1,605 research outputs found
Attentional Enhancement of Auditory Mismatch Responses: a DCM/MEG Study.
Despite similar behavioral effects, attention and expectation influence evoked responses differently: Attention typically enhances event-related responses, whereas expectation reduces them. This dissociation has been reconciled under predictive coding, where prediction errors are weighted by precision associated with attentional modulation. Here, we tested the predictive coding account of attention and expectation using magnetoencephalography and modeling. Temporal attention and sensory expectation were orthogonally manipulated in an auditory mismatch paradigm, revealing opposing effects on evoked response amplitude. Mismatch negativity (MMN) was enhanced by attention, speaking against its supposedly pre-attentive nature. This interaction effect was modeled in a canonical microcircuit using dynamic causal modeling, comparing models with modulation of extrinsic and intrinsic connectivity at different levels of the auditory hierarchy. While MMN was explained by recursive interplay of sensory predictions and prediction errors, attention was linked to the gain of inhibitory interneurons, consistent with its modulation of sensory precision
Dynamics of large-scale brain activity in health and disease
Tese de doutoramento em Engenharia Biomédica e Biofísica, apresentada à Universidade de Lisboa através da Faculdade de Ciências, 2008Cognition relies on the integration of information processed in widely distributed brain regions. Neuronal oscillations are thought to play an important role in the supporting local and global coordination of neuronal activity. This study aimed at investigating the dynamics of the ongoing healthy brain activity and early changes observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG/MEG) were used due to high temporal resolution of these techniques. In order to evaluate the functional connectivity in AD, a novel algorithm based on the concept of generalized synchronization was improved by defining the embedding parameters as a function of the frequency content of interest. The time-frequency synchronization likelihood (TF SL) revealed a loss of fronto-temporal/parietal interactions in the lower alpha (8 10 Hz) oscillations measured by MEG that was not found with classical coherence. Further, long-range temporal (auto-) correlations (LRTC) in ongoing oscillations were assessed with detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) on times scales from 1 25 seconds. Significant auto-correlations indicate a dependence of the underlying dynamical processes at certain time scales of separation, which may be viewed as a form of "physiological memory". We tested whether the DFA index could be related to the decline in cognitive memory in AD. Indeed, a significant decrease in the DFA exponents was observed in the alpha band (6 13 Hz) over temporo-parietal regions in the patients compared with the age-matched healthy control subjects. Finally, the mean level of SL of EEG signals was found to be significantly decreased in the AD patients in the beta (13 30 Hz) and in the upper alpha (10 13 Hz) and the DFA exponents computed as a measure of the temporal structure of SL time series were larger for the patients than for subjects with subjective memory complaint. The results obtained indicate that the study of spatio-temporal dynamics of resting-state EEG/MEG brain activity provides valuable information about the AD pathophysiology, which potentially could be developed into clinically useful indices for assessing progression of AD or response to medication
A Tutorial on Time-Evolving Dynamical Bayesian Inference
In view of the current availability and variety of measured data, there is an
increasing demand for powerful signal processing tools that can cope
successfully with the associated problems that often arise when data are being
analysed. In practice many of the data-generating systems are not only
time-variable, but also influenced by neighbouring systems and subject to
random fluctuations (noise) from their environments. To encompass problems of
this kind, we present a tutorial about the dynamical Bayesian inference of
time-evolving coupled systems in the presence of noise. It includes the
necessary theoretical description and the algorithms for its implementation.
For general programming purposes, a pseudocode description is also given.
Examples based on coupled phase and limit-cycle oscillators illustrate the
salient features of phase dynamics inference. State domain inference is
illustrated with an example of coupled chaotic oscillators. The applicability
of the latter example to secure communications based on the modulation of
coupling functions is outlined. MatLab codes for implementation of the method,
as well as for the explicit examples, accompany the tutorial.Comment: Matlab codes can be found on http://py-biomedical.lancaster.ac.uk
False discovery rate regression: an application to neural synchrony detection in primary visual cortex
Many approaches for multiple testing begin with the assumption that all tests
in a given study should be combined into a global false-discovery-rate
analysis. But this may be inappropriate for many of today's large-scale
screening problems, where auxiliary information about each test is often
available, and where a combined analysis can lead to poorly calibrated error
rates within different subsets of the experiment. To address this issue, we
introduce an approach called false-discovery-rate regression that directly uses
this auxiliary information to inform the outcome of each test. The method can
be motivated by a two-groups model in which covariates are allowed to influence
the local false discovery rate, or equivalently, the posterior probability that
a given observation is a signal. This poses many subtle issues at the interface
between inference and computation, and we investigate several variations of the
overall approach. Simulation evidence suggests that: (1) when covariate effects
are present, FDR regression improves power for a fixed false-discovery rate;
and (2) when covariate effects are absent, the method is robust, in the sense
that it does not lead to inflated error rates. We apply the method to neural
recordings from primary visual cortex. The goal is to detect pairs of neurons
that exhibit fine-time-scale interactions, in the sense that they fire together
more often than expected due to chance. Our method detects roughly 50% more
synchronous pairs versus a standard FDR-controlling analysis. The companion R
package FDRreg implements all methods described in the paper
A Bayesian Multivariate Functional Dynamic Linear Model
We present a Bayesian approach for modeling multivariate, dependent
functional data. To account for the three dominant structural features in the
data--functional, time dependent, and multivariate components--we extend
hierarchical dynamic linear models for multivariate time series to the
functional data setting. We also develop Bayesian spline theory in a more
general constrained optimization framework. The proposed methods identify a
time-invariant functional basis for the functional observations, which is
smooth and interpretable, and can be made common across multivariate
observations for additional information sharing. The Bayesian framework permits
joint estimation of the model parameters, provides exact inference (up to MCMC
error) on specific parameters, and allows generalized dependence structures.
Sampling from the posterior distribution is accomplished with an efficient
Gibbs sampling algorithm. We illustrate the proposed framework with two
applications: (1) multi-economy yield curve data from the recent global
recession, and (2) local field potential brain signals in rats, for which we
develop a multivariate functional time series approach for multivariate
time-frequency analysis. Supplementary materials, including R code and the
multi-economy yield curve data, are available online
Speech Separation Using Partially Asynchronous Microphone Arrays Without Resampling
We consider the problem of separating speech sources captured by multiple
spatially separated devices, each of which has multiple microphones and samples
its signals at a slightly different rate. Most asynchronous array processing
methods rely on sample rate offset estimation and resampling, but these offsets
can be difficult to estimate if the sources or microphones are moving. We
propose a source separation method that does not require offset estimation or
signal resampling. Instead, we divide the distributed array into several
synchronous subarrays. All arrays are used jointly to estimate the time-varying
signal statistics, and those statistics are used to design separate
time-varying spatial filters in each array. We demonstrate the method for
speech mixtures recorded on both stationary and moving microphone arrays.Comment: To appear at the International Workshop on Acoustic Signal
Enhancement (IWAENC 2018
How We Choose One over Another: Predicting Trial-by-Trial Preference Decision
Preference formation is a complex problem as it is subjective, involves emotion, is led by implicit processes, and changes depending on the context even within the same individual. Thus, scientific attempts to predict preference are challenging, yet quite important for basic understanding of human decision making mechanisms, but prediction in a group-average sense has only a limited significance. In this study, we predicted preferential decisions on a trial by trial basis based on brain responses occurring before the individuals made their decisions explicit. Participants made a binary preference decision of approachability based on faces while their electrophysiological responses were recorded. An artificial neural network based pattern-classifier was used with time-frequency resolved patterns of a functional connectivity measure as features for the classifier. We were able to predict preference decisions with a mean accuracy of 74.3±2.79% at participant-independent level and of 91.4±3.8% at participant-dependent level. Further, we revealed a causal role of the first impression on final decision and demonstrated the temporal trajectory of preference decision formation
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