Neural Representations of Task Context and Temporal Order During Action Sequence Execution

Task dependence of neural representations of global scene properties but not scene categories in the prefrontal cortex

10.1101/2020.12.04.412445 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yaelan Jung ◽

Dirk B. Walther

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Visual Cortex ◽

Scene Perception ◽

Sound Level ◽

Task Context ◽

Complex Scene ◽

Neural Representations ◽

Task Conditions ◽

Scene Content ◽

The Brain

AbstractNatural scenes deliver rich sensory information about the world. Decades of research has shown that the scene-selective network in the visual cortex represents various aspects of scenes. It is, however, unknown how such complex scene information is processed beyond the visual cortex, such as in the prefrontal cortex. It is also unknown how task context impacts the process of scene perception, modulating which scene content is represented in the brain. In this study, we investigate these questions using scene images from four natural scene categories, which also depict two types of global scene properties, temperature (warm or cold), and sound-level (noisy or quiet). A group of healthy human subjects from both sexes participated in the present study using fMRI. In the study, participants viewed scene images under two different task conditions; temperature judgment and sound-level judgment. We analyzed how different scene attributes (scene categories, temperature, and sound-level information) are represented across the brain under these task conditions. Our findings show that global scene properties are only represented in the brain, especially in the prefrontal cortex, when they are task-relevant. However, scene categories are represented in the brain, in both the parahippocampal place area and the prefrontal cortex, regardless of task context. These findings suggest that the prefrontal cortex selectively represents scene content according to task demands, but this task selectivity depends on the types of scene content; task modulates neural representations of global scene properties but not of scene categories.

Download Full-text

Temporal-order judgement task suggests chronological action representations in motor experts and non-experts

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021820936982 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 73 (11) ◽

pp. 1879-1890

Author(s):

Róisín Elaine Harrison ◽

Martin Giesel ◽

Constanze Hesse

Keyword(s):

Temporal Order ◽

Human Action ◽

Natural Order ◽

Action Sequence ◽

Motor Expertise ◽

Motor Priming ◽

Human Movements ◽

Action Sequences ◽

Temporal Order Judgement ◽

Tentative Evidence

Motor priming studies have suggested that human movements are mentally represented in the order in which they usually occur (i.e., chronologically). In this study, we investigated whether we could find evidence for these chronological representations using a paradigm which has frequently been employed to reveal biases in the perceived temporal order of events—the temporal-order judgement task. We used scrambled and unscrambled images of early and late movement phases from an everyday action sequence (“stepping”) and an expert action sequence (“sprinting”) to examine whether participants’ mental representations of actions would bias their temporal-order judgements. In addition, we explored whether motor expertise mediated the size of temporal-order judgement biases by comparing the performances of sprinting experts with those of non-experts. For both action types, we found significant temporal-order judgement biases for all participants, indicating that there was a tendency to perceive images of human action sequences in their natural order, independent of motor expertise. Although there was no clear evidence that sprinting experts showed larger biases for sprinting action sequences than non-experts, considering sports expertise in a broader sense provided some tentative evidence for the idea that temporal-order judgement biases may be mediated by more general motor and/or perceptual familiarity with the running action rather than specific motor expertise.

Download Full-text

Perturbing neural representations of working memory with task-irrelevant interruption

10.1101/716613 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Nicole Hakim ◽

Tobias Feldmann-Wüstefeld ◽

Edward Awh ◽

Edward K. Vogel

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Cognitive Tasks ◽

Alpha Power ◽

Task Context ◽

Neural Representations ◽

Task Irrelevant ◽

The Impact ◽

Neural Signatures

AbstractWorking memory maintains information so that it can be used in complex cognitive tasks. A key challenge for this system is to maintain relevant information in the face of task-irrelevant perturbations. In this series of experiments, we investigated the impact of task-irrelevant interruptions on neural representations of working memory. We recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) activity in humans while they performed a working memory task. On a subset of trials, we interrupted participants with salient, but task-irrelevant objects. To track the impact of these task-irrelevant interruptions on neural representations of working memory, we measured two well-characterized, temporally sensitive EEG markers that reflect active, prioritized working memory representations: the contralateral delay activity (CDA) and lateralized alpha power (8-12hz). Following interruption, we found that CDA momentarily sustained, but was gone by the end of the trial. Lateralized alpha power was immediately influenced by the interrupters, but recovered by the end of the trial. This suggests that dissociable neural processes contribute to the maintenance of working memory information. Additionally, we found that task expectancy modulated the timing and magnitude of how these two neural signals responded to task-irrelevant interruptions, suggesting that the brain’s response to task-irrelevant interruption is shaped by task context. The distinct time courses of and influence of task context on these two neural signatures of working memory have many interesting theoretical implications about how information is actively maintained in working memory.Significance statementWorking memory plays a central role in intelligent behaviors because it actively maintains relevant information that is easily accessible and manipulatable. In everyday life, we are often interrupted while performing such complex cognitive tasks. Therefore, understanding how working memory responds to and overcomes momentary task-irrelevant interruptions is critical for us to understand how complex cognition works. Here, we unveil how two distinct neural signatures of working memory respond to task-irrelevant interruptions by recording electroencephalogram activity in humans. Our findings raise long-standing theoretical questions about how different neural and cognitive processes contribute to the maintenance of information in working memory.

Download Full-text

Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) and P300 Are Sensitive to Temporal-Order Violation in Transitive Action Representation

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000128 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Michela Balconi ◽

Ylenia Canavesio

Keyword(s):

Temporal Order ◽

Temporal Structure ◽

Cognitive Model ◽

Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽

Order Effect ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Action Sequence ◽

Four Frames ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

Action Context

Coherent representation of action sequences implies that the logical temporal order of each action can be correctly represented. Violation of this logical order may induce a sort of expectancies disruption of the temporal structure. Thus the present study explored the event-related potential (ERP) effect related to the cortical response to this violation. Action sequence composed by four frames with final congruous or incongruous endings was submitted to 28 subjects. Two distinct ERP effects, feedback-related negativity (FRN), and P300, were found in response to incongruous endings, with also significant increased RTs. The functional significance of these two ERP deflections was related respectively to the perception of an erroneous action outcome as the ending of an illogical sequence (FRN) and to the necessity to updating the relationship action-context by changing the cognitive model which supports the cognitive expectancies (P300). The significant correlation between the RTs and the ERP measures, especially in case of FRN effect, supported this interpretation. Indeed increased cognitive costs are supposed in case of expectancies violations which require further processes of reanalysis of the coherence between the action and the background (the temporal background) where the action was produced. Two different cortical localizations were found for FRN and P300, respectively a more fronto-central (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and posterior (superior temporal gyrus) site. The significance of these results for the temporal order effect for action comprehension was discussed.

Download Full-text

Learning to select actions shapes recurrent dynamics in the corticostriatal system

10.1101/646141 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Christian D. Márton ◽

Simon R. Schultz ◽

Bruno B. Averbeck

Keyword(s):

Sequence Learning ◽

Neural Circuit ◽

Dorsal Striatum ◽

Learning Task ◽

System Support ◽

Action Sequence ◽

Neural Data ◽

Neural Representations ◽

Key Aspects ◽

Key Nodes

AbstractLearning to select appropriate actions based on their values is fundamental to adaptive behavior. This form of learning is supported by fronto-striatal systems. The dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the dorsal striatum (dSTR), which are strongly interconnected, are key nodes in this circuitry. Substantial experimental evidence, including neurophysiological recordings, have shown that neurons in these structures represent key aspects of learning. The computational mechanisms that shape the neurophysiological responses, however, are not clear. To examine this, we developed a recurrent neural network (RNN) model of the dlPFC-dSTR circuit and trained it on an oculomotor sequence learning task. We compared the activity generated by the model to activity recorded from monkey dlPFC and dSTR in the same task. This network consisted of a striatal component which encoded action values, and a prefrontal component which selected appropriate actions. After training, this system was able to autonomously represent and update action values and select actions, thus being able to closely approximate the representational structure in corticostriatal recordings. We found that learning to select the correct actions drove action-sequence representations further apart in activity space, both in the model and in the neural data. The model revealed that learning proceeds by increasing the distance between sequence-specific representations. This makes it more likely that the model will select the appropriate action sequence as learning develops. Our model thus supports the hypothesis that learning in networks drives the neural representations of actions further apart, increasing the probability that the network generates correct actions as learning proceeds. Altogether, this study advances our understanding of how neural circuit dynamics are involved in neural computation, showing how dynamics in the corticostriatal system support task learning.

Download Full-text

Exploring the Boundaries of the Number–Temporal Order Association

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000285 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 198-205 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Dana Ganor-Stern

Keyword(s):

Embodied Cognition ◽

Mental Representation ◽

Temporal Order ◽

Past Research ◽

Numerical Comparison ◽

Negative Number ◽

Comparison Task ◽

Negative Numbers ◽

The Past

Past research has shown that numbers are associated with order in time such that performance in a numerical comparison task is enhanced when number pairs appear in ascending order, when the larger number follows the smaller one. This was found in the past for the integers 1–9 ( Ben-Meir, Ganor-Stern, & Tzelgov, 2013 ; Müller & Schwarz, 2008 ). In the present study we explored whether the advantage for processing numbers in ascending order exists also for fractions and negative numbers. The results demonstrate this advantage for fraction pairs and for integer-fraction pairs. However, the opposite advantage for descending order was found for negative numbers and for positive-negative number pairs. These findings are interpreted in the context of embodied cognition approaches and current theories on the mental representation of fractions and negative numbers.

Download Full-text