Investigating the effects of background noise and music on cognitive test performance in introverts and extraverts: A cross-cultural study

Previous research found that introverts performed worse than extraverts on cognitive tasks in the presence of noise or music in a Western sample but not in an Asian sample. This is a cross-cultural part replication of these studies using a Western (British; N = 45) and Asian (Singaporean; N = 45) sample. Participants engaged in three cognitive tests in the presence of pop songs, background noise, and in silence. It was predicted that for British participants, introverts would perform worse than extraverts on all three tasks in the presence of background sounds, and performance would be worse in the presence of background sounds than in silence, but not for the Singaporean participants. The results did not show any performance differences between the background sound conditions for any of the tests across the two samples, nor any performance differences between extraverts and introverts across the background sound conditions, with three exceptions: extraversion for the British was a significant predictor of performance on the Raven’s test in the silence condition, extraversion was a significant predictor of performance for both groups on the mental arithmetic task in the silence condition, and extraversion was a significant predictor of performance for Singaporeans on the mental arithmetic task in the music condition.

Impact of Music on First Pain and Temporal Summation of Second Pain

Passive music listening has shown its capacity to soothe pain in several clinical and experimental studies. This phenomenon—known as music-induced analgesia—could partly be explained by the modulation of pain signals in response to the stimulation of brain and brainstem centers. We hypothesized that music-induced analgesia may involve inhibitory descending pain systems. We assessed pain-related responses to endogenous pain control mechanisms known to depend on descending pain modulation: peak of first pain (PP), temporal summation (TS), and diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC). Twenty-seven healthy participants (14 men, 13 women) were exposed to a conditioned pain modulation paradigm during a 20-minute relaxing music session and a silence condition. Pain was continually measured with a visual analogue scale. Pain ratings were significantly lower with music listening (p < .02). Repeated measures ANOVA indicated significant differences between conditions within PP and TS (p < .05) but not in DNIC. Those findings suggested that music listening could strengthen components of the inhibitory descending pain pathways operating at the dorsal spinal cord level.

List of words to evaluate speech perception: recording and verification of applicability

ABSTRACT Purpose: to record the “List of Words to Evaluate the Speech Perception of Children with Hearing Loss” which is standardized for live speech presentation and verify its clinical applicability. Methods: recording: acoustic standards were used, three recordings of each word and analysis by judges. The list was recorded in silence at 60 decibels (dB) and signal noise relation of +10 dB. Participants: 30 children in the age range from five years to 10 years and 11 months, with no auditory and language disorders. The procedure was performed in live and recorded speech. Wilcoxon’s, paired t and Spearman’s correlation coefficient tests (p-value significantly less or equal to 0.05), were applied. Results: the comparison of performance for recognition of words and phonemes between live and recorded speech resulted in a statistically significant difference (p ≤ 0.05), in all conditions analyzed. The results were higher in the silence condition. There was no statistically significant difference between the time of application in the recorded speech when compared in silence and noise (p=0.064). Conclusion: the recording and application of the procedure that analyzes recognition of phonemes and words proved to be viable in recorded speech in silence and noise.

The Influence of Music on Prefrontal Cortex during Episodic Encoding and Retrieval of Verbal Information: A Multichannel fNIRS Study

Music can be thought of as a complex stimulus able to enrich the encoding of an event thus boosting its subsequent retrieval. However, several findings suggest that music can also interfere with memory performance. A better understanding of the behavioral and neural processes involved can substantially improve knowledge and shed new light on the most efficient music-based interventions. Based on fNIRS studies on music, episodic encoding, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), this work aims to extend previous findings by monitoring the entire lateral PFC during both encoding and retrieval of verbal material. Nineteen participants were asked to encode lists of words presented with either background music or silence and subsequently tested during a free recall task. Meanwhile, their PFC was monitored using a 48-channel fNIRS system. Behavioral results showed greater chunking of words under the music condition, suggesting the employment of associative strategies for items encoded with music. fNIRS results showed that music provided a less demanding way of modulating both episodic encoding and retrieval, with a general prefrontal decreased activity under the music versus silence condition. This suggests that music-related memory processes rely on specific neural mechanisms and that music can positively influence both episodic encoding and retrieval of verbal information.

UNDERGROUND LABORATORIES AND THEIR PHYSICS REACH

Underground laboratories, shielded by the Earth's crust from the particles that rain down on the surface in the form of cosmic rays, provide the low radioactive background environment necessary to host key experiments in the field of particle and astroparticle physics, nuclear astrophysics and other disciplines that can profit of their characteristics and of their infrastructures. The cosmic silence condition existing in these laboratories allows the search for extremely rare phenomena and the exploration of the highest energy scales that cannot be reached with accelerators. Major fundamental challenges are within the scope of these laboratories, notably, understanding the properties of neutrinos and dark matter, and exploring the unification of the fundamental forces of nature. I will review the physics reach and briefly describe the main underground facilities that are presently in operation around the world.

Cortical and Subcortical Correlates of Electroencephalographic Alpha Rhythm Modulation

Neural correlates of electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha rhythm are poorly understood. Here, we related EEG alpha rhythm in awake humans to blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal change determined by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Topographical EEG was recorded simultaneously with fMRI during an open versus closed eyes and an auditory stimulation versus silence condition. EEG was separated into spatial components of maximal temporal independence using independent component analysis. Alpha component amplitudes and stimulus conditions served as general linear model regressors of the fMRI signal time course. In both paradigms, EEG alpha component amplitudes were associated with BOLD signal decreases in occipital areas, but not in thalamus, when a standard BOLD response curve (maximum effect at ∼6 s) was assumed. The part of the alpha regressor independent of the protocol condition, however, revealed significant positive thalamic and mesencephalic correlations with a mean time delay of ∼2.5 s between EEG and BOLD signals. The inverse relationship between EEG alpha amplitude and BOLD signals in primary and secondary visual areas suggests that widespread thalamocortical synchronization is associated with decreased brain metabolism. While the temporal relationship of this association is consistent with metabolic changes occurring simultaneously with changes in the alpha rhythm, sites in the medial thalamus and in the anterior midbrain were found to correlate with short time lag. Assuming a canonical hemodynamic response function, this finding is indicative of activity preceding the actual EEG change by some seconds.

Effects of Two Antecedent Conditions on Vocalization Frequency of Severely Retarded Children

Rather than concentrating exclusively on consequences in early vocal instruction, the manipulation of antecedent conditions has been recommended. Few empirical data have been collected on the effect of different antecedent events. Therefore, a series of three experiments was conducted with three severely retarded children to investigate the vocalization-producing potential of two antecedent conditions: adult talk, a commonly cited antecedent, and adult silence. The conditions were evaluated using a modified alternating treatments design. In Experiment 1, 5 min of continuous adult talk was alternated with 5 min of adult silence; the results indicated that adult silence occasioned more vocalizations than did adult talk. In Experiment 2, a mixed (alternating 30- s periods of silence and talk) condition was compared to a silence condition; again the results indicated a higher frequency of vocalization during the silence condition. In Experiment 3, a modified talk (a question or comment presented every 10 s) condition was compared to a silence condition; the results indicated that the two conditions occasioned similar vocalization frequencies for two children, and the questions/comments condition occasioned more vocalizations for one child. In addition to studying optimal conditions for adult talk, the present investigation provides a methodology for deriving empirical data on the effects of differing antecedent conditions on vocalization frequencies.