Search results for " Paradigm"
showing 10 items of 228 documents
Learning-induced neural plasticity of speech processing before birth
2013
Learning, the foundation of adaptive and intelligent behavior, is based on plastic changes in neural assemblies, reflected by the modulation of electric brain responses. In infancy, auditory learning implicates the formation and strengthening of neural long-term memory traces, improving discrimination skills, in particular those forming the prerequisites for speech perception and understanding. Although previous behavioral observations show that newborns react differentially to unfamiliar sounds vs. familiar sound material that they were exposed to as fetuses, the neural basis of fetal learning has not thus far been investigated. Here we demonstrate direct neural correlates of human fetal l…
Distributed BOLD-response in association cortex vector state space predicts reaction time during selective attention.
2006
Human cortical information processing is thought to be dominated by distributed activity in vector state space (Churchland, P.S., Sejnowski, T.J., 1992. The Computational Brain. MIT Press, Cambridge.). In principle, it should be possible to quantify distributed brain activation with independent component analysis (ICA) through vector-based decomposition, i.e., through a separation of a mixture of sources. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a selective attention-requiring task (visual oddball), we explored how the number of independent components within activated cortical areas is related to reaction time. Prior to ICA, the activated cortical areas were d…
New perspectives on the manipulation of opiate urges and the assessment of cognitive effort associated with opiate urges
2000
Behavioral models of drug urges assume that conditioned urges are strongly associated with drug consumption. An alternative, cognitive model assumes that urges represent the operation of cognitively demanding processes devoted to either supporting or blocking the automatized drug-use behavior. In Study 1, the effect of verbal drug cues and mood induction on self-reported opiate urges were examined. Twenty-four opiate addicts were either instructed to listen to verbal drug cures or neutral cues. Negative mood induction was applied on 12 addicts. Study 2 examined the cognitive processes underlying these urges. In a dual task paradigm, participants responded to a probe stimulus and listened si…
An approach to single trial analysis of event-related potentials based on signal detection theory.
1996
Abstract The aim of the present paper was to introduce a single trial analysis to event-related potential measurement in order to illuminate the mechanisms behind an impaired P300 amplitude occurring under certain experimental conditions. For this purpose we applied tools from linear system theory and signal detection theory to single trials in an oddball paradigm in order to estimate the amplitude of the positive deflection around the P300 latency following target and nontarget stimuli. According to the density functions of these amplitude distributions we operationally defined ‘P300 absent in target’ (P300 amplitude smaller than an individual threshold under target conditions) as well as …
Auditory event-related potentials (ERP) reflect temporal changes in speech stimuli
1997
We studied the brain's reactions to deviations in the duration of a stop consonant using event-related potentials in an oddball paradigm. A naturally produced nonsense word was used as a frequent standard stimulus which differed from two infrequently presented deviant stimuli only by the duration of the silence period inside the stop, making the consonant sound longer. Evoked responses to the deviant stimuli showed sharply rising negativity after the unexpected prolongation of the silence and a later negativity, the duration of which was related to the timing of the beginning of the second part of the deviant sound. This later negativity is, at least partly, elicited by a mismatch process t…
Difficult memory task during postural tasks of various difficulties in young and older people: A pilot study
2007
Abstract Objective This study examined the effects of a difficult and individually tailored additional cognitive task on postural stability and electromyographic (EMG) activities of the ankle dorsi- and plantar-flexors, in young and older individuals performing postural tasks of varying difficulties. Methods Eight young (mean age = 24 years) and eight older (74 years) men took part in the investigation. Centre of pressure velocity and surface EMG of ankle joint muscles were both examined during various postural conditions. Results The main findings suggested that high levels of muscle activity were a characteristic of age-related declines in postural stability. Moreover, during the complex …
Association of attentional network function with exon 5 variations of the CHRNA4 gene
2007
Mutational analyses in xenopus oocyte and mice models indicate that the positive effect of nicotine on attention may be modulated by genetic variations within exon 5 of the alpha4 subunit of the nicotinergic acetylcholine receptor gene CHRNA4. The potential relevance of exon 5 is further emphasized by two recent family-based association studies of nicotine dependence because subgroups of nicotine-dependent subjects are thought to 'self-medicate' attentional deficits with nicotine. We investigated a synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP): rs1044396, which has recently been associated with nicotine-dependence, plus two adjacent synonymous SNPs rs1044394 and rs1044393 in exon 5 of n …
Increased amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus activation in schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations: An fMRI study using independent compo…
2010
Objective: Hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia have strong emotional connotations. Functional neuroimaging techniques have been widely used to study brain activity in patients with schizophrenia with hallucinations or emotional impairments. However, few of these Studies have investigated the association between hallucinations and emotional dysfunctions using an emotional auditory paradigm. Independent component analysis (ICA) is an analysis method that is especially useful for decomposing activation during complex cognitive tasks in which multiple operations occur simultaneously. Our aim in this Study is to analyze brain activation after the presentation of emotional auditory stim…
Differential pathophysiological mechanisms of reduced P300 amplitude in schizophrenia and depression: a single trial analysis
1997
In order to address basic mechanisms behind a reduced averaged P300 wave in schizophrenia and depression, 17 unmedicated schizophrenic and 11 unmedicated depressive subjects were tested in an 'oddball paradigm' against healthy controls matched for gender and age. The amplitude distributions of single trials' maximum positive deflections after stimulation (P300) for both target and nontarget stimuli were determined, which served as a basis for calculating the discrimination index d'. This index characterizes differences in the electrophysiological responses to target and nontarget stimuli of a subject being engaged in a discrimination task. As a main result d' was significantly lower for sch…
COMT genotype predicts BOLD signal and noise characteristics in prefrontal circuits.
2006
Abstract Objective: Prefrontal dopamine (DA) is catabolized by the COMT (catechol- O -methyltransferase) enzyme. Literature suggests that the Val/Met single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the COMT gene predicts executive cognition in humans with Val carriers showing poorer performance due to less available synaptic DA. Recent fMRI studies are thought to agree with these studies having demonstrated prefrontal hyperactivation during n -back and attention-requiring tasks. This was interpreted as “less efficient” processing due to impaired signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of neuronal activity. However, electrophysiological studies of neuronal SNR in primates and humans imply that prefrontal cortex…