Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33893294›Full record

ArticleNature communications2021

Thalamocortical excitability modulation guides human perception under uncertainty.

Julian Q Kosciessa, Ulman Lindenberger, Douglas D Garrett

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
53citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

53 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Dynamic Recovery: GABA Agonism Restores Neural Variability in Older, Poorer Performing Adults.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021
    Trial
  3. Article
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  5. Article
  6. Brain-computer interface-based neurofeedback training enables transferable control of cortical state switching in humans.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
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  8. Review
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  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Using Electroencephalography to Advance Mindfulness Science: A Survey of Emerging Methods and Approaches.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025
    Review
  18. Article
  19. Review
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Julian Q KosciessaMax Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Berlin, Germany. kosciessa@mpib-berlin.mpg.de.ORCID 0000-0002-4553-2794
Ulman LindenbergerMax Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Berlin, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-8428-6453
Douglas D GarrettMax Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Berlin, Germany. garrett@mpib-berlin.mpg.de.ORCID 0000-0002-0629-7672

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Knowledge about the relevance of environmental features can guide stimulus processing. However, it remains unclear how processing is adjusted when feature relevance is uncertain. We hypothesized that (a) heightened uncertainty would shift cortical networks from a rhythmic, selective processing-oriented state toward an asynchronous ("excited") state that boosts sensitivity to all stimulus features, and that (b) the thalamus provides a subcortical nexus for such uncertainty-related shifts. Here, we had young adults attend to varying numbers of task-relevant features during EEG and fMRI acquisition to test these hypotheses. Behavioral modeling and electrophysiological signatures revealed that greater uncertainty lowered the rate of evidence accumulation for individual stimulus features, shifted the cortex from a rhythmic to an asynchronous/excited regime, and heightened neuromodulatory arousal. Crucially, this unified constellation of within-person effects was dominantly reflected in the uncertainty-driven upregulation of thalamic activity. We argue that neuromodulatory processes involving the thalamus play a central role in how the brain modulates neural excitability in the face of momentary uncertainty.

Indexed as

UncertaintyAdolescentAdultAlgorithmsCerebral CortexElectroencephalographyFemaleHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleModels, NeurologicalNerve NetPerceptionThalamusYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID33893294
PMCPMC8065126

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.