汉字识别的跨感觉通路ERP注意成分研究

采用提高非注意纯度的“跨通路延迟反应”实验模式 ,观察汉字形音判断的跨通路事件相关电位 (ERP) ,研究N1和早期注意成分 (Nd1 ) .被试为 1 5名青年正常人 .结果发现 ,N1在头皮上的分布存在明显的通路间差异 :既与非语言实验结果不同 ,也与英语实验结果不同 ,可能反映出汉字加工的脑机制特征 .注意加工部位随语言 /非语言、听觉 /视觉通路、偏差刺激 /标准刺激 3种条件的不同而变化 ,具有可塑性 .早期注意效应发生在刺激本身诱发的外源性成分之前 ,支持注意的早期选择学说 .根据N1与Nd1的关系 ,支持注意使N1增大者不是外源性成分 ,而是重叠于外源性成分中的内源性成分的观点     

朝向和对比度同时快速变化条件下的分辨能力

在自然的视觉中,投射到视网膜上的视觉图像总是在不停地变化,而人类的感知系统依然可以准确高效地识别物体.因此,人类的感知系统有相应的快速处理机制以应对这种动态变化．然而,前人的实验都是在相对稳定的刺激条件下研究人类被试的感知系统对一个刺激参数的反应,比如在固定对比度下测试朝向分辨能力,或在固定朝向测定对比度分辨能力,而朝向和对比度同时变化时,人类对这两个参数的分辨能力仍然缺乏研究．因此,在本实验中,我们使用朝向和对比度同时变化的刺激,研究了人类被试对朝向和对比度的分辨能力．结果表明,在这种动态变化的条件下,被试对朝向和对比度的分辨阈值都有显著性的降低．而且,朝向分辨阈值降低的幅度与在固定对比度参数条件下的分辨阈值成负相关,即在固定对比度条件下朝向分辨阈值较高的被试,在朝向和对比度同时变化条件下,其朝向分辨阈值降低的幅度相对要大,朝向分辨能力也就相对地提高更大．对比度分辨能力也呈现同样的规律．这些结果说明,朝向和对比度的同时变化提高了被试对朝向和对比度的分辨能力,一个参数变化时其分辨能力越低的被试,两个参数变化时其分辨能力提高的幅度就越大．揭示了视觉系统处理这种多刺激参量信息变化的能力和机制,对人类视觉系统在真实的视觉过程中如何处理朝向和对比度信息提供了认识．     

跨通路注意的失匹配负波研究

采用“跨通路延迟反应”实验模式 ,提高了非注意纯度 ,排除了偏差刺激中的目标任务因素 ,以 1 2名青年正常人为被试者 ,研究注意与非注意条件下的ERPs.实验分为 2项 :( 1 )注意视觉通路 ,忽视听觉通路 ;( 2 )注意听觉通路 ,忽视视觉通路 .主要分析偏差刺激ERP减去标准刺激ERP所得之偏差成分 .结果发现视听通路在注意条件下均能产生MMN ,N2b和P3,在非注意时主要产生MMN .听觉MMN与视觉MMN具有如下共同特征 :注意时视听最大MMN波幅分布于它们的初级感觉投射区 ,而在非注意条件下视听最大MMN波幅均分布于额中央部 .视觉MMN与听觉MMN波幅无显著性差异 .MMN波幅及其头皮分布不受注意影响 ,提示MMN波幅是反映自动加工的重要ERP指标 ;但视听觉MMN潜伏期皆受注意影响 ,表明MMN不仅仅反映自动加工 ,尚与控制加工有关     

大小Stroop任务下的双向干扰效应

在认知控制的研究中,自动化理论是解释干扰效应产生机制的主流观点.不过,该理论基本是围绕如何解释单向干扰而发展出来的,缺乏对双向干扰产生机制的深入探讨.另一方面,双向干扰的稳定性和普遍性也有待研究.本研究设计了一个新任务,大小Stroop任务,以调查双向干扰.该任务同时向被试提供两类信息,语义(字义)的"大"和"小",以及视觉(字号)的"大"和"小",构成一致(字义与字号相同)和不一致(字义与字号不同)两类刺激.要求被试分别以口头和按键两种方式根据字义或字号作反应,发现两种反应方式下都出现了双向干扰(字义显著地干扰字号,字号反过来也显著地干扰字义).本研究在不改变刺激、被试和实验程序的情况下,在口头和按键两种反应方式下均获得了双向干扰,首次有力地证明了双向干扰是一种普遍存在的现象.根据本研究的任务特点和实验结果,对认知控制的自动化理论做了一定的发展:在自动化连续体上增加了阈限假设,既区分了自动加工和受控加工,也区分了不同程度的自动加工.发展后的理论既能充分地说明单向干扰也能较好地解释双向干扰.     

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     

基于相似性的类别学习ERPs研究

目的:研究类别学习过程中,基于类别相似性的不同时间限制下被试分类学习脑激活机制.方法:通过对15名被试采用事件相关电位技术(ERPs),使用2相似程度不同(高相似vs低相似)×3呈现时间不同(10ms vs 200ms vs 600ms)的多因素实验设计,探讨不同相似程度及刺激呈现时间不同下的类别学习脑机制.结果:类别高相似的脑激活机制更加复杂,激活的脑区更多;刺激呈现时间为10ms的时候被试的波形图与200ms和600ms类似,但是其潜伏期更短,决策速度更快;三种时间条件下都激活了N400,可能存在语义加工.结论:类别学习在视觉加工阶段就已经发生;类别学习过程并非全或无的竞争机制,而是内隐和外显综合加工的结果.     

猫前内侧外上雪氏区对光流刺激的反应

用螺旋刺激和平动刺激研究猫前内侧外上雪氏区(anteromedial lateral supra- sylvian area,AMLS)细胞加工光流信息的特性.结果表明,绝大多数神经元对这两种模式的光流刺激有显著的兴奋性反应和较高的方向选择性;同时发现,大脑皮层的一个视区有较多的细胞偏好旋转刺激.比较了两种关于视皮层加工光流信息机制的假说,并就此提出了自己的见解.     

老年猫视皮层细胞对刺激反应的对比敏感度下降伴随皮层内抑制作用减弱(英文)

对人类和动物的心理学研究证实,老年个体的视觉对比敏感度相对青年个体显著下降。为揭示其可能的神经机制,采用在体细胞外单细胞记录技术研究青、老年猫(Felis catus)初级视皮层(primary visual cortex,V1)细胞对不同视觉刺激对比度的调谐反应。结果显示,老年猫V1细胞对视觉刺激反应的平均对比敏感度比青年猫显著下降,这与灵长类报道的研究结果相一致,表明衰老影响视皮层细胞对视觉刺激反应的对比敏感度是灵长类和非灵长类哺乳动物中普遍存在的现象,并可能是介导老年性视觉对比敏感度下降的神经基础。另外,与青年猫相比,老年猫初级视皮层细胞对视觉刺激的反应性显著增强,信噪比下降,感受野显著增大,表明衰老导致的初级视皮层细胞对视觉刺激反应的对比敏感度下降伴随着皮层内抑制性作用减弱。     

情绪预期影响人类对恐惧面孔的敏感性——来自电生理的证据

采用事件相关电位技术,本研究考察了情绪预期对人类恐惧面孔敏感性的影响．实验记录了被试在线索提示条件及无线索提示条件下对恐惧和中性面孔进行性别判断时的ERP数据．行为结果显示,不可预期条件下被试对恐惧面孔性别判断的正确率显著低于对中性面孔的正确率,表明不可预期的恐惧情绪对实验任务产生了显著地干扰效应．ERP数据显示,在不可预期条件下,在P2及200～250ms区间,恐惧面孔比中性面孔诱发了更大的波幅,情绪效应显著;而可预期条件下,人脑对恐惧面孔和中性面孔的反应类似,表现出情绪效应的显著降低．因此,人类情绪加工的负性偏向效应受个体情绪预期的调节．人类对不可预期的负性情绪敏感,相反当恐惧情绪的发生可以被提前预期时,个体对它们的神经敏感性降低．     

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.     

Study of parvocellular and magnocellular visual channels in normal subjects and in patients with psychopathology

We measured susceptibility to the Müller-Lyer illusion in schizophrenic patients and normal observers. The images of the Müller-Lyer figure were digitally filtered in a high-frequency and low-frequency band by wavelet filter. Patients with schizophrenia are more susceptible to Müller-Lyer illusion, than mentally healthy examinees. The images of the Müller-Lyer figure with low spatial frequency were perceived in a similar way by the schizophrenic patients on the initial stage of disease and the control subjects. Patients with schizophrenia were more sensitive to the Müller-Lyer illusion when the image contained only high or medium spatial frequency. Schizophrenic patients in advanced stage were more susceptible to the illusion while presented with all types of images of the Müller-Lyer figure than the control group. It is hypothesized that those differences arise from the mismatch work of the magnocellular and parvocellular systems. It is known that images with the high spatial frequencies are most relevant for the parvocellular visual channels. The magnocellular visual channels are most sensitive to the images with the low spatial frequencies. Thus these findings demonstrate a significant impairment in parvocellular pathway function in patients on initial stage of schizophrenia. The patients on advanced stage of schizophrenia demonstrate impairment of both the parvocellular and magnocellular systems.     

Abnormal brain activation in neurofibromatosis type 1: a link between visual processing and the default mode network

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is one of the most common single gene disorders affecting the human nervous system with a high incidence of cognitive deficits, particularly visuospatial. Nevertheless, neurophysiological alterations in low-level visual processing that could be relevant to explain the cognitive phenotype are poorly understood. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study early cortical visual pathways in children and adults with NF1. We employed two distinct stimulus types differing in contrast and spatial and temporal frequencies to evoke relatively different activation of the magnocellular (M) and parvocellular (P) pathways. Hemodynamic responses were investigated in retinotopically-defined regions V1, V2 and V3 and then over the acquired cortical volume. Relative to matched control subjects, patients with NF1 showed deficient activation of the low-level visual cortex to both stimulus types. Importantly, this finding was observed for children and adults with NF1, indicating that low-level visual processing deficits do not ameliorate with age. Moreover, only during M-biased stimulation patients with NF1 failed to deactivate or even activated anterior and posterior midline regions of the default mode network. The observation that the magnocellular visual pathway is impaired in NF1 in early visual processing and is specifically associated with a deficient deactivation of the default mode network may provide a neural explanation for high-order cognitive deficits present in NF1, particularly visuospatial and attentional. A link between magnocellular and default mode network processing may generalize to neuropsychiatric disorders where such deficits have been separately identified.     

Magno- and Parvocellular Contrast Responses in Varying Degrees of Autistic Trait

Autistic tendency has been associated with altered visual perception, especially impaired visual motion sensitivity and global/local integration, as well as enhanced visual search and local shape recognition. However, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these abnormalities remain poorly defined. The current study recruited 29 young adults displaying low, middle or high autistic trait as measured by Baron-Cohen''s Autism spectrum Quotient (AQ), and measured motion coherence thresholds psychophysically, with manipulation of dot lifetime and stimulus contrast, as well as nonlinear cortical visual evoked potentials (VEPs) over a range of temporal luminance contrast levels from 10% to 95%. Contrast response functions extracted from the major first order and second order Wiener kernel peaks of the VEPs showed consistent variation with AQ group, and Naka-Rushton fits enabled contrast gain and semi-saturation contrasts to be elicited for each peak. A short latency second order response (previously associated with magnocellular processing) with high contrast gain and a saturating contrast response function showed higher amplitude for the High AQ (compared with Mid and Low groups) indicating poorer neural recovery after rapid stimulation. A non-linearity evoked at longer interaction times (previously associated with parvocellular processing) with no evidence of contrast saturation and lower contrast gain showed no difference between autism quotient groups across the full range of stimulus contrasts. In addition, the short latency first order response and a small, early second order second slice response showed gain and semi-saturation parameters indicative of magnocellular origin, while the longer latency first order response probably reflects a mixture of inputs (including feedback from higher cortical areas). Significant motion coherence (AQ group) * (dot lifetime) interactions with higher coherence threshold for limited dot lifetime stimuli is consistent with atypical magnocellular functioning, however psychophysical performance for those with High AQ is not explained fully, suggesting that other factors may be involved.     

The shift from local to global visual processing in 6-year-old children is associated with grey matter loss

Background

A real-world visual scene consists of local elements (e.g. trees) that are arranged coherently into a global configuration (e.g. a forest). Children show psychological evolution from a preference for local visual information to an adult-like preference for global visual information, with the transition in visual preference occurring around 6 years of age. The brain regions involved in this shift in visual preference have not been described.

Methods and Results

We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to study children during this developmental window to investigate changes in gray matter that underlie the shift from a bias for local to global visual information. Six-year-old children were assigned to groups according to their judgment on a global/local task. The first group included children who still presented with local visual processing biases, and the second group included children who showed global visual processing biases. VBM results indicated that compared to children with local visual processing biases, children with global visual processing biases had a loss of gray matter in the right occipital and parietal visuospatial areas.

Conclusions

These anatomical findings are in agreement with previous findings in children with neurodevelopmental disorders and represent the first structural identification of brain regions that allow healthy children to develop a global perception of the visual world.     

Selection of visual hierarchical stimuli between global and local aspects in men and women

Sex differences in global-local hemispheric selective processing were examined by hierarchical letter presenting in conditions of their perception and comparison. Fifty-six right-handed males and 68 females (aged 17-22 years) participated in the experiment. During interference between global and local aspects of stimuli the mean reaction times for correct global responses was quicker than local responses, and the right hemisphere has been dominated during global selective processing independently from the sex. Sex differences in perception of visual hierarchical stimuli were more pronounced than in comparison condition: men prefer mostly the right-hemispheric global strategy of information processing, but women--the left-hemispheric local one. Dominance of global strategy in men and local strategy in women during visual hierarchical stimuli perception together with no sex differences in correct responses indicates possibility of similar results in cognitive activity by different ways.     

Rhythmic TMS over parietal cortex links distinct brain frequencies to global versus local visual processing

Neural networks underlying visual perception exhibit oscillations at different frequencies (e.g.,). But how these map onto distinct aspects of visual perception remains elusive. Recent electroencephalography data indicate that theta or beta frequencies at parietal sensors increase in amplitude when conscious perception is dominated by global or local features, respectively, of a reversible visual stimulus. But this provides only correlative, noninterventional evidence. Here we show via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) interventions that short rhythmic bursts of right-parietal TMS at theta or beta frequency can causally benefit processing of global or local levels, respectively, for hierarchical visual stimuli, especially in the context of salient incongruent distractors. This double dissociation between theta and beta TMS reveals distinct causal roles for particular frequencies in processing global versus local visual features.     

The graded and dichotomous nature of visual awareness

Is our visual experience of the world graded or dichotomous? Opposite pre-theoretical intuitions apply in different cases. For instance, when looking at a scene, one has a distinct sense that our experience has a graded character: one cannot say that there is no experience of contents that fall outside the focus of attention, but one cannot say that there is full awareness of such contents either. By contrast, when performing a visual detection task, our sense of having perceived the stimulus or not exhibits a more dichotomous character. Such issues have recently been the object of intense debate because different theoretical frameworks make different predictions about the graded versus dichotomous character of consciousness. Here, we review both relevant empirical findings as well as the associated theories (i.e. local recurrent processing versus global neural workspace theory). Next, we attempt to reconcile such contradictory theories by suggesting that level of processing is an often-ignored but highly relevant dimension through which we can cast a novel look at existing empirical findings. Thus, using a range of different stimuli, tasks and subjective scales, we show that processing low-level, non-semantic content results in graded visual experience, whereas processing high-level semantic content is experienced in a more dichotomous manner. We close by comparing our perspective with existing proposals, focusing in particular on the partial awareness hypothesis.     

"Slight" of hand: the processing of visually degraded gestures with speech

Co-speech hand gestures influence language comprehension. The present experiment explored what part of the visual processing system is optimized for processing these gestures. Participants viewed short video clips of speech and gestures (e.g., a person saying "chop" or "twist" while making a chopping gesture) and had to determine whether the two modalities were congruent or incongruent. Gesture videos were designed to stimulate the parvocellular or magnocellular visual pathways by filtering out low or high spatial frequencies (HSF versus LSF) at two levels of degradation severity (moderate and severe). Participants were less accurate and slower at processing gesture and speech at severe versus moderate levels of degradation. In addition, they were slower for LSF versus HSF stimuli, and this difference was most pronounced in the severely degraded condition. However, exploratory item analyses showed that the HSF advantage was modulated by the range of motion and amount of motion energy in each video. The results suggest that hand gestures exploit a wide range of spatial frequencies, and depending on what frequencies carry the most motion energy, parvocellular or magnocellular visual pathways are maximized to quickly and optimally extract meaning.     

Vagaries of visual perception in autism

Three classes of perceptual phenomena have repeatedly been associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): superior processing of fine detail (local structure), either inferior processing of overall/global structure or an ability to ignore disruptive global/contextual information, and impaired motion perception. This review evaluates the quality of the evidence bearing on these three phenomena. We argue that while superior local processing has been robustly demonstrated, conclusions about global processing cannot be definitively drawn from the experiments to date, which have generally not precluded observers using more local cues. Perception of moving stimuli is impaired in ASD, but explanations in terms of magnocellular/dorsal deficits do not appear to be sufficient. We suggest that abnormalities in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) may provide a neural basis for the range of motion-processing deficits observed in ASD, including biological motion perception. Such an explanation may also provide a link between perceptual abnormalities and specific deficits in social cognition associated with autism.     

Top-down modulations from dorsal stream in lexical recognition: an effective connectivity FMRI study

Both the ventral and dorsal visual streams in the human brain are known to be involved in reading. However, the interaction of these two pathways and their responses to different cognitive demands remains unclear. In this study, activation of neural pathways during Chinese character reading was acquired by using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique. Visual-spatial analysis (mediated by the dorsal pathway) was disassociated from lexical recognition (mediated by the ventral pathway) via a spatial-based lexical decision task and effective connectivity analysis. Connectivity results revealed that, during spatial processing, the left superior parietal lobule (SPL) positively modulated the left fusiform gyrus (FG), while during lexical processing, the left SPL received positive modulatory input from the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and sent negative modulatory output to the left FG. These findings suggest that the dorsal stream is highly involved in lexical recognition and acts as a top-down modulator for lexical processing.