Theta-phase connectivity between medial prefrontal and posterior areas underlies novel instructions implementation

Formica, Silvia; González-García, Carlos; Senoussi, Mehdi; Marinazzo, Daniele; Braß, Marcel

doi:10.1101/2022.02.23.481594

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 104 publications

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“…Synchrony in low frequencies, such as theta, is thought to underlie long-range communication between brain regions during various cognitive processes (Formica et al, 2022;Solomon et al, 2017;Canolty & Knight., 2010), including attribution of mental states and intentions. For example, Bogels and colleagues (2015) found that mentalization was associated with increased synchrony in the theta band between right TPJ and ventral mPFC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theta Synchronization as a Neural Marker of flexible (re-)use of socio-cognitive mechanisms for a new category of (artificial) interaction partners

Parenti¹,

Navare²,

Marchesi³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Previous work shows that in some instances artificial agents, such as robots, can elicit higher-order socio-cognitive mechanisms, similar to those elicited by humans. This suggests that these socio-cognitive mechanisms, such as mentalizing processes, originally developed for interaction with other humans, might be flexibly (re-)used, or “hijacked”, for approaching this new category of interaction partners (Wykowska, 2020). In this study, we set out to identify neural markers of such flexible reuse of socio-cognitive mechanisms. We focused on fronto-parietal theta synchronization, as it has been proposed to be a substrate of cognitive flexibility in general (Fries, 2005). We analyzed EEG data from two experiments (Bossi et al., 2020; Roselli et al., submitted), in which participants completed a test measuring their individual likelihood to adopt the intentional stance towards robots, the intentional stance (IST) test. Our results show that participants with higher scores on the IST, indicating that they had higher likelihood of adopting the intentional stance towards a robot, had a significantly higher theta synchronization value, relative to participants with lower scores on the IST. These results suggest that long-range synchronization in the theta band might be a marker socio-cognitive process that can be flexibly applied towards non-human agents, such as robots.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theta Synchronization as a Neural Marker of flexible (re-)use of socio-cognitive mechanisms for a new category of (artificial) interaction partners

Parenti¹,

Navare²,

Marchesi³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Theta oscillations shift towards optimal frequency for cognitive control

et al. 2022

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Cognitive control is supported by theta band (4-7Hz) neural oscillations coordinating neural populations for task implementation. Task performance has been shown to depend on theta amplitude but a second critical aspect of theta oscillations, its peak frequency, has mostly been overlooked. Using modelling, behavioral and electrophysiological recordings, we show that theta oscillations adapt to task demands by shifting towards the optimal frequency..

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Selective influence of dopamine on electrocortical signatures of error monitoring: a combined EEG and immersive virtual reality study in Parkinson’s disease

Pezzetta

Ozkan

Era

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The saliency of detecting errors in one's own and other's actions is likely linked to the discrepancy between intended or expected and produced or observed output. Salient events seem related to dopamine, the balance of which is profoundly altered in Parkinson's disease (PD). EEG studies in healthy participants indicate that the occurrence of errors in observed actions triggers a variety of electrocortical indices (like mid-frontal theta activity and the Error Positivity, oPe), that seem to map different aspects of error detection and performance monitoring. Whether these indices are differently modulated by dopamine in the same individual has never been investigated. To explore this issue, we recorded EEG markers of error detection by asking healthy controls (HCs) and PD patients to observe ecological reach-to-grasp a glass actions performed by a virtual arm seen in first person perspective. PD patients were tested under their dopaminergic medication ('on-condition'), and after dopaminergic withdrawal ('off-condition'). HCs showed a clear oPe and an increase of theta power during the observation of erroneous vs. correct actions. In PD patients, oPe responses were always preserved. Crucially, however, an error-related increase of theta power was found in 'on' but not in 'off' state PD patients. Thus, different EEG error signatures may index the activity of independent systems and error-related theta power is selectively modulated by dopamine depletion. Our findings may pave the way to the discovery of dopamine-related biomarkers of higher-order motor cognition dysfunctions that may have crucial theoretical and applied implications.

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Theta-phase connectivity between medial prefrontal and posterior areas underlies novel instructions implementation

Cited by 3 publications

References 104 publications

Theta Synchronization as a Neural Marker of flexible (re-)use of socio-cognitive mechanisms for a new category of (artificial) interaction partners

Theta Synchronization as a Neural Marker of flexible (re-)use of socio-cognitive mechanisms for a new category of (artificial) interaction partners

Theta oscillations shift towards optimal frequency for cognitive control

Selective influence of dopamine on electrocortical signatures of error monitoring: a combined EEG and immersive virtual reality study in Parkinson’s disease

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