Publications by authors named "Melisa Menceloglu"

Anterior-posterior interactions in the alpha band (8-12 Hz) have been implicated in a variety of functions including perception, attention, and working memory. The underlying neural communication can be flexibly controlled by adjusting phase relations when activities across anterior-posterior regions oscillate at a matched frequency. We thus investigated how alpha oscillation frequencies spontaneously converged along anterior-posterior regions by tracking oscillatory EEG activity while participants rested.

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  • Previous research has found various task-specific brain networks linked to specific behaviors, but general rules about their global phase relationships have not been thoroughly explored.
  • * The study focused on phase modularity in EEG, measuring how distinct synchronized neural clusters interact at large phase lags, and quantifying it using an index called q.
  • * A simple mechanism was discovered where an anterior-posterior connectivity network shifts phase relations, showing that this network plays a key role in phase modularity across different tasks and frequencies, highlighting potential areas for future research.
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  • People tend to overestimate how long an object is in motion when it gets blocked from view (occluded), especially for short durations, which is important for tasks like crossing the street.
  • The study examined if this overestimation varies based on the type of action taken (like pressing a key or reaching out) and whether it also occurs in a perception-only task.
  • Results showed participants consistently thought the moving bar reached its goal later than it actually did, indicating a bias in motion estimation that suggests a deeper mechanism might be at play, warranting further research to understand it better.
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The visual system involves various orientation and visual field anisotropies, one of which is a preference for radial orientations and motion directions. By radial, we mean those directions coursing symmetrically outward from the fovea into the periphery. This bias stems from anatomical and physiological substrates in the early visual system.

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  • Orientation sensitivity in the visual system highlights that radially aligned stimuli enhance activity in the visual cortex and improve perception compared to other orientations.
  • A study with 36 participants explored how they perceived gaps in a peripheral Landolt C figure across different orientations and locations.
  • Results showed that perceived gap positions were biased toward the radial axis, indicating an early-vision effect influencing how we perceive object orientation.
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Oscillatory neural activities are prevalent in the brain with their phase realignment contributing to the coordination of neural communication. Phase realignments may have especially strong (or weak) impact when neural activities are strongly synchronized (or desynchronized) within the interacting populations. We report that the spatiotemporal dynamics of strong regional synchronization measured as maximal EEG spectral power-referred to as activation-and strong regional desynchronization measured as minimal EEG spectral power-referred to as suppression-are characterized by the spatial segregation of small-scale and large-scale networks.

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Oscillatory neural activity is dynamically controlled to coordinate perceptual, attentional and cognitive processes. On the macroscopic scale, this control is reflected in the U-shaped deviations of EEG spectral-power dynamics from stochastic dynamics, characterized by disproportionately elevated occurrences of the lowest and highest ranges of power. To understand the mechanisms that generate these low- and high-power states, we fit a simple mathematical model of synchronization of oscillatory activity to human EEG data.

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Orienting attention in time enables us to prepare for forthcoming perception and action (e.g., estimating the duration of a yellow traffic light when driving).

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  • - The study examines EEG/MEG data to understand global spatiotemporal dynamics rather than focusing on specific neural correlates, using k-dimensional state vectors to identify general patterns in brain activity.
  • - Researchers analyzed the instability and speed of EEG trajectory forms across different scalp regions, finding that these trajectories converge with similar turns and adjusted spectral-amplitude profiles.
  • - Results indicate that phase relations are coordinated to manage trajectory speed and variability, and suggest future exploration of how these global dynamics adapt to sensory inputs or task changes.
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Sensory systems utilize temporal structure in the environment to build expectations about the timing of forthcoming events. We investigated the effects of rhythm-based temporal expectation on auditory responses measured with EEG recorded from the frontocentral sites implicated in auditory processing. By manipulating temporal expectation and the interonset interval (IOI) of tones, we examined how neural responses adapted to auditory rhythm and reacted to stimuli that violated the rhythm.

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  • The study explored how different brain wave frequencies interact over time by analyzing associations in spectral power within and across various EEG sites.
  • It found that fast sub-second interactions are mostly local and organized into specific frequency groupings, while longer-second interactions involve broader frequency associations across multiple sites.
  • Overall, the research indicates that short-term brain activity is mostly confined to local modulation, whereas longer-term interactions show more complex patterns, including feedback relationships.
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  • Spatially heterogeneous flicker, found in natural phenomena like flames and rustling leaves, creates a pleasant sensory experience and allows the visual system to perceive spontaneous motion.
  • This flicker enables a type of sensory activation that helps calibrate motion detectors and engages processes that require little conscious control.
  • Research shows that exposure to this flicker reduces certain brain activity associated with top-down sensory processing, suggesting that its aesthetic appeal is linked to its ability to facilitate smooth and adaptive visual experiences.
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The timing and the sensory modality of behaviorally relevant events often vary predictably, so that it is beneficial to adapt the sensory system to their statistical regularities. Indeed, statistical information about target timing and/or sensory modality modulates behavioral responses-called expectation effects. Responses are also facilitated by short-term repetitions of target timing and/or sensory modality-called priming effects.

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During a brief period following attention capture by an abrupt-onset cue, a briefly presented item in the vicinity appears to be displaced away from the focus of attention. This effect, termed the attentional repulsion effect (ARE), can be induced with various ways of focusing attention (e.g.

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People can use temporally structured sensory information to anticipate future events. Temporal information can be presented implicitly through probability manipulation without participants' awareness of the manipulation, or explicitly conveyed through instructions. We examined how implicit and explicit temporal information established temporal expectations that influenced choice response times and response conflict (measured as flanker effects).

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  • Temporal expectation involves using timing information to predict when future events will happen, affecting how we process sensory information.
  • The study examined how this expectation impacts the interaction between auditory and visual stimuli, using a specific crossmodal effect to measure this interaction.
  • Findings revealed that when the timing of stimuli is predictable, visual distractions become more influential, while visual targets are less affected by auditory distractions, indicating that expected timing enhances the importance of visual signals.
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