ORCID Profile
0000-0003-3976-5855
Current Organisations
University of Queensland
,
Bond University
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Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-03-2007
DOI: 10.1007/S00221-007-0922-3
Abstract: Current evidence supports the proposal that the cerebellum mediates the activity of other brain areas involved in the control of eye movements. Most of the evidence so far has concentrated on the vermis and flocculi as the cerebellar agents of oculomotor control. But there is also evidence for an involvement of the cerebellar hemispheres in eye movement control. Straube et al. (Ann Neurol 42:891-898, 1997) showed that lateral hemispheric lesions affect initiation of smooth pursuit (SPEM) and saccadic eye movements. Ron and Robinson (J Neurophysiol 36:1004-1022, 1973) evoked smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements by electrical stimulation of crus I and II, as well as in the dentate nuclei of the monkey. Functional MRI studies also provide evidence that the cerebellar hemispheres play a significant role in SPEM and saccadic eye movements. To clarify the role of the cerebral hemispheres in eye movement control we compared the eye movement related blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses of 12 patients with cerebellar lesions due to stroke with those of an aged-matched healthy control group. Six patients showed oculomotor abnormalities such as dysmetric saccades or saccadic SPEM during the experiment. The paradigm consisted of alternating blocks of fixation, visually guided saccades and visually guided SPEM. A nonparametric random-effects group analysis showed a degraded pattern of activation in the patient group during the performance of SPEM and saccadic eye movements in posterior parietal areas putatively containing the parietal eye fields.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 2014
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-09-2023
Publisher: Psychology Press
Date: 11-09-2009
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA.2007.02.012
Abstract: A considerable body of evidence supports the notion that cerebellar lesions lead to neuropsychological deficits, including impairments in working-memory, executive tasks and verbal fluency. Studies employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and anatomical tracing in primates provide evidence for a cortico-cerebellar circuitry as the functional substrate of working-memory. The present fMRI study explores the activation pattern during an n-back working-memory task in patients with an isolated cerebellar infarct. To determine each patient's cognitive impairment, neuropsychological tests of working-memory and attention were carried out. We conducted fMRI in nine patients and nine healthy age-matched controls while they performed a 2-back task in a blocked-design. In both groups we found bilateral activations in a widespread cortico-cerebellar network, consisting of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 44, 45), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9, 46), parietal cortex (BA 7, 40), pre-supplementary motor area (BA 6) anterior cingulate (BA 32). Relative to healthy controls, patients with isolated cerebellar infarcts demonstrated significantly more pronounced BOLD-activations in the precuneus and the angular gyrus during the 2-back task. The significant increase in activation in the posterior parietal areas of the cerebellar patients could be attributed to a compensatory recruitment to maintain task performance. We conclude that cerebellar lesions affect remote cortical regions that are part of a putative cortico-cerebellar network.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 08-02-2023
DOI: 10.3389/FSOC.2023.1076015
Abstract: Attitudes about vaccination impact not only the in idual but also society. Therefore, understanding the underlying psychological processes of those who disagree with vaccination is critical for creating compassion through understanding and change through promoting autonomy. The current review aimed to fill a gap in the literature, outlining the state of the recent research on vaccination attitudes, specifically on the underlying mechanisms driving anti-vaccination movements and in iduals' thoughts and behaviors. In addition, we aimed to evaluate current research on the effectiveness of interventions targeting these mechanisms. Overall, results indicated that those declining vaccines had beliefs related to distrust in the scientific community and pharmaceutical companies and moral preferences for purity and liberty. In addition, our review identified the potential for utilizing motivational interviewing techniques as an intervention. This literature review provides a platform for further research and enhances the current understanding of vaccination attitudes.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2023
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 03-2007
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 23-08-2006
Abstract: Real-life moving objects are often detected by multisensory cues. We investigated the cortical activity associated with coherent visual motion perception in the presence of a stationary or moving auditory noise source using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Twelve subjects judged episodes of 5-s random-dot motion containing either no (0%) or abundant (16%) coherent direction information. Auditory noise was presented with the displayed visual motion that was moving in phase, was moving out-of-phase, or was stationary. Subjects judged whether visual coherent motion was present, and if so, whether the auditory noise source was moving in phase, was moving out-of-phase, or was not moving. Performance was greatest for a moving sound source that was in phase with the visual coherent dot motion compared with when it was in antiphase. A random-effects analysis revealed that auditory motion activated extended regions in both cerebral hemispheres in the superior temporal gyrus (STG), with a right-hemispheric preponderance. Combined audiovisual motion led to activation clusters in the STG, the supramarginal gyrus, the superior parietal lobule, and the cerebellum. The size of the activated regions was substantially larger than that evoked by either visual or auditory motion alone. The congruent audiovisual motion evoked the most extensive activation pattern, exhibiting several exclusively activated subregions.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-02-2021
DOI: 10.1002/HIPO.23313
Abstract: Spatial navigation is a crucial everyday skill, which when impaired leads to a significant decrease in quality of life. In humans, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has provided extensive insights into the neural underpinnings of navigation skills. Whereas the hippoc us has been recognized as the prime region underpinning navigation abilities, by providing a cognitive map of the environment, imaging studies have also implicated a range of other brain regions. In this review, we provide an overview of the fMRI evidence for extrahippoc al contributions to spatial navigation. We show that the parahippoc al cortex, retrosplenial cortex, dorsal striatum, and the posterior parietal cortex provide important complementary functions, and ultimately form part of a functional network that regulates successful way‐finding behavior.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-10-2007
Abstract: Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), posterior parietal cortex, and regions in the occipital cortex have been identified as neural sites for visual working memory ( WM ). The exact involvement of the DLPFC in verbal and non-verbal working memory processes, and how these processes depend on the time-span for retention, remains disputed. We used functional MRI to explore the neural correlates of the delayed discrimination of Gabor stimuli differing in orientation. Twelve subjects were instructed to code the relative orientation either verbally or non-verbally with memory delays of short (2 s) or long (8 s) duration. Blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) 3-Tesla fMRI revealed significantly more activity for the short verbal condition compared to the short non-verbal condition in bilateral superior temporal gyrus, insula and supramarginal gyrus. Activity in the long verbal condition was greater than in the long non-verbal condition in left language-associated areas (STG) and bilateral posterior parietal areas, including precuneus. Interestingly, right DLPFC and bilateral superior frontal gyrus was more active in the non-verbal long delay condition than in the long verbal condition. The results point to a dissociation between the cortical sites involved in verbal and non-verbal WM for long and short delays. Right DLPFC seems to be engaged in non-verbal WM tasks especially for long delays. Furthermore, the results indicate that even slightly different memory maintenance intervals engage largely differing networks and that this novel finding may explain differing results in previous verbal/non-verbal WM studies.
Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0294-17.2018
Abstract: We often perceive real-life objects as multisensory cues through space and time. A key challenge for audiovisual integration is to match neural signals that not only originate from different sensory modalities but also that typically reach the observer at slightly different times. In humans, complex, unpredictable audiovisual streams lead to higher levels of perceptual coherence than predictable, rhythmic streams. In addition, perceptual coherence for complex signals seems less affected by increased asynchrony between visual and auditory modalities than for simple signals. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine the human neural correlates of audiovisual signals with different levels of temporal complexity and synchrony. Our study demonstrated that greater perceptual asynchrony and lower signal complexity impaired performance in an audiovisual coherence-matching task. Differences in asynchrony and complexity were also underpinned by a partially different set of brain regions. In particular, our results suggest that, while regions in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) were modulated by differences in memory load due to stimulus asynchrony, areas traditionally thought to be involved in speech production and recognition, such as the inferior frontal and superior temporal cortex, were modulated by the temporal complexity of the audiovisual signals. Our results, therefore, indicate specific processing roles for different subregions of the fronto-temporal cortex during audiovisual coherence detection.
Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
Date: 19-06-2013
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 10-05-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.08.539920
Abstract: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) has been associated with greater total power in canonical frequency bands (i.e., alpha, beta) of the resting electroencephalogram (EEG). However, PD has also been associated with a reduction in the proportion of total power across all frequency bands. This discrepancy may be explained by aperiodic activity (exponent and offset) present across all frequency bands. Here, we examined differences in the eyes-open and eyes-closed resting EEG of PD participants ( N = 26) on and off medication, and age-matched controls (CTL N = 26). We extracted power from canonical frequency bands using traditional methods (total alpha and beta power) and extracted separate parameters for periodic (parameterized alpha and beta power) and aperiodic activity (exponent and offset). Cluster-based permutation tests over spatial and frequency dimensions indicated that total alpha and beta power, and aperiodic exponent and offset were greater in PD participants, independent of medication status. After removing the exponent and offset, greater alpha power in PD (vs. CTL) was only present in eyes-open recordings and no reliable differences in beta power were observed. Differences between PD and CTLs in the resting EEG are likely driven by aperiodic activity, suggestive of greater relative inhibitory neural activity and greater neuronal spiking. Our findings suggest that resting EEG activity in PD is characterized by medication-invariant differences in aperiodic activity which is independent of the increase in alpha power with EO. This highlights the importance of considering aperiodic activity contributions to the neural correlates of brain disorders.
Publisher: IGI Global
Date: 2021
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-6754-8.CH001
Abstract: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in a swift and dramatic global shift in the location of work for many employees. Organizations around the world have implemented remote work arrangements to allow continuity of service while conforming with social distancing requirements. As a result of ongoing uncertainty regarding the current and future pandemics, reduced costs associated with housing employees remotely, and survey results suggesting employees are reluctant to return to a primarily office-based work model, many organisations are implementing ongoing remote arrangements for their employees. This chapter provides a review of current research on the psychological effects of remote working. Recommendations are made regarding future research directions across various remote work environments that will enhance understanding of the psychological effects of remote work under social distancing.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 22-01-2019
Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
Date: 07-2018
DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0177-18.2018
Abstract: In idual hippoc al neurons selectively increase their firing rates in specific spatial locations. As a population, these neurons provide a decodable representation of space that is robust against changes to sensory- and path-related cues. This neural code is sparse and distributed, theoretically rendering it undetectable with population recording methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Existing studies nonetheless report decoding spatial codes in the human hippoc us using such techniques. Here we present results from a virtual navigation experiment in humans in which we eliminated visual- and path-related confounds and statistical limitations present in existing studies, ensuring that any positive decoding results would represent a voxel-place code. Consistent with theoretical arguments derived from electrophysiological data and contrary to existing fMRI studies, our results show that although participants were fully oriented during the navigation task, there was no statistical evidence for a place code.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 12-04-2021
DOI: 10.3389/FRVIR.2021.620503
Abstract: Irrelevant ambient noise can have profound effects on human performance and wellbeing. Acoustic interventions (e.g., installation of sound absorbing materials) that reduce intelligible noise (i.e., sound unrelated to the relevant speech, including noise from other talkers within the space) by reducing room reverberation, have been found to be an effective means to alleviate the negative effects of noise on cognitive performance. However, these interventions are expensive, and it is difficult to evaluate their impact in the field. Virtual reality (VR) provides a promising simulation platform to evaluate the likely impact of varied acoustic interventions before they are chosen and installed. This study employed a virtual classroom environment to evaluate whether an intervention to reduce reverberation can be simulated successfully in VR and mitigate the effects of ambient noise on cognitive performance, physiological stress, and mood. The repeated-measures experimental design consisted of three acoustic conditions: no ambient noise, typical open-plan classroom ambient noise without acoustic treatment, and the same ambient noise with acoustic treatment to reduce reverberation. Results revealed that ambient noise negatively affected participants’ cognitive performance but had no measurable effect on physiological stress or self-reported mood. Importantly, the negative effect of ambient noise was completely ameliorated by the acoustic treatment (i.e. indistinguishable from performance in the no noise condition). The study shows that VR provides an effective and efficient means to evaluate the cognitive effects of acoustic interventions.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-03-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S12144-021-02615-5
Abstract: The idea that some recently encountered items reside in a special state where they do not have to be retrieved has come to be a critical component of short-term memory theories. In the current work, the existence of such a special state was tested using the probe-recognition paradigm followed by a delayed recognition test. Across two experiments participants received a series of probe recognition trials where list lengths of 1-, 4- and 8-items were intermixed. Delayed recognition performance for non-target probes was poorer for the only item in 1-item lists than for the last item in multi-item lists. At the same time, the delayed recognition of studied-but-not probed items was better for the 1-item list, compared to the last item in a multi-item list, indicating that some form of a retrieval effect was involved and not lower levels of attention/initial learning. An examination of the size of the testing effect as it varied across list lengths and experiments also indicated that residence in a special state was not playing an important role. Overall, the data are not in support of the assumption that items at the focus of attention are in a special state that do not require retrieval. Our conclusions are that special states cannot be used to define STM memory and that the probe recognition paradigm may be useful in determining how testing affects memory.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-11-2008
DOI: 10.1007/S00426-008-0185-Z
Abstract: (1) to determine if the acoustical parameters used by normal subjects to discriminate between different speakers vary when comparisons are made between pairs of two of the same or different vowels, and if they are different for male and female voices (2) to ask whether in idual voices can reasonably be represented as points in a low-dimensional perceptual space such that similarly sounding voices are located close to one another. Subjects were presented with pairs of voices from 16 male and 16 female speakers uttering the three French vowels "a", "i" and "u" and asked to give speaker similarity judgments. Multidimensional analyses of the similarity matrices were performed separately for male and female voices and for three types of comparisons: same vowels, different vowels and overall average. The resulting dimensions were then interpreted a posteriori in terms of relevant acoustical measures. For both male and female voices, a two-dimensional perceptual space was found to be most appropriate, with axes largely corresponding to contributions of the larynx (pitch) and supra-laryngeal vocal tract (formants), mirroring the two largely independent components of source and filter in voice production. These perceptual spaces of male and female voices and their corresponding voice s les are available at: vnl.psy.gla.ac.uk section Resources.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-03-2021
DOI: 10.1186/S40359-021-00536-3
Abstract: The ‘doorway effect’, or ‘location updating effect’, claims that we tend to forget items of recent significance immediately after crossing a boundary. Previous research suggests that such a forgetting effect occurs both at physical boundaries (e.g., moving from one room to another via a door) and metaphysical boundaries (e.g., imagining traversing a doorway, or even when moving from one desktop window to another on a computer). Here, we aimed to conceptually replicate this effect using virtual and physical environments. Across four experiments, we measured participants’ hit and false alarm rates to memory probes for items recently encountered either in the same or previous room. Experiments 1 and 2 used highly immersive virtual reality without and with working memory load (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively). Experiment 3 used passive video watching and Experiment 4 used active real-life movement. Data analysis was conducted using frequentist as well as Bayesian inference statistics. Across this series of experiments, we observed no significant effect of doorways on forgetting. In Experiment 2, however, signal detection was impaired when participants responded to probes after moving through doorways, such that false alarm rates were increased for mismatched recognition probes. Thus, under working memory load, memory was more susceptible to interference after moving through doorways. This study presents evidence that is inconsistent with the location updating effect as it has previously been reported. Our findings call into question the generalisability and robustness of this effect to slight paradigm alterations and, indeed, what factors contributed to the effect observed in previous studies.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-12-2014
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2013
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA.2013.02.004
Abstract: The ability to form spatial representations of object locations is an important component of successful spatial navigation. Evidence from behavioral studies suggests that environmental features that have a salient coordinate axis (e.g., a rectangular building or a geometrical room) may provide a reference frame for the encoding of object-location information. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine the brain networks engaged when object-location representations are stored with respect to an extrinsic reference frame. Participants learned the layout of an object array in an active, virtual-navigation paradigm. A square mat positioned on the floor of the virtual arena acted as the extrinsic reference frame. Knowledge of the spatial arrangement of the object array was probed while participants underwent fMRI, using a spatial judgment task that required them to imagine orientations of the learned array that were either aligned or misaligned with the geometry of the mat. Consistent with previous findings, participants responded faster and were more accurate when the imagined orientation was aligned, as opposed to misaligned, with the extrinsic reference frame. Analysis of the fMRI data revealed important differences in brain activity between the two conditions. Significantly greater activity was observed in the aligned condition compared with the misaligned condition across a bilateral network of brain areas that included the inferior occipital gyri, inferior and middle temporal gyri, and fusiform gyri. By contrast, activity in the misaligned condition was significantly greater than in the aligned condition in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex, and in the right anterior prefrontal and anterior insular cortex. These results suggest that retrieval of spatial locations that are aligned with an extrinsic reference frame involve direct access to detailed and accurate representations within the ventral visual pathway, whereas spatial locations that are misaligned with this reference frame are only weakly represented and require active inferential processes through the recruitment of prefrontal cortical networks. Our findings are consistent with a "reference direction" account of spatial memory, which posits that inter-object spatial relationships are primarily encoded with respect to specified reference directions.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 27-11-2018
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 05-2014
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 2012
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-08-2013
DOI: 10.1007/S12311-013-0519-2
Abstract: Recent clinical and neuroimaging studies have revealed that the human cerebellum plays a role in visual motion perception, but the nature of its contribution to this function is not understood. Some reports suggest that the cerebellum might facilitate motion perception by aiding attentive tracking of visual objects. Others have identified a particular role for the cerebellum in discriminating motion signals in perceptually uncertain conditions. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine the degree to which cerebellar involvement in visual motion perception can be explained by a role in sustained attentive tracking of moving stimuli in contrast to a role in visual motion discrimination. While holding the visual displays constant, we manipulated attention by having participants attend covertly to a field of random-dot motion or a colored spot at fixation. Perceptual uncertainty was manipulated by varying the percentage of signal dots contained within the random-dot arrays. We found that attention to motion under high perceptual uncertainty was associated with strong activity in left cerebellar lobules VI and VII. By contrast, attending to motion under low perceptual uncertainty did not cause differential activation in the cerebellum. We found no evidence to support the suggestion that the cerebellum is involved in simple attentive tracking of salient moving objects. Instead, our results indicate that specific subregions of the cerebellum are involved in facilitating the detection and discrimination of task-relevant moving objects under conditions of high perceptual uncertainty. We conclude that the cerebellum aids motion perception under conditions of high perceptual demand.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-06-2018
DOI: 10.3758/S13421-018-0833-5
Abstract: Global matching models have provided an important theoretical framework for recognition memory. Key predictions of this class of models are that (1) increasing the number of occurrences in a study list of some items affects the performance on other items (list-strength effect) and that (2) adding new items results in a deterioration of performance on the other items (list-length effect). Experimental confirmation of these predictions has been difficult, and the results have been inconsistent. A review of the existing literature, however, suggests that robust length and strength effects do occur when sufficiently similar hard-to-label items are used. In an effort to investigate this further, we had participants study lists containing one or more members of visual scene categories (bathrooms, beaches, etc.). Experiments 1 and 2 replicated and extended previous findings showing that the study of additional category members decreased accuracy, providing confirmation of the category-length effect. Experiment 3 showed that repeating some category members decreased the accuracy of nonrepeated members, providing evidence for a category-strength effect. Experiment 4 eliminated a potential challenge to these results. Taken together, these findings provide robust support for global matching models of recognition memory. The overall list lengths, the category sizes, and the number of repetitions used demonstrated that scene categories are well-suited to testing the fundamental assumptions of global matching models. These include (A) interference from memories for similar items and contexts, (B) nondestructive interference, and (C) that conjunctive information is made available through a matching operation.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROIMAGE.2012.01.089
Abstract: It has been proposed that spatial relations are encoded either categorically, such that the relative positions of objects are defined in prepositional terms or in terms of visual coordinates, such that the precise distances between objects are represented. In humans, it has been assumed that a left hemisphere neural network subserves categorical representations, and that coordinate representations are right lateralised. However, evidence in support of this distinction has been garnered exclusively from tasks that involved static, two-dimensional (2D) arrays. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify neural circuits underlying categorical and coordinate representations during active spatial navigation. Activity in the categorical condition was significantly greater in the parietal cortex, whereas the coordinate condition revealed greater activity in medial temporal cortex and dorsal striatum. In addition, activity in the categorical condition was greater in parietal cortex within the left hemisphere than within the right. Our findings are consistent with analogous studies in rodents, and support the suggestion of distinct neural circuits underlying categorical and coordinate representations during active spatial navigation. The findings also support the claim of a left hemispheric preponderance for the processing of categorical spatial relations.
Publisher: Springer Publishing Company
Date: 03-06-2022
Abstract: Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the gold-standard non-pharmacological treatment for insomnia, a complex disorder that comprises psychological, behavioral, and physiological components. This systematic literature review aimed to evaluate a growing body of exploratory studies that have examined CBT-I treatment effects using neuroimaging assessment. Nine studies met current review selection criteria, of which six studies compared insomnia groups with good sleepers, waitlist, and/or control groups. CBT-I administration varied in treatment length and duration across the studies, as did neuroimaging assessment, which included task-based and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Functional connectivity abnormalities were observed in participants, including reduced engagement in task-related brain regions and apparent difficulties in regulating default mode brain areas that appeared to reverse following CBT-I treatment. Taken together, the neuroimaging results complement behavioral measures of treatment efficacy, indicating support for the effectiveness of CBT-I treatment in the recovery of brain function and structure.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-10-2023
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-09-2021
DOI: 10.1002/ACP.3876
Abstract: Spatial navigation is a fundamental cognitive function essential for daily life. Navigation skill assessment predominantly relies on self‐reports, with varying accounts regarding their validity. The current study aimed to determine whether performance on an objective visual scene memory recognition ability task could serve as a valid predictor of wayfinding navigation performance. A standardized sense of direction scale was used to compare the predictiveness of self‐report with the visual recognition test for objective navigation performance. Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that better performance on the visual, but not the verbal memory task significantly predicted wayfinding ability. Visual memory performance was also a better predictor of navigation performance than participants' self‐reported sense of direction. This study therefore suggests that the assessment of visual scene memory is a promising and ecologically valid way to predict everyday practical navigation ability—in addition to or instead of via the use of self‐reports.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 27-07-2023
Abstract: This scoping review explores the use of extended reality (virtual, augmented, and mixed reality) within sleep health, sleep medicine, and sleep research. It aims to provide insight into current uses and implementation considerations whilst highlighting directions for future research. A systematic scoping review was undertaken informed by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses for scoping reviews and Johanna Briggs Institute. The use of virtual reality (VR) as a research tool in the investigation of areas such as dreaming and memory reactivation is growing. Thirty-one articles were identified in total with 20 utilizing VR to improve sleep as a clinical intervention. Research exploring the utility of VR as a clinical intervention in various patient populations and clinical settings is therefore warranted. Researchers and clinicians should ensure that extended reality interventions are developed based on clinical reasoning and informed by evidence of both sleep medicine and the effects of virtual and augmented reality. Where possible future research should utilize up-to-date technology and reporting frameworks to assist in the translation of research into clinical practice.
Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
Date: 24-02-2016
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3368-15.2016
Abstract: The human parahippoc al cortex has been ascribed central roles in both visuospatial and mnemonic processes. More specifically, evidence suggests that the parahippoc al cortex subserves both the perceptual analysis of scene layouts as well as the retrieval of associative contextual memories. It remains unclear, however, whether these two functional roles can be dissociated within the parahippoc al cortex anatomically. Here, we provide evidence for a dissociation between neural activation patterns associated with visuospatial analysis of scenes and contextual mnemonic processing along the parahippoc al longitudinal axis. We used fMRI to measure parahippoc al responses while participants engaged in a task that required them to judge the contextual relatedness of scene and object pairs, which were presented either as words or pictures. Results from combined factorial and conjunction analyses indicated that the posterior section of parahippoc al cortex is driven predominantly by judgments associated with pictorial scene analysis, whereas its anterior section is more active during contextual judgments regardless of stimulus category (scenes vs objects) or modality (word vs picture). Activation maxima associated with visuospatial and mnemonic processes were spatially segregated, providing support for the existence of functionally distinct subregions along the parahippoc al longitudinal axis and suggesting that, in humans, the parahippoc al cortex serves as a functional interface between perception and memory systems. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The functional neuroanatomy of the parahippoc al cortex is still subject to considerable debate. Specifically, its relative contributions to visuospatial and mnemonic functions remain unclear. This study constitutes the first evidence for the existence of distinct information-processing properties along the parahippoc al longitudinal axis. Our findings implicate the posterior section of the parahippoc us in visuospatial perception and the anterior section in contextual mnemonic processes. Our study provides novel neuroanatomical information critical for understanding the ersity of the purported functions of the human parahippoc al cortex.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 2023
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 2013
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-04-2008
DOI: 10.1007/S00221-008-1366-0
Abstract: The concept of perceptual memory refers to the neural and cognitive processes underlying the storage of specific stimulus features such as spatial frequency, orientation, shape, contrast, and color. Psychophysical studies of perceptual memory indicate that observers can retain visual information about the spatial frequency of Gabor patterns independent of the orientation with which they are presented. Compared to discrimination of gratings with the same orientation, reaction times to orthogonally oriented gratings, however, increase suggesting additional processing. Using event-related fMRI we examined the pattern of neural activation evoked when subjects discriminated the spatial frequency of Gabors presented with the same or orthogonal orientation. Blood-oxygen level dependent BOLD fMRI revealed significantly elevated bilateral activity in visual areas (V1, V2) when the gratings to be compared had an orthogonal orientation, compared to when they had the same orientation. These findings suggest that a change in an irrelevant stimulus dimension requires additional processing in primary and secondary visual areas. The finding that the task-irrelevant stimulus property (orientation) had no significant effect on the prefrontal and intraparietal cortex supports a model of working memory in which discrimination and retention of basic stimulus dimensions is based on low-level perceptual memory stores that are located at an early stage in the visual process. Our findings suggest that accessing different stores requires time and has higher metabolic costs.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-11-2023
DOI: 10.3758/S13423-022-02216-8
Abstract: Path integration is a process in which navigators estimate their position and orientation relative to a known location by using body-based internal sensory cues that arise from navigation-related bodily motion (e.g., vestibular and proprioceptive signals). Although humans are capable of navigating via path integration in small-scale space, a question has been raised as to whether path integration plays any role in human navigation in large-scale space because it is inherently prone to accumulating error. In this review, we examined whether there is evidence that path integration contributes to large-scale human navigation. It was found that navigation with path integration (e.g., walking in a large-scale environment) can enhance learning of the layout of the environment as compared with mere exposure to the environment without path integration (e.g., viewing a walk-through video while sitting), suggesting that the body-based cues are reliably processed and encoded through path integration when they are present during navigation. This facilitatory effect is clearer when proprioceptive cues are available than when the navigators receive vestibular cues only (e.g., driving or being pushed in a wheelchair). More specifically, path integration with proprioceptive cues may help build survey knowledge of the environment in which metric distance and direction between landmarks are represented. Overall, the existing data are indicative of path integration's contributions to large-scale navigation. This suggests that instead of dismissing it as too error-prone, path integration should be characterised as a fundamental mechanism of human navigation irrespective of the scale of a space in which it is carried out.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 14-06-2021
DOI: 10.1017/JMO.2021.17
Abstract: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019)-induced changes in the workplace present a timely opportunity for human resource management practitioners to consider and remediate the deleterious effects of noise, a commonly cited complaint of employees working in open-plan office (OPO) environments. While self-reports suggest that OPO noise is perceived as a stressor, there is little experimental research comprehensively investigating the effects of noise on employees in terms of their cognitive performance, physiological indicators of stress, and affect. Employing a simulated office setting, we compared the effects of a typical OPO auditory environment to a quieter private office auditory environment on a range of objective and subjective measures of well-being and performance. While OPO noise did not reduce immediate cognitive task performance compared to the quieter environment, it did reduce psychological well-being as evidenced by self-reports of mood, facial expressions of emotion, and physiological indicators of stress in the form of heartrate and skin conductivity. Our research highlights the importance of using a multimodal approach to assess the impact of workplace stressors such as noise. Such an approach will allow HR practitioners to make data-driven recommendations about the design and modification of workspaces to minimize negative effects and support employee well-being.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROIMAGE.2012.03.044
Abstract: The cerebellum has an important role in the control and coordination of movement. It is now clear, however, that the cerebellum is also involved in neural processes underlying a wide variety of perceptual and cognitive functions, including the regulation of emotional responses. Contemporary neurobiological models of emotion assert that a small set of discrete emotions are mediated through distinct cortical and subcortical areas. Given the connectional specificity of neural pathways that link the cerebellum with these areas, we hypothesized that distinct sub-regions of the cerebellum might subserve the processing of different primary emotions. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify neural activity patterns within the cerebellum in 30 healthy human volunteers as they categorized images that elicited each of the five primary emotions: happiness, anger, disgust, fear and sadness. In support of our hypothesis, all five emotions evoked spatially distinct patterns of activity in the posterior lobe of the cerebellum. We also detected overlaps between cerebellar activations for particular emotion categories, implying the existence of shared neural networks. By providing a detailed map of the functional topography of emotion processing in the cerebellum, our study provides important clues to the erse effects of cerebellar pathology on human affective function.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 22-09-2009
Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
Date: 24-03-2010
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5661-09.2010
Abstract: The human cerebellum contains approximately half of all the neurons within the cerebrum, yet most experimental work in human neuroscience over the last century has focused exclusively on the structure and functions of the forebrain. The cerebellum has an undisputed role in a range of motor functions (Thach et al., 1992), but its potential contributions to sensory and cognitive processes are widely debated (Stoodley and Schmahmann, 2009). Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to test the hypothesis that the human cerebellum is involved in the acquisition of auditory and visual sensory data. We monitored neural activity within the cerebellum while participants engaged in a task that required them to discriminate the direction of a visual or auditory motion signal in noise. We identified a distinct set of cerebellar regions that were differentially activated for visual stimuli (vermal lobule VI and right-hemispheric lobule X) and auditory stimuli (right-hemispheric lobules VIIIA and VIIIB and hemispheric lobule VI bilaterally). In addition, we identified a region in left crus I in which activity correlated significantly with increases in the perceptual demands of the task (i.e., with decreasing signal strength), for both auditory and visual stimuli. Our results support suggestions of a role for the cerebellum in the processing of auditory and visual motion and suggest that parts of cerebellar cortex are concerned with tracking movements of objects around the animal, rather than with controlling movements of the animal itself (Paulin, 1993).
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 24-05-2011
Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
Date: 29-09-2010
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3077-10.2010
Abstract: The ability to encode and update representations of heading direction is crucial for successful navigation. In rats, head-direction cells located within the limbic system alter their firing rate in accordance with the animal's current heading. To date, however, the neural structures that underlie an allocentric or viewpoint-independent sense of direction in humans remain unknown. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure neural adaptation to distinctive landmarks associated with one of four heading directions in a virtual environment. Our experiment consisted of two phases: a “learning phase,” in which participants actively navigated the virtual maze and a “test phase,” in which participants viewed pairs of images from the maze while undergoing fMRI. We found that activity within the medial parietal cortex—specifically, Brodmann area 31—was modulated by learned heading, suggesting that this region contains neural populations involved in the encoding and retrieval of allocentric heading information in humans. These results are consistent with clinical case reports of patients with acquired lesions of medial posterior brain regions, who exhibit deficits in forming and recalling links between landmarks and directional information. Our findings also help to explain why navigation disturbances are commonly observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease, whose pathology typically includes the cortical region we have identified as being crucial for maintaining representations of heading direction.
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2022
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-99550-8_3
Abstract: Clinical examinations and neuroimaging investigations have dramatically changed the prevailing view of human cerebellar function and suggest contributions beyond movement control. Of these new views, perhaps the most intriguing proposal is that the cerebellum plays a key role in regulating emotion. According to the dysmetria of thought theory, the cerebellum provides accuracy, consistency and appropriateness to cognitive and affective functions, as it does for movement-related operations. Despite the value of a universal theory on cerebellar function, it is also essential to consider its unique contributions to specific functional domains. This chapter aims to provide an accentuated account of the cerebellar role in emotion processing by separately evaluating its impact for sub-components of emotion processing. These include physiological responses that contribute to the subjective or "feeling" component of emotion, emotional expressions that serve essential social-communicative functions, and the cognitive appraisal process that determines the emotional significance of events and therefore affects the generation and modulation of emotions.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-02-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S12144-023-04316-7
Abstract: Young athletes who do not report a concussion injury are at greater risk for a prolonged recovery time and further neurocognitive impairments. Despite the seriousness of the issue and the scale of the problem, not enough is known about the behavioural underpinnings of concussion underreporting in minor athletes. This paper aims to apply the Knowledge, Attitude, and Behaviour (KAB) framework to the issue of injury reporting in adolescents, with the specific purpose of exploring to which degree concussion knowledge, concussion attitudes, and gender affect concussion reporting intentions of both male and female athletes. We recruited 97 young athletes between the ages of 14 and 19 (M = 16.22, SD = 11.06) from the Okanagan Hockey Academy (Canada) and employed a self-administered supervised survey approach to measuring the target variables. A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted, and consistent with the prior literature, females were more likely to report a sport-related concussion than males. It was further found that attitudes around concussions (i.e., taking concussions seriously) were significant predictors of concussion reporting intention. At the same time, there was no significant relationship between concussion knowledge and concussion reporting intention. These results highlight that knowledge about concussion symptoms is insufficient to warrant proper injury reporting. It will therefore be essential to work on changing the attitudes of young athletes regarding the significance of concussions to achieve meaningful behavioural change.
Publisher: American Physiological Society
Date: 15-11-2014
Abstract: The central hub of the cortical vestibular network in humans is likely localized in the region of posterior lateral sulcus. An area characterized by responsiveness to visual motion has previously been described at a similar location and named posterior insular cortex (PIC). Currently it is not known whether PIC processes vestibular information as well. We localized PIC using visual motion stimulation in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and investigated whether PIC also responds to vestibular stimuli. To this end, we designed an MRI-compatible caloric stimulation device that allowed us to stimulate bithermally with hot temperature in one ear and simultaneously cold temperature in the other or with warm temperatures in both ears for baseline. During each trial, participants indicated the presence or absence of self-motion sensations. We found activation in PIC during periods of self motion when vestibular stimulation was carried out with minimal visual input. In combined visual-vestibular stimulation area PIC was activated in a similar fashion during congruent and incongruent stimulation conditions. Our results show that PIC not only responds to visual motion but also to vestibular stimuli related to the sensation of self motion. We suggest that PIC is part of the cortical vestibular network and plays a role in the integration of visual and vestibular stimuli for the perception of self motion.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-03-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S40519-022-01390-X
Abstract: Various neurobiological models have utilised symptom categories to explore the underlying neural correlates in both anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). The aim of this research was to investigate the brain activity patterns associated with viewing food stimuli in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Electronic databases including PsycInfo and PubMed were systematically searched from data base inception until 1st of December 2020, identifying 14 suitable functional magnetic resonance imaging studies (fMRI), involving 470 participants. ALE meta-analysis was used to statistically analyse the overlap of activation foci from different fMRI studies in response to visual food stimuli. Comparing patients with AN with healthy control (HC), we detected hypoactivation in brain areas related to reward processing (i.e., amygdala and lentiform nucleus), and interoceptive processing (i.e., insula). In addition, patients with AN showed hyperactivations in cognitive control areas (i.e., prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex). In contrast, patients with BN exhibited hyperactivations in brain areas related to reward processing (i.e., lentiform nucleus), and interoceptive processing (i.e., insula). Furthermore, patients with BN showed hypoactivations in brain regions associated with cognitive control (i.e., prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex). Our study shows differing neural endotypes of the two types of eating disorders, that underpin their behavioural phenotypes. While exploratory in nature, these findings might be relevant for guiding new emerging therapies, including invasive and non-invasive neuromodulation techniques in treatment of eating disorders. Level I, meta-analysis.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2010
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROIMAGE.2009.10.021
Abstract: Several cortical and subcortical circuits have been implicated in object location memory and navigation. Uncertainty remains, however, about which neural circuits are involved in the distinct processes of encoding and retrieval during active navigation through three-dimensional space. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure neural responses as participants learned the location of a single target object relative to a small set of landmarks. Following a delay, the target was removed and participants were required to navigate back to its original position. The relative and absolute locations of landmarks and the target object were changed on every trial, so that participants had to learn a novel arrangement for each spatial scene. At encoding, greater activity within the right hippoc us and the parahippoc al gyrus bilaterally predicted more accurate navigation to the hidden target object in the retrieval phase. By contrast, during the retrieval phase, more accurate performance was associated with increased activity in the left hippoc us and the striatum bilaterally. Dividing participants into good and poor navigators, based upon behavioural performance, revealed greater striatal activity in good navigators during retrieval, perhaps reflecting superior procedural learning in these in iduals. By contrast, the poor navigators showed stronger left hippoc al activity, suggesting reliance on a less effective verbal or symbolic code by this group. Our findings suggest separate neural substrates for the encoding and retrieval stages of object location memory during active navigation, which are further modulated by participants' overall navigational ability.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 07-12-2020
DOI: 10.3389/FPSYG.2020.591231
Abstract: Associative memory is the ability to link together components of stimuli. Previous evidence suggests that prior familiarization with study items affects the nature of the association between stimuli. More specifically, novel stimuli are learned in a more context-dependent fashion than stimuli that have been encountered previously without the current context. In the current study, we first acquired behavioral data from 62 human participants to conceptually replicate this effect. Participants were instructed to memorize multiple object-scene pairs (study phase) and were then tested on their recognition memory for the objects (test phase). Importantly, 1 day prior, participants had been familiarized with half of the object stimuli. During the test phase, the objects were either matched to the same scene as during study (intact pair) or swapped with a different object’s scene (rearranged pair). Our results conceptually replicated the context-dependency effect by showing that breaking up a studied object-context pairing is more detrimental to object recognition performance for non-familiarized objects than for familiarized objects. Second, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine whether medial temporal lobe encoding-related activity patterns are reflective of this familiarity-related context effect. Data acquired from 25 human participants indicated a larger effect of familiarization on encoding-related hippoc al activity for objects presented within a scene context compared to objects presented alone. Our results showed that both retrieval-related accuracy patterns and hippoc al activation patterns were in line with a familiarization-mediated context-dependency effect.
Publisher: MIT Press - Journals
Date: 2014
DOI: 10.1162/JOCN_A_00468
Abstract: It is known that the parahippoc al cortex is involved in object–place associations in spatial learning, but it remains unknown whether activity within this region is modulated by affective signals during navigation. Here we used fMRI to measure the neural consequences of emotional experiences on place memory during navigation. A day before scanning, participants undertook an active object location memory task within a virtual house in which each room was associated with a different schedule of task-irrelevant emotional events. The events varied in valence (positive, negative, or neutral) and in their rate of occurrence (intermittent vs. constant). On a subsequent day, we measured neural activity while participants were shown static images of the previously learned virtual environment, now in the absence of any affective stimuli. Our results showed that parahippoc al activity was significantly enhanced bilaterally when participants viewed images of a room in which they had previously encountered negatively arousing events. We conclude that such automatic enhancement of place representations by aversive emotional events serves as an important adaptive mechanism for avoiding future threats.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 20-12-2022
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.CTCP.2022.101653
Abstract: This clinical trial investigated the effect of an Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) intervention on brain activation in chronic pain sufferers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). EFT is a brief stress reduction technique which combines stating a cognitive statement with somatic tapping on acupressure points. Twenty-four adults were allocated to a six-week online group EFT treatment and underwent resting-state fMRI pre and post the intervention. A repeated measures MANOVA indicated significant differences in the levels of pain severity (-21%), pain interference (-26%), quality of life (+7%), somatic symptoms (-28%), depression (-13.5%), anxiety (-37.1%), happiness (+17%), and satisfaction with life (+8.8%) from pre-to post-test. Cohen's effect sizes ranged from small (0.2) to large (0.75) values suggesting significance for the intervention. fMRI analysis showed post-EFT treatment significantly decreased connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex (a pain modulating area) and bilateral grey matter areas in the posterior cingulate cortex and thalamus, both areas being related to modulating and catastrophizing of pain. There were no brain areas that showed significantly increased connectivity post-EFT treatment. Coupled with the psychological measures the findings support the effects of the EFT intervention in reducing chronic pain and its impacts. Recommendations for future research are discussed.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 27-01-2023
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 22-09-2023
Publisher: MIT Press - Journals
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1162/JOCN_A_01632
Abstract: Areas in frontoparietal cortex have been shown to be active in a range of cognitive tasks and have been proposed to play a key role in goal-driven activities (Dosenbach, N. U. F., Fair, D. A., Miezin, F. M., Cohen, A. L., Wenger, K. K., Dosenbach, R. A. T., et al. Distinct brain networks for adaptive and stable task control in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., 104, 11073–11078, 2007 Duncan, J. The multiple-demand (MD) system of the primate brain: Mental programs for intelligent behavior. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14, 172–179, 2010). Here, we examine the role this frontoparietal system plays in visual search. Visual search, like many complex tasks, consists of a sequence of operations: target selection, stimulus–response (SR) mapping, and response execution. We independently manipulated the difficulty of target selection and SR mapping in a novel visual search task that involved identical stimulus displays. Enhanced activity was observed in areas of frontal and parietal cortex during both difficult target selection and SR mapping. In addition, anterior insula and ACC showed preferential representation of SR-stage information, whereas the medial frontal gyrus, precuneus, and inferior parietal sulcus showed preferential representation of target selection-stage information. A connectivity analysis revealed dissociable neural circuits underlying visual search. We hypothesize that these circuits regulate distinct mental operations associated with the allocation of spatial attention, stimulus decisions, shifts of task set from selection to SR mapping, and SR mapping. Taken together, the results show frontoparietal involvement in all stages of visual search and a specialization with respect to cognitive operations.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2023
No related grants have been discovered for Oliver Baumann.