Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience最新文献

{"title":"Confidence and Insight into Working Memory Are Shaped by Attention and Recent Performance","authors":"Sammi R. Chekroud;Anna C. Nobre;Nils Kolling","doi":"10.1162/jocn_a_02326","DOIUrl":"10.1162/jocn_a_02326","url":null,"abstract":"Working memory is capacity-limited, and our ability to access information from working memory is variable, but selective attention to working memory contents can improve performance. People are able to make introspective judgments regarding the quality of their memories, and these judgments are linked to objective memory performance. However, it remains unknown whether benefits of internally directed attention on memory performance occur alongside commensurate changes in introspective judgments. Across two experiments, we used retrospective cues (retrocues) during working-memory maintenance to direct attention to items in memory. We then examined their consequence on introspective judgments. In the second experiment, we provided trial-wise feedback on performance. We found that selective attention improved confidence judgments and not just performance of the probed item. We were also able to judge participants' genuine insight into working-memory contents through the correlation between confidence judgments and memory quality. Neurophysiologically, alpha desynchronization correlated first with memory error and then confidence during retrocueing, suggesting a sequential process of attentional enhancement of memory contents and introspective insight. Furthermore, we showed that participants can use feedback on the accuracy of confidence judgments to update their beliefs across time, according to performance. Our results emphasize flexibility in working memory by showing we can selectively modulate our confidence about its contents based on internally directed attention or objective feedback.","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":"37 10","pages":"1685-1702"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143710633","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":"Musical Structure Influences the Perception of Sound Location","authors":"Zofia Anna Hołubowska;Marc Schönwiesner","doi":"10.1162/jocn_a_02336","DOIUrl":"10.1162/jocn_a_02336","url":null,"abstract":"The perception of multilayered auditory stimuli, such as music or speech, relies on the integration of progressively more complex and abstract features as they are processed along the auditory pathway. To investigate whether higher-level musical structure modulates auditory perception or merely the interpretation of perceived information, we examined the interaction between sound location—a low-level feature—and musical phrases, which are structures spanning across seconds and require temporal integration of information within continuous stimuli. This was to observe whether musical phrase boundaries modulate pre-attentive and explicit sensitivity to the location changes. Participants listened to melodies with randomized location changes and either actively reported detection of change or passively listened while EEG data were collected. Analysis of mismatch negativity responses revealed significantly larger amplitudes for location changes occurring at phrase boundaries, suggesting that musical grouping enhances the perceptual salience of these changes, conveyed by physically identical cues. Behaviorally, participants showed no difference in sensitivity but were more likely to report location changes at phrase boundaries, even when no change occurred. These findings demonstrate that higher-level musical structure modulates pre-attentive auditory processing and influences perception of spatial location. This effect appears to rely on fundamental auditory mechanisms rather than musical expertise, highlighting the dynamic interaction between abstract musical structure and low-level sensory processing.","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":"37 10","pages":"1617-1632"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143804756","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":"Lexical and Information Structure Functions of Prosody and Their Relevance for Spoken Communication: Evidence from Psychometric and Electroencephalographic Data","authors":"Hatice Zora;Helena Bowin;Mattias Heldner;Tomas Riad;Peter Hagoort","doi":"10.1162/jocn_a_02334","DOIUrl":"10.1162/jocn_a_02334","url":null,"abstract":"Prosody not only distinguishes “lexical” meaning but also plays a key role in information packaging by highlighting the most relevant constituent of the discourse, namely, “focus” information. The present study investigated the role of lexical and focus functions of prosody in the coherent interpretation of linguistic input. To this end, we manipulated the correctness of prosodic markers in the context and scrutinized how listeners evaluate these violations—whether they result in lexical or focus anomalies—using psychometric and EEG measures. Psychometric data from 40 participants indicated that prosodic violations were judged as incorrect by the listeners both at the lexical and focus levels, with focus level violations leading to lower correctness scores than lexical level violations, and combined violations receiving the lowest scores. EEG data from 20 participants documented a strong N400 effect (350–550 msec) in response to combined violations, and a late posterior negativity (600–900 msec) present only for combined violations and focus-level violations. Consistent with the psychometric data, the EEG data suggest that prosodic violations at the focus level result in higher costs for comprehension than prosodic violations at the lexical level, whereas combined prosodic violations most significantly disrupt the interpretation. Taken together, these findings suggest that the language comprehension system is sensitive to accurate representations of both lexical and information structure prosody, and benefits from the interaction between them; however, they are weighted differently based on their relevance for a functioning spoken communication.","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":"37 10","pages":"1633-1665"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143812864","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 Functional Connectivity, Heartrate Synchrony, and Eye Movements Reveal Distinct Components within Narrative Engagement and Immersion","authors":"Felix Carter;Iain D. Gilchrist;Danae Stanton-Fraser","doi":"10.1162/jocn_a_02338","DOIUrl":"10.1162/jocn_a_02338","url":null,"abstract":"Storytelling is a fundamental and universal human behavior, representing a vehicle for cultural information exchange throughout human history. In the present day, consumption of narrative audiovisual media is one of the most common recreational activities worldwide. Despite the importance and ubiquity of storytelling, relatively little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms by which narrative media capture and sustain our attention. In this study, 40 participants watched 10 short clips from television shows of various genres while electroencephalography, eye tracking, heart rate, and self-report data were recorded. Self-reported immersion and three of the four components of narrative engagement that we examined—attentional focus, emotional engagement, and narrative presence—were associated with interindividual synchrony in heart rate and gaze behavior, but were associated with relatively distinct patterns of neural activity (electroencephalography power amplitude and functional connectivity). Narrative understanding, on the other hand, was not associated with heart rate or gaze synchrony. Furthermore, structural equation modeling revealed directionally opposing relationships between overall alpha-band connectivity and narrative presence on the one hand (positive), and narrative understanding (negative) on the other. These results suggest narrative understanding may be associated with a different set of neurocognitive processes to the other dimensions of narrative engagement. These findings point toward a bifurcated model of narrative engagement and raise interesting theoretical questions about the role of narrative comprehension in this process.","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":"37 10","pages":"1787-1808"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143997720","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":"Contralateral Hand and Foot Know the Time Better: Advantages in Temporal Order Judgment and Their Processing Stages","authors":"Zimo Li;Luyao Wang;Shintaro Funahashi;Jinglong Wu;Jiajia Yang;Zhilin Zhang","doi":"10.1162/jocn_a_02340","DOIUrl":"10.1162/jocn_a_02340","url":null,"abstract":"In real-world scenarios, coordination between the contralateral hand and foot is often required to accomplish basic motor tasks, such as walking or running. Research on active movement has shown that the contralateral hand and foot perform better than the ipsilateral hand and foot in terms of interlimb coordination. However, whether this contralateral advantage extends to passive temporal perception remains unknown. In this study, the contralateral advantage was investigated via a temporal order judgment task using ERP technology. The participants received two sequential tactile stimuli on one hand and one foot and determined whether the sequence was “hand before foot” or “foot before hand.” The behavioral results revealed a contralateral advantage in temporal order judgment. Responses to stimuli on the contralateral hand and foot had greater accuracy rates, faster RTs, and smaller just-noticeable differences. The advantage of RTs was modulated by crossing the limbs but remained intact for right-hand responses. The ERP results exhibited a similar pattern, with earlier centroparietal positivity latency and reduced centroparietal positivity and P1 peaks for the contralateral hand and foot combinations. The results indicate a temporal judgment advantage for contralateral hand and foot combinations in both the early and late stages of temporal processing. These findings elucidated the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying the superior interlimb coordination observed for the contralateral hand and foot combination, with implications for future research to improve the treatment of movement disorders in patient populations.","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":"37 10","pages":"1809-1824"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144052350","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":"Neuron-type-specific Contributions to Dynamic Coding during Flexible Sensorimotor Decisions in Frontoparietal Cortex.","authors":"Hamidreza Abdoljabbari, Fatemeh Balapour, Scott L Brincat, Constantin von Nicolai, Markus Siegel, Earl K Miller, Mohammad Reza Daliri","doi":"10.1162/jocn.a.54","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.a.54","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Neocortical circuits consist of multiple neuronal cell types, each likely playing distinct roles in flexible behavior. However, studies of decision-making have often overlooked these cell types, limiting our understanding of their specific contributions to local circuit functions. To address this, we simultaneously recorded neuronal activity from the frontal eye field (FEF), lateral PFC, and lateral intraparietal area (LIP) in a macaque monkey performing a visuomotor decision-making task. We used extracellular spike waveforms to reliably identify two functional classes of neurons: broad-spiking (BS) putative pyramidal cells and narrow-spiking (NS) putative interneurons. These cell types exhibited distinct response dynamics and choice-related information encoding across cortical regions. NS neurons in LIP and PFC showed higher choice-related activity and contributed to early encoding of decisions, whereas in FEF, NS neurons demonstrated dynamic encoding patterns, with BS neurons exhibiting significantly more stable encoding. Our findings reveal that choice information is represented differently across cell types and cortical regions, with NS neurons favoring early population coding in PFC and LIP and BS neurons exhibiting more static encoding in FEF. This heterogeneous coding strategy suggests that decision-related dynamics in the frontoparietal network are shaped by interactions between these distinct neuronal populations. The results provide new insights into cortical circuit dynamics and cell-type-specific contributions to decision-making.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-18"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144977664","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":"Item-based Parsing of Dynamic Scenes in a Combined Attentional Tracking and Working Memory Task.","authors":"Piotr P Styrkowiec, William X Q Ngiam, Will Epstein, Ron Gneezy, Henry M Jones, Edward Awh, Edward K Vogel","doi":"10.1162/jocn.a.96","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.a.96","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human visual processing is limited-we can only track a few moving objects at a time and store a few items in visual working memory (WM). A shared mechanism that may underlie these performance limits is how the visual system parses a scene into representational units. In the present study, we explored whether multiple-object tracking (MOT) and WM rely on a common item-based indexing mechanism. We measured the contralateral delay activity (CDA), an event-related slow wave that tracks load in an item-based manner, as participants completed a combined WM and MOT task, concurrently tracking items and remembering visual information. In Experiment 1, participants tracked one or two moving discs without needing to remember the discs' colors (track and ignore condition) or while also remembering the discs' colors (two or four colors in total; track and remember condition). In Experiment 2, participants attended either two static discs or two moving discs, while remembering the discs' colors (two or four colors). In both experiments, the CDA was largely determined by the tracking task-CDA amplitudes reflected the number of tracked discs and not the number of to-be-remembered colors. However, when the discs were static, the CDA amplitudes did reflect color load. We discuss this set of findings in relation to longstanding theories of visual cognition (fingers of instantiation and object files) and the implications for cognitive models of representation of visual information-that how a scene is parsed into item-based representations is a key mechanism in the operation of WM.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-17"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144977718","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":"The Association between Oscillatory Burst Features and Human Working Memory Accuracy.","authors":"Brian C Kavanaugh, Megan M Vigne, Ryan Thorpe, Christopher Legere, W Luke Acuff, Noah Vaughan, Eric Tirrell, Saskia Haegens, Linda L Carpenter, Stephanie R Jones","doi":"10.1162/jocn.a.87","DOIUrl":"10.1162/jocn.a.87","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Oscillatory power across multiple frequency bands has been associated with distinct working memory (WM) processes. Recent research has shown that previous observations based on averaged power are driven by the presence of transient, oscillatory burst-like events, particularly within the alpha, beta, and gamma bands. However, the interplay between different burst events in human WM is not well understood. The current EEG study aimed to investigate the dynamics between alpha (8-12 Hz)/beta (15-29 Hz) and high-frequency activity (HFA; 55-80 Hz) bursts in human WM, particularly burst features and error-related deviations during the encoding and maintenance of WM in healthy adults. Oscillatory burst features within the alpha, beta, and HFA bands were examined at frontal and parietal electrodes in healthy young adults during a Sternberg WM task. Averaged power dynamics were driven by oscillatory burst features, most consistently the burst rate and burst power. Alpha/beta and HFA bursts displayed complementary roles in WM processes, in that alpha and beta bursting decreased during encoding and increased during delay, while HFA bursting had the opposite pattern, that is, increased during encoding and decreased during the delay. Critically, weaker variation in burst dynamics across stages was associated with incorrect responses and impaired overall task performance. Together, these results indicate that successful human WM is dependent on the rise-and-fall interplay between alpha/beta and HFA bursts, with such burst dynamics reflecting a novel target for the development of treatment in clinical populations with WM deficits.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-18"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144856985","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":"Increasing Signal, Reducing Noise: Contrasting Neural Mechanisms of Attention in Visual Search.","authors":"Merit Bruckmaier, Artyom Zinchenko, Hermann J Müller, Thomas Geyer","doi":"10.1162/jocn.a.92","DOIUrl":"10.1162/jocn.a.92","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When invariant target-distractor arrays are presented repeatedly during visual search, participants respond faster on repeated versus novel configuration trials. This effect reflects attentional guidance through long-term memory (LTM) templates-a phenomenon termed contextual cueing. Subsequently, relocating the target within the same distractor layout abolishes any contextual cueing effects, and relearning the new target position is much harder than the initial learning-likely due to consistent attentional misguidance toward the initial (learnt) target position. Here, we studied how the different processes involved in contextual cueing and relearning affect the variability of neural responses in human participants as measured with EEG. Attention has previously been shown to reduce trial-by-trial variability in EEG [Arazi, A., Yeshurun, Y., & Dinstein, I. Neural variability is quenched by attention. Journal of Neuroscience, 39, 5975-5985, 2019], indicating that, in addition to increasing the neural response to an attended stimulus, attention may reduce the noise within the neural response itself. While repeated versus novel contexts did not modulate the trial-by-trial variability during initial learning, significant lateralized variability reductions were observed for repeated but not novel context trials in the relocations phase. This contrasts with how contextual cueing affected lateralized ERPs in past research. Zinchenko and colleagues [Zinchenko, A., Conci, M., Töllner, T., Müller, H. J., & Geyer, T. Automatic guidance (and misguidance) of visuospatial attention by acquired scene memory: Evidence from an N1pc polarity reversal. Psychological Science, 31, 1531-1543, 2020] found that lateralized ERPs signal correct and incorrect (i.e., misguided) attentional selection of target positions learned earlier. This phenomenon was observed during both the learning and relocation phases. Thus, variability and lateralized ERPs may represent different facets of attention, where variability becomes evident specifically under high attentional demand conditions, such as when participants must override the misguidance caused by LTM templates.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144876702","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":"Five- to 8-Year-Old Children's Home Numeracy Support and Math Skills Are Associated with Their Neural Number Processing.","authors":"Andrew Lynn, Gavin R Price","doi":"10.1162/jocn.a.86","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.a.86","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Across the first years of schooling, children learn numerical information that is foundational to mathematical learning. Individual differences in math skills and the math learning support children receive at home may be related to their brain activity when viewing numbers. However, little is known regarding how numerical information is represented in children's brains in early elementary school and how their math skills and home math environment (HME) relates to these foundational neurocognitive processes. Here, we measured children's neural activity while viewing symbolic (digits) and nonsymbolic (dot sets) numbers using fMRI, indexed their HME using caregiver report, and measured their math skills using the KeyMath-3 Diagnostic Assessment. We found that, from 5 to 8 years of age, neural activation (1) distinguished between symbolic and nonsymbolic number formats across occipital and temporal cortices; (2) scaled with quantity differently for symbolic and nonsymbolic number formats across the occipital cortex; (3) scaled with quantity differently for symbolic and nonsymbolic number formats depending on children's HME in insula and subcortical regions; and (4) changed with age across left occipital and parietal cortex depending quantity and children's math skills. Across middle childhood, format-dependent number processing and abstract quantity processing is distributed across occipital, temporal, parietal, frontal, and subcortical regions. Moreover, children's home learning experiences and math skills may shape the neurocognitive processes supporting number processing, providing evidence for experience-dependent neuroplasticity.</p>","PeriodicalId":51081,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144856982","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}