This week, Jim Zhang (2nd year PhD student, @dukebrain.bsky.socialwww.nature.com/articles/s41...
The authors show that neuronal populations in the human prefrontal-motor network interact via two discernible communication modes – ramping dynamics and neural oscillations. These modes operate in con...
Thank you to the authors at the University of Tübingen Helfrich Lab for your work, and we look forward to following more of it!
[cont.] the neural activity is becoming more continuous as a function of uncertainty, where lower frequency = more continuous?
❔3️⃣: I would also like to better understand how to interpret the inter-peak interval findings (Figs. 4E, 4F). The authors show that IPI frequency decreases as a function of uncertainty, but how does this relate to their theoretical frameworks? Would this suggest that...
[cont.] amounts of information and able to infer the trial type equally as well, in 25% and 75% stop probability contextual cues.
❔2️⃣: I am a bit confused by the authors’ assumption that uncertainty increases with stop probability. Would uncertainty not peak at a stop probability of 50%, and then decrease as stop probability increases beyond 50%? I would assume that people should gain similar...
[cont.] if a block-based cognitive control task had a congruency dimension, a task switching dimension, a congruency proportion dimension, and a task switching proportion dimension, would these all be predicted to be encoded in distinct subspaces?
❔1️⃣: Based on the current findings and those of Weber et al. 2023, would different task dimensions within a rule-based task all get encoded in their own distinct subspaces? For example...
🤍3️⃣: It’s impressive how many findings and perspectives the authors incorporated into the paper. They flesh out many details of how ramping dynamics and oscillatory activity interact in contexts of varying uncertainty.
🤍2️⃣: The authors showed that multiple analysis methods converged upon the same results, (e.g. low-frequency desynchronization, spectral exponent) to show that ramping dynamics directly indexes neural excitability.
🤍1️⃣: I really liked how the authors tested the interacting predictions of two theories (active sensing and population doctrine), applied in a novel cognitive domain and experimental population.