What Is Stochastic Resonance? Definitions, Misconceptions, Debates, and Its Relevance to Biology

McDonnell, Mark D.; Abbott, Derek

doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000348

Cited by 682 publications

(571 citation statements)

References 175 publications

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“…These findings are interpreted as indicating alpha functions as an intrinsic source of noise, modulating hit rates through stochastic resonance. Stochastic resonance is a phenomenon in which the addition of noise to a nonlinear system boosts or improves transmission or detection of a signal (McDonnell & Abbott, 2009). A parabolic relationship between performance and noise is a key characteristic of stochastic resonance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-stimulus alpha oscillations over somatosensory cortex predict tactile misperceptions

et al. 2017

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Cite this article as: Matt Craddock, Ellen Poliakoff, Wael El-deredy, Ekaterini Klepousniotou and Donna M. Lloyd, Pre-stimulus alpha oscillations over somatosensory cortex predict tactile misperceptions, Neuropsychologia, http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.12.030 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. AbstractFluctuations of pre-stimulus oscillatory activity in the somatosensory alpha band (8-14 Hz) observed using human EEG and MEG have been shown to influence the detection of supraand peri-threshold somatosensory stimuli. However, some reports of touch occur even without a stimulus. We investigated the possibility that pre-stimulus alpha oscillations might also influence these false reports of touch -known as tactile misperceptions. We recorded EEG while participants performed the Somatic Signal Detection Task (SSDT), in which participants must detect brief, peri-threshold somatosensory targets. We found that prestimulus oscillatory power in the somatosensory alpha range exhibited a negative linear 2 relationship with reporting of touch at electrode clusters over both contralateral and ipsilateral somatosensory regions. As pre-stimulus alpha power increased, the probability of reporting a touch declined; as it decreased, the probability of reporting a touch increased. This relationship was stronger on trials without a somatosensory stimulus than on trials with a somatosensory stimulus, although was present for both trial types. Spatio-temporal clusterbased permutation analysis also found that pre-stimulus alpha was lower on trials when touch was reported -irrespective of whether it was present -over contralateral and ipsilateral somatosensory cortices, as well as left frontocentral areas. We argue that alpha power may reflect changes in response criterion rather than sensitivity alone. Low alpha power relates to a low barrier to reporting a touch even when one is not present, while high alpha power is linked to less frequent reporting of touch overall.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-stimulus alpha oscillations over somatosensory cortex predict tactile misperceptions

et al. 2017

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“…There are a number of well-documented reasons why brain variability is functional for neural systems, such as greater network complexity , connectivity (Fox et al 2006), network robustness (Basalyga and Salinas 2006), heightened signal detection thresholds (Li et al 2006;McDonnell andAbbott 2009), optimized learning (Mandelblat-Cerf et al 2009), and better cognitive performance Garrett et al 2010;Garrett et al 2011). But, how do we interpret a greater increase in brain variability on task?…”

Section: Why An Increase In Brain Variability During Internal-to-extementioning

confidence: 99%

The Modulation of BOLD Variability between Cognitive States Varies by Age and Processing Speed

et al. 2012

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Increasing evidence suggests that brain variability plays a number of important functional roles for neural systems. However, the relationship between brain variability and changing cognitive demands remains understudied. In the current study, we demonstrate experimental condition-based modulation in brain variability using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Within a sample of younger and older healthy adults, we found that BOLD variability was an effective discriminator between fixation and external cognitive demand. Across a number of regions, brain variability increased broadly on task compared to fixation, particularly in younger and faster performing adults. Conversely, older and slower performing adults exhibited fewer changes in brain variability within and across experimental conditions and brain regions, indicating a reduction in variability-based neural specificity. Increases in brain variability on task may represent a more complex neural system capable of greater dynamic range between brain states, as well as an enhanced ability to efficiently process varying and unexpected external stimuli. The current results help establish the developmental and performance correlates of state-to-state brain variability-based transitions, and offer a new line of inquiry in the study of rest vs. task modes in the human brain. Keywords brain variability; default mode; fMRI; noise Increasing evidence suggests that brain variability is a useful attribute for neural systems, perhaps reflecting greater network complexity, connectivity, increased dynamic range, heightened signal detection thresholds, and superior cognitive processing (Li et al.

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“…Sometimes, however, noise may unexpectedly have the opposite effect of either increasing the overall coherence or stabilizing a given dynamical regime. Well known examples are the stabilization of the inverted pendulum [1], stochastic resonance [2,3] and coherence resonance [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Noise-induced stabilization of collective dynamics

Clusella

Politi

2017

Phys. Rev. E

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We illustrate a counter-intuitive effect of an additive stochastic force, which acts independently on each element of an ensemble of globally coupled oscillators. We show that a very small white noise does not only broaden the clusters, wherever they are induced by the deterministic forces, but can also stabilize a linearly unstable collective periodic regime: self-consistent partial synchrony. With the help of microscopic simulations we are able to identify two noise-induced bifurcations. A macroscopic analysis, based on a perturbative solution of the associated nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation, confirms the numerical studies and allows determining the eigenvalues of the stability problem. We finally argue about the generality of the phenomenon.

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What Is Stochastic Resonance? Definitions, Misconceptions, Debates, and Its Relevance to Biology

Cited by 682 publications

References 175 publications

Pre-stimulus alpha oscillations over somatosensory cortex predict tactile misperceptions

Pre-stimulus alpha oscillations over somatosensory cortex predict tactile misperceptions

The Modulation of BOLD Variability between Cognitive States Varies by Age and Processing Speed

Noise-induced stabilization of collective dynamics

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