Direct cortical inputs to hippocampal area CA1 transmit complementary signals for goal-directed navigation.

The subregions of the entorhinal cortex (EC) are conventionally thought to compute dichotomous representations for spatial processing, with the medial EC (MEC) providing a global spatial map and the lateral EC (LEC) encoding specific sensory details of experience. Yet, little is known about the specific types of information EC transmits downstream to the hippocampus. Here, we exploit in vivo sub-cellular imaging to record from EC axons in CA1 while mice perform navigational tasks in virtual reality (VR). We uncover distinct yet overlapping representations of task, location, and context in both MEC and LEC axons. MEC transmitted highly location- and context-specific codes; LEC inputs were biased by ongoing navigational goals. However, during tasks with reliable reward locations, the animals' position could be accurately decoded from either subregion. Our results revise the prevailing dogma about EC information processing, revealing novel ways spatial and non-spatial information is routed and combined upstream of the hippocampus.

Musical Training and Its Association With Age-Related Changes in Binaural, Temporal, and Spatial Processing.

OBJECTIVE: This article aimed to assess the relationship between musical training and age-related changes in binaural, temporal, and spatial processing abilities. DESIGN: A standard group comparison study was conducted involving both musicians and nonmusicians. The effect of musical training was assessed using a battery of psychoacoustical tests (interaural time and level difference thresholds: ITD & ILD, binaural gap detection threshold, and virtual auditory space identification test) and subjective ratings (Spatial-Hearing subsection of Speech, Spatial, and Quality of Hearing scale in Kannada). STUDY SAMPLE: A total of 60 participants, between 41 and 70 years, were divided into three groups of 20 each, based on their age (41-50, 51-60, and 61-70 years). Each of these three groups was subdivided into two, one comprising 10 musicians (vocalists practicing South-Indian classical music) and the other comprising 10 nonmusicians. RESULTS: Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that musicians performed significantly better (p < .001) than nonmusicians in all the tests. Analyses of variance showed that whereas age had no effect (p > .05) on performance in any of the tests in musicians, age affected the performance of nonmusicians significantly in terms of ITD (p = .02) and ILD (p = .01) thresholds. CONCLUSION: Musical training appears to have the potential to slow down age-related decline in binaural, temporal, and spatial processing.

Holistic face recognition is an emergent phenomenon of spatial processing in face-selective regions.

Spatial processing by receptive fields is a core property of the visual system. However, it is unknown how spatial processing in high-level regions contributes to recognition behavior. As face inversion is thought to disrupt typical holistic processing of information in faces, we mapped population receptive fields (pRFs) with upright and inverted faces in the human visual system. Here we show that in face-selective regions, but not primary visual cortex, pRFs and overall visual field coverage are smaller and shifted downward in response to face inversion. From these measurements, we successfully predict the relative behavioral detriment of face inversion at different positions in the visual field. This correspondence between neural measurements and behavior demonstrates how spatial processing in face-selective regions may enable holistic perception. These results not only show that spatial processing in high-level visual regions is dynamically used towards recognition, but also suggest a powerful approach for bridging neural computations by receptive fields to behavior.

Effects of spatial separation with better- ear listening on N1-P2 complex.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine better- ear listening effect on spatial separation with the N1-P2 complex. METHODS: Twenty individuals with normal hearing participated in this study. The speech stimulus /ba/ was presented in front of the participant (0°). Continuous Speech Noise (5 dB signal-to-noise ratio) was presented either in front of the participant (0°), left-side (-90°), or right-side (+90°). N1- P2 complex has been recorded in quiet and three noisy conditions. RESULTS: There was a remarkable effect of noise direction on N1, P2 latencies. When the noise was separated from the stimulus, N1 and P2 latency increased in terms of when noise was co-located with the stimulus. There was no statistically significant difference in N1-P2 amplitudes between the stimulus-only and co-located condition. N1-P2 amplitude was increased when the noise came from the sides, according to the stimulus-only and co-located conditions. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that the latency shifts on N1-P2 complex explain cortical mechanisms of spatial separation in better-ear listening.

AI, visual imagery, and a case study on the challenges posed by human intelligence tests.

Observations abound about the power of visual imagery in human intelligence, from how Nobel prize-winning physicists make their discoveries to how children understand bedtime stories. These observations raise an important question for cognitive science, which is, what are the computations taking place in someone's mind when they use visual imagery? Answering this question is not easy and will require much continued research across the multiple disciplines of cognitive science. Here, we focus on a related and more circumscribed question from the perspective of artificial intelligence (AI): If you have an intelligent agent that uses visual imagery-based knowledge representations and reasoning operations, then what kinds of problem solving might be possible, and how would such problem solving work? We highlight recent progress in AI toward answering these questions in the domain of visuospatial reasoning, looking at a case study of how imagery-based artificial agents can solve visuospatial intelligence tests. In particular, we first examine several variations of imagery-based knowledge representations and problem-solving strategies that are sufficient for solving problems from the Raven's Progressive Matrices intelligence test. We then look at how artificial agents, instead of being designed manually by AI researchers, might learn portions of their own knowledge and reasoning procedures from experience, including learning visuospatial domain knowledge, learning and generalizing problem-solving strategies, and learning the actual definition of the task in the first place.

Mental rotation ability and spontaneous brain activity: a magnetoencephalography study.

We performed experiments using magnetoencephalography to clarify the relationship between three-dimensional visuospatial abilities and spontaneous visual thinking characteristics. Subjects were divided into two groups based on the rate of correct answers to mental rotation tasks: those with good performances (Group G) and those with bad performances (Group B). We found the followings: (1) in the mental rotation tasks, the 25-35 Hz lower γ band activities in the superior parietal lobule/intraparietal sulcus regions and in the occipitotemporal region were significantly larger in Group G than in Group B and (2) in the spontaneous mental imagery tasks, the 20-Hz band activity in the left premotor cortex and the 35-Hz band activity in the supplementary motor area were significantly larger in Group G.

Enhanced spatial navigation skills in sequence-space synesthetes.

Individuals with sequence-space synesthesia (SSS) perceive sequences like months, days and numbers in certain spatial arrangements. Several cognitive benefits have been associated with SSS, such as enhanced mental rotation, more vivid visual imagery and an advantage in spatial processing. The current study aimed to further investigate these cognitive benefits, focusing on spatial navigation skills, to explore if their enhanced sensitivity to spatial relations is reflected in enhanced navigational performance. Synesthetes were distinguished from controls by means of a questionnaire, a consistency test and drawings. A virtual Morris Water Maze (MWM) task with two allocentric and two egocentric navigation conditions was used to assess spatial navigation abilities. For the allocentric tasks, participants had to use object cues to find a hidden platform and for the egocentric tasks, they had to use their own position as a reference. Results showed that synesthetes performed significantly better compared to controls on the allocentric and egocentric tasks that reflected real life situations more accurately. However, this significant result was only found for the time taken to find the platform and not for the length of the path that was taken. In exploratory analyses, no significant relations were found between task performance and the specific features of the manifestation of each individual's synesthesia. Our hypothesis that synesthetes with the ability to mentally rotate their spatial arrangements would perform better on the allocentric task was not confirmed. Results add to the growing body of literature concerning the cognitive benefits of SSS and are consistent with the possibility that enhanced spatial navigation skills emerge from generally enhanced visuospatial abilities in SSS.

Shaping our personal past: Assessing the phenomenology of autobiographical memory and its association with object and spatial imagery.

A new instrument has been developed that allows a comprehensive assessment of the relevant dimensions of the phenomenology of autobiographical memories (Assessment of the Phenomenology of Autobiographical Memory, APAM), and their association with visual object and spatial imagery has been examined. An initial version of APAM consisting of 30 items (the first 28 measured on a seven-point Likert-type scale) was developed and administered to a sample of 138 undergraduates. To test whether each item consistently measured the same dimension across different memories, all questions were rated for 12 cues. Results showed that 25 Likert-type items possessed adequate levels of internal consistency and unidimensionality across cues. We also found that higher levels of visual object imagery were associated with more sensory details and recollective qualities of memory, and with stronger experience of sensory and emotional reliving. The theoretical and practical usefulness of APAM as well as the relevance of visual object imagery in the phenomenology of autobiographical memory are discussed.

Impaired spatial processing in visual perception, imagery and art-making following parieto-occipital infarcts.

Visual imagery, like vision as such, is widely thought to be supported by two distinct and dissociable processing streams, dedicated to object representation and spatial analysis respectively. However, this simple dichotomy has been contested, with recent studies suggesting that impairments in perception-for-action and visuo-spatial imagery may reflect a more general deficit in space-based attention. Although previous studies have revealed the impact of brain damage on artistic expression, few have examined the impact on artistic expression in terms of the perceptual and spatial components of either visual processing or visual imagery. Here we present the case of an artist whose artistic expression was dramatically affected following devastating posterior brain damage. Of particular interest, we demonstrate how these changes relate to impairments in integrating and aligning different spatial features in both visual processing and visual imagery, suggestive of a general simultanagnosia not previously described.

Arresting visuospatial stimulation is insufficient to disrupt analogue traumatic intrusions.

Intrusive memories are a core symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A growing body of analogue studies using trauma films suggest that carrying out specific demanding tasks (e.g., playing the video game Tetris, pattern tapping) after the analogue trauma can reduce intrusive memories. To examine the mechanism behind this effect, we tested whether mere engagement with attention-grabbing and interesting visual stimuli disrupts intrusive memories, and whether this depends on working memory resources and/or the concurrent activation of trauma film memories. In a total sample of 234 healthy participants, we compared no-task control conditions to a perceptual rating task with visually arresting video clips (i.e., non-emotional, complex, moving displays), to a less arresting task with non-moving, blurred pictures (Study 1), and to more demanding imagery tasks with and without repetitive reminders of the trauma film (Study 2). Generally, we found moderate to strong evidence that none of the conditions lead to differences in intrusion frequency. Moreover, our data suggest that intrusive memories were neither related to individual differences in working memory capacity (i.e., operation span performance; Study 1), nor to the degree of engagement with a visuospatial task (i.e., one-week recognition performance; Study 2). Taken together, our findings suggest that the boundary conditions for successful interference with traumatic intrusions may be more complex and subtle than assumed. Future studies may want to test the role of prediction errors during (re-)consolidation, deliberate efforts to suppress thoughts, or the compatibility of the task demands with the individual's skills.

Changes in brain activation related to visuo-spatial memory after real-time fMRI neurofeedback training in healthy elderly and Alzheimer's disease.

Cognitive decline is a symptom of healthy ageing and Alzheimer's disease. We examined the effect of real-time fMRI based neurofeedback training on visuo-spatial memory and its associated neuronal response. Twelve healthy subjects and nine patients of prodromal Alzheimer's disease were included. The examination spanned five days (T1-T5): T1 contained a neuropsychological pre-test, the encoding of an itinerary and a fMRI-based task related that itinerary. T2-T4 hosted the real-time fMRI neurofeedback training of the parahippocampal gyrus and on T5 a post-test session including encoding of another itinerary and a subsequent fMRI-based task were done. Scores from neuropsychological tests, brain activation and task performance during the fMRI-paradigm were compared between pre and post-test as well as between healthy controls and patients. Behavioural performance in the fMRI-task remained unchanged, while cognitive testing showed improvements in visuo-spatial memory performance. Both groups displayed task-relevant brain activation, which decreased in the right precentral gyrus and left occipital lobe from pre to post-test in controls, but increased in the right occipital lobe, middle frontal gyrus and left frontal lobe in the patient group. While results suggest that the training has affected brain activation differently between controls and patients, there are no pointers towards a behavioural manifestation of these changes. Future research is required on the effects that can be induced using real-time fMRI based neurofeedback training and the required training duration to elicit broad and lasting effects.

The development of the listening in spatialised noise - universal test (LiSN-U) and preliminary evaluation in English-speaking listeners.

Objective: To create a language independent version of the Listening in Spatialised Noise - Sentences test (LiSN-S) and evaluate it in an English-speaking population.Design: Test development and normative data collection. LiSN-Universal (LiSN-U) targets consisted of CVCV pseudo-words (e.g. /mupa/). Two looped distracter tracks consisted of CVCVCVCV pseudo-words. The listener's task was to repeat back the target pseudo-words. Stimuli were presented over headphones using an iPad. Speech reception thresholds were measured adaptively. In the co-located condition all stimuli came from directly in front. In the spatially-separated condition the distracters emanated from +90° and -90° azimuth. Perceived location was manipulated using head-related transfer functions. Spatial advantage was calculated as the difference in dB between the co-located and spatially separated conditions.Study samples: Stimulus intelligibility data were collected from 20 adults. Normative data were collected from native English speakers (23 adults and 127 children).Results: Children's spatially separated, co-located, and spatial advantage results improved significantly with age. Spatial advantage was 4-6 dB larger in the LiSN-U than LiSN-S depending on age group.Conclusion: Whereas additional research in non-native English populations is required, the LiSN-U appears to be an effective tool for measuring spatial processing ability.

Weak neural signatures of spatial selective auditory attention in hearing-impaired listeners.

Spatial attention may be used to select target speech in one location while suppressing irrelevant speech in another. However, if perceptual resolution of spatial cues is weak, spatially focused attention may work poorly, leading to difficulty communicating in noisy settings. In electroencephalography (EEG), the distribution of alpha (8-14 Hz) power over parietal sensors reflects the spatial focus of attention [Banerjee, Snyder, Molholm, and Foxe (2011). J. Neurosci. 31, 9923-9932; Foxe and Snyder (2011). Front. Psychol. 2, 154.] If spatial attention is degraded, however, alpha may not be modulated across parietal sensors. A previously published behavioral and EEG study found that, compared to normal-hearing (NH) listeners, hearing-impaired (HI) listeners often had higher interaural time difference thresholds, worse performance when asked to report the content of an acoustic stream from a particular location, and weaker attentional modulation of neural responses evoked by sounds in a mixture [Dai, Best, and Shinn-Cunningham (2018). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 115, E3286]. This study explored whether these same HI listeners also showed weaker alpha lateralization during the previously reported task. In NH listeners, hemispheric parietal alpha power was greater when the ipsilateral location was attended; this lateralization was stronger when competing melodies were separated by a larger spatial difference. In HI listeners, however, alpha was not lateralized across parietal sensors, consistent with a degraded ability to use spatial features to selectively attend.

Symmetrical electrophysiological brain responses to unilateral and bilateral auditory stimuli suggest disrupted spatial processing in schizophrenia.

Research has found auditory spatial processing deficits in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ), but no study has examined SCZ patients' auditory spatial processing at both pre-attentional and attentional stages. To address this gap, we investigated schizophrenics' brain responses to sounds originating from different locations (right, left, and bilateral sources). The event-related potentials (ERPs) of 25 chronic schizophrenic patients and 25 healthy subjects were compared. Mismatch negativity (MMN) in response to frequency and duration deviants was assessed. Two P3 components (P3a and P3b) were elicited via a frequency discrimination task, and MMN and P3 were recorded through separate monaural and dichotic stimulation paradigms. Our results corroborated the previously published finding that MMN, P3a, and P3b amplitudes are reduced in SCZ patients, but they showed no significant effect of stimulus location on either MMN or P3. These results indicated similarity between the SCZ patients and healthy individuals as regards patterns of ERP responses to stimuli that come from different directions. No evidence of auditory hemispatial bias in the SCZ patients was found, supporting the existence of non-lateralized spatial processing deficits in such patients and suggesting compensatory changes in the hemispheric laterality of patients' brains.

Development of a robust asynchronous brain-switch using ErrP-based error correction.

OBJECTIVE: The ultimate goal of many brain-computer interface (BCI) research efforts is to provide individuals with severe motor impairments with a communication channel that they can control at will. To achieve this goal, an important system requirement is asynchronous control, whereby users can initiate intentional brain activation in a self-paced rather than system-cued manner. However, to date, asynchronous BCIs have been explored in a minority of BCI studies and their performance is generally below that of system-paced alternatives. In this paper, we present an asynchronous electroencephalography (EEG) BCI that detects a non-motor imagery cognitive task and investigated the possibility of improving its performance using error-related potentials (ErrP). APPROACH: Ten able-bodied adults attended two sessions of data collection each, one for training and one for testing the BCI. The visual interface consisted of a centrally located cartoon icon. For each participant, an asynchronous BCI differentiated among the idle state and a personally selected cognitive task (mental arithmetic, word generation or figure rotation). The BCI continuously analyzed the EEG data stream and displayed real-time feedback (i.e. icon fell over) upon detection of brain activity indicative of a cognitive task. The BCI also monitored the EEG signals for the presence of error-related potentials following the presentation of feedback. An ErrP classifier was invoked to automatically alter the task classifier outcome when an error-related potential was detected. MAIN RESULTS: The average post-error correction trial success rate across participants, 85% [Formula: see text] 12%, was significantly higher (p  < 0.05) than that pre-error correction (78% [Formula: see text] 11%). SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings support the addition of ErrP-correction to maximize the performance of asynchronous BCIs..

Lesions of the head direction cell system impair direction discrimination.

Previous results suggest that directional information from the head direction cell circuit may inform hippocampal place cell firing when an animal is confronted with visually identical environments. To investigate whether such information might also be essential for spatial behavior, we tested adult, male Lister Hooded rats that had received either bilateral lateral mammillary nuclei (LMN) lesions or sham lesions on a four-way, conditional odor-location discrimination in compartments arranged at 60° to one another. We found that significantly fewer rats in the LMN lesion group were able to learn the task compared to the Sham group. We also found that the extent of the behavioral impairment was highly correlated with the degree of tissue loss in the LMN resulting from the lesion. Animals with LMN lesions were also impaired in a nonmatching-to-sample task in a T maze, and the extent of impairment likewise depended on the extent of the lesion. Performance in the odor-location and T-maze tasks was not affected by tissue loss in the medial mammillary nuclei. Together, these results indicate that the LMN, a key node in the head direction circuit, is critical for solving a spatial task that requires a directional discrimination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Innovation in Neurosurgery: The Concept of Cognitive Mapping.

In recent years, advances in cortical-subcortical mapping, intraoperative neurophysiology, and neuropsychology have increased the ability to remove intrinsic brain tumors, expanding indications and maximizing the extent of resection. This has provided a significant improvement in progression-free survival, time of malignant transformation (in low-grade gliomas), and overall survival. Although current techniques enable preservation of language and motor functions during surgery, the maintenance of a complex set of functions defined with the term cognition is not always achievable. Cognition is defined as every neural process underlying a high human function and includes motor haptic and visuospatial functions, memory, social interactions, empathy, and emotions. In this regard, an extensive preoperative and postoperative neuropsychological evaluation is strongly suggested to assess cognitive impairment due to tumor growth, to assess surgical result, and to plan cognitive rehabilitation. This article discusses the main recent innovations introduced for cognitive mapping with the aim to preserve cognitive functions, which are essential to maintain a high quality of life.

The Contribution of Individual Differences in Memory Span and Language Ability to Spatial Release From Masking in Young Children.

Purpose Working memory capacity and language ability modulate speech reception; however, the respective roles of peripheral and cognitive processing are unclear. The contribution of individual differences in these abilities to utilization of spatial cues when separating speech from informational and energetic masking backgrounds in children has not yet been determined. Therefore, this study explored whether speech reception in children is modulated by environmental factors, such as the type of background noise and spatial configuration of target and noise sources, and individual differences in the cognitive and linguistic abilities of listeners. Method Speech reception thresholds were assessed in 39 children aged 5-7 years in simulated school listening environments. Speech reception thresholds of target sentences spoken by an adult male consisting of number and color combinations were measured using an adaptive procedure, with speech-shaped white noise and single-talker backgrounds that were either collocated (target and back-ground at 0°) or spatially separated (target at 0°, background noise at 90° to the right). Spatial release from masking was assessed alongside memory span and expressive language. Results and Conclusion Significant main effect results showed that speech reception thresholds were highest for informational maskers and collocated conditions. Significant interactions indicated that individual differences in memory span and language ability were related to spatial release from masking advantages. Specifically, individual differences in memory span and language were related to the utilization of spatial cues in separated conditions. Language differences were related to auditory stream segregation abilities in collocated conditions that lack helpful spatial cues, pointing to the utilization of language processes to make up for losses in spatial information.

Impoverished auditory cues limit engagement of brain networks controlling spatial selective attention.

Spatial selective attention enables listeners to process a signal of interest in natural settings. However, most past studies on auditory spatial attention used impoverished spatial cues: presenting competing sounds to different ears, using only interaural differences in time (ITDs) and/or intensity (IIDs), or using non-individualized head-related transfer functions (HRTFs). Here we tested the hypothesis that impoverished spatial cues impair spatial auditory attention by only weakly engaging relevant cortical networks. Eighteen normal-hearing listeners reported the content of one of two competing syllable streams simulated at roughly +30° and -30° azimuth. The competing streams consisted of syllables from two different-sex talkers. Spatialization was based on natural spatial cues (individualized HRTFs), individualized IIDs, or generic ITDs. We measured behavioral performance as well as electroencephalographic markers of selective attention. Behaviorally, subjects recalled target streams most accurately with natural cues. Neurally, spatial attention significantly modulated early evoked sensory response magnitudes only for natural cues, not in conditions using only ITDs or IIDs. Consistent with this, parietal oscillatory power in the alpha band (8-14 â€‹Hz; associated with filtering out distracting events from unattended directions) showed significantly less attentional modulation with isolated spatial cues than with natural cues. Our findings support the hypothesis that spatial selective attention networks are only partially engaged by impoverished spatial auditory cues. These results not only suggest that studies using unnatural spatial cues underestimate the neural effects of spatial auditory attention, they also illustrate the importance of preserving natural spatial cues in assistive listening devices to support robust attentional control.

Pre-Attentive Neural Signatures of Auditory Spatial Processing in Listeners With Normal Hearing and Sensorineural Hearing Impairment: A Comparative Study.

Purpose This study was carried out to understand the neural intricacies of auditory spatial processing in listeners with sensorineural hearing impairment (SNHI) and compare it with normal hearing (NH) listeners using both local and global measures of waveform analyses. Method A standard group comparison research design was adopted in this study. Participants were assigned to 2 groups. Group I consisted of 13 participants with mild-moderate flat or sloping SNHI, while Group II consisted of 13 participants with NH sensitivity. Electroencephalographic data using virtual acoustic stimuli (spatially loaded stimuli played in center, right, and left hemifields) were recorded from 64 electrode sites in passive oddball paradigm. Both local (electrode-wise waveform analysis) and global (dissimilarity index, electric field strength, and topographic pattern analyses) measures were performed on the electroencephalographic data. Results Results of local waveform analyses marked the appearance of mismatch negativity in an earlier time window, relative to those reported conventionally in both the groups. The global measures of electric field strength and topographic modulations (dissimilarity index) revealed differences between the 2 groups in different time periods, indicating multiphases (integration and consolidation) of spatial processing. Further, the topographic pattern analysis showed the emergence of different scalp maps for SNHI and NH in the time window corresponding to mismatch negativity (78-150 ms), suggestive of differential spatial processing between the groups at the cortical level. Conclusions The findings of this study highlights the differential allotment of neural generators, denoting variations in spatial processing between SNHI and NH individuals.