No-cue Condition Research Articles

Crossmodal cueing of masker location in a localization-in-noise task

Simpson et al. [JASA 129(4), 2489, (2011)] found that localization of a target presented in a simultaneous masker improved when, on a trial-by-trial basis, a preview of the masking stimulus was presented at the location of the upcoming masker. Subsequent research revealed that this improvement resulted solely from cueing the location of the masker (i.e., cueing spectro-temporal properties of the masker provided no additional benefit). In the present study, we examined the degree to which the benefit of cueing masker location depended on the modality in which this cue was provided. In separate blocks of trials, the location of the masker was cued auditorily, visually (LED activated at the masker location) and audio-visually, and compared to performance in a no-cue baseline. The results revealed a substantial (∼10 dB) benefit of cueing the masker auditorily over the no-cue condition, consistent with previous results. Importantly, there was also a substantial (albeit smaller) benefit of a visual cue (∼6 dB). Performance with a bimodal cue was no different than performance with an auditory cue. Thus, although hearing a sound from the upcoming masker location was most effective, the ability to effectively cue space crossmodally suggests that the spatial information itself is most critical.

Beat cues facilitate time estimation at longer intervals.

Time perception in humans can be relative (beat-based) or absolute (duration-based). Although the classic view in the field points to different neural substrates underlying beat-based vs. duration-based mechanisms, recent neuroimaging evidence provided support to a unified model wherein these two systems overlap. In line with this, previous research demonstrated that internalized beat cues benefit motor reproduction of longer intervals (> 5.5 s) by reducing underestimation, but little is known about this effect on pure perceptual tasks. The present study was designed to investigate whether and how interval estimation is modulated by available beat cues. To that end, we asked 155 participants to estimate auditory intervals ranging from 500 ms to 10 s, while manipulating the presence of cues before the interval, as well as the reinforcement of these cues by beat-related interference within the interval (vs. beat-unrelated and no interference). Beat cues aided time estimation depending on interval duration: for intervals longer than 5 s, estimation was better in the cue than in the no-cue condition. Specifically, the levels of underestimation decreased in the presence of cues, indicating that beat cues had a facilitating effect on time perception very similar to the one observed previously for time production. Interference had no effects, suggesting that this manipulation was not effective. Our findings are consistent with the idea of cooperation between beat- and duration-based systems and suggest that this cooperation is quite similar across production and perception.

Using generic picture cues to promote verbal initiations during play.

Children with autism spectrum disorder often demonstrate difficulty communicating with others, and this may affect the extent to which they can engage in contextually appropriate language during play. This study examined the effects of a social script-training intervention using generic picture cues on the number of contextually appropriate play statements for children with autism spectrum disorder. We also examined the extent to which responding generalized to novel toy sets and analyzed play statement types. A nonconcurrent multiple-baseline-across-participants design with embedded reversal components was used to evaluate the effects of the generic picture-cue intervention on contextually appropriate play statements. Three participants demonstrated a higher number of contextually appropriate play statements in the training condition as compared with the baseline and no-cue conditions. Further, two out of three participants continued to emit a similar number of contextually appropriate play statements when we introduced novel toy sets.

Timing characteristics of reactive and proactive emotion regulation

The dual mechanisms of control (DMC) framework is important for portraying two temporally distinct modes of cognitive control. In parallel with this model, understanding emotion regulation (ER) from a dual-mechanism perspective becomes plausible since cognitive control is a crucial element of ER. The present study characterized reactive and proactive ER based on a dual mechanisms framework to identify their distinct temporal dynamics using electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. The reappraisal cue, compared with the watch-cue and no-cue conditions, evoked a larger fronto-central P3a magnitude, suggesting that participants could adaptively distribute their attention resources to prepare for strategy use. To track the cognitive effort that supports the ER process, we measured the frontal late positive potential (LPP). The results indicated that the reactive group, compared with the proactive group, used more effort to complete the reappraisal task when participants were subjected to decreased negative-emotional experiences to the same degree. Furthermore, decoding analysis showed that proactive ER starts earlier than reactive ER. These findings highlight the advantages of proactive ER. Further understanding of the modes of ER will help elucidate the control mechanisms underlying ER, which can then be applied to a variety of conditions, such as alcoholism, gambling, and drug addiction, to avert self-regulation failures caused by negative emotions.

Music training is associated with better clause segmentation during spoken language processing.

Musical expertise is known to affect speech perception at units below clause/sentence. This study investigated whether the musician's advantage extends to a higher and more central level of speech processing (i.e., clause segmentation). Two groups of participants (musician vs. nonmusician) were presented with sentences that contain an internal clause boundary. The acoustic correlates of the boundary were manipulated in six conditions: all-cue, pause-only, final-lengthening-only, pitch-reset-only, pause-and-final-lengthening-in-combination, and no-cue conditions. Participants were asked to judge whether the sentence they heard had an internal boundary. Results showed that the musicians detected more boundaries than the nonmusicians in the all-cue and the pause-only conditions, but fewer boundaries in the no-cue condition. Further analyses of cue weight showed that both musicians and nonmusicians placed more importance on pause than the other two cues, but this weighting bias was more pronounced for the musicians. These results suggest that music training is associated with increased perceptual acuity not only to the acoustic markings of speech boundaries but also to the weighting of the cues. Our findings extend the role of musical expertise to sentence-level speech processing.

Oscillatory entrainment mechanisms and anticipatory predictive processes in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Anticipating near-future events is fundamental to adaptive behavior, whereby neural processing of predictable stimuli is significantly facilitated relative to nonpredictable events. Neural oscillations appear to be a key anticipatory mechanism by which processing of upcoming stimuli is modified, and they often entrain to rhythmic environmental sequences. Clinical and anecdotal observations have led to the hypothesis that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have deficits in generating predictions, and as such, a candidate neural mechanism may be failure to adequately entrain neural activity to repetitive environmental patterns, to facilitate temporal predictions. We tested this hypothesis by interrogating temporal predictions and rhythmic entrainment using behavioral and electrophysiological approaches. We recorded high-density electroencephalography in children with ASD and typically developing (TD) age- and IQ-matched controls, while they reacted to an auditory target as quickly as possible. This auditory event was either preceded by predictive rhythmic visual cues or was not preceded by any cue. Both ASD and control groups presented comparable behavioral facilitation in response to the Cue versus No-Cue condition, challenging the hypothesis that children with ASD have deficits in generating temporal predictions. Analyses of the electrophysiological data, in contrast, revealed significantly reduced neural entrainment to the visual cues and altered anticipatory processes in the ASD group. This was the case despite intact stimulus-evoked visual responses. These results support intact behavioral temporal prediction in response to a cue in ASD, in the face of altered neural entrainment and anticipatory processes.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We examined behavioral and EEG indices of predictive processing in children with ASD to rhythmically predictable stimuli. Although behavioral measures of predictive processing and evoked neural responses were intact in the ASD group, neurophysiological measures of preparatory activity and entrainment were impaired. When sensory events are presented in a predictable temporal pattern, performance and neuronal responses in ASD may be governed more by the occurrence of the events themselves and less by their anticipated timing.

The right temporoparietal junction during a cooperation dilemma: An rTMS study

Cooperation enhances interpersonal communication and nurtures society. However, efforts to socially cooperate may often evoke conflict. Individuals may selfishly pursue a greater reward or success by exploiting the efforts of other individuals or taking unnecessary risk to oneself. Such a cooperation dilemma is highly prevalent in real life; thus, it has been studied in various disciplines. Although published functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have shown the involvement of the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) in resolving a dilemma through cooperation, a causal relationship between the two has rarely been explored. Hence, we investigated this issue by combining repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation with a priority game task (modified snowdrift game). In this game task, participants and opponent players jointly faced a problem whereby their collaboration was anticipated to defuse the situation. This conflicted with a choice in the participant's self-interest that was more rewarding but risky. We further included conditions with and without explicit social cues using figures describing elderly/pregnant passengers in the game opponent's car, and measured participants' prosocial traits to examine any cue-induced effect as well as the personality-cooperation relationship, respectively. The cooperation ratio was not statistically different in both the no-cue and with-cue conditions between the sham stimulation and inhibitory continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS). However, after cTBS, in the no-cue condition, the strength of the association between cooperation ratio and empathy traits decreased significantly. These results add to our knowledge about the right TPJ's role in social cognition, which may be extraordinarily complex. This topic is deserving of further examination.

Learning versus reasoning to use tools in children

Tool behavior might be based on two strategies associated with specific cognitive mechanisms: cued-learning and technical-reasoning strategies. We aimed to explore whether these strategies coexist in young children and whether they are manifest differently through development. We presented 216 3- to 9-year-olds with a vertical maze task consisting in moving a ball from the top to the bottom of a maze. Two tool-use/mechanical actions were possible: rotating action and sliding action. Three conditions were tested, each focused on a different strategy. In the Opaque–Cue condition (cued-learning strategy), children could not see the mechanical action of each tool. Nevertheless, a cue was provided according to the tool needed to solve the problem. In the Transparent–No Cue condition (technical-reasoning strategy), no cue was presented. However, children could see the mechanical actions associated with each tool. In the Transparent–Cue condition (cued-learning and/or technical-reasoning strategies) children saw both the mechanical actions and the cues. Results indicated that the Opaque–Cue and Transparent–Cue conditions were easier than the Transparent–No-Cue condition in all children. These findings stress that children can use either cued learning or technical reasoning to use tools, according to the available information. The behavioral pattern observed in the Transparent–Cue condition suggests that children might be inclined to use technical reasoning even when the task can be solved through cued learning.

Exogenous Bimodal Cues Attenuate Age-Related Audiovisual Integration.

Previous studies have demonstrated that exogenous attention decreases audiovisual integration (AVI); however, whether the AVI is different when exogenous attention is elicited by bimodal and unimodal cues and its aging effect remain unclear. To clarify this matter, 20 older adults and 20 younger adults were recruited to conduct an auditory/visual discrimination task following bimodal audiovisual cues or unimodal auditory/visual cues. The results showed that the response to all stimulus types was faster in younger adults compared with older adults, and the response was faster when responding to audiovisual stimuli compared with auditory or visual stimuli. Analysis using the race model revealed that the AVI was lower in the exogenous-cue conditions compared with the no-cue condition for both older and younger adults. The AVI was observed in all exogenous-cue conditions for the younger adults (visual cue > auditory cue > audiovisual cue); however, for older adults, the AVI was only found in the visual-cue condition. In addition, the AVI was lower in older adults compared to younger adults under no- and visual-cue conditions. These results suggested that exogenous attention decreased the AVI, and the AVI was lower in exogenous attention elicited by bimodal-cue than by unimodal-cue conditions. In addition, the AVI was reduced for older adults compared with younger adults under exogenous attention.

The right temporoparietal junction and cooperation dilemma

IntroductionCooperation is a key component of our lives. When we identify people in need, we are frequently motivated to cooperate by overcoming selfishness. However, we may also become selfish to pursue greater gains by putting ourselves at risk and exploiting others. Such cooperation dilemmas are ubiquitous in real life. Although functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have repeatedly reported the involvement of right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) in cooperation dilemmas, a causal link between the two has been rarely explored.ObjectivesTo investigate a causal role of rTPJ in resolving cooperation dilemmas in ecologically valid settings.MethodsTwenty-two healthy volunteers were examined. We combined repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) with a snowdrift cooperation dilemma game task (cross-the-traffic intersection version) wherein either cooperation or defection should be chosen. Participants and opponents jointly faced a problem at the intersection where their cooperation could diffuse the situation (stopping/avoiding a car-crash). This conflicted with a choice in the participant’s self-interest which was more rewarding, but risky (not stopping/defection). We also included explicit-cue condition that showed elderly/pregnant passengers in the opponent’s car. Furthermore, we measured participants’ empathic-traits (e.g., perspective-taking) to study personality-cooperation associations.ResultsThe cooperation-ratio did not statistically differ between the sham stimulation and inhibitory continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) in both the no-cue and with-cue conditions. However, after cTBS, only in the no-cue condition, the strength of the relationship between cooperation-ratios and empathic-traits decreased significantly (p<0.05).ConclusionsThese results contribute to our understandings of rTPJ’s role in spontaneous social cognition, which may be considerably complex and require further examination.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Reduced sensitivity to situational change in individuals with autism spectrum condition

IntroductionIndividuals with autism spectrum condition (ASC) frequently report difficulties in detecting changes in social situations, which considerably hinder interpersonal communications.ObjectivesTo better understand the features of detecting changes in social situations among individuals with ASC.MethodsIndividuals with ASC (N=24) and typical development (TD) (N=24) were included. To examine participants’ sensitivity to situational contexts, we conducted an economic-game task: a modified computer version of the ultimatum game (mod-UG). In UG, two players were offered a chance to win 10 coins after dividing it amongst themselves. The proposer suggests how to split the sum and the responder can accept or reject the deal. After practice, all participants played the role of responders with an imaginary proposer. Participants had to decide whether to accept or reject proposers’ fair/unfair offers. In our mod-UG, additional condition was included that involved intentionality considerations: Unfair offers were displayed with another identical unfair offer. This emphasized the proposers’ inevitable situation of unfair offers. Subsequently, we conducted a 2×2 repeated-measures ANOVA (unfair offers with/without additional cues)×(ASC/TD).ResultsParticipants indeed accepted unfair offers significantly more frequently when the other player’s unfair proposal was unavoidable in cue-added conditions, when compared to unfair offers in no-cue conditions. This suggested that participants considered their opponent’s perspective more attentively in cue-added conditions. However, this effect was significantly decreased in the ASC-group (p<0.05; group-condition interaction).ConclusionsDecreased sensitivity to situational changes among ASC-individuals may be partly due to diminished or inflexible shifting of perspective. Whether this systematized decision-making associates with attentional-bias and stereotyped-behaviors requires further investigation.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Phasic alerting increases visual processing speed in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

External warning cues temporarily increase the brain's sensitivity for upcoming events, helping individuals to flexibly adapt their reactions to the requirements of complex visual environments. Previous studies reported that younger and cognitively normal older adults profit from phasic alerting cues. Such an intact phasic alerting mechanism could be even more relevant in individuals with Alzheimer's disease who are characterized by reduced processing capacities. The present study employed a theory of visual attention based verbal whole report paradigm with auditory cues in order to investigate phasic alerting effects in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Patients with aMCI were also compared to a previously reported sample of cognitively normal older adults. In patients with aMCI, visual processing speed was higher in the cue compared to the no-cue condition. Further, visual processing speed was reduced in patients with aMCI compared to cognitively normal older adults. Taken together, the results suggest that the processing system of patients with aMCI exhibits general declines but can still integrate auditory warning signals on a perceptual level.

Does Human Touch Facilitate Object Categorization in 6-to-9-Month-Old Infants?

Infants form object categories in the first months of life. By 3 months and throughout the first year, successful categorization varies as a function of the acoustic information presented in conjunction with category members. Here we ask whether tactile information, delivered in conjunction with category members, also promotes categorization. Six- to 9-month-olds participated in an object categorization task in either a touch-cue or no-cue condition. For infants in the touch-cue condition, familiarization images were accompanied by precisely-timed light touches from their caregivers; infants in the no-cue condition saw the same images but received no touches. Only infants in the touch-cue condition formed categories. This provides the first evidence that touch may play a role in supporting infants’ object categorization.

Affective evaluation of images influences personality judgments through gaze perception.

Faces that consistently shifted the gaze to subsequent target locations in a gaze cueing task were chosen as being more trustworthy than faces that always looked away from the target, suggesting that the validity of a gaze cue influenced the viewers' judgments regarding the trustworthiness of human faces. We investigated whether the gaze cueing effect and judgments regarding the personality conveyed by a face would be affected by the valence of a target. A face image moved its eyes to the left or the right, and an emotional target image (positive, negative, or neutral) appeared to left or right of the face. Participants had to indicate the location of this target by pressing a key. The target image was preceded by a face that shifted its gaze to the target image (valid cue), a face that directed its gaze to the opposite side (invalid cue), or a face that did not move its eyes (no cue). The perceived trustworthiness of the face was evaluated after the gaze-cueing task. Results showed that faces that looked at positive targets were evaluated as more trustworthy than faces that looked at negative targets. However, the valence of the targets did not affect trustworthiness ratings in invalid and no-cue conditions. We suggest that integrated information about the predictability of the gaze cue and the valence of the gaze target modulates impressions about the personality of the face.

Sex differences in hemispheric lateralization of attentional networks.

Males and females differ in various abilities. However, sex differences in hemispheric lateralization of attentional processing are still not well-understood. Using a lateralized version of the attentional network test that combines the Posner cueing paradigm and visual field methodology, we aimed to examine sex differences in the lateralization of several attentional processes including alerting, executive control, orienting benefit, reorienting, and orienting cost. Fifty-six females and 59 males participated in this study. We found a left visual field (right hemisphere) advantage for alerting defined by the differences between no-cue and center-cue conditions in the male group, but it was mainly attributed to the left visual field advantage in the no-cue condition. In contrast, the female group exhibited a left visual field advantage in the center-cue condition. Both groups showed preferences to the left visual field for reorienting and orienting cost, but females exhibited larger effects. This indicates that the two sexes exhibit similarities in terms of the lateralization of these two attentional processes. Furthermore, the interactions between executive control and reorienting/orienting cost were more efficient in males than in females. The current study highlights sex differences in the hemispheric lateralization of attentional networks and possible underlying neural substrates.

Transverse Strips Instead of Wearable Laser Lights Alleviate the Sequence Effect Toward a Destination in Parkinson's Disease Patients With Freezing of Gait.

Background: The sequence effect (SE), referring to step-to-step reduction in amplitude, is considered to lead to freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson's disease (PD). Visual cues may alleviate SE and help reduce freezing episodes. FOG patients show significant SE prior to turning or toward a doorway, but the SE toward a destination has not been clearly studied.Objectives: To examine the SE when approaching a destination in PD patients with FOG, and to further explore the effects of different types of visual cues on destination SE.Methods: Thirty-five PD patients were divided into a freezing (PD+FOG, n = 15) group and a non-freezing (PD–FOG, n = 20) group. Walking trials were tested under three conditions, including without cues (no-cue condition), with wearable laser lights (laser condition), and with transverse strips placed on the floor (strip condition). Kinematic data was recorded by a portable Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) system. The destination SE and some key gait parameters were evaluated.Results: The PD+FOG group showed greater destination SE in the no-cue and laser conditions when compared to the PD–FOG group. There were no significant differences in the strip condition when comparing destination SE of the two groups. The destination SE was alleviated only by using the transverse strips on the floor. In contrast, transverse strips and wearable laser lights could increase the step length.Conclusions: The significant destination SE may explain why FOG patients are prone to freezing when heading toward their destination. Visual cues using transverse strips on the floor may be a more effective strategy for FOG rehabilitation in PD patients.

The role of default mode network in semantic cue integration

Recent accounts of large-scale cortical organisation suggest that the default mode network (DMN) is positioned at the top of a principal gradient, reflecting the separation between heteromodal and unimodal sensory-motor regions in patterns of connectivity and in geodesic distance along the cortical surface (Margulies et al., 2016). This isolation of DMN from external inputs might allow the integration of disparate sources of information that can constrain subsequent cognition. We tested this hypothesis by manipulating the degree to which semantic decisions for ambiguous words (e.g. jam) were constrained by preceding visual cues depicting relevant spatial contexts (e.g. supermarket or road) and/or facial emotions (e.g. happy vs. frustrated). We contrasted (i) the effects of a single preceding cue with a no-cue condition employing scrambled images, and (ii) convergent spatial and emotion cues with single cues. Single cues elicited stronger activation in the multiple demand network relative to no cues, consistent with the requirement to maintain information in working memory. The availability of two convergent cues elicited stronger activation within DMN regions (bilateral angular gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, medial prefrontal cortex, and posterior cingulate), even though behavioural performance was unchanged by cueing – consequently task difficulty is unlikely to account for the observed differences in brain activation. A regions-of-interest analysis along the unimodal-to-heteromodal principal gradient revealed maximal activation for the convergent cue condition at the heteromodal end, corresponding to the DMN. Our findings are consistent with the view that regions of DMN support states of information integration that constrain ongoing cognition and provide a framework for understanding the location of these effects at the heteromodal end of the principal gradient.

Right-lateralized fronto-parietal network and phasic alertness in healthy aging

Phasic alerting cues temporarily increase the brain’s arousal state. In younger and older participants, visual processing speed in a whole report task, estimated based on the theory of visual attention, is higher in cue than no-cue conditions. The present study assessed whether older participants’ ability to profit from warning cues is related to intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) in the cingulo-opercular and/or right fronto-parietal network. We acquired resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 31 older participants. By combining an independent component analysis and dual regression, we investigated iFC in both networks. A voxel-wise multiple regression in older participants yielded that higher phasic alerting effects on visual processing speed were significantly related to lower right fronto-parietal network iFC. This result supports a particular role of the right fronto-parietal network in maintaining phasic alerting capabilities in aging. We then compared healthy older participants to a previously reported sample of healthy younger participants to assess whether behaviour-iFC relationships are age group specific. The comparison revealed that the association between phasic alerting and cingulo-opercular network iFC is significantly lower in older than in younger adults.

Select, then decide: Further evidence for separable selection and decision processes in short-term visual recognition

ABSTRACT Recently, researchers have used evidence-accumulation models to analyse how performance in visual working memory (WM) tasks depends on both decision-making and non-decisional processes. One resulting claim is that selection of representations into the focus of attention and decision-making about those representations are separable processes, that this selection is facilitated by informative retro-cues, and that this process is evident in non-decision time when data are fit with a diffusion model. I attempted to address an alternative account of retro-cue effects on non-decision time: that they result from reduced uncertainty about non-memorial aspects of the task. In two 2AFC recognition experiments with retro-cues, participants had to choose between two probes – whose similarity to one another varied across conditions – to indicate which matched an item presented at a specified location in a sequentially-presented visual memory array. Crucially, the task minimized differences in uncertainty between the cue and no-cue conditions. Modelling showed a robust retro-cue effect in non-decision time, consistent with the advanced selection account of the retro-cue effect. Additionally, there were serial position and similarity effects, mostly evident on drift rate. These results support the contention that selection into the focus of attention is a separate process which facilitates stimulus use in decision-making.

Cue-target onset asynchrony modulates interaction between exogenous attention and audiovisual integration.

Previous studies have shown that exogenous attention decreases audiovisual integration (AVI); however, whether the interaction between exogenous attention and AVI is influenced by cue-target onset asynchrony (CTOA) remains unclear. To clarify this matter, twenty participants were recruited to perform an auditory/visual discrimination task, and they were instructed to respond to the target stimuli as rapidly and accurately as possible. The analysis of the mean response times showed an effective cueing effect under all cued conditions and significant response facilitation for all audiovisual stimuli. A further comparison of the differences between the probability of audiovisual cumulative distributive functions (CDFs) and race model CDFs showed that the AVI latency was shortened under the cued condition relative to that under the no-cue condition, and there was a significant break point when the CTOA was 200ms, with a decrease in the AVI upon going from 100 to 200ms and an increase upon going from 200 to 400ms. These results indicated different mechanisms for the interaction between exogenous attention and the AVI under the shorter and longer CTOA conditions and further suggested that there may be a temporal window in which the AVI effect is mainly affected by exogenous attention, but the interaction might be interfered with by endogenous attention when exceeding the temporal window.