scholarly journals Probing the causal role of prestimulus interregional synchrony for perceptual integration via tACS

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolandas Stonkus ◽  
Verena Braun ◽  
Jess R. Kerlin ◽  
Gregor Volberg ◽  
Simon Hanslmayr
Keyword(s):  
Causal Role ◽  
Perceptual Integration

scholarly journals Probing the causal role of prestimulus interregional synchrony for perceptual integration via tACS

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolandas Stonkus ◽  
Verena Braun ◽  
Jess Kerlin ◽  
Gregor Volberg ◽  
Simon Hanslmayr
Keyword(s):  
Specific Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Perceptual Integration ◽  
After Effects ◽  
Activity Phase ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

The phase of prestimulus oscillations at 7-10 Hz has been shown to modulate perception of briefly presented visual stimuli. Specifically, a recent combined EEG-fMRI study suggested that a prestimulus oscillation at around 7 Hz represents open and closed windows for perceptual integration by modulating connectivity between lower order occipital and higher order parietal brain regions. We here utilized brief event-related transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to specifically modulate this prestimulus 7 Hz oscillation, and the synchrony between parietal and occipital brain regions. To this end we tested for a causal role of this particular prestimulus oscillation for perceptual integration. The EEG was acquired at the same time allowing us to investigate frequency specific after effects phase-locked to stimulation offset. On a behavioural level our results suggest that the tACS did modulate perceptual integration, however, in an unexpected manner. On an electrophysiological level our results suggest that brief tACS does induce oscillatory entrainment, as visible in frequency specific activity phase-locked to stimulation offset. Together, our results do not strongly support a causal role of prestimulus 7 Hz oscillations for perceptual integration. However, our results suggest that brief tACS is capable of modulating oscillatory activity in a temporally sensitive manner.

Do Writing Directions Influence How People Map Space onto Time?

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Wenxing Yang ◽  
Ying Sun
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Temporal Cognition ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Vertical Up

Abstract. The causal role of a unidirectional orthography in shaping speakers’ mental representations of time seems to be well established by many psychological experiments. However, the question of whether bidirectional writing systems in some languages can also produce such an impact on temporal cognition remains unresolved. To address this issue, the present study focused on Japanese and Taiwanese, both of which have a similar mix of texts written horizontally from left to right (HLR) and vertically from top to bottom (VTB). Two experiments were performed which recruited Japanese and Taiwanese speakers as participants. Experiment 1 used an explicit temporal arrangement design, and Experiment 2 measured implicit space-time associations in participants along the horizontal (left/right) and the vertical (up/down) axis. Converging evidence gathered from the two experiments demonstrate that neither Japanese speakers nor Taiwanese speakers aligned their vertical representations of time with the VTB writing orientation. Along the horizontal axis, only Japanese speakers encoded elapsing time into a left-to-right linear layout, which was commensurate with the HLR writing direction. Therefore, two distinct writing orientations of a language could not bring about two coexisting mental time lines. Possible theoretical implications underlying the findings are discussed.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Evan Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Agent Causation ◽  
The Right

This chapter lays out the book’s central question: Assuming agency reductionism—that is, the thesis that the causal role of the agent in all agential activities is reducible to the causal role of states and events involving the agent—is it possible to construct a defensible model of libertarianism? It is explained that most think the answer is negative and this is because they think libertarians must embrace some form of agent-causation in order to address the problems of luck and enhanced control. The thesis of the book is that these philosophers are mistaken: it is possible to construct a libertarian model of free will and moral responsibility within an agency reductionist framework that silences that central objections to libertarianism by simply taking the best compatibilist model of freedom and adding indeterminism in the right junctures of human agency. A brief summary of the chapters to follow is given.

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