Odor cueing of declarative memories during sleep enhances coordinated spindles and slow oscillations.

Long-term memories are formed by repeated reactivation of newly encoded information during sleep. This process can be enhanced by using memory-associated reminder cues like sounds and odors. While auditory cueing has been researched extensively, few electrophysiological studies have exploited the various benefits of olfactory cueing. We used high-density electroencephalography in an odor-cueing paradigm that was designed to isolate the neural responses specific to the cueing of declarative memories. We show widespread cueing-induced increases in the duration and rate of sleep spindles. Higher spindle rates were most prominent over centro-parietal areas and largely overlapping with a concurrent increase in the amplitude of slow oscillations (SOs). Interestingly, greater SO amplitudes were linked to a higher likelihood of coupling a spindle and coupled spindles expressed during cueing were more numerous in particular around SO up states. We thus identify temporally and spatially coordinated enhancements of sleep spindles and slow oscillations as a candidate mechanism behind cueing-induced memory processing. Our results further demonstrate the feasibility of studying neural activity patterns linked to such processing using olfactory cueing during sleep.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reduced attentional bias toward natural emotional sounds.

Previous research has indicated that the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) exerts an influence on attentional bias toward visual emotional information. However, it remains unclear whether the left DLPFC also play an important role in attentional bias toward natural emotional sounds. The current research employed the emotional spatial cueing paradigm, incorporating natural emotional sounds of considerable ecological validity as auditory cues. Additionally, high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) was utilized to examine the impact of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on attentional bias and its subcomponents, namely attentional engagement and attentional disengagement. The results showed that (1) compared to sham condition, anodal HD-tDCS over the left DLPFC reduced the attentional bias toward positive and negative sounds; (2) anodal HD-tDCS over the left DLPFC reduced the attentional engagement toward positive and negative sounds, whereas it did not affect attentional disengagement away from natural emotional sounds. Taken together, the present study has shown that left DLPFC, which was closely related with the top-down attention regulatory function, plays an important role in auditory emotional attentional bias.

Investigating the Brain Mechanisms of Externally Cued Sit-to-Stand Movement in Parkinson's Disease.

BACKGROUND: One of the more challenging daily-life actions for Parkinson's disease patients is starting to stand from a sitting position. Parkinson's disease patients are known to have difficulty with self-initiated movements and benefit from external cues. However, the brain processes underlying external cueing as an aid remain unknown. The advent of mobile electroencephalography (EEG) now enables the investigation of these processes in dynamic sit-to-stand movements. OBJECTIVE: To identify cortical correlates of the mechanisms underlying auditory cued sit-to-stand movement in Parkinson's disease. METHODS: Twenty-two Parkinson's disease patients and 24 healthy age-matched participants performed self-initiated and externally cued sit-to-stand movements while cortical activity was recorded through 32-channel mobile EEG. RESULTS: Overall impaired integration of sensory and motor information can be seen in the Parkinson's disease patients exhibiting less modulation in the θ band during movement compared to healthy age-matched controls. How Parkinson's disease patients use external cueing of sit-to-stand movements can be seen in larger high ß power over sensorimotor brain areas compared to healthy controls, signaling sensory integration supporting the maintenance of motor output. This appears to require changes in cognitive processing to update the motor plan, reflected in frontal θ power increases in Parkinson's disease patients when cued. CONCLUSION: These findings provide the first neural evidence for why and how cueing improves motor function in sit-to-stand movement in Parkinson's disease. The Parkinson's disease patients' neural correlates indicate that cueing induces greater activation of motor cortical areas supporting the maintenance of a more stable motor output, but involves the use of cognitive resources to update the motor plan. © 2024 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

On-Demand Cueing for Freezing of Gait in Parkinson's Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Cueing can alleviate freezing of gait (FOG) in people with Parkinson's disease (PD), but using the same cues continuously in daily life may compromise effectiveness. Therefore, we developed the DeFOG-system to deliver personalized auditory cues on detection of a FOG episode. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate the effects of DeFOG during a FOG-provoking protocol: (1) after 4 weeks of DeFOG-use in daily life against an active control group; (2) after immediate DeFOG-use (within-group) in different medication states. METHOD: In this randomized controlled trial, 63 people with PD and daily FOG were allocated to the DeFOG or active control group. Both groups received feedback on their daily living step counts using the device, but the DeFOG group also received on-demand cueing. Video-rated FOG severity was compared pre- and post-intervention through a FOG-provoking protocol administered at home off and on-medication, but without using DeFOG. Within-group effects were tested by comparing FOG during the protocol with and without DeFOG. RESULTS: DeFOG-use during the 4 weeks was similar between groups, but we found no between-group differences in FOG-severity. However, the within-group analysis showed that FOG was alleviated by DeFOG (effect size d = 0.57), regardless of medication state. Combining DeFOG and medication yielded an effect size of d = 0.67. CONCLUSIONS: DeFOG reduced FOG considerably in a population of severe freezers both off and on medication. Nonetheless, 4 weeks of DeFOG-use in daily life did not ameliorate FOG during the protocol unless DeFOG was worn. These findings suggest that on-demand cueing is only effective when used, similar to other walking aids. © 2024 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Investigating attention toward pain-related cues in an Arabic-speaking population with and without chronic pain.

There is some evidence for attentional biases in individuals with chronic pain (CP). Cultural and linguistic differences might affect the manifestation of these processes across populations. However, such attentional biases have not been explored in the Arabic-speaking population. The current study investigated these attentional biases and possible associations with resilience. Two matched groups of Arabic-speaking participants with (58) and without (58) CP were recruited from Jordan and the United Kingdom. They completed emotionally modified versions of the Posner cueing and Stroop tasks, alongside questionnaires. Significant group differences were found for the Posner task, with the CP group exhibiting disengagement revealed by the inhibition of return (IOR) effect for sensory pain-related cues compared to delayed disengagement for the other cue types. The control group showed IOR across cue types. No group differences were found on the Stroop task. The CP group had lower resilience scores than healthy controls, and resilience moderated performance on the Posner task. The study provides preliminary evidence about the attentional processes in the Arabic population; the speed of disengagement is affected in the CP group with early disengagement for sensory pain-related information compared to affect pain and neutral stimuli. Furthermore, resilience levels in the CP and control group moderated the performance on the Posner task, suggesting that it influences attentional allocation. This study can help in understanding how the phenomenon of attention bias intertwines with the cultural and linguistic factors. Future research should further explore attentional dynamics across different time points in this population and the modulatory effect of resilience.

Proactive control: Endogenous cueing effects in a two-target attentional blink task.

This study examined proactive control in a two-target task using an endogenous cueing method. Participants identified two target words (T1 then T2) presented in rapid succession. T1 was presented alone or interleaved with a distractor word. In Experiment 1, informative pre-cues that signalled T1 selection difficulty were randomly intermixed with uninformative pre-cues. The results revealed a cueing effect for both T1 and T2, with better performance for informative cues than for uninformative cues. In Experiment 2, informative and uninformative cues were mixed for one group, and blocked for another group. In the mixed cue group, we again found a T2 cueing effect. In the blocked cue group, a cueing effect was observed for both T1 and T2, with the T2 cueing effect restricted to the shortest T1-T2 SOA. The results demonstrate that pre-cues of attentional conflictcan modulate performance in a two-target task used to measure the attentional blink.

The Efficacy of Wearable Cueing Devices on Gait and Motor Function in Parkinson Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the efficacy of wearable cueing devices for improving gait and motor function of patients with Parkinson disease (PWP). DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were searched for papers published in English, from inception to October 23, 2022. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials focusing on the effects of wearable cueing devices on gait and motor function in PWP were included. DATA EXTRACTION: Two reviewers independently selected articles and extracted the data. The Cochrane Bias Risk Assessment Tool was used to assess risk of bias and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. DATA SYNTHESIS: Seven randomized controlled trials with 167 PWP were included in the meta-analysis. Significant effect of wearable cueing devices on walking speed (mean difference [MD]=0.07 m/s, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [0.05, 0.09], P<.00001) was detected; however, after sensitivity analysis, no significant overall effect on walking speed was noted (MD=0.04 m/s, 95% CI: [-0.03, 0.12], P=.25). No significant improvements were found in stride length (MD=0.06 m, 95% CI: [0.00, 0.13], P=.05), the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale-III score (MD=-0.61, 95% CI: [-4.10, 2.88], P=.73), Freezing of Gait Questionnaire score (MD=-0.83, 95% CI: [-2.98, 1.33], P=.45), or double support time (MD=-0.91, 95% CI: [-3.09, 1.26], P=.41). Evidence was evaluated as low quality. CONCLUSIONS: Wearable cueing devices may result in an immediate improvement on walking speed; however, there is no evidence that their use results in a significant improvement in other gait or motor functions.

Planning lane changes using advance visual and haptic information.

Taking a motor planning perspective, this study investigates whether haptic force cues displayed on the steering wheel are more effective than visual cues in signaling the direction of an upcoming lane change. Licensed drivers drove in a fixed-base driving simulator equipped with an active steering system for realistic force feedback. They were instructed to make lane changes upon registering a directional cue. Cues were delivered according to the movement precuing technique employing a pair of precues and imperative cues which could be either visual, haptic, or crossmodal (a visual precue with a haptic imperative cue, and vice versa). The main dependent variable was response time. Additional analyses were conducted on steering wheel angle profiles and the rate of initial steering errors. Conditions with a haptic imperative cue produced considerably faster responses than conditions with a visual imperative cue, irrespective of the precue modality. Valid and invalid precues produced the typical gains and costs, with one exception. There appeared to be little cost in response time or initial steering errors associated with invalid cueing when both cues were haptic. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that imperative haptic cues facilitate action selection while visual stimuli require additional time-consuming cognitive processing.

The emotion of sound target modulates the auditory gaze cueing effect.

The auditory gaze cueing effect (auditory-GCE) is a faster response to auditory targets at an eye-gaze cue location than at a non-cue location. Previous research has found that auditory-GCE can be influenced by the integration of both gaze direction and emotion conveyed through facial expressions. However, it is unclear whether the emotional information of auditory targets can be cross-modally integrated with gaze direction to affect auditory-GCE. Here, we set neutral faces with different gaze directions as cues and three emotional sounds (fearful, happy, and neutral) as targets to investigate how the emotion of sound target modulates the auditory-GCE. Moreover, we conducted a controlled experiment using arrow cues. The results show that the emotional content of sound targets influences the auditory-GCE but only for those induced by facial cues. Specifically, fearful sounds elicit a significantly larger auditory-GCE compared to happy and neutral sounds, indicating that the emotional content of auditory targets plays a modulating role in the auditory-GCE. Furthermore, this modulation appears to occur only at a higher level of social meaning, involving the integration of emotional information from a sound with social gaze direction, rather than at a lower level, which involves the integration of direction and auditory emotion.

Insights into Parkinson's Disease-Related Freezing of Gait Detection and Prediction Approaches: A Meta Analysis.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a spectrum of motor and non-motor symptoms, prominently featuring the freezing of gait (FOG), which significantly impairs patients' quality of life. Despite extensive research, the precise mechanisms underlying FOG remain elusive, posing challenges for effective management and treatment. This paper presents a comprehensive meta-analysis of FOG prediction and detection methodologies, with a focus on the integration of wearable sensor technology and machine learning (ML) approaches. Through an exhaustive review of the literature, this study identifies key trends, datasets, preprocessing techniques, feature extraction methods, evaluation metrics, and comparative analyses between ML and non-ML approaches. The analysis also explores the utilization of cueing devices. The limited adoption of explainable AI (XAI) approaches in FOG prediction research represents a significant gap. Improving user acceptance and comprehension requires an understanding of the logic underlying algorithm predictions. Current FOG detection and prediction research has a number of limitations, which are identified in the discussion. These include issues with cueing devices, dataset constraints, ethical and privacy concerns, financial and accessibility restrictions, and the requirement for multidisciplinary collaboration. Future research avenues center on refining explainability, expanding and diversifying datasets, adhering to user requirements, and increasing detection and prediction accuracy. The findings contribute to advancing the understanding of FOG and offer valuable guidance for the development of more effective detection and prediction methodologies, ultimately benefiting individuals affected by PD.

Where is an emotion? Using an emotional spatial cueing task to test for emotional localization following targeted visceroception.

The relationship between emotion and attention is vital for adaptation. Trained attention to bodily sensations can heighten emotional awareness, including during "visceroception" (sensing the viscera, principally the heart, lungs and gut), which has been linked to emotion intensity and regulation. However, it is not always clear when bodily attention is adaptive, and useful to maintain, or maladaptive and best inhibited. The current study, part of a wider exploratory project, investigates "localized emotion" in this context. Localized emotion is a novel construct, articulated within the project, and suggested to be manifested within a visceroceptive system: targeted visceroception could result in disinhibited attention to localized emotion. In particular, whilst evidence points to the importance of the gastrointestinal tract for emotion (e.g., gut biome, enteric nervous system), gut sensations are often barely detectable, consistent with an inhibition process. An emotional spatial cueing task was used to test for localized effects within several groups: one trained for 8 weeks to focus on their lower abdomen (gastroception), with another focused on their chest cavity (cardioception), plus a control group. The spatial cueing task involved rapid responding to the detection of bodily feelings following the presentation of an emotional picture. Participants then indicated on a body map where they had detected the feeling, followed by corresponding valence and arousal levels (i.e., core affect) on a self-assessment manikin. Data were analyzed using generalized estimating equations. There was some support for localization in the gastroception group relative to the chest-focused group and controls. Gastroception-related findings included: greater improvement in interoception (interoceptive sensibility), slowed reaction times, a cluster of lower abdominal detections on a body map, changes in core affect, and indications of improved emotion regulation. Attending to the gut may play a key role in improving one's ability to access emotional feeling, with associated implications for emotion regulation.

TAT-HUM: Trajectory analysis toolkit for human movements in Python.

Human movement trajectories can reveal useful insights regarding the underlying mechanisms of human behaviors. Extracting information from movement trajectories, however, can be challenging because of their complex and dynamic nature. The current paper presents a Python toolkit developed to help users analyze and extract meaningful information from the trajectories of discrete rapid aiming movements executed by humans. This toolkit uses various open-source Python libraries, such as NumPy and SciPy, and offers a collection of common functionalities to analyze movement trajectory data. To ensure flexibility and ease of use, the toolkit offers two approaches: an automated approach that processes raw data and generates relevant measures automatically, and a manual approach that allows users to selectively use different functions based on their specific needs. A behavioral experiment based on the spatial cueing paradigm was conducted to illustrate how one can use this toolkit in practice. Readers are encouraged to access the publicly available data and relevant analysis scripts as an opportunity to learn about kinematic analysis for human movements.

Music Rhythmic Cueing for the Production of Non-native Speech Rhythm: Evidence from Chinese Learners of French.

The present study examined the cross-modal cueing effect of musical rhythmic beats on non-native speech rhythm production. Two groups of Chinese learners of French were cued respectively with rhythmic beats that either matched (matching group) or mismatched (mismatching group) the rhythm patterns of the target French sentences. The participants were asked to produce the target sentences after cueing and their speech production was compared with their baseline condition in which no cueing was used. The results showed that the matching group produced the target French rhythm significantly better after cueing with musical rhythmic beats that matched the French rhythm, in contrast to the mismatching group where no significant improvement was found. Individual differences in auditory short-term memory and rhythmic skills were not related to improvement in producing French rhythm after cueing. The results suggest that musical rhythmic cueing can be used to improve non-native speech rhythm production, further indicating a close link between speech and music in the temporal domain.

Evidence for seasonal shift in the reproduction of Aldabra giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) in managed care in the Northern hemisphere compared to the natural habitat in the Southern hemisphere.

Ex situ breeding constitutes an important tool for species conservation; however, many reptile species are not managed sustainably under human care due to poor fecundity in ex situ settings. In this study, we tested whether the translocation of a seasonally reproducing species to a different environment results in decoupling of extrinsic signals and intrinsic conditions. The endocrinological patterns of plasma steroid sex hormones, follicular development, and mating behaviour of two female and two male sexually mature Aldabra tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) in a zoological institution in the Northern hemisphere was aligned with enclosure climate data (mean monthly daylight duration, temperature, and precipitation) and compared with respective hormone patterns of wild individuals and climate conditions in the native habitat on the Aldabra Atoll in the Southern hemisphere. Whereas occurrence of mating behaviour was not considered a limiting factor, lack of ovulation and subsequent follicular atresia was the main reason for the lack of reproductive output. While it was impossible to elucidate the triggering factors of ovulation and the multifactorial complexity of reproduction was not fully addressed, this study indicates suboptimal temperature conditions and relative temporal shifts of interacting external triggers (temperature and photoperiod) in the zoo setting.

Contextual cueing during lethal force training: How target design and repetition can alter threat assessments.

Lethal force training requires individuals to make threat assessments, which involves holistic scenario processing to identify potential threats. Photorealistic targets can make threat/non-threat judgments substantially more genuine and challenging compared to simple cardboard or silhouette targets. Unfortunately, repeated target use also brings unintended consequences that could invalidate threat assessment processes conducted during training. Contextually rich or unique targets could be implicitly memorable in a way that allows observers to recall weapon locations rather than forcing observers to conduct a naturalistic assessment. Experiment 1 demonstrated robust contextual cueing effects in a well-established shoot/don't-shoot stimulus set, and Experiment 2 extended this finding from complex scene stimuli to simple actor-only stimuli. Experiment 3 demonstrated that these effects also occurred among trained professionals using rifles rather than computer-based tasks. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the potential for uncontrolled target repetition to alter the fundamental processes of threat assessment during lethal force training.

Electrophysiological evidence of crossmodal correspondence between auditory pitch and visual elevation affecting inhibition of return.

Inhibition of return (IOR) has proved to be weakened by audiovisual integration because of the increased perceptual salience of targets. Although other audiovisual interactions, such as crossmodal correspondence, have also been shown to facilitate attentional processes, to the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated the interaction between crossmodal correspondence and IOR. The present study employed Posner's spatial cueing paradigm and manipulated the cue validity, crossmodal correspondence congruency and time interval of auditory and visual stimuli (AV interval) to explore the effect of crossmodal correspondence on the IOR effect. The behavioral results showed a reduced IOR effect under the correspondence congruency condition in contrast to the correspondence incongruency condition at the AV interval of 200 ms, whereas at an AV interval of 80 ms, the decreased IOR effect under crossmodal correspondence congruency was eliminated. The electrophysiological results showed a reduced amplitude difference in P2 between valid and invalid cue conditions when the crossmodal correspondence effect decreased the IOR effect. The present study provided the first evidence of the weakened effect of the crossmodal correspondence effect on the IOR effect, which could be eliminated by audiovisual integration.

Investigating gait-responsive somatosensory cueing from a wearable device to improve walking in Parkinson's disease.

Freezing-of-gait (FOG) and impaired walking are common features of Parkinson's disease (PD). Provision of external stimuli (cueing) can improve gait, however, many cueing methods are simplistic, increase task loading or have limited utility in a real-world setting. Closed-loop (automated) somatosensory cueing systems have the potential to deliver personalised, discrete cues at the appropriate time, without requiring user input. Further development of cue delivery methods and FOG-detection are required to achieve this. In this feasibility study, we aimed to test if FOG-initiated vibration cues applied to the lower-leg via wearable devices can improve gait in PD, and to develop real-time FOG-detection algorithms. 17 participants with Parkinson's disease and daily FOG were recruited. During 1 h study sessions, participants undertook 4 complex walking circuits, each with a different intervention: continuous rhythmic vibration cueing (CC), responsive cueing (RC; cues initiated by the research team in response to FOG), device worn with no cueing (NC), or no device (ND). Study sessions were grouped into 3 stages/blocks (A-C), separated by a gap of several weeks, enabling improvements to circuit design and the cueing device to be implemented. Video and onboard inertial measurement unit (IMU) data were analyzed for FOG events and gait metrics. RC significantly improved circuit completion times demonstrating improved overall performance across a range of walking activities. Step frequency was significantly enhanced by RC during stages B and C. During stage C, > 10 FOG events were recorded in 45% of participants without cueing (NC), which was significantly reduced by RC. A machine learning framework achieved 83% sensitivity and 80% specificity for FOG detection using IMU data. Together, these data support the feasibility of closed-loop cueing approaches coupling real-time FOG detection with responsive somatosensory lower-leg cueing to improve gait in PD.

The contextual cueing effect disappears during joint search in preschool children.

During preschool years, children's interacting with others increases. One of the involved developmental skills is task co-representation, through which children aged 5 years and older represent a partner's task in a similar way to their own task. In adults, task co-representation makes participants attend to and form memories of objects relevant to both their own task and their partner's task; however, it is unclear whether children can also form such memories. In Experiment 1, we examined the memory facilitation of joint search using a contextual cueing effect paradigm. Children were presented with search displays repeatedly with the same or random layouts and searched and responded to the target either alone (the single group; n = 32; Mage = 73.6 months, range = 61-80) or with their parent (the joint group; n = 32; Mage = 74.3 months, range = 64-81). Results showed that the search with the same layouts was faster than that with the random layouts for the single group, indicating that children form associative memories of target and distractors relevant to their own task. For the joint group, this effect was not statistically different from that of the single group, with exploratory analysis suggesting that it was disrupted. In Experiment 2, children performed the search with a peer (n = 32; Mage = 72.7 months, range = 67-79) and the effect was also not found. Our findings suggest that the self's and partner's tasks are represented but might not be incorporated into associative memory in 5- and 6-year-old children.

Deficiency of object-based attention specific to the gaze cue is independent of top-down attentional strategies.

This study investigated whether modes of attentional selection (location-based or object-based) are modulated by the cue type, specifically social cues such as eye gaze and pointing fingers, or by a non-social cue, such as an arrow. Earlier studies have demonstrated that the object-based attention effect was found only with arrow cues when presenting a spatial cue at either end of a rectangle: gaze cues did not yield object-based facilitation. We examined whether this deficiency of object-based attention is generalized to social cues such as pointing fingers. We measured the reaction times to the target at each cued location, an opposite side of a cued location in the same object, or the location in a different object equidistant from the cued location for each cue. Results indicated that only the gaze cue weakened the object-based attention effect, even under the condition of participants' voluntary extension of their attentional focus. The pointing cue induced sufficient object-based facilitation, as did the arrow cue. These results suggest that the deficiency of object-based attention was observed only for the gaze cue, and that it would be caused by a factor that is unique to the gaze cue, which narrows the attentional focus.

Cascaded acquisition of spatial contextual cueing.

Spatial contextual cueing refers to the facilitation of visual search when invariant spatial configurations of the target and distractors are learned. Using the instance theory of automatization and the reverse hierarchy theory of visual perceptual learning, this study explores the acquisition of spatial contextual cueing. The findings support the reverse hierarchy theory, which predicts that the acquisition of spatial contextual cueing progresses in an easy-to-difficult cascading manner. However, these findings are inconsistent with instance theory, which predicts that the acquisition of spatial contextual cueing in easy-half-repeated trials would keep pace with that in difficult-half-repeated trials. This study concludes that compared with instance theory, reverse hierarchy theory more plausibly explains the acquisition of spatial contextual cueing.