PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 9028026

Temporal distinctiveness and modality.

A R Marks·R G Crowder
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

It has been proposed that auditory stimuli are more temporally discriminable in memory than visual stimuli. Studies using the continual-distractor paradigm have provided both supporting and contradictory evidence for this hypothesis. The conflicting reports differed, however, in the modality of the interleaved distractor tasks. The present experiments manipulated both word and distractor-task modality. Results showed that aurally presented word lists were more sensitive to temporal schedules of presentation when the distractor task was auditory than when it was visual. The same effect was not consistently found for visually presented word lists. Such an interaction may help explain the previously reported disparate findings and suggests that the auditory modality, in the presence of silent distraction, can reduce participants' use of temporal-distinctiveness information at retrieval.

Explore related subjects

Acoustic StimulationAdultDiscrimination, PsychologicalFemaleHumansMaleMemoryMental RecallPhotic StimulationJournal ArticleResearch Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

A R Marks, R G Crowder. 1997. Temporal distinctiveness and modality.. https://doi.org/10.1037/%2F0278-7393.23.1.164

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed1999

Sleep and wakefulness modulation of the neuronal firing in the auditory cortex of the guinea pig.

Sleep-related changes-including modification in sensory processing-that influence brain and body functions, occur during both slow wave and paradoxical sleep. Our aim was to investigate how cortical auditory neurons behave during the sleep/waking cycle, and to study cell firing patterns in relation to the processing of auditory information without the interference of anesthetic drugs. We recorded single cells in the A region of the auditory cortex in restrained, chronically-implanted guinea pigs, and compared their evoked and spontaneous activity during sleep stages and quiet wakefulness. A new classification of the unit's responses to simple sound during wakefulness is presented. Moreover, a number of the neurons in the primary auditory cortex exhibited significant quantitative changes in their evoked or spontaneous firing rates. These changes could be correlated to sleep stages or wakefulness in 42.2% to 58.3% of the sampled neurons. A similar population did not show behavioral related changes in firing rates. Our results indicate that the responsiveness of the auditory system during sleep may be considered partially preserved. An important result was that spontaneous and evoked activity may vary in opposite directions, i.e. , the evoked activity could increase while the spontaneous activity decrease or vice versa. Then, a general question was proposed: is the increased spontaneous activity in the auditory cortex, particularly during PS, related to auditory hypnic 'images'? The studied cortical auditory neurons exhibit changes in their firing rates in correlation to stages of sleep and wakefulness. This is consistent with the hypothesis that a general shift in the neuronal networks involved in sensory processing occurs during sleep.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1999

Distribution of input and output synapses on the central branches of bushcricket and cricket auditory afferent neurones: immunocytochemical evidence for GABA and glutamate in different populations of presynaptic boutons.

In order to investigate the synapses on the terminals of primary auditory afferents in the bushcricket and cricket, these were impaled with microelectrodes and after physiological characterisation, injected intracellularly with horseradish peroxidase. The tissue was prepared for electron microscopy, and immunocytochemistry for gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate was carried out on ultrathin sections by using a post-embedding immunogold technique. The afferent terminals received many input synapses. Between 60-65% of these were made by processes immunoreactive for GABA and approximately 25% from processes immunoreactive for glutamate. The relative distribution of the different classes of input were analysed from serial section reconstruction of terminal afferent branches. Inputs from GABA and glutamate-immunoreactive processes appeared to be scattered at random over the terminal arborisation of the afferents both with respect to each other and to the architecture of the terminals. They were, however, always found close to the output synapses. The possible roles of presynaptic inhibition in the auditory afferents is discussed in the context of the auditory responses of the animals.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1999

Simple and choice reaction time in Parkinson's disease.

Reaction-times were evaluated in 6 parkinsonian patients and 6 normal control subjects using a simple reaction task and 3 choice reaction tasks of differing complexity. Reaction-times were measured as the time from stimulus onset to the onset of electromyographic activity in the responding muscle. Reaction-time was significantly delayed in patients compared to controls in all tasks, but to a greater extent in the more difficult tasks. The relative magnitude of the change, however, was only 4% in the simple reaction task and 8% in the more difficult choice tasks. These results suggest that the deficit in Parkinson's disease is unlikely to represent a defect in preprogramming as suggested by some investigators. Instead, our results indicate a disturbance in the cerebral processing of the auditory stimuli after their occurrence and prior to the initiation of motor activity.

Acoustic Stimulation↗