Thalamocortical excitability modulation guides human perception under uncertainty.

ABSTRACT: Knowledge about the relevance of environmental features can guide stimulus processing. However, it remains unclear how processing is adjusted when feature relevance is uncertain. We hypothesized that (a) heightened uncertainty would shift cortical networks from a rhythmic, selective processing-oriented state toward an asynchronous ("excited") state that boosts sensitivity to all stimulus features, and that (b) the thalamus provides a subcortical nexus for such uncertainty-related shifts. Here, we had young adults attend to varying numbers of task-relevant features during EEG and fMRI acquisition to test these hypotheses. Behavioral modeling and electrophysiological signatures revealed that greater uncertainty lowered the rate of evidence accumulation for individual stimulus features, shift

SUBMITTER: Kosciessa JQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8065126 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature