Search bioRxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/bioRxiv

bioRxiv · 10.1101/333419

Fronto-central P3a to distracting sounds: an index of their arousing properties

Masson, R.·Bidet-Caulet, A.
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The P3a observed after novel events is an event-related potential comprising an early fronto-central phase and a late fronto-parietal phase. It has classically been considered to reflect the attention processing of distracting stimuli. However, novel sounds can lead to behavioral facilitation as much as behavioral distraction. This illustrates the duality of the orienting response which includes both an attentional and an arousal component. Using a paradigm with visual or auditory targets to detect and irrelevant unexpected distracting sounds to ignore, we showed that the facilitation effect by distracting sounds is independent of the target modality and endures more than 1500 ms. These results confirm that the behavioral facilitation observed after distracting sounds is related to an increase in unspecific phasic arousal on top of the attentional capture. Moreover, the amplitude of the early phase of the P3a to distracting sounds positively correlated with subjective arousal ratings, contrary to other event-related potentials. We propose that the fronto-central early phase of the P3a would index the arousing properties of distracting sounds and would be linked to the arousal component of the orienting response. Finally, we discuss the relevance of the P3a as a marker of distraction.

Source connections

Explore related subjects

neurosciencePreprint

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Masson, R., Bidet-Caulet, A.. 2018-05-30. Fronto-central P3a to distracting sounds: an index of their arousing properties. https://doi.org/10.1101/333419

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

bioRxiv2026

Next generation Human Neocortical Neurosolver model with biophysically realistic somatic, dendritic and synaptic dynamics

The Human Neocortical Neurosolver (HNN) is an open-source biophysical modeling tool for multiscale interpretation of human electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) signals. HNN's foundation is a pre-tuned canonical neocortical circuit model consisting of excitatory pyramidal neurons and inhibitory interneurons in supra- (L2/3) and infragranular (L5) layers. This model was originally developed based on studies in rodent and non-human primate cortices when dynamics of human neurons were poorly characterized. Yet recent advances in recordings from human tissue now provide unprecedented detail to update the model. Here, we present a significantly updated model for use in the HNN software, with electrophysiological properties and synaptic connections tuned to human tissue. Beyond reproducing biologically realistic somatic dynamics, the pyramidal cells simulate dendritic calcium (Ca2+) spikes in the L5 extratelencephalic-projecting (ET) neurons, and shorter dendritic spikes in the L2/3 pyramidal neurons. We demonstrate how the updated circuitry and new features in the HNN software can be used to disentangle somatic, synaptic, and dendritic contributions to human E-/MEG signatures. The model is distributed with workflows to simulate event-related responses and oscillations, and tutorials demonstrating how membrane potentials, Ca2+ dynamics, and synaptic currents can be recorded and visualized. These enhancements allow extensive model validations based on in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology, voltage and Ca2+ imaging, and provide users with novel insights on the mechanisms underlying E-/MEG signals.

neuroscience↗
bioRxiv2026

A biological light sheet links cellular voltage to mesoscopic brain dynamics

Membrane voltage is the fundamental currency of neural computation, yet cellular-resolution voltage imaging of large neuronal populations in vivo remains limited by trade-offs among imaging speed, field of view, and optical sectioning. We overcome this challenge by encoding a biological light sheet in the brain: Selective Plane Expression (SPress) restricts fluorescent indicator expression to a user-defined, 20-m-thick plane, suppressing background at its source. Following one-time two-photon photoactivation, SPress enables standard widefield microscopes to capture high-contrast kilohertz voltage dynamics from hundreds of densely labeled neurons across millimeter-scale cortical sheets and columns in vivo. These recordings reveal mesoscopic subthreshold waves that flexibly reorganize population-wide spike timing, together with cellularscale wavefront microstructure that preserves stereotyped local recruitment biases. By shifting optical sectioning from instrumentation to gene expression, SPress makes kilohertz cellular resolution voltage imaging accessible across mesoscopic scales.

neuroscience↗
bioRxiv2026

Persistent hippocampal traces of lifelong spatial memory

Memory presents a biological paradox: the brain changes continuously, yet a brief experience can influence behavior for a lifetime. How such memories are stored in brain circuits remains unclear. Here we show that two days in a binary-tree maze leave mice with spatial memories that survive repeated 90-day absences over as much as a year. Across return visits, mice explored the maze more efficiently than when naive and resumed direct runs to a reward location sooner, both by a factor of 3. Chronic calcium imaging of the same hippocampal CA1 neurons showed that although most neurons had changed their preferred locations, the population activity at a given maze location still resembled the pattern from 90 days earlier. Furthermore, even when a neuron's place fields changed location, they tended to remain at the same branching level of the binary tree, reflecting the local geometry of the maze. In return sessions where the neural tuning for branching level was preserved more accurately, the mouse explored the environment more efficiently. Population patterns were best preserved near the reward location, and more reliable neural activity there accompanied earlier direct runs to the reward. With repeated experience, spatial representations changed less, both within a visit and across the long absences. A brief experience thus left selective hippocampal traces that survived months of absence despite drift, grew more durable with each return, and were correlated with memory in navigation behavior.

neuroscience↗