Search results for "Audit"
showing 10 items of 1421 documents
Preattentive and attentive responses to changes in small numerosities of tones in adult humans
2016
The brain hosts a primitive number sense to non-symbolically represent numerosities of objects or events. Small exact numerosities (~4 or less) can be individuated in parallel. In contrast, large numerosities (more than ~4) can only be approximated. However, whether small numerosities can be approximated without their parallel individuation remains unclear. Parallel individuation is suggested to be an attentive process and numerical approximation an automatic process. We, therefore, tested whether small numerosities can be represented preattentively. We recorded adult humans׳ event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral responses to 300-ms sequences of six tones (each of either 440 Hz or …
Functional properties of the brain during sleep under subchronic zopiclone administration in man.
1994
Zopiclone, a non-benzodiazepine, has been shown to be efficient in the treatment of transient, short-term or chronic sleep disorders. Apart from its hypnotic effects zopiclone has anxiolytic, anticonvulsant and myorelaxant properties and is therefore hardly distinguishable from benzodiazepines. Dependence liability and discontinuation effects have been reported to be less pronounced. Therefore zopiclone seems to be a hypnotic drug which may cause fewer side effects than conventional benzodiazepines. From the electrophysiological point of view one requires from a hypnotic drug the induction of a physiological sleep pattern as well as no alterations of information processing by the brain. The…
Auditory event-related potentials (P300) in epileptic patients.
2001
Auditory event-related potentials (AERPs) were recorded during an auditory oddball paradigm in 108 epileptics and in 32 healthy controls. P300 latency varied in relationship with age only in controls. Symptomatic epileptics had significantly prolonged P300 mean latency compared to those without detectable brain lesion(s) on MR scan. Moreover, these latter patients were compared on the basis of epilepsy duration, type of seizure, seizure frequency and antiepileptic treatment; the application of a multiple regression model showed a significant relationship between P300 latency prolongation and epilepsy duration, seizure frequency and polytherapy.
Cochlear origin of early hearing loss in vestibular schwannoma.
2007
Objective: To test whether early hearing loss (HL) is cochlear in origin in patients with vestibular schwannoma (VS). Study Design: Retrospective case review in an academic tertiary referral center. Methods: A group of 19 VS patients with normal/symmetrical hearing and a group of 20 VS patients with mild HL (threshold at any tested frequency better than 45 dB HL) on the tumor ear side. Differences of the amplitudes of the distortion products of otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) between the tumor ear and the nontumor ear were studied at frequencies of 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, and 4 kHz. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare the ears for both groups and to test for possible differences in tumor size betw…
Factors Influencing Tinnitus Loudness and Annoyance
2006
Objective To evaluate the 2 major components of tinnitus severity, loudness and annoyance, and their degree of dependence on characteristics of tinnitus manifestation, history, and etiology. Design Cross-sectional survey performed during the first months of 2004. Setting Nonclinical population. Participants A total of 4995 members of the German Tinnitus League. Main Outcome Measures Comprehensive screening questionnaire, including the Klockhoff and Lindblom loudness grading system and the miniversion of the Tinnitus Questionnaire. Results A moderate correlation of 0.45 was found between tinnitus loudness and annoyance. Both factors were generally higher in men, those older than 50 years, th…
What happens when we get angry? Hormonal, cardiovascular and asymmetrical brain responses
2010
This study aimed to evaluate neuroendocrine and cardiovascular responses together with changes in brain asymmetry following an anger mood induction laboratory task. Previous research has shown an increase in heart rate and blood pressure when anger is experienced. Increased testosterone and decreased cortisol in response to anger and aggressive behavior have also been reported. With regard to asymmetrical frontal brain activity and emotion, the valence model links negative affect (as anger) to the right hemisphere while the motivational direction model links approach-related emotions (as anger) to the left hemisphere. From the subjective perception and from the neuroendocrine and cardiovasc…
Management of chronic otitis by middle ear obliteration with blind sac closure of the external auditory canal.
2008
Objective: Description of a technique of middle ear obliteration (MEO) with blind sac closure of the external auditory canal with discussion of the indications for its use in cases of recalcitrant chronic otitis and in far advanced disease. Patients: All patients underwent otologic examination and audiologic and radiologic assessments in a quaternary center. Results: Fifty-three cases of MEO were analyzed. For 9 patients, primary surgery was performed. One case of residual disease was identified. The minimum follow-up was 2 years. Conclusion: The decision to perform a MEO is one that is made only rarely. However, this is a technique that should be part of every otologist`s armamentarium. Wh…
From spatial acoustic changes to attentive behavioral responses within 200 ms in humans
1999
Human event-related potentials (ERPs) and electro-oculograms (EOGs) were recorded in 14 subjects presented with spatially deviant tones in a series of standard tones. In separate sessions, they were instructed to read a book, to count the deviant tones, and to respond to the deviant tones by shifting the eyes towards them from the standard tone source. When reading a book, the mismatch negativity (MMN) of ERP, reflecting pre-attentive detection of acoustic changes, was elicited to the deviant tones at approximately 105-180 ms. No deviance related EOGs were observed in the reading or counting conditions. When the subjects responded behaviorally to the deviant tones, EOGs revealed that the ey…
Bottom-up influences on working memory: behavioral and electrophysiological distraction varies with distractor strength.
2004
Abstract. The present study investigates bottom-up effects serving the optimal balance between focusing attention on relevant information and distractibility by potentially significant events outside the focus of attention. We tested whether distraction, indicated by behavioral and event-related brain potential (ERP) measures, varies with the strength of task-irrelevant deviances. Twenty subjects performed a tone-duration discrimination task (200 or 400 ms sinusoidal tones presented equiprobably). The stimuli were presented with frequent standard (p = 0.84; 1000 Hz) or infrequent deviant (p = 0.16) pitch. These task-irrelevant pitch changes consisted in a frequency increase/decrease of 1%,…
Auditory Mismatch Negativity and Repetition Suppression Deficits in Schizophrenia Explained by Irregular Computation of Prediction Error
2015
Background The predictive coding model is rapidly gaining attention in schizophrenia research. It posits the neuronal computation of residual variance (‘prediction error’) between sensory information and top-down expectation through multiple hierarchical levels. Event-related potentials (ERP) reflect cortical processing stages that are increasingly interpreted in the light of the predictive coding hypothesis. Both mismatch negativity (MMN) and repetition suppression (RS) measures are considered a prediction error correlates based on error detection and error minimization, respectively. Methods Twenty-five schizophrenia patients and 25 healthy controls completed auditory tasks designed to el…