The brain in motion–cognitive effects of simultaneous motor activity

Trials

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is essential for antidepressant treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). Our repeated studies suggest that DNA methylation of a specific CpG site in the promoter region of exon IV of the BDNF gene (CpG -87) might be predictive of the efficacy of monoaminergic antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), and others. This trial aims to evaluate whether knowing the biomarker is non-inferior to treatment-as-usual (TAU) regarding remission rates while exhibiting significantly fewer adverse events (AE). The BDNF trial is a prospective, randomized, rater-blinded diagnostic study conducted at five university hospitals in Germany. The study’s main hypothesis is that {1} knowing the methylation status of CpG -87 is non-inferior to not knowing it with respect to the remission rate while it significantly reduces the AE rate in patients experiencing at least one AE. The baseline assessment will occur upon hospitalization and a follow-up assessment on day 49 (± 3). A telephone follow-up will be conducted on day 70 (± 3). A total of 256 patients will be recruited, and methylation will be evaluated in all participants. They will be randomly assigned to either the marker or the TAU group. In the marker group, the methylation results will be shared with both the patient and their treating physician. In the TAU group, neither the patients nor their treating physicians will receive the marker status. The primary endpoints include the rate of patients achieving remission on day 49 (± 3), defined as a score of ≤ 10 on the Hamilton Depression …

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

The action perspective on working memory suggests that memory representations are coded according to their specific temporal and behavioral task demands. This stands in contrast to theories that assume representations are stored in a task-agnostic format within a “common workspace”. Here, we tested whether visual items that are memorized for different tasks are stored separately from one another or show evidence of inter-item interference during concurrent maintenance, indicating a common storage. In two experiments, we combined a framing memory task (memorize a motion direction for continuous direction report) with an embedded memory task (memorize a motion direction for a binary direction discrimination) that was placed within the retention period of the framing task. Even though the temporal and action demands were item specific, we observed two types of interference effects between the items …

Journal of Neuroscience

Working memory enables the temporary storage of relevant information in the service of behavior. Neuroimaging studies have suggested that sensory cortex is involved in maintaining contents in working memory. This raised the question of how sensory regions maintain memory representations during the exposure to distracting stimuli. Multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI signals in visual cortex has shown that the contents of visual working memory could be decoded concurrently with passively viewed distractors. The present fMRI study tested whether this finding extends to auditory working memory and to active distractor processing. We asked participants to memorize the pitch of a target sound and to compare it with a probe sound presented after a 13 s delay period. In separate conditions, we compared a blank delay phase (no distraction) with either passive listening to, or active processing of, an auditory …

Plos one

We conducted an investigation to explore how neurotypical (NT) listeners perceive the emotional tone of voice in sentences spoken by individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and NT speakers. The investigation included both male and female speakers from both groups. In Study 1, NT listeners were asked to identify the emotional prosody (anger, fear, happiness, surprise or neutral) conveyed by the speakers. Results revealed that emotional expressions produced by male ASD speakers were generally less accurately recognized compared to male NT speakers. In contrast, emotions expressed by female ASD speakers were more accurately categorized compared to female NT speakers, except when expressing fear. This suggests that female ASD speakers may not express emotional prosody in the same way as their male counterparts. In Study 2, a subset of produced materials was rated for valence, voice modulation, and voice control to supplement Study 1 results: Female ASD speakers sounded less negative when expressing fear compared to female NT speakers. Male ASD speakers were perceived as less positive than NT speakers when expressing happiness. Voice modulation also differed between groups, showing a tendency for ASD speakers to follow different display rules for both positive emotions (happiness and surprise) tested. Finally, male ASD speakers were rated to use voice cues less appropriately compared to NT male speakers, an effect less pronounced for female ASD speakers. Together, the results imply that difficulties in social interactions among individuals with high-functioning ASD could be …

Frontiers in Neuroscience

IntroductionAuditory-motor interactions can support the preparation for expected sensory input. We investigated the periodic modulation of beta activity in the electroencephalogram to assess the role of active auditory-motor synchronization. Pre-stimulus beta activity (13–30 Hz) has been interpreted as a neural signature of the preparation for expected sensory input.MethodsIn the current study, participants silently counted frequency deviants in sequences of pure tones either during a physically inactive control condition or while pedaling on a cycling ergometer. Tones were presented either rhythmically (at 1 Hz) or arrhythmically with variable intervals. In addition to the pedaling conditions with rhythmic (auditory-motor synchronization, AMS) or arrhythmic stimulation, a self-generated stimulus condition was used in which tones were presented in sync with the participants’ spontaneous pedaling. This condition served to explore whether sensory predictions are driven primarily by the auditory or by the motor system.ResultsPre-stimulus beta power increased for rhythmic compared to arrhythmic stimulus presentation in both sitting and pedaling conditions but was strongest in the AMS condition. Furthermore, beta power in the AMS condition correlated with motor performance, i.e., the better participants synchronized with the rhythmic stimulus sequence, the higher was pre-stimulus beta power. Additionally, beta power was increased for the self-generated stimulus condition compared with arrhythmic pedaling, but there was no difference between the self-generated and the AMS condition.DiscussionThe current data pattern indicates that pre-stimulus …

Journal of Vision

Serial dependence refers to a phenomenon where a current representation is biased by a previous representation. Current representations can be biased either in an attractive or a repulsive manner, ie, they are inaccurately reported to be more similar or dissimilar to the previous representation, respectively. Here we tested whether the status of a representation as a previous or a potential future target for an action determines the occurrence of attractive or repulsive serial dependence. Participants had to memorize orientations of two gratings. One of them was cued for later report, ie, it was further maintained as a potential target in working memory. The uncued stimulus could either be removed from working memory immediately or serve as a target for a secondary task before its removal. Subsequently, participants had to memorize the orientation of a third grating. When subjects were asked to report the third …

Frontiers in Neuroscience

IntroductionAuditory-motor interactions can support the preparation for expected sensory input. We investigated the periodic modulation of beta activity in the electroencephalogram to assess the role of active auditory-motor synchronization. Pre-stimulus beta activity (13–30 Hz) has been interpreted as a neural signature of the preparation for expected sensory input.MethodsIn the current study, participants silently counted frequency deviants in sequences of pure tones either during a physically inactive control condition or while pedaling on a cycling ergometer. Tones were presented either rhythmically (at 1 Hz) or arrhythmically with variable intervals. In addition to the pedaling conditions with rhythmic (auditory-motor synchronization, AMS) or arrhythmic stimulation, a self-generated stimulus condition was used in which tones were presented in sync with the participants’ spontaneous pedaling. This condition served to explore whether sensory predictions are driven primarily by the auditory or by the motor system.ResultsPre-stimulus beta power increased for rhythmic compared to arrhythmic stimulus presentation in both sitting and pedaling conditions but was strongest in the AMS condition. Furthermore, beta power in the AMS condition correlated with motor performance, i.e., the better participants synchronized with the rhythmic stimulus sequence, the higher was pre-stimulus beta power. Additionally, beta power was increased for the self-generated stimulus condition compared with arrhythmic pedaling, but there was no difference between the self-generated and the AMS condition.DiscussionThe current data pattern indicates that pre-stimulus …

Social Neuroscience

Financial incentives are commonly used to motivate behaviors. However, there is also evidence that incentives can impede the behavior they are supposed to foster, for example, documented by a decrease in blood donations if a financial incentive is offered. Based on these findings, previous studies assumed that prosocial motivation is shaped by incentives. However, so far, there is no direct evidence showing an interaction between financial incentives and a specific prosocial motive. Combining drift-diffusion modeling and fMRI, we investigated the effect of financial incentives on empathy, i.e., one of the key motives driving prosocial decisions. In the empathy-alone condition, participants made prosocial decisions based on empathy. In the empathy-bonus condition, they were offered a financial bonus for prosocial decisions, in addition to empathy induction. On average, the bonus enhanced the information …

NeuroImage

Motives motivate human behavior. Most behaviors are driven by more than one motive, yet it is unclear how different motives interact and how such motive combinations affect the neural computation of the behaviors they drive. To answer this question, we induced two prosocial motives simultaneously (multi-motive condition) and separately (single motive conditions). After the different motive inductions, participants performed the same choice task in which they allocated points in favor of the other person (prosocial choice) or in favor of themselves (egoistic choice). We used fMRI to assess prosocial choice-related brain responses and drift diffusion modeling to specify how motive combinations affect individual components of the choice process. Our results showed that the combination of the two motives in the multi-motive condition increased participants’ choice biases prior to the behavior itself. On the neural level …

Frontiers in neurology

Background Standardized neuropsychological testing serves to quantify cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. However, the exact mechanism underlying the translation of cognitive dysfunction into difficulties in everyday tasks has remained unclear. To answer this question, we tested if MS patients with intact vs. impaired information processing speed measured by the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) differ in their visual search behavior during ecologically valid tasks reflecting everyday activities. Methods Forty-three patients with relapsing-remitting MS enrolled in an eye-tracking experiment consisting of a visual search task with naturalistic images. Patients were grouped into “impaired” and “unimpaired” according to their SDMT performance. Reaction time, accuracy and eye-tracking parameters were measured. Results The groups did not differ regarding age, gender, and visual acuity. Patients with impaired SDMT (cut-off SDMT-z-score < −1.5) performance needed more time to find and fixate the target (q = 0.006). They spent less time fixating the target (q = 0.042). Impaired patients had slower reaction times and were less accurate (both q = 0.0495) even after controlling for patients' upper extremity function. Exploratory analysis revealed that unimpaired patients had higher accuracy than impaired patients particularly when the announced target was in unexpected location (p = 0.037). Correlational analysis suggested that SDMT performance is inversely linked to the time to first fixation of the target only if the announced target was in its expected location (r = −0.498, p = 0.003 vs. r = −0.212, p = 0.229). Conclusion …

Journal of Vision

Visual objects separated in time are not processed independently from each other. Instead, a current object is often reported as more similar to a previously encoded, but now irrelevant object than it actually was. This phenomenon is called serial dependence. Until now, it has remained unclear whether serial dependence occurs during an early stage in the object processing hierarchy, ie, when an object is encoded into the visual system, or during later stages, ie, when an object is retained in working memory or selected for an action. To determine at which stage an object representation becomes biased, we recorded neuronal activity using MEG while subjects encoded and memorized two sequentially presented motion directions and, after a short delay, selected one direction for a report based on a retro-cue. Using a model-based MEG decoding approach, we found that the neural representation of a current …

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Attention selects relevant information regardless of whether it is physically present or internally stored in working memory. Perceptual research has shown that attentional selection of external information is better conceived as rhythmic prioritization than as stable allocation. Here we tested this principle using information processing of internal representations held in working memory. Participants memorized 4 spatial positions that formed the end points of 2 objects. One of the positions was cued for a delayed match–nonmatch test. When uncued positions were probed, participants responded faster to uncued positions located on the same object as the cued position than to those located on the other object, revealing object-based attention in working memory. Manipulating the interval between cue and probe at a high temporal resolution revealed that reaction times oscillated at a theta rhythm of 6 Hz. Moreover …

Psychotherapie Psychosomatik Medizinische Psychologie

Clinical psychosocial Emergency Care in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic - Status Quo in Medical Psychology Facilities | Psychotherapie Psychosomatik Medizinische Psychologie; 71(08):353-354, 2021. | Web of Science Conteúdo principal 1 Busca 2 Rodapé 3 +A A -A Alto contraste Base de dados da OMS sobre COVID-19 العربية 中文 (中国) english français Русский español português Notícias/Atualização/Ajuda Busca Avançada Pesquisar The WHO Covid-19 Research Database is a resource created in response to the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Its content remains searchable and spans the time period March 2020 to June 2023. Since June 2023, manual updates to the database have been discontinued. 1.Home 2.Pesquisa 3.Clinical psychosocial Emergency Care in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic - Status Quo Clinical psychosocial Emergency Care in the …

Journal of Neuroscience

Multivariate analyses of hemodynamic signals serve to identify the storage of specific stimulus contents in working memory (WM). Representations of visual stimuli have been demonstrated both in sensory regions and in higher cortical areas. While previous research has typically focused on the WM maintenance of a single content feature, it remains unclear whether two separate features of a single object can be decoded concurrently. Also, much less evidence exists for representations of auditory compared with visual stimulus features. To address these issues, human participants had to memorize both pitch and perceived location of one of two sample sounds. After a delay phase, they were asked to reproduce either pitch or location. At recall, both features showed comparable levels of discriminability. Region of interest (ROI)-based decoding of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data during the delay …

Frontiers in aging neuroscience

Aging is accompanied by unisensory decline. To compensate for this, two complementary strategies are potentially relied upon increasingly: first, older adults integrate more information from different sensory organs. Second, according to the predictive coding (PC) model, we form “templates” (internal models or “priors”) of the environment through our experiences. It is through increased life experience that older adults may rely more on these templates compared to younger adults. Multisensory integration and predictive coding would be effective strategies for the perception of near-threshold stimuli, which may however come at the cost of integrating irrelevant information. Both strategies can be studied in multisensory illusions because these require the integration of different sensory information, as well as an internal model of the world that can take precedence over sensory input. Here, we elicited a classic multisensory illusion, the sound-induced flash illusion, in younger (mean: 27 years, N = 25) and older (mean: 67 years, N = 28) adult participants while recording the magnetoencephalogram. Older adults perceived more illusions than younger adults. Older adults had increased pre-stimulus beta-band activity compared to younger adults as predicted by microcircuit theories of predictive coding, which suggest priors and predictions are linked to beta-band activity. Transfer entropy analysis and dynamic causal modeling of pre-stimulus magnetoencephalography data revealed a stronger illusion-related modulation of cross-modal connectivity from auditory to visual cortices in older compared to younger adults. We interpret this as the neural …

bioRxiv

Financial incentives are commonly used to motivate behaviours. There is also evidence that incentives can decline the behaviour they are supposed to foster, for example, documented by a decrease in blood donations if a financial incentive is offered. Based on these findings, previous studies assumed that prosocial motivation is shaped by incentives. However, so far, there is no direct evidence showing an interaction between financial incentives and a specific prosocial motive. Combining drift-diffusion modelling and fMRI, we investigated the effect of financial incentives on empathy, i.e., one of the key motives driving prosocial decisions. In the empathy-alone condition, participants made prosocial decisions based on empathy, in the empathy-bonus condition, they were offered a financial bonus for prosocial decisions, in addition to empathy induction. On average, the bonus enhanced the information accumulation in empathy-based decision. On the neural level, this enhancement was related to the anterior insula, the same region that also correlated with empathy ratings. Moreover, the effect of the financial incentive on anterior insula activation was stronger the lower a person scored on empathy. These findings show that financial incentives enhance prosocial motivation in the absence of empathy but have little effect on high empathic individuals.

Journal of Vision

The processing of a visual object can be systematically biased towards an object that was processed several seconds ago. This phenomenon, called serial dependence, has been thought to promote an object’s stability by compensating for small changes of its appear-ance over time. Up until now, it has been debated whether this attractive bias occurs at perceptual or post-perceptual levels of the processing hierarchy. To address this issue, we recorded neuronal activity using MEG while participants remembered motion directions of two sequentially presented red and green items. After a delay, a colored retro-cue indicated the item whose motion direction participants had to report. We observed that the currently reported motion direction was biased toward the item retro-cued on the previous trial. This bias was present when the current and the previous item's motion directions were similar to each other and further …

PPmP-Psychotherapie· Psychosomatik· Medizinische Psychologie

MethodikEs wurden alle bestehenden medizinpsychologischen Einrichtungen an deutschen Universitäten telefonisch im Juni 2020 kontaktiert (N= 34). Insgesamt konnten 28 Einrichtungen erreicht werden. Nach einer kurzen Erläuterung wurde ein vom Vorstand der DGMP konsentiertes halbstandardisiertes Interview durchgeführt und die Antworten anonym protokolliert. Die Auswertung erfolgte deskriptiv-statistisch.