Inborn and experience-dependent models of categorical brain organization. A position paper

Gainotti, Guido

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00002

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 160 publications

(309 reference statements)

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“…Indeed, in this task participants first have to encode the stimuli and then deploy an attention-based selective mechanism that allows them to individuate the target elements. Once the relevant items are selected, they are retained in a vWM buffer, where they can ultimately be compared to a probe array 14 , 15 , 47 , 48 . In terms of EEG measurements, some event-related responses have been widely identified as markers of the cognitive mechanisms implicated in DMTS: (1) the N1, an early visual component of perceptual encoding 49 , 50 ; (2) the N2 posterior-contralateral (N2pc), an attention-related response of target individuation 51 – 53 ; (3) the contralateral delay activity (CDA), a late sustained component indexing active item maintenance in the vWM buffer 39 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning by task repetition enhances object individuation and memorization in the elderly

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Assecondi

Cristoforetti

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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A decline in visuospatial Working Memory (vWM) is a hallmark of cognitive aging across various tasks, and facing this decline has become the target of several studies. In the current study we tested whether older adults can benefit from task repetition in order to improve their performance in a vWM task. While learning by task repetition has been shown to improve vWM performance in young adulthood, little is known on whether a similar enhancement can be achieved also by the aging population. By combining different behavioral and electrophysiological measures, we investigated whether practicing a specific task (delayed match-to-sample judgement) over four consecutive sessions could improve vWM in healthy aging, and which are the neurophysiological and cognitive mechanisms modulated by learning. Behavioral data revealed that task repetition boosted performance in older participants, both in terms of sensitivity to change (as revealed by d’ measures) as well as capacity estimate (as measured by k values). At the electrophysiological level, results indicated that only after task repetition both target individuation (as evidenced by the N2pc) and vWM maintenance (as reflected by the CDA) were modulated by target numerosity. Our results suggest that repetition learning is effective in enhancing vWM in aging and acts through modifications at different stages of stimulus processing.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning by task repetition enhances object individuation and memorization in the elderly

Tagliabue

Assecondi

Cristoforetti

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…What are the principles that guide this organization? One possibility is that it is the direct result of experience, critically dependent on the individual's life experiences and expertise (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)). An alternative is that experience merely modulates an already existing innately determined structure, driven by connectivity constraints (4,(18)(19)(20)(21) between regions within the occipito-temporal cortex and downstream areas specialized in processing specific object types.…”

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confidence: 99%

Sensorimotor-independent development of hands and tools selectivity in the visual cortex

Striem-Amit

Vannuscorps

Caramazza

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The visual occipito-temporal cortex is composed of several distinct regions specialized in the identification of different object kinds such as tools and bodies. Its organization appears to reflect not only the visual characteristics of the inputs but also the behavior that can be achieved with them. For example, there are spatially overlapping responses for viewing hands and tools, which is likely due to their common role in object-directed actions. How dependent is occipitotemporal cortex organization on object manipulation and motor experience? To investigate this question, we studied five individuals born without hands (individuals with upper limb dysplasia), who use tools with their feet. Using fMRI, we found the typical selective hand-tool overlap (HTO) not only in typically developed control participants but also in four of the five dysplasics. Functional connectivity of the HTO in the dysplasics also showed a largely similar pattern as in the controls. The preservation of functional organization in the dysplasics suggests that occipito-temporal cortex specialization is driven largely by inherited connectivity constraints that do not require sensorimotor experience. These findings complement discoveries of intact functional organization of the occipito-temporal cortex in people born blind, supporting an organization largely independent of any one specific sensory or motor experience.T he visual occipito-temporal cortex contains multiple domainsensitive regions (1) that are highly reproducible across individuals. Much is known about these regions' large-scale organization. Consistent with the patterns of neuropsychological dissociations showing a fundamental distinction between animate and inanimate objects (2, 3), neuroimaging results have shown that the animate/ inanimate distinction is the primary organizational dimension in the occipito-temporal cortex (4-8), with a secondary distinction within the inanimate domain between navigation-relevant (e.g., large nonmanipulable objects and scenes) and small, manipulable inanimate objects (9-12). What are the principles that guide this organization? One possibility is that it is the direct result of experience, critically dependent on the individual's life experiences and expertise (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)). An alternative is that experience merely modulates an already existing innately determined structure, driven by connectivity constraints (4, 18-21) between regions within the occipito-temporal cortex and downstream areas specialized in processing specific object types.A notable example supporting the close link between visual form processing and its downstream use is a specific region in the occipito-temporal cortex that shows spatially overlapping preferences for hands and tools (22,23). This overlapping specialization is obviously not based on visual similarity alone because hands and tools are visually quite distinct. Nor is it due to general domain specialization because animate and inanimate objects are otherwise distinct (24-26). Instead, the overlap may ...

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“…Specifically, we observed increased neural co-activation when participants formed impressions of high-SES (vs. low-SES) faces in a broadly distributed network consisting of frontoparietal and insular brain regions, inferior/superior temporal regions, cingulate cortex, and cerebellum, together with extensive co-activation in regions like the pons and midbrain (see Table 4 ). The regions constituting this network largely coincided with those involved in salience and attention 60 – 62 , possibly encompassed by more extended domain-general networks supporting focused task engagement 63 – 65 . We revisit this network in greater detail in the Discussion.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Regional and network neural activity reflect men’s preference for greater socioeconomic status during impression formation

Barth

Mattan

Dang

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Evidence from social psychology suggests that men compared to women more readily display and pursue control over human resources or capital. However, studying how status and gender shape deliberate impression formation is difficult due to social desirability concerns. Using univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses (n = 65), we examined how gender and socioeconomic status (SES) may influence brain responses during deliberate but private impression formation. Men more than women showed greater activity in the VMPFC and NAcc when forming impressions of high-SES (vs. low-SES) targets. Seed partial least squares (PLS) analysis showed that this SES-based increase in VMPFC activity was associated with greater co-activation across an evaluative network for the high-SES versus low-SES univariate comparison. A data-driven task PLS analysis also showed greater co-activation in an extended network consisting of regions involved in salience detection, attention, and task engagement as a function of increasing target SES. This co-activating network was most pronounced for men. These findings provide evidence that high-SES targets elicit neural responses indicative of positivity, reward, and salience during impression formation among men. Contributions to a network neuroscience understanding of status perception and implications for gender- and status-based impression formation are discussed.

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Inborn and experience-dependent models of categorical brain organization. A position paper

Cited by 15 publications

References 160 publications

Learning by task repetition enhances object individuation and memorization in the elderly

Learning by task repetition enhances object individuation and memorization in the elderly

Sensorimotor-independent development of hands and tools selectivity in the visual cortex

Regional and network neural activity reflect men’s preference for greater socioeconomic status during impression formation

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