Speech-Gesture Matching and Schizotypal Traits: A Network Approach.

Background And Hypothesis: Impaired speech-gesture matching has repeatedly been shown in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Here, we tested the hypothesis that schizotypal traits in the general population are related to reduced speech-gesture matching performance and reduced self-reports about gesture perception. We further explored the relationships between facets of schizotypy and gesture processing in a network model.

Action-based predictions affect visual perception, neural processing, and pupil size, regardless of temporal predictability.

Sensory consequences of one's own action are often perceived as less intense, and lead to reduced neural responses, compared to externally generated stimuli. Presumably, such sensory attenuation is due to predictive mechanisms based on the motor command (efference copy). However, sensory attenuation has also been observed outside the context of voluntary action, namely when stimuli are temporally predictable.

The effect of self-generated versus externally generated actions on timing, duration, and amplitude of blood oxygen level dependent response for visual feedback processing.

It has been widely assumed that internal forward models use efference copies to create predictions about the sensory consequences of our own actions. While these predictions have frequently been associated with a reduced blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response in sensory cortices, the timing and duration of the hemodynamic response for the processing of video feedback of self-generated (active) versus externally generated (passive) movements is poorly understood. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that predictive mechanisms for self-generated actions lead to early and shorter neural processing compared with externally generated movements.

Non-stimulated regions in early visual cortex encode the contents of conscious visual perception.

Predictions shape our perception. The theory of predictive processing poses that our brains make sense of incoming sensory input by generating predictions, which are sent back from higher to lower levels of the processing hierarchy. These predictions are based on our internal model of the world and enable inferences about the hidden causes of the sensory input data.

Different contributions of efferent and reafferent feedback to sensorimotor temporal recalibration.

Adaptation to delays between actions and sensory feedback is important for efficiently interacting with our environment. Adaptation may rely on predictions of action-feedback pairing (motor-sensory component), or predictions of tactile-proprioceptive sensation from the action and sensory feedback of the action (inter-sensory component). Reliability of temporal information might differ across sensory feedback modalities (e.

Transcranial direct current stimulation improves action-outcome monitoring in schizophrenia spectrum disorder.

Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder often demonstrate impairments in action-outcome monitoring. Passivity phenomena and hallucinations, in particular, have been related to impairments of efference copy-based predictions which are relevant for the monitoring of outcomes produced by voluntary action. Frontal transcranial direct current stimulation has been shown to improve action-outcome monitoring in healthy subjects.

Commonalities and differences in predictive neural processing of discrete vs continuous action feedback.

Sensory action consequences are highly predictable and thus engage less neural resources compared to externally generated sensory events. While this has frequently been observed to lead to attenuated perceptual sensitivity and suppression of activity in sensory cortices, some studies conversely reported enhanced perceptual sensitivity for action consequences. These divergent findings might be explained by the type of action feedback, i.

Neural Correlates of Self-other Distinction in Patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: The Roles of Agency and Hand Identity.

Schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) are characterized by disturbed self-other distinction. While previous studies associate abnormalities in the sense of agency (ie, the feeling that an action and the resulting sensory consequences are produced by oneself) with disturbed processing in the angular gyrus, passive movement conditions to isolate contributions of motor predictions are lacking. Furthermore, the role of body identity (ie, visual features determining whether a seen body part belongs to oneself) in self-other distinction is unclear.

17β-Estradiol affects the innate immune response in common carp.

Inflammation is the evolutionary conserved immune response to harmful stimuli such as pathogens or damaged cells. This multistep process acts by removing injurious stimuli and initiating the healing process. Therefore, it must be tightly regulated by cytokines, chemokines, and enzymes, as well as neuroendocrine mediators.

Seeing your own or someone else's hand moving in accordance with your action: The neural interaction of agency and hand identity.

Forward models can predict sensory consequences of self-action, which is reflected by less neural processing for actively than passively generated sensory inputs (BOLD suppression effect). However, it remains open whether forward models take the identity of a moving body part into account when predicting the sensory consequences of an action. In the current study, fMRI was used to investigate the neural correlates of active and passive hand movements during which participants saw either an on-line display of their own hand or someone else's hand moving in accordance with their movement.

Perceiving your hand moving: BOLD suppression in sensory cortices and the role of the cerebellum in the detection of feedback delays.

Sensory consequences of self-generated as opposed to externally generated movements are perceived as less intense and lead to less neural activity in corresponding sensory cortices, presumably due to predictive mechanisms. Self-generated sensory inputs have been mostly studied in a single modality, using abstract feedback, with control conditions not differentiating efferent from reafferent feedback. Here we investigated the neural processing of (a) naturalistic action-feedback associations of (b) self-generated versus externally generated movements, and (c) how an additional (auditory) modality influences neural processing and detection of delays.

Predictive perception of self-generated movements: Commonalities and differences in the neural processing of tool and hand actions.

Tool use is one of the most remarkable skills of the human species, enabling complex interactions with the environment. To establish such interactions, we predict the sensory consequences of our actions based on a copy of the motor command (efference copy), leading to an attenuated perception and neural suppression of the sensory input. Here, we investigated whether and how tools can be incorporated into these predictions.

Chemokine CXCb1 stimulates formation of NETs in trunk kidney neutrophils of common carp.

Both in mammals and in fish, CXC chemokines activate leukocytes and regulate their migration both under normal physiological and inflammatory conditions. Moreover, in mammalian neutrophils CXC chemokines also stimulate the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Here, we investigated the effects of recombinant carp CXCL8s and CXCb1 on NET formation in neutrophils from the head (HK) and trunk (TK) kidney of carp.

Predictive coding in a multisensory path integration task: An fMRI study.

During self-motion through an environment, our sensory systems are confronted with a constant flow of information from different modalities. To successfully navigate, self-induced sensory signals have to be dissociated from externally induced sensory signals. Previous studies have suggested that the processing of self-induced sensory information is modulated by means of predictive coding mechanisms.

fMRI-based decoding of reward effects in binocular rivalry.

Binocular rivalry is a phenomenon where the simultaneous presentation of two different stimuli to the two eyes leads to alternating perception of the two stimuli. The temporary dominance of one stimulus over the other is influenced by several factors. Here, we studied the influence of reward on binocular rivalry dynamics and its neural representation in visual cortex.

Distinct Roles for the Cerebellum, Angular Gyrus, and Middle Temporal Gyrus in Action-Feedback Monitoring.

Action-feedback monitoring is essential to ensure meaningful interactions with the external world. This process involves generating efference copy-based sensory predictions and comparing these with the actual action-feedback. As neural correlates of comparator processes, previous fMRI studies have provided heterogeneous results, including the cerebellum, angular and middle temporal gyrus.

Links between Gestures and Multisensory Processing: Individual Differences Suggest a Compensation Mechanism.

Speech-associated gestures represent an important communication modality. However, individual differences in the production and perception of gestures are not well understood so far. We hypothesized that the perception of multisensory action consequences might play a crucial role.

Voluntary and Involuntary Movements Widen the Window of Subjective Simultaneity.

Forming a coherent percept of an event requires different sensory inputs originating from the event to be bound. Perceiving synchrony aids in binding of these inputs. In two experiments, we investigated how voluntary movements influence the perception of simultaneity, by measuring simultaneity judgments (SJs) for an audiovisual (AV) stimulus pair triggered by a voluntary button press.

Hemispheric differences in the processing of visual consequences of active vs. passive movements: a transcranial direct current stimulation study.

Perceiving the sensory consequences of one's own actions is essential to successfully interact with the environment. Previous studies compared self- (active) and externally generated (passive) movements to investigate the processing of voluntary action-outcomes. Increased temporal binding (intentional binding) as well as increased detection of delays between action and outcome have been observed for active compared to passive movements.

The angular gyrus is a supramodal comparator area in action-outcome monitoring.

Predicting and processing the sensory consequences of one's own actions is essential to enable successful interactions with the environment. Previous studies have suggested that the angular gyrus detects discrepancies between predicted and actual action consequences, at least for unimodal feedback. However, most actions lead to multisensory consequences, raising the question whether previous models can sufficiently explain action-outcome processing.

Predicting the Multisensory Consequences of One's Own Action: BOLD Suppression in Auditory and Visual Cortices.

Predictive mechanisms are essential to successfully interact with the environment and to compensate for delays in the transmission of neural signals. However, whether and how we predict multisensory action outcomes remains largely unknown. Here we investigated the existence of multisensory predictive mechanisms in a context where actions have outcomes in different modalities.

Predicting the sensory consequences of one's own action: First evidence for multisensory facilitation.

Predicting the sensory consequences of our own actions contributes to efficient sensory processing and might help distinguish the consequences of self- versus externally generated actions. Previous research using unimodal stimuli has provided evidence for the existence of a forward model, which explains how such sensory predictions are generated and used to guide behavior. However, whether and how we predict multisensory action outcomes remains largely unknown.

Decoding pattern motion information in V1.

When two gratings drifting in different directions are superimposed, the resulting stimulus can be perceived as two overlapping component gratings moving in different directions or as a single pattern moving in one direction. Whilst the motion direction of component gratings is already represented in visual area V1, the majority of previous studies have found processing of pattern motion direction only from visual area V2 onwards. Here, we question these findings using multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA).

Tactile and visual motion direction processing in hMT+/V5.

The human motion complex hMT+/V5 is activated not only by visual motion, but also by tactile and auditory motion. Whilst direction-selectivity has been found within this complex for visual and auditory stimuli, it is unknown whether hMT+/V5 also contains direction-specific information from the tactile modality. In the current study, we sought to investigate whether hMT+/V5 contains direction-specific information about visual/tactile moving stimuli.

Low-frequency electromagnetic fields do not alter responses of inflammatory genes and proteins in human monocytes and immune cell lines.

The effects of low frequency electromagnetic fields (LF EMF) on human health are the subject of on-going research and serious public concern. These fields potentially elicit small effects that have been proposed to have consequences, either positive or negative, for biological systems. To reveal potentially weak but biologically relevant effects, we chose to extensively examine exposure of immune cells to two different signals, namely a complex multiple waveform field, and a 50 Hz sine wave.