1. Neuroscience

Alpha oscillations and event related potentials reflect distinct dynamics of attribute construction and evidence accumulation in dietary decision making

  1. Azadeh HajiHosseini  Is a corresponding author
  2. Cendri A Hutcherson
  1. University of Toronto, Canada
  2. University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60874
Share this article
Cite this article
  1. Azadeh HajiHosseini
  2. Cendri A Hutcherson
(2021)
Alpha oscillations and event related potentials reflect distinct dynamics of attribute construction and evidence accumulation in dietary decision making
eLife 10:e60874.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60874
  2. Download BibTeX
  3. Download .RIS

Abstract

How does regulatory focus alter attribute value construction (AVC) and evidence accumulation (EA)? We recorded EEG during food choices while participants responded naturally or regulated their choices by attending to health attributes or decreasing attention to taste attributes. Using a drift diffusion model, we predicted the time course of neural signals associated with AVC and EA. Results suggested that event-related-potentials (ERPs) correlated with the time course of model-predicted taste-attribute signals, with no modulation by regulation. By contrast, suppression of frontal and occipital alpha power correlated with the time course of EA, tracked tastiness according to its goal relevance, and predicted individual variation in successful down-regulation of tastiness. Additionally, an earlier rise in frontal and occipital theta power represented food tastiness more strongly during regulation, and predicted a weaker influence of food tastiness on behaviour. Our findings illuminate how regulation modifies the representation of attributes during the process of evidence accumulation.

Data availability

Raw data are deposited on Open Science Framework, under the project DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/EWTVX .Raw Behavioural data: https://osf.io/yp2x9Raw EEG data: https://osf.io/p5wd2

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Azadeh HajiHosseini

    Psychology, University of Toronto, Tororonto, Canada
    For correspondence
    azadeh.haji@utoronto.ca
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7621-6527

  2. Cendri A Hutcherson

    Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4441-4809

Funding

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2016-06541)

  • Cendri A Hutcherson

Canada Research Chairs

  • Cendri A Hutcherson

Connaught Fund

  • Cendri A Hutcherson

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: All subjects gave written consent for data collection and publication prior to the experiment. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Board of the University of Toronto (Protocol #34322).

Copyright

© 2021, HajiHosseini & Hutcherson

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 1,435
    views
  • 213
    downloads
  • 7
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Azadeh HajiHosseini
  2. Cendri A Hutcherson
(2021)
Alpha oscillations and event related potentials reflect distinct dynamics of attribute construction and evidence accumulation in dietary decision making
eLife 10:e60874.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60874

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60874

Categories and tags

Research organism

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience

    Parabrachial CGRP neurons modulate active defensive behavior under a naturalistic threat

    Gyeong Hee Pyeon, Hyewon Cho ... Yong Sang Jo
    Research Article Updated

    Recent studies suggest that calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) neurons in the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) represent aversive information and signal a general alarm to the forebrain. If CGRP neurons serve as a true general alarm, their activation would modulate both passive nad active defensive behaviors depending on the magnitude and context of the threat. However, most prior research has focused on the role of CGRP neurons in passive freezing responses, with limited exploration of their involvement in active defensive behaviors. To address this, we examined the role of CGRP neurons in active defensive behavior using a predator-like robot programmed to chase mice. Our electrophysiological results revealed that CGRP neurons encode the intensity of aversive stimuli through variations in firing durations and amplitudes. Optogenetic activation of CGRP neurons during robot chasing elevated flight responses in both conditioning and retention tests, presumably by amplifying the perception of the threat as more imminent and dangerous. In contrast, animals with inactivated CGRP neurons exhibited reduced flight responses, even when the robot was programmed to appear highly threatening during conditioning. These findings expand the understanding of CGRP neurons in the PBN as a critical alarm system, capable of dynamically regulating active defensive behaviors by amplifying threat perception, and ensuring adaptive responses to varying levels of danger.

    1. Neuroscience

    Cortical tracking of hierarchical rhythms orchestrates the multisensory processing of biological motion

    Li Shen, Shuo Li ... Yi Jiang
    Research Article

    When observing others’ behaviors, we continuously integrate their movements with the corresponding sounds to enhance perception and develop adaptive responses. However, how the human brain integrates these complex audiovisual cues based on their natural temporal correspondence remains unclear. Using electroencephalogram (EEG), we demonstrated that rhythmic cortical activity tracked the hierarchical rhythmic structures in audiovisually congruent human walking movements and footstep sounds. Remarkably, the cortical tracking effects exhibit distinct multisensory integration modes at two temporal scales: an additive mode in a lower-order, narrower temporal integration window (step cycle) and a super-additive enhancement in a higher-order, broader temporal window (gait cycle). Furthermore, while neural responses at the lower-order timescale reflect a domain-general audiovisual integration process, cortical tracking at the higher-order timescale is exclusively engaged in the integration of biological motion cues. In addition, only this higher-order, domain-specific cortical tracking effect correlates with individuals’ autistic traits, highlighting its potential as a neural marker for autism spectrum disorder. These findings unveil the multifaceted mechanism whereby rhythmic cortical activity supports the multisensory integration of human motion, shedding light on how neural coding of hierarchical temporal structures orchestrates the processing of complex, natural stimuli across multiple timescales.

    1. Evolutionary Biology
    2. Neuroscience

    Vision: The inner workings of a miniature eye

    Gregor Belušič
    Insight

    The first complete 3D reconstruction of the compound eye of a minute wasp species sheds light on the nuts and bolts of size reduction.