Eye blinks are related to auditory information processing: evidence from a complex speech perception task.

There is increasing evidence that spontaneous eye blinks are related to mental states and can predict performance in certain tasks because of their relation to dopaminergic activity. Moreover, it has been shown that eye blinks while performing visual tasks are preferably executed not before all available information and even the manual response has been processed and given. Thus, blinks provide a natural endpoint of visual information processing. In the present study, we investigate to what degree such functional assignment of eye blinks also applies when only auditory stimuli are processed. For that, we present blink analyses on data of an auditory stock price monitoring task to examine the timing and frequency of blinks relative to the temporal dynamics of the task and different kinds of available cues. Our results show that blinks are meaningfully rather than randomly paced, although no visual information has to be processed. Blinks are significantly accelerated if a no-go trial is indicated which made all the subsequent information irrelevant. Although the stimuli were exclusively auditory, blinks were mostly inhibited during stimulus presentation. Taken together, blinks depend on the information being presented and mark a distinct point in time at which this information is conclusively processed. These findings deliver further support for the usefulness of eyeblink analyses, independently of the modality of the information being processed.

Don't stop me now: Hampered retrieval of action plans following interruptions.

How can we retrieve action plans in working memory (WM) after being distracted or interrupted? The present EEG study investigated this question using a WM task in which a random sequence of single numbers (1-4 and 6-9) was presented. In a given trial, participants had to decide whether the number presented in the preceding trial was odd or even. Additionally, interfering stimuli were randomly presented in 25% of all trials, requiring the participants to either ignore a colored number (distraction) or respond to it (interruption) while maintaining the previously formed action plan in WM. Our results revealed a detrimental impact of interruptions on WM performance in trials after interrupting stimuli compared to trials without a preceding interference. This was reflected in decreased task accuracy and reduced stimulus- and response-locked P3b amplitudes potentially indicating a hampered reactivation of stimulus-response links. Moreover, decreased contralateral mu suppression prior to a given response highlighted an impaired response preparation following interruptions. Distractions, on the other hand, did not negatively affect task performance but were followed by faster responses in subsequent trials compared to trials without prior interference. This result pattern was supported by stronger contralateral mu suppression indicating a facilitated response preparation. Overall, these results suggest that action representations in WM are resistant to distractions but do suffer from interruptions that disrupt or interfere with their implementation. We thus propose that the possibility of adequately preparing for an upcoming response is essential for behavioral guidance in the presence of external interference.

Differential Effects of Interruptions and Distractions on Working Memory Processes in an ERP Study.

Interruptions (interfering stimuli to respond to) and distractions (interfering stimuli to be ignored) have been shown to negatively impact performance, particularly in tasks requiring working memory (WM). This study investigated how these two types of external interference affect task performance and attentional and WM processes as indexed by specific event-related potentials (ERPs) of the EEG. A Continuous Number Task (CNT) was applied, in which participants had to either decide whether the current number (condition without WM load) or the sum of the current and the preceding number (condition with WM load) was odd or even while responding to interlaced single letters (interruptions) or ignoring them (distractions). Contrary to previous research, we did not find external interference to affect performance under WM load. Unexpectedly, our results rather show that performance was significantly improved in trials after distractions compared to before. This effect was reflected particularly in a significantly increased P3 mean amplitude indicating enhanced attentional reallocation to task-relevant stimuli. Interestingly, this P3 effect appeared independent of WM load and also following interruptions. This underpins the account of P3 amplitudes being modulated by the interval between two task-relevant stimuli rather than by overall task-difficulty. Moreover, a pronounced fronto-central and posterior slow wave following interference suggest more control resources to maintain task-relevant stimuli in WM independent of the preceding interfering stimulus. Our results thus suggest that the type and foreknowledge of external interference may modulate the amount of interference and may also facilitate resource preparation under WM load.

The impact of simulated MRI scanner background noise on visual attention processes as measured by the EEG.

Environmental noise is known to affect personal well-being as well as cognitive processes. Besides daily life, environmental noise can also occur in experimental research settings, e.g. when being in a magnetic resonance scanner. Scanner background noise (SBN) might pose serious confounds for experimental findings, even when non-auditory settings are examined. In the current experiment we tested if SBN alters bottom-up and top-down related processes of selective visual attention mechanisms. Participants completed two blocks of a visual change detection task, one block in silence and one block under SBN exposure. SBN was found to decrease accuracy in measures of visual attention. This effect was modulated by the temporal occurrence of SBN. When SBN was encountered in the first block, it prevented a significant improvement of accuracy in the second block. When SBN appeared in the second block, it significantly decreased accuracy. Neurophysiological findings showed a strong frontal positivity shift only when SBN was present in the first block, suggesting an inhibitory process to counteract the interfering SBN. Common correlates of both top-down and bottom-up processes of selective visual attention were not specifically affected by SBN exposure. Further research appears necessary to entirely rule out confounds of SBN in assessing visual attention.

Neurobehavioral and neurophysiological effects after acute exposure to a single peak of 200 ppm toluene in healthy volunteers.

The solvent toluene has neurotoxic properties that are especially relevant in the working environment. Short-term exposure limits (STELs) vary from 50 ppm up to 300 ppm across countries but their acute effects remain elusive in humans. Several in vitro and in vivo studies elucidated that toluene acutely acts by perturbations of different neurotransmitter systems. More specifically visual evoked potentials (VEPs) of rats are decreased after acute toluene exposure, leading to the assumption that particularly visual attention processes might be a target of toluene in humans. Therefore a visual change detection task was applied to measure both neurobehavioral and neurophysiological effects by using electroencephalography (EEG) after a single peak exposure to 200 ppm toluene. Performance and event-related components of the EEG were examined before and after exposure in a toluene-exposed and a control group. Thirty-three young healthy volunteers participated in this study. The behavioral results of the experiment indicate that toluene impairs the rate of correct responses especially in task conditions in which an irrelevant distractor is given, while the response times did not differ between both groups. The neurophysiological findings hint toward a less efficient visual processing of behaviorally relevant stimuli and an increased distractibility by irrelevant distractors. Thus the present results are a promising starting point for further research specifically targeting visual attention after toluene exposure and the reconsideration of the presently very heterogeneous STELs.