Response Latency Variability Research Articles

The "what" and "when" of language input to children: Linguistic and temporal predictors of vocabulary in 3-year-olds.

The quantity, quality, and complexity of language input are important for children's language development. This study examined how the detailed timing of this input relates to children's vocabulary at 3 years of age in 64 mother-child dyads (male = 28; female = 36; White = 69%, Black = 31%). Acoustical analysis of turn taking in mother-child dialogue found that more consistently timed maternal responses (lower response latency variability) were associated (r = .42, p < .001) with higher vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, third edition) scores. In mothers with consistently timed responses, the complexity (mean length of utterance) of their child-directed speech significantly predicted (r = .53, p = .002) their children's vocabulary. This suggests that predictably timed contingent maternal responses provide an important learning cue that supports language development beyond the content of language input itself. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Accuracy and Precision of Measurement

Abstract Measurement noise differs by instrument and limits the validity and reliability of findings. Researchers collecting reaction time data introduce noise in the form of response time latency from hardware and software, even when collecting data on standardized computer-based experimental equipment. Reaction time is a measure with broad application for studying cognitive processing in communication research that is vulnerable to response latency noise. In this study, we utilized an Arduino microcontroller to generate a ground truth value of average response time latency in Asteroid Impact, an open source, naturalistic, experimental video game stimulus. We tested if response time latency differed across computer operating system, software, and trial modality. Here we show that reaction time measurements collected using Asteroid Impact were susceptible to response latency variability on par with other response-latency measuring software tests. These results demonstrate that Asteroid Impact is a valid and reliable stimulus for measuring reaction time data. Moreover, we provide researchers with a low-cost and open-source tool for evaluating response time latency in their own labs. Our results highlight the importance of validating measurement tools and support the philosophy of contributing methodological improvements in communication science.

The sequence of cortical activity inferred by response latency variability in the human ventral pathway of face processing

Variability in neuronal response latency has been typically considered caused by random noise. Previous studies of single cells and large neuronal populations have shown that the temporal variability tends to increase along the visual pathway. Inspired by these previous studies, we hypothesized that functional areas at later stages in the visual pathway of face processing would have larger variability in the response latency. To test this hypothesis, we used magnetoencephalographic data collected when subjects were presented with images of human faces. Faces are known to elicit a sequence of activity from the primary visual cortex to the fusiform gyrus. Our results revealed that the fusiform gyrus showed larger variability in the response latency compared to the calcarine fissure. Dynamic and spectral analyses of the latency variability indicated that the response latency in the fusiform gyrus was more variable than in the calcarine fissure between 70 ms and 200 ms after the stimulus onset and between 4 Hz and 40 Hz, respectively. The sequential processing of face information from the calcarine sulcus to the fusiform sulcus was more reliably detected based on sizes of the response variability than instants of the maximal response peaks. With two areas in the ventral visual pathway, we show that the variability in response latency across brain areas can be used to infer the sequence of cortical activity.

Response Time Inconsistencies in Object and Action Naming in Anomic Aphasia

The effect of repeated naming on both object and action picture naming in individuals with anomic aphasia is explored. We asked whether repeatedly naming the same items leads to improved accuracy and reduced response latency. Ten individuals with anomic aphasia and 6 healthy adults, 3 young and 3 old, named a set of 27 object pictures and a set of 27 action pictures presented 1 at a time on a computer screen. We examined accuracy and response times (RTs) across the 2 blocks of 10 repeated trials. Results demonstrated higher accuracy and faster RTs for object than for action naming for all participants, with lower accuracy rates and slower RTs for the people with aphasia (PWA) compared with the healthy individuals, and diverging patterns of change across trials. Unlike the healthy participants, whose RTs decreased across trials, PWA continued to demonstrate variability in response latencies across the trials. Our preliminary results suggest that measuring RT may be useful in characterizing retrieval difficulty in anomic aphasia and that the retrieval processes in PWA, even in those who experience mild anomia, may be less efficient or different from those processes in neurologically healthy individuals.

Measuring Sustained Attention and Perceived Workload.

We examined the effects of spatial uncertainty, field dependence/independence (FD/I), and sex on vigilance performance and perceived workload in elementary school children. Building on previous work in which children demonstrated their ability to evaluate workload, we tested whether spatial-uncertainty manipulations in a vigilance task would elicit in children the same deleterious effects on performance and workload as it does with adults. We also examined individual difference effects associated with FD/I and sex to determine their influence on both performance and workload. In the low-uncertainty task, stimuli appeared in the center of the computer screen; in the high-uncertainty task, they appeared in one of the four quadrants of the screen. Neutral events consisted of uppercase letter strings. Critical signals consisted of a single lowercase letter among uppercase letters. Following each vigil, children completed a workload assessment via a modified version of the NASA Task Load Index. Children showed lower perceptual sensitivity, greater response latency variability (RTSD), and a higher response criterion in the uncertain display condition. Workload scores reflected these performance differences. Field-dependent children showed lower perceptual sensitivity and greater RTSD than did field-independent children. The two groups exhibited differing workload profiles. Despite no objective performance differences, boys reported greater workload than girls. The scale demonstrated sensitivity and diagnosticity with regard to both the task variable and individual differences. These findings contribute to the emerging field of "educational ergonomics" and indicate that appropriate assessment tools might identify children who are experiencing increased workload.

Effects of Emotional Experience in Lexical Decision.

Previous research has examined the effects of emotional experience (i.e., the ease with which words evoke emotion information) in semantic categorization (SCT), word naming, and Stroop tasks (Newcombe et al., 2012; Siakaluk et al., 2014; Moffat et al., 2015). However, to date there are no published reports on whether emotional experience influences performance in the lexical decision task (LDT). In the present study, we examined the influence of emotional experience in LDT using three different stimulus sets. In Experiment 1 we used a stimulus set used by both Kousta et al. (2009; Experiment 1) and Yap and Seow (2014) that is comprised of 40 negative, 40 positive, and 40 neutral words; in Experiment 2 we used a stimulus set comprised of 150 abstract nouns; and in Experiment 3 we used a stimulus set comprised of 373 verbs. We observed facilitatory effects of emotional experience in each of the three experiments, such that words with higher emotional experience ratings were associated with faster response latencies. These results are important because the influence of emotional experience: (a) is observed in stimulus sets comprised of different types of words, demonstrating the generalizability of the effect in LDT; (b) accounts for LDT response latency variability above and beyond the influences of valence and arousal, and is thus a robust dimension of conceptual knowledge; (c) suggests that a richer representation of emotional experience provides more reliable evidence that a stimulus is a word, which facilitates responding in LDT; and (d) is consistent with grounded cognition frameworks that propose that emotion information may be grounded in bodily experience with the world (Barsalou, 2003, 2009; Vigliocco et al., 2009).

Deficit in sustained attention following selective cholinergic lesion of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus in rat, as measured with both post-mortem immunocytochemistry and in vivo PET imaging with [18F]fluoroethoxybenzovesamicol

Cholinergic neurons of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) are thought to be involved in cognitive functions such as sustained attention, and lesions of these cells have been documented in patients showing fluctuations of attention such as in Parkinson's disease or dementia with Lewy Body. Animal studies have been conducted to support the role of these cells in attention, but the lesions induced in these animals were not specific to the cholinergic PPTg system, and were assessed by post-mortem methods remotely performed from the in vivo behavioral assessments. Moreover, sustained attention have not been directly assessed in these studies, but rather deduced from indirect measurements. In the present study, rats were assessed on the 5-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task (5-CSRTT), and a specific measure of variability in response latency was created. Animals were observed both before and after selective lesion of the PPTg cholinergic neurons. Brain cholinergic denervation was assessed both in vivo and ex vivo, using PET imaging with [18F]fluoroethoxybenzovesamicol ([18F]FEOBV) and immunocytochemistry respectively. Results showed that the number of correct responses and variability in response latency in the 5-CSRTT were the only behavioral measures affected following the lesions. These measures were found to correlate significantly with the number of PPTg cholinergic cells, as measured with both [18F]FEOBV and immunocytochemistry. This suggests the primary role of the PPTg cholinergic cells in sustained attention. It also allows to reliably use the PET imaging with [18F]FEOBV for the purpose of assessing the relationship between behavior and cholinergic innervation in living animals.

Canine sense and sensibility: tipping points and response latency variability as an optimism index in a canine judgement bias assessment.

Recent advances in animal welfare science used judgement bias, a type of cognitive bias, as a means to objectively measure an animal's affective state. It is postulated that animals showing heightened expectation of positive outcomes may be categorised optimistic, while those showing heightened expectations of negative outcomes may be considered pessimistic. This study pioneers the use of a portable, automated apparatus to train and test the judgement bias of dogs. Dogs were trained in a discrimination task in which they learned to touch a target after a tone associated with a lactose-free milk reward and abstain from touching the target after a tone associated with water. Their judgement bias was then probed by presenting tones between those learned in the discrimination task and measuring their latency to respond by touching the target. A Cox's Proportional Hazards model was used to analyse censored response latency data. Dog and Cue both had a highly significant effect on latency and risk of touching a target. This indicates that judgement bias both exists in dogs and differs between dogs. Test number also had a significant effect, indicating that dogs were less likely to touch the target over successive tests. Detailed examination of the response latencies revealed tipping points where average latency increased by 100% or more, giving an indication of where dogs began to treat ambiguous cues as predicting more negative outcomes than positive ones. Variability scores were calculated to provide an index of optimism using average latency and standard deviation at cues after the tipping point. The use of a mathematical approach to assessing judgement bias data in animal studies offers a more detailed interpretation than traditional statistical analyses. This study provides proof of concept for the use of an automated apparatus for measuring cognitive bias in dogs.

Lower theta inter-trial phase coherence during performance monitoring is related to higher reaction time variability: A lifespan study

Trial-to-trial reaction time (RT) variability is consistently higher in children and older adults than in younger adults. Converging evidence also indicates that higher RT variability is (a) associated with lower behavioral performance on complex cognitive tasks, (b) distinguishes patients with neurological deficits from healthy individuals, and also (c) predicts longitudinal cognitive decline in older adults. However, so far the processes underlying increased RT variability are poorly understood. Previous evidence suggests that control signals in the medial frontal cortex (MFC) are reflected in theta band activity and may implicate the coordination of distinct brain areas during performance monitoring. We hypothesized that greater trial-to-trial variability in theta power during performance monitoring may be associated with greater behavioral variability in response latencies. We analyzed event-related theta oscillations assessed during a cued-Go/NoGo task in a lifespan sample covering the age range from middle childhood to old age. Our results show that theta inter-trial coherence during NoGo trials increases from childhood to early adulthood, and decreases from early adulthood to old age. Moreover, in all age groups, individuals with higher variability in medial frontal stimulus-locked theta oscillations showed higher trial-to-trial RT variability behaviorally. Importantly, this effect was strongest at high performance monitoring demands and independent of motor response execution as well as theta power. Taken together, our findings reveal that lower theta inter-trial coherence is related to greater behavioral variability within and across age groups. These results hint at the possibility that more variable MFC control may be associated with greater performance fluctuations.

Bipolar disorder ANK3 risk variant effect on sustained attention is replicated in a large healthy population

Independent genome-wide association studies have implicated a common single nucleotide polymorphism within the ANK3 gene (rs10994336) in bipolar disorder (BD) susceptibility, thus establishing rs10994336 marker as a strong candidate predisposing genetic factor for BD. Furthermore, recent findings demonstrate that this variant impacts on cognitive functioning in BD patients, their unaffected relatives, and healthy controls by influencing sustained attention. Here, we aimed to replicate this finding in a large population-based sample of healthy young adults (n=1808). Sustained attention was evaluated using the Continuous Performance Test as in the original study and working memory was assessed with the n-back task. Individuals carrying the BD risk T-allele showed significantly reduced sensitivity in target detection, increased errors of commission, and atypical response latency variability. In addition, we confirmed the lack of an association between the rs10994336 variant and working memory, as well as general intellectual ability, suggesting a specific effect on the Continuous Performance Test performance.

Low response latency variability measured by local field potential in the cochlear nuclear complex of the echolocating big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus

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Reinnervation by the contralateral facial nerve in patients with peripheral facial palsy

Reinnervation activity is triggered after complete unilateral peripheral facial palsy (PFP). In 27 patients with PFP we recorded electromyographic activity with a concentric needle electrode inserted 1 cm lateral to the oral commissure of the affected side. We applied electrical stimuli to the unaffected (contralateral) facial nerve from the tragus to the mid-lower lip and measured the response latency variability and segmental conduction velocity. Responses to electrical stimulation of the unaffected facial nerve were found in all patients. Mean conduction velocity was 49.6 ± 6.2 m/s between tragus and oral commissure, and 6.0 ± 1.9 m/s between oral commissure and mid-lower lip. Latency variability was 0.27 ms to facial nerve stimulation and 0.08 ms to oral commissure stimulation. Short distance sprouting of axons that innervate muscle fibers, which originate from the unaffected facial nerve, results in propagation of impulses to muscle fibers in the midline.

C.03.01 The importance of recognising organic causes of psychoses

The Cognitive Behavioral Driver's Inventory (CBDI) was analyzed for its ability to discriminate brain-damaged patients from intact subjects who feigned brain-damage. In a sample of 251 neurologically impaired patients and 48 malingering volunteers, the computer-administered distinguished most malingerers from genuine patients. A jackknifed count revealed that the CBDI had 90% sensitivity for detecting malingerers, and 98% specificity for detecting non-malingering brain damaged patients. Success was due to the inability of malingerers to avoid quantitative errors: excessive response latencies, unusual error rates, inflated variability in response latencies, and excessive within-subject, between-item variability. The computer-administered battery may be an effective clinical tool for identifying patients who malinger brain-damage in neuropsychological testing.

Inhibitory control and response latency differences between C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice in a Go/No-Go and 5-choice serial reaction time task and strain-specific responsivity to amphetamine

Among the best-replicated and most heritable endophenotypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are deficits in attention, inhibitory response control and larger intra-individual variability in response latencies. Here, we explored the presence of these heritable ADHD endophenotypes in two commonly used inbred mouse strains, C57BL/6J and DBA/2J, and investigated whether treatment with the stimulant amphetamine affected these phenotypes. Both in an operant Go/No-Go task and 5-choice serial reaction time (5-CSRT) task, DBA/2J mice showed reduced inhibitory response control compared with C57BL/6J mice. Mean correct response latencies of DBA/2J mice were slower in both tasks. Analysis of the distribution of correct response latencies suggested similar processing speed, but DBA/2J mice displayed larger intra-individual variability. Amphetamine did not affect inhibition in the Go/No-Go task but increased omission errors. In contrast, in the 5-CSRT task, amphetamine did not affect omission errors but impaired inhibitory response control, specifically in C57BL/6J mice. The dopamine uptake inhibitor, GBR 12909, mimicked this effect and decreased accurate choice, specifically in C57BL/6J mice, indicating that dopamine modulates inhibitory response control and attention in the murine 5-CSRT task. Amphetamine did not affect response distributions in either task. Furthermore, we extended previous reports on differences in the brain dopamine system of DBA/2J and C57BL/6J mice, by showing differential gene expression levels of three dopamine receptors (Drd1, Drd4 and Drd5) in the mPFC. In conclusion, genetic differences between DBA/2J and C57BL/6J mice translate into multiple ADHD-related phenotypes, indicating that these strains are valuable resources to understand genetic mechanisms underlying ADHD-relevant phenotypes.

Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Neuropsychological and Cognitive Function in College Women

Twenty-six college women with a history of repeated childhood sexual abuse were recruited from the community and compared with 19 healthy female collegiate subjects on neurocognitive measures. Abused subjects showed increased response latency variability and diminished inhibitory capacity during a GO/NO-GO/STOP vigilance task. A strong association was found between duration of abuse and memory impairments. Math Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores were significantly lower in abused subjects when matched against comparison subjects and when compared to their own Verbal SAT scores. Childhood sexual abuse appears to be associated with a constellation of neuropsychological deficiencies even in a group of relatively healthy women.

Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Neuropsychological and Cognitive Function in College Women

Twenty-six college women with a history of repeated childhood sexual abuse were recruited from the community and compared with 19 healthy female collegiate subjects on neurocognitive measures. Abused subjects showed increased response latency variability and diminished inhibitory capacity during a GO/NO-GO/STOP vigilance task. A strong association was found between duration of abuse and memory impairments. Math Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores were significantly lower in abused subjects when matched against comparison subjects and when compared to their own Verbal SAT scores. Childhood sexual abuse appears to be associated with a constellation of neuropsychological deficiencies even in a group of relatively healthy women.

Antisaccade performance of 1,273 men: effects of schizotypy, anxiety, and depression.

A total of 1,273 conscripts of the Greek Air Force performed antisaccades and completed self-reporting questionnaires measuring schizotypy and current state-dependent psychopathology. Only 1.0% of variability in antisaccade performance indices was related to psychometric scores in the population and could be attributed more to current state-dependent symptoms such as anxiety rather than to schizotypy. In contrast, a specific increase of error rate and response latency variability and a high correlation of these 2 variables was observed in a group with very high schizotypy scores. This effect was independent of anxiety and depression, suggesting that a specific group of psychosis-prone individuals has a characteristic deviance in antisaccade performance that is not present in the general population.

Elimination of response latency variability in neuronal spike trains

Neuronal activity in the mammalian cortex exhibits a considerable amount of trial-by-trial variability. This may be reflected by the magnitude of the activity as well as by the response latency with respect to an external event, such as the onset of a sensory stimulus, or a behavioral event. Here we present a novel nonparametric method for estimating trial-by-trial differences in response latency from neuronal spike trains. The method makes use of the dynamic rate profile for each single trial and maximizes their total pairwise correlation by appropriately shifting all trials in time. The result is a new alignment of trials that largely eliminates the variability in response latency and provides a new internal trigger that is independent of experiment time. To calibrate the method, we simulated spike trains based on stochastic point processes using a parametric model for phasic response profiles. We illustrate the method by an application to simultaneous recordings from a pair of neurons in the motor cortex of a behaving monkey. It is demonstrated how the method can be used to study the temporal relation of the neuronal response to the experiment, to investigate whether neurons share the same dynamics, and to improve spike correlation analysis. Differences between this and other previously published methods are discussed.

C-fiber depletion alters response properties of neurons in trigeminal nucleus principalis.

The effects of C-fiber depletion induced by neonatal capsaicin treatment on the functional properties of vibrissa-sensitive low-threshold mechanoreceptive (LTM) neurons in the rat trigeminal nucleus principalis were examined in adult rats. Neonatal rats were injected either with capsaicin or its vehicle within 48 h of birth. The depletion of unmyelinated afferents was confirmed by the significant decrease in plasma extravasation of Evan's blue dye induced in the hindlimb skin of capsaicin-treated rats by cutaneous application of mustard oil and by the significant decrease of unmyelinated fibers in both the sciatic and infraorbital nerves. The mechanoreceptive field (RF) and response properties of 31 vibrissa-sensitive neurons in capsaicin-treated rats were compared with those of 32 vibrissa-sensitive neurons in control (untreated or vehicle-treated) rats. The use of electronically controlled mechanical stimuli allowed quantitative analysis of response properties of vibrissa-sensitive neurons; these included the number of center- and surround-RF vibrissae within the RF (i.e., those vibrissae which when stimulated elicited >/=1 and <1 action potential per stimulus, respectively), the response magnitude and latency, and the selectivity of responses to stimulation of vibrissae in different directions with emphasis on combining both the response magnitude and direction of vibrissal deflection in a vector analysis. Neonatal capsaicin treatment was associated with significant increases in the total number of vibrissae, in the number of center-RF vibrissae per neuronal RF, and in the percentage of vibrissa-sensitive neurons that also responded to stimulation of other types of orofacial tissues. Compared with control rats, capsaicin-treated rats showed significant increases in the response magnitude to stimulation of surround-RF vibrissae as well as in response latency variability to stimulation of both center- and surround-RF vibrissae. C-fiber depletion also significantly altered the directional selectivity of responses to stimulation of vibrissae. For neurons with multiple center-RF vibrissae, the proportion of center-RF vibrissae with net vector responses oriented toward the same quadrant was significantly less in capsaicin-treated compared with control rats. These changes in the functional properties of principalis vibrissa-sensitive neurons associated with marked depletion of C-fiber afferents are consistent with similarly induced alterations in LTM neurons studied at other levels of the rodent somatosensory system, and indeed may contribute to alterations previously described in the somatosensory cortex of adult rodents. Furthermore, these results provide additional support to the view that C fibers may have an important role in shaping the functional properties of LTM neurons in central somatosensory pathways.

Ability of the cognitive behavioral driver's inventory to distinguish malingerers from brain-damaged subjects

The Cognitive Behavioral Driver's Inventory (CBDI) was analyzed for its ability to discriminate brain-damaged patients from intact subjects who feigned brain-damage. In a sample of 251 neurologically impaired patients and 48 malingering volunteers, the computer-administered distinguished most malingerers from genuine patients. A jackknifed count revealed that the CBDI had 90% sensitivity for detecting malingerers, and 98% specificity for detecting non-malingering brain damaged patients. Success was due to the inability of malingerers to avoid quantitative errors: excessive response latencies, unusual error rates, inflated variability in response latencies, and excessive within-subject, between-item variability. The computer-administered battery may be an effective clinical tool for identifying patients who malinger brain-damage in neuropsychological testing.