Moon Sun Kang, Leah Acker, Marty Woldorff, Chiu Yu-Chin
{"title":"Neurocognitive Dynamics Underlying Penalty-induced Boosting of Proactive Metacontrol and Its Influence on Reactive Metacontrol.","authors":"Moon Sun Kang, Leah Acker, Marty Woldorff, Chiu Yu-Chin","doi":"10.1162/JOCN.a.2401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/JOCN.a.2401","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Metacontrol states involve adapting cognitive control to contextual demands-being more flexible in frequent task-switching environments or more stable in those with infrequent switching. While these metacontrol states can be engaged proactively in anticipation or reactively in response to specific contexts, how these two metacontrol modes interact remains unclear. To address this question, we recorded EEG measures of brain activity during a task-switching paradigm in which we manipulated proactive metacontrol via block-level incentives (baseline vs. penalty). Within blocks, some images occurred more frequently on switch trials and others on repeat trials, which we expected to elicit reactive metacontrol adjustments. This design enabled us to investigate how block-level proactive metacontrol influences reactive metacontrol in response to image-specific switch demands. We found that during the penalty block, designed to enhance proactive processing, greater slow negative-polarity ERP waves (contingent negative variation waves) were elicited before the onset of the image and task cue, which has been associated with preparatory attention and improved task-switching efficiency. Moreover, the penalty block showed image-specific metacontrol adjustments or \"reactive metacontrol,\" as reflected by modulations in the N2 and the late positive component EEG waves during image and task-cue presentation. Together, these findings support theoretical frameworks suggesting that heightened preparatory attentional control-such as that induced by penalty-based incentives-can serve to enhance stimulus feature-binding mechanisms critical for reactive metacontrol learning and instantiation.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145349756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Electroencephalographic Biomarkers of Relaxation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.","authors":"Kairi Sugimoto, Hideaki Kurashiki, Yuting Xu, Mitsuaki Takemi, Kaoru Amano","doi":"10.1162/JOCN.a.2392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/JOCN.a.2392","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Alpha oscillations (8-13 Hz), which are prominent in human EEG, have long been considered a neural marker of relaxation. However, the extent to which different frequency bands and electrode positions of the EEG reflect relaxation remains unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the associations between EEG components and concurrently measured the reference indices of relaxation in healthy adults. A comprehensive database search and screening employing preset criteria identified 54 studies that involve 2569 participants published from January 1940 to March 2025 for qualitative synthesis. These studies utilized various reference relaxation measures, such as electrocardiographic (ECG) indices associated with parasympathetic nervous system activity and introspective indices obtained through questionnaires. Risks of bias were assessed based on the risk of bias assessment tool for nonrandomized studies. A meta-analysis of 31 studies employing a random-effects model revealed positive correlations between relaxation index and the power of alpha oscillations in three specific combinations of EEG channel regions and reference index types: frontal channels with all reference indices, central channels with ECG-related indices, and occipital channels with questionnaire-based indices. No significant correlations were observed between relaxation indices and other EEG frequencies or channels. These findings indicate that alpha oscillations in different scalp regions may represent distinct aspects of the relaxation response based on the type of reference measure used.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-31"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145245827","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regularization, Action, and Attractors in the Dynamical \"Bayesian\" Brain.","authors":"Eelke Spaak","doi":"10.1162/JOCN.a.2390","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/JOCN.a.2390","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The idea that the brain is a probabilistic (Bayesian) inference machine, continuously trying to figure out the hidden causes of its inputs, has become very influential in cognitive (neuro)science over recent decades. Here, I present a relatively straightforward generalization of this idea: The primary computational task that the brain is faced with is to track the probabilistic structure of observations themselves, without recourse to hidden states. Tracking this structure in the face of noise requires regularization, and prior experience is the best source of such regularization. Regularization and, by extension, prior expectations can be thought of as abstract \"pulling\" forces in the space of observations. The same is true for behavioral goals: Organisms strive toward (observing) goal states, so these states similarly exercise an attractive force. Prior expectations, regularization, and action induction can thus fruitfully be seen as attractors in the dynamical system constituted by the brain. This perspective refines thought within the \"Bayesian brain\" framework, avoids some previous counterintuitive conclusions, and may inspire new empirical and theoretical work by alerting researchers to parallels they were hitherto unaware of.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145253548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tao He, Yao Shi, Matthias Ekman, Annelinde R E Vandenbroucke, Floris P de Lange
{"title":"Visual Working Memory Representations Selectively Drop in Contralateral Visual Cortex but Remain Decodable in Parietal Cortex after Eye Movements.","authors":"Tao He, Yao Shi, Matthias Ekman, Annelinde R E Vandenbroucke, Floris P de Lange","doi":"10.1162/JOCN.a.2394","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/JOCN.a.2394","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>It has been suggested that our visual system does not only process stimuli that are directly available to our eyes but also has a role in maintaining information in visual working memory (VWM) over seconds. However, two critical questions remain unresolved. First, are VWM representations spatially specific to the retinotopic location of stimuli in the absence of eye movements? Second, how are VWM representations in the visual system affected by eye movements? In this study, we examined VWM representations in early visual cortex (EVC) and parietal cortex in both no-saccade and saccade conditions using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of delay-related activity measured with fMRI. In the no-saccade condition, remembered information was represented in both the contralateral and ipsilateral hemispheres in almost all regions, supporting the hypothesis of spatially global representations. Interestingly, following an eye movement, VWM representations in both hemispheres of the intraparietal sulcus remained decodable and showed no significant drop across saccades. In contrast, VWM representations in contralateral EVC were selectively disrupted, whereas ipsilateral EVC representations remained decodable. Moreover, the overall VWM representations in EVC were not affected by saccades. Together, these findings suggest that EVC may contribute to VWM in an adaptive and flexible manner, thereby supporting its potential contribution as neural substrates for memory storage.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145234019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Arianna Schiano Lomoriello, Paola Sessa, Paul E Dux, Mattia Doro, Roberto Dell'Acqua
{"title":"The Time Course of Attention Engagement in a Single-stream Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Design.","authors":"Arianna Schiano Lomoriello, Paola Sessa, Paul E Dux, Mattia Doro, Roberto Dell'Acqua","doi":"10.1162/JOCN.a.2393","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/JOCN.a.2393","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When two stimuli are presented at the same spatial location in close temporal proximity-typically less than 500 msec apart-the second stimulus is often not perceived, a phenomenon known as attentional blink (AB). This striking failure of visual awareness is thought to reflect limitations in the allocation of attention for the selection and consolidation of visual input. While existing models of the AB differ in their predictions regarding when and why attentional engagement is required, no direct neural correlate has yet been identified to track this process during the AB. Here, we propose that the bilateral N2 posterior contralateral (N2pcb) component of the ERP time-locked to the second stimulus may serve as such a marker. To test this hypothesis, we reanalyzed data from our prior study [Dell'Acqua, R., Dux, P. E., Wyble, B., Doro, M., Sessa, P., Meconi, F., et al. The attentional blink impairs detection and delays encoding of visual information: Evidence from human electrophysiology. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27, 720-735, 2015], in which participants identified target letters embedded in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams of distractor digits. Each RSVP stream ended with either an unmasked letter (target-present trials) or a digit (target-absent trials). Subtracting ERPs elicited in target-absent trials from ERPs elicited in target-present trials revealed that the N2pcb component persisted even during the AB. These findings suggest that attentional engagement for the second target is largely preserved during the blink, indicating that a disruption of attention is not necessary for the AB to occur, and that post-attentional processing limitations likely play a major role-a conclusion consistent with a specific subset of current AB models.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145234061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Emma Berthault, Sophie Chen, Sonja A Kotz, Daniele Schön
{"title":"Neural and Behavioral Dynamics of Predictive Speech Planning.","authors":"Emma Berthault, Sophie Chen, Sonja A Kotz, Daniele Schön","doi":"10.1162/JOCN.a.106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/JOCN.a.106","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Timing and prediction are fundamental components of conversational dynamics, particularly in the estimation of turn-taking. While neural markers of predictive processing have been proposed in comprehension, their counterparts in speech production remain less well understood. In this study, we investigated these mechanisms using a combined EEG and behavioral approach with an oral sentence completion task. Participants viewed images that prompted them to produce a word completing a subsequently heard sentence. We systematically manipulated sentence repetition, length, and cloze probability to assess their effects on speech production timing and associated neural activity, focusing specifically on the readiness potential (RP) as an index of motor preparation. Our findings revealed that high-cloze-probability sentences elicited faster RTs, but only when participants had not yet formed predictions and when the sentences were relatively short. These faster RTs were also associated with a different RP amplitude. Moreover, RP dynamics were predictive of speech onset, suggesting that motor preparation plays an active role in response timing. Together, these results support a predictive decision-making framework for speech production, in which comprehension, prediction, and motor execution form a continuous, interactive process.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145201982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Paulius Rimkevičius, Tillmann Vierkant, Aaron Schurger
{"title":"The Experience of Deciding: An Electroencephalography Study.","authors":"Paulius Rimkevičius, Tillmann Vierkant, Aaron Schurger","doi":"10.1162/JOCN.a.103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/JOCN.a.103","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>How free our actions are and how responsible we are for them partly depends on how well we are aware of what influences those actions. One way to investigate this is to compare what we are aware of and what happens in our brain before we act. Previous studies compared the onset of awareness of a decision to move with the onset of preceding brain activity. Their results have often been taken to suggest that we are unaware of some influences. We investigated the contents of awareness at the reported time of decision in more detail. Our results suggest that neural signals associated with spontaneous actions reflect something the agent is at least partly aware of. The EEG signal before actual movements was related to the reported clarity and vividness of the experience of deciding. The EEG signal before imagined movements was related to how active the imagining reportedly felt.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-20"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145092878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ignoring Salient Distractors Inside and Outside the Attentional Window.","authors":"Xiaojin Ma, Steven J Luck, Nicholas Gaspelin","doi":"10.1162/JOCN.a.105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/JOCN.a.105","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>There has been much debate about whether salient stimuli have an automatic power to distract us, with many conflicting results. The attentional window account proposes a potential resolution by suggesting that capture depends on the breadth of attentional focus. According to this account, when attention is broadly focused, salient stimuli will fall inside the attentional window and generate a salience signal that captures attention. When attention is narrowly focused, salient stimuli presented outside the window of attention cannot generate a salience signal that attracts attention. If true, this could explain many otherwise-contradictory findings, but this account has not been widely tested. The present study used a shape discrimination task to manipulate the spread of spatial attention and tested whether salient distractors inside versus outside the attended region capture attention. Attentional capture was assessed by the N2pc component and behavioral measures. Contrary to the predictions of the attentional window account, we found no evidence that capture by salient distractors depended on whether the salient distractor was inside or outside the attended window. Instead, our findings support models of attention, which allow feature-based control mechanisms to prevent capture by salient distractors.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-22"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145139504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Experience-dependent Changes in the Visual Processing of Letters: Evidence from Electroencephalography Decoding.","authors":"Kurt Winsler, Steven J Luck","doi":"10.1162/JOCN.a.99","DOIUrl":"10.1162/JOCN.a.99","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Learning to read involves the formation and tuning of letter representations, but it is unknown whether this orthographic tuning influences very early visual processing or only later processing. This study tested the hypothesis that experience increases the extraction of sensory information about letters by comparing the EEG activity elicited by upright and inverted letters. In a set of conventional univariate analyses, we found that inverted letters elicited larger P1 amplitudes (starting ca. 110 msec) and larger N170 amplitudes (starting ca.160 msec) compared with upright letters. These larger amplitudes could reflect enhanced processing, but they might instead reflect degraded processing. We therefore performed multivariate pattern classification (decoding) to assess the amount of information about letter identity in the neural signal. Specifically, we decoded which individual letter was presented from the pattern of voltage across the scalp at each time point. We found that decoding accuracy was greater for upright letters than for inverted letters during the P1 latency range (starting ca. 90 msec), particularly in electrodes over the left hemisphere. This provides evidence for enhanced tuning for upright letters in early visual processing. By contrast, we found higher decoding accuracy for inverted letters than for upright letters during and after the N170 component (starting ca.140 msec). These results demonstrate that massive experience with upright letters influences sensory processing, leading to enhanced feature extraction for highly familiar (upright) letter forms at an early stage, followed by enhanced neural discriminability for less familiar (inverted) letter forms at a later stage.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12462889/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145139549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Karen R Konkoly, Saba Al-Youssef, Christopher Y Mazurek, Remington Mallett, Daniel J Morris, Ana Gales, Isabelle Arnulf, Delphine Oudiette, Ken A Paller
{"title":"Using Real-time Reporting to Investigate Visual Experiences in Dreams.","authors":"Karen R Konkoly, Saba Al-Youssef, Christopher Y Mazurek, Remington Mallett, Daniel J Morris, Ana Gales, Isabelle Arnulf, Delphine Oudiette, Ken A Paller","doi":"10.1162/JOCN.a.107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/JOCN.a.107","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Neuroscientific investigations of human dreaming have been hampered by reliance on dream recall after awakening. For example, a challenge of associating EEG features with post-waking dream reports is that they are subject to distortion, forgetting, and poor temporal precision. In this study, we used real-time reporting to investigate whether one of the most robust features of the waking visual system, increased alpha oscillations upon closing one's eyes, also applies when people dream of closing their eyes. We studied 13 people, four with narcolepsy and nine without, who experienced many lucid dreams-they were aware they were dreaming while remaining asleep. They reported on both their dream experiences (visual percepts present/absent) and dream-eyelid status (open/closed) using a novel communication technique; they produced distinctive sniffing patterns according to presleep instructions. We observed these signals in respiration recordings from a nasal cannula. These physiological signals enabled analyses of time-locked neural activity during REM sleep. We recorded 150 signals over 19 sessions from 11 individuals. Robust increases in alpha power were not found after signaled dream-eye closure. Remarkably, the experience of eye closure while dreaming was associated with fading visual content only about half the time. Comparing presence versus absence of visual content was possible only in three participants, who showed increased alpha power in association with a momentary lack of visual content. Enlisting dreamers to actively control and report on ongoing dream experiences in this way thus opens new avenues for dynamic investigations of dreams-the illusory perceptions that haunt our sleep.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145202027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}