Search

Your search keyword '"GIBBINGS, AARON"' showing total 14 results
Start Over Author "GIBBINGS, AARON" Publication Year Range Last 50 years
14 results on '"GIBBINGS, AARON"'

3. Rhythmically Modulating Neural Entrainment during Exposure to Regularities Influences Statistical Learning.

Author

Batterink, Laura J., Mulgrew, Jerrica, and Gibbings, Aaron

Subjects
STATISTICAL learning, IMPLICIT learning, STROOP effect, SYLLABLE (Grammar), BRAIN stimulation, VISUAL perception, WORD frequency, SPEECH
Abstract

The ability to discover regularities in the environment, such as syllable patterns in speech, is known as statistical learning. Previous studies have shown that statistical learning is accompanied by neural entrainment, in which neural activity temporally aligns with repeating patterns over time. However, it is unclear whether these rhythmic neural dynamics play a functional role in statistical learning or whether they largely reflect the downstream consequences of learning, such as the enhanced perception of learned words in speech. To better understand this issue, we manipulated participants' neural entrainment during statistical learning using continuous rhythmic visual stimulation. Participants were exposed to a speech stream of repeating nonsense words while viewing either (1) a visual stimulus with a "congruent" rhythm that aligned with the word structure, (2) a visual stimulus with an incongruent rhythm, or (3) a static visual stimulus. Statistical learning was subsequently measured using both an explicit and implicit test. Participants in the congruent condition showed a significant increase in neural entrainment over auditory regions at the relevant word frequency, over and above effects of passive volume conduction, indicating that visual stimulation successfully altered neural entrainment within relevant neural substrates. Critically, during the subsequent implicit test, participants in the congruent condition showed an enhanced ability to predict upcoming syllables and stronger neural phase synchronization to component words, suggesting that they had gained greater sensitivity to the statistical structure of the speech stream relative to the incongruent and static groups. This learning benefit could not be attributed to strategic processes, as participants were largely unaware of the contingencies between the visual stimulation and embedded words. These results indicate that manipulating neural entrainment during exposure to regularities influences statistical learning outcomes, suggesting that neural entrainment may functionally contribute to statistical learning. Our findings encourage future studies using non-invasive brain stimulation methods to further understand the role of entrainment in statistical learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2024
Full Text
View/download PDF

11. Sleep and Second-Language Acquisition Revisited: The Role of Sleep Spindles and Rapid Eye Movements

Author

Thompson,Kristen, Gibbings,Aaron, Shaw,James, Ray,Laura, Hébert,Gilles, De Koninck,Joseph, Fogel,Stuart, Thompson,Kristen, Gibbings,Aaron, Shaw,James, Ray,Laura, Hébert,Gilles, De Koninck,Joseph, and Fogel,Stuart

Abstract

Kristen Thompson,1 Aaron Gibbings,1,2 James Shaw,1 Laura Ray,1 Gilles Hébert,1 Joseph De Koninck,1,3 Stuart Fogel1– 3 1School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada; 2Sleep Unit, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health at the Royal, Ottawa, ON, Canada; 3University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, CanadaCorrespondence: Stuart FogelSchool of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, CanadaEmail sfogel@uottawa.caIntroduction: Second-language learning (SLL) depends on distinct functional-neuroanatomical systems including procedural and declarative long-term memory. Characteristic features of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep such as rapid eye movements and sleep spindles are electrophysiological markers of cognitively complex procedural and declarative memory consolidation, respectively. In adults, grammatical learning depends at first on declarative memory (“early SLL”) then shifts to procedural memory with experience (“late SLL”). However, it is unknown if the shift from declarative to procedural memory in early vs late SLL is supported by sleep. Here, we hypothesized that increases in sleep spindle characteristics would be associated with early SLL, whereas increases in REM activity (eg, density and EEG theta-band activity time-locked to rapid eye movements) would be associated with late SLL.Methods: Eight Anglophone (English first language) participants completed four polysomnographic recordings throughout an intensive 6-week French immersion course. Sleep spindle data and electroencephalographic spectral power time-locked to rapid eye movements were extracted from parietal temporal electrodes.Results: As predicted, improvements in French proficiency were associated with changes in spindles during early SLL. Furthermore, we observed increased event-related theta power time-locked to rapid eye movements during late SLL compared with early SLL. The increases in theta power were

Published
2021

12. Investigating how neural entrainment relates to beat perception by disentangling the stimulus-driven response

Author

Gibbings, Aaron WC

Subjects
neural resonance, Other Psychology, beat perception, genetic structures, neural oscillations, Cognitive Neuroscience, Biological Psychology, sense organs, electroencephalography (EEG), neural entrainment, time-frequency analysis
Abstract

Beat perception – the ability to perceive a steady pulse in music – is nearly ubiquitous in humans, but the neural mechanisms underlying this ability are unknown. A growing number of electroencephalography (EEG) studies suggest that beat perception is related to neural entrainment, a phenomenon in which cyclic changes in the excitability of populations of neurons synchronize with a rhythmic stimulus. However, the relationship between acoustically-driven and entrainment-driven neural activity is unclear. This thesis presents EEG research that extends our understanding neural entrainment is related to beat perception by characterizing, equating, and finally removing the stimulus-driven response in the neural signal isolating the entrainment-driven responses. Chapter 1 presents a general overview of how neural entrainment may relate to beat perception, the common methods of measuring neural entrainment, and current debates in the literature about how best to account for the stimulus-driven response in the neural signal and also what the neural power spectrum reflects. Chapter 2 presents research on how perceptual and acoustic factors in auditory stimuli influence neural spectral power in a series of experiments in which beat strength, tone duration, and onset/offset ramp duration were manipulated. The results suggest that both perceptual and acoustic factors influence neural spectral power, and that accounting for the stimulus-driven response in the neural spectrum is more complicated than previously assumed. Chapter 3 presents research on how power and phase of the neural signal relate to beat strength and beat location while controlling the stimulus-driven response. The results indicated a relationship between neural entrainment and beat strength, and also, between oscillatory phase and beat location. Chapter 4 presents research on the potential neural mechanisms of beat perception by examining neural activity during a silent immediately after rhythm perception for testing for ongoing, oscillatory activity. The results, although not statistically robust, suggest that entrained activity continues into silence, indicating a relationship between neural entrainment and beat perception. Chapter 5 presents a general discussion of Chapters 2-4 in the context of the existing literature, limitations, and broader interpretations of how these results relate to future directions in the field.

Published
2019

14. Eye movements during phasic versus tonic rapid eye movement sleep are biomarkers of dissociable electroencephalogram processes for the consolidation of novel problem-solving skills

Author

van den Berg, Nicholas H, Gibbings, Aaron, Baena, Daniel, Pozzobon, Alyssa, Al-Kuwatli, Julia, Ray, Laura B, and Fogel, Stuart M

Abstract

The hallmark eye movement (EM) bursts that occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep are markers of consolidation for procedural memory involving novel cognitive strategies and problem-solving skills. Examination of the brain activity associated with EMs during REM sleep might elucidate the processes involved in memory consolidation, and may uncover the functional significance of REM sleep and EMs themselves. Participants performed a REM-dependent, novel procedural problem-solving task (i.e. the Tower of Hanoi; ToH) before and after intervals of either overnight sleep (n= 20) or a daytime 8-hour wake period (n= 20). In addition, event-related spectral perturbation of the electroencephalogram (EEG) time-locked to EMs occurring either in bursts (i.e. phasic REM), or in isolation (i.e. tonic REM), were compared to sleep on a non-learning control night. ToH improvement was greater following sleep compared to wakefulness. During sleep, prefrontal theta (~2–8 Hz) and central-parietal-occipital sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) activity (~8–16 Hz) time-locked to EMs, were greater on the ToH night versus control night, and during phasic REM sleep, were both positively correlated with overnight memory improvements. Furthermore, SMR power during tonic REM increased significantly from the control night to ToH night, but was relatively stable from night to night during phasic REM. These results suggest that EMs are markers of learning-related increases in theta and SMR during phasic and tonic REM sleep. Phasic and tonic REM sleep may be functionally distinct in terms of their contribution to procedural memory consolidation.Graphical Abstract

Published
2023
Full Text
View/download PDF

Catalog

Books, media, physical & digital resources
See catalog results