Recent ucm_ssha_cogsci_oapdeposits items

Coupling of Rhythms in Prefrontal Cortex and Autonomic Nervous System in School‐Age Children

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Self-regulation is a neuroregulatory process driven by function in both the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Although many investigations have explored the role of these systems in self-regulation independently, little work has examined how they cooperate across contexts, limiting the understanding of neurophysiological substrates of self-regulation. In a sample of 55 children (M_age = 5.85, SD = 0.80), the present study examined the coordination of cardiac and neural signals during rest and a mildly stressful task. Paired-samples t-tests confirmed that the stressor elicited increases in heart rate (HR) and decreases in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), while correlations indicated stability in individual differences across phases. Wavelet transform coherence assessed coupling of dlPFC signals with HR and RSA. HR- and RSA-dlPFC coupling was observed in both contexts, but timescales of significant coupling varied across contexts,...

Roles of mathematics-related psychological factors in STEM sense of belonging and identity: a structural equation modeling analysis

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

BackgroundThe progression and retention of students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines are influenced by their performance in calculus courses, particularly among underrepresented minoritized (URM) and first-generation college students. Research stresses the importance of addressing psychosocial factors to bolster resilience, persistence, and positive self-concepts in STEM disciplines. Despite extensive research in this area, understanding of how mathematics-related psychological factors (e.g., math interest, self-concept, and anxiety) shape STEM sense of belonging and STEM identity remains limited. Interest in STEM is recognized as necessary for engaging individuals in STEM learning and careers, while self-concept and anxiety play significant roles in shaping students’ engagement and performance in STEM fields. Taking data from a larger college calculus, reform project, this study utilizes Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the degree...

Parent Reports Versus Objective Behavioral Measures in Pediatric Sleep‐Disordered Breathing

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Objectives: To determine the association between parent-reported problem behaviors and objectively measured response inhibition in children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Understanding this concordance could facilitate better clinical decision-making, as parent reports often guide treatment decisions despite unclear relationships with objective behavioral measures. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary care pediatric otolaryngology clinic from 1/1/24-12/1/2024. Children aged 5-11 years with SDB symptoms were included, while those with clinically significant psychiatric or neurologic disorders were excluded. Parent-reported problem behaviors were measured using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), with the inhibit T-score as the primary predictor. The primary outcome was performance on the Flanker Test of Inhibitory Control and Attention, which measures response suppression to irrelevant stimuli while maintaining...

Assessing Executive Function in Pediatric Sleep‐Disordered Breathing Using Functional Neuroimaging

Wed, 3 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVE: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) affects 10% of children and is associated with poor academic performance related to inattention and executive dysfunction. Yet, the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood, especially in elementary school-aged children who cannot sit still for functional magnetic resonance imaging. This study examines the feasibility of using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a child-friendly neuroimaging tool, to assess prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation in children with SDB. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective observational study between January and November 2024. SETTING: Tertiary care academic children's hospital. METHODS: We assessed 78 children aged 5 to 11 referred for management of clinically significant SDB. Participants completed a Go/No-Go task measuring response inhibition while undergoing fNIRS recording of PFC activity. Parent-reported SDB symptom burden was assessed using the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire Sleep-Related...

Developmental alterations in brain network asymmetry in 3- to 9-month infants with congenital sensorineural hearing loss

Wed, 3 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Auditory exposure plays a crucial role in shaping brain development, but little is known about whether and how an initial lack of auditory exposure might disrupt the development of functional network lateralization. We addressed this issue by acquiring functional near-infrared spectroscopy data from infants aged 3 to 9 months with congenital sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). The SNHL infants showed efficient small-world characteristics within each hemisphere. However, unlike typically developing controls, who showed an age-related leftward lateralization of network efficiencies, SNHL infants did not exhibit the emergence of hemispheric asymmetry. Intriguingly, lateralization of frontal efficiency was preserved in SNHL infants with mild hearing loss but declined significantly with increasing severity of hearing impairment. These findings suggest that even SNHL infants with some residual hearing experience disruption in the development of functional lateralization. This underscores...

Investigating Hemodynamic Patterns During Beat Processing in Cochlear Implant Users: Insights from a Finger Tapping Study

Wed, 3 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction: Individuals with cochlear implants often struggle with melody and timbre perception in music, leading to diminished music appreciation. While they demonstrate proficiency in recognizing beat and rhythm, it remains unclear whether beat information is processed similarly in their brains compared to those with normal hearing. Methods: In this study, adapted from Rahimpour et al. (2020), both cochlear implant users and normal hearing listeners engaged in finger tapping tasks that synchronized or syncopated with isochronous beats. Participants were asked to align their taps with an auditory metronome (pacing) and then maintain tapping pace after the metronome attenuation (continuation). Hemodynamic responses were recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during tapping. Results: Results revealed comparable performance between cochlear implant users and normal hearing listeners in the finger tapping task, with both groups finding the syncopated continuation...

Dynamics of Behavior Change in the COVID World

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

All of the policies adopted or proposed so far to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus require immediate and extensive behavioral change. However, even when the benefit of the behavior change is supported by solid science, actually changing behavior is difficult. Doing so effectively requires an appreciation for how people learn behaviors, and translate information into action. Insights from the evolutionary human sciences can improve the behavioral change toolkit for researchers and policy makers. Specifically, effective behavior change policy should be based on an understanding of humans as a cultural and cooperative species. Socially transmitted information and culturally-informed motivations shape behavior change. The structure of social networks and how group identities map onto those networks in turn influence transmission dynamics. Information can spread from person to person, similar to the way diseases spread. Just as with disease, the epidemiology of information...

What Paradigms Can Webcam Eye-Tracking Be Used For? Attempted Replications of Five Cognitive Science Experiments

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Web-based data collection allows researchers to recruit large and diverse samples with fewer resources than lab-based studies require. Recent innovations have expanded the set of methodolgies that are possible online, but ongoing work is needed to test the suitability of web-based tools for various research paradigms. Here, we focus on webcam-based eye-tracking; we tested whether the results of five different eye-tracking experiments in the cognitive psychology literature would replicate in a webcam-based format. Specifically, we carried out five experiments by integrating two javascript-based tools: jsPsych and a modified version of Webgazer.js. In order to represent a wide range of applications of eye-tracking to cognitive psychology, we chose two psycholinguistic experiments, two memory experiments, and a decision-making experiment. These studies also varied in the type of eye-tracking display, including screens split into halves (Exps. 3 and 5) or quadrants (Exps. 2 and 4),...

Information architectures: a framework for understanding socio-technical systems

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A sequence of technological inventions over several centuries has dramatically lowered the cost of producing and distributing information. Because societies ride on a substrate of information, these changes have profoundly impacted how we live, work, and interact. This paper explores the nature of information architectures (IAs)—the features that govern how information flows within human populations. IAs include physical and digital infrastructures, norms and institutions, and algorithmic technologies for filtering, producing, and disseminating information. IAs can reinforce societal biases and lead to prosocial outcomes as well as social ills. IAs have culturally evolved rapidly with human usage, creating new affordances and new problems for the dynamics of social interaction. We explore societal outcomes instigated by shifts in IAs and call for an enhanced understanding of the social implications of increasing IA complexity, the nature of competition among IAs, and the creation...

Cross‐Situational Statistics Present in an Early Language Learning Context: Evidence From Naturalistic Parent–Child Interactions

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

According to the cross-situational learning account, infants aggregate statistical information from multiple parent naming events to resolve ambiguous word-referent mappings within individual naming events. While previous experimental studies have shown that infant and adult learners can build correct mappings based on statistical regularities encoded in multiple learning situations in an experiment, other studies that use more naturalistic stimuli (e.g., real-world video) reveal poor performance in adults' ability to infer the correct referent. Based on those results derived from more naturalistic stimuli, the cross-situational learning solution cannot be useful to solve the mapping problem in the real world because cross-situational statistics from the real world are much more ambiguous than those created in experimental studies. To examine the feasibility of cross-situational learning in everyday contexts, the present study aims to quantify visual-audio statistics from one...

Least Effort and Alignment in Task‐Oriented Communication

Thu, 8 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Conversational partners align the meanings of their words over the course of interaction to coordinate and communicate. One process of alignment is lexical entrainment, whereby partners mirror and abbreviate their word usage to converge on shared terms for referents relevant to the conversation. However, lexical entrainment may result in inefficient mimicry that does not add new information, suggesting that task-oriented communication may favor alignment through other means. The present study investigates the process of alignment in Danish conversations in which dyads learned to categorize unfamiliar "aliens" using trial-and-error feedback. Performance improved as dyad communication became less verbose, measured as a decrease in the entropy of word usage. Word usage also diverged between partners as measured by Jensen-Shannon Divergence, which indicates that alignment was not achieved through lexical entrainment. A computational model of dyadic communication is shown to account...

The cultural evolution of distortion in music (and other norms of mixed appeal)

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Music traditions worldwide are subject to remarkable diversity but the origins of this variation are not well understood. Musical behaviour is the product of a multicomponent collection of abilities, some possibly evolved for music but most derived from traits serving nonmusical functions. Cultural evolution has stitched together these systems, generating variable normative practices across cultures and musical genres. Here, we describe the cultural evolution of musical distortion, a noisy manipulation of instrumental and vocal timbre that emulates nonlinear phenomena (NLP) present in the vocal signals of many animals. We suggest that listeners' sensitivity to NLP has facilitated technological developments for altering musical instruments and singing with distortion, which continues to evolve culturally via the need for groups to both coordinate internally and differentiate themselves from other groups. To support this idea, we present an agent-based model of norm evolution illustrating...

The evolution of similarity-biased social learning

Wed, 2 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Humans often learn preferentially from ingroup members who share a social identity affiliation, while ignoring or rejecting information when it comes from someone perceived to be from an outgroup. This sort of bias has well-known negative consequences - exacerbating cultural divides, polarization, and conflict - while reducing the information available to learners. Why does it persist? Using evolutionary simulations, we demonstrate that similarity-biased social learning (also called parochial social learning) is adaptive when (1) individual learning is error-prone and (2) sufficient diversity inhibits the efficacy of social learning that ignores identity signals, as long as (3) those signals are sufficiently reliable indicators of adaptive behaviour. We further show that our results are robust to considerations of other social learning strategies, focusing on conformist and pay-off-biased transmission. We conclude by discussing the consequences of our analyses for understanding...

Influence of cognitive demand and auditory noise on postural dynamics

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The control of human balance involves an interaction between the human motor, cognitive, and sensory systems. The dynamics of this interaction are yet to be fully understood, however, work has shown the performance of cognitive tasks to have a hampering effect on motor performance, while additive sensory noise to have a beneficial effect. The current study aims to examine whether postural control will be impacted by a concurrent working memory task, and similarly, if additive noise can counteract the expected negative influence of the added cognitive demand. Postural sway of healthy young adults was collected during the performance of a modified N-back task with varying difficulty, in the presence and absence of auditory noise. Our results show a reduction in postural stability scaled to the difficulty of the cognitive task, but this effect is less prominent in the presence of additive noise. Additionally, by separating postural sway into different frequency bands, typically used...

Noisy-channel language comprehension in aphasia: A Bayesian mixture modeling approach

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Individuals with “agrammatic” receptive aphasia have long been known to rely on semantic plausibility rather than syntactic cues when interpreting sentences. In contrast to early interpretations of this pattern as indicative of a deficit in syntactic knowledge, a recent proposal views agrammatic comprehension as a case of “noisy-channel” language processing with an increased expectation of noise in the input relative to healthy adults. Here, we investigate the nature of the noise model in aphasia and whether it is adapted to the statistics of the environment. We first replicate findings that a) healthy adults (N = 40) make inferences about the intended meaning of a sentence by weighing the prior probability of an intended sentence against the likelihood of a noise corruption and b) their estimate of the probability of noise increases when there are more errors in the input (manipulated via exposure sentences). We then extend prior findings that adults with chronic post-stroke...

The contribution of learning and memory processes to verb-specific syntactic processing

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The contribution of learning and memory processes to verb-specific syntactic processing

The effect of context on noisy-channel sentence comprehension

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The process of sentence comprehension must allow for the possibility of noise in the input, e.g., from speaker error, listener mishearing, or environmental noise. Consequently, semantically implausible sentences such as The girl tossed the apple the boy are often interpreted as a semantically plausible alternative (e.g., The girl tossed the apple to the boy). Previous investigations of noisy-channel comprehension have relied exclusively on paradigms with isolated sentences. Because supportive contexts alter the expectations of possible interpretations, the noisy channel framework predicts that context should encourage more inference in interpreting implausible sentences, relative to null contexts (i.e. a lack of context) or unsupportive contexts. In the present work, we tested this prediction in four types of sentence constructions: two where inference is relatively frequent (double object - prepositional object), and two where inference is rare (active-passive). We found evidence...

Effects of Teaching Efficacy, Advocacy, and Knowledge on Coping and Well-Being of Dual Language Immersion Teachers

Wed, 4 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Effects of Teaching Efficacy, Advocacy, and Knowledge on Coping and Well-Being of Dual Language Immersion Teachers

Engineering integration in elementary science classrooms: Effects of disciplinary language scaffolds on English learners' content learning and engineering identity

Wed, 4 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract: Background: Limited research examines the effects of integrated science and engineering (SE) instruction emphasizing disciplinary literacy and language activities on engineering identity and content understanding. Far fewer studies target English learners (ELs). Purpose: The impact of an SE intervention on the development of science, engineering, and technology knowledge as well as engineering identity was examined. To address ELs' learning needs, the curricular design was built on a validated SE model by integrating (1) developmental, (2) language scaffolds, and (3) culturally based accommodations. Design/Method: Separate analysis of variance examined the effects of the intervention on science, engineering, and technology knowledge as well as engineering identity. The relationship among engineering identity and content outcomes was also examined. ELs from kindergarten to second grade classrooms were randomly assigned to the integrated SE group or control group....

Proof of Concept: Applying Recurrence Quantification Analysis to Model Fluency in a Math Embodied Design

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We report a subset of results from an exploratory study that modeled mathematics learning using a dynamical systems lens. This study applied Recurrence Quantification Analysis to model participants’ interactions with a touchscreen-based embodied-design learning environment for proportionality, conducting both qualitative (case study) and quantitative (linear regression) analyses. Findings indicate an abrupt change in the RQA meanline metric associated with increased fluency, suggesting a phase transition into a new mode of interaction. These findings suggest theoretical and methodological traction for modeling embodied math learning as phase transitions in a human–technology dynamical system.

Intermodality in Multimodal Learning Analytics for Cognitive Theory Development: A Case from Embodied Design for Mathematics Learning

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Multimodal Learning Analytics (MMLA) grant us insight into learners’ physiological, cognitive, and behavioral activity as it unfolds. In this chapter, we query the relations among modalities, intermodality, in the context of a designbased research program studying the relations between learning to move in new ways and learning to think in new ways. In the first part, we reflect on how different methods have afforded purchase on the investigation, development, and elaboration of theoretical claims about the multimodal enactment of cognitive events, culminating in the use of Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) to quantify the microgenesis of stable new patterns in hand movement and gaze. In the second part, we analyze an RQA case study spanning across hand and gaze modalities to examine the emergence of intermodal coordination at a critical moment in the mathematical task. We conclude with implications and open questions around intermodality in embodied learning.

Demonstrating mathematics learning as the emergence of eye–hand dynamic equilibrium

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper combines recent developments in theories of knowledge (complex dynamic systems), technologies (embodied interactions), and research tools (multimodal data collection and analysis) to offer new insights into how conceptual mathematical understanding can emerge. A complex dynamic system view models mathematics learning in terms of a multimodal agent who encounters a set of task constraints. The learning process in this context includes destabilizing a systemic configuration (for example, coordination of eye and hand movements) and forming new dynamic stability adapted to the task constraints. To test this model empirically, we applied a method developed to study complex systems, recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), to investigate students’ eye–hand dynamics during a touchscreen mathematics activity for the concept of proportionality. We found that across participants (n = 32), fluently coordinated hand-movement solutions coincided with more stable and predictable...

The language network ages well: Preserved selectivity, lateralization, and within-network functional synchronization in older brains

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Healthy aging is associated with structural and functional brain changes. However, cognitive abilities differ from one another in how they change with age: whereas executive functions, like working memory, show age-related decline, aspects of linguistic processing remain relatively preserved (Hartshorne et al., 2015). This heterogeneity of the cognitive-behavioral landscape in aging predicts differences among brain networks in whether and how they should change with age. To evaluate this prediction, we used individual-subject fMRI analyses ('precision fMRI') to examine the language-selective network (Fedorenko et al., 2024) and the Multiple Demand (MD) network, which supports executive functions (Duncan et al., 2020), in older adults (n=77) relative to young controls (n=470). In line with past claims, relative to young adults, the MD network of older adults shows weaker and less spatially extensive activations during an executive function task and reduced within-network functional...

Shifting the Level of Selection in Science

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Criteria for recognizing and rewarding scientists primarily focus on individual contributions. This creates a conflict between what is best for scientists' careers and what is best for science. In this article, we show how the theory of multilevel selection provides conceptual tools for modifying incentives to better align individual and collective interests. A core principle is the need to account for indirect effects by shifting the level at which selection operates from individuals to the groups in which individuals are embedded. This principle is used in several fields to improve collective outcomes, including animal husbandry, team sports, and professional organizations. Shifting the level of selection has the potential to ameliorate several problems in contemporary science, including accounting for scientists' diverse contributions to knowledge generation, reducing individual-level competition, and promoting specialization and team science. We discuss the difficulties associated...

Spanish–English bilingual heritage speakers processing of inanimate sentences

Wed, 6 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This study investigated how heritage Spanish–English bilinguals integrate their cue hierarchies to process simple sentences in both Spanish and English. Sentence interpretation is achieved by weighing the various cues that are present in the sentence against that language's cue hierarchy. The Unified Competition Model (UCM) suggests that bilinguals show a variety of patterns in sentence interpretation strategies depending on language proficiency. Previous research on heritage Spanish–English bilinguals and late bilinguals has demonstrated differences in cue utilization and sentence interpretation compared to monolinguals. However, good-enough processing suggests that when a sentence does not meet certain heuristics, like the first-noun agent heuristic, a semantic representation of the sentence will be processed instead of a syntactic one. Even with reliable sentential-level cues such as word order, a plausible semantic representation of the sentence is favored. This is especially...

Investigating the role of auditory cues in modulating motor timing: insights from EEG and deep learning

Wed, 6 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Research on action-based timing has shed light on the temporal dynamics of sensorimotor coordination. This study investigates the neural mechanisms underlying action-based timing, particularly during finger-tapping tasks involving synchronized and syncopated patterns. Twelve healthy participants completed a continuation task, alternating between tapping in time with an auditory metronome (pacing) and continuing without it (continuation). Electroencephalography data were collected to explore how neural activity changes across these coordination modes and phases. We applied deep learning methods to classify single-trial electroencephalography data and predict behavioral timing conditions. Results showed significant classification accuracy for distinguishing between pacing and continuation phases, particularly during the presence of auditory cues, emphasizing the role of auditory input in motor timing. However, when auditory components were removed from the electroencephalography...

Overtrust in AI Recommendations About Whether or Not to Kill: Evidence from Two Human-Robot Interaction Studies

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This research explores prospective determinants of trust in the recommendations of artificial agents regarding decisions to kill, using a novel visual challenge paradigm simulating threat-identification (enemy combatants vs. civilians) under uncertainty. In Experiment 1, we compared trust in the advice of a physically embodied versus screen-mediated anthropomorphic robot, observing no effects of embodiment; in Experiment 2, we manipulated the relative anthropomorphism of virtual robots, observing modestly greater trust in the most anthropomorphic agent relative to the least. Across studies, when any version of the agent randomly disagreed, participants reversed their threat-identifications and decisions to kill in the majority of cases, substantially degrading their initial performance. Participants’ subjective confidence in their decisions tracked whether the agent (dis)agreed, while both decision-reversals and confidence were moderated by appraisals of the agent’s intelligence....

The effect of elastic and viscous force fields on bimanual coordination

Mon, 9 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Bimanual in-phase and anti-phase coordination modes represent two basic movement patterns with distinct characteristics—homologous muscle contraction and non-homologous muscle contraction, respectively. A method to understand the contribution of each limb to the overall coordination pattern involves detuning (Δω) the natural eigenfrequency of each limb. In the present experiment, we experimentally broke the symmetry between the two upper limbs by adding elastic and viscous force fields using a Kinarm robot exoskeleton. We measured the effect of this symmetry breaking on coordination stability as participants performed bimanual in-phase and anti-phase movements using their left and right hand in 1:1 frequency locking mode. Differences between uncoupled frequencies were manipulated via the application of viscous & elastic force fields and using fast and slow oscillation frequencies with a custom task developed using the Kinarm robotic exoskeleton. The effects of manipulating...

Towards a global developmental science

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Towards a global developmental science

Effects of auditory noise intensity and color on the dynamics of upright stance

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Previous work assessing the effect of additive noise on the postural control system has found a positive effect of additive white noise on postural dynamics. This study covers two separate experiments that were run sequentially to better understand how the structure of the additive noise signal affects postural dynamics, while also furthering our knowledge of how the intensity of auditory stimulation of noise may elicit this phenomenon. Across the two experiments, we introduced three auditory noise stimulations of varying structure (white, pink, and brown noise). Experiment 1 presented the stimuli at 35 dB while Experiment 2 was presented at 75 dB. Our findings demonstrate a decrease in variability of the postural control system regardless of the structure of the noise signal presented, but only for high intensity auditory stimulation.

Noise and opinion dynamics: how ambiguity promotes pro-majority consensus in the presence of confirmation bias

Mon, 6 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Opinion dynamics are affected by cognitive biases and noise. While mathematical models have focused extensively on biases, we still know surprisingly little about how noise shapes opinion patterns. Here, we use an agent-based opinion dynamics model to investigate the interplay between confirmation bias-represented as bounded confidence-and different types of noise. After analysing where noise can enter social interaction, we propose a type of noise that has not been discussed so far, ambiguity noise. While previously considered types of noise acted on agents either before, after or independent of social interaction, ambiguity noise acts on communicated messages, assuming that socially transmitted opinions are inherently noisy. We find that noise can induce agreement when confirmation bias is moderate, but different types of noise require quite different conditions for this effect to occur. An application of our model to the climate change debate shows that at just the right mix...

The human language system, including its inferior frontal component in Brocas area, does not support music perception.

Mon, 6 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Language and music are two human-unique capacities whose relationship remains debated. Some have argued for overlap in processing mechanisms, especially for structure processing. Such claims often concern the inferior frontal component of the language system located within Brocas area. However, others have failed to find overlap. Using a robust individual-subject fMRI approach, we examined the responses of language brain regions to music stimuli, and probed the musical abilities of individuals with severe aphasia. Across 4 experiments, we obtained a clear answer: music perception does not engage the language system, and judgments about music structure are possible even in the presence of severe damage to the language network. In particular, the language regions responses to music are generally low, often below the fixation baseline, and never exceed responses elicited by nonmusic auditory conditions, like animal sounds. Furthermore, the language regions are not sensitive to music...

Tracking differential activation of primary and supplementary motor cortex across timing tasks: An fNIRS validation study

Mon, 8 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) provides an alternative to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for assessing changes in cortical hemodynamics. To establish the utility of fNIRS for measuring differential recruitment of the motor network during the production of timing-based actions, we measured cortical hemodynamic responses in 10 healthy adults while they performed two versions of a finger-tapping task. The task, used in an earlier fMRI study (Jantzen et al., 2004), was designed to track the neural basis of different timing behaviors. Participants paced their tapping to a metronomic tone, then continued tapping at the established pace without the tone. Initial tapping was either synchronous or syncopated relative to the tone. This produced a 2 × 2 design: synchronous or syncopated tapping and pacing the tapping with or continuing without a tone. Accuracy of the timing of tapping was tracked while cortical hemodynamics were monitored using fNIRS. Hemodynamic...

Brain responses to a lab-evolved artificial language with space-time metaphors

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What is the connection between the cultural evolution of a language and the rapid processing response to that language in the brains of individual learners? In an iterated communication study that was conducted previously, participants were asked to communicate temporal concepts such as "tomorrow," "day after," "year," and "past" using vertical movements recorded on a touch screen. Over time, participants developed simple artificial 'languages' that used space metaphorically to communicate in nuanced ways about time. Some conventions appeared rapidly and universally (e.g., using larger vertical movements to convey greater temporal durations). Other conventions required extensive social interaction and exhibited idiosyncratic variation (e.g., using vertical location to convey past or future). Here we investigate whether the brain's response during acquisition of such a language reflects the process by which the language's conventions originally evolved. We recorded participants'...

Maintaining Transient Diversity Is a General Principle for Improving Collective Problem Solving

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Humans regularly solve complex problems in cooperative teams. A wide range of mechanisms have been identified that improve the quality of solutions achieved by those teams on reaching consensus. We argue that many of these mechanisms work via increasing the transient diversity of solutions while the group attempts to reach a consensus. These mechanisms can operate at the level of individual psychology (e.g., behavioral inertia), interpersonal communication (e.g., transmission noise), or group structure (e.g., sparse social networks). Transient diversity can be increased by widening the search space of possible solutions or by slowing the diffusion of information and delaying consensus. All of these mechanisms increase the quality of the solution at the cost of increased time to reach it. We review specific mechanisms that facilitate transient diversity and synthesize evidence from both empirical studies and diverse formal models-including multiarmed bandits, NK landscapes,...

Interdisciplinarity Can Aid the Spread of Better Methods Between Scientific Communities

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Why do bad methods persist in some academic disciplines, even when they have been clearly rejected in others? What factors allow good methodological advances to spread across disciplines? In this paper, we investigate some key features determining the success and failure of methodological spread between the sciences. We introduce a formal model that considers factors like methodological competence and reviewer bias towards one's own methods. We show how self-preferential biases can protect poor methodology within scientific communities, and lack of reviewer competence can contribute to failures to adopt better methods. We then use a second model to further argue that input from outside disciplines, especially in the form of peer review and other credit assignment mechanisms, can help break down barriers to methodological improvement. This work therefore presents an underappreciated benefit of interdisciplinarity.

Meritocracy, meritocratic education, and equality of opportunity

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There are two ways, broadly speaking, that one might conceive of meritocratic education. On a standard, ‘narrow’ conception, a meritocratic approach to education is one which distributes certain educational goods and opportunities according to merit. On a second, ‘broader’ conception, however, meritocratic education is an educational system suited to a commitment to meritocracy – where ‘meritocracy’ refers to a particular conception of distributive justice. In this article, I argue that these two conceptions are incompatible with each other, and so the standard ‘narrow’ conception of meritocratic education is, in fact, incompatible with a commitment to meritocracy, at least given the typical way of understanding meritocracy. Of particular importance is that while meritocracy, as a view of distributive justice, requires a commitment to equality of opportunity principles, the narrowly meritocratic conception of education does not. The reason has to do with differences in the underlying...

Cross-Modal Tinnitus Remediation: A Tentative Theoretical Framework

Mon, 5 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Tinnitus is a prevalent hearing-loss deficit manifested as a phantom (internally generated by the brain) sound that is heard as a high-frequency tone in the majority of afflicted persons. Chronic tinnitus is debilitating, leading to distress, sleep deprivation, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. It has been theorized that, in the majority of afflicted persons, tinnitus can be attributed to the loss of high-frequency input from the cochlea to the auditory cortex, known as deafferentation. Deafferentation due to hearing loss develops with aging, which progressively causes tonotopic regions coding for the lost high-frequency coding to synchronize, leading to a phantom high-frequency sound sensation. Approaches to tinnitus remediation that demonstrated promise include inhibitory drugs, the use of tinnitus-specific frequency notching to increase lateral inhibition to the deafferented neurons, and multisensory approaches (auditory-motor and audiovisual) that work by coupling multisensory...

Social identity bias and communication network clustering interact to shape patterns of opinion dynamics

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Social influence aligns people's opinions, but social identities and related in-group biases interfere with this alignment. For instance, the recent rise of young climate activists (e.g. 'Fridays for Future' or 'Last Generation') has highlighted the importance of generational identities in the climate change debate. It is unclear how social identities affect the emergence of opinion patterns, such as consensus or disagreement, in a society. Here, we present an agent-based model to explore this question. Agents communicate in a network and form opinions through social influence. The agents have fixed social identities which involve homophily in their interaction preferences and in-group bias in their perception of others. We find that the in-group bias has opposing effects depending on the network topology. The bias impedes consensus in highly random networks by promoting the formation of echo chambers within social identity groups. By contrast, the bias facilitates consensus in...

Innovation-facilitating networks create inequality

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Theories of innovation often balance contrasting views that either smart people create smart things or smartly constructed institutions create smart things. While population models have shown factors including population size, connectivity and agent behaviour as crucial for innovation, few have taken the individual-central approach seriously by examining the role individuals play within their groups. To explore how network structures influence not only population-level innovation but also performance among individuals, we studied an agent-based model of the Potions Task, a paradigm developed to test how structure affects a group's ability to solve a difficult exploration task. We explore how size, connectivity and rates of information sharing in a network influence innovation and how these have an impact on the emergence of inequality in terms of agent contributions. We find, in line with prior work, that population size has a positive effect on innovation, but also find that...

Coupled dynamics of behaviour and disease contagion among antagonistic groups

Wed, 4 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Disease transmission and behaviour change are both fundamentally social phenomena. Behaviour change can have profound consequences for disease transmission, and epidemic conditions can favour the more rapid adoption of behavioural innovations. We analyse a simple model of coupled behaviour change and infection in a structured population characterised by homophily and outgroup aversion. Outgroup aversion slows the rate of adoption and can lead to lower rates of adoption in the later-adopting group or even behavioural divergence between groups when outgroup aversion exceeds positive ingroup influence. When disease dynamics are coupled to the behaviour-adoption model, a wide variety of outcomes are possible. Homophily can either increase or decrease the final size of the epidemic depending on its relative strength in the two groups and on R₀ for the infection. For example, if the first group is homophilous and the second is not, the second group will have a larger...

Prediction during language comprehension: what is next?

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Prediction is often regarded as an integral aspect of incremental language comprehension, but little is known about the cognitive architectures and mechanisms that support it. We review studies showing that listeners and readers use all manner of contextual information to generate multifaceted predictions about upcoming input. The nature of these predictions may vary between individuals owing to differences in language experience, among other factors. We then turn to unresolved questions which may guide the search for the underlying mechanisms. (i) Is prediction essential to language processing or an optional strategy? (ii) Are predictions generated from within the language system or by domain-general processes? (iii) What is the relationship between prediction and memory? (iv) Does prediction in comprehension require simulation via the production system? We discuss promising directions for making progress in answering these questions and for developing a mechanistic understanding...

Correction to: ‘The natural selection of bad science’ (2016) by Paul E. Smaldino and Richard McElreath

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160384.][This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160384.].

Neural Encoding and Representation of Time for Sensorimotor Control and Learning