Biology subjects

Cabral-Calderin, Y.

Publications and source records attributed to Cabral-Calderin, Y..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Superiority of Rhythmic Auditory Signals over Electrical Stimulation to Entrain Behavior

Neural tracking (entrainment) of auditory rhythms enhances perception. We previously demonstrated that transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can enhance or suppress entrainment to rhythmic auditory stimuli, depending on the timing between the electrical and auditory signals, although tACS effects are primarily modulatory. This study further investigated entrainment to tACS and auditory rhythms when the electrical and auditory signals were presented together (Experiment 1, N = 34) or independently (Experiment 2, N = 24; Experiment 3, N = 12). We hypothesized that tACS effects would be more pronounced when the auditory rhythm was made less perceptually salient to reduce the competition with the electrical rhythm. Participants detected silent gaps in modulated or unmodulated noise stimuli. In Experiment 1, auditory stimuli predominated in entraining behavior. While behavioral entrainment to sound rhythms was affected by the modulation depth of the auditory stimulus, entrainment to tACS was not. In Experiment 2, with no rhythmic information from the sound, 16 of 24 participants showed significant behavioral entrainment to tACS, although the most effective tACS frequency varied across participants. An oscillator model with a free parameter for the individual resonance frequency produced profiles similar to those we observed behaviorally. In Experiment 3, both neural and behavioral entrainment to rhythmic sounds were affected by the auditory stimulus frequency, but again the most effective entraining frequency varied across participants. Our findings suggest that tACS effects depend on the individuals preferred frequency when there is no competition with sensory stimuli, emphasizing the importance of targeting individual frequencies in tACS experiments. When both sensory and electrical stimuli are rhythmic and compete, sensory stimuli prevail, indicating the superiority of sensory stimulation in modulating behavior.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Understanding the neural mechanisms of emotion-cognition interaction via high resolution mapping in space, time, frequency, and information transfer

Interactions between emotional and cognitive processing play a critical role in determining human behavior. The ability to efficiently control these interactions is essential for goal-directed behavior. Previous research on emotion-cognition interaction in humans has primarily focused on its neural topography using techniques with either low temporal resolution (fMRI) or low spatial resolution (ERP), leaving the underlying neuronal mechanisms and their behavioral implications poorly understood. Here, we used EEG recordings from a large cohort of human participants (N=121) and employed source-reconstruction with finite-element head modeling during an emotional Flanker task. Our findings reveal a neural interaction between emotional interference and cognitive control within the pars triangularis of the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG). These results align spatially and conceptually with meta-analytic evidence from fMRI studies on interference inhibition processes, supporting the idea that the rIFG is crucial for interference inhibition, regardless of the interfering information type. Notably, the neural interaction between emotion and cognition in the rIFG was transient, peaking during the transition from emotional to cognitive processing, and was most pronounced in the beta-frequency band. Furthermore, conditional Granger-causality analysis of information flow indicated that the pars triangularis of the rIFG communicated with other functional subdivisions of the rIFG and parieto-occipital areas (such as the Precuneus and V2) in a frequency-specific manner. This information flow predicted individual emotional and cognitive interference effects on behavior. Overall, our findings highlight the functional and temporal segregation and integration of emotion, cognition, and their interaction in the rIFG. Furthermore, rIFGs top-down modulation of visuo-attentional areas, ultimately shaping behavioral performance, underscores the importance of stimulus interference inhibition for emotion-cognition interaction. Author summaryUnderstanding the interplay between emotion and cognition is crucial for understanding human behavior. Our study investigates the role of transient oscillatory activity using source-localized EEG in a large cohort. We identify a spatial overlap of the interaction of emotion and cognition processing in the rIFGs pars triangularis, aligning closely with localizations indicated by meta-analytic fMRI evidence. This interaction, primarily in the beta-frequency (around 20Hz) band, is transient, peaking during the shift from emotional to cognitive processing. Granger-causality analysis reveals frequency-specific communication patterns within the rIFG and parieto-occipital areas, predicting individual emotional and cognitive interference effects. Our findings elucidate the functional and temporal dynamics of emotion-cognition interaction within the rIFG, providing insights into the nuanced neural processes shaping human behavior.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Modulating behavioral signatures of rhythmic auditory entrainment with tACS

Synchronization between auditory stimuli and brain rhythms is beneficial for perception. In principle, auditory perception could be improved by facilitating neural entrainment to sounds via brain stimulation. However, high inter-individual variability of brain stimulation effects questions the usefulness of this approach. Here we aimed to modulate auditory perception by modulating neural entrainment to frequency modulated (FM) sounds using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). In addition, we evaluated the advantage of using tACS montages spatially optimized for each individuals anatomy and functional data compared to a standard montage applied to all participants. Across two different sessions, 2-Hz tACS was applied targeting auditory brain regions. Concurrent with tACS, participants listened to FM stimuli with modulation rate matching the tACS frequency but with different phase lags relative to the tACS, and detected silent gaps embedded in the FM sound. We observed that tACS modulated the strength of behavioral entrainment to the FM sound in a phase-lag specific manner. Both the optimal tACS lag and the magnitude of the tACS effect were variable across participants and sessions. Inter-individual variability of tACS effects was best explained by the strength of the inward electric field, depending on the field focality and proximity to the target brain region. Although additional evidence is necessary, our results also provided suggestive insights that spatially optimizing the electrode montage could be a promising tool to reduce inter-individual variability of tACS effects. This work demonstrates that tACS effectively modulates entrainment to sounds depending on the optimality of the electric field. However, the lack of reliability on optimal tACS lags calls for caution when planning tACS experiments based on separate sessions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Dynamic cortico-cortical information transfer regimes during vocalization

The mammalian frontal and auditory cortices are important for vocal behaviour. Here, using local field potential recordings, we demonstrate for the first time that the timing and spatial pattern of oscillations in the fronto-auditory cortical network of vocalizing bats (Carollia perspicillata) predict the purpose of vocalization: echolocation or communication. Transfer entropy analyses revealed predominantly top-down (frontal-to-auditory cortex) information flow during spontaneous activity and pre-vocal periods. The dynamics of information flow depended on the behavioural role of the vocalization and on the timing relative to vocal onset. Remarkably, we observed the emergence of predominantly bottom-up (auditory-to-frontal cortex) information transfer patterns specific echolocation production, leading to self-directed acoustic feedback. Electrical stimulation of frontal areas selectively enhanced responses to echolocation sounds in auditory cortex. These results reveal unique changes in information flow across sensory and frontal cortices, potentially driven by the purpose of the vocalization in a highly vocal mammalian model.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Test-retest reliability of neural entrainment in the human auditory system

Auditory stimuli are often rhythmic in nature. Brain activity synchronizes with auditory rhythms via neural entrainment, and entrainment seems to be beneficial for auditory perception. However, it is not clear to what extent neural entrainment in the auditory system is reliable over time - a necessary prerequisite for targeted intervention. The current study aimed to establish the reliability of neural entrainment over time and to predict individual differences in auditory perception from associated neural activity. Across two different sessions, human listeners detected silent gaps presented at different phase locations of a 2-Hz frequency modulated (FM) noise while EEG activity was recorded. As expected, neural activity was entrained by the 2-Hz FM noise. Moreover, gap detection was sinusoidally modulated by the phase of the 2-Hz FM into which the gap fell. Critically, both the strength of neural entrainment as well as the modulation of performance by the stimulus rhythm were highly reliable over sessions. Moreover, gap detection was predictable from pre-gap neural 2-Hz phase and alpha amplitude. Our results demonstrate that neural entrainment in the auditory system and the resulting behavioral modulation are reliable over time, and that both entrained delta and non-entrained alpha oscillatory activity contribute to near-threshold stimulus perception. The latter suggests that improving auditory perception might require simultaneously targeting entrained brain rhythms as well as the alpha rhythm.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Phase-amplitude coupling profiles differ in frontal and auditory cortices

Neural oscillations are at the core of important computations in the mammalian brain. Interactions between oscillatory activities in different frequency bands, such as delta (1-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), or gamma (>30 Hz), are a powerful mechanism for binding fundamentally distinct spatiotemporal scales of neural processing. Phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) is one such plausible and well-described interaction, but much is yet to be uncovered regarding how PAC dynamics contribute to sensory representations. In particular, although PAC appears to have a major role in audition, the characteristics of coupling profiles in sensory and integration (i.e. frontal) cortical areas remain obscure. Here, we address this question by studying PAC dynamics in the frontal-auditory field (FAF; an auditory area in the bat frontal cortex) and the auditory cortex (AC) of the bat Carollia perspicillata. By means of simultaneous electrophysiological recordings in frontal and auditory cortices examining local-field potentials (LFPs), we show that the amplitude of gamma-band activity couples with the phase of low-frequency LFPs in both structures. Our results demonstrate that the coupling in FAF occurs most prominently in delta/high-gamma frequencies (1-4/75-100 Hz), whereas in the AC the coupling is strongest in the theta/low-gamma (2-8/25-55 Hz) range. We argue that distinct PAC profiles may represent different mechanisms for neuronal processing in frontal and auditory cortices, and might complement oscillatory interactions for sensory processing in the frontal-auditory cortex network.

neuroscience↗