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Cognition Jan 2023Two experiments examined the effects of deliberately suppressing retrieval of motor sequences on their later recall, in the think/no-think paradigm (Anderson & Green,...
Two experiments examined the effects of deliberately suppressing retrieval of motor sequences on their later recall, in the think/no-think paradigm (Anderson & Green, 2001). After several motor sequences had been associated with individual cues through repeated practice cycles, a subset of these sequences was retrieved in response to their respective cues (think trials), whereas other sequences were suppressed. In such no-think trials, cues were shown but participants were instructed to withhold the associated motor response and to suppress its recollection. We found that suppressing retrieval impaired later memory performance for the suppressed sequences in comparison to items that were not cued at all after their initial training (baseline sequences). Suppression impaired later sequence recall and sequence speed although in different ways depending on the training level: with higher initial training of sequences (Experiment 1), suppression impaired reaction time, but not recall accuracy; with lower initial training (Experiment 2), suppression reduced recall accuracy. Reaction time analyses revealed a consistent slowing of movement execution for suppressed sequences. These findings show that inhibitory control processes engaged during retrieval suppression can influence memory representations of motor actions, by not only reducing their accessibility but also by affecting their execution, once retrieved.
Topics: Humans; Mental Recall; Cues; Reaction Time; Movement
PubMed: 36191357
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105292 -
Cognition Nov 2022Humans form mental images and manipulate them in ways that mirror physical transformations of objects. Studies of nonhuman animals will inform our understanding of the...
Humans form mental images and manipulate them in ways that mirror physical transformations of objects. Studies of nonhuman animals will inform our understanding of the evolution and distribution among species of mental imagery. Across three experiments, we found mostly converging evidence that rhesus monkeys formed and rotated mental images. In Experiment 1, monkeys discriminated rotations of sample images from mirror images, and showed longer response latencies with greater rotation as is characteristic of human mental rotation. In Experiment 2 monkeys used a rotation cue that indicated how far to mentally rotate sample images before tests, indicating a precision of better than 30° in discriminating rotations. Experiment 3 yielded mixed evidence on whether the rotation cue shortened decision times as has been found in humans. These results show that rhesus monkeys manipulate mental images.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Macaca mulatta; Reaction Time
PubMed: 35843135
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105225 -
Journal of Neurophysiology Jan 2017Motor planning is the process of preparing the appropriate motor commands in order to achieve a goal. This process has largely been thought to occur before movement...
UNLABELLED
Motor planning is the process of preparing the appropriate motor commands in order to achieve a goal. This process has largely been thought to occur before movement onset and traditionally has been associated with reaction time. However, in a virtual line bisection task we observed an overlap between movement planning and execution. In this task performed with a robotic manipulandum, we observed that participants (n = 30) made straight movements when the line was in front of them (near target) but often made curved movements when the same target was moved sideways (far target, which had the same orientation) in such a way that they crossed the line perpendicular to its orientation. Unexpectedly, movements to the far targets had shorter reaction times than movements to the near targets (mean difference: 32 ms, SE: 5 ms, max: 104 ms). In addition, the curvature of the movement modulated reaction time. A larger increase in movement curvature from the near to the far target was associated with a larger reduction in reaction time. These highly curved movements started with a transport phase during which accuracy demands were not taken into account. We conclude that an accuracy demand imposes a reaction time penalty if processed before movement onset. This penalty is reduced if the start of the movement consists of a transport phase and if the movement plan can be refined with respect to accuracy demands later in the movement, hence demonstrating an overlap between movement planning and execution.
NEW & NOTEWORTHY
In the planning of a movement, the brain has the opportunity to delay the incorporation of accuracy requirements of the motor plan in order to reduce the reaction time by up to 100 ms (average: 32 ms). Such shortening of reaction time is observed here when the first phase of the movement consists of a transport phase. This forces us to reconsider the hypothesis that motor plans are fully defined before movement onset.
Topics: Adult; Concept Formation; Executive Function; Female; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Male; Movement; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Time Factors; Young Adult
PubMed: 27733598
DOI: 10.1152/jn.00728.2016 -
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Nov 2020The serial reaction time task (SRTT) has been widely used to induce learning of a repeated motor sequence without the participants' awareness. The task has also been of...
The serial reaction time task (SRTT) has been widely used to induce learning of a repeated motor sequence without the participants' awareness. The task has also been of major influence for defining current concepts of offline consolidation after motor learning. The present study intended to replicate previous findings in a larger population of 53 healthy individuals. We were unable to reproduce previous results of online and offline implicit motor learning with the SRTT. Trials with a repeated sequence rapidly induced shorter reaction times compared to random trials, but this improvement was lost in a post-test obtained a few minutes after the training block. Furthermore, no offline consolidation was observed as there was no change in sequence specific reaction time gain between the post-test immediately after training and a re-test obtained 8 h after training. Online or offline learning remained absent when we modulated the number of sequence repetitions, the error levels, and the structure of random sequences. We conclude that the SRTT induces a rapid and temporary adaptation to the sequence rather than learning, since the repeated motor sequence does not seem to be encoded in memory.
Topics: Adult; Female; Humans; Learning; Male; Memory Consolidation; Motor Skills; Reaction Time; Serial Learning; Young Adult
PubMed: 32822865
DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2020.107297 -
Perceptual and Motor Skills Jun 2022In the Sternberg item recognition task and its variants, an individual's mean reaction time increases with the number of items to be retained in the memory set. An...
In the Sternberg item recognition task and its variants, an individual's mean reaction time increases with the number of items to be retained in the memory set. An increase in reaction time has also been seen when a secondary task was added. The usual interpretation for this increased reaction time is that adding cognitive load makes tasks more difficult. In a series of three experiments, we manipulated cognitive load through increases in the memory set or through a second task. In each experiment, high cognitive load was associated with higher mean response times but a reduced slope, based on the target position in a series of probes. Thus, in a Sternberg task with multiple word targets and multiple word probes, participants searched more efficiently per probe under high load than under low load. This pattern was replicated with the addition of a working memory task requiring participants to calculate a cumulative price based on the price per target word item. By considering both initial response times and reaction time slopes in large memory sets, this study provides a challenge to the traditional interpretation of cognitive load effects on search performance.
Topics: Cognition; Humans; Memory, Short-Term; Reaction Time
PubMed: 35313778
DOI: 10.1177/00315125221076440 -
BMC Neuroscience May 2017Impaired reaction time in patients suffering from hypoxia during sleep, caused by sleep breathing disorders, is a well-described phenomenon. High altitude sleep is known...
BACKGROUND
Impaired reaction time in patients suffering from hypoxia during sleep, caused by sleep breathing disorders, is a well-described phenomenon. High altitude sleep is known to induce periodic breathing with central apneas and oxygen desaturations, even in perfectly healthy subjects. However, deficits in reaction time in mountaineers or workers after just some nights of hypoxia exposure are not sufficiently explored. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the impact of sleep in a normobaric hypoxic environment on reaction time divided by its cognitive and motoric components. Eleven healthy non acclimatized students (5f, 6m, 21 ± 2.1 years) slept one night at a simulated altitude of 3500 m in a normobaric hypoxic room, followed by a night with polysomnography at simulated 5500 m. Preexisting sleep disorders were excluded via BERLIN questionnaire. All subjects performed a choice reaction test (SCHUHFRIED RT, S3) at 450 m and directly after the nights at simulated 3500 and 5500 m.
RESULTS
We found a significant increase of cognitive reaction time with higher altitude (p = 0.026). No changes were detected in movement time (p = n.s.). Reaction time, the combined parameter of cognitive- and motoric reaction time, didn't change either (p = n.s.). Lower SpO surprisingly correlated significantly with shorter cognitive reaction time (r = 0.78, p = 0.004). Sleep stage distribution and arousals at 5500 m didn't correlate with reaction time, cognitive reaction time or movement time.
CONCLUSION
Sleep in hypoxia does not seem to affect reaction time to simple tasks. The component of cognitive reaction time is increasingly delayed whereas motoric reaction time seems not to be affected. Low SpO and arousals are not related to increased cognitive reaction time therefore the causality remains unclear. The fact of increased cognitive reaction time after sleep in hypoxia, considering high altitude workers and mountaineering operations with overnight stays, should be further investigated.
Topics: Altitude; Cognition; Female; Humans; Hypoxia; Male; Reaction Time; Sleep; Young Adult
PubMed: 28506292
DOI: 10.1186/s12868-017-0362-3 -
Brain Topography Nov 2022Previous research shows that dynamic stimuli, on the one hand, and emotional stimuli, on the other, capture exogenous attention due to their biological relevance....
Previous research shows that dynamic stimuli, on the one hand, and emotional stimuli, on the other, capture exogenous attention due to their biological relevance. Through neural (ERPs) and behavioral measures (reaction times and errors), the present study explored the combined effect of looming motion and emotional content on attentional capture. To this end, 3D-recreated static and dynamic animals assessed as emotional (positive or negative) or neutral were presented as distractors while 71 volunteers performed a line orientation task. We observed a two-phase effect: firstly (before 300 ms), early components of ERPs (P1p and N2po) showed enhanced exogenous attentional capture by looming positive distractors and static threatening animals. Thereafter, dynamic and static threatening distractors received enhanced endogenous attention as revealed by both late ERP activity (LPC) and behavioral (errors) responses. These effects are likely explained by both the emotional valence and the distance of the stimulus at each moment.
Topics: Photic Stimulation; Emotions; Evoked Potentials; Reaction Time; Electroencephalography
PubMed: 35933532
DOI: 10.1007/s10548-022-00909-w -
Nature Communications Dec 2021Standard models of perceptual decision-making postulate that a response is triggered in reaction to stimulus presentation when the accumulated stimulus evidence reaches...
Standard models of perceptual decision-making postulate that a response is triggered in reaction to stimulus presentation when the accumulated stimulus evidence reaches a decision threshold. This framework excludes however the possibility that informed responses are generated proactively at a time independent of stimulus. Here, we find that, in a free reaction time auditory task in rats, reactive and proactive responses coexist, suggesting that choice selection and motor initiation, commonly viewed as serial processes, are decoupled in general. We capture this behavior by a novel model in which proactive and reactive responses are triggered whenever either of two competing processes, respectively Action Initiation or Evidence Accumulation, reaches a bound. In both types of response, the choice is ultimately informed by the Evidence Accumulation process. The Action Initiation process readily explains premature responses, contributes to urgency effects at long reaction times and mediates the slowing of the responses as animals get satiated and tired during sessions. Moreover, it successfully predicts reaction time distributions when the stimulus was either delayed, advanced or omitted. Overall, these results fundamentally extend standard models of evidence accumulation in decision making by showing that proactive and reactive processes compete for the generation of responses.
Topics: Animals; Choice Behavior; Decision Making; Discrimination, Psychological; Male; Perception; Psychomotor Performance; Rats; Reaction Time
PubMed: 34880219
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27302-8 -
Scientific Reports Nov 2022To interact with machines, from computers to cars, we need to monitor multiple sensory stimuli, and respond to them with specific motor actions. It has been shown that...
To interact with machines, from computers to cars, we need to monitor multiple sensory stimuli, and respond to them with specific motor actions. It has been shown that our ability to react to a sensory stimulus is dependent on both the stimulus modality, as well as the spatial compatibility of the stimulus and the required response. However, the compatibility effects have been examined for sensory modalities individually, and rarely for scenarios requiring individuals to choose from multiple actions. Here, we compared response time of participants when they had to choose one of several spatially distinct, but compatible, responses to visual, tactile or simultaneous visual and tactile stimuli. We observed that the presence of both tactile and visual stimuli consistently improved the response time relative to when either stimulus was presented alone. While we did not observe a difference in response times of visual and tactile stimuli, the spatial stimulus localization was observed to be faster for visual stimuli compared to tactile stimuli.
Topics: Humans; Feedback, Sensory; Reaction Time; Touch
PubMed: 36424417
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-24028-5 -
Cognitive Psychology Nov 2022I evaluated three models for the representation of numbers in memory. These were integrated with the diffusion decision model to explain accuracy and response time (RT)...
I evaluated three models for the representation of numbers in memory. These were integrated with the diffusion decision model to explain accuracy and response time (RT) data from a recognition memory experiment in which the stimuli were two-digit numbers. The integrated models accounted for distance/confusability effects: when a test number was numerically close to a studied number, accuracy was lower and RTs were longer than when a test number was numerically far from a studied number. For two of the models, the representations of numbers are distributed over number (with Gaussian or exponential distributions) and the overlap between the distributions of a studied number and a test number provides the evidence (drift rate) on which a decision is made. For the third, the exponential gradient model, drift rate is an exponential function of the numerical distance between studied and test numbers. The exponential gradient model fit the data slightly better than the two overlap models. Monte Carlo simulations showed that the variability in the important parameter estimates from fitting data collected over 30-40 min is smaller than the variability among individuals, allowing differences among individuals to be studied. A second experiment compared number memory and number discrimination tasks and results showed different distance effects. Number memory had an exponential-like distance-effect and number discrimination had a linear function which shows radically different representations drive the two tasks.
Topics: Humans; Monte Carlo Method; Reaction Time; Recognition, Psychology
PubMed: 36115086
DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2022.101516