Sensitivity of human auditory cortex to rapid frequency modulation revealed by multivariate representational similarity analysis.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the extent, magnitude, and pattern of brain activity in response to rapid frequency-modulated sounds. We examined this by manipulating the direction (rise vs. fall) and the rate (fast vs. slow) of the apparent pitch of iterated rippled noise (IRN) bursts. Acoustic parameters were selected to capture features used in phoneme contrasts, however the stimuli themselves were not perceived as speech per se. Participants were scanned as they passively listened to sounds in an event-related paradigm. Univariate analyses revealed a greater level and extent of activation in bilateral auditory cortex in response to frequency-modulated sweeps compared to steady-state sounds. This effect was stronger in the left hemisphere. However, no regions showed selectivity for either rate or direction of frequency modulation. In contrast, multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) revealed feature-specific encoding for direction of modulation in auditory cortex bilaterally. Moreover, this effect was strongest when analyses were restricted to anatomical regions lying outside Heschl\u27s gyrus. We found no support for feature-specific encoding of frequency modulation rate. Differential findings of modulation rate and direction of modulation are discussed with respect to their relevance to phonetic discrimination

Word Wins Over Face: Emotional Stroop Effect Activates the Frontal Cortical Network

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been implicated in higher order cognitive control of behavior. Sometimes such control is executed through suppression of an unwanted response in order to avoid conflict. Conflict occurs when two simultaneously competing processes lead to different behavioral outcomes, as seen in tasks such as the anti-saccade, go/no-go, and the Stroop task. We set out to examine whether different types of stimuli in a modified emotional Stroop task would cause similar interference effects as the original Stroop-color/word, and whether the required suppression mechanism(s) would recruit similar regions of the medial PFC (mPFC). By using emotional words and emotional faces in this Stroop experiment, we examined the two well-learned automatic behaviors of word reading and recognition of face expressions. In our emotional Stroop paradigm, words were processed faster than face expressions with incongruent trials yielding longer reaction times and larger number of errors compared to the congruent trials. This novel Stroop effect activated the anterior and inferior regions of the mPFC, namely the anterior cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus as well as the superior frontal gyrus. Our results suggest that prepotent behaviors such as reading and recognition of face expressions are stimulus-dependent and perhaps hierarchical, hence recruiting distinct regions of the mPFC. Moreover, the faster processing of word reading compared to reporting face expressions is indicative of the formation of stronger stimulus–response associations of an over-learned behavior compared to an instinctive one, which could alternatively be explained through the distinction between awareness and selective attention

Beauty That Moves: Dance for Parkinson’s Effects on Affect, Self-Efficacy, Gait Symmetry, and Dual Task Performance

Background: Previous studies have investigated the effects of dance interventions on Parkinson’s motor and non-motor symptoms in an effort to develop an integrated view of dance as a therapeutic intervention. This within-subject study questions whether dance can be simply considered a form of exercise by comparing a Dance for Parkinson’s class with a matched-intensity exercise session lacking dance elements like music, metaphorical language, and social reality of art-partaking. Methods: In this repeated-measure design, 7 adults with Parkinson’s were tested four times; (i) before and (ii) after a Dance for Parkinson’s class, as well as (iii) before and (iv) after a matched-intensity exercise session. Physiological measures included heart rate and electrodermal activity. Self-reported affect and body self-efficacy were collected. Gait symmetry and dual task cost were analyzed using the 6 min walking test (6MWT) and Timed-Up-and-Go test (TUG), respectively. Results: Average heart rate was the same for both conditions, while electrodermal activity was higher during Dance for Parkinson’s. Significant differences were found in body self-efficacy, beauty subscale, symmetry of gait, and dual task performance. Conclusion: Dance, compared to an exercise intervention of matched intensity, yields different outcomes through the means of intrinsic artistic elements, which may influence affective responses, the experience of beauty, self-efficacy, and gait performance

Power cord provided with a power cord transformer

A power cord (10) provided with a power cord transformer (12) is described. The transformer comprises a core (11) of ferromagnetic material, a primary coil (13) and a secondary coil (14) both provided around the core. The core and coils have such a shape that the distance between two points on the primary coil and also the distance between two points on the secondary coil is always smaller than twice the largest axis of the power cord cross section

Human parietal reach region primarily encodes intrinsic visual direction, not extrinsic movement direction, in a visual motor dissociation task.

Posterior parietal cortex (PPC) participates in the planning of visuospatial behaviors, including reach movements, in gaze-centered coordinates. It is not known if these representations encode the visual goal in retinal coordinates, or the movement direction relative to gaze. Here, by dissociating the intrinsic retinal stimulus from the extrinsic direction of movement, we show that PPC employs a visual code. Using delayed pointing and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, we identified a cluster of PPC regions whose activity was topographically (contralaterally) related to the direction of the planned movement. We then switched the normal visual-motor spatial relationship by adapting subjects to optical left/right reversing prisms. With prisms, movement-related PPC topography reversed, remaining tied to the retinal image. Thus, remarkably, the PPC region in each hemisphere now responded more for planned ipsilateral pointing movements. Other non-PPC regions showed the opposite world- or motor-fixed pattern. These findings suggest that PPC primarily encodes not motor commands but movement goals in visual coordinates

Eye position signal modulates a human parietal pointing region during memory-guided movements.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the signal in parietal regions that were selectively activated during delayed pointing to flashed visual targets and determined whether this signal was dependent on the fixation position of the eyes. Delayed pointing activated a bilateral parietal area in the intraparietal sulcus (rIPS), rostral/anterior to areas activated by saccades. During right-hand pointing to centrally located targets, the left rIPS region showed a significant increase in activation when the eye position was rightward compared with leftward. As expected, activation in motor cortex showed no modulation when only eye position changed. During pointing to retinotopically identical targets, the left rIPS region again showed a significant increased signal when the eye position was rightward compared with leftward. Conversely, when pointing with the left arm, the right rIPS showed an increase in signal when eye position was leftward compared with rightward. The results suggest that the human parietal hand/arm movement region (rIPS), like monkey parietal areas (Andersen et al., 1985), exhibits an eye position modulation of its activity; modulation that may be used to transform the coordinates of the retinotopically coded target position into a motor error command appropriate for the wrist