History of one’s own performance modulates evaluative processing of another’s action outcomes, but not vice versa

In action monitoring, i.e., evaluating an outcome of our behavior, a reward prediction error signal is calculated as the difference between actual and predicted outcomes and is used to adjust future behavior. Previous studies demonstrate that this signal, which is reflected by an event-related brain potential called feedback-related negativity (FRN), occurs in response to not only one's own outcomes, but also those of others. However, it is still unknown if predictions of different actors' performance interact with each other. Thus, we investigated how predictions from one’s own and another’s performance history affect each other by manipulating the task difficulty for participants themselves and their partners independently. Pairs of participants performed a time estimation task, randomly switching the roles of actor and observer from trial to trial. Results show that the history of the other’s performance did not modulate the amplitude of the FRN for the evaluation of one’s own outcomes. In contrast, the amplitude of the observer FRN for the other’s outcomes differed according to the frequency of one’s own action outcomes. In conclusion, the monitoring system tracks the histories of one’s own and observed outcomes separately and considers information related to one’s own action outcomes to be more important.

The Sunny Side of Negative Feedback: Negative Feedback Enhances One’s Motivation to Win in Another Activity

Negative feedback has been widely reported to be a demotivator that could frustrate the recipient’s need for competence and erode his intrinsic motivation in the same activity. Nevertheless, little attention has been devoted to the intertemporal effect of negative feedback on one’s intrinsic motivation in another activity. To fill this gap, we arranged participants in a game with two sessions and manipulated the content of feedback as a between-subject factor. In session 1, participants had to complete a time estimation task with moderate difficulty, during which half of the participants received normal performance feedback and the other half received negative performance feedback. In session 2, all participants were guided to accomplish a moderately difficult stopwatch task that was competence-supportive. A more pronounced win-loss difference wave of reward positivity (RewP) was detected in the experimental (negative performance feedback) group compared to the control (normal performance feedback) group during session 2. This finding indicates that negative feedback in an activity may have a positive impact on one’s intrinsic motivation in a following competence-supportive activity.

Implicit agency is related to gamma power changes in an automatic imitation task

Often we have a feeling that we can control effects in the external world through our actions. The role of action processing associated with this implicit form of agency is still not clear. In this study, we used automatic imitation and electroencephalography to investigate neural oscillations associated with action processing and its possible contribution to implicit agency. Brain activity was recorded while participants performed actions (congruent or incongruent with a displayed finger movement) which subsequently triggered an outcome (a tone). We used a time estimation task to measure intentional binding (an index of implicit agency). We observed a decrease of alpha, beta and gamma power for congruent compared to incongruent actions and increased theta power for incongruent compared to congruent actions. Crucially, participants who showed greater intentional binding for congruent versus incongruent actions also presented greater gamma power differences. Alpha, beta and theta power were modulated by congruency but were unrelated to intentional binding. Our study suggests that an increased implicit agency for facilitated actions is associated with changes in gamma power. Our study also contributes to a characterization of neural oscillations in automatic imitation.

Temporal Sensitivity and Latency During Teleoperation: Using Track Clearance to Understand Errors in Future Projection

Objective This study investigates the role of individual differences in time perception on task performance during teleoperation with latency. Background Long distance teleoperation induces latency, causing performance issues for the operator. Previous research demonstrated that individual differences in time perception predicted performance on a similar task, having participants navigate a radio controlled (RC) car around a track. This work extends the relationship into routes of varying course width to test whether differences in time perception predict movement over-/underestimation. Method Participants completed a time estimation task and a route navigation task while experiencing latency. In the time estimation task, participants estimated the duration of multiple visual stimuli (2 s or less). In the route navigation task, participants moved a virtual cube across a route. Each trial varied in the amount of latency and the amount of horizontal clearance in the track (4–10 m for a 1.2-m-long/wide cube). Results The results showed fairly consistent latency by time estimation and latency by clearance interaction effects on a wide set of trial-level variables, such as completion time, and action-level performance variables, such as time spent moving per move event. However, the results were not consistently in the predicted direction. Conclusion Results suggest that clearance and timing affect performance across latency, at both the overall level (i.e., trial completion time) and at the action level (time spent moving). An open question remains as to how these contextual factors affect movement strategy selection.

Mental Imagery of Free Fall: Does a Falling Apple Accelerate in Our Minds?

The present study examined whether people’s mental imagery of falling objects includes the acceleration due to the earth’s gravitational force. To investigate this question, we used two different tasks, a height estimation and a fall-time estimation task. In the height estimation task, participants were presented with different free-fall times and had to indicate the corresponding heights from which the object fell to the ground. In the fall-time estimation task, participants had to produce the fall time associated with free falls from different heights. In contrast to the law of free fall, our results are more consistent with a linear than with an accelerated relationship between height and fall time. Thus, the present results suggest that mental imagery of an object’s free fall does not represent the gravitational acceleration due to gravity.

Aberrant interoceptive accuracy in patients with schizophrenia performing a heartbeat counting task

Introduction Although self-disturbances and emotional disturbances are common in schizophrenia, there is no integrated understanding to explain these symptoms. Interoception has a crucial role in the development of self and emotion, and interoceptive abnormality could lead to such symptoms. Methods We compared interoceptive accuracy between controls and patients with schizophrenia. Forty-two patients and thirty healthy controls were recruited and their interoceptive accuracy was assessed using a heartbeat counting task. Participants were instructed to count the number of times they felt their own heartbeat during various measurement periods. Interoceptive accuracy was calculated based on the discrepancy between the number of reported and actual heartbeats during the measurement period. Participants also performed a time estimation task and were instructed to count the number of seconds there were during the same period. Time accuracy was calculated in a similar manner to that for the heartbeat. Participants also completed a questionnaire regarding interoception to assess their subjective experiences. Results Interoceptive accuracy was significantly lower among patients with schizophrenia than in healthy controls (p = 0.017), even after controlling for age, sex, time accuracy, anxiety, depression, and heart rate (HR). In addition, patients’ positive and negative symptoms were significantly associated with their HR-adjusted interoceptive accuracy, especially hallucination. The discrepancy between HR-adjusted interoceptive accuracy and the score of the questionnaire was significantly associated with positive symptoms, especially delusion; but not negative symptoms. Discussion These findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia have aberrant interoception. Aberrant interoception in schizophrenia could be a novel therapeutic target in future.

Pre-stimulus inhibition of eye movements reflects temporal expectation rather than time estimation

Eye movements are inhibited prior to the occurrence of temporally predictable events. This ‘oculomotor inhibition effect’ has been demonstrated with various tasks and modalities. Specifically, it was shown that when intervals between cue and target are fixed, saccade-rate prior to the target is lower than when they are varied. However, it is still an open question whether this effect is linked to temporal expectation to the predictable target, or to the duration estimation of the interval preceding it. Here we examined this question in 20 participants while they performed an implicit temporal expectation and an explicit time estimation task. In each trial, following cue onset, two consecutive grating-patches were presented, each preceded by an interval. Temporal expectation was manipulated by setting the first interval duration to be either fixed or varied within each block. Participants were requested to compare either the durations of the two intervals (time estimation), or the tilts of the two grating-patches (temporal expectation).Saccade rate, measured prior to the first grating, was lower in the fixed relative to the varied condition of both tasks. This suggests that the inhibition effect is elicited by target predictability and indicates that it is linked to temporal expectation, rather than to time estimation processes. Additionally, this finding suggests that the oculomotor inhibition is independent of motor readiness, as it was elicited even when no response was required. We conclude that the pre-stimulus oculomotor inhibition effect can be used as a marker of temporal expectation, and discuss its potential underlying mechanisms.

The embodiment of time: How interoception shapes the perception of time

Within the framework of the embodiment of time, this chapter presents accumulating evidence of how interoception and associated brain networks process time. Functional MRI studies have shown that climbing neural activation in the posterior insular cortex correlates with stimulus duration in a time-estimation task in the multiple-second range. Given the close connection between the insular cortex and ascending body signals, the authors suggest that the accumulation of physiological changes in body states is the basis for the subjective impression of duration. Psychophysiological findings reveal linearly increasing cardiac periods and decreasing skin-conductance levels during duration-estimation tasks in the multiple-second range. Accordingly, the feeling for the passage of time at the present moment is based on the perception of the bodily self.

dACC Response to Presentation of Negative Feedback Identifies Stimulant Dependence Diagnoses and Stimulant Use Severity

Error-monitoring abnormalities in stimulant-dependent individuals (SDIs) may be due to reduced awareness of committed errors, or to reduced sensitivity upon such awareness. The distinction between these alternatives remains largely undifferentiated, but may have substantial clinical relevance. We sought to better characterize the nature, and clinical relevance, of SDIs’ error-monitoring processes by comparing carefully isolated neural responses during the presentation of negative feedback to a) stimulant dependence status and b) lifetime stimulant use. Forty-eight SDIs and twenty-three non-SDIs performed an fMRI-based time-estimation task specifically designed to isolate neural responses associated with the presentation (versus expectation) of contingent negative feedback. SDIs showed reduced dACC response compared to non-SDIs following the presentation of negative feedback, but only when error expectancies were controlled. Moreover, lifetime stimulant use correlated negatively with magnitude of dACC attenuation. While this findings was minimized after controlling for age, these results suggest that SDIs may be characterized by a core reduction in neural activity following error feedback, in the context of intact feedback expectancies. Correlations with lifetime stimulant use suggest that this neural attenuation may hold clinical significance.