The Influence of Eye Closure on Somatosensory Discrimination: A Trade-off Between Simple Perception and Discrimination

Götz, Theresa; Hanke, David; Huonker, Ralph; Weiß, Thomas; Klingner, Carsten M.; Brodoehl, Stefan; Baumbach, Philipp; Witte, Otto W.

doi:10.1093/cercor/bhx089

“…Participants were less accurate and slower to discriminate tactile stimuli when their eyes were closed. While there have been several reports of a positive impact of eye closure on performance (e.g., perceptual sensitivity: Brodoehl, Klingner, Stieglitz, et al, 2015; memory retrieval: Parker & Dagnall, 2020; Vredeveldt et al, 2011), other studies have reported no effects (e.g., memory retrieval: Bastarrika-Iriarte & Caballero-Gaudes, 2019; selective attention: Wöstmann et al, 2020) or negative impact (somatosensory discrimination Götz et al, 2017). Differences in paradigms (attention versus memory) and sensory modalities (auditory versus somatosensory) between these various reports renders it difficult to define common factors that govern the interaction between eye closure and behavioral performance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Anecdotally, eye closure enhances the concentration on other sensory modalities by suppressing processing of visual input (Glenberg et al, 1998). Eye closure has been shown to boost stimulus responses in somatosensory areas (Brodoehl, Klingner, Stieglitz, et al, 2015; Götz et al, 2017), with mixed findings regarding impact on behavioral performance. To date, the relationship between eye-closure effects and anticipatory alpha modulation has only been investigated in the context of auditory attention: Wöstmann et al (2020) showed that eye closure increases the general power of alpha oscillations, as well as the modulation of alpha during an auditory attentional task; however, this had no impact on behavioral performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of eye closure on anticipatory alpha activity in a tactile discrimination task

ElShafei¹,

Orlemann²,

Haegens

³

2021

Preprint

0

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One of the very first observations made regarding alpha oscillations (8-14 Hz), is that they increase in power over posterior areas when awake participants close their eyes. Recent work, especially in the context of (spatial) attention, suggests that alpha activity reflects a mechanism of functional inhibition. However, it remains unclear how eye closure impacts anticipatory alpha modulation observed in attention paradigms, and how this affects subsequent behavioral performance. Here, we recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 33 human participants performing a tactile discrimination task with their eyes open vs. closed. We replicated the hallmarks of previous somatosensory spatial attention studies: alpha lateralization across the somatosensory cortices as well as alpha increase over posterior regions. Furthermore, we found that eye closure leads to (i) reduced task performance, (ii) widespread increase in alpha power, and (iii) reduced anticipatory visual alpha modulation (iv) with no effect on somatosensory alpha lateralization. Regardless of whether participants had their eyes open or closed, increased posterior alpha power and somatosensory alpha lateralization improved their performance. Thus, we provide evidence that eye closure does not alter the impact of anticipatory alpha modulations on behavioral performance. We propose there is an optimal posterior alpha level for somatosensory task performance, which can be achieved through a combination of eye closure and top-down anticipatory attention.

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“…In the eyes masked condition, the role of top-down feedback in the visual system will be exacerbated. For example, Götz et al (2017) attributed eye closure disadvantage for spatial discrimination to the requirement of at least one top-down processing stage. A complex activity, such as Torres et al (2021) letter writing task proposed to children who have already partly memorized the letters, implies certainly top-down processing.…”

Section: An Accommodated Model?mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Test of Three Models of Character Reversal in Typically Developing Children’s Writing

Fischer

¹

,

Luxembourger

²

2021

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Multisensory learning to read involves, to a large extent, learning to write. A major problem in the initial teaching of handwriting is preventing children from producing reversed letters, especially when the reversed letters are identical to other letters. Torres et al. (2021) offer an efficient method for remediating this problem. Here, we analyze the reversals in their writing data, obtained on Brazilian first-graders (Mage = 6.0 years). Surprisingly, this analysis led to the observation that the first graders almost systematically reverse both the letters b and d in the particular copying conditions (the students look at one letter at a time for 3 s, then immediately after they had to write it while blindfolded). We first describe succinctly and discuss three models susceptible to account for reversal writing, with the aim to question their capacity of account for the curious observation just mentioned. The three models respectively attribute a major role to 1) initial (perceptive) mirror equivalence, 2) intra-hemispheric transfer, 3) orientation of the letters. Because none of the three models examined accounts convincingly for the observation, we accommodated and specified Model 2, adding also a major idea of Model 3. The resulting model assumes that the mirror-letter reversed image representation (b for d and vice-versa) is strongly activated in the right cerebral hemisphere, and that the top-down processes originating from this hemisphere were exacerbated by the eyes closed condition. Of course, this post-hoc and speculative model should be tested in other conditions and with other children.

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“…Participants were less accurate and slower to discriminate tactile stimuli when their eyes were closed. While there have been several reports of a positive impact of eye closure on performance (e.g., perceptual sensitivity: Brodoehl, Klingner, Stieglitz, et al, 2015;memory retrieval: Parker & Dagnall, 2020;Vredeveldt et al, 2011), other studies have reported no effects (e.g., memory retrieval: Bastarrika-Iriarte & Caballero-Gaudes, 2019; selective attention : Wöstmann et al, 2020) or negative impact (somatosensory discrimination Götz et al, 2017). Differences in paradigms (attention versus memory) and sensory modalities (auditory versus somatosensory) between these various reports renders it difficult to define common factors that govern the interaction between eye closure and behavioral performance.…”

Section: E Eye Closure Impacts Overall Statementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anecdotally, eye closure enhances the concentration on other sensory modalities by suppressing processing of visual input ( Glenberg et al, 1998 ). Eye closure has been shown to boost stimulus responses in somatosensory areas ( Brodoehl et al, 2015 ; Götz et al, 2017 ), with mixed findings regarding impact on behavioral performance. To date, the relationship between eye-closure effects and anticipatory α modulation has only been investigated in the context of auditory attention, Wöstmann et al (2020) showed that eye closure increases the general power of α oscillations, as well as the modulation of α during an auditory attentional task; however, this had no impact on behavioral performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Eye Closure on Anticipatory α Activity in a Tactile Discrimination Task

ElShafei¹,

Orlemann²,

Haegens

³

2021

eNeuro

1

0

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One of the very first observations made regarding alpha oscillations (8-14 Hz), is that they increase in power over posterior areas when awake participants close their eyes. Recent work, especially in the context of (spatial) attention, suggests that alpha activity reflects a mechanism of functional inhibition. However, it remains unclear how eye closure impacts anticipatory alpha modulation observed in attention paradigms, and how this affects subsequent behavioral performance. Here, we recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 33 human participants performing a tactile discrimination task with their eyes open vs. closed. We replicated the hallmarks of previous somatosensory spatial attention studies: alpha lateralization across the somatosensory cortices as well as alpha increase over posterior (visual) regions. Furthermore, we found that eye closure leads to (i) reduced task performance, (ii) widespread increase in alpha power, and (iii) reduced anticipatory visual alpha modulation (iv) with no effect on somatosensory alpha lateralization.Regardless of whether participants had their eyes open or closed, increased visual alpha power and somatosensory alpha lateralization improved their performance. Thus, we provide evidence that eye closure does not alter the impact of anticipatory alpha modulations on behavioral performance. We propose there is an optimal visual alpha level for somatosensory task performance, which can be achieved through a combination of eye closure and top-down anticipatory attention. 3 Significance StatementAlpha oscillations are dominant when awake participants have their eyes closed. Furthermore, alpha is known to modulate with anticipatory attention, and has been ascribed a role of active functional inhibition. Surprisingly, the link between anticipatory alpha and eye closure remains unclear. Here we collected MEG data while human participants performed a tactile discrimination task either with their eyes open or closed. Eye closure led to a widespread increase in alpha power, and affected anticipatory visual alpha modulation but not somatosensory alpha lateralization.Importantly, eye closure did not affect the correlation between alpha and task performance. Our findings provide novel insights into how eye closure impacts anticipatory alpha modulation, and how optimal alpha levels for task performance can be achieved differently.

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The Influence of Eye Closure on Somatosensory Discrimination: A Trade-off Between Simple Perception and Discrimination

Cited by 13 publications

References 24 publications

The impact of eye closure on anticipatory alpha activity in a tactile discrimination task

The impact of eye closure on anticipatory alpha activity in a tactile discrimination task

A Test of Three Models of Character Reversal in Typically Developing Children’s Writing

The Impact of Eye Closure on Anticipatory α Activity in a Tactile Discrimination Task

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