Stimulus Selection Research Articles

Selection for Action: The Medial Frontal Cortex Is an Executive Hub for Stimulus and Response Selection.

This EEG study investigates the electrophysiological activity underlying processes of stimulus and response selection, and their executive orchestration via long-range functional connectivity under conflict condition, in order to shed more light on how these brain dynamics shape individual behavioral performance. Participants (n = 91) performed a modified flanker task, in which bilateral visual stimulation and a bimanual response pattern were employed to isolate the stimulus and response selection-related lateralized activity. First, we identified conflict-related markers of task-relevant processes; most importantly, the stimulus and response selection were evidenced by contra-ipsilateral differences in visual and motor activity, respectively, and executive control was evidenced by modulations of midfrontal activity. Second, we identified conflict-related functional connectivity between midfrontal and other task-relevant areas. The results showed that interregional phase synchronization in theta band was centered at the midfrontal site, interpreted here as a "hub" of executive communication. Importantly, the theta functional connectivity was more robust under the condition of increased demands for stimulus and response selection, including connectivity between the medial frontal cortex and the lateral frontal and motor areas, as well as cross-frequency theta-alpha coupling between the medial frontal cortex and contralateral visual areas. Third, we showed that individual differences in the measured conflict-related EEG activity, particularly the midfrontal N2, theta power, and global theta connectivity, predict the behavioral efficiency in conflict resolution.

Detecting simulated versus bona fide traumatic brain injury using pupillometry.

Objective: Pupil dilation patterns are outside of conscious control and provide information regarding neuropsychological processes related to deception, cognitive effort, and familiarity. This study examined the incremental utility of pupillometry on the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) in classifying individuals with verified traumatic brain injury (TBI), individuals simulating TBI, and healthy comparisons. Method: Participants were 177 adults across three groups: verified TBI (n = 53), feigned cognitive impairment due to TBI (SIM, n = 52), and heathy comparisons (HC, n = 72). Results: Logistic regression and ROC curve analyses identified several pupil indices that discriminated the groups. Pupillometry discriminated best for the comparison of greatest clinical interest, verified TBI versus simulators, adding information beyond traditional accuracy scores. Simulators showed evidence of greater cognitive load than both groups instructed to perform at their best ability (HC and TBI). Additionally, the typically robust phenomenon of dilating to familiar stimuli was relatively diminished among TBI simulators compared to TBI and HC. This finding may reflect competing, interfering effects of cognitive effort that are frequently observed in pupillary reactivity during deception. However, the familiarity effect appeared on nearly half the trials for SIM participants. Among those trials evidencing the familiarity response, selection of the unfamiliar stimulus (i.e., dilation-response inconsistency) was associated with a sizeable increase in likelihood of being a simulator. Conclusions: Taken together, these findings provide strong support for multimethod assessment: adding unique performance assessments such as biometrics to standard accuracy scores. Continued study of pupillometry will enhance the identification of simulators who are not detected by traditional performance validity test scoring metrics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Determinants of individuals' belief in fake news: A scoping review determinants of belief in fake news.

Proliferation of misinformation in digital news environments can harm society in a number of ways, but its dangers are most acute when citizens believe that false news is factually accurate. A recent wave of empirical research focuses on factors that explain why people fall for the so-called fake news. In this scoping review, we summarize the results of experimental studies that test different predictors of individuals' belief in misinformation. The review is based on a synthetic analysis of 26 scholarly articles. The authors developed and applied a search protocol to two academic databases, Scopus and Web of Science. The sample included experimental studies that test factors influencing users' ability to recognize fake news, their likelihood to trust it or intention to engage with such content. Relying on scoping review methodology, the authors then collated and summarized the available evidence. The study identifies three broad groups of factors contributing to individuals' belief in fake news. Firstly, message characteristics-such as belief consistency and presentation cues-can drive people's belief in misinformation. Secondly, susceptibility to fake news can be determined by individual factors including people's cognitive styles, predispositions, and differences in news and information literacy. Finally, accuracy-promoting interventions such as warnings or nudges priming individuals to think about information veracity can impact judgements about fake news credibility. Evidence suggests that inoculation-type interventions can be both scalable and effective. We note that study results could be partly driven by design choices such as selection of stimuli and outcome measurement. We call for expanding the scope and diversifying designs of empirical investigations of people's susceptibility to false information online. We recommend examining digital platforms beyond Facebook, using more diverse formats of stimulus material and adding a comparative angle to fake news research.

The emergence of a theta social brain network during infancy

Infants’ socio-cognitive ability develops dramatically during the first year of life. From the perspective of ontogeny, the early development of social behavior allows for parent-child attachment, which in turn enhances survival. Thus, it is theorized that the development of social behavior, driven by social brain networks, forms the core of developmental acquisitions during this period. Further, understanding the maturation within the neural networks during social development is crucial to obtain a better grasp of the development of social developmental disorders. Therefore, we performed a longitudinal study in 854 infants measured at around 5 and 10 months to map the development of functional networks in the brain when infants were processing social and non-social videos. Using EEG, we focused on the frequency bands most commonly connected to social behavior: theta and alpha. We found that alpha networks remained relatively stable over the first year of life and showed no selectivity for social versus non-social stimuli, theta networks, showed strong global reconfigurations. The development of the theta networks progressed from a parietal occipital network in early infancy to a frontoparietal network towards the end of the first year of life. This reconfiguration coincided with selectivity for social versus non-social stimuli, with infants approaching the end of their first year of life showing increased synchronicity of theta communication when watching social videos versus non-social videos. Our findings provide strong evidence for the involvement of a frontoparietal theta network in the development of the social brain.

Reward produces learning of a consciously inaccessible feature

Reward has a significant impact on behaviour and perception. Most past work in associative reward learning has used perceptually distinct visual cues to associate with different reward values. Thus, it remains unknown to what extent the learned bias towards reward-associated stimuli depends on consciousness of the apparent differences between stimuli. Here, we resolved this issue by using an inter-ocular suppression paradigm with the monetary rewarding and non-rewarding cues identical to each other except for their eye-of-origin information. Thus, the reward coding system cannot rely on consciousness to select the reward-associated cue. Surprisingly, the targets in the rewarded eye broke into awareness faster than those in the non-rewarded eye. We further revealed that producing this effect required both top-down attention and inter-ocular suppression. These findings suggest that the human's reward coding system can produce two different types of reward-based learning. One is independent of consciousness yet fairly consuming attentional resources. The other one results from volitional selection of stimuli of behavioural significance.

APPLYING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR MODEL TO THE STUFF LABOR MOTIVATION

The article appeals to the problem of designing motivation model for the labor behavior of company stuff. Human behavior is one of the key areas of research in many fields of knowledge. The main forms of human behavior in economics are consumer and labor behavior. For each of them, extensive theoretical and practical material has been developed, a significant variety of behaviors has been proposed. Moreover, in the absence of general models of human behavior that would be applicable in any field of his activity, each science develops its own methodological apparatus and builds models based on its own approaches. Models of consumer behavior describe a clearly defined object (purchasing act), are specific and practically oriented. Patterns of labour behaviour are more general and relate to conduct in general, but not to a specific act of activity. The article attempts to apply the principles of building models of consumer behavior to modeling labor behavior. The model of type “Definition of target actions — Stimulus selection — Information and desire — Choice and location — Check and preference — Confirmation and relation” is proposed. The content of these stages for the task of changing labor behavior is shown. A methodological feature of the model is the isolation of rational and emotional aspects in some elements of labor behavior.

Combining stimulus types for improved coverage in population receptive field mapping

Retinotopy experiments using population receptive field (pRF) mapping are ideal for assigning regions in the visual field to cortical brain areas. While various designs for visual stimulation were suggested in the literature, all have specific shortcomings regarding visual field coverage. Here we acquired high-resolution 7 Tesla fMRI data to compare pRF-based coverage maps obtained with the two most commonly used stimulus variants: moving bars; rotating wedges and expanding rings. We find that stimulus selection biases the spatial distribution of pRF centres. In addition, eccentricity values and pRF sizes obtained from wedge/ring or bar stimulation runs show systematic differences. Wedge/ring stimulation results show lower eccentricity values and strongly reduced pRF sizes compared to bar stimulation runs. Statistical comparison shows significantly higher pRF centre numbers in the foveal 2° region of the visual field for wedge/ring compared to bar stimuli. We suggest and evaluate approaches for combining pRF data from different visual stimulus patterns to obtain improved mapping results.

Top-down and bottom-up guidance in normal aging during scene search.

Age-related differences in visual search have been extensively studied using simple item arrays, showing an attentional decline. Little is known about how aging affects attentional guidance during search in more complex scenes. To study this issue, we analyzed eye-movement behavior in realistic scene search. We examined age-related differences in top-down guidance, manipulating target template specificity (picture vs. word cue) and target-scene semantic consistency (consistent vs. inconsistent), and in bottom-up guidance, manipulating perceptual salience (high vs. low) of targets and distractors. Compared to young adults (YA), older adults (OA) were overall slower, from the first saccade in the scene. They showed a smaller benefit of a specific target template, suggesting that precision of visual information in working memory may decrease with age. The benefit of semantic consistency did not depend on age, suggesting a preserved ability in OA to use knowledge about object occurrence in scenes. OA showed greater bottom-up search facilitation due to target's high salience, which may depend on reduced selection of low-salience stimuli. Attentional capture by distractors was greater in OA than YA, with respect to engagement (probability of distractor fixation), but only following a picture cue, and disengagement (fixation duration on distractors) in all conditions. Overall, our study shows that age-related differences in visual selection of targets and distractors depend on specific task demands in terms of top-down and bottom-up guidance. It also indicates that scene search difficulties in OA can be limited by cognitive and perceptual forms of environmental support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Disentangling the Psycholinguistic Loci of Anomia with Cognitive Psychometric Models.

This article reviews advanced statistical techniques for measuring impairments in object naming, particularly in the context of stroke-induced aphasia. Traditional testing strategies can be challenged by the multifaceted nature of impairments that arise due to the complex relationships between localized brain damage and disruption to the cognitive processes required for successful object naming. Cognitive psychometric models can combine response-type analysis with item-response theory to yield accurate estimates of multiple abilities using data collected from a single task. The models also provide insights about how the test items can be challenging in different ways. Although more work is needed to fully optimize their clinical utility in practice, these formal concepts can guide thoughtful selection of stimuli used in treatment or assessment, as well as providing a framework to interpret response-type data.

Raising the bar: improving methodological rigour in cognitive alcohol research.

A range of experimental paradigms claim to measure the cognitive processes underpinning alcohol use, suggesting that heightened attentional bias, greater approach tendencies and reduced cue-specific inhibitory control are important drivers of consumption. This paper identifies methodological shortcomings within this broad domain of research and exemplifies them in studies focused specifically on alcohol-related attentional bias. We highlight five main methodological issues: (i) the use of inappropriately matched control stimuli; (ii) opacity of stimulus selection and validation procedures; (iii) a credence in noisy measures; (iv) a reliance on unreliable tasks; and (v) variability in design and analysis. This is evidenced through a review of alcohol-related attentional bias (64 empirical articles, 68 tasks), which reveals the following: only 53% of tasks use appropriately matched control stimuli; as few as 38% report their stimulus selection and 19% their validation procedures; less than 28% used indices capable of disambiguating attentional processes; 22% assess reliability; and under 2% of studies were pre-registered. Well-matched and validated experimental stimuli, the development of reliable cognitive tasks and explicit assessment of their psychometric properties, and careful consideration of behavioural indices and their analysis will improve the methodological rigour of cognitive alcohol research. Open science principles can facilitate replication and reproducibility in alcohol research.

A subcortical network for implicit visuo-spatial attention: Implications for Parkinson's Disease

Recent studies in humans and animal models suggest a primary role of the basal ganglia in the extraction of stimulus-value regularities, then exploited to orient attentional shift and build up sensorimotor memories. The tail of the caudate and the posterior putamen both receive early visual input from the superficial layers of the superior colliculus, thus forming a closed-loop. We portend that the functional value of this circuit is to manage the selection of visual stimuli in a rapid and automatic way, once sensory–motor associations are formed and stored in the posterior striatum. In Parkinson's Disease, the nigrostriatal dopamine depletion starts and tends to be more pronounced in the posterior putamen. Thus, at least some aspect of the visuospatial attention deficits observed since the early stages of the disease could be the behavioral consequences of a cognitive system that has lost the ability to translate high-level processing in stable sensorimotor memories.

Visual dysfunction in a mouse model of chemotherapy-related neurotoxicity.

e24059 Background: Chemotherapy-related neurotoxicity (CRNT) poses challenges to long-term outcomes of cancer survivors. Visual function remains relatively unexplored in CRNT. Preliminary clinical work from our group suggests contrast sensitivity may be impaired in patients receiving chemotherapy. Here, we sought to isolate effects of chemotherapy on visual dysfunction in a mouse model. Methods: 10-week old C57BL/6J mice received either 4, 7, or 10 weekly intraperitoneal injections of chemotherapy (CTX group; n=15) or physiologic saline (SAL group; n=12). CTX mice received cyclophosphamide (50 mg/kg) and doxorubicin (2 mg/kg). Contrast sensitivity was assessed using an optomotor response (OMR) chamber. Psychometric functions were fitted to OMR contrast response functions to derive measures of contrast sensitivity (K), stimulus responsivity (Rmax), and stimulus selectivity (n). Electroretinography (ERG) waveforms, which measure light-evoked retinal neural activity, were recorded under scotopic (rod-driven) conditions and decomposed to isolate photoreceptor (a-wave), bipolar cell (b-wave), and interneuron amacrine cell (oscillatory potentials [OP]) activity. OMR and ERG were measured prior to and following treatment. Dependent- and independent-sample t-tests assessed within- and between-group changes, respectively, in outcome measures. Results: Outcome measures are reported in Table 1. SAL relative to CTX mice showed greater weight gain (p=0.004). OMR revealed increases in Rmax (pCTX=0.002; pSAL=0.11) and K (pCTX=0.80; pSAL=0.06) parameters in SAL but not CTX mice. ERG results revealed significant declines in OP peak frequency in CTX relative to SAL mice (p=0.006). Other OMR and ERG measures showed no within- or between-group differences (p>0.10). Decreases in weight were associated with decreases in Rmax (R2=0.25, p=.008) and OP peak frequency (R2=0.20, p=.02). Conclusions: Our animal model showed chemotherapy-related visual dysfunction. Mice receiving chemotherapy showed relative declines in contrast sensitivity, stimulus responsivity, and oscillatory neural activity, suggestive of disrupted neuronal circuits within the visual pathway. Future studies will focus on understanding neuronal mechanisms of visual pathway dysfunction and translating findings to clinical studies. [Table: see text]

The good and the bad: Are some attribute words better than others in the Implicit Association Test?

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is one of the most popular measures in psychological research. A lack of standardization across IATs has resulted in significant variability among stimuli used by researchers, including the positive and negative words used in evaluative IATs. Does the variability in attribute words in evaluative IATs produce unwanted variability in measurement quality across studies? The present work investigated the effect of evaluative stimuli across three studies using 13 IATs and over 60,000 participants. The 64 positive and negative words that we tested provided similar measurement quality. Further, measurement was satisfactory even in IATs that used only category labels as stimuli. These results suggest that common sense is probably a sufficient method for selection of evaluative stimuli in the IAT. For reasonable measurement quality, we recommend that researchers using evaluative IATs in English select words randomly from the set we tested in the present research.

Erratum: Fairhall, "Cross Recruitment of Domain-Selective Cortical Representations Enables Flexible Semantic Knowledge".

In the article, “Cross Recruitment of Domain-Selective Cortical Representations Enables Flexible Semantic Knowledge,” by Scott L. Fairhall, which appeared on pages [3096–3103][1] of the April 8, 2020 issue, errors were published. The description of the initial stimulus selection includes

Tackling Heterogeneous Color Registration: Binning Color Sensors.

Intelligent systems for interior lighting strive to balance economical, ecological, and health-related needs. For this purpose, they rely on sensors to assess and respond to the current room conditions. With an augmented demand for more dedicated control, the number of sensors used in parallel increases considerably. In this context, the present work focuses on optical sensors with three spectral channels used to capture color-related information of the illumination conditions such as their chromaticities and correlated color temperatures. One major drawback of these devices, in particular with regard to intelligent lighting control, is that even same-type color sensors show production related differences in their color registration. Standard methods for color correction are either impractical for large-scale production or they result in large colorimetric errors. Therefore, this article shows the feasibility of a novel sensor binning approach using the sensor responses to a single white light source for cluster assignment. A cluster specific color correction is shown to significantly reduce the registered color differences for a selection of test stimuli to values in the range of 0.003–0.008 , which enables the wide use of such sensors in practice and, at the same time, requires minimal additional effort in sensor commissioning.

A framework for the analysis and optimization of adaptive psychophysical procedures

Remote testing platforms have proven to be a viable tool for hearing research, but the ability to obtain efficient and reliable data remains a significant barrier. Adaptive up-down procedures are widely used to estimate hearing abilities because they can be performed easily with minimal assumptions about underlying mechanisms. However, they are inefficient compared to parametric alternatives, and the optimization of starting level, step size, stopping rule, and other factors continues to rely on trial and error. This reflects the limitations of our theoretical understanding, which cannot explain the complex, multi-component error patterns observed in thresholds obtained in controlled simulations. The present study reports on the development of a mathematical framework for nonparametric psychophysical procedures. A method will be described for creating models of the combined listener-procedure system as an equivalence class of directed graphs. The model can be used to calculate the trial-by-trial and asymptotic stimulus distributions for ascending and descending trials, the rate of convergence, and other fundamental properties. Using this approach, stimulus selection, stopping, and threshold calculation can be optimized with typical minimization procedures. Insights about the mathematical structure of psychophysical procedures promise to drive the development of novel tools to address the needs of remote test administration.

Recovering Reliable Idiographic Biological Parameters from Noisy Behavioral Data: the Case of Basal Ganglia Indices in the Probabilistic Selection Task.

Behavioral data, despite being a common index of cognitive activity, is under scrutiny for having poor reliability as a result of noise or lacking replications of reliable effects. Here, we argue that cognitive modeling can be used to enhance the test-retest reliability of the behavioral measures by recovering individual-level parameters from behavioral data. We tested this empirically with the Probabilistic Stimulus Selection (PSS) task, which is used to measure a participant’s sensitivity to positive or negative reinforcement. An analysis of 400,000 simulations from an Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) model of this task showed that the poor reliability of the task is due to the instability of the end-estimates: because of the way the task works, the same participants might sometimes end up having apparently opposite scores. To recover the underlying interpretable parameters and enhance reliability, we used a Bayesian Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) procedure. We were able to obtain reliable parameters across sessions (intraclass correlation coefficient ≈ 0.5). A follow-up study on a modified version of the task also found the same pattern of results, with very poor test-retest reliability in behavior but moderate reliability in recovered parameters (intraclass correlation coefficient ≈ 0.4). Collectively, these results imply that this approach can further be used to provide superior measures in terms of reliability, and bring greater insights into individual differences.

Autistic differences in the temporal dynamics of social attention.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders typically exhibit reduced visual attention towards social stimuli relative to neurotypical individuals. Importantly, however, attention is not a static process, and it remains unclear how such effects may manifest over time. Exploring these momentary changes in gaze behaviour can more clearly illustrate how individuals respond to social stimuli and provide insight into the mechanisms underlying reduced social attention in autism spectrum disorder. Using a simple passive eye-tracking task with competing presentations of social and nonsocial stimuli, we examine the different ways in which attention to social stimuli evolves over time in neurotypical adults and adults with and autism spectrum disorders. Our temporal modelling of gaze behaviour revealed divergent temporal profiles of social attention in neurotypical and observers with autism. Neurotypical data showed an initial increase in social attention, a ‘decay’ and subsequent ‘recovery’ after prolonged viewing. By contrast, in individuals with autism spectrum disorder, social attention decayed over time in a linear fashion without recovery after prolonged viewing. We speculate that the ‘gaze cascade’ effect that maintains selection of social stimuli in neurotypical observers is disrupted in individuals with high autistic traits. Considering these temporal components of gaze behaviour may enhance behavioural phenotypes and theories of social attention in autism spectrum disorder.Lay abstractOne behaviour often observed in individuals with autism is that they tend to look less towards social stimuli relative to neurotypical individuals. For instance, many eye-tracking studies have shown that individuals with autism will look less towards people and more towards objects in scenes. However, we currently know very little about how these behaviours change over time. Tracking these moment-to-moment changes in looking behaviour in individuals with autism can more clearly illustrate how they respond to social stimuli. In this study, adults with and without autism were presented with displays of social and non-social stimuli, while looking behaviours were measured by eye-tracking. We found large differences in how the two groups looked towards social stimuli over time. Neurotypical individuals initially showed a high probability of looking towards social stimuli, then a decline in probability, and a subsequent increase in probability after prolonged viewing. By contrast, individuals with autism showed an initial increase in probability, followed by a continuous decline in probability that did not recover. This pattern of results may indicate that individuals with autism exhibit reduced responsivity to the reward value of social stimuli. Moreover, our data suggest that exploring the temporal nature of gaze behaviours can lead to more precise explanatory theories of attention in autism.

Visual function in guinea pigs: behavior and electrophysiology

ABSTRACT Clinical relevance Guinea pig visual function is characterised based on behavioural and electrophysiological measures and retinal ganglion cell density is examined to further develop the guinea pig as a model of human ocular conditions. Background Guinea pigs are an important model of human ocular conditions. Here, guinea pig spatial frequency discrimination, pattern and full-field photopic electroretinography (ERG), and retinal ganglion cell distribution were investigated. Methods Adult guinea pigs (n = 6) were included. Optomotor responses to square-wave gratings from 0.3 to 2.4 cycles per degree (cpd) were assessed. Pattern ERG responses were recorded using square-wave gratings from 0.025 to 0.25 cpd at 100% contrast, alternating at a temporal frequency of 1.05 Hz. Full-field ERG responses were recorded using a 10.0 cd.s/m2 flash. Ganglion cell density was determined histologically from retinal whole mounts. Results Maximum spatial frequency discrimination was 1.65 ± 0.49 cpd for stimuli rotating temporally to nasally and 0.75 ± 0.16 cpd for stimuli rotating nasally to temporally. For pattern ERG, a maximum amplitude of 3.50 ± 1.16 µV for the first negative to positive peak (N1P1) was elicited with a 0.025 cpd grating, and 2.5 ± 0.1 µV for the positive to second negative peak (P1N2) was elicited with a 0.05 cpd grating. For full-field ERG, a-wave amplitude was 19.2 ± 4.24 µV, b-wave amplitude was 33.6 ± 8.22 µV, and the PhNR was 24.0 ± 5.72 µV. Peak retinal ganglion cell density was 1621 ± 129 cells/mm2, located 1–2 mm superior to the optic nerve head. Conclusion Guinea pigs show directional selectivity for stimuli moving in the temporal to the nasal visual field. Guinea pigs demonstrate a quantifiable PhNR in the full-field ERG and negative and positive waveforms in the pattern ERG. The visual streak is located in the superior retina.

Diversity of Receptive Fields and Sideband Inhibition with Complex Thalamocortical and Intracortical Origin in L2/3 of Mouse Primary Auditory Cortex.

Receptive fields of primary auditory cortex (A1) neurons show excitatory neuronal frequency preference and diverse inhibitory sidebands. While the frequency preferences of excitatory neurons in local A1 areas can be heterogeneous, those of inhibitory neurons are more homogeneous. To date, the diversity and the origin of inhibitory sidebands in local neuronal populations and the relation between local cellular frequency preference and inhibitory sidebands are unknown. To reveal both excitatory and inhibitory subfields, we presented two-tone and pure tone stimuli while imaging excitatory neurons (Thy1) and two types of inhibitory neurons (parvalbumin and somatostatin) in L2/3 of mice A1. We classified neurons into six classes based on frequency response area (FRA) shapes and sideband inhibition depended both on FRA shapes and cell types. Sideband inhibition showed higher local heterogeneity than frequency tuning, suggesting that sideband inhibition originates from diverse sources of local and distant neurons. Two-tone interactions depended on neuron subclasses with excitatory neurons showing the most nonlinearity. Onset and offset neurons showed dissimilar spectral integration, suggesting differing circuits processing sound onset and offset. These results suggest that excitatory neurons integrate complex and nonuniform inhibitory input. Thalamocortical terminals also exhibited sideband inhibition, but with different properties from those of cortical neurons. Thus, some components of sideband inhibition are inherited from thalamocortical inputs and are further modified by converging intracortical circuits. The combined heterogeneity of frequency tuning and diverse sideband inhibition facilitates complex spectral shape encoding and allows for rapid and extensive plasticity.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Sensory systems recognize and differentiate between different stimuli through selectivity for different features. Sideband inhibition serves as an important mechanism to sharpen stimulus selectivity, but its cortical mechanisms are not entirely resolved. We imaged pyramidal neurons and two common classes of interneurons suggested to mediate sideband inhibition (parvalbumin and somatostatin positive) in the auditory cortex and inferred their inhibitory sidebands. We observed a higher degree of variability in the inhibitory sideband than in the local frequency tuning, which cannot be predicted from the relative high homogeneity of responses by inhibitory interneurons. This suggests that cortical sideband inhibition is nonuniform and likely results from a complex interplay between existing functional inhibition in the feedforward input and cortical refinement.