scholarly journals Hierarchical Classification of Event-Related Potentials for the Recognition of Gender Differences in the Attention Task

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 1547
Author(s):  
Karina Maciejewska ◽  
Wojciech Froelich

Research on the functioning of human cognition has been a crucial problem studied for years. Electroencephalography (EEG) classification methods may serve as a precious tool for understanding the temporal dynamics of human brain activity, and the purpose of such an approach is to increase the statistical power of the differences between conditions that are too weak to be detected using standard EEG methods. Following that line of research, in this paper, we focus on recognizing gender differences in the functioning of the human brain in the attention task. For that purpose, we gathered, analyzed, and finally classified event-related potentials (ERPs). We propose a hierarchical approach, in which the electrophysiological signal preprocessing is combined with the classification method, enriched with a segmentation step, which creates a full line of electrophysiological signal classification during an attention task. This approach allowed us to detect differences between men and women in the P3 waveform, an ERP component related to attention, which were not observed using standard ERP analysis. The results provide evidence for the high effectiveness of the proposed method, which outperformed a traditional statistical analysis approach. This is a step towards understanding neuronal differences between men’s and women’s brains during cognition, aiming to reduce the misdiagnosis and adverse side effects in underrepresented women groups in health and biomedical research.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirawaj Itthipuripat ◽  
Thomas C Sprague ◽  
John T Serences

AbstractFunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) are the two most popular non-invasive methods used to study the neural mechanisms underlying human cognition. These approaches are considered complementary: fMRI has higher spatial resolution but sluggish temporal resolution, whereas EEG has millisecond temporal resolution, but only at a broad spatial scale. Beyond the obvious fact that fMRI measures properties of blood and EEG measures changes in electric fields, many foundational studies assume that, aside from differences in spatial and temporal precision, these two methods index the same underlying neural modulations. We tested this assumption by using EEG and fMRI to measure attentional modulations of neural responses to stimuli of different visual contrasts. We found that equivalent experiments performed using fMRI and EEG on the same participants revealed remarkably different patterns of attentional modulations: event-related fMRI responses provided evidence for an additive increase in responses across all contrasts equally, whereas early stimulus-evoked event-related potentials (ERPs) showed larger modulations with increasing stimulus contrast and only a later negative-going ERP and low-frequency oscillatory EEG signals showed effects similar to fMRI. These results demonstrate that there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the physiological mechanisms that give rise to modulations of fMRI responses and the most commonly used ERP markers, and that the typical approach of employing fMRI and EEG to gain complementary information about localization and temporal dynamics is over-simplified. Instead, fMRI and EEG index different physiological modulations and their joint application affords synergistic insights into the neural mechanisms supporting human cognition.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 492-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas E. Myers ◽  
Lena Walther ◽  
George Wallis ◽  
Mark G. Stokes ◽  
Anna C. Nobre

Working memory (WM) is strongly influenced by attention. In visual WM tasks, recall performance can be improved by an attention-guiding cue presented before encoding (precue) or during maintenance (retrocue). Although precues and retrocues recruit a similar frontoparietal control network, the two are likely to exhibit some processing differences, because precues invite anticipation of upcoming information whereas retrocues may guide prioritization, protection, and selection of information already in mind. Here we explored the behavioral and electrophysiological differences between precueing and retrocueing in a new visual WM task designed to permit a direct comparison between cueing conditions. We found marked differences in ERP profiles between the precue and retrocue conditions. In line with precues primarily generating an anticipatory shift of attention toward the location of an upcoming item, we found a robust lateralization in late cue-evoked potentials associated with target anticipation. Retrocues elicited a different pattern of ERPs that was compatible with an early selection mechanism, but not with stimulus anticipation. In contrast to the distinct ERP patterns, alpha-band (8–14 Hz) lateralization was indistinguishable between cue types (reflecting, in both conditions, the location of the cued item). We speculate that, whereas alpha-band lateralization after a precue is likely to enable anticipatory attention, lateralization after a retrocue may instead enable the controlled spatiotopic access to recently encoded visual information.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 463-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Corbera ◽  
S. Ikezawa ◽  
M.D. Bell ◽  
B.E. Wexler

AbstractEmpathy is crucial for maintaining effective social interactions. Research has identified both an early-emotional sharing and a late-cognitive component of empathy. Although considered a functionally vital social cognition process, empathy has scarcely been studied in schizophrenia (SZ). We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to study the temporal dynamics of empathic response in 19 patients with SZ and 18 matched healthy controls (HC) using an empathy for physical pain paradigm. Participants responded to pictures of hands in neutral and painful situations in an active empathic condition and one manipulated by task demands. Additionally, subjective ratings of the stimuli and empathic self-reports were collected. People with SZ had (1) decreased early-emotional ERP responses to pictures of others in pain; (2) decreased modulation by attention of late-cognitive ERP responses; (3) lower ratings of perspective taking and higher ratings of personal distress which were both related to decreased modulation of late-cognitive empathic responses; (4) a significant relationship between high affective overlap between somebody else's pain and their own pain and decreased modulation of late-cognitive empathic responses; (5) a distinct relationship between regulatory deficits in late-cognitive empathy and functioning. Patients had present but reduced early and late empathy-related ERPs. Patients also reported increased personal distress when faced with distress in others. The late ERP responses are thought to be associated with self-regulation and response modulation. The magnitude of these late responses was inversely associated with reported levels of personal distress in both patients and controls. Additionally, regulatory deficits in cognitive empathy were highly related with deficits in functioning. Decreased ability to regulate one's own emotional engagement and response to emotions of others may be an important source of distress and dysfunction in social situations for patients with schizophrenia.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter E Clayson ◽  
Kaylie Amanda Carbine ◽  
Scott Baldwin ◽  
Michael J. Larson

Methodological reporting guidelines for studies of event-related potentials (ERPs) were updated in Psychophysiology in 2014. These guidelines facilitate the communication of key methodological parameters (e.g., preprocessing steps). Failing to report key parameters represents a barrier to replication efforts, and difficultly with replicability increases in the presence of small sample sizes and low statistical power. We assessed whether guidelines are followed and estimated the average sample size and power in recent research. Reporting behavior, sample sizes, and statistical designs were coded for 150 randomly-sampled articles from five high-impact journals that frequently publish ERP research from 2011 to 2017. An average of 63% of guidelines were reported, and reporting behavior was similar across journals, suggesting that gaps in reporting is a shortcoming of the field rather than any specific journal. Publication of the guidelines paper had no impact on reporting behavior, suggesting that editors and peer reviewers are not enforcing these recommendations. The average sample size per group was 21. Statistical power was conservatively estimated as .72-.98 for a large effect size, .35-.73 for a medium effect, and .10-.18 for a small effect. These findings indicate that failing to report key guidelines is ubiquitous and that ERP studies are primarily powered to detect large effects. Such low power and insufficient following of reporting guidelines represent substantial barriers to replication efforts. The methodological transparency and replicability of studies can be improved by the open sharing of processing code and experimental tasks and by a priori sample size calculations to ensure adequately powered studies.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rémy Masson ◽  
Yohana Lévêque ◽  
Geneviève Demarquay ◽  
Hesham ElShafei ◽  
Lesly Fornoni ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectivesTo evaluate alterations of top-down and/or bottom-up attention in migraine and their cortical underpinnings.Methods19 migraineurs between attacks and 19 matched control participants performed a task evaluating jointly top-down and bottom-up attention, using visually-cued target sounds and unexpected task-irrelevant distracting sounds. Behavioral responses and MEG/EEG were recorded. Event-related potentials and fields (ERPs/ERFs) were processed and source reconstruction was applied to ERFs.ResultsAt the behavioral level, neither top-down nor bottom-up attentional processes appeared to be altered in migraine. However, migraineurs presented heightened evoked responses following distracting sounds (orienting component of the N1 and Re-Orienting Negativity, RON) and following target sounds (orienting component of the N1), concomitant to an increased recruitment of the right temporo-parietal junction. They also displayed an increased effect of the cue informational value on target processing resulting in the elicitation of a negative difference (Nd).ConclusionsMigraineurs appear to display increased bottom-up orienting response to all incoming sounds, and an enhanced recruitment of top-down attention.SignificanceThe interictal state in migraine is characterized by an exacerbation of the orienting response to attended and unattended sounds. These attentional alterations might participate to the peculiar vulnerability of the migraine brain to all incoming stimuli.HighlightsMigraineurs performed as well as healthy participants in an attention task.However, EEG markers of both bottom-up and top-down attention are increased.Migraine is also associated with a facilitated recruitment of the right temporo-parietal junction.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ewa Wilczek-Rużyczka ◽  
Andrzej Mirski ◽  
Maciej Korab ◽  
Mariusz Trystuła

The search for neuromarkers is a very promising way to improve psychiatric and psychological care. They are now considered to be an innovative diagnostic tool in psychiatry and neuropsychology, but more broadly in all human health sciences. The aim of our study was to find the neuromarker of anxiety in a patient who had experienced a Transient IschemicAttack (TIA) of the left brain hemisphere as a result of a critical stenosis of the Internal Carotid Artery (ICA) operated on byendarterectomy (CEA). We will present the case of a 54-year-old man,an architect, who experienced a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) of the left brain hemispherecaused by a critical stenosis of theInternal Carotid Artery (ICA) and was treated successfully with surgical endarterectomy (CEA). One year after the surgery itself, the patient developed severe postoperative anxiety, headaches, difficulty in sleepingas well as the inability to continue working in his profession. Strong anxiety was notedon the adapted 100-millimeter Visual Analogue Anxiety Scale (VAAS). The patient was assessed using the Human Brain Index (HBI) methodology (Kropotov 2009; 2016; 2017; Pąchalska, Kaczmarek&Kropotov 2014) which consisted of recording 19-channel EEG in resting state conditions, during the cued GO/NOGO task and comparing the parameters of EEG spectra and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) with the normative and patient databases of the Human Brain Index(HBI). No signs of cognitive dysfunction was found, however an excessive Rolandic beta was observed. In line with the working hypothesis as to the presence of an anxiety neuromarker, the patient’s studies confirmed an increased P1 time wave in the left hemisphere of the brain in ERP in response to visual stimuli, i.e. an anxiety neuromarker. Following the detection of this neuromarkera specific anodic Transcranial Direct Current Stimulations (tDCS) protocol was proposed (see: Kropotov 2016; Pąchalska, Kaczmarek & Kropotov 2020). Ten tDCS sessions were performed and the postoperativeanxiety was found to be resolved. The patient returned to work. The use of Human Brain Index (HBI) methodologyenabling the isolation of the Event Related Potentials (ERPs) patterns revealed the presence of a distinct anxietyneuromarker. Neurotherapy with the use of tDCS allowed the reduction of anxiety symptoms and the patient’s return to work. The above case study indicates the necessity to use new neurotechnologies in the diagnosis of mental diseases, with particular emphasis on postoperative anxiety.


1989 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Risto Näätänen ◽  
Petri Paavilainen ◽  
Kimmo Alho ◽  
Kalevi Reinikainen ◽  
Mikko Sams

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