Search results for "audio"

Is the nonREM–REM sleep cycle reset by forced awakenings from REM sleep?

2002

In selective REM sleep deprivation (SRSD), the occurrence of stage REM is repeatedly interrupted by short awakenings. Typically, the interventions aggregate in clusters resembling the REM episodes in undisturbed sleep. This salient phenomenon can easily be explained if the nonREM–REM sleep process is continued during the periods of forced wakefulness. However, earlier studies have alternatively suggested that awakenings from sleep might rather discontinue and reset the ultradian process. Theoretically, the two explanations predict a different distribution of REM episode duration. We evaluated 117 SRSD treatment nights recorded from 14 depressive inpatients receiving low dosages of Trimipram…

Child specific activation in left auditory cortex predicts behavioral performance in inhibition tasks

2020

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…

MUNICIPAL FINANCE EQUALIZATION PROCESS IN LATVIA

2012

The municipal finance equalization calculations in Latvia presently take into account the demographic indicators, but they do not depict accurately the municipal finance requirements; in order to precisely determine these numbers, other consequential criteria should be accounted for as well, such as infrastructure or other aspects characterising the peculiarities or needs of a certain territory. Inclusion of these new criteria in the process of determining the need for financing could serve as the basis for improvements to the existing system. The purpose of this article is to analyze the municipal finance situation in Latvia, starting with 1998, to show the differences in their income and …

Acute stress and working memory in older people.

2015

Several studies have shown that acute stress affects working memory (WM) in young adults, but the effect in older people is understudied. As observed in other types of memory, older people may be less sensitive to acute effects of stress on WM. We performed two independent studies with healthy older men and women (from 55 to 77 years old) to investigate the effects of acute stress (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST) and cortisol on WM. In study 1 (n = 63), after the TSST women (but not men) improved their performance on Digit Span Forward (a measure of the memory span component of WM) but not on Digit Span Backward (a measure of both memory span and the executive component of WM). Furthermore,…

Chronic Effects of Whole-Body Vibration

1986

The reactions of the body to stress from mechanical vibration, presented in the section “Acute Effects of Mechanical Vibration” (see p. 12), deal with individual organs and functions. It is now time for the following question to be asked: Are these physiological or pathophysiological changes in reality the external symptoms of a vibration-induced illness of the whole organism? Above all, some Soviet scientists are of this opinion. Andreeva-Galanina (1967) has especially called this concept “vibration illness” and has used it in the sense that the totality of vibration-induced changes in the human organism can be characterized (Rublack 1978). In this systemic “vibration illness,” Andreeva-Ga…

2013

Distraction of goal-oriented performance by a sudden change in the auditory environment is an everyday life experience. Different types of changes can be distracting, including a sudden onset of a transient sound and a slight deviation of otherwise regular auditory background stimulation. With regard to deviance detection, it is assumed that slight changes in a continuous sequence of auditory stimuli are detected by a predictive coding mechanisms and it has been demonstrated that this mechanism is capable of distracting ongoing task performance. In contrast, it is open whether transient detection – which does not rely on predictive coding mechanisms – can trigger behavioral distraction, too…

Cognitive dysfunction in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

2006

Cognitive dysfunction is considered one of the clinical markers of multiple sclerosis (MS). However, in the literature there are inconsistent reports on the prevalence of cognitive dysfunction, and separate data for the relapsing-remitting (RR) type of the disease are not always presented. In this study, we submitted 461 RRMS patients to a battery of neuropsychological tests to investigate their impairment in various cognitive domains. As a consequence of the exclusion criteria, the sample is not fully representative of the entire population of RRMS patients. In this selected sample, when only the eight scores of a core battery (Mental Deterioration Battery) were considered (with respectiv…

Mismatch negativity (MMN) as a tool for investigating auditory discrimination and sensory memory in infants and children

2000

For decades behavioral methods, such as the head-turning or sucking paradigms, have been the primary methods to investigate auditory discrimination, learning and the function of sensory memory in infancy and early childhood. During recent years, however, a new method for investigating these issues in children has emerged. This method makes use of the mismatch negativity (MMN), the brain's automatic change-detection response, which has been used intensively in both basic and clinical studies in adults for twenty years. This review demonstrates that, unlike many other components of event-related potentials, the MMN is developmentally quite stable and can be obtained even from pre-term infants…

Amusic does not mean unmusical: Beat perception and synchronization ability despite pitch deafness

2013

Pitch deafness, the most commonly known form of congenital amusia, refers to a severe deficit in musical pitch processing (i.e., melody discrimination and recognition) that can leave time processing--including rhythm, metre, and "feeling the beat"--preserved. In Experiment 1, we show that by presenting musical excerpts in nonpitched drum timbres, rather than pitched piano tones, amusics show normal metre recognition. Experiment 2 reveals that body movement influences amusics' interpretation of the beat of an ambiguous drum rhythm. Experiment 3 and a subsequent exploratory study show an ability to synchronize movement to the beat of popular dance music and potential for improvement when give…

Type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance are associated with word memory source monitoring recollection deficits but not simple recognition fam…

2013

It has been established that type 2 diabetes, and to some extent, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), are associated with general neuropsychological impairments in episodic memory. However, the effect of abnormalities in glucose metabolism on specific retrieval processes such as source monitoring has not been investigated. The primary aim was to investigate the impact of type 2 diabetes and IGT on simple word recognition (familiarity) and complex source monitoring (recollection). A secondary aim was to examine the effect of acute breakfast glycaemic load manipulations on episodic memory.Data are presented from two separate studies; (i) 24 adults with type 2 diabetes and 12 controls aged 45-75…