Neural Evidence Research Articles

The brain’s sensitivity to sensory error can be modulated by altering perceived variability

When individuals make a movement that produces an unexpected outcome, they learn from the resulting error. This process, essential in both acquiring new motor skills and adapting to changing environments, critically relies on error sensitivity, which governs how much behavioral change results from a given error. Although behavioral and computational evidence suggests error sensitivity can change in response to task demands, neural evidence regarding the flexibility of error sensitivity in the human brain is lacking. Here, we tested whether the nervous system’s sensitivity to errors, as measured by prediction-driven suppression of auditory cortical activity, can be modulated by altering participants’ (both males and females) perceived variability during speech. Our results showed that error sensitivity, as measured by this suppression, was increased after exposure to an auditory perturbation that increased speakers’ perceived variability. The current study establishes the validity of behaviorally modulating the nervous system’s sensitivity to errors, which has significant potential to enhance motor learning and rehabilitation.Significance StatementError sensitivity, how responsive the sensorimotor system is to perceived errors, is typically considered a stable, intrinsic characteristic. Here, however, we demonstrate that a temporary manipulation of motor output variability induces a persistent change in a neural index of error sensitivity, highlighting a potential avenue to enhance motor learning and rehabilitation.

Neural evidence for decision-making underlying attractive serial dependence.

Recall of stimuli is biased by stimulus history, variously manifested as an attractive bias toward or repulsive bias from previous stimuli (i.e., serial dependence). It is unclear when attractive vs repulsive biases arise and if they share neural mechanisms. A recent model of attractive serial dependence proposes a two-stage process in which adaptation causes a repulsive bias during encoding that is later counteracted by an attractive bias at the decision-making stage in a Bayesian-inference-like manner. Neural evidence exists for a repulsive bias at encoding, but evidence for the attractive bias during the response period has been more elusive. We recently [1] showed that while different stimuli in trial history exerted different (attractive or repulsive) serial biases on behavioral reports, during encoding the neural representation of the current item was always repulsively biased. Here we assessed whether this discrepancy between neural and behavioral effects is resolved during subsequent decision-making. Multivariate decoding of magnetoencephalography data during working memory recall showed a neural distinction between attractive and repulsive biases: an attractive neural bias emerged only late in recall. But stimuli that created a repulsive bias on behavior led to a repulsive neural bias early in the recall phase, suggesting that it had already been incorporated earlier. Our results suggest that attractive (but not repulsive) serial dependence arises during decision-making, and that priors that influence post-perceptual decision-making are updated by the previous trial's target, but not by other stimuli.

Computational and neural evidence for altered fast and slow learning from losses in problem gambling.

Learning occurs across multiple timescales, with fast learning crucial for adapting to sudden environmental changes, and slow learning beneficial for extracting robust knowledge from multiple events. Here we asked if miscalibrated fast vs slow learn-ing can lead to maladaptive decision-making in individuals with problem gambling. We recruited participants with problem gambling (PG; N=20; 9 female and 11 male) and a recreational gambling control group without any symptoms associated with problem gambling (N=20; 10 female and 10 male) from the community in Los Ange-les, CA. Participants performed a decision-making task involving reward-learning and loss-avoidance while being scanned with fMRI. Using computational model fitting, we found that individuals in the PG group showed evidence for an excessive dependence on slow timescales and a reduced reliance on fast timescales during learning. fMRI data implicated the putamen, an area associated with habit, and medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) in slow loss-value encoding, with significantly more robust encoding in medial PFC in the PG group compared to controls. The PG group also exhibited stronger loss prediction error encoding in the insular cortex. These findings suggest that individuals with PG have an impaired ability to adjust their predictions following losses, manifested by a stronger influence of slow value learning. This impairment could contribute to the behavioral inflexibility of problem gamblers, particularly the persistence in gambling behavior typically observed in those individuals after incur-ring loss outcomes.Significance Statement Over five million American adults are considered to experience problem gambling, leading to financial and social devastation. Yet the neural basis of problem gambling remains elusive, impeding the development of effective treatments. We apply computational modeling and neuroimaging to understand the mechanisms underlying problem gambling. In a decision-making task involving reward-learning and loss-avoidance, individuals with problem gambling show an impaired behavioral adjustment following losses. Computational model-driven analyses suggest that, while all participants relied on learning over both fast and slow timescales, individuals with problem gambling showed increased reliance on slow-learning from losses. Neuroimaging identified the putamen, medial prefrontal cortex, and insula as key brain regions in this learning disparity. This research offers new insights into the altered neural computations underlying problem gambling.

Decision-making power enhances investors’ neural processing of persuasive message in partnership investment

Partnership investment is a common form of business where investors have different levels of power and need to persuade each other to reach a consensus. This study investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the impact of decision-making power on persuasive communication in partnership investment, aiming to provide neural evidence to test two competing hypotheses: the power-responsibility hypothesis and the power-overconfidence hypothesis. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), we recorded brain activity from persuader-receiver dyads as they engaged in a partnership investment task. Behavioral results showed that receivers’ decisions were more affected by persuaders’ persuasive messages when receivers had dominant decision-making power. Neurally, the functional connectivity (FC) between the left and right temporo-parietal junctions (lTPJ and rTPJ) of the receiver was significantly increased by their decision-making power. Additionally, we identified four pairs of interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) that exhibited significant enhancement when persuaders used numeric persuasion rather than non-numeric persuasion: lTPJ-rTPJ, left superior temporal gyrus (lSTG)-rTPJ, left middle temporal gyrus (lMTG)-rTPJ, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)-lTPJ. The decision-making power amplified the INS difference in the last three pairs. Furthermore, using a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm, the INS could accurately predict receivers’ adoption of persuasive messages when they held dominant decision-making power. Finally, we found that FC at lTPJ-rTPJ and INS at lSTG-rTPJ were positively associated with receivers’ adoption of persuasive messages as well. Our study clarifies how decision-making power alters the way individuals process persuasive messages in partnership investment, providing insights into the neural basis of persuasion in group decision-making contexts and supporting the power-responsibility hypothesis.

Characteristics and neural mechanisms of active forgetting in patients with PTSD

Abstract. The intrusive thoughts and memory function disorders caused by PTSD have a negative impact on the lives of patients, and the neural mechanism of active amnesia is not yet fully understood. This study aims to explore the characteristics and neural mechanisms of active forgetting in PTSD patients. By studying the characteristics of directed forgetting and suppression-induced forgetting in PTSD patients, as well as understanding and analysing relevant paradigms, behavioural evidence and neural evidence, we finally found that the mechanism of directed forgetting and suppression-induced forgetting in PTSD patients are different. That is, the directional amnesia effect of patients with high-level PTSD is higher than that of patients with low-level PTSD, while the suppression-induced forgetting effect of patients with high-level PTSD is lower than that of patients with low-level PTSD. The reason is that patients with high-level PTSD have a strong sense of self-protection, so they actively avoid emotional materials during the encoding stage of memory, resulting in selective encoding of emotional materials. Therefore, the directed forgetting effect is strong. Individuals with high levels of PTSD have a weakened ability to inhibit emotional material, leading to their inability to stop involuntarily ruminating on it, and thus their suppression-induced forgetting effect is weak. Overall, this study understands the key factors that are beneficial to the recovery of PTSD patients, and at the same time provides certain reference and guidance for the treatment plan of PTSD patients.

Behavioral and neural evidence for difficulty recognizing masked emotional faces.

Facial emotion recognition is vital for human social behavior. During the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks were widely adopted for viral mitigation and remain crucial public health tools. However, questions persist about their impact on emotion recognition and neural processing, especially in children, parents, and young adults. We developed the Masked Affective and Social Cognition task, featuring masked and unmasked faces displaying fear, sadness, and anger. We recruited three racial and ethnically diverse samples: 119 college students, 30 children who entered school age at the beginning of the pandemic, and 31 fathers of the aforementioned children. Of the latter two groups, 41 participants (n = 23 fathers, 18 children) did the Masked Affective and Social Cognition task during a neuroimaging scan, while the remaining 20 participants (n = 8 fathers, 12 children) who were not eligible for scanning completed the task during their lab visit. Behaviorally, we found that participants recognized emotions less accurately when viewing masked faces and also found an interaction of emotion by condition, such that accuracy was particularly compromised by sad masked faces. Neurally, masked faces elicited greater activation in the posterior cingulate, insula, and fusiform gyrus. Anterior insula and inferior frontal gyrus activation were driven by sad, masked faces. These results were consistent across age groups. Among fathers, activation to sad masked faces was associated with stress and depression. Overall, our findings did not depend on previous mask exposure or timing of participation during the pandemic. These results have implications for understanding face emotion recognition, empathy, and socioemotional neurodevelopment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The “moral neutrality pattern” of individuals with indirect multicultural experiences in immoral and moral judgments: behavioral and neural evidence

Based on the moral relativism theory, the current study proposes that individuals with indirect multicultural experiences may exhibit a “moral neutrality pattern” in complete moral judgments, that is, they may perceive others’ immoral actions as less immoral and moral actions as less moral. In Study 1, using publicly available CGSS data and our large-scale survey, we found positive correlations between multicultural experiences and a tendency to express less blame for immoral behavior, and less praise for moral behavior. In Study 2, the behavioral results indicated that individuals with high multicultural experiences (HM) expressed less praise than those with low multicultural experiences (LM) for “slightly moral condition”. The ERP time-domain results suggested that the HM group tended to exhibit lower LPP differential wave amplitudes than the LM group across different moral conditions (extremely immoral, slightly immoral, slightly moral, and extremely moral minus neutral moral conditions, respectively). Notably, the difference in LPP differential wave amplitude between the HM and LM groups was more pronounced for “slightly moral condition”, starting from 500-700ms and continuing to 900-1100ms. Overall, this study provides preliminary behavioral and neural evidence for the moral neutrality pattern of individuals with multicultural experiences. This echoes the global concerns for ethics in today’s globalization and enriches our understanding of the how individuals with indirect multicultural experiences form complete moral judgments.

Supplemental Material for Behavioral and Neural Evidence for Difficulty Recognizing Masked Emotional Faces

Supplemental Material for Behavioral and Neural Evidence for Difficulty Recognizing Masked Emotional Faces

How Freely Moving Mind Wandering Relates to Creativity: Behavioral and Neural Evidence.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that mind wandering during incubation phases enhances post-incubation creative performance. Recent empirical evidence, however, has highlighted a specific form of mind wandering closely related to creativity, termed freely moving mind wandering (FMMW). In this study, we examined the behavioral and neural associations between FMMW and creativity. Methods: We initially validated a questionnaire measuring FMMW by comparing its results with those from the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). Data were collected from 1316 participants who completed resting-state fMRI scans, the FMMW questionnaire, and creative tasks. Correlation analysis and Bayes factors indicated that FMMW was associated with creative thinking (AUT). To elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between FMMW and creativity, Hidden Markov Models (HMM) were employed to analyze the temporal dynamics of the resting-state fMRI data. Results: Our findings indicated that brain dynamics associated with FMMW involve integration within multiple networks and between networks (r = -0.11, pFDR < 0.05). The links between brain dynamics associated with FMMW and creativity were mediated by FMMW (c' = 0.01, [-0.0181, -0.0029]). Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the relationship between FMMW and creativity, offering insights into the neural mechanisms underpinning this relationship.

A chronometric relationship between circuits underlying learning and error monitoring in the basal ganglia and salience network

Abstract Healthy individuals readily adjust their behavior in response to errors using learning mechanisms. This raises the question of how error-related neural mechanisms underlie the learning process and its progress. In this study, 21 healthy participants performed a challenging functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task to answer this question. We assessed the evolution of error-related neural response as a function of learning progress. We tested the hypothesis that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and anterior insula, key regions of the error monitoring neural circuitry, reflect both the performance of an action and its improvement. Given the nature of trial-and-error learning, we also expected an involvement of the striatum, particularly the putamen. We found that error-related neural activity (in the dACC and anterior insula) was similar following correct responses and errors in an initial learning period. However, as learning progressed, the activity continuously decreased in response to correct events and increased after errors. In opposition, during the initial learning phase, the putamen activity was modulated by errors, but, as it progressed, this region became unaffected by response outcomes. In sum, our study provides neural evidence for an interaction between the mechanisms underlying error monitoring and learning, contributing to clarifying how error-related neural responses evolve with learning.

Connector hubs in semantic network contribute to creative thinking.

Semantic memory offers a rich repository of raw materials (e.g., various concepts and connections between concepts) for creative thinking, represented as a semantic network. Similar to other networks, the semantic network exhibits a modular structure characterized by modules with dense internal connections and sparse connections between them. This organizational principle facilitates the routine storage and retrieval of information but may impede creativity. The present study investigated the effect of hub concepts with varying connection patterns on creative thinking from the perspective of a modular structured semantic network. By analyzing a large-scale semantic network, connector hubs (C-hubs) and provincial hubs (P-hubs) were identified based on their intra- and intermodule connections. These hubs were used as cue words in the alternative uses task, a widely used measure of creative thinking. Across four experiments, behavioral and neural evidence indicated that C-hubs facilitate the generation of more novel and remote ideas compared to P-hubs. However, this effect is predominantly observed in the early stage of the creative thinking process, involving changes in brain activation and functional connectivity in core regions of the default mode network and the frontoparietal network, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, angular gyrus, and precuneus. Neural findings suggest that the superior performance of C-hubs relies on stronger interactions between automatic spreading activation, controlled semantic retrieval, and attentional regulation of salient information. These results provide insight into how concepts with varying semantic connection patterns facilitate and constrain different stages of the creative thinking process through the modular structure of semantic network. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Longitudinal association between depressive symptoms and cognitive function: the neurological mechanism of psychological and physical disturbances on memory.

The neural correlates underlying late-life depressive symptoms and cognitive deterioration are largely unclear, and little is known about the role of chronic physical conditions in such association. This research explores both concurrent and longitudinal associations between late-life depressive symptoms and cognitive functions, with examining the neural substrate and chronic vascular diseases (CVDs) in these associations. A total of 4109 participants (mean age = 65.4, 63.0% females) were evaluated for cognitive functions through various neuropsychological assessments. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale and CVDs were self-reported. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging, and functional MRI (fMRI) data were acquired in a subsample (n = 791). Cognitively, higher depressive symptoms were correlated with poor performance across all cognitive domains, with the strongest association with episodic memory (r = ‒0.138, p < 0.001). Regarding brain structure, depressive symptoms were negatively correlated with thalamic volume and white matter integrity. Further, white matter integrity was found to mediate the longitudinal association between depressive symptoms and episodic memory (indirect effect = -0.017, 95% CI -0.045 to -0.002) and this mediation was only significant for those with severe CVDs (β = -0.177, p = 0.008). This study is one of the first to provide neural evidence elucidating the longitudinal associations between late-life depressive symptoms and cognitive dysfunction. Additionally, the severity of CVDs strengthened these associations, which enlightens the potential of managing CVDs as an intervention target for preventing depressive symptoms-related cognitive decline.

Lesion Mapping of the Spelling System's Central Cognitive Functions.

The goal of this study was to improve our understanding of the central cognitive functions of spelling: orthographic long-term memory, phoneme-to-grapheme conversion, and orthographic working memory. To do so, we present a methodological innovation to support vector regression lesion-symptom mapping, which uses a deficit spectrum index to identify brain areas associated with one of each pair of spelling deficits. Using this approach, we find evidence of distinct neural substrates that are selectively associated with each of the three central spelling components, supporting a componential functional architecture of spelling. The specific findings provide neural evidence relevant to various debates regarding the nature of these key cognitive processes and their relationships, namely, questions concerning the degree to which phoneme-to-grapheme conversion is distinct from general phonological processing, the existence of distinct lexical and sublexical routes for translating sound to print, and whether or not working memory is distinct from long-term memory or embedded within it. A better understanding of these issues has clinical implications in terms of our understanding of dysgraphic deficits and approaches to intervention.

Neural Evidence for Syntactic Unification in Second Language Sentence Comprehension: A Time‐Frequency Analysis

AbstractThis study investigates whether syntactic unification occurs during online L2 sentence comprehension using time‐frequency analysis. We measured the oscillatory power changes in native English speakers and L1‐Cantonese L2‐English speakers while they were reading well‐formed English sentences, syntactically intact nonsense sentences, and random word lists. Additionally, we conducted traditional ERP analyses to test L2 speakers’ sensitivity to NP‐internal number (dis)agreement. The results show that low‐beta power significantly increased in the L2 group when reading not only well‐formed sentences but also nonsense sentences, replicating the pattern found in the L1 group. This suggests that syntactic unification occurs in L2 comprehension as reliably as in L1 comprehension. However, L2 speakers did not show increased positivity for NP‐internal number disagreement, indicating that they have not developed native‐like sensitivity to this syntactic error. The implications of these time‐frequency and ERP data for L2 sentence processing and syntactic development are discussed.

Neural evidence for attentional capture by salient distractors

Neural evidence for attentional capture by salient distractors

Neural evidence for a two-stage model of conscious perception

Neural evidence for a two-stage model of conscious perception

The role of variation in phonological and semantic working memory capacities in sentence comprehension: neural evidence from healthy and brain-damaged individuals.

Research on the role of working memory (WM) in language processing has typically focused on WM for phonological information. However, considerable behavioral evidence supports the existence of a separate semantic WM system that plays a greater role in language processing. We review the neural evidence that supports the distinction between phonological and semantic WM capacities and discuss how individual differences in these capacities relate to sentence processing. In terms of neural substrates, findings from multivariate functional MRI for healthy participants and voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping for brain-damaged participants imply that the left supramarginal gyrus supports phonological WM, whereas the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and angular gyrus support semantic WM. In sentence comprehension, individual variation in semantic but not phonological WM related to performance in resolving semantic information and the LIFG region implicated in semantic WM showed fMRI activation during the resolution of semantic interference. Moreover, variation for brain-damaged participants in the integrity of a fiber tract supporting semantic WM had a greater relation to the processing of complex sentences than did the integrity of fiber tracts supporting phonological WM. Overall, the neural findings provide converging evidence regarding the distinction of these two capacities and the greater contribution of individual differences in semantic than phonological WM capacity to sentence processing.

Increased sensitivity to social hierarchy during social competition versus cooperation.

Social hierarchy is a typical feature of social organization. The ability to quickly recognize social hierarchy information is crucial for adapting to social contexts. Here, we adopted fast periodic visual stimulation with electroencephalography to assess the neural responses to social hierarchy during social competition and cooperation, respectively. Participants first learned hierarchical faces from a competitive game versus a cooperative game. We then sequentially presented the learned hierarchical faces with a specific frequency in a set of faces. Results showed that participants rated the inferior player as lower in the social hierarchy in the cooperative context compared to the competitive context, indicating that social context affects the judgment of others' rank. Moreover, higher neural responses to high and low-hierarchy faces versus medium-hierarchy faces were observed, suggesting rapid discrimination of social hierarchy from faces. Interestingly, rank-specific neural responses were more pronounced in the competitive context than in the cooperative context, indicating increased sensitivity to social hierarchy during social competition versus social cooperation. This study provides behavioral and neural evidence for rapid, automatic processing of social hierarchy information and for an increased sensitivity to such information in competitive versus cooperative social contexts.

Direct lexical control of eye movements in Chinese reading: Evidence from the co-registration of EEG and eye tracking

The direct-lexical-control hypothesis stipulates that some aspect of a word’s processing determines the duration of the fixation on that word and/or the next. Although the direct lexical control is incorporated into most current models of eye-movement control in reading, the precise implementation varies and the assumptions of the hypothesis may not be feasible given that lexical processing must occur rapidly enough to influence fixation durations. Conclusive empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis is therefore lacking. In this article, we report the results of an eye-tracking experiment using the boundary paradigm in which native speakers of Chinese read sentences in which target words were either high- or low-frequency and preceded by a valid or invalid preview. Eye movements were co-registered with electroencephalography, allowing standard analyses of eye-movement measures, divergence point analyses of fixation-duration distributions, and fixated-related potentials on the target words. These analyses collectively provide strong behavioral and neural evidence of early lexical processing and thus strong support for the direct-lexical-control hypothesis. We discuss the implications of the findings for our understanding of how the hypothesis might be implemented, the neural systems that support skilled reading, and the nature of eye-movement control in the reading of Chinese versus alphabetic scripts.

Exploring the effectiveness of reward-based learning strategies for second-language speech sounds.

Adults struggle to learn non-native speech categories in many experimental settings (Goto, Neuropsychologia, 9(3), 317-323 1971), but learn efficiently in a video game paradigm where non-native speech sounds have functional significance (Lim & Holt, Cognitive Science, 35(7), 1390-1405 2011). Behavioral and neural evidence from this and other paradigms point toward the involvement of reinforcement learning mechanisms in speech category learning (Harmon, Idemaru, & Kapatsinski, Cognition, 189, 76-88 2019; Lim, Fiez, & Holt, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116, 201811992 2019). We formalize this hypothesis computationally and implement a deep reinforcement learning network to map between environmental input and actions. Comparing to a supervised model of learning, we show that the reinforcement network closely matches aspects of human behavior in two experiments - learning of synthesized auditory noise tokens and improvement in speech sound discrimination. Both models perform comparably and the similarity in the output of each model leads us to believe that there is little inherent computational benefit to a reward-based learning mechanism. We suggest that the specific neural circuitry engaged by the paradigm and links between striatum and superior temporal areas play a critical role in effective learning.