整体知觉依赖于双侧视皮层的协同工作: TMS研究

以往研究表明, 右侧和左侧大脑半球分别主要负责复合图形的整体和局部知觉. 本研究使用经颅磁刺激(TMS)研究对复合刺激的整体知觉是否需要双侧皮层的协同工作. 在实验一中, 被试辨别复合字母的整体或者局部属性, 在施加单脉冲TMS或者伪TMS的同时记录反应时. 尽管观测到了整体优势效应(即对整体目标的反应快于局部目标, 整体对于局部有更强的干扰), 但是TMS减弱了整体对局部加工的干扰并且增强局部对整体加工的干扰. 实验二排除了实验一中观测到的效应是知觉学习后果的可能性. 实验三利用复合图形刺激, 观测到了与实验一相似的TMS效应, 而且发现TMS延长对整体的反应时(RTs)并减少对局部的反应时. 最后, 实验一和实验三中观测到的TMS效应在左半球或者右半球没有显著差异. 这些结果支持了协同假设, 该假设认为复合刺激的整体知觉依赖于双侧视皮层的协同工作     

场景的一致性效应及其机制

有关场景一致性效应的研究发现,人们对与背景语义一致的前景物体的命名、分类、搜索和再认等都快于与背景不一致的物体.和与情境一致的物体相比,与情境不一致的物体在中央顶区等部位,会诱发一个幅度更大的负波(N390).旁海马皮层/旁海马位置区(PHC/PPA)和压部后皮层(RSC)是负责场景加工的重要脑区.场景一致性效应的时间进程可能首先由低空间分辨率(LSF)信息激活眶额皮层(OFC)(130 ms左右)、PHC/PPA和RSC,之后LSF信息与高空间分辨率(HSF)信息在颞叶进行整合.在诸多理论模型中,情境促进模型从生理角度对一致性效应作了较充分的解释.     

海马-前额叶神经回路与工作记忆

学习和记忆是神经科学研究的热点。已证实大脑中的海马、前额叶和海马−前额叶回路均参与工作记忆功能。本文对海马−前额叶回路的解剖和生理特性以及海马、前额叶和海马−前额叶回路在工作记忆中的作用的研究进展做一概述。     

负性情绪对不同视野条件下工作记忆的影响

目的:研究结合延迟样本匹配任务和分视野范式,探讨负性情绪对言语和空间工作记忆的影响。方法:32名大学本科生参加实验,在中性和负性情绪图片呈现阶段,所有被试完成言语和空间工作记忆任务各160个trial。结果:言语工作记忆任务在右视野呈现时正确率较高,反应时较短,而空间工作记忆任务则在左视野呈现时表现出相似的反应优势;负性情绪状态下的工作记忆表现均优于中性情绪状态。结论:言语及空间工作记忆分别具有左、右半球的加工优势,且负性情绪对工作记忆具有促进作用。     

基于激活模型中的注意与长时记忆可用性的ERP研究

本实验通过在概念水平上对记忆项目进行注意定向,探讨了注意在记忆相关项目中的作用及对长时记忆可用性的影响.结果发现,非记忆项的N400比记忆项的N400更负;与记忆项同类的单词对类别判断(与其他类相比)在行为数据和ERPs(400～650ms和700～900ms)上表现为正启动效应,而与非记忆项目同类的单词对类别判断表现出行为数据和ERPs(400～650ms)的负启动效应.记忆阶段的N400反映了注意对相关项目的高度关注和对无关项目的抑制,表明了自上而下的注意在选择加工中起到重要的调节作用;类别比较阶段的ERPs结果则反映了在工作记忆中受注意驱动的加工内容可以决定随后相关语义长时记忆的可用性,即之前注意或忽视特定内容会产生不同的间接的语义启动作用(正启动效应和负启动效应).这说明,由于注意的导向不同,使得长时记忆中可用的信息激活水平不同,支持了基于激活的模型.     

图形形状和空间位置知觉的ERP研究

研究图形表状和空间位置知觉任务与单纯图形形状知觉任务所诱发的ERP反应,探讨同时注意物体的两种不同特征是与仅注意其中一种特征时的ERP特性与差别。实验结果为：（1）行为数据显示,两种任务的正确率没有显著差别,但形状和空间位置知觉任务的反应时显著低于单纯形状知觉任务;（2）ERP数据显示,两种任务表现出非常相近的ERP波形特征;在大脑后部区域微弱的P1成分,非常显著的N1成分,显著的P2,N2,P3成分;在大脑前部额区显著的P2成分,并且,与单纯形状知觉任务相比,图形形状和空间位置知觉任务表现枕颞区N2波幅的显著减弱,P3潜伏期的显著缩短,额区的P2波幅的显微减弱;（3）脑电表图与分辨率断层成象（LORETA）显示,两种任务的特征波N1成分均来源于双侧的枕颞皮层,表明两种任务均涉及到与物体形状识别相关的视皮层腹侧通路,而差别波dN2成分来源于在侧枕颞区,暗示特征加工的差异主要发生在左侧枕颞区。     

杏仁核在认知过程中的作用

大量研究证据表明,人类的杏仁核在情绪性加工过程中起重要作用.但是,也有许多研究结果发现杏仁核在认知功能中也有独特的作用.本文综述了杏仁核参与注意、知觉、工作记忆和长时记忆等认知过程的证据,并对杏仁核的功能进行了总结,以及对未来的研究进行了展望.     

连续闪现抑制下对洞的无意识知觉

大量收敛一致的实验证据表明,图形的大范围性质可以由拓扑性质来描述,并且其检测发生在视觉过程的最早期,这些证据几乎全部来自对意识上知觉的研究,而拓扑性质的意识下加工机制尚有待发掘.意识下知觉是人的感官系统客观上接受刺激呈现但主观上没有察觉的知觉,其机制和应用长期以来一直是知觉研究的热点.本文采用了一种双眼竞争的变式——连续闪现抑制,将待检测的刺激图形掩蔽,使之处于意识下状态,考察意识下知觉中拓扑性质的加工."洞的个数"作为一种拓扑性质是本文的研究对象.通过量度被抑制图形从发生变化到被知觉的被抑制时间,或者被试对被抑制的变化图形的正确检测率,我们发现,相比于不变或者各种非拓扑性质变化,意识下知觉中的拓扑性质(洞的个数)的变化会使图形更快、更容易被检测到.本研究揭示了拓扑性质(洞的个数)在意识下知觉中的优先性,将拓扑知觉理论从意识上知觉领域拓展到了意识下知觉领域,为拓扑性质加工的早期性提供了有力的证据;另一方面,本研究也提示了拓扑性质经由皮层下视通路加工处理的可能性.     

年龄相关的情绪偏向效应的时间进程

来自记忆、注意和决策等领域的大量研究发现,在加工情绪刺激时老年人具有正性情绪偏向或负性情绪规避的特点.本研究采用oddball变式,将情绪面孔图片作为分心刺激呈现.实验过程中记录被试脑电,考察不同情绪效价对脑电波的影响,同时考察老年人在非任务相关条件下情绪加工和情绪调节的时间进程.研究发现,在相对早期时间窗口(270~460 ms),年轻组脑电不受情绪效价影响,而老年组中悲伤情绪面孔较之快乐和中性情绪面孔引发了一个更大的正成分(P3a).在晚期时间窗口(500~850 ms),年轻组中悲伤情绪面孔吸引了被试更多注意并引发了一个更大的正性慢波.相反,老年组在晚期加工阶段,情绪效价效应消失.研究揭示了老年人和年轻人在加工非任务相关的情绪刺激时存在的时间进程差异,年龄相关的正性情绪效应发生在晚期时间窗口,表现为年轻组的负性情绪偏向和老年组的无情绪偏向.研究结果为社会情绪选择理论提供了来自脑电数据的支持.     

年龄相关的情绪偏向效应的时间进程（英文）

来自记忆、注意和决策等领域的大量研究发现,在加工情绪刺激时老年人具有正性情绪偏向或负性情绪规避的特点.本研究采用oddball变式,将情绪面孔图片作为分心刺激呈现.实验过程中记录被试脑电,考察不同情绪效价对脑电波的影响,同时考察老年人在非任务相关条件下情绪加工和情绪调节的时间进程.研究发现,在相对早期时间窗口(270~460 ms),年轻组脑电不受情绪效价影响,而老年组中悲伤情绪面孔较之快乐和中性情绪面孔引发了一个更大的正成分(P3a).在晚期时间窗口(500~850 ms),年轻组中悲伤情绪面孔吸引了被试更多注意并引发了一个更大的正性慢波.相反,老年组在晚期加工阶段,情绪效价效应消失.研究揭示了老年人和年轻人在加工非任务相关的情绪刺激时存在的时间进程差异,年龄相关的正性情绪效应发生在晚期时间窗口,表现为年轻组的负性情绪偏向和老年组的无情绪偏向.研究结果为社会情绪选择理论提供了来自脑电数据的支持.     

Neural repetition effects in the medial temporal lobe complex are modulated by previous encoding experience

It remains an intriguing question why the medial temporal lobe (MTL) can display either attenuation or enhancement of neural activity following repetition of previously studied items. To isolate the role of encoding experience itself, we assessed neural repetition effects in the absence of any ongoing task demand or intentional orientation to retrieve. Experiment 1 showed that the hippocampus and surrounding MTL regions displayed neural repetition suppression (RS) upon repetition of past items that were merely attended during an earlier study phase but this was not the case following re-occurrence of items that had been encoded into working memory (WM). In this latter case a trend toward neural repetition enhancement (RE) was observed, though this was highly variable across individuals. Interestingly, participants with a higher degree of neural RE in the MTL complex displayed higher memory sensitivity in a later, surprise recognition test. Experiment 2 showed that massive exposure at encoding effected a change in the neural architecture supporting incidental repetition effects, with regions of the posterior parietal and ventral-frontal cortex in addition to the hippocampus displaying neural RE, while no neural RS was observed. The nature of encoding experience therefore modulates the expression of neural repetition effects in the MTL and the neocortex in the absence of memory goals.     

Variation in hippocampal morphology along an environmental gradient: controlling for the effects of day length

Environmental conditions may create increased demands for memory, which in turn may affect specific brain regions responsible for memory function. This may occur either via phenotypic plasticity or selection for individuals with enhanced cognitive abilities. For food-caching animals, in particular, spatial memory appears to be important because it may have a direct effect on fitness via their ability to accurately retrieve food caches. Our previous studies have shown that caching animals living in more harsh environments (characterized by low temperatures, high snow cover and short day lengths) possess more neurons within a larger hippocampus (Hp), a part of the brain involved in spatial memory. However, the relative role of each of these environmental features in the relationship is unknown. Here, we dissociate the effects of one theoretically important factor (day length) within the environmental severity/Hp relationship by examining food-caching birds (black-capped chickadee, Poecile atricapillus) selected at locations along the same latitude, but with very different climatic regimes. There was a significant difference in Hp attributes among populations along the same latitude with very different climatic features. Birds from the climatically mild location had significantly smaller Hp volumes and fewer Hp neurons than birds from the more harsh populations, even though all populations experienced similar day lengths. These results suggest that variables such as temperature and snow cover seem to be important even without the compounding effect of reduced day length at higher latitudes and suggest that low temperature and snow cover alone may be sufficient to generate high demands for memory and the hippocampus. Our data further confirmed that the association between harsh environment and the hippocampus in food-caching animals is robust across a large geographical area and across years.     

A Key Role for Nectin-1 in the Ventral Hippocampus in Contextual Fear Memory

Nectins are cell adhesion molecules that are widely expressed in the brain. Nectin expression shows a dynamic spatiotemporal regulation, playing a role in neural migratory processes during development. Nectin-1 and nectin-3 and their heterophilic trans-interactions are important for the proper formation of synapses. In the hippocampus, nectin-1 and nectin-3 localize at puncta adherentia junctions and may play a role in synaptic plasticity, a mechanism essential for memory and learning. We evaluated the potential involvement of nectin-1 and nectin-3 in memory consolidation using an emotional learning paradigm. Rats trained for contextual fear conditioning showed transient nectin-1—but not nectin-3—protein upregulation in synapse-enriched hippocampal fractions at about 2 h posttraining. The upregulation of nectin-1 was found exclusively in the ventral hippocampus and was apparent in the synaptoneurosomal fraction. This upregulation was induced by contextual fear conditioning but not by exposure to context or shock alone. When an antibody against nectin-1, R165, was infused in the ventral-hippocampus immediately after training, contextual fear memory was impaired. However, treatment with the antibody in the dorsal hippocampus had no effect in contextual fear memory formation. Similarly, treatment with the antibody in the ventral hippocampus did not interfere with acoustic memory formation. Further control experiments indicated that the effects of ventral hippocampal infusion of the nectin-1 antibody in contextual fear memory cannot be ascribed to memory non-specific effects such as changes in anxiety-like behavior or locomotor behavior. Therefore, we conclude that nectin-1 recruitment to the perisynaptic environment in the ventral hippocampus plays an important role in the formation of contextual fear memories. Our results suggest that these mechanisms could be involved in the connection of emotional and contextual information processed in the amygdala and dorsal hippocampus, respectively, thus opening new venues for the development of treatments to psychopathological alterations linked to impaired contextualization of emotions.     

A hippocampal marker of recollection memory ability among healthy young adults: contributions of posterior and anterior segments

The hippocampus is known to support recollection memory, but the relation between its structure and recollection in healthy adults has not been established. Here we show that the hippocampus (including subiculum, DG, and CA1-CA4), when separated into posterior and anterior segments, can reliably predict recollection in healthy young adults. Better memory was associated with larger posterior and smaller anterior segments, as evaluated relative to the uncal apex. Overall hippocampal volume, however, did not predict memory. This pattern was confirmed in four separate data sets from different studies and laboratories. The relationship between the posterior hippocampus and memory was mediated by the structure's functional connectivity with a neocortical network identified during a postencoding resting-state scan. The relationship was also weakest in an experiment involving no appreciable study-test interval. These findings suggest that enhanced posterior-hippocampal postencoding processes may account for the memory benefit associated with larger posterior hippocampi.     

The Competitive Influences of Perceptual Load and Working Memory Guidance on Selective Attention

The perceptual load theory in selective attention literature proposes that the interference from task-irrelevant distractor is eliminated when perceptual capacity is fully consumed by task-relevant information. However, the biased competition model suggests that the contents of working memory (WM) can guide attentional selection automatically, even when this guidance is detrimental to visual search. An intriguing but unsolved question is what will happen when selective attention is influenced by both perceptual load and WM guidance. To study this issue, behavioral performances and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when participants were presented with a cue to either identify or hold in memory and had to perform a visual search task subsequently, under conditions of low or high perceptual load. Behavioural data showed that high perceptual load eliminated the attentional capture by WM. The ERP results revealed an obvious WM guidance effect in P1 component with invalid trials eliciting larger P1 than neutral trials, regardless of the level of perceptual load. The interaction between perceptual load and WM guidance was significant for the posterior N1 component. The memory guidance effect on N1 was eliminated by high perceptual load. Standardized Low Resolution Electrical Tomography Analysis (sLORETA) showed that the WM guidance effect and the perceptual load effect on attention can be localized into the occipital area and parietal lobe, respectively. Merely identifying the cue produced no effect on the P1 or N1 component. These results suggest that in selective attention, the information held in WM could capture attention at the early stage of visual processing in the occipital cortex. Interestingly, this initial capture of attention by WM could be modulated by the level of perceptual load and the parietal lobe mediates target selection at the discrimination stage.     

Nifedipine and verapamil block the memory-facilitating effect of corticotropin-releasing factor in rats

The effects of two calcium channel blockers, nifedipine and verapamil, and the peptide corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) as well as their interactive effects on memory retention were examined in rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were chronically cannulated bilaterally and drugs were directly injected into the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Animals were trained in a one-way inhibitory avoidance task and memory was measured 24 h later. Results indicate that there was a U-shaped dose-response curve for the effects of nifedipine and verapamil with nifedipine at 8 micrograms and verapamil at 1 microgram both impaired memory formation, while CRF at 0.1 microgram enhanced this process. Nifedipine at 2 micrograms and verapamil at 0.5 microgram, which did not have significant effects on memory by themselves, antagonized the memory-enhancing effect of CRF in the hippocampus. These results suggest that under normal physiological conditions, calcium influx may play an important role in memory consolidation process in the vertebrate.     

Hippocampal involvement in human topographical memory: evidence from functional imaging.

Functional brain imaging in humans is beginning to reveal a network of brain regions that subserve topographical learning: the medial parietal lobe, the posterior cingulate gyrus, occipitotemporal areas, the parahippocampal gyrus and the right hippocampus. These findings illuminate the patient lesion literature where all of these brain regions have been implicated at one time or another in cases of topographical disorientation. Once topographical information is acquired, the neuroanatomy that supports its use from either episodic or semantic memory is similar to that activated during encoding. The specific contributions of extrahippocampal regions within the topographical memory system are being revealed, such as the role of the right parahippocampal gyrus in object-in-place encoding. The right hippocampus is clearly involved in processing spatial layouts over long as well as short time-courses, and participates in both the encoding and the retrieval of topographical memory. The ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex is recruited when information in the topographical memory system is not sufficient to produce direct navigation to a goal place.     

Irrelevant features of a stimulus can either facilitate or disrupt performance in a working memory task: the role of fluid intelligence

It has been shown that fluid intelligence (gf) is fundamental to overcome interference due to information of a previously encoded item along a task-relevant domain. However, the biasing effect of task-irrelevant dimensions is still unclear as well as its relation with gf. The present study aimed at clarifying these issues. Gf was assessed in 60 healthy subjects. In a different session, the same subjects performed two versions (letter-detection and spatial) of a three-back working memory task with a set of physically identical stimuli (letters) presented at different locations on the screen. In the letter-detection task, volunteers were asked to match stimuli on the basis of their identity whereas, in the spatial task, they were required to match items on their locations. Cross-domain bias was manipulated by pseudorandomly inserting a match between the current and the three back items on the irrelevant domain. Our findings showed that a task-irrelevant feature of a salient stimulus can actually bias the ongoing performance. We revealed that, at trials in which the current and the three-back items matched on the irrelevant domain, group accuracy was lower (interference). On the other hand, at trials in which the two items matched on both the relevant and irrelevant domains, the group showed an enhancement of the performance (facilitation). Furthermore, we demonstrated that individual differences in fluid intelligence covaries with the ability to override cross-domain interference in that higher gf subjects showed better performance at interference trials than low gf subjects. Altogether, our findings suggest that stimulus features irrelevant to the task can affect cognitive performance along the relevant domain and that gf plays an important role in protecting relevant memory contents from the hampering effect of such a bias.     

The Effects of Feature-Based Priming and Visual Working Memory on Oculomotor Capture

Recently, it has been demonstrated that objects held in working memory can influence rapid oculomotor selection. This has been taken as evidence that perceptual salience can be modified by active working memory representations. The goal of the present study was to examine whether these results could also be caused by feature-based priming. In two experiments, participants were asked to saccade to a target line segment of a certain orientation that was presented together with a to-be-ignored distractor. Both objects were given a task-irrelevant color that varied per trial. In a secondary task, a color had to be memorized, and that color could either match the color of the target, match the color of the distractor, or it did not match the color of any of the objects in the search task. The memory task was completed either after the search task (Experiment 1), or before it (Experiment 2). The results showed that in both experiments the memorized color biased oculomotor selection. Eye movements were more frequently drawn towards objects that matched the memorized color, irrespective of whether the memory task was completed after (Experiment 1) or before (Experiment 2) the search task. This bias was particularly prevalent in short-latency saccades. The results show that early oculomotor selection performance is not only affected by properties that are actively maintained in working memory but also by those previously memorized. Both working memory and feature priming can cause early biases in oculomotor selection.     

An Exploration of the Relations between External Representations and Working Memory

It is commonly hypothesized that external representations serve as memory aids and improve task performance by means of expanding the limited capacity of working memory. However, very few studies have directly examined this memory aid hypothesis. By systematically manipulating how information is available externally versus internally in a sequential number comparison task, three experiments were designed to investigate the relation between external representations and working memory. The experimental results show that when the task requires information from both external representations and working memory, it is the interaction of information from the two sources that determines task performance. In particular, when information from the two sources does not match well, external representations hinder instead of enhance task performance. The study highlights the important role the coordination among different representations plays in distributed cognition. The general relations between external representations and working memory are discussed.