Implicit mechanisms of intention

Aflalo, Tyson; Zhang, Carey; Revechkis, Boris; Rosario, Emily R.; Pouratian, Nader; Andersen, Richard A.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.03.047

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Second, several studies have investigated potential relations between the timing of neural precursors of voluntary action, such as the RP, and W-Time. However, to our knowledge, none have ever been found [44][45][46]64 . Third, W-time seems to suffer from order effects and may be reported before movement solely due to task demands 65 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Pupil dilations prior to freely timed actions reflect the reported timing of conscious intention

Gavenas,

Schurger,

Maoz

2024

Preprint

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Freely timed actions are typically preceded by a slow anticipatory buildup of cortical brain activity, which has been extensively studied. However, such free actions are also preceded by slow pupil dilations in both humans and other animals, which have barely been examined. We investigated the neurocognitive significance of antecedent pupil dilations (APDs) in a voluntary-action paradigm. Participants performed self-paced actions and reported the timing of movement, conscious intention, or other events using a clock. APDs began a second or more before movement, and control conditions suggest that they did not reflect processing related to reporting demands, motor execution, or general anticipation. Critically, APD timing covaried with the reported timing of intention awareness but did not covary with the reported timing of overt movement or an external stimulus. Furthermore, decoding algorithms could distinguish APDs with above-chance accuracy more than 500 milliseconds before button-press. Our results suggest that APDs reflect a shift in awareness prior to movement onset and potentially offer a non-invasive method of predicting spontaneous movements before they occur.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Pupil dilations prior to freely timed actions reflect the reported timing of conscious intention

Gavenas,

Schurger,

Maoz

2024

Preprint

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“…As previous studies have shown that dopamine excitation drives behavior (Olds & Milner 1956;Corbett & Wise 1980;Tsai et al 2009), our data would suggest that the dopamine response to the fractals may be instrumental for generating useful bids; only a small population of neurons (10 -20) would be necessary for this effect. However, while the shuffled data resulted in an accuracy of 0%, the accuracy of 60% with the SVR is much smaller than the 80 -90% accuracy achieved with binary decoders such as nearest neighbor, linear SVM and discriminant analysis classifiers (Quiroga et al 2006;Grabenhorst et al 2012;Chang & Tsao 2017;Pastor-Bernier et al 2019;Koren 2021;Aflalo et al 2022). A possible explanation for the lower accuracy of SVR as compared to a binary classifier may lie in the continuous nature of the SVR, and that accuracy is possibly further reduced due to binning the bids necessitated by our limited number of trials per bid.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The external stimuli are known to elicit neuronal signals for subjectively weighted reward amounts, called utility (Stauffer et al 2014), but we do not know whether these neuronal signals simply reflect the external stimulus indicating the subjective reward value or represent the internal subjective value elicited by the stimulus. Neuronal signals for internal processes exist in human sensory association cortex where spontaneous musical tunes and imagined speech are associated with neuronal activities that can drive melodies on pianos and speech on synthesizers (Aflalo et al 2022; Wandelt et al 2022). The suggestion of internal signals in the absence of outside sensory events or motor acts prompts the question whether reward neurons may carry analogous signals for internal subjective reward value distinct from externally imposed reward information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dopamine neurons encode trial-by-trial subjective reward value in an auction-like task

Hill

Hickman

Al-Mohammad

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The dopamine reward prediction error signal is known to be subjective but has so far only been related to explicit external stimuli and rewards. However, personal choices are based on private internal values of the rewards at stake. Without indications of the private internal value of an agent we do not know whether dopamine neurons, or any reward neurons, encode the internal value. The well-established Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) auction-like mechanism allows participants to place bids for freely stating their private internal value for a good. BDM bids are known to reflect the true internal valuation of an agent, as inaccurate bidding results in suboptimal reward (incentive compatibility). In our experiment rhesus monkeys placed BDM bids for juice rewards without specific external constraints. Their bids for physically identical rewards varied trial by trial and increased overall for larger rewards. Responses of midbrain dopamine neurons followed the trial-by-trial variation of bids despite constant, explicitly predicted reward amounts; correspondingly, the dopamine responses were similar when the animal placed similar bids for different reward amounts. Support Vector Regression demonstrated accurate prediction of the bids of the animal by as few as twenty dopamine neurons, demonstrating the validity of the dopamine code for internal reward value. Thus, dopamine responses reflect the instantaneous internal subjective reward value rather than the value imposed by external stimuli.

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“…They believed that stimulating the DLPFC can strengthen thalamocortical and cortico-cortical connections and improve behavioral performance, EEG power spectrum, and estradiol levels, particularly in patients in MCS ( 13 – 20 ). However, according to Integrated Information Theory (IIT), consciousness is connected primarily with the posterior cortical areas ( 21 ), of which the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has been demonstrated as the most critical consciousness-associative cortical region ( 22 ). It includes the superior marginal gyrus, the angular gyrus, and the precuneus, and it plays a key role in sensory and motor integration and is involved in various cognitive functions ( 23 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the posterior parietal cortex improves functional recovery in nonresponsive patients: A crossover, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study

Zheng

et al. 2023

Front. Neurol.

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BackgroundRecent studies have shown that patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) can benefit from repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) therapy. The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is becoming increasingly important in neuroscience research and clinical treatment for DoC as it plays a crucial role in the formation of human consciousness. However, the effect of rTMS on the PPC in improving consciousness recovery remains to be studied.MethodWe conducted a crossover, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled clinical study to assess the efficacy and safety of 10 Hz rTMS over the left PPC in unresponsive patients. Twenty patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome were recruited. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: one group received active rTMS treatment for 10 consecutive days (n = 10) and the other group received sham treatment for the same period (n = 10). After a 10-day washout period, the groups crossed over and received the opposite treatment. The rTMS protocol involved the delivery of 2000 pulses/day at a frequency of 10 Hz, targeting the left PPC (P3 electrode sites) at 90% of the resting motor threshold. The primary outcome measure was the JFK Coma Recovery Scele-Revised (CRS-R), and evaluations were conducted blindly. EEG power spectrum assessments were also conducted simultaneously before and after each stage of the intervention.ResultrTMS-active treatment resulted in a significant improvement in the CRS-R total score (F = 8.443, p = 0.009) and the relative alpha power (F = 11.166, p = 0.004) compared to sham treatment. Furthermore, 8 out of 20 patients classified as rTMS responders showed improvement and evolved to a minimally conscious state (MCS) as a result of active rTMS. The relative alpha power also significantly improved in responders (F = 26.372, p = 0.002) but not in non-responders (F = 0.704, p = 0.421). No adverse effects related to rTMS were reported in the study.ConclusionsThis study suggests that 10 Hz rTMS over the left PPC can significantly improve functional recovery in unresponsive patients with DoC, with no reported side effects.Clinical trial registrationwww.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT05187000.

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Implicit mechanisms of intention

Cited by 20 publications

References 69 publications

Pupil dilations prior to freely timed actions reflect the reported timing of conscious intention

Pupil dilations prior to freely timed actions reflect the reported timing of conscious intention

Dopamine neurons encode trial-by-trial subjective reward value in an auction-like task

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the posterior parietal cortex improves functional recovery in nonresponsive patients: A crossover, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study

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