We have come to recognize the brain as a predictive organ, anticipating attributes of the incoming sensory stimulation to guide perception and action in the service of adaptive behaviour. In the quest to understand the neural bases of the modulatory prospective signals that prioritize and select relevant events during perception, one fundamental dimension has until recently been largely overlooked: time. In this Review, we introduce the burgeoning field of temporal attention and illustrate how the brain makes use of various forms of temporal regularities in the environment to guide adaptive behaviour and influence neural processing.

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Anticipated moments: temporal structure in attention.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(15)01235-X.pdf

The Speed of Alpha-Band Oscillations Predicts the Temporal Resolution of Visual Perception

The more we anticipate a response to a predictable stimulus, the faster we react. This empirical observation has been confirmed and quantified by many investigators suggesting that the processing of behaviorally relevant stimuli is facilitated by probability-based confidence of anticipation. However, the exact neural mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are largely unknown. Here we show that performance changes related to different levels of expectancy originate in dynamic modulation of delta oscillation phase. Our results obtained in rhythmic auditory target detection tasks indicated significant entrainment of the EEG delta rhythm to the onset of the target tones with increasing phase synchronization at higher levels of predictability. Reaction times correlated with the phase of the delta band oscillation at target onset. The fastest reactions occurred during the delta phase that most commonly coincided with the target event in the high expectancy conditions. These results suggest that low-frequency oscillations play a functional role in human anticipatory mechanisms, presumably by modulating synchronized rhythmic fluctuations in the excitability of large neuronal populations and by facilitating efficient task-related neuronal communication among brain areas responsible for sensory processing and response execution.

Phase entrainment of human delta oscillations can mediate the effects of expectation on reaction speed (Journal of Neuroscience (2010) (13578-13585))

Brain Networks and α-Oscillations: Structural and Functional Foundations of Cognitive Control

Rhythmic facilitation of sensory processing: A critical review.

The physiological state of the brain before an incoming stimulus has substantial consequences for subsequent behavior and neural processing. For example, the phase of ongoing posterior alpha-band oscillations (8–14 Hz) immediately before visual stimulation has been shown to predict perceptual outcomes and downstream neural activity. Although this phenomenon suggests that these oscillations may phasically route information through functional networks, many accounts treat these periodic effects as a consequence of ongoing activity that is independent of behavioral strategy. Here, we investigated whether alpha-band phase can be guided by top-down control in a temporal cueing task. When participants were provided with cues predictive of the moment of visual target onset, discrimination accuracy improved and targets were more frequently reported as consciously seen, relative to unpredictive cues. This effect was accompanied by a significant shift in the phase of alpha-band oscillations, before target onset, toward each participant’s optimal phase for stimulus discrimination. These findings provide direct evidence that forming predictions about when a stimulus will appear can bias the phase of ongoing alpha-band oscillations toward an optimal phase for visual processing, and may thus serve as a mechanism for the top-down control of visual processing guided by temporal predictions.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/112/27/8439.full.pdf

Top-down control of the phase of alpha-band oscillations as a mechanism for temporal prediction

Francis Moore a Surgeon-Scientist: Career in Retrospect.

Cardiac Xenotransplantation: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Now.

Background: The appropriate use of narcotics for postoperative pain control is controversial because of potential medication-induced complications. The authors sought to determine the effects of narcotics in the pediatric population following cranial vault remodeling operations. Methods: A retrospective review was performed on 160 consecutive patients who underwent cranial vault remodeling for craniosynostosis. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in total morphine equivalents in the group that experienced no emesis and those with at least one episode of emesis (0.97 morphine equivalents/kg versus 1.44 morphine equivalents/kg; p = 0.05). There was a statistically significant difference in hospital morphine equivalents in the group with documented respiratory events (average, 2.3 morphine equivalents/kg versus 1.3 morphine equivalents/kg in the nonevent group; p = 0.006). The patients who received dexmedetomidine had a trend toward a decrease in hospital narcotic administration with equivalent pain control (1.2 morphine equivalents/kg versus 1.9 morphine equivalents/kg; p = 0.09). There was a statistically significant positive correlation between total morphine equivalents for the hospitalization and hospital stay (r = 0.27, p = 0.001). The amount of morphine equivalents used in the first 24 hours was also found to be an independent predictor of a respiratory event (p = 0.002 by multivariate logistic regression). Independent positive predictors of hospital stay were age (p < 0.001), intensive care unit time (p < 0.001), and total morphine equivalents for the hospitalization (p = 0.001) by multivariate analysis with linear regression. Conclusion: The authors’ study demonstrates improvement in outcomes with decreased use of narcotics, which establishes that there is a need to further explore postsurgical recovery outcomes with multimodal pain control. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, III.

Pediatric Outcomes following Cranial Vault Remodeling with Restricted Use of Postoperative Narcotics: A Retrospective Review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcr.2023.100855

Sawyer Cimaroli

Papers

Top-down control of the phase of alpha-band oscillations as a mechanism for temporal prediction

Francis Moore a Surgeon-Scientist: Career in Retrospect.

Cardiac Xenotransplantation: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Now.

Pediatric Outcomes following Cranial Vault Remodeling with Restricted Use of Postoperative Narcotics: A Retrospective Review

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy following blunt trauma: Early recognition and diagnosis