Spectral Analysis of the EEG as a Tool for Evaluating Expectancy Violations of Musical Contexts

1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Janata ◽  
Hellmuth Petsche
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Times ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Overt Response ◽  
Expectancy Violations ◽  
Response Condition ◽  
Trained Subjects ◽  
Coherence Parameter ◽  
Auditory Cortices ◽  
Musical Context ◽  
Parameter Values

The generation and updating of expectancies is a crucial process for our understanding and appreciation of music. We present evidence that the dynamic process of musical expectancy can be studied by using several electroencephalographic (EEG) parameters such as amplitude or coherence in various frequency bands between 1.5 and 31.5 Hz. At specific electrodes (amplitude parameter) or electrode pairs (coherence parameter), values of these parameters depend on how an established musical context is completed, that is, if the expectancy generated by the context is violated, the pattern of the brain's electrical activity differs significantly from when the expectancy is fulfilled. The various parameters are also sensitive to the ease with which subjects classify a musical resolution. In our study, musically trained subjects heard repeated trials consisting of cadence primes in various major keys and inversions. Each cadence resolved either to the tonic, the relative minor, or a chord based on the tonic of the most distantly related major key. The three resolutions represented the "best," an "ambiguous," and "worst" possible fulfillments of the expectancy (resolution to the tonic) generated by the priming cadence. In a "response" condition, subjects expressed a yes/no judgment of how well the resolution matched their expectancy of the best possible resolution; in a "no response" condition, subjects were asked to make the same judgment but no overt response was required. Analyses of variance snowed that reaction times, response accuracies, and some EEG parameters differed between the various resolutions. In addition to confirming that a form of expectancy operates in musical contexts, the results point towards the brain structures responsible for the processing of complex musical stimuli. In particular, EEG parameters changed not only at recording sites located above the auditory cortices, but also at sites above right frontal and parietal regions.

ERP Measures Assay the Degree of Expectancy Violation of Harmonic Contexts in Music

1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Janata
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Behavioral Response ◽  
Time Measurement ◽  
Peak Latency ◽  
Overt Response ◽  
Expectancy Violations ◽  
Expectancy Violation ◽  
Data Analyses ◽  
Probability Structure ◽  
Musical Context

Expectancy violations of a highly constrained musical context were studied by presenting subjects with a chord sequence (I, IV, V) that generated a strong expectancy for a specific final chord, and then completing the sequence with either a “best-possible” (Tonic), harmonically plausible (Minor), or harmonically implausible (Dissonant) resolution. Subjects determined whether it was the best-possible resolution, and in one-half of the trials made their decision known with an overt response. Several ERP waveform components showed differences among resolution types, response conditions, and electrode locations. Among the affected components were two subclasses of the P300, the first of which (P3a) was largest in response to the Dissonant in both response conditions at all electrode sites. The area and peak amplitude of the P3b varied at several electrode sites as a function of the degree of expectancy violation represented by the resolutions. The peak latency of the P3b component reflected the behavioral response time measurement in which the Tonic and Dissonant were identified 300 msec more quickly than the Minor. A comparison between frequency and timedomain data analyses demonstrates several parallels, and it is concluded that both can serve to investigate the perception and processing of the probability structure underlying musical events and contexts.

Differential Effects of Lowered Arousal on Covert and Overt Shifts of Attention

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 545-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Fimm ◽  
Klaus Willmes ◽  
Will Spijkers
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Tight Coupling ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Norepinephrine System ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Healthy Participants

AbstractBased on previous studies demonstrating detrimental effects of reduced alertness on attentional orienting our study seeks to examine covert and overt attentional orienting in different arousal states. We hypothesized an attentional asymmetry with increasing reaction times to stimuli presented to the left visual field in a state of maximally reduced arousal. Eleven healthy participants underwent sleep deprivation and were examined repeatedly every 4 hr over 28 hr in total with two tasks measuring covert and overt orienting of attention. Contrary to our hypothesis, a reduction of arousal did not induce any asymmetry of overt orienting. Even in participants with profound and significant attentional asymmetries in covert orienting no substantial reaction time differences between left- and right-sided targets in the overt orienting task could be observed. This result is not in agreement with assumptions of a tight coupling of covert and overt attentional processes. In conclusion, we found differential effects of lowered arousal induced by sleep deprivation on covert and overt orienting of attention. This pattern of results points to a neuronal non-overlap of brain structures subserving these functions and a differential influence of the norepinephrine system on these modes of spatial attention. (JINS, 2015,21, 545–557)

scholarly journals Lateralized Brainstem and Cervical Spinal Cord Responses to Aversive Sounds: A Spinal fMRI Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Smith ◽  
Tiffany Kolesar ◽  
Jennifer Kornelsen
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Cervical Spinal Cord ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
The Other ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Spinal Fmri ◽  
Auditory Cortices ◽  
The Right ◽  
Influence Activity

Previous research has delineated the networks of brain structures involved in the perception of emotional auditory stimuli. These include the amygdala, insula, and auditory cortices, as well as frontal-lobe, basal ganglia, and cerebellar structures involved in the planning and execution of motoric behaviors. The aim of the current research was to examine whether emotional sounds also influence activity in the brainstem and cervical spinal cord. Seventeen undergraduate participants completed a spinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study consisting of two fMRI runs. One run consisted of three one-minute blocks of aversive sounds taken from the International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS) stimulus set; these blocks were interleaved by 40-s rest periods. The other block consisted of emotionally neutral stimuli also drawn from the IADS. The results indicated a stark pattern of lateralization. Aversive sounds elicited greater activity than neutral sounds in the right midbrain and brainstem, and in right dorsal and ventral regions of the cervical spinal cord. Neutral stimuli, on the other hand, elicited less neural activity than aversive sounds overall; these responses were left lateralized and were found in the medial midbrain and the dorsal sensory regions of the cervical spinal cord. Together, these results demonstrate that aversive auditory stimuli elicit increased sensorimotor responses in brainstem and cervical spinal cord structures.

scholarly journals Age-related increases in reaction time result from slower preparation, not delayed initiation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M Hardwick ◽  
Alexander D Forrence ◽  
Maria Gabriela Costello ◽  
Kathy Zachowski ◽  
Adrian M Haith
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Forced Response ◽  
Movement Preparation ◽  
Response Condition ◽  
Time Condition ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Brain Structure And Function ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Reaction Time Condition

Recent work indicates that healthy younger adults can prepare accurate responses faster than their voluntary reaction times indicate, leaving a seemingly unnecessary delay of 80-100ms before responding. Here we examined how the preparation of movements, initiation of movements, and the delay between them are affected by age. Participants made planar reaching movements in two conditions. The "Free Reaction Time" condition assessed the voluntary reaction times at which participants responded to the appearance of a stimulus. The "Forced Reaction Time" condition assessed the minimum time actually needed to prepare accurate movements by controlling the time allowed for movement preparation. The time taken to both initiate movements in the Free Reaction Time and to prepare movements in the Forced Response condition increased with age. Notably, the time required to prepare accurate movements was significantly shorter than participants' self-selected initiation times; however, the delay between movement preparation and initiation remained consistent across the lifespan (~90ms). These results indicate that the slower reaction times of healthy older adults are not due to an increased hesitancy to respond, but can instead be attributed to changes in their ability to process stimuli and prepare movements accordingly, consistent with age-related changes in brain structure and function.

scholarly journals Photochemically Induced Cortical Infarction in the Rat. 2. Acute and Subacute Alterations in Local Glucose Utilization

1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Dalton Dietrich ◽  
Myron D. Ginsberg ◽  
Raul Busto ◽  
Brant D. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Glucose Utilization ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Metabolic Effects ◽  
Pathological Examination ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Irreversible Damage ◽  
Cortical Infarction ◽  
Auditory Cortices ◽  
Focal Injury

Local CMRglu (LCMRglu) values were measured by [14C]2-deoxyglucose autoradiography in the rat at 4 h and 5 days following photochemically induced cortical infarction, and these data were compared with neuropathological findings in adjacent serial sections. At both time periods, LCMRglu was markedly reduced within the lesion center, and irregular regions of moderate-to-marked glucose hypermetabolism were noted within the marginal zone of the developing infarct. At 4 h, the hypermetabolic zones were shown by pathological examination to be characterized by normal-sized, moderately hyperchromatic neurons scattered among occasional dark, shrunken neurons within preserved neuropil. In contrast, the hypermetabolic zones at 5 days coincided with foci of intense macrophage infiltration, with dissolution of the neuropil. Significant decreases in glucose utilization were also demonstrated at 4 h within brain structures remote from the site of focal injury. These structures included the lateral and auditory cortices ipsilaterally, the striatum and thalamus ipsilaterally, and the hippocampus bilaterally. In addition to these remote metabolic effects, depressed metabolism occurred within the homologous cortical region contralateral to the site of infarction. By 5 days, glucose utilization was severely depressed in all ipsilateral cortical regions but not within any contralateral cortical region. Analysis of these data suggests that more than one mechanism is responsible for the metabolic alterations occurring within brain regions remote from the site of irreversible damage. Results are discussed in light of the hemodynamic alterations occurring in this stroke model, which are presented in the accompanying report.

Partial Response Activation to Masked Primes is Not Dependent on Response Readiness

2001 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 208-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friederike Schlaghecken ◽  
Martin Eimer
Keyword(s):  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Overt Response ◽  
General Ability ◽  
Response Readiness ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Alternative Choice

Masked primes presented foveally prior to a target trigger an initial partial activation of their corresponding response, followed by an inhibition of the same response. The latter phase results in performance costs on compatible trials and performance benefits on incompatible trials relative to neutral trials (negative compatibility effect). The present study investigated whether this activation-follow-by-inhibition process depends on the overall or specific state of response readiness. In two masked priming experiments, response readiness was manipulated by varying the relative frequency of Go-trials in a Go/NoGo task (Exp. 1) and the relative frequency of left- and right-hand responses in a 2-alternative choice reaction time task (Exp. 2). In both experiments, mean reaction times were longer for infrequent responses than for frequent responses. However, negative compatibility effects were not affected by response frequency. This result indicates that neither the general ability of masked primes to elicit a partial motor activation nor the specific time course of this process is dependent on response readiness. It is concluded that response readiness affects the execution of an overt response rather than the initial activation of this response.

scholarly journals A Neural Habituation Account of the Negative Compatibility Effect

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Len P. L. Jacob ◽  
Kevin W. Potter ◽  
David E. Huber
Keyword(s):  
Negative Priming ◽  
Compatibility Effect ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Response Priming ◽  
Prime Duration ◽  
Perceptual Factor ◽  
Negative Compatibility Effect ◽  
Response Information ◽  
Novel Variant ◽  
Parameter Values

AbstractThe Negative Compatibility Effect (NCE) is slower reaction times (RTs) to report the direction of a target arrow that follows a matching prime arrow. The cause has been debated, with some studies indicating perception, while others indicate a response effect. We applied the neural habituation model of Huber and O’Reilly (2003) to the NCE, explaining the varied results as reflecting changes in the timing of events. We developed a novel variant of the NCE task, specifying the perceptual dynamics of orientation priming as measured with threshold accuracy. This revealed a transition from positive to negative priming as a function of prime duration, and a second experiment ruled out response priming. The perceptual dynamics of the neural habituation model were fit to these results and the parameter values were fixed in applying the model to the NCE literature. Application of the model to RTs necessitated a response representation that accumulates response information during the trial. Our results indicate that the NCE reflects rapid perceptual priming and slower response priming. Because the accumulation of response information is slow and does not suffer from habituation, the response factor of the prime is a positive effect (lingering response information). In contrast, because perceptual activation is fast and habituates, the perceptual factor can be positive or negative priming depending on the timing of the display sequence. These factors interact with the post-prime mask, which can prime the alternative direction when the mask is a related mask created by combining arrows pointing in both directions.

scholarly journals The P300 as marker of inhibitory control – fact or fiction?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
René J. Huster ◽  
Mari S. Messel ◽  
Christina Thunberg ◽  
Liisa Raud
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Overt Response ◽  
Behavioral Marker ◽  
Behavioral Parameters ◽  
Stop Signal Reaction Time ◽  
Speed Accuracy

AbstractInhibitory control, i.e., the ability to stop or suppress actions, thoughts, or memories, represents a prevalent and popular concept in basic and clinical neuroscience as well as psychology. At the same time, it is notoriously difficult to study as successful inhibition is characterized by the absence of a continuously quantifiable direct behavioral marker. It has been suggested that the P3 latency, and here especially its onset latency, may serve as neurophysiological marker of inhibitory control as it correlates with the stop signal reaction time (SSRT). The SSRT estimates the average stopping latency, which itself is unobservable since no overt response is elicited in successful stop trials, based on differences in the distribution of go reaction times and the delay of the stop- relative to the go-signal in stop trials.In a meta-analysis and an independent EEG experiment, we found that correlations between the P3-latency and the SSRT are indeed replicable, but also unspecific. Not only does the SSRT also correlate with the N2-latency, but both P3- and N2-latency measures show similar or even higher correlations with other behavioral parameters such as the go reaction time or stopping accuracy. The missing specificity of P3-SSRT correlations, together with the general pattern of associations, suggests that these manifest effects are driven by underlying latent processes other than inhibition, such as those associated with the speed-accuracy trade-off.

scholarly journals Bayesian Estimation of The Ex-Gaussian Distribution

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 809-819
Author(s):  
Abir El Haj ◽  
Yousri Slaoui ◽  
Clara Solier ◽  
Cyril Perret
Keyword(s):  
Maximum Likelihood ◽  
Maximum Likelihood Estimation ◽  
Gaussian Distribution ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Simulated Data ◽  
Likelihood Estimation ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Estimated Parameters ◽  
Parameter Values

Fitting of the exponential modified Gaussian distribution to model reaction times and drawing conclusions from its estimated parameter values is one of the most popular method used in psychology. This paper aims to develop a Bayesian approach to estimate the parameters of the ex-Gaussian distribution. Since the chosen priors yield to posterior densities that are not of known form and that they are not always log-concave, we suggest to use the adaptive rejection Metropolis sampling method. Applications on simulated data and on real data are provided to compare this method to the standard maximum likelihood estimation method as well as the quantile maximum likelihood estimation. Results shows the effectiveness of the proposed Bayesian method by computing the root mean square error of the estimated parameters using the three methods.

Presaccadic Processes in the Generation of Pro and anti Saccades in Human Subjects—A Reaction-Time Study

Perception ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (11) ◽  
pp. 1265-1280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Weber
Keyword(s):  
Lead Time ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Previous Trial ◽  
Anti Saccades ◽  
Actual Trial

It has been widely acknowledged that the generation of an anti saccade, ie a saccade towards the direction opposite to that of a visual stimulus, requires the correct function of special brain structures. In the present study attempts were made to measure the time consumption of brain processes preceding the execution of pro and anti saccades. The saccadic eye movements of five adult human subjects were investigated in a series of combined pro/anti saccade tasks with the aid of the gap and the overlap paradigms. The type of trial—pro saccade and anti saccade—was defined by the structure of the stimulus. In some sessions the subjects were, in addition, preinformed about the actual command by a cue at different lead times before stimulus onset. Pro-saccade and anti-saccade trials were randomly intermixed in equal proportions. High error rates (>30% of all trials in some subjects) occurred in the test sessions without preinformative cues. These errors had long reaction times (∼200 ms), whereas the latencies of correct pro or correct anti saccades were even longer (∼350 ms). Analysis of the errors revealed that they were related to the situation in the previous trial: a correct response in the previous trial enhanced the chance of making a saccade of the same type in the actual trial by up to 30%. This pretrial effect occurred whether the actual trial was a pro-saccade or an anti-saccade command. With a cue lead time of 100 ms the numbers of errors decreased, but the latencies of the correct pro or anti saccades were about 70 ms longer than those obtained in the nonrandom control. With a 200 ms cue lead time the reaction times corresponded to those in the control condition. The results suggest that the situation in a given trial creates a kind of default program for the saccade preparation in the next trial. When a cue about the actual command is given early enough, the default program is overridden correspondingly. The perception of the cue and the programming of the corresponding saccade takes an additional 150 to 200 ms.

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