scholarly journals How Senses Work Together: Cross-Modal Interactions between Primary Sensory Cortices

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Teichert ◽  
Jürgen Bolz
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Modal Interactions ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Sensory Cortices ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

On our way through a town, the things we see can make us change the way we go. The things that we hear can make us stop or walk on, or the things we feel can cause us to wear a warm jacket or just a t-shirt. All these behaviors are mediated by highly complex processing mechanisms in our brain and reflect responses to many important sensory inputs. The mammalian cerebral cortex, which processes the sensory information, consists of largely specialized sensory areas mainly receiving information from their corresponding sensory modalities. The first cortical regions receiving the input from the outer world are the so called primary sensory cortices. Strikingly, there is convincing evidence that primary sensory cortices do not work in isolation but are substantially affected by other sensory modalities. Here, we will review previous and current literature on this cross-modal interplay.

scholarly journals Evaluative Judgment Across Domains

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Clemente ◽  
Marcus Thomas Pearce ◽  
Martin Skov ◽  
Marcos Nadal
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Evaluative Judgment ◽  
Evaluative Judgments ◽  
Individual Traits ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Sensory Cortices ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Reward Circuit

Evaluative judgment—i.e., assessing to what degree a stimulus is liked or disliked—is a fundamental aspect of cognition, facilitating comparison and choosing among alternatives, deciding, and prioritizing actions. Neuroimaging studies have shown that evaluative judgment involves the projection of sensory information to the reward circuit. To investigate whether evaluative judgments are based on modality-specific or modality-general attributes, we compared the extent to which balance, contour, symmetry, and complexity affect liking responses in the auditory and visual modalities. We found no significant correlation for any of the four attributes across sensory modalities, except for contour. This suggests that evaluative judgments primarily rely on modality-specific sensory representations elaborated in the brain’s sensory cortices and relayed to the reward circuit, rather than abstract modality-general representations. The individual traits art experience, openness to experience, and desire for aesthetics were associated with the extent to which design or compositional attributes influenced liking, but inconsistently across sensory modalities and attributes, also suggesting modality-specific influences.

scholarly journals Gradual progression from sensory to task-related processing in cerebral cortex

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (30) ◽  
pp. E7202-E7211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott L. Brincat ◽  
Markus Siegel ◽  
Constantin von Nicolai ◽  
Earl K. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Neural Population ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Population Activity ◽  
Shape Information ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Current Task ◽  
Cortical Regions

Somewhere along the cortical hierarchy, behaviorally relevant information is distilled from raw sensory inputs. We examined how this transformation progresses along multiple levels of the hierarchy by comparing neural representations in visual, temporal, parietal, and frontal cortices in monkeys categorizing across three visual domains (shape, motion direction, and color). Representations in visual areas middle temporal (MT) and V4 were tightly linked to external sensory inputs. In contrast, lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) largely represented the abstracted behavioral relevance of stimuli (task rule, motion category, and color category). Intermediate-level areas, including posterior inferotemporal (PIT), lateral intraparietal (LIP), and frontal eye fields (FEF), exhibited mixed representations. While the distribution of sensory information across areas aligned well with classical functional divisions (MT carried stronger motion information, and V4 and PIT carried stronger color and shape information), categorical abstraction did not, suggesting these areas may participate in different networks for stimulus-driven and cognitive functions. Paralleling these representational differences, the dimensionality of neural population activity decreased progressively from sensory to intermediate to frontal cortex. This shows how raw sensory representations are transformed into behaviorally relevant abstractions and suggests that the dimensionality of neural activity in higher cortical regions may be specific to their current task.

scholarly journals Comparison of Scalp ERP to Faces in Macaques and Humans

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Orczyk ◽  
Charles E. Schroeder ◽  
Ilana Y. Abeles ◽  
Manuel Gomez-Ramirez ◽  
Pamela D. Butler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Sensory Cortices ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Underlying Processes ◽  
The Brain

Face recognition is an essential activity of social living, common to many primate species. Underlying processes in the brain have been investigated using various techniques and compared between species. Functional imaging studies have shown face-selective cortical regions and their degree of correspondence across species. However, the temporal dynamics of face processing, particularly processing speed, are likely different between them. Across sensory modalities activation of primary sensory cortices in macaque monkeys occurs at about 3/5 the latency of corresponding activation in humans, though this human simian difference may diminish or disappear in higher cortical regions. We recorded scalp event-related potentials (ERPs) to presentation of faces in macaques and estimated the peak latency of ERP components. Comparisons of latencies between macaques and humans indicated that the 3:5 ratio is preserved in higher cognitive regions of face processing between those species.

scholarly journals Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Are Separable and Related to Performance during Sustained Intersensory Attention

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 2055-2069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agatha Lenartowicz ◽  
Gregory V. Simpson ◽  
Catherine M. Haber ◽  
Mark S. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Passive Control ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Behavioral Outcomes ◽  
Attention Control ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Sensory Cortices ◽  
Cortical Regions

The ability to attend to an input selectively while ignoring distracting sensations is thought to depend on the coordination of two processes: enhancement of target signals and attenuation of distractor signals. This implies that attending and ignoring may be dissociable neural processes and that they make separable contributions to behavioral outcomes of attention. In this study, we tested these hypotheses in the context of sustained attention by measuring neurophysiological responses to attended and ignored stimuli in a noncued, continuous, audiovisual selective attention task. We compared these against responses during a passive control to quantify effects of attending and ignoring separately. In both sensory modalities, responses to ignored stimuli were attenuated relative to a passive control, whereas responses to attended stimuli were enhanced. The scalp topographies and brain activations of these modulatory effects were consistent with the sensory regions that process each modality. They also included parietal and prefrontal activations that suggest these effects arise from interactions between top–down and sensory cortices. Most importantly, we found that both attending and ignoring processes contributed to task accuracy and that these effects were not correlated—suggesting unique neural trajectories. This conclusion was supported by the novel observation that attending and ignoring differed in timing and in active cortical regions. The data provide direct evidence for the separable contributions of attending and ignoring to behavioral outcomes of attention control during sustained intersensory attention.

Is The Cerebral Cortex Hyperexcitable or Hyperresponsive in Migraine?

Cephalalgia ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 1427-1439 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Coppola ◽  
F Pierelli ◽  
J Schoenen
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Cortical Excitability ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Evoked Responses ◽  
Cortical Hyperexcitability ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Sensory Cortices ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
External Stimuli

Although migraineurs appear in general to be hypersensitive to external stimuli, they maybe also have increased daytime sleepiness and complain of fatigue. Neurophisiological studies between attacks have shown that for a number of different sensory modalities the migrainous brain is characterised by a lack of habituation of evoked responses. Whether this is due to increased cortical hyperexcitability, possibly due to decreased inhibition, or to an abnormal responsivity of the cortex due a decreased preactivation level remains disputed. Studies using transcranial magnetic stimulation in particular have yielded contradictory results. We will review here the available data on cortical excitability obtained with different methodological approaches in patients over the migraine cycle. We will show that these data congruently indicate that the sensory cortices of migraineurs react excessively to repetitive, but not to single, stimuli and that the controversy above hyper- versus hypo-excitability is merely a semantic misunderstanding. Describing the migrainous brain as ‘hyperresponsive’ would fit most of the available data. Deciphering the precise cellular and molecular underpinnings of this hyperresponsivity remains a challenge for future research. We propose, as a working hypothesis, that a thalamo-cortical dysrhythmia might be the culprit.

scholarly journals The Independent Evolution of Dorsal Pallia in Multiple Vertebrate Lineages

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Georg F. Striedter ◽  
R. Glenn Northcutt
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulbs ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Independent Evolution ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Olfactory Input ◽  
Cartilaginous Fishes

Comparative neurobiologists have long wondered when and how the dorsal pallium (e.g., mammalian neocortex) evolved. For the last 50 years, the most widely accepted answer has been that this structure was already present in the earliest vertebrates and, therefore, homologous between the major vertebrate lineages. One challenge for this hypothesis is that the olfactory bulbs project throughout most of the pallium in the most basal vertebrate lineages (notably lampreys, hagfishes, and lungfishes) but do not project to the putative dorsal pallia in teleosts, cartilaginous fishes, and amniotes (i.e., reptiles, birds, and mammals). To make sense of these data, one may hypothesize that a dorsal pallium existed in the earliest vertebrates and received extensive olfactory input, which was subsequently lost in several lineages. However, the dorsal pallium is notoriously difficult to delineate in many vertebrates, and its homology between the various lineages is often based on little more than its topology. Therefore, we suspect that dorsal pallia evolved independently in teleosts, cartilaginous fishes, and amniotes. We further hypothesize that the emergence of these dorsal pallia was accompanied by the phylogenetic restriction of olfactory projections to the pallium and the expansion of inputs from other sensory modalities. We do not deny that the earliest vertebrates may have possessed nonolfactory sensory inputs to some parts of the pallium, but such projections alone do not define a dorsal pallium.

scholarly journals Analysis of Spatial Patterns of Phase in Neocortical Gamma EEGs in Rabbit

2000 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 1266-1278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter J. Freeman ◽  
John M. Barrie
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Coherence ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
State Transitions ◽  
Wave Form ◽  
Conditioned Stimuli ◽  
Phase Gradient ◽  
Gamma Range ◽  
Sensory Cortices ◽  
Half Power

Arrays of 64 electrodes (8 × 8, 7 × 7 mm) were implanted epidurally on the surface of the visual, auditory or somatosensory cortex of rabbits trained to discriminate conditioned stimuli in the corresponding modality. The 64 electroencephalographic (EEG) traces at all times displayed a high degree of spatial coherence in wave form, averaging >90% of the variance in the largest principal components analysis component. The EEGs were decomposed with the fast Fourier transform (FFT) to give the spatial distributions of amplitude and phase modulation (AM and PM) in segments 128 ms in duration. Spatial (2-dimensional) and temporal (1-dimensional) filters were designed to optimize classification of the spatial AM patterns in the gamma range (20–80 Hz) with respect to discriminative conditioned stimuli. No evidence was found for stimulus-dependent classification of the spatial PM patterns. Instead some spatial PM distributions conformed to the pattern of a cone. The location and sign (maximal lead or lag) of the conic apex varied randomly with each recurrence. The slope of the phase gradient varied in a range corresponding to that of the conduction velocities reported of axons to extend parallel to the cortical surfaces. The durations and times of recurrence of the phase cones corresponded to those of the optimally classified spatial AM patterns. The interpretation is advanced that the phase cones are manifestations of state transitions in the mesoscopic dynamics of sensory cortices by which the intermittent AM patterns are formed. The phase cones show that the gamma EEG spatial coherence is not due to volume conduction from a single deep-lying dipole generator nor to activity at the site of the reference lead on monopolar recording. The random variation of the apical sign shows that gamma AM patterns are self-organized and are not imposed by thalamic pacemakers. The half-power radius of the phase gradient provides a useful measure of the soft boundary condition for the formation and read-out of cooperative cortical domains responsible for binding sensory information into the context of prior experience in the process of perception.

scholarly journals Awake perception is associated with dedicated neuronal assemblies in cerebral cortex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Filipchuk ◽  
Alain Destexhe ◽  
Brice Bathellier
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Sensory Perception ◽  
Sensory Cortex ◽  
State Change ◽  
Ongoing Activity ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Neuronal Assemblies ◽  
Sensory Responses

AbstractNeural activity in sensory cortex combines stimulus responses and ongoing activity, but it remains unclear whether they reflect the same underlying dynamics or separate processes. Here we show that during wakefulness, the neuronal assemblies evoked by sounds in the auditory cortex and thalamus are specific to the stimulus and distinct from the assemblies observed in ongoing activity. In contrast, during anesthesia, evoked assemblies are indistinguishable from ongoing assemblies in cortex, while they remain distinct in the thalamus. A strong remapping of sensory responses accompanies this dynamical state change produced by anesthesia. Together, these results show that the awake cortex engages dedicated neuronal assemblies in response to sensory inputs, which we suggest is a network correlate of sensory perception.One-Sentence SummarySensory responses in the awake cortex engage specific neuronal assemblies that disappear under anesthesia.

scholarly journals Spatial map of sensory inputs in the human insular cerebral cortex.

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Irwin Johnson ◽  
John Andrew Morris ◽  
Archibald J. Fobbs
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Sensory Inputs

Sensory Substitution Devices as Advanced Sensory Tools

2018 ◽  
pp. 188-204
Author(s):  
Thomas D. Wright ◽  
Jamie Ward
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Considerable Effort ◽  
Conceptual Space ◽  
System P ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Magnetic Sense ◽  
Definition Of

There has been considerable effort devoted towards understanding sensory substitution devices in terms of their relationship to canonical sensory modalities. The approach taken in this essay is rather different, although complementary, in that we seek to define a broad conceptual space of ‘sensory tools’ in which sensory substitution devices can be situated. Such devices range from telescopes, to cochlear implants, to attempts to create a magnetic sense. One feature of these devices is that they operate at the level of ‘raw’ sensory information. As such, systems such as Braille which operate at a symbolic/conceptual level do not count as a sensory tool (or a sensory substitution device) and nor would a device such as CCTV which, although capturing raw sensory information, would not meet a conventional definition of a tool. With this approach, we hope to avoid the circularity inherent in previous attempts at defining sensory substitution and provide a better starting point to explore the effects of sensory tools, more generally, on the functioning of the nervous system.

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