EEG、fNIRS和TMS出版物中的EyeLink眼动仪

@article{Cruz2025,

title = {Oscillatory brain activity in the canonical alpha-band conceals distinct mechanisms in attention},

author = {Gabriela Cruz and María Melcón and Leonardo Sutandi and Matias M. Palva and Satu Palva and Gregor Thut},

doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0918-24.2024},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {The Journal of Neuroscience},

volume = {45},

number = {1},

pages = {1–17},

abstract = {Brain oscillations in the alpha-band (8-14 Hz) have been linked to specific processes in attention and perception. In particular, decreases in posterior alpha-amplitude are thought to reflect activation of perceptually relevant brain areas for target engagement, while alpha-amplitude increases have been associated with inhibition for distractor suppression. Traditionally, these alpha-changes have been viewed as two facets of the same process. However, recent evidence calls for revisiting this interpretation. Here, we recorded MEG/EEG in 32 participants (19 females) during covert visuospatial attention shifts (spatial cues) and two control conditions (neutral cue, no-attention cue), while tracking fixational eye movements. In disagreement with a single, perceptually relevant alpha-process, we found the typical alpha-modulations contra- and ipsilateral to the attention focus to be triple dissociated in their timing, topography, and spectral features: Ipsilateral alpha-increases occurred early, over occipital sensors, at a high alpha-frequency (10–14 Hz) and were expressed during spatial attention (alpha spatial cue > neutral cue). In contrast, contralateral alpha-decreases occurred later, over parietal sensors, at a lower alpha-frequency (7–10 Hz) and were associated with attention deployment in general (alpha spatial and neutral cue < no-attention cue). Additionally, the lateralized early alpha-increases but not alpha-decreases during spatial attention coincided in time with directionally biased microsaccades. Overall, this suggests that the attention-related early alpha-increases and late alpha-decreases reflect distinct, likely reflexive versus endogenously controlled attention mechanisms. We conclude that there is more than one perceptually relevant posterior alpha-oscillation, which need to be dissociated for a detailed account of their roles in perception and attention.},

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@article{David2025,

title = {Pupil-linked arousal, cortical activity, and cognition in Alzheimer's disease},

author = {Michael C. B. David and Emma Jane Mallas and Lucia M. Li and Magdalena A. Kolanko and Ramin Nilforooshan and Man Lai Tsoi and Hanim Karakoc and Karen Hoang and Johanna Brandt and Charikleia Triantafyllou and Dragos C. Gruia and Darije Custovic and Peter J. Lally and Karl A. Zimmerman and David Sharp and Care Research Institute and Technology Group UK Dementia Research and Paresh A. Malhotra and Gregory Scott1 and David J. Sharp},

doi = {10.1093/braincomms/fcaf236},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Brain Communications},

volume = {7},

number = {4},

pages = {1–17},

publisher = {Oxford University Press},

abstract = {Arousal dysfunction contributes to impairments seen in Alzheimer's disease. However, the nature and degree of this dysfunction have not been studied in detail. We investigated changes in tonic and phasic arousal using simultaneous pupillometry-EEG, relating these changes to locus coeruleus integrity, a key arousal nucleus. Forty Alzheimer's disease participants and 30 controls underwent neuropsychological testing using the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog), MRI designed to show contrast in the locus coeruleus as a measure of integrity and simultaneous pupillometry-EEG during 5 min of eyes-open resting-state. Pupillometry-EEG was then also applied during an oddball task which included a passive session and sessions in which responses to target stimuli were required, to test the effect of salience. Alzheimer's disease had lower locus coeruleus integrity (b = -0.26},

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@article{Duschek2025,

title = {Neural correlates of proactive and reactive control investigated using a novel precued antisaccade paradigm},

author = {S. Duschek and T. Rainer and P. Piwkowski and J. Vorwerk and L. Riml and U. Ettinger},

doi = {10.1111/psyp.70015},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Psychophysiology},

volume = {62},

pages = {1–17},

abstract = {This ERP study investigated central nervous correlates of proactive and reactive control using a novel precued antisaccade paradigm. Proactive control refers to preparatory processes during anticipation of a behaviorally relevant event; reactive control is activated after such an event to ensure goal attainment. A 64-channel EEG was obtained in 35 subjects; video-based eye tracking was applied for ocular recording. In the task, a target (probe) appeared left or right of the fixation point 1800ms after a visual cue; subjects had to move their gaze to the probe (prosaccade) or its mirror image position (antisaccade). Probes were emotional face expressions; their frame colors instructed task requirements. The cue informed about antisaccade probability (70% vs. 30%) in a trial. High antisaccade probability was associated with larger CNV amplitude than low antisaccade probability. In trials with incongruence between expected and actual task requirements, the probe N2 and P3a amplitudes were larger than in congruent trials. The P3a was smaller for affective than neutral probes. Task accuracy and speed were lower in incongruent trials and varied according to affective probe valence. EEG source imaging suggested origin of the ERPs in the orbitofrontal cortex and superior frontal gyrus. The difference for the CNV indicates greater cortical activity during higher proactive control demands. The larger probe N2 and P3a in incongruent trials reflect greater resource allocation to conflict monitoring and conflict resolution, i.e., reactive control. The influence of probe valence on the P3a suggests reduction of processing capacity due to higher emotional arousal.},

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@article{Fischer2025,

title = {Challenging the negativity bias in affective scene viewing: The role of social content},

author = {Anna Fischer and Danilo Postin and Lina Johanna Meiners and Louisa Kulke and Pascal Vrtička and Anne Schacht},

doi = {10.1093/scan/nsaf108},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience},

volume = {20},

number = {1},

pages = {1–11},

publisher = {Oxford University Press},

abstract = {How does the brain prioritize information when visual scenes contain multiple sources of relevance? While emotionally evocative content has long been considered central to attentional capture, social content constitutes another key dimension of relevance. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the integration of these relevance dimensions remain unclear. We co-registered event-related potentials (ERPs) and eye movements while participants viewed complex scenes varying in social content (social, non-social) and emotional valence (positive, negative, neutral). Early ERP responses (P1) showed enhanced amplitudes for positive social images, suggesting that social relevance can mitigate the early-stage negativity bias. Social content also modulated the EPN, while emotional valence shaped later components (P300, LPC), with larger amplitudes for negative scenes. Eye-tracking measures mirrored these ERP effects: initial saccades were faster for social images, and fixation patterns indicated increased visual exploration for both positive and negative social scenes relative to neutral ones. Together, these results support a sequential appraisal process in which social content is prioritized at early perceptual stages, while emotional valence influences later evaluative processing. This pattern challenges the notion of a general negativity bias and underscores the interactive and stage-specific contributions of social and emotional relevance in affective scene perception.},

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@article{Gruner2025,

title = {Semantic context effects in picture and sound naming: Evidence from event-related potentials and pupillometric data},

author = {Magdalena Gruner and Andreas Widmann and Stefan Wöhner and Erich Schröger and Jörg D. Jescheniak},

doi = {10.1162/jocn_a_02255},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Journal of cognitive neuroscience},

volume = {37},

number = {2},

pages = {443–463},

abstract = {When a picture is repeatedly named in the context of semantically related pictures (homogeneous context), responses are slower than when the picture is repeatedly named in the context of unrelated pictures (heterogeneous context). This semantic interference effect in blocked-cyclic naming plays an important role in devising theories of word production. Wöhner, Mädebach, and Jescheniak [Wöhner, S., Mädebach, A., & Jescheniak, J. D. Naming pictures and sounds: Stimulus type affects semantic context effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 47, 716-730, 2021] have shown that the effect is substantially larger when participants name environmental sounds than when they name pictures. We investigated possible reasons for this difference, using EEG and pupillometry. The behavioral data replicated Wöhner and colleagues. ERPs were more positive in the homogeneous compared with the heterogeneous context over central electrode locations between 140-180 msec and 250-350 msec for picture naming and between 250 and 350 msec for sound naming, presumably reflecting semantic interference during semantic and lexical processing. The later component was of similar size for pictures and sounds. ERPs were more negative in the homogeneous compared with the heterogeneous context over frontal electrode locations between 400 and 600 msec only for sounds. The pupillometric data showed a stronger pupil dilation in the homogeneous compared with the heterogeneous context only for sounds. The amplitudes of the late ERP negativity and pupil dilation predicted naming latencies for sounds in the homogeneous context. The latency of the effects indicates that the difference in semantic interference between picture and sound naming arises at later, presumably postlexical processing stages closer to articulation. We suggest that the processing of the auditory stimuli interferes with phonological response preparation and self-monitoring, leading to enhanced semantic interference.},

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@article{Huang2025f,

title = {Neural mechanism underlying preview effects and masked priming effects in visual word processing},

author = {Xin Huang and Brian W. L. Wong and Hezul Tin Yan Ng and Werner Sommer and Olaf Dimigen and Urs Maurer},

doi = {10.3758/s13414-024-02904-8},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics},

volume = {87},

number = {1},

pages = {5–24},

publisher = {Springer},

abstract = {Two classic experimental paradigms – masked repetition priming and the boundary paradigm – have played a pivotal role in understanding the process of visual word recognition. Traditionally, these paradigms have been employed by different communities of researchers, with their own long-standing research traditions. Nevertheless, a review of the literature suggests that the brain-electric correlates of word processing established with both paradigms may show interesting similarities, in particular with regard to the location, timing, and direction of N1 and N250 effects. However, as of yet, no direct comparison has been undertaken between the two paradigms. In the current study, we used combined eye-tracking/EEG to perform such a within-subject comparison using the same materials (single Chinese characters) as stimuli. To facilitate direct comparisons, we used a simplified version of the boundary paradigm – the single word boundary paradigm. Our results show the typical early repetition effects of N1 and N250 for both paradigms. However, repetition effects in N250 (i.e., a reduced negativity following identical-word primes/previews as compared to different-word primes/previews) were larger with the single word boundary paradigm than with masked priming. For N1 effects, repetition effects were similar across the two paradigms, showing a larger N1 after repetitions as compared to alternations. Therefore, the results indicate that at the neural level, a briefly presented and masked foveal prime produces qualitatively similar facilitatory effects on visual word recognition as a parafoveal preview before a single saccade, although such effects appear to be stronger in the latter case.},

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@article{Iotzov2025,

title = {Effects of noise and reward on pupil size and electroencephalographic speech tracking in a word-detection task},

author = {Ivan Iotzov and Lucas C. Parra},

doi = {10.1111/ejn.70009},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {European Journal of Neuroscience},

volume = {61},

pages = {1–12},

abstract = {Speech is hard to understand when there is background noise. Speech intelligibility and listening effort both affect our ability to understand speech, but the relative contribution of these factors is hard to disentangle. Previous studies suggest that speech intelligibility could be assessed with EEG speech tracking and listening effort via pupil size. However, these measures may be confounded, because poor intelligibility may require a larger effort. To address this, we developed a novel word-detection paradigm that allows for a rapid behavioural assessment of speech processing. In this paradigm, words appear on the screen during continuous speech, similar to closed captioning. In two listening experiments with a total of 51 participants, we manipulated intelligibility by changing signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and modulated effort by varying monetary reward. Increasing SNR improved detection performance along with EEG speech tracking. Additionally, we find that pupil size increases with increased SNR. Surprisingly, when we modulated both reward and SNR, we found that reward modulated only pupil size, whereas SNR modulated only EEG speech tracking. We interpret this as the effects of arousal and listening effort on pupil size and of intelligibility on EEG speech tracking. The experimental paradigm},

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@article{Jung2025,

title = {Distractor anticipation during working memory is associated with theta and beta oscillations across spatial scales},

author = {Dennis Y. Jung and Bikash C. Sahoo and Adam C. Snyder},

doi = {10.3389/fnint.2025.1553521},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience},

volume = {19},

pages = {1–4},

publisher = {Frontiers Media SA},

abstract = {Introduction: Anticipating distractors during working memory maintenance is critical to reduce their disruptive effects. In this study, we aimed to identify the oscillatory correlates of this process across different spatial scales of neural activity. Methods: We simultaneously recorded local field potentials (LFP) from the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and electroencephalograms (EEG) from the scalp of monkeys performing a modified memory-guided saccade (MGS) task. The monkeys were required to remember the location of a target visual stimulus while anticipating distracting visual stimulus, flashed at 50% probability during the delay period. Results: We found significant theta-band activity across spatial scales during anticipation of a distractor, closely linked with underlying working memory dynamics, through decoding and cross-temporal generalization analyses. EEG particularly reflected reactivation of memory around the anticipated time of a distractor, even in the absence of stimuli. During this anticipated time, beta-band activity exhibited transiently enhanced intrahemispheric communication between the LPFC and occipitoparietal brain areas. These oscillatory phenomena were observed only when the monkeys successfully performed the task, implicating their possible functional role in mitigating anticipated distractors. Discussion: Our results demonstrate that distractor anticipation recruits multiple oscillatory processes across the brain during working memory maintenance, with a key activity observed predominantly in the theta and beta bands.},

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@article{Knippenberg2025,

title = {Negative auditory hallucinations are associated with increased activation of the defensive motivational system in schizophrenia},

author = {Anna R. Knippenberg and Sabrina Yavari and Gregory P. Strauss},

doi = {10.1016/j.scog.2024.100334},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Schizophrenia Research: Cognition},

volume = {39},

pages = {1–6},

publisher = {Elsevier Inc.},

abstract = {Auditory hallucinations (AH) are the most common symptom of psychosis. The voices people hear make comments that are benign or even encouraging, but most often voices are threatening and derogatory. Negative AH are often highly distressing and contribute to suicide risk and violent behavior. Biological mechanisms underlying the valence of voices (i.e., positive, negative, neutral) are not well delineated. In the current study, we examined whether AH voice valence was associated with increased activation of the Defensive Motivational System, as indexed by central and autonomic system response to unpleasant stimuli. Data were evaluated from two studies that used a common symptom rating instrument, the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scale (PSY-RATS), to measure AH valence. Participants included outpatients diagnosed with SZ. Tasks included: Study 1: Trier Social Stress Task while heart rate was recorded via electrocardiography (N = 27); Study 2: Passive Viewing Task while participants were exposed to pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) library while eye movements, pupil dilation, and electroencephalography were recorded (N = 25). Results indicated that negative voice content was significantly associated with: 1) increased heart rate during an acute social stressor, 2) increased pupil dilation to unpleasant images, 3) higher neural reactivity to unpleasant images, and 4) a greater likelihood of having bottom-up attention drawn to unpleasant stimuli. Findings suggest that negative AH are associated with greater Defensive Motivational System activation in terms of central and autonomic nervous system response.},

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@article{Koenig2025,

title = {Spontaneous slow cortical potentials and brain oscillations independently influence conscious visual perception},

author = {Lua Koenig and Biyu J. He},

doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.3002964},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {PLoS Biology},

volume = {23},

number = {1},

pages = {1–33},

publisher = {Public Library of Science},

abstract = {Perceptual awareness results from an intricate interaction between external sensory input and the brain's spontaneous activity. Pre-stimulus ongoing activity influencing conscious perception includes both brain oscillations in the alpha (7 to 14 Hz) and beta (14 to 30 Hz) frequency ranges and aperiodic activity in the slow cortical potential (SCP, <5 Hz) range. However, whether brain oscillations and SCPs independently influence conscious perception or do so through shared mechanisms remains unknown. Here, we addressed this question in 2 independent magnetoencephalography (MEG) data sets involving near-threshold visual perception tasks in humans using low-level (Gabor patches) and high-level (objects, faces, houses, animals) stimuli, respectively. We found that oscillatory power and large-scale SCP activity influence conscious perception through independent mechanisms that do not have shared variance. In addition, through mediation analysis, we show that pre-stimulus oscillatory power and SCP activity have different relations to pupil size—an index of arousal—in their influences on conscious perception. Together, these findings suggest that oscillatory power and SCPs independently contribute to perceptual awareness, with distinct relations to pupil-linked arousal.},

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@article{Lim2025,

title = {Quantifying objective and perceived image quality through eeg and eye-tracking},

author = {Changhyun Lim and Hyun Jun Jeon and Woojae Jung and Youngshin Kwak and Myong Young Lee and Jung Hyun Ham and Hyun Bin Joo and Oh Sang Kwon and Dongil Chung},

doi = {10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3556391},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {IEEE Access},

volume = {13},

pages = {61250–61260},

publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.},

abstract = {Image quality evaluation of electronic displays is inherently subjective. To date, user studies in focus groups and viewers' self-reports have been the primary sources of feedback used as judgment criteria for the display quality. However, little has been known whether the measured responses to visual stimuli, other than self-reports, reflect the objective and subjective levels of image quality on displays. Here, we used electroencephalogram (EEG) and eye-tracking to investigate whether individuals' neural and physiological responses to visual stimuli track three objectively discerned levels of image quality, as well as their self-ratings on vividness. Our findings reveal that event-related potentials (ERPs) at 200-300 msec after stimulus onset in the frontocentral brain region, as well as saccade and blink frequencies, significantly tracked (cluster-based permutation p <0.05) the objective perspective of image quality. In contrast, ERPs at 600 msec in the frontolateral region and saccade peak velocity tracked (cluster-based permutation p <0.05) the subjective evaluation of image quality. Individuals' pupil diameter successfully tracked (cluster-based permutation p <0.05) both objective and subjective perspectives of image quality. These patterns highlight both the shared characteristics and measurable distinctions between objective image quality and subjective vividness ratings. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of EEG and eye-tracking as quantitative tools for assessing objective image quality disparities and the subjective affective nuances of users' visual display experiences, potentially reducing reliance on self-reports.},

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@article{Liu2025d,

title = {Concurrent selection of internal goals and external sensations during visual search},

author = {Baiwei Liu and Freek Ede},

doi = {10.1126/sciadv.adx8191},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Science Advances},

volume = {11},

number = {45},

pages = {1–10},

abstract = {Flexible goal-directed behavior relies on selecting relevant internal goal representations and external sensations. Yet, these selection processes have classically been studied in isolation, leaving unclear how they are coordinated in time to support behavior. To address this, we developed a visual search task to simultaneously track selection among internal search goals held in working memory and external search targets in the environment. Capitalizing on sensitive gaze and neural markers, we provide proof-of-principle evidence in humans that internal and external selection processes do not necessarily take turns in a strictly serial manner but can develop concurrently. These concurrent processes are supported by largely nonoverlapping neural activity patterns in the human brain and can be performed effectively even when engaging opposite spatial locations in working memory and perception. Our findings challenge views portraying brain states as being either internally or externally focused and bring insight into how internal and external selection processes work together to yield efficient search behavior.},

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tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Medeiros2025,

title = {Optimal frequency bands for pupillography for maximal correlation with HRV},

author = {Júlio Medeiros and André Bernardes and Ricardo Couceiro and Paulo Oliveira and Henrique Madeira and César Teixeira and Paulo Carvalho},

doi = {10.1038/s41598-025-85663-2},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Scientific Reports},

volume = {15},

number = {1},

pages = {1–17},

abstract = {Assessing cognitive load using pupillography frequency features presents a persistent challenge due to the lack of consensus on optimal frequency limits. This study aims to address this challenge by exploring pupillography frequency bands and seeking clarity in defining the most effective ranges for cognitive load assessment. From a controlled experiment involving 21 programmers performing software bug inspection, our study pinpoints the optimal low-frequency (0.06-0.29 Hz) and high-frequency (0.29-0.49 Hz) bands. Correlation analysis yielded a geometric mean of 0.238 compared to Heart Rate Variability features, with individual correlations for low-frequency, high-frequency, and their ratio at 0.279, 0.168, and 0.286, respectively. Extending the study to 51 participants, including a different experiment focusing on mental arithmetic tasks, validated the previous findings and further refined bands, maintaining effectiveness with a geometric mean correlation of 0.236 and surpassing common frequency bands reported in the existing literature. This study represents a pivotal step toward converging and establishing a coherent framework for frequency band definition to be used in pupillography analysis. Furthermore, based on this, it also contributes insights into the importance of more integration and adoption of eye-tracking with pupillography technology into authentic software development contexts for cognitive load assessment at a very fine level of granularity.},

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}

@article{Mei2025,

title = {Neural correlates for word-frequency effect in Chinese natural reading},

author = {Xiaolin Mei and Shuyuan Chen and Xinyi Xia and Bo Yang and Yanping Liu},

doi = {10.3758/s13414-024-02894-7},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics},

volume = {87},

number = {1},

pages = {120–132},

publisher = {Springer},

abstract = {Word frequency effect has always been of interest for reading research because of its critical role in exploring mental processing underlying reading behaviors. Access to word frequency information has long been considered an indicator of the beginning of lexical processing and the most sensitive marker for studying when the brain begins to extract semantic information Sereno & Rayner, Brain and Cognition, 42, 78–81, (2000), Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 489–493, (2003). While the word frequency effect has been extensively studied in numerous eye-tracking and traditional EEG research using the RSVP paradigm, there is a lack of corresponding evidence in studies of natural reading. To find the neural correlates of the word frequency effect, we conducted a study of Chinese natural reading using EEG and eye-tracking coregistration to examine the time course of lexical processing. Our results reliably showed that the word frequency effect first appeared in the N200 time window and the bilateral occipitotemporal regions. Additionally, the word frequency effect was reflected in the N400 time window, spreading from the occipital region to the central parietal and frontal regions. Our current study provides the first neural correlates for word-frequency effect in natural Chinese reading so far, shedding new light on understanding lexical processing in natural reading and could serve as an important basis for further reading study when considering neural correlates in a realistic manner.},

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@article{Melcher2025,

title = {An early effect of the parafoveal preview on post-saccadic processing of English words},

author = {David Melcher and Ani Alaberkyan and Chrysi Anastasaki and Xiaoyi Liu and Michele Deodato and Gianluca Marsicano and Diogo Almeida},

doi = {10.3758/s13414-024-02916-4},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics},

volume = {87},

number = {1},

pages = {94–119},

publisher = {Springer},

abstract = {A key aspect of efficient visual processing is to use current and previous information to make predictions about what we will see next. In natural viewing, and when looking at words, there is typically an indication of forthcoming visual information from extrafoveal areas of the visual field before we make an eye movement to an object or word of interest. This “preview effect” has been studied for many years in the word reading literature and, more recently, in object perception. Here, we integrated methods from word recognition and object perception to investigate the timing of the preview on neural measures of word recognition. Through a combined use of EEG and eye-tracking, a group of multilingual participants took part in a gaze-contingent, single-shot saccade experiment in which words appeared in their parafoveal visual field. In valid preview trials, the same word was presented during the preview and after the saccade, while in the invalid condition, the saccade target was a number string that turned into a word during the saccade. As hypothesized, the valid preview greatly reduced the fixation-related evoked response. Interestingly, multivariate decoding analyses revealed much earlier preview effects than previously reported for words, and individual decoding performance correlated with participant reading scores. These results demonstrate that a parafoveal preview can influence relatively early aspects of post-saccadic word processing and help to resolve some discrepancies between the word and object literatures.},

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}

@article{Milligan2025,

title = {Individual differences in subcomponents of the N400: Comprehension ability predicts contextual support effects while spelling ability predicts orthographic anomaly effects},

author = {Sara Milligan and Ayah Elaboudi and Brian Nestor and Elizabeth R. Schotter},

doi = {10.3758/s13415-025-01280-6},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience},

volume = {25},

number = {4},

pages = {1063–1082},

publisher = {Springer US},

abstract = {The N400 ERP component has been characterized as a response reflecting binding of semantic memory states to create a “multimodal conceptual representation” (Kutas & Federmeier, 2011). An assumption of this characterization is that the measured response itself reflects the synchronization of various neural processes required for language comprehension. Less is known, however, about how these processes vary across individuals and how specific language skills may modulate particular underlying subcomponents of the N400. In the current study, we measured the N400 response to words that were (1) unexpected (i.e., low cloze in low constraint) or (2) orthographically related (OR) anomalies compared with expected words (i.e., high cloze in high constraint), and we investigated how these effects were related to participants' reading comprehension ability, vocabulary, and spelling ability. We found that contextual support N400 effects were larger for individuals with superior reading comprehension skills, whereas OR anomaly N400 effects were larger for individuals with superior spelling ability. These findings support the characterization of the N400 as a composite of various comprehension-related neural processes. The current study demonstrates that individual differentiation in the strength of these skills is differentially associated with the N400 subcomponents related to contextual facilitation and orthographic processing. Reading comprehension ability is associated with stronger contextual support effects, which may reflect more effective use of contextual support in facilitating semantic retrieval. Spelling skill is more strongly associated with OR anomaly effects (in contexts supporting an orthographic neighbor of the presented anomalous word), which may reflect more precise word identification.},

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@article{Milligan2025a,

title = {Parafoveal N400 effects reveal that word skipping is associated with deeper lexical processing in the presence of context-driven expectations},

author = {Sara Milligan and Milca Jaime Brunet and Neslihan Caliskan and Elizabeth R. Schotter},

doi = {10.3758/s13414-024-02984-6},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics},

volume = {87},

number = {1},

pages = {76–93},

publisher = {Springer},

abstract = {Readers are able to begin processing upcoming words before directly fixating them, and in some cases skip words altogether (i.e., never fixated). However, the exact mechanisms and recognition thresholds underlying skipping decisions are not entirely clear. In the current study, we test whether skipping decisions reflect instances of more extensive lexical processing by recording neural language processing (via electroencephalography; EEG) and eye movements simultaneously, and we split trials based on target word-skipping behavior. To test lexical processing of the words, we manipulated the orthographic and phonological relationship between upcoming preview words and a semantically correct (and in some cases, expected) target word using the gaze-contingent display change paradigm. We also manipulated the constraint of the sentences to investigate the extent to which the identification of sublexical features of words depends on a reader's expectations. We extracted fixation-related brain potentials (FRPs) during the fixation on the preceding word (i.e., in response to parafoveal viewing of the manipulated previews). We found that word skipping is associated with larger neural responses (i.e., N400 amplitudes) to semantically incongruous words that did not share a phonological representation with the correct word, and this effect was only observed in high-constraint sentences. These findings suggest that word skipping can be reflective of more extensive linguistic processing, but in the absence of expectations, word skipping may occur based on less fine-grained linguistic processing and be more reflective of identification of plausible or expected sublexical features rather than higher-level lexical processing (e.g., semantic access).},

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@article{Mohr2025,

title = {Pattern-pulses and pattern-reversals evoke different cascades of cortical sources in the multifocal visual evoked potential},

author = {Kieran S. Mohr and Anna C. Geuzebroek and Simon P. Kelly},

doi = {10.1167/jov.25.7.1},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Vision},

volume = {25},

number = {7},

pages = {1–19},

publisher = {Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Inc.},

abstract = {The multifocal visual evoked potential (mVEP), elicited by either pattern-pulses or pattern-reversals, provides an effective means to study visual processing and to identify retinal damage and visual field defects. It is often assumed that the first components of these VEPs, the C1 and N75, respectively, are generated in V1, based on source modeling and their polarity reversal between upper- and lower-field stimulus presentations. However, limitations in the spatial resolution of source modeling and the non-uniqueness of the polarity reversal heuristic leave this assumed V1 source uncertain. We recently demonstrated the utility of a novel method to resolve visual sources by correlating retinotopically varying VEP topographies with predictions from the Benson-2014 retinotopy atlas. Here, we apply this method to study the sources of both the pulse and reversal mVEP, presented at the same stimulus event rates of between 3–8 Hz per location (approximately 35 Hz overall event rate). This analysis suggested that although V1 dominated the generation of the pulse mVEP throughout its time course, the initial component of the reversal mVEP was instead dominated by extrastriate areas, with V1 dominance emerging later from approximately 110 ms onwards. Although the initial component of the reversal mVEP did exhibit the classic sign of a V1 source—polarity reversal across the horizontal meridian—this basic feature is also produced by extrastriate areas such as V2 and V3, and the strong lateralization of topographies near the vertical meridian predicted by a V1 source was not observed. These results suggest that the pulse and reversal mVEP evoke different cascades of generative visual areas when evoked at the event rate tested here.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Pagan2025,

title = {Aging and word predictability during reading: Evidence from eye movements and fixation-related potentials},

author = {Ascensión Pagán and Federica Degno and Sara V. Milledge and Richard D. Kirkden and Sarah J. White and Simon P. Liversedge and Kevin B. Paterson},

doi = {10.3758/s13414-024-02981-9},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics},

volume = {87},

number = {1},

pages = {50–75},

publisher = {Springer},

abstract = {The use of context to facilitate the processing of words is recognized as a hallmark of skilled reading. This capability is also hypothesized to change with older age because of cognitive changes across the lifespan. However, research investigating this issue using eye movements or event-related potentials (ERPs) has produced conflicting findings. Specifically, whereas eye-movement studies report larger context effects for older than younger adults, ERP findings suggest that context effects are diminished or delayed for older readers. Crucially, these contrary findings may reflect methodological differences, including use of unnatural sentence displays in ERP research. To address these limitations, we used a coregistration technique to record eye movements (EMs) and fixation-related potentials (FRPs) simultaneously while 44 young adults (18–30 years) and 30 older adults (65+ years) read sentences containing a target word that was strongly or weakly predicted by prior context. Eye-movement analyses were conducted over all data (full EM dataset) and only data matching FRPs. FRPs were analysed to capture early and later components 70–900 ms following fixation-onset on target words. Both eye-movement datasets and early FRPs showed main effects of age group and context, while the full EM dataset and later FRPs revealed larger context effects for older adults. We argue that, by using coregistration methods to address limitations of earlier ERP research, our experiment provides compelling complementary evidence from eye movements and FRPs that older adults rely more on context to integrate words during reading.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Pasqualette2025,

title = {Emotional expressions, but not social context, modulate attention during a discrimination task},

author = {Laura Pasqualette and Louisa Kulke},

doi = {10.1080/02699931.2024.2429737},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Cognition and Emotion},

volume = {39},

number = {5},

pages = {1108–1126},

publisher = {Routledge},

abstract = {Investigating social context effects and emotional modulation of attention in a laboratory setting is challenging. Electroencephalography (EEG) requires a controlled setting to avoid confounds, which goes against the nature of social interaction and emotional processing in real life. To bridge this gap, we developed a new paradigm to investigate the effects of social context and emotional expressions on attention in a laboratory setting. We co-registered eye-tracking and EEG to assess gaze behavior and brain activity while participants performed a discrimination task followed by feedback. Video clips of one second in which a confederate displayed either positive, neutral or negative expressions were presented as feedback to the discrimination task. Participants' belief was manipulated by telling them that the videos were selected either by the computer (non-social condition) or by the experimenter in the adjacent room that observed them via videochat (social condition). We found that emotional expressions modulated late attention processing in the brain (EPN and LPC), but neither early processing (P1) nor saccade latency. Social context did not influence any of the variables studied. We conclude this new paradigm serves as a stepping stone to the development of new paradigms to study social interaction within EEG experiments.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Pohle2025,

title = {Expectation effects on repetition suppression in nociception},

author = {Lisa-Marie G. Pohle and Moritz M. Nickel and Birgit Nierula and Markus Ploner and Ulrike Horn and Falk Eippert},

doi = {10.1152/jn.00359.2025},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Neurophysiology},

volume = {134},

number = {4},

pages = {1244–1256},

abstract = {Repetition suppression, the reduced neural response upon repeated presentation of a stimulus, can be explained by models focusing on bottom-up (i.e., adaptation) or top-down (i.e., expectation) mechanisms. Predictive coding models fall into the latter category and propose that repetitions are expected and therefore elicit smaller prediction error responses. Although studies in the visual and auditory domain provide some support for such models, in nociception evidence remains inconclusive, despite the substantial influence expectations exert on pain perception. To assess expectation effects on repetition suppression in nociception, we developed a paradigm in which healthy volunteers received brief CO2 laser stimuli, while we acquired electroencephalographic (EEG) and peripheral physiological data. Importantly, laser stimuli could be either repeated after one second or not be repeated, with the probability of repetitions manipulated in a block-wise fashion, such that repetitions were either expected or unexpected. We observed repetition suppression in laser-evoked potentials and laser-induced gamma band oscillations, but not in laser-induced desynchronizations in the alpha and beta band. Critically, neither these EEG responses, nor the peripheral physiological data showed significant differences between the expectation conditions, with Bayesian analyses mostly providing evidence for an absence of effects. This indicates that repetition suppression to brief nociceptive laser stimuli is not driven by top-down factors, but rather mediated by other adaptation processes. Although this does not preclude an influence of predictive coding models in nociception, it suggests that when the nervous system receives highly precise input, its responses are less susceptible to influence from expectations.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We show that repetition suppression (RS; the diminished neural activity upon repeated stimulus presentation) can be observed in the nociceptive domain: brief laser stimuli lead to RS in event-related potentials and gamma oscillations. Importantly, nociceptive RS is not modulated by repetition probability and thus expectations regarding the occurrence of a repetition. This indicates that nociceptive responses are less prone to top-down expectations under conditions of limited sensory uncertainty, as established via precise laser stimuli.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Pultsina2025a,

title = {Atypical pupil-linked arousal induced by low-risk probabilistic choices, and intolerance of uncertainty in adults with ASD},

author = {Kristina I. Pultsina and Tatiana A. Stroganova and Galina L. Kozunova and Andrey O. Prokofyev and Aleksandra S. Miasnikova and Anna M. Rytikova and Boris V. Chernyshev},

doi = {10.3758/s13415-024-01227-3},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience},

volume = {25},

number = {2},

pages = {531–549},

publisher = {Springer US},

abstract = {Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience stress when operating in a probabilistic environment, even if it is familiar, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Their decision-making may be affected by the uncertainty aversion implicated in ASD and associated with increased autonomic arousal. Previous studies have shown that in neurotypical (NT) people, decisions with predictably better outcomes are less stressful and elicit smaller pupil-linked arousal than those involving exploration. Here, in a sample of 46 high-functioning ASD and NT participants, using mixed-effects model analysis, we explored pupil-linked arousal and behavioral performance in a probabilistic reward learning task with a stable advantage of one choice option over the other. We found that subjects with ASD learned and preferred advantageous probabilistic choices at the same rate and to the same extent as NT participants, both in terms of choice ratio and response time. Although both groups exhibited similar predictive behaviors, learning to favor advantageous choices led to increased pupillary arousal for these choices in the ASD group, while it caused a decrease in pupillary arousal in the NT group. Moreover, greater pupil-linked arousal during decisions with higher expected value correlated with greater degree of self-reported intolerance of uncertainty in everyday life. Our results suggest that in a nonvolatile probabilistic environment, objectively good predictive abilities in people with ASD are coupled with elevated physiological stress and subjective uncertainty regarding the decisions with the best possible but still uncertain outcome that contributes to their intolerance of uncertainty.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Rembrandt2025,

title = {Evidence of physiological changes associated with single-session pre-frontal tDCS: A pilot study},

author = {Hannah N. Rembrandt and Ellyn A. Riley},

doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2025.1549248},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience},

volume = {19},

pages = {1–17},

publisher = {Frontiers Media SA},

abstract = {Objective: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive, painless method of applying direct current electrical stimulation to specific areas of the brain, is an effective method for enhancing attention and post-stroke fatigue, as shown by behavioral improvements in post-stroke populations. While behavioral evidence supports this method, there is a paucity of physiological data corroboration of this improvement. The current study is designed to investigate if a single session of tDCS will improve attention and fatigue as shown by relevant physiological methods in persons with post-stroke aphasia. Methods: Ten participants (5 male; mean age: 62.8) engaged in two identically structured data collection sessions with at least a 3-day wash-out period between them. Sessions started with a sustained attention task with simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and pupillometry data collection, followed by an attention training program with simultaneous active or sham tDCS. Following tDCS, participants repeated the sustained attention task with simultaneous EEG and pupillometry data collection. Participants received active tDCS during one session, and sham tDCS during the other, with the order randomized. Results: No differences between conditions were found for either behavioral results from the sustained attention task (i.e., reaction time of correct responses; n = 9 p = 0.39) or EEG measured attention state data for any of the four attention states: no attention (n = 10},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Saarinen2025,

title = {Eye tracking in MEG},

author = {Veli-Matti Saarinen and Veikko Jousmäki},

doi = {10.3758/s13414-024-02847-0},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics},

volume = {87},

number = {1},

pages = {238–244},

publisher = {Springer},

abstract = {Magnetoencephalography (MEG) can measure brain activity in ms-level temporal resolution. MEG sensors are super sensitive devices for magnetic signals of the brain but are also prone to electromagnetic interferences. The MEG device is located inside the magnetically shielded room (MSR), and any monitoring device used inside the MSR requires special shielding and its location must be carefully selected to suppress electromagnetic interference. Eye-tracker measures eye movements, providing spatial location of the gaze, pupil diameters, and eye blinks. Eye tracking in MEG enables, for example, categorization of the MEG data based on gaze position and interactive stimulus using gaze position. Combining the methods together will require considering the electromagnetic interference for the MEG—that is, additional shielding, positioning of the eye tracker, and subject-specific issues related to make-up and eye-corrective lenses.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Talcott2025,

title = {Is covert attention necessary for programming accurate saccades? Evidence from saccade-locked event-related potentials},

author = {Travis N. Talcott and John E. Kiat and Steven J. Luck and Nicholas Gaspelin},

doi = {10.3758/s13414-023-02775-5},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics},

volume = {87},

number = {1},

pages = {172–190},

publisher = {Springer},

abstract = {For decades, researchers have assumed that shifts of covert attention mandatorily occur prior to eye movements to improve perceptual processing of objects before they are fixated. However, recent research suggests that the N2pc component—a neural measure of covert attentional allocation—does not always precede eye movements. The current study investigated whether the N2pc component mandatorily precedes eye movements and assessed its role in the accuracy of gaze control. In three experiments, participants searched for a letter of a specific color (e.g., red) and directed gaze to it as a response. Electroencephalograms and eye movements were coregistered to determine whether neural markers of covert attention preceded the initial shift of gaze. The results showed that the presaccadic N2pc only occurred under limited conditions: when there were many potential target locations and distractors. Crucially, there was no evidence that the presence or magnitude of the presaccadic N2pc was associated with improved eye movement accuracy in any of the experiments. Interestingly, ERP decoding analyses were able to classify the target location well before the eyes started to move, which likely reflects a presaccadic cognitive process that is distinct from the attentional process measured by the N2pc. Ultimately, we conclude that the covert attentional mechanism indexed by the N2pc is not necessary for precise gaze control.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Wall2025c,

title = {Using EEG and eye tracking to evaluate an emotion recognition ipad app for autistic children},

author = {Natalie G. Wall and Oliver Smith and Linda Campbell and Carmel Loughland and Ulrich Schall},

doi = {10.1177/15500594251362402},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Clinical EEG and Neuroscience},

pages = {1–11},

publisher = {SAGE Publications Inc.},

abstract = {Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that impacts individuals' communication and social interaction skills. Autistic children often have smaller N170 amplitudes in response to faces than neurotypical children. Autistic children also avoid the salient areas of the face. Technology-based interventions have been developed to teach autistic children how to recognise facial expressions, but the results have exhibited considerable variability across studies. The current study explored the effectiveness of an iPad app designed to support autistic children in recognising facial expressions by examining how participants process facial information through event-related potentials (ERP) and eye-tracking recordings. ERPs and eye tracking were recorded from 20 neurotypical and 15 autistic children aged between 6 and 12 years. The results replicated previous work, with the autistic group having smaller N170 and Vertex Positive Potential amplitudes and more scan time off the face when compared to non-autistic children. Following the intervention, some changes were observed in facial feature scanning among autistic participants, characterised by increased time spent on the face and decreased fixations. These findings add to the work, indicating that eye tracking may be a valuable biomarker for intervention outcomes in autism. Further research into N170 as a biomarker is needed.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Yan2025c,

title = {Enhancing English language teaching quality evaluation via dynamic multimodal cognitive transfer models},

author = {Changying Yan},

doi = {10.1504/ijict.2025.10072947},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {International Journal of Information and Communication Technology},

volume = {26},

number = {32},

pages = {121–141},

publisher = {Inderscience Publishers},

abstract = {This paper proposes a dynamic assessment method based on multimodal cognitive transfer modelling to address the limitations of static and unidimensional analysis in English teaching quality assessment. A two-channel LSTM-cognitive state space model is constructed by synchronously collecting four-dimensional data of speech, vision, text and physiological signals in the teaching scene, quantifying students' cognitive state transfer trajectories based on the ACT-R cognitive architecture in the knowledge transfer channel, and adopting a dynamic causal map to model the feedback mechanism of teachers' strategy adjustment in the teaching intervention channel. A time-varying weighted assessment function was designed to dynamically fuse cognitive state vectors with intervention intensity. In a 136-lesson experiment in 12 schools, the causal attribution rate of this method was improved by 41.2%, and the adoption rate of intervention suggestions reached 83.7%, which verified the effectiveness and universality for dynamic quality assessment of English teaching.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Yano2025,

title = {Producing non-basic word orders in (in)felicitous contexts: Evidence from pupillometry and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)},

author = {Masataka Yano and Keiyu Niikuni and Ruri Shimura and Natsumi Funasaki and Masatoshi Koizumi},

doi = {10.1080/23273798.2024.2404178},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Language, Cognition and Neuroscience},

volume = {40},

number = {1},

pages = {1–22},

publisher = {Taylor & Francis},

abstract = {The present study examined why speakers of languages with flexible word orders are more likely to use syntactically complex non-basic word orders when they provide discourse-given information earlier in sentences. This may be because they are more efficient for speakers to produce (the Speaker Economy Hypothesis). Alternatively, speakers may produce them to help listeners understand sentences more efficiently (the Listener Economy Hypothesis), given that previous studies showed that the processing of non-basic word orders was facilitated when the felicitous context was provided (i.e. a displaced object refers to discourse-given information). We addressed this issue by conducting a picture-description experiment, in which participants uttered sentences with syntactically basic Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) or non-basic Object-Subject-Verb (OSV) in felicitous or infelicitous contexts while cognitive load was tracked using pupillometry and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that the felicitous context facilitated the filler-gap dependency formation of OSVs in production, supporting the Speaker Economy Hypothesis.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Yuan2025b,

title = {Autism-like atypical face processing in Shank3 mutant dogs},

author = {Siqi Yuan and Chenyu Pang and Liang Wu and Li Yi and Kun Guo and Yong Hui Jiang and Yong Q. Zhang and Shihui Han},

doi = {10.1126/sciadv.adu3793},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Science Advances},

volume = {11},

number = {14},

pages = {1–12},

abstract = {Atypical face processing is a neurocognitive basis of social deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a candidate cognitive marker for the disease. Although hundreds of risk genes have been identified in ASD, it remains unclear whether mutations in a specific gene may cause ASD-like atypical face processing. Dogs have acquired exquisite face processing abilities during domestication and may serve as an effective animal model for studying genetic associations of ASD-like atypical face processing. Here, we showed that dogs with Shank3 mutations exhibited behavioral and attentional avoidance of faces, contrasting with wild-type controls. Moreover, neural responses specific to faces (versus objects) recorded from the electrodes over the temporal cortex were significantly decreased and delayed in Shank3 mutants compared to wild-type controls. Cortical responses in the frontal/ parietal region underlying categorization of faces by species/breeds were reduced in Shank3 mutants. Our findings of atypical face processing in dogs with Shank3 mutations provide a useful animal model for studying ASD mechanisms and treatments.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Yuvaraj2025,

title = {Automated boredom recognition using multimodal physiological signals},

author = {Rajamanickam Yuvaraj and Sampathraman Samyuktha and Jack Fogarty and Jun Song Huang and Samuel Tan and Wong Teck Kiong},

doi = {10.1109/TAFFC.2025.3619979},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing},

pages = {1–18},

publisher = {IEEE},

abstract = {Increasing access to affordable physiological sensors and computing devices has bolstered the development of emotionaware systems that recognize human emotions. However, to date, there has been little research testing machine-driven approaches to recognizing boredom, particularly in learning contexts. To address that, this study tests the automatic recognition of boredom induced during a video lecture using a multimodal recognition system relying on physiological signals. Electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG), galvanic skin response (GSR), and eye gaze data were recorded from 84 healthy adults (mean age = 26.90 ± 5.29) as they watched both non-boring and boring educational videos to control and induce boredom. Signal features were extracted from the physiological data and validated using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests prior to evaluating their utility for boredom recognition with three separate machine-learning classification techniques, namely Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), Random Forest (RF), and Gradient Boosting (GB), with leave-one-out cross-validation. Both unimodal and multimodal recognition systems were assessed by evaluating model performance using each physiological signal separately or in combination (using decision fusion). Multimodal recognition was found to enhance model performance when compared to any single modality, with the highest average boredom recognition accuracy of 88.56% ± 0.82% recorded for EEG + eye gaze modal fusion with RF.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Zeng2025,

title = {Coregistration of eye movements and EEG reveals frequency effects of words and their constituent characters in natural silent Chinese reading},

author = {Taishen Zeng and Longxia Lou and Zhi-Fang Liu and Chaoyang Chen and Zhijun Zhang},

doi = {10.1038/s41598-024-82817-6},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Scientific Reports},

volume = {15},

number = {1},

pages = {1–14},

abstract = {We conducted two experiments to examine the lexical and sub-lexical processing of Chinese two-character words in reading. We used a co-registration electroencephalogram (EEG) for the first fixation on target words. In Experiment 1, whole-word occurrence frequency and initial constituent character frequency were orthogonally manipulated, while in Experiment 2, whole-word occurrence frequency and end constituent character frequency were orthogonally manipulated. Results showed that word frequency facilitated eye-tracking measures, while initial and end character frequencies inhibited them. Classical word frequency effects on N170 and N400 in the posterior region and reversed word frequency effects over the anterior region were consistently observed in both experiments. Experiment 1 revealed an inhibiting effect of initial character frequency on anterior N170. In Experiment 2, interaction between end-character frequency and word frequency showed reliable effects on anterior N170 and N400. These results demonstrate both facilitating and inhibiting word frequency effects, along with inhibiting effects of character frequency and that word frequency moderates the inhibiting effects of end constituent character frequency during natural silent Chinese reading.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Zhang2025q,

title = {Multimodal neurobehavioral integration in binocular color rivalry: Cortical-eye movement analysis under color, location, and combined stimuli},

author = {Xinni Zhang and Zhineng Lv and Xuesong Jin and Lijun Yun and Guihong Zhao and Zaiqing Chen},

doi = {10.3389/fnins.2025.1664583},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Frontiers in Neuroscience},

volume = {19},

pages = {1–22},

publisher = {Frontiers Media SA},

abstract = {Objective: Color and spatial location are key cues influencing visual selection in binocular color rivalry, jointly modulating attentional resource allocation and prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity. However, how these cues—individually and in combination—regulate ocular behavior and PFC activation remains insufficiently understood and lacks systematic empirical investigation. Methods: This study integrates eye tracking, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and reaction time measurements to systematically investigate the cortical and oculomotor response characteristics under a binocular rivalry paradigm, focusing on color rivalry (Color stimuli), spatial location (Location stimuli), and their combined (Color & Location stimuli). Results: The results revealed that Color stimuli elicited rapid saccades, significant pupil dilation, and a decrease in prefrontal HbO concentration. Location stimuli induced stable saccadic patterns and a typical biphasic HbR response in BA46. The combined Color & Location stimuli triggered significant changes in oculomotor behavior during the later processing stage, accompanied by a marked increase in HbO activation in BA10, suggesting its dominant role in multisensory integration and cognitive resource reallocation. Further coupling analyses showed a significant positive correlation between prefrontal HbO concentration and reaction time (r = 0.555, p < 0.01), and a significant negative correlation between HbO concentration and saccade amplitude (r = –0.376, p < 0.05), consistent with the theoretical predictions of the “neural efficiency–cognitive load trade-off” model. Task-dependent coupling relationship were also observed among oculomotor parameters and between eye movement and cerebral hemodynamic signals. Conclusion: Color stimuli induce rapid saccadic behavior and impose higher prefrontal load, Location stimuli engage a more efficient dorsal pathway, while Color & Location stimuli intensify resource rivalry and induce a processing bottleneck, manifested as prolonged reaction times co-occurring with heightened cortical activation.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Pouliot2024,

title = {Neurophysiological and autonomic dynamics of threat processing during sustained social fear generalization},

author = {Jourdan J. Pouliot and Richard T. Ward and Caitlin M. Traiser and Payton Chiasson and Faith E. Gilbert and Andreas Keil},

doi = {10.1162/jocn_a_02276},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-02-01},

journal = {Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience},

volume = {37},

number = {2},

pages = {482–497},

abstract = {Survival in rapidly changing environments requires that organisms learn to predict noxious outcomes based on situational cues. One key facet of successful threat prediction is generalization from a specific predictive cue to similar cues, ensuring that a cue-outcome contingency is applied beyond the original learning environment. Generalization has also been observed in laboratory studies of human aversive conditioning: Most behavioral and physiological processes generalize responses from a stimulus paired with threat, (the CS+), to unpaired stimuli, with response magnitudes varying as a function of stimulus similarity. In contrast, work focusing on sensory responses in visual cortex has found a sharpening pattern, in which responses to stimuli closely resembling the CS+ are maximally suppressed, potentially reflecting lateral inhibitory interactions with the CS+ representation. Originally demonstrated with simple visual cues, changes in visuocortical tuning have also been observed in threat generalization learning across facial identity cues. It is however unclear to what extent these visuocortical changes represent transient or sustained effects and if generalization learning requires prior conditioning to the CS+. The present study addressed these questions using EEG and pupillometry in a paradigm involving several hundreds of trials of aversive generalization learning along a gradient of facial identities. Visuocortical ssVEP sharpening occurred after dozens of trials of generalization learning without prior differential conditioning, but diminished as learning progressed further. By contrast, generalization of EEG alpha power suppression, pupil dilation, and self-reported valence and arousal ratings was seen throughout the experimental session. Findings are consistent with models of threat processing emphasizing the role of changing visucocortical and attention dynamics in the formation, curation, and shaping of fear memories as observers continue learning about stimulus-outcome contingencies.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Lee2024c,

title = {Adaptation and exogenous attention interact in the early visual cortex : A TMS study},

author = {Hsing-Hao Lee and Antonio Fernandez and Marisa Carrasco},

doi = {10.1016/j.isci.2024.111155},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {iScience},

volume = {27},

pages = {1–12},

abstract = {Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to early visual cortex modulates the effect of adaptation and eliminates the effect of exogenous (involuntary) attention on contrast sensitivity. Here, we investigated whether adaptation modulates exogenous attention under TMS to V1/V2. Observers performed an orientation discrimination task while attending to one of two stimuli, with or without adaptation. Following an attentional cue, two stimuli were presented in the stimulated region and its contralateral symmetric re- gion. A response cue indicated the stimulus whose orientation observers had to discriminate. Without adaptation, in the distractor-stimulated condition, contrast sensitivity increased at the attended location and decreased at the unattended location via response gain—but these effects were eliminated in the target-stimulated condition. Critically, after adaptation, exogenous attention altered performance similarly in both distractor-stimulated and target-stimulated conditions. These results reveal that (1) adaptation and attention interact in the early visual cortex, and (2) adaptation shields exogenous attention from TMS effects.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{AlDahhan2024,

title = {Compensatory mechanisms amidst demyelinating disorders: Insights into cognitive preservation},

author = {Noor Z. Al Dahhan and Julie Tseng and Cynthia Medeiros and Sridar Narayanan and Douglas L. Arnold and Brian C. Coe and Douglas P. Munoz and E. Ann Yeh and Donald J. Mabbott},

doi = {10.1093/braincomms/fcae353},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Brain Communications},

volume = {6},

number = {6},

pages = {1–17},

publisher = {Oxford University Press},

abstract = {Demyelination disrupts the transmission of electrical signals in the brain and affects neurodevelopment in children with disorders such as multiple sclerosis and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-associated disorders. Although cognitive impairments are prevalent in these conditions, some children maintain cognitive function despite substantial structural injury. These findings raise an important question: in addition to the degenerative process, do compensatory neural mechanisms exist to mitigate the effects of myelin loss? We propose that a multi-dimensional approach integrating multiple neuroimaging modalities, including diffusion tensor imaging, magnetoencephalography and eye-tracking, is key to investigating this question. We examine the structural and functional connectivity of the default mode and executive control networks due to their significant roles in supporting higher-order cognitive processes. As cognitive proxies, we examine saccade reaction times and direction errors during an interleaved pro- (eye movement towards a target) and anti-saccade (eye movement away from a target) task. 28 typically developing children, 18 children with multiple sclerosis and 14 children with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-associated disorders between 5 and 18.9 years old were scanned at the Hospital for Sick Children. Tractography of diffusion MRI data examined structural connectivity. Intracellular and extracellular microstructural parameters were extracted using a white matter tract integrity model to provide specific inferences on myelin and axon structure. Magnetoencephalography scanning was conducted to examine functional connectivity. Within groups, participants had longer saccade reaction times and greater direction errors on the anti- versus pro-saccade task; there were no group differences on either task. Despite similar behavioural performance, children with demyelinating disorders had significant structural compromise and lower bilateral high gamma, higher left-hemisphere theta and higher right-hemisphere alpha synchrony relative to typically developing children. Children diagnosed with multiple sclerosis had greater structural compromise relative to children with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-associated disorders; there were no group differences in neural synchrony. For both patient groups, increased disease disability predicted greater structural compromise, which predicted longer saccade reaction times and greater direction errors on both tasks. Structural compromise also predicted increased functional connectivity, highlighting potential adaptive functional reorganisation in response to structural compromise. In turn, increased functional connectivity predicted faster saccade reaction times and fewer direction errors. These findings suggest that increased functional connectivity, indicated by increased alpha and theta synchrony, may be necessary to compensate for structural compromise and preserve cognitive abilities. Further understanding these compensatory neural mechanisms could pave the way for the development of targeted therapeutic interventions aimed at enhancing these mechanisms, ultimately improving cognitive outcomes for affected individuals.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Baror2024,

title = {Neural mechanisms determining the duration of task-free, self-paced visual perception},

author = {Shira Baror and Thomas J. Baumgarten and Biyu J. He},

doi = {10.1162/jocn_a_02131},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience},

volume = {36},

number = {5},

pages = {756–775},

abstract = {Humans spend hours each day spontaneously engaging with visual content, free from specific tasks and at their own pace. Currently, the brain mechanisms determining the duration of self-paced perceptual behavior remain largely unknown. Here, participants viewed naturalistic images under task-free settings and self-paced each image's viewing duration while undergoing EEG and pupillometry recordings. Across two independent data sets, we observed large inter-and intra-individual variability in viewing duration. However, beyond an image's presentation order and category, specific image content had no consistent effects on spontaneous viewing duration across participants. Overall, longer viewing durations were associated with sustained enhanced posterior positivity and anterior negativity in the ERPs. Individual-specific variations in the spontaneous viewing duration were consistently correlated with evoked EEG activity amplitudes and pupil size changes. By contrast, presentation order was selectively correlated with baseline alpha power and baseline pupil size. Critically, spontaneous viewing duration was strongly predicted by the temporal stability in neural activity patterns starting as early as 350 msec after image onset, suggesting that early neural stability is a key predictor for sustained perceptual engagement. Interestingly, neither bottom–up nor top–down predictions about image category influenced spontaneous viewing duration. Overall, these results suggest that individual-specific factors can influence perceptual processing at a surprisingly early time point and influence the multifaceted ebb and flow of spontaneous human perceptual behavior in naturalistic settings.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Begus2024,

title = {Infants evaluate informativeness of evidence and predict causal events as revealed in theta oscillations and predictive looking},

author = {Katarina Begus and Elizabeth Bonawitz},

doi = {10.1038/s44271-024-00131-3},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Communications Psychology},

volume = {2},

number = {1},

pages = {1–9},

publisher = {Springer US},

abstract = {This study investigates 16-month-old infants' sensitivity to the informativeness of evidence and its potential link to infants' ability to draw accurate causal inferences and predict unfolding events. Employing concurrent EEG and eye tracking, data from 66 infants revealed significantly increased theta oscillatory activity when infants expected to see causally unconfounded evidence compared to confounded evidence, suggesting heightened cognitive engagement in anticipation of informative evidence. Crucially, this difference was more pronounced in the subset of infants who later made correct predictions, suggesting that they had correctly inferred the causal structure based on the evidence presented. This research sheds light on infants' motivation to seek explanatory causal information, suggesting that even at 16 months, infants can strategically direct attention to situations conducive to acquiring informative evidence, potentially laying the groundwork for the impressive abilities of humans to rapidly acquire knowledge and develop causal theories of the world. Living},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Bevilacqua2024,

title = {Single session cross-frequency bifocal tACS modulates visual motion network activity in young healthy population and stroke patients},

author = {Michele Bevilacqua and Sarah Feroldi and Fabienne Windel and Pauline Menoud and Roberto F. Salamanca-Giron and Sarah B. Zandvliet and Lisa Fleury and Friedhelm C. Hummel and Estelle Raffin},

doi = {10.1016/j.brs.2024.05.007},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Brain Stimulation},

volume = {17},

number = {3},

pages = {660–667},

publisher = {Elsevier Inc.},

abstract = {Background: Phase synchronization over long distances underlies inter-areal communication and importantly, modulates the flow of information processing to adjust to cognitive demands. Objective: This study investigates the impact of single-session, cross-frequency (Alpha-Gamma) bifocal transcranial alternating current stimulation (cf-tACS) to the cortical visual motion network on inter-areal coupling between the primary visual cortex (V1) and the medio-temporal area (MT) and on motion direction discrimination. Methods: Based on the well-established phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) mechanism driving information processing in the visual system, we designed a novel directionally tuned cf-tACS protocol. Directionality of information flow was inferred from the area receiving low-frequency tACS (e.g., V1) projecting onto the area receiving high-frequency tACS (e.g., MT), in this case, promoting bottom-up information flow (Forward-tACS). The control condition promoted the opposite top-down connection (from MT to V1, called Backward-tACS), both compared to a Sham-tACS condition. Task performance and EEG activity were recorded from 45 young healthy subjects. An additional cohort of 16 stroke patients with occipital lesions and impairing visual processing was measured to assess the influence of a V1 lesion on the modulation of V1-MT coupling. Results: The results indicate that Forward cf-tACS successfully modulated bottom-up PAC (V1 α-phase-MT ɣ-amplitude) in both cohorts, while producing opposite effects on the reverse MT-to-V1 connection. Backward-tACS did not change V1-MT PAC in either direction in healthy participants but induced a slight decrease in bottom-up PAC in stroke patients. However, these changes in inter-areal coupling did not translate into cf-tACS-specific behavioural improvements. Conclusions: Single session cf-tACS can alter inter-areal coupling in intact and lesioned brains but is probably not enough to induce longer-lasting behavioural effects in these cohorts. This might suggest that a longer daily visual training protocol paired with tACS is needed to unveil the relationship between externally applied oscillatory activity and behaviourally relevant brain processing.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Borot2024,

title = {Prefrontal cortex activity and functional organisation in dual-task ocular pursuit is affected by concurrent upper limb movement},

author = {Lénaïc Borot and Ruth Ogden and Simon J. Bennett},

doi = {10.1038/s41598-024-57012-2},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Scientific Reports},

volume = {14},

number = {1},

pages = {1–12},

publisher = {Nature Publishing Group UK},

abstract = {Tracking a moving object with the eyes seems like a simple task but involves areas of prefrontal cortex (PFC) associated with attention, working memory and prediction. Increasing the demand on these processes with secondary tasks can affect eye movements and/or perceptual judgments. This is particularly evident in chronic or acute neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or mild traumatic brain injury. Here, we combined near infrared spectroscopy and video-oculography to examine the effects of concurrent upper limb movement, which provides additional afference and efference that facilitates tracking of a moving object, in a novel dual-task pursuit protocol. We confirmed the expected effects on judgement accuracy in the primary and secondary tasks, as well as a reduction in eye velocity when the moving object was occluded. Although there was limited evidence of oculo-manual facilitation on behavioural measures, performing concurrent upper limb movement did result in lower activity in left medial PFC, as well as a change in PFC network organisation, which was shown by Graph analysis to be locally and globally more efficient. These findings extend upon previous work by showing how PFC is functionally organised to support eye-hand coordination when task demands more closely replicate daily activities.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{BrombergMartin2024,

title = {A neural mechanism for conserved value computations integrating information and rewards},

author = {Ethan S. Bromberg-Martin and Yang-Yang Feng and Takaya Ogasawara and J. Kael White and Kaining Zhang and Ilya E. Monosov},

doi = {10.1038/s41593-023-01511-4},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Nature Neuroscience},

volume = {27},

pages = {1–17},

publisher = {Springer US},

abstract = {Behavioral and economic theory dictate that we decide between options based on their values. However, humans and animals eagerly seek information about uncertain future rewards, even when this does not provide any objective value. This implies that decisions are made by endowing information with subjective value and integrating it with the value of extrinsic rewards, but the mechanism is unknown. Here, we show that human and monkey value judgements obey strikingly conserved computational principles during multi-attribute decisions trading off information and extrinsic reward. We then identify a neural substrate in a highly conserved ancient structure, the lateral habenula (LHb). LHb neurons signal subjective value, integrating information's value with extrinsic rewards, and the LHb predicts and causally influences ongoing decisions. Neurons in key input areas to the LHb largely signal components of these computations, not integrated value signals. Thus, our data uncover neural mechanisms of conserved computations underlying decisions to seek information about the future.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Brus2024,

title = {Causal phase-dependent control of non-spatial attention in human prefrontal cortex},

author = {Jeroen Brus and Joseph A. Heng and Valeriia Beliaeva and Fabian Gonzalez Pinto and Antonino Mario Cassarà and Esra Neufeld and Marcus Grueschow and Lukas Imbach and Rafael Polanía},

doi = {10.1038/s41562-024-01820-z},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Nature Human Behaviour},

volume = {8},

number = {4},

pages = {743–757},

publisher = {Springer US},

abstract = {Non-spatial attention is a fundamental cognitive mechanism that allows organisms to orient the focus of conscious awareness towards sensory information that is relevant to a behavioural goal while shifting it away from irrelevant stimuli. It has been suggested that attention is regulated by the ongoing phase of slow excitability fluctuations of neural activity in the prefrontal cortex, a hypothesis that has been challenged with no consensus. Here we developed a behavioural and non-invasive stimulation paradigm aiming at modulating slow excitability fluctuations of the inferior frontal junction. Using this approach, we show that non-spatial attention can be selectively modulated as a function of the ongoing phase of exogenously modulated excitability states of this brain structure. These results demonstrate that non-spatial attention relies on ongoing prefrontal excitability states, which are probably regulated by slow oscillatory dynamics, that orchestrate goal-oriented behaviour.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Chang2024b,

title = {Linking tonic and phasic pupil responses to P300 amplitude in an emotional face-word Stroop task},

author = {Yi-Hsuan Hsuan Chang and He-Jun Jun Chen and Cesar Barquero and Hsu Jung Tsai and Wei-Kuang Kuang Liang and Chun-Hsien Hsien Hsu and Neil G. Muggleton and Chin-An An Wang},

doi = {10.1111/psyp.14479},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Psychophysiology},

volume = {61},

number = {4},

pages = {1–26},

abstract = {The locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system, which regulates arousal levels, is important for cognitive control, including emotional conflict resolution. Additionally, the LC-NE system is implicated in P300 generation. If the P300 is mediated by the LC-NE system, and considering the established correlations between LC activity and pupil dilation, P300 amplitude should correlate with task-evoked (phasic) pupil dilation on a trial-by-trial basis. However, prior studies, predominantly utilizing oddball-type paradigms, have not demonstrated correlations between concurrently recorded task-evoked pupil dilation and P300 responses. Using a recently developed emotional face-word Stroop task that links pupil dilation to the LC-NE system, here, we examined both intra- and inter-individual correlations between task-evoked pupil dilation and P300 amplitude. We found that lower accuracy, slower reaction times, and larger task-evoked pupil dilation were obtained in the incongruent compared to the congruent condition. Furthermore, we observed intra-individual correlations between task-evoked pupil dilation and P300 amplitude, with larger pupil dilation correlating with a greater P300 amplitude. In contrast, pupil dilation did not exhibit consistent correlations with N450 and N170 amplitudes. Baseline (tonic) pupil size also showed correlations with P300 and N170 amplitudes, with smaller pupil size corresponding to larger amplitude. Moreover, inter-individual differences in task-evoked pupil dilation between the congruent and incongruent conditions correlated with differences in reaction time and P300 amplitude, though these effects only approached significance. To summarize, our study provides evidence for a connection between task-evoked pupil dilation and P300 amplitude at the single-trial level, suggesting the involvement of the LC-NE system in P300 generation.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Chen2024c,

title = {Coherent categorical information triggers integration-related alpha dynamics},

author = {Lixiang Chen and Radoslaw Martin Cichy and Daniel Kaiser},

doi = {10.1152/jn.00450.2023},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Neurophysiology},

volume = {131},

number = {4},

pages = {619–625},

abstract = {To create coherent visual experiences, the brain spatially integrates the complex and dynamic information it receives from the environment. We previously demonstrated that feedback-related alpha activity carries stimulus-specific information when two spatially and temporally coherent naturalistic inputs can be integrated into a unified percept. In this study, we sought to determine whether such integration-related alpha dynamics are triggered by categorical coherence in visual inputs. In an EEG experiment, we manipulated the degree of coherence by presenting pairs of videos from the same or different categories through two apertures in the left and right visual hemifields. Critically, video pairs could be video-level coherent (i.e., stem from the same video), coherent in their basic-level category, coherent in their superordinate category, or incoherent (i.e., stem from videos from two entirely different categories). We conducted multivariate classification analyses on rhythmic EEG responses to decode between the video stimuli in each condition. As the key result, we significantly decoded the video-level coherent and basic-level coherent stimuli, but not the superordinate coherent and incoherent stimuli, from cortical alpha rhythms. This suggests that alpha dynamics play a critical role in integrating information across space, and that cortical integration processes are flexible enough to accommodate information from different exemplars of the same basic-level category.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Chen2024f,

title = {Direct lexical control of eye movements in Chinese reading: Evidence from the co-registration of EEG and eye tracking},

author = {Shuyuan Chen and Erik D. Reichle and Yanping Liu},

doi = {10.1016/j.cogpsych.2024.101683},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Cognitive Psychology},

volume = {153},

number = {135},

pages = {1–21},

publisher = {Elsevier Inc.},

abstract = {The direct-lexical-control hypothesis stipulates that some aspect of a word's processing determines the duration of the fixation on that word and/or the next. Although the direct lexical control is incorporated into most current models of eye-movement control in reading, the precise implementation varies and the assumptions of the hypothesis may not be feasible given that lexical processing must occur rapidly enough to influence fixation durations. Conclusive empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis is therefore lacking. In this article, we report the results of an eye-tracking experiment using the boundary paradigm in which native speakers of Chinese read sentences in which target words were either high- or low-frequency and preceded by a valid or invalid preview. Eye movements were co-registered with electroencephalography, allowing standard analyses of eye-movement measures, divergence point analyses of fixation-duration distributions, and fixated-related potentials on the target words. These analyses collectively provide strong behavioral and neural evidence of early lexical processing and thus strong support for the direct-lexical-control hypothesis. We discuss the implications of the findings for our understanding of how the hypothesis might be implemented, the neural systems that support skilled reading, and the nature of eye-movement control in the reading of Chinese versus alphabetic scripts.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Chin2024,

title = {Investigating causal effects of pupil size on visual discrimination and visually evoked potentials in an optotype discrimination task},

author = {Hsin-Hua Chin and Ying-Hsuan Tai and Rachel Yep and Yi-Hsuan Chang and Chun-Hsien Hsu and Chin-An Wang},

doi = {10.3389/fnins.2024.1412527},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Frontiers in Neuroscience},

volume = {18},

pages = {1–10},

abstract = {Pupil size primarily changes to regulate the amount of light entering the retina, optimizing the balance between visual acuity and sensitivity for effective visual processing. However, research directly examining the relationship between pupil size and visual processing has been limited. While a few studies have recorded pupil size and EEG signals to investigate the role of pupil size in visual processing, these studies have predominantly focused on the domain of visual sensitivity. Causal effects of pupil size on visual acuity, therefore, remain poorly understood. By manipulating peripheral background luminance levels and target stimulus contrast while simultaneously recording pupillometry and EEG signals, we examined how absolute pupil size affects visual discrimination and visually evoked potentials (VEP) in a task using optotype mimicking the Snellen eye chart, the most common assessment of visual acuity. Our findings indicate that both higher background luminance levels and higher target contrast were associated with improved target discrimination and faster correct reaction times. Moreover, while higher contrast visual stimuli evoked larger VEPs, the effects of pupil size on VEPs were not significant. Additionally, we did not observe inter-individual correlations between absolute pupil size and discrimination performance or VEP amplitude. Together, our results demonstrate that absolute pupil size, regulated by global luminance level, played a functional role in enhancing visual discrimination performance in an optotype discrimination task. The differential VEP effects of pupil size compared to those of stimulus contrast further suggested distinct neural mechanisms involved in facilitating visual acuity under small pupils.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Chota2024,

title = {Steady-state visual evoked potentials reveal dynamic (re)allocation of spatial attention during maintenance and utilization of visual working memory},

author = {Samson Chota and Arnaud T. Bruat and Stefan Van der Stigchel and Christoph Strauch},

doi = {10.1162/jocn_a_02107},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience},

volume = {36},

number = {5},

pages = {800–814},

abstract = {Visual working memory (VWM) allows storing goal-relevant information to guide future behavior. Prior work suggests that VWM is spatially organized and relies on spatial attention directed toward locations at which memory items were encoded, even if location is task-irrelevant. Importantly, attention often needs to be dynamically redistributed between locations, for example, in preparation for an upcoming probe. Very little is known about how attentional resources are distributed between multiple locations during a VWM task and even less about the dynamic changes govern-ing such attentional shifts over time. This is largely due to the inability to use behavioral outcomes to reveal fast dynamic changes within trials. We here demonstrated that EEG steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) successfully track the dynamic allocation of spatial attention during a VWM task. Participants were presented with to-be-memorized gratings and distractors at two distinct locations, tagged with flickering discs. This allowed us to dynamically track attention allocated to memory and distractor items via their coupling with space by quantifying the amplitude and coherence of SSVEP responses in the EEG signal to flickering stimuli at the former memory and distractor locations. SSVEP responses did not differ between memory and distractor locations during early maintenance. However, shortly before probe comparison, we observed a decrease in SSVEP coherence over distractor locations indicative of a reallocation of spatial attentional resources. RTs were shorter when preceded by stronger decreases in SSVEP coherence at distractor locations, likely reflecting attentional shifts from the distractor to the probe or memory location. We demonstrate that SSVEPs can inform about dynamic processes in VWM, even if location does not have to be reported by participants. This finding not only supports the notion of a spatially organized VWM but also reveals that SSVEPs betray a dynamic prioritization process of working memory items and locations over time that is directly predictive of memory performance.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Coleman2024,

title = {Post-task responses following working memory and movement are driven by transient spectral bursts with similar characteristics},

author = {Sebastian C. Coleman and Zelekha A. Seedat and Daisie O. Pakenham and Andrew J. Quinn and Matthew J. Brookes and Mark W. Woolrich and Karen J. Mullinger},

doi = {10.1002/hbm.26700},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Human Brain Mapping},

volume = {45},

number = {7},

pages = {1–14},

abstract = {The post-movement beta rebound has been studied extensively using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and is reliably modulated by various task parameters as well as illness. Our recent study showed that rebounds, which we generalise as “post-task responses” (PTRs), are a ubiquitous phenomenon in the brain, occurring across the cortex in theta, alpha, and beta bands. Currently, it is unknown whether PTRs following working memory are driven by transient bursts, which are moments of short-lived high amplitude activity, similar to those that drive the post-movement beta rebound. Here, we use three-state univariate hidden Markov models (HMMs), which can identify bursts without a priori knowledge of frequency content or response timings, to compare bursts that drive PTRs in working memory and visuomotor MEG datasets. Our results show that PTRs across working memory and visuomotor tasks are driven by pan-spectral transient bursts. These bursts have very similar spectral content variation over the cortex, correlating strongly between the two tasks in the alpha (R2 =.89) and beta (R2 =.53) bands. Bursts also have similar variation in duration over the cortex (e.g., long duration bursts occur in the motor cortex for both tasks), strongly correlating over cortical regions between tasks (R2 =.56), with a mean over all regions of around 300 ms in both datasets. Finally, we demonstrate the ability of HMMs to isolate signals of interest in MEG data, such that the HMM probability timecourse correlates more strongly with reaction times than frequency filtered power envelopes from the same brain regions. Overall, we show that induced PTRs across different tasks are driven by bursts with similar characteristics, which can be identified using HMMs. Given the similarity between bursts across tasks, we suggest that PTRs across the cortex may be driven by a common underlying neural phenomenon.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Collins2024,

title = {The neural representation of stereotype content},

author = {Thérèse Collins and Emilie Zhu and Patrick Rateau},

doi = {10.1038/s41598-024-67111-9},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Scientific Reports},

volume = {14},

number = {1},

pages = {1–12},

publisher = {Nature Publishing Group UK},

abstract = {Judgments about social groups are characterized by their position in a representational space defined by two axes, warmth and competence. We examined serial dependence (SD) in evaluations of warmth and competence while measuring participants' electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, as a means to address the independence between these two psychological axes. SD is the attraction of perceptual reports towards things seen in the recent past and has recently been intensely investigated in vision. SD occurs at multiple levels of visual processing, from basic features to meaningful objects. The current study aims to (1) measure whether SD occurs between non-visual objects, in particular social groups and (2) uncover the neural correlates of social group evaluation and SD using EEG. Participants' judgments about social groups such as “nurses” or “accountants” were serially dependent, but only when the two successive groups were close in representational space. The pattern of results argues in favor of a non-separability between the two axes, because groups nearby on one dimension but far on the other were not subject to SD, even though that other dimension was irrelevant to the task at hand. Using representational similarity analysis, we found a brain signature that differentiated social groups as a function of their position in the representational space. Our results thus argue that SD may be a ubiquitous cognitive phenomenon, that social evaluations are serially dependent, and that reproducible neural signatures of social evaluations can be uncovered.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Costa2024,

title = {Distinct oscillatory patterns differentiate between segregation and integration processes in perceptual grouping},

author = {Gabriel Nascimento Costa and Michael Schaum and João Valente Duarte and Ricardo Martins and Isabel Catarina Duarte and João Castelhano and Michael Wibral and Miguel Castelo-Branco},

doi = {10.1002/hbm.26779},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Human Brain Mapping},

volume = {45},

number = {12},

pages = {1–17},

abstract = {Recently, there has been a resurgence in experimental and conceptual efforts to understand how brain rhythms can serve to organize visual information. Oscillations can provide temporal structure for neuronal processing and form a basis for integrating information across brain areas. Here, we use a bistable paradigm and a data-driven approach to test the hypothesis that oscillatory modulations associate with the integration or segregation of visual elements. Spectral signatures of perception of bound and unbound configurations of visual moving stimuli were studied using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in ambiguous and unambiguous conditions. Using a 2 × 2 design, we were able to isolate correlates from visual integration, either perceptual or stimulus-driven, from attentional and ambiguity-related activity. Two frequency bands were found to be modulated by visual integration: an alpha/beta frequency and a higher frequency gamma-band. Alpha/beta power was increased in several early visual cortical and dorsal visual areas during visual integration, while gamma-band power was surprisingly increased in the extrastriate visual cortex during segregation. This points to an integrative role for alpha/beta activity, likely from top-down signals maintaining a single visual representation. On the other hand, when more representations have to be processed in parallel gamma-band activity is increased, which is at odds with the notion that gamma oscillations are related to perceptual coherence. These modulations were confirmed in intracranial EEG recordings and partially originate from distinct brain areas. Our MEG and stereo-EEG data confirms predictions of binding mechanisms depending on low-frequency activity for long-range integration and for organizing visual processing while refuting a straightforward correlation between gamma-activity and perceptual binding.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Das2024,

title = {Alpha and SSVEP power outperform gamma power in capturing attentional modulation in human EEG},

author = {Aritra Das and Nilanjana Nandi and Supratim Ray},

doi = {10.1093/cercor/bhad412},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Cerebral Cortex},

volume = {34},

number = {1},

pages = {1–16},

abstract = {Attention typically reduces power in the alpha (8–12 Hz) band and increases power in gamma (>30 Hz) band in brain signals, as reported in macaque local field potential (LFP) and human electro/magneto-encephalogram (EEG/MEG) studies. In addition, EEG studies often use flickering stimuli that produce a specific measure called steady-state-visually-evoked-potential (SSVEP), whose power also increases with attention. However, effectiveness of these neural measures in capturing attentional modulation is unknown since stimuli and task paradigms vary widely across studies. In a recent macaque study, attentional modulation was more salient in the gamma band of the LFP, compared to alpha or SSVEP. To compare this with human EEG, we designed an orientation change detection task where we presented both static and counterphasing stimuli of matched difficulty levels to 26 subjects and compared attentional modulation of various measures under similar conditions. We report two main results. First, attentional modulation was comparable for SSVEP and alpha. Second, non-foveal stimuli produced weak gamma despite various stimulus optimizations and showed negligible attentional modulation although full-screen gratings showed robust gamma activity. Our results are useful for brain-machine-interfacing studies where suitable features are used for decoding attention, and also provide clues about spatial scales of neural mechanisms underlying attention.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Denison2024,

title = {Anticipatory and evoked visual cortical dynamics of voluntary temporal attention},

author = {Rachel N. Denison and Karen J. Tian and David J. Heeger and Marisa Carrasco},

doi = {10.1038/s41467-024-53406-y},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Nature Communications},

volume = {15},

number = {1},

pages = {1–13},

publisher = {Springer US},

abstract = {We can often anticipate the precise moment when a stimulus will be relevant for our behavioral goals. Voluntary temporal attention, the prioritization of sensory information at task-relevant time points, enhances visual perception. However, the neural mechanisms of voluntary temporal attention have not been isolated from those of temporal expectation, which reflects timing predictability rather than relevance. Here we use time-resolved steady-state visual evoked responses (SSVER) to investigate how temporal attention dynamically modulates visual activity when temporal expectation is controlled. We recorded magnetoencephalography while participants directed temporal attention to one of two sequential grating targets with predictable timing. Meanwhile, a co-localized SSVER probe continuously tracked visual cortical modulations both before and after the target stimuli. We find that in the pre-target period, the SSVER gradually ramps up as the targets approach, reflecting temporal expectation. Furthermore, we find a low-frequency modulation of the SSVER, which shifts approximately half a cycle in phase according to which target is attended. In the post-target period, temporal attention to the first target transiently modulates the SSVER shortly after target onset. Thus, temporal attention dynamically modulates visual cortical responses via both periodic pre-target and transient post-target mechanisms to prioritize sensory information at precise moments.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Ding2024,

title = {Neural signatures of competition between voluntary and involuntary influences over the focus of attention in visual working memory},

author = {Yun Ding and Bradley R. Postle and Freek Ede},

doi = {10.1162/jocn_a_02123},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience},

volume = {36},

number = {5},

pages = {815–827},

abstract = {Adaptive behavior relies on the selection and prioritization of relevant sensory inputs from the external environment as well as from among internal sensory representations held in working memory. Recent behavioral evidence suggests that the classic distinction between voluntary (goal-driven) and involuntary (stimulus-driven) influences over attentional allocation also applies to the selection of internal representations held in working memory. In the current EEG study, we set out to investigate the neural dynamics associated with the competition between voluntary and involuntary control over the focus of attention in visual working memory. We show that when voluntary and involuntary factors compete for the internal focus of attention, prioritization of the appropriate item is delayed—as reflected both in delayed gaze biases that track internal selection and in delayed neural beta (15–25 Hz) dynamics that track the planning for the upcoming memory-guided manual action. We further show how this competition is paralleled—possibly resolved—by an increase in frontal midline theta (4–8 Hz) activity that, moreover, predicts the speed of ensuing memory-guided behavior. Finally, because theta increased following retrocues that effectively reduced working-memory load, our data unveil how frontal theta activity during internal attentional focusing tracks demands on cognitive control over and above working-memory load. Together, these data yield new insight into the neural dynamics that govern the focus of attention in visual working memory, and disentangle the contributions of frontal midline theta activity to the processes of control versus retention in working memory.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Dolci2024,

title = {The dynamics of statistical learning in visual search and its interaction with salience processing: An EEG study},

author = {Carola Dolci and Einat Rashal and Elisa Santandrea and Suliann Ben and Leonardo Chelazzi and Emiliano Macaluso and C. Nico Boehler and Suliann Ben Hamed and Leonardo Chelazzi and Emiliano Macaluso and C. Nico Boehler},

doi = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120514},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {NeuroImage},

volume = {286},

pages = {1–12},

publisher = {Elsevier Inc.},

abstract = {Visual attention can be guided by statistical regularities in the environment, that people implicitly learn from past experiences (statistical learning, SL). Moreover, a perceptually salient element can automatically capture attention, gaining processing priority through a bottom-up attentional control mechanism. The aim of our study was to investigate the dynamics of SL and if it shapes attentional target selection additively with salience processing, or whether these mechanisms interact, e.g. one gates the other. In a visual search task, we therefore manipulated target frequency (high vs. low) across locations while, in some trials, the target was salient in terms of colour. Additionally, halfway through the experiment, the high-frequency location changed to the opposite hemifield. EEG activity was simultaneously recorded, with a specific interest in two markers related to target selection and post-selection processing, respectively: N2pc and SPCN. Our results revealed that both SL and saliency significantly enhanced behavioural performance, but also interacted with each other, with an attenuated saliency effect at the high-frequency target location, and a smaller SL effect for salient targets. Concerning processing dynamics, the benefit of salience processing was more evident during the early stage of target selection and processing, as indexed by a larger N2pc and early-SPCN, whereas SL modulated the underlying neural activity particularly later on, as revealed by larger late-SPCN. Furthermore, we showed that SL was rapidly acquired and adjusted when the spatial imbalance changed. Overall, our findings suggest that SL is flexible to changes and, combined with salience processing, jointly contributes to establishing attentional priority.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Doll2024,

title = {Perceptual awareness of near-threshold tones scales gradually with auditory cortex activity and pupil dilation},

author = {Laura Doll and Andrew R. Dykstra and Alexander Gutschalk},

doi = {10.1016/j.isci.2024.110530},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {iScience},

volume = {27},

number = {8},

pages = {1–20},

publisher = {The Author(s)},

abstract = {Negative-going responses in sensory cortex co-vary with perceptual awareness of sensory stimuli. Given that this awareness negativity has also been observed for undetected stimuli, some have challenged its role for perception. To address this question, we combined magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography, and pupillometry to study how sustained attention and response criterion affect the auditory awareness negativity. Participants first detected distractor sounds and denied hearing task-irrelevant near-threshold tones, which evoked neither awareness negativity nor pupil dilation. These same tones evoked both responses when task-relevant, stronger for hit but also present for miss trials. Participants then rated their perception on a six-point scale to test whether response criterion explains the presence of these responses for miss trials. Decreasing perception ratings were associated with gradually reduced evoked responses, consistent with signal detection theory. These results support the concept of an awareness negativity that is modulated by attention but does not require a non-linear threshold mechanism.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Eisma2024,

title = {Assessing the influence of visual stimulus properties on steady-state visually evoked potentials and pupil diameter},

author = {Y B Eisma and S T Vliet and A J Nederveen and J C F Winter},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express},

volume = {1o},

pages = {1–12},

publisher = {IOP Publishing},

abstract = {Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEPs) are brain responses measurable via electroencephalo- graphy (EEG) in response to continuous visual stimulation at a constant frequency. SSVEPs have been instrumental in advancing our understanding ofhuman vision and attention, as well as in the development ofbrain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Ongoing questions remain about which type of visual stimulus causes the most potent SSVEP response. The current study investigated the effects of color, size, and flicker frequencyon the signal-to-noise ratio ofSSVEPs, complemented bypupillary light reflex measurements obtained through an eye-tracker. Six participants were presented with visual stimuli that differed in terms ofcolor (white, red, green), shape (circles, squares, triangles), size (10,000 to 30,000 pixels), flicker frequency (8to25Hz), and grouping (one stimulus at a time versus four stimuli presented in a 2×2 matrix to simulate a BCI). The results indicated that larger stimuli elicited stronger SSVEP responses and more pronounced pupil constriction. Additionally, the results revealed an interaction between stimulus color and flicker frequency, with red being more effective at lower frequencies and white at higher frequencies. Future SSVEP research could focus on the recommended waveform, interactions between SSVEP and power grid frequency, a wider range of flicker frequencies, a larger sample ofparticipants, and a systematic comparison ofthe information transfer obtained through SSVEPs, pupil diameter, and eye movements.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Ershaid2024,

title = {Contributions of listening effort and intelligibility to cortical tracking of speech in adverse listening conditions},

author = {Hadeel Ershaid and Mikel Lizarazu and D. J. Drew McLaughlin and Martin Cooke and Olympia Simantiraki and Maria Koutsogiannaki and Marie Lallier},

doi = {10.1016/j.cortex.2023.11.018},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Cortex},

volume = {172},

pages = {54–71},

publisher = {Elsevier Ltd},

abstract = {Cortical tracking of speech is vital for speech segmentation and is linked to speech intelligibility. However, there is no clear consensus as to whether reduced intelligibility leads to a decrease or an increase in cortical speech tracking, warranting further investigation of the factors influencing this relationship. One such factor is listening effort, defined as the cognitive resources necessary for speech comprehension, and reported to have a strong negative correlation with speech intelligibility. Yet, no studies have examined the relationship between speech intelligibility, listening effort, and cortical tracking of speech. The aim of the present study was thus to examine these factors in quiet and distinct adverse listening conditions. Forty-nine normal hearing adults listened to sentences produced casually, presented in quiet and two adverse listening conditions: cafeteria noise and re- verberant speech. Electrophysiological responses were registered with electroencephalogram, and listening effort was estimated subjectively using self-reported scores and objectively using pupillometry. Results indicated varying impacts of adverse conditions on intelligibility, listening effort, and cortical tracking of speech, depending on the preservation of the speech temporal envelope. The more distorted envelope in the reverberant condition led to higher listening effort, as reflected in higher subjective scores, increased pupil diameter, and stronger cortical tracking of speech in the delta band. These findings suggest that using measures of listening effort in addition to those of intelligibility is useful for interpreting cortical tracking of speech results. Moreover, reading and phonological skills of participants were positively correlated with listening effort in the cafeteria condition, suggesting a special role of expert language skills in processing speech in this noisy condition. Implications for future research and theories linking atypical cortical tracking of speech and reading disorders are further discussed.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Fakche2024,

title = {Perceptual cycles travel across retinotopic space},

author = {Camille Fakche and Laura Dugué},

doi = {10.1162/jocn_a_02075},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience},

volume = {36},

number = {1},

pages = {200–216},

abstract = {Visual perception waxes and wanes periodically over time at low frequencies (theta: 4–7 Hz; alpha: 8–13 Hz), creating “per-ceptual cycles.” These perceptual cycles can be induced when stimulating the brain with a flickering visual stimulus at the theta or alpha frequency. Here, we took advantage of the well-known organization of the visual system into retinotopic maps (topographic correspondence between visual and cortical spaces) to assess the spatial organization of induced perceptual cycles. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that they can propagate across the retinotopic space. A disk oscillating in luminance (inducer) at 4, 6, 8, or 10 Hz was presented in the periphery of the visual field to induce perceptual cycles at specific frequencies. EEG recordings verified that the brain responded at the corresponding inducer frequencies and their first harmonics. Perceptual cycles were assessed with a concurrent detection task—target stimuli were displayed at threshold contrast (50% detection) at random times during the inducer. Behavioral results confirmed that perceptual performance was modulated periodically by the inducer at each frequency. We additionally manipulated the distance between the target and the inducer (three possible positions) and showed that the optimal phase, that is, moment of highest target detection, shifted across target distance to the inducer, specifically when its flicker frequency was in the alpha range (8 and 10 Hz). These results demonstrate that induced alpha perceptual cycles travel across the retinotopic space in humans at a propagation speed of 0.3–0.5 m/sec, consistent with the speed of unmyelinated horizontal connections in the visual cortex.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Fakche2024a,

title = {Fast feature- and category-related parafoveal previewing support free visual exploration},

author = {Camille Fakche and Clayton Hickey and Ole Jensen},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {The Journal of Neuroscience},

volume = {44},

number = {49},

pages = {1–13},

abstract = {While humans typically saccade every ∼250 ms in natural settings, studies on vision tend to prevent or restrict eye movements. As it takes ∼50 ms to initiate and execute a saccade, this leaves only∼200 ms to identify the fixated object and select the next saccade goal. How much detail can be derived about parafoveal objects in this short time interval, during which foveal processing and saccade planning both occur? Here, we had male and female human participants freely explore a set of natural images while we recorded magnetoencephalography and eye movements. Using multivariate pattern analysis, we demonstrate that future parafoveal images could be decoded at the feature and category level with peak decoding at ∼110 and ∼165 ms, respectively, while the decoding of fixated objects at the feature and category level peaked at ∼100 and∼145 ms. The decoding offeatures and categories was contingent on the objects being saccade goals. In sum, we provide insight on the neuronal mechanism ofpresaccadic attention by demonstrating that feature- and category-specific information of foveal and parafoveal objects can be extracted in succession within a ∼200 ms intersaccadic interval. These findings rule out strict serial or parallel processing accounts but are consistent with a pipeline mech- anism in which foveal and parafoveal objects are processed in parallel but at different levels in the visual hierarchy. Key},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Fang2024,

title = {The involvement of the human prefrontal cortex in the emergence of visual awareness},

author = {Zepeng Fang and Yuanyuan Dang and Zhipei Ling and Yongzheng Han and Hulin Zhao and Xin Xu and Mingsha Zhang},

doi = {10.7554/eLife.89076},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {eLife},

volume = {13},

pages = {1–25},

abstract = {Exploring the neural mechanisms of awareness is a fundamental task of cognitive neuroscience. There is an ongoing dispute regarding the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the emergence of awareness, which is partially raised by the confound between report-and awareness-related activity. To address this problem, we designed a visual awareness task that can minimize report-related motor confounding. Our results show that saccadic latency is significantly shorter in the aware trials than in the unaware trials. Local field potential (LFP) data from six patients consis-tently show early (200–300ms) awareness-related activity in the PFC, including event-related potential and high-gamma activity. Moreover, the awareness state can be reliably decoded by the neural activity in the PFC since the early stage, and the neural pattern is dynamically changed rather than being stable during the representation of awareness. Furthermore, the enhancement of dynamic functional connectivity, through the phase modulation at low frequency, between the PFC and other brain regions in the early stage of the awareness trials may explain the mechanism of conscious access. These results indicate that the PFC is critically involved in the emergence of awareness.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Farkas2024,

title = {Auditory aversive generalization learning prompts threat-specific changes in alpha-band activity},

author = {Andrew H. Farkas and Richard T. Ward and Faith E. Gilbert and Jourdan Pouliot and Payton Chiasson and Skylar Mcilvanie and Caitlin Traiser and Kierstin Riels and Ryan Mears and Andreas Keil},

doi = {10.1093/cercor/bhae099},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Cerebral Cortex},

volume = {34},

number = {3},

pages = {1–11},

abstract = {Pairing a neutral stimulus with aversive outcomes prompts neurophysiological and autonomic changes in response to the conditioned stimulus (CS+), compared to cues that signal safety (CS-). One of these changes - selective amplitude reduction of parietal alpha-band oscillations - has been reliably linked to processing of visual CS+. It is, however, unclear to what extent auditory conditioned cues prompt similar changes, how these changes evolve as learning progresses, and how alpha reduction in the auditory domain generalizes to similar stimuli. To address these questions, 55 participants listened to three sine wave tones, with either the highest or lowest pitch (CS+) being associated with a noxious white noise burst. A threat-specific (CS+) reduction in occipital-parietal alpha-band power was observed similar to changes expected for visual stimuli. No evidence for aversive generalization to the tone most similar to the CS+ was observed in terms of alpha-band power changes, aversiveness ratings, or pupil dilation. By-trial analyses found that selective alpha-band changes continued to increase as aversive conditioning continued, beyond when participants reported awareness of the contingencies. The results support a theoretical model in which selective alpha power represents a cross-modal index of continuous aversive learning, accompanied by sustained sensory discrimination of conditioned threat from safety cues.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{FontAlaminos2024,

title = {Do actions structure auditory memory? Action-based event segmentation effects on sensory responses, pupil dilation and sequential memory},

author = {Marta Font-Alaminos and Nadia Paraskevoudi and Jordi Costa-Faidella and Iria SanMiguel},

doi = {10.1111/psyp.14652},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Psychophysiology},

volume = {61},

pages = {1–19},

abstract = {Our actions shape our everyday experience: what we experience, how we perceive, and remember it are deeply affected by how we interact with the world. Performing an action to deliver a stimulus engages neurophysiological processes which are reflected in the modulation of sensory and pupil responses. We hypothesized that these processes shape memory encoding, parsing the experience by grouping self- and externally generated stimuli into differentiated events. Participants encoded sound sequences, in which either the first or last few sounds were self-generated and the rest externally generated. We tested recall of the sequential order of sounds that had originated from the same (within event) or different sources (across events). Memory performance was not higher for within-event sounds, suggesting that actions did not structure the memory representation. However, during encoding, we observed the expected electrophysiological response attenuation for self-generated sounds, together with increased pupil dilation triggered by actions. Moreover, at the boundary between events, physiological responses to the first sound from the new source were influenced by the direction of the source switch. Our results suggest that introducing actions creates a stronger contextual shift than removing them, even though actions do not directly contribute to memory performance. This study contributes to our understanding of how interacting with sensory input shapes experiences by exploring the relationships between action effects on sensory responses, pupil dilation, and memory encoding. Importantly, it challenges the notion of a meaningful contribution from low-level neurophysiological mechanisms associated with action execution in the modulation of the self-generation effect.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Frank2024,

title = {An eye-tracking-with-EEG coregistration corpus of narrative sentences},

author = {Stefan L. Frank and Anna Aumeistere},

doi = {10.1007/s10579-023-09684-x},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Language Resources and Evaluation},

volume = {58},

number = {2},

pages = {641–657},

publisher = {Springer Netherlands},

abstract = {We present the Radboud Coregistration Corpus of Narrative Sentences (RaCCooNS), the first freely available corpus of eye-tracking-with-EEG data collected while participants read narrative sentences in Dutch. The corpus is intended for studying human sentence comprehension and for evaluating the cognitive validity of computational language models. RaCCooNS contains data from 37 participants (3 of which eye tracking only) reading 200 Dutch sentences each. Less predictable words resulted in significantly longer reading times and larger N400 sizes, replicating well-known surprisal effects in eye tracking and EEG simultaneously. We release the raw eye-tracking data, the preprocessed eye-tracking data at the fixation, word, and trial levels, the raw EEG after merger with eye-tracking data, and the preprocessed EEG data both before and after ICA-based ocular artifact correction.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Ghafari2024,

title = {Modulation of alpha oscillations by attention is predicted by hemispheric asymmetry of subcortical regions},

author = {Tara Ghafari and Cecilia Mazzetti and Kelly Garner and Tjerk Gutteling and Ole Jensen},

doi = {10.7554/eLife.91650},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {eLife},

volume = {12},

pages = {1–20},

abstract = {Evidence suggests that subcortical structures play a role in high-level cognitive functions such as the allocation of spatial attention. While there is abundant evidence in humans for posterior alpha band oscillations being modulated by spatial attention, little is known about how subcortical regions contribute to these oscillatory modulations, particularly under varying conditions of cognitive challenge. In this study, we combined MEG and structural MRI data to investigate the role of subcortical structures in controlling the allocation of attentional resources by employing a cued spatial attention paradigm with varying levels of perceptual load. We asked whether hemispheric lateralization of volumetric measures of the thalamus and basal ganglia predicted the hemispheric modulation of alpha-band power. Lateral asymmetry of the globus pallidus, caudate nucleus, and thalamus predicted attention-related modulations of posterior alpha oscillations. When the perceptual load was applied to the target and the distractor was salient caudate nucleus asymmetry predicted alpha-band modulations. Globus pallidus was predictive of alpha-band modulations when either the target had a high load, or the distractor was salient, but not both. Finally, the asymmetry of the thalamus predicted alpha band modulation when neither component of the task was perceptually demanding. In addition to delivering new insight into the subcortical circuity controlling alpha oscillations with spatial attention, our finding might also have clinical applications. We provide a framework that could be followed for detecting how structural changes in subcortical regions that are associated with neurological disorders can be reflected in the modulation of oscillatory brain activity.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Grassia2024,

title = {Relevance acquisition through motivational incentives: Modeling the time-course of associative learning and the role of visual features},

author = {Francesco Grassia and Louisa Kulkeb and Alex Lepauvrec and Anne Schachta},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Imaging Neuroscience},

volume = {2},

pages = {1–20},

abstract = {Motivational relevance associated with symbolic stimuli impacts both neural and behavioral responses, similar to visual stimuli with inherent emotional valence. However, the specific effects of associated relevance on early sensory stages and lexico-semantic processing of these stimuli remain unclear, part icularly considering the role of low- level visual features in relevance acquisition. To address these issues, we employed an associative learning paradigm in which we manipulated visual features, but not the stimuli themselves. The study (N = 48) included a learning phase, where pseudowords were associated with either gain, loss, or neutral outcomes. This was followed by a test phase the next day, involving an old/new decision task, in which stimuli were presented in either the same or a different font. During both phases, pupil responses and event- related brain potentials (P1, Early Posterior Negativity (EPN), Late Positive Complex (LPC), P3) were measured. Stronger pupil responses and increased neural activation in early visual encoding (P1) and lexico- semantic processing (EPN) were observed during relevance acquisition, particularly for loss associations. After relevance acquisition, the most substantial effect on modulating lexico-semantic processing was observed for gain associations, as evidenced by both behavioral responses and neural activity. During the test phase, exposure to incongruent visual features of the stimuli influenced the same processes that were observed during rele- vance acquisition. Notably, these effects of visual feature congruence were independent of those of associated motivational relevance. These results highlight the dynamic nature of motivational relevance effects, revealing differential effects observed during acquisition and the test phase, as well as between earlier perceptual processing and later neural and behavioral responses.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Grogan2024,

title = {Muscarinic receptors mediate motivation via preparatory neural activity in humans},

author = {John P. Grogan and Matthias Raemaekers and Maaike M. H. Swieten and Alexander L. Green and Martin J. Gillies and Sanjay G. Manohar},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {eLife},

volume = {13},

pages = {1–28},

abstract = {Motivation depends on dopamine, but might be modulated by acetylcholine which influences 10 dopamine release in the striatum, and amplifies motivation in animal studies. A corresponding effect in humans would be important clinically, since anticholinergic drugs are frequently used in Parkinson's disease, a condition that can also disrupt motivation. Reward and dopamine make us more ready to respond, as indexed by reaction times (RT), and move faster, sometimes termed vigour. These effects may be controlled by preparatory processes that can be tracked using EEG. We 15 measured vigour in a placebo-controlled, double-blinded study of trihexyphenidyl (THP), a muscarinic antagonist, with an incentivised eye movement task and EEG. Participants responded faster and with greater vigour when incentives were high, but THP blunted these motivation effects, suggesting that muscarinic receptors facilitate invigoration by reward. Preparatory EEG build-up (contingent negative variation; CNV) was strengthened by high incentives and by muscarinic 20 blockade. The amplitude of preparatory activity predicted both vigour and RT, although over distinct scalp regions. Frontal activity predicted vigour, whereas a larger, earlier, central component predicted RT. Indeed the incentivisation of RT was partly mediated by the CNV, though vigour was not. Moreover, the CNV mediated the drug's effect on dampening incentives, suggesting that muscarinic receptors underlie the motivational influence on this preparatory activity. Taken 25 together, these findings show that a muscarinic blocker used to treat Parkinson's disease impairs motivated action in healthy people, and that medial frontal preparatory neural activity mediates this for RT.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Gulati2024,

title = {Auditory and visual gratings elicit distinct gamma responses},

author = {Divya Gulati and Supratim Ray},

doi = {10.1523/ENEURO.0116-24.2024},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {eNeuro},

volume = {11},

number = {4},

pages = {1–13},

abstract = {Sensory stimulation is often accompanied by fluctuations at high frequencies (>30 Hz) in brain signals. These could be “narrowband” oscillations in the gamma band (30–70 Hz) or nonoscillatory “broadband” high-gamma (70–150 Hz) activity. Narrowband gamma oscillations, which are induced by presenting some visual stimuli such as gratings and have been shown to weaken with healthy aging and the onset of Alzheimer's disease, hold promise as potential biomarkers. However, since delivering visual stimuli is cumbersome as it requires head stabilization for eye tracking, an equivalent auditory paradigm could be useful. Although simple auditory stimuli have been shown to produce high-gamma activity, whether specific auditory stimuli can also produce narrowband gamma oscillations is unknown. We tested whether auditory ripple stimuli, which are considered an analog to visual gratings, could elicit narrowband oscillations in auditory areas. We recorded 64-channel electroencephalogram from male and female (18 each) subjects while they either fixated on the monitor while passively viewing static visual gratings or listened to stationary and moving ripples, played using loudspeakers, with their eyes open or closed. We found that while visual gratings induced narrowband gamma oscillations with suppression in the alpha band (8–12 Hz), auditory ripples did not produce narrowband gamma but instead elicited very strong broadband high-gamma response and suppression in the beta band (14–26 Hz). Even though we used equivalent stimuli in both modalities, our findings indicate that the underlying neuronal circuitry may not share ubiquitous strategies for stimulus processing.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Guenseli2024,

title = {Encoded and updated spatial working memories share a common representational format in alpha activity},

author = {Eren Günseli and Joshua J. Foster and David W. Sutterer and Lara Todorova and Edward K. Vogel and Edward Awh},

doi = {10.1016/j.isci.2024.108963},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {iScience},

volume = {27},

number = {2},

pages = {1–15},

abstract = {Working memory (WM) flexibly updates information to adapt to the dynamic environment. Here, we used alpha-band activity in the EEG to reconstruct the content of dynamic WM updates and compared this representational format to static WM content. An inverted encoding model using alpha activity precisely tracked both the initially encoded position and the updated position following an auditory cue signaling mental updating. The timing of the update, as tracked in the EEG, correlated with reaction times and saccade latency. Finally, cross-training analyses revealed a robust generalization of alpha-band reconstruction of WM contents before and after updating. These findings demonstrate that alpha activity tracks the dynamic updates to spatial WM and that the format of this activity is preserved across the encoded and updated representations. Thus, our results highlight a new approach for measuring updates to WM and show common representational formats during dynamic mental updating and static storage.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Hense2024,

title = {Electrophysiological correlates of sustained conscious perception},

author = {Annika Hense and Antje Peters and Maximilian Bruchmann and Torge Dellert and Thomas Straube},

doi = {10.1038/s41598-024-61281-2},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Scientific Reports},

volume = {14},

number = {1},

pages = {1–11},

publisher = {Nature Publishing Group UK},

abstract = {Previous research on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) in visual perception revealed an early event-related potential (ERP), the visual awareness negativity (VAN), to be associated with stimulus awareness. However, due to the use of brief stimulus presentations in previous studies, it remains unclear whether awareness-related negativities represent a transient onset-related response or correspond to the duration of a conscious percept. Studies are required that allow prolonged stimulus presentation under aware and unaware conditions. The present ERP study aimed to tackle this challenge by using a novel stimulation design. Male and female human participants (n = 62) performed a visual task while task-irrelevant line stimuli were presented in the background for either 500 or 1000 ms. The line stimuli sometimes contained a face, which needed so-called visual one-shot learning to be seen. Half of the participants were informed about the presence of the face, resulting in faces being perceived by the informed but not by the uninformed participants. Comparing ERPs between the informed and uninformed group revealed an enhanced negativity over occipitotemporal electrodes that persisted for the entire duration of stimulus presentation. Our results suggest that sustained visual awareness negativities (SVAN) are associated with the duration of stimulus presentation.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Johns2024,

title = {Attention mobilization as a modulator of listening effort: Evidence from pupillometry},

author = {M. A. Johns and R. C. Calloway and I. M. D. Karunathilake and L. P. Decruy and S. Anderson and J. Z. Simon and S. E. Kuchinsky},

doi = {10.1177/23312165241245240},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Trends in Hearing},

volume = {28},

pages = {1–20},

abstract = {Listening to speech in noise can require substantial mental effort, even among younger normal-hearing adults. The task-evoked pupil response (TEPR) has been shown to track the increased effort exerted to recognize words or sentences in increasing noise. However, few studies have examined the trajectory of listening effort across longer, more natural, stretches of speech, or the extent to which expectations about upcoming listening difficulty modulate the TEPR. Seventeen younger normal-hearing adults listened to 60-s-long audiobook passages, repeated three times in a row, at two different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) while pupil size was recorded. There was a significant interaction between SNR, repetition, and baseline pupil size on sustained listening effort. At lower baseline pupil sizes, potentially reflecting lower attention mobilization, TEPRs were more sustained in the harder SNR condition, particularly when attention mobilization remained low by the third presentation. At intermediate baseline pupil sizes, differences between conditions were largely absent, suggesting these listeners had optimally mobilized their attention for both SNRs. Lastly, at higher baseline pupil sizes, potentially reflecting overmobilization of attention, the effect of SNR was initially reversed for the second and third presentations: participants initially appeared to disengage in the harder SNR condition, resulting in reduced TEPRs that recovered in the second half of the story. Together, these findings suggest that the unfolding of listening effort over time depends critically on the extent to which individuals have successfully mobilized their attention in anticipation of difficult listening conditions.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Jones2024,

title = {Electroencephalogram decoding reveals distinct processes for directing spatial attention and encoding into working memory},

author = {Henry M. Jones and Gisella K. Diaz and William X. Q. Ngiam and Edward Awh},

doi = {10.1177/09567976241263002},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Psychological Science},

volume = {35},

number = {10},

pages = {1108 –1138},

abstract = {Past work reveals a tight relationship between spatial attention and storage in visual working memory. But is spatially attending an item tantamount to working memory encoding? Here, we tracked electroencephalography (EEG) signatures of spatial attention and working memory encoding while independently manipulating the number of memory items and the spatial extent of attention in two studies of adults (N = 39; N = 33). Neural measures of spatial attention tracked the position and size of the attended area independent of the number of individuated items encoded into working memory. At the same time, multivariate decoding of the number of items stored in working memory was insensitive to variations in the breadth and position of spatial attention. Finally, representational similarity analyses provided converging evidence for a pure load signal that is insensitive to the spatial extent of the stored items. Thus, although spatial attention is a persistent partner of visual working memory, it is functionally dissociable from the selection and maintenance of individuated representations in working memory.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Jones2024a,

title = {Cortically disparate visual features evoke content-independent load signals during storage in working memory},

author = {Henry M. Jones and William S. Thyer and Darius Suplica and Edward Awh},

doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0448-24.2024},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {The Journal of Neuroscience},

volume = {44},

number = {44},

pages = {1–18},

abstract = {It is well established that holding information in working memory (WM) elicits sustained stimulus-specific patterns of neural activity. Nevertheless, here we provide evidence for a distinct class of neural activity that tracks the number of individuated items in working memory, independent of the type of visual features stored. We present two EEG studies of young adults of both sexes that provide robust evidence for a signal tracking the number of individuated representations in working memory, regardless of the specific feature values stored. In Study 1, subjects maintained either colors or orientations across separate blocks in a single session. We found near-perfect generalization of the load signal between these two conditions, despite being able to simultaneously decode which feature had been voluntarily stored. In Study 2, participants attended to two features with very distinct cortical representations: color and motion coherence. We again found evidence for a neural load signal that robustly generalized across these distinct visual features, even though cortically disparate regions process color and motion coherence. Moreover, representational similarity analysis provided converging evidence for a content-independent load signal, while simultaneously showing that unique variance in EEG activity tracked the specific features that were stored. We posit that this load signal reflects a content-independent "pointer" operation that binds objects to the current context while parallel but distinct neural signals represent the features that are stored for each item in memory.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Kandemir2024,

title = {Comparing neural correlates of memory encoding and maintenance for foveal and peripheral stimuli},

author = {Güven Kandemir and Chris Olivers},

doi = {10.1162/jocn_a_02203},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience},

volume = {36},

number = {9},

pages = {1807–1826},

abstract = {Visual working memory is believed to rely on top–down attentional mechanisms that sustain active sensory representations in early visual cortex, a mechanism referred to as sensory recruitment. However, both bottom–up sensory input and top–down attentional modulations thereof appear to prioritize the fovea over the periphery, such that initially peripheral percepts may even be assimilated by foveal processes. This raises the question whether and how visual working memory differs for central and peripheral input. To address this, we conducted a delayed orientation recall task in which an orientation was presented either at the center of the screen or at 15° eccentricity to the left or right. Response accuracy, EEG activity, and gaze position were recorded from 30 participants. Accuracy was slightly but significantly higher for foveal versus peripheral memories. Decoding of EEG recordings revealed a clear dissociation between early sensory and later maintenance signals. Although sensory signals were clearly decodable for foveal stimuli, they were not for peripheral input. In contrast, maintenance signals were equally decodable for both foveal and peripheral memories, suggesting comparable top–down components regardless of eccentricity. Moreover, although memory representations were initially spatially specific and reflected in voltage fluctuations, later during the maintenance period, they generalized across locations, as emerged in alpha oscillations, thus revealing a dynamic transformation within memory from separate sensory traces to what we propose are common output-related codes. Furthermore, the combined absence of reliable decoding of sensory signals and robust presence of maintenance decoding indicates that storage activity patterns as measured by EEG reflect signals beyond primary visual cortex. We discuss the implications for the sensory recruitment hypothesis.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Karvat2024,

title = {Sensory drive modifies brain dynamics and the temporal integration window},

author = {Golan Karvat and Nir Ofir and Ayelet N. Landau},

doi = {10.1162/jocn_a_02088},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience},

volume = {36},

number = {4},

pages = {614–631},

abstract = {Perception is suggested to occur in discrete temporal win-dows, clocked by cycles of neural oscillations. An important testable prediction of this theory is that individuals' peak frequencies of oscillations should correlate with their ability to segregate the appearance of two successive stimuli. An influential study tested this prediction and showed that individual peak frequency of spontaneously occurring alpha (8–12 Hz) corre-lated with the temporal segregation threshold between two successive flashes of light [Samaha, J., & Postle, B. R. The speed of alpha-band oscillations predicts the temporal resolution of visual perception. Current Biology, 25, 2985–2990, 2015]. How-ever, these findings were recently challenged [Buergers, S., & Noppeney, U. The role of alpha oscillations in temporal binding within and across the senses. Nature Human Behaviour, 6, 732– 742, 2022]. To advance our understanding of the link between oscillations and temporal segregation, we devised a novel experimental approach. Rather than relying entirely on spontaneous brain dynamics, we presented a visual grating before the flash stimuli that is known to induce continuous oscillations in the gamma band (45–65 Hz). By manipulating the contrast of the grating, we found that high contrast induces a stronger gamma response and a shorter temporal segregation threshold, compared to low-contrast trials. In addition, we used a novel tool to characterize sustained oscillations and found that, for half of the participants, both the low-and high-contrast gratings were accompanied by a sustained and phase-locked alpha oscil-lation. These participants tended to have longer temporal segregation thresholds. Our results suggest that visual stimulus drive, reflected by oscillations in specific bands, is related to the temporal resolution of visual perception.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Kilic2024,

title = {Investigating sensitivity to auditory cognition in listening effort assessments: A simultaneous EEG and pupillometry study},

author = {Samet Kılıç and Eser Sendesen and Filiz Aslan and Nurhan Erbil and Özgür Aydın and Didem Türkyılmaz},

doi = {10.1002/brb3.70135},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Brain and Behavior},

volume = {14},

number = {11},

pages = {1–12},

abstract = {Background: It is still not fully explained what kind of cognitive sources the methods used in the assessment of listening effort are more sensitive to and how these measurement results are related to each other. The aim of the study is to ascertain which neural resources crucial for listening effort are most sensitive to objective measurement methods using differently degraded speech stimuli. Methods: A total of 49 individuals between the ages of 19 and 34 with normal hearing participated in the study. In the first stage, simultaneous pupillometry, electroencephalogram (EEG), and single-task paradigm reaction time (RT) measurements were made during the challenging listening and repetition task with noise-vocoded speech. Two speech reception thresholds (SRT) (50% and 80%) for two vocoding conditions (16 and 6 channels) were collected, resulting in 4 conditions. In the second stage, the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and the test of attention in listening (TAIL) were applied. Stepwise linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictors of listening effort measurements. Results: A significant difference was found between 6 and 16 channel stimuli in both pupil dilation change and EEG alpha band power change. In the hardest listening condition, whereas RAVLT scores are significant predictors of pupil dilation change, TAIL scores are significant predictors of EEG alpha power. As the stimulus difficulty decreased, the factors that predicted both EEG and pupillometry results decreased. In the single-task paradigm, a significant regression model could not be obtained at all four difficulty levels. Conclusion: As a result of the study, it was found that the pupil dilation change was more sensitive to auditory memory skills and the EEG alpha power change was more sensitive to auditory attention skills. To our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the sensitivity of different listening effort measurement methods to auditory cognitive skills.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Kober2024,

title = {Do miniature eye movements affect neurofeedback training performance? A combined EEG-eye tracking study},

author = {Silvia Erika Kober and Guilherme Wood and Sarah Schuster and Christof Körner},

doi = {10.1007/s10484-024-09625-6},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Applied Psychophysiology Biofeedback},

volume = {49},

number = {2},

pages = {313–327},

publisher = {Springer US},

abstract = {EEG-based neurofeedback is a prominent method to modulate one's own brain activity in a desired direction. However, the EEG signal can be disturbed by artifacts, e.g., eye movements, which can consequently confound the neurofeedback performance. Involuntary miniature eye movements can be hardly detected by conventional EEG correction methods such as recording the electro-oculogram (EOG) and subtracting EOG activity from the EEG signal. However, such miniature eye movements can influence EEG activity, especially in the Gamma frequency range, enormously. In the present study, we investigated whether power in different EEG frequencies can be effectively modulated by self-control of brain signals during neurofeedback training and/or whether changes in EEG power are provoked by miniature eye movements during the training. To this end, 24 participants performed one session of SMR and one session of Gamma neurofeedback training. Additionally, in each training session sham feedback was performed. An eye tracker was used to detect miniature eye movements (< 1°) during neurofeedback training. About two thirds of the participants were able to increase their SMR power over the course of NF training, while one third was able to increase Gamma power. Generally, miniature eye movements induced a strong Gamma power increase. The number of eye movements also increased numerically over the course of the NF training. However, we did not find a significant relationship with the NF training performance. This is a first indication that miniature saccades do not affect NF training performance, but should not be neglected during NF training. Our results have to be confirmed in future studies.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Kujala2024,

title = {Beta- and gamma-band cortico-cortical interactions support naturalistic reading of continuous text},

author = {Jan Kujala and Sasu Mäkelä and Pauliina Ojala and Jukka Hyönä and Riitta Salmelin},

doi = {10.1111/ejn.16212},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {European Journal of Neuroscience},

volume = {59},

number = {2},

pages = {238–251},

abstract = {Large-scale integration of information across cortical structures, building on neural connectivity, has been proposed to be a key element in supporting human cognitive processing. In electrophysiological neuroimaging studies of reading, quantification of neural interactions has been limited to the level of isolated words or sentences due to artefacts induced by eye movements. Here, we combined magnetoencephalography recording with advanced artefact rejection tools to investigate both cortico-cortical coherence and directed neural interactions during naturalistic reading of full-page texts. Our results show that reading versus visual scanning of text was associated with wide-spread increases of cortico-cortical coherence in the beta and gamma bands. We further show that the reading task was linked to increased directed neural interactions compared to the scanning task across a sparse set of connections within a wide range of frequencies. Together, the results demonstrate that neural connectivity flexibly builds on different frequency bands to support continuous natural reading.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Li2024c,

title = {Parafoveal and foveal N400 effects in natural reading: A timeline of semantic processing from fixation-related potentials},

author = {Nan Li and Suiping Wang and Florian Kornrumpf and Werner Sommer and Olaf Dimigen},

doi = {10.1111/psyp.14524},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Psychophysiology},

volume = {61},

number = {5},

pages = {1–25},

abstract = {The depth at which parafoveal words are processed during reading is an ongoing topic of debate. Recent studies using RSVP-with-flanker paradigms have shown that implausible words within sentences elicit an N400 component while they are still in parafoveal vision, suggesting that the semantics of parafoveal words can be accessed to rapidly update the sentence representation. To study this effect in natural reading, we combined the coregistration of eye movements and EEG with the deconvolution modeling of fixation-related potentials (FRPs) to test whether semantic plausibility is processed parafoveally during Chinese sentence reading. For one target word per sentence, both its parafoveal and foveal plausibility were orthogonally manipulated using the boundary paradigm. Consistent with previous eye movement studies, we observed a delayed effect of parafoveal plausibility on fixation durations that only emerged on the foveal word. Crucially, in FRPs aligned to the pretarget fixation, a clear N400 effect emerged already based on parafoveal plausibility, with more negative voltages for implausible previews. Once participants fixated the target, we again observed an N400 effect of foveal plausibility. Interestingly, this foveal N400 was absent whenever the preview had been implausible, indicating that when a word's (im)plausibility is already processed in parafoveal vision, this information is not revised anymore upon direct fixation. Implausible words also elicited a late positive component (LPC), but exclusively when in foveal vision. Our results not only provide convergent neural and behavioral evidence for the parafoveal uptake of semantic information, but also indicate different contributions of parafoveal versus foveal information toward higher level sentence processing.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Liljefors2024,

title = {Distinct functions for beta and alpha bursts in gating of human working memory},

author = {Johan Liljefors and Rita Almeida and Gustaf Rane and Johan N. Lundström and Pawel Herman and Mikael Lundqvist},

doi = {10.1038/s41467-024-53257-7},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Nature Communications},

volume = {15},

number = {1},

pages = {1–15},

publisher = {Springer US},

abstract = {Multiple neural mechanisms underlying gating to and from working memory (WM) have been proposed, with divergent results obtained in human and animal studies. Previous results from non-human primate studies suggest information encoding and retrieval is regulated by high-power bursts in the beta frequency range, whereas human studies suggest that alpha power in sensory regions filters out unwanted stimuli from entering WM. Discrepancies between studies, whether due to differences in analysis, species, or cortical regions, remain unexplained. We addressed this by performing similar single-trial burst analysis we earlier deployed on non-human primates on human whole-brain electrophysiological activity. Participants performed a sequential working memory task that allowed us to track the distinct electrophysiological activity patterns associated with neural processing of targets and distractors. Intriguingly, our results reconcile earlier findings by demonstrating that both alpha and beta bursts are involved in the filtering and control of WM items, but with region and task-specific differences between the two rhythms. Occipital beta burst patterns regulate the transition from sensory processing to WM retention whereas prefrontal and parietal beta bursts track sequence order and proactively suppress retained information prior to upcoming target encoding. Occipital alpha bursts instead suppress unwanted sensory stimuli during their presentation. These results suggest that human working memory is regulated by multiple neural mechanisms that operate in different cortical regions and serve distinct computational roles. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Lindner2024,

title = {Violation of identity-specific action-effect prediction increases pupil size and attenuates auditory event-related potentials at P2 latencies when action-effects are behaviorally relevant},

author = {Elisabeth Lindner and Andrea Desantis and Felicia Pei Hsin Cheng and Alexander Gail},

doi = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120717},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {NeuroImage},

volume = {297},

pages = {1–14},

publisher = {Elsevier Inc.},

abstract = {Self-initiated sensory action effects are widely assumed to lead to less intense perception and reduced neural responses compared to externally triggered stimuli (sensory attenuation). However, it is unclear if sensory attenuation occurs in all cases of action-effect prediction. Specifically, when predicted action-effects are relevant to determine follow-up actions attenuation could be detrimental. We quantified auditory event-related potentials (ERP) in electroencephalography (EEG) when human participants created two-sound sequences by pressing two keys on a keyboard associated with different pitch, giving rise to identity-specific action-effect prediction after the first keypress. The first sound corresponded to (congruent) or violated (incongruent) the predicted pitch and was either relevant for the selection of the second keypress to correctly complete the sequence (Relevance) or irrelevant (Control Movement), or there was only one keypress and sound (Baseline). We found a diminished P2-timed ERP component in incongruent compared to congruent trials when the sound was relevant for the subsequent action. This effect of action-effect prediction was due to an ERP reduction for incongruent relevant sounds compared to incongruent irrelevant sounds at P2 latencies and correlated negatively with modulations of pupil dilation. Contrary to our expectation, we did not observe an N1 modulation by congruency in any condition. Attenuation of the N1 component seems absent for predicted identity-specific auditory action effects, while P2-timed ERPs as well as pupil size are sensitive to predictability, at least when action effects are relevant for the selection of the next action. Incongruent relevant stimuli thereby take a special place and seem to be subject to attentional modulations and error processing.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Maekelae2024a,

title = {Naturalistic reading of multi-page texts elicits spatially extended modulation of oscillatory activity in the right hemisphere},

author = {Sasu Mäkelä and Jan Kujala and Pauliina Ojala and Jukka Hyönä and Riitta Salmelin},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Scientific Reports},

volume = {14},

number = {1},

pages = {1–11},

abstract = {The study of the cortical basis of reading has greatly benefited from the use of naturalistic paradigms that permit eye movements. However, due to the short stimulus lengths used in most naturalistic reading studies, it remains unclear how reading of texts comprising more than isolated sentences modulates cortical processing. To address this question, we used magnetoencephalography to study the spatiospectral distribution of oscillatory activity during naturalistic reading of multi-page texts. In contrast to previous results, we found abundant activity in the right hemisphere in several frequency bands, whereas reading-related modulation of neural activity in the left hemisphere was quite limited. Our results show that the role of the right hemisphere may be importantly emphasized as the reading process extends beyond single sentences.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Mancinelli2024,

title = {Dimensionality and optimal combination of autonomic fear-conditioning measures in humans},

author = {Federico Mancinelli and Juliana K. Sporrer and Vladislav Myrov and Filip Melinscak and Josua Zimmermann and Huaiyu Liu and Dominik R. Bach},

doi = {10.3758/s13428-024-02341-3},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Behavior Research Methods},

volume = {56},

number = {6},

pages = {6119–6129},

abstract = {Fear conditioning, also termed threat conditioning, is a commonly used learning model with clinical relevance. Quantification of threat conditioning in humans often relies on conditioned autonomic responses such as skin conductance responses (SCR), pupil size responses (PSR), heart period responses (HPR), or respiration amplitude responses (RAR), which are usually analyzed separately. Here, we investigate whether inter-individual variability in differential conditioned responses, averaged across acquisition, exhibits a multi-dimensional structure, and the extent to which their linear combination could enhance the precision of inference on whether threat conditioning has occurred. In a mega-analytic approach, we re-analyze nine data sets including 256 individuals, acquired by the group of the last author, using standard routines in the framework of psychophysiological modeling (PsPM). Our analysis revealed systematic differences in effect size between measures across datasets, but no evidence for a multidimensional structure across various combinations of measures. We derive the statistically optimal weights for combining the four measures and subsets thereof, and we provide out-of-sample performance metrics for these weights, accompanied by bias-corrected confidence intervals. We show that to achieve the same statistical power, combining measures allows for a relevant reduction in sample size, which in a common scenario amounts to roughly 24%. To summarize, we demonstrate a one-dimensional structure of threat conditioning measures, systematic differences in effect size between measures, and provide weights for their optimal linear combination in terms of maximal retrodictive validity.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{MayolTroncoso2024,

title = {Fixational eye movements and their associated evoked potentials during natural vision are altered in schizophrenia},

author = {Rocío Mayol-Troncoso and Pablo A. Gaspar and Roberto Verdugo and Juan J. Mariman and Pedro E. Maldonado},

doi = {10.1016/j.scog.2024.100324},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Schizophrenia Research: Cognition},

volume = {38},

pages = {1–9},

publisher = {Elsevier Inc.},

abstract = {Background: Visual exploration is abnormal in schizophrenia; however, few studies have investigated the physiological responses during selecting objectives in more ecological scenarios. This study aimed to demonstrate that people with schizophrenia have difficulties observing the prominent elements of an image due to a deficit mechanism of sensory modulation (active sensing) during natural vision. Methods: An electroencephalogram recording with eye tracking data was collected on 18 healthy individuals and 18 people affected by schizophrenia while looking at natural images. These had a prominent color element and blinking produced by changes in image luminance. Results: We found fewer fixations when all images were scanned, late focus on prominent image areas, decreased amplitude in the eye-fixation-related potential, and decreased intertrial coherence in the SCZ group. Conclusions: The decrease in the visual attention response evoked by the prominence of visual stimuli in patients affected by schizophrenia is generated by a reduction in endogenous attention mechanisms to initiate and maintain visual exploration. Further work is required to explain the relationship of this decrease with clinical indicators.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Menicucci2024,

title = {Correlated P300b and phasic pupil-dilation responses to motivationally significant stimuli},

author = {Danilo Menicucci and Silvia Animali and Eleonora Malloggi and Angelo Gemignani and Enrica Bonanni and Francesco Fornai and Filippo Sean Giorgi and Paola Binda},

doi = {10.1111/psyp.14550},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Psychophysiology},

volume = {61},

number = {6},

pages = {1–14},

abstract = {Motivationally significant events like oddball stimuli elicit both a characteristic event-related potential (ERPs) known as P300 and a set of autonomic responses including a phasic pupil dilation. Although co-occurring, P300 and pupil-dilation responses to oddball events have been repeatedly found to be uncorrelated, suggesting separate origins. We re-examined their relationship in the context of a three-stimulus version of the auditory oddball task, independently manipulating the frequency (rare vs. repeated) and motivational significance (relevance for the participant's task) of the stimuli. We used independent component analysis to derive a P300b component from EEG traces and linear modeling to separate a stimulus-related pupil-dilation response from a potentially confounding action-related response. These steps revealed that, once the complexity of ERP and pupil-dilation responses to oddball targets is accounted for, the amplitude of phasic pupil dilations and P300b are tightly and positively correlated (across participants: r =.69 p =.002), supporting their coordinated generation.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Mocchi2024,

title = {Aperiodic spectral slope tracks the effects of brain state on saliency responses in the human auditory cortex},

author = {Madaline Mocchi and Eleonora Bartoli and John Magnotti and Jan Willem Gee and Brian Metzger and Bailey Pascuzzi and Raissa Mathura and Suhruthaa Pulapaka and Wayne Goodman and Sameer Sheth and Matthew J. McGinley and Kelly Bijanki},

doi = {10.1038/s41598-024-80911-3},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Scientific Reports},

volume = {14},

number = {1},

pages = {1–14},

abstract = {Alteration of responses to salient stimuli occurs in a wide range of brain disorders and may be rooted in pathophysiological brain state dynamics. Specifically, tonic and phasic modes of activity in the reticular activating system (RAS) influence, and are influenced by, salient stimuli, respectively. The RAS influences the spectral characteristics of activity in the neocortex, shifting the balance between low- and high-frequency fluctuations. Aperiodic ‘1/f slope' has emerged as a promising composite measure of these brain state dynamics. However, the relationship of 1/f slope to state-dependent processes, such as saliency, is less explored, particularly intracranially in humans. Here, we record pupil diameter as a measure of brain state and intracranial local field potentials in auditory cortical regions of human patients during an auditory oddball stimulus paradigm. We find that phasic high-gamma band responses in auditory cortical regions exhibit an inverted-u shaped relationship to tonic state, as reflected in the 1/f slope. Furthermore, salient stimuli trigger state changes, as indicated by shifts in the 1/f slope. Taken together, these findings suggest that 1/f slope tracks tonic and phasic arousal state dynamics in the human brain, increasing the interpretability of this metric and supporting it as a potential biomarker in brain disorders.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Mohr2024,

title = {Visual cortical area contributions to the transient, multifocal and steady-­ state VEP: A forward model-­ informed analysis},

author = {Kieran S. Mohr and Anna C. Geuzebroek and Simon P. Kelly},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Imaging Neuroscience},

volume = {2},

pages = {1–26},

abstract = {Central to our understanding of how visual-­ evoked potentials (VEPs) contribute to visual processing is the question of where their anatomical sources are. Three well-­ established measures of low-­ level visual cortical activity are widely used: the first component (“C1”) of the transient and multifocal VEP, and the steady-­ state VEP (SSVEP). Although primary visual cortex (V1) activity has often been implicated in the generation of all three signals, their dominant sources remain uncertain due to the limited resolution and methodological heterogeneity of source modelling. Here, we provide the first characterisation of all three signals in one analytic framework centred on the “cruciform model”, which describes how scalp topographies of V1 activity vary with stimulus location due to the retinotopy and unique folding pattern of V1. We measured the transient C1, multifocal C1, and SSVEPs driven by an 18.75 Hz and 7.5 Hz flicker, and regressed them against forward models of areas V1, V2, and V3 generated from the Benson-­ 2014 retino- topy atlas. The topographic variations of all four VEP signals across the visual field were better captured by V1 mod- els, explaining between 2 and 6 times more variance than V2/V3. Models with all three visual areas improved fit further, but complementary analyses of temporal dynamics across all three signals indicated that the bulk of extrastriate contributions occur considerably later than V1. Overall, our data support the use of peak C1 amplitude and SSVEPs to probe V1 activity, although the SSVEP contains stronger extrastriate contributions. Moreover, we provide elabo- rated heuristics to distinguish visual areas in VEP data based on signal lateralisation as well as polarity inversion.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Monov2024,

title = {Linking cognitive integrity to working memory dynamics in the aging human brain},

author = {Gina Monov and Henrik Stein and Leonie Klock and Juergen Gallinat and Simone Kühn and Tania Lincoln and Katarina Krkovic and Peter R. Murphy and Tobias H. Donner},

doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1883-23.2024},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {The Journal of Neuroscience},

volume = {44},

number = {26},

pages = {1–20},

abstract = {Aging is accompanied by a decline of working memory, an important cognitive capacity that involves stimulus-selective neural activity that persists after stimulus presentation. Here, we unraveled working memory dynamics in older human adults (male and female) including those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using a combination of behavioral modeling, neuropsychological assessment, and MEG recordings of brain activity. Younger adults (male and female) were studied with behavioral modeling only. Participants performed a visuospatial delayed match-to-sample task under systematic manipulation of the delay and distance between sample and test stimuli. Their behavior (match/nonmatch decisions) was fit with a computational model permitting the dissociation of noise in the internal operations underlying the working memory performance from a strategic decision threshold. Task accuracy decreased with delay duration and sample/test proximity.When sample/test distances were small, older adults committed more false alarms than younger adults. The computational model explained the participants' behavior well. The model parameters reflecting internal noise (not decision threshold) correlated with the precision of stimulus-selective cortical activity measured with MEG during the delay interval. The model uncovered an increase specifically in working memory noise in older compared with younger participants. Furthermore, in the MCI group, but not in the older healthy controls, internal noise correlated with the participants' clinically assessed cognitive integrity. Our results are consistent with the idea that the stability of working memory contents deteriorates in aging, in a manner that is specifically linked to the overall cognitive integrity of individuals diagnosed with MCI.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Moran2024,

title = {Decoding remapped spatial information in the peri-saccadic period},

author = {Caoimhe Moran and Philippa A. Johnson and Ayelet N. Landau and Hinze Hogendoorn},

doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2134-23.2024},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {The Journal of Neuroscience},

volume = {44},

number = {30},

pages = {1–12},

abstract = {It has been suggested that, prior to a saccade, visual neurons predictively respond to stimuli that will fall in their receptive fields after completion of the saccade. This saccadic remapping process is thought to compensate for the shift of the visual world across the retina caused by eye movements. To map the timing of this predictive process in the brain, we recorded neural activity using electroencephalography during a saccade task. Human participants (male and female) made saccades between two fixation points while covertly attending to oriented gratings briefly presented at various locations on the screen. Data recorded during trials in which participants maintained fixation were used to train classifiers on stimuli in different positions. Subsequently, data collected during saccade trials were used to test for the presence of remapped stimulus information at the post-saccadic retinotopic location in the peri-saccadic period, providing unique insight into when remapped information becomes available. We found that the stimulus could be decoded at the remapped location ∼180 ms post-stimulus onset, but only when the stimulus was presented 100–200 ms before saccade onset. Within this range, we found that the timing of remapping was dictated by stimulus onset rather than saccade onset. We conclude that presenting the stimulus immediately before the saccade allows for optimal integration of the corollary discharge signal with the incoming peripheral visual information, resulting in a remapping of activation to the relevant post-saccadic retinotopic neurons.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Mulder2024,

title = {Processing reduced speech in the L1 and L2: A combined eye-tracking and ERP study},

author = {Kimberley Mulder and Sophie Brand and Lou Boves and Mirjam Ernestus},

doi = {10.1080/23273798.2024.2344162},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Language, Cognition and Neuroscience},

volume = {39},

number = {5},

pages = {527–551},

abstract = {We examined the cognitive processes underlying the comprehension of reduced word pronunciation variants in natives and advanced learners of French. In a passive listening visual world task, participants heard sentences containing either a reduced or a full form and saw pictures representing the target word, a phonological competitor and two neutral distractors. After each sentence they saw a picture and had to decide whether it matched the content of that sentence. Eye movements and EEG were recorded simultaneously. Because the two recordings offer complementary information about cognitive processes, we developed methods for analysing the signals in combination. We found a stronger effect of reduction on phonetic processing and semantic integration in learners than in natives, but the effects are different from the N100/N400 and P600 effects found in previous research. Time-locking EEG signals on fixation moments in the eye movements offers a window onto the time course of semantic integration.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Norouzi2024,

title = {Prediction of behavioral performance by alpha-band phase synchronization in working memory},

author = {Hamideh Norouzi and Mohammad Reza Daliri},

doi = {10.1016/j.physbeh.2024.114630},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Physiology and Behavior},

volume = {284},

pages = {1–11},

publisher = {Elsevier Inc.},

abstract = {Working memory (WM) is a cognitive system with limited capacity that can temporarily store and process information. The purpose of this study was to investigate functional connectivity based on phase synchronization during WM and its relationship with the behavioral response. In this regard, we recorded EEG/Eye tracking data of seventeen healthy subjects while performing a memory-guided saccade (MGS) task with two different positions (near eccentricity and far eccentricity). We computed saccade error as memory performance and measured functional connectivity using Phase Locking Value (PLV) in the alpha frequency band (8–12 Hz). The results showed that PLV is negatively correlated with saccade error. Our finding indicated that during the maintenance period, PLV between the frontal and visual area in trials with low saccade error increased significantly compared to trials with high saccade error. Furthermore, we observed a significant difference between PLV for near and far conditions in the delay period. The results suggest that PLV in memory maintenance, in addition to predicting saccade error as behavioral performance, can be related to the coding of spatial information in WM.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Norouzpour2024,

title = {Fcirc statistic for steady-state evoked potentials; a generalized version of Tcirc2 statistic},

author = {Amir Norouzpour and Tawna L. Roberts},

doi = {10.1016/j.bspc.2023.105549},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Biomedical Signal Processing and Control},

volume = {87},

pages = {1–8},

abstract = {Introduction: Steady-state evoked potentials (ssEP) provide objective tools for studying brain function in different experimental conditions. Frequency components of brain response to repetitive stimuli have been analyzed using Tcirc2 statistic; however, Tcirc2 statistic is limited to comparisons between two means. Here, we present a generalized version of Tcirc2 statistic which enables us to compare multiple means of Fourier estimates corresponding to multiple conditions within participant(s) or multiple groups of participants. Methods: Frequency components of brain response are extracted from ssEP data using Fourier transform. Discrete Fourier measurements at frequency of interest are represented on the complex plane for statistical analyses. We present a new statistic called Fcirc statistic to compare three or more clusters of Fourier estimates whether they have equal or unequal variances or/and numbers of samples. Fcirc statistic derives from Welch's test but for multiple comparisons. Results: We demonstrate the validity of Fcirc statistic using simulated and empirical clusters of Fourier estimates with equal and unequal variances and numbers of samples. Type-I error remains 0.05 for all the conditions. Furthermore, we illustrate that the probability of achieving a significant difference among multiple means when the true means are unequal depends on the total length of ssEP data but is independent of the duration chosen for performing Fourier transform on a fixed length of ssEP data. Conclusion: Fcirc statistic is useful for multiple intra- and inter-participant and group comparisons of brain response at any frequency component extracted from ssEP data whether the group means have equal or unequal variances.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Nuiten2024,

title = {Pharmacological elevation of catecholamine levels improves perceptual decisions, but not metacognitive insight},

author = {Stijn A. Nuiten and Jan Willem Gee and Jasper B. Zantvoord and Johannes J. Fahrenfort and Simon Gaal},

doi = {10.1523/ENEURO.0019-24.2024},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {eNeuro},

volume = {11},

number = {7},

pages = {1–20},

abstract = {Perceptual decisions are often accompanied by a feeling of decision confidence. Where the parietal cortex is known for its crucial role in shaping such perceptual decisions, metacognitive evaluations are thought to additionally rely on the (pre)frontal cortex. Because of this supposed neural differentiation between these processes, perceptual and metacognitive decisions may be divergently affected by changes in internal (e.g., attention, arousal) and external (e.g., task and environmental demands) factors. Although intriguing, causal evidence for this hypothesis remains scarce. Here, we investigated the causal effect of two neuromodulatory systems on behavioral and neural measures of perceptual and metacognitive decision-making. Specifically, we pharmacologically elevated levels of catechol-amines (with atomoxetine) and acetylcholine (with donepezil) in healthy adult human participants performing a visual discrimination task in which we gauged decision confidence, while electroencephalography was measured. Where cholinergic effects were not robust, catecholaminergic enhancement improved perceptual sensitivity, while at the same time leaving metacognitive sensitivity unaffected. Neurally, catecholaminergic elevation did not affect sensory representations of task-relevant visual stimuli but instead enhanced well-known decision signals measured over the centroparietal cortex, reflecting the accumulation of sensory evidence over time. Crucially, catecholaminergic enhancement concurrently impoverished neural markers measured over the frontal cortex linked to the formation of metacognitive evaluations. Enhanced catecholaminergic neuromodulation thus improves perceptual but not metacognitive decision-making.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Pan2024b,

title = {Early parafoveal semantic integration in natural reading},

author = {Yali Pan and Steven Frisson and Kara D Federmeier and Ole Jensen},

doi = {10.7554/elife.91327.4},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {eLife},

volume = {12},

pages = {1–27},

abstract = {Humans can read and comprehend text rapidly, implying that readers might process multiple words per fixation. However, the extent to which parafoveal words are previewed and integrated into the evolving sentence context remains disputed. We investigated parafoveal processing during natural reading by recording brain activity and eye movements using MEG and an eye tracker while participants silently read one-line sentences. The sentences contained an unpredictable target word that was either congruent or incongruent with the sentence context. To measure parafoveal processing, we flickered the target words at 60 Hz and measured the resulting brain responses (i.e. Rapid Invisible Frequency Tagging, RIFT ) during fixations on the pre-target words. Our results revealed a significantly weaker tagging response for target words that were incongruent with the previous context compared to congruent ones, even within 100ms of fixating the word immediately preceding the target. This reduction in the RIFT response was also found to be predictive of individual reading speed. We conclude that semantic information is not only extracted from the parafovea but can also be integrated with the previous context before the word is fixated. This early and extensive parafoveal processing supports the rapid word processing required for natural reading. Our study suggests that theoretical frameworks of natural reading should incorporate the concept of deep parafoveal processing.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Pasqualette2024,

title = {Differences between overt, covert and natural attention shifts to emotional face},

author = {Laura Pasqualette and Louisa Kulke},

doi = {10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.09.009},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Neuroscience},

volume = {559},

pages = {283–292},

publisher = {Elsevier Inc.},

abstract = {In daily life, individuals pay attention to emotional facial expressions and dynamically choose how to shift their attention, i.e. either overtly (with eye-movements) or covertly (without eye-movements). However, research on attention to emotional faces has mostly been conducted in controlled laboratory settings, in which people were instructed where to look. The current preregistered study co-registered EEG and eye-tracking to investigate differences in emotion-driven attention between instructed and uninstructed natural attention shifts in 48 adults. While a central stimulus was presented to the participant, a face appeared in the periphery, showing either a happy, neutral or an angry expression. In three counterbalanced blocks participants were instructed to either move their eyes overtly to the peripheral face, keep fixating the center and therefore covertly shift their attention, or freely look wherever they would like to look. We found that emotional content had stronger effects on the amplitude of the Early Posterior Negativity when participants shifted attention naturally, and that natural shifts of attention differed from instructed shifts in both saccade behavior and neural mechanisms. In summary, our results emphasize the importance of investigating modulation of attention using paradigms that allow par- ticipants to allocate their attention naturally.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Portnova2024,

title = {The dynamics of resting-state EEG and salivary trace elements in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder},

author = {Galina Portnova and Guzal M. Khayrullina and Ivan V. Mikheev and Sofiya M. Byvsheva and Elena V. Proskurnina and Olga Martynova},

doi = {10.1021/acschemneuro.3c00697},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {ACS Chemical Neuroscience},

volume = {15},

number = {7},

pages = {1415–1423},

abstract = {The study of salivary microelements and their neurophysiological and behavioral correlates in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a pressing issue in modern psychiatry, which, however, lacks adequate research at this time. In this study, we tested the dynamics of behavioral parameters, resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG), and salivary iron, copper, manganese, magnesium, and zinc in 30 healthy volunteers and 30 individuals with OCD before and after an emotional antisaccade task. The eye-movement data served as a measure of behavioral performance. Our research revealed consistently higher manganese concentrations in the OCD group compared to healthy volunteers associated with a higher EEG ratio of amplitude transformation and symptom severity. The dynamics of salivary microelements and resting-state EEG, possibly influenced by cognitive and emotional load during the anticsaccade task, differed between groups. In healthy volunteers, there was a decrease in salivary iron level with an increase in high-frequency power spectral density of EEG. The OCD group showed a decrease in salivary copper with an increased Hjorth mobility of EEG.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Psurny2024,

title = {Exploring consumers' perceptions of online purchase decision factors: Electroencephalography and eye-tracking evidence},

author = {Michal Pšurný and Stanislav Mokrý and Jana Stavkova},

doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2024.1411685},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience},

volume = {18},

number = {November},

pages = {1–12},

abstract = {Introduction: Consumer behavior on the Internet is influenced by factors that can affect consumers' perceptions and attention to products. Understanding these processes at the neurobiological level can help to understand consumers' implicit responses to marketing stimuli. The objective of this study is to use electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the differential effects of selected online purchase decision factors that are becoming increasingly important in online shopping. Methods: Using event-related potentials (ERPs) and simultaneous eye-tracking measurements, we identified differences in the perception of utilitarian and hedonic products when the products are exposed together with visual elements of the factors review, discount, and quantity discount. The ERP analysis focused on the P200 and late positive potential components (LPP). Results: By allowing free-viewing of stimuli during measurement, early automatic and later more complex attentional affective responses could be observed. The results suggest that the review and discount factors are processed faster than the product itself. However, the eye-tracking data indicate that the brain processes the factor without looking at it directly, i.e., from a peripheral view. Discussion: The study also demonstrates the possibilities of using new objective methods based on neurobiology and how they can be applied, especially in areas where the use of neuroscience is still rare, yet so much needed to objectify consumers' knowledge of their need satisfaction behavior.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Redding2024,

title = {Separate cue- and alpha-related mechanisms for distractor suppression},

author = {Zach V. Redding and Ian C. Fiebelkorn},

doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1444-23.2024},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Neuroscience},

volume = {44},

number = {25},

pages = {1–13},

abstract = {Research on selective attention has largely focused on the enhancement of behaviorally important information, with less focus on the suppression of distracting information. Enhancement and suppression can operate through a push−pull relationship attributable to competitive interactions among neural populations. There has been considerable debate, however, regarding (1) whether suppression can be voluntarily deployed, independent of enhancement, and (2) whether voluntary deployment of suppression is associated with neural processes occurring prior to the distractor onset. Here, we investigated the interplay between pre- and post-distractor neural processes, while male and female human subjects performed a visual search task with a cue that indicated the location of an upcoming distractor. We utilized two established EEG markers of suppression: the distractor positivity (PD) and alpha power (∼8–15 Hz). The PD—a component of event-related potentials—has been linked with successful distractor suppression, and increased alpha power has been linked with attenuated sensory processing. Cueing the location of an upcoming distractor speeded responses and led to an earlier PD, consistent with earlier suppression due to strategic use of a spatial cue. In comparison, higher predistractor alpha power contralateral to distractors led to a later PD, consistent with later suppression. Lower alpha power contralateral to distractors instead led to distractor-related attentional capture. Lateralization of alpha power was not linked to the spatial cue. This observation, combined with differences in the timing of suppression—as indexed by earlier and later PD components—demonstrates that cue-related, voluntary suppression can occur separate from alpha-related gating of sensory processing.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Seijdel2024,

title = {Attention drives visual processing and audiovisual integration during multimodal communication},

author = {Noor Seijdel and Jan Mathijs Schoffelen and Peter Hagoort and Linda Drijvers},

doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0870-23.2023},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {The Journal of Neuroscience},

volume = {44},

number = {10},

pages = {1–11},

abstract = {During communication in real-life settings, our brain often needs to integrate auditory and visual information and at the same time actively focus on the relevant sources of information, while ignoring interference from irrelevant events. The interaction between integration and attention processes remains poorly understood. Here, we use rapid invisible frequency tagging and magnetoencephalography to investigate how attention affects auditory and visual information processing and integration, during multimodal communication. We presented human participants (male and female) with videos of an actress uttering action verbs (auditory; tagged at 58 Hz) accompanied by two movie clips of hand gestures on both sides of fixation (attended stimulus tagged at 65 Hz; unattended stimulus tagged at 63 Hz). Integration difficulty was manipulated by a lower-order auditory factor (clear/degraded speech) and a higher-order visual semantic factor (matching/mismatching gesture). We observed an enhanced neural response to the attended visual information during degraded speech compared to clear speech. For the unattended information, the neural response to mismatching gestures was enhanced compared to matching gestures. Furthermore, signal power at the intermodulation frequencies of the frequency tags, indexing nonlinear signal interactions, was enhanced in the left frontotemporal and frontal regions. Focusing on the left inferior frontal gyrus, this enhancement was specific for the attended information, for those trials that benefitted from integration with a matching gesture. Together, our results suggest that attention modulates audiovisual processing and interaction, depending on the congruence and quality of the sensory input.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Sendesen2024a,

title = {Investigation of the behavior of tinnitus patients under varying listening conditions with simultaneous electroencephalography and pupillometry},

author = {Eser Sendesen and Didem Turkyilmaz},

doi = {10.1002/brb3.3571},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Brain and Behavior},

volume = {14},

number = {6},

pages = {1–11},

abstract = {Objective: This study aims to control all hearing thresholds, including extended high frequencies (EHFs), presents stimuli of varying difficulty levels, and measures electroencephalography (EEG) and pupillometry responses to determine whether listening difficulty in tinnitus patients is effort or fatigue-related. Methods: Twenty-one chronic tinnitus patients and 26 matched healthy controls having normal pure-tone averages with symmetrical hearing thresholds were included. Subjects were evaluated with 0.125−20 kHz pure-tone audiometry, Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MoCA), Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), EEG, and pupillometry. Results: Pupil dilatation and EEG alpha power during the “encoding” phase of the presented sentence in tinnitus patients were less in all listening conditions (p <.05). Also, there was no statistically significant relationship between EEG and pupillometry components for all listening conditions and THI or MoCA (p >.05). Conclusion: EEG and pupillometry results under various listening conditions indicate potential listening effort in tinnitus patients even if all frequencies, including EHFs, are controlled. Also, we suggest that pupillometry should be interpreted with caution in autonomic nervous system-related conditions such as tinnitus.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Shi2024a,

title = {Distinct neural signatures underlying information maintenance and manipulation in working memory},

author = {Dongping Shi and Qing Yu},

doi = {10.1093/cercor/bhae063},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Cerebral Cortex},

volume = {34},

number = {3},

pages = {1–14},

abstract = {Previous working memory research has demonstrated robust stimulus representations during memory maintenance in both voltage and alpha-band activity in electroencephalography. However, the exact functions of these 2 neural signatures have remained controversial. Here we systematically investigated their respective contributions to memory manipulation. Human participants either maintained a previously seen spatial location, or manipulated the location following a mental rotation cue over a delay. Using multivariate decoding, we observed robust location representations in low-frequency voltage and alpha-band oscillatory activity with distinct spatiotemporal dynamics: location representations were most evident in posterior channels in alpha-band activity, but were most prominent in the more anterior, central channels in voltage signals. Moreover, the temporal emergence of manipulated representation in central voltage preceded that in posterior alpha-band activity, suggesting that voltage might carry stimulus-specific source signals originated internally from anterior cortex, whereas alpha-band activity might ref lect feedback signals in posterior cortex received from higher-order cortex. Lastly, while location representations in both signals were coded in a low-dimensional neural subspace, location representation in central voltage was higher-dimensional and underwent a representational transformation that exclusively predicted memory behavior. Together, these results highlight the crucial role of central voltage in working memory, and support functional distinctions between voltage and alpha-band activity.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Siklos-Whillans2024,

title = {Effects of inversion and fixation location on the processing of face and house stimuli – a mass univariate analysis},

author = {James Siklos-Whillans and Roxane J. Itier},

doi = {10.1007/s10548-024-01068-w},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {Brain Topography},

volume = {37},

pages = {972–992},

abstract = {Most Event Related Potential studies investigating the time course of visual processing have focused mainly on the N170 component. Stimulus orientation affects the N170 amplitude for faces but not for objects, a finding interpreted as reflecting holistic/configural processing for faces and featural processing for objects. Furthermore, while recent studies suggest where on the face people fixate impacts the N170, fixation location effects have not been investigated in objects. A data-driven mass univariate analysis (all time points and electrodes) was used to investigate the time course of inversion and fixation location effects on the neural processing of faces and houses. Strong and widespread orientation effects were found for both faces and houses, from 100-350ms post-stimulus onset, including P1 and N170 components, and later, a finding arguing against a lack of holistic processing for houses. While no clear fixation effect was found for houses, fixation location strongly impacted face processing early, reflecting retinotopic mapping around the C2 and P1 components, and during the N170-P2 interval. Face inversion effects were also largest for nasion fixation around 120ms. The results support the view that facial feature integration (1) depends on which feature is being fixated and where the other features are situated in the visual field, (2) occurs maximally during the P1-N170 interval when fixation is on the nasion and (3) continues past 200ms, suggesting the N170 peak, where weak effects were found, might be an inflexion point between processes rather than the end of a feature integration into a whole process.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}