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The European Journal of Neuroscience Feb 2022Baseline and task-evoked pupil measures are known to reflect the activity of the nervous system's central arousal mechanisms. With the increasing availability,...
Baseline and task-evoked pupil measures are known to reflect the activity of the nervous system's central arousal mechanisms. With the increasing availability, affordability and flexibility of video-based eye tracking hardware, these measures may one day find practical application in real-time biobehavioural monitoring systems to assess performance or fitness for duty in tasks requiring vigilant attention. But real-world vigilance tasks are predominantly visual in their nature and most research in this area has taken place in the auditory domain. Here, we explore the relationship between pupil size-both baseline and task-evoked-and behavioural performance measures in two novel vigilance tasks requiring visual target detection: (1) a traditional vigilance task involving prolonged, continuous and uninterrupted performance (n = 28) and (2) a psychomotor vigilance task (n = 25). In both tasks, behavioural performance and task-evoked pupil responses declined as time spent on task increased, corroborating previous reports in the literature of a vigilance decrement with a corresponding reduction in task-evoked pupil measures. Also in line with previous findings, baseline pupil size did not show a consistent relationship with performance measures. Our data offer novel insights into the complex interplay of brain systems involved in vigilant attention and question the validity of the assumption that baseline (prestimulus) pupil size and task-evoked (poststimulus) pupil measures reflect the tonic and phasic firing modes of the locus coeruleus.
Topics: Arousal; Attention; Locus Coeruleus; Psychomotor Performance; Pupil
PubMed: 34978115
DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15585 -
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) Jun 2020Anterograde interference refers to the negative impact of prior learning on the propensity for future learning. There is currently no consensus on whether this...
Anterograde interference refers to the negative impact of prior learning on the propensity for future learning. There is currently no consensus on whether this phenomenon is transient or long lasting, with studies pointing to an effect in the time scale of hours to days. These inconsistencies might be caused by the method employed to quantify performance, which often confounds changes in learning rate and retention. Here, we aimed to unveil the time course of anterograde interference by tracking its impact on visuomotor adaptation at different intervals throughout a 24-h period. Our empirical and model-based approaches allowed us to measure the capacity for new learning separately from the influence of a previous memory. In agreement with previous reports, we found that prior learning persistently impaired the initial level of performance upon revisiting the task. However, despite this strong initial bias, learning capacity was impaired only when conflicting information was learned up to 1 h apart, recovering thereafter with passage of time. These findings suggest that when adapting to conflicting perturbations, impairments in performance are driven by two distinct mechanisms: a long-lasting bias that acts as a prior and hinders initial performance and a short-lasting anterograde interference that originates from a reduction in error sensitivity.
Topics: Adult; Female; Humans; Learning; Male; Psychomotor Performance; Time Factors; Young Adult
PubMed: 32133494
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa016 -
Nature Dec 2021Humans spend a lifetime learning, storing and refining a repertoire of motor memories. For example, through experience, we become proficient at manipulating a large...
Humans spend a lifetime learning, storing and refining a repertoire of motor memories. For example, through experience, we become proficient at manipulating a large range of objects with distinct dynamical properties. However, it is unknown what principle underlies how our continuous stream of sensorimotor experience is segmented into separate memories and how we adapt and use this growing repertoire. Here we develop a theory of motor learning based on the key principle that memory creation, updating and expression are all controlled by a single computation-contextual inference. Our theory reveals that adaptation can arise both by creating and updating memories (proper learning) and by changing how existing memories are differentially expressed (apparent learning). This insight enables us to account for key features of motor learning that had no unified explanation: spontaneous recovery, savings, anterograde interference, how environmental consistency affects learning rate and the distinction between explicit and implicit learning. Critically, our theory also predicts new phenomena-evoked recovery and context-dependent single-trial learning-which we confirm experimentally. These results suggest that contextual inference, rather than classical single-context mechanisms, is the key principle underlying how a diverse set of experiences is reflected in our motor behaviour.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Conditioning, Psychological; Humans; Learning; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 34819674
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04129-3 -
Frontiers in Public Health 2022Nap deprivation is regarded as a sleep loss for habitual nappers. The beneficial effects of napping and moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on the reduction in planning...
Nap deprivation is regarded as a sleep loss for habitual nappers. The beneficial effects of napping and moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on the reduction in planning ability following nighttime sleep deprivation have been proven. However, it is still unknown whether it can improve the performance decline caused by daytime nap deprivation in habitual nappers. Seventy-four healthy adults who had a long-term habit of taking naps were assigned to three interventions after receiving nap deprivation: (1) Control group (no intervention); (2) Nap group (15-min sitting naps); (3) Exercise group (15-min aerobic exercise), in which subjective alertness, mood, fatigue, and task performance in objective alertness (Psychomotor Vigilance Task, PVT) and planning ability (the Tower of London Task) were measured. Results showed that nap deprivation negatively influenced some performance on the psychomotor vigilance (i.e., response times and 10% slowest response time) and planning ability (i.e., planning time). And acute moderate-intensity aerobic exercise improved psychomotor alertness (i.e., response times) and planning ability (i.e., execution accuracy, execution time), a 15-min sitting naps only alleviated subjective fatigue, whereas some performance (i.e., response times) deteriorated when no intervention was used. These findings suggested that acute moderate-intensity aerobic exercise has a better restorative effect on the reduced planning ability and objective alertness due to nap deprivation compared to sitting naps.
Topics: Adult; Exercise; Fatigue; Humans; Psychomotor Performance; Sitting Position; Sleep
PubMed: 35400075
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.861923 -
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Apr 2024We examined how flexibly we plan sequences of actions when we switch between multiple action sequences. Mastering a sequential skill is assumed to involve integrating...
We examined how flexibly we plan sequences of actions when we switch between multiple action sequences. Mastering a sequential skill is assumed to involve integrating successive actions into groups known as chunks that can be efficiently planned and smoothly executed. Chunking is suggested by gains in planning efficiency for long compared to short action sequences following practice and learning associations between actions and perceptual outcomes. Less is understood about how efficiently we plan sequential chunks when we switch between multiple action sequences. Do we plan learned chunks less efficiently when we switch to a different action sequence? We examined this question by comparing the initiation and execution latencies of long versus short action sequences, performed from memory, when sequences switched or repeated across trials. Additionally, each action within the sequences generated predictable perceptual outcomes that were either spatially compatible or spatially incompatible with the action sequences. Results suggested repetition costs (instead of benefits) when performing long sequences. Repetition, as opposed to switching, prolonged initiation and increased the error rate of long compared to short sequences. We attribute these results to the flexible coordination of chunk planning and execution. Repetition may prolong advanced planning of long sequences in order to resolve conflict between multiple chunks, and switching may allow the planning of later chunks to be postponed until execution. We propose that the chunking of action sequences can both facilitate and interfere with action-switching performance.
Topics: Humans; Psychomotor Performance; Adult; Young Adult; Male; Female; Serial Learning; Executive Function; Practice, Psychological
PubMed: 37726598
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-023-02338-7 -
Behavioural Brain Research Jun 2021This paper conceptualizes a comprehensive body of neurocognitive knowledge of flow states based on two primary competing neurocognitive theories underpinning flow's... (Review)
Review
This paper conceptualizes a comprehensive body of neurocognitive knowledge of flow states based on two primary competing neurocognitive theories underpinning flow's purported functioning, the transient hypofrontality hypothesis and the network synchronization model. With these models in mind, a new neurocognitive model of flow is synthesized based on the similarities of these pre-existing theories and utilizing the internal models of the cerebellum to elucidate the differences and crossover in the current flow research. Ultimately, this paper works to provide a platform for researchers to use as a future reference and for hypothesis generation.
Topics: Cerebellum; Cognition; Decision Making; Executive Function; Humans; Models, Biological; Psychomotor Performance; Self-Control
PubMed: 33744335
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113244 -
Psychological Review Oct 2019A theory is presented about how instruction and experience combine to produce human fluency in a complex skill. The theory depends critically on 4 aspects of the ACT-R...
A theory is presented about how instruction and experience combine to produce human fluency in a complex skill. The theory depends critically on 4 aspects of the ACT-R architecture. The first is the timing of various modules, particularly motor timing, which results in behavior that closely matches human behavior. The second is the ability to interpret declarative representations of instruction so that they lead to action. The third aspect concerns how practice converts this declarative knowledge into a procedural form so that appropriate actions can be quickly executed. The fourth component, newly added to the architecture, is a Controller module that learns the setting of control variables for actions. The overall theory is implemented in a computational model that is capable of simulating human learning. Its predictions are confirmed in a first experiment involving 2 games derived from the experimental video game Space Fortress. The second experiment tests predictions from the Controller module about lack of transfer between video games. Across the 2 experiments a single model, with the same parameter settings, is shown to simulate human learning of 3 video games. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Computer Simulation; Humans; Learning; Models, Psychological; Practice, Psychological; Psychological Theory; Psychomotor Performance; Transfer, Psychology; Video Games
PubMed: 31021102
DOI: 10.1037/rev0000152 -
Journal of Biological Rhythms Aug 2019Demands of modern society force many work operations into the night when the internal circadian timekeeping system is promoting sleep. The combination of disturbed...
Demands of modern society force many work operations into the night when the internal circadian timekeeping system is promoting sleep. The combination of disturbed daytime sleep and circadian misalignment, which is common in overnight shift work, decreases cognitive performance, yet how performance may differ across multiple consecutive nights of shift work is not fully understood. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to use a simulated night-shift protocol to examine the cognitive performance and ratings of sleepiness and clear-headedness across the hours of a typical daytime shift, a first night shift with an afternoon nap and extended wakefulness, and 2 subsequent overnight shifts. We tested the hypothesis that cognitive performance would be worse on the first night shift as compared with the baseline and subsequent nighttime shifts and that performance during nighttime shifts would be reduced as compared with the baseline daytime shift. Fifteen healthy adults (6 men) were studied in the 6-day in-laboratory protocol. Results showed that working during the night increased subjective sleepiness and decreased clear-headedness and performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (i.e., slower median, fastest and slowest reaction times, and increased attentional lapses), Stroop color word task (decreased number of correct responses and slower median reaction time), and calculation addition performance task (decreased number attempted and correct). Furthermore, we observed limited evidence of sleepiness, clear-headedness, or performance adaptation across subsequent nights of simulated night work. Our findings demonstrate that night-shift work, regardless of whether it is the first night shift with a nap and extended wakefulness or subsequent night shifts, decreases performance and clear-headedness as compared with the day shift.
Topics: Adult; Cognition Disorders; Humans; Male; Psychomotor Performance; Sleep Deprivation; Sleep Disorders, Circadian Rhythm; Task Performance and Analysis; Wakefulness; Work Schedule Tolerance; Young Adult
PubMed: 31072264
DOI: 10.1177/0748730419848552 -
Scientific Reports Feb 2021What is the key to successful interaction? Is it sufficient to represent a common goal, or does the way our partner achieves that goal count as well? How do we react...
What is the key to successful interaction? Is it sufficient to represent a common goal, or does the way our partner achieves that goal count as well? How do we react when our partner misbehaves? We used a turn-taking music-like task requiring participants to play sequences of notes together with a partner, and we investigated how people adapt to a partner's error that violates their expectations. Errors consisted of either playing a wrong note of a sequence that the agents were playing together (thus preventing the achievement of the joint goal) or playing the expected note with an unexpected action. In both cases, we found post-error slowing and inaccuracy suggesting the participants' implicit tendency to correct the partner's error and produce the action that the partner should have done. We argue that these "joint" monitoring processes depend on the motor predictions made within a (dyadic) motor plan and may represent a basic mechanism for mutual support in motor interactions.
Topics: Adult; Cooperative Behavior; Female; Humans; Male; Music; Psychomotor Performance; Young Adult
PubMed: 33542259
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-82138-y -
Psychophysiology Jun 2021Relatively little is known about the relation between subthreshold error corrections and post-error behavioral compensations. The present study utilized lateralized beta...
Relatively little is known about the relation between subthreshold error corrections and post-error behavioral compensations. The present study utilized lateralized beta power, which has been shown to index response preparation, to examine subthreshold error corrections in a task known to produce response conflict, the Simon task. We found that even when an overt correction is not made, greater activation of the corrective response, indexed by beta suppression ipsilateral to the initial responding hand, predicted post-error speeding, and enhanced post-error accuracy at the single-trial level. This provides support for the notion that response conflict associated with errors can be adaptive, and suggests that subthreshold corrections should be taken into account to fully understand error-monitoring processes. Furthermore, we expand on previous findings that demonstrate that post-error slowing and post-error accuracy can be dissociated, as well as findings that suggest that frontal midline theta oscillations and the error-related negativity (ERN) are dissociable neurocognitive processes.
Topics: Adult; Choice Behavior; Conflict, Psychological; Electroencephalography; Female; Humans; Male; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Task Performance and Analysis; Theta Rhythm; Young Adult
PubMed: 33709470
DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13803