Biology subjects

Cucurell, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Cucurell, D..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Heightened Sensitivity to Voice Loudness Changes in Parkinson's Disease

Parkinsons disease (PD) affects voice and speech production, often resulting in reduced vocal intensity and monotonous speech. Recent studies have suggested that these changes can be partially explained by altered sensory feedback processing when producing speech. Individuals with PD (IwPD) may fail to monitor sensory feedback from their own voice, impairing their ability to adjust voice and speech when sensory input differs from expectations. In this study, we investigated sensory feedback processing in PD by looking at the sensory attenuation typically observed in event-related responses (ERP) to the self-generated voice. When sensory feedback processing is intact, the P50, N100, and P200 ERP responses to the self-generated voice are more attenuated than to an externally-generated voice. Twenty-three IwPD and 23 healthy controls (HCs) participated in a voice playback study that comprised three conditions: self-generated voice (auditory-motor condition; AMC), externally-generated voice (auditory-only condition; AOC), and motor-only. The AMC and AOC conditions also included an amplitude modulation of the voice (0/+15dB). Linear mixed models assessed group differences in ERP morphology. While groups did not differ in their P50 and P200 responses, there was a significant group-condition- loudness interaction for the N100. Follow-up analyses showed that IwPD displayed much larger N100 error responses for unexpected loudness modulations as compared to HC. This observation suggests that IwPD may process voice modulations differently than HC. The hypersensitivity to loudness changes may underlie IwPDs difficulties in processing and adapting their voice acoustics.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

The effects of reliable social feedback on language learning: insights from EEG and pupillometry

Language learning is often a social process, and social feedback may play a motivational role. We examined the neurophysiological correlates of word learning with feedback varying in reliability and social content. Participants associated novel auditory words with objects and received social (video clips) or symbolic (static images) feedback. In a forced-choice task, participants learned to associate novel auditory words with known objects and received feedback that was either Social Reliable (correct), Social Unreliable (random), or Symbolic Reliable (correct). Post-training behavioral performance was better for words learned with social and symbolic reliable feedback. Stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) and late positive complex (LPC) ERP amplitudes, as well as pupil dilation, showed differences as a function of feedback reliability and social content. In the reliable conditions, before feedback, SPN amplitude grew as learning progressed, likely due to the expectation of receiving positive feedback. During feedback, LPC amplitude for positive feedback diminished as learning progressed but not for negative feedback, which was likely consistently used for context updating. These effects were not observed for unreliable feedback, probably because its value was not used for updating information. Pupillometry results corroborated these findings, showing greater dilation for negative vs positive feedback in reliable conditions. Finally, when feedback was social, processing was associated with more frontal activation and behavioral performance was closely correlated with both ERP and pupillometry results. Overall, our findings show differential processing of feedback depending on its informational and social content, advancing our understanding of how social and cognitive processes interact to shape word learning.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Theta rhythm supports hippocampus-dependent integrative encoding in schematic memory networks

Integrating new information into existing schematic structures of knowledge is the basis of learning in our everyday life activity as it enables structured representation of information and goal-directed behaviour in an ever-changing environment. However, how schematic mnemonic structures aid the integration of novel elements remains poorly understood. Here, we showed that the ability to integrate novel picture information into learn structures of picture associations that overlap by the same picture scene (associative network) or by the conceptually related scene information (schematic network) is hippocampus-dependent, as patients with lesions at the medial temporal lobe (including the hippocampus) were impaired in inferring novel relations between elements within these mnemonic networks but not in retrieving individual pictures in a subsequent memory test. In addition, we observed more persistent and widespread scalp electroencephalographic (EEG) theta oscillatory pattern (3-6Hz) while healthy participants encoded novel pictures related to schematic memory networks, suggesting that theta may reflect distances between elements within a representational network space. Finally, we found high similarity values for neural activity patterns elicited by novel and related events only within associative networks, thereby suggesting that neural reactivation may promote the integration of new information into existing memory networks only when direct associations within the network link their elements. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the neural mechanisms that support the development and organization of structures of knowledge.

neuroscience↗