2023-sept-entries (#64)

source/_posts/abivardi2023.md

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+---
+title: Abivardi et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'Acceleration of inferred neural responses to oddball targets in an individual with bilateral amygdala lesion compared to healthy controls'
+date: 2023/09/04
+authors:
+- Abivardi, Aslan
+- Korn, Christoph W
+- Rojkov, Ivan
+- Gerster, Samuel
+- Hurlemann, Rene
+- Bach, Dominik R
+journal: Sci. Rep.
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41357-1
+data_url: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8239465
+tags:
+- 
+---
+
+Detecting unusual auditory stimuli is crucial for discovering potential threat. Locus coeruleus (LC), which coordinates attention, and amygdala, which is implicated in resource prioritization, both respond to deviant sounds. Evidence concerning their interaction, however, is sparse. Seeking to elucidate if human amygdala affects estimated LC activity during this process, we recorded pupillary responses during an auditory oddball and an illuminance change task, in a female with bilateral amygdala lesions (BG) and in n = 23 matched controls. Neural input in response to oddballs was estimated via pupil dilation, a reported proxy of LC activity, harnessing a linear-time invariant system and individual pupillary dilation response function (IRF) inferred from illuminance responses. While oddball recognition remained intact, estimated LC input for BG was compacted to an impulse rather than the prolonged waveform seen in healthy controls. This impulse had the earliest response mean and highest kurtosis in the sample. As a secondary finding, BG showed enhanced early pupillary constriction to darkness. These findings suggest that LC-amygdala communication is required to sustain LC activity in response to anomalous sounds. Our results provide further evidence for amygdala involvement in processing deviant sound targets, although it is not required for their behavioral recognition.

source/_posts/alameda2023.md

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-AbstractThroughout the day, humans show natural fluctuations in arousal that impact cognitive function. To study the behavioural dynamics of cognitive control during high and low arousal states, healthy participants performed an auditory conflict task during high-intensity physical exercise (N= 39) or drowsiness (N= 33). In line with the pre-registered hypothesis, conflict and conflict adaptation effects were preserved during both altered arousal states. Overall task performance was markedly poorer during low arousal, but not for high arousal. Modelling behavioural dynamics with drift-diffusion analyses revealed evidence accumulation and non-decision time decelerated, and decisional boundaries became wider during low arousal, whereas high arousal was unexpectedly associated with a decrease in the interference of task-irrelevant information processing. These findings show how arousal differentially modulates cognitive control at both sides of normal alertness, and further validates drowsiness and physical exercise as key experimental models to disentangle the interaction between physiological fluctuations on cognitive dynamics.Statement of RelevanceThe variability in arousal and alertness that we naturally experience in our everyday activities is rarely considered in cognitive neuroscience frameworks. Here, we presented a Simon task where the word “left” or “right” was heard through the participant’s right or left ear while either exercising at high-intensity or falling asleep, in order to map the behavioural dynamics of cognitive control on both sides of the arousal spectrum. We disentangled different elements involved in decision-making with computational modelling analyses. While basic effects of conflict in cognitive control were preserved regardless of the arousal state, high and low arousal seem to differentially impact decision-making processes. These results emphasise that naturally inducing drowsiness and physical exercise can provide a suitable model to test the resilience of decision-making processes when challenged by arousal and show the resilience of cognitive control mechanisms in face of physiological fluctuations.
+Throughout the day, humans show natural fluctuations in arousal that impact cognitive function. To study the behavioural dynamics of cognitive control during high and low arousal states, healthy participants performed an auditory conflict task during high-intensity physical exercise (N= 39) or drowsiness (N= 33). In line with the pre-registered hypothesis, conflict and conflict adaptation effects were preserved during both altered arousal states. Overall task performance was markedly poorer during low arousal, but not for high arousal. Modelling behavioural dynamics with drift-diffusion analyses revealed evidence accumulation and non-decision time decelerated, and decisional boundaries became wider during low arousal, whereas high arousal was unexpectedly associated with a decrease in the interference of task-irrelevant information processing. These findings show how arousal differentially modulates cognitive control at both sides of normal alertness, and further validates drowsiness and physical exercise as key experimental models to disentangle the interaction between physiological fluctuations on cognitive dynamics.Statement of RelevanceThe variability in arousal and alertness that we naturally experience in our everyday activities is rarely considered in cognitive neuroscience frameworks. Here, we presented a Simon task where the word “left” or “right” was heard through the participant’s right or left ear while either exercising at high-intensity or falling asleep, in order to map the behavioural dynamics of cognitive control on both sides of the arousal spectrum. We disentangled different elements involved in decision-making with computational modelling analyses. While basic effects of conflict in cognitive control were preserved regardless of the arousal state, high and low arousal seem to differentially impact decision-making processes. These results emphasise that naturally inducing drowsiness and physical exercise can provide a suitable model to test the resilience of decision-making processes when challenged by arousal and show the resilience of cognitive control mechanisms in face of physiological fluctuations.

source/_posts/arnau2023.md

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+title: Arnau et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'Frontal midline theta power during the cue-target-interval reflects increased cognitive effort in rewarded task-switching'
+date: 2023/09/25
+authors:
+- Arnau, Stefan
+- Liegel, Nathalie
+- Wascher, Edmund
+journal: bioRxiv
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.09.25.559275
+data_url: https://osf.io/ndgst/
+tags:
+-
+---
+
+Cognitive performance largely depends on how much effort is invested during task-execution. This also means that we rarely perform as good as we could. Cognitive effort is adjusted to the expected outcome of performance, meaning that it is driven by motivation. The results from recent studies investigating the effects manipulations of motivation clearly suggest that it is the expenditure of cognitive control that is particularly prone to being affected by modulations of cognitive effort. Although recent EEG studies investigated the neural underpinnings of the interaction of effort and control, reports on how cognitive effort is reflected by oscillatory activity of the EEG are quite sparse. It is the goal of the present study to bridge this gap by performing an exploratory analysis of high-density EEG data from a switching-task using manipulations of monetary incentives. A beamformer approach is used to localize the sensor-level effects in source-space. The results indicate that the manipulation of cognitive effort was successful. The participants reported significantly higher motivation and cognitive effort in high versus low reward trials. Performance was also significantly increased. The analysis of the EEG data revealed that the increase of cognitive effort was reflected by an increased mid-frontal theta activity during the cue-target interval, suggesting an increased use of proactive control. Alpha-desynchronization throughout the trial was also more pronounced in high reward trials, signaling a bias of attention towards the processing of external stimuli. Source reconstruction suggests that these effects are located in areas related to cognitive control, and visual processing.

source/_posts/banca2023.md

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-AbstractEnhanced habit formation, greater automaticity and impaired goal/habit arbitration in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are key hypotheses from the goal/habit imbalance theory of compulsion which have not been directly investigated. This article tests these hypotheses using a combination of newly developed behavioral tasks. First, we trained patients with OCD and healthy controls, using a novel smartphone app, to perform chunked action sequences, previously shown to engage habit brain circuitry. The motor training was daily over one month period. There was equivalent procedural learning and attainment of habitual performance (measured with an objective criteria of automaticity) in both groups, despite greater subjective habitual tendencies in patients with OCD, self-reported via a recently developed questionnaire. We then used a combination of follow-up behavioral tasks to further assess the arbitration between previous automatic and new goal-directed action sequences. We found no evidence for impairments of goal/habit arbitration in OCD following re-evaluation based on monetary feedback, although there was a greater preference for engaging in the trained habitual sequence under certain conditions which may have derived from its intrinsic value. These findings may lead to a reformulation of the goal/habit imbalance hypothesis in OCD. Finally, OCD patients with higher compulsivity scores and habitual tendencies showed more engagement with the motor habit-training app and reported symptom alleviation, with implications for its potential use as a form of habit reversal therapy.
+Enhanced habit formation, greater automaticity and impaired goal/habit arbitration in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are key hypotheses from the goal/habit imbalance theory of compulsion which have not been directly investigated. This article tests these hypotheses using a combination of newly developed behavioral tasks. First, we trained patients with OCD and healthy controls, using a novel smartphone app, to perform chunked action sequences, previously shown to engage habit brain circuitry. The motor training was daily over one month period. There was equivalent procedural learning and attainment of habitual performance (measured with an objective criteria of automaticity) in both groups, despite greater subjective habitual tendencies in patients with OCD, self-reported via a recently developed questionnaire. We then used a combination of follow-up behavioral tasks to further assess the arbitration between previous automatic and new goal-directed action sequences. We found no evidence for impairments of goal/habit arbitration in OCD following re-evaluation based on monetary feedback, although there was a greater preference for engaging in the trained habitual sequence under certain conditions which may have derived from its intrinsic value. These findings may lead to a reformulation of the goal/habit imbalance hypothesis in OCD. Finally, OCD patients with higher compulsivity scores and habitual tendencies showed more engagement with the motor habit-training app and reported symptom alleviation, with implications for its potential use as a form of habit reversal therapy.

source/_posts/barnby2023.md

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-AbstractStriatal dopamine is important to paranoid attributions, although its computational role in social inference remains elusive. We employed a simple game theoretic paradigm and computational model of intentional attributions to investigate the effects of dopamine D2/D3 antagonism on ongoing mental state inference following social outcomes. Haloperidol, compared to placebo, enhanced the impact of partner behaviour on beliefs about harmful intent, and increased learning from recent encounters. These alterations caused significant changes to model covariation and negative correlations between self-interest and harmful intent attributions. Our findings suggest haloperidol improves flexibility in model-based beliefs about others and simultaneously reduces the self-relevance of social observations. Our results may reflect the role of D2/D3 dopamine in supporting self-relevant mentalisation. Our data and model bridge theory between general and social accounts of value representation. We demonstrate initial evidence for the sensitivity of our model and short social paradigm to drug intervention and clinical dimensions, allowing distinctions between mechanisms that operate across traits and states.Graphical Abstract
+Striatal dopamine is important to paranoid attributions, although its computational role in social inference remains elusive. We employed a simple game theoretic paradigm and computational model of intentional attributions to investigate the effects of dopamine D2/D3 antagonism on ongoing mental state inference following social outcomes. Haloperidol, compared to placebo, enhanced the impact of partner behaviour on beliefs about harmful intent, and increased learning from recent encounters. These alterations caused significant changes to model covariation and negative correlations between self-interest and harmful intent attributions. Our findings suggest haloperidol improves flexibility in model-based beliefs about others and simultaneously reduces the self-relevance of social observations. Our results may reflect the role of D2/D3 dopamine in supporting self-relevant mentalisation. Our data and model bridge theory between general and social accounts of value representation. We demonstrate initial evidence for the sensitivity of our model and short social paradigm to drug intervention and clinical dimensions, allowing distinctions between mechanisms that operate across traits and states.

source/_posts/blackwell2023.md

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-Background: According to major cognitive accounts of panic disorder, bodily sensations can lead to automatic activation of an associative fear network, potentially triggering a cascade of cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses culminating in a panic attack. However, the evidence for the automatic associations assumed by these models is mixed. This may reflect the heterogeneous nature of panic disorder, in that the relative importance of different bodily sensations and symptoms varies between individuals. The current study aimed to test this possibility via measuring the associations between three different sets of panic symptoms (cognitive, respiratory, cardiac) and scores on three symptom-specific single target implicit association tests (STIATs). Methods: A total of 226 unselected female participants aged 18-35 completed the STIATs as well as questionnaires assessing panic symptoms and related measures in a web-based study. Results: Only limited evidence was found to support the idea of specific associations between STIAT stimuli sets and their related panic symptoms. Exploratory analyses indicated that there were only associations between STIAT scores and panic-relevant questionnaires amongst those participants who had experienced a panic attack in the previous 6 months. Conclusions: The results have implications for measuring panic-relevant associations and understanding their role in panic disorder.
+According to major cognitive accounts of panic disorder, bodily sensations can lead to automatic activation of an associative fear network, potentially triggering a cascade of cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses culminating in a panic attack. However, the evidence for the automatic associations assumed by these models is mixed. This may reflect the heterogeneous nature of panic disorder, in that the relative importance of different bodily sensations and symptoms varies between individuals. The current study aimed to test this possibility via measuring the associations between three different sets of panic symptoms (cognitive, respiratory, cardiac) and scores on three symptom-specific single target implicit association tests (STIATs). A total of 226 unselected female participants aged 18-35 completed the STIATs as well as questionnaires assessing panic symptoms and related measures in a web-based study. Only limited evidence was found to support the idea of specific associations between STIAT stimuli sets and their related panic symptoms. Exploratory analyses indicated that there were only associations between STIAT scores and panic-relevant questionnaires amongst those participants who had experienced a panic attack in the previous 6 months. The results have implications for measuring panic-relevant associations and understanding their role in panic disorder.

source/_posts/blain2023.md

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+title: Blain et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'Sensitivity to intrinsic rewards is domain general and related to mental health'
+date: 2023/09/06
+authors:
+- Blain, Bastien
+- Pinhorn, India
+- Sharot, Tali
+journal: Nat. Ment. Health
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00116-x
+data_url: https://github.com/BastienBlain/SensitivityToIntrinsicRewardsIsDomainGeneralAndRelatedToMentalHealth-
+tags:
+-
+---
+
+Humans frequently engage in intrinsically rewarding activities (for example, consuming art, reading). Despite such activities seeming diverse, we show that sensitivity to intrinsic rewards is domain general and associated with mental health. In this cross-sectional study, participants online (N = 483) were presented with putative visual, cognitive and social intrinsic rewards as well as monetary rewards and neutral stimuli. All rewards elicited positive feelings (were ‘liked’), generated consummatory behaviour (were ‘wanted’) and increased the likelihood of the action leading to them (were ‘reinforcing’). Factor analysis revealed that ~40% of response variance across stimuli was explained by a general sensitivity to all rewards, but not to neutral stimuli. Affective aspects of mental health were associated with sensitivity to intrinsic, but not monetary, rewards. These results may help explain thriving and suffering: individuals with high reward sensitivity will engage in a variety of intrinsically rewarding activities, eventually finding those they excel at, whereas low sensitivity individuals will not.