Behavioral Inhibition Underlies the Link Between Interoceptive Sensitivity and Anxiety-Related Temperamental Traits
Interoceptive sensitivity is a biologically determined, constitutional trait of an individual. High interoceptive sensitivity has been often associated with proneness to anxiety. This association has been explained by elevated autonomic responsiveness in anxious individuals. However, in a heartbeat discrimination task (discrimination of heartbeats’ simultaneity to an external stimulus) low cardiac responsiveness has accompanied enhanced performance. The relation between these factors seems task dependent, and cannot comprehensively explain the link between interoceptive sensitivity and anxiety. We explored for additional explanatory factors for this link. More specifically, we studied which…
Corrigendum to ‘Automated detection and localization system of myocardial infarction in single-beat ECG using Dual-Q TQWT and wavelet packet tensor decomposition’ [Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine 184 (2020) 105120]
Brain dynamics of recommendation-based social influence on preference change: A magnetoencephalography study.
People change their preferences when exposed to others’ opinions. We examine the neural basis of how peer feedback influences an individual’s recommendation behavior. In addition, we investigate if the personality trait of ‘agreeableness’ modulates behavioral change and neural responses. In our experiment, participants with low and high agreeableness indicated their degree of recommendation of commercial brands, while subjected to peer group feedback. The associated neural responses were recorded with concurrent magnetoencephalography. After a delay, the participants were asked to reevaluate the brands. Recommendations changed consistently with conflicting feedback only when peer recommenda…
Dynamics of morphological processing in pre-school children with and without familial risk for dyslexia
Difficulties in phonological processing and speech perception are associated with developmental dyslexia, but there is considerable diversity across people with developmental dyslexia (e.g., dyslexics with and without phonological difficulties). Phonological and morphological awareness are both known to play an important role in reading acquisition. Problems in morpho-phonological information processing could arguably be associated with developmental dyslexia, especially for Finnish, which is a rich morphologically language. We used MEG to study the connection between morpho-phonology in the Finnish language and familial risk for developmental dyslexia. We measured event-related fields (ERF…
Children show right-lateralized effects of spoken word-form learning
It is commonly thought that phonological learning is different in young children compared to adults, possibly due to the speech processing system not yet having reached full native-language specialization. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms of phonological learning in children are poorly understood. We employed magnetoencephalography (MEG) to track cortical correlates of incidental learning of meaningless word forms over two days as 6±8-year-olds overtly repeated them. Native (Finnish) pseudowords were compared with words of foreign sound structure (Korean) to investigate whether the cortical learning effects would be more dependent on previous proficiency in the language rather than ma…
Neural specialization to human faces at the age of 7 months.
AbstractSensitivity to human faces has been suggested to be an early emerging capacity that promotes social interaction. However, the developmental processes that lead to cortical specialization to faces has remained unclear. The current study investigated both cortical sensitivity and categorical specificity through event-related potentials (ERPs) previously implicated in face processing in 7-month-old infants (N290) and adults (N170). Using a category-specific repetition/adaptation paradigm, cortical specificity to human faces, or control stimuli (cat faces), was operationalized as changes in ERP amplitude between conditions where a face probe was alternated with categorically similar or …
Attentional modulation of interhemispheric (a)symmetry in children with developmental language disorder
Funding Information: The MEG recordings were conducted at Aalto University with the support of Grant #315553 from the Academy of Finland. This research was also supported by a personal grant to DH from the Jenni and Antti Wihuri Foundation and to RS from the Sigrid Jusélius Foundation. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s). The nature of auditory processing problems in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) is still poorly understood. Much research has been devoted to determining the extent to which DLD is associated with general auditory versus language-specific dysfunction. However, less emphasis has been given to the role of different task conditions in these dysfunctio…
Automated detection and localization system of myocardial infarction in single-beat ECG using Dual-Q TQWT and wavelet packet tensor decomposition.
Abstract Background and objective It is challenging to conduct real-time identification of myocardial infarction (MI) due to artifact corruption and high dimensionality of multi-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). In the present study, we proposed an automated single-beat MI detection and localization system using dual-Q tunable Q-factor wavelet transformation (Dual-Q TQWT) denoising algorithm. Methods After denoising and segmentation of ECG, a fourth-order wavelet tensor (leads × subbands × samples × beats) was constructed based on the discrete wavelet packet transform (DWPT), to represent the features considering the information of inter-beat, intra-beat, inter-frequency, and inter-lead. To red…
Coherence between brain activation and speech envelope at word and sentence levels showed age-related differences in low frequency bands
Abstract Speech perception is dynamic and shows changes across development. In parallel, functional differences in brain development over time have been well documented and these differences may interact with changes in speech perception during infancy and childhood. Further, there is evidence that the two hemispheres contribute unequally to speech segmentation at the sentence and phonemic levels. To disentangle those contributions, we studied the cortical tracking of various sized units of speech that are crucial for spoken language processing in children (4.7–9.3 years old, N = 34) and adults (N = 19). We measured participants’ magnetoencephalogram (MEG) responses to syllables, words, and…
Spatiotemporal dynamics of activation in motor and language areas suggest a compensatory role of the motor cortex in second language processing
The involvement of the motor cortex in language understanding has been intensively discussed in the framework of embodied cognition. Although some studies have provided evidence for the involvement of the motor cortex in different receptive language tasks, the role that it plays in language perception and understanding is still unclear. In the present study, we explored the degree of involvement of language and motor areas in a visually presented sentence comprehension task, modulated by language proficiency (L1: native language, L2: second language) and linguistic abstractness (literal, metaphorical, and abstract). Magnetoencephalography data were recorded from 26 late Chinese learners of …
Physical activity, aerobic fitness, and brain white matter : Their role for executive functions in adolescence
Highlights • Aerobic fitness level, but not physical activity, is related to white matter properties in the brain. • The relation between physical activity and working memory is moderated by fractional anisotropy (FA) of the corpus callosum. • The FA of the corpus callosum and superior corona radiata moderates the relation between aerobic fitness and working memory.
Automated detection and localization system of myocardial infarction in single-beat ECG using Dual-Q TQWT and wavelet packet tensor decomposition
Background and objective. It is challenging to conduct real-time identification of myocardial infarction (MI) due to artifact corruption and high dimensionality of multi-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). In the present study, we proposed an automated single-beat MI detection and localization system using dual-Q tunable Q-factor wavelet transformation (Dual-Q TQWT) denoising algorithm. Methods. After denoising and segmentation of ECG, a fourth-order wavelet tensor (leads × subbands × samples × beats) was constructed based on thediscretewavelet packet transform (DWPT), to represent the features considering the information of inter-beat, intra-beat, inter-frequency, and inter-lead. To reduce the t…
Child specific activation in left auditory cortex predicts behavioral performance in inhibition tasks
Sensory processing during development is important for the emerging cognitive skills underlying goal-directed behavior. Yet, it is not known how auditory processing in children is related to their cognitive functions. Here, we utilized combined magneto- and electroencephalographic (M/EEG) measurements to show that child-unique auditory cortical activity at ∼250 ms after auditory stimulation predicts the performance in inhibition tasks. While unaffected by task demands, the amplitude of the left-hemisphere activation pattern was significantly correlated with the variability of behavioral response time. Since this activation pattern is not present in adults, our results suggest divergent brai…
Left hemisphere enhancement of auditory activation in language impaired children
| openaire: EC/H2020/641652/EU//ChildBrain Specific language impairment (SLI) is a developmental disorder linked to deficient auditory processing. In this magnetoencephalography (MEG) study we investigated a specific prolonged auditory response (N250m) that has been reported predominantly in children and is associated with level of language skills. We recorded auditory responses evoked by sine-wave tones presented alternately to the right and left ear of 9–10-year-old children with SLI (n = 10) and children with typical language development (n = 10). Source analysis was used to isolate the N250m response in the left and right hemisphere. In children with language impairment left-hemisphere …
Physical activity is positively related to local functional connectivity in adolescents’ brains
AbstractAdolescents have experienced decreased aerobic fitness levels and insufficient physical activity levels over the past decades. While both physical activity and aerobic fitness are related to physical and mental health, little is known concerning how they manifest in the brain during this stage of development, characterized by significant physical and psychosocial changes. Previous investigations have demonstrated associations of physical activity and aerobic fitness with the brain’s functional connectivity in both children and adults. However, it is difficult to generalize these results to adolescents because the development of functional connectivity has unique features during adol…
Predicting domain-specific actions in expert table tennis players activates the semantic brain network.
Motor expertise acquired during long-term training in sports enables top athletes to predict the outcomes of domain-specific actions better than nonexperts do. However, whether expert players encode actions, in addition to the concrete sensorimotor level, also at a more abstract, conceptual level, remains unclear. The present study manipulated the congruence between body kinematics and the subsequent ball trajectory in videos of an expert player performing table tennis serves. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the brain activity was evaluated in expert and nonexpert table tennis players during their predictions on the fate of the ball trajectory in congruent versus incongruent…
Neural Mechanisms Underlying Human Auditory Evoked Responses Revealed By Human Neocortical Neurosolver
Funding Information: This study was supported by National Institutes of Health (Grant Nos. NIBIB RO1 EB022889, NIMH RO1 MH106174). Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s). Auditory evoked fields (AEFs) are commonly studied, yet their underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we used the biophysical modelling software Human Neocortical Neurosolver (HNN) whose foundation is a canonical neocortical circuit model to interpret the cell and network mechanisms contributing to macroscale AEFs elicited by a simple tone, measured with magnetoencephalography. We found that AEFs can be reproduced by activating the neocortical circuit through a layer specific sequence of feedforwar…
Gaze position reveals impaired attentional shift during visual word recognition in dysfluent readers
Effects reflecting serial within-word processing are frequently found in pseudo- and non-word recognition tasks not only among fluent, but especially among dyslexic readers. However, the time course and locus of these serial within-word processing effects in the cognitive hierarchy (i.e., orthographic, phonological, lexical) have remained elusive. We studied whether a subject’s eye movements during a lexical decision task would provide information about the temporal dynamics of serial within-word processing. We assumed that if there is serial within-word processing proceeding from left to right, items with informative beginnings would attract the gaze position and (micro-)saccadic eye movem…
Beta-band MEG signal power changes in older adults after physical exercise program with and without additional cognitive training
Physical exercise has been considered to be an efficient mean of preserving cognitive function and it influences both the structural and functional characteristics of the brain. It has especially been shown to increase brain plasticity, the capacity to re-structure brain properties in response to interaction, such as cognitive practice. Studies have also examined the potential additive effect of cognitive training on the documented benefit of physical exercise, commonly, however, not at the neural level. We monitored, using magnetoencephalography (MEG), the brain processes associated with executive functions in older individuals who participated in a 12-month randomized controlled trial inc…
Decoding attentional states for neurofeedback : Mindfulness vs. wandering thoughts
Neurofeedback requires a direct translation of neuronal brain activity to sensory input given to the user or subject. However, decoding certain states, e.g., mindfulness or wandering thoughts, from ongoing brain activity remains an unresolved problem. In this study, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to acquire brain activity during mindfulness meditation and thought-inducing tasks mimicking wandering thoughts. We used a novel real-time feature extraction to decode the mindfulness, i.e., to discriminate it from the thought-inducing tasks. The key methodological novelty of our approach is usage of MEG power spectra and functional connectivity of independent components as features underlyin…
Cortical Proprioceptive Processing Is Altered by Aging
Proprioceptive perception is impaired with aging, but little is known about aging-related deterioration of proprioception at the cortical level. Corticokinematic coherence (CKC) between limb kinematic and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals reflects cortical processing of proprioceptive afference. We, thus, compared CKC strength to ankle movements between younger and older subjects, and examined whether CKC predicts postural stability. Fifteen younger (range 18-31 years) and eight older (66-73 years) sedentary volunteers were seated in MEG, while their right and left ankle joints were moved separately at 2 Hz (for 4 min each) using a novel MEG-compatible ankle-movement actuator. Coherence…
Activity level in left auditory cortex predicts behavioral performance in inhibition tasks in children
Funding Information: We are grateful to Hanna-Maija Lapinkero, Suvi Karjalainen, Maria Vesterinen & Janne Rajaniemi for help with data collection and to Amit Jaiswal, Erkka Heinilä and Jukka Nenonen for their help with preprocessing and scripting. This work was supported by EU project ChildBrain (Horizon2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) – European Training Network (ETN), grant agreement no. 641652) and the Academy of Finland grant number 311877. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Sensory processing during development is important for the emerging cognitive skills underlying goal-directed behavior. Yet, it is not known how auditory processing in children is…
Decoding attentional states for neurofeedback Mindfulness vs. wandering thoughts
Abstract Neurofeedback requires a direct translation of neuronal brain activity to sensory input given to the user or subject. However, decoding certain states, e.g., mindfulness or wandering thoughts, from ongoing brain activity remains an unresolved problem. In this study, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to acquire brain activity during mindfulness meditation and thought-inducing tasks mimicking wandering thoughts. We used a novel real-time feature extraction to decode the mindfulness, i.e., to discriminate it from the thought-inducing tasks. The key methodological novelty of our approach is usage of MEG power spectra and functional connectivity of independent components as features …
The role of motor system in action-related language comprehension in L1 and L2: An fMRI study
The framework of embodied cognition has challenged the modular view of a language-cognition divide by suggesting that meaning-retrieval critically involves the sensory-motor system. Despite extensive research into the neural mechanisms underlying language-motor coupling, it remains unclear how the motor system might be differentially engaged by different levels of linguistic abstraction and language proficiency. To address this issue, we used fMRI to quantify neural activations in brain regions underlying motor and language processing in Chinese-English speakers’ processing of literal, metaphorical, and abstract language in their L1 and L2. Results overall revealed a response in motor ROIs …
Aerobic fitness, but not physical activity, is associated with grey matter volume in adolescents.
Higher levels of aerobic fitness and physical activity are linked to beneficial effects on brain health, especially in older adults. The generalizability of these earlier results to young individuals is not straightforward, because physiological responses (such as cardiovascular responses) to exercise may depend on age. Earlier studies have mostly focused on the effects of either physical activity or aerobic fitness on the brain. Yet, while physical activity indicates the amount of activity, aerobic fitness is an adaptive state or attribute that an individual has or achieves. Here, by measuring both physical activity and aerobic fitness in the same study, we aimed to differentiate the assoc…
METHODOLOGY DEVELOPMENT IN ADULT LEARNING RESEARCH. COMBINING PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIONS AND LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN SIMULATION-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
We aim to clarify whether physiological measurement technologies can be used in combination with traditional educational research methods to investigate learning experience. We developed an interdisciplinary research design for multilevel investigation of adult learning experience. We collected data in aviation simulations and forestry simulations, to show both similarities and differences between different learning situations. Both settings utilize high quality virtual simulations allowing learning to occur in near authentic situations. The learning situations were structured pedagogically in a similar way. They involve learner-instructor interaction in a one-on-one setting and follow a tr…
Physical activity and aerobic fitness show different associations with brain processes underlying anticipatory selective visuospatial attention in adolescents
ABSTRACTUnderlying brain processes of exercise-related benefits on executive functions and the specific contribution of physical activity vs. aerobic fitness are poorly understood, especially during adolescence. We explored whether and how physical activity and aerobic fitness are associated with selective attention and the oscillatory dynamics induced by an anticipatory spatial cue. Further, we studied whether the link between physical exercise level and cognitive control in adolescents is mediated by the task-related oscillatory activity. Magnetoencephalographic alpha oscillations during a modified Posner’s cueing paradigm were measured in 59 adolescents (37 females and 22 males, 12 to 17…
Exercise intervention protocol in children and young adults with cerebral palsy : the effects of strength, flexibility and gait training on physical performance, neuromuscular mechanisms and cardiometabolic risk factors (EXECP)
Abstract Background Individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) have problems in everyday tasks such as walking and climbing stairs due to a combination of neuromuscular impairments such as spasticity, muscle weakness, reduced joint flexibility and poor coordination. Development of evidence-based interventions are in pivotal role in the development of better targeted rehabilitation of CP, and thus in maintaining their motor function and wellbeing. Our aim is to investigate the efficacy of an individually tailored, multifaceted exercise intervention (EXECP) in children and young adults with CP. EXECP is composed of strength, flexibility and gait training. Furthermore, this study aims to verify the …
Aging and strength training influence knee extensor intermuscular coherence during low- and high-force isometric contractions
Aging is associated with reduced maximum force production and force steadiness during low-force tasks, but both can be improved by training. Intermuscular coherence measures coupling between two peripheral surface electromyography (EMG) signals in the frequency domain. It is thought to represent the presence of common input to alpha-motoneurons, but the functional meaning of intermuscular coherence, particularly regarding aging and training, remain unclear. This study investigated knee extensor intermuscular coherence in previously sedentary young (18–30 years) and older (67–73 years) subjects before and after a 14-week strength training intervention. YOUNG and OLDER groups performed maximu…
Network Entropy for the Sequence Analysis of Functional Connectivity Graphs of the Brain
Dynamic representation of functional brain networks involved in the sequence analysis of functional connectivity graphs of the brain (FCGB) gains advances in uncovering evolved interaction mechanisms. However, most of the networks, even the event-related ones, are highly heterogeneous due to spurious interactions, which bring challenges to revealing the change patterns of interactive information in the complex dynamic process. In this paper, we propose a network entropy (NE) method to measure connectivity uncertainty of FCGB sequences to alleviate the spurious interaction problem in dynamic network analysis to realize associations with different events during a complex cognitive task. The p…
NEW METHODS DEEPENING UNDERSTANDING OF STUDENTS' EXPERIENCES AND THEIR RELATION TO PHYSIOLOGICAL ALERTNESS VARIATIONS DURING LEARNING
In this study we explored whether physiological measurement technologies could be used in a combination with traditional educational research methods to investigate learning experiences. We aimed, first, to explore individual physiological reactions during learning and how these reactions relate to experiences, emotions and contexts of learning and, second, to test new methodology and its suitability for investigating learning. The data was collected during a teacher education programme in a Finnish university. A total of 14 students participated in the study. The data was collected during two contact periods of three days and the weekends after them, ten days in total. We used a mixed meth…
Cortical organization of auditory speech perception in children and its correlation with cognitive skills
Työelämän digitalisoituminen ja media-alan työ työmarkkinajärjestöjen ulostuloissa
Media-ala ja media alalla tehtävä työ ovat digitalisoituneet nopeasti. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan, miten erityisesti toimitustyön digitalisoitumista käsitellään työmarkkinajärjestöjen ulostuloissa. Millaisena ongelmana digitalisaatio esitetään? Millaisiin oletuksiin ja olosuhteisiin tämä representaatio perustuu? peerReviewed
Musicianship can be decoded from magnetic resonance images
AbstractLearning induces structural changes in the brain. Especially repeated, long-term behaviors, such as extensive training of playing a musical instrument, are likely to produce characteristic features to brain structure. However, it is not clear to what extent such structural features can be extracted from magnetic resonance images of the brain. Here we show that it is possible to predict whether a person is a musician or a non-musician based on the thickness of the cerebral cortex measured at 148 brain regions en-compassing the whole cortex. Using a supervised machine-learning technique, we achieved a significant (κ = 0.321, p < 0.001) agreement between the actual and predicted par…
Can you put your finger on it? : The effects of writing modality on Finnish students’ recollection
Digitalisation has changed and broadened the ways people write. In higher education, typing is a common practice both for note-taking and for completing written assignments, relegating pen and pape...
Neural correlates of morphological processing and its development from pre-school to the first grade in children with and without familial risk for dyslexia
Previous studies have shown that the development of morphological awareness and reading skills are interlinked. However, most have focused on phonological awareness as a risk factor for dyslexia, although there is considerable diversity in the underlying causes of this reading difficulty. Specifically, the relationship between phonology, derivational morphology, and dyslexia in the Finnish language remains unclear. In the present study, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure the brain responses to correctly and incorrectly derived Finnish nouns in 34 first grade Finnish children (21 typically developing and 13 with familial risk for dyslexia). In addition, we compared longitudinall…
Virtual Reality in Education : Focus on the Role of Emotions and Physiological Reactivity
Cognitive and emotional dimensions are often linked to each other in learning experiences. Moreover, emotions and engagement can lead to better outcomes at the cognitive level. Previous research has indicated that virtual reality (VR) provides a feeling of presence and immersion, which can trigger emotionally engaging learning situations. In this study, we explore the opportunities and challenges related to the use of VR in an educational context. The focus of this article is threefold: First, we explore interdisciplinary research literature related to the use of VR for educational purposes. Second, we introduce our VR pilot study in teacher education, applying three different kinds of VR a…
Coactivation of Autonomic and Central Nervous Systems During Processing of Socially Relevant Information in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review
AbstractBody-brain interaction provides a novel approach to understand neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this systematic review, we analyse the empirical evidence regarding coexisting differences in autonomic (ANS) and central nervous system (CNS) responses to social stimuli between individuals with ASD and typically developing individuals. Moreover, we review evidence of deviations in body-brain interaction during processing of socially relevant information in ASD. We conducted systematic literature searches in PubMed, Medline, PsychInfo, PsychArticles, and Cinahl databases (until 12.1.2022). Studies were included if individuals with ASD were compared…
Sustained attention required for effective dimension-based retro-cue benefit in visual working memory
In visual working memory (VWM) tasks, participants’ performances can be improved through the use of dimension-based retro-cues, which direct internal attention to prioritize a particular dimension (e.g., color or orientation) of VWM representations even after the stimuli disappear. This phenomenon is known as the dimension-based retro-cue benefit (RCB). The present study investigates whether sustained attention is required for the dimension-based RCB by inserting interference or interruption between the retro-cue and the test array to distract attention. We tested the effects of perceptual interference or cognitive interruption on dimension-based RCB when the interference (Experiments 1 and…
Optimal imaging of multi-channel EEG features based on a novel clustering technique for driver fatigue detection
Abstract Fatigue may cause a decrease in mental and physical performance capacity, which is a serious safety risk for the drivers in the transportation system. Recently, various studies have demonstrated the deviations of electroencephalogram (EEG) indicators from normal vigilant state during fatigue in time and frequency domains. However, when considering spatial information, these feature descriptors are not satisfying the demand for reliable detection due to the well-known challenge of signal mixing. In this paper, we propose a novel approach based on clustering on brain networks (CBNs) to alleviate the problem to improve the performance of driver fatigue detection. The clustering algori…
Context-dependent minimisation of prediction errors involves temporal-frontal activation
According to the predictive coding model of perception, the brain constantly generates predictions of the upcoming sensory inputs. Perception is realised through a hierarchical generative model which aims at minimising the discrepancy between predictions and the incoming sensory inputs (i.e., prediction errors). Notably, prediction errors are weighted depending on precision of prior information. However, it remains unclear whether and how the brain monitors prior precision when minimising prediction errors in different contexts. The current study used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to address this question. We presented participants with repetition of two non-predicted probes embedded in cont…
Physical activity and aerobic fitness in relation to local and interhemispheric functional connectivity in adolescents' brains
Abstract Introduction Adolescents have experienced decreased aerobic fitness levels and insufficient physical activity levels over the past decades. While both physical activity and aerobic fitness are related to physical and mental health, little is known concerning how they manifest in the brain during this stage of development, characterized by significant physical and psychosocial changes. The aim of the study is to examine the associations between both physical activity and aerobic fitness with brains’ functional connectivity. Methods Here, we examined how physical activity and aerobic fitness are associated with local and interhemispheric functional connectivity of the adolescent brai…
Reproducibility of evoked and induced MEG responses to proprioceptive stimulation of the ankle joint
Cortical processing of proprioceptive afference can be investigated by examining phase locked evoked and induced responses in cortical signals to passive movement stimuli. Reproducibility of evoked and induced responses has been studied using electroencephalography (EEG), but proprioceptive domain has received little attention. It is unclear whether evoked and induced responses to proprioceptive stimulation arising from the lower limbs are reproducible using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Nineteen healthy volunteers (18 right-foot dominant, 36.1 ± 6.6 yr, 7 females) were measured in two MEG sessions separated by 9 ± 5 days in which their right ankle was rotated intermittently using a pneumat…
Abnormal functioning of the left temporal lobe in language-impaired children
Specific language impairment is associated with enduring problems in language-related functions. We followed the spatiotemporal course of cortical activation in SLI using magnetoencephalography. In the experiment, children with normal and impaired language development heard spoken real words and pseudowords presented only once or two times in a row. In typically developing children, the activation in the bilateral superior temporal cortices was attenuated to the second presentation of the same word. In SLI children, this repetition effect was nearly nonexistent in the left hemisphere. Furthermore, the activation was equally strong to words and pseudowords in SLI children whereas in the typi…
Dynamics of brain activation during learning of syllable-symbol paired associations.
| openaire: EC/H2020/641652/EU//ChildBrain Initial stages of reading acquisition require the learning of letter and speech sound combinations. While the long-term effects of audio-visual learning are rather well studied, relatively little is known about the short-term learning effects at the brain level. Here we examined the cortical dynamics of short-term learning using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) in two experiments that respectively addressed active and passive learning of the association between shown symbols and heard syllables. In experiment 1, learning was based on feedback provided after each trial. The learning of the audio-visual associations was c…
Unsupervised representation learning of spontaneous MEG data with nonlinear ICA
Funding Information: We wish to thank the reviewers and editors for the useful comments to improve the paper a lot. We thank Dr. Hiroshi Morioka for the useful discussion at the beginning of the project. L.P. was funded in part by the European Research Council (No. 678578 ). A.H. was supported by a Fellowship from CIFAR, and the Academy of Finland. The authors acknowledge the computational resources provided by the Aalto Science-IT project, and also wish to thank the Finnish Grid and Cloud Infrastructure (FGCI) for supporting this project with computational and data storage resources. | openaire: EC/H2020/678578/EU//HRMEG Resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG) data show complex but stru…
Spectral signatures of cross-modal attentional control in the adolescent brain and their link with physical activity and aerobic fitness levels
AbstractTop–down attentional control seems to increase and suppress the activity of sensory cortices for relevant stimuli and to suppress activity for irrelevant ones. Higher physical activity (PA) and aerobic fitness (AF) levels have been associated with improved attention, but most studies have focused on unimodal tasks (e.g., visual stimuli only). The impact of higher PA or AF levels on the ability of developing brains to focus on certain stimuli while ignoring distractions remains unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the neural processes in visual and auditory sensory cortices during a cross-modal attention–allocation task using magnetoencephalography in 13–16-year-old adolesce…
How can learning experiences be explored in simulation-based learning situations?
The aim of our research is to investigate what methods can be used to explore learning experiences. In this case example, we describe how we extracted quantitative and qualitative data reflecting learning experiences from simulation-based learning (SBL) situations. Data collection was conducted in the fields of aviation and forestry. After the SBL situation, the students participated in a stimulated recall interview. The transcribed interview data were analysed using data-driven methods. To capture the dynamics in the (neuro)physiological signals associated with varying states of learning experiences, we recorded activity of the autonomic and central nervous systems. When analysing (neuro)p…
Dissociable Effects of Reward on P300 and EEG Spectra Under Conditions of High vs. Low Vigilance During a Selective Visual Attention Task
The influence of motivation on selective visual attention in states of high vs. low vigilance is poorly understood. To explore the possible differences in the influence of motivation on behavioral performance and neural activity in high and low vigilance levels, we conducted a prolonged 2 h 20 min flanker task and provided monetary rewards during the 20- to 40- and 100- to 120-min intervals of task performance. Both the behavioral and electrophysiological measures were modulated by prolonged task engagement. Moreover, the effect of reward was different in high vs. low vigilance states. The monetary reward increased accuracy and decreased the reaction time (RT) and number of omitted response…
PCA-based source-space contrast maps reveal psychologically meaningful individual differences in continuous MEG activity
AbstractWithin the field of neuroimaging, there has been an increasing trend towards studying brain activity in naturalistic conditions, and it is possible to robustly estimate networks of on-going oscillatory activity in the brain. However, not many studies have focused on differences between individuals in on-going brain activity that would be associable to psychological or behavioral characteristics. Existing standard methods can perform well at single-participant level, but generalizing the methodology across many participants is challenging due to individual differences of brains. As an example of a clinically relevant, naturalistic condition we consider here mindfulness. Trait mindful…
Children show hemispheric differences in the basic auditory response properties
Auditory cortex in each hemisphere shows preference to sounds from the opposite hemifield in the auditory space. Besides this contralateral dominance, the auditory cortex shows functional and structural lateralization, presumably influencing the features of subsequent auditory processing. Children have been shown to differ from adults in the hemispheric balance of activation in higher-order auditory based tasks. We studied, first, whether the contralateral dominance can be detected in 7- to 8-year-old children and, second, whether the response properties of auditory cortex in children differ between hemispheres. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) responses to simple tones revealed adult-like cont…
Cortical correlates of language perception : neuromagnetic studies in adults and children
Kielen havaitsemisen päämääränä on ymmärtää kuullun tai luetun viestin sisältö. Itse havaitseminen on meille näennäisen vaivatonta. Puheen tunnistaminen ja lukeminen ovat kuitenkin tulos monimutkaisesta aivokuorella tapahtuvasta laskennasta, jonka lähtökohtana on silmän ja korvan vastaanottama fysikaalinen signaali.Tiina Parviainen tarkasteli väitöstutkimuksessaan kielen käsittelyn aivomekanismeja normaalisti lukevilla ja lukivaikeuksisilla aikuisilla sekä lukemaan opettelevilla lapsilla. Hän selvitti kirjoitetun ja puhutun kielen käsittelyyn liittyvää aktivaatioketjua aivoissa ja siinä esiintyviä eroja aikuisten ja lasten välillä. Kielen aivomekanismien kartoituksessa on keskeistä aktivaat…