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Second Stimulus (second + stimulus)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	75%

Selected Abstracts

Dissociation between top-down attentional control and the time course of visual attention as measured by attentional dwell time in patients with mild cognitive impairment

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 2 2003
Richard J. Perry
Abstract Studies of the time course of visual attention have identified a temporary functional blindness to the second of sequentially presented stimuli in that the attentional cost of attending to one visual stimulus may lead to impairments in identifying a second stimulus presented within 500 ms of the first. This phenomenon is known as the attentional blink or attentional dwell time. The neural correlates of the attentional blink and its relationship to mechanisms that control attention are unknown. To examine this relationship we tested healthy controls and subjects in the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease, known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), on a paradigm which affords quantification of both the attentional blink and the top-down control of attention. When subjects were asked to identify both a number and a letter that were rapidly and sequentially presented on a visual display, the detrimental effect that identifying the first stimulus had on the ability to identify the second served as a measure of the attentional blink. When asked to identify only one of the two stimuli, the ability to ignore the first stimulus was a function of their top-down attentional control. The MCI subjects demonstrated a normal attentional dwell time but in contrast they showed impaired top-down attentional control within the same paradigm. This dissociation suggests that these two aspects of visual attention are subserved by different neural systems. The possible neural correlates of these two attentional functions are discussed. [source]

Contingent negative variation elicited before jaw and tongue movements

JOURNAL OF ORAL REHABILITATION, Issue 12 2005
K. YOSHIDA
summary, Contingent negative variation (CNV) is a negative brain potential occurring between two successive stimuli when the first stimulus is a warning and the second stimulus requires a motor response. The CNV is interpreted as an expression of the cognitive processes in preparation for a response directed to a purpose. Using 19 electrodes we recorded CNVs for mouth opening, closing and lateral movements, tongue protrusion and hand extension in 10 healthy subjects. The aim of the study was to examine the motor control mechanism underlying jaw and tongue movements in a cognitive paradigm. The first stimulus (S1) served as a preparatory warning signal for the imperative stimulus (S2) 2 s after the S1. The subject performed the experimental tasks after the S2. The grand average CNVs for jaw and tongue movements showed a bilaterally widespread negativity with the maximum in the vertex region (Cz). The early CNV was identified about 400 ms after the S1 and its amplitude was highest at the midline-frontal area. The late CNV started approximately 1000 ms after the S1 with the maximum at Cz. The mean amplitude was significantly lower for hand extension than for the other tasks, and significantly higher for lateral movement than for mouth closing, suggesting that the CNV amplitude can be affected by the complexity of the task. The CNV recording may provide a means to study the neuronal activity necessary for the sensorimotor integration of jaw and tongue movements. [source]

Lateral spread response elicited by double stimulation in patients with hemifacial spasm

MUSCLE AND NERVE, Issue 6 2002
Shinya Yamashita MD
Abstract In patients with hemifacial spasm (HFS), a lateral spread response (or abnormal muscle response) is recorded from facial muscles after facial nerve stimulation. The origin of this response is not completely understood. We studied the lateral spread responses elicited by double stimulation in 12 patients with HFS during microvascular decompression. The response was recorded from the mentalis muscle by electrical stimulation of the temporal branch of the facial nerve or from the orbicularis oculi muscles by stimulation of the marginal mandibular branch. The interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of double stimulation ranged from 0.5 to 7.0 ms. R1 was defined as the response elicited by the first stimulus, and R2 as the response elicited by the second stimulus. R1 had a constant latency and amplitude regardless of the ISI, whereas R2 appeared after a fixed refractory period without facilitation or depression in a recovery curve of latency and amplitude. From these findings, we consider that the lateral spread response is due to cross-transmission of facial nerve fibers at the site of vascular compression rather than arising from facial nerve motor neurons. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Muscle Nerve 25: 000,000, 2002 [source]

Involvement of T-type calcium channels in excitatory junction potentials in rat resistance mesenteric arteries

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY, Issue 6 2002
Qi Xi
We investigated the role of voltage-operated calcium channels in sympathetic transmission and depolarization-induced contractions in the rat mesenteric artery. In particular, we investigated the role of the T-type voltage-operated calcium channels (T-channels) in mediating excitatory junction potentials (EJPs). EJPs were evoked by electrical field stimulation (trains of five stimuli at 0.9 Hz) in small mesenteric arteries. The average resting membrane potential was ,59.8±0.5 mV (n=65). Trains of stimuli evoked individual EJPs with the peak EJP of 6±0.2 mV (n=34) occurring with the second stimulus. Trains of EJPs were inhibited 90% by tetrodotoxin (0.1 ,M) or by ,-conotoxin GVIA (GVIA, 10 nM) indicating their neural origin. The EJPs were not inhibited by the L-type calcium channel blocker nicardipine at 0.1 ,M, a concentration sufficient to abolish the contraction to potassium depolarization. However, mibefradil (3 ,M), considered a relatively selective T-channel antagonist, inhibited the EJPs by about 50%. This concentration of mibefradil did not inhibit GVIA-sensitive electrically-evoked twitches of the rat vas deferens. Thus the action of mibefradil in reducing EJPs is unlikely to be due to either inhibition of L- or N-type channels but is probably due to inhibition of T-channels. The finding that Ni2+ (300 ,M), an inhibitor of T-type calcium channels, also reduced EJP amplitude by about 80% but did not block electrically-evoked twitches in the rat vas deferens, further supports an important role of T-channels in mediating small depolarizations associated with the EJPs evoked by sympathetic nerve stimulation. British Journal of Pharmacology (2002) 137, 805,812. doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0704943 [source]