Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Target Selection And Enhancement During Attentional Tracking, Marvin R. Maechler

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

At any waking moment, we are bombarded with more sensory information than we can fully process. Attention is necessary to deal with the dynamic world we live in. One fundamental function of vision and attention is to keep track of moving objects, but what are the targets of attention during tracking?

One of the first theories of attentional tracking predicted that targets would be selected at early processing stages. By employing the double-drift illusion, which dissociates physical and perceived positions of moving objects, we investigated which of these positions is selected for tracking. Contrary to earlier theories and in line …

Characterizing The Spatial Distribution Of Inhibitory Interneurons Across Early Sensory And Association Areas In Callithrix Jacchus, Nika Khajehdehi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is one of the cortical areas responsible for complex cognitive abilities, a function that is believed to arise from increased persistent activity within its microcircuits. Activity within microcircuits is regulated by parvalbumin-containing (PV), calbindin-containing (CB), and calretinin-containing (CR) inhibitory interneurons (INs). It remains unclear how the distribution of activity-regulating INs differs across cortical areas such that persistent activity increases specifically within association areas, allowing for their complex functions. This thesis aims to address this gap by characterizing the spatial distributions and differences in relative proportions of INs across early sensory areas and association areas of the …

No “Jitters” But No Energy From A Commercially Available Energy Drink., Jose Antonio, Jason M. Curtis

Journal for Sports Neuroscience

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of an energy drink (JOCKO GO) on mood, sustained attention/reaction time, and hand steadiness.

Methods: A total of 29 active men (n = 9) and women (n=20) (mean ± SD: age 22 ± 5 yr.; height 168±8 cm; body mass 68.2 ± 12.8 kg; lean body mass 51.9 ± 15.0 kg; fat mass 15.4 ± 6.8 kg; percent body fat 22.6 ± 8.9%; total body water 38.6 ± 8.6 liters) completed this randomized, crossover, counterbalanced trial. Each subject consumed either one can (355 ml) of the energy …

Neural Dynamics Of Target Processing In Attentional Blink, Mansoure Jahanian

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The attentional blink (AB) phenomenon refers to the failure to report the second target (T2) if it appears 200-500 ms after the first target (T1) in a stream of rapidly presented images. The present study aimed to investigate the neural representations of target processing under conditions where AB does or does not occur. We recorded EEG and behavioral data while participants viewed a rapid sequence of natural object images embedded with two face targets presented at two lag conditions: lag 3 (targets were 252 ms apart) and lag 7 (targets were 588 ms apart). Consistent with AB, our behavioral results …

Noradrenergic Regulation Of Decision-Making In Female And Male Rats, Emma S. Dauster

Doctoral Dissertations

Decision-making is regulated by many associated brain regions, including the locus coeruleus (LC) and the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Disruptions in decision-making are a key feature of many disorders including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder which is disproportionately diagnosed in one sex over another for reasons unknown. LC or its primary neurotransmitter norepinephrine (NE) have been implicated in the etiology or treatment of disrupted decision-making. Understanding the relationship among LC, PFC, and decision-making across sexes may provide insight into the basic neurobiology of cognition and disorders that lead to disrupted decision making. There are sex differences in LC anatomy, however studies investigating sex differences …

Functional Network Reconfiguration Supporting Memory-Guided Attention, Kylie Isenburg, Thomas M. Morin, Maya L. Rosen, David C. Somers, Chantal E. Stern

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

Studies have identified several brain regions whose activations facilitate attentional deployment via long-term memories. We analyzed task-based functional connectivity at the network and node-specific level to characterize large-scale communication between brain regions underlying long-term memory guided attention. We predicted default mode, cognitive control, and dorsal attention subnetworks would contribute differentially to long-term memory guided attention, such that network-level connectivity would shift based on attentional demands, requiring contribution of memory-specific nodes within default mode and cognitive control subnetworks. We expected that these nodes would increase connectivity with one another and with dorsal attention subnetworks during long-term memory guided attention. Additionally, we …

V1 Saliency Hypothesis And Central-Peripheral Dichotomy (Cpd), Li Zhaoping Prof. Dr.

MODVIS Workshop

No abstract provided.

A Dynamical Model Of Binding In Visual Cortex During Incremental Grouping And Search, Daniel Schmid, Daniel A. Braun, Heiko Neumann

MODVIS Workshop

Binding of visual information is crucial for several perceptual tasks. To incrementally group an object, elements in a space-feature neighborhood need to be bound together starting from an attended location (Roelfsema, TICS, 2005). To perform visual search, candidate locations and cued features must be evaluated conjunctively to retrieve a target (Treisman&Gormican, Psychol Rev, 1988). Despite different requirements on binding, both tasks are solved by the same neural substrate. In a model of perceptual decision-making, we give a mechanistic explanation for how this can be achieved. The architecture consists of a visual cortex module and a higher-order thalamic module. While the …

The Functional Role Of Anatomical Feedback Connections In Visual Attention, Samantha Debes

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Entrenched in a dense, highly connected network, cortical neurons receive heterogeneous inputs from diverse connections, including local feedforward and feedback signals. Over the years, neuroscientists have focused on feedforward and local connections, amassing a wealth of information on the purpose of these signals. However, the functional role of feedback connections remains a mystery, despite their sheer abundance and prevalence when compared to feedforward connections. The field has long hypothesized that feedback acts as a conduit for attentional signals, carrying them throughout the brain. Previous work on this topic has been variable. Though cognitively demanding neural processes, like attention, have traditionally …

The Impact Of Focused Attention And Opening Monitoring Meditation Styles On Attention, Jennifer Wheary

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mindfulness meditation – often broken down into two distinct types, focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM) – has been associated with a range of affective and attentional benefits. Using an attentional blink (AB) paradigm that demonstrated improved attention for novice FA meditators, we explored whether novices who engaged in a single, brief bout of meditation exhibited any differences in alpha or theta power during meditation, and whether these differences were apparent by meditation type. In the AB paradigm, participants are asked to identify two targets, T1 and T2, which are separated by 200-500 ms. Our results showed no significant …

Classical Conditioning Of Cognitive States, Arthur Burns

Neuroscience Honors Papers

Classical conditioning has been a fundamental concept and practice throughout the history of psychology. While classical conditioning traditionally seeks to elicit target behaviors in correlation to specific stimuli, we sought to do the same with cognitive states in place of behaviors. Specifically, we wanted to determine the effectiveness of conditioning states of cognitive arousal in human participants in conjunction with cues presented in a designed learning task. We designed a cognitive task specifically for this research, referred to as “the Tone Pitching Task”, which utilized a combination of working memory and mental processing in order to elicit cognitive arousal and …

Are Neuronal Mechanisms Of Attentional Modulation Universal Across Human Sensory And Motor Brain Maps?, Edgar A. Deyoe, Wendy E. Huddleston, Adam S. Greenberg

Kinesiology Faculty Articles

One's experience of shifting attention from the color to the smell to the act of picking a flower seems like a unitary process applied, at will, to one modality after another. Yet, the unique experience of sight vs smell vs movement might suggest that the neural mechanisms of attention have been selectively optimized to employ each modality to greatest advantage. Relevant experimental data can be difficult to compare across modalities due to design and methodological heterogeneity. Here we outline some of the issues related to this problem and suggest how experimental data can be obtained across modalities using more uniform …

The Giver: Vision & Memory, Alexander J. Dontre

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

A memory hole is the banishment of problematic thoughts. We exile that which we prefer not to exist. Enter the perilous Memory Hole: The Psychology of Dystopia, to explore a legion of social and psychological themes through the lens of dystopian literature. The crushing fist of 1984 annihilating thoughts from existence as a means of persuasion. The exquisite seduction of addiction as an agent of control in Brave New World. Incineration of the written word to bask in the embers of peace of mind in Fahrenheit 451. Each chapter weaves in and out of the dystopian realms forged …

Working Memory Task Performance In Children With Sli: A Behavioral And Erp Study, Megan V. Mcveety

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In addition to language deficits, children with Specific Language Impairment often show deficits in tests of various aspects of working memory, including capacity, updating, and selective attention. The purpose of the present study is to examine the specific drivers of differences in working memory processing in 8–11 year-old children with and without SLI using behavioral and electrophysiological measures. Participants completed an n-back task with three working memory load conditions (0-back, 1-back, 2-back), with the addition of distractor trials at the 1-back and 2-back levels. The SLI group performed significantly less accurately across all task conditions. The children with SLI also …

The Effect Of A Mindfulness-Based Intervention On Attention And Cognitive Control As A Function Of Smartphone Notifications., Joshua D. Upshaw

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Barriers to accessing mobile technology, particularly smartphones, have decreased substantially since the iPhone’s release in 2007, resulting in increased ownership and usage across all ages, genders, and races. Despite their ubiquity in our society, relatively little empirical work has investigated the influence of smartphones on our higher order executive functioning. Prior work has linked smartphone use with impaired cognitive control during cognitively demanding tasks, especially in heavier smartphone users. The goals of the current study were twofold. First, the study aimed to examine the effects of smartphone notifications on cognitive control and attention. And second, to determine the effects of …

Cerebellum-Seeded Functional Connectivity Changes In Trait-Anxious Individuals Undergoing Attention Bias Modification Training, Katherine Elwell

All NMU Master's Theses

Anxiety and anxiety related disorders are increasing at a drastic rate in the past decade, with the NIMH reporting that 31.1% of U.S. adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. Anxiety is commonly characterized by increased attention bias to threat. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) is a new treatment used to reduce individual’s attention bias towards threat. The extent to which ABM leads to underlying neural changes is still unknown. The cerebellum is a neglected brain structure, with new research provides evidence that cerebellum’s functional connectivity and shared networks with threat processing regions has a direct …

An Information Theoretic Approach To Characterizing The Attention Shifts In The Fruit Fly During Flight, Nicholas A. Palermo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To successfully navigate the complex visual world, animals must extract relevant information from the deluge of light-carried signals that arrive at their eyes. Early vision filters are passive, energy-saving gates that block out irrelevant signals. The remaining incoming signals are then subject to active filtering by visual attention systems which are energetically expensive, especially for smaller animals, which are subject to similar survival challenges as larger animals.

Among visual behaviors performed by insects, flight stabilization demands one of the highest rates of information uptake. Flying insects must quickly respond to flight disturbances to avoid navigation errors and collisions. Active flight …

Where To Draw The Line: Evaluating Visuospatial And Attentional Processing In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Alisha Steigerwald

University Honors Theses

Objective: We investigated visuospatial processing in individuals with autism using bisection and quadrisection tasks to evaluate the presence of a possible downward vertical spatial bias that could provide insights into the preference for attending to the mouth in ASD populations.

Methods: Twenty participants with ASD and 20 age, IQ, and sex-matched control participants were recruited (ages 6-23). Participants were asked to bisect, quadrisect from the top, and quadrisect from the bottom vertical lines placed in their left, center, and right visual spaces. Distance from the true midpoint and quadripoint were calculated and compared between the two groups.

Results: No significant …

Examining The Transient Neural Dynamics Underlying Working Memory Maintenance For Complex Visual Stimuli, Chelsea Reichert Plaska

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Working memory (WM) is the temporary storage of information to accomplish a future goal. The WM delay period is the time after encoding but before retrieval when information is being maintained, typically in the absence of relevant stimuli. Understanding how the brain supports maintenance during the delay period, and how neural activity and connectivity are related to memory is critical for advancing both basic knowledge as well as informing declines in memory and cognition related to neurodegenerative diseases and healthy aging. An open question in the field of WM research is how information is stored during this delay period. One …

Mental Imagery In The Regulation Of Differential Fear Conditioning: A Multimodal Investigation Involving Self-Report, Psychophysiology, And Brain Imaging, Tyler Daniel Robinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mental imagery is a common component in a range of emotion regulation techniques. However, the effectiveness and neural mechanisms of regulation via mental imagery are underexplored due to a lack of studies targeting mental imagery specifically. This discrepancy results in uncertainty regarding the mechanism of regulation in existing paradigms. Biased competition for attentional resources presents a plausible model by which a mental imagery-based distracter can downregulate response to an emotional stimulus. If visualizing an imagined distracter effectively regulates emotional response, the inclusion of mental imagery components in other techniques represents a potential confound. To address this discrepancy, this dissertation investigates …

Rhythm Of The Night: Brain Activity And Performance On A Sustained Attention Task Is Modulated By Circadian Typology And Time Of Day, Carly R. Cooper

Honors Thesis

The human circadian system plays an important role in biological and psychological processes in both health and disease. Circadian typology refers to individual differences in circadian rhythm and is categorized into three general chronotypes: morning, evening, and neither. Research suggests that an individual’s diurnal preference may be associated with differences in cognitive abilities, personality traits, and incidence of psychiatric disorders. In the present study, we utilized a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) and an electroencephalogram (EEG) in a desynchrony protocol. Morning-type and evening-type participants completed a SART task on two separate occasions during which brain activity was recorded. This …

Mental Fatigue: Examining Cognitive Performance And Driving Behavior In Young Adults, Abigail F. Helm

Doctoral Dissertations

Mental fatigue causes an increase in task-based EEG theta and alpha power and a decrease in performance (for a review, see Tran et al., 2020). However, little is known about the emergence of mental fatigue in resting state EEG recordings and whether the progression of mental fatigue over time is influenced by individual differences. The current dissertation examined the utility of resting state EEG as a measure of mental fatigue by testing whether EEG power changed in young adults over the course of a cognitively demanding battery of tasks. The current dissertation also tested how this measure of mental fatigue …

Learned But Not Distracting: Low-Value Stimuli And Value-Driven Attentional Capture, John Albanese

Senior Theses and Projects

Stimuli previously associated with reward slow response times (RTs) when presented as irrelevant distractors in subsequent, unrewarded tasks (value driven attentional capture, VDAC). Typical VDAC training requires search for one of two experimentally-determined, colored circles and an orientation judgement of a line inside the color-defined target. Reward follows correct responses, associating high- or low-value with specific colors. Distractors rendered in high-value colors consistently slow RTs in an unrewarded test phase, an outcome that is rarely observed for low-value colors. Might this be due to a failure to adequately learn the reward contingencies during training? 22 observers underwent a modified training …

Effects Of Mindfulness Meditation On Selective, Sustained Attention, Brain Neural Oscillations, And Short-Term Memory, Anamaria Guzman

Honors Theses

The following extended literature review and research proposal study started initially as a complete research proposal but, due to the challenges COVID-19 has brought, it has become a stand-alone piece of work without data collection. The goal is to synthesize a broad range of literature and previous research on mindfulness meditation and its effects on attention, memory, and brain activity and thus, offering a new perspective and a proposed research path on this subject. This proposed research study, besides previous studies, indicates that mindfulness meditation is expected to improve and enhance selective and sustained attention, which results in better attentional …

Caffeine Modulation Of Attention And Focus In Task Performance, Claudia R. Berger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Caffeine has been a heavily researched drug for decades given its prevalence in global consumption, as well as its large impacts on metabolic and executive function research alike. The present study aims to combine a behavioral study (Experiment 1) with a feasibility study (Experiment 2) to test the impacts of variable caffeine consumption on task performance. For both studies, participants filled out a questionnaire regarding caffeine use. Experiment 1 examined whether caffeine modulated attention in an online behavioral task in which participants were asked to identify a target (e.g., female “ahpa”). Participants were tested twice once after consuming 12 ounces …

Cognitive Abilities In Hearing Loss: Perceived And Performance Abilities Of Adults Related To Attention, Memory, And Social Cognition, Karah Gottschalk

Theses and Dissertations--Gerontology

Hearing loss is the most common sensory deficit noted in aging adults. It is commonly known to reduce an individual’s ability to detect, identify, and localize sounds and speech and to cause issues in communication. However, there are other less commonly discussed impacts that hearing loss has beyond the auditory system. Literature suggests a correlation between hearing loss and cognition in aging adults. Similar to hearing loss, the domains of cognition experience performance and functional changes across the life span. In an aging adult, changes related to cognition are also suggested to be associated with hearing loss. This study aimed …

The Effects Of 17alpha-Hydroxyprogesterone Caproate On The Development Of The Mesocortical Dopamine Pathway And Cognitive Behavior, Melanie Lolier

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examined the complex developmental impact of the clinically relevant synthetic progestin 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17-OHPC) on medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) development. In rodents, the effects of 17-OHPC are subtle, but significant. In the Chapter II, we observed that 17-OHPC abolishes sex differences in dopaminergic fiber innervation and alters microglia phenotype in the prelimbic and infralimbic areas by the end of the first postnatal week. In the third chapter, the overall effect of 17-OHPC on the ontogeny of dopaminergic fiber innervation and synaptic bouton density were used to characterize the timing and duration of treatment effects in the mPFC. In …

The Impact Of Emotional Information On Task Performance In Unimodal Vs. Cross-Modal Paradigms, Emma K. Stewart

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Emotional stimuli can disrupt or enhance task performance, and this may depend on the sensory modality involved. In unimodal paradigms (e.g. visual task-irrelevant stimuli during a visual task) emotional stimuli frequently produce distraction effects; it is unclear how emotion affects task performance in cross-modal paradigms (e.g. auditory stimuli during a visual task). This project explored task performance as a function of sensory modality and emotional valence. In Study 1, participants (N=50) completed a visual task in the presence of task-irrelevant negative and neutral images and sounds. Response times and accuracy were disrupted in the presence of visual but not auditory …

Olfaction Modulates Inter-Subject Correlation Of Neural Responses, Paul Deguzman, Anshul Jain, Matthias H. Tabert, Lucas C. Parra

Publications and Research

Odors can be powerful stimulants. It is well-established that odors provide strong cues for recall of locations, people and events. The effects of specific scents on other cognitive functions are less well-established. We hypothesized that scents with different odor qualities will have a different effect on attention. To assess attention, we used Inter-Subject Correlation of the EEG because this metric is strongly modulated by attentional engagement with natural audiovisual stimuli.We predicted that scents known to be “energizing” would increase Inter-Subject Correlation during watching of videos as compared to “calming” scents. In a first experiment, we confirmed this for eucalyptol and …

Exploring Effects Of Background Music In A Serious Game On Attention By Means Of Eeg Signals In Children, Fettah Kiran

LSU Master's Theses

Music and Serious Games are separately useful alternative therapy methods for helping people with a cognitive disorder, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The goal of this thesis is to explore the effect of background music on children with and without ADHD. In this study, a simple Tetris game is designed with Beethoven, Mozart music, and no-music. There are different brainwave techniques for recording; among others, the electroencephalography (EEG) allows for the most efficient use of BCI. We recorded the EEG brain signals of the regular and ADHD subjects who played the Tetris we designed according to our protocol that …