileptic patients by using depth electrodes sampling four different regions within the temporal lobe (amygdala, hippocampus, anterior and posterior temporal cortices). The task was a continuous recognition memory task in which repeated items were presented after 6 or 19 intervening items following their first presentation. This study was performed to investigate the respective role of the different temporal lobe structures in short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) processing. Subregions of the temporal lobe were differently involved in these two memory systems. The posterior temporal cortex is specifically involved in STM processing, whereas the amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior temporal cortex contribute to both STM and LTM. Moreover, it appeared that the latter structures play their own role in LTM. The anterior temporal cortex and amygdala may contribute to recency discrimination, and the hippocampus seems rather to be involved in maintaining memory traces. These findings suggest that the temporal lobe structures may function in a complementary way by subserving different aspects of information processing.

Differential effects of experience on the ERP and behavior of 6‐month‐old infants: Trends during repeated stimulus presentations

Increasing experience with repetitive stimuli may lead to changes in the way the infant processes the information in the stimulus. It has been shown that some components of the event‐related brain potential (ERP) are sensitive to the differential experience provided by two stimuli presented at different probabilities. For example, the negative component (Nc) of the infant's ERP is often greater in amplitude to low probability stimuli (oddballs) than to frequent stimuli. Therefore, changes in ERP component amplitudes and latencies may be expected to occur with stimulus repetition. We analyzed the ERP components to the frequent stimulus within an oddball task for 28 six‐month‐old infants. An 80‐trial Benoulli sequence of two female‐face pictures, presented at 80%/20% probabilities, was divided into three blocks. Amplitudes and latencies of Nc and a positive component (Pb) were measured as was the area of a negative slow wave (NSW) at frontal and central scalp sites FZ, CZ, PZ, C3, and C4. Early components were measured at posterior scalp site OZ. There was a general trend for Nc amplitude to decrease across blocks at all central and anterior scalp sites but significantly decreased only at the central scalp (CZ). Similarly the component Pb generally increased in amplitude at all sites across blocks but was significant only at right central scalp (C4). There were no changes in NSW at any site, nor were there changes for the components at PZ and OZ. Visual fixation durations significantly decreased rapidly within the first block of trials. The data support the independence of these three ERP components and their association with different aspects of information processing. The different rates of change with stimulus experience of visual fixation as compared to the ERP components indicates that the infant is continuing to process the stimulus even when behavioral measures of attention are minimal. Both behavioral and ERP measures of attention are needed to more fully understand the development of information processing in infants.

Different effects of uncertainty and complexity on single trial visual ERPs and the SCR-OR in non-signal conditions.

ABSTRACTSingle trial event‐related potentials at Fz, CZ, P7, and OZ were measured concurrently with the skin conductance response (SCR) in a habituation paradigm. Half the subjects (26) were told that the same stimulus would be presented a number of times in the middle of a TV screen (“certain condition”), and the other half were not informed about the stimuli (“uncertain condition”). Within each of these groups, half of the subjects received 32 stimuli of 4 bits of information and the other half received 32 stimuli of 60 bits of information. No task‐relevance was given to the stimuli. Larger vertex P300 waves were associated with more complex stimuli, but uncertainty had no effect on the P300. A significant complexity × uncertainty × trials interaction was found on a sustained late positive activity, called the Slow Wave (SW), which was maximal at Pz and habituated rapidly. As before, we found that both the SCR and the vertex P300 habituated. No effect of uncertainty or complexity was found on the SCR. The results suggest that the SW is a useful index of information processing, and that the SCR and P300 must be considered to index different aspects of information processing.