Compound cueing in free recall

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Lohnas, Lynn J.; Kahana, Michael J.

2013-01-01

According to the retrieved context theory of episodic memory, the cue for recall of an item is a weighted sum of recently activated cognitive states, including previously recalled and studied items as well as their associations. We show that this theory predicts there should be compound cueing in free recall. Specifically, the temporal contiguity effect should be greater when the two most recently recalled items were studied in contiguous list positions. A meta-analysis of published free recall experiments demonstrates evidence for compound cueing in both conditional response probabilities and inter-response times. To help rule out a rehearsal-based account of these compound cueing effects, we conducted an experiment with immediate, delayed and continual-distractor free recall conditions. Consistent with retrieved context theory but not with a rehearsal-based account, compound cueing was present in all conditions, and was not significantly influenced by the presence of interitem distractors. PMID:23957364

The Effects of Cues on Neurons in the Basal Ganglia in Parkinson’s Disease

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Sridevi V. Sarma

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Visual cues open a unique window to the understanding of Parkinson’s disease (PD. These cues can temporarily but dramatically improve PD motor symptoms. Although details are unclear, cues are believed to suppress pathological basal ganglia (BG activity through activation of corticostriatal pathways. In this study, we investigated human BG neurophysiology under different cued conditions. We evaluated bursting, 10-30Hz oscillations (OSCs, and directional tuning (DT dynamics in the subthalamic nucleus activity while 7 patients executed a two-step motor task. In the first step (predicted +cue, the patient moved to a target when prompted by a visual go cue that appeared 100% of the time. Here, the timing of the cue is predictable and the cue serves an external trigger to execute a motor plan. In the second step, the cue appeared randomly 50% of the time, and the patient had to move to the same target as in the first step. When it appeared (unpredicted +cue, the motor plan was to be triggered by the cue, but its timing was not predictable. When the cue failed to appear (unpredicted -cue, the motor plan was triggered by the absence of the visual cue. We found that during predicted +cue and unpredicted -cue trials, OSCs significantly decreased and DT significantly increased above baseline, though these modulations occurred an average of 640 milliseconds later in unpredicted -cue trials. Movement and reaction times were comparable in these trials. During unpredicted +cue trials, OSCs and DT failed to modulate though bursting significantly decreased after movement. Correspondingly, movement performance deteriorated. These findings suggest that during motor planning either a predictably timed external cue or an internally generated cue (generated by the absence of a cue trigger the execution of a motor plan in premotor cortex, whose increased activation then suppresses pathological activity in STN through direct pathways, leading to motor facilitation in

Cueing vocabulary during sleep increases theta activity during later recognition testing.

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Schreiner, Thomas; Göldi, Maurice; Rasch, Björn

2015-11-01

Neural oscillations in the theta band have repeatedly been implicated in successful memory encoding and retrieval. Several recent studies have shown that memory retrieval can be facilitated by reactivating memories during their consolidation during sleep. However, it is still unknown whether reactivation during sleep also enhances subsequent retrieval-related neural oscillations. We have recently demonstrated that foreign vocabulary cues presented during sleep improve later recall of the associated translations. Here, we examined the effect of cueing foreign vocabulary during sleep on oscillatory activity during subsequent recognition testing after sleep. We show that those words that were replayed during sleep after learning (cued words) elicited stronger centroparietal theta activity during recognition as compared to noncued words. The reactivation-induced increase in theta oscillations during later recognition testing might reflect a strengthening of individual memory traces and the integration of the newly learned words into the mental lexicon by cueing during sleep. © 2015 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Does Cueing Training Improve Physical Activity in Patients With Parkinson's Disease?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lim-de Vries, L.I.I.K.; van Wegen, E.E.H.; Jones, D.; Rochester, L.; Nieuwboer, A.; Willems, A.M.; Baker, K.; Hetherington, V.; Kwakkel, G.

2010-01-01

Background. Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are encouraged to stay active to maintain their mobility. Ambulatory activity monitoring (AM) provides an objective way to determine type and amount of gait-related daily activities. Objective. To investigate the effects of a home cueing training

Triggers of fear: perceptual cues versus conceptual information in spider phobia.

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Peperkorn, Henrik M; Alpers, Georg W; Mühlberger, Andreas

2014-07-01

Fear reactions in spider-phobic patients can be activated by specific perceptual cues or by conceptual fear-related information. Matching perceptual fear cues and fear-related information were expected to result in maximal fear responses, perceptual fear cues alone in less fear, and information alone in the weakest responses. We used virtual reality to manipulate the available cues and information. Forty-eight phobic patients and 48 healthy participants were repeatedly exposed to either a perceptual cue, information, or a combination of both. In conditions with a fear-relevant perceptual cue, phobic patients reported increased fear compared to the condition with information only. Across exposures trials, these reactions diminished. Skin conductance in phobic patients was significantly higher in the combined than in the cue or the information condition. Perceptual cues are essential for phobic fear reactions in spider phobia. In combination with fear-relevant information, perceptual cues activate an intense and persistent fear reaction. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cue-induced craving in patients with cocaine use disorder predicts cognitive control deficits toward cocaine cues.

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DiGirolamo, Gregory J; Smelson, David; Guevremont, Nathan

2015-08-01

Cue-induced craving is a clinically important aspect of cocaine addiction influencing ongoing use and sobriety. However, little is known about the relationship between cue-induced craving and cognitive control toward cocaine cues. While studies suggest that cocaine users have an attentional bias toward cocaine cues, the present study extends this research by testing if cocaine use disorder patients (CDPs) can control their eye movements toward cocaine cues and whether their response varied by cue-induced craving intensity. Thirty CDPs underwent a cue exposure procedure to dichotomize them into high and low craving groups followed by a modified antisaccade task in which subjects were asked to control their eye movements toward either a cocaine or neutral drug cue by looking away from the suddenly presented cue. The relationship between breakdowns in cognitive control (as measured by eye errors) and cue-induced craving (changes in self-reported craving following cocaine cue exposure) was investigated. CDPs overall made significantly more errors toward cocaine cues compared to neutral cues, with higher cravers making significantly more errors than lower cravers even though they did not differ significantly in addiction severity, impulsivity, anxiety, or depression levels. Cue-induced craving was the only specific and significant predictor of subsequent errors toward cocaine cues. Cue-induced craving directly and specifically relates to breakdowns of cognitive control toward cocaine cues in CDPs, with higher cravers being more susceptible. Hence, it may be useful identifying high cravers and target treatment toward curbing craving to decrease the likelihood of a subsequent breakdown in control. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of cue-exposure treatment on neural cue reactivity in alcohol dependence: a randomized trial.

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Vollstädt-Klein, Sabine; Loeber, Sabine; Kirsch, Martina; Bach, Patrick; Richter, Anne; Bühler, Mira; von der Goltz, Christoph; Hermann, Derik; Mann, Karl; Kiefer, Falk

2011-06-01

In alcohol-dependent patients, alcohol-associated cues elicit brain activation in mesocorticolimbic networks involved in relapse mechanisms. Cue-exposure based extinction training (CET) has been shown to be efficacious in the treatment of alcoholism; however, it has remained unexplored whether CET mediates its therapeutic effects via changes of activity in mesolimbic networks in response to alcohol cues. In this study, we assessed CET treatment effects on cue-induced responses using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In a randomized controlled trial, abstinent alcohol-dependent patients were randomly assigned to a CET group (n = 15) or a control group (n = 15). All patients underwent an extended detoxification treatment comprising medically supervised detoxification, health education, and supportive therapy. The CET patients additionally received nine CET sessions over 3 weeks, exposing the patient to his/her preferred alcoholic beverage. Cue-induced fMRI activation to alcohol cues was measured at pretreatment and posttreatment. Compared with pretreatment, fMRI cue-reactivity reduction was greater in the CET relative to the control group, especially in the anterior cingulate gyrus and the insula, as well as limbic and frontal regions. Before treatment, increased cue-induced fMRI activation was found in limbic and reward-related brain regions and in visual areas. After treatment, the CET group showed less activation than the control group in the left ventral striatum. The study provides first evidence that an exposure-based psychotherapeutic intervention in the treatment of alcoholism impacts on brain areas relevant for addiction memory and attentional focus to alcohol-associated cues and affects mesocorticolimbic reward pathways suggested to be pathophysiologically involved in addiction. Copyright © 2011 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Global cue inconsistency diminishes learning of cue validity

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Tony Wang

2016-11-01

Full Text Available We present a novel two-stage probabilistic learning task that examines the participants’ ability to learn and utilize valid cues across several levels of probabilistic feedback. In the first stage, participants sample from one of three cues that gives predictive information about the outcome of the second stage. Participants are rewarded for correct prediction of the outcome in stage two. Only one of the three cues gives valid predictive information and thus participants can maximise their reward by learning to sample from the valid cue. The validity of this predictive information, however, is reinforced across several levels of probabilistic feedback. A second manipulation involved changing the consistency of the predictive information in stage one and the outcome in stage two. The results show that participants, with higher probabilistic feedback, learned to utilise the valid cue. In inconsistent task conditions, however, participants were significantly less successful in utilising higher validity cues. We interpret this result as implying that learning in probabilistic categorization is based on developing a representation of the task that allows for goal-directed action.

Individual differences in anticipatory activity to food rewards predict cue-induced appetitive 50-kHz calls in rats.

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Brenes, Juan C; Schwarting, Rainer K W

2015-10-01

Reward-related stimuli come to acquire incentive salience through Pavlovian learning and become capable of controlling reward-oriented behaviors. Here, we examined individual differences in anticipatory activity elicited by reward-related cues as indicative of how animals attribute incentive salience to otherwise neutral stimuli. Since adult rats can signal incentive motivation states through ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) at around 50-kHz, such calls were recorded in food-deprived rats trained to associate cues with food rewards, which were subsequently devalued by satiation.We found that the extent to which animals developed conditioned anticipatory activity to food cues while food deprived determined the level of cue-induced appetitive USVs while sated. Re-exposure to reward cues after a free-testing period reinstated USVs, invigorated reward seeking and consumption, and again, increases in calling occurred only in animals with high levels of cue-induced anticipatory activity. Reward-experienced rats systemically challenged with the catecholamine agonist amphetamine or with the dopamine receptor antagonist flupenthixol showed attenuated responses to these drugs, especially for USVs and in subjects with high levels of cue-induced anticipatory activity. Our results suggest that individuals prone to attribute incentive salience to reward cues showed heightened reward-induced USVs which were reliably expressed over time and persisted despite physiological needs being fulfilled. Also, prone subjects seemed to undergo particular adaptations in their dopaminergic system related with incentive learning. Our findings may have translational relevance in preclinical research modeling compulsive disorders, which may be due to excessive attribution of incentive salience to reward cues, such as overeating, pathological gambling, and drug addiction.

Activation in mesolimbic and visuospatial neural circuits elicited by smoking cues: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging.

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Due, Deborah L; Huettel, Scott A; Hall, Warren G; Rubin, David C

2002-06-01

The authors sought to increase understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in cigarette addiction by identifying neural substrates modulated by visual smoking cues in nicotine-deprived smokers. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to detect brain activation after exposure to smoking-related images in a group of nicotine-deprived smokers and a nonsmoking comparison group. Subjects viewed a pseudo-random sequence of smoking images, neutral nonsmoking images, and rare targets (photographs of animals). Subjects pressed a button whenever a rare target appeared. In smokers, the fMRI signal was greater after exposure to smoking-related images than after exposure to neutral images in mesolimbic dopamine reward circuits known to be activated by addictive drugs (right posterior amygdala, posterior hippocampus, ventral tegmental area, and medial thalamus) as well as in areas related to visuospatial attention (bilateral prefrontal and parietal cortex and right fusiform gyrus). In nonsmokers, no significant differences in fMRI signal following exposure to smoking-related and neutral images were detected. In most regions studied, both subject groups showed greater activation following presentation of rare target images than after exposure to neutral images. In nicotine-deprived smokers, both reward and attention circuits were activated by exposure to smoking-related images. Smoking cues are processed like rare targets in that they activate attentional regions. These cues are also processed like addictive drugs in that they activate mesolimbic reward regions.

Methylphenidate attenuates limbic brain inhibition after cocaine-cues exposure in cocaine abusers.

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Nora D Volkow

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Dopamine (phasic release is implicated in conditioned responses. Imaging studies in cocaine abusers show decreases in striatal dopamine levels, which we hypothesize may enhance conditioned responses since tonic dopamine levels modulate phasic dopamine release. To test this we assessed the effects of increasing tonic dopamine levels (using oral methylphenidate on brain activation induced by cocaine-cues in cocaine abusers. Brain metabolism (marker of brain function was measured with PET and (18FDG in 24 active cocaine abusers tested four times; twice watching a Neutral video (nature scenes and twice watching a Cocaine-cues video; each video was preceded once by placebo and once by methylphenidate (20 mg. The Cocaine-cues video increased craving to the same extent with placebo (68% and with methylphenidate (64%. In contrast, SPM analysis of metabolic images revealed that differences between Neutral versus Cocaine-cues conditions were greater with placebo than methylphenidate; whereas with placebo the Cocaine-cues decreased metabolism (p<0.005 in left limbic regions (insula, orbitofrontal, accumbens and right parahippocampus, with methylphenidate it only decreased in auditory and visual regions, which also occurred with placebo. Decreases in metabolism in these regions were not associated with craving; in contrast the voxel-wise SPM analysis identified significant correlations with craving in anterior orbitofrontal cortex (p<0.005, amygdala, striatum and middle insula (p<0.05. This suggests that methylphenidate's attenuation of brain reactivity to Cocaine-cues is distinct from that involved in craving. Cocaine-cues decreased metabolism in limbic regions (reflects activity over 30 minutes, which contrasts with activations reported by fMRI studies (reflects activity over 2-5 minutes that may reflect long-lasting limbic inhibition following activation. Studies to evaluate the clinical significance of methylphenidate's blunting of cue-induced limbic

Methylphenidate attenuates limbic brain inhibition after cocaine-cues exposure in cocaine abusers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Volkow, N.D.; Wang, G.-J.; Tomasi, D.; Telang, F.; Fowler, J.S.; Pradhan, K.; Jayne, M.; Logan, J.; Goldstein, R.Z.; Alia-Klein, N.; Wong, C.T.

2010-01-01

Dopamine (phasic release) is implicated in conditioned responses. Imaging studies in cocaine abusers show decreases in striatal dopamine levels, which we hypothesize may enhance conditioned responses since tonic dopamine levels modulate phasic dopamine release. To test this we assessed the effects of increasing tonic dopamine levels (using oral methylphenidate) on brain activation induced by cocaine-cues in cocaine abusers. Brain metabolism (marker of brain function) was measured with PET and 18 FDG in 24 active cocaine abusers tested four times; twice watching a Neutral video (nature scenes) and twice watching a Cocaine-cues video; each video was preceded once by placebo and once by methylphenidate (20 mg). The Cocaine-cues video increased craving to the same extent with placebo (68%) and with methylphenidate (64%). In contrast, SPM analysis of metabolic images revealed that differences between Neutral versus Cocaine-cues conditions were greater with placebo than methylphenidate; whereas with placebo the Cocaine-cues decreased metabolism (p<0.005) in left limbic regions (insula, orbitofrontal, accumbens) and right parahippocampus, with methylphenidate it only decreased in auditory and visual regions, which also occurred with placebo. Decreases in metabolism in these regions were not associated with craving; in contrast the voxel-wise SPM analysis identified significant correlations with craving in anterior orbitofrontal cortex (p<0.005), amygdala, striatum and middle insula (p<0.05). This suggests that methylphenidate's attenuation of brain reactivity to Cocaine-cues is distinct from that involved in craving. Cocaine-cues decreased metabolism in limbic regions (reflects activity over 30 minutes), which contrasts with activations reported by fMRI studies (reflects activity over 2-5 minutes) that may reflect long-lasting limbic inhibition following activation. Studies to evaluate the clinical significance of methylphenidate's blunting of cue-induced limbic

Which Cue to ‘Want?’ Central Amygdala Opioid Activation Enhances and Focuses Incentive Salience on a Prepotent Reward Cue

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Mahler, Stephen V.; Berridge, Kent C.

2009-01-01

The central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) helps translate learning into motivation, and here we show that opioid stimulation of CeA magnifies and focuses learned incentive salience onto a specific reward cue (Pavlovian conditioned stimulus, or CS). This motivation enhancement makes that cue more attractive, noticeable, and liable to elicit appetitive and consummatory behaviors. To reveal the focusing of incentive salience, we exploited individual differences in an autoshaping paradigm in which a rat prefers to approach, nibble and sniff one of two reward-associated stimuli (its prepotent stimulus). The individually-prepotent cue is either a predictive CS+ that signals reward (8sec metal lever insertion), or instead the metal cup that delivers sucrose pellets (the reward source). Results indicated that CeA opioid activation by microinjection of the μ agonist DAMGO (0.1μg) selectively and reversibly enhanced the attractiveness of whichever reward CS was that rat's prepotent cue. CeA DAMGO microinjections made rats more vigorously approach their particular prepotent CS, and to energetically sniff and nibble it in a nearly frenzied consummatory fashion. Only the prepotent cue was enhanced as an incentive target, and alternative cues were not enhanced. Conversely, inactivation of CeA by muscimol microinjection (0.25μg) suppressed approach, nibbles and sniffs of the prepotent CS. Confirming modulation of incentive salience, unconditioned food intake was similarly increased by DAMGO microinjection and decreased by muscimol in CeA. We conclude that opioid neurotransmission in central amygdala helps determine which environmental stimuli become most ‘wanted,’ and how ‘wanted’ they become. This may powerfully guide reward-seeking behavior. PMID:19458221

Activation of prefrontal cortex and anterior thalamus in alcoholic subjects on exposure to alcohol-specific cues.

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George, M S; Anton, R F; Bloomer, C; Teneback, C; Drobes, D J; Lorberbaum, J P; Nahas, Z; Vincent, D J

2001-04-01

Functional imaging studies have recently demonstrated that specific brain regions become active in cocaine addicts when they are exposed to cocaine stimuli. To test whether there are regional brain activity differences during alcohol cue exposure between alcoholic subjects and social drinkers, we designed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) protocol involving alcohol-specific cues. Ten non-treatment-seeking adult alcoholic subjects (2 women) (mean [SD] age, 29.9 [9.9] years) as well as 10 healthy social drinking controls of similar age (2 women) (mean [SD] age, 29.4 [8.9] years) were recruited, screened, and scanned. In the 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging scanner, subjects were serially rated for alcohol craving before and after a sip of alcohol, and after a 9-minute randomized presentation of pictures of alcoholic beverages, control nonalcoholic beverages, and 2 different visual control tasks. During picture presentation, changes in regional brain activity were measured with the blood oxygen level-dependent technique. Alcoholic subjects, compared with the social drinking subjects, reported higher overall craving ratings for alcohol. After a sip of alcohol, while viewing alcohol cues compared with viewing other beverage cues, only the alcoholic subjects had increased activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior thalamus. The social drinkers exhibited specific activation only while viewing the control beverage pictures. When exposed to alcohol cues, alcoholic subjects have increased brain activity in the prefrontal cortex and anterior thalamus-brain regions associated with emotion regulation, attention, and appetitive behavior.

Amodal brain activation and functional connectivity in response to high-energy-density food cues in obesity.

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Carnell, Susan; Benson, Leora; Pantazatos, Spiro P; Hirsch, Joy; Geliebter, Allan

2014-11-01

The obesogenic environment is pervasive, yet only some people become obese. The aim was to investigate whether obese individuals show differential neural responses to visual and auditory food cues, independent of cue modality. Obese (BMI 29-41, n = 10) and lean (BMI 20-24, n = 10) females underwent fMRI scanning during presentation of auditory (spoken word) and visual (photograph) cues representing high-energy-density (ED) and low-ED foods. The effect of obesity on whole-brain activation, and on functional connectivity with the midbrain/VTA, was examined. Obese compared with lean women showed greater modality-independent activation of the midbrain/VTA and putamen in response to high-ED (vs. low-ED) cues, as well as relatively greater functional connectivity between the midbrain/VTA and cerebellum (P food cues within the midbrain/VTA and putamen, and altered functional connectivity between the midbrain/VTA and cerebellum, could contribute to excessive food intake in obese individuals. © 2014 The Obesity Society.

Drug-related cue induced craving and the correlation between the activation in nucleus accumbens and drug craving: a fMRI study on heroin addicts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Yarong; Yang Lanying; Li Qiang; Yang Weichuan; Du Pang; Wang Wei

2010-01-01

Objective: To explore the neural mechanism underlying the craving of heroin addicts induced by picture-cue and the correlation between the brain activation degree in nucleus accumbens (NAc)/ the ventral striatum and the scores of patients self-report craving. Methods: Twelve active heroin addicts and 12 matched healthy controls underwent fMRI scan while viewing drug-related pictures and neutral pictures presented in a block design paradigm after anatomical scanning in GE 3.0 T scanner. The fMRI data were analyzed with SPM 5. The change of craving scores was tested by Wilcoxon signed rank test. The Pearson correlation between the activation of NAc/the ventral striatum and the heroin craving score was tested by SPSS 13.0. Results: The craving scores of heroin addicts ranged from 0 to 3.70 (median 0.15) before exposed to drug cue and 0 to 5.10 (median 3.25) after viewing drug-related pictures and showed statistical significance (Z=-2.666, P<0.05). There were 16 activated brain areas when heroin dependent patients exposed to visual drug-related cue vs. neutral visual stimuli. The activation brain regions belonged to two parts, one was limbic system (amygdale, hippocampus, putamen, anterior cingulate cortex and caudate), another was brain cortex (middle frontal cortex, inferior frontal cortex, precentral gyrus, middle temporal cortex, inferior temporal cortex, fusiform gyrus, precuneus and middle occipital gyrus). The MR signal activation magnitude of heroin addicts ranged from 0.19 to 3.50. The result displayed a significant positive correlation between the cue-induced fMRI activation in NAc/the ventral striatum and heroin craving severity (r=0.829, P<0.05). Conclusion: Heroin shared the same neural circuitry in part with other drugs of abuse for cue-induced craving, including brain reward circuitry, visualspatial attention circuit and working memory region. In addition, the dysfunction of NAc/the ventral striatum may attribute to heroin-related cue induced craving

Sex differences in neural responses to stress and alcohol context cues.

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Seo, Dongju; Jia, Zhiru; Lacadie, Cheryl M; Tsou, Kristen A; Bergquist, Keri; Sinha, Rajita

2011-11-01

Stress and alcohol context cues are each associated with alcohol-related behaviors, yet neural responses underlying these processes remain unclear. This study investigated the neural correlates of stress and alcohol context cue experiences and examined sex differences in these responses. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain responses were examined while 43 right-handed, socially drinking, healthy individuals (23 females) engaged in brief guided imagery of personalized stress, alcohol-cue, and neutral-relaxing scenarios. Stress and alcohol-cue exposure increased activity in the cortico-limbic-striatal circuit (P left anterior insula, striatum, and visuomotor regions (parietal and occipital lobe, and cerebellum). Activity in the left dorsal striatum increased during stress, while bilateral ventral striatum activity was evident during alcohol-cue exposure. Men displayed greater stress-related activations in the mPFC, rostral ACC, posterior insula, amygdala, and hippocampus than women, whereas women showed greater alcohol-cue-related activity in the superior and middle frontal gyrus (SFG/MFG) than men. Stress-induced anxiety was positively associated with activity in emotion-modulation regions, including the medial OFC, ventromedial PFC, left superior-mPFC, and rostral ACC in men, but in women with activation in the SFG/MFG, regions involved in cognitive processing. Alcohol craving was significantly associated with the striatum (encompassing dorsal, and ventral) in men, supporting its involvement in alcohol "urge" in healthy men. These results indicate sex differences in neural processing of stress and alcohol-cue experiences and have implications for sex-specific vulnerabilities to stress- and alcohol-related psychiatric disorders. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Treatment with a nicotine vaccine does not lead to changes in brain activity during smoking cue exposure or a working memory task.

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Havermans, Anne; Vuurman, Eric F; van den Hurk, Job; Hoogsteder, Philippe; van Schayck, Onno C P

2014-08-01

To assess whether immunization attenuates nicotinic stimulation of the brain and elucidate brain and behavioural responses during exposure to smoking cues and a working memory task. Randomized, placebo-controlled parallel-group, repeated-measures design. Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Forty-eight male smokers were randomized to receive five injections with either 400 μg/ml of the 3'-aminomethylnicotine Pseudomonas aeruginosa r-Exoprotein-conjugated vaccine or placebo. Subjects were tested on two occasions, once after a nicotine challenge and once after a placebo challenge, and were asked to refrain from smoking 10 hours before testing. Reaction-times and accuracies were recorded during an n-back task. Moreover, regional blood oxygenated level-dependent (BOLD) response was measured during this task and during smoking cue exposure. Greater activation was found in response to smoking cues compared to neutral cues in bilateral trans-occipital sulcus (P cues between the treatment groups and no effects of acute nicotine challenge were established. For the n-back task we found working memory load-sensitive increases in brain activity in several frontal and parietal areas (P < 0.0025). However, no effects of immunization or nicotine challenge were observed. No significant effects of immunization on brain activity in response to a nicotine challenge were established. Therefore this vaccine is not likely to be an effective aid in smoking cessation. © 2014 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Sensory modality of smoking cues modulates neural cue reactivity.

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Yalachkov, Yavor; Kaiser, Jochen; Görres, Andreas; Seehaus, Arne; Naumer, Marcus J

2013-01-01

Behavioral experiments have demonstrated that the sensory modality of presentation modulates drug cue reactivity. The present study on nicotine addiction tested whether neural responses to smoking cues are modulated by the sensory modality of stimulus presentation. We measured brain activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 15 smokers and 15 nonsmokers while they viewed images of smoking paraphernalia and control objects and while they touched the same objects without seeing them. Haptically presented, smoking-related stimuli induced more pronounced neural cue reactivity than visual cues in the left dorsal striatum in smokers compared to nonsmokers. The severity of nicotine dependence correlated positively with the preference for haptically explored smoking cues in the left inferior parietal lobule/somatosensory cortex, right fusiform gyrus/inferior temporal cortex/cerebellum, hippocampus/parahippocampal gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex, and supplementary motor area. These observations are in line with the hypothesized role of the dorsal striatum for the expression of drug habits and the well-established concept of drug-related automatized schemata, since haptic perception is more closely linked to the corresponding object-specific action pattern than visual perception. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that with the growing severity of nicotine dependence, brain regions involved in object perception, memory, self-processing, and motor control exhibit an increasing preference for haptic over visual smoking cues. This difference was not found for control stimuli. Considering the sensory modality of the presented cues could serve to develop more reliable fMRI-specific biomarkers, more ecologically valid experimental designs, and more effective cue-exposure therapies of addiction.

Brain activation for response inhibition under gaming cue distraction in internet gaming disorder

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Gin-Chung Liu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We evaluated neural substrates related to the loss of control in college students with internet gaming disorder (IGD. We hypothesized that deficit in response inhibition under gaming cue distraction was the possible mechanism for the loss of control internet use. Eleven cases of IGD and 11 controls performed Go/NoGo tasks with/without gaming distraction in the functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. When the gaming picture was shown as background while individuals were performing Go/NoGo tasks, the IGD group committed more commission errors. The control group increased their brain activations more over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC and superior parietal lobe under gaming cue distraction in comparison with the IGD group. Furthermore, brain activation of the right DLPFC and superior parietal lobe were negatively associated with performance of response inhibition among the IGD group. The results suggest that the function of response inhibition was impaired under gaming distraction among the IGD group, and individuals with IGD could not activate right DLPFC and superior parietal lobe to keep cognitive control and attention allocation for response inhibition under gaming cue distraction. This mechanism should be addressed in any intervention for IGD.

Teaching physical activities to students with significant disabilities using video modeling.

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Cannella-Malone, Helen I; Mizrachi, Sharona V; Sabielny, Linsey M; Jimenez, Eliseo D

2013-06-01

The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of video modeling on teaching physical activities to three adolescents with significant disabilities. The study implemented a multiple baseline across six physical activities (three per student): jumping rope, scooter board with cones, ladder drill (i.e., feet going in and out), ladder design (i.e., multiple steps), shuttle run, and disc ride. Additional prompt procedures (i.e., verbal, gestural, visual cues, and modeling) were implemented within the study. After the students mastered the physical activities, we tested to see if they would link the skills together (i.e., complete an obstacle course). All three students made progress learning the physical activities, but only one learned them with video modeling alone (i.e., without error correction). Video modeling can be an effective tool for teaching students with significant disabilities various physical activities, though additional prompting procedures may be needed.

Auditory Verbal Cues Alter the Perceived Flavor of Beverages and Ease of Swallowing: A Psychometric and Electrophysiological Analysis

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Aya Nakamura

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We investigated the possible effects of auditory verbal cues on flavor perception and swallow physiology for younger and elder participants. Apple juice, aojiru (grass juice, and water were ingested with or without auditory verbal cues. Flavor perception and ease of swallowing were measured using a visual analog scale and swallow physiology by surface electromyography and cervical auscultation. The auditory verbal cues had significant positive effects on flavor and ease of swallowing as well as on swallow physiology. The taste score and the ease of swallowing score significantly increased when the participant’s anticipation was primed by accurate auditory verbal cues. There was no significant effect of auditory verbal cues on distaste score. Regardless of age, the maximum suprahyoid muscle activity significantly decreased when a beverage was ingested without auditory verbal cues. The interval between the onset of swallowing sounds and the peak timing point of the infrahyoid muscle activity significantly shortened when the anticipation induced by the cue was contradicted in the elderly participant group. These results suggest that auditory verbal cues can improve the perceived flavor of beverages and swallow physiology.

BOLD data representing activation and connectivity for rare no-go versus frequent go cues

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Harma Meffert

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The neural circuitry underlying response control is often studied using go/no-go tasks, in which participants are required to respond as fast as possible to go cues and withhold from responding to no-go stimuli. In the current task, response control was studied using a fully counterbalanced design in which blocks with a low frequency of no-go cues (75% go, 25% no-go were alternated with blocks with a low frequency of go cues (25% go, 75% no-go; see also “Segregating attention from response control when performing a motor inhibition task: Segregating attention from response control” [1]. We applied a whole brain corrected, paired t-test to the data assessing for regions differentially activated by low frequency no-go cues relative to high frequency go cues. In addition, we conducted a generalized psychophysiological interaction analysis on the data using a right inferior frontal gyrus seed region. This region was identified through the BOLD response t-test and was chosen because right inferior gyrus is highly implicated in response inhibition.

Post-cueing deficits with maintained cueing benefits in patients with Parkinson's disease dementia

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Susanne eGräber

2014-11-01

Full Text Available In Parkinson’s disease (PD internal cueing mechanisms are impaired leading to symptoms such as like hypokinesia. However external cues can improve movement execution by using cortical resources. These cortical processes can be affected by cognitive decline in dementia.It is still unclear how dementia in PD influences external cueing. We investigated a group of 25 PD patients with dementia (PDD and 25 non-demented PD patients (PDnD matched by age, sex and disease duration in a simple reaction time (SRT task using an additional acoustic cue. PDD patients benefited from the additional cue in similar magnitude as did PDnD patients. However, withdrawal of the cue led to a significantly increased reaction time in the PDD group compared to the PDnD patients. Our results indicate that even PDD patients can benefit from strategies using external cue presentation but the process of cognitive worsening can reduce the effect when cues are withdrawn.

Combining the Post-Cue Task and the Perceptual Identification Task to Assess Parallel Activation and Mutual Facilitation of Related Primes and Targets.

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Scherer, Demian; Wentura, Dirk

2018-03-01

Recent theories assume a mutual facilitation in case of semantic overlap for concepts being activated simultaneously. We provide evidence for this claim using a semantic priming paradigm. To test for mutual facilitation of related concepts, a perceptual identification task was employed, presenting prime-target pairs briefly and masked, with an SOA of 0 ms (i.e., prime and target were presented concurrently, one above the other). Participants were instructed to identify the target. In Experiment 1, a cue defining the target was presented at stimulus onset, whereas in Experiment 2 the cue was not presented before the offset of stimuli. Accordingly, in Experiment 2, a post-cue task was merged with the perceptual identification task. We obtained significant semantic priming effects in both experiments. This result is compatible with the view that two concepts can both be activated in parallel and can mutually facilitate each other if they are related.

Retrieval-induced NMDA receptor-dependent Arc expression in two models of cocaine-cue memory

OpenAIRE

Alaghband, Yasaman; O'Dell, Steven J.; Azarnia, Siavash; Khalaj, Anna J.; Guzowski, John F.; Marshall, John F.

2014-01-01

The association of environmental cues with drugs of abuse results in persistent drug-cue memories. These memories contribute significantly to relapse among addicts. While conditioned place preference (CPP) is a well-established paradigm frequently used to examine the modulation of drug-cue memories, very few studies have used the non-preference-based model conditioned activity (CA) for this purpose. Here, we used both experimental approaches to investigate the neural substrates of cocaine-cue...

Functional neuroimaging studies in addiction: multisensory drug stimuli and neural cue reactivity.

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Yalachkov, Yavor; Kaiser, Jochen; Naumer, Marcus J

2012-02-01

Neuroimaging studies on cue reactivity have substantially contributed to the understanding of addiction. In the majority of studies drug cues were presented in the visual modality. However, exposure to conditioned cues in real life occurs often simultaneously in more than one sensory modality. Therefore, multisensory cues should elicit cue reactivity more consistently than unisensory stimuli and increase the ecological validity and the reliability of brain activation measurements. This review includes the data from 44 whole-brain functional neuroimaging studies with a total of 1168 subjects (812 patients and 356 controls). Correlations between neural cue reactivity and clinical covariates such as craving have been reported significantly more often for multisensory than unisensory cues in the motor cortex, insula and posterior cingulate cortex. Thus, multisensory drug cues are particularly effective in revealing brain-behavior relationships in neurocircuits of addiction responsible for motivation, craving awareness and self-related processing. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of pictorial depth cues, binocular disparity cues and motion parallax depth cues on lightness perception in three-dimensional virtual scenes.

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Michiteru Kitazaki

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Surface lightness perception is affected by scene interpretation. There is some experimental evidence that perceived lightness under bi-ocular viewing conditions is different from perceived lightness in actual scenes but there are also reports that viewing conditions have little or no effect on perceived color. We investigated how mixes of depth cues affect perception of lightness in three-dimensional rendered scenes containing strong gradients of illumination in depth.Observers viewed a virtual room (4 m width x 5 m height x 17.5 m depth with checkerboard walls and floor. In four conditions, the room was presented with or without binocular disparity (BD depth cues and with or without motion parallax (MP depth cues. In all conditions, observers were asked to adjust the luminance of a comparison surface to match the lightness of test surfaces placed at seven different depths (8.5-17.5 m in the scene. We estimated lightness versus depth profiles in all four depth cue conditions. Even when observers had only pictorial depth cues (no MP, no BD, they partially but significantly discounted the illumination gradient in judging lightness. Adding either MP or BD led to significantly greater discounting and both cues together produced the greatest discounting. The effects of MP and BD were approximately additive. BD had greater influence at near distances than far.These results suggest the surface lightness perception is modulated by three-dimensional perception/interpretation using pictorial, binocular-disparity, and motion-parallax cues additively. We propose a two-stage (2D and 3D processing model for lightness perception.

Morphine Reward Promotes Cue-Sensitive Learning: Implication of Dorsal Striatal CREB Activity

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Mathieu Baudonnat

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Different parallel neural circuits interact and may even compete to process and store information: whereas stimulus–response (S–R learning critically depends on the dorsal striatum (DS, spatial memory relies on the hippocampus (HPC. Strikingly, despite its potential importance for our understanding of addictive behaviors, the impact of drug rewards on memory systems dynamics has not been extensively studied. Here, we assessed long-term effects of drug- vs food reinforcement on the subsequent use of S–R vs spatial learning strategies and their neural substrates. Mice were trained in a Y-maze cue-guided task, during which either food or morphine injections into the ventral tegmental area (VTA were used as rewards. Although drug- and food-reinforced mice learned the Y-maze task equally well, drug-reinforced mice exhibited a preferential use of an S–R learning strategy when tested in a water-maze competition task designed to dissociate cue-based and spatial learning. This cognitive bias was associated with a persistent increase in the phosphorylated form of cAMP response element-binding protein phosphorylation (pCREB within the DS, and a decrease of pCREB expression in the HPC. Pharmacological inhibition of striatal PKA pathway in drug-rewarded mice limited the morphine-induced increase in levels of pCREB in DS and restored a balanced use of spatial vs cue-based learning. Our findings suggest that drug (opiate reward biases the engagement of separate memory systems toward a predominant use of the cue-dependent system via an increase in learning-related striatal pCREB activity. Persistent functional imbalance between striatal and hippocampal activity could contribute to the persistence of addictive behaviors, or counteract the efficiency of pharmacological or psychotherapeutic treatments.

Global Repetition Influences Contextual Cueing

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Zang, Xuelian; Zinchenko, Artyom; Jia, Lina; Li, Hong

2018-01-01

Our visual system has a striking ability to improve visual search based on the learning of repeated ambient regularities, an effect named contextual cueing. Whereas most of the previous studies investigated contextual cueing effect with the same number of repeated and non-repeated search displays per block, the current study focused on whether a global repetition frequency formed by different presentation ratios between the repeated and non-repeated configurations influence contextual cueing effect. Specifically, the number of repeated and non-repeated displays presented in each block was manipulated: 12:12, 20:4, 4:20, and 4:4 in Experiments 1–4, respectively. The results revealed a significant contextual cueing effect when the global repetition frequency is high (≥1:1 ratio) in Experiments 1, 2, and 4, given that processing of repeated displays was expedited relative to non-repeated displays. Nevertheless, the contextual cueing effect reduced to a non-significant level when the repetition frequency reduced to 4:20 in Experiment 3. These results suggested that the presentation frequency of repeated relative to the non-repeated displays could influence the strength of contextual cueing. In other words, global repetition statistics could be a crucial factor to mediate contextual cueing effect. PMID:29636716

Effects of self-relevant cues and cue valence on autobiographical memory specificity in dysphoria.

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Matsumoto, Noboru; Mochizuki, Satoshi

2017-04-01

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity (rAMS) is a characteristic memory bias observed in depression. To corroborate the capture hypothesis in the CaRFAX (capture and rumination, functional avoidance, executive capacity and control) model, we investigated the effects of self-relevant cues and cue valence on rAMS using an adapted Autobiographical Memory Test conducted with a nonclinical population. Hierarchical linear modelling indicated that the main effects of depression and self-relevant cues elicited rAMS. Moreover, the three-way interaction among valence, self-relevance, and depression scores was significant. A simple slope test revealed that dysphoric participants experienced rAMS in response to highly self-relevant positive cues and low self-relevant negative cues. These results partially supported the capture hypothesis in nonclinical dysphoria. It is important to consider cue valence in future studies examining the capture hypothesis.

Discriminating individually considerate and authoritarian leaders by speech activity cues

OpenAIRE

Feese, Sebastian; Muaremi, Amir; Arnrich, Bert; Tröster, Gerhard; Meyer, Bertolt; Jonas, Klaus

2011-01-01

Effective leadership can increase team performance, however up to now the influence of specific micro-level behavioral patterns on team performance is unclear. At the same time, current behavior observation methods in social psychology mostly rely on manual video annotations that impede research. In our work, we follow a sensor-based approach to automatically extract speech activity cues to discriminate individualized considerate from authoritarian leadership. On a subset of 35 selected...

A configural dominant account of contextual cueing: Configural cues are stronger than colour cues.

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Kunar, Melina A; John, Rebecca; Sweetman, Hollie

2014-01-01

Previous work has shown that reaction times to find a target in displays that have been repeated are faster than those for displays that have never been seen before. This learning effect, termed "contextual cueing" (CC), has been shown using contexts such as the configuration of the distractors in the display and the background colour. However, it is not clear how these two contexts interact to facilitate search. We investigated this here by comparing the strengths of these two cues when they appeared together. In Experiment 1, participants searched for a target that was cued by both colour and distractor configural cues, compared with when the target was only predicted by configural information. The results showed that the addition of a colour cue did not increase contextual cueing. In Experiment 2, participants searched for a target that was cued by both colour and distractor configuration compared with when the target was only cued by colour. The results showed that adding a predictive configural cue led to a stronger CC benefit. Experiments 3 and 4 tested the disruptive effects of removing either a learned colour cue or a learned configural cue and whether there was cue competition when colour and configural cues were presented together. Removing the configural cue was more disruptive to CC than removing colour, and configural learning was shown to overshadow the learning of colour cues. The data support a configural dominant account of CC, where configural cues act as the stronger cue in comparison to colour when they are presented together.

Default mode network deactivation to smoking cue relative to food cue predicts treatment outcome in nicotine use disorder.

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Wilcox, Claire E; Claus, Eric D; Calhoun, Vince D; Rachakonda, Srinivas; Littlewood, Rae A; Mickey, Jessica; Arenella, Pamela B; Goodreau, Natalie; Hutchison, Kent E

2018-01-01

Identifying predictors of treatment outcome for nicotine use disorders (NUDs) may help improve efficacy of established treatments, like varenicline. Brain reactivity to drug stimuli predicts relapse risk in nicotine and other substance use disorders in some studies. Activity in the default mode network (DMN) is affected by drug cues and other palatable cues, but its clinical significance is unclear. In this study, 143 individuals with NUD (male n = 91, ages 18-55 years) received a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan during a visual cue task during which they were presented with a series of smoking-related or food-related video clips prior to randomization to treatment with varenicline (n = 80) or placebo. Group independent components analysis was utilized to isolate the DMN, and temporal sorting was used to calculate the difference between the DMN blood-oxygen-level dependent signal during smoke cues and that during food cues for each individual. Food cues were associated with greater deactivation compared with smoke cues in the DMN. In correcting for baseline smoking and other clinical variables, which have been shown to be related to treatment outcome in previous work, a less positive Smoke - Food difference score predicted greater smoking at 6 and 12 weeks when both treatment groups were combined (P = 0.005, β = -0.766). An exploratory analysis of executive control and salience networks demonstrated that a more positive Smoke - Food difference score for executive control network predicted a more robust response to varenicline relative to placebo. These findings provide further support to theories that brain reactivity to palatable cues, and in particular in DMN, may have a direct clinical relevance in NUD. © 2017 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Retrieval cue and delay interval influence the relationship between prospective memory and activities of daily living in older adults.

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Tierney, Savanna M; Bucks, Romola S; Weinborn, Michael; Hodgson, Erica; Woods, Steven Paul

2016-01-01

Older adults commonly experience mild declines in everyday functioning and the strategic aspects of prospective memory (PM). This study used multiprocess theory to examine whether the strategic demands of retrieval cue type (event vs. time based) and delay interval length (2 vs. 15 min) influence the relationship between PM and activities of daily living (ADLs) in older adults. Participants included 97 community-dwelling older adults recruited from the Western Australia Participant Pool. Participants were administered the Memory for Intentions Screening Test (MIST) and Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) as part of a larger neurocognitive assessment. A knowledgeable informant completed the Activities of Daily Living Questionnaire (ADLQ), from which a cutpoint of ≥ 1 was used to classify participants into "ADL normal" (n = 37) or "mild ADL problems" (n = 60) groups. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) controlling for age was conducted with ADL group as the between-subjects factor and either MIST or PRMQ cue and delay scores as the within-subjects factors. We observed a significant ADL group by PM interaction on the MIST, with pair-wise analyses showing that the mild ADL problems group performed worse than ADL normal participants on the 15-min time-based scale (p cue-delay variable differed between the two ADL groups (ps > .10). Findings indicate that decrements in strategically demanding cue monitoring and detection over longer PM delays may partly explain older adults' mild problems in everyday functioning. Findings may inform neuropsychological interventions aimed at maintaining ADL independence and enhancing quality of life in older adults.

Neural basis of uncertain cue processing in trait anxiety.

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Zhang, Meng; Ma, Chao; Luo, Yanyan; Li, Ji; Li, Qingwei; Liu, Yijun; Ding, Cody; Qiu, Jiang

2016-02-19

Individuals with high trait anxiety form a non-clinical group with a predisposition for an anxiety-related bias in emotional and cognitive processing that is considered by some to be a prerequisite for psychiatric disorders. Anxious individuals tend to experience more worry under uncertainty, and processing uncertain information is an important, but often overlooked factor in anxiety. So, we decided to explore the brain correlates of processing uncertain information in individuals with high trait anxiety using the learn-test paradigm. Behaviorally, the percentages on memory test and the likelihood ratios of identifying novel stimuli under uncertainty were similar to the certain fear condition, but different from the certain neutral condition. The brain results showed that the visual cortex, bilateral fusiform gyrus, and right parahippocampal gyrus were active during the processing of uncertain cues. Moreover, we found that trait anxiety was positively correlated with the BOLD signal of the right parahippocampal gyrus during the processing of uncertain cues. No significant results were found in the amygdala during uncertain cue processing. These results suggest that memory retrieval is associated with uncertain cue processing, which is underpinned by over-activation of the right parahippocampal gyrus, in individuals with high trait anxiety.

The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and caudate pathway: New evidence for cue-induced craving of smokers.

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Yuan, Kai; Yu, Dahua; Bi, Yanzhi; Wang, Ruonan; Li, Min; Zhang, Yajuan; Dong, Minghao; Zhai, Jinquan; Li, Yangding; Lu, Xiaoqi; Tian, Jie

2017-09-01

Although the activation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the striatum had been found in smoking cue induced craving task, whether and how the functional interactions and white matter integrity between these brain regions contribute to craving processing during smoking cue exposure remains unknown. Twenty-five young male smokers and 26 age- and gender-matched nonsmokers participated in the smoking cue-reactivity task. Craving related brain activation was extracted and psychophysiological interactions (PPI) analysis was used to specify the PFC-efferent pathways contributed to smoking cue-induced craving. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and probabilistic tractography was used to explore whether the fiber connectivity strength facilitated functional coupling of the circuit with the smoking cue-induced craving. The PPI analysis revealed the negative functional coupling of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the caudate during smoking cue induced craving task, which positively correlated with the craving score. Neither significant activation nor functional connectivity in smoking cue exposure task was detected in nonsmokers. DTI analyses revealed that fiber tract integrity negatively correlated with functional coupling in the DLPFC-caudate pathway and activation of the caudate induced by smoking cue in smokers. Moreover, the relationship between the fiber connectivity integrity of the left DLPFC-caudate and smoking cue induced caudate activation can be fully mediated by functional coupling strength of this circuit in smokers. The present study highlighted the left DLPFC-caudate pathway in smoking cue-induced craving in smokers, which may reflect top-down prefrontal modulation of striatal reward processing in smoking cue induced craving processing. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4644-4656, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Testing the effect of text messaging cues to promote physical activity habits: a worksite-based exploratory intervention.

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Fournier, M; d'Arripe-Longueville, F; Radel, R

2017-10-01

This study aims to test the efficacy of text messaging cues (SMS) to promote physical activity (PA) habit formation in the workplace. Employees (N = 49; 28 females and 21 males, Mage = 47.5 ± 8.29 years) were randomized into two parallel groups: a PA group enrolled in a 28-week supervised PA program and a PA+SMS group enrolled in the same PA program with text messaging cues received before their PA sessions. The exercise habit was assessed every week from self-reports on an online application. PA maintenance and several physical fitness measures were also assessed prior to and after the intervention to evaluate its general impact. Mixed model analysis of the 603 observations indicated a small but significant effect of the SMS cues on the speed at which participants engaged in PA behaviors, as the significant interaction effect revealed that the slope of the exercise habit over time was slightly steeper in the PA+SMS group (B = 0.0462, P = 0.0001) than in the PA group (B = 0.0216, P = 0.01). SMS delivery had a marginal effect on the maintenance of PA behaviors 1 year after the intervention. The results suggest that text messaging can help to form PA habits at the workplace and might facilitate long-term maintenance of PA behaviors. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Individual differences in using geometric and featural cues to maintain spatial orientation: cue quantity and cue ambiguity are more important than cue type.

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Kelly, Jonathan W; McNamara, Timothy P; Bodenheimer, Bobby; Carr, Thomas H; Rieser, John J

2009-02-01

Two experiments explored the role of environmental cues in maintaining spatial orientation (sense of self-location and direction) during locomotion. Of particular interest was the importance of geometric cues (provided by environmental surfaces) and featural cues (nongeometric properties provided by striped walls) in maintaining spatial orientation. Participants performed a spatial updating task within virtual environments containing geometric or featural cues that were ambiguous or unambiguous indicators of self-location and direction. Cue type (geometric or featural) did not affect performance, but the number and ambiguity of environmental cues did. Gender differences, interpreted as a proxy for individual differences in spatial ability and/or experience, highlight the interaction between cue quantity and ambiguity. When environmental cues were ambiguous, men stayed oriented with either one or two cues, whereas women stayed oriented only with two. When environmental cues were unambiguous, women stayed oriented with one cue.

Cue-induced craving among inhalant users: Development and preliminary validation of a visual cue paradigm.

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Jain, Shobhit; Dhawan, Anju; Kumaran, S Senthil; Pattanayak, Raman Deep; Jain, Raka

2017-12-01

Cue-induced craving is known to be associated with a higher risk of relapse, wherein drug-specific cues become conditioned stimuli, eliciting conditioned responses. Cue-reactivity paradigm are important tools to study psychological responses and functional neuroimaging changes. However, till date, there has been no specific study or a validated paradigm for inhalant cue-induced craving research. The study aimed to develop and validate visual cue stimulus for inhalant cue-associated craving. The first step (picture selection) involved screening and careful selection of 30 cue- and 30 neutral-pictures based on their relevance for naturalistic settings. In the second step (time optimization), a random selection of ten cue-pictures each was presented for 4s, 6s, and 8s to seven adolescent male inhalant users, and pre-post craving response was compared using a Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) for each of the picture and time. In the third step (validation), craving response for each of 30 cue- and 30 neutral-pictures were analysed among 20 adolescent inhalant users. Findings revealed a significant difference in before and after craving response for the cue-pictures, but not neutral-pictures. Using ROC-curve, pictures were arranged in order of craving intensity. Finally, 20 best cue- and 20 neutral-pictures were used for the development of a 480s visual cue paradigm. This is the first study to systematically develop an inhalant cue picture paradigm which can be used as a tool to examine cue induced craving in neurobiological studies. Further research, including its further validation in larger study and diverse samples, is required. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Changes in expression of c-Fos protein following cocaine-cue extinction learning.

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Nic Dhonnchadha, B Á; Lovascio, B F; Shrestha, N; Lin, A; Leite-Morris, K A; Man, H Y; Kaplan, G B; Kantak, K M

2012-09-01

Extinguishing abnormally strengthened learned responses to cues associated with drugs of abuse remains a key tactic for alleviating addiction. To assist in developing pharmacotherapies to augment exposure therapy for relapse prevention, investigation into neurobiological underpinnings of drug-cue extinction learning is needed. We used regional analyses of c-Fos and GluR2 protein expression to delineate neural activity and plasticity that may be associated with cocaine-cue extinction learning. Rats were trained to self-administer cocaine paired with a light cue, and later underwent a single 2h extinction session for which cocaine was withheld but response-contingent cues were presented (cocaine-cue extinction). Control groups consisted of rats yoked to animals self-administering cocaine and receiving saline non-contingently followed by an extinction session, or rats trained to self-administer cocaine followed by a no-extinction session for which levers were retracted, and cocaine and cues were withheld. Among 11 brain sites examined, extinction training increased c-Fos expression in basolateral amygdala and prelimbic prefrontal cortex of cocaine-cue extinguished rats relative to both control conditions. In dorsal subiculum and infralimbic prefrontal cortex, extinction training increased c-Fos expression in both cocaine-cue and saline-cue extinguished rats relative to the no-extinction control condition. GluR2 protein expression was not altered in any site examined after extinction or control training. Findings suggest that basolateral amygdala and prelimbic prefrontal cortex neurons are activated during acquisition of cocaine-cue extinction learning, a process that is independent of changes in GluR2 abundance. Other sites are implicated in processing the significance of cues that are present early in extinction training. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Brain activation patterns associated with cue reactivity and craving in abstinent problem gamblers, heavy smokers and healthy controls: an fMRI study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goudriaan, A.E.; de Ruiter, M.B.; van den Brink, W.; Oosterlaan, J.; Veltman, D.J.

2010-01-01

Abnormal cue reactivity is a central characteristic of addiction, associated with increased activity in motivation, attention and memory related brain circuits. In this neuroimaging study, cue reactivity in problem gamblers (PRG) was compared with cue reactivity in heavy smokers (HSM) and healthy

Cue-reactivity in experienced electronic cigarette users: Novel stimulus videos and a pilot fMRI study

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Nichols, Travis T.; Foulds, Jonathan; Yingst, Jessica; Veldheer, Susan; Hrabovsky, Shari; Richie, John; Eissenberg, Thomas; Wilson, Stephen J.

2015-01-01

Some individuals who try electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) continue to use long-term. Previous research has investigated the safety of e-cigarettes and their potential for use in smoking cessation, but comparatively little research has explored chronic or habitual e-cigarette use. In particular, the relationship between e-cigarette cues and craving is unknown. We sought to bridge this gap by developing a novel set of e-cigarette (salient) and electronic toothbrush (neutral) videos for use in cue-reactivity paradigms. Additionally, we demonstrate the utility of this approach in a pilot fMRI study of 7 experienced e-cigarette users. Participants were scanned while viewing the cue videos before and after 10 minute use of their own e-cigarettes (producing an 11.7 ng/ml increase in plasma nicotine concentration). A significant session (pre- and post-use) by video type (salient and neutral) interaction was exhibited in many sensorimotor areas commonly activated in other cue-reactivity paradigms. We did not detect significant cue-related activity in other brain regions notable in the craving literature. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed, including the importance of matching cue stimuli to participants’ experiences. PMID:26478134

Cue-reactivity in experienced electronic cigarette users: Novel stimulus videos and a pilot fMRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Nichols, Travis T; Foulds, Jonathan; Yingst, Jessica M; Veldheer, Susan; Hrabovsky, Shari; Richie, John; Eissenberg, Thomas; Wilson, Stephen J

2016-05-01

Some individuals who try electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) continue to use long-term. Previous research has investigated the safety of e-cigarettes and their potential for use in smoking cessation, but comparatively little research has explored chronic or habitual e-cigarette use. In particular, the relationship between e-cigarette cues and craving is unknown. We sought to bridge this gap by developing a novel set of e-cigarette (salient) and electronic toothbrush (neutral) videos for use in cue-reactivity paradigms. Additionally, we demonstrate the utility of this approach in a pilot fMRI study of 7 experienced e-cigarette users. Participants were scanned while viewing the cue videos before and after 10min use of their own e-cigarettes (producing an 11.7ng/ml increase in plasma nicotine concentration). A significant session (pre- and post-use) by video type (salient and neutral) interaction was exhibited in many sensorimotor areas commonly activated in other cue-reactivity paradigms. We did not detect significant cue-related activity in other brain regions notable in the craving literature. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed, including the importance of matching cue stimuli to participants' experiences. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The habenula governs the attribution of incentive salience to reward predictive cues

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Danna, Carey L.; Shepard, Paul D.; Elmer, Greg I.

2013-01-01

The attribution of incentive salience to reward associated cues is critical for motivation and the pursuit of rewards. Disruptions in the integrity of the neural systems controlling these processes can lead to avolition and anhedonia, symptoms that cross the diagnostic boundaries of many neuropsychiatric illnesses. Here, we consider whether the habenula (Hb), a region recently demonstrated to encode negatively valenced events, also modulates the attribution of incentive salience to a neutral cue predicting a food reward. The Pavlovian autoshaping paradigm was used in the rat as an investigative tool to dissociate Pavlovian learning processes imparting strictly predictive value from learning that attributes incentive motivational value. Electrolytic lesions of the fasciculus retroflexus (fr), the sole pathway through which descending Hb efferents are conveyed, significantly increased incentive salience as measured by conditioned approaches to a cue light predictive of reward. Conversely, generation of a fictive Hb signal via fr stimulation during CS+ presentation significantly decreased the incentive salience of the predictive cue. Neither manipulation altered the reward predictive value of the cue as measured by conditioned approach to the food. Our results provide new evidence supporting a significant role for the Hb in governing the attribution of incentive motivational salience to reward predictive cues and further imply that pathological changes in Hb activity could contribute to the aberrant pursuit of debilitating goals or avolition and depression-like symptoms. PMID:24368898

The habenula governs the attribution of incentive salience to reward predictive cues.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carey L. Danna

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The attribution of incentive salience to reward associated cues is critical for motivation and the pursuit of rewards. Disruptions in the integrity of the neural systems controlling these processes can lead to avolition and anhedonia, symptoms that cross the diagnostic boundaries of many neuropsychiatric illnesses. Here, we consider whether the habenula (Hb, a region recently demonstrated to encode negatively valenced events, also modulates the attribution of incentive salience to a neutral cue predicting a food reward. The Pavlovian autoshaping paradigm was used in the rat as an investigative tool to dissociate Pavlovian learning processes imparting strictly predictive value from learning that attributes incentive motivational value. Electrolytic lesions of the fasciculus retroflexus (fr, the sole pathway through which descending Hb efferents are conveyed, significantly increased incentive salience as measured by conditioned approaches to a cue light predictive of reward. Conversely, generation of a fictive Hb signal via fr stimulation during CS+ presentation significantly decreased the incentive salience of the predictive cue. Neither manipulation altered the reward predictive value of the cue as measured by conditioned approach to the food. Our results provide new evidence supporting a significant role for the Hb in governing the attribution of incentive motivational salience to reward predictive cues and further imply that pathological changes in Hb activity could contribute to the aberrant pursuit of debilitating goals or avolition and depression-like symptoms.

Effects of cognitive load on neural and behavioral responses to smoking cue distractors

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MacLean, R. Ross; Nichols, Travis T.; LeBreton, James M.; Wilson, Stephen J.

2017-01-01

Smoking cessation failures are frequently thought to reflect poor top-down regulatory control over behavior. Previous studies suggest that smoking cues occupy limited working memory resources, an effect that may contribute to difficulty achieving abstinence. Few studies have evaluated the effects of cognitive load on the ability to actively maintain information in the face of distracting smoking cues. The current study adapted an fMRI probed recall task under low and high cognitive load with three distractor conditions: control, neutral images, or smoking-related images. Consistent with a limited-resource model of cue reactivity, we predicted that performance of daily smokers (n=17) would be most impaired when high load was paired with smoking distractors. Results demonstrated a main effect of load, with decreased accuracy under high, compared to low, cognitive load. Surprisingly, an interaction revealed the effect of load was weakest in the smoking cue distractor condition. Along with this behavioral effect, we observed significantly greater activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) in the low load condition relative to the high load condition for trials containing smoking cue distractors. Furthermore, load-related changes in rIFG activation partially mediated the effects of load on task accuracy in the smoking cue distractor condition. These findings are discussed in the context of prevailing cognitive and cue reactivity theories. Results suggest that high cognitive load does not necessarily make smokers more susceptible to interference from smoking-related stimuli, and that elevated load may even have a buffering effect in the presence of smoking cues under certain conditions. PMID:27012714

Phytoplankton can actively diversify their migration strategy in response to turbulent cues.

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Sengupta, Anupam; Carrara, Francesco; Stocker, Roman

2017-03-23

Marine phytoplankton inhabit a dynamic environment where turbulence, together with nutrient and light availability, shapes species fitness, succession and selection. Many species of phytoplankton are motile and undertake diel vertical migrations to gain access to nutrient-rich deeper layers at night and well-lit surface waters during the day. Disruption of this migratory strategy by turbulence is considered to be an important cause of the succession between motile and non-motile species when conditions turn turbulent. However, this classical view neglects the possibility that motile species may actively respond to turbulent cues to avoid layers of strong turbulence. Here we report that phytoplankton, including raphidophytes and dinoflagellates, can actively diversify their migratory strategy in response to hydrodynamic cues characteristic of overturning by Kolmogorov-scale eddies. Upon experiencing repeated overturning with timescales and statistics representative of ocean turbulence, an upward-swimming population rapidly (5-60 min) splits into two subpopulations, one swimming upward and one swimming downward. Quantitative morphological analysis of the harmful-algal-bloom-forming raphidophyte Heterosigma akashiwo together with a model of cell mechanics revealed that this behaviour was accompanied by a modulation of the cells' fore-aft asymmetry. The minute magnitude of the required modulation, sufficient to invert the preferential swimming direction of the cells, highlights the advanced level of control that phytoplankton can exert on their migratory behaviour. Together with observations of enhanced cellular stress after overturning and the typically deleterious effects of strong turbulence on motile phytoplankton, these results point to an active adaptation of H. akashiwo to increase the chance of evading turbulent layers by diversifying the direction of migration within the population, in a manner suggestive of evolutionary bet-hedging. This migratory behaviour

The relationship between amygdala activation and passive exposure time to an aversive cue during a continuous performance task.

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Irina A Strigo

2010-11-01

Full Text Available The allocation of attention modulates negative emotional processing in the amygdala. However, the role of passive exposure time to emotional signals in the modulation of amygdala activity during active task performance has not been examined. In two functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI experiments conducted in two different groups of healthy human subjects, we examined activation in the amygdala due to cued anticipation of painful stimuli while subjects performed a simple continuous performance task (CPT with either a fixed or a parametrically varied trial duration. In the first experiment (N = 16, engagement in the CPT during a task with fixed trial duration produced the expected attenuation of amygdala activation, but close analysis suggested that the attenuation occurred during the period of active engagement in CPT, and that amygdala activity increased proportionately during the remainder of each trial, when subjects were passively exposed to the pain cue. In the second experiment (N = 12, the duration of each trial was parametrically varied, and we found that amygdala activation was linearly related to the time of passive exposure to the anticipatory cue. We suggest that amygdala activation during negative anticipatory processing depends directly on the passive exposure time to the negative cue.

Reward-related brain response and craving correlates of marijuana cue exposure: a preliminary study in treatment-seeking marijuana-dependent subjects.

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Goldman, Marina; Szucs-Reed, Regina P; Jagannathan, Kanchana; Ehrman, Ronald N; Wang, Ze; Li, Yin; Suh, Jesse J; Kampman, Kyle; O'Brien, Charles P; Childress, Anna Rose; Franklin, Teresa R

2013-01-01

: Determining the brain substrates underlying the motivation to abuse addictive drugs is critical for understanding and treating addictive disorders. Laboratory neuroimaging studies have demonstrated differential activation of limbic and motivational circuitry (eg, amygdala, hippocampus, ventral striatum, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex) triggered by cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and alcohol cues. The literature on neural responses to marijuana cues is sparse. Thus, the goals of this study were to characterize the brain's response to marijuana cues, a major motivator underlying drug use and relapse, and determine whether these responses are linked to self-reported craving in a clinically relevant population of treatment-seeking marijuana-dependent subjects. : Marijuana craving was assessed in 12 marijuana-dependent subjects using the Marijuana Craving Questionnaire-Short Form. Subsequently, blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired during exposure to alternating 20-second blocks of marijuana-related versus matched nondrug visual cues. : Brain activation during marijuana cue exposure was significantly greater in the bilateral amygdala and the hippocampus. Significant positive correlations between craving scores and brain activation were found in the ventral striatum and the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (P cues and craving and extends the current literature on marijuana cue reactivity. Furthermore, the correlative relationship between craving and brain activity in reward-related regions was observed in a clinically relevant sample (treatment-seeking marijuana-dependent subjects). Results are consistent with prior findings in cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and alcohol cue studies, indicating that the brain substrates of cue-triggered drug motivation are shared across abused substances.

Effects of cognitive load on neural and behavioral responses to smoking-cue distractors.

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MacLean, R Ross; Nichols, Travis T; LeBreton, James M; Wilson, Stephen J

2016-08-01

Smoking cessation failures are frequently thought to reflect poor top-down regulatory control over behavior. Previous studies have suggested that smoking cues occupy limited working memory resources, an effect that may contribute to difficulty achieving abstinence. Few studies have evaluated the effects of cognitive load on the ability to actively maintain information in the face of distracting smoking cues. For the present study, we adapted an fMRI probed recall task under low and high cognitive load with three distractor conditions: control, neutral images, or smoking-related images. Consistent with a limited-resource model of cue reactivity, we predicted that the performance of daily smokers (n = 17) would be most impaired when high load was paired with smoking distractors. The results demonstrated a main effect of load, with decreased accuracy under high, as compared to low, cognitive load. Surprisingly, an interaction revealed that the effect of load was weakest in the smoking cue distractor condition. Along with this behavioral effect, we observed significantly greater activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) in the low-load condition than in the high-load condition for trials containing smoking cue distractors. Furthermore, load-related changes in rIFG activation partially mediated the effects of load on task accuracy in the smoking-cue distractor condition. These findings are discussed in the context of prevailing cognitive and cue reactivity theories. These results suggest that high cognitive load does not necessarily make smokers more susceptible to interference from smoking-related stimuli, and that elevated load may even have a buffering effect in the presence of smoking cues under certain conditions.

Enhanced attentional bias towards sexually explicit cues in individuals with and without compulsive sexual behaviours.

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Daisy J Mechelmans

Full Text Available Compulsive sexual behaviour (CSB is relatively common and has been associated with significant distress and psychosocial impairments. CSB has been conceptualized as either an impulse control disorder or a non-substance 'behavioural' addiction. Substance use disorders are commonly associated with attentional biases to drug cues which are believed to reflect processes of incentive salience. Here we assess male CSB subjects compared to age-matched male healthy controls using a dot probe task to assess attentional bias to sexually explicit cues. We show that compared to healthy volunteers, CSB subjects have enhanced attentional bias to explicit cues but not neutral cues particularly for early stimuli latency. Our findings suggest enhanced attentional bias to explicit cues possibly related to an early orienting attentional response. This finding dovetails with our recent observation that sexually explicit videos were associated with greater activity in a neural network similar to that observed in drug-cue-reactivity studies. Greater desire or wanting rather than liking was further associated with activity in this neural network. These studies together provide support for an incentive motivation theory of addiction underlying the aberrant response towards sexual cues in CSB.

Retrieval-induced NMDA receptor-dependent Arc expression in two models of cocaine-cue memory.

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Alaghband, Yasaman; O'Dell, Steven J; Azarnia, Siavash; Khalaj, Anna J; Guzowski, John F; Marshall, John F

2014-12-01

The association of environmental cues with drugs of abuse results in persistent drug-cue memories. These memories contribute significantly to relapse among addicts. While conditioned place preference (CPP) is a well-established paradigm frequently used to examine the modulation of drug-cue memories, very few studies have used the non-preference-based model conditioned activity (CA) for this purpose. Here, we used both experimental approaches to investigate the neural substrates of cocaine-cue memories. First, we directly compared, in a consistent setting, the involvement of cortical and subcortical brain regions in cocaine-cue memory retrieval by quantifying activity-regulated cytoskeletal-associated (Arc) protein expression in both the CPP and CA models. Second, because NMDA receptor activation is required for Arc expression, we investigated the NMDA receptor dependency of memory persistence using the CA model. In both the CPP and CA models, drug-paired animals showed significant increases in Arc immunoreactivity in regions of the frontal cortex and amygdala compared to unpaired controls. Additionally, administration of a NMDA receptor antagonist (MK-801 or memantine) immediately after cocaine-CA memory reactivation impaired the subsequent conditioned locomotion associated with the cocaine-paired environment. The enhanced Arc expression evident in a subset of corticolimbic regions after retrieval of a cocaine-context memory, observed in both the CPP and CA paradigms, likely signifies that these regions: (i) are activated during retrieval of these memories irrespective of preference-based decisions, and (ii) undergo neuroplasticity in order to update information about cues previously associated with cocaine. This study also establishes the involvement of NMDA receptors in maintaining memories established using the CA model, a characteristic previously demonstrated using CPP. Overall, these results demonstrate the utility of the CA model for studies of cocaine

Moonlighting? - Consequences of lunar cues on anuran reproductive activity

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Underhill, Victoria A.; Höbel, Gerlinde

2018-02-01

While the influence of environmental variables, particularly temperature and rainfall, on the breeding behavior of amphibians is widely recognized, relatively few studies have addressed how the moon affects amphibian behavior. Yet, the lunar cycle provides several rhythmic temporal cues that animals could use to time important group events such as spawning, and the substantial changes in light levels associated with the different moon phases may also affect the behavior of nocturnal frogs. Using seven years of field observation data, we tested for lunar effects on the reproductive activity of male and female Eastern Gray Treefrogs (Hyla versicolor). We found that chorusing and breeding activity was statistically more likely to occur around the first quarter of the moon and during intermediately bright nights, but that reproductive activity also occurred during various other times during the lunar cycle. We discuss these findings in relation to the two main hypotheses of lunar effects on animals: predator avoidance and temporal synchronization of breeding.

Multiscale Cues Drive Collective Cell Migration

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Nam, Ki-Hwan; Kim, Peter; Wood, David K.; Kwon, Sunghoon; Provenzano, Paolo P.; Kim, Deok-Ho

2016-07-01

To investigate complex biophysical relationships driving directed cell migration, we developed a biomimetic platform that allows perturbation of microscale geometric constraints with concomitant nanoscale contact guidance architectures. This permits us to elucidate the influence, and parse out the relative contribution, of multiscale features, and define how these physical inputs are jointly processed with oncogenic signaling. We demonstrate that collective cell migration is profoundly enhanced by the addition of contract guidance cues when not otherwise constrained. However, while nanoscale cues promoted migration in all cases, microscale directed migration cues are dominant as the geometric constraint narrows, a behavior that is well explained by stochastic diffusion anisotropy modeling. Further, oncogene activation (i.e. mutant PIK3CA) resulted in profoundly increased migration where extracellular multiscale directed migration cues and intrinsic signaling synergistically conspire to greatly outperform normal cells or any extracellular guidance cues in isolation.

When abuse primes addiction - automatic activation of alcohol concepts by child maltreatment related cues in emotionally abused alcoholics.

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Potthast, Nadine; Neuner, Frank; Catani, Claudia

2015-09-01

Recent research indicates that there is a link between emotional maltreatment and alcohol dependence (AD), but the underlying mechanisms still need to be clarified. There is reason to assume that maltreatment related cues automatically activate an associative memory network comprising cues eliciting craving as well as alcohol-related responses. The current study aimed to examine this network in AD patients who experienced emotional abuse using a priming paradigm. A specific priming effect in emotionally abused AD subjects was hypothesized for maltreatment related words that preceded alcohol related words. 49 AD subjects (n=14 with emotional abuse vs. n=35 without emotional abuse) and 34 control subjects performed a priming task with maltreatment related and neutral prime words combined with alcohol related and neutral target words. Maltreatment related words consisted of socially and physically threatening words. As hypothesized, a specific priming effect for socially threatening and physically threatening cues was found only in AD subjects with emotional abuse. The present data are the first to provide evidence that child maltreatment related cues automatically activate an associative memory network in alcoholics with emotional abuse experiences. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cue reactivity towards shopping cues in female participants.

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Starcke, Katrin; Schlereth, Berenike; Domass, Debora; Schöler, Tobias; Brand, Matthias

2013-03-01

Background and aims It is currently under debate whether pathological buying can be considered as a behavioural addiction. Addictions have often been investigated with cue-reactivity paradigms to assess subjective, physiological and neural craving reactions. The current study aims at testing whether cue reactivity towards shopping cues is related to pathological buying tendencies. Methods A sample of 66 non-clinical female participants rated shopping related pictures concerning valence, arousal, and subjective craving. In a subgroup of 26 participants, electrodermal reactions towards those pictures were additionally assessed. Furthermore, all participants were screened concerning pathological buying tendencies and baseline craving for shopping. Results Results indicate a relationship between the subjective ratings of the shopping cues and pathological buying tendencies, even if baseline craving for shopping was controlled for. Electrodermal reactions were partly related to the subjective ratings of the cues. Conclusions Cue reactivity may be a potential correlate of pathological buying tendencies. Thus, pathological buying may be accompanied by craving reactions towards shopping cues. Results support the assumption that pathological buying can be considered as a behavioural addiction. From a methodological point of view, results support the view that the cue-reactivity paradigm is suited for the investigation of craving reactions in pathological buying and future studies should implement this paradigm in clinical samples.

Inactivation of the Lateral Entorhinal Area Increases the Influence of Visual Cues on Hippocampal Place Cell Activity

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Kristin M. Scaplen

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The hippocampus is important for both navigation and associative learning. We previously showed that the hippocampus processes two-dimensional (2D landmarks and objects differently. Our findings suggested that landmarks are more likely to be used for orientation and navigation, whereas objects are more likely to be used for associative learning. The process by which cues are recognized as relevant for navigation or associative learning, however, is an open question. Presumably both spatial and nonspatial information are necessary for classifying cues as landmarks or objects. The lateral entorhinal area (LEA is a good candidate for participating in this process as it is implicated in the processing of three-dimensional (3D objects and object location. Because the LEA is one synapse upstream of the hippocampus and processes both spatial and nonspatial information, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the LEA modulates how the hippocampus uses 2D landmarks and objects. To test this hypothesis, we temporarily inactivated the LEA ipsilateral to the dorsal hippocampal recording site using fluorophore-conjugated muscimol (FCM 30 min prior to three foraging sessions in which either the 2D landmark or the 2D object was back-projected to the floor of an open field. Prior to the second session we rotated the 2D cue by 90°. Cues were returned to the original configuration for the third session. Compared to the Saline treatment, FCM inactivation increased the percentage of rotation responses to manipulations of the landmark cue, but had no effect on information content of place fields. In contrast, FCM inactivation increased information content of place fields in the presence of the object cue, but had no effect on rotation responses to the object cue. Thus, LEA inactivation increased the influence of visual cues on hippocampal activity, but the impact was qualitatively different for cues that are useful for navigation vs. cues that may not be useful for

Cue reactivity in virtual reality: the role of context.

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Paris, Megan M; Carter, Brian L; Traylor, Amy C; Bordnick, Patrick S; Day, Susan X; Armsworth, Mary W; Cinciripini, Paul M

2011-07-01

Cigarette smokers in laboratory experiments readily respond to smoking stimuli with increased craving. An alternative to traditional cue-reactivity methods (e.g., exposure to cigarette photos), virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be a viable cue presentation method to elicit and assess cigarette craving within complex virtual environments. However, it remains poorly understood whether contextual cues from the environment contribute to craving increases in addition to specific cues, like cigarettes. This study examined the role of contextual cues in a VR environment to evoke craving. Smokers were exposed to a virtual convenience store devoid of any specific cigarette cues followed by exposure to the same convenience store with specific cigarette cues added. Smokers reported increased craving following exposure to the virtual convenience store without specific cues, and significantly greater craving following the convenience store with cigarette cues added. However, increased craving recorded after the second convenience store may have been due to the pre-exposure to the first convenience store. This study offers evidence that an environmental context where cigarette cues are normally present (but are not), elicits significant craving in the absence of specific cigarette cues. This finding suggests that VR may have stronger ecological validity over traditional cue reactivity exposure methods by exposing smokers to the full range of cigarette-related environmental stimuli, in addition to specific cigarette cues, that smokers typically experience in their daily lives. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Medial parietal cortex activation related to attention control involving alcohol cues

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Gladwin, Thomas E.; ter Mors-Schulte, Mieke H. J.; Ridderinkhof, K. Richard; Wiers, Reinout W.

2013-01-01

Automatic attentional engagement toward and disengagement from alcohol cues play a role in alcohol use and dependence. In the current study, social drinkers performed a spatial cueing task designed to evoke conflict between such automatic processes and task instructions, a potentially important task

Crystal structures of E. coli laccase CueO at different copper concentrations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Xu; Wei Zhiyi; Zhang Min; Peng Xiaohui; Yu Guangzhe; Teng Maikun; Gong Weimin

2007-01-01

CueO protein is a hypothetical bacterial laccase and a good laccase candidate for large scale industrial application. Four CueO crystal structures were determined at different copper concentrations. Low copper occupancy in apo-CueO and slow copper reconstitution process in CueO with exogenous copper were demonstrated. These observations well explain the copper dependence of CueO oxidase activity. Structural comparison between CueO and other three fungal laccase proteins indicates that Glu106 in CueO constitutes the primary counter-work for reconstitution of the trinuclear copper site. Mutation of Glu106 to a Phe enhanced CueO oxidation activity and supported this hypothesis. In addition, an extra α-helix from Leu351 to Gly378 covers substrate biding pocket of CueO and might compromises the electron transfer from substrate to type I copper

Negative emotion provides cues for orienting auditory spatial attention

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Erkin eAsutay

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The auditory stimuli provide information about the objects and events around us. They can also carry biologically significant emotional information (such as unseen dangers and conspecific vocalizations, which provides cues for allocation of attention and mental resources. Here, we investigated whether task-irrelevant auditory emotional information can provide cues for orientation of auditory spatial attention. We employed a covert spatial orienting task: the dot-probe task. In each trial, two task irrelevant auditory cues were simultaneously presented at two separate locations (left-right or front-back. Environmental sounds were selected to form emotional vs. neutral, emotional vs. emotional, and neutral vs. neutral cue pairs. The participants’ task was to detect the location of an acoustic target that was presented immediately after the task-irrelevant auditory cues. The target was presented at the same location as one of the auditory cues. The results indicated that participants were significantly faster to locate the target when it replaced the negative cue compared to when it replaced the neutral cue. The positive cues did not produce a clear attentional bias. Further, same valence pairs (emotional-emotional or neutral-neutral did not modulate reaction times due to a lack of spatial attention capture by one cue in the pair. Taken together, the results indicate that negative affect can provide cues for the orientation of spatial attention in the auditory domain.

Visual form Cues, Biological Motions, Auditory Cues, and Even Olfactory Cues Interact to Affect Visual Sex Discriminations

OpenAIRE

Rick Van Der Zwan; Anna Brooks; Duncan Blair; Coralia Machatch; Graeme Hacker

2011-01-01

Johnson and Tassinary (2005) proposed that visually perceived sex is signalled by structural or form cues. They suggested also that biological motion cues signal sex, but do so indirectly. We previously have shown that auditory cues can mediate visual sex perceptions (van der Zwan et al., 2009). Here we demonstrate that structural cues to body shape are alone sufficient for visual sex discriminations but that biological motion cues alone are not. Interestingly, biological motions can resolve ...

Effect of naltrexone and ondansetron on alcohol cue-induced activation of the ventral striatum in alcohol-dependent people.

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Myrick, Hugh; Anton, Raymond F; Li, Xingbao; Henderson, Scott; Randall, Patrick K; Voronin, Konstantin

2008-04-01

Medication for the treatment of alcoholism is currently not particularly robust. Neuroimaging techniques might predict which medications could be useful in the treatment of alcohol dependence. To explore the effect of naltrexone, ondansetron hydrochloride, or the combination of these medications on cue-induced craving and ventral striatum activation. Functional brain imaging was conducted during alcohol cue presentation. Participants were recruited from the general community following media advertisement. Experimental procedures were performed in the magnetic resonance imaging suite of a major training hospital and medical research institute. Ninety non-treatment-seeking alcohol-dependent (by DSM-IV criteria) and 17 social drinking (analysis but intermediate in a region-specific analysis. Consistent with animal data that suggest that both naltrexone and ondansetron reduce alcohol-stimulated dopamine output in the ventral striatum, the current study found evidence that these medications, alone or in combination, could decrease alcohol cue-induced activation of the ventral striatum, consistent with their putative treatment efficacy.

Boosting Vocabulary Learning by Verbal Cueing During Sleep.

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Schreiner, Thomas; Rasch, Björn

2015-11-01

Reactivating memories during sleep by re-exposure to associated memory cues (e.g., odors or sounds) improves memory consolidation. Here, we tested for the first time whether verbal cueing during sleep can improve vocabulary learning. We cued prior learned Dutch words either during non-rapid eye movement sleep (NonREM) or during active or passive waking. Re-exposure to Dutch words during sleep improved later memory for the German translation of the cued words when compared with uncued words. Recall of uncued words was similar to an additional group receiving no verbal cues during sleep. Furthermore, verbal cueing failed to improve memory during active and passive waking. High-density electroencephalographic recordings revealed that successful verbal cueing during NonREM sleep is associated with a pronounced frontal negativity in event-related potentials, a higher frequency of frontal slow waves as well as a cueing-related increase in right frontal and left parietal oscillatory theta power. Our results indicate that verbal cues presented during NonREM sleep reactivate associated memories, and facilitate later recall of foreign vocabulary without impairing ongoing consolidation processes. Likewise, our oscillatory analysis suggests that both sleep-specific slow waves as well as theta oscillations (typically associated with successful memory encoding during wakefulness) might be involved in strengthening memories by cueing during sleep. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Eliciting nicotine craving with virtual smoking cues.

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Gamito, Pedro; Oliveira, Jorge; Baptista, André; Morais, Diogo; Lopes, Paulo; Rosa, Pedro; Santos, Nuno; Brito, Rodrigo

2014-08-01

Craving is a strong desire to consume that emerges in every case of substance addiction. Previous studies have shown that eliciting craving with an exposure cues protocol can be a useful option for the treatment of nicotine dependence. Thus, the main goal of this study was to develop a virtual platform in order to induce craving in smokers. Fifty-five undergraduate students were randomly assigned to two different virtual environments: high arousal contextual cues and low arousal contextual cues scenarios (17 smokers with low nicotine dependency were excluded). An eye-tracker system was used to evaluate attention toward these cues. Eye fixation on smoking-related cues differed between smokers and nonsmokers, indicating that smokers focused more often on smoking-related cues than nonsmokers. Self-reports of craving are in agreement with these results and suggest a significant increase in craving after exposure to smoking cues. In sum, these data support the use of virtual environments for eliciting craving.

Craving Responses to Methamphetamine and Sexual Visual Cues in Individuals With Methamphetamine Use Disorder After Long-Term Drug Rehabilitation

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Shucai Huang

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Studies utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI cue-reactivity paradigms have demonstrated that short-term abstinent or current methamphetamine (MA users have increased brain activity in the ventral striatum, caudate nucleus and medial frontal cortex, when exposed to MA-related visual cues. However, patterns of brain activity following cue-reactivity in subjects with long-term MA abstinence, especially long-term compulsory drug rehabilitation, have not been well studied. To enrich knowledge in this field, functional brain imaging was conducted during a cue-reactivity paradigm task in 28 individuals with MA use disorder following long-term compulsory drug rehabilitation, and 27 healthy control subjects. The results showed that, when compared with controls, individuals with MA use disorder displayed elevated activity in the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC and right lateral posterior cingulate cortex in response to MA-related images. Additionally, the anterior cingulate region of mPFC activation during the MA-related cue-reactivity paradigm was positively correlated with craving alterations and previous frequency of drug use. No significant differences in brain activity in response to pornographic images were found between the two groups. Compared to MA cues, individuals with MA use disorder had increased activation in the occipital lobe when exposed to pornographic cues. In conclusion, the present study indicates that, even after long-term drug rehabilitation, individuals with MA use disorder have unique brain activity when exposed to MA-related cues. Additionally, our results illustrate that the libido brain response might be restored, and that sexual demand might be more robust than drug demand, in individuals with MA use disorder following long-term drug rehabilitation.

Craving Responses to Methamphetamine and Sexual Visual Cues in Individuals With Methamphetamine Use Disorder After Long-Term Drug Rehabilitation.

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Huang, Shucai; Zhang, Zhixue; Dai, Yuanyuan; Zhang, Changcun; Yang, Cheng; Fan, Lidan; Liu, Jun; Hao, Wei; Chen, Hongxian

2018-01-01

Studies utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) cue-reactivity paradigms have demonstrated that short-term abstinent or current methamphetamine (MA) users have increased brain activity in the ventral striatum, caudate nucleus and medial frontal cortex, when exposed to MA-related visual cues. However, patterns of brain activity following cue-reactivity in subjects with long-term MA abstinence, especially long-term compulsory drug rehabilitation, have not been well studied. To enrich knowledge in this field, functional brain imaging was conducted during a cue-reactivity paradigm task in 28 individuals with MA use disorder following long-term compulsory drug rehabilitation, and 27 healthy control subjects. The results showed that, when compared with controls, individuals with MA use disorder displayed elevated activity in the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and right lateral posterior cingulate cortex in response to MA-related images. Additionally, the anterior cingulate region of mPFC activation during the MA-related cue-reactivity paradigm was positively correlated with craving alterations and previous frequency of drug use. No significant differences in brain activity in response to pornographic images were found between the two groups. Compared to MA cues, individuals with MA use disorder had increased activation in the occipital lobe when exposed to pornographic cues. In conclusion, the present study indicates that, even after long-term drug rehabilitation, individuals with MA use disorder have unique brain activity when exposed to MA-related cues. Additionally, our results illustrate that the libido brain response might be restored, and that sexual demand might be more robust than drug demand, in individuals with MA use disorder following long-term drug rehabilitation.

Cue-induced craving for marijuana in cannabis-dependent adults.

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Lundahl, Leslie H; Johanson, Chris-Ellyn

2011-06-01

Recent interest in the development of medications for treatment of cannabis-use disorders indicates the need for laboratory models to evaluate potential compounds prior to undertaking clinical trials. To investigate whether a cue-reactivity paradigm could induce marijuana craving in cannabis-dependent adults, 16 (eight female) cannabis-dependent and 16 (eight female) cannabis-naïve participants were exposed to neutral and marijuana-related cues, and subsequent changes in mood, self-reported craving, and physiologic function were assessed. Significant Group X cue interactions were found on all three VAS craving indices as well as on the Compulsivity scale of the Marijuana Craving Questionnaire-Brief Form (MCQ-BF). Cannabis-dependent individuals responded to marijuana-related cues with significantly increased reports of marijuana craving compared to neutral cue exposure, although there were no cue-induced changes in any of the physiological measures. There were no significant gender differences on any of the measures. These results indicate that marijuana craving can be induced and assessed in cannabis-dependent, healthy adults within a laboratory setting, and support the need for further research of the cue reactivity paradigm in the development of medications to treat cannabis-use disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

Extinction and renewal of cue-elicited reward-seeking.

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Bezzina, Louise; Lee, Jessica C; Lovibond, Peter F; Colagiuri, Ben

2016-12-01

Reward cues can contribute to overconsumption of food and drugs and can relapse. The failure of exposure therapies to reduce overconsumption and relapse is generally attributed to the context-specificity of extinction. However, no previous study has examined whether cue-elicited reward-seeking (as opposed to cue-reactivity) is sensitive to context renewal. We tested this possibility in 160 healthy volunteers using a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) design involving voluntary responding for a high value natural reward (chocolate). One reward cue underwent Pavlovian extinction in the same (Group AAA) or different context (Group ABA) to all other phases. This cue was compared with a second non-extinguished reward cue and an unpaired control cue. There was a significant overall PIT effect with both reward cues eliciting reward-seeking on test relative to the unpaired cue. Pavlovian extinction substantially reduced this effect, with the extinguished reward cue eliciting less reward-seeking than the non-extinguished reward cue. Most interestingly, extinction of cue-elicited reward-seeking was sensitive to renewal, with extinction less effective for reducing PIT when conducted in a different context. These findings have important implications for extinction-based interventions for reducing maladaptive reward-seeking in practice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dopamine D4 receptor polymorphism modulates cue-elicited heroin craving in Chinese.

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Shao, Chunhong; Li, Yifeng; Jiang, Kaida; Zhang, Dandan; Xu, Yifeng; Lin, Ling; Wang, Qiuying; Zhao, Min; Jin, Li

2006-06-01

Subjective craving, which contributes to the continuation of drug use in active abuser and the occurrence of relapse in detoxified abusers, is considered to be a central phenomenon in addiction. Dopamine pathway has been implicated in the mechanism underlying the cue-elicited craving for a variety of addictive substances. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that heroin addicts carrying D4 dopamine receptor gene (DRD4) variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) long type allele would have higher craving after exposure to a heroin-related cue. Craving was induced by a series of exposure to neutral and heroin-related cue and were assessed in a cohort of Chinese heroin abusers (n=420) recruited from the Voluntary Drug Dependence Treatment Center at Shanghai. Significantly stronger cue-elicited heroin craving was found in individuals carrying DRD4 VNTR long type allele than the non-carriers (F=31.040, pcue-elicited craving in heroin dependence, indicating DRD4 VNTR represents one of potential genetic risk factors for cue-induced craving.

Cue-elicited craving in heroin addicts at different abstinent time: an fMRI pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lou, Mingwu; Wang, Erlei; Shen, Yunxia; Wang, Jiping

2012-05-01

We evaluated the effect of short-term and long-term heroin abstinence on brain responses to heroin-related cues using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Eighteen male heroin addicts following short-term abstinence and 19 male heroin addicts following long-term abstinence underwent fMRI scanning while viewing heroin-related and neutral images. Cue-elicited craving and withdrawal symptoms in the subjects were measured. Following short-term abstinence, greater activation was found in response to heroin cues compared to neutral cues in bilateral temporal, occipital, posterior cingulate, anterior cingulate, thalamus, cerebellum, and left hippocampus. In contrast, activations in bilateral temporal and occipital and deactivations in bilateral frontal, bilateral parietal, left posterior cingulate, insula, thalamus, dorsal striatum, and bilateral cerebellum were observed following long-term abstinence. Direct comparisons between conditions showed greater brain reactivity in response to smoking cues following short-term abstinence. In addition, short-term abstinence had more serious withdrawal symptoms than the long-term. The present findings indicate that compared to short-term, long-term abstinence manifests less serious withdrawal symptoms and significantly decreases neural responses to heroin-related cues in brain regions subserving visual sensory processing, attention, memory, and action planning. These findings suggest that long-term abstinence can decrease the salience of conditioned cues, thereby reducing the risk of relapses. The study's limitations are noted.

Counterconditioning reduces cue-induced craving and actual cue-elicited consumption.

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Van Gucht, Dinska; Baeyens, Frank; Vansteenwegen, Debora; Hermans, Dirk; Beckers, Tom

2010-10-01

Cue-induced craving is not easily reduced by an extinction or exposure procedure and may constitute an important route toward relapse in addictive behavior after treatment. In the present study, we investigated the effectiveness of counterconditioning as an alternative procedure to reduce cue-induced craving, in a nonclinical population. We found that a cue, initially paired with chocolate consumption, did not cease to elicit craving for chocolate after extinction (repeated presentation of the cue without chocolate consumption), but did so after counterconditioning (repeated pairing of the cue with consumption of a highly disliked liquid, Polysorbate 20). This effect persisted after 1 week. Counterconditioning moreover was more effective than extinction in disrupting reported expectancy to get to eat chocolate, and also appeared to be more effective in reducing actual cue-elicited chocolate consumption. These results suggest that counterconditioning may be more promising than cue exposure for the prevention of relapse in addictive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Effectiveness of self-generated cues in early Alzheimer's disease.

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Lipinska, B; Bäckman, L; Mäntylä, T; Viitanen, M

1994-12-01

The ability to utilize cognitive support in the form of self-generated cues in mild Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the factors promoting efficient cue utilization in this group of patients, were examined in two experiments on memory for words. Results from both experiments showed that normal old adults as well as AD patients performed better with self-generated cues than with experimenter-provided cues, although the latter type of cues resulted in gains relative to free recall. The findings indicate no qualitative differences in patterns of performance between the normal old and the AD patients. For both groups of subjects, cue effectiveness was optimized when (a) there was self-generation activity at encoding, and (b) encoding and retrieval conditions were compatible.

Retrieval of bilingual autobiographical memories: effects of cue language and cue imageability.

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Mortensen, Linda; Berntsen, Dorthe; Bohn, Ocke-Schwen

2015-01-01

An important issue in theories of bilingual autobiographical memory is whether linguistically encoded memories are represented in language-specific stores or in a common language-independent store. Previous research has found that autobiographical memory retrieval is facilitated when the language of the cue is the same as the language of encoding, consistent with language-specific memory stores. The present study examined whether this language congruency effect is influenced by cue imageability. Danish-English bilinguals retrieved autobiographical memories in response to Danish and English high- or low-imageability cues. Retrieval latencies were shorter to Danish than English cues and shorter to high- than low-imageability cues. Importantly, the cue language effect was stronger for low-than high-imageability cues. To examine the relationship between cue language and the language of internal retrieval, participants identified the language in which the memories were internally retrieved. More memories were retrieved when the cue language was the same as the internal language than when the cue was in the other language, and more memories were identified as being internally retrieved in Danish than English, regardless of the cue language. These results provide further evidence for language congruency effects in bilingual memory and suggest that this effect is influenced by cue imageability.

Intense passionate love attenuates cigarette cue-reactivity in nicotine-deprived smokers: an FMRI study.

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Xiaomeng Xu

Full Text Available Self-expanding experiences like falling in love or engaging in novel, exciting and interesting activities activate the same brain reward mechanism (mesolimbic dopamine pathway that reinforces drug use and abuse, including tobacco smoking. This suggests the possibility that reward from smoking is substitutable by self-expansion (through competition with the same neural system, potentially aiding cessation efforts. Using a model of self-expansion in the context of romantic love, the present fMRI experiment examined whether, among nicotine-deprived smokers, relationship self-expansion is associated with deactivation of cigarette cue-reactivity regions. Results indicated that among participants who were experiencing moderate levels of craving, cigarette cue-reactivity regions (e.g., cuneus and posterior cingulate cortex showed significantly less activation during self-expansion conditions compared with control conditions. These results provide evidence that rewards from one domain (self-expansion can act as a substitute for reward from another domain (nicotine to attenuate cigarette cue reactivity.

Intense passionate love attenuates cigarette cue-reactivity in nicotine-deprived smokers: an FMRI study.

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Xu, Xiaomeng; Wang, Jin; Aron, Arthur; Lei, Wei; Westmaas, J Lee; Weng, Xuchu

2012-01-01

Self-expanding experiences like falling in love or engaging in novel, exciting and interesting activities activate the same brain reward mechanism (mesolimbic dopamine pathway) that reinforces drug use and abuse, including tobacco smoking. This suggests the possibility that reward from smoking is substitutable by self-expansion (through competition with the same neural system), potentially aiding cessation efforts. Using a model of self-expansion in the context of romantic love, the present fMRI experiment examined whether, among nicotine-deprived smokers, relationship self-expansion is associated with deactivation of cigarette cue-reactivity regions. Results indicated that among participants who were experiencing moderate levels of craving, cigarette cue-reactivity regions (e.g., cuneus and posterior cingulate cortex) showed significantly less activation during self-expansion conditions compared with control conditions. These results provide evidence that rewards from one domain (self-expansion) can act as a substitute for reward from another domain (nicotine) to attenuate cigarette cue reactivity.

Oxytocin differentially modulates pavlovian cue and context fear acquisition.

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Cavalli, Juliana; Ruttorf, Michaela; Pahi, Mario Rosero; Zidda, Francesca; Flor, Herta; Nees, Frauke

2017-06-01

Fear acquisition and extinction have been demonstrated as core mechanisms for the development and maintenance of mental disorders, with different contributions of processing cues vs contexts. The hypothalamic peptide oxytocin (OXT) may have a prominent role in this context, as it has been shown to affect fear learning. However, investigations have focused on cue conditioning, and fear extinction. Its differential role for cue and context fear acquisition is still not known. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo (PLC)-controlled design, we administered an intranasal dose of OXT or PLC before the acquisition of cue and context fear conditioning in healthy individuals (n = 52), and assessed brain responses, skin conductance responses and self-reports (valence/arousal/contingency). OXT compared with PLC significantly induced decreased responses in the nucleus accumbens during early cue and context acquisition, and decreased responses of the anterior cingulate cortex and insula during early as well as increased hippocampal response during late context, but not cue acquisition. The OXT group additionally showed significantly higher arousal in late cue and context acquisition. OXT modulates various aspects of cue and context conditioning, which is relevant from a mechanism-based perspective and might have implications for the treatment of fear and anxiety. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

P2-28: An Amplification of Feedback from Facial Muscles Strengthened Sympathetic Activations to Emotional Facial Cues

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Younbyoung Chae

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that feedback from cutaneous and muscular afferents influences our emotions during the control of facial expressions. Enhanced facial expressiveness is correlated with an increase in autonomic arousal, and self-reported emotional experience, while limited facial expression attenuates these responses. The present study was aimed at investigating the difference in emotional response in imitated versus observed facial expressions. For this, we measured the facial electromyogram of the corrugator muscle as well as the skin conductance response (SCR while participants were either imitating or simply observing emotional facial expressions. We found that participants produced significantly greater facial electromyogram activation during imitations compared to observations of angry faces. Similarly, they exhibited significantly greater SCR during imitations to angry faces compared to observations. An amplification of feedback from face muscles during imitation strengthened sympathetic activation to negative emotional cues. These findings suggest that manipulations of muscular feedback could modulate the bodily expression of emotion and perhaps also the emotional response itself.

Drinkers’ memory bias for alcohol picture cues in explicit and implicit memory tasks

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Nguyen-Louie, Tam T.; Buckman, Jennifer F.; Ray, Suchismita

2016-01-01

Background Alcohol cues can bias attention and elicit emotional reactions, especially in drinkers. Yet, little is known about how alcohol cues affect explicit and implicit memory processes, and how memory for alcohol cues is affected by acute alcohol intoxication. Methods Young adult participants (N=161) were randomly assigned to alcohol, placebo, or control beverage conditions. Following beverage consumption, they were shown neutral, emotional and alcohol-related pictures cues. Participants then completed free recall and repetition priming tasks to test explicit and implicit memory, respectively, for picture cues. Average blood alcohol concentration for the alcohol group was 74 ± 13 mg/dl when memory testing began. Two mixed linear model analyses were conducted to examine the effects of beverage condition, picture cue type, and their interaction on explicit and implicit memory. Results Picture cue type and beverage condition each significantly affected explicit recall of picture cues, whereas only picture cue type significantly influenced repetition priming. Individuals in the alcohol condition recalled significantly fewer pictures than those in other conditions, regardless of cue type. Both free recall and repetition priming were greater for emotional and alcohol-related cues compared to neutral picture cues. No interaction effects were detected. Conclusions Young adult drinkers showed enhanced explicit and implicit memory processing of alcohol cues compared to emotionally neutral cues. This enhanced processing for alcohol cues was on par with that seen for positive emotional cues. Acute alcohol intoxication did not alter this preferential memory processing for alcohol cues over neutral cues. PMID:26811126

Drinkers' memory bias for alcohol picture cues in explicit and implicit memory tasks.

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Nguyen-Louie, Tam T; Buckman, Jennifer F; Ray, Suchismita; Bates, Marsha E

2016-03-01

Alcohol cues can bias attention and elicit emotional reactions, especially in drinkers. Yet, little is known about how alcohol cues affect explicit and implicit memory processes, and how memory for alcohol cues is affected by acute alcohol intoxication. Young adult participants (N=161) were randomly assigned to alcohol, placebo, or control beverage conditions. Following beverage consumption, they were shown neutral, emotional and alcohol-related pictures cues. Participants then completed free recall and repetition priming tasks to test explicit and implicit memory, respectively, for picture cues. Average blood alcohol concentration for the alcohol group was 74±13mg/dl when memory testing began. Two mixed linear model analyses were conducted to examine the effects of beverage condition, picture cue type, and their interaction on explicit and implicit memory. Picture cue type and beverage condition each significantly affected explicit recall of picture cues, whereas only picture cue type significantly influenced repetition priming. Individuals in the alcohol condition recalled significantly fewer pictures than those in other conditions, regardless of cue type. Both free recall and repetition priming were greater for emotional and alcohol-related cues compared to neutral picture cues. No interaction effects were detected. Young adult drinkers showed enhanced explicit and implicit memory processing of alcohol cues compared to emotionally neutral cues. This enhanced processing for alcohol cues was on par with that seen for positive emotional cues. Acute alcohol intoxication did not alter this preferential memory processing for alcohol cues over neutral cues. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing cue-induced brain response as a function of abstinence duration in heroin-dependent individuals: an event-related fMRI study.

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Qiang Li

Full Text Available The brain activity induced by heroin-related cues may play a role in the maintenance of heroin dependence. Whether the reinforcement or processing biases construct an everlasting feature of heroin addiction remains to be resolved. We used an event-related fMRI paradigm to measure brain activation in response to heroin cue-related pictures versus neutral pictures as the control condition in heroin-dependent patients undergoing short-term and long-term abstinence. The self-reported craving scores were significantly increased after cue exposure in the short-term abstinent patients (t = 3.000, P = 0.008, but no increase was found in the long-term abstinent patients (t = 1.510, P = 0.149. However, no significant differences in cue-induced craving changes were found between the two groups (t = 1.193, P = 0.850. Comparing between the long-term abstinence and short-term abstinence groups, significant decreases in brain activation were detected in the bilateral anterior cingulated cortex, left medial prefrontal cortex, caudate, middle occipital gyrus, inferior parietal lobule and right precuneus. Among all of the heroin dependent patients, the abstinence duration was negatively correlated with brain activation in the left medial prefrontal cortex and left inferior parietal lobule. These findings suggest that long-term abstinence may be useful for heroin-dependent patients to diminish their saliency value of heroin-related cues and possibly lower the relapse vulnerability to some extent.

Neural response to visual sexual cues in dopamine treatment-linked hypersexuality in Parkinson's disease.

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Politis, Marios; Loane, Clare; Wu, Kit; O'Sullivan, Sean S; Woodhead, Zoe; Kiferle, Lorenzo; Lawrence, Andrew D; Lees, Andrew J; Piccini, Paola

2013-02-01

Hypersexuality with compulsive sexual behaviour is a significant source of morbidity for patients with Parkinson's disease receiving dopamine replacement therapies. We know relatively little about the pathophysiology of hypersexuality in Parkinson's disease, and it is unknown how visual sexual stimuli, similar to the portrayals of sexuality in the mainstream mass media may affect the brain and behaviour in such susceptible individuals. Here, we have studied a group of 12 patients with Parkinson's disease with hypersexuality using a functional magnetic resonance imaging block design exposing participants to both sexual, other reward-related and neutral visual cues. We hypothesized that exposure to visual sexual cues would trigger increased sexual desire in patients with Parkinson's disease with hypersexuality that would correspond to changes in brain activity in regions linked to dopaminergically stimulated sexual motivation. Patients with Parkinson's disease with hypersexuality were scanned ON and OFF dopamine drugs, and their results were compared with a group of 12 Parkinson's disease control patients without hypersexuality or other impulse control disorders. Exposure to sexual cues significantly increased sexual desire and hedonic responses in the Parkinson's disease hypersexuality group compared with the Parkinson's disease control patients. These behavioural changes corresponded to significant blood oxygen level-dependent signal changes in regions within limbic, paralimbic, temporal, occipital, somatosensory and prefrontal cortices that correspond to emotional, cognitive, autonomic, visual and motivational processes. The functional imaging data showed that the hypersexuality patients' increased sexual desire correlated with enhanced activations in the ventral striatum, and cingulate and orbitofrontal cortices. When the patients with Parkinson's disease with hypersexuality were OFF medication, the functional imaging data showed decreases in activation during

Interpreting instructional cues in task switching procedures: the role of mediator retrieval.

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Logan, Gordon D; Schneider, Darryl W

2006-03-01

In 3 experiments the role of mediators in task switching with transparent and nontransparent cues was examined. Subjects switched between magnitude (greater or less than 5) and parity (odd or even) judgments of single digits. A cue-target congruency effect indicated mediator use: subjects responded faster to congruent cue-target combinations (e.g., ODD-3) than to incongruent cue-target combinations (e.g., ODD-4). Experiment 1 revealed significant congruency effects with transparent word cues (ODD, EVEN, HIGH, and LOW) and with relatively transparent letter cues (O, E, H, and L) but not with nontransparent letter cues (D, V, G, and W). Experiment 2 revealed significant congruency effects after subjects who were trained with nontransparent letter cues were informed of the relations between cues and word mediators halfway through the experiment. Experiment 3 showed that congruency effects with relatively transparent letter cues diminished over 10 sessions of practice, suggesting that subjects used mediators less as practice progressed. The results are discussed in terms of the role of mediators in interpreting instructional cues.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Cue-Related Processing in a Gambling Task: Early Outcome Evaluation or Outcome Expectation?

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Xiaoyi Zhang

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Several recent studies have suggested that cues that predict outcomes elicit a feedback-related-like negativity (FRN-like negativity reflecting initial appraisals of whether desired outcomes are probable. Some other studies, however, have found that the cues that predict outcomes elicited event-related potentials (ERPs that reflect the expectation to outcomes (e.g., outcome expectations. Given these mixed findings, this study aimed to examine whether the brain activity elicited by predictive cues in a gambling task reflected the initial evaluations of the outcomes, the outcome expectations, or both. We used a gambling task in which the participants were told to guess which of two doors hid a reward. At the beginning of each trial, a cue was presented to inform the participants of how many doors hid a reward. We found that these predictive cues elicited a FRN-like negativity at the frontal sites within around 200–300 ms. However, this negativity did not significantly differ between the cues that fully predicted gains and the cues that fully predicted losses. Furthermore, predictive cues elicited an expectation-related slow wave, and cues that predicted gains with a 50% probability elicited a larger expectation-related slow wave than cues that fully predicted gains or losses. Our results suggest that cues predicting outcomes reflect outcome expectations rather than initial evaluations of the forthcoming outcomes.

Acute effects of nicotine amplify accumbal neural responses during nicotine-taking behavior and nicotine-paired environmental cues.

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Karine Guillem

Full Text Available Nicotine self-administration (SA is maintained by several variables, including the reinforcing properties of nicotine-paired cues and the nicotine-induced amplification of those cue properties. The nucleus accumbens (NAc is implicated in mediating the influence of these variables, though the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are not yet understood. In the present study, Long-Evans rats were trained to self-administer nicotine. During SA sessions each press of a lever was followed by an intravenous infusion of nicotine (30 µg/kg paired with a combined light-tone cue. Extracellular recordings of single-neuron activity showed that 20% of neurons exhibited a phasic change in firing during the nicotine-directed operant, the light-tone cue, or both. The phasic change in firing for 98% of neurons was an increase. Sixty-two percent of NAc neurons additionally or alternatively showed a sustained decrease in average firing during the SA session relative to a presession baseline period. These session decreases in firing were significantly less prevalent in a group of neurons that were activated during either the operant or the cue than in a group of neurons that were nonresponsive during those events (referred to as task-activated and task-nonactivated neurons, respectively. Moreover, the session decrease in firing was dose-dependent for only the task-nonactivated neurons. The data of the present investigation provide supportive correlational evidence for two hypotheses: (1 excitatory neurophysiological mechanisms mediate the NAc role in cue-maintenance of nicotine SA, and (2 a differential nicotine-induced inhibition of task-activated and task-nonactivated neurons mediates the NAc role in nicotine-induced amplification of cue effects on nicotine SA.

Using Self-Generated Cues to Facilitate Recall: A Narrative Review

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Wheeler, Rebecca L.; Gabbert, Fiona

2017-01-01

We draw upon the Associative Network model of memory, as well as the principles of encoding-retrieval specificity, and cue distinctiveness, to argue that self-generated cue mnemonics offer an intuitive means of facilitating reliable recall of personally experienced events. The use of a self-generated cue mnemonic allows for the spreading activation nature of memory, whilst also presenting an opportunity to capitalize upon cue distinctiveness. Here, we present the theoretical rationale behind the use of this technique, and highlight the distinction between a self-generated cue and a self-referent cue in autobiographical memory research. We contrast this mnemonic with a similar retrieval technique, Mental Reinstatement of Context, which is recognized as the most effective mnemonic component of the Cognitive Interview. Mental Reinstatement of Context is based upon the principle of encoding-retrieval specificity, whereby the overlap between encoded information and retrieval cue predicts the likelihood of accurate recall. However, it does not incorporate the potential additional benefit of self-generated retrieval cues. PMID:29163254

Using Self-Generated Cues to Facilitate Recall: A Narrative Review

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Rebecca L. Wheeler

2017-10-01

Full Text Available We draw upon the Associative Network model of memory, as well as the principles of encoding-retrieval specificity, and cue distinctiveness, to argue that self-generated cue mnemonics offer an intuitive means of facilitating reliable recall of personally experienced events. The use of a self-generated cue mnemonic allows for the spreading activation nature of memory, whilst also presenting an opportunity to capitalize upon cue distinctiveness. Here, we present the theoretical rationale behind the use of this technique, and highlight the distinction between a self-generated cue and a self-referent cue in autobiographical memory research. We contrast this mnemonic with a similar retrieval technique, Mental Reinstatement of Context, which is recognized as the most effective mnemonic component of the Cognitive Interview. Mental Reinstatement of Context is based upon the principle of encoding-retrieval specificity, whereby the overlap between encoded information and retrieval cue predicts the likelihood of accurate recall. However, it does not incorporate the potential additional benefit of self-generated retrieval cues.

Context cue focality influences strategic prospective memory monitoring.

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Hunter Ball, B; Bugg, Julie M

2018-02-12

Monitoring the environment for the occurrence of prospective memory (PM) targets is a resource-demanding process that produces cost (e.g., slower responding) to ongoing activities. However, research suggests that individuals are able to monitor strategically by using contextual cues to reduce monitoring in contexts in which PM targets are not expected to occur. In the current study, we investigated the processes supporting context identification (i.e., determining whether or not the context is appropriate for monitoring) by testing the context cue focality hypothesis. This hypothesis predicts that the ability to monitor strategically depends on whether the ongoing task orients attention to the contextual cues that are available to guide monitoring. In Experiment 1, participants performed an ongoing lexical decision task and were told that PM targets (TOR syllable) would only occur in word trials (focal context cue condition) or in items starting with consonants (nonfocal context cue condition). In Experiment 2, participants performed an ongoing first letter judgment (consonant/vowel) task and were told that PM targets would only occur in items starting with consonants (focal context cue condition) or in word trials (nonfocal context cue condition). Consistent with the context cue focality hypothesis, strategic monitoring was only observed during focal context cue conditions in which the type of ongoing task processing automatically oriented attention to the relevant features of the contextual cue. These findings suggest that strategic monitoring is dependent on limited-capacity processing resources and may be relatively limited when the attentional demands of context identification are sufficiently high.

Transfer of memory retrieval cues in rats.

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Briggs, James F; Fitz, Kelly I; Riccio, David C

2007-06-01

Two experiments using rats were conducted to determine whether the retrieval of a memory could be brought under the control of new contextual cues that had not been present at the time of training. In Experiment 1, rats were trained in one context and then exposed to different contextual cues immediately, 60 min, or 120 min after training. When tested in the shifted context, rats that had been exposed shortly after training treated the shifted context as if it were the original context. The control that the previously neutral context had over retrieval disappeared with longer posttraining delays, suggesting the importance of an active memory representation during exposure. Experiment 2 replicated the basic finding and demonstrated that the transfer of retrieval cues was specific to the contextual cues present during exposure. These findings with rats are consistent with findings from infant research (see, e.g., Boller & Rovee-Collier, 1992) that have shown that a neutral context can come to serve as a retrieval cue for an episode experienced elsewhere.

Spiny lobsters detect conspecific blood-borne alarm cues exclusively through olfactory sensilla.

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Shabani, Shkelzen; Kamio, Michiya; Derby, Charles D

2008-08-01

When attacked by predators, diverse animals actively or passively release molecules that evoke alarm and related anti-predatory behavior by nearby conspecifics. The actively released molecules are alarm pheromones, whereas the passively released molecules are alarm cues. For example, many insects have alarm-signaling systems that involve active release of alarm pheromones from specialized glands and detection of these signals using specific sensors. Many crustaceans passively release alarm cues, but the nature of the cues, sensors and responses is poorly characterized. Here we show in laboratory and field experiments that injured Caribbean spiny lobsters, Panulirus argus, passively release alarm cues via blood (hemolymph) that induce alarm responses in the form of avoidance and suppression of feeding. These cues are detected exclusively through specific olfactory chemosensors, the aesthetasc sensilla. The alarm cues for Caribbean spiny lobsters are not unique to the species but do show some phylogenetic specificity: P. argus responds primarily with alarm behavior to conspecific blood, but with mixed alarm and appetitive behaviors to blood from the congener Panulirus interruptus, or with appetitive behaviors to blood from the blue crab Callinectes sapidus. This study lays the foundation for future neuroethological studies of alarm cue systems in this and other decapod crustaceans.

Cue-reactivity in behavioral addictions: A meta-analysis and methodological considerations.

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Starcke, Katrin; Antons, Stephanie; Trotzke, Patrick; Brand, Matthias

2018-05-23

Background and aims Recent research has applied cue-reactivity paradigms to behavioral addictions. The aim of the current meta-analysis is to systematically analyze the effects of learning-based cue-reactivity in behavioral addictions. Methods The current meta-analysis includes 18 studies (29 data sets, 510 participants) that have used a cue-reactivity paradigm in persons with gambling (eight studies), gaming (nine studies), or buying (one study) disorders. We compared subjective, peripheral physiological, electroencephal, and neural responses toward addiction-relevant cues in patients versus control participants and toward addiction-relevant cues versus control cues in patients. Results Persons with behavioral addictions showed higher cue-reactivity toward addiction-relevant cues compared with control participants: subjective cue-reactivity (d = 0.84, p = .01) and peripheral physiological and electroencephal measures of cue-reactivity (d = 0.61, p buying disorders also showed higher cue-reactivity toward addiction-relevant cues compared with control cues: subjective cue-reactivity (d = 0.39, p = .11) and peripheral physiological and electroencephal measures of cue-reactivity (d = 0.47, p = .05). Increased neural activation was found in the caudate nucleus, inferior frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, inferior network, and precuneus. Discussion and conclusions Cue-reactivity not only exists in substance-use disorders but also in gambling, gaming, and buying disorders. Future research should differentiate between cue-reactivity in addictive behaviors and cue-reactivity in functional excessive behaviors such as passions, hobbies, or professions.

Evidence for greater cue reactivity among low-dependent vs. high-dependent smokers.

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Watson, Noreen L; Carpenter, Matthew J; Saladin, Michael E; Gray, Kevin M; Upadhyaya, Himanshu P

2010-07-01

Cue reactivity paradigms are well-established laboratory procedures used to examine subjective craving in response to substance-related cues. For smokers, the relationship between nicotine dependence and cue reactivity has not been clearly established. The main aim of the present study was to further examine this relationship. Participants (N=90) were between the ages 18-40 and smoked > or =10 cigarettes per day. Average nicotine dependence (Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence; FTND) at baseline was 4.9 (SD=2.1). Participants completed four cue reactivity sessions consisting of two in vivo cues (smoking and neutral) and two affective imagery cues (stressful and relaxed), all counterbalanced. Craving in response to cues was assessed following each cue exposure using the Questionnaire of Smoking Urges-Brief (QSU-B). Differential cue reactivity was operationally defined as the difference in QSU scores between the smoking and neutral cues, and between the stressful and relaxed cues. Nicotine dependence was significantly and negatively associated with differential cue reactivity scores in regard to hedonic craving (QSU factor 1) for both in vivo and imagery cues, such that those who had low FTND scores demonstrated greater differential cue reactivity than those with higher FTND scores (beta=-.082; p=.037; beta=-.101; p=.023, respectively). Similar trends were found for the Total QSU and for negative reinforcement craving (QSU factor 2), but did not reach statistical significance. Under partially sated conditions, less dependent smokers may be more differentially cue reactive to smoking cues as compared to heavily dependent smokers. These findings offer methodological and interpretative implications for cue reactivity studies. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interference from retrieval cues in Parkinson's disease.

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Crescentini, Cristiano; Marin, Dario; Del Missier, Fabio; Biasutti, Emanuele; Shallice, Tim

2011-11-01

Existing studies on memory interference in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have provided mixed results and it is unknown whether PD patients have problems in overcoming interference from retrieval cues. We investigated this issue by using a part-list cuing paradigm. In this paradigm, after the study of a list of items, the presentation of some of these items as retrieval cues hinders the recall of the remaining ones. We tested PD patients' (n = 19) and control participants' (n = 16) episodic memory in the presence and absence of part-list cues, using initial-letter probes, and following either weak or strong serial associative encoding of list items. Both PD patients and control participants showed a comparable and significant part-list cuing effect after weak associative encoding (13% vs. 12% decrease in retrieval in part-list cuing vs. no part-list cuing -control- conditions in PD patients and control participants, respectively), denoting a similar effect of cue-driven interference in the two populations when a serial retrieval strategy is hard to develop. However, only PD patients showed a significant part-list cuing effect after strong associative encoding (20% vs. 5% decrease in retrieval in patients and controls, respectively). When encoding promotes the development of an effective serial retrieval strategy, the presentation of part-list cues has a specifically disruptive effect in PD patients. This indicates problems in strategic retrieval, probably related to PD patients' increased tendency to rely on external cues. Findings in control conditions suggest that less effective encoding may have contributed to PD patients' memory performance.

Neural correlates of stress and favorite-food cue exposure in adolescents: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

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Hommer, Rebecca E; Seo, Dongju; Lacadie, Cheryl M; Chaplin, Tara M; Mayes, Linda C; Sinha, Rajita; Potenza, Marc N

2013-10-01

Adolescence is a critical period of neurodevelopment for stress and appetitive processing, as well as a time of increased vulnerability to stress and engagement in risky behaviors. This study was conducted to examine brain activation patterns during stress and favorite-food-cue experiences relative to a neutral-relaxing condition in adolescents. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was employed using individualized script-driven guided imagery to compare brain responses with such experiences in 43 adolescents. Main effects of condition and gender were found, without a significant gender-by-condition interaction. Stress imagery, relative to neutral, was associated with activation in the caudate, thalamus, left hippocampus/parahippocampal gyrus, midbrain, left superior/middle temporal gyrus, and right posterior cerebellum. Appetitive imagery of favorite food was associated with caudate, thalamus, and midbrain activation compared with the neutral-relaxing condition. To understand neural correlates of anxiety and craving, subjective (self-reported) measures of stress-induced anxiety and favorite-food-cue-induced craving were correlated with brain activity during stress and appetitive food-cue conditions, respectively. High self-reported stress-induced anxiety was associated with hypoactivity in the striatum, thalamus, hippocampus, and midbrain. Self-reported favorite-food-cue-induced craving was associated with blunted activity in cortical-striatal regions, including the right dorsal and ventral striatum, medial prefrontal cortex, motor cortex, and left anterior cingulate cortex. These findings in adolescents indicate the activation of predominantly subcortical-striatal regions in the processing of stressful and appetitive experiences and link hypoactive striatal circuits to self-reported stress-induced anxiety and cue-induced favorite-food craving. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Psychogenic and neural visual-cue response in PD dopamine dysregulation syndrome.

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Loane, Clare; Wu, Kit; O'Sullivan, Sean S; Lawrence, Andrew D; Woodhead, Zoe; Lees, Andrew J; Piccini, Paola; Politis, Marios

2015-11-01

Dopamine dysregulation syndrome (DDS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients refers to the compulsive use of dopaminergic replacement therapy and has serious psycho-social consequences. Mechanisms underlying DDS are not clear although has been linked to dysfunctional brain reward networks. With fMRI, we investigate behavioral and neural response to drug-cues in six PD DDS patients and 12 PD control patients in both the ON and OFF medication state. Behavioral measures of liking, wanting and subjectively 'feeling ON medication' were also collected. Behaviorally, PD DDS patients feel less ON and want their drugs more at baseline compared to PD controls. Following drug-cue exposure, PD DDS patients feel significantly more ON medication, which correlates with significant increases in reward related regions. The results demonstrate that exposure to drug-cues increases the subjective feeling of being 'ON' medication which corresponds to dysfunctional activation in reward related regions in PD DDS patients. These findings should be extended in future studies. Visual stimuli being sufficient to elicit behavioral response through neuroadaptations could have direct implications to the management of addictive behavior. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Self-construal differences in neural responses to negative social cues.

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Liddell, Belinda J; Felmingham, Kim L; Das, Pritha; Whitford, Thomas J; Malhi, Gin S; Battaglini, Eva; Bryant, Richard A

2017-10-01

Cultures differ substantially in representations of the self. Whereas individualistic cultural groups emphasize an independent self, reflected in processing biases towards centralized salient objects, collectivistic cultures are oriented towards an interdependent self, attending to contextual associations between visual cues. It is unknown how these perceptual biases may affect brain activity in response to negative social cues. Moreover, while some studies have shown that individual differences in self-construal moderate cultural group comparisons, few have examined self-construal differences separate to culture. To investigate these issues, a final sample of a group of healthy participants high in trait levels of collectivistic self-construal (n=16) and individualistic self-construal (n=19), regardless of cultural background, completed a negative social cue evaluation task designed to engage face/object vs context-specific neural processes whilst undergoing fMRI scanning. Between-group analyses revealed that the collectivistic group exclusively engaged the parahippocampal gyrus (parahippocampal place area) - a region critical to contextual integration - during negative face processing - suggesting compensatory activations when contextual information was missing. The collectivist group also displayed enhanced negative context dependent brain activity involving the left superior occipital gyrus/cuneus and right anterior insula. By contrast, the individualistic group did not engage object or localized face processing regions as predicted, but rather demonstrated heightened appraisal and self-referential activations in medial prefrontal and temporoparietal regions to negative contexts - again suggesting compensatory processes when focal cues were absent. While individualists also appeared more sensitive to negative faces in the scenes, activating the right middle cingulate gyrus, dorsal prefrontal and parietal activations, this activity was observed relative to the

Improved memory for reward cues following acute buprenorphine administration in humans.

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Syal, Supriya; Ipser, Jonathan; Terburg, David; Solms, Mark; Panksepp, Jaak; Malcolm-Smith, Susan; Bos, Peter A; Montoya, Estrella R; Stein, Dan J; van Honk, Jack

2015-03-01

In rodents, there is abundant evidence for the involvement of the opioid system in the processing of reward cues, but this system has remained understudied in humans. In humans, the happy facial expression is a pivotal reward cue. Happy facial expressions activate the brain's reward system and are disregarded by subjects scoring high on depressive mood who are low in reward drive. We investigated whether a single 0.2mg administration of the mixed mu-opioid agonist/kappa-antagonist, buprenorphine, would influence short-term memory for happy, angry or fearful expressions relative to neutral faces. Healthy human subjects (n38) participated in a randomized placebo-controlled within-subject design, and performed an emotional face relocation task after administration of buprenorphine and placebo. We show that, compared to placebo, buprenorphine administration results in a significant improvement of memory for happy faces. Our data demonstrate that acute manipulation of the opioid system by buprenorphine increases short-term memory for social reward cues. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Cue-reactors: individual differences in cue-induced craving after food or smoking abstinence.

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Stephen V Mahler

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Pavlovian conditioning plays a critical role in both drug addiction and binge eating. Recent animal research suggests that certain individuals are highly sensitive to conditioned cues, whether they signal food or drugs. Are certain humans also more reactive to both food and drug cues? METHODS: We examined cue-induced craving for both cigarettes and food, in the same individuals (n = 15 adult smokers. Subjects viewed smoking-related or food-related images after abstaining from either smoking or eating. RESULTS: Certain individuals reported strong cue-induced craving after both smoking and food cues. That is, subjects who reported strong cue-induced craving for cigarettes also rated stronger cue-induced food craving. CONCLUSIONS: In humans, like in nonhumans, there may be a "cue-reactive" phenotype, consisting of individuals who are highly sensitive to conditioned stimuli. This finding extends recent reports from nonhuman studies. Further understanding this subgroup of smokers may allow clinicians to individually tailor therapies for smoking cessation.

Cue-reactors: individual differences in cue-induced craving after food or smoking abstinence.

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Mahler, Stephen V; de Wit, Harriet

2010-11-10

Pavlovian conditioning plays a critical role in both drug addiction and binge eating. Recent animal research suggests that certain individuals are highly sensitive to conditioned cues, whether they signal food or drugs. Are certain humans also more reactive to both food and drug cues? We examined cue-induced craving for both cigarettes and food, in the same individuals (n = 15 adult smokers). Subjects viewed smoking-related or food-related images after abstaining from either smoking or eating. Certain individuals reported strong cue-induced craving after both smoking and food cues. That is, subjects who reported strong cue-induced craving for cigarettes also rated stronger cue-induced food craving. In humans, like in nonhumans, there may be a "cue-reactive" phenotype, consisting of individuals who are highly sensitive to conditioned stimuli. This finding extends recent reports from nonhuman studies. Further understanding this subgroup of smokers may allow clinicians to individually tailor therapies for smoking cessation.

Cue reactivity is associated with duration and severity of alcohol dependence: an FMRI study.

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Zsuzsika Sjoerds

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: With the progression of substance dependence, drug cue-related brain activation is thought to shift from motivational towards habit pathways. However, a direct association between cue-induced brain activation and dependence duration has not yet been shown. We therefore examined the relationship between alcohol cue-reactivity in the brain, cue-induced subjective craving and alcohol dependence duration and severity. Since alcohol dependence is highly comorbid with depression/anxiety, which may modulate brain responses to alcohol cues, we also examined the relation between comorbid depression/anxiety and cue-reactivity. METHODS: We compared 30 alcohol dependent patients with 15 healthy controls and 15 depression/anxiety patients during a visual alcohol cue-reactivity task using functional magnetic resonance imaging blood oxygenated level-dependent responses and subjective craving as outcomes. Within the alcohol dependent group we correlated cue-reactivity with alcohol dependence severity and duration, with cue-induced craving and with depression/anxiety levels. RESULTS: Alcohol dependent patients showed greater cue-reactivity in motivational brain pathways and stronger subjective craving than depression/anxiety patients and healthy controls. Depression/anxiety was not associated with cue-reactivity, but depression severity in alcohol dependent patients was positively associated with craving. Within alcohol dependence, longer duration of alcohol dependence was associated with stronger cue-related activation of the posterior putamen, a structure involved in habits, whereas higher alcohol dependence severity was associated with lower cue-reactivity in the anterior putamen, an area implicated in goal-directed behavior preceding habit formation. CONCLUSION: Cue-reactivity in alcohol dependence is not modulated by comorbid depression or anxiety. More importantly, the current data confirm the hypothesis of a ventral to dorsal striatal shift

Cues of maternal condition influence offspring selfishness.

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Wong, Janine W Y; Lucas, Christophe; Kölliker, Mathias

2014-01-01

The evolution of parent-offspring communication was mostly studied from the perspective of parents responding to begging signals conveying information about offspring condition. Parents should respond to begging because of the differential fitness returns obtained from their investment in offspring that differ in condition. For analogous reasons, offspring should adjust their behavior to cues/signals of parental condition: parents that differ in condition pay differential costs of care and, hence, should provide different amounts of food. In this study, we experimentally tested in the European earwig (Forficula auricularia) if cues of maternal condition affect offspring behavior in terms of sibling cannibalism. We experimentally manipulated female condition by providing them with different amounts of food, kept nymph condition constant, allowed for nymph exposure to chemical maternal cues over extended time, quantified nymph survival (deaths being due to cannibalism) and extracted and analyzed the females' cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC). Nymph survival was significantly affected by chemical cues of maternal condition, and this effect depended on the timing of breeding. Cues of poor maternal condition enhanced nymph survival in early broods, but reduced nymph survival in late broods, and vice versa for cues of good condition. Furthermore, female condition affected the quantitative composition of their CHC profile which in turn predicted nymph survival patterns. Thus, earwig offspring are sensitive to chemical cues of maternal condition and nymphs from early and late broods show opposite reactions to the same chemical cues. Together with former evidence on maternal sensitivities to condition-dependent nymph chemical cues, our study shows context-dependent reciprocal information exchange about condition between earwig mothers and their offspring, potentially mediated by cuticular hydrocarbons.

Cues of maternal condition influence offspring selfishness.

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Janine W Y Wong

Full Text Available The evolution of parent-offspring communication was mostly studied from the perspective of parents responding to begging signals conveying information about offspring condition. Parents should respond to begging because of the differential fitness returns obtained from their investment in offspring that differ in condition. For analogous reasons, offspring should adjust their behavior to cues/signals of parental condition: parents that differ in condition pay differential costs of care and, hence, should provide different amounts of food. In this study, we experimentally tested in the European earwig (Forficula auricularia if cues of maternal condition affect offspring behavior in terms of sibling cannibalism. We experimentally manipulated female condition by providing them with different amounts of food, kept nymph condition constant, allowed for nymph exposure to chemical maternal cues over extended time, quantified nymph survival (deaths being due to cannibalism and extracted and analyzed the females' cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC. Nymph survival was significantly affected by chemical cues of maternal condition, and this effect depended on the timing of breeding. Cues of poor maternal condition enhanced nymph survival in early broods, but reduced nymph survival in late broods, and vice versa for cues of good condition. Furthermore, female condition affected the quantitative composition of their CHC profile which in turn predicted nymph survival patterns. Thus, earwig offspring are sensitive to chemical cues of maternal condition and nymphs from early and late broods show opposite reactions to the same chemical cues. Together with former evidence on maternal sensitivities to condition-dependent nymph chemical cues, our study shows context-dependent reciprocal information exchange about condition between earwig mothers and their offspring, potentially mediated by cuticular hydrocarbons.

Magpies can use local cues to retrieve their food caches.

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Feenders, Gesa; Smulders, Tom V

2011-03-01

Much importance has been placed on the use of spatial cues by food-hoarding birds in the retrieval of their caches. In this study, we investigate whether food-hoarding birds can be trained to use local cues ("beacons") in their cache retrieval. We test magpies (Pica pica) in an active hoarding-retrieval paradigm, where local cues are always reliable, while spatial cues are not. Our results show that the birds use the local cues to retrieve their caches, even when occasionally contradicting spatial information is available. The design of our study does not allow us to test rigorously whether the birds prefer using local over spatial cues, nor to investigate the process through which they learn to use local cues. We furthermore provide evidence that magpies develop landmark preferences, which improve their retrieval accuracy. Our findings support the hypothesis that birds are flexible in their use of memory information, using a combination of the most reliable or salient information to retrieve their caches. © Springer-Verlag 2010

The effect of social cues on marketing decisions

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Hentschel, H. G. E.; Pan, Jiening; Family, Fereydoon; Zhang, Zhenyu; Song, Yiping

2012-02-01

We address the question as to what extent individuals, when given information in marketing polls on the decisions made by the previous Nr individuals questioned, are likely to change their original choices. The processes can be formulated in terms of a Cost function equivalent to a Hamiltonian, which depends on the original likelihood of an individual making a positive decision in the absence of social cues p0; the strength of the social cue J; and memory size Nr. We find both positive and negative herding effects are significant. Specifically, if p0>1/2 social cues enhance positive decisions, while for p0cues reduce the likelihood of a positive decision.

Electroacupuncture Suppresses Discrete Cue-Evoked Heroin-Seeking and Fos Protein Expression in the Nucleus Accumbens Core in Rats

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Sheng Liu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Relapse to drug seeking was studied using a rodent model of reinstatement induced by exposure to drug-related cues. Here, we used intravenous drug self-administration procedures in rats to further investigate the beneficial effects of electroacupuncture (EA on heroin-seeking behavior in a reinstatement model of relapse. We trained Sprague-Dawley rats to nose-poke for i.v. heroin either daily for 4 h or 25 infusions for 14 consecutive days. Then the rats were abstinent from heroin for two weeks. 2 Hz EA stimulation was conducted once daily for 14 days during heroin abstinence. We tested these animals for contextual and discrete cue-induced reinstatement of active responses. We also applied immunohistochemistry to detect Fos-positive nuclei in the nucleus accumbens (NACc core and shell after reinstatement test. We found that active responses elicited by both contextual cues and discrete cues were high in the rats trained with heroin than in saline controls. EA treatment significantly reduced active responses elicited by discrete cues. EA stimulation attenuated Fos expression in the core but not the shell of the NACc. Altogether, these results highlight the therapeutic benefit of EA in preventing relapse to drug addiction.

Cocaine-conditioned odor cues without chronic exposure: Implications for the development of addiction vulnerability

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Steven B. Lowen

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Adolescents are highly vulnerable to addiction and are four times more likely to become addicted at first exposure than at any other age. The dopamine D1 receptor, which is typically overexpressed in the normal adolescent prefrontal cortex, is involved in drug cue responses and is associated with relapse in animal models. In human drug addicts, imaging methods have detected increased activation in response to drug cues in reward- and habit-associated brain regions. These same methods can be applied more quantitatively to rodent models. Here, changes in neuronal activation in response to cocaine-conditioned cues were observed using functional magnetic resonance imaging in juvenile rats that were made to over-express either D1 receptors or green fluorescent protein by viral-mediated transduction. Reduced activation was observed in the amygdala and dopamine cell body regions in the low cue-preferring/control juvenile rats in response to cocaine cues. In contrast, increased activation was observed in the dorsal striatum, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex, and dopamine cell bodies in high cue-preferring/D1 juveniles. The increase in cue salience that is mediated by increased D1 receptor density, rather than excessive cocaine experience, appears to underlie the transition from aversion to reward in cue-induced neural response and may form the basis for habit-forming vulnerability.

Cocaine-conditioned odor cues without chronic exposure: Implications for the development of addiction vulnerability.

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Lowen, Steven B; Rohan, Michael L; Gillis, Timothy E; Thompson, Britta S; Wellons, Clara B W; Andersen, Susan L

2015-01-01

Adolescents are highly vulnerable to addiction and are four times more likely to become addicted at first exposure than at any other age. The dopamine D1 receptor, which is typically overexpressed in the normal adolescent prefrontal cortex, is involved in drug cue responses and is associated with relapse in animal models. In human drug addicts, imaging methods have detected increased activation in response to drug cues in reward- and habit-associated brain regions. These same methods can be applied more quantitatively to rodent models. Here, changes in neuronal activation in response to cocaine-conditioned cues were observed using functional magnetic resonance imaging in juvenile rats that were made to over-express either D1 receptors or green fluorescent protein by viral-mediated transduction. Reduced activation was observed in the amygdala and dopamine cell body regions in the low cue-preferring/control juvenile rats in response to cocaine cues. In contrast, increased activation was observed in the dorsal striatum, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex, and dopamine cell bodies in high cue-preferring/D1 juveniles. The increase in cue salience that is mediated by increased D1 receptor density, rather than excessive cocaine experience, appears to underlie the transition from aversion to reward in cue-induced neural response and may form the basis for habit-forming vulnerability.

Use of explicit memory cues following parietal lobe lesions.

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Dobbins, Ian G; Jaeger, Antonio; Studer, Bettina; Simons, Jon S

2012-11-01

The putative role of the lateral parietal lobe in episodic memory has recently become a topic of considerable debate, owing primarily to its consistent activation for studied materials during functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of recognition. Here we examined the performance of patients with parietal lobe lesions using an explicit memory cueing task in which probabilistic cues ("Likely Old" or "Likely New"; 75% validity) preceded the majority of verbal recognition memory probes. Without cues, patients and control participants did not differ in accuracy. However, group differences emerged during the "Likely New" cue condition with controls responding more accurately than parietal patients when these cues were valid (preceding new materials) and trending towards less accuracy when these cues were invalid (preceding old materials). Both effects suggest insufficient integration of external cues into memory judgments on the part of the parietal patients whose cued performance largely resembled performance in the complete absence of cues. Comparison of the parietal patients to a patient group with frontal lobe lesions suggested the pattern was specific to parietal and adjacent area lesions. Overall, the data indicate that parietal lobe patients fail to appropriately incorporate external cues of novelty into recognition attributions. This finding supports a role for the lateral parietal lobe in the adaptive biasing of memory judgments through the integration of external cues and internal memory evidence. We outline the importance of such adaptive biasing through consideration of basic signal detection predictions regarding maximum possible accuracy with and without informative environmental cues. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The brain activations for both cue-induced gaming urge and smoking craving among subjects comorbid with Internet gaming addiction and nicotine dependence.

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Ko, Chih-Hung; Liu, Gin-Chung; Yen, Ju-Yu; Yen, Cheng-Fang; Chen, Cheng-Sheng; Lin, Wei-Chen

2013-04-01

Internet gaming addiction (IGA) has been classified as an addictive disorder in the proposed DSM 5 draft. However, whether its underlying addiction mechanism is similar to other substance use disorders has not been confirmed. The present functional magnetic resonance images study is aimed at evaluating the brain correlates of cue-induced gaming urge or smoking craving in subjects with both IGA and nicotine dependence to make a simultaneous comparison of cue induced brain reactivity for gaming and smoking. For this purpose, 16 subjects with both IGA and nicotine dependence (comorbid group) and 16 controls were recruited from the community. All subjects were made to undergo 3-T fMRIs scans while viewing images associated with online games, smoking, and neutral images, which were arranged according to an event-related design. The resultant image data was analyzed with full factorial and conjunction analysis of SPM5. The results demonstrate that anterior cingulate, and parahippocampus activates higher for both cue-induced gaming urge and smoking craving among the comorbid group in comparison to the control group. The conjunction analysis demonstrates that bilateral parahippocampal gyrus activates to a greater degree for both gaming urge and smoking craving among the comorbid group in comparison to the control group. Accordingly, the study demonstrates that both IGA and nicotine dependence share similar mechanisms of cue-induced reactivity over the fronto-limbic network, particularly for the parahippocampus. The results support that the context representation provided by the parahippocampus is a key mechanism for not only cue-induced smoking craving, but also for cue-induced gaming urge. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bupropion sustained release treatment decreases craving for video games and cue-induced brain activity in patients with Internet video game addiction.

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Han, Doug Hyun; Hwang, Jun Won; Renshaw, Perry F

2010-08-01

Bupropion has been used in the treatment of patients with substance dependence based on its weak inhibition of dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake. We hypothesized that 6 weeks of bupropion sustained release (SR) treatment would decrease craving for Internet game play as well as video game cue-induced brain activity in patients with Internet video game addiction (IAG). Eleven subjects who met criteria for IAG, playing StarCraft (>30 hr/week), and eight healthy comparison subjects (HC) who had experience playing StarCraft (game, and the severity of Internet addiction were evaluated by Beck Depression Inventory, self-report of craving on a 7-point visual analogue scale, and Young's Internet Addiction Scale, respectively. In response to game cues, IAG showed higher brain activation in left occipital lobe cuneus, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and left parahippocampal gyrus than HC. After a 6 week period of bupropion SR, craving for Internet video game play, total game play time, and cue-induced brain activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were decreased in the IAG. We suggest that bupropion SR may change craving and brain activity in ways that are similar to those observed in individuals with substance abuse or dependence. PsycINFO Database Record 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Lack of increased immediate early gene expression in rats reinstating cocaine-seeking behavior to discrete sensory cues.

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Matthew D Riedy

Full Text Available Drug-seeking behavior elicited by drug-associated cues contributes to relapse in addiction; however, whether relapse elicited by drug-associated conditioned reinforcers (CR versus discriminative stimuli (DS involves distinct or overlapping neuronal populations is unknown. To address this question, we developed a novel cocaine self-administration and cue-induced reinstatement paradigm that exposed the same rats to distinct cocaine-associated CR and DS. Rats were trained to self-administer cocaine in separate sessions. In one, a DS signaled cocaine availability; in the other, cocaine delivery was paired with a different CR. After extinction training and reinstatement testing, where both cues were presented in separate sessions, rats were sacrificed and processed for cellular analysis of temporal activity by fluorescent in situ hybridization (CatFISH for activity regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc mRNA and for radioactive in situ hybridization for Arc and zif268 mRNAs. CatFISH did not reveal significant changes in Arc mRNA expression. Similar results were obtained with radioactive in situ hybridization. We have shown that while rats reinstate drug seeking in response to temporally discrete presentations of distinct drug-associated cues, such reinstatement is not associated with increased transcriptional activation of Arc or zif268 mRNAs, suggesting that expression of these genes may not be necessary for cue-induced reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior.

Retrieval-induced forgetting and interference between cues:Training a cue-outcome association attenuates retrieval by alternative cues

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Ortega-Castro, Nerea; Vadillo Nistal, Miguel

2013-01-01

Some researchers have attempted to determine whether situations in which a single cue is paired with several outcomes (A-B, A-C interference or interference between outcomes) involve the same learning and retrieval mechanisms as situations in which several cues are paired with a single outcome (A-B, C-B interference or interference between cues). Interestingly, current research on a related effect, which is known as retrieval-induced forgetting, can illuminate this debate. Most retrieval-indu...

Neural correlates of stress-induced and cue-induced drug craving: influences of sex and cocaine dependence.

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Potenza, Marc N; Hong, Kwang-ik Adam; Lacadie, Cheryl M; Fulbright, Robert K; Tuit, Keri L; Sinha, Rajita

2012-04-01

Although stress and drug cue exposure each increase drug craving and contribute to relapse in cocaine dependence, no previous research has directly examined the neural correlates of stress-induced and drug cue-induced craving in cocaine-dependent women and men relative to comparison subjects. Functional MRI was used to assess responses to individualized scripts for stress, drug/alcohol cue and neutral-relaxing-imagery conditions in 30 abstinent cocaine-dependent individuals (16 women, 14 men) and 36 healthy recreational-drinking comparison subjects (18 women, 18 men). Significant three-way interactions between diagnostic group, sex, and script condition were observed in multiple brain regions including the striatum, insula, and anterior and posterior cingulate. Within women, group-by-condition interactions were observed involving these regions and were attributable to relatively increased regional activations in cocaine-dependent women during the stress and, to a lesser extent, neutral-relaxing conditions. Within men, group main effects were observed involving these same regions, with cocaine-dependent men demonstrating relatively increased activation across conditions, with the main contributions from the drug and neutral-relaxing conditions. In men and women, subjective drug-induced craving measures correlated positively with corticostriatal-limbic activations. In cocaine dependence, corticostriatal-limbic hyperactivity appears to be linked to stress cues in women, drug cues in men, and neutral-relaxing conditions in both. These findings suggest that sex should be taken into account in the selection of therapies in the treatment of addiction, particularly those targeting stress reduction.

Hippocampal-dependent memory in the plus-maze discriminative avoidance task: The role of spatial cues and CA1 activity.

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Leão, Anderson H F F; Medeiros, André M; Apolinário, Gênedy K S; Cabral, Alícia; Ribeiro, Alessandra M; Barbosa, Flávio F; Silva, Regina H

2016-05-01

The plus-maze discriminative avoidance task (PMDAT) has been used to investigate interactions between aversive memory and an anxiety-like response in rodents. Suitable performance in this task depends on the activity of the basolateral amygdala, similar to other aversive-based memory tasks. However, the role of spatial cues and hippocampal-dependent learning in the performance of PMDAT remains unknown. Here, we investigated the role of proximal and distal cues in the retrieval of this task. Animals tested under misplaced proximal cues had diminished performance, and animals tested under both misplaced proximal cues and absent distal cues could not discriminate the aversive arm. We also assessed the role of the dorsal hippocampus (CA1) in this aversive memory task. Temporary bilateral inactivation of dorsal CA1 was conducted with muscimol (0.05 μg, 0.1 μg, and 0.2 μg) prior to the training session. While the acquisition of the task was not altered, muscimol impaired the performance in the test session and reduced the anxiety-like response in the training session. We also performed a spreading analysis of a fluorophore-conjugated muscimol to confirm selective inhibition of CA1. In conclusion, both distal and proximal cues are required to retrieve the task, with the latter being more relevant to spatial orientation. Dorsal CA1 activity is also required for aversive memory formation in this task, and interfered with the anxiety-like response as well. Importantly, both effects were detected by different parameters in the same paradigm, endorsing the previous findings of independent assessment of aversive memory and anxiety-like behavior in the PMDAT. Taken together, these findings suggest that the PMDAT probably requires an integration of multiple systems for memory formation, resembling an episodic-like memory rather than a pure conditioning behavior. Furthermore, the concomitant and independent assessment of emotionality and memory in rodents is relevant to

The development of prospective memory in young schoolchildren: the impact of ongoing task absorption, cue salience, and cue centrality.

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Kliegel, Matthias; Mahy, Caitlin E V; Voigt, Babett; Henry, Julie D; Rendell, Peter G; Aberle, Ingo

2013-12-01

This study presents evidence that 9- and 10-year-old children outperform 6- and 7-year-old children on a measure of event-based prospective memory and that retrieval-based factors systematically influence performance and age differences. All experiments revealed significant age effects in prospective memory even after controlling for ongoing task performance. In addition, the provision of a less absorbing ongoing task (Experiment 1), higher cue salience (Experiment 2), and cues appearing in the center of attention (Experiment 3) were each associated with better performance. Of particular developmental importance was an age by cue centrality (in or outside of the center of attention) interaction that emerged in Experiment 3. Thus, age effects were restricted to prospective memory cues appearing outside of the center of attention, suggesting that the development of prospective memory across early school years may be modulated by whether a cue requires overt monitoring beyond the immediate attentional context. Because whether a cue is in or outside of the center of attention might determine the amount of executive control needed in a prospective memory task, findings suggest that developing executive control resources may drive prospective memory development across primary school age. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Auditory feedback blocks memory benefits of cueing during sleep.

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Schreiner, Thomas; Lehmann, Mick; Rasch, Björn

2015-10-28

It is now widely accepted that re-exposure to memory cues during sleep reactivates memories and can improve later recall. However, the underlying mechanisms are still unknown. As reactivation during wakefulness renders memories sensitive to updating, it remains an intriguing question whether reactivated memories during sleep also become susceptible to incorporating further information after the cue. Here we show that the memory benefits of cueing Dutch vocabulary during sleep are in fact completely blocked when memory cues are directly followed by either correct or conflicting auditory feedback, or a pure tone. In addition, immediate (but not delayed) auditory stimulation abolishes the characteristic increases in oscillatory theta and spindle activity typically associated with successful reactivation during sleep as revealed by high-density electroencephalography. We conclude that plastic processes associated with theta and spindle oscillations occurring during a sensitive period immediately after the cue are necessary for stabilizing reactivated memory traces during sleep.

Contextual cueing impairment in patients with age-related macular degeneration.

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Geringswald, Franziska; Herbik, Anne; Hoffmann, Michael B; Pollmann, Stefan

2013-09-12

Visual attention can be guided by past experience of regularities in our visual environment. In the contextual cueing paradigm, incidental learning of repeated distractor configurations speeds up search times compared to random search arrays. Concomitantly, fewer fixations and more direct scan paths indicate more efficient visual exploration in repeated search arrays. In previous work, we found that simulating a central scotoma in healthy observers eliminated this search facilitation. Here, we investigated contextual cueing in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who suffer from impaired foveal vision. AMD patients performed visual search using only their more severely impaired eye (n = 13) as well as under binocular viewing (n = 16). Normal-sighted controls developed a significant contextual cueing effect. In comparison, patients showed only a small nonsignificant advantage for repeated displays when searching with their worse eye. When searching binocularly, they profited from contextual cues, but still less than controls. Number of fixations and scan pattern ratios showed a comparable pattern as search times. Moreover, contextual cueing was significantly correlated with acuity in monocular search. Thus, foveal vision loss may lead to impaired guidance of attention by contextual memory cues.

Cue-Elicited Increases in Incentive Salience for Marijuana: Craving, Demand, and Attentional Bias

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Metrik, Jane; Aston, Elizabeth R.; Kahler, Christopher W.; Rohsenow, Damaris J.; McGeary, John E.; Knopik, Valerie S.; MacKillop, James

2016-01-01

Background Incentive salience is a multidimensional construct that includes craving, drug value relative to other reinforcers, and implicit motivation such as attentional bias to drug cues. Laboratory cue reactivity (CR) paradigms have been used to evaluate marijuana incentive salience with measures of craving, but not with behavioral economic measures of marijuana demand or implicit attentional processing tasks. Methods This within-subjects study used a new CR paradigm to examine multiple dimensions of marijuana’s incentive salience and to compare CR-induced increases in craving and demand. Frequent marijuana users (N=93, 34% female) underwent exposure to neutral cues then to lit marijuana cigarettes. Craving, marijuana demand via a marijuana purchase task, and heart rate were assessed after each cue set. A modified Stroop task with cannabis and control words was completed after the marijuana cues as a measure of attentional bias. Results Relative to neutral cues, marijuana cues significantly increased subjective craving and demand indices of intensity (i.e., drug consumed at $0) and Omax (i.e., peak drug expenditure). Elasticity significantly decreased following marijuana cues, reflecting sustained purchase despite price increases. Craving was correlated with demand indices (r’s: 0.23–0.30). Marijuana users displayed significant attentional bias for cannabis-related words after marijuana cues. Cue-elicited increases in intensity were associated with greater attentional bias for marijuana words. Conclusions Greater incentive salience indexed by subjective, behavioral economic, and implicit measures was observed after marijuana versus neutral cues, supporting multidimensional assessment. The study highlights the utility of a behavioral economic approach in detecting cue-elicited changes in marijuana incentive salience. PMID:27515723

Memory retrieval in response to partial cues requires NMDA receptor-dependent neurotransmission in the medial prefrontal cortex.

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Jo, Yong Sang; Choi, June-Seek

2014-03-01

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been suggested to play a crucial role in retrieving detailed contextual information about a previous learning episode in response to a single retrieval cue. However, few studies investigated the neurochemical mechanisms that mediate the prefrontal retrieval process. In the current study, we examined whether N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) in the mPFC were necessary for retrieval of a well-learned spatial location on the basis of partial or degraded spatial cues. Rats were initially trained to find a hidden platform in the Morris water maze using four extramaze cues in the surrounding environment. Their retrieval performance was subsequently tested under different cue conditions. Infusions of DL-2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (APV), a NMDAR antagonist, significantly disrupted memory retrieval when three of the original cues were removed. By contrast, APV injections into the mPFC did not affect animals' retrieval performance when the original cues were presented or when three novels landmarks were added alongside the original cues. These results indicate that prefrontal NMDARs are required for memory retrieval when allocentric spatial information is degraded. NMDAR-dependent neurotransmission in the mPFC may facilitate an active retrieval process to reactivate complete contextual representations associated with partial retrieval cues. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A chimpanzee recognizes synthetic speech with significantly reduced acoustic cues to phonetic content.

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Heimbauer, Lisa A; Beran, Michael J; Owren, Michael J

2011-07-26

A long-standing debate concerns whether humans are specialized for speech perception, which some researchers argue is demonstrated by the ability to understand synthetic speech with significantly reduced acoustic cues to phonetic content. We tested a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) that recognizes 128 spoken words, asking whether she could understand such speech. Three experiments presented 48 individual words, with the animal selecting a corresponding visuographic symbol from among four alternatives. Experiment 1 tested spectrally reduced, noise-vocoded (NV) synthesis, originally developed to simulate input received by human cochlear-implant users. Experiment 2 tested "impossibly unspeechlike" sine-wave (SW) synthesis, which reduces speech to just three moving tones. Although receiving only intermittent and noncontingent reward, the chimpanzee performed well above chance level, including when hearing synthetic versions for the first time. Recognition of SW words was least accurate but improved in experiment 3 when natural words in the same session were rewarded. The chimpanzee was more accurate with NV than SW versions, as were 32 human participants hearing these items. The chimpanzee's ability to spontaneously recognize acoustically reduced synthetic words suggests that experience rather than specialization is critical for speech-perception capabilities that some have suggested are uniquely human. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reduced Metabolism in Brain 'Control Networks' Following Cocaine-Cues Exposure in Female Cocaine Abusers

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Volkow, N.D.; Tomasi, D.; Wang, G.-J.; Fowler, J.S.; Telang, F.; Goldstein, R.Z.; Alia-Klein, N.; Wong, C.T.

2011-01-01

Gender differences in vulnerability for cocaine addiction have been reported. Though the mechanisms are not understood, here we hypothesize that gender differences in reactivity to conditioned-cues, which contributes to relapse, are involved. To test this we compared brain metabolism (using PET and 18 FDG) between female (n = 10) and male (n = 16) active cocaine abusers when they watched a neutral video (nature scenes) versus a cocaine-cues video. Self-reports of craving increased with the cocaine-cue video but responses did not differ between genders. In contrast, changes in whole brain metabolism with cocaine-cues differed by gender (p<0.05); females significantly decreased metabolism (-8.6% ± 10) whereas males tended to increase it (+5.5% ± 18). SPM analysis (Cocaine-cues vs Neutral) in females revealed decreases in frontal, cingulate and parietal cortices, thalamus and midbrain (p<0.001) whereas males showed increases in right inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44/45) (only at p<0.005). The gender-cue interaction showed greater decrements with Cocaine-cues in females than males (p<0.001) in frontal (BA 8, 9, 10), anterior cingulate (BA 24, 32), posterior cingulate (BA 23, 31), inferior parietal (BA 40) and thalamus (dorsomedial nucleus). Females showed greater brain reactivity to cocaine-cues than males but no differences in craving, suggesting that there may be gender differences in response to cues that are not linked with craving but could affect subsequent drug use. Specifically deactivation of brain regions from 'control networks' (prefrontal, cingulate, inferior parietal, thalamus) in females could increase their vulnerability to relapse since it would interfere with executive function (cognitive inhibition). This highlights the importance of gender tailored interventions for cocaine addiction.

Cortical Brain Activity Reflecting Attentional Biasing Toward Reward-Predicting Cues Covaries with Economic Decision-Making Performance.

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San Martín, René; Appelbaum, Lawrence G; Huettel, Scott A; Woldorff, Marty G

2016-01-01

Adaptive choice behavior depends critically on identifying and learning from outcome-predicting cues. We hypothesized that attention may be preferentially directed toward certain outcome-predicting cues. We studied this possibility by analyzing event-related potential (ERP) responses in humans during a probabilistic decision-making task. Participants viewed pairs of outcome-predicting visual cues and then chose to wager either a small (i.e., loss-minimizing) or large (i.e., gain-maximizing) amount of money. The cues were bilaterally presented, which allowed us to extract the relative neural responses to each cue by using a contralateral-versus-ipsilateral ERP contrast. We found an early lateralized ERP response, whose features matched the attention-shift-related N2pc component and whose amplitude scaled with the learned reward-predicting value of the cues as predicted by an attention-for-reward model. Consistently, we found a double dissociation involving the N2pc. Across participants, gain-maximization positively correlated with the N2pc amplitude to the most reliable gain-predicting cue, suggesting an attentional bias toward such cues. Conversely, loss-minimization was negatively correlated with the N2pc amplitude to the most reliable loss-predicting cue, suggesting an attentional avoidance toward such stimuli. These results indicate that learned stimulus-reward associations can influence rapid attention allocation, and that differences in this process are associated with individual differences in economic decision-making performance. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Designing and Evaluation of Reliability and Validity of Visual Cue-Induced Craving Assessment Task for Methamphetamine Smokers

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Hamed Ekhtiari

2010-08-01

Full Text Available A B S T R A C TIntroduction: Craving to methamphetamine is a significant health concern and exposure to methamphetamine cues in laboratory can induce craving. In this study, a task designing procedure for evaluating methamphetamine cue-induced craving in laboratory conditions is examined. Methods: First a series of visual cues which could induce craving was identified by 5 discussion sessions between expert clinicians and 10 methamphetamine smokers. Cues were categorized in 4 main clusters and photos were taken for each cue in studio, then 60 most evocative photos were selected and 10 neutral photos were added. In this phase, 50 subjects with methamphetamine dependence, had exposure to cues and rated craving intensity induced by the 72 cues (60 active evocative photos + 10 neutral photos on self report Visual Analogue Scale (ranging from 0-100. In this way, 50 photos with high levels of evocative potency (CICT 50 and 10 photos with the most evocative potency (CICT 10 were obtained and subsequently, the task was designed. Results: The task reliability (internal consistency was measured by Cronbach’s alpha which was 91% for (CICT 50 and 71% for (CICT 10. The most craving induced was reported for category Drug use procedure (66.27±30.32 and least report for category Cues associated with drug use (31.38±32.96. Difference in cue-induced craving in (CICT 50 and (CICT 10 were not associated with age, education, income, marital status, employment and sexual activity in the past 30 days prior to study entry. Family living condition was marginally correlated with higher scores in (CICT 50. Age of onset for (opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine was negatively correlated with (CICT 50 and (CICT 10 and age of first opiate use was negatively correlated with (CICT 50. Discussion: Cue-induced craving for methamphetamine may be reliably measured by tasks designed in laboratory and designed assessment tasks can be used in cue reactivity paradigm, and

Heavy drinking, impulsivity and attentional narrowing following alcohol cue exposure.

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Hicks, Joshua A; Fields, Sherecce; Davis, William E; Gable, Philip A

2015-08-01

Research shows that alcohol-related stimuli have the propensity to capture attention among individuals motivated to consume alcohol. Research has further demonstrated that impulsive individuals are especially prone to this type of attentional bias. Recently, it is suggested that alcohol cue exposure can also produce a general narrowing of attention consistent with the activation of approach motivational states. Based on previous models of addiction and recent research on the activation of approach motivational states, we predicted that impulsive individuals would demonstrate a constriction of attentional focus in response to alcohol cue exposure. Participants (n = 392) completed a task assessing attentional breadth in response to alcohol and non-alcohol cues, followed by measures of alcohol use and impulsivity. The findings revealed that impulsivity scores predicted narrowing of attentional scope following the presentation of alcohol cues for heavier drinkers but not for light drinkers. These results suggest that impulsive individuals who drink more heavily demonstrate a narrowing of attention in the presence of alcohol-related incentive cues. Implications for how these findings might account for the link between impulsivity and alcohol use and misuse are discussed.

Visuo-spatial cueing in children with differential reading and spelling profiles.

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Banfi, Chiara; Kemény, Ferenc; Gangl, Melanie; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Moll, Kristina; Landerl, Karin

2017-01-01

Dyslexia has been claimed to be causally related to deficits in visuo-spatial attention. In particular, inefficient shifting of visual attention during spatial cueing paradigms is assumed to be associated with problems in graphemic parsing during sublexical reading. The current study investigated visuo-spatial attention performance in an exogenous cueing paradigm in a large sample (N = 191) of third and fourth graders with different reading and spelling profiles (controls, isolated reading deficit, isolated spelling deficit, combined deficit in reading and spelling). Once individual variability in reaction times was taken into account by means of z-transformation, a cueing deficit (i.e. no significant difference between valid and invalid trials) was found for children with combined deficits in reading and spelling. However, poor readers without spelling problems showed a cueing effect comparable to controls, but exhibited a particularly strong right-over-left advantage (position effect). Isolated poor spellers showed a significant cueing effect, but no position effect. While we replicated earlier findings of a reduced cueing effect among poor nonword readers (indicating deficits in sublexical processing), we also found a reduced cueing effect among children with particularly poor orthographic spelling (indicating deficits in lexical processing). Thus, earlier claims of a specific association with nonword reading could not be confirmed. Controlling for ADHD-symptoms reported in a parental questionnaire did not impact on the statistical analysis, indicating that cueing deficits are not caused by more general attentional limitations. Between 31 and 48% of participants in the three reading and/or spelling deficit groups as well as 32% of the control group showed reduced spatial cueing. These findings indicate a significant, but moderate association between certain aspects of visuo-spatial attention and subcomponents of written language processing, the causal status of

Visuo-spatial cueing in children with differential reading and spelling profiles.

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Chiara Banfi

Full Text Available Dyslexia has been claimed to be causally related to deficits in visuo-spatial attention. In particular, inefficient shifting of visual attention during spatial cueing paradigms is assumed to be associated with problems in graphemic parsing during sublexical reading. The current study investigated visuo-spatial attention performance in an exogenous cueing paradigm in a large sample (N = 191 of third and fourth graders with different reading and spelling profiles (controls, isolated reading deficit, isolated spelling deficit, combined deficit in reading and spelling. Once individual variability in reaction times was taken into account by means of z-transformation, a cueing deficit (i.e. no significant difference between valid and invalid trials was found for children with combined deficits in reading and spelling. However, poor readers without spelling problems showed a cueing effect comparable to controls, but exhibited a particularly strong right-over-left advantage (position effect. Isolated poor spellers showed a significant cueing effect, but no position effect. While we replicated earlier findings of a reduced cueing effect among poor nonword readers (indicating deficits in sublexical processing, we also found a reduced cueing effect among children with particularly poor orthographic spelling (indicating deficits in lexical processing. Thus, earlier claims of a specific association with nonword reading could not be confirmed. Controlling for ADHD-symptoms reported in a parental questionnaire did not impact on the statistical analysis, indicating that cueing deficits are not caused by more general attentional limitations. Between 31 and 48% of participants in the three reading and/or spelling deficit groups as well as 32% of the control group showed reduced spatial cueing. These findings indicate a significant, but moderate association between certain aspects of visuo-spatial attention and subcomponents of written language processing, the

Sad facial cues inhibit temporal attention: evidence from an event-related potential study.

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Kong, Xianxian; Chen, Xiaoqiang; Tan, Bo; Zhao, Dandan; Jin, Zhenlan; Li, Ling

2013-06-19

We examined the influence of different emotional cues (happy or sad) on temporal attention (short or long interval) using behavioral as well as event-related potential recordings during a Stroop task. Emotional stimuli cued short and long time intervals, inducing 'sad-short', 'sad-long', 'happy-short', and 'happy-long' conditions. Following the intervals, participants performed a numeric Stroop task. Behavioral results showed the temporal attention effects in the sad-long, happy-long, and happy-short conditions, in which valid cues quickened the reaction times, but not in the sad-short condition. N2 event-related potential components showed sad cues to have decreased activity for short intervals compared with long intervals, whereas happy cues did not. Taken together, these findings provide evidence for different modulation of sad and happy facial cues on temporal attention. Furthermore, sad cues inhibit temporal attention, resulting in longer reaction time and decreased neural activity in the short interval by diverting more attentional resources.

Visual-vestibular cue integration for heading perception: applications of optimal cue integration theory.

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Fetsch, Christopher R; Deangelis, Gregory C; Angelaki, Dora E

2010-05-01

The perception of self-motion is crucial for navigation, spatial orientation and motor control. In particular, estimation of one's direction of translation, or heading, relies heavily on multisensory integration in most natural situations. Visual and nonvisual (e.g., vestibular) information can be used to judge heading, but each modality alone is often insufficient for accurate performance. It is not surprising, then, that visual and vestibular signals converge frequently in the nervous system, and that these signals interact in powerful ways at the level of behavior and perception. Early behavioral studies of visual-vestibular interactions consisted mainly of descriptive accounts of perceptual illusions and qualitative estimation tasks, often with conflicting results. In contrast, cue integration research in other modalities has benefited from the application of rigorous psychophysical techniques, guided by normative models that rest on the foundation of ideal-observer analysis and Bayesian decision theory. Here we review recent experiments that have attempted to harness these so-called optimal cue integration models for the study of self-motion perception. Some of these studies used nonhuman primate subjects, enabling direct comparisons between behavioral performance and simultaneously recorded neuronal activity. The results indicate that humans and monkeys can integrate visual and vestibular heading cues in a manner consistent with optimal integration theory, and that single neurons in the dorsal medial superior temporal area show striking correlates of the behavioral effects. This line of research and other applications of normative cue combination models should continue to shed light on mechanisms of self-motion perception and the neuronal basis of multisensory integration.

Chemosensory anxiety cues moderate the experience of social exclusion – an fMRI investigation with Cyberball

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Olga Anna Wudarczyk

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Recent evidence suggests that the experience of stress can be communicated between individuals via chemosensory cues. Little is known, however, about the impact of these cues on neurophysiological responses during a socially threatening situation. In the current investigation we implemented a widely used paradigm to study social exclusion—Cyberball—to examine whether chemosensory cues signalling anxiety modulate the neuronal effects of ostracism. In a double-blind, within-subjects design, 24 healthy, normosmic participants were presented with chemosensory cues of anxiety (or control samples and completed the Cyberball task while in a 3T fMRI scanner. Axillary sweat collected from male students awaiting an oral examination served as the anxiety cues while the chemosensory control stimuli consisted of sweat collected from the same individuals participating in an ergometer training session. The neuroimaging data revealed that under the control chemosensory condition, exclusion from Cyberball was associated with significantly higher orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex activity, which is consistent with previous studies in the field. However, when participants were primed with the anxiety sweat, the activity in these regions was not observed. Further, under exposure to anxiety cues during ostracism the participants showed deactivations in brain regions involved in memory (hippocampus, social cognition (middle temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus and processing of salience (inferior frontal gyrus. These results suggest that successful communication of anxiety via the chemosensory domain may moderate the experience of social exclusion. It is possible that the anxiety signals make it easier for the individuals to detach from the group, pointing to the communicative role of chemosensory anxiety cues in enhancing adjustment mechanisms in light of a distressing situation.

The Influence of Cue Reliability and Cue Representation on Spatial Reorientation in Young Children

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Lyons, Ian M.; Huttenlocher, Janellen; Ratliff, Kristin R.

2014-01-01

Previous studies of children's reorientation have focused on cue representation (e.g., whether cues are geometric) as a predictor of performance but have not addressed cue reliability (the regularity of the relation between a given cue and an outcome) as a predictor of performance. Here we address both factors within the same series of…

Using multisensory cues to facilitate air traffic management.

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Ngo, Mary K; Pierce, Russell S; Spence, Charles

2012-12-01

In the present study, we sought to investigate whether auditory and tactile cuing could be used to facilitate a complex, real-world air traffic management scenario. Auditory and tactile cuing provides an effective means of improving both the speed and accuracy of participants' performance in a variety of laboratory-based visual target detection and identification tasks. A low-fidelity air traffic simulation task was used in which participants monitored and controlled aircraft.The participants had to ensure that the aircraft landed or exited at the correct altitude, speed, and direction and that they maintained a safe separation from all other aircraft and boundaries. The performance measures recorded included en route time, handoff delay, and conflict resolution delay (the performance measure of interest). In a baseline condition, the aircraft in conflict was highlighted in red (visual cue), and in the experimental conditions, this standard visual cue was accompanied by a simultaneously presented auditory, vibrotactile, or audiotactile cue. Participants responded significantly more rapidly, but no less accurately, to conflicts when presented with an additional auditory or audiotactile cue than with either a vibrotactile or visual cue alone. Auditory and audiotactile cues have the potential for improving operator performance by reducing the time it takes to detect and respond to potential visual target events. These results have important implications for the design and use of multisensory cues in air traffic management.

Shifting attention among working memory representations: testing cue type, awareness, and strategic control.

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Berryhill, Marian E; Richmond, Lauren L; Shay, Cara S; Olson, Ingrid R

2012-01-01

It is well known that visual working memory (VWM) performance is modulated by attentional cues presented during encoding. Interestingly, retrospective cues presented after encoding, but prior to the test phase also improve performance. This improvement in performance is termed the retro-cue benefit. We investigated whether the retro-cue benefit is sensitive to cue type, whether participants were aware of their improvement in performance due to the retro-cue, and whether the effect was under strategic control. Experiment 1 compared the potential cueing benefits of abrupt onset retro-cues relying on bottom-up attention, number retro-cues relying on top-down attention, and arrow retro-cues, relying on a mixture of both. We found a significant retro-cue effect only for arrow retro-cues. In Experiment 2, we tested participants' awareness of their use of the informative retro-cue and found that they were aware of their improved performance. In Experiment 3, we asked whether participants have strategic control over the retro-cue. The retro-cue was difficult to ignore, suggesting that strategic control is low. The retro-cue effect appears to be within conscious awareness but not under full strategic control.

Altered Brain Reactivity to Game Cues After Gaming Experience.

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Ahn, Hyeon Min; Chung, Hwan Jun; Kim, Sang Hee

2015-08-01

Individuals who play Internet games excessively show elevated brain reactivity to game-related cues. This study attempted to test whether this elevated cue reactivity observed in game players is a result of repeated exposure to Internet games. Healthy young adults without a history of excessively playing Internet games were recruited, and they were instructed to play an online Internet game for 2 hours/day for five consecutive weekdays. Two control groups were used: the drama group, which viewed a fantasy TV drama, and the no-exposure group, which received no systematic exposure. All participants performed a cue reactivity task with game, drama, and neutral cues in the brain scanner, both before and after the exposure sessions. The game group showed an increased reactivity to game cues in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). The degree of VLPFC activation increase was positively correlated with the self-reported increase in desire for the game. The drama group showed an increased cue reactivity in response to the presentation of drama cues in the caudate, posterior cingulate, and precuneus. The results indicate that exposure to either Internet games or TV dramas elevates the reactivity to visual cues associated with the particular exposure. The exact elevation patterns, however, appear to differ depending on the type of media experienced. How changes in each of the regions contribute to the progression to pathological craving warrants a future longitudinal study.

Reduced metabolism in brain "control networks" following cocaine-cues exposure in female cocaine abusers.

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Nora D Volkow

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Gender differences in vulnerability for cocaine addiction have been reported. Though the mechanisms are not understood, here we hypothesize that gender differences in reactivity to conditioned-cues, which contributes to relapse, are involved.To test this we compared brain metabolism (using PET and ¹⁸FDG between female (n = 10 and male (n = 16 active cocaine abusers when they watched a neutral video (nature scenes versus a cocaine-cues video.Self-reports of craving increased with the cocaine-cue video but responses did not differ between genders. In contrast, changes in whole brain metabolism with cocaine-cues differed by gender (p<0.05; females significantly decreased metabolism (-8.6%±10 whereas males tended to increase it (+5.5%±18. SPM analysis (Cocaine-cues vs Neutral in females revealed decreases in frontal, cingulate and parietal cortices, thalamus and midbrain (p<0.001 whereas males showed increases in right inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44/45 (only at p<0.005. The gender-cue interaction showed greater decrements with Cocaine-cues in females than males (p<0.001 in frontal (BA 8, 9, 10, anterior cingulate (BA 24, 32, posterior cingulate (BA 23, 31, inferior parietal (BA 40 and thalamus (dorsomedial nucleus.Females showed greater brain reactivity to cocaine-cues than males but no differences in craving, suggesting that there may be gender differences in response to cues that are not linked with craving but could affect subsequent drug use. Specifically deactivation of brain regions from "control networks" (prefrontal, cingulate, inferior parietal, thalamus in females could increase their vulnerability to relapse since it would interfere with executive function (cognitive inhibition. This highlights the importance of gender tailored interventions for cocaine addiction.

Daytime avoidance of chemosensory alarm cues by adult sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)

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Di Rocco, Richard; Belanger, Cowan; Imre, István; Brown, Grant; Johnson, Nicholas S.

2014-01-01

Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) avoid damage-released and predator chemosensory cues at night, but their response to these cues during the day is unknown. Here, we explored (i) whether sea lamprey avoid these cues during the day and (ii) the effect of water temperature on the avoidance of chemosensory alarm cues in two diurnal laboratory experiments. We hypothesized that daytime activity would be temperature-dependent and that only sea lamprey vulnerable to predation (i.e., not hiding) would behaviourally respond to chemosensory alarm cues. Ten groups of ten sea lamprey were exposed to one of a variety of potential chemosensory cues. The experiments were conducted over a range of temperatures to quantify the effect of temperature on avoidance behaviour. Consistent with our hypothesis, a higher proportion of animals were active during daytime as water temperature increased. Moving sea lamprey showed an avoidance response to 2-phenylethylamine (a compound found in mammalian urine) and human saliva once water temperatures had risen to mean (±SD) = 13.7 (±1.4) °C. Resting and hiding sea lamprey did not show an avoidance response to any of the experimental stimuli.

Ageing diminishes the modulation of human brain responses to visual food cues by meal ingestion.

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Cheah, Y S; Lee, S; Ashoor, G; Nathan, Y; Reed, L J; Zelaya, F O; Brammer, M J; Amiel, S A

2014-09-01

Rates of obesity are greatest in middle age. Obesity is associated with altered activity of brain networks sensing food-related stimuli and internal signals of energy balance, which modulate eating behaviour. The impact of healthy mid-life ageing on these processes has not been characterised. We therefore aimed to investigate changes in brain responses to food cues, and the modulatory effect of meal ingestion on such evoked neural activity, from young adulthood to middle age. Twenty-four healthy, right-handed subjects, aged 19.5-52.6 years, were studied on separate days after an overnight fast, randomly receiving 50 ml water or 554 kcal mixed meal before functional brain magnetic resonance imaging while viewing visual food cues. Across the group, meal ingestion reduced food cue-evoked activity of amygdala, putamen, insula and thalamus, and increased activity in precuneus and bilateral parietal cortex. Corrected for body mass index, ageing was associated with decreasing food cue-evoked activation of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and precuneus, and increasing activation of left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), bilateral temporal lobe and posterior cingulate in the fasted state. Ageing was also positively associated with the difference in food cue-evoked activation between fed and fasted states in the right DLPFC, bilateral amygdala and striatum, and negatively associated with that of the left orbitofrontal cortex and VLPFC, superior frontal gyrus, left middle and temporal gyri, posterior cingulate and precuneus. There was an overall tendency towards decreasing modulatory effects of prior meal ingestion on food cue-evoked regional brain activity with increasing age. Healthy ageing to middle age is associated with diminishing sensitivity to meal ingestion of visual food cue-evoked activity in brain regions that represent the salience of food and direct food-associated behaviour. Reduced satiety sensing may have a role in the greater risk of

The influence of vertical disparity gradient and cue conflict on EEG omega complexity in Panum's limiting case.

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Li, Huayun; Jia, Huibin; Yu, Dongchuan

2018-03-01

Using behavioral measures and ERP technique, researchers discovered at least two factors could influence the final perception of depth in Panum's limiting case, which are the vertical disparity gradient and the degree of cue conflict between two- and three-dimensional shapes. Although certain event-related potential components have been proved to be sensitive to the different levels of these two factors, some methodological limitations existed in this technique. In this study, we proposed that the omega complexity of EEG signal may serve as an important supplement of the traditional event-related potential technique. We found that the trials with lower vertical gradient disparity have lower omega complexity (i.e., higher global functional connectivity) of the occipital region, especially that of the right-occipital hemisphere. Moreover, for occipital omega complexity, the trials with low-cue conflict have significantly larger omega complexity than those with medium- and high-cue conflict. It is also found that the electrodes located in the middle line of the occipital region (i.e., POz and Oz) are more crucial to the impact of different levels of cue conflict on omega complexity than the other electrodes located in the left- and right-occipital hemispheres. These evidences demonstrated that the EEG omega complexity could reflect distinct neural activities evoked by Panum's limiting case configurations, with different levels of vertical disparity gradient and cue conflict. Besides, the influence of vertical disparity gradient and cue conflict on omega complexity may be regional dependent. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The EEG omega complexity could reflect distinct neural activities evoked by Panum's limiting case configurations with different levels of vertical disparity gradient and cue conflict. The influence of vertical disparity gradient and cue conflict on omega complexity is regional dependent. The omega complexity of EEG signal can serve as an important supplement of the

Severity of dependence modulates smokers' neuronal cue reactivity and cigarette craving elicited by tobacco advertisement.

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Vollstädt-Klein, Sabine; Kobiella, Andrea; Bühler, Mira; Graf, Caroline; Fehr, Christoph; Mann, Karl; Smolka, Michael N

2011-01-01

Smoking-related cues elicit craving and mesocorticolimbic brain activation in smokers. Severity of nicotine dependence seems to moderate cue reactivity, but the direction and mechanisms of its influence remains unclear. Although tobacco control policies demand a ban on tobacco advertising, cue reactivity studies in smokers so far have not employed tobacco advertisement as experimental stimuli. We investigated whether tobacco advertisement elicits cue reactivity at a behavioral (subjective craving) and a neural level (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) in 22 smokers and 21 never-smokers. Moreover, we studied the influence of severity of dependence on cue reactivity. In smokers, tobacco advertisement elicited substantially more craving than control advertisement whereas never-smokers reported no cue induced craving. Surprisingly, neuronal cue reactivity did not differ between smokers and never-smokers. Moderately dependent smokers' craving increased over the course of the experiment, whereas highly dependent smokers' craving was unaffected. Moderately dependent smokers' brain activity elicited by tobacco advertisement was higher in the amygdala, hippocampus, putamen and thalamus compared with highly dependent smokers. Furthermore, limbic brain activation predicted picture recognition rates after the scanning session, even in never-smokers. Our findings show that tobacco advertisement elicits cigarette craving and neuronal cue reactivity primarily in moderately dependent smokers, indicating that they might be particularly responsive towards external smoking-related cues. On the other hand, neuronal cue reactivity and cigarette craving in highly dependent smokers is more likely triggered by internal cues such as withdrawal symptoms. Tobacco advertisement seems to likewise appeal to smokers and non-smokers, clarifying the potential danger especially for young non-smokers. © 2010 The Authors, Addiction Biology © 2010 Society for the Study of Addiction.

The importance of source and cue type in time-based everyday prospective memory.

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Oates, Joyce M; Peynircioğlu, Zehra F

2014-01-01

We examined the effects of the source of a prospective memory task (provided or generated) and the type of cue (specific or general) triggering that task in everyday settings. Participants were asked to complete both generated and experimenter-provided tasks and to send a text message when each task was completed. The cue/context for the to-be-completed tasks was either a specific time or a general deadline (time-based cue), and the cue/context for the texting task was the completion of the task itself (activity-based cue). Although generated tasks were completed more often, generated cues/contexts were no more effective than provided ones in triggering the intention. Furthermore, generated tasks were completed more often when the cue/context comprised a specific time, whereas provided tasks were completed more often when the cue/context comprised a general deadline. However, texting was unaffected by the source of the cue/context. Finally, emotion modulated the effects. Results are discussed within a process-driven framework.

Magnitude and duration of cue-induced craving for marijuana in volunteers with cannabis use disorder.

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Lundahl, Leslie H; Greenwald, Mark K

2016-09-01

Evaluate magnitude and duration of subjective and physiologic responses to neutral and marijuana (MJ)-related cues in cannabis dependent volunteers. 33 volunteers (17 male) who met DSM-IV criteria for Cannabis Abuse or Dependence were exposed to neutral (first) then MJ-related visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile cues. Mood, drug craving and physiology were assessed at baseline, post-neutral, post-MJ and 15-min post MJ cue exposure to determine magnitude of cue- responses. For a subset of participants (n=15; 9 male), measures of craving and physiology were collected also at 30-, 90-, and 150-min post-MJ cue to examine duration of cue-effects. In cue-response magnitude analyses, visual analog scale (VAS) items craving for, urge to use, and desire to smoke MJ, Total and Compulsivity subscale scores of the Marijuana Craving Questionnaire, anxiety ratings, and diastolic blood pressure (BP) were significantly elevated following MJ vs. neutral cue exposure. In cue-response duration analyses, desire and urge to use MJ remained significantly elevated at 30-, 90- and 150-min post MJ-cue exposure, relative to baseline and neutral cues. Presentation of polysensory MJ cues increased MJ craving, anxiety and diastolic BP relative to baseline and neutral cues. MJ craving remained elevated up to 150-min after MJ cue presentation. This finding confirms that carry-over effects from drug cue presentation must be considered in cue reactivity studies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Magnitude and duration of cue-induced craving for marijuana in volunteers with cannabis use disorder

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Lundahl, Leslie H.; Greenwald, Mark K.

2016-01-01

Aims Evaluate magnitude and duration of subjective and physiologic responses to neutral and marijuana (MJ)–related cues in cannabis dependent volunteers. Methods 33 volunteers (17 male) who met DSM-IV criteria for Cannabis Abuse or Dependence were exposed to neutral (first) then MJ-related visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile cues. Mood, drug craving and physiology were assessed at baseline, post-neutral, post-MJ and 15-min post MJ cue exposure to determine magnitude of cue- responses. For a subset of participants (n=15; 9 male), measures of craving and physiology were collected also at 30-, 90-, and 150-min post-MJ cue to examine duration of cue-effects. Results In cue-response magnitude analyses, visual analog scale (VAS) items craving for, urge to use, and desire to smoke MJ, Total and Compulsivity subscale scores of the Marijuana Craving Questionnaire, anxiety ratings, and diastolic blood pressure (BP) were significantly elevated following MJ vs. neutral cue exposure. In cue-response duration analyses, desire and urge to use MJ remained significantly elevated at 30-, 90- and 150-min post MJ-cue exposure, relative to baseline and neutral cues. Conclusions Presentation of polysensory MJ cues increased MJ craving, anxiety and diastolic BP relative to baseline and neutral cues. MJ craving remained elevated up to 150-min after MJ cue presentation. This finding confirms that carry-over effects from drug cue presentation must be considered in cue reactivity studies. PMID:27436749

Cue combination in a combined feature contrast detection and figure identification task.

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Meinhardt, Günter; Persike, Malte; Mesenholl, Björn; Hagemann, Cordula

2006-11-01

Target figures defined by feature contrast in spatial frequency, orientation or both cues had to be detected in Gabor random fields and their shape had to be identified in a dual task paradigm. Performance improved with increasing feature contrast and was strongly correlated among both tasks. Subjects performed significantly better with combined cues than with single cues. The improvement due to cue summation was stronger than predicted by the assumption of independent feature specific mechanisms, and increased with the performance level achieved with single cues until it was limited by ceiling effects. Further, cue summation was also strongly correlated among tasks: when there was benefit due to the additional cue in feature contrast detection, there was also benefit in figure identification. For the same performance level achieved with single cues, cue summation was generally larger in figure identification than in feature contrast detection, indicating more benefit when processes of shape and surface formation are involved. Our results suggest that cue combination improves spatial form completion and figure-ground segregation in noisy environments, and therefore leads to more stable object vision.

Cue reactivity is associated with duration and severity of alcohol dependence: an FMRI study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sjoerds, Zsuzsika; van den Brink, Wim; Beekman, Aartjan T. F.; Penninx, Brenda W. J. H.; Veltman, Dick J.

2014-01-01

With the progression of substance dependence, drug cue-related brain activation is thought to shift from motivational towards habit pathways. However, a direct association between cue-induced brain activation and dependence duration has not yet been shown. We therefore examined the relationship

Endogenous-cue prospective memory involving incremental updating of working memory: an fMRI study.

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Halahalli, Harsha N; John, John P; Lukose, Ammu; Jain, Sanjeev; Kutty, Bindu M

2015-11-01

Prospective memory paradigms are conventionally classified on the basis of event-, time-, or activity-based intention retrieval. In the vast majority of such paradigms, intention retrieval is provoked by some kind of external event. However, prospective memory retrieval cues that prompt intention retrieval in everyday life are commonly endogenous, i.e., linked to a specific imagined retrieval context. We describe herein a novel prospective memory paradigm wherein the endogenous cue is generated by incremental updating of working memory, and investigated the hemodynamic correlates of this task. Eighteen healthy adult volunteers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while they performed a prospective memory task where the delayed intention was triggered by an endogenous cue generated by incremental updating of working memory. Working memory and ongoing task control conditions were also administered. The 'endogenous-cue prospective memory condition' with incremental working memory updating was associated with maximum activations in the right rostral prefrontal cortex, and additional activations in the brain regions that constitute the bilateral fronto-parietal network, central and dorsal salience networks as well as cerebellum. In the working memory control condition, maximal activations were noted in the left dorsal anterior insula. Activation of the bilateral dorsal anterior insula, a component of the central salience network, was found to be unique to this 'endogenous-cue prospective memory task' in comparison to previously reported exogenous- and endogenous-cue prospective memory tasks without incremental working memory updating. Thus, the findings of the present study highlight the important role played by the dorsal anterior insula in incremental working memory updating that is integral to our endogenous-cue prospective memory task.

Blunted Striatal Responses to Favorite Food Cues in Smokers*

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Jastreboff, Ania M.; Sinha, Rajita; Lacadie, Cheryl M.; Balodis, Iris M.; Sherwin, Robert; Potenza, Marc N.

2014-01-01

Background Although tobacco-smoking is associated with relatively leaner body mass and smoking cessation with weight gain, the brain mechanisms underlying these relationships are not well understood. Smokers compared to non-smokers have shown diminished neural responses to non-tobacco rewarding stimuli (e.g., monetary rewards), but brain responses to favorite-food cues have not been investigated relative to smoking status. We hypothesized that smokers would exhibit diminished neural responses compared to non-smokers in response to favorite-food cues in motivation-reward and emotion-regulating regions of the brain. Methods Twenty-three smokers and 23 non-smokers matched based on body mass index (BMI), age, and gender listened to personalized favorite-food-cue, stress, and neutral-relaxing audiotapes during fMRI. Results During favorite-food-cue exposure, smokers versus non-smokers exhibited diminished activations in the caudate, putamen, insula, and thalamus. Neural responses during stress and neutral-relaxing conditions were similar across groups. Subjective food-craving ratings were similar across groups. Conclusions The relatively diminished neural responses to favorite-food cues in smokers may contribute to lower BMI. PMID:25444233

Clinical relevance of retrieval cues for attenuating context renewal of fear.

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Culver, Najwa C; Stoyanova, Milena; Craske, Michelle G

2011-03-01

The present studies investigated if retrieval cues (reminder objects) can attenuate context renewal of fear. In Study 1, 32 participants completed exposure in one of two contexts; 1-week follow-up testing occurred in a novel or the same context. Results indicated significant renewal of fear for those tested in a novel context. In Study 2, 40 participants completed exposure in one of these contexts; half were presented with cues. One week later, all were tested in a novel context with or without cues. Results indicated weak attenuation of context renewal for participants re-presented with cues. In Study 3, 18 participants completed exposure in one of two maximally distinct contexts; all with cues. One week later, participants were tested in a novel context with or without cues. Results indicated no group differences. These findings suggest that clinical relevance of this set of cues for attenuating context renewal may be limited. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of verb-argument cues on verb production in persons with aphasia using a verb-final language

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Jee Eun Sung

2014-04-01

PWA showed greater difficulties in producing verbs with more argument structures compared to the normal group. In contrast, PWA presented significantly increased performance on the verb-completion task as the number of verb arguments increased since more cues were provided for 2- or 3-place verbs than 1-place verbs. The current results suggested that the features of more semantic and syntactic units to be activated may induce greater difficulties in retrieving verbs with more arguments, and PWA benefited from the verb-argument cues in verb production.

The time-course of activation in the dorsal and ventral visual streams during landmark cueing and perceptual discrimination tasks.

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Lambert, Anthony J; Wootton, Adrienne

2017-08-01

Different patterns of high density EEG activity were elicited by the same peripheral stimuli, in the context of Landmark Cueing and Perceptual Discrimination tasks. The C1 component of the visual event-related potential (ERP) at parietal - occipital electrode sites was larger in the Landmark Cueing task, and source localisation suggested greater activation in the superior parietal lobule (SPL) in this task, compared to the Perceptual Discrimination task, indicating stronger early recruitment of the dorsal visual stream. In the Perceptual Discrimination task, source localisation suggested widespread activation of the inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) and fusiform gyrus (FFG), structures associated with the ventral visual stream, during the early phase of the P1 ERP component. Moreover, during a later epoch (171-270ms after stimulus onset) increased temporal-occipital negativity, and stronger recruitment of ITG and FFG were observed in the Perceptual Discrimination task. These findings illuminate the contrasting functions of the dorsal and ventral visual streams, to support rapid shifts of attention in response to contextual landmarks, and conscious discrimination, respectively. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of oral THC pretreatment on marijuana cue-induced responses in cannabis dependent volunteers.

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Lundahl, Leslie H; Greenwald, Mark K

2015-04-01

The current study tested whether oral Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC: 0-, 10-, and 20-mg) pretreatment would attenuate polysensory cue-induced craving for marijuana. Cannabis dependent participants (7 males and 7 females, who smoked on average 5.4 ± 1.1 blunts daily) completed 3 experimental sessions (oral THC pretreatment dose; counterbalanced order) using a placebo-controlled within-subject crossover design. During each session, participants completed a baseline evaluation and were first exposed to neutral cues then marijuana cues while physiological measures and subjective ratings of mood, craving, and drug effect were recorded. Following placebo oral THC pretreatment, marijuana (vs. neutral) cues significantly increased ratings of marijuana craving (desire and urge to use, Marijuana Craving Questionnaire (MCQ)-Compulsivity scale), anxious mood and feeling hungry. Males also reported feeling more "Down" during marijuana cues relative to females. Pretreatment with oral THC (10-mg and/or 20-mg vs. placebo) significantly attenuated marijuana cue-induced increases in craving and anxiety but not hunger. Oral THC attenuation of the cue-induced increase in MCQ-Compulsivity ratings was observed in females only. Oral THC produced statistically (but not clinically) significant increases in heart rate and decreases in diastolic blood pressure, independent of cues. These marijuana-cue findings replicate earlier results and further demonstrate that oral THC can attenuate selected effects during marijuana multi-cue exposure, and that some of these effects may be sex-related. Results of this study suggest oral THC may be effective for reducing marijuana cue-elicited (conditioned) effects. Further study is needed to determine whether females may selectively benefit from oral THC for this purpose. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Effectiveness of external cues to facilitate task performance in people with neurological disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

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Harrison, Stephanie L; Laver, Kate E; Ninnis, Kayla; Rowett, Cherie; Lannin, Natasha A; Crotty, Maria

2018-03-09

To examine in people with neurological disorders, which method/s of providing external cues to improve task performance are most effective. Medline, EMBASE, and PsycINFO were systematically searched. Two reviewers independently screened, extracted data, and assessed the quality of the evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). Twenty six studies were included. Studies examined a wide-range of cues including visual, tactile, auditory, verbal, and multi-component cues. Cueing (any type) improved walking speed when comparing cues to no cues (mean difference (95% confidence interval): 0.08 m/s (0.06-0.10), I 2  = 68%, low quality of evidence). Remaining evidence was analysed narratively; evidence that cueing improves activity-related outcomes was inconsistent and rated as very low quality. It was not possible to determine which form of cueing may be more effective than others. Providing cues to encourage successful task performance is a core component of rehabilitation, however there is limited evidence on the type of cueing or which tasks benefit most from external cueing. Low-quality evidence suggests there may be a beneficial effect of cueing (any type) on walking speed. Sufficiently powered randomised controlled trials are needed to inform therapists of the most effective cueing strategies to improve activity performance in populations with a neurological disorder. Implications for rehabilitation Providing cues is a core component of rehabilitation and may improve successful task performance and activities in people with neurological conditions including stroke, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, and multiple sclerosis, but evidence is limited for most neurological conditions with much research focusing on stroke and Parkinson's disease. Therapists should consider using a range of different types of cues depending on the aims of treatment and the neurological condition. There is

The testing effect for mediator final test cues and related final test cues in online and laboratory experiments.

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Coppens, Leonora C; Verkoeijen, Peter P J L; Bouwmeester, Samantha; Rikers, Remy M J P

2016-05-31

The testing effect is the finding that information that is retrieved during learning is more often correctly retrieved on a final test than information that is restudied. According to the semantic mediator hypothesis the testing effect arises because retrieval practice of cue-target pairs (mother-child) activates semantically related mediators (father) more than restudying. Hence, the mediator-target (father-child) association should be stronger for retrieved than restudied pairs. Indeed, Carpenter (2011) found a larger testing effect when participants received mediators (father) than when they received target-related words (birth) as final test cues. The present study started as an attempt to test an alternative account of Carpenter's results. However, it turned into a series of conceptual (Experiment 1) and direct (Experiment 2 and 3) replications conducted with online samples. The results of these online replications were compared with those of similar existing laboratory experiments through small-scale meta-analyses. The results showed that (1) the magnitude of the raw mediator testing effect advantage is comparable for online and laboratory experiments, (2) in both online and laboratory experiments the magnitude of the raw mediator testing effect advantage is smaller than in Carpenter's original experiment, and (3) the testing effect for related cues varies considerably between online experiments. The variability in the testing effect for related cues in online experiments could point toward moderators of the related cue short-term testing effect. The raw mediator testing effect advantage is smaller than in Carpenter's original experiment.

Effect of menstrual cycle phase on corticolimbic brain activation by visual food cues.

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Frank, Tamar C; Kim, Ginah L; Krzemien, Alicja; Van Vugt, Dean A

2010-12-02

Food intake is decreased during the late follicular phase and increased in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. While a changing ovarian steroid milieu is believed to be responsible for this behavior, the specific mechanisms involved are poorly understood. Brain activity in response to visual food stimuli was compared during the estrogen dominant peri-ovulatory phase and the progesterone dominant luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Twelve women underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during the peri-ovulatory and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle in a counterbalanced fashion. Whole brain T2* images were collected while subjects viewed pictures of high calorie (HC) foods, low calorie (LC) foods, and control (C) pictures presented in a block design. Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal in the late follicular phase and luteal phase was determined for the contrasts HC-C, LC-C, HC-LC, and LC-HC. Both HC and LC stimuli activated numerous corticolimbic brain regions in the follicular phase, whereas only HC stimuli were effective in the luteal phase. Activation of the nucleus accumbens (NAc), amygdala, and hippocampus in response to the HC-C contrast and the hippocampus in response to the LC-C contrast was significantly increased in the late follicular phase compared to the luteal phase. Activation of the orbitofrontal cortex and mid cingulum in response to the HC-LC contrast was greater during the luteal phase. These results demonstrate for the first time that brain responses to visual food cues are influenced by menstrual cycle phase. We postulate that ovarian steroid modulation of the corticolimbic brain contributes to changes in ingestive behavior during the menstrual cycle. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Role of Habits in Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Usage: Predicting Excessive and Problematic Gaming Through Players' Sensitivity to Situational Cues.

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Lukavská, Kateřina; Hrabec, Ondřej; Chrz, Vladimír

2016-04-01

We examined the effect of habitual regulation of massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) playing on the problematic (addictive) usage and excessiveness of gaming (time that user spent playing weekly, per session, and in relation to his other leisure activities). We developed the approach to assess the strength of habitual regulation that was based on sensitivity to situational cues. We defined cues as real-life or in-game conditions (e.g., work to be done, activities with friends or family, need to relax, new game expansion) that usually promote gaming (proplay cues) or prevent it (contraplay cues). Using a sample of 377 MMORPG players, we analyzed relationships between variables through partial least squares path modeling. We found that proplay cues sensitivity significantly positively affected the excessiveness of gaming (playing time) as well as the occurrence of problematic usage symptoms. Conversely, contraplay cues sensitivity functioned as a protective factor from these conditions; significant negative effects were found for playing time and problematic usage. Playing time was confirmed to be a mediating variable, affected by cues sensitivity and at the same time affecting problematic usage symptoms. We obtained moderately strong coefficients of determination for both endogenous variables (R(2) = 0.28 for playing time; R(2) = 0.31 for problematic usage) suggesting that the proposed variables possess good explanatory power. Based on our results, we argue that the strength of habitual regulation within MMORPG usage has both positive and negative effects on excessive and problematic usage, which is a new and important finding within the area of Internet gaming addiction.

Posttraumatic stress and alcohol use among veterans: Amygdala and anterior cingulate activation to emotional cues.

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Simons, Raluca M; Simons, Jeffrey S; Olson, Dawne; Baugh, Lee; Magnotta, Vincent; Forster, Gina

2016-11-01

This fMRI study tested a model of combat trauma, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), alcohol use, and behavioral and neural responses to emotional cues in 100 OIF/OEF/OND veterans. Multilevel structural equation models were tested for left and right dorsal ACC (dACC), rostral ACC (rACC), and amygdala blood-oxygen- level dependent responses during the emotional counting Stroop test and masked faces task. In the Stroop task, combat exposure moderated the effect of combat stimuli resulting in hyperactivation in the rACC and dACC. Activation in the left amygdala also increased in response to combat stimuli, but effects did not vary as a function of combat severity. In the masked faces task, activation patterns did not vary as a function of stimulus. However, at the between-person level, amygdala activation during the masked faces task was inversely associated with PTSS. In respect to behavioral outcomes, higher PTSS were associated with a stronger Stroop effect, suggesting greater interference associated with combat words. Results are consistent with the premise that combat trauma results in hyperactivation in the ACC in response to combat stimuli, and, via its effect on PTSS, is associated with deficits in cognitive performance in the presence of combat stimuli. Across tasks, predeployment drinking was inversely associated with activation in the dACC but not the rACC or amygdala. Drinking may be a buffering factor, or negatively reinforcing in part because of its effects on normalizing brain response following trauma exposure. Alternatively, drinking may undermine adaptive functioning of the dACC when responding to traumatic stress cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Improved memory for reward cues following acute buprenorphine administration in humans

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Syal, Supriya; Ipser, Jonathan; Terburg, David|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/32304087X; Solms, Mark; Panksepp, Jaak; Malcolm-Smith, Susan; Bos, Peter A.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/337018995; Montoya, Estrella R.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/34141347X; Stein, Dan J.; van Honk, Jack|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/188602801

2015-01-01

In rodents, there is abundant evidence for the involvement of the opioid system in the processing of reward cues, but this system has remained understudied in humans. In humans, the happy facial expression is a pivotal reward cue. Happy facial expressions activate the brain's reward system and are

Gender and Impulsivity: Effects on Cue-Induced Alcohol Craving.

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Yarmush, Devorah E; Manchery, Linda; Luehring-Jones, Peter; Erblich, Joel

2016-05-01

Numerous studies have demonstrated that trait impulsivity is linked to increased risk of developing alcohol-use disorders and other substance abuse. Impulsivity has also been shown in some studies to potentiate cue-induced drug cravings. Despite considerable evidence of gender differences in impulsivity and drug craving among individuals suffering from alcohol dependence and other drug use, little research has focused on these processes in healthy young men and women who may be at risk for developing alcohol-use disorders. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between impulsivity and cue-induced craving, as well as possible gender differences in these effects among healthy young adults. To that end, female (n = 22) and male (n = 14) social drinkers aged 18 to 25, recruited from an urban university campus, completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and reported their alcohol cravings immediately before and after laboratory exposure to alcohol cues. Findings indicated that exposure to cues elicited increased alcohol cravings, but these effects did not differ by gender. Interestingly, a significant interaction of impulsivity and gender revealed that impulsivity predicted significantly higher cue-induced cravings in women, but not men. Findings underscore the importance of better understanding the interaction of situational factors (e.g., exposure to alcohol cues) and dispositional factors (e.g., impulsivity) as potential contributors to drinking motivation. Future prospective research is needed to identify gender-specific risk factors for the development of problem drinking. Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Subliminal Cues While Teaching: HCI Technique for Enhanced Learning

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Pierre Chalfoun

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents results from an empirical study conducted with a subliminal teaching technique aimed at enhancing learner's performance in Intelligent Systems through the use of physiological sensors. This technique uses carefully designed subliminal cues (positive and miscues (negative and projects them under the learner's perceptual visual threshold. A positive cue, called answer cue, is a hint aiming to enhance the learner's inductive reasoning abilities and projected in a way to help them figure out the solution faster but more importantly better. A negative cue, called miscue, is also used and aims at obviously at the opposite (distract the learner or lead them to the wrong conclusion. The latest obtained results showed that only subliminal cues, not miscues, could significantly increase learner performance and intuition in a logic-based problem-solving task. Nonintrusive physiological sensors (EEG for recording brainwaves, blood volume pressure to compute heart rate and skin response to record skin conductivity were used to record affective and cerebral responses throughout the experiment. The descriptive analysis, combined with the physiological data, provides compelling evidence for the positive impact of answer cues on reasoning and intuitive decision making in a logic-based problem-solving paradigm.

Attention Cueing and Activity Equally Reduce False Alarm Rate in Visual-Auditory Associative Learning through Improving Memory.

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Nikouei Mahani, Mohammad-Ali; Haghgoo, Hojjat Allah; Azizi, Solmaz; Nili Ahmadabadi, Majid

2016-01-01

In our daily life, we continually exploit already learned multisensory associations and form new ones when facing novel situations. Improving our associative learning results in higher cognitive capabilities. We experimentally and computationally studied the learning performance of healthy subjects in a visual-auditory sensory associative learning task across active learning, attention cueing learning, and passive learning modes. According to our results, the learning mode had no significant effect on learning association of congruent pairs. In addition, subjects' performance in learning congruent samples was not correlated with their vigilance score. Nevertheless, vigilance score was significantly correlated with the learning performance of the non-congruent pairs. Moreover, in the last block of the passive learning mode, subjects significantly made more mistakes in taking non-congruent pairs as associated and consciously reported lower confidence. These results indicate that attention and activity equally enhanced visual-auditory associative learning for non-congruent pairs, while false alarm rate in the passive learning mode did not decrease after the second block. We investigated the cause of higher false alarm rate in the passive learning mode by using a computational model, composed of a reinforcement learning module and a memory-decay module. The results suggest that the higher rate of memory decay is the source of making more mistakes and reporting lower confidence in non-congruent pairs in the passive learning mode.

Multiple reward-cue contingencies favor expectancy over uncertainty in shaping the reward-cue attentional salience.

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De Tommaso, Matteo; Mastropasqua, Tommaso; Turatto, Massimo

2018-01-25

Reward-predicting cues attract attention because of their motivational value. A debated question regards the conditions under which the cue's attentional salience is governed more by reward expectancy rather than by reward uncertainty. To help shedding light on this relevant issue, here, we manipulated expectancy and uncertainty using three levels of reward-cue contingency, so that, for example, a high level of reward expectancy (p = .8) was compared with the highest level of reward uncertainty (p = .5). In Experiment 1, the best reward-cue during conditioning was preferentially attended in a subsequent visual search task. This result was replicated in Experiment 2, in which the cues were matched in terms of response history. In Experiment 3, we implemented a hybrid procedure consisting of two phases: an omission contingency procedure during conditioning, followed by a visual search task as in the previous experiments. Crucially, during both phases, the reward-cues were never task relevant. Results confirmed that, when multiple reward-cue contingencies are explored by a human observer, expectancy is the major factor controlling both the attentional and the oculomotor salience of the reward-cue.

Emotional expression in music: contribution, linearity, and additivity of primary musical cues.

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Eerola, Tuomas; Friberg, Anders; Bresin, Roberto

2013-01-01

The aim of this study is to manipulate musical cues systematically to determine the aspects of music that contribute to emotional expression, and whether these cues operate in additive or interactive fashion, and whether the cue levels can be characterized as linear or non-linear. An optimized factorial design was used with six primary musical cues (mode, tempo, dynamics, articulation, timbre, and register) across four different music examples. Listeners rated 200 musical examples according to four perceived emotional characters (happy, sad, peaceful, and scary). The results exhibited robust effects for all cues and the ranked importance of these was established by multiple regression. The most important cue was mode followed by tempo, register, dynamics, articulation, and timbre, although the ranking varied across the emotions. The second main result suggested that most cue levels contributed to the emotions in a linear fashion, explaining 77-89% of variance in ratings. Quadratic encoding of cues did lead to minor but significant increases of the models (0-8%). Finally, the interactions between the cues were non-existent suggesting that the cues operate mostly in an additive fashion, corroborating recent findings on emotional expression in music (Juslin and Lindström, 2010).

Expressive suppression and neural responsiveness to nonverbal affective cues.

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Petrican, Raluca; Rosenbaum, R Shayna; Grady, Cheryl

2015-10-01

Optimal social functioning occasionally requires concealment of one's emotions in order to meet one's immediate goals and environmental demands. However, because emotions serve an important communicative function, their habitual suppression disrupts the flow of social exchanges and, thus, incurs significant interpersonal costs. Evidence is accruing that the disruption in social interactions, linked to habitual expressive suppression use, stems not only from intrapersonal, but also from interpersonal causes, since the suppressors' restricted affective displays reportedly inhibit their interlocutors' emotionally expressive behaviors. However, expressive suppression use is not known to lead to clinically significant social impairments. One explanation may be that over the lifespan, individuals who habitually suppress their emotions come to compensate for their interlocutors' restrained expressive behaviors by developing an increased sensitivity to nonverbal affective cues. To probe this issue, the present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan healthy older women while they viewed silent videos of a male social target displaying nonverbal emotional behavior, together with a brief verbal description of the accompanying context, and then judged the target's affect. As predicted, perceivers who reported greater habitual use of expressive suppression showed increased neural processing of nonverbal affective cues. This effect appeared to be coordinated in a top-down manner via cognitive control. Greater neural processing of nonverbal cues among perceivers who habitually suppress their emotions was linked to increased ventral striatum activity, suggestive of increased reward value/personal relevance ascribed to emotionally expressive nonverbal behaviors. These findings thus provide neural evidence broadly consistent with the hypothesized link between habitual use of expressive suppression and compensatory development of increased responsiveness to

A Review of Swimming Cues and Tips for Physical Education

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Higginson, Kelsey; Barney, David

2016-01-01

Swimming is a low-impact activity that causes little stress on joints so it can be done for a lifetime. Many teachers may wish to teach swimming but do not have cues or ideas for doing so. This article reviews swimming cues, relays and equipment that can help a physical education teacher include a swimming unit in their curriculum. Certification…

Increased Variability and Asymmetric Expansion of the Hippocampal Spatial Representation in a Distal Cue-Dependent Memory Task.

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Park, Seong-Beom; Lee, Inah

2016-08-01

Place cells in the hippocampus fire at specific positions in space, and distal cues in the environment play critical roles in determining the spatial firing patterns of place cells. Many studies have shown that place fields are influenced by distal cues in foraging animals. However, it is largely unknown whether distal-cue-dependent changes in place fields appear in different ways in a memory task if distal cues bear direct significance to achieving goals. We investigated this possibility in this study. Rats were trained to choose different spatial positions in a radial arm in association with distal cue configurations formed by visual cue sets attached to movable curtains around the apparatus. The animals were initially trained to associate readily discernible distal cue configurations (0° vs. 80° angular separation between distal cue sets) with different food-well positions and then later experienced ambiguous cue configurations (14° and 66°) intermixed with the original cue configurations. Rats showed no difficulty in transferring the associated memory formed for the original cue configurations when similar cue configurations were presented. Place field positions remained at the same locations across different cue configurations, whereas stability and coherence of spatial firing patterns were significantly disrupted when ambiguous cue configurations were introduced. Furthermore, the spatial representation was extended backward and skewed more negatively at the population level when processing ambiguous cue configurations, compared with when processing the original cue configurations only. This effect was more salient for large cue-separation conditions than for small cue-separation conditions. No significant rate remapping was observed across distal cue configurations. These findings suggest that place cells in the hippocampus dynamically change their detailed firing characteristics in response to a modified cue environment and that some of the firing

Motivated Reasoning and Political Parties: Evidence for Increased Processing in the Face of Party Cues

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Michael Bang; Skov, Martin; Serritzlew, Søren

2013-01-01

. As part of the latter processes, the presence of party cues would make individuals engage in effortful motivated reasoning to produce arguments for the correctness of their party’s position. Following psychological research, we use response latency to measure processing effort and, in support......Extant research in political science has demonstrated that citizens’ opinions on policies are influenced by their attachment to the party sponsoring them. At the same time, little evidence exists illuminating the psychological processes through which such party cues are filtered. From...... the psychological literature on source cues, we derive two possible hypotheses: (1) party cues activate heuristic processing aimed at minimizing the processing effort during opinion formation, and (2) party cues activate group motivational processes that compel citizens to support the position of their party...

Cross-modal cueing in audiovisual spatial attention

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blurton, Steven Paul; Greenlee, Mark W.; Gondan, Matthias

2015-01-01

effects have been reported for endogenous visual cues while exogenous cues seem to be mostly ineffective. In three experiments, we investigated cueing effects on the processing of audiovisual signals. In Experiment 1 we used endogenous cues to investigate their effect on the detection of auditory, visual......, and audiovisual targets presented with onset asynchrony. Consistent cueing effects were found in all target conditions. In Experiment 2 we used exogenous cues and found cueing effects only for visual target detection, but not auditory target detection. In Experiment 3 we used predictive exogenous cues to examine...

Food cues and ghrelin recruit the same neuronal circuitry

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van der Plasse, G.; Merkestein, M.; Luijendijk, M.C.M.; van der Roest, M.; Westenberg, H.G.M.; Mulder, A.B.; Adan, R.A.H.

2013-01-01

Background: Cues that are associated with the availability of food are known to trigger food anticipatory activity (FAA). This activity is expressed as increased locomotor activity and enables an animal to prepare for maximal utilization of nutritional resources. Although the exact neural network

Deceptive body movements reverse spatial cueing in soccer.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael J Wright

Full Text Available The purpose of the experiments was to analyse the spatial cueing effects of the movements of soccer players executing normal and deceptive (step-over turns with the ball. Stimuli comprised normal resolution or point-light video clips of soccer players dribbling a football towards the observer then turning right or left with the ball. Clips were curtailed before or on the turn (-160, -80, 0 or +80 ms to examine the time course of direction prediction and spatial cueing effects. Participants were divided into higher-skilled (HS and lower-skilled (LS groups according to soccer experience. In experiment 1, accuracy on full video clips was higher than on point-light but results followed the same overall pattern. Both HS and LS groups correctly identified direction on normal moves at all occlusion levels. For deceptive moves, LS participants were significantly worse than chance and HS participants were somewhat more accurate but nevertheless substantially impaired. In experiment 2, point-light clips were used to cue a lateral target. HS and LS groups showed faster reaction times to targets that were congruent with the direction of normal turns, and to targets incongruent with the direction of deceptive turns. The reversed cueing by deceptive moves coincided with earlier kinematic events than cueing by normal moves. It is concluded that the body kinematics of soccer players generate spatial cueing effects when viewed from an opponent's perspective. This could create a reaction time advantage when anticipating the direction of a normal move. A deceptive move is designed to turn this cueing advantage into a disadvantage. Acting on the basis of advance information, the presence of deceptive moves primes responses in the wrong direction, which may be only partly mitigated by delaying a response until veridical cues emerge.

Cue lure and the mating behavior of male melon flies (Diptera: Tephritidae)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shelly, T.E.; Villalobos, E.M.

1995-01-01

Laboratory tests were conducted to assess the effect of the parapheromone cue lure on the mating behavior of male Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett). Exposure to cue lure resulted in a short-term mating advantage. For wild flies, treated males that fed on cue lure on the day of testing, or 1 day prior to testing, mated more frequently than control males that had no prior exposure to cue lure. However, control and treated males had similar mating success in tests performed 3 or 7 days after the treated males were exposed to the lure. Exposure to cue lure also increased the mating success of mass-reared, irradiated males relative to unexposed wild males, though this advantage was evident for only 1 day following exposure. Cue lure appeared to enhance mating performance by increasing male wing-fanning activity but not the attractiveness of the signal per se. A field study revealed that irradiated males exposed to cue lure 1 week prior to release were less likely to be captured (in Steiner traps baited with cue lure and naled) than unexposed males. These findings suggest that exposure of sterile males to cue lure might improve the effectiveness of sterile insect release as well as enable simultaneous control programs of sterile insect release and male annihilation

Cue Reactivity Is Associated with Duration and Severity of Alcohol Dependence: An fMRI Study

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Sjoerds, Z.; van den Brink, W.; Beekman, A.T.F.; Penninx, B.W.J.H.; Veltman, D.J.

2014-01-01

Introduction: With the progression of substance dependence, drug cue-related brain activation is thought to shift from motivational towards habit pathways. However, a direct association between cue-induced brain activation and dependence duration has not yet been shown. We therefore examined the

Cue Reactivity Is Associated with Duration and Severity of Alcohol Dependence : An fMRI Study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sjoerds, Zsuzsika; van den Brink, Wim; Beekman, Aartjan T. F.; Penninx, Brenda W. J. H.; Veltman, Dick J.

2014-01-01

Introduction: With the progression of substance dependence, drug cue-related brain activation is thought to shift from motivational towards habit pathways. However, a direct association between cue-induced brain activation and dependence duration has not yet been shown. We therefore examined the

Reward dependence moderates smoking-cue- and stress-induced cigarette cravings.

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Michalowski, Alexandra; Erblich, Joel

2014-12-01

Cigarette cravings following exposure to smoking cues in a smoker's environment are thought to play an important role in cessation failure. The possibility that dispositional factors may impact cue-induced cravings, though intriguing, has received little attention. According to Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Theory, factors such as reward dependence (RD), harm avoidance (HA), and novelty seeking (NS) may figure prominently in risk for addiction, as well as relapse, in individuals attempting to abstain from drug and alcohol use. Particularly interesting in this regard is the possibility that smokers with higher levels of RD, who are especially sensitive to reward signals, will have heightened craving reactions to smoking cues. To that end, non-treatment-seeking nicotine dependent smokers (n=96, mean age=41.1, 47% African American, 17% Caucasian, 22% Hispanic, 19.3cigs/day, FTND=7.5) underwent a classic experimental cue-induction, during which they were exposed to imagery of: (1) smoking, (2) neutral, and (3) stress cues, and reported their cigarette cravings (0-100) before and after each exposure. Participants also completed the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. Not surprisingly, smoking and stress cues (but not neutral cues) elicited significant elevations in craving (p'scues (pcues (pcues. Furthermore, the similar effects of RD on stress-induced craving suggest that both cue-and stress-induced cravings may be influenced by a common underlying disposition. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Differential Neural Activity during Search of Specific and General Autobiographical Memories Elicited by Musical Cues

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Ford, Jaclyn Hennessey; Addis, Donna Rose; Giovanello, Kelly S.

2011-01-01

Previous neuroimaging studies that have examined autobiographical memory specificity have utilized retrieval cues associated with prior searches of the event, potentially changing the retrieval processes being investigated. In the current study, musical cues were used to naturally elicit memories from multiple levels of specificity (i.e., lifetime…

Blunted striatal responses to favorite-food cues in smokers.

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Jastreboff, Ania M; Sinha, Rajita; Lacadie, Cheryl M; Balodis, Iris M; Sherwin, Robert; Potenza, Marc N

2015-01-01

Although tobacco-smoking is associated with relatively leaner body mass and smoking cessation with weight gain, the brain mechanisms underlying these relationships are not well understood. Smokers compared to non-smokers have shown diminished neural responses to non-tobacco rewarding stimuli (e.g., monetary rewards), but brain responses to favorite-food cues have not been investigated relative to smoking status. We hypothesized that smokers would exhibit diminished neural responses compared to non-smokers in response to favorite-food cues in motivation-reward and emotion-regulating regions of the brain. Twenty-three smokers and 23 non-smokers matched based on body mass index (BMI), age, and gender listened to personalized favorite-food cue, stress, and neutral-relaxing audiotapes during fMRI. During favorite-food cue exposure, smokers versus non-smokers exhibited diminished activations in the caudate, putamen, insula, and thalamus. Neural responses during stress and neutral-relaxing conditions were similar across groups. Subjective food-craving ratings were similar across groups. The relatively diminished neural responses to favorite-food cues in smokers may contribute to lower BMI. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Preconditioning of Spatial and Auditory Cues: Roles of the Hippocampus, Frontal Cortex, and Cue-Directed Attention

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Andrew C. Talk

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Loss of function of the hippocampus or frontal cortex is associated with reduced performance on memory tasks, in which subjects are incidentally exposed to cues at specific places in the environment and are subsequently asked to recollect the location at which the cue was experienced. Here, we examined the roles of the rodent hippocampus and frontal cortex in cue-directed attention during encoding of memory for the location of a single incidentally experienced cue. During a spatial sensory preconditioning task, rats explored an elevated platform while an auditory cue was incidentally presented at one corner. The opposite corner acted as an unpaired control location. The rats demonstrated recollection of location by avoiding the paired corner after the auditory cue was in turn paired with shock. Damage to either the dorsal hippocampus or the frontal cortex impaired this memory ability. However, we also found that hippocampal lesions enhanced attention directed towards the cue during the encoding phase, while frontal cortical lesions reduced cue-directed attention. These results suggest that the deficit in spatial sensory preconditioning caused by frontal cortical damage may be mediated by inattention to the location of cues during the latent encoding phase, while deficits following hippocampal damage must be related to other mechanisms such as generation of neural plasticity.

Preconditioning of Spatial and Auditory Cues: Roles of the Hippocampus, Frontal Cortex, and Cue-Directed Attention

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Talk, Andrew C.; Grasby, Katrina L.; Rawson, Tim; Ebejer, Jane L.

2016-01-01

Loss of function of the hippocampus or frontal cortex is associated with reduced performance on memory tasks, in which subjects are incidentally exposed to cues at specific places in the environment and are subsequently asked to recollect the location at which the cue was experienced. Here, we examined the roles of the rodent hippocampus and frontal cortex in cue-directed attention during encoding of memory for the location of a single incidentally experienced cue. During a spatial sensory preconditioning task, rats explored an elevated platform while an auditory cue was incidentally presented at one corner. The opposite corner acted as an unpaired control location. The rats demonstrated recollection of location by avoiding the paired corner after the auditory cue was in turn paired with shock. Damage to either the dorsal hippocampus or the frontal cortex impaired this memory ability. However, we also found that hippocampal lesions enhanced attention directed towards the cue during the encoding phase, while frontal cortical lesions reduced cue-directed attention. These results suggest that the deficit in spatial sensory preconditioning caused by frontal cortical damage may be mediated by inattention to the location of cues during the latent encoding phase, while deficits following hippocampal damage must be related to other mechanisms such as generation of neural plasticity. PMID:27999366

Grasp cueing and joint attention.

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Tschentscher, Nadja; Fischer, Martin H

2008-10-01

We studied how two different hand posture cues affect joint attention in normal observers. Visual targets appeared over lateralized objects, with different delays after centrally presented hand postures. Attention was cued by either hand direction or the congruency between hand aperture and object size. Participants pressed a button when they detected a target. Direction cues alone facilitated target detection following short delays but aperture cues alone were ineffective. In contrast, when hand postures combined direction and aperture cues, aperture congruency effects without directional congruency effects emerged and persisted, but only for power grips. These results suggest that parallel parameter specification makes joint attention mechanisms exquisitely sensitive to the timing and content of contextual cues.

Diverse Roads to Relapse: A Discriminative Cue Signaling Cocaine Availability Is More Effective in Renewing Cocaine Seeking in Goal Trackers Than Sign Trackers and Depends on Basal Forebrain Cholinergic Activity.

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Pitchers, Kyle K; Phillips, Kyra B; Jones, Jonte L; Robinson, Terry E; Sarter, Martin

2017-07-26

Stimuli associated with taking drugs are notorious instigators of relapse. There is, however, considerable variation in the motivational properties of such stimuli, both as a function of the individual and the nature of the stimulus. The behavior of some individuals (sign trackers, STs) is especially influenced by cues paired with reward delivery, perhaps because they are prone to process information via dopamine-dependent, cue-driven, incentive salience systems. Other individuals (goal trackers, GTs) are better able to incorporate higher-order contextual information, perhaps because of better executive/attentional control over behavior, which requires frontal cortical cholinergic activity. We hypothesized, therefore, that a cue that "sets the occasion" for drug taking (a discriminative stimulus, DS) would reinstate cocaine seeking more readily in GTs than STs and that this would require intact cholinergic neurotransmission. To test this, male STs and GTs were trained to self-administer cocaine using an intermittent access schedule with periods of cocaine availability and unavailability signaled by a DS + and a DS - , respectively. Thereafter, half of the rats received an immunotoxic lesion that destroyed 40-50% of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons and later, after extinction training, were tested for the ability of noncontingent presentations of the DS + to reinstate cocaine seeking behavior. The DS + was much more effective in reinstating cocaine seeking in GTs than STs and this effect was abolished by cholinergic losses despite the fact that all rats continued to orient to the DS + We conclude that vulnerability to relapse involves interactions between individual cognitive-motivational biases and the form of the drug cue encountered. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The most predictable outcome of a diagnosis of addiction is a high chance for relapse. When addicts encounter cues previously associated with drug, their attention may be unduly attracted to such cues and

Emotional cues enhance the attentional effects on spatial and temporal resolution.

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Bocanegra, Bruno R; Zeelenberg, René

2011-12-01

In the present study, we demonstrated that the emotional significance of a spatial cue enhances the effect of covert attention on spatial and temporal resolution (i.e., our ability to discriminate small spatial details and fast temporal flicker). Our results indicated that fearful face cues, as compared with neutral face cues, enhanced the attentional benefits in spatial resolution but also enhanced the attentional deficits in temporal resolution. Furthermore, we observed that the overall magnitudes of individuals' attentional effects correlated strongly with the magnitude of the emotion × attention interaction effect. Combined, these findings provide strong support for the idea that emotion enhances the strength of a cue's attentional response.

Cue self-relevance affects autobiographical memory specificity in individuals with a history of major depression.

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Crane, Catherine; Barnhofer, Thorsten; Mark, J; Williams, G

2007-04-01

Previously depressed and never-depressed individuals identified personal characteristics (self-guides) defining their ideal, ought, and feared selves. One week later they completed the autobiographical memory test (AMT). For each participant the number of AMT cues that reflected self-guide content was determined to produce an index of AMT cue self-relevance. Individuals who had never been depressed showed no significant relationship between cue self-relevance and specificity. In contrast, in previously depressed participants there was a highly significant negative correlation between cue self-relevance and specificity--the greater the number of AMT cues that reflected self-guide content, the fewer specific memories participants recalled. It is suggested that in individuals with a history of depression, cues reflecting self-guide content are more likely to prompt a shift to processing of information within the long-term self (Conway, Singer, & Tagini, 2004), increasing the likelihood that self-related semantic information will be provided in response to cues on the autobiographical memory test.

Emotional Expression in Music: Contribution, Linearity, and Additivity of Primary Musical Cues

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Tuomas eEerola

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to manipulate musical cues systematically to determine the aspects of music that contribute to emotional expression, and whether these cues operate in additive or interactive fashion, and whether the cue levels can be characterized as linear or non-linear. An optimized factorial design was used with six primary musical cues (mode, tempo, dynamics, articulation, timbre, and register across four different music examples. Listeners rated 200 musical examples according to four perceived emotional characters (happy, sad, peaceful, and scary. The results exhibited robust effects for all cues and the ranked importance of these was established by multiple regression. The most important cue was mode followed by tempo, register, dynamics, articulation, and timbre, although the ranking varied across the emotions. The second main result suggested that most cue levels contributed to the emotions in a linear fashion, explaining 77–89% of variance in ratings. Quadratic encoding of cues did lead to minor but significant increases of the models (0–8%. Finally, the interactions between the cues were non-existent suggesting that the cues operate mostly in an additive fashion, corroborating recent findings on emotional expression in music (Juslin & Lindström, 2010.

Emotional expression in music: contribution, linearity, and additivity of primary musical cues

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Eerola, Tuomas; Friberg, Anders; Bresin, Roberto

2013-01-01

The aim of this study is to manipulate musical cues systematically to determine the aspects of music that contribute to emotional expression, and whether these cues operate in additive or interactive fashion, and whether the cue levels can be characterized as linear or non-linear. An optimized factorial design was used with six primary musical cues (mode, tempo, dynamics, articulation, timbre, and register) across four different music examples. Listeners rated 200 musical examples according to four perceived emotional characters (happy, sad, peaceful, and scary). The results exhibited robust effects for all cues and the ranked importance of these was established by multiple regression. The most important cue was mode followed by tempo, register, dynamics, articulation, and timbre, although the ranking varied across the emotions. The second main result suggested that most cue levels contributed to the emotions in a linear fashion, explaining 77–89% of variance in ratings. Quadratic encoding of cues did lead to minor but significant increases of the models (0–8%). Finally, the interactions between the cues were non-existent suggesting that the cues operate mostly in an additive fashion, corroborating recent findings on emotional expression in music (Juslin and Lindström, 2010). PMID:23908642

Neural correlates of stress- and food cue-induced food craving in obesity: association with insulin levels.

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Jastreboff, Ania M; Sinha, Rajita; Lacadie, Cheryl; Small, Dana M; Sherwin, Robert S; Potenza, Marc N

2013-02-01

Obesity is associated with alterations in corticolimbic-striatal brain regions involved in food motivation and reward. Stress and the presence of food cues may each motivate eating and engage corticolimibic-striatal neurocircuitry. It is unknown how these factors interact to influence brain responses and whether these interactions are influenced by obesity, insulin levels, and insulin sensitivity. We hypothesized that obese individuals would show greater responses in corticolimbic-striatal neurocircuitry after exposure to stress and food cues and that brain activations would correlate with subjective food craving, insulin levels, and HOMA-IR. Fasting insulin levels were assessed in obese and lean subjects who were exposed to individualized stress and favorite-food cues during functional MRI. Obese, but not lean, individuals exhibited increased activation in striatal, insular, and hypothalamic regions during exposure to favorite-food and stress cues. In obese but not lean individuals, food craving, insulin, and HOMA-IR levels correlated positively with neural activity in corticolimbic-striatal brain regions during favorite-food and stress cues. The relationship between insulin resistance and food craving in obese individuals was mediated by activity in motivation-reward regions including the striatum, insula, and thalamus. These findings demonstrate that obese, but not lean, individuals exhibit increased corticolimbic-striatal activation in response to favorite-food and stress cues and that these brain responses mediate the relationship between HOMA-IR and food craving. Improving insulin sensitivity and in turn reducing corticolimbic-striatal reactivity to food cues and stress may diminish food craving and affect eating behavior in obesity.

Cue integration vs. exemplar-based reasoning in multi-attribute decisions from memory: A matter of cue representation

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Arndt Broeder; Ben R. Newell; Christine Platzer

2010-01-01

Inferences about target variables can be achieved by deliberate integration of probabilistic cues or by retrieving similar cue-patterns (exemplars) from memory. In tasks with cue information presented in on-screen displays, rule-based strategies tend to dominate unless the abstraction of cue-target relations is unfeasible. This dominance has also been demonstrated --- surprisingly --- in experiments that demanded the retrieval of cue values from memory (M. Persson \\& J. Rieskamp, 2009). In th...

Extinction Can Reduce the Impact of Reward Cues on Reward-Seeking Behavior.

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Lovibond, Peter F; Satkunarajah, Michelle; Colagiuri, Ben

2015-07-01

Reward-associated cues are thought to promote relapse after treatment of appetitive disorders such as drug-taking, binge eating, and gambling. This process has been modelled in the laboratory using a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) design in which Pavlovian cues facilitate instrumental reward-directed action. Attempts to reduce facilitation by cue exposure (extinction) have produced mixed results. We tested the effect of extinction in a recently developed PIT procedure using a natural reward, chocolate, in human participants. Facilitation of instrumental responding was only observed in participants who were aware of the Pavlovian contingencies. Pavlovian extinction successfully reduced, but did not completely eliminate, expectancy of reward and facilitation of instrumental responding. The results indicate that exposure can reduce the ability of cues to promote reward-directed behavior in the laboratory. However, the residual potency of extinguished cues means that additional active strategies may be needed in clinical practice to train patients to resist the impact of these cues in their environment. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Reduced Metabolsim in Brain 'Control Networks' Following Cocaine-Cues Exposure in Female Cocaine Abusers

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Volkow, N.D.; Wang, G.; Volkow, N.D.; Tomasi, D.; Wang, G.-J.; Fowler, J.S.; Telang, F.; Goldstein, R.Z.; Alia-Klein, N.; Wong, C.T.

2011-03-01

Gender differences in vulnerability for cocaine addiction have been reported. Though the mechanisms are not understood, here we hypothesize that gender differences in reactivity to conditioned-cues, which contributes to relapse, are involved. To test this we compared brain metabolism (using PET and {sup 18}FDG) between female (n = 10) and male (n = 16) active cocaine abusers when they watched a neutral video (nature scenes) versus a cocaine-cues video. Self-reports of craving increased with the cocaine-cue video but responses did not differ between genders. In contrast, changes in whole brain metabolism with cocaine-cues differed by gender (p<0.05); females significantly decreased metabolism (-8.6% {+-} 10) whereas males tended to increase it (+5.5% {+-} 18). SPM analysis (Cocaine-cues vs Neutral) in females revealed decreases in frontal, cingulate and parietal cortices, thalamus and midbrain (p<0.001) whereas males showed increases in right inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44/45) (only at p<0.005). The gender-cue interaction showed greater decrements with Cocaine-cues in females than males (p<0.001) in frontal (BA 8, 9, 10), anterior cingulate (BA 24, 32), posterior cingulate (BA 23, 31), inferior parietal (BA 40) and thalamus (dorsomedial nucleus). Females showed greater brain reactivity to cocaine-cues than males but no differences in craving, suggesting that there may be gender differences in response to cues that are not linked with craving but could affect subsequent drug use. Specifically deactivation of brain regions from 'control networks' (prefrontal, cingulate, inferior parietal, thalamus) in females could increase their vulnerability to relapse since it would interfere with executive function (cognitive inhibition). This highlights the importance of gender tailored interventions for cocaine addiction.

The Responses of Young Domestic Horses to Human-Given Cues

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Proops, Leanne; Rayner, Jenny; Taylor, Anna M.; McComb, Karen

2013-01-01

It has been suggested that the process of domestication, at least in some species, has led to an innate predisposition to be skilled at reading human communicative and attentional cues. Adult domestic horses (Equus caballus) are highly sensitive to subtle bodily cues when determining if a person is attending to them but they are less adept at using human communicative cues in object choice tasks. Here we provide the first study into the ontogeny of such skills in order to gain insights into the mechanisms underlying these abilities. Compared with adult horses, youngsters under the age of three could use body orientation but not more subtle cues such as head movement and open/closed eyes to correctly choose an attentive person to approach for food. Across two object choice experiments, the performance of young horses was comparable to that of adult horses – subjects were able to correctly choose a rewarded bucket using marker placement, pointing and touching cues but could not use body orientation, gaze, elbow pointing or tapping cues. Taken together these results do not support the theory that horses possess an innate predisposition to be particularly skilled at using human cues. Horses' ability to determine whether humans are attending to them using subtle body cues appears to require significant experience to fully develop and their perhaps less remarkable use of limited cues in object choice tasks, although present at a much earlier age, is likely to reflect a more general learning ability related to stimulus enhancement rather than a specific ‘human-reading’ skill. PMID:23840572

Chemosensory anxiety cues enhance the perception of fearful faces - An fMRI study.

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Wudarczyk, Olga A; Kohn, Nils; Bergs, Rene; Goerlich, Katharina S; Gur, Raquel E; Turetsky, Bruce; Schneider, Frank; Habel, Ute

2016-12-01

Recent evidence suggests that humans can communicate emotion via chemosensory signals. Olfactory cues signaling anxiety can bias the perception of ambiguous stimuli, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of this effect are currently unknown. Here, we investigated the brain responses to subtle changes in facial expressions in response to anxiety chemosensory cues. Ten healthy individuals donated their sweat in two situations: while anticipating an important oral examination (anxiety condition) and during physical exercise (control condition). Subsequently, 24 participants completed a parametrically morphed (neutral to fearful) emotion recognition task under exposure to the olfactory cues of anxiety and sports, in the fMRI scanner. Behaviorally, the participants rated more discernible fearful faces as more fearful and neutral faces as more neutral under exposure to the anxiety cues. For brain response, under exposure to the anxiety cues, increased fearfulness of the face corresponded to increased activity in the left insula and the left middle occipital gyrus extending into fusiform gyrus. Moreover, with higher subjective ratings of facial fearfulness, participants additionally showed increased activity in the left hippocampus. These results suggest that chemosensory anxiety cues facilitate processing of socially relevant fearful stimuli and boost memory retrieval due to enhanced emotional context. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Eye Tracking Comparison of External Pointing Cues and Internal Continuous Cues in Learning with Complex Animations

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Boucheix, Jean-Michel; Lowe, Richard K.

2010-01-01

Two experiments used eye tracking to investigate a novel cueing approach for directing learner attention to low salience, high relevance aspects of a complex animation. In the first experiment, comprehension of a piano mechanism animation containing spreading-colour cues was compared with comprehension obtained with arrow cues or no cues. Eye…

The role of within-compound associations in learning about absent cues.

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Witnauer, James E; Miller, Ralph R

2011-05-01

When two cues are reinforced together (in compound), most associative models assume that animals learn an associative network that includes direct cue-outcome associations and a within-compound association. All models of associative learning subscribe to the importance of cue-outcome associations, but most models assume that within-compound associations are irrelevant to each cue's subsequent behavioral control. In the present article, we present an extension of Van Hamme and Wasserman's (Learning and Motivation 25:127-151, 1994) model of retrospective revaluation based on learning about absent cues that are retrieved through within-compound associations. The model was compared with a model lacking retrieval through within-compound associations. Simulations showed that within-compound associations are necessary for the model to explain higher-order retrospective revaluation and the observed greater retrospective revaluation after partial reinforcement than after continuous reinforcement alone. These simulations suggest that the associability of an absent stimulus is determined by the extent to which the stimulus is activated through the within-compound association.

Effects of craving behavioral intervention on neural substrates of cue-induced craving in Internet gaming disorder

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Jin-Tao Zhang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Internet gaming disorder (IGD is characterized by high levels of craving for online gaming and related cues. Since addiction-related cues can evoke increased activation in brain areas involved in motivational and reward processing and may engender gaming behaviors or trigger relapse, ameliorating cue-induced craving may be a promising target for interventions for IGD. This study compared neural activation between 40 IGD and 19 healthy control (HC subjects during an Internet-gaming cue-reactivity task and found that IGD subjects showed stronger activation in multiple brain areas, including the dorsal striatum, brainstem, substantia nigra, and anterior cingulate cortex, but lower activation in the posterior insula. Furthermore, twenty-three IGD subjects (CBI+ group participated in a craving behavioral intervention (CBI group therapy, whereas the remaining 17 IGD subjects (CBI− group did not receive any intervention, and all IGD subjects were scanned during similar time intervals. The CBI+ group showed decreased IGD severity and cue-induced craving, enhanced activation in the anterior insula and decreased insular connectivity with the lingual gyrus and precuneus after receiving CBI. These findings suggest that CBI is effective in reducing craving and severity in IGD, and it may exert its effects by altering insula activation and its connectivity with regions involved in visual processing and attention bias.

Effects of craving behavioral intervention on neural substrates of cue-induced craving in Internet gaming disorder.

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Zhang, Jin-Tao; Yao, Yuan-Wei; Potenza, Marc N; Xia, Cui-Cui; Lan, Jing; Liu, Lu; Wang, Ling-Jiao; Liu, Ben; Ma, Shan-Shan; Fang, Xiao-Yi

2016-01-01

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is characterized by high levels of craving for online gaming and related cues. Since addiction-related cues can evoke increased activation in brain areas involved in motivational and reward processing and may engender gaming behaviors or trigger relapse, ameliorating cue-induced craving may be a promising target for interventions for IGD. This study compared neural activation between 40 IGD and 19 healthy control (HC) subjects during an Internet-gaming cue-reactivity task and found that IGD subjects showed stronger activation in multiple brain areas, including the dorsal striatum, brainstem, substantia nigra, and anterior cingulate cortex, but lower activation in the posterior insula. Furthermore, twenty-three IGD subjects (CBI + group) participated in a craving behavioral intervention (CBI) group therapy, whereas the remaining 17 IGD subjects (CBI - group) did not receive any intervention, and all IGD subjects were scanned during similar time intervals. The CBI + group showed decreased IGD severity and cue-induced craving, enhanced activation in the anterior insula and decreased insular connectivity with the lingual gyrus and precuneus after receiving CBI. These findings suggest that CBI is effective in reducing craving and severity in IGD, and it may exert its effects by altering insula activation and its connectivity with regions involved in visual processing and attention bias.

Ontogenetic changes in responses to settlement cues by Anemonefish

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Dixson, D. L.; Munday, P. L.; Pratchett, M.; Jones, G. P.

2011-12-01

Population connectivity for most marine species is dictated by dispersal during the pelagic larval stage. Although reef fish larvae are known to display behavioral adaptations that influence settlement site selection, little is known about the development of behavioral preferences throughout the larval phase. Whether larvae are attracted to the same sensory cues throughout their larval phase, or exhibit distinct ontogenetic shifts in sensory preference is unknown. Here, we demonstrate an ontogenetic shift in olfactory cue preferences for two species of anemonefish, a process that could aid in understanding both patterns of dispersal and settlement. Aquarium-bred naïve Amphiprion percula and A. melanopus larvae were tested for olfactory preference of relevant reef-associated chemical cues throughout the 11-day pelagic larval stage. Age posthatching had a significant effect on the preference for olfactory cues from host anemones and live corals for both species. Preferences of olfactory cues from tropical plants of A. percula, increased by approximately ninefold between hatching and settlement, with A. percula larvae showing a fivefold increase in preference for the olfactory cue produced by the grass species. Larval age had no effect on the olfactory preference for untreated seawater over the swamp-based tree Melaleuca nervosa, which was always avoided compared with blank seawater. These results indicate that reef fish larvae are capable of utilizing olfactory cues early in the larval stage and may be predisposed to disperse away from reefs, with innate olfactory preferences drawing newly hatched larvae into the pelagic environment. Toward the end of the larval phase, larvae become attracted to the olfactory cues of appropriate habitats, which may assist them in identification of and navigation toward suitable settlement sites.

Introspective responses to cues and motivation to reduce cigarette smoking influence state and behavioral responses to cue exposure.

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Veilleux, Jennifer C; Skinner, Kayla D

2016-09-01

In the current study, we aimed to extend smoking cue-reactivity research by evaluating delay discounting as an outcome of cigarette cue exposure. We also separated introspection in response to cues (e.g., self-reporting craving and affect) from cue exposure alone, to determine if introspection changes behavioral responses to cigarette cues. Finally, we included measures of quit motivation and resistance to smoking to assess motivational influences on cue exposure. Smokers were invited to participate in an online cue-reactivity study. Participants were randomly assigned to view smoking images or neutral images, and were randomized to respond to cues with either craving and affect questions (e.g., introspection) or filler questions. Following cue exposure, participants completed a delay discounting task and then reported state affect, craving, and resistance to smoking, as well as an assessment of quit motivation. We found that after controlling for trait impulsivity, participants who introspected on craving and affect showed higher delay discounting, irrespective of cue type, but we found no effect of response condition on subsequent craving (e.g., craving reactivity). We also found that motivation to quit interacted with experimental conditions to predict state craving and state resistance to smoking. Although asking about craving during cue exposure did not increase later craving, it resulted in greater delaying of discounted rewards. Overall, our findings suggest the need to further assess the implications of introspection and motivation on behavioral outcomes of cue exposure. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effects of Spatial Endogenous Pre-cueing across Eccentricities

OpenAIRE

Feng, Jing; Spence, Ian

2017-01-01

Frequently, we use expectations about likely locations of a target to guide the allocation of our attention. Despite the importance of this attentional process in everyday tasks, examination of pre-cueing effects on attention, particularly endogenous pre-cueing effects, has been relatively little explored outside an eccentricity of 20°. Given the visual field has functional subdivisions that attentional processes can differ significantly among the foveal, perifoveal, and more peripheral areas...

Role of Gaze Cues in Interpersonal Motor Coordination: Towards Higher Affiliation in Human-Robot Interaction.

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Mahdi Khoramshahi

Full Text Available The ability to follow one another's gaze plays an important role in our social cognition; especially when we synchronously perform tasks together. We investigate how gaze cues can improve performance in a simple coordination task (i.e., the mirror game, whereby two players mirror each other's hand motions. In this game, each player is either a leader or follower. To study the effect of gaze in a systematic manner, the leader's role is played by a robotic avatar. We contrast two conditions, in which the avatar provides or not explicit gaze cues that indicate the next location of its hand. Specifically, we investigated (a whether participants are able to exploit these gaze cues to improve their coordination, (b how gaze cues affect action prediction and temporal coordination, and (c whether introducing active gaze behavior for avatars makes them more realistic and human-like (from the user point of view.43 subjects participated in 8 trials of the mirror game. Each subject performed the game in the two conditions (with and without gaze cues. In this within-subject study, the order of the conditions was randomized across participants, and subjective assessment of the avatar's realism was assessed by administering a post-hoc questionnaire. When gaze cues were provided, a quantitative assessment of synchrony between participants and the avatar revealed a significant improvement in subject reaction-time (RT. This confirms our hypothesis that gaze cues improve the follower's ability to predict the avatar's action. An analysis of the pattern of frequency across the two players' hand movements reveals that the gaze cues improve the overall temporal coordination across the two players. Finally, analysis of the subjective evaluations from the questionnaires reveals that, in the presence of gaze cues, participants found it not only more human-like/realistic, but also easier to interact with the avatar.This work confirms that people can exploit gaze cues to

Environmental Cues in Double-Occupancy Rooms to Support Patients With Dementia.

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Motzek, Tom; Bueter, Kathrin; Marquardt, Gesine

2016-04-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of different environmental cues in double-occupancy rooms of an acute care hospital to support patients' abilities to identify their bed and wardrobe. The quasi-experiment was conducted on a geriatric ward of an acute care hospital. Patients with dementia were included (n = 42). To test the effectiveness of environmental cues, two rooms were enhanced with the environmental cue "color," two rooms with the cue "number," and two rooms with the cue "patient's name". Four rooms were not redesigned and were used as control rooms. For analysis, we pooled the intervention groups color and number (n = 14) and compared it with the control group (n = 22). The environmental cues color and number were significantly effective to improve the identification of the wardrobe from the third to the fifth day after admission. However, for the 10th-12th day after admission, we found no difference in results. Furthermore, results indicate improvements in the ability to identify the bed by using the environmental cues color and number. As this study indicated, the environmental cues color and number are helpful for these patients to identify their bed and wardrobe. However, these cues were most effective from the third to the fifth day after admission. To sustain their effectiveness on patients' identification abilities during their hospital stay, we discuss, whether verbal prompting and an ongoing mentioning of such cues, embedded in the daily work of nurses, could be beneficial. © The Author(s) 2015.

Gender differences in cue exposure reactivity and 9-month outcome.

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Sterling, Robert C; Dean, Jessica; Weinstein, Stephen P; Murphy, Jennifer; Gottheil, Edward

2004-07-01

Gender differences have been shown to be related to the course of cocaine dependence and treatment. While previous research has shown cue exposure procedures to be somewhat effective at reducing reactivity of substance dependent individuals to drug related stimuli, the few studies that have examined gender differences in craving and cue-reactivity have yielded equivocal results. We have recently demonstrated that an active cue-exposure procedure that featured cocaine-dependent individuals receiving immediate feedback about their level of physiological arousal following videotaped exposure to cocaine-related stimuli was capable of positively influencing in-treatment (helplessness, abstinence efficacy) as well as 9-month followup outcome (i.e., urinalysis) indices (Sterling, R., Gottheil, E., Murphy, J., & Weinstein, S. (2001). Cue exposure and abstinence efficacy. College on Problems of Drug Dependence, Phoenix, AZ, June 17, 2001). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether differential in-treatment or 9-month followup outcomes were obtained for male and female study participants. Subjects in this study were 81 individuals (47 male/34 female) who met DSM-IV criteria for cocaine dependence and who had consented to be randomly assigned to either the active cue-exposure or control conditions. Participants were compared along a myriad of pre-treatment, in-treatment, and 9-month followup measures. Other than males reporting more recent employment, there was no obvious systematic pattern of differences on pre-treatment indices. No gender differences in treatment retention were observed. With respect to 9-month followup, no gender differences on measures of addiction severity, psychological functioning, or urinalyses were noted. However males were more "cue-reactive" and more successful at establishing control over their reactivity to the cocaine stimuli. Additional research is needed to determine whether these differences in reactivity can be more clearly

Behavioral economic analysis of cue-elicited craving for alcohol.

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MacKillop, James; O'Hagen, Sean; Lisman, Stephen A; Murphy, James G; Ray, Lara A; Tidey, Jennifer W; McGeary, John E; Monti, Peter M

2010-09-01

Craving as a motivational determinant of drug use remains controversial because of ambiguous empirical findings. A behavioral economic approach may clarify the nature of craving, theorizing that subjective craving functionally reflects an acute increase in a drug's value. The current study tested this hypothesis via a multidimensional assessment of alcohol demand over the course of an alcohol cue reactivity procedure. One-way within-subjects design. Human laboratory environment. Heavy drinkers (n = 92) underwent exposures to neutral (water) cues followed by personalized alcohol cues. Participants were assessed for craving, alcohol demand, affect, and salivation following each exposure. Alcohol versus neutral cues significantly increased craving and multiple behavioral economic measures of the relative value of alcohol, including alcohol consumption under conditions of zero cost (intensity), maximum expenditure on alcohol (O(max)), persistence in drinking to higher prices (breakpoint) and proportionate price insensitivity (normalized P(max)). Craving was significantly correlated with demand measures at levels ranging from 0.21-0.43. These findings support the potential utility of a behavioral economic approach to understanding the role of environmental stimuli in alcohol-related decision making. Specifically, they suggest that the behavioral economic indices of demand may provide complementary motivational information that is related to though not entirely redundant with measures of subjective craving.

Evaluating the effects of delivering integrated kinesthetic and tactile cues to individuals with unilateral hemiparetic stroke during overground walking.

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Afzal, Muhammad Raheel; Pyo, Sanghun; Oh, Min-Kyun; Park, Young Sook; Yoon, Jungwon

2018-04-16

Integration of kinesthetic and tactile cues for application to post-stroke gait rehabilitation is a novel concept which needs to be explored. The combined provision of haptic cues may result in collective improvement of gait parameters such as symmetry, balance and muscle activation patterns. Our proposed integrated cue system can offer a cost-effective and voluntary gait training experience for rehabilitation of subjects with unilateral hemiparetic stroke. Ten post-stroke ambulatory subjects participated in a 10 m walking trial while utilizing the haptic cues (either alone or integrated application), at their preferred and increased gait speeds. In the system a haptic cane device (HCD) provided kinesthetic perception and a vibrotactile feedback device (VFD) provided tactile cue on the paretic leg for gait modification. Balance, gait symmetry and muscle activity were analyzed to identify the benefits of utilizing the proposed system. When using kinesthetic cues, either alone or integrated with a tactile cue, an increase in the percentage of non-paretic peak activity in the paretic muscles was observed at the preferred gait speed (vastus medialis obliquus: p kinesthetic cue, at their preferred gait speed (p <  0.001, partial η 2  = 0.702). When combining haptic cues, the subjects walked at their preferred gait speed with increased temporal stance symmetry and paretic muscle activity affecting their balance. Similar improvements were observed at higher gait speeds. The efficacy of the proposed system is influenced by gait speed. Improvements were observed at a 20% increased gait speed, whereas, a plateau effect was observed at a 40% increased gait speed. These results imply that integration of haptic cues may benefit post-stroke gait rehabilitation by inducing simultaneous improvements in gait symmetry and muscle activity.

Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with sensory cueing on unilateral neglect in subacute patients with right hemispheric stroke: a randomized controlled study.

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Yang, Nicole Yh; Fong, Kenneth Nk; Li-Tsang, Cecilia Wp; Zhou, D

2017-09-01

To compare the effects of rTMS combined with sensory cueing, rTMS alone, and conventional rehabilitation on unilateral neglect, hemiplegic arm functions and performance of activities of daily living. A single-blinded randomized controlled trial. A convalescent hospital. Sixty inpatients with left unilateral neglect after stroke. Patients were randomly assigned to three groups: rTMS combined with sensory cueing, rTMS, and conventional rehabilitation alone. rTMS at 1 Hz was applied over P5 of the contralesional hemisphere while vibration cueing was emitted using a wristwatch device on the hemiplegic arm, five days per week for two weeks. The first two groups received the same dosage of conventional rehabilitation on top of their experimental interventions. Blinded assessments were administered at baseline, 2 weeks postintervention, and 6 weeks follow-up. Neglect and arm motor performance. Both rTMS combined with sensory cueing (99.6±33.0) and rTMS alone (88.2±28.7) significantly reduced unilateral neglect than conventional rehabilitation (72.7±33.1) when measured using the conventional subtests of the Behavioural Inattention Test, but the combination was better than rTMS alone. Hemiplegic arm functions and activities of daily living improved in all patients across the three groups but no significant differences were found between the groups. The combination of inhibitory P5-rTMS with sensory cueing was better than either rTMS or conventional rehabilitation alone in producing a stronger and long-lasting improvement in unilateral neglect, but the improvement was not associated with improved arm function or independence in activities of daily living.

Cue competition affects temporal dynamics of edge-assignment in human visual cortex.

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Brooks, Joseph L; Palmer, Stephen E

2011-03-01

Edge-assignment determines the perception of relative depth across an edge and the shape of the closer side. Many cues determine edge-assignment, but relatively little is known about the neural mechanisms involved in combining these cues. Here, we manipulated extremal edge and attention cues to bias edge-assignment such that these two cues either cooperated or competed. To index their neural representations, we flickered figure and ground regions at different frequencies and measured the corresponding steady-state visual-evoked potentials (SSVEPs). Figural regions had stronger SSVEP responses than ground regions, independent of whether they were attended or unattended. In addition, competition and cooperation between the two edge-assignment cues significantly affected the temporal dynamics of edge-assignment processes. The figural SSVEP response peaked earlier when the cues causing it cooperated than when they competed, but sustained edge-assignment effects were equivalent for cooperating and competing cues, consistent with a winner-take-all outcome. These results provide physiological evidence that figure-ground organization involves competitive processes that can affect the latency of figural assignment.

Facial, Olfactory, and Vocal Cues to Female Reproductive Value

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Susanne Röder

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Facial, olfactory, and vocal cues may advertise women's fertility. However, most of the evidence for this proposal has come from studies of changes in young adult women's attractiveness over the menstrual cycle. By contrast with this emphasis on changes in attractiveness over the menstrual cycle, possible changes in women's attractiveness over their lifespan have received little attention. The present study investigated men's ratings of young girls' (11–15 years old, adult women's (19–30 years old and circum-menopausal women's (50–65 years old facial, body odor, and vocal attractiveness and femininity. Faces and voices, but not body odors, of young girls and adult women were perceived to be significantly more attractive and feminine than those of circum-menopausal women. These data suggest that facial and vocal cues may be cues to women's reproductive value, but that body odor cues do not necessarily advertise this information.

Cue-induced striatal activity in frequent cannabis users independently predicts cannabis problem severity three years later

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Vingerhoets, W.A.M.; Koenders, L.; van den Brink, W.P.; Wiers, R.W.; Goudriaan, A.E.; van Amelsvoort, T.; de Haan, L.; Cousijn, J.

2016-01-01

Cannabis is the most frequently used illicit drug worldwide, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying continued cannabis use. Cue-reactivity (the physical, psychological, behavioural and neural reaction to substance-related cues) might be related to continued cannabis use. In this 3-year

Improving visual spatial working memory in younger and older adults: effects of cross-modal cues.

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Curtis, Ashley F; Turner, Gary R; Park, Norman W; Murtha, Susan J E

2017-11-06

Spatially informative auditory and vibrotactile (cross-modal) cues can facilitate attention but little is known about how similar cues influence visual spatial working memory (WM) across the adult lifespan. We investigated the effects of cues (spatially informative or alerting pre-cues vs. no cues), cue modality (auditory vs. vibrotactile vs. visual), memory array size (four vs. six items), and maintenance delay (900 vs. 1800 ms) on visual spatial location WM recognition accuracy in younger adults (YA) and older adults (OA). We observed a significant interaction between spatially informative pre-cue type, array size, and delay. OA and YA benefitted equally from spatially informative pre-cues, suggesting that attentional orienting prior to WM encoding, regardless of cue modality, is preserved with age.  Contrary to predictions, alerting pre-cues generally impaired performance in both age groups, suggesting that maintaining a vigilant state of arousal by facilitating the alerting attention system does not help visual spatial location WM.

Largely overlapping neuronal substrates of reactivity to drug, gambling, food and sexual cues: A comprehensive meta-analysis.

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Noori, Hamid R; Cosa Linan, Alejandro; Spanagel, Rainer

2016-09-01

Cue reactivity to natural and social rewards is essential for motivational behavior. However, cue reactivity to drug rewards can also elicit craving in addicted subjects. The degree to which drug and natural rewards share neural substrates is not known. The objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on drug, gambling and natural stimuli (food and sex) to identify the common and distinct neural substrates of cue reactivity to drug and natural rewards. Neural cue reactivity studies were selected for the meta-analysis by means of activation likelihood estimations, followed by sensitivity and clustering analyses of averaged neuronal response patterns. Data from 176 studies (5573 individuals) suggests largely overlapping neural response patterns towards all tested reward modalities. Common cue reactivity to natural and drug rewards was expressed by bilateral neural responses within anterior cingulate gyrus, insula, caudate head, inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus and cerebellum. However, drug cues also generated distinct activation patterns in medial frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus, caudate body and putamen. Natural (sexual) reward cues induced unique activation of the pulvinar in thalamus. Neural substrates of cue reactivity to alcohol, drugs of abuse, food, sex and gambling are largely overlapping and comprise a network that processes reward, emotional responses and habit formation. This suggests that cue-mediated craving involves mechanisms that are not exclusive for addictive disorders but rather resemble the intersection of information pathways for processing reward, emotional responses, non-declarative memory and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Influence of cue word perceptual information on metamemory accuracy in judgement of learning.

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Hu, Xiao; Liu, Zhaomin; Li, Tongtong; Luo, Liang

2016-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that perceptual information regarding to-be-remembered words in the study phase affects the accuracy of judgement of learning (JOL). However, few have investigated whether the perceptual information in the JOL phase influences JOL accuracy. This study examined the influence of cue word perceptual information in the JOL phase on immediate and delayed JOL accuracy through changes in cue word font size. In Experiment 1, large-cue word pairs had significantly higher mean JOL magnitude than small-cue word pairs in immediate JOLs and higher relative accuracy than small-cue pairs in delayed JOLs, but font size had no influence on recall performance. Experiment 2 increased the JOL time, and mean JOL magnitude did not reliably differ for large-cue compared with small-cue pairs in immediate JOLs. However, the influence on relative accuracy still existed in delayed JOLs. Experiment 3 increased the familiarity of small-cue words in the delayed JOL phase by adding a lexical decision task. The results indicated that cue word font size no longer affected relative accuracy in delayed JOLs. The three experiments in our study indicated that the perceptual information regarding cue words in the JOL phase affects immediate and delayed JOLs in different ways.

Altered Brain Activities Associated with Craving and Cue Reactivity in People with Internet Gaming Disorder: Evidence from the Comparison with Recreational Internet Game Users

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Lingxiao Wang

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Although the neural substrates of cue reactivity in Internet gaming disorder (IGD have been examined in previous studies, most of these studies focused on the comparison between IGD subjects and healthy controls, which cannot exclude a potential effect of cue-familiarity. To overcome this limitation, the current study focuses on the comparison between IGD subjects and recreational Internet game users (RGU who play online games recreationally but do not develop dependence. Data from 40 RGU and 30 IGD subjects were collected while they were performing an event-related cue reactivity task in the fMRI scanner. The results showed that the IGD subjects were associated with enhanced activation in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC and decreased activation in the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC, right precuneus, left precentral gyrus and right postcentral gyrus in comparison with the RGU subjects. OFC is involved in reward evaluation and ACC is implicated in executive control function based on previous researches. Moreover, the activation of OFC were correlated with the desire for game-playing. Thus, the higher activation in OFC might suggests high desire for game playing, and the lower activation in ACC might indicates impaired ability in inhibiting the urge to gaming-related stimuli in IGD subjects. Additionally, decreased activation in the precuneus, the precentral and postcentral gyrus may suggest the deficit in disentangling from game-playing stimuli. These findings explain why IGD subjects develop dependence on game-playing while RGU subjects can play online games recreationally and prevent the transition from voluntary game-playing to eventually IGD.

Altered Brain Activities Associated with Craving and Cue Reactivity in People with Internet Gaming Disorder: Evidence from the Comparison with Recreational Internet Game Users.

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Wang, Lingxiao; Wu, Lingdan; Wang, Yifan; Li, Hui; Liu, Xiaoyue; Du, Xiaoxia; Dong, Guangheng

2017-01-01

Although the neural substrates of cue reactivity in Internet gaming disorder (IGD) have been examined in previous studies, most of these studies focused on the comparison between IGD subjects and healthy controls, which cannot exclude a potential effect of cue-familiarity. To overcome this limitation, the current study focuses on the comparison between IGD subjects and recreational Internet game users (RGU) who play online games recreationally but do not develop dependence. Data from 40 RGU and 30 IGD subjects were collected while they were performing an event-related cue reactivity task in the fMRI scanner. The results showed that the IGD subjects were associated with enhanced activation in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and decreased activation in the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), right precuneus, left precentral gyrus and right postcentral gyrus in comparison with the RGU subjects. OFC is involved in reward evaluation and ACC is implicated in executive control function based on previous researches. Moreover, the activation of OFC were correlated with the desire for game-playing. Thus, the higher activation in OFC might suggests high desire for game playing, and the lower activation in ACC might indicates impaired ability in inhibiting the urge to gaming-related stimuli in IGD subjects. Additionally, decreased activation in the precuneus, the precentral and postcentral gyrus may suggest the deficit in disentangling from game-playing stimuli. These findings explain why IGD subjects develop dependence on game-playing while RGU subjects can play online games recreationally and prevent the transition from voluntary game-playing to eventually IGD.

Direct effects of food cues seen during TV viewing on energy intake in young women.

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van Nee, Roselinde L; Larsen, Junilla K; Fisher, Jennifer O

2016-06-01

Few studies have examined direct effects of food cues presented within television (TV) programs on eating behavior in adults. This research experimentally determined whether exposure to food cues in TV programs affects energy intake during TV viewing among young women, independently from food cues presented in TV advertisements. The experiment involved a 2 (TV program with or without food cues) by 2 (TV advertisements with or without food cues) between-participants design. While watching TV, participants could freely eat peanut chocolate candies and crisps (potato chips). Participants were 121 young women (mean age = 19.6 years; mean BMI = 22.5). Participants who watched a TV program with food cues tended to have a lower total energy intake and ate significantly less peanut chocolate candies than participants who watched the same TV program without food cues. This effect was particularly pronounced among participants with a higher BMI. Food advertisements did not affect energy intake. Findings may indicate that subtle continuous food cues during TV programs could make young females more aware of their own eating and/or weight, leading to reduced intake of particularly sweet snack foods during TV viewing. Considering the non-significant trend for the effect of the TV program with food cues on total energy intake, findings should be replicated to provide possible tools for prevention campaigns using food cue reminders to watch one's intake. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cocaine-associated odor cue re-exposure increases blood oxygenation level dependent signal in memory and reward regions of the maternal rat brain.

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Caffrey, Martha K; Febo, Marcelo

2014-01-01

Cue triggered relapse during the postpartum period can negatively impact maternal care. Given the high reward value of pups in maternal rats, we designed an fMRI experiment to test whether offspring presence reduces the neural response to a cocaine associated olfactory cue. Cocaine conditioned place preference was carried out before pregnancy in the presence of two distinct odors that were paired with cocaine or saline (+Cue and -Cue). The BOLD response to +Cue and -Cue was measured in dams on postpartum days 2-4. Odor cues were delivered to dams in the absence and then the presence of pups. Our data indicate that several limbic and cognitive regions of the maternal rat brain show a greater BOLD signal response to a +Cue versus -Cue. These include dorsal striatum, prelimbic cortex, parietal cortex, habenula, bed nucleus of stria terminalis, lateral septum and the mediodorsal and the anterior thalamic nucleus. Of the aforementioned brain regions, only the parietal cortex of cocaine treated dams showed a significant modulatory effect of pup presence. In this area of the cortex, cocaine exposed maternal rats showed a greater BOLD activation in response to the +Cue in the presence than in the absence of pups. Specific regions of the cocaine exposed maternal rat brain are strongly reactive to drug associated cues. The regions implicated in cue reactivity have been previously reported in clinical imaging work, and previous work supports their role in various motivational and cognitive functions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

COCAINE-ASSOCIATED ODOR CUE RE-EXPOSURE INCREASES BLOOD OXYGENATION LEVEL DEPENDENT SIGNAL IN MEMORY AND REWARD REGIONS OF THE MATERNAL RAT BRAIN*

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Caffrey, Martha K.; Febo, Marcelo

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND Cue triggered relapse during the postpartum period can negatively impact maternal care. Given the high reward value of pups in maternal rats, we designed an fMRI experiment to test whether offspring presence reduces the neural response to a cocaine associated olfactory cue. METHODS Cocaine conditioned place preference was carried out before pregnancy in the presence of two distinct odors that were paired with cocaine or saline (+Cue and −Cue). The BOLD response to +Cue and −Cue was measured in dams on postpartum days 2–4. Odor cues were delivered to dams in the absence and then the presence of pups. RESULTS Our data indicate that several limbic and cognitive regions of the maternal rat brain show a greater BOLD signal response to a +Cue versus −Cue. These include dorsal striatum, prelimbic cortex, parietal cortex, habenula, bed nucleus of stria terminalis, lateral septum and the mediodorsal and the anterior thalamic nucleus. Of the aforementioned brain regions, only the parietal cortex of cocaine treated dams showed a significant modulatory effect of pup presence. In this area of the cortex, cocaine exposed maternal rats showed a greater BOLD activation in response to the +Cue in the presence than in the absence of pups. CONCLUSIONS Specific regions of the cocaine exposed maternal rat brain are strongly reactive to drug associated cues. The regions implicated in cue reactivity have been previously reported in clinical imaging work, and previous work supports their role in various motivational and cognitive functions. PMID:24183499

The Effects of Spatial Endogenous Pre-cueing across Eccentricities.

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Feng, Jing; Spence, Ian

2017-01-01

Frequently, we use expectations about likely locations of a target to guide the allocation of our attention. Despite the importance of this attentional process in everyday tasks, examination of pre-cueing effects on attention, particularly endogenous pre-cueing effects, has been relatively little explored outside an eccentricity of 20°. Given the visual field has functional subdivisions that attentional processes can differ significantly among the foveal, perifoveal, and more peripheral areas, how endogenous pre-cues that carry spatial information of targets influence our allocation of attention across a large visual field (especially in the more peripheral areas) remains unclear. We present two experiments examining how the expectation of the location of the target shapes the distribution of attention across eccentricities in the visual field. We measured participants' ability to pick out a target among distractors in the visual field after the presentation of a highly valid cue indicating the size of the area in which the target was likely to occur, or the likely direction of the target (left or right side of the display). Our first experiment showed that participants had a higher target detection rate with faster responses, particularly at eccentricities of 20° and 30°. There was also a marginal advantage of pre-cueing effects when trials of the same size cue were blocked compared to when trials were mixed. Experiment 2 demonstrated a higher target detection rate when the target occurred at the cued direction. This pre-cueing effect was greater at larger eccentricities and with a longer cue-target interval. Our findings on the endogenous pre-cueing effects across a large visual area were summarized using a simple model to assist in conceptualizing the modifications of the distribution of attention over the visual field. We discuss our finding in light of cognitive penetration of perception, and highlight the importance of examining attentional process across

The Effects of Spatial Endogenous Pre-cueing across Eccentricities

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Jing Feng

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Frequently, we use expectations about likely locations of a target to guide the allocation of our attention. Despite the importance of this attentional process in everyday tasks, examination of pre-cueing effects on attention, particularly endogenous pre-cueing effects, has been relatively little explored outside an eccentricity of 20°. Given the visual field has functional subdivisions that attentional processes can differ significantly among the foveal, perifoveal, and more peripheral areas, how endogenous pre-cues that carry spatial information of targets influence our allocation of attention across a large visual field (especially in the more peripheral areas remains unclear. We present two experiments examining how the expectation of the location of the target shapes the distribution of attention across eccentricities in the visual field. We measured participants’ ability to pick out a target among distractors in the visual field after the presentation of a highly valid cue indicating the size of the area in which the target was likely to occur, or the likely direction of the target (left or right side of the display. Our first experiment showed that participants had a higher target detection rate with faster responses, particularly at eccentricities of 20° and 30°. There was also a marginal advantage of pre-cueing effects when trials of the same size cue were blocked compared to when trials were mixed. Experiment 2 demonstrated a higher target detection rate when the target occurred at the cued direction. This pre-cueing effect was greater at larger eccentricities and with a longer cue-target interval. Our findings on the endogenous pre-cueing effects across a large visual area were summarized using a simple model to assist in conceptualizing the modifications of the distribution of attention over the visual field. We discuss our finding in light of cognitive penetration of perception, and highlight the importance of examining

First-Pass Processing of Value Cues in the Ventral Visual Pathway.

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Sasikumar, Dennis; Emeric, Erik; Stuphorn, Veit; Connor, Charles E

2018-02-19

Real-world value often depends on subtle, continuously variable visual cues specific to particular object categories, like the tailoring of a suit, the condition of an automobile, or the construction of a house. Here, we used microelectrode recording in behaving monkeys to test two possible mechanisms for category-specific value-cue processing: (1) previous findings suggest that prefrontal cortex (PFC) identifies object categories, and based on category identity, PFC could use top-down attentional modulation to enhance visual processing of category-specific value cues, providing signals to PFC for calculating value, and (2) a faster mechanism would be first-pass visual processing of category-specific value cues, immediately providing the necessary visual information to PFC. This, however, would require learned mechanisms for processing the appropriate cues in a given object category. To test these hypotheses, we trained monkeys to discriminate value in four letter-like stimulus categories. Each category had a different, continuously variable shape cue that signified value (liquid reward amount) as well as other cues that were irrelevant. Monkeys chose between stimuli of different reward values. Consistent with the first-pass hypothesis, we found early signals for category-specific value cues in area TE (the final stage in monkey ventral visual pathway) beginning 81 ms after stimulus onset-essentially at the start of TE responses. Task-related activity emerged in lateral PFC approximately 40 ms later and consisted mainly of category-invariant value tuning. Our results show that, for familiar, behaviorally relevant object categories, high-level ventral pathway cortex can implement rapid, first-pass processing of category-specific value cues. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visible propagation from invisible exogenous cueing.

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Lin, Zhicheng; Murray, Scott O

2013-09-20

Perception and performance is affected not just by what we see but also by what we do not see-inputs that escape our awareness. While conscious processing and unconscious processing have been assumed to be separate and independent, here we report the propagation of unconscious exogenous cueing as determined by conscious motion perception. In a paradigm combining masked exogenous cueing and apparent motion, we show that, when an onset cue was rendered invisible, the unconscious exogenous cueing effect traveled, manifesting at uncued locations (4° apart) in accordance with conscious perception of visual motion; the effect diminished when the cue-to-target distance was 8° apart. In contrast, conscious exogenous cueing manifested in both distances. Further evidence reveals that the unconscious and conscious nonretinotopic effects could not be explained by an attentional gradient, nor by bottom-up, energy-based motion mechanisms, but rather they were subserved by top-down, tracking-based motion mechanisms. We thus term these effects mobile cueing. Taken together, unconscious mobile cueing effects (a) demonstrate a previously unknown degree of flexibility of unconscious exogenous attention; (b) embody a simultaneous dissociation and association of attention and consciousness, in which exogenous attention can occur without cue awareness ("dissociation"), yet at the same time its effect is contingent on conscious motion tracking ("association"); and (c) underscore the interaction of conscious and unconscious processing, providing evidence for an unconscious effect that is not automatic but controlled.

The (unclear effects of invalid retro-cues.

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Marcel eGressmann

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Studies with the retro-cue paradigm have shown that validly cueing objects in visual working memory long after encoding can still benefit performance on subsequent change detection tasks. With regard to the effects of invalid cues, the literature is less clear. Some studies reported costs, others did not. We here revisit two recent studies that made interesting suggestions concerning invalid retro-cues: One study suggested that costs only occur for larger set sizes, and another study suggested that inclusion of invalid retro-cues diminishes the retro-cue benefit. New data from one experiment and a reanalysis of published data are provided to address these conclusions. The new data clearly show costs (and benefits that were independent of set size, and the reanalysis suggests no influence of the inclusion of invalid retro-cues on the retro-cue benefit. Thus, previous interpretations may be taken with some caution at present.

Testing virtual reality-based cue-exposure software: Which cue-elicited responses best discriminate between patients with eating disorders and healthy controls?

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Pla-Sanjuanelo, Joana; Ferrer-García, Marta; Vilalta-Abella, Ferran; Riva, Giuseppe; Dakanalis, Antonios; Ribas-Sabaté, Joan; Andreu-Gracia, Alexis; Fernandez-Aranda, Fernando; Sanchez-Diaz, Isabel; Escandón-Nagel, Neli; Gomez-Tricio, Osane; Tena, Virgínia; Gutiérrez-Maldonado, José

2017-07-27

Virtual reality (VR) technologies have been proposed as a new tool able to improve on in vivo exposure in patients with eating disorders. This study assessed the validity of a VR-based software for cue exposure therapy (CET) in people with bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED). Fifty eight outpatients (33 BN and 25 BED) and 135 healthy participants were exposed to 10 craved virtual foods and a neutral cue in four experimental virtual environments (kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and cafeteria). After exposure to each VR scenario, food craving and anxiety were assessed. The frequency/severity of episodes of uncontrollable overeating was also assessed and body mass index was measured prior to the exposure. In both groups, craving and anxiety responses when exposed to the food-related virtual environments were significantly higher than in the neutral-cue virtual environment. However, craving and anxiety levels were higher in the clinical group. Furthermore, cue-elicited anxiety was better at discriminating between clinical and healthy groups than cue-elicited craving. This study provides evidence of the ability of food-related VR environments to provoke food craving and anxiety responses in BN and BED patients and highlights the need to consider both responses during treatment. The results support the use of VR-CET in the treatment of eating disorder patients characterized by binge-eating and people with high bulimic symptoms.

Impaired cue identification and intention retrieval underlie prospective memory deficits in patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

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Liu, Dengtang; Ji, Chengfeng; Zhuo, Kaiming; Song, Zhenhua; Wang, Yingchan; Mei, Li; Zhu, Dianming; Xiang, Qiong; Chen, Tianyi; Yang, Zhilei; Zhu, Guang; Wang, Ya; Cheung, Eric Fc; Xiang, Yu-Tao; Fan, Xiaoduo; Chan, Raymond Ck; Xu, Yifeng; Jiang, Kaida

2017-03-01

Schizophrenia is associated with impairment in prospective memory, the ability to remember to carry out an intended action in the future. It has been established that cue identification (detection of the cue event signaling that an intended action should be performed) and intention retrieval (retrieval of an intention from long-term memory following the recognition of a prospective cue) are two important processes underlying prospective memory. The purpose of this study was to examine prospective memory deficit and underlying cognitive processes in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. This study examined cue identification and intention retrieval components of event-based prospective memory using a dual-task paradigm in 30 patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 30 healthy controls. All participants were also administered a set of tests assessing working memory and retrospective memory. Both cue identification and intention retrieval were impaired in patients with first-episode schizophrenia compared with healthy controls ( ps cue identification (Cohen's d = 0.98) and a medium effect size for intention retrieval (Cohen's d = 0.62). After controlling for working memory and retrospective memory, the difference in cue identification between patients and healthy controls remained significant. However, the difference in intention retrieval between the two groups was no longer significant. In addition, there was a significant inverse relationship between cue identification and negative symptoms ( r = -0.446, p = 0.013) in the patient group. These findings suggest that both cue identification and intention retrieval in event-based prospective memory are impaired in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Cue identification and intention retrieval could be potentially used as biomarkers for early detection and treatment prognosis of schizophrenia. In addition, addressing cue identification deficit through cognitive enhancement training may

Fragments of a larger whole: retrieval cues constrain observed neural correlates of memory encoding.

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Otten, Leun J

2007-09-01

Laying down a new memory involves activity in a number of brain regions. Here, it is shown that the particular regions associated with successful encoding depend on the way in which memory is probed. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging signals were acquired while subjects performed an incidental encoding task on a series of visually presented words denoting objects. A recognition memory test using the Remember/Know procedure to separate responses based on recollection and familiarity followed 1 day later. Critically, half of the studied objects were cued with a corresponding spoken word, and half with a corresponding picture. Regardless of cue, activity in prefrontal and hippocampal regions predicted subsequent recollection of a word. Type of retrieval cue modulated activity in prefrontal, temporal, and parietal cortices. Words subsequently recognized on the basis of a sense of familiarity were at study also associated with differential activity in a number of brain regions, some of which were probe dependent. Thus, observed neural correlates of successful encoding are constrained by type of retrieval cue, and are only fragments of all encoding-related neural activity. Regions exhibiting cue-specific effects may be sites that support memory through the degree of overlap between the processes engaged during encoding and those engaged during retrieval.

Associative cueing of attention through implicit feature-location binding.

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Girardi, Giovanna; Nico, Daniele

2017-09-01

In order to assess associative learning between two task-irrelevant features in cueing spatial attention, we devised a task in which participants have to make an identity comparison between two sequential visual stimuli. Unbeknownst to them, location of the second stimulus could be predicted by the colour of the first or a concurrent sound. Albeit unnecessary to perform the identity-matching judgment the predictive features thus provided an arbitrary association favouring the spatial anticipation of the second stimulus. A significant advantage was found with faster responses at predicted compared to non-predicted locations. Results clearly demonstrated an associative cueing of attention via a second-order arbitrary feature/location association but with a substantial discrepancy depending on the sensory modality of the predictive feature. With colour as predictive feature, significant advantages emerged only after the completion of three blocks of trials. On the contrary, sound affected responses from the first block of trials and significant advantages were manifest from the beginning of the second. The possible mechanisms underlying the associative cueing of attention in both conditions are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Differential Neural Activity during Search of Specific and General Autobiographical Memories elicited by Musical Cues

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Ford, Jaclyn Hennessey; Addis, Donna Rose; Giovanello, Kelly S.

2011-01-01

Previous neuroimaging studies that have examined autobiographical memory specificity have utilized retrieval cues associated with prior searches of the event, potentially changing the retrieval processes being investigated. In the current study, musical cues were used to naturally elicit memories from multiple levels of specificity (i.e., lifetime period, general event, and event-specific). Sixteen young adults participated in a neuroimaging study in which they retrieved autobiographical memo...

Exposure to retrieval cues improves retention performance and induces changes in ACTH and corticosterone release.

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Gisquet-Verrier, Pascale; Botreau, Fanny; Venero, Cesar; Sandi, Carmen

2004-05-01

Memory retrieval can be facilitated by pretest exposure to cues associated with the original training. The present series of experiments was aimed at investigating whether the effectiveness of the retrieval cues might be due to their emotional value and thus be associated to a particular pattern of activation of stress systems. Therefore, the effects of exposing rats to different cueing conditions were investigated both on retention performance and on the level of different stress hormones (ACTH, corticosterone and glucose; the latter as an indirect index of adrenergic/sympathetic nervous system activation). Rats trained in a brightness avoidance discrimination task exhibited an enhancement of the retention performance following exposure to the light discriminative stimulus when delivered 1-day after training and not after 21 days, while exposure to contextual cues led to opposite effects on the retention performance, confirming our previous results. Analyses of the level of stress hormones at the time of testing indicated that when the retrieval cues were effective at the behavioral level, cued rats exhibited higher ACTH plasmatic levels than controls, but did not differ in their glucose or corticosterone levels. Further experiments showed that one day after training, both ACTH and corticosterone levels were elevated in light-cued rats if hormone samples were taken 15 min after cueing. These results show that exposure to an effective retrieval cue is accompanied by the activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. The possible involvement of the Corticotropin Releasing Factor at the level of the hypothalamus and amygdala (particularly the central nucleus) on the facilitating effect on retention performance following exposure to aversive training-associated cues is discussed. The present results strengthen the notion that emotion can interact with retrieval processes.

Modulation of auditory spatial attention by visual emotional cues: differential effects of attentional engagement and disengagement for pleasant and unpleasant cues.

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Harrison, Neil R; Woodhouse, Rob

2016-05-01

Previous research has demonstrated that threatening, compared to neutral pictures, can bias attention towards non-emotional auditory targets. Here we investigated which subcomponents of attention contributed to the influence of emotional visual stimuli on auditory spatial attention. Participants indicated the location of an auditory target, after brief (250 ms) presentation of a spatially non-predictive peripheral visual cue. Responses to targets were faster at the location of the preceding visual cue, compared to at the opposite location (cue validity effect). The cue validity effect was larger for targets following pleasant and unpleasant cues compared to neutral cues, for right-sided targets. For unpleasant cues, the crossmodal cue validity effect was driven by delayed attentional disengagement, and for pleasant cues, it was driven by enhanced engagement. We conclude that both pleasant and unpleasant visual cues influence the distribution of attention across modalities and that the associated attentional mechanisms depend on the valence of the visual cue.

Alcohol-cue exposure effects on craving and attentional bias in underage college-student drinkers.

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Ramirez, Jason J; Monti, Peter M; Colwill, Ruth M

2015-06-01

The effect of alcohol-cue exposure on eliciting craving has been well documented, and numerous theoretical models assert that craving is a clinically significant construct central to the motivation and maintenance of alcohol-seeking behavior. Furthermore, some theories propose a relationship between craving and attention, such that cue-induced increases in craving bias attention toward alcohol cues, which, in turn, perpetuates craving. This study examined the extent to which alcohol cues induce craving and bias attention toward alcohol cues among underage college-student drinkers. We designed within-subject cue-reactivity and visual-probe tasks to assess in vivo alcohol-cue exposure effects on craving and attentional bias on 39 undergraduate college drinkers (ages 18-20). Participants expressed greater subjective craving to drink alcohol following in vivo cue exposure to a commonly consumed beer compared with water exposure. Furthermore, following alcohol-cue exposure, participants exhibited greater attentional biases toward alcohol cues as measured by a visual-probe task. In addition to the cue-exposure effects on craving and attentional bias, within-subject differences in craving across sessions marginally predicted within-subject differences in attentional bias. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of geomagnetic cues in green turtle open sea navigation.

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Simon Benhamou

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Laboratory and field experiments have provided evidence that sea turtles use geomagnetic cues to navigate in the open sea. For instance, green turtles (Chelonia mydas displaced 100 km away from their nesting site were impaired in returning home when carrying a strong magnet glued on the head. However, the actual role of geomagnetic cues remains unclear, since magnetically treated green turtles can perform large scale (>2000 km post-nesting migrations no differently from controls. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present homing experiment, 24 green turtles were displaced 200 km away from their nesting site on an oceanic island, and tracked, for the first time in this type of experiment, with Global Positioning System (GPS, which is able to provide much more frequent and accurate locations than previously used tracking methods. Eight turtles were magnetically treated for 24-48 h on the nesting beach prior to displacement, and another eight turtles had a magnet glued on the head at the release site. The last eight turtles were used as controls. Detailed analyses of water masses-related (i.e., current-corrected homing paths showed that magnetically treated turtles were able to navigate toward their nesting site as efficiently as controls, but those carrying magnets were significantly impaired once they arrived within 50 km of home. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: While green turtles do not seem to need geomagnetic cues to navigate far from the goal, these cues become necessary when turtles get closer to home. As the very last part of the homing trip (within a few kilometers of home likely depends on non-magnetic cues, our results suggest that magnetic cues play a key role in sea turtle navigation at an intermediate scale by bridging the gap between large and small scale navigational processes, which both appear to depend on non-magnetic cues.

The visibility of social class from facial cues.

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Bjornsdottir, R Thora; Rule, Nicholas O

2017-10-01

Social class meaningfully impacts individuals' life outcomes and daily interactions, and the mere perception of one's socioeconomic standing can have significant ramifications. To better understand how people infer others' social class, we therefore tested the legibility of class (operationalized as monetary income) from facial images, finding across 4 participant samples and 2 stimulus sets that perceivers categorized the faces of rich and poor targets significantly better than chance. Further investigation showed that perceivers categorize social class using minimal facial cues and employ a variety of stereotype-related impressions to make their judgments. Of these, attractiveness accurately cued higher social class in self-selected dating profile photos. However, only the stereotype that well-being positively relates to wealth served as a valid cue in neutral faces. Indeed, neutrally posed rich targets displayed more positive affect relative to poor targets and perceivers used this affective information to categorize their social class. Impressions of social class from these facial cues also influenced participants' evaluations of the targets' employability, demonstrating that face-based perceptions of social class may have important downstream consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Age-Related Changes in Bimanual Instrument Playing with Rhythmic Cueing

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Soo Ji Kim

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Deficits in bimanual coordination of older adults have been demonstrated to significantly limit their functioning in daily life. As a bimanual sensorimotor task, instrument playing has great potential for motor and cognitive training in advanced age. While the process of matching a person’s repetitive movements to auditory rhythmic cueing during instrument playing was documented to involve motor and attentional control, investigation into whether the level of cognitive functioning influences the ability to rhythmically coordinate movement to an external beat in older populations is relatively limited. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine how timing accuracy during bimanual instrument playing with rhythmic cueing differed depending on the degree of participants’ cognitive aging. Twenty one young adults, 20 healthy older adults, and 17 older adults with mild dementia participated in this study. Each participant tapped an electronic drum in time to the rhythmic cueing provided using both hands simultaneously and in alternation. During bimanual instrument playing with rhythmic cueing, mean and variability of synchronization errors were measured and compared across the groups and the tempo of cueing during each type of tapping task. Correlations of such timing parameters with cognitive measures were also analyzed. The results showed that the group factor resulted in significant differences in the synchronization errors-related parameters. During bimanual tapping tasks, cognitive decline resulted in differences in synchronization errors between younger adults and older adults with mild dimentia. Also, in terms of variability of synchronization errors, younger adults showed significant differences in maintaining timing performance from older adults with and without mild dementia, which may be attributed to decreased processing time for bimanual coordination due to aging. Significant correlations were observed between variability of

Use of an Enactive Insole for Reducing the Risk of Falling on Different Types of Soil Using Vibrotactile Cueing for the Elderly.

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Martin J-D Otis

Full Text Available Our daily activities imply displacements on various types of soil. For persons with gait disorder or losing functional autonomy, walking on some types of soil could be challenging because of the risk of falling it represents.In this paper, we present, in a first part, the use of an enactive shoe for an automatic differentiation of several types of soil. In a second part, using a second improved prototype (an enactive insole, twelve participants with Parkinson's disease (PD and nine age-matched controls have performed the Timed Up and Go (TUG test on six types of soil with and without cueing. The frequency of the cueing was set at 10% above the cadence computed at the lower risk of falling (walking over the concrete. Depending on the cadence computed at the lower risk, the enactive insole activates a vibrotactile cueing aiming to improve gait and balance control. Finally, a risk index is computed using gait parameters in relation to given type of soil.The frequency analysis of the heel strike vibration allows the differentiation of various types of soil. The risk computed is associated to an appropriate rhythmic cueing in order to improve balance and gait impairment. The results show that a vibrotactile cueing could help to reduce the risk of falling.Firstly, this paper demonstrates the feasibility of reducing the risk of falling while walking on different types of soil using vibrotactile cueing. We found a significant difference and a significant decrease in the computed risks of falling for most of types of soil especially for deformable soils which can lead to fall. Secondly, heel strike provides an approximation of the impulse response of the soil that can be analyzed with time and frequency-domain modeling. From these analyses, an index is computed enabling differentiation the types of soil.

Counterbalancing in smoking cue research: a critical analysis.

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Sayette, Michael A; Griffin, Kasey M; Sayers, W Michael

2010-11-01

Cue exposure research has been used to examine key issues in smoking research, such as predicting relapse, testing new medications, investigating the neurobiology of nicotine dependence, and examining reactivity among smokers with comorbid psychopathologies. Determining the order that cues are presented is one of the most critical steps in the design of these investigations. It is widely assumed that cue exposure studies should counterbalance the order in which smoking and control (neutral) cues are presented. This article examines the premises underlying the use of counterbalancing in experimental research, and it evaluates the degree to which counterbalancing is appropriate in smoking cue exposure studies. We reviewed the available literature on the use of counterbalancing techniques in human smoking cue exposure research. Many studies counterbalancing order of cues have not provided critical analyses to determine whether this approach was appropriate. Studies that have reported relevant data, however, suggest that order of cue presentation interacts with type of cue (smoking vs. control), which raises concerns about the utility of counterbalancing. Primarily, this concern arises from potential carryover effects, in which exposure to smoking cues affects subsequent responding to neutral cues. Cue type by order of cue interactions may compromise the utility of counterbalancing. Unfortunately, there is no obvious alternative that is optimal across studies. Strengths and limitations of several alternative designs are considered, and key questions are identified to advance understanding of the optimal conditions for conducting smoking cue exposure studies.

Counterbalancing in Smoking Cue Research: A Critical Analysis

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Griffin, Kasey M.; Sayers, W. Michael

2010-01-01

Introduction: Cue exposure research has been used to examine key issues in smoking research, such as predicting relapse, testing new medications, investigating the neurobiology of nicotine dependence, and examining reactivity among smokers with comorbid psychopathologies. Determining the order that cues are presented is one of the most critical steps in the design of these investigations. It is widely assumed that cue exposure studies should counterbalance the order in which smoking and control (neutral) cues are presented. This article examines the premises underlying the use of counterbalancing in experimental research, and it evaluates the degree to which counterbalancing is appropriate in smoking cue exposure studies. Methods: We reviewed the available literature on the use of counterbalancing techniques in human smoking cue exposure research. Results: Many studies counterbalancing order of cues have not provided critical analyses to determine whether this approach was appropriate. Studies that have reported relevant data, however, suggest that order of cue presentation interacts with type of cue (smoking vs. control), which raises concerns about the utility of counterbalancing. Primarily, this concern arises from potential carryover effects, in which exposure to smoking cues affects subsequent responding to neutral cues. Conclusions: Cue type by order of cue interactions may compromise the utility of counterbalancing. Unfortunately, there is no obvious alternative that is optimal across studies. Strengths and limitations of several alternative designs are considered, and key questions are identified to advance understanding of the optimal conditions for conducting smoking cue exposure studies. PMID:20884695

The effects of varied extinction procedures on contingent cue-induced reinstatement in Sprague-Dawley rats.

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Buffalari, Deanne M; Feltenstein, Matthew W; See, Ronald E

2013-11-01

Cue exposure therapy, which attempts to limit relapse by reducing reactivity to cocaine-paired cues through repeated exposures, has had limited success. The current experiments examined cocaine cue-induced anxiogenesis and investigated whether a model of cue exposure therapy would reduce reinstatement of cocaine seeking in rats with a history of cocaine self-administration. Male rats experienced daily intravenous cocaine self-administration. Rats then experienced exposure to either the self-administration context or the context plus noncontingent presentations of cocaine-paired cues. Immediately following exposure, anxiety-like behavior was measured using elevated plus maze and defensive burying tests. In a second group of rats, self-administration was followed by 7 days of exposure to the context, context + noncontingent cue exposure, lever extinction, or cue + lever extinction. All animals then underwent two contingent cue-induced reinstatement tests separated by 7 days of lever extinction. Exposure to noncontingent cocaine-paired cues in the self-administration context increased anxiety-like behavior on the defensive burying test. Animals that experienced lever + cue extinction displayed the least cocaine seeking on the first reinstatement test, and lever extinction reduced cocaine seeking below context exposure or context + noncontingent cue exposure. All animals had similar levels of cocaine seeking on the second reinstatement test. Noncontingent cue exposure causes anxiety, and noncontingent cue and context exposure are less effective at reducing contingent cue-induced reinstatement than lever or lever + cue extinction. These data indicate that active extinction of the drug-taking response may be critical for reduction of relapse proclivity in former cocaine users.

Oxytocin administration suppresses hypothalamic activation in response to visual food cues.

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van der Klaauw, Agatha A; Ziauddeen, Hisham; Keogh, Julia M; Henning, Elana; Dachi, Sekesai; Fletcher, Paul C; Farooqi, I Sadaf

2017-06-27

The aim of this study was to use functional neuroimaging to investigate whether oxytocin modulates the neural response to visual food cues in brain regions involved in the control of food intake. Twenty-four normal weight volunteers received intranasal oxytocin (24 IU) or placebo in a double-blind, randomized crossover study. Measurements were made forty-five minutes after dosing. On two occasions, functional MRI (fMRI) scans were performed in the fasted state; the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response to images of high-calorie foods versus low-calorie foods was measured. Given its critical role in eating behaviour, the primary region of interest was the hypothalamus. Secondary analyses examined the parabrachial nuclei and other brain regions involved in food intake and food reward. Intranasal oxytocin administration suppressed hypothalamic activation to images of high-calorie compared to low-calorie food (P = 0.0125). There was also a trend towards suppression of activation in the parabrachial nucleus (P = 0.0683). No effects of intranasal oxytocin were seen in reward circuits or on ad libitum food intake. Further characterization of the effects of oxytocin on neural circuits in the hypothalamus is needed to establish the utility of targeting oxytocin signalling in obesity.

Acoustic cues to perception of word stress by English, Mandarin, and Russian speakers.

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Chrabaszcz, Anna; Winn, Matthew; Lin, Candise Y; Idsardi, William J

2014-08-01

This study investigated how listeners' native language affects their weighting of acoustic cues (such as vowel quality, pitch, duration, and intensity) in the perception of contrastive word stress. Native speakers (N = 45) of typologically diverse languages (English, Russian, and Mandarin) performed a stress identification task on nonce disyllabic words with fully crossed combinations of each of the 4 cues in both syllables. The results revealed that although the vowel quality cue was the strongest cue for all groups of listeners, pitch was the second strongest cue for the English and the Mandarin listeners but was virtually disregarded by the Russian listeners. Duration and intensity cues were used by the Russian listeners to a significantly greater extent compared with the English and Mandarin participants. Compared with when cues were noncontrastive across syllables, cues were stronger when they were in the iambic contour than when they were in the trochaic contour. Although both English and Russian are stress languages and Mandarin is a tonal language, stress perception performance of the Mandarin listeners but not of the Russian listeners is more similar to that of the native English listeners, both in terms of weighting of the acoustic cues and the cues' relative strength in different word positions. The findings suggest that tuning of second-language prosodic perceptions is not entirely predictable by prosodic similarities across languages.

The impact of age, ongoing task difficulty, and cue salience on preschoolers' prospective memory performance: the role of executive function.

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Mahy, Caitlin E V; Moses, Louis J; Kliegel, Matthias

2014-11-01

The current study examined the impact of age, ongoing task (OT) difficulty, and cue salience on 4- and 5-year-old children's prospective memory (PM) and also explored the relation between individual differences in executive function (working memory, inhibition, and shifting) and PM. OT difficulty and cue salience are predicted to affect the detection of PM cues based on the multiprocess framework, yet neither has been thoroughly investigated in young children. OT difficulty was manipulated by requiring children to sort cards according to the size of pictured items (easy) or by opposite size (difficult), and cue salience was manipulated by placing a red border around half of the target cues (salient) and no border around the other cues (non-salient). The 5-year-olds outperformed the 4-year-olds on the PM task, and salient PM cues resulted in better PM cues compared with non-salient cues. There was no main effect of OT difficulty, and the interaction between cue salience and OT difficulty was not significant. However, a planned comparison revealed that the combination of non-salient cues and a difficult OT resulted in significantly worse PM performance than that in all of the other conditions. Inhibition accounted for significant variance in PM performance for non-salient cues and for marginally significant variance for salient cues. Furthermore, individual differences in inhibition fully mediated the effect of age on PM performance. Results are discussed in the context of the multiprocess framework and with reference to preschoolers' difficulty with the executive demands of dividing attention between the OT and PM task. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Music and metronome cues produce different effects on gait spatiotemporal measures but not gait variability in healthy older adults.

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Wittwer, Joanne E; Webster, Kate E; Hill, Keith

2013-02-01

Rhythmic auditory cues including music and metronome beats have been used, sometimes interchangeably, to improve disordered gait arising from a range of clinical conditions. There has been limited investigation into whether there are optimal cue types. Different cue types have produced inconsistent effects across groups which differed in both age and clinical condition. The possible effect of normal ageing on response to different cue types has not been reported for gait. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of both rhythmic music and metronome cues on gait spatiotemporal measures (including variability) in healthy older people. Twelve women and seven men (>65 years) walked on an instrumented walkway at comfortable pace and then in time to each of rhythmic music and metronome cues at comfortable pace stepping frequency. Music but not metronome cues produced a significant increase in group mean gait velocity of 4.6 cm/s, due mostly to a significant increase in group mean stride length of 3.1cm. Both cue types produced a significant but small increase in cadence of 1 step/min. Mean spatio-temporal variability was low at baseline and did not increase with either cue type suggesting cues did not disrupt gait timing. Study findings suggest music and metronome cues may not be used interchangeably and cue type as well as frequency should be considered when evaluating effects of rhythmic auditory cueing on gait. Further work is required to determine whether optimal cue types and frequencies to improve walking in different clinical groups can be identified. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Interaction between scene-based and array-based contextual cueing.

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Rosenbaum, Gail M; Jiang, Yuhong V

2013-07-01

Contextual cueing refers to the cueing of spatial attention by repeated spatial context. Previous studies have demonstrated distinctive properties of contextual cueing by background scenes and by an array of search items. Whereas scene-based contextual cueing reflects explicit learning of the scene-target association, array-based contextual cueing is supported primarily by implicit learning. In this study, we investigated the interaction between scene-based and array-based contextual cueing. Participants searched for a target that was predicted by both the background scene and the locations of distractor items. We tested three possible patterns of interaction: (1) The scene and the array could be learned independently, in which case cueing should be expressed even when only one cue was preserved; (2) the scene and array could be learned jointly, in which case cueing should occur only when both cues were preserved; (3) overshadowing might occur, in which case learning of the stronger cue should preclude learning of the weaker cue. In several experiments, we manipulated the nature of the contextual cues present during training and testing. We also tested explicit awareness of scenes, scene-target associations, and arrays. The results supported the overshadowing account: Specifically, scene-based contextual cueing precluded array-based contextual cueing when both were predictive of the location of a search target. We suggest that explicit, endogenous cues dominate over implicit cues in guiding spatial attention.

Sequence analysis in multilevel models. A study on different sources of patient cues in medical consultations.

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Del Piccolo, Lidia; Mazzi, Maria Angela; Dunn, Graham; Sandri, Marco; Zimmermann, Christa

2007-12-01

The aims of the study were to explore the importance of macro (patient, physician, consultation) and micro (doctor-patient speech sequences) variables in promoting patient cues (unsolicited new information or expressions of feelings), and to describe the methodological implications related to the study of speech sequences. Patient characteristics, a consultation index of partnership and doctor-patient speech sequences were recorded for 246 primary care consultations in six primary care surgeries in Verona, Italy. Homogeneity and stationarity conditions of speech sequences allowed the creation of a hierarchy of multilevel logit models including micro and macro level variables, with the presence/absence of cues as the dependent variable. We found that emotional distress of the patient increased cues and that cues appeared among other patient expressions and were preceded by physicians' facilitations and handling of emotion. Partnership, in terms of open-ended inquiry, active listening skills and handling of emotion by the physician and active participation by the patient throughout the consultation, reduced cue frequency.

The impact of acute stress on the neural processing of food cues in bulimia nervosa: Replication in two samples.

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Collins, Brittany; Breithaupt, Lauren; McDowell, Jennifer E; Miller, L Stephen; Thompson, James; Fischer, Sarah

2017-07-01

The impact of acute stress on the neural processing of food cues in bulimia nervosa (BN) is unknown, despite theory that acute stress decreases cognitive control over food and hence increases vulnerability to environmental triggers for binge eating. Thus, the goals of this manuscript were to explore the impact of acute stress on the neural processing of food cues in BN. In Study 1, 10 women with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) BN and 10 healthy controls participated in an fMRI paradigm examining the neural correlates of visual food cue processing pre and post an acute stress induction. Whole brain analysis indicated that women with BN exhibited significant decreases in activation in the precuneus, associated with self-referential processing, the paracingulate gyrus, and the anterior vermis of the cerebellum. Healthy controls exhibited increased activation in these regions in response to food cues poststress. In Study 2, 17 women with DSM-5 BN or otherwise specified feeding and eating disorder with BN symptoms participated in the same paradigm. A region of interest analysis replicated findings from Study 1. Replication of imaging findings in 2 different samples suggests the potential importance of these regions in relation to BN. Decreased activation in the precuneus, specifically, is consistent with models of BN that posit that binge eating serves as a concrete distraction from aversive internal stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Overlapping patterns of brain activation to food and cocaine cues in cocaine abusers: association to striatal D2/D3 receptors

OpenAIRE

Tomasi, Dardo; Wang, Gene-Jack; Wang, Ruiliang; Caparelli, Elisabeth C.; Logan, Jean; Volkow, Nora D.

2014-01-01

Cocaine, through its activation of dopamine (DA) signaling, usurps pathways that process natural rewards. However, the extent to which there is overlap between the networks that process natural and drug rewards and whether DA signaling associated with cocaine abuse influences these networks have not been investigated in humans. We measured brain activation responses to food and cocaine cues with fMRI, and D2/D3 receptors in the striatum with [11C]raclopride and PET in 20 active cocaine abuser...

Laserlight cues for gait freezing in Parkinson's disease: an open-label study.

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Donovan, S; Lim, C; Diaz, N; Browner, N; Rose, P; Sudarsky, L R; Tarsy, D; Fahn, S; Simon, D K

2011-05-01

Freezing of gait (FOG) and falls are major sources of disability for Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, and show limited responsiveness to medications. We assessed the efficacy of visual cues for overcoming FOG in an open-label study of 26 patients with PD. The change in the frequency of falls was a secondary outcome measure. Subjects underwent a 1-2 month baseline period of use of a cane or walker without visual cues, followed by 1 month using the same device with the laserlight visual cue. The laserlight visual cue was associated with a modest but significant mean reduction in FOG Questionnaire (FOGQ) scores of 1.25 ± 0.48 (p = 0.0152, two-tailed paired t-test), representing a 6.6% improvement compared to the mean baseline FOGQ scores of 18.8. The mean reduction in fall frequency was 39.5 ± 9.3% with the laserlight visual cue among subjects experiencing at least one fall during the baseline and subsequent study periods (p = 0.002; two-tailed one-sample t-test with hypothesized mean of 0). Though some individual subjects may have benefited, the overall mean performance on the timed gait test (TGT) across all subjects did not significantly change. However, among the 4 subjects who underwent repeated testing of the TGT, one showed a 50% mean improvement in TGT performance with the laserlight visual cue (p = 0.005; two-tailed paired t-test). This open-label study provides evidence for modest efficacy of a laserlight visual cue in overcoming FOG and reducing falls in PD patients. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Retro-dimension-cue benefit in visual working memory

OpenAIRE

Ye, Chaoxiong; Hu, Zhonghua; Ristaniemi, Tapani; Gendron, Maria; Liu, Qiang

2016-01-01

In visual working memory (VWM) tasks, participants? performance can be improved by a retro-object-cue. However, previous studies have not investigated whether participants? performance can also be improved by a retro-dimension-cue. Three experiments investigated this issue. We used a recall task with a retro-dimension-cue in all experiments. In Experiment 1, we found benefits from retro-dimension-cues compared to neutral cues. This retro-dimension-cue benefit is reflected in an increased prob...

The footprints of visual attention during search with 100% valid and 100% invalid cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Eckstein, Miguel P; Pham, Binh T; Shimozaki, Steven S

2004-06-01

Human performance during visual search typically improves when spatial cues indicate the possible target locations. In many instances, the performance improvement is quantitatively predicted by a Bayesian or quasi-Bayesian observer in which visual attention simply selects the information at the cued locations without changing the quality of processing or sensitivity and ignores the information at the uncued locations. Aside from the general good agreement between the effect of the cue on model and human performance, there has been little independent confirmation that humans are effectively selecting the relevant information. In this study, we used the classification image technique to assess the effectiveness of spatial cues in the attentional selection of relevant locations and suppression of irrelevant locations indicated by spatial cues. Observers searched for a bright target among dimmer distractors that might appear (with 50% probability) in one of eight locations in visual white noise. The possible target location was indicated using a 100% valid box cue or seven 100% invalid box cues in which the only potential target locations was uncued. For both conditions, we found statistically significant perceptual templates shaped as differences of Gaussians at the relevant locations with no perceptual templates at the irrelevant locations. We did not find statistical significant differences between the shapes of the inferred perceptual templates for the 100% valid and 100% invalid cues conditions. The results confirm the idea that during search visual attention allows the observer to effectively select relevant information and ignore irrelevant information. The results for the 100% invalid cues condition suggests that the selection process is not drawn automatically to the cue but can be under the observers' voluntary control.

Emergence in extinction of enhanced and persistent responding to ambiguous aversive cues is associated with high MAOA activity in the prelimbic cortex

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Guillaume L. Poirier

2016-12-01

Full Text Available There is a great deal of individual variability in the emotional outcomes of potentially traumatic events, and the underlying mechanisms are only beginning to be understood. In order to further our understanding of individual trajectories to trauma, its vulnerability and resilience, we adapted a model of fear expression to ambiguous vs perfect cues in adult male rats, and examined long-term fear extinction, 2, 3, and 50 days from acquisition. After the final conditioned fear test, mitochondrial enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAOA function was examined. In order to identify associations between this function and behavioral expression, an a posteri median segregation approach was adopted, and animals were classified as high or low responding according to level of freezing to the ambiguous cue at remote testing, long after the initial extinction. Those individuals characterized by their higher response showed a freezing pattern that persisted from their previous extinction sessions, in spite of their acquisition levels being equivalent to the low-freezing group. Furthermore, unlike more adaptive individuals, freezing levels of high-freezing animals even increased at initial extinction, to almost double their acquisition session levels. Controlling for perfect cue response at remote extinction, greater ambiguous threat cue response was associated with enhanced prelimbic cortex MAOA functional activity. These findings underscore MAOA as a potential target for the development of interventions to mitigate the impact of traumatic experiences.

Effects of the timing and identity of retrieval cues in individual recall: an attempt to mimic cross-cueing in collaborative recall.

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Andersson, Jan; Hitch, Graham; Meudell, Peter

2006-01-01

Inhibitory effects in collaborative recall have been attributed to cross-cueing among partners, in the same way that part-set cues are known to impair recall in individuals. However, studies of part-set cueing in individuals typically involve presenting cues visually at the start of recall, whereas cross-cueing in collaboration is likely to be spoken and distributed over time. In an attempt to bridge this gap, three experiments investigated effects of presenting spoken part-set or extra-list cues at different times during individual recall. Cues had an inhibitory effect on recollection in the early part of the recall period, especially when presented in immediate succession at the start of recall. There was no difference between the effects of part-set and extra-list cues under these presentation conditions. However, more inhibition was generated by part-set than extra-list cues when cue presentation was distributed throughout recall. These results are interpreted as suggesting that cues presented during recall disrupt memory in two ways, corresponding to either blocking or modifying retrieval processes. Implications for explaining and possibly ameliorating inhibitory effects in collaborative recall are discussed.

Play and Productivity: Enhancing the Creative Climate at Workplace Meetings with Play Cues

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West, Samuel E.; Hoff, Eva; Carlsson, Ingegerd

2016-01-01

The authors investigate the links between playfulness and creative organizational climates established by other research, using play cues--objects and sweets--they provide participants halfway through workplace meetings. Their findings suggest such cues significantly enhance the creative climate and playfulness in workplace meetings without…

The contribution of dynamic visual cues to audiovisual speech perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Jaekl, Philip; Pesquita, Ana; Alsius, Agnes; Munhall, Kevin; Soto-Faraco, Salvador

2015-08-01

Seeing a speaker's facial gestures can significantly improve speech comprehension, especially in noisy environments. However, the nature of the visual information from the speaker's facial movements that is relevant for this enhancement is still unclear. Like auditory speech signals, visual speech signals unfold over time and contain both dynamic configural information and luminance-defined local motion cues; two information sources that are thought to engage anatomically and functionally separate visual systems. Whereas, some past studies have highlighted the importance of local, luminance-defined motion cues in audiovisual speech perception, the contribution of dynamic configural information signalling changes in form over time has not yet been assessed. We therefore attempted to single out the contribution of dynamic configural information to audiovisual speech processing. To this aim, we measured word identification performance in noise using unimodal auditory stimuli, and with audiovisual stimuli. In the audiovisual condition, speaking faces were presented as point light displays achieved via motion capture of the original talker. Point light displays could be isoluminant, to minimise the contribution of effective luminance-defined local motion information, or with added luminance contrast, allowing the combined effect of dynamic configural cues and local motion cues. Audiovisual enhancement was found in both the isoluminant and contrast-based luminance conditions compared to an auditory-only condition, demonstrating, for the first time the specific contribution of dynamic configural cues to audiovisual speech improvement. These findings imply that globally processed changes in a speaker's facial shape contribute significantly towards the perception of articulatory gestures and the analysis of audiovisual speech. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic activation of alcohol cues by child maltreatment related words: a replication attempt in a different treatment setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Potthast, Nadine; Neuner, Frank; Catani, Claudia

2017-01-03

A growing body of research attempts to clarify the underlying mechanisms of the association between emotional maltreatment and alcohol dependence (AD). In a preceding study, we found considerable support for a specific priming effect in subjects with AD and emotional abuse experiences receiving alcohol rehabilitation treatment. We concluded that maltreatment related cues can automatically activate an associative memory network comprising cues eliciting craving as well as alcohol-related responses. Generalizability of the results to other treatment settings remains unclear because of considerable differences in German treatment settings as well as insufficiently clarified influences of selection effects. As replication studies in other settings are necessary, the current study aimed to replicate the specific priming effect in a qualified detoxification sample. 22 AD subjects (n = 10 with emotional abuse vs. n = 12 without emotional abuse) participated in a priming experiment. Comparison data from 34 healthy control subjects were derived from the prior study. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find a specific priming effect. We could not replicate the result of an automatic network activation by maltreatment related words in a sample of subjects with AD and emotional abuse experiences receiving qualified detoxification treatment. This discrepancy might be attributed to reasons related to treatment settings as well as to methodological limitations. Future work is required to determine the generalizability of the specific priming effect before valid conclusions regarding automatic activation can be drawn.

Cue exposure treatment in a virtual environment to reduce nicotine craving: a functional MRI study.

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Moon, Jiyoon; Lee, Jang-Han

2009-02-01

Smokers show an increase in cue reactivity during exposure to smoking-related cues. CET aims at extinguishing cue reactivity by repeated presentation of substance-related cues and has been claimed a potentially effective method of treating addictive behaviors, including cigarette smoking. We applied CET to eight late-adolescent smokers in virtual environments (VEs). When comparing pre-CET regions to those of post-CET, the inferior frontal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus were detected. These regions are consistent with previous studies of activated brain regions related to nicotine craving, and VE-CET seems to be an effective method of treating nicotine craving.

Evidence against associative blocking as a cause of cue-independent retrieval-induced forgetting.

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Hulbert, Justin C; Shivde, Geeta; Anderson, Michael C

2012-01-01

Selectively retrieving an item from long-term memory reduces the accessibility of competing traces, a phenomenon known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). RIF exhibits cue independence, or the tendency for forgetting to generalize to novel test cues, suggesting an inhibitory basis for this phenomenon. An alternative view (Camp, Pecher, & Schmidt, 2007; Camp et al., 2009; Perfect et al., 2004) suggests that using novel test cues to measure cue independence actually engenders associative interference when participants covertly supplement retrieval with practiced cues that then associatively block retrieval. Accordingly, the covert-cueing hypothesis assumes that the relative strength of the practiced items at final test – and not the inhibition levied on the unpracticed items during retrieval practice – underlies cue-independent forgetting. As such, this perspective predicts that strengthening practiced items by any means, even if not via retrieval practice, should induce forgetting. Contrary to these predictions, however, we present clear evidence that cue-independent forgetting is induced by retrieval practice and not by repeated study exposures. This dissociation occurred despite significant, comparable levels of strengthening of practiced items in each case, and despite the use of Anderson and Spellman's original (1995) independent probe method criticized by covert-cueing theorists as being especially conducive to associative blocking. These results demonstrate that cue-independent RIF is unrelated to the strengthening of practiced items, and thereby fail to support a key prediction of the covert-cueing hypothesis. The results, instead, favor a role of inhibition in resolving retrieval interference. © 2011 Hogrefe Publishing

CONSUMER EVALUATIONS OF BEAUTIFICATION PRODUCTS: EFFECTS OF EXTRINSIC CUES

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Md. Humayun Kabir Chowdhury

2006-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the influence of extrinsic cues, i.e. brand image, perceived price, perceived quality, and perceived country of origin on consumers' evaluative judgments for beautification products. Multi-item measures were used for data collection. Resultsrevealed that three extrinsic cues: brand image, perceived quality, and perceived country of origin have positive and significant influence on consumers' brand evaluation of beautification brands. Only perceived price has shown no such influence on consumers' brand evaluation. Finally, unanswered questions and future researchdirections are presented.

The effect of contextual cues on the encoding of motor memories.

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, Ian S; Wolpert, Daniel M; Franklin, David W

2013-05-01

Several studies have shown that sensory contextual cues can reduce the interference observed during learning of opposing force fields. However, because each study examined a small set of cues, often in a unique paradigm, the relative efficacy of different sensory contextual cues is unclear. In the present study we quantify how seven contextual cues, some investigated previously and some novel, affect the formation and recall of motor memories. Subjects made movements in a velocity-dependent curl field, with direction varying randomly from trial to trial but always associated with a unique contextual cue. Linking field direction to the cursor or background color, or to peripheral visual motion cues, did not reduce interference. In contrast, the orientation of a visual object attached to the hand cursor significantly reduced interference, albeit by a small amount. When the fields were associated with movement in different locations in the workspace, a substantial reduction in interference was observed. We tested whether this reduction in interference was due to the different locations of the visual feedback (targets and cursor) or the movements (proprioceptive). When the fields were associated only with changes in visual display location (movements always made centrally) or only with changes in the movement location (visual feedback always displayed centrally), a substantial reduction in interference was observed. These results show that although some visual cues can lead to the formation and recall of distinct representations in motor memory, changes in spatial visual and proprioceptive states of the movement are far more effective than changes in simple visual contextual cues.

Strategy selection in cue-based decision making.

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Bryant, David J

2014-06-01

People can make use of a range of heuristic and rational, compensatory strategies to perform a multiple-cue judgment task. It has been proposed that people are sensitive to the amount of cognitive effort required to employ decision strategies. Experiment 1 employed a dual-task methodology to investigate whether participants' preference for heuristic versus compensatory decision strategies can be altered by increasing the cognitive demands of the task. As indicated by participants' decision times, a secondary task interfered more with the performance of a heuristic than compensatory decision strategy but did not affect the proportions of participants using either type of strategy. A stimulus set effect suggested that the conjunction of cue salience and cue validity might play a determining role in strategy selection. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that when a perceptually salient cue was also the most valid, the majority of participants preferred a single-cue heuristic strategy. Overall, the results contradict the view that heuristics are more likely to be adopted when a task is made more cognitively demanding. It is argued that people employ 2 learning processes during training, one an associative learning process in which cue-outcome associations are developed by sampling multiple cues, and another that involves the sequential examination of single cues to serve as a basis for a single-cue heuristic.

The neural correlates of competition during memory retrieval are modulated by attention to the cues.

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Danker, Jared F; Fincham, Jon M; Anderson, John R

2011-07-01

As people learn more facts about a concept, those facts become more difficult to remember. This is called the fan effect, where fan refers to the number of facts known about a concept. Increasing fan has been shown to decrease accuracy and increase response time and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) activity during retrieval. In this study, participants learned 36 arbitrary person-location pairings and made recognition decisions while we recorded brain activity using fMRI. We separately manipulated the fan of each person and location, as well as the training procedure with which each pair was studied. In the person focus condition, participants studied pairs with a picture of the person's face and used the person as a retrieval cue during training. In the location focus condition, participants studied pairs with a picture of the location and used the location as a retrieval cue during training. We found that the fan of the focused cue had a greater effect on response time, accuracy, and left VLPFC activity during retrieval than the fan of the unfocused cue. We also found that the parahippocampal place area (PPA) was more active during the recognition of pairs studied in the location focus condition, but not when the fan of the location was high. Overall, we found opposite effects of fan on VLPFC and PPA that were modulated by cue focus. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic Retrieval of Newly Instructed Cue-Task Associations Seen in Task-Conflict Effects in the First Trial after Cue-Task Instructions.

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Meiran, Nachshon; Pereg, Maayan

2017-01-01

Novel stimulus-response associations are retrieved automatically even without prior practice. Is this true for novel cue-task associations? The experiment involved miniblocks comprising three phases and task switching. In the INSTRUCTION phase, two new stimuli (or familiar cues) were arbitrarily assigned as cues for up-down/right-left tasks performed on placeholder locations. In the UNIVALENT phase, there was no task cue since placeholder's location afforded one task but the placeholders were the stimuli that we assigned as task cues for the following BIVALENT phase (involving target locations affording both tasks). Thus, participants held the novel cue-task associations in memory while executing the UNIVALENT phase. Results show poorer performance in the first univalent trial when the placeholder was associated with the opposite task (incompatible) than when it was compatible, an effect that was numerically larger with newly instructed cues than with familiar cues. These results indicate automatic retrieval of newly instructed cue-task associations.

Cueing training in the home improves gait-related mobility in Parkinson's disease : The RESCUE trial

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nieuwboer, A.; Kwakkel, G.; Rochester, L.; Jones, D.; Van Wegen, E.; Willems, A. M.; Chavret, F.; Hetherington, V.; Baker, K.; Lim, I.

2007-01-01

Objectives: Gait and mobility problems are difficult to treat in people with Parkinson's disease. The Rehabilitation in Parkinson's Disease: Strategies for Cueing (RESCUE) trial investigated the effects of a home physiotherapy programme based on rhythmical cueing on gait and gait-related activity.

Cueing training in the home improves gait-related mobility in Parkinson's disease: the RESCUE trial.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nieuwboer, A.; Kwakkel, G.; Rochester, L.; Jones, D.; Wegen, E. van; Willems, A.M.; Chavret, F.; Hetherington, V.; Baker, K.; Lim, I.

2007-01-01

OBJECTIVES: Gait and mobility problems are difficult to treat in people with Parkinson's disease. The Rehabilitation in Parkinson's Disease: Strategies for Cueing (RESCUE) trial investigated the effects of a home physiotherapy programme based on rhythmical cueing on gait and gait-related activity.

Is prospective memory enhanced by cue-action semantic relatedness and enactment at encoding?

Science.gov (United States)

Pereira, Antonina; Ellis, Judi; Freeman, Jayne

2012-09-01

Benefits and costs on prospective memory performance, of enactment at encoding and a semantic association between a cue-action word pair, were investigated in two experiments. Findings revealed superior performance for both younger and older adults following enactment, in contrast to verbal encoding, and when cue-action semantic relatedness was high. Although younger adults outperformed older adults, age did not moderate benefits of cue-action relatedness or enactment. Findings from a second experiment revealed that the inclusion of an instruction to perform a prospective memory task led to increments in response latency to items from the ongoing activity in which that task was embedded, relative to latencies when the ongoing task only was performed. However, this task interference 'cost' did not differ as a function of either cue-action relatedness or enactment. We argue that the high number of cue-action pairs employed here influenced meta-cognitive consciousness, hence determining attention allocation, in all experimental conditions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Obesity and the built environment: changes in environmental cues cause energy imbalances.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, D A

2008-12-01

The past 30 years have seen dramatic changes in the food and physical activity environments, both of which contribute to the changes in human behavior that could explain obesity. This paper reviews documented changes in the food environment, changes in the physical activity environment and the mechanisms through which people respond to these environments, often without conscious awareness or control. The most important environmental changes have been increases in food accessibility, food salience and decreases in the cost of food. The increases in food marketing and advertising create food cues that artificially stimulate people to feel hungry. The existence of a metabolic pathway that allows excess energy to be stored as fat suggests that people were designed to overeat. Many internal mechanisms favor neurophysiologic responses to food cues that result in overconsumption. External cues, such as food abundance, food variety and food novelty, cause people to override internal signals of satiety. Other factors, such as conditioning and priming, tie food to other desirable outcomes, and thus increase the frequency that hunger is stimulated by environmental cues. People's natural response to the environmental cues are colored by framing, and judgments are flawed and biased depending on how information is presented. People lack insight into how the food environment affects them, and subsequently are unable to change the factors that are responsible for excessive energy consumption. Understanding the causal pathway for overconsumption will be necessary to interrupt the mechanisms that lead to obesity.

Kin-informative recognition cues in ants

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nehring, Volker; Evison, Sophie E F; Santorelli, Lorenzo A

2011-01-01

behaviour is thought to be rare in one of the classic examples of cooperation--social insect colonies--because the colony-level costs of individual selfishness select against cues that would allow workers to recognize their closest relatives. In accord with this, previous studies of wasps and ants have...... found little or no kin information in recognition cues. Here, we test the hypothesis that social insects do not have kin-informative recognition cues by investigating the recognition cues and relatedness of workers from four colonies of the ant Acromyrmex octospinosus. Contrary to the theoretical...... prediction, we show that the cuticular hydrocarbons of ant workers in all four colonies are informative enough to allow full-sisters to be distinguished from half-sisters with a high accuracy. These results contradict the hypothesis of non-heritable recognition cues and suggest that there is more potential...

Subconscious visual cues during movement execution allow correct online choice reactions.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Leukel

Full Text Available Part of the sensory information is processed by our central nervous system without conscious perception. Subconscious processing has been shown to be capable of triggering motor reactions. In the present study, we asked the question whether visual information, which is not consciously perceived, could influence decision-making in a choice reaction task. Ten healthy subjects (28 ± 5 years executed two different experimental protocols. In the Motor reaction protocol, a visual target cue was shown on a computer screen. Depending on the displayed cue, subjects had to either complete a reaching movement (go-condition or had to abort the movement (stop-condition. The cue was presented with different display durations (20-160 ms. In the second Verbalization protocol, subjects verbalized what they experienced on the screen. Again, the cue was presented with different display durations. This second protocol tested for conscious perception of the visual cue. The results of this study show that subjects achieved significantly more correct responses in the Motor reaction protocol than in the Verbalization protocol. This difference was only observed at the very short display durations of the visual cue. Since correct responses in the Verbalization protocol required conscious perception of the visual information, our findings imply that the subjects performed correct motor responses to visual cues, which they were not conscious about. It is therefore concluded that humans may reach decisions based on subconscious visual information in a choice reaction task.

Retro-dimension-cue benefit in visual working memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Chaoxiong; Hu, Zhonghua; Ristaniemi, Tapani; Gendron, Maria; Liu, Qiang

2016-10-24

In visual working memory (VWM) tasks, participants' performance can be improved by a retro-object-cue. However, previous studies have not investigated whether participants' performance can also be improved by a retro-dimension-cue. Three experiments investigated this issue. We used a recall task with a retro-dimension-cue in all experiments. In Experiment 1, we found benefits from retro-dimension-cues compared to neutral cues. This retro-dimension-cue benefit is reflected in an increased probability of reporting the target, but not in the probability of reporting the non-target, as well as increased precision with which this item is remembered. Experiment 2 replicated the retro-dimension-cue benefit and showed that the length of the blank interval after the cue disappeared did not influence recall performance. Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 2 with a lower memory load. Our studies provide evidence that there is a robust retro-dimension-cue benefit in VWM. Participants can use internal attention to flexibly allocate cognitive resources to a particular dimension of memory representations. The results also support the feature-based storing hypothesis.

The effects of motion and g-seat cues on pilot simulator performance of three piloting tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Showalter, T. W.; Parris, B. L.

1980-01-01

Data are presented that show the effects of motion system cues, g-seat cues, and pilot experience on pilot performance during takeoffs with engine failures, during in-flight precision turns, and during landings with wind shear. Eight groups of USAF pilots flew a simulated KC-135 using four different cueing systems. The basic cueing system was a fixed-base type (no-motion cueing) with visual cueing. The other three systems were produced by the presence of either a motion system or a g-seat, or both. Extensive statistical analysis of the data was performed and representative performance means were examined. These data show that the addition of motion system cueing results in significant improvement in pilot performance for all three tasks; however, the use of g-seat cueing, either alone or in conjunction with the motion system, provides little if any performance improvement for these tasks and for this aircraft type.

Brain fMRI study of crave induced by cue pictures in online game addicts (male adolescents).

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Yueji; Ying, Huang; Seetohul, Ravi M; Xuemei, Wang; Ya, Zheng; Qian, Li; Guoqing, Xu; Ye, Sun

2012-08-01

To study crave-related cerebral regions induced by game figure cues in online game addicts. fMRI brain imaging was done when the subjects were shown picture cues of the WoW (World of Warcraft, Version: 4.1.014250) game. 10 male addicts of WoW were selected as addicts' group, and 10 other healthy male non-addicts who were matched by age, were used as non-game addicts' group. All volunteers participated in fMRI paradigms. WoW associated cue pictures and neutral pictures were shown. We examined functional cerebral regions activated by the pictures with 3.0 T Philips MRI. The imaging signals' database was analyzed by SPM5. The correlation between game craving scores and different image results were assessed. When the game addicts watch the pictures, some brain areas show increased signal activity namely: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral temporal cortex, cerebellum, right inferior parietal lobule, right cuneus, right hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, left caudate nucleus. But in these same brain regions we did not observe remarkable activities in the control group. Differential image signal densities of the addict group were subtracted from the health control group, results of which were expressed in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal lobe and inferior temporal gyrus, cerebellum, right insular and the right angular gyrus. The increased imaging signal densities were significant and positively correlated with the craving scale scores in the bilateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and right inferior parietal lobe. Craving of online game addicts was successfully induced by game cue pictures. Crave related brain areas are: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and right inferior parietal lobe. The brain regions are overlapped with cognitive and emotion related processing brain areas. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Encoding of Sucrose's Palatability in the Nucleus Accumbens Shell and Its Modulation by Exteroceptive Auditory Cues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Villavicencio

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Although the palatability of sucrose is the primary reason for why it is over consumed, it is not well understood how it is encoded in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh, a brain region involved in reward, feeding, and sensory/motor transformations. Similarly, untouched are issues regarding how an external auditory stimulus affects sucrose palatability and, in the NAcSh, the neuronal correlates of this behavior. To address these questions in behaving rats, we investigated how food-related auditory cues modulate sucrose's palatability. The goals are to determine whether NAcSh neuronal responses would track sucrose's palatability (as measured by the increase in hedonically positive oromotor responses lick rate, sucrose concentration, and how it processes auditory information. Using brief-access tests, we found that sucrose's palatability was enhanced by exteroceptive auditory cues that signal the start and the end of a reward epoch. With only the start cue the rejection of water was accelerated, and the sucrose/water ratio was enhanced, indicating greater palatability. However, the start cue also fragmented licking patterns and decreased caloric intake. In the presence of both start and stop cues, the animals fed continuously and increased their caloric intake. Analysis of the licking microstructure confirmed that auditory cues (either signaling the start alone or start/stop enhanced sucrose's oromotor-palatability responses. Recordings of extracellular single-unit activity identified several distinct populations of NAcSh responses that tracked either the sucrose palatability responses or the sucrose concentrations by increasing or decreasing their activity. Another neural population fired synchronously with licking and exhibited an enhancement in their coherence with increasing sucrose concentrations. The population of NAcSh's Palatability-related and Lick-Inactive neurons were the most important for decoding sucrose's palatability. Only the Lick

Gaze Cueing by Pareidolia Faces

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Kohske Takahashi

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Visual images that are not faces are sometimes perceived as faces (the pareidolia phenomenon. While the pareidolia phenomenon provides people with a strong impression that a face is present, it is unclear how deeply pareidolia faces are processed as faces. In the present study, we examined whether a shift in spatial attention would be produced by gaze cueing of face-like objects. A robust cueing effect was observed when the face-like objects were perceived as faces. The magnitude of the cueing effect was comparable between the face-like objects and a cartoon face. However, the cueing effect was eliminated when the observer did not perceive the objects as faces. These results demonstrated that pareidolia faces do more than give the impression of the presence of faces; indeed, they trigger an additional face-specific attentional process.

Gaze cueing by pareidolia faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Kohske; Watanabe, Katsumi

2013-01-01

Visual images that are not faces are sometimes perceived as faces (the pareidolia phenomenon). While the pareidolia phenomenon provides people with a strong impression that a face is present, it is unclear how deeply pareidolia faces are processed as faces. In the present study, we examined whether a shift in spatial attention would be produced by gaze cueing of face-like objects. A robust cueing effect was observed when the face-like objects were perceived as faces. The magnitude of the cueing effect was comparable between the face-like objects and a cartoon face. However, the cueing effect was eliminated when the observer did not perceive the objects as faces. These results demonstrated that pareidolia faces do more than give the impression of the presence of faces; indeed, they trigger an additional face-specific attentional process.

Electrophysiological indices of visual food cue-reactivity. Differences in obese, overweight and normal weight women.

Science.gov (United States)

Hume, David John; Howells, Fleur Margaret; Rauch, H G Laurie; Kroff, Jacolene; Lambert, Estelle Victoria

2015-02-01

Heightened food cue-reactivity in overweight and obese individuals has been related to aberrant functioning of neural circuitry implicated in motivational behaviours and reward-seeking. Here we explore the neurophysiology of visual food cue-reactivity in overweight and obese women, as compared with normal weight women, by assessing differences in cortical arousal and attentional processing elicited by food and neutral image inserts in a Stroop task with record of EEG spectral band power and ERP responses. Results show excess right frontal (F8) and left central (C3) relative beta band activity in overweight women during food task performance (indicative of pronounced early visual cue-reactivity) and blunted prefrontal (Fp1 and Fp2) theta band activity in obese women during office task performance (suggestive of executive dysfunction). Moreover, as compared to normal weight women, food images elicited greater right parietal (P4) ERP P200 amplitude in overweight women (denoting pronounced early attentional processing) and shorter right parietal (P4) ERP P300 latency in obese women (signifying enhanced and efficient maintained attentional processing). Differential measures of cortical arousal and attentional processing showed significant correlations with self-reported eating behaviour and body shape dissatisfaction, as well as with objectively assessed percent fat mass. The findings of the present study suggest that heightened food cue-reactivity can be neurophysiologically measured, that different neural circuits are implicated in the pathogenesis of overweight and obesity, and that EEG techniques may serve useful in the identification of endophenotypic markers associated with an increased risk of externally mediated food consumption. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical cues released by an alien invasive aquatic gastropod drive its invasion success.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacqueline L Raw

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Chemical cues provide aquatic organisms with sensory information that guides behavioural responses and thus interactions among themselves, each other and the environment. Chemical cues are considered important for predator avoidance, foraging, larval settlement and broadcast spawning in aquatic environments. However, the significance of their role as drivers of direct interactions between heterospecifics has been largely overlooked. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A video camera and a demarcated arena were used in situ to record behavioural responses of three native gastropod species, Assiminea cf. capensis, Melanoides tuberculata and Coriandria durbanensis, exposed to treatments representing chemical cues released by a non-native invasive gastropod, Tarebia granifera. The responses were measured quantitatively as displacement and orientation of movement at locations in St Lucia Estuary, within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the east coast of South Africa. All native gastropods exhibited a negative taxis response to chemical cues released by T. granifera, while T. granifera individuals responded randomly to conspecifics. Displacement was measured relative to the source of the extract, the number of steps taken were determined with path analysis and orientation was determined from the mean (±95% CIs turning angles, with significant negative turning angles representing negative taxis. Responses to treatments corresponding to the environment and conspecifics were random and undirected, indicating kinesis. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This study presents evidence for interactions driven by chemical cues between a non-native invasive gastropod and several gastropods native to South Africa. The results indicate that chemical cues can facilitate invasion success as the behavioural response of native gastropods is to move away allowing additional food and space resources to become available to T. granifera.

Extinction of conditioned cues attenuates incubation of cocaine craving in adolescent and adult rats.

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Madsen, Heather B; Zbukvic, Isabel C; Luikinga, Sophia J; Lawrence, Andrew J; Kim, Jee Hyun

2017-09-01

Relapse to drug use is often precipitated by exposure to drug associated cues that evoke craving. Cue-induced drug craving has been observed in both animals and humans to increase over the first few weeks of abstinence and remain high over extended periods, a phenomenon known as 'incubation of craving'. As adolescence represents a period of vulnerability to developing drug addiction, potentially due to persistent reactivity to drug associated cues, we first compared incubation of cocaine craving in adolescent and adult rats. Adolescent (P35) and adult (P70) rats were trained to lever press to obtain intravenous cocaine, with each drug delivery accompanied by a light cue that served as the conditioned stimulus (CS). Following acquisition of stable responding, rats were tested for cue-induced cocaine-seeking after either 1 or 30days of abstinence. Additional groups of rats were also tested after 30days of abstinence, however these rats were subjected to a cue extinction session 1week into the abstinence period. Rats were injected with aripiprazole, a dopamine 2 receptor (D2R)-like partial agonist, or vehicle, 30min prior to cue extinction. We found that adolescent and adult rats acquired and maintained a similar level of cocaine self-administration, and rats of both ages exhibited a higher level of cue-induced cocaine-seeking if they were tested after 30days of abstinence compared to 1day. Incubation of cocaine craving was significantly reduced to 1day levels in both adults and adolescents that received cue extinction training. Administration of aripiprazole prior to cue extinction did not further reduce cue-induced drug-seeking. These results indicate that cue extinction training during abstinence may effectively reduce cue-induced relapse at a time when cue-induced drug craving is usually high. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of chromatic cues for trapping Bactrocera tau.

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Li, Lei; Ma, Huabo; Niu, Liming; Han, Dongyin; Zhang, Fangping; Chen, Junyu; Fu, Yueguan

2017-01-01

Trapping technology based on chromatic cues is an important strategy in controlling Tephritidae (fruit flies). The objectives of this present study were to evaluate the preference of Bactrocera tau for different chromatic cues, and to explore an easy method to print and reproduce coloured paper. Chromatic cues significantly affected the preference of adult B. tau. Wavelengths in the 515-604 nm range were the suitable wavelengths for trapping B. tau. Different-day-old B. tau had different colour preferences. Virtual wavelengths of 595 nm (yellow) and 568 nm (yellowish green) were the optimum wavelengths for trapping 5-7-day-old B. tau and 30-32-day-old B. tau respectively. The trap type and height significantly influenced B. tau attraction efficiency. The number of B. tau on coloured traps hung perpendicular to plant rows was not significantly higher than the number on traps hung parallel to plant rows. The quantisation of colour on the basis of Bruton's wavelength to RGB function can serve as an alternative method for printing and reproducing coloured paper, but a corrected equation should be established between the theoretical wavelength and actual wavelength of coloured paper. Results show that a compound paper coloured yellow (595 nm) and yellowish green (568 nm) installed at 60 and 90 cm above the ground shows the maximum effect for trapping B. tau. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Interaction of chemical cues from fish tissues and organophosphorous pesticides on Ceriodaphnia dubia survival

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maul, Jonathan D.; Farris, Jerry L.; Lydy, Michael J.

2006-01-01

Cladocera are frequently used as test organisms for assessing chemical and effluent toxicity and have been shown to respond to stimuli and cues from potential predators. In this study, the interactive effects of visual and chemical cues of fish and two organophosphorous pesticides on survival of Ceriodaphnia dubia were examined. A significant chemical cue (homogenized Pimephales promelas) and malathion interaction was observed on C. dubia survival (P = 0.006). Chemical cue and 2.82 μg/L malathion resulted in a 76.0% reduction in survival compared to malathion alone (P < 0.01). Furthermore, potentiation of malathion toxicity varied based on the source of chemical cues (i.e., epithelial or whole body). It is unclear in this study whether these chemical cues elicited a predation-related stress in C. dubia. Future research should examine the mechanism of this interaction and determine what role, if any, stress responses by C. dubia might play in the interaction. - Potentiation of organophosphorous pesticide toxicity to Ceriodaphnia dubia by fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) chemical cues was observed

Technology-Aided Pictorial Cues to Support the Performance of Daily Activities by Persons with Moderate Alzheimer's Disease

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Lancioni, Giulio E.; Perilli, Viviana; Singh, Nirbhay N.; O'Reilly, Mark F.; Sigafoos, Jeff; Cassano, Germana; Pinto, Katia; Minervini, Mauro G.; Oliva, Doretta

2012-01-01

We developed a technology-aided intervention strategy relying on pictorial cues alone or in combination with verbal instructions and assessed these two versions of the strategy with three persons with moderate Alzheimer's disease. In Section I of the study, the strategy version with pictorial cues plus verbal instructions was compared with an…

Image segmentation algorithm based on T-junctions cues

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Qian, Yanyu; Cao, Fengyun; Wang, Lu; Yang, Xuejie

2016-03-01

To improve the over-segmentation and over-merge phenomenon of single image segmentation algorithm,a novel approach of combing Graph-Based algorithm and T-junctions cues is proposed in this paper. First, a method by L0 gradient minimization is applied to the smoothing of the target image eliminate artifacts caused by noise and texture detail; Then, the initial over-segmentation result of the smoothing image using the graph-based algorithm; Finally, the final results via a region fusion strategy by t-junction cues. Experimental results on a variety of images verify the new approach's efficiency in eliminating artifacts caused by noise,segmentation accuracy and time complexity has been significantly improved.

Cue generation: How learners flexibly support future retrieval.

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Tullis, Jonathan G; Benjamin, Aaron S

2015-08-01

The successful use of memory requires us to be sensitive to the cues that will be present during retrieval. In many situations, we have some control over the external cues that we will encounter. For instance, learners create shopping lists at home to help remember what items to later buy at the grocery store, and they generate computer file names to help remember the contents of those files. Generating cues in the service of later cognitive goals is a complex task that lies at the intersection of metacognition, communication, and memory. In this series of experiments, we investigated how and how well learners generate external mnemonic cues. Across 5 experiments, learners generated a cue for each target word in a to-be-remembered list and received these cues during a later cued recall test. Learners flexibly generated cues in response to different instructional demands and study list compositions. When generating mnemonic cues, as compared to descriptions of target items, learners produced cues that were more distinct than mere descriptions and consequently elicited greater cued recall performance than those descriptions. When learners were aware of competing targets in the study list, they generated mnemonic cues with smaller cue-to-target associative strength but that were even more distinct. These adaptations led to fewer confusions among competing targets and enhanced cued recall performance. These results provide another example of the metacognitively sophisticated tactics that learners use to effectively support future retrieval.

The use of cue familiarity during retrieval failure is affected by past versus future orientation.

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Cleary, Anne M

2015-01-01

Cue familiarity that is brought on by cue resemblance to memory representations is useful for judging the likelihood of a past occurrence with an item that fails to actually be retrieved from memory. The present study examined the extent to which this type of resemblance-based cue familiarity is used in future-oriented judgments made during retrieval failure. Cue familiarity was manipulated using a previously-established method of creating differing degrees of feature overlap between the cue and studied items in memory, and the primary interest was in how these varying degrees of cue familiarity would influence future-oriented feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments given in instances of cued recall failure. The present results suggest that participants do use increases in resemblance-based cue familiarity to infer an increased likelihood of future recognition of an unretrieved target, but not to the extent that they use it to infer an increased likelihood of past experience with an unretrieved target. During retrieval failure, the increase in future-oriented FOK judgments with increasing cue familiarity was significantly less than the increase in past-oriented recognition judgments with increasing cue familiarity.

Monitoring and regulation of learning in medical education: the need for predictive cues.

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de Bruin, Anique B H; Dunlosky, John; Cavalcanti, Rodrigo B

2017-06-01

Being able to accurately monitor learning activities is a key element in self-regulated learning in all settings, including medical schools. Yet students' ability to monitor their progress is often limited, leading to inefficient use of study time. Interventions that improve the accuracy of students' monitoring can optimise self-regulated learning, leading to higher achievement. This paper reviews findings from cognitive psychology and explores potential applications in medical education, as well as areas for future research. Effective monitoring depends on students' ability to generate information ('cues') that accurately reflects their knowledge and skills. The ability of these 'cues' to predict achievement is referred to as 'cue diagnosticity'. Interventions that improve the ability of students to elicit predictive cues typically fall into two categories: (i) self-generation of cues and (ii) generation of cues that is delayed after self-study. Providing feedback and support is useful when cues are predictive but may be too complex to be readily used. Limited evidence exists about interventions to improve the accuracy of self-monitoring among medical students or trainees. Developing interventions that foster use of predictive cues can enhance the accuracy of self-monitoring, thereby improving self-study and clinical reasoning. First, insight should be gained into the characteristics of predictive cues used by medical students and trainees. Next, predictive cue prompts should be designed and tested to improve monitoring and regulation of learning. Finally, the use of predictive cues should be explored in relation to teaching and learning clinical reasoning. Improving self-regulated learning is important to help medical students and trainees efficiently acquire knowledge and skills necessary for clinical practice. Interventions that help students generate and use predictive cues hold the promise of improved self-regulated learning and achievement. This framework is

Persistence of a hyperthermic sign-reversal during nitrous oxide inhalation despite cue-exposure treatment with and without a drug-onset cue.

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Kaiyala, Karl J; Woods, Stephen C; Ramsay, Douglas S

2014-01-01

We asked whether chronic tolerance and the hyperthermic sign-reversal induced by repeated 60% N 2 O exposures could be extinguished using a cue-exposure paradigm. Rats received 18 N 2 O administrations in a total calorimetry system that simultaneously measures core temperature (Tc), metabolic heat production (HP), and body heat loss (HL). Each exposure entailed a 2-h baseline period followed by a 1.5-h N 2 O exposure. The 18 drug exposures induced a robust intra-administration hyperthermia in which the initial hypothermic effect of N 2 O inverted to a significant hyperthermic sign-reversal during N 2 O inhalation due primarily to an acquired robust increase in HP. The rats were then randomized to one of three extinction procedures (n=8/procedure) over a 20-d interval: 1) a N 2 O-abstinent home-cage group (HC) that received only the usual animal care; 2) a cue-exposure group (CEXP) in which the animals were placed in the calorimeter 8 times but received no N 2 O; and 3) a drug-onset-cue group (DOC) in which animals received a brief N 2 O exposure in the calorimeter that mimicked the first 3 min of an actual 60% N 2 O trial. Following the extinction sessions, all rats received a 60% N 2 O test trial and Tc, HP and HL were assessed. The hyperthermic sign-reversal remained fully intact during the test trial, with no significant differences observed among groups in any post-baseline change in any thermal outcome. These data suggest that cue exposure may not be an efficacious strategy to reduce sign-reversals that develop with chronic drug use.

The influence of imagery vividness on cognitive and perceptual cues in circular auditorily-induced vection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksander eVäljamäe

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In the absence of other congruent multisensory motion cues, sound contribution to illusions of self-motion (vection is relatively weak and often attributed to purely cognitive, top-down processes. The present study addressed the influence of cognitive and perceptual factors in the experience of circular, yaw auditorily-induced vection (AIV, focusing on participants’ imagery vividness scores. We used different rotating sound sources (acoustic landmark vs. movable types and their filtered versions that provided different binaural cues (interaural time or level differences, ITD vs. ILD when delivering via loudspeaker array. The significant differences in circular vection intensity showed that 1 AIV was stronger for rotating sound fields containing auditory landmarks as compared to movable sound objects; 2 ITD based acoustic cues were more instrumental than ILD based ones for horizontal AIV; and 3 individual differences in imagery vividness significantly influenced the effects of contextual and perceptual cues. While participants with high scores of kinesthetic and visual imagery were helped by vection ``rich cues, i.e. acoustic landmarks and ITD cues, the participants from the low-vivid imagery group did not benefit from these cues automatically. Only when specifically asked to use their imagination intentionally did these external cues start influencing vection sensation in similar way to high-vivid imagers. These findings are in line with the recent fMRI work which suggested that high-vivid imagers employ automatic, almost unconscious mechanisms in imagery generation, while low-vivid imagers rely on more schematic and conscious framework. Consequently, our results provide an additional insight into the interaction between perceptual and contextual cues when experiencing purely auditorily or multisensorily induced vection.

Ongoing neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus mediates behavioral responses to ambiguous threat cues.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucas R Glover

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Fear learning is highly adaptive if utilized in appropriate situations but can lead to generalized anxiety if applied too widely. A role of predictive cues in inhibiting fear generalization has been suggested by stress and fear learning studies, but the effects of partially predictive cues (ambiguous cues and the neuronal populations responsible for linking the predictive ability of cues and generalization of fear responses are unknown. Here, we show that inhibition of adult neurogenesis in the mouse dentate gyrus decreases hippocampal network activation and reduces defensive behavior to ambiguous threat cues but has neither of these effects if the same negative experience is reliably predicted. Additionally, we find that this ambiguity related to negative events determines their effect on fear generalization, that is, how the events affect future behavior under novel conditions. Both new neurons and glucocorticoid hormones are required for the enhancement of fear generalization following an unpredictably cued threat. Thus, adult neurogenesis plays a central role in the adaptive changes resulting from experience involving unpredictable or ambiguous threat cues, optimizing behavior in novel and uncertain situations.

Does viotin activate violin more than viocin? On the use of visual cues during visual-word recognition.

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Perea, Manuel; Panadero, Victoria

2014-01-01

The vast majority of neural and computational models of visual-word recognition assume that lexical access is achieved via the activation of abstract letter identities. Thus, a word's overall shape should play no role in this process. In the present lexical decision experiment, we compared word-like pseudowords like viotín (same shape as its base word: violín) vs. viocín (different shape) in mature (college-aged skilled readers), immature (normally reading children), and immature/impaired (young readers with developmental dyslexia) word-recognition systems. Results revealed similar response times (and error rates) to consistent-shape and inconsistent-shape pseudowords for both adult skilled readers and normally reading children - this is consistent with current models of visual-word recognition. In contrast, young readers with developmental dyslexia made significantly more errors to viotín-like pseudowords than to viocín-like pseudowords. Thus, unlike normally reading children, young readers with developmental dyslexia are sensitive to a word's visual cues, presumably because of poor letter representations.

Behavioural responses of two-spotted spider mites induced by predator-borne and prey-borne cues.

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Gyuris, Enikő; Szép, Erna; Kontschán, Jenő; Hettyey, Attila; Tóth, Zoltán

2017-11-01

Applying predatory mites as biological control agents is a well established method against spider mites which are major pests worldwide. Although antipredator responses can influence the outcome of predator-prey interactions, we have limited information about what cues spider mites use to adjust their behavioural antipredator responses. We experimentally exposed two-spotted spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) to different predator-borne cues (using a specialist predator, Phytoseiulus persimilis, or a generalist predator, Amblyseius swirskii), conspecific prey-borne cues, or both, and measured locomotion and egg-laying activity. The reactions to predator species compared to each other manifested in reversed tendencies: spider mites increased their locomotion activity in the presence of P. persimilis, whereas they decreased it when exposed to A. swirskii. The strongest response was triggered by the presence of a killed conspecific: focal spider mites decreased their locomotion activity compared to the control group. Oviposition activity was not affected by either treatment. Our results point out that spider mites may change their behaviour in response to predators, and also to the presence of killed conspecifics, but these effects were not enhanced when both types of cues were present. The effect of social contacts among prey conspecifics on predator-induced behavioural defences is discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Testing the influence of external and internal cues on smoking motivation using a community sample.

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Litvin, Erika B; Brandon, Thomas H

2010-02-01

Exposing smokers to either external cues (e.g., pictures of cigarettes) or internal cues (e.g., negative affect induction) can induce urge to smoke and other behavioral and physiological responses. However, little is known about whether the two types of cues interact when presented in close proximity, as is likely the case in the real word. Additionally, potential moderators of cue reactivity have rarely been examined. Finally, few cue-reactivity studies have used representative samples of smokers. In a randomized 2 x 2 crossed factorial between-subjects design, the current study tested the effects of a negative affect cue intended to produce anxiety (speech preparation task) and an external smoking cue on urge and behavioral reactivity in a community sample of adult smokers (N = 175), and whether trait impulsivity moderated the effects. Both types of cues produced main effects on urges to smoke, despite the speech task failing to increase anxiety significantly. The speech task increased smoking urge related to anticipation of negative affect relief, whereas the external smoking cues increased urges related to anticipation of pleasure; however, the cues did not interact. Impulsivity measures predicted urge and other smoking-related variables, but did not moderate cue-reactivity. Results suggest independent rather than synergistic effects of these contributors to smoking motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Intentional preparation of auditory attention-switches: Explicit cueing and sequential switch-predictability.

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Seibold, Julia C; Nolden, Sophie; Oberem, Josefa; Fels, Janina; Koch, Iring

2018-06-01

In an auditory attention-switching paradigm, participants heard two simultaneously spoken number-words, each presented to one ear, and decided whether the target number was smaller or larger than 5 by pressing a left or right key. An instructional cue in each trial indicated which feature had to be used to identify the target number (e.g., female voice). Auditory attention-switch costs were found when this feature changed compared to when it repeated in two consecutive trials. Earlier studies employing this paradigm showed mixed results when they examined whether such cued auditory attention-switches can be prepared actively during the cue-stimulus interval. This study systematically assessed which preconditions are necessary for the advance preparation of auditory attention-switches. Three experiments were conducted that controlled for cue-repetition benefits, modality switches between cue and stimuli, as well as for predictability of the switch-sequence. Only in the third experiment, in which predictability for an attention-switch was maximal due to a pre-instructed switch-sequence and predictable stimulus onsets, active switch-specific preparation was found. These results suggest that the cognitive system can prepare auditory attention-switches, and this preparation seems to be triggered primarily by the memorised switching-sequence and valid expectations about the time of target onset.

Retrieval-induced forgetting and interference between cues: training a cue-outcome association attenuates retrieval by alternative cues.

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Ortega-Castro, Nerea; Vadillo, Miguel A

2013-03-01

Some researchers have attempted to determine whether situations in which a single cue is paired with several outcomes (A-B, A-C interference or interference between outcomes) involve the same learning and retrieval mechanisms as situations in which several cues are paired with a single outcome (A-B, C-B interference or interference between cues). Interestingly, current research on a related effect, which is known as retrieval-induced forgetting, can illuminate this debate. Most retrieval-induced forgetting experiments are based on an experimental design that closely resembles the A-B, A-C interference paradigm. In the present experiment, we found that a similar effect may be observed when items are rearranged such that the general structure of the task more closely resembles the A-B, C-B interference paradigm. This result suggests that, as claimed by other researchers in the area of contingency learning, the two types of interference, namely A-B, A-C and A-B, C-B interference, may share some basic mechanisms. Moreover, the type of inhibitory processes assumed to underlie retrieval-induced forgetting may also play a role in these phenomena. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Self-regulation of the Peruvian food industry: health message cues in the context of food and beverage advertisements.

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Busse, P; Bernabé-Ortiz, A

2018-06-01

One strategy to prevent the onset of non-communicable diseases is to motivate healthy lifestyles through health media messages. In Peru, the food industry is currently implementing such strategy with health message cues, in the form of a small icon of a walking person or a healthy dish, appearing on televised food and beverage advertisements. Yet the extent of this practice is unknown. Thus, the objective of this study was three-fold: to identify (1) the food and beverage advertisements showing health cues, (2) the types of health cues, and (3) their length in time. Cross-sectional analysis of televised food and beverage advertisements that children and adolescents encounter on Peruvian television. Content analysis of the presence of a health cue, type of health cue (physical activity and healthy diets), and the length in time of the health cue appearing on televised food and beverage advertisements in Peru. Health cues appeared on over 70% of advertisements for sugary drinks and tended to promote healthy diets more so than physical activity. This study shows that the food industry is currently advertising their products along with health message cues, and children and adolescents are exposed to this practice. Thus, we call for further testing of the effect of these health cues on children's and adolescents' food preferences and behaviors. Copyright © 2018 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Individual differences in event-based prospective memory: Evidence for multiple processes supporting cue detection.

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Brewer, Gene A; Knight, Justin B; Marsh, Richard L; Unsworth, Nash

2010-04-01

The multiprocess view proposes that different processes can be used to detect event-based prospective memory cues, depending in part on the specificity of the cue. According to this theory, attentional processes are not necessary to detect focal cues, whereas detection of nonfocal cues requires some form of controlled attention. This notion was tested using a design in which we compared performance on a focal and on a nonfocal prospective memory task by participants with high or low working memory capacity. An interaction was found, such that participants with high and low working memory performed equally well on the focal task, whereas the participants with high working memory performed significantly better on the nonfocal task than did their counterparts with low working memory. Thus, controlled attention was only necessary for detecting event-based prospective memory cues in the nonfocal task. These results have implications for theories of prospective memory, the processes necessary for cue detection, and the successful fulfillment of intentions.

Forgotten but not gone: Retro-cue costs and benefits in a double-cueing paradigm suggest multiple states in visual short-term memory.

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van Moorselaar, Dirk; Olivers, Christian N L; Theeuwes, Jan; Lamme, Victor A F; Sligte, Ilja G

2015-11-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) performance is enhanced when the to-be-tested item is cued after encoding. This so-called retro-cue benefit is typically accompanied by a cost for the noncued items, suggesting that information is lost from VSTM upon presentation of a retrospective cue. Here we assessed whether noncued items can be restored to VSTM when made relevant again by a subsequent second cue. We presented either 1 or 2 consecutive retro-cues (80% valid) during the retention interval of a change-detection task. Relative to no cue, a valid cue increased VSTM capacity by 2 items, while an invalid cue decreased capacity by 2. Importantly, when a second, valid cue followed an invalid cue, capacity regained 2 items, so that performance was back on par. In addition, when the second cue was also invalid, there was no extra loss of information from VSTM, suggesting that those items that survived a first invalid cue, automatically also survived a second. We conclude that these results are in support of a very versatile VSTM system, in which memoranda adopt different representational states depending on whether they are deemed relevant now, in the future, or not at all. We discuss a neural model that is consistent with this conclusion. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Cues for localization in the horizontal plane

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jeppesen, Jakob; Møller, Henrik

2005-01-01

manipulated in HRTFs used for binaural synthesis of sound in the horizontal plane. The manipulation of cues resulted in HRTFs with cues ranging from correct combinations of spectral information and ITDs to combinations with severely conflicting cues. Both the ITD and the spectral information seem...

Visual cues and listening effort: individual variability.

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Picou, Erin M; Ricketts, Todd A; Hornsby, Benjamin W Y

2011-10-01

To investigate the effect of visual cues on listening effort as well as whether predictive variables such as working memory capacity (WMC) and lipreading ability affect the magnitude of listening effort. Twenty participants with normal hearing were tested using a paired-associates recall task in 2 conditions (quiet and noise) and 2 presentation modalities (audio only [AO] and auditory-visual [AV]). Signal-to-noise ratios were adjusted to provide matched speech recognition across audio-only and AV noise conditions. Also measured were subjective perceptions of listening effort and 2 predictive variables: (a) lipreading ability and (b) WMC. Objective and subjective results indicated that listening effort increased in the presence of noise, but on average the addition of visual cues did not significantly affect the magnitude of listening effort. Although there was substantial individual variability, on average participants who were better lipreaders or had larger WMCs demonstrated reduced listening effort in noise in AV conditions. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that integrating auditory and visual cues requires cognitive resources in some participants. The data indicate that low lipreading ability or low WMC is associated with relatively effortful integration of auditory and visual information in noise.

Carry-over effects of smoking cue exposure on working memory performance

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Wilson, Stephen J.; Sayette, Michael A.; Fiez, Julie A.; Brough, Elizabeth

2009-01-01

The present study investigated the effects of drug cue exposure on working memory performance in cigarette smokers. Adult smokers (N=23) deprived for 12 hr performed a working memory task during which they were exposed to three types of task-irrelevant stimuli: Pictures containing smoking related-content, pictures devoid of smoking content, and a fixation cross. Consistent with prior research, we found that drug cue exposure affected the processing of subsequent items (i.e., carry-over effects). Specifically, we found that working memory performance was worse on trials containing neutral pictures preceded by trials containing smoking cues compared with performance on trials containing neutral pictures preceded by trials not containing smoking-related stimuli. Previously observed effects of smoking cue exposure on cognitive processing were replicated but only after removing trials subject to carry-over effects. These results replicate and extend previous research demonstrating similar effects and highlight the significant methodological and conceptual implications of carry-over effects. PMID:17454718

Encoding vs. retention: differential effects of cue manipulation on working memory performance in schizophrenia.

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Javitt, Daniel C; Rabinowicz, Esther; Silipo, Gail; Dias, Elisa C

2007-03-01

Deficits in working memory performance are among the most widely replicated findings in schizophrenia. Roles of encoding vs. memory retention in working memory remain unresolved. The present study evaluated working memory performance in schizophrenia using an AX-type continuous performance test (AX-CPT) paradigm. Participants included 48 subjects with schizophrenia and 27 comparison subjects. Behavior was obtained in 3 versions of the task, which differed based upon ease of cue interoperability. In a simple cue version of the task, cue letters were replaced with red or green circles. In the complex cue version, letter/color conjunctions served as cues. In the base version of the task, patients showed increased rates of false alarms to invalidly cued targets, similar to prior reports. However, when the cue stimuli were replaced with green or red circles to ease interpretation, patients showed similar false alarm rates to controls. When feature conjunction cues were used, patients were also disproportionately affected relative to controls. No significant group by interstimulus interval interaction effects were observed in either the simple or complex cue conditions, suggesting normal retention of information even in the presence of overall performance decrements. These findings suggest first, that cue manipulation disproportionately affects AX-CPT performance in schizophrenia and, second, that substantial behavioral deficits may be observed on working memory tasks even in the absence of disturbances in mnemonic retention.

Do the affective properties of smoking-related cues influence attentional and approach biases in cigarette smokers?

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Bradley, B P; Field, M; Healy, H; Mogg, K

2008-09-01

Research indicates that drug-related cues elicit attention and approach biases in drug users. However, attentional biases are not unique to addiction (e.g., they are also found for emotional information). This study examined whether attentional and approach biases in cigarette smokers are mediated by the motivational salience of cues (relevance to drug-taking), rather than by their affective properties (subjective liking of the cues). Cues included pleasant and unpleasant smoking-related pictures. Attentional biases, approach tendencies and subjective evaluation of the cues were assessed on visual probe, stimulus-response compatibility and rating tasks, respectively. Compared with non-smokers, smokers showed a greater attentional bias for both pleasant and unpleasant smoking-related cues presented for 2000 ms, but not for 200 ms. Smokers showed a greater approach bias for unpleasant cues, although the groups did not differ significantly in approach bias for pleasant smoking-related cues. Smokers rated both pleasant and unpleasant smoking pictures more positively than did non-smokers. Results suggest that a bias to maintain attention on smoking-related cues in young adult smokers is primarily a function of drug-relevance, rather than affective properties, of the cues. In contrast, approach tendencies and pleasantness judgements were influenced by drug use, drug-relevance and the affective properties of the cues.

The cue is key : design for real-life remembering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoven, van den E.A.W.H.; Eggen, J.H.

2014-01-01

This paper aims to put the memory cue in the spotlight. We will show how memory cues are incorporated in the area of interaction design. The focus will be on external memory cues: cues that exist outside the human mind but have an internal effect on memory reconstruction. Examples of external cues

Modeling Auditory-Haptic Interface Cues from an Analog Multi-line Telephone

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Begault, Durand R.; Anderson, Mark R.; Bittner, Rachael M.

2012-01-01

The Western Electric Company produced a multi-line telephone during the 1940s-1970s using a six-button interface design that provided robust tactile, haptic and auditory cues regarding the "state" of the communication system. This multi-line telephone was used as a model for a trade study comparison of two interfaces: a touchscreen interface (iPad)) versus a pressure-sensitive strain gauge button interface (Phidget USB interface controllers). The experiment and its results are detailed in the authors' AES 133rd convention paper " Multimodal Information Management: Evaluation of Auditory and Haptic Cues for NextGen Communication Dispays". This Engineering Brief describes how the interface logic, visual indications, and auditory cues of the original telephone were synthesized using MAX/MSP, including the logic for line selection, line hold, and priority line activation.

Earthworms use odor cues to locate and feed on microorganisms in soil.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lara Zirbes

Full Text Available Earthworms are key components of temperate soil ecosystems but key aspects of their ecology remain unexamined. Here we elucidate the role of olfactory cues in earthworm attraction to food sources and document specific chemical cues that attract Eisenia fetida to the soil fungi Geotrichum candidum. Fungi and other microorganisms are major sources of volatile emissions in soil ecosystems as well as primary food sources for earthworms, suggesting the likelihood that earthworms might profitably use olfactory cues to guide foraging behavior. Moreover, previous studies have documented earthworm movement toward microbial food sources. But, the specific olfactory cues responsible for earthworm attraction have not previously been identified. Using olfactometer assays combined with chemical analyses (GC-MS, we documented the attraction of E. fetida individuals to filtrate derived from G. candidum colonies and to two individual compounds tested in isolation: ethyl pentanoate and ethyl hexanoate. Attraction at a distance was observed when barriers prevented the worms from reaching the target stimuli, confirming the role of volatile cues. These findings enhance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying key trophic interactions in soil ecosystems and have potential implications for the extraction and collection of earthworms in vermiculture and other applied activities.

Cue reactivity and its inhibition in pathological computer game players.

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Lorenz, Robert C; Krüger, Jenny-Kathinka; Neumann, Britta; Schott, Björn H; Kaufmann, Christian; Heinz, Andreas; Wüstenberg, Torsten

2013-01-01

Despite a rising social relevance of pathological computer game playing, it remains unclear whether the neurobiological basis of this addiction-like behavioral disorder and substance-related addiction are comparable. In substance-related addiction, attentional bias and cue reactivity are often observed. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance study using a dot probe paradigm with short-presentation (attentional bias) and long-presentation (cue reactivity) trials in eight male pathological computer game players (PCGPs) and nine healthy controls (HCs). Computer game-related and neutral computer-generated pictures, as well as pictures from the International Affective Picture System with positive and neutral valence, served as stimuli. PCGPs showed an attentional bias toward both game-related and affective stimuli with positive valence. In contrast, HCs showed no attentional bias effect at all. PCGPs showed stronger brain responses in short-presentation trials compared with HCs in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and anterior cingulate gyrus and in long-presentation trials in lingual gyrus. In an exploratory post hoc functional connectivity analyses, for long-presentation trials, connectivity strength was higher between right inferior frontal gyrus, which was associated with inhibition processing in previous studies, and cue reactivity-related regions (left orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum) in PCGPs. We observed behavioral and neural effects in PCGPs, which are comparable with those found in substance-related addiction. However, cue-related brain responses were depending on duration of cue presentation. Together with the connectivity result, these findings suggest that top-down inhibitory processes might suppress the cue reactivity-related neural activity in long-presentation trials. © 2012 The Authors, Addiction Biology © 2012 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Neural correlates of contextual cueing are modulated by explicit learning.

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Westerberg, Carmen E; Miller, Brennan B; Reber, Paul J; Cohen, Neal J; Paller, Ken A

2011-10-01

Contextual cueing refers to the facilitated ability to locate a particular visual element in a scene due to prior exposure to the same scene. This facilitation is thought to reflect implicit learning, as it typically occurs without the observer's knowledge that scenes repeat. Unlike most other implicit learning effects, contextual cueing can be impaired following damage to the medial temporal lobe. Here we investigated neural correlates of contextual cueing and explicit scene memory in two participant groups. Only one group was explicitly instructed about scene repetition. Participants viewed a sequence of complex scenes that depicted a landscape with five abstract geometric objects. Superimposed on each object was a letter T or L rotated left or right by 90°. Participants responded according to the target letter (T) orientation. Responses were highly accurate for all scenes. Response speeds were faster for repeated versus novel scenes. The magnitude of this contextual cueing did not differ between the two groups. Also, in both groups repeated scenes yielded reduced hemodynamic activation compared with novel scenes in several regions involved in visual perception and attention, and reductions in some of these areas were correlated with response-time facilitation. In the group given instructions about scene repetition, recognition memory for scenes was superior and was accompanied by medial temporal and more anterior activation. Thus, strategic factors can promote explicit memorization of visual scene information, which appears to engage additional neural processing beyond what is required for implicit learning of object configurations and target locations in a scene. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The behavioural response of adult Petromyzon marinus to damage-released alarm and predator cues

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Imre, István; Di Rocco, Richard; Belanger, Cowan; Brown, Grant; Johnson, Nicholas S.

2014-01-01

Using semi-natural enclosures, this study investigated (1) whether adult sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus show avoidance of damage-released conspecific cues, damage-released heterospecific cues and predator cues and (2) whether this is a general response to injured heterospecific fishes or a specific response to injured P. marinus. Ten replicate groups of 10 adult P. marinus, separated by sex, were exposed to one of the following nine stimuli: deionized water (control), extracts prepared from adult P. marinus, decayed adult P. marinus (conspecific stimuli), sympatric white sucker Catostomus commersonii, Amazon sailfin catfish Pterygoplichthys pardalis (heterospecific stimuli), 2-phenylethylamine (PEA HCl) solution, northern water snake Nerodia sipedon washing, human saliva (predator cues) and an adult P. marinus extract and human saliva combination (a damage-released conspecific cue and a predator cue). Adult P. marinus showed a significant avoidance response to the adult P. marinus extract as well as to C. commersonii, human saliva, PEA and the adult P. marinus extract and human saliva combination. For mobile P. marinus, the N. sipedon washing induced behaviour consistent with predator inspection. Exposure to the P. pardalis extract did not induce a significant avoidance response during the stimulus release period. Mobile adult female P. marinus showed a stronger avoidance behaviour than mobile adult male P. marinus in response to the adult P. marinus extract and the adult P. marinus extract and human saliva combination. The findings support the continued investigation of natural damage-released alarm cue and predator-based repellents for the behavioural manipulation of P. marinus populations in the Laurentian Great Lakes.

Use of amplitude modulation cues recovered from frequency modulation for cochlear implant users when original speech cues are severely degraded.

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Won, Jong Ho; Shim, Hyun Joon; Lorenzi, Christian; Rubinstein, Jay T

2014-06-01

Won et al. (J Acoust Soc Am 132:1113-1119, 2012) reported that cochlear implant (CI) speech processors generate amplitude-modulation (AM) cues recovered from broadband speech frequency modulation (FM) and that CI users can use these cues for speech identification in quiet. The present study was designed to extend this finding for a wide range of listening conditions, where the original speech cues were severely degraded by manipulating either the acoustic signals or the speech processor. The manipulation of the acoustic signals included the presentation of background noise, simulation of reverberation, and amplitude compression. The manipulation of the speech processor included changing the input dynamic range and the number of channels. For each of these conditions, multiple levels of speech degradation were tested. Speech identification was measured for CI users and compared for stimuli having both AM and FM information (intact condition) or FM information only (FM condition). Each manipulation degraded speech identification performance for both intact and FM conditions. Performance for the intact and FM conditions became similar for stimuli having the most severe degradations. Identification performance generally overlapped for the intact and FM conditions. Moreover, identification performance for the FM condition was better than chance performance even at the maximum level of distortion. Finally, significant correlations were found between speech identification scores for the intact and FM conditions. Altogether, these results suggest that despite poor frequency selectivity, CI users can make efficient use of AM cues recovered from speech FM in difficult listening situations.

How implicitly activated and explicitly acquired knowledge contribute to the effectiveness of retrieval cues.

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Nelson, Douglas L; Fisher, Serena L; Akirmak, Umit

2007-12-01

The extralist cued recall task simulates everyday reminding because a memory is encoded on the fly and retrieved later by an unexpected cue. Target words are studied individually, and recall is cued by associatively related words having preexisting forward links to them. In Experiments 1 and 2, forward cue-to-target and backward target-to-cue strengths were varied over an extended range in order to determine how these two sources of strength are related and which source has a greater effect. Forward and backward strengths had additive effects on recall, with forward strength having a consistently larger effect. The PIER2 model accurately predicted these findings, but a plausible generation-recognition version of the model, called PIER.GR, could not. In Experiment 3, forward and backward strengths, level of processing, and study time were varied in order to determine how preexisting lexical knowledge is related to knowledge acquired during the study episode. The main finding indicates that preexisting knowledge and episodic knowledge have additive effects on extralist cued recall. PIER2 can explain these findings because it assumes that these sources of strength contribute independently to recall, whereas the eSAM model cannot explain the findings because it assumes that the sources of strength are multiplicatively related.

Action experience changes attention to kinematic cues

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Courtney eFilippi

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The current study used remote corneal reflection eye-tracking to examine the relationship between motor experience and action anticipation in 13-month-old infants. To measure online anticipation of actions infants watched videos where the actor’s hand provided kinematic information (in its orientation about the type of object that the actor was going to reach for. The actor’s hand orientation either matched the orientation of a rod (congruent cue or did not match the orientation of the rod (incongruent cue. To examine relations between motor experience and action anticipation, we used a 2 (reach first vs. observe first x 2 (congruent kinematic cue vs. incongruent kinematic cue between-subjects design. We show that 13-month-old infants in the observe first condition spontaneously generate rapid online visual predictions to congruent hand orientation cues and do not visually anticipate when presented incongruent cues. We further demonstrate that the speed that these infants generate predictions to congruent motor cues is correlated with their own ability to pre-shape their hands. Finally, we demonstrate that following reaching experience, infants generate rapid predictions to both congruent and incongruent hand shape cues—suggesting that short-term experience changes attention to kinematics.

Relevance of Spectral Cues for Auditory Spatial Processing in the Occipital Cortex of the Blind

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Voss, Patrice; Lepore, Franco; Gougoux, Frédéric; Zatorre, Robert J.

2011-01-01

We have previously shown that some blind individuals can localize sounds more accurately than their sighted counterparts when one ear is obstructed, and that this ability is strongly associated with occipital cortex activity. Given that spectral cues are important for monaurally localizing sounds when one ear is obstructed, and that blind individuals are more sensitive to small spectral differences, we hypothesized that enhanced use of spectral cues via occipital cortex mechanisms could explain the better performance of blind individuals in monaural localization. Using positron-emission tomography (PET), we scanned blind and sighted persons as they discriminated between sounds originating from a single spatial position, but with different spectral profiles that simulated different spatial positions based on head-related transfer functions. We show here that a sub-group of early blind individuals showing superior monaural sound localization abilities performed significantly better than any other group on this spectral discrimination task. For all groups, performance was best for stimuli simulating peripheral positions, consistent with the notion that spectral cues are more helpful for discriminating peripheral sources. PET results showed that all blind groups showed cerebral blood flow increases in the occipital cortex; but this was also the case in the sighted group. A voxel-wise covariation analysis showed that more occipital recruitment was associated with better performance across all blind subjects but not the sighted. An inter-regional covariation analysis showed that the occipital activity in the blind covaried with that of several frontal and parietal regions known for their role in auditory spatial processing. Overall, these results support the notion that the superior ability of a sub-group of early-blind individuals to localize sounds is mediated by their superior ability to use spectral cues, and that this ability is subserved by cortical processing in

Cues for cellular assembly of vascular elastin networks

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Kothapalli, Chandrasekhar R.

Elastin, a structural protein distributed in the extracellular matrix of vascular tissues is critical to the maintenance of vascular mechanics, besides regulation of cell-signaling pathways involved in injury response and morphogenesis. Thus, congenital absence or disease-mediated degradation of vascular elastin and its malformation within native vessels due to innately poor elastin synthesis by adult vascular cells compromise vascular homeostasis. Current elastin regenerative strategies using tissue engineering principles are limited by the progressive destabilization of tropoelastin mRNA expression in adult vascular cells and the unavailability of scaffolds that can provide cellular cues necessary to up-regulate elastin synthesis and regenerate faithful mimics of native elastin. Since our earlier studies demonstrated the elastogenic utility of hyaluronan (HA)-based cues, we have currently sought to identify a unique set of culture conditions based on HA fragments (0.756-2000 kDa), growth factors (TGF-beta1, IGF-1) and other biomolecules (Cu2+ ions, LOX), which will together enhance synthesis, crosslinking, maturation and fibrous elastin matrix formation by adult SMCs, under both healthy and inflammatory conditions. It was observed that TGF-beta1 (1 ng/mL) together with HA oligomers (0.2 microg/mL) synergistically suppressed SMC proliferation, enhanced tropoelastin (8-fold) and matrix elastin synthesis (5.5-fold), besides improving matrix yield (4.5-fold), possibly by increasing production and activity of lysyl oxidase (LOX). Though addition of IGF-1 alone did not offer any advantage, HA fragments (20-200 kDa) in the presence of IGF-1 stimulated tropoelastin and soluble elastin synthesis more than 2.2-fold, with HMW HA contributing for ˜5-fold increase in crosslinked matrix elastin synthesis. Similarly, 0.1 M of Cu2+ ions, alone or together with HA fragments stimulated synthesis of tropoelastin (4-fold) and crosslinked matrix elastin (4.5-fold), via increases in

Neuronal specializations for the processing of interaural difference cues in the chick

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Harunori eOhmori

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Sound information is encoded as a series of spikes of the auditory nerve fibers (ANFs, and then transmitted to the brainstem auditory nuclei. Features such as timing and level are extracted from ANFs activity and further processed as the interaural time difference (ITD and the interaural level difference (ILD, respectively. These two interaural difference cues are used for sound source localization by behaving animals. Both cues depend on the head size of animals and are extremely small, requiring specialized neural properties in order to process these cues with precision. Moreover, the sound level and timing cues are not processed independently from one another. Neurons in the nucleus angularis (NA are specialized for coding sound level information in birds and the ILD is processed in the posterior part of the dorsal lateral lemniscus nucleus (LLDp. Processing of ILD is affected by the phase difference of binaural sound. Temporal features of sound are encoded in the pathway starting in nucleus magnocellularis (NM, and ITD is processed in the nucleus laminaris (NL. In this pathway a variety of specializations are found in synapse morphology, neuronal excitability, distribution of ion channels and receptors along the tonotopic axis, which reduces spike timing fluctuation in the ANFs-NM synapse, and imparts precise and stable ITD processing to the NL. Moreover, the contrast of ITD processing in NL is enhanced over a wide range of sound level through the activity of GABAergic inhibitory systems from both the superior olivary nucleus (SON and local inhibitory neurons that follow monosynaptic to NM activity.

Hunger, taste, and normative cues in predictions about food intake.

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Vartanian, Lenny R; Reily, Natalie M; Spanos, Samantha; McGuirk, Lucy C; Herman, C Peter; Polivy, Janet

2017-09-01

Normative eating cues (portion size, social factors) have a powerful impact on people's food intake, but people often fail to acknowledge the influence of these cues, instead explaining their food intake in terms of internal (hunger) or sensory (taste) cues. This study examined whether the same biases apply when making predictions about how much food a person would eat. Participants (n = 364) read a series of vignettes describing an eating scenario and predicted how much food the target person would eat in each situation. Some scenarios consisted of a single eating cue (hunger, taste, or a normative cue) that would be expected to increase intake (e.g., high hunger) or decrease intake (e.g., a companion who eats very little). Other scenarios combined two cues that were in conflict with one another (e.g., high hunger + a companion who eats very little). In the cue-conflict scenarios involving an inhibitory internal/sensory cue (e.g., low hunger) with an augmenting normative cue (e.g., a companion who eats a lot), participants predicted a low level of food intake, suggesting a bias toward the internal/sensory cue. For scenarios involving an augmenting internal/sensory cue (e.g., high hunger) and an inhibitory normative cue (e.g., a companion who eats very little), participants predicted an intermediate level of food intake, suggesting that they were influenced by both the internal/sensory and normative cue. Overall, predictions about food intake tend to reflect a general bias toward internal/sensory cues, but also include normative cues when those cues are inhibitory. If people are systematically biased toward internal, sensory, and inhibitory cues, then they may underestimate how much food they or other people will eat in many situations, particularly when normative cues promoting eating are present. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

New human-centered linear and nonlinear motion cueing algorithms for control of simulator motion systems

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Telban, Robert J.

analysis shows pilot-induced oscillations on a straight-in approach are less prevalent compared to the optimal algorithm. The augmented turbulence cues increased workload on an offset approach that the pilots deemed more realistic compared to the NASA adaptive algorithm. The takeoff with engine failure showed the least roll activity for the nonlinear algorithm, with the least rudder pedal activity for the optimal algorithm.

Imaging When Acting: Picture but Not Word Cues Induce Action-Related Biases of Visual Attention

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Wykowska, Agnieszka; Hommel, Bernhard; Schubö, Anna

2012-01-01

In line with the Theory of Event Coding (Hommel et al., 2001a), action planning has been shown to affect perceptual processing – an effect that has been attributed to a so-called intentional weighting mechanism (Wykowska et al., 2009; Memelink and Hommel, 2012), whose functional role is to provide information for open parameters of online action adjustment (Hommel, 2010). The aim of this study was to test whether different types of action representations induce intentional weighting to various degrees. To meet this aim, we introduced a paradigm in which participants performed a visual search task while preparing to grasp or to point. The to-be performed movement was signaled either by a picture of a required action or a word cue. We reasoned that picture cues might trigger a more concrete action representation that would be more likely to activate the intentional weighting of perceptual dimensions that provide information for online action control. In contrast, word cues were expected to trigger a more abstract action representation that would be less likely to induce intentional weighting. In two experiments, preparing for an action facilitated the processing of targets in an unrelated search task if they differed from distractors on a dimension that provided information for online action control. As predicted, however, this effect was observed only if action preparation was signaled by picture cues but not if it was signaled by word cues. We conclude that picture cues are more efficient than word cues in activating the intentional weighting of perceptual dimensions, presumably by specifying not only invariant characteristics of the planned action but also the dimensions of action-specific parameters. PMID:23087656

Imaging when acting: picture but not word cues induce action-related biases of visual attention.

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Wykowska, Agnieszka; Hommel, Bernhard; Schubö, Anna

2012-01-01

In line with the Theory of Event Coding (Hommel et al., 2001a), action planning has been shown to affect perceptual processing - an effect that has been attributed to a so-called intentional weighting mechanism (Wykowska et al., 2009; Memelink and Hommel, 2012), whose functional role is to provide information for open parameters of online action adjustment (Hommel, 2010). The aim of this study was to test whether different types of action representations induce intentional weighting to various degrees. To meet this aim, we introduced a paradigm in which participants performed a visual search task while preparing to grasp or to point. The to-be performed movement was signaled either by a picture of a required action or a word cue. We reasoned that picture cues might trigger a more concrete action representation that would be more likely to activate the intentional weighting of perceptual dimensions that provide information for online action control. In contrast, word cues were expected to trigger a more abstract action representation that would be less likely to induce intentional weighting. In two experiments, preparing for an action facilitated the processing of targets in an unrelated search task if they differed from distractors on a dimension that provided information for online action control. As predicted, however, this effect was observed only if action preparation was signaled by picture cues but not if it was signaled by word cues. We conclude that picture cues are more efficient than word cues in activating the intentional weighting of perceptual dimensions, presumably by specifying not only invariant characteristics of the planned action but also the dimensions of action-specific parameters.

Neurofeedback of visual food cue reactivity: a potential avenue to alter incentive sensitization and craving.

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Ihssen, Niklas; Sokunbi, Moses O; Lawrence, Andrew D; Lawrence, Natalia S; Linden, David E J

2017-06-01

FMRI-based neurofeedback transforms functional brain activation in real-time into sensory stimuli that participants can use to self-regulate brain responses, which can aid the modification of mental states and behavior. Emerging evidence supports the clinical utility of neurofeedback-guided up-regulation of hypoactive networks. In contrast, down-regulation of hyperactive neural circuits appears more difficult to achieve. There are conditions though, in which down-regulation would be clinically useful, including dysfunctional motivational states elicited by salient reward cues, such as food or drug craving. In this proof-of-concept study, 10 healthy females (mean age = 21.40 years, mean BMI = 23.53) who had fasted for 4 h underwent a novel 'motivational neurofeedback' training in which they learned to down-regulate brain activation during exposure to appetitive food pictures. FMRI feedback was given from individually determined target areas and through decreases/increases in food picture size, thus providing salient motivational consequences in terms of cue approach/avoidance. Our preliminary findings suggest that motivational neurofeedback is associated with functionally specific activation decreases in diverse cortical/subcortical regions, including key motivational areas. There was also preliminary evidence for a reduction of hunger after neurofeedback and an association between down-regulation success and the degree of hunger reduction. Decreasing neural cue responses by motivational neurofeedback may provide a useful extension of existing behavioral methods that aim to modulate cue reactivity. Our pilot findings indicate that reduction of neural cue reactivity is not achieved by top-down regulation but arises in a bottom-up manner, possibly through implicit operant shaping of target area activity.

Spontaneous Hedonic Reactions to Social Media Cues.

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van Koningsbruggen, Guido M; Hartmann, Tilo; Eden, Allison; Veling, Harm

2017-05-01

Why is it so difficult to resist the desire to use social media? One possibility is that frequent social media users possess strong and spontaneous hedonic reactions to social media cues, which, in turn, makes it difficult to resist social media temptations. In two studies (total N = 200), we investigated less-frequent and frequent social media users' spontaneous hedonic reactions to social media cues using the Affect Misattribution Procedure-an implicit measure of affective reactions. Results demonstrated that frequent social media users showed more favorable affective reactions in response to social media (vs. control) cues, whereas less-frequent social media users' affective reactions did not differ between social media and control cues (Studies 1 and 2). Moreover, the spontaneous hedonic reactions to social media (vs. control) cues were related to self-reported cravings to use social media and partially accounted for the link between social media use and social media cravings (Study 2). These findings suggest that frequent social media users' spontaneous hedonic reactions in response to social media cues might contribute to their difficulties in resisting desires to use social media.

Effects of multiple congruent cues on concurrent sound segregation during passive and active listening: an event-related potential (ERP) study.

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Kocsis, Zsuzsanna; Winkler, István; Szalárdy, Orsolya; Bendixen, Alexandra

2014-07-01

In two experiments, we assessed the effects of combining different cues of concurrent sound segregation on the object-related negativity (ORN) and the P400 event-related potential components. Participants were presented with sequences of complex tones, half of which contained some manipulation: one or two harmonic partials were mistuned, delayed, or presented from a different location than the rest. In separate conditions, one, two, or three of these manipulations were combined. Participants watched a silent movie (passive listening) or reported after each tone whether they perceived one or two concurrent sounds (active listening). ORN was found in almost all conditions except for location difference alone during passive listening. Combining several cues or manipulating more than one partial consistently led to sub-additive effects on the ORN amplitude. These results support the view that ORN reflects a combined, feature-unspecific assessment of the auditory system regarding the contribution of two sources to the incoming sound. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reactivity to smoking- and food-related cues in currently dieting and non-dieting young women smokers.

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Jenks, Rebecca A; Higgs, Suzanne

2011-04-01

There is some evidence to suggest that young women dieters who smoke experience greater cigarette cravings in the presence of food-related related cues. The aim of this experiment was to examine reactivity to both smoking-related and water cues by dieting and non-dieting women smokers in the presence or absence of food cues. Eighteen female undergraduates attended two sessions (food present and food absent). At each session, participants were presented with a cigarette and water cue in a counterbalanced order. Pre- and post-cue measures included the brief version of the Questionnaire for Smoking Urges, heart rate and self-reported mood. All smokers showed enhanced reactivity (increased craving and heart rate) to smoking versus water cues. For dieters there was a larger increase in cigarette craving and heart rate in response to the smoking-related cues in the presence of food compared with the absence of food, whereas for non-dieters there was a smaller increase in cigarette craving and heart rate in response to the smoking-related cues in the presence of food compared with the absence of food. Mood and appetite ratings were not significantly affected by either cue type or session. The results suggest that cue reactivity to smoking-related cues is modulated by the presence of incentive stimuli relevant to the individual.

Cue utilisation and quality perception with regard to branded beef

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bredahl, Lone

2004-01-01

how consumers employ brand information in combination with other quality cues to form quality expectations in the shop and how quality is experienced later when the product is ingested. Results show the brand to serve as a basis both for expected eating quality and for expected health quality. Despite...... the presence of a brand, the correspondence between expected and experienced quality remains moderate. Product familiarity seems to influence the quality perception process as well, with low familiarity consumers relying significantly more on the brand as a quality cue....

What Does a Cue Do? Comparing Phonological and Semantic Cues for Picture Naming in Aphasia

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Meteyard, Lotte; Bose, Arpita

2018-01-01

Purpose: Impaired naming is one of the most common symptoms in aphasia, often treated with cued picture naming paradigms. It has been argued that semantic cues facilitate the reliable categorization of the picture, and phonological cues facilitate the retrieval of target phonology. To test these hypotheses, we compared the effectiveness of…

15-Month-Olds’ Transfer of Learning between Touch Screen and Real-World Displays: Language Cues and Cognitive Loads

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Zack, Elizabeth; Gerhardstein, Peter; Meltzoff, Andrew N.; Barr, Rachel

2012-01-01

Infants have difficulty transferring information between 2D and 3D sources. The current study extends Zack et al.’s (2009) touch screen imitation task to examine whether the addition of specific language cues significantly facilitates 15-month-olds’ transfer of learning between touch screens and real-world 3D objects. The addition of two kinds of linguistic cues (object label plus verb or nonsense name) did not elevate action imitation significantly above levels observed when such language cues were not used. Language cues hindered infants’ performance in the 3D→2D direction of transfer, but only for the object label plus verb condition. The lack of a facilitative effect of language is discussed in terms of competing cognitive loads imposed by conjointly transferring information across dimensions and processing linguistic cues in an action imitation task at this age. PMID:23121508

The impact of signal-to-noise ratio on contextual cueing in children and adults.

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Yang, Yingying; Merrill, Edward C

2015-04-01

Contextual cueing refers to a form of implicit spatial learning where participants incidentally learn to associate a target location with its repeated spatial context. Successful contextual learning produces an efficient visual search through familiar environments. Despite the fact that children exhibit the basic ability of implicit spatial learning, their general effectiveness in this form of learning can be compromised by other development-dependent factors. Learning to extract useful information (signal) in the presence of various amounts of irrelevant or distracting information (noise) characterizes one of the most important changes that occur with cognitive development. This research investigated whether signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) affects contextual cueing differently in children and adults. S/N was operationally defined as the ratio of repeated versus new displays encountered over time. Three ratio conditions were created: high (100%), medium (67%), and low (33%) conditions. Results suggested no difference in the acquisition of contextual learning effects in the high and medium conditions across three age groups (6- to 8-year-olds, 10- to 12-year-olds, and young adults). However, a significant developmental difference emerged in the low S/N condition. As predicted, adults exhibited significant contextual cueing effects, whereas older children showed marginally significant contextual cueing and younger children did not show cueing effects. Group differences in the ability to exhibit implicit contextual learning under low S/N conditions and the implications of this difference are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Child-directed and nutrition-focused marketing cues on food packaging: links to nutritional content.

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Lapierre, Matthew A; Brown, Autumn M; Houtzer, Hunter V; Thomas, Tyler J

2017-04-01

We tested whether the presence of both child-targeted and nutrition-focused (i.e. parent-targeted) marketing cues on food packaging was associated with the nutritional content of these products. We conducted a quantitative content analysis of 403 food packages chosen randomly from the supermarket's online portal along with all products (n 312) from the cereal aisle in a supermarket from the Southeastern USA. We examined main and interaction effects for cues on nutritional content (e.g. energy density, sugar, sodium, fibre). A regional supermarket chain in the Southeastern USA. Tests of main effects indicated that increased presence of nutritional cues was linked to more nutritious content (e.g. less sugar, less saturated fat, more fibre) while the increased presence of child-targeted cues was uniformly associated with less nutritious content (e.g. more sugar, less protein, less fibre). Among the interaction effects, results revealed that products with increased nutrition-focused and child-targeted cues were likely to contain significantly more sugar and less protein than other products. Products that seek to engage children with their packaging in the supermarket are significantly less nutritious than foods that do not, while product packages that suggest nutritional benefits have more nutritious content. More importantly, the study provides evidence that those products which try to engage both child and parent consumers are significantly less healthy in crucial ways (e.g. more sugar, less fibre) than products that do not.

On the motivational properties of reward cues: Individual differences.

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Robinson, Terry E; Yager, Lindsay M; Cogan, Elizabeth S; Saunders, Benjamin T

2014-01-01

Cues associated with rewards, such as food or drugs of abuse, can themselves acquire motivational properties. Acting as incentive stimuli, such cues can exert powerful control over motivated behavior, and in the case of cues associated with drugs, they can goad continued drug-seeking behavior and relapse. However, recent studies reviewed here suggest that there are large individual differences in the extent to which food and drug cues are attributed with incentive salience. Rats prone to approach reward cues (sign-trackers) attribute greater motivational value to discrete localizable cues and interoceptive cues than do rats less prone to approach reward cues (goal-trackers). In contrast, contextual cues appear to exert greater control over motivated behavior in goal-trackers than sign-trackers. It is possible to predict, therefore, before any experience with drugs, in which animals specific classes of drug cues will most likely reinstate drug-seeking behavior. The finding that different individuals may be sensitive to different triggers capable of motivating behavior and producing relapse suggests there may be different pathways to addiction, and has implications for thinking about individualized treatment. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'NIDA 40th Anniversary Issue'. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Smoking cue reactivity across massed extinction trials: negative affect and gender effects.

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Collins, Bradley N; Nair, Uma S; Komaroff, Eugene

2011-04-01

Designing and implementing cue exposure procedures to treat nicotine dependence remains a challenge. This study tested the hypothesis that gender and negative affect (NA) influence changes in smoking urge over time using data from a pilot project testing the feasibility of massed extinction procedures. Forty-three smokers and ex-smokers completed the behavioral laboratory procedures. All participants were over 17 years old, smoked at least 10 cigarettes daily over the last year (or the year prior to quitting) and had expired CO below 10 ppm at the beginning of the ~4-hour session. After informed consent, participants completed 45 min of baseline assessments, and then completed a series of 12 identical, 5-minute exposure trials with inter-trial breaks. Smoking cues included visual, tactile, and olfactory cues with a lit cigarette, in addition to smoking-related motor behaviors without smoking. After each trial, participants reported urge and negative affect (NA). Logistic growth curve models supported the hypothesis that across trials, participants would demonstrate an initial linear increase followed by a decrease in smoking urge (quadratic effect). Data supported hypothesized gender, NA, and gender×NA effects. Significant linear increases in urge were observed among high and low NA males, but not among females in either NA subgroup. A differential quadratic effect showed a significant decrease in urge for the low NA subgroup, but a non-significant decrease in urge in the high NA group. This is the first study to demonstrate gender differences and the effects of NA on the extinction process using a smoking cue exposure paradigm. Results could guide future cue reactivity research and exposure interventions for nicotine dependence. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Watch out! Magnetoencephalographic evidence for early modulation of attention orienting by fearful gaze cueing.

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Fanny Lachat

Full Text Available Others' gaze and emotional facial expression are important cues for the process of attention orienting. Here, we investigated with magnetoencephalography (MEG whether the combination of averted gaze and fearful expression may elicit a selectively early effect of attention orienting on the brain responses to targets. We used the direction of gaze of centrally presented fearful and happy faces as the spatial attention orienting cue in a Posner-like paradigm where the subjects had to detect a target checkerboard presented at gazed-at (valid trials or non gazed-at (invalid trials locations of the screen. We showed that the combination of averted gaze and fearful expression resulted in a very early attention orienting effect in the form of additional parietal activity between 55 and 70 ms for the valid versus invalid targets following fearful gaze cues. No such effect was obtained for the targets following happy gaze cues. This early cue-target validity effect selective of fearful gaze cues involved the left superior parietal region and the left lateral middle occipital region. These findings provide the first evidence for an effect of attention orienting induced by fearful gaze in the time range of C1. In doing so, they demonstrate the selective impact of combined gaze and fearful expression cues in the process of attention orienting.

Brain activity and desire for internet video game play

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Han, Doug Hyun; Bolo, Nicolas; Daniels, Melissa A.; Arenella, Lynn; Lyoo, In Kyoon; Renshaw, Perry F.

2010-01-01

Objective Recent studies have suggested that the brain circuitry mediating cue induced desire for video games is similar to that elicited by cues related to drugs and alcohol. We hypothesized that desire for internet video games during cue presentation would activate similar brain regions to those which have been linked with craving for drugs or pathological gambling. Methods This study involved the acquisition of diagnostic MRI and fMRI data from 19 healthy male adults (ages 18–23 years) following training and a standardized 10-day period of game play with a specified novel internet video game, “War Rock” (K-network®). Using segments of videotape consisting of five contiguous 90-second segments of alternating resting, matched control and video game-related scenes, desire to play the game was assessed using a seven point visual analogue scale before and after presentation of the videotape. Results In responding to internet video game stimuli, compared to neutral control stimuli, significantly greater activity was identified in left inferior frontal gyrus, left parahippocampal gyrus, right and left parietal lobe, right and left thalamus, and right cerebellum (FDR video game (MIGP) cohort showed significantly greater activity in right medial frontal lobe, right and left frontal pre-central gyrus, right parietal post-central gyrus, right parahippocampal gyrus, and left parietal precuneus gyrus. Controlling for total game time, reported desire for the internet video game in the MIGP cohort was positively correlated with activation in right medial frontal lobe and right parahippocampal gyrus. Discussion The present findings suggest that cue-induced activation to internet video game stimuli may be similar to that observed during cue presentation in persons with substance dependence or pathological gambling. In particular, cues appear to commonly elicit activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal, orbitofrontal cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, and thalamus. PMID:21220070

Brain activity and desire for Internet video game play.

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Han, Doug Hyun; Bolo, Nicolas; Daniels, Melissa A; Arenella, Lynn; Lyoo, In Kyoon; Renshaw, Perry F

2011-01-01

Recent studies have suggested that the brain circuitry mediating cue-induced desire for video games is similar to that elicited by cues related to drugs and alcohol. We hypothesized that desire for Internet video games during cue presentation would activate similar brain regions to those that have been linked with craving for drugs or pathologic gambling. This study involved the acquisition of diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging and functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 19 healthy male adults (age, 18-23 years) following training and a standardized 10-day period of game play with a specified novel Internet video game, "War Rock" (K2 Network, Irvine, CA). Using segments of videotape consisting of 5 contiguous 90-second segments of alternating resting, matched control, and video game-related scenes, desire to play the game was assessed using a 7-point visual analogue scale before and after presentation of the videotape. In responding to Internet video game stimuli, compared with neutral control stimuli, significantly greater activity was identified in left inferior frontal gyrus, left parahippocampal gyrus, right and left parietal lobe, right and left thalamus, and right cerebellum (false discovery rate Internet video game showed significantly greater activity in right medial frontal lobe, right and left frontal precentral gyrus, right parietal postcentral gyrus, right parahippocampal gyrus, and left parietal precuneus gyrus. Controlling for total game time, reported desire for the Internet video game in the subjects who played more Internet video game was positively correlated with activation in right medial frontal lobe and right parahippocampal gyrus. The present findings suggest that cue-induced activation to Internet video game stimuli may be similar to that observed during cue presentation in persons with substance dependence or pathologic gambling. In particular, cues appear to commonly elicit activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal, orbitofrontal

Facilitation of voluntary goal-directed action by reward cues.

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Lovibond, Peter F; Colagiuri, Ben

2013-10-01

Reward-associated cues are known to influence motivation to approach both natural and man-made rewards, such as food and drugs. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects are not well understood. To model these processes in the laboratory with humans, we developed an appetitive Pavlovian-instrumental transfer procedure with a chocolate reward. We used a single unconstrained response that led to an actual rather than symbolic reward to assess the strength of reward motivation. Presentation of a chocolate-paired cue, but not an unpaired cue, markedly enhanced instrumental responding over a 30-s period. The same pattern was observed with 10-s and 30-s cues, showing that close cue-reward contiguity is not necessary for facilitation of reward-directed action. The results confirm that reward-related cues can instigate voluntary action to obtain that reward. The effectiveness of long-duration cues suggests that in clinical settings, attention should be directed to both proximal and distal cues for reward.

Peak provoked craving: an alternative to smoking cue-reactivity.

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Sayette, Michael A; Tiffany, Stephen T

2013-06-01

Smoking cue-exposure research has provided a powerful tool for examining cravings in the laboratory. A key attraction of this method is that tightly controlled experimental procedures can model craving experiences that are presumed to relate to addiction. Despite its appeal, key assumptions underlying the clinical relevance of smoking cue-reactivity studies have been questioned recently. For both conceptual and methodological reasons it may be difficult to tease apart cue-based and abstinence-based cravings. Moreover, conventional cue-reactivity procedures typically generate levels of craving with only minimal clinical relevance. We argue here that sometimes it is unfeasible-and in some instances conceptually misguided-to disentangle abstinence-based and cued components of cigarette cravings. In light of the challenges associated with cue-reactivity research, we offer an alternative approach to smoking cue-exposure experimental research focusing on peak provoked craving (PPC) states. The PPC approach uses nicotine-deprived smokers and focuses on urges during smoking cue-exposure without subtracting out urge ratings during control cue or baseline assessments. This design relies on two factors found in many cue-exposure studies-nicotine deprivation and exposure to explicit smoking cues-which, when combined, can create powerful craving states. The PPC approach retains key aspects of the cue-exposure method, and in many circumstances may be a viable design for studies examining robust laboratory-induced cravings. © 2012 The Authors, Addiction © 2012 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Chronic stress exposure may affect the brain's response to high calorie food cues and predispose to obesogenic eating habits

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Exaggerated reactivity to food cues involving calorically-dense foods may significantly contribute to food consumption beyond caloric need Exaggerated reactivity to food cues involving calorically-dense foods may significantly contribute to food consumption beyond caloric need. Chronic stress, whi...

Effects of smoking cues on caffeine urges in heavy smokers and caffeine consumers with and without schizophrenia.

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Adolfo, Amy B; AhnAllen, Christopher G; Tidey, Jennifer W

2009-02-01

Cigarette smoking and caffeine use are established and problematic drug-use behaviors in people with schizophrenia. Associative links between drugs of abuse may occur but the relationship between caffeine use and cigarette smoking has received little attention in schizophrenia. In this cross-cue reactivity laboratory study, we examined the effects of neutral and smoking cues on craving for caffeinated beverages in participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (SS; n=15) and non-psychiatric controls (CS; n=18) all of whom were heavy smokers and daily caffeine users. Participants were tested under non-abstinent and 5-hour abstinent conditions. SS tended to report greater daily levels of caffeine use than CS. Although this difference was not significant, that may be due to the small sample sizes as the size of this effect was large. Daily caffeine intake was significantly correlated with daily smoking rate in SS but not CS. A significant interaction between group and cue type after controlling for caffeine intake indicated that exposure to smoking cues increased urge for caffeinated beverages in SS but not CS. These results indicate support for associative connections between cigarette smoking cues and craving for caffeine in smokers with schizophrenia.

Attention and amygdala activity: an fMRI study with spider pictures in spider phobia.

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Alpers, Georg W; Gerdes, Antje B M; Lagarie, Bernadette; Tabbert, Katharina; Vaitl, Dieter; Stark, Rudolf

2009-06-01

Facilitated detection of threatening visual cues is thought to be adaptive. In theory, detection of threat cues should activate the amygdala independently from allocation of attention. However, previous studies using emotional facial expressions as well as phobic cues yielded contradictory results. We used fMRI to examine whether the allocation of attention to components of superimposed spider and bird displays modulates amygdala activation. Nineteen spider-phobic women were instructed to identify either a moving or a stationary animal in briefly presented double-exposure displays. Amygdala activation followed a dose-response relationship: Compared to congruent neutral displays (two birds), amygdala activation was most pronounced in response to congruent phobic displays (two spiders) and less but still significant in response to mixed displays (spider and bird) when attention was focused on the phobic component. When attention was focused on the neutral component, mixed displays did not result in significant amygdala activation. This was confirmed in a significant parametric graduation of the amygdala activation in the order of congruent phobic displays, mixed displays with attention focus on the spider, mixed displays with focus on the bird and congruent neutral displays. These results challenge the notion that amygdala activation in response to briefly presented phobic cues is independent from attention.

Behavioral economic analysis of cue-elicited craving for tobacco: a virtual reality study.

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Acker, John; MacKillop, James

2013-08-01

Subjective craving is a prominent construct in the study of tobacco motivation; yet, the precise measurement of tobacco craving poses several difficulties. A behavioral economic approach to understanding drug motivation imports concepts and methods from economics to improve the assessment of craving. Using an immersive virtual reality (VR) cue reactivity paradigm, this study tested the hypothesis that, compared with neutral cues, tobacco cues would result in significant increases in subjective craving and diverse aspects of demand for tobacco in a community sample of 47 regular smokers. In addition, the study examined these motivational indices in relation to a dual-component delay and cigarette consumption self-administration paradigm. In response to the VR tobacco cues, significant increases were observed for tobacco craving and the demand indices of Omax (i.e., maximum total expenditure toward cigarettes) and Breakpoint (i.e., price at which consumption is completely suppressed), whereas a significant decrease was observed for Elasticity (i.e., lower cigarette price sensitivity). Continuous analyses revealed trend-level inverse associations between Omax and Intensity in relation to delay duration and significant positive associations between subjective craving, Omax, and Elasticity in relation to the number of cigarettes purchased. The results from this study provide further evidence for the utility of behavioral economic concepts and methods in understanding smoking motivation. These data also reveal the incremental contribution of behavioral economic indices beyond subjective craving in predicting in vivo cigarette consumption. Relationships to previous studies and methodological considerations are discussed.

Alcohol consumption as a predictor of reactivity to smoking and stress cues presented in the natural environment of smokers.

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Tomko, Rachel L; Saladin, Michael E; McClure, Erin A; Squeglia, Lindsay M; Carpenter, Matthew J; Tiffany, Stephen T; Baker, Nathaniel L; Gray, Kevin M

2017-02-01

The high prevalence of co-occurring alcohol and tobacco use underscores the importance of understanding the influence of alcohol consumption on risk factors for smoking and relapse. Alcohol has been shown to impact reactivity to smoking and stress-related cues, both of which are common antecedents to smoking and smoking relapse. The objective of the current study is to examine associations between alcohol use, cigarette craving, and stress reactivity following exposure to smoking and stress cues delivered in participants' daily lives. Using cue-reactivity ecological momentary assessment (CREMA), adult smokers (n = 138) reported cigarette craving, stress, and past hour alcohol use on a mobile device four times per day for 2 weeks, resulting in a range of 4493-5983 data points per analysis. Questions were followed by exposure to pictorial neutral, stressful, or smoking cues delivered via the mobile device. Craving and affect were re-assessed following cue exposure. Results showed that recent (past hour) alcohol use was significantly associated with increases in the following: (a) tonic (non-cue-elicited) cigarette craving, (b) stress cue-elicited cigarette craving, and (c) stress cue-elicited stress reactivity, in the context of high-baseline stress. There was no significant association between alcohol use and smoking cue-elicited craving. Alcohol use may increase risk for smoking and relapse to smoking by increasing cigarette craving and, in certain contexts, stress following stress cue exposure. Though alcohol is known for its anxiolytic properties, under some conditions, it may increase reactivity to stress cues.

Toward understanding social cues and signals in human–robot interaction: effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior

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Fiore, Stephen M.; Wiltshire, Travis J.; Lobato, Emilio J. C.; Jentsch, Florian G.; Huang, Wesley H.; Axelrod, Benjamin

2013-01-01

As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human–robot interaction (HRI). We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot AvaTM mobile robotics platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot’s proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot’s social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot’s gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot’s mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals. PMID:24348434

Toward understanding social cues and signals in human-robot interaction: effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior.

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Fiore, Stephen M; Wiltshire, Travis J; Lobato, Emilio J C; Jentsch, Florian G; Huang, Wesley H; Axelrod, Benjamin

2013-01-01

As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human-robot interaction (HRI). We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot Ava(TM) mobile robotics platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot's proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot's social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot's gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot's mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals.

Towards understanding social cues and signals in human-robot interaction: Effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen M. Fiore

2013-11-01

Full Text Available As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human-robot interaction (HRI. We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot Ava™ Mobile Robotics Platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot’s proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot’s social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot’s gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot’s mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals.

Dynamic Mechanical and Nanofibrous Topological Combinatory Cues Designed for Periodontal Ligament Engineering.

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Kim, Joong-Hyun; Kang, Min Sil; Eltohamy, Mohamed; Kim, Tae-Hyun; Kim, Hae-Won

2016-01-01

Complete reconstruction of damaged periodontal pockets, particularly regeneration of periodontal ligament (PDL) has been a significant challenge in dentistry. Tissue engineering approach utilizing PDL stem cells and scaffolding matrices offers great opportunity to this, and applying physical and mechanical cues mimicking native tissue conditions are of special importance. Here we approach to regenerate periodontal tissues by engineering PDL cells supported on a nanofibrous scaffold under a mechanical-stressed condition. PDL stem cells isolated from rats were seeded on an electrospun polycaprolactone/gelatin directionally-oriented nanofiber membrane and dynamic mechanical stress was applied to the cell/nanofiber construct, providing nanotopological and mechanical combined cues. Cells recognized the nanofiber orientation, aligning in parallel, and the mechanical stress increased the cell alignment. Importantly, the cells cultured on the oriented nanofiber combined with the mechanical stress produced significantly stimulated PDL specific markers, including periostin and tenascin with simultaneous down-regulation of osteogenesis, demonstrating the roles of topological and mechanical cues in altering phenotypic change in PDL cells. Tissue compatibility of the tissue-engineered constructs was confirmed in rat subcutaneous sites. Furthermore, in vivo regeneration of PDL and alveolar bone tissues was examined under the rat premaxillary periodontal defect models. The cell/nanofiber constructs engineered under mechanical stress showed sound integration into tissue defects and the regenerated bone volume and area were significantly improved. This study provides an effective tissue engineering approach for periodontal regeneration-culturing PDL stem cells with combinatory cues of oriented nanotopology and dynamic mechanical stretch.

The medial prefrontal cortex is involved in spatial memory retrieval under partial-cue conditions.

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Jo, Yong Sang; Park, Eun Hye; Kim, Il Hwan; Park, Soon Kwon; Kim, Hyun; Kim, Hyun Taek; Choi, June-Seek

2007-12-05

Brain circuits involved in pattern completion, or retrieval of memory from fragmented cues, were investigated. Using different versions of the Morris water maze, we explored the roles of the CA3 subregion of the hippocampus and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in spatial memory retrieval under various conditions. In a hidden platform task, both CA3 and mPFC lesions disrupted memory retrieval under partial-cue, but not under full-cue, conditions. For a delayed matching-to-place task, CA3 lesions produced a deficit in both forming and recalling spatial working memory regardless of extramaze cue conditions. In contrast, damage to mPFC impaired memory retrieval only when a fraction of cues was available. To corroborate the lesion study, we examined the expression of the immediate early gene c-fos in mPFC and the hippocampus. After training of spatial reference memory in full-cue conditions for 6 d, the same training procedure in the absence of all cues except one increased the number of Fos-immunoreactive cells in mPFC and CA3. Furthermore, mPFC inactivation with muscimol, a GABA agonist, blocked memory retrieval in the degraded-cue environment. However, mPFC-lesioned animals initially trained in a single-cue environment had no difficulty in retrieving spatial memory when the number of cues was increased, demonstrating that contextual change per se did not impair the behavioral performance of the mPFC-lesioned animals. Together, these findings strongly suggest that pattern completion requires interactions between mPFC and the hippocampus, in which mPFC plays significant roles in retrieving spatial information maintained in the hippocampus for efficient navigation.

Dorsal and ventral working memory-related brain areas support distinct processes in contextual cueing.

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Manginelli, Angela A; Baumgartner, Florian; Pollmann, Stefan

2013-02-15

Behavioral evidence suggests that the use of implicitly learned spatial contexts for improved visual search may depend on visual working memory resources. Working memory may be involved in contextual cueing in different ways: (1) for keeping implicitly learned working memory contents available during search or (2) for the capture of attention by contexts retrieved from memory. We mapped brain areas that were modulated by working memory capacity. Within these areas, activation was modulated by contextual cueing along the descending segment of the intraparietal sulcus, an area that has previously been related to maintenance of explicit memories. Increased activation for learned displays, but not modulated by the size of contextual cueing, was observed in the temporo-parietal junction area, previously associated with the capture of attention by explicitly retrieved memory items, and in the ventral visual cortex. This pattern of activation extends previous research on dorsal versus ventral stream functions in memory guidance of attention to the realm of attentional guidance by implicit memory. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cognitive-linguistic effort in multidisciplinary stroke rehabilitation: Decreasing vs. increasing cues for word retrieval.

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Choe, Yu-Kyong; Foster, Tammie; Asselin, Abigail; LeVander, Meagan; Baird, Jennifer

2017-04-01

Approximately 24% of stroke survivors experience co-occurring aphasia and hemiparesis. These individuals typically attend back-to-back therapy sessions. However, sequentially scheduled therapy may trigger physical and mental fatigue and have an adverse impact on treatment outcomes. The current study tested a hypothesis that exerting less effort during a therapy session would reduce overall fatigue and enhance functional recovery. Two stroke survivors chronically challenged by non-fluent aphasia and right hemiparesis sequentially completed verbal naming and upper-limb tasks on their home computers. The level of cognitive-linguistic effort in speech/language practice was manipulated by presenting verbal naming tasks in two conditions: Decreasing cues (i.e., most-to-least support for word retrieval), and Increasing cues (i.e., least-to-most support). The participants completed the same upper-limb exercises throughout the study periods. Both individuals showed a statistically significant advantage of decreasing cues over increasing cues in word retrieval during the practice period, but not at the end of the practice period or thereafter. The participant with moderate aphasia and hemiparesis achieved clinically meaningful gains in upper-limb functions following the decreasing cues condition, but not after the increasing cues condition. Preliminary findings from the current study suggest a positive impact of decreasing cues in the context of multidisciplinary stroke rehabilitation.

Role of Speaker Cues in Attention Inference

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jin Joo Lee

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Current state-of-the-art approaches to emotion recognition primarily focus on modeling the nonverbal expressions of the sole individual without reference to contextual elements such as the co-presence of the partner. In this paper, we demonstrate that the accurate inference of listeners’ social-emotional state of attention depends on accounting for the nonverbal behaviors of their storytelling partner, namely their speaker cues. To gain a deeper understanding of the role of speaker cues in attention inference, we conduct investigations into real-world interactions of children (5–6 years old storytelling with their peers. Through in-depth analysis of human–human interaction data, we first identify nonverbal speaker cues (i.e., backchannel-inviting cues and listener responses (i.e., backchannel feedback. We then demonstrate how speaker cues can modify the interpretation of attention-related backchannels as well as serve as a means to regulate the responsiveness of listeners. We discuss the design implications of our findings toward our primary goal of developing attention recognition models for storytelling robots, and we argue that social robots can proactively use speaker cues to form more accurate inferences about the attentive state of their human partners.

Adolescent prosocial behavior: the role of self-processes and contextual cues.

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Wentzel, Kathryn R; Filisetti, Laurence; Looney, Lisa

2007-01-01

Peer- and teacher-reported prosocial behavior of 339 6th-grade (11-12 years) and 8th-grade (13-14 years) students was examined in relation to prosocial goals, self-processes (reasons for behavior, empathy, perspective taking, depressive affect, perceived competence), and contextual cues (expectations of peers and teachers). Goal pursuit significantly predicted prosocial behavior, and goal pursuit provided a pathway by which reasons for behavior were related to behavior. Reasons reflected external, other-focused, self-focused, and internal justifications for behavior; each reason was related to a unique set of self-processes and contextual cues. Associations between prosocial outcomes and sex and race (Caucasian and African American) were mediated in part by self-processes and contextual cues. The implications of studying prosocial behavior from a motivational perspective are discussed.

The role of temporal synchrony as a binding cue for visual persistence in early visual areas: an fMRI study.

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Wong, Yvonne J; Aldcroft, Adrian J; Large, Mary-Ellen; Culham, Jody C; Vilis, Tutis

2009-12-01

We examined the role of temporal synchrony-the simultaneous appearance of visual features-in the perceptual and neural processes underlying object persistence. When a binding cue (such as color or motion) momentarily exposes an object from a background of similar elements, viewers remain aware of the object for several seconds before it perceptually fades into the background, a phenomenon known as object persistence. We showed that persistence from temporal stimulus synchrony, like that arising from motion and color, is associated with activation in the lateral occipital (LO) area, as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We also compared the distribution of occipital cortex activity related to persistence to that of iconic visual memory. Although activation related to iconic memory was largely confined to LO, activation related to object persistence was present across V1 to LO, peaking in V3 and V4, regardless of the binding cue (temporal synchrony, motion, or color). Although persistence from motion cues was not associated with higher activation in the MT+ motion complex, persistence from color cues was associated with increased activation in V4. Taken together, these results demonstrate that although persistence is a form of visual memory, it relies on neural mechanisms different from those of iconic memory. That is, persistence not only activates LO in a cue-independent manner, it also recruits visual areas that may be necessary to maintain binding between object elements.

Chemical cues released by an alien invasive aquatic gastropod drive its invasion success.

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Raw, Jacqueline L; Miranda, Nelson A F; Perissinotto, Renzo

2013-01-01

Chemical cues provide aquatic organisms with sensory information that guides behavioural responses and thus interactions among themselves, each other and the environment. Chemical cues are considered important for predator avoidance, foraging, larval settlement and broadcast spawning in aquatic environments. However, the significance of their role as drivers of direct interactions between heterospecifics has been largely overlooked. A video camera and a demarcated arena were used in situ to record behavioural responses of three native gastropod species, Assiminea cf. capensis, Melanoides tuberculata and Coriandria durbanensis, exposed to treatments representing chemical cues released by a non-native invasive gastropod, Tarebia granifera. The responses were measured quantitatively as displacement and orientation of movement at locations in St Lucia Estuary, within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the east coast of South Africa. All native gastropods exhibited a negative taxis response to chemical cues released by T. granifera, while T. granifera individuals responded randomly to conspecifics. Displacement was measured relative to the source of the extract, the number of steps taken were determined with path analysis and orientation was determined from the mean (±95% CIs) turning angles, with significant negative turning angles representing negative taxis. Responses to treatments corresponding to the environment and conspecifics were random and undirected, indicating kinesis. This study presents evidence for interactions driven by chemical cues between a non-native invasive gastropod and several gastropods native to South Africa. The results indicate that chemical cues can facilitate invasion success as the behavioural response of native gastropods is to move away allowing additional food and space resources to become available to T. granifera.

Stress, cues, and eating behavior. Using drug addiction paradigms to understand motivation for food.

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Stojek, Monika Kardacz; Fischer, Sarah; MacKillop, James

2015-09-01

Eating patterns that lead to overconsumption of high fat, high sugar (HFHS) foods share similar features with addictive behaviors. Application of addiction paradigms, such as stress inductions, cue reactivity and behavioral economic assessments, to the study of motivation for HFHS food consumption may be a promising means of understanding food consumption. To date, few studies have investigated the interaction of stress and environmental cues on craving, and no study leveraged the state relative reinforcing value of foods (RRVfood) under varying conditions of affective states, the foci of the current study. This study used a mixed factorial design (Mood Induction: Neutral, Stress; Cues: Neutral, Food) with repeated measures on time (Baseline, Post-Mood Induction, Post-Cue Exposure). Participants (N = 133) were community adults who endorsed liking of HFHS snacks but denied eating pathology. The primary DVs were subjective craving and RRVfood. Negative and positive affect (NA, PA), the amount of food consumed, and latency to first bite were also examined. Participants in the Stress condition reported no change in craving or RRVfood. Exposure to food cues significantly increased participants' craving and RRVfood, but an interaction of stress and cues was not present. Participants did not differ on how many calories they consumed based on exposure to stress or food cues, but participants in the food cues condition had a shorter latency to the first bite of food. This study highlights the importance of environmental cues in food motivation. It also demonstrates the utility of using RRVfood to further characterize food motivation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis of engagement behavior in children during dyadic interactions using prosodic cues.

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Gupta, Rahul; Bone, Daniel; Lee, Sungbok; Narayanan, Shrikanth

2016-05-01

Child engagement is defined as the interaction of a child with his/her environment in a contextually appropriate manner. Engagement behavior in children is linked to socio-emotional and cognitive state assessment with enhanced engagement identified with improved skills. A vast majority of studies however rely solely, and often implicitly, on subjective perceptual measures of engagement. Access to automatic quantification could assist researchers/clinicians to objectively interpret engagement with respect to a target behavior or condition, and furthermore inform mechanisms for improving engagement in various settings. In this paper, we present an engagement prediction system based exclusively on vocal cues observed during structured interaction between a child and a psychologist involving several tasks. Specifically, we derive prosodic cues that capture engagement levels across the various tasks. Our experiments suggest that a child's engagement is reflected not only in the vocalizations, but also in the speech of the interacting psychologist. Moreover, we show that prosodic cues are informative of the engagement phenomena not only as characterized over the entire task (i.e., global cues), but also in short term patterns (i.e., local cues). We perform a classification experiment assigning the engagement of a child into three discrete levels achieving an unweighted average recall of 55.8% (chance is 33.3%). While the systems using global cues and local level cues are each statistically significant in predicting engagement, we obtain the best results after fusing these two components. We perform further analysis of the cues at local and global levels to achieve insights linking specific prosodic patterns to the engagement phenomenon. We observe that while the performance of our model varies with task setting and interacting psychologist, there exist universal prosodic patterns reflective of engagement.

Examination of spectral timbre cues and musical instrument identification in cochlear implant recipients.

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Meister, Hartmut; Landwehr, Markus; Lang-Roth, Ruth; Streicher, Barbara; Walger, Martin

2014-03-01

To investigate the discrimination of two isolated spectral timbre cues, spectral centroid (Fc) and spectral irregularity (spIrr), in cochlear implant (CI) listeners. To examine whether the perception of Fc and spIrr changes is related to the perception of loudness and pitch and the identification of musical instruments. Stimuli were based on French horn recordings which were artificially manipulated with respect to isolated changes in Fc and spIrr. Difference limens for Fc and spIrr were determined and changes in loudness and pitch perception based on these modifications were examined. Identification of musical instruments was additionally assessed. Mean difference limens were 161 Hz for Fc and 0.63 dB for spIrr. Modifications in spectral timbre cues caused changes in loudness and pitch perception. None of the timbre cues examined showed a significant correlation with musical instrument identification. In contrast, instrument identification was significantly related to the frequency of listening to music prior to onset of deafness. CI recipients are able to detect small modifications in spectral timbre cues which are in turn associated with changes in loudness and pitch. Variations of spectral centroid have a larger impact on loudness and pitch perception than variations of spectral irregularity. Music listening behaviour prior to onset of deafness is significantly associated with musical instrument identification.

Part-set cueing impairment & facilitation in semantic memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelley, Matthew R; Parihar, Sushmeena A

2018-01-19

The present study explored the influence of part-set cues in semantic memory using tests of "free" recall, reconstruction of order, and serial recall. Nine distinct categories of information were used (e.g., Zodiac signs, Harry Potter books, Star Wars films, planets). The results showed part-set cueing impairment for all three "free" recall sets, whereas part-set cueing facilitation was evident for five of the six ordered sets. Generally, the present results parallel those often observed across episodic tasks, which could indicate that similar mechanisms contribute to part-set cueing effects in both episodic and semantic memory. A novel anchoring explanation of part-set cueing facilitation in order and spatial tasks is provided.

Dominance dynamics of competition between intrinsic and extrinsic grouping cues.

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Luna, Dolores; Villalba-García, Cristina; Montoro, Pedro R; Hinojosa, José A

2016-10-01

In the present study we examined the dominance dynamics of perceptual grouping cues. We used a paradigm in which participants selectively attended to perceptual groups based on several grouping cues in different blocks of trials. In each block, single and competing grouping cues were presented under different exposure durations (50, 150 or 350ms). Using this procedure, intrinsic vs. intrinsic cues (i.e. proximity and shape similarity) were compared in Experiment 1; extrinsic vs. extrinsic cues (i.e. common region and connectedness) in Experiment 2; and intrinsic vs. extrinsic cues (i.e. common region and shape similarity) in Experiment 3. The results showed that in Experiment 1, no dominance of any grouping cue was found: shape similarity and proximity grouping cues showed similar reaction times (RTs) and interference effects. In contrast, in Experiments 2 and 3, common region dominated processing: (i) RTs to common region were shorter than those to connectedness (Exp. 2) or shape similarity (Exp. 3); and (ii) when the grouping cues competed, common region interfered with connectedness (Exp. 2) and shape similarity (Exp. 3) more than vice versa. The results showed that the exposure duration of stimuli only affected the connectedness grouping cue. An important result of our experiments indicates that when two grouping cues compete, both the non-attended intrinsic cue in Experiment 1, and the non-dominant extrinsic cue in Experiments 2 and 3, are still perceived and they are not completely lost. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PERAN PRODUCT CUES AND RISK AVERSION PADA PURCHASE INTENTION DAN POST PURCHASE FEELINGS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sri Rejeki Ekasasi

2015-11-01

Full Text Available AbstractThe research aimed to investigate the influence of extrinsic cues and intrinsic cues and risk aversion towards purchase intention and post-purchase feeling of counterfeited computer software and music CD. This research study collected data from two populations which are students and employee. Approximately 128 respondents involved to give respond for the survey. The analysis using Structural Equation Model (SEM show that product cues and risk aversion give different significant impact towards purchase intention and post-purchase feeling of counterfeited computer software and music CD. The research concluded that risk aversion and extrinsic cues has a significant influence to purchase intention of counterfeited computer software while it does not appear similar result to music CD. Moreover, the study revealed that for both counterfeited computer software and music CD, the purchase intention is proven to have negative significant influence towards post-purchase feelings.Keywords: risk aversion, extrinsic cues, intrinsic cues, purchase intention, post-purchase feelingsAbstrakTujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk melihat pengaruh atribut ekstrinsik dan intrinsic produk serta aspek menolak resiko terhadap niat beli dan perasaan paska beli software computer dan CD music bajakan. Penelitian ini diharapkan akan memperoleh sebuah model dengan pendekatan cultural dan strategi bisnis untuk memblokir atau mengurangi produk bajakan yang dapat diakses konsumen di pasar. Data primer akan dikumpulkan dari dua populasi, kelompok mahasiswa dan kelompok pekerja, dari empat kota besar di Indonesia yaitu Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, dan Yogyakarta. Lebih kurang 128 responden terlibat dalam penelitian ini. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa aspek atribut produk yang bersifat ekstrinsik dan aspek menolak resiko terbukti memiliki hubungan signifikan mempengaruhi niat beli software computer, akan tetapi lain tidak demikian pada niat beli CD music bajakan

Atomoxetine effects on attentional bias to drug-related cues in cocaine dependent individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Passamonti, Luca; Luijten, M; Ziauddeen, H; Coyle-Gilchrist, I T S; Rittman, T; Brain, S A E; Regenthal, R; Franken, I H A; Sahakian, B J; Bullmore, E T; Robbins, T W; Ersche, K D

2017-08-01

Biased attention towards drug-related cues and reduced inhibitory control over the regulation of drug-intake characterize drug addiction. The noradrenaline system has been critically implicated in both attentional and response inhibitory processes and is directly affected by drugs such as cocaine. We examined the potentially beneficial effects of the noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor atomoxetine in improving cognitive control during two tasks that used cocaine- and non-cocaine-related stimuli. A double-blind, placebo-controlled, and cross-over psycho-pharmacological design was employed. A single oral dose of atomoxetine (40 mg) was administered to 28 cocaine-dependent individuals (CDIs) and 28 healthy controls. All participants performed a pictorial attentional bias task involving both cocaine- and non-cocaine-related pictures as well as a verbal go/no-go task composed of cocaine- and food-related words. As expected, CDIs showed attentional bias to cocaine-related cues whilst controls did not. More importantly, however, atomoxetine, relative to placebo, significantly attenuated attentional bias in CDIs (F 26  = 6.73, P = 0.01). During the go/no-go task, there was a treatment × trial × group interaction, although this finding only showed a trend towards statistical significance (F 26  = 3.38, P = 0.07). Our findings suggest that atomoxetine reduces attentional bias to drug-related cues in CDIs. This may result from atomoxetine's modulation of the balance between tonic/phasic activity in the locus coeruleus and the possibly parallel enhancement of noradrenergic neurotransmission within the prefrontal cortex. Studying how cognitive enhancers such as atomoxetine influence key neurocognitive indices in cocaine addiction may help to develop reliable biomarkers for patient stratification in future clinical trials.

TCIQ: An identification by intensity and frequency of potent testing cues in science

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Kermis, William J.

Everyone experiences some anxiety while taking an examination. High-test-anxious (HTA) and low-test-anxious (LTA) students are described by two characteristic differences: frequency and intensity of anxious responses and attentional direction to testing cues. The purposes of this study were threefold: (1) to report potent testing cues (i.e., 90% response agreement for both intensity and frequency) that were identified by HTA and LTA students; (2) to report differences between HTA and LTA students for frequencies and intensities of responses to testing cues; and (3) to report differences between HTA and LTA students of attentional direction to testing cues. A pool of 396 males and females who were enrolled in physical geology completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. A random sample consisting of 93 HTA and 40 LTA subjects completed the Test Cues Identification Questionnaire (TCIQ). The TCIQ consists of 28 disruptive items and 27 helpful items. Subjects responded with both frequency and intensity ratings for all of the 55 items in the TCIQ. Results revealed that 22 items were viewed by subjects as potent testing cues. Empirical evidence obtained did not support previous theoretical reports of differences between HTA and LTA students for either frequency and intensity of anxious responses or attentional direction to the set of disruptive and helpful testing cues. Although test anxiousness did not appear to be associated with those two characteristics differences, a discriminant analysis revealed 24 items in the TCIQ which significantly, 2 (24) = 47.59, p < 0.004, separated HTA and LTA subjects responses. Apparently, HTA and LTA students differ in their responses to specific disruptive and helpful cues but not in their responses to the set of testing cues as was previously postulated.

The influence of social and symbolic cues on observers' gaze behaviour.

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Hermens, Frouke; Walker, Robin

2016-08-01

Research has shown that social and symbolic cues presented in isolation and at fixation have strong effects on observers, but it is unclear how cues compare when they are presented away from fixation and embedded in natural scenes. We here compare the effects of two types of social cue (gaze and pointing gestures) and one type of symbolic cue (arrow signs) on eye movements of observers under two viewing conditions (free viewing vs. a memory task). The results suggest that social cues are looked at more quickly, for longer and more frequently than the symbolic arrow cues. An analysis of saccades initiated from the cue suggests that the pointing cue leads to stronger cueing than the gaze and the arrow cue. While the task had only a weak influence on gaze orienting to the cues, stronger cue following was found for free viewing compared to the memory task. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Two (or three) is one too many: testing the flexibility of contextual cueing with multiple target locations.

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Zellin, Martina; Conci, Markus; von Mühlenen, Adrian; Müller, Hermann J

2011-10-01

Visual search for a target object is facilitated when the object is repeatedly presented within an invariant context of surrounding items ("contextual cueing"; Chun & Jiang, Cognitive Psychology, 36, 28-71, 1998). The present study investigated whether such invariant contexts can cue more than one target location. In a series of three experiments, we showed that contextual cueing is significantly reduced when invariant contexts are paired with two rather than one possible target location, whereas no contextual cueing occurs with three distinct target locations. Closer data inspection revealed that one "dominant" target always exhibited substantially more contextual cueing than did the other, "minor" target(s), which caused negative contextual-cueing effects. However, minor targets could benefit from the invariant context when they were spatially close to the dominant target. In sum, our experiments suggest that contextual cueing can guide visual attention to a spatially limited region of the display, only enhancing the detection of targets presented inside that region.

Cues for haptic perception of compliance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bergmann Tiest, W.M.; Kappers, A.M.L.

2009-01-01

For the perception of the hardness of compliant materials, several cues are available. In this paper, the relative roles of force/displacement and surface deformation cues are investigated. We have measured discrimination thresholds with silicone rubber stimuli of differing thickness and compliance.