Information processing behavior: the role of irrelevant stimulus information.
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Behavior↗
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Effects of abstinence and smoking on information processing in adolescent smokers.
RATIONALE: Although adolescent smokers appear to display some of the hallmark features of dependence, the biological and behavioral effects of smoking in this population are poorly understood. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to define empirically the effects of abstinence and smoking in adolescent smokers, using indices validated in adult smokers. METHODS: Subjects were 16 young novice smokers (five male, 11 female), ages 14-18 years. A modified Stroop task measured the ability to inhibit attention to smoking-related cues; the classic Stroop task measured the ability to inhibit a pre-potent response (i.e. reading a word); a rapid information processing (RIP) task measured vigilance. RESULTS: Abstinence increased and smoking decreased the intrusiveness of smoking cues. Parallel effects were seen in commission errors on the RIP task. These effects were restricted to heavier smokers (>11 cigarettes/day). Subjective withdrawal effects predicted the intrusiveness of smoking words during abstinence. The number of cigarettes smoked per day predicted the beneficial effect of smoking on the classic as well as modified Stroop tasks. The physiological effects of abstinence and smoking predicted RIP performance. CONCLUSIONS: Abstinence impairs and smoking improves inhibitory information processing in young novice smokers in a manner similar to adult smokers. Daily frequency of smoking is a critical moderator of these effects.
Adolescent↗
Emotional and semantic priming as a measure of information processing in young people with school refusal: a research note.
We investigated semantic and emotional priming of lexical decision-making in 20 school refusers and 20 attenders aged 11-16 years, matched for sex and reading ability. We hypothesised that: semantic and emotional priming would be demonstrable in both samples; and that the school refusers would show emotional priming of school-related words to aversive primes. Both samples showed semantic priming; emotional priming was shown by the attenders and 11 school refusers without a history of depression. School-refusing children did not show emotional priming for school-related words. Nine school-refusing children with either current or past depression showed a general reduction in their priming. These results show that both semantic and emotional priming can be detected in this age-range. They do not support school refusal being typically associated with anxiety about school. The reduction in priming in those with a depressive history is similar to inhibition in information processing in depressed adults. Priming is therefore sensitive to at least some psychiatrically relevant states or traits in this age-range. It is concluded that priming could be a useful measure of information processing in this age-group, and further research is warranted.
Adolescent↗
Stochastic resonance and sensory information processing: a tutorial and review of application.
OBJECTIVE: To review the stochastic resonance phenomena observed in sensory systems and to describe how a random process ('noise') added to a subthreshold stimulus can enhance sensory information processing and perception. RESULTS: Nonlinear systems need a threshold, subthreshold information bearing stimulus and 'noise' for stochastic resonance phenomena to occur. These three ingredients are ubiquitous in nature and man-made systems, which accounts for the observation of stochastic resonance in fields and conditions ranging from physics and engineering to biology and medicine. The stochastic resonance paradigm is compatible with single-neuron models or synaptic and channels properties and applies to neuronal assemblies activated by sensory inputs and perceptual processes as well. Here we review a few of the landmark experiments (including psychophysics, electrophysiology, fMRI, human vision, hearing and tactile functions, animal behavior, single/multiunit activity recordings). Models and experiments show a peculiar consistency with known neuronal and brain physiology. A number of naturally occurring 'noise' sources in the brain (e.g. synaptic transmission, channel gating, ion concentrations, membrane conductance) possibly accounting for stochastic resonance phenomena are also reviewed. Evidence is given suggesting a possible role of stochastic resonance in brain function, including detection of weak signals, synchronization and coherence among neuronal assemblies, phase resetting, 'carrier' signals, animal avoidance and feeding behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Stochastic resonance is a ubiquitous and conspicuous phenomenon compatible with neural models and theories of brain function. The available evidence suggests cautious interpretation, but justifies research and should encourage neuroscientists and clinical neurophysiologists to explore stochastic resonance in biology and medical science.
Animals↗
Effects of haloperidol on recall and information processing in verbal and spatial learning.
1. Normal male subjects were tested with either a multi-trial word list learning test or a spatial analogue prior to administration of either 4 mg. or 10 mg. of oral haloperidol. Six hours after drug administration subjects who had previously received the verbal test were administered the spatial test, and vice versa, so for each test there was a no-drug control group, a group tested after receiving 4 mg. of haloperidol, and a group tested after a 10 mg. dose. 2. Both the verbal and spatial learning tests yield multidimensional measures of components of memory and learning, including measures sensitive to effort-demanding and more automatic information processing operations. 3. Results showed no differences for either test among the pre-drug control group and the 4 mg. and 10 mg. groups, with only one minor exception. 4. The lack of significant results cannot be attributed to insensitivity of the test instruments used, since previous studies have documented sensitivity to a number of clinical conditions and to aging. 5. Results have implications regarding clinical effects of haloperidol. A theory that links dopaminergic functioning with effortful information processing underlying memory and learning was not supported.
Adult↗
Interruptions improve choice performance in gray jays: prolonged information processing versus minimization of costly errors.
Under the assumption that selection favors minimization of costly errors, erroneous choice may be common when its fitness cost is low. According to an adaptive-choice model, this cost depends on the rate at which an animal encounters the choice: the higher this rate, the smaller the cost of choosing a less valuable option. Errors should thus be more common when interruptions to foraging are shorter. A previous experiment supported this prediction: gray jays, Perisoreus canadensis, were more error prone when subjected to shorter delays to access to food rewards. This pattern, though, is also predicted by an attentional-constraints model. Because the subjects were able to inspect the rewards during delays, their improved performance when subjected to longer delays could have been a byproduct of the experimentally prolonged opportunity for information processing. To evaluate this possibility, a follow-up experiment manipulated both delay to access and whether rewards could be inspected during delays. Depriving jays of the opportunity to inspect rewards (using opaque lids) induced only a small, nonsignificant increase in error rate. This effect was independent of length of delay and so the jays' improved performance when subjected to longer delays was not simply a byproduct of prolonged information processing. More definitively, even when the jays were prevented from inspecting rewards during delays, their performance improved when subjected to longer delays. The findings are thus consistent with the adaptive-choice model.
Animals↗
Tolcapone improves cognition and cortical information processing in normal human subjects.
Prefrontal cortical dopamine (DA) regulates various executive cognitive functions, including attention and working memory. Efforts to enhance prefrontal-related cognition, which have focused on catecholaminergic stimulant drugs, have been unsatisfactory. Recently, the demonstration that a functional polymorphism in the catecholamine-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene impacts prefrontal cognition raises the possibility of a novel pharmacological approach for the treatment of prefrontal lobe executive dysfunction. To explore in a proof of concept study the effects of tolcapone, a CNS penetrant specific COMT inhibitor, we performed a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, and crossover design of this drug in normal subjects stratified by COMT (val158met) genotype. COMT enzyme activity was determined in peripheral blood. Forty-seven normal volunteers with no family history of psychiatric disorders underwent neuropsychological testing and 34 of those subjects underwent physiological measurement of prefrontal information processing assessed by blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We found significant drug effects on measures of executive function and verbal episodic memory and a significant drug by genotype interaction on the latter, such that individuals with val/val genotypes improved, whereas individuals with met/met genotypes worsened on tolcapone. fMRI revealed a significant tolcapone-induced improvement in the efficiency of information processing in prefrontal cortex during a working memory test. This study demonstrates enhancement of prefrontal cortical function in normal human subjects with a nonstimulant drug having COMT inhibitory activity. Our results are consistent with data from animal studies and from computational models of the effects of selective enhancement of DA signaling in the prefrontal cortex.
Adult↗
Effects of hemispheric laterality on color-information processing.
This study investigated the interaction between hemispheric laterality and recognition memory for pictures presented in three different color modes: realistic, nonrealistic, and monochrome (black and white). Stimulus materials were 180 scenic slides (120 stimulus and 60 distractor) produced in three color modes. Materials were presented to a group of 26 graduate volunteers via the list learning procedure for a duration of 500 msec. each. During one-half of the materials an arithmetic masking task was performed to inhibit left-hemisphere processing. Signal-detection parameters, compared in a 2 x 3 repeated-measures design, produced significant interactions for the probability of hits, error, and d' measures. Post hoc tests indicated significantly higher hit probability and d' scores for nonrealistic color and higher error rates for realistic color under the right localized condition. Findings suggest that color processing is bilocational, realistic information is processed more deeply than nonrealistic, and nonrealistic color supplies unique color codes for storage and retrieval.
Adult↗
The possible role of spike patterns in cortical information processing.
When the same visual stimulus is presented across many trials, neurons in the visual cortex receive stimulus-related synaptic inputs that are reproducible across trials (S) and inputs that are not (N). The variability of spike trains recorded in the visual cortex and their apparent lack of spike-to-spike correlations beyond that implied by firing rate fluctuations, has been taken as evidence for a low S/N ratio. A recent re-analysis of in vivo cortical data revealed evidence for spike-to-spike correlations in the form of spike patterns. We examine neural dynamics at a higher S/N in order to determine what possible role spike patterns could play in cortical information processing. In vivo-like spike patterns were obtained in model simulations. Superpositions of multiple sinusoidal driving currents were especially effective in producing stable long-lasting patterns. By applying current pulses that were either short and strong or long and weak, neurons could be made to switch from one pattern to another. Cortical neurons with similar stimulus preferences are located near each other, have similar biophysical properties and receive a large number of common synaptic inputs. Hence, recordings of a single neuron across multiple trials are usually interpreted as the response of an ensemble of these neurons during one trial. In the presence of distinct spike patterns across trials there is ambiguity in what would be the corresponding ensemble, it could consist of the same spike pattern for each neuron or a set of patterns across neurons. We found that the spiking response of a neuron receiving these ensemble inputs was determined by the spike-pattern composition, which, in turn, could be modulated dynamically as a means for cortical information processing.
Action Potentials↗
[Character of proprioceptive information processing during learning in rats chronically intoxicated with alcohol].
A conditioned alimentary reflex was elaborated in rats placed into K-shaped maze after 8 months of intoxication with 35 degrees alcohol. The most important changes in experimental animals, as compared to intact ones, were revealed in the character of processing of proprioceptive information coming to the brain during learning. It was found that in the animals temporal relations between the processes of analysis and synthesis and the fixation of memory trace changed. Unlike intact animals, in "alcoholic" ones the new proprioceptive information as related to the previous experience was fixed in the long-term memory and only afterwards underwent analytic and synthetic processing. It is suggested that learning was not in enlarging the information capacity of each singled-out motor unit of full decision, but in their combination into one and only one decision.
Alcoholism↗
Information processing speed deficits may be better correlated with the extent of white matter sclerotic lesions in multiple sclerosis than previously suspected.
Despite frequent use of the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT; Gronwall, 1977) for examining information processing speed (IPS) deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS), prior literature on the relationship between PASAT performance and severity of brain disease has been contradictory. In the present study, we found that PASAT performance is moderately well correlated with the total area of sclerotic brain lesions in MS patients only if a modified scoring method (mean "dyad" score; Snyder et al., 1993), but not the standard scoring method, is applied. We conclude that the PASAT remains a useful measure of IPS in MS, if a flaw in the typical scoring technique for this test is corrected. In our sample of 41 MS patients, for every one point decrease in mean dyad score, total lesion area increased by 364.08 mm2 on average, after controlling for age, sex, and education. IPS deficits are more severe for patients with greater brain disease, due to increased disruption of the white matter pathways that likely support the parallel distributed processing of complex information by geographically distant brain regions.
Adult↗
Quantum information processing with atoms and photons.
Quantum information processors exploit the quantum features of superposition and entanglement for applications not possible in classical devices, offering the potential for significant improvements in the communication and processing of information. Experimental realization of large-scale quantum information processors remains a long-term vision, as the required nearly pure quantum behaviour is observed only in exotic hardware such as individual laser-cooled atoms and isolated photons. But recent theoretical and experimental advances suggest that cold atoms and individual photons may lead the way towards bigger and better quantum information processors, effectively building mesoscopic versions of 'Schrödinger's cat' from the bottom up.
Journal Article↗
Directed forgetting deficits in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy: an information processing perspective.
Although mesial temporal lobe brain damage is frequently associated with memory loss, it is unclear whether the deficit results entirely from a disruption in the processing of relevant information or whether it also reflects interference from irrelevant information. Directed forgetting is one procedure that can be used, along with standard tests of memory, to investigate this distinction. Seventeen patients with a diagnosis of complex-partial seizures of temporal lobe origin and 17 healthy volunteers were compared on lexical decision, free recall, and recognition tests in a directed-forgetting paradigm. These tests created a memory profile to measure the influence of task relevant and irrelevant information in implicit and explicit memory. Compared with healthy volunteers, the patients were significantly impaired on the memory tasks overall [F(5,25) = 5.01, p < .01]. Specifically, directed forgetting in lexical decision and recognition both discriminated between the groups [stepdown F(1,26) = 6.84, eta 2 = .26, p < .05 and stepdown F(1,25) = 5.36, eta 2 = .13, p < .05, respectively]. The results suggest that interictal memory performance in temporal lobe epilepsy may be disrupted in part because of a deficit in the differential processing of task relevant and task irrelevant information, particularly at retrieval.
Adolescent↗
Information processing in healthcare at the start of the third Millennium: potential and limitations.
The 21st century is said to be a century of the information society. We should be aware that continuing progress in information processing methodology (IPM) and information and communication technology (ICT) is changing our societies, including medicine and health care. At the start of the third Millennium we should ask ourselves, what progress can we expect from modern IPM/ICT for healthcare in the coming decade, what concerns does the information society have to face, and what steps have to be taken. These questions were addressed by clinicians, researchers and industrial representatives in a panel discussion at the joint conference ISCB-GMDS-99 of the International Society of Clinical Biostatistics and the German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology. Important aspects raised by the panelists and in the subsequent discussion were: (1) the main goal of expanding IPM/ICT should be to further improve quality of care, while maintaining reasonable costs; (2) with the support of modern IPM and ICT the boundaries between inpatient and outpatient care will fade away enabling a more efficient, patient-centered health care; (3) cooperation between health-care professionals will increase; there will be different ways of communication between them and with the patient, including modern ICT and the Internet; (4) society must be concerned with achieving equal opportunities in being informed about and in using new ICT; (5) misuse of data will remain a serious problem and can become an obstacle to progress.
Biometry↗
Information processing in children with minor neurological dysfunction: behavioural and neurophysiological indices.
Minor neurological dysfunction (MND) refers to deviant function of the central nervous system in the absence of localizable neurological disorders. Children with no signs (n = 28) and with varying grades of MND (n = 48), classified according to failure on circumscript neurological subsystems, were administered selective and sustained attention tasks at the age of twelve. During the execution of one of the tasks, electrocortical activity of the brain was recorded at the Fz, Cz, Pz and Oz scalp locations. Of main interest were behavioural and electrophysiological indices of deficits in attentional control. With respect to the latter category, the investigation was focused on differences in event-related potential amplitudes reflecting subprocesses of cognitive processing (processing negativity, P300). Following a linear stage model of information processing, it was found that children who failed on three or more neurological subsystems (in particular on fine manipulation and coordination), exhibited deficits in the encoding, search and decision stages of processing. Furthermore, the children with MND showed a reduced positive parietal shift on target presentation. Under complex task conditions, children without MND showed a decrease in P300 amplitude which reflects the impact of processing negativity as a result of increased task demands; this effect was absent in children with MND. These electrocortical differences suggest imbalances in the external and internal neural regulation of the flow of information in the brain.
Attention↗
On peripheral and central processes in vision: inferences from an information-processing analysis of masking with patterned stimuli.
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Form Perception↗
Sensory information processing during general anaesthesia: effect of isoflurane on auditory evoked neuronal oscillations.
There is evidence from neuropsychological and psychophysical measurements that sensory information is processed in discrete time segments. The segmentation process may be described as neuronal oscillation at a frequency of 30-40 Hz. Stimulus-induced neuronal oscillations of this frequency are found in the middle latency range of the auditory evoked potential (AEP). We have studied the effect of different end-tidal concentrations of isoflurane on auditory evoked 30-40 Hz neuronal oscillations. We studied 13 patients undergoing intra-abdominal urological and gynaecological procedures. AEP were recorded in the awake state and during end-expiratory steady state isoflurane concentrations of 0.3, 0.6 and 1.2 vol%. These incremental doses of isoflurane caused a stepwise decrease in frequency of oscillations. The decrease in oscillation frequency and sometimes the disappearance of oscillatory components may be interpreted as suppression of sensory information processing. The measurement of auditory evoked neuronal oscillations in the AEP appears to be a promising tool to monitor both sensory information processing capacity and depth of anaesthesia.
Adult↗
Information processing in the primate visual system: an integrated systems perspective.
The primate visual system contains dozens of distinct areas in the cerebral cortex and several major subcortical structures. These subdivisions are extensively interconnected in a distributed hierarchical network that contains several intertwined processing streams. A number of strategies are used for efficient information processing within this hierarchy. These include linear and nonlinear filtering, passage through information bottlenecks, and coordinated use of multiple types of information. In addition, dynamic regulation of information flow within and between visual areas may provide the computational flexibility needed for the visual system to perform a broad spectrum of tasks accurately and at high resolution.
Animals↗