Analysis Of Cognitive Load For Bilingual Subjects

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pravin Kumar Subbaraj ◽  
Kavitha Anandan ◽  
Geethanjali Balasubramanian ◽  
Mahesh Veezhinathan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Material Design ◽  
Difficulty Level ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Beta Power ◽  
Lexile Level

Cognitive measures are directed to assess the load of working memory while performing different tasks. Excessive load on working memory hinders learning or performance of individuals. Lexile measure is the current tool used in assessing the difficulty levels of text reading in English language. Studies on correlating the cognitive load with EEG for classifying tasks based on Lexile measures have been performed for native English speakers. In this work, an attempt has been made to analyze the scope of Lexile measure for assessing the cognitive load of normal subjects. The protocol included reading and recall of texts with different Lexile complexities followed by resting phases. For increasing Lexile level complexities, a considerable increase in cognitive processing was noticed during task phase. Further, an increase in beta power was noticed at the central region indicating active information processing and decision making. Relative theta power (R?=0.11) was significant (p=0.022) in low Lexile level material and gradually decreased as the difficulty level of the tasks increased. Relative theta power was found to be decreasing as the complexity level of the text material increased and was found to dominate in both mid frontal and mid parietal regions during the recall phase. During test phase an increase in alpha power was observed at parietal region reflecting active information processing. This was evident from the highly significant (p=0.022), relative alpha power (Ra =0.036) for recall of high complexity Lexile material compared to medium (Ra=0.005) and low (Ra=0.005) level materials. Thus, it is seen that this study could be more effective in analyzing the cognitive load of subjects with different working memory efficiency. Also, while performing analysis on instructional material design based on cognitive load of different subjects, such procedures seem to be more significant.

scholarly journals Chess Players Increase the Theta Power Spectrum When the Difficulty of the Opponent Increases: An EEG Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pedro Fuentes-García ◽  
Santos Villafaina ◽  
Daniel Collado-Mateo ◽  
Ricardo Cano-Plasencia ◽  
Narcis Gusi
Keyword(s):  
Power Spectrum ◽  
Divergent Thinking ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Difficulty Level ◽  
P Value ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Creative Ideation ◽  
Chess Players ◽  
Alternative Solutions

The present study aimed to analyze differences in the electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectrum (theta, alpha, and beta) between participants who won (winning group) and those who lost (losing group) in three different chess games: against their same Elo (100% chess games), 25% over their Elo (125% chess games), and 25% under their Elo (75% chess games). EEG was assessed at baseline and during the chess games. Method: 14 male chess players (age: 35.36 ± 13.77 and Elo: 1921 ± 170) played three games of 3 min, plus two additional seconds per move, while EEG was assessed. There were three difficulty levels (75%, 100%, and 125%), with two games (one with white pieces and another with black pieces) per level. The winning group showed higher theta power in the frontal, central, and posterior brain regions when difficulty increased (p-value < 0.05). Besides this, alpha power showed higher values (p-value < 0.05) in 125% games than in 75% chess games in C3, T3, T4, T5, and T6. The losing group showed a significant decrease (p-value < 0.05) in the beta and alpha power spectrum in frontal, central, parietotemporal, and occipital areas, when the opponent’s difficulty increased. Moreover, between groups, analyses showed higher theta power in the losing group than in the winning group, in C3, T5, T6, P4, and Pz (p-value < 0.05). Therefore, the winning group was able to adapt to each difficulty level, increasing theta power in the frontal, central, and posterior brain areas, as the efficiency hypothesis postulated. These changes were not observed in the losing group. Moreover, increases in alpha power during the most difficult games, in comparison with the easier, could have been caused by creative ideation and divergent thinking, as participants looked for alternative solutions against a higher-skilled opponent.

Cannabinoid Modulations of Resting State EEG Theta Power and Working Memory Are Correlated in Humans

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 1906-1916 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen B. E. Böcker ◽  
Claudine C. Hunault ◽  
Jeroen Gerritsen ◽  
Maaike Kruidenier ◽  
Tjeert T. Mensinga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Search Time ◽  
Object Representations ◽  
Neural Firing ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Attention Tasks ◽  
Beta Power ◽  
Temporal Aspects

Object representations in working memory depend on neural firing that is phase-locked to oscillations in the theta band (4–8 Hz). Cannabis intake disrupts synchronicity of theta oscillations and interferes with memory performance. Sixteen participants smoked cigarettes containing 0.0, 29.3, 49.1, or 69.4 mg Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in a randomized crossover design and performed working memory and general attention tasks. Dose-dependent effects of THC were observed for resting state EEG theta and beta power, working memory (per-item search time), and attentional performance (percent errors and RT). The THC effects on EEG theta power and memory performance were correlated, whereas other EEG and behavioral effects were not. These findings confirm and extend previous results in rodents and humans, and corroborate a neurocomputational model that postulates that temporal aspects of information processing in working memory depend causally on nested oscillations in the theta and gamma (>30 Hz) bands.

scholarly journals Emotional Facial Processing: Does Cognitive Load Make a Difference?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsie Ong ◽  
Rick Law Tsz Chun
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Facial Processing

<p>The manuscript is titled ‘Emotional facial processing: does cognitive load make a difference?’ and it describes a research study that measures how emotion and distraction of different cognitive loads may impact working memory performance. The findings show that cognitive load on working memory performance, with poorer working memory performance in the high compared to the low level of distraction. However, no effects of emotional faces were found on task performance. The work therefore has significance with regard to cognitive processing and working memory span.</p>

Affective disposition and cognitive processing in dysphoria: a time-frequency EEG study

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carola Dell'Acqua ◽  
Elisa Dal Bò ◽  
Tania Moretta ◽  
Daniela Palomba ◽  
Simone Messerotti Benvenuti
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Motivational System ◽  
Cognitive Elaboration ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Affective Disposition ◽  
Electroencephalographic Activity

To date, affective disposition and cognitive processing of emotional stimuli in individuals with depressive symptoms have not been fully explored within the same framework. Time-frequency analysis of electroencephalographic activity allows to disentangle the brain's parallel processing of information. The present study employed a time-frequency approach to simultaneously examine affective disposition and cognitive processing during the viewing of emotional stimuli in dysphoria. Time-frequency event-related changes were examined during the viewing of pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures in 24 individuals with dysphoria and 24 controls. Affective disposition was indexed by delta and alpha power, while theta power was employed as a correlate of cognitive elaboration of the stimuli. Cluster-based statistics revealed a centro-parietal reduction in delta power for pleasant stimuli in individuals with dysphoria than controls. Also, dysphoria was characterized by an early fronto-central increase in theta power for unpleasant stimuli relative to neutral and pleasant. Instead, controls were characterized by a late fronto-central and occipital reduction in theta power for unpleasant stimuli relative to neutral and pleasant. The present study granted novel insights on the interrelated facets of affective elaboration in dysphoria, mainly characterized by an hypoactivation of the approach-related motivational system and a sustained facilitated cognitive processing of unpleasant stimuli.

scholarly journals EEG alpha and theta signatures of socially and non-socially cued working memory in virtual reality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Gregory ◽  
Hongfang Wang ◽  
Klaus Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Social Cue ◽  
The Social ◽  
Eeg Alpha

In this preregistered study (https://osf.io/s4rm9) we investigated the behavioural and neurological (EEG; alpha and theta) effects of dynamic non-predictive social and non-social cues on working memory. In a virtual environment realistic human-avatars initiated eye contact before dynamically looking to the left or right side of a table. A moving stick served as a non-social control cue. Kitchen items were presented in the valid cued or invalid un-cued location for encoding. Behavioural findings show a similar influence of the social and non-social cues on working memory performance. Alpha power changes were equivalent for the social and non-social cues during cuing and encoding. However, theta power changes revealed different patterns for the two cues. Theta power increased more strongly for the non-social cue compared to the social cue during initial cuing. Further, while for the non-social cue there was a significantly larger increase in theta power for valid compared to invalid conditions during encoding, this was reversed for the social cue, with a significantly larger increase in theta power in posterior electrodes for the invalid compared to valid conditions. Therefore, while social and non-social attention cues impact working memory performance in a similar fashion, the underlying neural mechanisms appear to differ.

Task-specific Disruptions in Theta Oscillations during Working Memory for Temporal Order in People with Schizophrenia

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (11) ◽  
pp. 2117-2130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaonan L. Liu ◽  
Charan Ranganath ◽  
Liang-Tien Hsieh ◽  
Mitzi Hurtado ◽  
Tara A. Niendam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Temporal Order ◽  
Theta Oscillations ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Neural Oscillations ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Complex Objects ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
The Relationship

Prior studies demonstrated that neural oscillations are enhanced during working memory (WM) maintenance and that this activity can predict behavioral performance in healthy individuals. However, it is unclear whether the relationship holds for people with WM deficits. People with schizophrenia have marked WM deficits, and such deficits are most prominent when patients are required to process relationships between items, such as temporal order. Here, we used EEG to compare the relationship between oscillatory activity and WM performance in patients and controls. EEG was recorded as participants performed tasks requiring maintenance of complex objects (“Item”) or the temporal order of objects (“Order”). In addition to testing for group differences, we examined individual differences in EEG power and WM performance across groups. Behavioral results demonstrated that patients showed impaired performance on both Item and Order trials. EEG analyses revealed that patients showed an overall reduction in alpha power, but the relationship between alpha activity and performance was preserved. In contrast, patients showed a reduction in theta power specific to Order trials, and theta power could predict performance on Order trials in controls, but not in patients. These findings demonstrate that WM impairments in patients may reflect two different processes: a general deficit in alpha oscillations and a specific deficit in theta oscillations when temporal order information must be maintained. At a broader level, the results highlight the value of characterizing brain–behavior relationships, by demonstrating that the relationship between neural oscillations and WM performance can be fundamentally disrupted in those with WM deficits.

scholarly journals Extended Visual Sequence Learning Leaves a Local Trace in the Spontaneous EEG

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Ricci ◽  
Elisa Tatti ◽  
Aaron B. Nelson ◽  
Priya Panday ◽  
Henry Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Motor Learning ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Memory Test ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Motor Test ◽  
Beta Power ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Declarative Learning

We have previously demonstrated that, in rested subjects, extensive practice in a motor learning task increased both electroencephalographic (EEG) theta power in the areas involved in learning and improved the error rate in a motor test that shared similarities with the task. A nap normalized both EEG and performance changes. We now ascertain whether extensive visual declarative learning produces results similar to motor learning. Thus, during the morning, we recorded high-density EEG in well rested young healthy subjects that learned the order of different visual sequence task (VSEQ) for three one-hour blocks. Afterward, a group of subjects took a nap and another rested quietly. Between each VSEQ block, we recorded spontaneous EEG (sEEG) at rest and assessed performance in a motor test and a visual working memory test that shares similarities with VSEQ. We found that after the third block, VSEQ induced local theta power increases in the sEEG over a right temporo-parietal area that was engaged during the task. This local theta increase was preceded by increases in alpha and beta power over the same area and was paralleled by performance decline in the visual working memory test. Only after the nap, VSEQ learning rate improved and performance in the visual working memory test was restored, together with partial normalization of the local sEEG changes. These results suggest that intensive learning, like motor learning, produces local theta power increases, possibly reflecting local neuronal fatigue. Sleep may be necessary to resolve neuronal fatigue and its effects on learning and performance.

scholarly journals Theta Responses Are Involved in Lexical—Semantic Retrieval during Language Processing

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 530-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel C.M. Bastiaansen ◽  
Marieke van der Linden ◽  
Mariken ter Keurs ◽  
Ton Dijkstra ◽  
Peter Hagoort
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Power Increase ◽  
Beta Power ◽  
Wide Range

Oscillatory neuronal dynamics, observed in the human electroencephalogram (EEG) during language processing, have been related to the dynamic formation of functionally coherent networks that serve the role of integrating the different sources of information needed for understanding the linguistic input. To further explore the functional role of oscillatory synchrony during language processing, we quantified event-related EEG power changes induced by the presentation of open-class (OC) words and closed-class (CC) words in a wide range of frequencies (from 1 to 30 Hz), while subjects read a short story. Word presentation induced three oscillatory components: a theta power increase (4–7 Hz), an alpha power decrease (10– 12 Hz), and a beta power decrease (16–21 Hz). Whereas the alpha and beta responses showed mainly quantitative differences between the two word classes, the theta responses showed qualitative differences between OC words and CC words: A theta power increase was found over left temporal areas for OC words, but not for CC words. The left temporal theta increase may index the activation of a network involved in retrieving the lexical semantic properties of the OC items.

scholarly journals Investigating real-life emotions in romantic couples: a mobile EEG study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Packheiser ◽  
Gesa Berretz ◽  
Noemi Rook ◽  
Celine Bahr ◽  
Lynn Schockenhoff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Hemispheric Dominance ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Power Asymmetry ◽  
Power Asymmetries ◽  
Beta Power ◽  
Hemispheric Activation

AbstractThe neural basis of emotional processing has been largely investigated in constrained spatial environments such as stationary EEGs or fMRI scanners using highly artificial stimuli like standardized pictures depicting emotional scenes. Typically, such standardized experiments have low ecological validity and it remains unclear whether their results reflect neuronal processing in real-life affective situations at all. Critically, emotional situations do not only encompass the perception of emotions, but also behavioral components associated with them. In this study, we aimed to investigate real-life emotions by recording couples in their homes using mobile EEG technology during embracing, kissing and emotional speech. We focused on asymmetries in affective processing as emotions have been demonstrated to be strongly lateralized in the brain. We found higher alpha and beta power asymmetry during kissing and embracing on frontal electrodes during emotional kisses and speech compared to a neutral control condition indicative of stronger left-hemispheric activation. In contrast, we found lower alpha power asymmetry at parieto-occipital electrode sites in the emotional compared to the neutral condition indicative of stronger right-hemispheric activation. Our findings for alpha power asymmetries are in line with models of emotional lateralization that postulate a valence-specific processing over frontal cortices and right-hemispheric dominance in emotional processing in parieto-occipital regions. In contrast, beta power asymmetries pointed more towards valence-specific processing indicating that, while alpha and beta frequencies seem to be functionally associated, they are not reflecting identical cognitive processing.

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