Electroencephalographic correlates of temporal learning

• Main Author: Barne, Louise Catheryne
• Other Authors: Cravo, André Mascioli
• Format: Others
• Language: Inglês
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: APRENDIZAGEM TEMPORAL; PREDIÇÕES TEMPORAIS; EEG; TEMPORAL LEARNING; TEMPORAL PREDICTIONS; PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM NEUROCIÊNCIA E COGNIÇÃO - UFABC
• Online Access: http://www.biblioteca.ufabc.edu.brhttp://biblioteca.ufabc.edu.br/index.php?codigo_sophia=79331

Orientador: Prof. Dr. André Mascioli Cravo === Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociência e Cognição, 2016. === We constantly learn and update our predictions about when events we cause will occur. This flexibility is important to program motor actions and to estimate when errors have been made. However, the mechanisms that govern learning and updating in temporal domain are largely unknown. In order to clarify these mechanisms we had three mains objectives: 1. To describe how we learn a new temporal relation between two events and how expectation is updated based on new information; 2. To describe the neural correlates underlying temporal learning and temporal updating; 3. To investigate temporal learning in two different sensory modalities: vision and audition, in order to verify whether such processes occur independently of sensory modality. In order to achieve the objectives, we developed two different experiments with electroencephalography recordings. In the first experiment, we aimed to answer the first two objectives by developing a behavioral task in which participants had to monitor whether a temporal error had been made. Results evidenced a rapid temporal adjustment by the participants to a new temporal relation. Temporal errors evoked electrophysiological markers classically related to error coding as frontal theta oscillations and feedback-related negativity. Delta phase was modulated by behavioral adjustments, suggesting its importance in temporal prediction updating. In conclusion, low frequency oscillations appear to be modulated in error coding and temporal learning. The second experiment investigated temporal learning in two different sensory modalities. Results indicated that time perception is biased differently depending on temporal marker sensory modality. Besides, we found that intertrial phase coherence of theta oscillations was modulated by expectation on both sensory conditions. However, such result occurs on central electrodes analysis, but not on sensory electrodes analysis, indicating a supramodal mechanism of temporal prediction.