Pre‐stimulus alpha oscillation and post‐stimulus cortical activity differ in localization between consciously perceived and missed near‐threshold somatosensory stimuli

Faculty Opinions recommendation of Thalamo-cortical processing of near-threshold somatosensory stimuli in humans.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.1283956.751054 ◽

2009 ◽

Author(s):

S Murray Sherman ◽

Brian Theyel

Keyword(s):

Cortical Processing ◽

Somatosensory Stimuli ◽

Near Threshold

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Interactions between cardiac activity and conscious somatosensory perception

10.1101/529636 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Paweł Motyka ◽

Martin Grund ◽

Norman Forschack ◽

Esra Al ◽

Arno Villringer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Cardiac Cycle ◽

Physiological State ◽

Cardiac Activity ◽

The Body ◽

Cardiac Deceleration ◽

Electrical Pulses ◽

Somatosensory Stimuli ◽

External Stimuli ◽

Near Threshold

AbstractFluctuations in the heart’s activity can modulate the access of external stimuli to consciousness. The link between perceptual awareness and cardiac signals has been investigated mainly in the visual and auditory domain. We here investigated whether the phase of the cardiac cycle and the pre-stimulus heart rate influence conscious somatosensory perception. We also tested how conscious detection of somatosensory stimuli affects the heart rate. Electrocardiograms (ECG) of 33 healthy volunteers were recorded while applying near-threshold electrical pulses at a fixed intensity to the left index finger. Conscious detection was not uniformly distributed across the cardiac cycle but significantly higher in diastole than in systole. We found no evidence that the heart rate before a stimulus influenced its detection but hits (correctly detected somatosensory stimuli) led to a more pronounced cardiac deceleration than misses. Our findings demonstrate interactions between cardiac activity and conscious somatosensory perception, which highlights the importance of internal bodily states for sensory processing beyond the auditory and visual domain.Impact StatementIt is highly debated to what extent cardiac activity modulates the access of external stimuli to consciousness. The evidence is inconsistent across sensory modalities and previous research focused at specific intervals within the cardiac cycle. Here, we examined the perception of near-threshold electrical pulses across the entire cardiac cycle. Our results show that conscious somatosensory perception is enhanced during the late phase of the cardiac cycle (at diastole) and associated with a more pronounced cardiac deceleration (as compared to non-detected stimuli). This strengthens the evidence that the physiological state of the body influences how we perceive the world.

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Thalamo-cortical processing of near-threshold somatosensory stimuli in humans

European Journal of Neuroscience ◽

10.1111/j.1460-9568.2009.06970.x ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 30 (9) ◽

pp. 1815-1822 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Fabian Klostermann ◽

Michael Wahl ◽

Jesko Schomann ◽

Andreas Kupsch ◽

Gabriel Curio ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cortical Processing ◽

Somatosensory Stimuli ◽

Near Threshold

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Hearing in Mice via GSR Audiometry

Journal of Speech and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.0604.359 ◽

1963 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 359-368 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Charles I. Berlin

Keyword(s):

Inverse Relationship ◽

Sound Pressure ◽

Single Units ◽

Sensitivity Curve ◽

Basic Tool ◽

Eighth Nerve ◽

Pure Tones ◽

Conditioned Responses ◽

Frequency Intensity ◽

Near Threshold

Hearing in mice has been difficult to measure behaviorally. With GSR as the basic tool, the sensitivity curve to pure tones in mice has been successfully outlined. The most sensitive frequency-intensity combination was 15 000 cps at 0-5 dB re: 0.0002 dyne/cm 2 , with responses noted from 1 000 to beyond 70 000 cps. Some problems of reliability of conditioning were encountered, as well as findings concerning the inverse relationship between the size of GSR to unattenuated tones and the sound pressure necessary to elicit conditioned responses at or near threshold. These data agree well with the sensitivity of single units of the eighth nerve of the mouse.

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Time course and topography of lateralised cortical activity due to preparation and execution of saccades

Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology ◽

10.1016/s0013-4694(97)88437-8 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 103 (1) ◽

pp. 103

Author(s):

B Wauschkuhn

Keyword(s):

Time Course ◽

Cortical Activity

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Reaction Time and Brain Waves in Omitted Stimulus Tasks

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000001 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 1-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Oscar H. Hernández ◽

Muriel Vogel-Sprott

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Young Male ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Auditory Stimuli ◽

Motor Action ◽

Cognitive Component ◽

Sensory Modalities ◽

Two Measures ◽

Somatosensory Stimuli

A missing stimulus task requires an immediate response to the omission of a regular recurrent stimulus. The task evokes a subclass of event-related potential known as omitted stimulus potential (OSP), which reflects some cognitive processes such as expectancy. The behavioral response to a missing stimulus is referred to as omitted stimulus reaction time (RT). This total RT measure is known to include cognitive and motor components. The cognitive component (premotor RT) is measured by the time from the missing stimulus until the onset of motor action. The motor RT component is measured by the time from the onset of muscle action until the completion of the response. Previous research showed that RT is faster to auditory than to visual stimuli, and that the premotor of RT to a missing auditory stimulus is correlated with the duration of an OSP. Although this observation suggests that similar cognitive processes might underlie these two measures, no research has tested this possibility. If similar cognitive processes are involved in the premotor RT and OSP duration, these two measures should be correlated in visual and somatosensory modalities, and the premotor RT to missing auditory stimuli should be fastest. This hypothesis was tested in 17 young male volunteers who performed a missing stimulus task, who were presented with trains of auditory, visual, and somatosensory stimuli and the OSP and RT measures were recorded. The results showed that premotor RT and OSP duration were consistently related, and that both measures were shorter with respect to auditory stimuli than to visual or somatosensory stimuli. This provides the first evidence that the premotor RT is related to an attribute of the OSP in all three sensory modalities.

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