Stimulus uncertainty and perceptual learning: Similar principles govern auditory and visual learning

AbstractWe examined the impact of variability in speech stimuli on improvement of general performance and on accessibility to low-level information as a function of practice. Listeners had to discriminate between two similar words in noise in two configurations that differed only in their low-level binaural information, which was either null or maximal. The difference in performance quantifies the use of binaural low-level information. These configurations were presented in three training protocols: in separate blocks; in a consistently interleaved manner; and in a randomly mixed manner. The first protocol enabled optimal use of the low-level binaural cues already at the first training session. The second, consistently interleaved protocol required more than one training session to reach the same performance. The final, mixed protocol did not enable optimal use of the low-level cues even after multi-session training. Interestingly, training with the first two protocols transferred to the mixed one. These results are in line with recent findings in the visual modality. In both modalities, the effects of variability on learning can be explained by the introduction of obstructions to a search mechanism going down along the sensory processing hierarchy, as suggested by the Reverse Hierarchy Theory

Six month durability of targeted cognitive training supplemented with social cognition exercises in schizophrenia.

Background:Deficits in cognition, social cognition, and motivation are significant predictors of poor functional outcomes in schizophrenia. Evidence of durable benefit following social cognitive training is limited. We previously reported the effects of 70 h of targeted cognitive training supplemented with social cognitive exercises (TCT + SCT) verses targeted cognitive training alone (TCT). Here, we report the effects six months after training. Methods:111 participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were randomly assigned to TCT + SCT or TCT-only. Six months after training, thirty-four subjects (18 TCT + SCT, 16 TCT-only) were assessed on cognition, social cognition, reward processing, symptoms, and functioning. Intent to treat analyses was used to test the durability of gains, and the association of gains with improvements in functioning and reward processing were tested. Results:Both groups showed durable improvements in multiple cognitive domains, symptoms, and functional capacity. Gains in global cognition were significantly associated with gains in functional capacity. In the TCT + SCT group, participants showed durable improvements in prosody identification and reward processing, relative to the TCT-only group. Gains in reward processing in the TCT + SCT group were significantly associated with improvements in social functioning. Conclusions:Both TCT + SCT and TCT-only result in durable improvements in cognition, symptoms, and functional capacity six months post-intervention. Supplementing TCT with social cognitive training offers greater and enduring benefits in prosody identification and reward processing. These results suggest that novel cognitive training approaches that integrate social cognitive exercises may lead to greater improvements in reward processing and functioning in individuals with schizophrenia

The association between implicit and explicit affective inhibitory control, rumination and depressive symptoms

Inhibitory control underlies one’s ability to maintain goal-directed behavior by inhibiting prepotent responses or ignoring irrelevant information. Recent models suggest that impaired inhibition of negative information may contribute to depressive symptoms, and that this association is mediated by rumination. However, the exact nature of this association, particularly in non-clinical samples, is unclear. The current study assessed the relationship between inhibitory control over emotional vs. non-emotional information, rumination and depressive symptoms. A non-clinical sample of 119 participants (mean age: 36.44 ± 11.74) with various levels of depressive symptoms completed three variations of a Go/No-Go task online; two of the task variations required either explicit or implicit processing of emotional expressions, and a third variation contained no emotional expressions (i.e., neutral condition). We found reductions in inhibitory control for participants reporting elevated symptoms of depression on all three task variations, relative to less depressed participants. However, for the task variation that required implicit emotion processing, depressive symptoms were associated with inhibitory deficits for sad and neutral, but not for happy expressions. An exploratory analysis showed that the relationship between inhibition and depressive symptoms occurs in part through trait rumination for all three tasks, regardless of emotional content. Collectively, these results indicate that elevated depressive symptoms are associated with both a general inhibitory control deficit, as well as affective interference from negative emotions, with implications for the assessment and treatment of mood disorders

The influence of anger on empathy and theory of mind

Social cognition allows humans to understand and predict other people's behavior by inferring or sharing their emotions, intentions and beliefs. Few studies have investigated the impact of one's own emotional state on understanding others. Here, we tested the effect of being in an angry state on empathy and theory of mind (ToM). In a between-groups design we manipulated anger status with different paradigms in three studies (autobiographical recall (N = 45), negative feedback (N = 49), frustration (N = 46)) and checked how this manipulation affected empathic accuracy and performance in the EmpaToM. All paradigms were successful in inducing mild anger. We did not find the expected effect of anger on empathy or ToM performance but observed small behavioral changes. Together, our results validate the use of three different anger induction paradigms and speak for rather weak behavioral effects of mild state anger on empathy and ToM

Neural correlates of visual spatial selective attention are altered at early and late processing stages in human amblyopia

Amblyopia is a neurodevelopmental visual disorder which results in reduced visual acuity in one eye and impaired binocular interactions. Previous studies suggest attentional deficits in amblyopic individuals. However, spatial cues which orient attention to a visual field improved performance. Here, we investigate the neural correlates of auditory‐visual spatial selective attention in amblyopia during EEG recording. An auditory cue, that was followed by the presentation of two Gabor patches presented in the lower left and right visual fields, indicated the most likely location of an upcoming target Gabor. The target Gabor differed in orientation from the more frequently presented non‐target Gabor patches. Adults with amblyopia and neurotypical observers were asked to detect the target Gabor monocularly at the cued location, while witholding their response to targets presented at the uncued location and to all non‐target Gabor patches. Higher response rates were observed for cued compared to uncued targets in both groups. However, amblyopic individuals detected targets less efficiently with their amblyopic eye as compared to their fellow eye. Correspondingly, event‐related potentials (ERPs) recorded to the onset of the non‐target Gabor patches were delayed at early processing stages (150‐300 ms: posterior N100) and reduced in amplitude at later time windows (150‐350 ms: P200, 300‐500 ms: sustained activity) in the amblyopic eye compared to the fellow eye. Such interocular differences were not observed in neurotypical observers. These findings suggest that neural resources allocated to the early formation of visual discrimination as well as later stimulus recognition processes are altered in the amblyopic eye

Intramodal cortical plastic changes after moderate visual impairment in human amblyopia

Early blindness results in alterations in the neural responses to auditory stimuli. Here we show that even moderately reduced vision in one eye early in life is sufficient to induce neural plastic changes in voice processing. We asked individuals with reduced visual acuity in one eye due to amblyopia to attend to vocal cues during electroencephalogram recording. We found enhanced frontal auditory responses at 125 ms–225 ms, which were correlated with reduced vision in the amblyopic eye, but not the fellow eye. Our results indicate intramodal reorganization, typically observed after congenital profound visual deprivation

A Pilot Study of Neuroplasticity Based Cognitive Remediation in Early Onset Psychosis

Introduction – Neuroplasticity based auditory and visual training programs appear to improve neurocognitive function in adults with schizophrenia, but use in younger individuals has not been determined. We hypothesized that adolescents might play more often and respond better than adults to training using a game-like laptop in their home environment. Methods -- Youth 10-19 years with Early Onset Psychosis (EOP) were provided a laptop and randomly assigned to play games to enhance basic auditory, visual and social processing neuroplasticity games (NPG) or assigned to control games with cognitive components, such as Sudoku or hangman or (CG). All received neurocognitive assessments at baseline, intervention completion and 4 months post treatment. Results — 12 youth (15.5 +3.2 yrs) were assigned to NPG and 10 participants (16.2 +2.1 years) were assigned to CG. More NPG than CG participants completed the prescribed hours of game play (block 1 - 92% vs. 70% over the first 40 hours), with both groups engaged less over time. Although most neurocognitive functions did not change, the NPG group did show improvements in WRAML Visual Learning, WISC Digit Span Forward, Spatial Span Backwards and CPT omission errors. Surprisingly, satisfaction was lower for NPG than CG. Conclusions — Groups were well matched for baseline illness characteristics. On the global measures of cognition, both EOP groups showed improvement over time but those improvements were generally greater in the CG than in the NPG group, with potentially significant differences favoring the CG evident in the neurocognitive composite score (p=0.072) and BRIEF metacognition (p=.117). Youth did not play as frequently or as long as requested despite providing a laptop for their home use and stipends for playing

Correlation between single limb support phase and self-evaluation questionnaires in knee osteoarthritis populations

Purpose. To investigate the correlation between single limb support (SLS) phase (% of gait cycle) and the Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) questionnaire and Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36 Health Survey) in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA)

Examining the synergistic effects of a cognitive control video game and a home-based, self-administered non-invasive brain stimulation on alleviating depression : the DiSCoVeR trial protocol

Funding Information: Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. The DisCoVeR project is funded by ERA NET NEURON. The NEURON ‘Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research is established under the organization of the ERA-NET ‘European Research Area Networks’ of the European Commission. National funding agencies are the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung [BMBF]) for LMU Munich, the Ministry of Health (MOH) for HUJI and Hadassah, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for UNIGE and EPFL and the State Education and Development Agency (VIAA) of Latvia for RSU. Funding Information: This project was funded by the European Research Area Network (ERA-NET) NEURON 2018 Mental Disorders program. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).Enhanced behavioral interventions are gaining increasing interest as innovative treatment strategies for major depressive disorder (MDD). In this study protocol, we propose to examine the synergistic effects of a self-administered home-treatment, encompassing transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) along with a video game based training of attentional control. The study is designed as a two-arm, double-blind, randomized and placebo-controlled multi-center trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04953208). At three study sites (Israel, Latvia, and Germany), 114 patients with a primary diagnosis of MDD undergo 6 weeks of intervention (30 × 30 min sessions). Patients assigned to the intervention group receive active tDCS (anode F3 and cathode F4; 2 mA intensity) and an action-like video game, while those assigned to the control group receive sham tDCS along with a control video game. An electrode-positioning algorithm is used to standardize tDCS electrode positioning. Participants perform their designated treatment at the clinical center (sessions 1-5) and continue treatment at home under remote supervision (sessions 6-30). The endpoints are feasibility (primary) and safety, treatment efficacy (secondary, i.e., change of Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores at week six from baseline, clinical response and remission, measures of social, occupational, and psychological functioning, quality of life, and cognitive control (tertiary). Demonstrating the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of this novel combined intervention could expand the range of available treatments for MDD to neuromodulation enhanced interventions providing cost-effective, easily accessible, and low-risk treatment options.ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04953208.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Low-Level Information and High-Level Perception: The Case of Speech in Noise

Auditory information is processed in a fine-to-crude hierarchical scheme, from low-level acoustic information to high-level abstract representations, such as phonological labels. We now ask whether fine acoustic information, which is not retained at high levels, can still be used to extract speech from noise. Previous theories suggested either full availability of low-level information or availability that is limited by task difficulty. We propose a third alternative, based on the Reverse Hierarchy Theory (RHT), originally derived to describe the relations between the processing hierarchy and visual perception. RHT asserts that only the higher levels of the hierarchy are immediately available for perception. Direct access to low-level information requires specific conditions, and can be achieved only at the cost of concurrent comprehension. We tested the predictions of these three views in a series of experiments in which we measured the benefits from utilizing low-level binaural information for speech perception, and compared it to that predicted from a model of the early auditory system. Only auditory RHT could account for the full pattern of the results, suggesting that similar defaults and tradeoffs underlie the relations between hierarchical processing and perception in the visual and auditory modalities