Biology subjects

Conroy, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Conroy, C..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Temporal cueing improves audition with no evidence for attentional tradeoffs

Temporal cues help us focus attention at just the right moment. Whereas visual temporal attention selectively boosts perception at attended times at a cost to other moments, it remains unclear whether auditory temporal attention operates under the same constraints. To address this question, we designed a two-target temporal cueing task where participants discriminated the frequency sweep direction of one of two successive auditory stimuli, separated by 250 ms, while temporal attention was directed to one or both time points. We found that temporal attention improved auditory discrimination only for the first time point and could then remain sustained across the interval, without evidence of attentional tradeoffs in perceptual discriminability across time. Further, manipulating auditory feature uncertainty changed overall performance but did not modulate the impact of temporal attention or yield tradeoffs. Finally, comparison to previous data from a closely matched visual task confirmed that while temporal attention enhanced perception in both vision and audition, only vision shows tradeoffs at this timescale. Altogether the results suggest that the temporal constraints on attention are modality-dependent.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

eDNA sampling reveals no negative effects of beaver recolonisation on the catchment-scale distribution of migratory fish

O_LIReintroduction of keystone species is considered part of the solution to the current biodiversity crisis. The Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) is one such species, shaping its habitat by felling trees, building dams and creating wetlands. However, while the potential benefits to aquatic biodiversity and ecological functioning have been studied on a local scale, the impacts of beavers on catchment-scale processes such as fish migration remain understudied. C_LIO_LISequencing of environmental DNA (eDNA metabarcoding) from water samples is a cost-effective method to study species distributions across large geographical scales. Here, eDNA samples (n=426) were collected from 142 sites across the UKs oldest and largest established wild beaver population, located on Tayside, East Scotland, and analysed using a vertebrate specific metabarcoding assay. We combined presence/absence data from eDNA results with other environmental and anthropogenic variables to model the effects of beaver presence on the distribution of three migratory fish species. C_LIO_LIUsing generalised linear models, we found no effects of the current beaver presence on the distribution of Atlantic salmon or lamprey, but a positive co-occurrence with European eel at the catchment scale. Model outputs also reinforced previous findings on the impact of barriers to migration and other abiotic and biotic factors on fish species, demonstrating the effectiveness of eDNA sampling in rivers for understanding species distributions at a catchment scale. C_LIO_LIThis case study provides novel insights into the co-distribution of beavers and migratory fish, and highlights how catchment-wide eDNA monitoring can be applied by environmental managers to aid decision-making and impact assessment more generally. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Inhibitory tagging both speeds and strengthens saccade target selection in the superior colliculus during visual search

It has been suggested that, during difficult visual search tasks involving time pressure and multiple saccades, inhibitory tagging helps to facilitate efficient saccade target selection by reducing responses to objects in the scene once they have been searched and rejected. The superior colliculus (SC) is a midbrain structure involved in target selection, and recent findings suggest an influence of inhibitory tagging on SC activity. Precisely how, and by how much, inhibitory tagging influences target selection by SC neurons, however, is unclear. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to characterize and quantify the influence of inhibitory tagging on target selection in the SC. Rhesus monkeys performed a visual search task involving time pressure and multiple saccades. Early in the fixation period between saccades, a subset of SC neurons reliably discriminated the stimulus selected as the next saccade goal, consistent with a role in target selection. Discrimination occurred earlier and was more robust, however, when unselected stimuli in the search array had been previously fixated on the same trial. This indicates that inhibitory tagging both speeds and strengthens saccade target selection in the SC during multisaccade search. The results provide constraints on models of target selection based on SC activity. NEW AND NOTEWORTHYAn important aspect of efficient behavior during difficult, time-limited visual search tasks is the efficient selection of sequential saccade targets. Inhibitory tagging, i.e., a reduction of neural activity associated with previously fixated objects, may help to facilitate such efficient selection by modulating the selection process in the superior colliculus (SC). In this study, we characterized and quantified this modulation and found that, indeed, inhibitory tagging both speeds and strengthens target selection in the SC.

neuroscience↗