scholarly journals Cortical state fluctuations during sensory decision making

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elina A. K. Jacobs ◽  
Nicholas A. Steinmetz ◽  
Matteo Carandini ◽  
Kenneth D. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Task Engagement ◽  
Sensory Cortex ◽  
Auditory Task

Neocortical activity varies between states of “synchronization” and “desynchronization”, with desynchronized states believed to occur specifically in regions engaged by the task. To disambiguate whether desynchronization is linked to task performance or engagement, we trained mice on tasks in which incorrect responses due to disengagement (neglect) differed from inaccurate task performance (incorrect choices). Using widefield calcium imaging to measure cortical state across many areas simultaneously, we found that desynchronization was correlated with engagement rather than accuracy. Consistent with this link between desynchronization and engagement, we found that rewards had a long-lasting desynchronizing effect. To determine whether engagement-related changes in cortical state depended on the sensory modality, we trained mice on visual and auditory task versions and found that desynchronization was similar in both and more pronounced in somatomotor than either sensory cortex. We conclude that variations in cortical state are predominately global and closely relate to variations in task engagement.

Age-Related Differences in Motivational Integration and Cognitive Control

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Marianne Yee ◽  
Sarah L Adams ◽  
Asad Beck ◽  
Todd Samuel Braver
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Monetary Reward ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cognitive Task Performance

Motivational incentives play an influential role in value-based decision-making and cognitive control. A compelling hypothesis in the literature suggests that the brain integrates the motivational value of diverse incentives (e.g., motivational integration) into a common currency value signal that influences decision-making and behavior. To investigate whether motivational integration processes change during healthy aging, we tested older (N=44) and younger (N=54) adults in an innovative incentive integration task paradigm that establishes dissociable and additive effects of liquid (e.g., juice, neutral, saltwater) and monetary incentives on cognitive task performance. The results reveal that motivational incentives improve cognitive task performance in both older and younger adults, providing novel evidence demonstrating that age-related cognitive control deficits can be ameliorated with sufficient incentive motivation. Additional analyses revealed clear age-related differences in motivational integration. Younger adult task performance was modulated by both monetary and liquid incentives, whereas monetary reward effects were more gradual in older adults and more strongly impacted by trial-by-trial performance feedback. A surprising discovery was that older adults shifted attention from liquid valence toward monetary reward throughout task performance, but younger adults shifted attention from monetary reward toward integrating both monetary reward and liquid valence by the end of the task, suggesting differential strategic utilization of incentives. Together these data suggest that older adults may have impairments in incentive integration, and employ different motivational strategies to improve cognitive task performance. The findings suggest potential candidate neural mechanisms that may serve as the locus of age-related change, providing targets for future cognitive neuroscience investigations.

scholarly journals Confidence boosts serial dependence in orientation estimation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Samaha ◽  
Missy Switzky ◽  
Bradley R. Postle
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Signal Quality ◽  
Serial Dependence ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Subjective Estimate ◽  
Subjective Confidence ◽  
Internal Signal ◽  
Normative Models ◽  
Subjective Estimates

AbstractIn the absence of external feedback, a decision maker must rely on a subjective estimate of their decision accuracy in order to appropriately guide behavior. Normative models of perceptual decision making relate subjective estimates of internal signal quality (e.g. confidence) directly to the internal signal quality itself, thereby making it unknowable whether the subjective estimate or the underlying signal is what drives behavior. We constructed stimuli that dissociated human observer’s performance on a visual estimation task from their subjective estimates of confidence in their performance, thus violating normative principles. To understand whether confidence influences future decision making, we examined serial dependence in observer’s responses, a phenomenon whereby the estimate of a stimulus on the current trial can be biased towards the stimulus from the previous trial. We found that when decisions were made with high confidence, they conferred stronger biases upon the following trial, suggesting that confidence may enhance serial dependence. Critically, this finding was true also when confidence was experimentally dissociated from task performance, indicating that subjective confidence, independent of signal quality, can amplify serial dependence. These findings demonstrate an effect of confidence on future behavior, independent of task performance, and suggest that perceptual decisions incorporate recent history in an uncertainty-weighted manner, but where the uncertainty carried forward is a subjectively estimated and possibly suboptimal readout of objective sensory uncertainty.

Unraveling What’s on Our Minds

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire M. Zedelius ◽  
Jonathan W. Schooler
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Positive Mood ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Different Types ◽  
And Behavior

Mind-wandering encompasses a variety of different types of thought, involving various different experiential qualities, emotions, and cognitive processes. Much is lost by simply lumping them together, as is typically done in the literature. The goal of this chapter is to explore the nuances that distinguish different types of mind-wandering. The chapter draws on research on mind-wandering as well as other literatures to gain a better understanding of how these different types of mind-wandering affect cognition and behavior. It specifically discusses the distinct effects of different types of mind-wandering on task performance, working memory, mood, and creativity. Finally, the chapter discusses the idea of deliberate engagement in particular types of mind-wandering as a way to achieve desirable outcomes, such as maintaining a positive mood, enhancing creativity, or aiding decision-making.

scholarly journals Task-driven intra- and interarea communications in primate cerebral cortex

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (15) ◽  
pp. 4761-4766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrià Tauste Campo ◽  
Marina Martinez-Garcia ◽  
Verónica Nácher ◽  
Rogelio Luna ◽  
Ranulfo Romo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Bayesian Method ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Spike Trains ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Secondary Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Binary Time Series ◽  
Primate Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Motor Areas

Neural correlations during a cognitive task are central to study brain information processing and computation. However, they have been poorly analyzed due to the difficulty of recording simultaneous single neurons during task performance. In the present work, we quantified neural directional correlations using spike trains that were simultaneously recorded in sensory, premotor, and motor cortical areas of two monkeys during a somatosensory discrimination task. Upon modeling spike trains as binary time series, we used a nonparametric Bayesian method to estimate pairwise directional correlations between many pairs of neurons throughout different stages of the task, namely, perception, working memory, decision making, and motor report. We find that solving the task involves feedforward and feedback correlation paths linking sensory and motor areas during certain task intervals. Specifically, information is communicated by task-driven neural correlations that are significantly delayed across secondary somatosensory cortex, premotor, and motor areas when decision making takes place. Crucially, when sensory comparison is no longer requested for task performance, a major proportion of directional correlations consistently vanish across all cortical areas.

The Impact of Auditory Task Complexity on Primary Task Performance in Military Land Vehicle Crew

2014 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 2185-2189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G Lenné ◽  
Benjamin L Hoggan ◽  
Justin Fidock ◽  
Geoff Stuart ◽  
Eugene Aidman
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Auditory Task ◽  
Land Vehicle ◽  
The Impact

Baseball Players’ Eye Movements and Higher Coincident-Timing Task Performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 127 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-586
Author(s):  
Ikumi Tochikura ◽  
Daisuke Sato ◽  
Daiki Imoto ◽  
Atsuo Nuruki ◽  
Koya Yamashiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Absolute Error ◽  
Visual Information Processing ◽  
Baseball Players ◽  
Mobile Targets ◽  
Timing Task

Previous studies have reported that baseball players have higher than average visual information processing abilities and outstanding motor control. The speed and position of the baseball and the batter are constantly changing, leading skilled players to acquire highly accurate visual information processing and decision-making. This study sought to clarify how movement of the eyes is associated with baseball players’ higher coincident-timing task performance. We recruited 15 right-handed baseball players and 15 age-matched track and field athletes. On a computer-based coincident-timing task, we instructed participants to stop a computer image of a moving target by pressing a button at a designated point. We presented bidirectional moving targets with various velocities, presented in a random order. The targets’ moving angular velocity varied between 100, 83, 71, 63, 56, 50, and 46 deg/s. We conducted 168 repetitions (42 reps × 4 sets) of this coincident-timing task and measured participants’ eye movements during the task using Pupil Centre Corneal Reflection. Mixed-design analysis of variance results revealed participant group effects in favor of baseball players for timing absolute error and low absolute error, as predicted from prior visual processing and decision-making research with baseball players. However, in contrast to prior research, we found significantly shorter smooth-pursuit onset latency in elite baseball players, and there were no significant group differences for saccade onset and offset latencies. This may be explained by the difference in our research paradigm with mobile targets randomly presented at various velocities from the left and right. Our data showed baseball players’ higher than normal simultaneous timing execution for making decisions and movements based on visual information, even under laboratory conditions with randomly moving mobile targets.

Demonstration of Training and Process Support Capabilities for Bridging the Gap between Systems Engineering and Cognitive Engineering

2007 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 494-498
Author(s):  
Jon Holbrook ◽  
Emily Muthard Stelzer ◽  
Adam Darowski ◽  
Zachary Horn ◽  
Rebecca Grier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Systems Engineering ◽  
Cognitive Engineering ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Process Support

The systems engineering and cognitive engineering communities both offer processes and methods that must be jointly used to design tools and technologies that can effectively and efficiently support task performance. Unfortunately, these groups have not effectively integrated their approaches. To begin to bridge the gap between systems engineers and cognitive engineers, we have developed The Resource for Applied Cognitive Engineering and Systems Engineering (TRACE-SE). TRACE-SE is a web-based tool designed for both cognitive and systems engineers to provide the information needed to create and support awareness and understanding of the processes and methods used by both the cognitive and systems engineering communities and to facilitate communication between these two groups. Using the TRACE-SE tool, both communities will better understand how to use their respective processes in order to develop systems that support superior decision making, improved safety, and greater operator productivity.

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