Anxiety impairs spontaneous perspective calculation: Evidence from a level-1 visual perspective-taking task.

PubMed

Todd, Andrew R; Simpson, Austin J

2016-11-01

Reasoning about other people's mental states is central to social life. Yet, even neuro-typical adults sometimes have perspective-taking difficulties, particularly when another's perspective conflicts with their own. In two experiments, we examined the cognitive mechanisms underlying an affective factor known to hinder perspective taking in adults: anxiety. Using a level-1 visual perspective-taking task, we found that incidentally experiencing anxiety, relative to neutral feelings and anger, impaired the spontaneous calculation of what another social agent can see. Feeling anxious did not, however, impede perspective calculation with a non-social entity, suggesting that anxiety's disruptive effects may be particularly pronounced for social aspects of cognition. These findings help elucidate the mechanisms underlying the effects of incidental emotions on perspective taking and inform debates about "implicit" forms of mentalizing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Effect of mental arithmetic and verbal fluency on blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral arteries].

PubMed

Amrein, Ilona; Pálvölgyi, László; Debreczeni, Róbert; Kamondi, Anita; Szirmai, Imre

2004-01-20

Using transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD), changes in blood flow velocity (BFV) can be measured in the Medial Cerebral Artery (MCA) during cognitive effort. Our goal was to define the time-course and laterality of BFV in healthy volunteers during arithmetic and verbal fluency tasks according to handedness. Twelve subjects (8 right-handed, 4 left-handed) were assessed. The TCD registered BFV in both MCA simultaneously. Heart rate was also recorded using TCD. Finally we included a 16-channel EEG. BFV laterality index (LI) was calculated. Participants were asked to count silently and generate words beginning with a specified letter. To estimate hemispheric differences in BFV, two-tailed Wilcoxon tests were utilized along with correlational analyses. During cognitive effort the BFV changed in a tri-phasic manner in all participants. A 6-8% elevation of BFV was observed in MCAs without latency at the time of the evoking signal. Laterality of BFV developed after 5-13 seconds during cognitive effort in right-, and several seconds later in left-handed subjects. During tasks the BFV increased in the dominant hemisphere up to 2.6-4.7% compared to the subdominant one. We also calculated the LI. During the verbal task the LI agreed with the handedness in 9 out of 12 subjects. During the mental arithmetic task, agreement was found in 6 out of 12 subjects. According to LI results we found a discrepancy between verbal and arithmetic tests in 3 out of 12 subjects. Cognitive effort elicites significant bilateral BFV increases in the MCAs, which suggests fast neurogenic regulation. The course of BFV during mental arithmetic proved to be different from course BFV assessed during the word fluency task. Based on the laterality of the BFV, the word-generation task was more sensitive in determining the dominant hemisphere when compared to the mental arithmetic task. The use of LI may help to estimate hemispheric functions even in pathologic circumstances.

Abacus Training Modulates the Neural Correlates of Exact and Approximate Calculations in Chinese Children: An fMRI Study

PubMed Central

Du, Fenglei; Chen, Feiyan; Li, Yongxin; Hu, Yuzheng; Tian, Mei; Zhang, Hong

2013-01-01

Exact (EX) and approximate (AP) calculations rely on distinct neural circuits. However, the training effect on the neural correlates of EX and AP calculations is largely unknown, especially for the AP calculation. Abacus-based mental calculation (AMC) is a particular arithmetic skill that can be acquired by long-term abacus training. The present study investigated whether and how the abacus training modulates the neural correlates of EX and AP calculations by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Neural activations were measured in 20 abacus-trained and 19 nontrained Chinese children during AP and EX calculation tasks. Our results demonstrated that: (1) in nontrained children, similar neural regions were activated in both tasks, while the size of activated regions was larger in AP than those in the EX; (2) in abacus-trained children, no significant difference was found between these two tasks; (3) more visuospatial areas were activated in abacus-trained children under the EX task compared to the nontrained. These results suggested that more visuospatial strategies were used by the nontrained children in the AP task compared to the EX; abacus-trained children adopted a similar strategy in both tasks; after long-term abacus training, children were more inclined to apply a visuospatial strategy during processing EX calculations. PMID:24288683

Surface EEG Shows that Functional Segregation via Phase Coupling Contributes to the Neural Substrate of Mental Calculations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dimitriadis, Stavros I.; Kanatsouli, Kassiani; Laskaris, Nikolaos A.; Tsirka, Vasso; Vourkas, Michael; Micheloyannis, Sifis

2012-01-01

Multichannel EEG traces from healthy subjects are used to investigate the brain's self-organisation tendencies during two different mental arithmetic tasks. By making a comparison with a control-state in the form of a classification problem, we can detect and quantify the changes in coordinated brain activity in terms of functional connectivity.…

Free recall and outdoor running: cognitive and physical demand interference.

PubMed

Epling, Samantha L; Blakely, Megan J; Russell, Paul N; Helton, William S

2016-10-01

Cognitive resource theory is a proposed explanation for people's limited ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. Reallocation of a restricted supply of cognitive resources to two or more tasks may be detrimental to performance on one or both tasks. Many professionals in high-risk fields, such as those engaged in firefighting, military, and search and rescue missions, face simultaneous mental and physical demands, yet little is known about the resources required to move over the natural terrain these operators may encounter. In the present research, we investigated whether interference was found between outdoor running and a word recall task. As hypothesized, a reduction in word recall was observed in the dual task compared to a recall-alone task; however, the distance run was not significantly different between the dual task and the run-alone task. Subjective reports of workload, task focus, and being "spent" (measures calculated from responses on a questionnaire) were greatest in the dual task. These results support the cognitive resource theory and have important theoretical and practical implications. Further research is required to better understand the type and extent of cognitive resources required by such physical tasks and the potential interference with simultaneous mental tasks.

What Do Eye Gaze Metrics Tell Us about Motor Imagery?

PubMed

Poiroux, Elodie; Cavaro-Ménard, Christine; Leruez, Stéphanie; Lemée, Jean Michel; Richard, Isabelle; Dinomais, Mickael

2015-01-01

Many of the brain structures involved in performing real movements also have increased activity during imagined movements or during motor observation, and this could be the neural substrate underlying the effects of motor imagery in motor learning or motor rehabilitation. In the absence of any objective physiological method of measurement, it is currently impossible to be sure that the patient is indeed performing the task as instructed. Eye gaze recording during a motor imagery task could be a possible way to "spy" on the activity an individual is really engaged in. The aim of the present study was to compare the pattern of eye movement metrics during motor observation, visual and kinesthetic motor imagery (VI, KI), target fixation, and mental calculation. Twenty-two healthy subjects (16 females and 6 males), were required to perform tests in five conditions using imagery in the Box and Block Test tasks following the procedure described by Liepert et al. Eye movements were analysed by a non-invasive oculometric measure (SMI RED250 system). Two parameters describing gaze pattern were calculated: the index of ocular mobility (saccade duration over saccade + fixation duration) and the number of midline crossings (i.e. the number of times the subjects gaze crossed the midline of the screen when performing the different tasks). Both parameters were significantly different between visual imagery and kinesthesic imagery, visual imagery and mental calculation, and visual imagery and target fixation. For the first time we were able to show that eye movement patterns are different during VI and KI tasks. Our results suggest gaze metric parameters could be used as an objective unobtrusive approach to assess engagement in a motor imagery task. Further studies should define how oculomotor parameters could be used as an indicator of the rehabilitation task a patient is engaged in.

Dual tasking and balance in those with central and peripheral vision loss.

PubMed

Kotecha, Aachal; Chopra, Reena; Fahy, Rachel T A; Rubin, Gary S

2013-08-09

To investigate the effects of a secondary task on standing balance in patients with glaucoma or AMD compared with age-similar control subjects. Twelve AMD, 12 glaucoma, and 12 control participants underwent posturography under two standing conditions (eyes open on a firm or foam-rubber surface) and two tasks: quiet standing and undertaking a mental arithmetic task. Center of foot-pressure average displacement (root mean square [RMS]; in millimeters) was calculated. The mean (SD) age of the participants in each group was as follows: controls 66.2 (6.4) years, glaucoma 69.2 (4.3) years, and AMD 72.2 (5.3) years. There were significant differences in RMS between controls and AMD patients when undertaking the mental arithmetic task standing on the firm surface (mean difference [SE]: 2.8 [0.8] mm, P = 0.005). There were significant differences between controls and AMD patients when undertaking the mental arithmetic task on the foam surface, with the difference between controls and glaucoma patients approaching significance (mean difference [SE]: control versus AMD = 3.1 [0.9] mm, P = 0.005; control versus glaucoma = 2.2 [0.9] mm, P = 0.06). Postural instability increases with the addition of a secondary task in older persons, which may put them at greater risk of falls. Patients with central losses exhibit greater instability with the addition of a secondary task, particularly during somatosensory perturbations. The negative effects of secondary tasks on balance control in those with peripheral visual losses become more apparent under somatosensory perturbations.

Evaluation of various mental task combinations for near-infrared spectroscopy-based brain-computer interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hwang, Han-Jeong; Lim, Jeong-Hwan; Kim, Do-Won; Im, Chang-Hwan

2014-07-01

A number of recent studies have demonstrated that near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a promising neuroimaging modality for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). So far, most NIRS-based BCI studies have focused on enhancing the accuracy of the classification of different mental tasks. In the present study, we evaluated the performances of a variety of mental task combinations in order to determine the mental task pairs that are best suited for customized NIRS-based BCIs. To this end, we recorded event-related hemodynamic responses while seven participants performed eight different mental tasks. Classification accuracies were then estimated for all possible pairs of the eight mental tasks (C=28). Based on this analysis, mental task combinations with relatively high classification accuracies frequently included the following three mental tasks: "mental multiplication," "mental rotation," and "right-hand motor imagery." Specifically, mental task combinations consisting of two of these three mental tasks showed the highest mean classification accuracies. It is expected that our results will be a useful reference to reduce the time needed for preliminary tests when discovering individual-specific mental task combinations.

Abacus in the brain: a longitudinal functional MRI study of a skilled abacus user with a right hemispheric lesion.

PubMed

Tanaka, Satoshi; Seki, Keiko; Hanakawa, Takashi; Harada, Madoka; Sugawara, Sho K; Sadato, Norihiro; Watanabe, Katsumi; Honda, Manabu

2012-01-01

The abacus, a traditional physical calculation device, is still widely used in Asian countries. Previous behavioral work has shown that skilled abacus users perform rapid and precise mental arithmetic by manipulating a mental representation of an abacus, which is based on visual imagery. However, its neurophysiological basis remains unclear. Here, we report the case of a patient who was a good abacus user, but transiently lost her "mental abacus" and superior arithmetic performance after a stroke owing to a right hemispheric lesion including the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments were conducted 6 and 13 months after her stroke. In the mental calculation task, her brain activity was shifted from the language-related areas, including Broca's area and the left dorsolateral prefrontal and IPLs, to the visuospatial-related brain areas including the left superior parietal lobule (SPL), according to the recovery of her arithmetic abilities. In the digit memory task, activities in the bilateral SPL, and right visual association cortex were also observed after recovery. The shift of brain activities was consistent with her subjective report that she was able to shift the calculation strategy from linguistic to visuospatial as her mental abacus became stable again. In a behavioral experiment using an interference paradigm, a visual presentation of an abacus picture, but not a human face picture, interfered with the performance of her digit memory, confirming her use of the mental abacus after recovery. This is the first case report on the impairment of the mental abacus by a brain lesion and on recovery-related brain activity. We named this rare case "abacus-based acalculia." Together with previous neuroimaging studies, the present result suggests an important role for the PMd and parietal cortex in the superior arithmetic ability of abacus users.

Measuring mental workload: ocular astigmatism aberration as a novel objective index.

PubMed

Jiménez, Raimundo; Cárdenas, David; González-Anera, Rosario; Jiménez, José R; Vera, Jesús

2018-04-01

This study assessed the effect of two perceptually matched mental tasks with different levels of mental demand on ocular aberrations in a group of young adults. We measured ocular aberration with a wavefront sensor, and total, internal and corneal RMS (root mean square) aberrations were calculated from Zernike coefficients, considering natural and scaled pupils (5, 4.5, and 4 mm). We found that total, internal and corneal astigmatism RMS showed significant differences between mental tasks with natural pupils (p < .05), and this effect was maintained with 5 mm scaled pupils (total RMS astigmatism, p < .05). Consistently, pupil size, intraocular pressure, perceived mental load and cognitive performance were influenced by the level of mental complexity (p < .05 for all). The findings suggest that ocular astigmatism aberration, mediated by intraocular pressure, could be an objective, valid reliable index to evaluate the impact of cognitive processing in conjunction with others physiological markers in real world contexts. Practitioner Summary: The search continues for a valid, reliable, convenient method of measuring mental workload. In this study we found ocular astigmatism aberration is sensitive to the cumulative effect of mental effort. It shows promise of being a novel ocular index which may help to assess mental workload in real situations.

Computer-based training for improving mental calculation in third- and fifth-graders.

PubMed

Caviola, Sara; Gerotto, Giulia; Mammarella, Irene C

2016-11-01

The literature on intervention programs to improve arithmetical abilities is fragmentary and few studies have examined training on the symbolic representation of numbers (i.e. Arabic digits). In the present research, three groups of 3rd- and 5th-grade schoolchildren were given training on mental additions: 76 were assigned to a computer-based strategic training (ST) group, 73 to a process-based training (PBT) group, and 71 to a passive control (PC) group. Before and after the training, the children were given a criterion task involving complex addition problems, a nearest transfer task on complex subtraction problems, two near transfer tasks on math fluency, and a far transfer task on numerical reasoning. Our results showed developmental differences: 3rd-graders benefited more from the ST, with transfer effects on subtraction problems and math fluency, while 5th-graders benefited more from the PBT, improving their response times in the criterion task. Developmental, clinical and educational implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The impact of physical and mental tasks on pilot mental workoad

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berg, S. L.; Sheridan, T. B.

1986-01-01

Seven instrument-rated pilots with a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels flew four different scenarios on a fixed-base simulator. The Baseline scenario was the simplest of the four and had few mental and physical tasks. An activity scenario had many physical but few mental tasks. The Planning scenario had few physical and many mental taks. A Combined scenario had high mental and physical task loads. The magnitude of each pilot's altitude and airspeed deviations was measured, subjective workload ratings were recorded, and the degree of pilot compliance with assigned memory/planning tasks was noted. Mental and physical performance was a strong function of the manual activity level, but not influenced by the mental task load. High manual task loads resulted in a large percentage of mental errors even under low mental task loads. Although all the pilots gave similar subjective ratings when the manual task load was high, subjective ratings showed greater individual differences with high mental task loads. Altitude or airspeed deviations and subjective ratings were most correlated when the total task load was very high. Although airspeed deviations, altitude deviations, and subjective workload ratings were similar for both low experience and high experience pilots, at very high total task loads, mental performance was much lower for the low experience pilots.

[Psychological and physiological evaluations of music listening for mental stress].

PubMed

Hasegawa, Hiroki; Uozumi, Takashi; Ono, Koichi

2004-05-01

Music elicits emotional and physiological responses in humans, providing excitement, mood elevation, relaxation, sedation and so on. Previous studies have been conducted on the effects of music, while little is known about the effects for the cognitive information processing. In this study we introduced various types of physiological indices, and explored the effects of music on participants' subjective and physiological responses to stress. First, eight participants (mean age; 25.6) were requested to perform a mental calculation task for 30 minutes. After that, they were exposed to music ("Bolero" by M. Ravel) for 13 minutes, while others were exposed to noise or just stayed in silence as controls. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), salivary Immunoglobulin A (sigA), auditory event-related potentials (ERPs), heart rate (HR) and spectral analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) were assessed through the experiment. 1) After the calculation task: P300 amplitude of auditory ERPs significantly diminished (p = 0.027). Saliva secretion rate decreased (p = 0.028) and salivary IgA levels rose (p = 0.017) significantly. LF/HF ratio significantly increased (p = 0.042). 2) After music ("Bolero"): P300 amplitude significantly expanded (p = 0.048). State anxiety levels significantly lowered (p = 0.007). No significant physiological effect was found in those exposed to noise or silence. Our results of salivary IgA and LF/HF ratio suggest that the calculation task activates immune and sympathetic nervous system, while these systems are not affected by music. On the other hand, the result of P300 amplitude suggests that the central nervous system for the cognitive information processing is inactivated by the calculation task, and it can be recovered by music. The results of this study indicated that relaxing music is useful for the stress management, which invite further empirical investigation.

Establishing a New Screening System for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease with Mental Rotation Tasks that Evaluate Visuospatial Function.

PubMed

Suzuki, Ayuko; Shinozaki, Jun; Yazawa, Shogo; Ueki, Yoshino; Matsukawa, Noriyuki; Shimohama, Shun; Nagamine, Takashi

2018-01-01

The mental rotation task is well-known for the assessment of visuospatial function; however, it has not been used for screening of dementia patients. The aim of this study was to create a simple screening test for patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) by focusing on non-amnestic symptoms. Age-matched healthy controls (age 75.3±6.8), patients with MCI (76.5±5.5), and AD (78.2±5.0) participated in this study. They carried out mental rotation tasks targeting geometric graphics or alphabetical characters with three rotating angles (0°, 90°, and 180°) and indicated the correct answer. Response accuracy and reaction time were recorded along with their eye movements using an eye tracker. To quantify their visual processing strategy, the run count ratio (RC ratio) was calculated by dividing the mean number of fixations in incorrect answers by that in correct answers. AD patients showed lower accuracy and longer reaction time than controls. They also showed a significantly greater number of fixation and smaller saccade amplitude than controls, while fixation duration did not differ significantly. The RC ratio was higher for AD, followed by MCI and control groups. By setting the cut-off value to 0.47 in the 180° rotating angle task, we could differentiate MCI patients from controls with a probability of 80.0%. We established a new screening system for dementia patients by evaluating visuospatial function. The RC ratio during a mental rotation task is useful for discriminating MCI patients from controls.

Involuntary autobiographical memories are relatively more often reported during high cognitive load tasks.

PubMed

Barzykowski, Krystian; Niedźwieńska, Agnieszka

2018-01-01

Recent studies on involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) in daily life have shown that they are most frequently reported during daily routines (e.g. while ironing). Such studies have suggested that reporting IAMs may be influenced by the level of the ongoing task demands and availability of cognitive resources. In two studies, we investigated the effects of cognitive load on reporting IAMs. To examine the presumed cognitive load dependency of IAMs, we utilised an often-employed experimental paradigm (Schlagman & Kvavilashvili, 2008) to elicit IAMs under conditions that differed in cognitive load. When performing a vigilance task, participants had to interrupt the task each time they experienced any spontaneous mental contents and write them down. We manipulated the level of cognitive load by either instructing (cognitive load group) or not instructing (control group) participants to perform an additional demanding task. We compared the groups on the number of IAMs and other mental contents (non-IAM contents) recorded, as well as on the frequency of IAMs that was calculated as a proportion of IAMs in all mental contents reported by the participant. We expected that if reporting IAMs depends on the level of cognitive demands, then we should observe lower frequency of IAMs in the cognitive load group compared to the control group. Consistently across studies, we observed a lower number of IAMs and non-IAM contents in the cognitive load group. However, IAMs unexpectedly constituted a higher percentage of all mental contents when participants were cognitively loaded. Further implications of the cognitive load effects for IAMs research and experimental methodology are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Variation at work: alternations between physically and mentally demanding tasks in blue-collar occupations.

PubMed

Jahncke, Helena; Hygge, Staffan; Mathiassen, Svend Erik; Hallman, David; Mixter, Susanna; Lyskov, Eugene

2017-09-01

The aims of this questionnaire study were to describe the occurrence and desired number of alternations between mental and physical tasks in industrial and non-industrial blue-collar work, and determine to which extent selected personal and occupational factors influence these conditions. On average, the 122 participating workers (55 females) reported to have close to four alternations per day between mental and physical tasks, and to desire more alternations than they actually had. They also expressed a general preference for performing a physical task after a mental task and vice versa. In univariate regression models, the desired change in task alternations was significantly associated with gender, age, occupation, years with current work tasks and perceived job control, while occupation was the only significant determinant in a multiple regression model including all factors. Our results suggest that alternations between productive physical and mental tasks could be a viable option in future job rotation. Practitioner Summary: We addressed attitudes among blue-collar workers to alternations between physically and mentally demanding tasks. More alternations were desired than those occurring in the job, and workers preferred performing a physical task after a mental and vice versa. Alternating physical and mental tasks could, thus, be a viable option in job rotation.

Electrophysiological difference between mental state decoding and mental state reasoning.

PubMed

Cao, Bihua; Li, Yiyuan; Li, Fuhong; Li, Hong

2012-06-29

Previous studies have explored the neural mechanism of Theory of Mind (ToM), but the neural correlates of its two components, mental state decoding and mental state reasoning, remain unclear. In the present study, participants were presented with various photographs, showing an actor looking at 1 of 2 objects, either with a happy or an unhappy expression. They were asked to either decode the emotion of the actor (mental state decoding task), predict which object would be chosen by the actor (mental state reasoning task), or judge at which object the actor was gazing (physical task), while scalp potentials were recorded. Results showed that (1) the reasoning task elicited an earlier N2 peak than the decoding task did over the prefrontal scalp sites; and (2) during the late positive component (240-440 ms), the reasoning task elicited a more positive deflection than the other two tasks did at the prefrontal scalp sites. In addition, neither the decoding task nor the reasoning task has no left/right hemisphere difference. These findings imply that mental state reasoning differs from mental state decoding early (210 ms) after stimulus onset, and that the prefrontal lobe is the neural basis of mental state reasoning. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mental fatigue impairs soccer-specific decision-making skill.

PubMed

Smith, Mitchell R; Zeuwts, Linus; Lenoir, Matthieu; Hens, Nathalie; De Jong, Laura M S; Coutts, Aaron J

2016-07-01

This study aimed to investigate the impact of mental fatigue on soccer-specific decision-making. Twelve well-trained male soccer players performed a soccer-specific decision-making task on two occasions, separated by at least 72 h. The decision-making task was preceded in a randomised order by 30 min of the Stroop task (mental fatigue) or 30 min of reading from magazines (control). Subjective ratings of mental fatigue were measured before and after treatment, and mental effort (referring to treatment) and motivation (referring to the decision-making task) were measured after treatment. Performance on the soccer-specific decision-making task was assessed using response accuracy and time. Visual search behaviour was also assessed throughout the decision-making task. Subjective ratings of mental fatigue and effort were almost certainly higher following the Stroop task compared to the magazines. Motivation for the upcoming decision-making task was possibly higher following the Stroop task. Decision-making accuracy was very likely lower and response time likely higher in the mental fatigue condition. Mental fatigue had unclear effects on most visual search behaviour variables. The results suggest that mental fatigue impairs accuracy and speed of soccer-specific decision-making. These impairments are not likely related to changes in visual search behaviour.

Unnecessary work tasks and mental health: a prospective analysis of Danish human service workers.

PubMed

Madsen, Ida E H; Tripathi, Manisha; Borritz, Marianne; Rugulies, Reiner

2014-11-01

According to the "stress-as-offense-to-self" perspective, work tasks that are considered unnecessary or unreasonable - so-called "illegitimate work tasks" - are likely to elicit stress-reactions. Previous studies, mostly cross-sectional, have shown that illegitimate tasks are associated with increased self-reported stress, cortisol, and counterproductive work behavior. In this article, we examine the prospective association between unnecessary work tasks, one type of illegitimate work tasks, and mental health among Danish human service workers. Further, we explore whether this association is modified by sex, age, occupational position, and baseline mental health status. The data were obtained from self-administered questionnaires from 1351 Danish human service workers in three waves of data-collection during 1999-2005. We measured unnecessary work tasks by a single item, and assessed mental health using the 5-item mental health inventory from the Short form 36 questionnaire. We analyzed data using multi-level modeling, adjusting for potential confounding by sex, age, cohabitation, occupational position, and baseline mental health. Unnecessary work tasks were prospectively associated with a decreased level of mental health. This association was stronger for employees with poor baseline mental health and tended to be more pronounced among older employees. Among participants with poor baseline mental health, the association was explained by neither psychological demands nor decision latitude. Our findings suggest that the prevention of unnecessary work tasks may benefit employee mental health, particularly among employees with pre-existing mental health problems.

Diagnostic precision of mentally estimated home blood pressure means.

PubMed

Ouattara, Franck Olivier; Laskine, Mikhael; Cheong, Nathalie Ng; Birnbaum, Leora; Wistaff, Robert; Bertrand, Michel; van Nguyen, Paul; Kolan, Christophe; Durand, Madeleine; Rinfret, Felix; Lamarre-Cliche, Maxime

2018-05-07

Paper home blood pressure (HBP) charts are commonly brought to physicians at office visits. The precision and accuracy of mental calculations of blood pressure (BP) means are not known. A total of 109 hypertensive patients were instructed to measure and record their HBP for 1 week and to bring their paper charts to their office visit. Study section 1: HBP means were calculated electronically and compared to corresponding in-office BP estimates made by physicians. Study section 2: 100 randomly ordered HBP charts were re-examined repetitively by 11 evaluators. Each evaluator estimated BP means four times in 5, 15, 30, and 60 s (random order) allocated for the task. BP means and diagnostic performance (determination of therapeutic systolic and diastolic BP goals attained or not) were compared between physician estimates and electronically calculated results. Overall, electronically and mentally calculated BP means were not different. Individual analysis showed that 83% of in-office physician estimates were within a 5-mmHg systolic BP range. There was diagnostic disagreement in 15% of cases. Performance improved consistently when the time allocated for BP estimation was increased from 5 to 15 s and from 15 to 30 s, but not when it exceeded 30 s. Mentally calculating HBP means from paper charts can cause a number of diagnostic errors. Chart evaluation exceeding 30 s does not significantly improve accuracy. BP-measuring devices with modern analytical capacities could be useful to physicians.

Exploring methodological frameworks for a mental task-based near-infrared spectroscopy brain-computer interface.

PubMed

Weyand, Sabine; Takehara-Nishiuchi, Kaori; Chau, Tom

2015-10-30

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) enable users to interact with their environment using only cognitive activities. This paper presents the results of a comparison of four methodological frameworks used to select a pair of tasks to control a binary NIRS-BCI; specifically, three novel personalized task paradigms and the state-of-the-art prescribed task framework were explored. Three types of personalized task selection approaches were compared, including: user-selected mental tasks using weighted slope scores (WS-scores), user-selected mental tasks using pair-wise accuracy rankings (PWAR), and researcher-selected mental tasks using PWAR. These paradigms, along with the state-of-the-art prescribed mental task framework, where mental tasks are selected based on the most commonly used tasks in literature, were tested by ten able-bodied participants who took part in five NIRS-BCI sessions. The frameworks were compared in terms of their accuracy, perceived ease-of-use, computational time, user preference, and length of training. Most notably, researcher-selected personalized tasks resulted in significantly higher accuracies, while user-selected personalized tasks resulted in significantly higher perceived ease-of-use. It was also concluded that PWAR minimized the amount of data that needed to be collected; while, WS-scores maximized user satisfaction and minimized computational time. In comparison to the state-of-the-art prescribed mental tasks, our findings show that overall, personalized tasks appear to be superior to prescribed tasks with respect to accuracy and perceived ease-of-use. The deployment of personalized rather than prescribed mental tasks ought to be considered and further investigated in future NIRS-BCI studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sex differences on a computerized mental rotation task disappear with computer familiarization.

PubMed

Roberts, J E; Bell, M A

2000-12-01

The area of cognitive research that has produced the most consistent sex differences is spatial ability. Particularly, men consistently perform better on mental rotation tasks than do women. This study examined the effects of familiarization with a computer on performance of a computerized two-dimensional mental rotation task. Two groups of college students (N=44) performed the rotation task, with one group performing a color-matching task that allowed them to be familiarized with the computer prior to the rotation task. Among the participants who only performed the rotation task, the 11 men performed better than the 11 women. Among the participants who performed the computer familiarization task before the rotation task, how ever, there were no sex differences on the mental rotation task between the 10 men and 12 women. These data indicate that sex differences on this two-dimensional task may reflect familiarization with the computer, not the mental rotation component of the task. Further research with larger samples and increased range of task difficulty is encouraged.

Mental Rotation: Cross-Task Training and Generalization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stransky, Debi; Wilcox, Laurie M.; Dubrowski, Adam

2010-01-01

It is well established that performance on standard mental rotation tasks improves with training (Peters et al., 1995), but thus far there is little consensus regarding the degree of transfer to other tasks which also involve mental rotation. In Experiment 1, we assessed the effect of mental rotation training on participants' Mental Rotation Test…

Mental Fatigue Impairs Soccer-Specific Physical and Technical Performance.

PubMed

Smith, Mitchell R; Coutts, Aaron J; Merlini, Michele; Deprez, Dieter; Lenoir, Matthieu; Marcora, Samuele M

2016-02-01

To investigate the effects of mental fatigue on soccer-specific physical and technical performance. This investigation consisted of two separate studies. Study 1 assessed the soccer-specific physical performance of 12 moderately trained soccer players using the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test, Level 1 (Yo-Yo IR1). Study 2 assessed the soccer-specific technical performance of 14 experienced soccer players using the Loughborough Soccer Passing and Shooting Tests (LSPT, LSST). Each test was performed on two occasions and preceded, in a randomized, counterbalanced order, by 30 min of the Stroop task (mentally fatiguing treatment) or 30 min of reading magazines (control treatment). Subjective ratings of mental fatigue were measured before and after treatment, and mental effort and motivation were measured after treatment. Distance run, heart rate, and ratings of perceived exertion were recorded during the Yo-Yo IR1. LSPT performance time was calculated as original time plus penalty time. LSST performance was assessed using shot speed, shot accuracy, and shot sequence time. Subjective ratings of mental fatigue and effort were higher after the Stroop task in both studies (P < 0.001), whereas motivation was similar between conditions. This mental fatigue significantly reduced running distance in the Yo-Yo IR1 (P < 0.001). No difference in heart rate existed between conditions, whereas ratings of perceived exertion were significantly higher at iso-time in the mental fatigue condition (P < 0.01). LSPT original time and performance time were not different between conditions; however, penalty time significantly increased in the mental fatigue condition (P = 0.015). Mental fatigue also impaired shot speed (P = 0.024) and accuracy (P < 0.01), whereas shot sequence time was similar between conditions. Mental fatigue impairs soccer-specific running, passing, and shooting performance.

EEG correlates of task engagement and mental workload in vigilance, learning, and memory tasks.

PubMed

Berka, Chris; Levendowski, Daniel J; Lumicao, Michelle N; Yau, Alan; Davis, Gene; Zivkovic, Vladimir T; Olmstead, Richard E; Tremoulet, Patrice D; Craven, Patrick L

2007-05-01

The ability to continuously and unobtrusively monitor levels of task engagement and mental workload in an operational environment could be useful in identifying more accurate and efficient methods for humans to interact with technology. This information could also be used to optimize the design of safer, more efficient work environments that increase motivation and productivity. The present study explored the feasibility of monitoring electroencephalo-graphic (EEG) indices of engagement and workload acquired unobtrusively and quantified during performance of cognitive tests. EEG was acquired from 80 healthy participants with a wireless sensor headset (F3-F4,C3-C4,Cz-POz,F3-Cz,Fz-C3,Fz-POz) during tasks including: multi-level forward/backward-digit-span, grid-recall, trails, mental-addition, 20-min 3-Choice Vigilance, and image-learning and memory tests. EEG metrics for engagement and workload were calculated for each 1 -s of EEG. Across participants, engagement but not workload decreased over the 20-min vigilance test. Engagement and workload were significantly increased during the encoding period of verbal and image-learning and memory tests when compared with the recognition/ recall period. Workload but not engagement increased linearly as level of difficulty increased in forward and backward-digit-span, grid-recall, and mental-addition tests. EEG measures correlated with both subjective and objective performance metrics. These data in combination with previous studies suggest that EEG engagement reflects information-gathering, visual processing, and allocation of attention. EEG workload increases with increasing working memory load and during problem solving, integration of information, analytical reasoning, and may be more reflective of executive functions. Inspection of EEG on a second-by-second timescale revealed associations between workload and engagement levels when aligned with specific task events providing preliminary evidence that second-by-second classifications reflect parameters of task performance.

Brand Discrimination: An Implicit Measure of the Strength of Mental Brand Representations

PubMed Central

Friedman, Mike; Leclercq, Thomas

2015-01-01

While mental associations between a brand and its marketing elements are an important part of brand equity, previous research has yet to provide a sound methodology to measure the strength of these links. The following studies present the development and validation of an implicit measure to assess the strength of mental representations of brand elements in the mind of the consumer. The measure described in this paper, which we call the Brand Discrimination task, requires participants to identify whether images of brand elements (e.g. color, logo, packaging) belong to a target brand or not. Signal detection theory (SDT) is used to calculate a Brand Discrimination index which gives a measure of overall recognition accuracy for a brand’s elements in the context of its competitors. A series of five studies shows that the Brand Discrimination task can discriminate between strong and weak brands, increases when mental representations of brands are experimentally strengthened, is relatively stable across time, and can predict brand choice, independently and while controlling for other explicit and implicit brand evaluation measures. Together, these studies provide unique evidence for the importance of mental brand representations in marketing and consumer behavior, along with a research methodology to measure this important consumer-based brand attribute. PMID:25803845

Brand discrimination: an implicit measure of the strength of mental brand representations.

PubMed

Friedman, Mike; Leclercq, Thomas

2015-01-01

While mental associations between a brand and its marketing elements are an important part of brand equity, previous research has yet to provide a sound methodology to measure the strength of these links. The following studies present the development and validation of an implicit measure to assess the strength of mental representations of brand elements in the mind of the consumer. The measure described in this paper, which we call the Brand Discrimination task, requires participants to identify whether images of brand elements (e.g. color, logo, packaging) belong to a target brand or not. Signal detection theory (SDT) is used to calculate a Brand Discrimination index which gives a measure of overall recognition accuracy for a brand's elements in the context of its competitors. A series of five studies shows that the Brand Discrimination task can discriminate between strong and weak brands, increases when mental representations of brands are experimentally strengthened, is relatively stable across time, and can predict brand choice, independently and while controlling for other explicit and implicit brand evaluation measures. Together, these studies provide unique evidence for the importance of mental brand representations in marketing and consumer behavior, along with a research methodology to measure this important consumer-based brand attribute.

Cerebellar contribution to mental rotation: a cTBS study.

PubMed

Picazio, Silvia; Oliveri, Massimiliano; Koch, Giacomo; Caltagirone, Carlo; Petrosini, Laura

2013-12-01

A cerebellar role in spatial information processing has been advanced even in the absence of physical manipulation, as occurring in mental rotation. The present study was aimed at investigating the specific involvement of left and right cerebellar hemispheres in two tasks of mental rotation. We used continuous theta burst stimulation to downregulate cerebellar hemisphere excitability in healthy adult subjects performing two mental rotation tasks: an Embodied Mental Rotation (EMR) task, entailing an egocentric strategy, and an Abstract Mental Rotation (AMR) task entailing an allocentric strategy. Following downregulation of left cerebellar hemisphere, reaction times were slower in comparison to sham stimulation in both EMR and AMR tasks. Conversely, identical reaction times were obtained in both tasks following right cerebellar hemisphere and sham stimulations. No effect of cerebellar stimulation side was found on response accuracy. The present findings document a specialization of the left cerebellar hemisphere in mental rotation regardless of the kind of stimulus to be rotated.

The link between mental rotation ability and basic numerical representations

PubMed Central

Thompson, Jacqueline M.; Nuerk, Hans-Christoph; Moeller, Korbinian; Cohen Kadosh, Roi

2013-01-01

Mental rotation and number representation have both been studied widely, but although mental rotation has been linked to higher-level mathematical skills, to date it has not been shown whether mental rotation ability is linked to the most basic mental representation and processing of numbers. To investigate the possible connection between mental rotation abilities and numerical representation, 43 participants completed four tasks: 1) a standard pen-and-paper mental rotation task; 2) a multi-digit number magnitude comparison task assessing the compatibility effect, which indicates separate processing of decade and unit digits; 3) a number-line mapping task, which measures precision of number magnitude representation; and 4) a random number generation task, which yields measures both of executive control and of spatial number representations. Results show that mental rotation ability correlated significantly with both size of the compatibility effect and with number mapping accuracy, but not with any measures from the random number generation task. Together, these results suggest that higher mental rotation abilities are linked to more developed number representation, and also provide further evidence for the connection between spatial and numerical abilities. PMID:23933002

Effect of arousal on internal clock speed in real action and mental imagery.

PubMed

Ozel, Sylvie; Larue, Jacques; Dosseville, Fabrice

2004-09-01

The possible implication of an internal clock as a mechanism accounting for the temporal homology between actual and mental walking is studied. To observe this phenomenon, stressful sound stimuli were used to increase arousal, which is known to activate the internal clock. Seventeen participants performed three tasks: (1) a time production task, used as a reference task reflecting the internal clock speed; (2) an actual walking task; and (3) a mental walking task, all three in two sound conditions (no noise and noise). The results showed a significant effect of arousal on time in each task. The effect of noise, increasing the arousal level, was greater in time production and mental imagery tasks than in real action. In addition, the percentages of change between the two sound conditions for actual and mental walking time were not statistically different. These findings are further evidence of the existence of a timing process common to actual and mental walking. The data are consistent with the implication of an internal clock in both actual and mental walking.

Divided attention and mental effort after severe traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Azouvi, Philippe; Couillet, Josette; Leclercq, Michel; Martin, Yves; Asloun, Sybille; Rousseaux, Marc

2004-01-01

The aim of this study was to assess dual-task performance in TBI patients, under different experimental conditions, with or without explicit emphasis on one of two tasks. Results were compared with measurement of the subjective mental effort required to perform each task. Forty-three severe TBI patients at the subacute or chronic phase performed two tasks under single- and dual-task conditions: (a) random generation; (b) visual go-no go reaction time task. Three dual-task conditions were given, requiring either to consider both tasks as equally important or to focus preferentially on one of them. Patients were compared to matched controls. Subjective mental effort was rated on a visual analogic scale. TBI patients showed a disproportionate increase in reaction time in the go-no go task under the dual-task condition. However, they were just as able as controls to adapt performance to the specific instructions about the task to be emphasised. Patients reported significantly higher subjective mental effort, but the variation of mental effort according to task condition was similar to that of controls. These results suggest that the divided attention deficit of TBI patients is related to a reduction in available processing resources rather than an impairment of strategic processes responsible for attentional allocation and switching. The higher level of subjective mental effort may explain why TBI patients frequently complain of mental fatigue, although this subjective complaint seems to be relatively independent of cognitive impairment.

Brain potentials during mental arithmetic: effects of extensive practice and problem difficulty.

PubMed

Pauli, P; Lutzenberger, W; Rau, H; Birbaumer, N; Rickard, T C; Yaroush, R A; Bourne, L E

1994-07-01

Recent behavioral investigations indicate that the processes underlying mental arithmetic change systematically with practice from deliberate, conscious calculation to automatic, direct retrieval of answers from memory [Bourne, L.E.Jr. and Rickard, T.C., Mental calculation: The development of a cognitive skill, Paper presented at the Interamerican Congress of Psychology, San Jose, Costa Rica, 1991: Psychol. Rev., 95 (1988) 492-527]. Results reviewed by Moscovitch and Winocur [In: The handbook of aging and cognition, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1992, pp. 315-372] suggest that consciously controlled processes are more dependent on frontal lobe function than are automatic processes. It is appropriate, therefore to determine whether transitions in the locus of primary brain activity occur with practice on mental calculation. In this experiment, we examine the relationship between characteristics of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and mental arithmetic. Single-digit mental multiplication problems varying in difficulty (problem size) were used, and subjects were trained on these problems for four sessions. Problem-size and practice effects were reliably found in behavioral measures (RT). The ERP was characterized by a pronounced late positivity after task presentation followed by a slow wave, and a negativity during response indication. These components responded differentially to the practice and problem-size manipulations. Practice mainly affected topography of the amplitude of positivity and offset latency of slow wave, and problem-size mainly offset latency of slow wave and pre-response negativity. Fronto-central positivity diminished from session to session, and the focus of positivity centered finally at centro-parietal regions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Empirical Support for 'Hastening-Through-Re-Automatization' by Contrasting Two Motor-Cognitive Dual Tasks.

PubMed

Langhanns, Christine; Müller, Hermann

2018-01-01

Motor-cognitive dual tasks have been intensely studied and it has been demonstrated that even well practiced movements like walking show signs of interference when performed concurrently with a challenging cognitive task. Typically walking speed is reduced, at least in elderly persons. In contrast to these findings, some authors report an increased movement frequency under dual-task conditions, which they call hastening . A tentative explanation has been proposed, assuming that the respective movements are governed by an automatic control regime. Though, under single-task conditions, these automatic processes are supervised by "higher-order" cognitive control processes. However, when a concurrent cognitive task binds all cognitive resources, the automatic process is freed from the detrimental effect of cognitive surveillance, allowing higher movement frequencies. Fast rhythmic movements (>1 Hz) should more likely be governed by such an automatic process than low frequency discrete repetitive movements. Fifteen subjects performed two repetitive movements under single and dual-task condition, that is, in combination with a mental calculation task. According to the expectations derived from the explanatory concept, we found an increased movement frequency under dual-task conditions only for the fast rhythmic movement (paddleball task) but not for the slower discrete repetitive task (pegboard task). fNIRS measurements of prefrontal cortical load confirmed the idea of an automatic processing in the paddleball task, whereas the pegboard task seems to be more controlled by processes interfering with the calculation related processing.

Empirical Support for ‘Hastening-Through-Re-Automatization’ by Contrasting Two Motor-Cognitive Dual Tasks

PubMed Central

Langhanns, Christine; Müller, Hermann

2018-01-01

Motor-cognitive dual tasks have been intensely studied and it has been demonstrated that even well practiced movements like walking show signs of interference when performed concurrently with a challenging cognitive task. Typically walking speed is reduced, at least in elderly persons. In contrast to these findings, some authors report an increased movement frequency under dual-task conditions, which they call hastening. A tentative explanation has been proposed, assuming that the respective movements are governed by an automatic control regime. Though, under single-task conditions, these automatic processes are supervised by “higher-order” cognitive control processes. However, when a concurrent cognitive task binds all cognitive resources, the automatic process is freed from the detrimental effect of cognitive surveillance, allowing higher movement frequencies. Fast rhythmic movements (>1 Hz) should more likely be governed by such an automatic process than low frequency discrete repetitive movements. Fifteen subjects performed two repetitive movements under single and dual-task condition, that is, in combination with a mental calculation task. According to the expectations derived from the explanatory concept, we found an increased movement frequency under dual-task conditions only for the fast rhythmic movement (paddleball task) but not for the slower discrete repetitive task (pegboard task). fNIRS measurements of prefrontal cortical load confirmed the idea of an automatic processing in the paddleball task, whereas the pegboard task seems to be more controlled by processes interfering with the calculation related processing. PMID:29887815

A task shifting approach to primary mental health care for adults in South Africa: human resource requirements and costs for rural settings.

PubMed

Petersen, Inge; Lund, Crick; Bhana, Arvin; Flisher, Alan J

2012-01-01

BACKGROUND A recent situational analysis suggests that post-apartheid South Africa has made some gains with respect to the decentralization and integration of mental health into primary health care. However, service gaps within and between provinces remain, with rural areas particularly underserved. Aim This study aims to calculate and cost a hypothetical human resource mix required to populate a framework for district adult mental health services. This framework embraces the concept of task shifting, where dedicated low cost mental health workers at the community and clinic levels supplement integrated care. METHOD The expected number and cost of human resources was based on: (a) assumptions of service provision derived from existing services in a sub-district demonstration site and a literature review of evidence-based packages of care in low- and middle-income countries; and (b) assumptions of service needs derived from other studies. RESULTS For a nominal population of 100 000, minimal service coverage estimates of 50% for schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, major depressive disorder and 30% for post-traumatic stress disorder and maternal depression would require that the primary health care staffing package include one post for a mental health counsellor or equivalent and 7.2 community mental health worker posts. The cost of these personnel amounts to £28 457 per 100 000 population. This cost can be offset by a reduction in the number of other specialist and non-specialist health personnel required to close service gaps at primary care level. CONCLUSION The adoption of the concept of task shifting can substantially reduce the expected number of health care providers otherwise needed to close mental health service gaps at primary health care level in South Africa at minimal cost and may serve as a model for other middle-income countries.

Neural and psychophysiological correlates of human performance under stress and high mental workload.

PubMed

Mandrick, Kevin; Peysakhovich, Vsevolod; Rémy, Florence; Lepron, Evelyne; Causse, Mickaël

2016-12-01

In our anxiogenic and stressful world, the maintenance of an optimal cognitive performance is a constant challenge. It is particularly true in complex working environments (e.g. flight deck, air traffic control tower), where individuals have sometimes to cope with a high mental workload and stressful situations. Several models (i.e. processing efficiency theory, cognitive-energetical framework) have attempted to provide a conceptual basis on how human performance is modulated by high workload and stress/anxiety. These models predict that stress can reduce human cognitive efficiency, even in the absence of a visible impact on the task performance. Performance may be protected under stress thanks to compensatory effort, but only at the expense of a cognitive cost. Yet, the psychophysiological cost of this regulation remains unclear. We designed two experiments involving pupil diameter, cardiovascular and prefrontal oxygenation measurements. Participants performed the Toulouse N-back Task that intensively engaged both working memory and mental calculation processes under the threat (or not) of unpredictable aversive sounds. The results revealed that higher task difficulty (higher n level) degraded the performance and induced an increased tonic pupil diameter, heart rate and activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex, and a decreased phasic pupil response and heart rate variability. Importantly, the condition of stress did not impact the performance, but at the expense of a psychophysiological cost as demonstrated by lower phasic pupil response, and greater heart rate and prefrontal activity. Prefrontal cortex seems to be a central region for mitigating the influence of stress because it subserves crucial functions (e.g. inhibition, working memory) that can promote the engagement of coping strategies. Overall, findings confirmed the psychophysiological cost of both mental effort and stress. Stress likely triggered increased motivation and the recruitment of additional cognitive resources that minimize its aversive effects on task performance (effectiveness), but these compensatory efforts consumed resources that caused a loss of cognitive efficiency (ratio between performance effectiveness and mental effort). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mental fatigue and impaired response processes: event-related brain potentials in a Go/NoGo task.

PubMed

Kato, Yuichiro; Endo, Hiroshi; Kizuka, Tomohiro

2009-05-01

The effects of mental fatigue on the availability of cognitive resources and associated response-related processes were examined using event-related brain potentials. Subjects performed a Go/NoGo task for 60 min. Reaction time, number of errors, and mental fatigue scores all significantly increased with time spent on the task. The NoGo-P3 amplitude significantly decreased with time on task, but the Go-P3 amplitude was not modulated. The amplitude of error-related negativity (Ne/ERN) also decreased with time on task. These results indicate that mental fatigue attenuates resource allocation and error monitoring for NoGo stimuli. The Go- and NoGo-P3 latencies both increased with time on task, indicative of a delay in stimulus evaluation time due to mental fatigue. NoGo-N2 latency increased with time on task, but NoGo-N2 amplitude was not modulated. The amplitude of response-locked lateralized readiness potential (LRP) significantly decreased with time on task. Mental fatigue appears to slows down the time course of response inhibition, and impairs the intensity of response execution.

Mental-orientation: A new approach to assessing patients across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum.

PubMed

Peters-Founshtein, Gregory; Peer, Michael; Rein, Yanai; Kahana Merhavi, Shlomzion; Meiner, Zeev; Arzy, Shahar

2018-05-21

This study aims to assess the role of mental-orientation in the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease using a novel task. A behavioral study (Experiment 1) compared the mental-orientation task to standard neuropsychological tests in patients across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum. A functional MRI study (Experiment 2) in young adults compared activations evoked by the mental-orientation and standard-orientation tasks as well as their overlap with brain regions susceptible to Alzheimer's disease pathology. The mental-orientation task differentiated mild cognitively impaired and healthy controls at 95% accuracy, while the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination, Mini-Mental State Examination and standard-orientation achieved 74%, 70% and 50% accuracy, respectively. Functional MRI revealed the mental-orientation task to preferentially recruit brain regions exhibiting early Alzheimer's-related atrophy, unlike the standard-orientation test. Mental-orientation is suggested to play a key role in Alzheimer's disease, and consequently in early detection and follow-up of patients along the Alzheimer's disease spectrum. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Hysteresis in Mental Workload and Task Performance: The Influence of Demand Transitions and Task Prioritization.

PubMed

Jansen, Reinier J; Sawyer, Ben D; van Egmond, René; de Ridder, Huib; Hancock, Peter A

2016-12-01

We examine how transitions in task demand are manifested in mental workload and performance in a dual-task setting. Hysteresis has been defined as the ongoing influence of demand levels prior to a demand transition. Authors of previous studies predominantly examined hysteretic effects in terms of performance. However, little is known about the temporal development of hysteresis in mental workload. A simulated driving task was combined with an auditory memory task. Participants were instructed to prioritize driving or to prioritize both tasks equally. Three experimental conditions with low, high, and low task demands were constructed by manipulating the frequency of lane changing. Multiple measures of subjective mental workload were taken during experimental conditions. Contrary to our prediction, no hysteretic effects were found after the high- to low-demand transition. However, a hysteretic effect in mental workload was found within the high-demand condition, which degraded toward the end of the high condition. Priority instructions were not reflected in performance. Online assessment of both performance and mental workload demonstrates the transient nature of hysteretic effects. An explanation for the observed hysteretic effect in mental workload is offered in terms of effort regulation. An informed arrival at the scene is important in safety operations, but peaks in mental workload should be avoided to prevent buildup of fatigue. Therefore, communication technologies should incorporate the historical profile of task demand. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Visuospatial and verbal memory in mental arithmetic.

PubMed

Clearman, Jack; Klinger, Vojtěch; Szűcs, Dénes

2017-09-01

Working memory allows complex information to be remembered and manipulated over short periods of time. Correlations between working memory and mathematics achievement have been shown across the lifespan. However, only a few studies have examined the potentially distinct contributions of domain-specific visuospatial and verbal working memory resources in mental arithmetic computation. Here we aimed to fill this gap in a series of six experiments pairing addition and subtraction tasks with verbal and visuospatial working memory and interference tasks. In general, we found higher levels of interference between mental arithmetic and visuospatial working memory tasks than between mental arithmetic and verbal working memory tasks. Additionally, we found that interference that matched the working memory domain of the task (e.g., verbal task with verbal interference) lowered working memory performance more than mismatched interference (verbal task with visuospatial interference). Findings suggest that mental arithmetic relies on domain-specific working memory resources.

Sex differences on a mental rotation task: variations in electroencephalogram hemispheric activation between children and college students.

PubMed

Roberts, J E; Bell, M A

2000-01-01

The area of cognitive research that has produced the most consistent sex differences is spatial ability. In particular, men usually perform better on mental rotation tasks than women. Performance on mental rotation tasks has been associated with right parietal activation levels, both during task performance and prior to performance during baseline recordings. This study examined the relations among sex, age, electroencephalogram (EEG) hemispheric activation (at the 10.5 Hz to 13.5 Hz frequency band), and 2-D mental rotation task ability. Nineteen 8-year-olds (10 boys) and 20 college students (10 men) had EEG recorded at baseline and while performing a mental rotation task. Men had a faster reaction time on the mental rotation task than women, whereas there were no differences between boys and girls. After covarying for baseline EEG power values, men exhibited more activation (lower EEG power values) than women in the parietal and posterior temporal regions, whereas boys' and girls' power values did not differ in the parietal or posterior temporal regions. Furthermore, during the baseline condition, men generally exhibited more activation (lower EEG power values) throughout all regions of the scalp. Results support the hypothesis that a change that affects both brain activation and performance on mental rotation tasks occurs sometime between childhood and adulthood.

Sigh rate and respiratory variability during mental load and sustained attention.

PubMed

Vlemincx, Elke; Taelman, Joachim; De Peuter, Steven; Van Diest, Ilse; Van den Bergh, Omer

2011-01-01

Spontaneous breathing consists of substantial correlated variability: Parameters characterizing a breath are correlated with parameters characterizing previous and future breaths. On the basis of dynamic system theory, negative emotion states are predicted to reduce correlated variability whereas sustained attention is expected to reduce total respiratory variability. Both are predicted to evoke sighing. To test this, respiratory variability and sighing were assessed during a baseline, stressful mental arithmetic task, nonstressful sustained attention task, and recovery in between tasks. For respiration rate (excluding sighs), reduced total variability was found during the attention task, whereas correlated variation was reduced during mental load. Sigh rate increased during mental load and during recovery from the attention task. It is concluded that mental load and task-related attention show specific patterns in respiratory variability and sigh rate. Copyright © 2010 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

An opportunity cost model of subjective effort and task performance

PubMed Central

Kurzban, Robert; Duckworth, Angela; Kable, Joseph W.; Myers, Justus

2013-01-01

Why does performing certain tasks cause the aversive experience of mental effort and concomitant deterioration in task performance? One explanation posits a physical resource that is depleted over time. We propose an alternate explanation that centers on mental representations of the costs and benefits associated with task performance. Specifically, certain computational mechanisms, especially those associated with executive function, can be deployed for only a limited number of simultaneous tasks at any given moment. Consequently, the deployment of these computational mechanisms carries an opportunity cost – that is, the next-best use to which these systems might be put. We argue that the phenomenology of effort can be understood as the felt output of these cost/benefit computations. In turn, the subjective experience of effort motivates reduced deployment of these computational mechanisms in the service of the present task. These opportunity cost representations, then, together with other cost/benefit calculations, determine effort expended and, everything else equal, result in performance reductions. In making our case for this position, we review alternate explanations both for the phenomenology of effort associated with these tasks and for performance reductions over time. Likewise, we review the broad range of relevant empirical results from across subdisciplines, especially psychology and neuroscience. We hope that our proposal will help to build links among the diverse fields that have been addressing similar questions from different perspectives, and we emphasize ways in which alternate models might be empirically distinguished. PMID:24304775

Utilizing gamma band to improve mental task based brain-computer interface design.

PubMed

Palaniappan, Ramaswamy

2006-09-01

A common method for designing brain-computer Interface (BCI) is to use electroencephalogram (EEG) signals extracted during mental tasks. In these BCI designs, features from EEG such as power and asymmetry ratios from delta, theta, alpha, and beta bands have been used in classifying different mental tasks. In this paper, the performance of the mental task based BCI design is improved by using spectral power and asymmetry ratios from gamma (24-37 Hz) band in addition to the lower frequency bands. In the experimental study, EEG signals extracted during five mental tasks from four subjects were used. Elman neural network (ENN) trained by the resilient backpropagation algorithm was used to classify the power and asymmetry ratios from EEG into different combinations of two mental tasks. The results indicated that ((1) the classification performance and training time of the BCI design were improved through the use of additional gamma band features; (2) classification performances were nearly invariant to the number of ENN hidden units or feature extraction method.

Testing the tests--an empirical evaluation of screening tests for the detection of cognitive impairment in aviators.

PubMed

Stokes, A F; Banich, M T; Elledge, V C

1991-08-01

The FAA has expressed concern that flight safety could be compromised by undetected cognitive impairment in pilots due to conditions such as substance abuse, mental illness, and neuropsychological problems. Interest has been shown in the possibility of adding a brief "mini-mental exam," or a simple automated test-battery to the standard flight medical to screen for such conditions. The research reported here involved the empirical evaluation of two "mini-mental exams," two paper-and-pencil test batteries, and a prototype version of an automated screening battery. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value were calculated for each sub-task in a discriminant study of 54 pilots and 62 individuals from a heterogeneous clinical population. Results suggest that the "mini-mental exams" are poor candidates for a screening test. The automated battery showed the best discrimination performance, in part because of the incorporation of dual-task tests of divided attention performance. These tests appear to be particularly sensitive to otherwise difficult-to-detect cognitive impairments of a mild or subtle nature. The use of an automated battery of tests as a screening instrument does appear to be feasible in principle, but the practical success of a screening program is heavily dependent upon the actual prevalence of cognitive impairment in the medical applicant population.

Task-Sharing Approaches to Improve Mental Health Care in Rural and Other Low-Resource Settings: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Hoeft, Theresa J; Fortney, John C; Patel, Vikram; Unützer, Jürgen

2018-12-01

Rural areas persistently face a shortage of mental health specialists. Task shifting, or task sharing, is an approach in global mental health that may help address unmet mental health needs in rural and other low-resource areas. This review focuses on task-shifting approaches and highlights future directions for research in this area. Systematic review on task sharing of mental health care in rural areas of high-income countries included: (1) PubMed, (2) gray literature for innovations not yet published in peer-reviewed journals, and (3) outreach to experts for additional articles. We included English language articles published before August 31, 2013, on interventions sharing mental health care tasks across a team in rural settings. We excluded literature: (1) from low- and middle-income countries, (2) involving direct transfer of care to another provider, and (3) describing clinical guidelines and shared decision-making tools. The review identified approaches to task sharing focused mainly on community health workers and primary care providers. Technology was identified as a way to leverage mental health specialists to support care across settings both within primary care and out in the community. The review also highlighted how provider education, supervision, and partnerships with local communities can support task sharing. Challenges, such as confidentiality, are often not addressed in the literature. Approaches to task sharing may improve reach and effectiveness of mental health care in rural and other low-resource settings, though important questions remain. We recommend promising research directions to address these questions. © 2017 National Rural Health Association.

Assessing the similarity of mental models of operating room team members and implications for patient safety: a prospective, replicated study.

PubMed

Nakarada-Kordic, Ivana; Weller, Jennifer M; Webster, Craig S; Cumin, David; Frampton, Christopher; Boyd, Matt; Merry, Alan F

2016-08-31

Patient safety depends on effective teamwork. The similarity of team members' mental models - or their shared understanding-regarding clinical tasks is likely to influence the effectiveness of teamwork. Mental models have not been measured in the complex, high-acuity environment of the operating room (OR), where professionals of different backgrounds must work together to achieve the best surgical outcome for each patient. Therefore, we aimed to explore the similarity of mental models of task sequence and of responsibility for task within multidisciplinary OR teams. We developed a computer-based card sorting tool (Momento) to capture the information on mental models in 20 six-person surgical teams, each comprised of three subteams (anaesthesia, surgery, and nursing) for two simulated laparotomies. Team members sorted 20 cards depicting key tasks according to when in the procedure each task should be performed, and which subteam was primarily responsible for each task. Within each OR team and subteam, we conducted pairwise comparisons of scores to arrive at mean similarity scores for each task. Mean similarity score for task sequence was 87 % (range 57-97 %). Mean score for responsibility for task was 70 % (range = 38-100 %), but for half of the tasks was only 51 % (range = 38-69 %). Participants believed their own subteam was primarily responsible for approximately half the tasks in each procedure. We found differences in the mental models of some OR team members about responsibility for and order of certain tasks in an emergency laparotomy. Momento is a tool that could help elucidate and better align the mental models of OR team members about surgical procedures and thereby improve teamwork and outcomes for patients.

Specific default mode subnetworks support mentalizing as revealed through opposing network recruitment by social and semantic FMRI tasks.

PubMed

Hyatt, Christopher J; Calhoun, Vince D; Pearlson, Godfrey D; Assaf, Michal

2015-08-01

The ability to attribute mental states to others, or "mentalizing," is posited to involve specific subnetworks within the overall default mode network (DMN), but this question needs clarification. To determine which default mode (DM) subnetworks are engaged by mentalizing processes, we assessed task-related recruitment of DM subnetworks. Spatial independent component analysis (sICA) applied to fMRI data using relatively high-order model (75 components). Healthy participants (n = 53, ages 17-60) performed two fMRI tasks: an interactive game involving mentalizing (Domino), a semantic memory task (SORT), and a resting state fMRI scan. sICA of the two tasks split the DMN into 10 subnetworks located in three core regions: medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC; five subnetworks), posterior cingulate/precuneus (PCC/PrC; three subnetworks), and bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ). Mentalizing events increased recruitment in five of 10 DM subnetworks, located in all three core DMN regions. In addition, three of these five DM subnetworks, one dmPFC subnetwork, one PCC/PrC subnetwork, and the right TPJ subnetwork, showed reduced recruitment by semantic memory task events. The opposing modulation by the two tasks suggests that these three DM subnetworks are specifically engaged in mentalizing. Our findings, therefore, suggest the unique involvement of mentalizing processes in only three of 10 DM subnetworks, and support the importance of the dmPFC, PCC/PrC, and right TPJ in mentalizing as described in prior studies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Intraocular pressure is sensitive to cumulative and instantaneous mental workload.

PubMed

Vera, Jesús; Jiménez, Raimundo; García, José Antonio; Cárdenas, David

2017-04-01

We used a repeated-measures design to assess the impact of mental-task complexity on intraocular pressure (IOP). Fourteen participants performed three continuous 11-min blocks of a mental-workload task (3-back) and an oddball version of this task. Also, heart-rate variability (HRV), cognitive-performance scores, and subjective measure of mental load (NASA-TLX) were determined. IOP was taken before each block and afterwards as well as after recovery from mental tasks. We found that IOP increased during heavy mental workloads (p < 0.01). Consistent with this finding, the autonomic control (HRV) and the cognitive performance were significantly lower (p < 0.045, and p < 0.01, respectively), and the NASA-TLX scores were higher during the 3-back task (p < 0.01). We conclude that IOP is sensitive to mental workload, and it could provide a novel neuroergonomic tool to assess mental workload. Our study highlights a potential association between IOP and the nervous system's state of activation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effects of fatigue on performance in simulated nursing work.

PubMed

Barker, Linsey M; Nussbaum, Maury A

2011-09-01

Fatigue is associated with increased rates of medical errors and healthcare worker injuries, yet existing research in this sector has not considered multiple dimensions of fatigue simultaneously. This study evaluated hypothesised causal relationships between mental and physical fatigue and performance. High and low levels of mental and physical fatigue were induced in 16 participants during simulated nursing work tasks in a laboratory setting. Task-induced changes in fatigue dimensions were quantified using both subjective and objective measures, as were changes in performance on physical and mental tasks. Completing the simulated work tasks increased total fatigue, mental fatigue and physical fatigue in all experimental conditions. Higher physical fatigue adversely affected measures of physical and mental performance, whereas higher mental fatigue had a positive effect on one measure of mental performance. Overall, these results suggest causal effects between manipulated levels of mental and physical fatigue and task-induced changes in mental and physical performance. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Nurse fatigue and performance has implications for patient and provider safety. Results from this study demonstrate the importance of a multidimensional view of fatigue in understanding the causal relationships between fatigue and performance. The findings can guide future work aimed at predicting fatigue-related performance decrements and designing interventions.

Dissociation between exact and approximate addition in developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

Yang, Xiujie; Meng, Xiangzhi

2016-09-01

Previous research has suggested that number sense and language are involved in number representation and calculation, in which number sense supports approximate arithmetic, and language permits exact enumeration and calculation. Meanwhile, individuals with dyslexia have a core deficit in phonological processing. Based on these findings, we thus hypothesized that children with dyslexia may exhibit exact calculation impairment while doing mental arithmetic. The reaction time and accuracy while doing exact and approximate addition with symbolic Arabic digits and non-symbolic visual arrays of dots were compared between typically developing children and children with dyslexia. Reaction time analyses did not reveal any differences across two groups of children, the accuracies, interestingly, revealed a distinction of approximation and exact addition across two groups of children. Specifically, two groups of children had no differences in approximation. Children with dyslexia, however, had significantly lower accuracy in exact addition in both symbolic and non-symbolic tasks than that of typically developing children. Moreover, linguistic performances were selectively associated with exact calculation across individuals. These results suggested that children with dyslexia have a mental arithmetic deficit specifically in the realm of exact calculation, while their approximation ability is relatively intact. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mental workload while driving: effects on visual search, discrimination, and decision making.

PubMed

Recarte, Miguel A; Nunes, Luis M

2003-06-01

The effects of mental workload on visual search and decision making were studied in real traffic conditions with 12 participants who drove an instrumented car. Mental workload was manipulated by having participants perform several mental tasks while driving. A simultaneous visual-detection and discrimination test was used as performance criteria. Mental tasks produced spatial gaze concentration and visual-detection impairment, although no tunnel vision occurred. According to ocular behavior analysis, this impairment was due to late detection and poor identification more than to response selection. Verbal acquisition tasks were innocuous compared with production tasks, and complex conversations, whether by phone or with a passenger, are dangerous for road safety.

Cardiovascular and metabolic activity at rest and during psychological and physical challenge in normotensives and subjects with mildly elevated blood pressure.

PubMed

Sims, J; Carroll, D

1990-03-01

Heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and respiratory and metabolic activity were recorded prior to and during mental arithmetic and a video game task in 20 young men with mildly elevated casual systolic blood pressures. Twenty-five unambiguously normotensive young men were tested under the same protocol. For pretask baseline physiological activity, group differences emerged for all cardiovascular and metabolic variables; thus the elevated blood pressure group displayed not only higher resting cardiovascular levels than normotensive subjects, but higher levels of metabolic activity too. With regard to change in physiological activity from rest to task, the group with mildly elevated blood pressure showed reliably larger increases in heart rate to the mental arithmetic task than the normotensive subjects. These effects, however, were not paralleled by group differences in metabolic activity increase. Physiological measures were also taken prior to and during graded dynamic exercise. The subsequent calculation of individual heart rate-oxygen consumption exercise regression lines allowed the comparison of actual and predicted heart rates during psychological challenge. The subjects with mildly elevated blood pressure displayed significantly greater discrepancies between actual and predicted heart rate values than normotensives during the psychological tasks in general and mental arithmetic in particular. Group differences in physiological activity during exercise largely reflected the pattern seen at rest. A possible exception here was systolic blood pressure. Not only were systolic blood pressure levels higher throughout the exercise phase for mildly elevated blood pressure subjects, but this group evidenced more of an increase from rest to exercise than the normotensives.

Mental workload associated with operating an agricultural sprayer: an empirical approach.

PubMed

Dey, A K; Mann, D D

2011-04-01

Agricultural spraying involves two major tasks: guiding a sprayer in response to a GPS navigation device, and simultaneous monitoring of rear-attached booms under various illumination and terrain difficulty levels. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of illumination, task difficulty, and task level on the mental workload of an individual operating an agricultural sprayer in response to a commercial GPS lightbar, and to explore the sensitivity of the NASA-TLX and SSWAT subjective rating scales in discriminating the subjective experienced workload under various task, illumination, and difficulty levels. Mental workload was measured using performance measures (lateral root mean square error and reaction time), physiological measures (0.1 Hz power of HRV, latency of the P300 component of event-related potential, and eye-glance behavior), and two subjective rating scales (NASA-TLX and SSWAT). Sixteen male university students participated in this experiment, and a fixed-base high-fidelity agricultural tractor simulator was used to create a simulated spraying task. All performance measures, the P300 latency, and subjective rating scales showed a common trend that mental workload increased with the change in illumination from day to night, with task difficulty from low to high, and with task type from single to dual. The 0.1 Hz power of HRV contradicted the performance measures. Eye-glance data showed that under night illumination, participants spent more time looking at the lightbar for guidance information. A similar trend was observed with the change in task type from single to dual. Both subjective rating scales showed a common trend of increasing mental workload with the change in illumination, difficulty, and task levels. However, the SSWAT scale was more sensitive than the NASA-TLX scale. With the change in illumination, difficulty, and task levels, participants spent more mental resources to meet the increased task demand; hence, the illumination, task difficulty, and task level affected the mental workload of an agricultural sprayer operator operating a sprayer in response to a GPS lightbar.

Subjective scaling of mental workload in a multi-task environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daryanian, B.

1982-01-01

Those factors in a multi-task environment that contribute to the operators' "sense" of mental workload were identified. The subjective judgment as conscious experience of mental effort was decided to be the appropriate method of measurement. Thurstone's law of comparative judgment was employed in order to construct interval scales of subjective mental workload from paired comparisons data. An experimental paradigm (Simulated Multi-Task Decision-Making Environment) was employed to represent the ideal experimentally controlled environment in which human operators were asked to "attend" to different cases of Tulga's decision making tasks. Through various statistical analyses it was found that, in general, a lower number of tasks-to-be-processed per unit time (a condition associated with longer interarrival times), results in a lower mental workload, a higher consistency of judgments within a subject, a higher degree of agreement among the subjects, and larger distances between the cases on the Thurstone scale of subjective mental workload. The effects of various control variables and their interactions, and the different characteristics of the subjects on the variation of subjective mental workload are demonstrated.

Symptoms of anxiety and depression are related to cardiovascular responses to active, but not passive, coping tasks.

PubMed

Yuenyongchaiwat, Kornanong; Baker, Ian S; Sheffield, David

2017-01-01

Anxiety and depression have been linked to blunted blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) reactions to mental stress tests; however, most studies have not included indices of underlying hemodynamics nor multiple stress tasks. This study sought to examine the relationships of anxiety and depression with hemodynamic responses to acute active and passive coping tasks. A total of 104 participants completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales and mental arithmetic, speech, and cold pressor tasks while BP, HR, total peripheral resistance, and cardiac output (CO) were assessed. After adjustment for traditional risk factors and baseline cardiovascular activity, depression scores were negatively associated with systolic BP, HR, and CO responses to the mental arithmetic task, while anxiety scores were inversely related to the systolic BP response to mental arithmetic. High anxiety or depression scores appear to be associated with blunted cardiac reactions to mental arithmetic (an active coping task), but not to the cold pressor test or speech tasks. Future research should further examine potential mechanisms and longitudinal pathways relating depression and anxiety to cardiovascular reactivity. TCTR20160208004.

Effects of precision demands and mental pressure on muscle activation and hand forces in computer mouse tasks.

PubMed

Visser, Bart; De Looze, Michiel; De Graaff, Matthijs; Van Dieën, Jaap

2004-02-05

The objective of the present study was to gain insight into the effects of precision demands and mental pressure on the load of the upper extremity. Two computer mouse tasks were used: an aiming and a tracking task. Upper extremity loading was operationalized as the myo-electric activity of the wrist flexor and extensor and of the trapezius descendens muscles and the applied grip- and click-forces on the computer mouse. Performance measures, reflecting the accuracy in both tasks and the clicking rate in the aiming task, indicated that the levels of the independent variables resulted in distinguishable levels of accuracy and work pace. Precision demands had a small effect on upper extremity loading with a significant increase in the EMG-amplitudes (21%) of the wrist flexors during the aiming tasks. Precision had large effects on performance. Mental pressure had substantial effects on EMG-amplitudes with an increase of 22% in the trapezius when tracking and increases of 41% in the trapezius and 45% and 140% in the wrist extensors and flexors, respectively, when aiming. During aiming, grip- and click-forces increased by 51% and 40% respectively. Mental pressure had small effects on accuracy but large effects on tempo during aiming. Precision demands and mental pressure in aiming and tracking tasks with a computer mouse were found to coincide with increased muscle activity in some upper extremity muscles and increased force exertion on the computer mouse. Mental pressure caused significant effects on these parameters more often than precision demands. Precision and mental pressure were found to have effects on performance, with precision effects being significant for all performance measures studied and mental pressure effects for some of them. The results of this study suggest that precision demands and mental pressure increase upper extremity load, with mental pressure effects being larger than precision effects. The possible role of precision demands as an indirect mental stressor in working conditions is discussed.

Mentalizing in schizophrenia: A multivariate functional MRI study.

PubMed

Martin, Andrew K; Dzafic, Ilvana; Robinson, Gail A; Reutens, David; Mowry, Bryan

2016-12-01

Schizophrenia is associated with mentalizing deficits that impact on social functioning and quality of life. Recently, schizophrenia has been conceptualized as a disorder of neural dysconnectivity and network level analyses offers a means of understanding the underlying deficits leading to mentalizing difficulty. Using an established mentalizing task (The Triangles Task), functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) were acquired from 19 patients with schizophrenia and 17 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs). Participants were required to watch short animations of two triangles interacting with each other with the interactions either random (no interaction), physical (patterned movement), or mental (intentional movement). Task-based Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to analyze activation differences and commonalities between the three conditions and the two groups. Seed-based PLS was used to assess functional connectivity with peaks identified in the task-based PLS. Behavioural PLS was then performed using the accuracy from the mental conditions. Patients with schizophrenia performed worse on the mentalizing condition compared to HCs. Task-based PLS revealed one significant latent variable (LV) that explained 42.9% of the variance in the task, with theLV separating the mental condition from the physical and random conditions in patients with schizophrenia, but only the mental from physical in healthy controls. The mental animations were associated with increased modulation of the inferior frontal gyri bilaterally, left superior temporal gyrus, right postcentral gyrus, and left caudate nucleus. The physical/random animations were associated with increased modulation of the right medial frontal gyrus and left superior frontal gyrus. Seed-based PLS identified increased functional connectivity with the left inferior frontal gyrus (liFG) and caudate nucleus in patients with schizophrenia, during the mental and physical interactions, with functional connectivity with the liFG associated with increased performance on the mental animations. The results suggest that mentalizing deficits in schizophrenia may arise due to inefficient social brain networks. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Role of Control Functions in Mentalizing: Dual-Task Studies of Theory of Mind and Executive Function

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bull, Rebecca; Phillips, Louise H.; Conway, Claire A.

2008-01-01

Conflicting evidence has arisen from correlational studies regarding the role of executive control functions in Theory of Mind. The current study used dual-task manipulations of executive functions (inhibition, updating and switching) to investigate the role of these control functions in mental state and non-mental state tasks. The "Eyes"…

Reliabilities of mental rotation tasks: limits to the assessment of individual differences.

PubMed

Hirschfeld, Gerrit; Thielsch, Meinald T; Zernikow, Boris

2013-01-01

Mental rotation tasks with objects and body parts as targets are widely used in cognitive neuropsychology. Even though these tasks are well established to study between-groups differences, the reliability on an individual level is largely unknown. We present a systematic study on the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of individual differences in mental rotation tasks comparing different target types and orders of presentations. In total n = 99 participants (n = 63 for the retest) completed the mental rotation tasks with hands, feet, faces, and cars as targets. Different target types were presented in either randomly mixed blocks or blocks of homogeneous targets. Across all target types, the consistency (split-half reliability) and stability (test-retest reliabilities) were good or acceptable both for intercepts and slopes. At the level of individual targets, only intercepts showed acceptable reliabilities. Blocked presentations resulted in significantly faster and numerically more consistent and stable responses. Mental rotation tasks-especially in blocked variants-can be used to reliably assess individual differences in global processing speed. However, the assessment of the theoretically important slope parameter for individual targets requires further adaptations to mental rotation tests.

Differentiating two- from three-dimensional mental rotation training effects.

PubMed

Moreau, David

2013-01-01

Block videogame training has consistently demonstrated transfer effects to mental rotation tasks, yet how variations in training influence performance with different stimuli remains unclear. In this study, participants took mental rotation assessments before and after a 3-week training programme based on 2D or 3D block videogames. Assessments varied in terms of dimensionality (2D or 3D) and stimulus type (polygon or body). Increases in videogame scores throughout training were correlated with mental rotation improvements. In particular, 2D training led to improvements in 2D tasks, whereas 3D training led to improvements in both 2D and 3D tasks. This effect did not depend on stimulus type, demonstrating that training can transfer to different stimuli of identical dimensionality. Interestingly, traditional gender differences in 3D mental rotation tasks vanished after 3D videogame training, highlighting the malleability of mental rotation ability given adequate training. These findings emphasize the influence of dimensionality in transfer effects and offer promising perspectives to reduce differences in mental rotation via designed training programmes.

Surgeons' display reduced mental effort and workload while performing robotically assisted surgical tasks, when compared to conventional laparoscopy.

PubMed

Moore, Lee J; Wilson, Mark R; McGrath, John S; Waine, Elizabeth; Masters, Rich S W; Vine, Samuel J

2015-09-01

Research has demonstrated the benefits of robotic surgery for the patient; however, research examining the benefits of robotic technology for the surgeon is limited. This study aimed to adopt validated measures of workload, mental effort, and gaze control to assess the benefits of robotic surgery for the surgeon. We predicted that the performance of surgical training tasks on a surgical robot would require lower investments of workload and mental effort, and would be accompanied by superior gaze control and better performance, when compared to conventional laparoscopy. Thirty-two surgeons performed two trials on a ball pick-and-drop task and a rope-threading task on both robotic and laparoscopic systems. Measures of workload (the surgery task load index), mental effort (subjective: rating scale for mental effort and objective: standard deviation of beat-to-beat intervals), gaze control (using a mobile eye movement recorder), and task performance (completion time and number of errors) were recorded. As expected, surgeons performed both tasks more quickly and accurately (with fewer errors) on the robotic system. Self-reported measures of workload and mental effort were significantly lower on the robotic system compared to the laparoscopic system. Similarly, an objective cardiovascular measure of mental effort revealed lower investment of mental effort when using the robotic platform relative to the laparoscopic platform. Gaze control distinguished the robotic from the laparoscopic systems, but not in the predicted fashion, with the robotic system associated with poorer (more novice like) gaze control. The findings highlight the benefits of robotic technology for surgical operators. Specifically, they suggest that tasks can be performed more proficiently, at a lower workload, and with the investment of less mental effort, this may allow surgeons greater cognitive resources for dealing with other demands such as communication, decision-making, or periods of increased complexity in the operating room.

Task-dependent changes of corticospinal excitability during observation and motor imagery of balance tasks.

PubMed

Mouthon, A; Ruffieux, J; Wälchli, M; Keller, M; Taube, W

2015-09-10

Non-physical balance training has demonstrated to be efficient to improve postural control in young people. However, little is known about the potential to increase corticospinal excitability by mental simulation in lower leg muscles. Mental simulation of isolated, voluntary contractions of limb muscles increase corticospinal excitability but more automated tasks like walking seem to have no or only minor effects on motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). This may be related to the way of performing the mental simulation or the task itself. Therefore, the present study aimed to clarify how corticospinal excitability is modulated during AO+MI, MI and action observation (AO) of balance tasks. For this purpose, MEPs and H-reflexes were elicited during three different mental simulations (a) AO+MI, (b) MI and (c) passive AO. For each condition, two balance tasks were evaluated: (1) quiet upright stance (static) and (2) compensating a medio-lateral perturbation while standing on a free-swinging platform (dynamic). AO+MI resulted in the largest facilitation of MEPs followed by MI and passive AO. MEP facilitation was significantly larger in the dynamic perturbation than in the static standing task. Interestingly, passive observation resulted in hardly any facilitation independent of the task. H-reflex amplitudes were not modulated. The current results demonstrate that corticospinal excitability during mental simulation of balance tasks is influenced by both the type of mental simulation and the task difficulty. As H-reflexes and background EMG were not modulated, it may be argued that changes in excitability of the primary motor cortex were responsible for the MEP modulation. From a functional point of view, our findings suggest best training/rehabilitation effects when combining MI with AO during challenging postural tasks. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Children's Performance in Mental Rotation Tasks: Orientation-Free Features Flatten the Slope

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perrucci, Vittore; Agnoli, Franca; Albiero, Paolo

2008-01-01

Studies of the development of mental rotation have yielded conflicting results, apparently because different mental rotation tasks draw on different cognitive abilities. Children may compare two stimuli at different orientations without mental rotation if the stimuli contain orientation-free features. Two groups of children (78 6-year-olds and 92…

The Role of Gesture in Supporting Mental Representations: The Case of Mental Abacus Arithmetic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks, Neon B.; Barner, David; Frank, Michael; Goldin-Meadow, Susan

2018-01-01

People frequently gesture when problem-solving, particularly on tasks that require spatial transformation. Gesture often facilitates task performance by interacting with internal mental representations, but how this process works is not well understood. We investigated this question by exploring the case of mental abacus (MA), a technique in which…

Experimenter Effects on Cardiovascular Reactivity and Task Performance during Mental Stress Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siegwarth, Nicole; Larkin, Kevin T.; Kemmner, Christine

2012-01-01

Experimenter effects have long been hypothesized to influence participants' responses to mental stress testing. To explore the influence of experimenter warmth on responses to two mental stress tasks (mental arithmetic, mirror tracing), 32 young women participated in a single 45-min experimental session. Participants were randomized into warm…

Sex differences in mental rotation tasks: Not just in the mental rotation process!

PubMed

Boone, Alexander P; Hegarty, Mary

2017-07-01

The paper-and-pencil Mental Rotation Test (Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978) consistently produces large sex differences favoring men (Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995). In this task, participants select 2 of 4 answer choices that are rotations of a probe stimulus. Incorrect choices (i.e., foils) are either mirror reflections of the probe or structurally different. In contrast, in the mental rotation experimental task (Shepard & Metzler, 1971) participants judge whether 2 stimuli are the same but rotated or different by mirror reflection. The goal of the present research was to examine sources of sex differences in mental rotation, including the ability to capitalize on the availability of structure foils. In 2 experiments, both men and women had greater accuracy and faster reaction times (RTs) for structurally different compared with mirror foils in different versions of the Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test (Experiment 1) and the Shepard and Metzler experimental task (Experiment 2). A significant male advantage in accuracy but not response time was found for both trial types. The male advantage was evident when all foils were structure foils so that mental rotation was not necessary (Experiment 3); however, when all foils were structure foils and participants were instructed to look for structure foils a significant sex difference was no longer evident (Experiment 4). Results suggest that the mental rotation process is not the only source of the sex difference in mental rotation tasks. Alternative strategy use is another source of sex differences in these tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Can You Imagine? The Effect of Mental Practice on the Acquisition and Retention of a Motor Skill as a Function of Age.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jarus, Tal; Ratzon, Navah Z.

2000-01-01

A study investigated the effect of age on mental practice in 30 children, 30 adults, and 30 older adults randomly participating in physical and mental-physical practice. Mental practice benefitted children and older adults in coordination tasks. Older adults especially benefitted from mental practice in retention tasks. (Contains 58 references.)…

An experimental investigation of mentalization ability in borderline personality disorder.

PubMed

Petersen, Robyn; Brakoulias, Vlasios; Langdon, Robyn

2016-01-01

Deficits in mentalization ability have been theorized to underlie borderline personality disorder (BPD) and have led to mentalization-based treatments. Yet there has been little empirical investigation into whether mentalization deficits do differentiate the BPD population from healthy controls, and the specific nature of these differences. Five pre-existing Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks that assessed simple to complex mentalization capacity in both the affective and cognitive domains were administered to the same groups of age and gender matched patients with BPD and controls. Self-report measures assessed cognitive and affective empathy and childhood trauma and abuse. The BPD group did not differ significantly from the healthy control group on basic cognitive false-belief picture-sequencing tasks, or on overall accuracy when discriminating mental states from viewing images of eyes, and attributing emotions based on social events. They were, however, significantly less accurate in identifying positive mental states on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) task and showed significantly more mentalization errors on affective and cognitive understanding of faux pas (faux pas total score p<.01) and on a Joke Appreciation task (p=.01), that required integration of multiple perspectives. They also self-reported less empathic perspective taking (p<.01). Observation of patterns of performance hinted at specific underlying biases (e.g. a default tendency to use superficial black-and-white attributions to others, such as, "he is mean", when explaining behavior). It was also found that as childhood experiences of punishment increased, adulthood mentalization ability decreased on all affective ToM tasks and on the cognitive and affective components of understanding faux pas. The BPD group was as capable as controls in undertaking simple mentalization. However, deficits in mentalization capacity became evident when mentalization tasks became more complex and required the integration of multiple perspectives. Increasing childhood experiences of punishment were related to decreasing mentalization ability in adulthood. Findings support the use of treatments to improve mentalization skills in BPD, however, further research is needed to better specify the nature of underlying mentalizing biases in this population. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Acceptability and feasibility of using non-specialist health workers to deliver mental health care: Stakeholder perceptions from the PRIME district sites in Ethiopia, India, Nepal, South Africa, and Uganda

PubMed Central

Mendenhall, Emily; De Silva, Mary J.; Hanlon, Charlotte; Petersen, Inge; Shidhaye, Rahul; Jordans, Mark; Luitel, Nagendra; Ssebunnya, Joshua; Fekadu, Abebaw; Patel, Vikram; Tomlinson, Mark; Lund, Crick

2014-01-01

Three-quarters of the global mental health burden exists in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), yet the lack of mental health services in resource-poor settings is striking. Task-sharing (also, task-shifting), where mental health care is provided by non-specialists, has been proposed to improve access to mental health care in LMICs. This multi-site qualitative study investigates the acceptability and feasibility of task-sharing mental health care in LMICs by examining perceptions of primary care service providers (physicians, nurses, and community health workers), community members, and service users in one district in each of the five countries participating in the PRogramme for Improving Mental health carE (PRIME): Ethiopia, India, Nepal, South Africa, and Uganda. Thirty-six focus group discussions and 164 in-depth interviews were conducted at the pre-implementation stage between February and October 2012 with the objective of developing district level plans to integrate mental health care into primary care. Perceptions of the acceptability and feasibility of task-sharing were evaluated first at the district level in each country through open-coding and then at the cross-country level through a secondary analysis of emergent themes. We found that task-sharing mental health services is perceived to be acceptable and feasible in these LMICs as long as key conditions are met: 1) increased numbers of human resources and better access to medications; 2) ongoing structured supportive supervision at the community and primary care-levels; and 3) adequate training and compensation for health workers involved in task-sharing. Taking into account the socio-cultural context is fundamental for identifying local personnel who can assist in detection of mental illness and facilitate treatment and care as well as training, supervision, and service delivery. By recognizing the systemic challenges and sociocultural nuances that may influence task-sharing mental health care, locally-situated interventions could be more easily planned to provide appropriate and acceptable mental health care in LMICs. PMID:25089962

Acceptability and feasibility of using non-specialist health workers to deliver mental health care: stakeholder perceptions from the PRIME district sites in Ethiopia, India, Nepal, South Africa, and Uganda.

PubMed

Mendenhall, Emily; De Silva, Mary J; Hanlon, Charlotte; Petersen, Inge; Shidhaye, Rahul; Jordans, Mark; Luitel, Nagendra; Ssebunnya, Joshua; Fekadu, Abebaw; Patel, Vikram; Tomlinson, Mark; Lund, Crick

2014-10-01

Three-quarters of the global mental health burden exists in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), yet the lack of mental health services in resource-poor settings is striking. Task-sharing (also, task-shifting), where mental health care is provided by non-specialists, has been proposed to improve access to mental health care in LMICs. This multi-site qualitative study investigates the acceptability and feasibility of task-sharing mental health care in LMICs by examining perceptions of primary care service providers (physicians, nurses, and community health workers), community members, and service users in one district in each of the five countries participating in the PRogramme for Improving Mental health carE (PRIME): Ethiopia, India, Nepal, South Africa, and Uganda. Thirty-six focus group discussions and 164 in-depth interviews were conducted at the pre-implementation stage between February and October 2012 with the objective of developing district level plans to integrate mental health care into primary care. Perceptions of the acceptability and feasibility of task-sharing were evaluated first at the district level in each country through open-coding and then at the cross-country level through a secondary analysis of emergent themes. We found that task-sharing mental health services is perceived to be acceptable and feasible in these LMICs as long as key conditions are met: 1) increased numbers of human resources and better access to medications; 2) ongoing structured supportive supervision at the community and primary care-levels; and 3) adequate training and compensation for health workers involved in task-sharing. Taking into account the socio-cultural context is fundamental for identifying local personnel who can assist in detection of mental illness and facilitate treatment and care as well as training, supervision, and service delivery. By recognizing the systemic challenges and sociocultural nuances that may influence task-sharing mental health care, locally-situated interventions could be more easily planned to provide appropriate and acceptable mental health care in LMICs. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Using near infrared spectroscopy and heart rate variability to detect mental overload.

PubMed

Durantin, G; Gagnon, J-F; Tremblay, S; Dehais, F

2014-02-01

Mental workload is a key factor influencing the occurrence of human error, especially during piloting and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) operations, where safety depends on the ability of pilots to act appropriately. In particular, excessively high or low mental workload can lead operators to neglect critical information. The objective of the present study is to investigate the potential of functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) - a non-invasive method of measuring prefrontal cortex activity - in combination with measurements of heart rate variability (HRV), to predict mental workload during a simulated piloting task, with particular regard to task engagement and disengagement. Twelve volunteers performed a computer-based piloting task in which they were asked to follow a dynamic target with their aircraft, a task designed to replicate key cognitive demands associated with real life ROV operating tasks. In order to cover a wide range of mental workload levels, task difficulty was manipulated in terms of processing load and difficulty of control - two critical sources of workload associated with piloting and remotely operating a vehicle. Results show that both fNIRS and HRV are sensitive to different levels of mental workload; notably, lower prefrontal activation as well as a lower LF/HF ratio at the highest level of difficulty, suggest that these measures are suitable for mental overload detection. Moreover, these latter measurements point toward the existence of a quadratic model of mental workload. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Task-dependent signal variations in EEG error-related potentials for brain-computer interfaces.

PubMed

Iturrate, I; Montesano, L; Minguez, J

2013-04-01

A major difficulty of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is dealing with the noise of EEG and its signal variations. Previous works studied time-dependent non-stationarities for BCIs in which the user's mental task was independent of the device operation (e.g., the mental task was motor imagery and the operational task was a speller). However, there are some BCIs, such as those based on error-related potentials, where the mental and operational tasks are dependent (e.g., the mental task is to assess the device action and the operational task is the device action itself). The dependence between the mental task and the device operation could introduce a new source of signal variations when the operational task changes, which has not been studied yet. The aim of this study is to analyse task-dependent signal variations and their effect on EEG error-related potentials. The work analyses the EEG variations on the three design steps of BCIs: an electrophysiology study to characterize the existence of these variations, a feature distribution analysis and a single-trial classification analysis to measure the impact on the final BCI performance. The results demonstrate that a change in the operational task produces variations in the potentials, even when EEG activity exclusively originated in brain areas related to error processing is considered. Consequently, the extracted features from the signals vary, and a classifier trained with one operational task presents a significant loss of performance for other tasks, requiring calibration or adaptation for each new task. In addition, a new calibration for each of the studied tasks rapidly outperforms adaptive techniques designed in the literature to mitigate the EEG time-dependent non-stationarities.

Task-dependent signal variations in EEG error-related potentials for brain-computer interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iturrate, I.; Montesano, L.; Minguez, J.

2013-04-01

Objective. A major difficulty of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is dealing with the noise of EEG and its signal variations. Previous works studied time-dependent non-stationarities for BCIs in which the user’s mental task was independent of the device operation (e.g., the mental task was motor imagery and the operational task was a speller). However, there are some BCIs, such as those based on error-related potentials, where the mental and operational tasks are dependent (e.g., the mental task is to assess the device action and the operational task is the device action itself). The dependence between the mental task and the device operation could introduce a new source of signal variations when the operational task changes, which has not been studied yet. The aim of this study is to analyse task-dependent signal variations and their effect on EEG error-related potentials.Approach. The work analyses the EEG variations on the three design steps of BCIs: an electrophysiology study to characterize the existence of these variations, a feature distribution analysis and a single-trial classification analysis to measure the impact on the final BCI performance.Results and significance. The results demonstrate that a change in the operational task produces variations in the potentials, even when EEG activity exclusively originated in brain areas related to error processing is considered. Consequently, the extracted features from the signals vary, and a classifier trained with one operational task presents a significant loss of performance for other tasks, requiring calibration or adaptation for each new task. In addition, a new calibration for each of the studied tasks rapidly outperforms adaptive techniques designed in the literature to mitigate the EEG time-dependent non-stationarities.

Effects of Task Size on Work-Related and Aberrant Behaviors of Youths with Autism and Mental Retardation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sweeney, Holly Morsbach; LeBlanc, Judith M.

1995-01-01

This study analyzed effects of repetitive task size on rate of responding and behavior of five adolescents with autism and mental retardation. Compared to large-task conditions, small-task conditions resulted in higher on-task behavior and better work-related behavior for all participants and higher work rate for four participants. (Author/PB)

The Relationship between Levels of Expertise, Task Difficulty, Perceived Self-Efficacy, and Mental Effort Investment in Task Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ho, Hsin-Ning

2010-01-01

This study examined the impact of different levels of task difficulty and expertise on self-efficacy judgments. In addition, the study examines how self-efficacy judgments affect the amount of mental effort investment and task performance under different levels of task difficulty and expertise. Results from this study are used to build a…

The Nature of Relationships between Mental Rotation, Math, and Language in Deaf Signers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halper, Elizabeth Blaisdell

2009-01-01

Three mental rotation tasks, the Card Rotation Task (CRT), the Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test (VMRT), and the Money Road-Map of Direction Sense (MRM), were administered to 60 deaf students from Gallaudet University to determine if mental rotation was predictive of scores on the ACT English or Math subtests. Other predictor variables, such as…

[Effects of long term mental arithmetic on physiological parameters, subjective indices and task performances].

PubMed

Yamada, Shimpei; Miyake, Shinji

2007-03-01

This study examined the effects of long term mental arithmetic on physiological parameters, subjective indices and task performances to investigate the psychophysiological changes induced by mental tasks. Fifteen male university students performed six successive trials of a ten-minute mental arithmetic task. They took a five-minute resting period before and after the tasks. CFF (Critical Flicker Fusion frequency) and subjective fatigue scores using a visual analog scale, POMS (Profiles of Mood States) and SFF (Subjective Feelings of Fatigue) were obtained after each task and resting period. The voices of participants who were instructed to speak five Japanese vowels ('a', 'i', 'u', 'e', 'o') were recorded after each block to investigate a chaotic property of vocal signals that is reported to be changed by fatigue. Subjective workload ratings were also obtained by the NASA-TLX (National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index) after the task. Physiological signals of ECG (Electrocardiogram), PTG (Photoelectric Plethysmogram), SCL (Skin Conductance Level), TBV (Tissue Blood Volume) and Respiration were recorded for all experimental blocks. The number of answers, correct rates and average levels of task difficulty for each ten-minute task were used as task performance indices. In this experiment, the task performance did not decrease, whereas subjective fatigue increased. Activation of the sympathetic nervous system was suggested by physiological parameters.

Cognitive task demands, self-control demands and the mental well-being of office workers.

PubMed

Bridger, Robert S; Brasher, Kate

2011-09-01

The cognitive task demands of office workers and the self-control demands of their work roles were measured in a sample of 196 employees in two different office layouts using a self-report questionnaire, which was circulated electronically. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that both factors were associated with mental well-being, but not with physical well-being, while controlling for exposure to psychosocial stressors. The interaction between cognitive task demands and self-control demands had the strongest association with mental well-being, suggesting that the deleterious effect of one was greater when the other was present. An exploratory analysis revealed that the association was stronger for employees working in a large open-plan office than for those working in smaller offices with more privacy. Frustration of work goals was the cognitive task demand having the strongest negative impact on mental well-being. Methodological limitations and scale psychometrics (particularly the use of the NASA Task Load Index) are discussed. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Modern office work has high mental demands and low physical demands and there is a need to design offices to prevent adverse psychological reactions. It is shown that cognitive task demands interact with self-control demands to degrade mental well-being. The association was stronger in an open-plan office.

Classification of brain signals associated with imagination of hand grasping, opening and reaching by means of wavelet-based common spatial pattern and mutual information.

PubMed

Amanpour, Behzad; Erfanian, Abbas

2013-01-01

An important issue in designing a practical brain-computer interface (BCI) is the selection of mental tasks to be imagined. Different types of mental tasks have been used in BCI including left, right, foot, and tongue motor imageries. However, the mental tasks are different from the actions to be controlled by the BCI. It is desirable to select a mental task to be consistent with the desired action to be performed by BCI. In this paper, we investigated the detecting the imagination of the hand grasping, hand opening, and hand reaching in one hand using electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. The results show that the ERD/ERS patterns, associated with the imagination of hand grasping, opening, and reaching are different. For classification of brain signals associated with these mental tasks and feature extraction, a method based on wavelet packet, regularized common spatial pattern (CSP), and mutual information is proposed. The results of an offline analysis on five subjects show that the two-class mental tasks can be classified with an average accuracy of 77.6% using proposed method. In addition, we examine the proposed method on datasets IVa from BCI Competition III and IIa from BCI Competition IV.

Contributions of episodic retrieval and mentalizing to autobiographical thought: evidence from functional neuroimaging, resting-state connectivity, and fMRI meta-analyses.

PubMed

Andrews-Hanna, Jessica R; Saxe, Rebecca; Yarkoni, Tal

2014-05-01

A growing number of studies suggest the brain's "default network" becomes engaged when individuals recall their personal past or simulate their future. Recent reports of heterogeneity within the network raise the possibility that these autobiographical processes comprised of multiple component processes, each supported by distinct functional-anatomic subsystems. We previously hypothesized that a medial temporal subsystem contributes to autobiographical memory and future thought by enabling individuals to retrieve prior information and bind this information into a mental scene. Conversely, a dorsal medial subsystem was proposed to support social-reflective aspects of autobiographical thought, allowing individuals to reflect on the mental states of one's self and others (i.e. "mentalizing"). To test these hypotheses, we first examined activity in the default network subsystems as participants performed two commonly employed tasks of episodic retrieval and mentalizing. In a subset of participants, relationships among task-evoked regions were examined at rest, in the absence of an overt task. Finally, large-scale fMRI meta-analyses were conducted to identify brain regions that most strongly predicted the presence of episodic retrieval and mentalizing, and these results were compared to meta-analyses of autobiographical tasks. Across studies, laboratory-based episodic retrieval tasks were preferentially linked to the medial temporal subsystem, while mentalizing tasks were preferentially linked to the dorsal medial subsystem. In turn, autobiographical tasks engaged aspects of both subsystems. These results suggest the default network is a heterogeneous brain system whose subsystems support distinct component processes of autobiographical thought. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hyperbrain features of team mental models within a juggling paradigm: a proof of concept

PubMed Central

Filho, Edson; Tamburro, Gabriella; Schinaia, Lorenzo; Chatel-Goldman, Jonas; di Fronso, Selenia; Robazza, Claudio

2016-01-01

Background Research on cooperative behavior and the social brain exists, but little research has focused on real-time motor cooperative behavior and its neural correlates. In this proof of concept study, we explored the conceptual notion of shared and complementary mental models through EEG mapping of two brains performing a real-world interactive motor task of increasing difficulty. We used the recently introduced participative “juggling paradigm,” and collected neuro-physiological and psycho-social data. We were interested in analyzing the between-brains coupling during a dyadic juggling task, and in exploring the relationship between the motor task execution, the jugglers’skill level and the task difficulty. We also investigated how this relationship could be mirrored in the coupled functional organization of the interacting brains. Methods To capture the neural schemas underlying the notion of shared and complementary mental models, we examined the functional connectivity patterns and hyperbrain features of a juggling dyad involved in cooperative motor tasks of increasing difficulty. Jugglers’ cortical activity was measured using two synchronized 32-channel EEG systems during dyadic juggling performed with 3, 4, 5 and 6 balls. Individual and hyperbrain functional connections were quantified through coherence maps calculated across all electrode pairs in the theta and alpha bands (4–8 and 8–12 Hz). Graph metrics were used to typify the global topology and efficiency of the functional networks for the four difficulty levels in the theta and alpha bands. Results Results indicated that, as task difficulty increased, the cortical functional organization of the more skilled juggler became progressively more segregated in both frequency bands, with a small-world organization in the theta band during easier tasks, indicative of a flow-like state in line with the neural efficiency hypothesis. Conversely, more integrated functional patterns were observed for the less skilled juggler in both frequency bands, possibly related to cognitive overload due to the difficulty of the task at hand (reinvestment hypothesis). At the hyperbrain level, a segregated functional organization involving areas of the visuo-attentional networks of both jugglers was observed in both frequency bands and for the easier task only. Discussion These results suggest that cooperative juggling is supported by integrated activity of specialized cortical areas from both brains only during easier tasks, whereas it relies on individual skills, mirrored in uncorrelated individual brain activations, during more difficult tasks. These findings suggest that task difficulty and jugglers’ personal skills may influence the features of the hyperbrain network in its shared/integrative and complementary/segregative tendencies. PMID:27688968

Mental State Inferences Abilities Contribution to Verbal Irony Comprehension in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment

PubMed Central

Gaudreau, G.; Monetta, L.; Macoir, J.; Poulin, S.; Laforce, R. Jr.; Hudon, C.

2015-01-01

Objective. The present study examined mentalizing capacities as well as the relative implication of mentalizing in the comprehension of ironic and sincere assertions among 30 older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 30 healthy control (HC) subjects. Method. Subjects were administered a task evaluating mentalizing by means of short stories. A verbal irony comprehension task, in which participants had to identify ironic or sincere statements within short stories, was also administered; the design of the task allowed uniform implication of mentalizing across the conditions. Results. Findings indicated that participants with MCI have second-order mentalizing difficulties compared to HC subjects. Moreover, MCI participants were impaired compared to the HC group in identifying ironic or sincere stories, both requiring mental inference capacities. Conclusion. This study suggests that, in individuals with MCI, difficulties in the comprehension of ironic and sincere assertions are closely related to second-order mentalizing deficits. These findings support previous data suggesting a strong relationship between irony comprehension and mentalizing. PMID:26199459

The role of rotational hand movements and general motor ability in children’s mental rotation performance

PubMed Central

Jansen, Petra; Kellner, Jan

2015-01-01

Mental rotation of visual images of body parts and abstract shapes can be influenced by simultaneous motor activity. Children in particular have a strong coupling between motor and cognitive processes. We investigated the influence of a rotational hand movement performed by rotating a knob on mental rotation performance in primary school-age children (N = 83; age range: 7.0–8.3 and 9.0–10.11 years). In addition, we assessed the role of motor ability in this relationship. Boys in the 7- to 8-year-old group were faster when mentally and manually rotating in the same direction than in the opposite direction. For girls and older children this effect was not found. A positive relationship was found between motor ability and accuracy on the mental rotation task: stronger motor ability related to improved mental rotation performance. In both age groups, children with more advanced motor abilities were more likely to adopt motor processes to solve mental rotation tasks if the mental rotation task was primed by a motor task. Our evidence supports the idea that an overlap between motor and visual cognitive processes in children is influenced by motor ability. PMID:26236262

The role of rotational hand movements and general motor ability in children's mental rotation performance.

PubMed

Jansen, Petra; Kellner, Jan

2015-01-01

Mental rotation of visual images of body parts and abstract shapes can be influenced by simultaneous motor activity. Children in particular have a strong coupling between motor and cognitive processes. We investigated the influence of a rotational hand movement performed by rotating a knob on mental rotation performance in primary school-age children (N = 83; age range: 7.0-8.3 and 9.0-10.11 years). In addition, we assessed the role of motor ability in this relationship. Boys in the 7- to 8-year-old group were faster when mentally and manually rotating in the same direction than in the opposite direction. For girls and older children this effect was not found. A positive relationship was found between motor ability and accuracy on the mental rotation task: stronger motor ability related to improved mental rotation performance. In both age groups, children with more advanced motor abilities were more likely to adopt motor processes to solve mental rotation tasks if the mental rotation task was primed by a motor task. Our evidence supports the idea that an overlap between motor and visual cognitive processes in children is influenced by motor ability.

NASA TLX: software for assessing subjective mental workload.

PubMed

Cao, Alex; Chintamani, Keshav K; Pandya, Abhilash K; Ellis, R Darin

2009-02-01

The NASA Task Load Index (TLX) is a popular technique for measuring subjective mental workload. It relies on a multidimensional construct to derive an overall workload score based on a weighted average of ratings on six subscales: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort, and frustration level. A program for implementing a computerized version of the NASA TLX is described. The software version assists in simplifying collection, postprocessing, and storage of raw data. The program collects raw data from the subject and calculates the weighted (or unweighted) workload score, which is output to a text file. The program can also be tailored to a specific experiment using a simple input text file, if desired. The program was designed in Visual Studio 2005 and is capable of running on a Pocket PC with Windows CE or on a PC with Windows 2000 or higher. The NASA TLX program is available for free download.

Learning Mathematics in a Visuospatial Format: A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Mental Abacus Instruction.

PubMed

Barner, David; Alvarez, George; Sullivan, Jessica; Brooks, Neon; Srinivasan, Mahesh; Frank, Michael C

2016-07-01

Mental abacus (MA) is a technique of performing fast, accurate arithmetic using a mental image of an abacus; experts exhibit astonishing calculation abilities. Over 3 years, 204 elementary school students (age range at outset: 5-7 years old) participated in a randomized, controlled trial to test whether MA expertise (a) can be acquired in standard classroom settings, (b) improves students' mathematical abilities (beyond standard math curricula), and (c) is related to changes in basic cognitive capacities like working memory. MA students outperformed controls on arithmetic tasks, suggesting that MA expertise can be achieved by children in standard classrooms. MA training did not alter basic cognitive abilities; instead, differences in spatial working memory at the beginning of the study mediated MA learning. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

The impairing effects of mental fatigue on response inhibition: An ERP study

PubMed Central

Guo, Zizheng; Chen, Ruiya; Liu, Xian; Zheng, Yan; Gong, Mingliang; Zhang, Jun

2018-01-01

Mental fatigue is one of the main reasons for the decline of response inhibition. This study aimed to explore the impairing influence of mental fatigue on a driver’s response inhibition. The effects of mental fatigue on response inhibition were assessed by comparing brain activity and behavioral indices when performing a Go/NoGo task before and after a 90-min fatigue manipulation task. Participants in the driving group performed a simulated driving task, while individuals in the control group spent the same time watching movies. We found that participants in the driving group reported higher levels of mental fatigue and had a higher percentage of eye closure and larger lateral deviations from their lane positions, which indicated there was effective manipulation of mental fatigue through a prolonged simulated driving task. After manipulation of mental fatigue, we observed increased reaction time and miss rates, delayed NoGo-N2 latency and Go-P3 latency, and decreased NoGo-P3 amplitude, which indicated that mental fatigue may slow down the speed of the inhibition process, delay the evaluation of visual stimuli and reduce the availability of attentional resources. These findings revealed the underlying neurological mechanisms of how mental fatigue impaired response inhibition. PMID:29856827

Mentalization of complex emotions in borderline personality disorder: The impact of parenting and exposure to trauma on the performance in a novel cartoon-based task.

PubMed

Brüne, Martin; Walden, Sarah; Edel, Marc-Andreas; Dimaggio, Giancarlo

2016-01-01

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by a range of interpersonal difficulties, which are, in part, related to adverse experiences during childhood. Unresponsive parenting and traumatization may cause functional impairment of mentalization, i.e. the ability to reflect upon own and others' mental states. However, the relationship of poor parenting, trauma and mentalization in BPD has not exhaustively been studied. Thirty patients diagnosed with BPD and 30 matched control subjects were asked to sequence a novel cartoon-based mentalization task involving complex emotions such as jealousy, shame, guilt etc. In addition, they were required to reason about cognitive and affective mental states of the cartoon characters. The quality of parental care was assessed using a self-report measure for recalled parental rearing style, and childhood trauma was measured in retrospect using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Patients with BPD performed more poorly in all aspects of the cartoon task. Mentalizing skills, particularly relating to affective mental states, were uniquely associated with the quality of recalled parental care and childhood trauma. Together, the quality of parental care and the experience of childhood trauma negatively impact on mentalization in BPD, even in an experimental "offline" task. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of induced and evoked changes in EEG during selective attention to verbal stimuli.

PubMed

Horki, P; Bauernfeind, G; Schippinger, W; Pichler, G; Müller-Putz, G R

2016-09-01

Two challenges need to be addressed before bringing non-motor mental tasks for brain-computer interface (BCI) control to persons in a minimally conscious state (MCS), who can be behaviorally unresponsive even when proven to be consciously aware: first, keeping the cognitive demands as low as possible so that they could be fulfilled by persons with MCS. Second, increasing the control of experimental protocol (i.e. type and timing of the task performance). The goal of this study is twofold: first goal is to develop an experimental paradigm that can facilitate the performance of brain-teasers (e.g. mental subtraction and word generation) on the one hand, and can increase the control of experimental protocol on the other hand. The second goal of this study is to exploit the similar findings for mentally attending to someone else's verbal performance of brain-teaser tasks and self-performing the same tasks to setup an online BCI, and to compare it in healthy participants to the current "state-of-the-art" motor imagery (MI, sports). The response accuracies for the best performing healthy participants indicate that selective attention to verbal performance of mental subtraction (SUB) is a viable alternative to the MI. Time-frequency analysis of the SUB task in one participant with MCS did not reveal any significant (p<0.05) EEG changes, whereas imagined performance of one sport of participants' choice (SPORT) revealed task-related EEG changes over neurophysiological plausible cortical areas. We found that mentally attending to someone else's verbal performance of brain-teaser tasks leads to similar results as in self-performing the same tasks. In this work we demonstrated that a single auditory selective attention task (i.e. mentally attending to someone else's verbal performance of mental subtraction) can modulate both induced and evoked changes in EEG, and be used for yes/no communication in an auditory scanning paradigm. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mental rotation does not account for sex differences in left-right confusion.

PubMed

Ocklenburg, Sebastian; Hirnstein, Marco; Ohmann, Hanno Andreas; Hausmann, Markus

2011-06-01

Several studies have demonstrated that women believe they are more prone to left-right confusion (LRC) than men. However, while some studies report that there is also a sex difference in LRC tasks favouring men, others report that men and women perform equally well. Recently, it was suggested that sex differences only emerge in LRC tasks when they involve mental rotation. That is, sex differences that are reported for some LRC tasks are strongly affected by the well-documented male advantage in mental rotation. To test this assumption, 91 participants were investigated on two LRC tasks: The Left-Right Commands Task and the Bergen Left-Right Discrimination Test. Additionally, participants were asked to complete an LRC self-rating questionnaire. To rule out the possibility that sex differences in LRC are confounded by sex differences in mental rotation, male and female participants were matched for mental rotation performance, resulting in a sample of 46 matched participants. These matched participants showed robust sex differences in favour of men in all LRC measurements. This suggests that pronounced sex differences in LRC are a genuine phenomenon that exists independently of sex differences in mental rotation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Using EEG To Detect and Monitor Mental Fatigue

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Montgomery, Leslie; Luna, Bernadette; Trejo, Leonard J.; Montgomery, Richard

2001-01-01

This project aims to develop EEG-based methods for detecting and monitoring mental fatigue. Mental fatigue poses a serious risk, even when performance is not apparently degraded. When such fatigue is associated with sustained performance of a single type of cognitive task it may be related to the metabolic energy required for sustained activation of cortical areas specialized for that task. The objective of this study was to adapt EEG to monitor cortical energy over a long period of performance of a cognitive task. Multielectrode event related potentials (ERPs) were collected every 15 minutes in nine subjects who performed a mental arithmetic task (algebraic sum of four randomly generated negative or positive digits). A new problem was presented on a computer screen 0.5 seconds after each response; some subjects endured for as long as three hours. ERPs were transformed to a quantitative measure of scalp electrical field energy. The average energy level at electrode P3 (near the left angular gyrus), 100-300 msec latency, was compared over the series of ERPs. For most subjects, scalp energy density at P3 gradually fell over the period of task performance and dramatically increased just before the subject was unable to continue the task. This neural response can be simulated for individual subjects using, a differential equation model in which it is assumed that the mental arithmetic task requires a commitment of metabolic energy that would otherwise be used for brain activities that are temporarily neglected. Their cumulative neglect eventually requires a reallocation of energy away from the mental arithmetic task.

Sensory-guided motor tasks benefit from mental training based on serial prediction

PubMed Central

Binder, Ellen; Hagelweide, Klara; Wang, Ling E.; Kornysheva, Katja; Grefkes, Christian; Fink, Gereon R.; Schubotz, Ricarda I.

2017-01-01

Mental strategies have been suggested to constitute a promising approach to improve motor abilities in both healthy subjects and patients. This behavioural effect has been shown to be associated with changes of neural activity in premotor areas, not only during movement execution, but also while performing motor imagery or action observation. However, how well such mental tasks are performed is often difficult to assess, especially in patients. We here used a novel mental training paradigm based on the serial prediction task (SPT) in order to activate premotor circuits in the absence of a motor task. We then tested whether this intervention improves motor-related performance such as sensorimotor transformation. Two groups of healthy young participants underwent a single-blinded five-day cognitive training schedule and were tested in four different motor tests on the day before and after training. One group (N = 22) received the SPT-training and the other one (N = 21) received a control training based on a serial match-to-sample task. The results revealed significant improvements of the SPT-group in a sensorimotor timing task, i.e. synchronization of finger tapping to a visually presented rhythm, as well as improved visuomotor coordination in a sensory-guided pointing task compared to the group that received the control training. However, mental training did not show transfer effects on motor abilities in healthy subjects beyond the trained modalities as evident by non-significant changes in the Jebsen–Taylor handfunctiontest. In summary, the data suggest that mental training based on the serial prediction task effectively engages sensorimotor circuits and thereby improves motor behaviour. PMID:24321273

Mental workload during brain-computer interface training.

PubMed

Felton, Elizabeth A; Williams, Justin C; Vanderheiden, Gregg C; Radwin, Robert G

2012-01-01

It is not well understood how people perceive the difficulty of performing brain-computer interface (BCI) tasks, which specific aspects of mental workload contribute the most, and whether there is a difference in perceived workload between participants who are able-bodied and disabled. This study evaluated mental workload using the NASA Task Load Index (TLX), a multi-dimensional rating procedure with six subscales: Mental Demands, Physical Demands, Temporal Demands, Performance, Effort, and Frustration. Able-bodied and motor disabled participants completed the survey after performing EEG-based BCI Fitts' law target acquisition and phrase spelling tasks. The NASA-TLX scores were similar for able-bodied and disabled participants. For example, overall workload scores (range 0-100) for 1D horizontal tasks were 48.5 (SD = 17.7) and 46.6 (SD 10.3), respectively. The TLX can be used to inform the design of BCIs that will have greater usability by evaluating subjective workload between BCI tasks, participant groups, and control modalities. Mental workload of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) can be evaluated with the NASA Task Load Index (TLX). The TLX is an effective tool for comparing subjective workload between BCI tasks, participant groups (able-bodied and disabled), and control modalities. The data can inform the design of BCIs that will have greater usability.

Object versus spatial visual mental imagery in patients with schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Aleman, André; de Haan, Edward H.F.; Kahn, René S.

2005-01-01

Objective Recent research has revealed a larger impairment of object perceptual discrimination than of spatial perceptual discrimination in patients with schizophrenia. It has been suggested that mental imagery may share processing systems with perception. We investigated whether patients with schizophrenia would show greater impairment regarding object imagery than spatial imagery. Methods Forty-four patients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy control subjects were tested on a task of object visual mental imagery and on a task of spatial visual mental imagery. Both tasks included a condition in which no imagery was needed for adequate performance, but which was in other respects identical to the imagery condition. This allowed us to adjust for nonspecific differences in individual performance. Results The results revealed a significant difference between patients and controls on the object imagery task (F1,63 = 11.8, p = 0.001) but not on the spatial imagery task (F1,63 = 0.14, p = 0.71). To test for a differential effect, we conducted a 2 (patients v. controls) х 2 (object task v. spatial task) analysis of variance. The interaction term was statistically significant (F1,62 = 5.2, p = 0.026). Conclusions Our findings suggest a differential dysfunction of systems mediating object and spatial visual mental imagery in schizophrenia. PMID:15644999

Mental workload and cognitive task automaticity: an evaluation of subjective and time estimation metrics.

PubMed

Liu, Y; Wickens, C D

1994-11-01

The evaluation of mental workload is becoming increasingly important in system design and analysis. The present study examined the structure and assessment of mental workload in performing decision and monitoring tasks by focusing on two mental workload measurements: subjective assessment and time estimation. The task required the assignment of a series of incoming customers to the shortest of three parallel service lines displayed on a computer monitor. The subject was either in charge of the customer assignment (manual mode) or was monitoring an automated system performing the same task (automatic mode). In both cases, the subjects were required to detect the non-optimal assignments that they or the computer had made. Time pressure was manipulated by the experimenter to create fast and slow conditions. The results revealed a multi-dimensional structure of mental workload and a multi-step process of subjective workload assessment. The results also indicated that subjective workload was more influenced by the subject's participatory mode than by the factor of task speed. The time estimation intervals produced while performing the decision and monitoring tasks had significantly greater length and larger variability than those produced while either performing no other tasks or performing a well practised customer assignment task. This result seemed to indicate that time estimation was sensitive to the presence of perceptual/cognitive demands, but not to response related activities to which behavioural automaticity has developed.

Development and psychometric validation of the Task-Specific Self-Efficacy Scale for Chinese people with mental illness.

PubMed

Chou, Chih Chin; Cardoso, Elizabeth Da Silva; Chan, Fong; Tsang, Hector W H; Wu, Mingyi

2007-12-01

The aim of this study was to validate a Task-Specific Self-Efficacy Scale for Chinese people with mental illness. The study included 79 men and 77 women with chronic mental illness. The Task-Specific Self-Efficacy Scale for People with Mental Illness (TSSES-PMI) and Change Assessment Questionnaire for People with Severe and Persistent Mental Illness were used as measures for the study. Factor analysis of the TSSES-PMI resulted in four subscales: Symptom Management Skills, Work-Related Skills, Help-Seeking Skills, and Self-Emotional-Regulation Skills. These community living skills were found to be related to the level of readiness for psychiatric rehabilitation among Chinese people with mental illness. In conclusion the results support the construct validity of the TSSES-PMI for the Chinese population and the TSSES-PMI can be a useful instrument for working with Chinese people with mental illnesses.

Author response to letter. Ref: Madsen et al. "Unnecessary work tasks and mental health: a prospective analysis of Danish human service workers".

PubMed

Madsen, Ida Eh; Rugulies, Reiner

2015-03-01

We read with interest the letter from Drs Durand-Moreau, Loddé, and Dewitte (1) regarding our article on unnecessary work tasks and mental health (2). The authors argue that: (i) the article is flawed by an imprecise one-item exposure measurement, (ii) the results may be affected by reverse causality, and (iii) ultimately the elimination of unnecessary work tasks may increase "psychic suffering". We would like to take this opportunity to address their concerns. We acknowledge, as we did in the article itself, that measuring unnecessary work tasks using only one item is less than ideal and could have increased measurement error in our analyses. The item we used to measure unnecessary work tasks assesses the employee's overall evaluation regarding the extent to which they must conduct work tasks that they, for whatever reason, deem unnecessary. We are unconvinced by the claim by Drs Durand-Moreau, Loddé, and Dewitte that this phenomenon is somehow unrelated to Semmer's definition of unnecessary tasks (3, 4), regardless of the sense-making processes underlying an individual employee's evaluation of a particular work task as unnecessary. Regarding the issue of reverse causality, the analyses were longitudinal and the effect estimates were adjusted for the baseline mental health level of the participants. Consequently, we examined changes in mental health over time, and our results cannot be explained by poorer mental health making workers think "that what they're doing is useless" as claimed in the commentary. Although causal inference is always a delicate issue when applying observational research methods, the adjustment for baseline mental health should account for reverse causality at least. Drs Durand-Moreau, Loddé, and Dewitte question that our findings suggest that the elimination of unnecessary work tasks may be beneficial to employee mental health. Instead they propose that unnecessary work tasks may be conducive to mental health because "some tasks may seem unnecessary or bothersome, but may correspond to work periods that allow for temporary rest". We find this suggestion curious and are not aware of any empirical studies to support this claim. Consequently, we encourage the authors of the commentary to test their hypothesis empirically. Any such empirical evidence would be a welcome advancement to the scientific knowledge concerning the mental health consequences of unnecessary work tasks. As the results of our study do not indicate that unnecessary work tasks could be beneficial to mental health, but indeed that they could be harmful, we find no reason to modify the conclusions of our article. References 1. Durand-Moreau Q, Loddé B, Dewitte J-D. Ref: Madsen et al. "Unnecessary work tasks and mental health: a prospective analysis of Danish human service workers". Scand J Work Environ Health - online first. http://dx.doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3473. 2. Madsen IEH, Tripathi M, Borritz M, Rugulies R, Unnecessary work tasks and mental health: a prospective analysis of Danish human service workers, Scand J Work Environ Health. 2014;40(6):631-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3453.  3. Semmer NK, Tschan F, Meier LL, Facchin S, Jacobshagen N, Illegitimate tasks and counterproductive work behavior, Appl Psychol. 2010;59:70-96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2009.00416.x.  4. Durand MJ, Vézina N, Baril R, Loisel P, Richard MC, Ngomo S, Margin of manoeuvre indicators in the workplace during the rehabilitation process: a qualitative analysis, J Occup Rehab. 2009;19:194-202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10926-009-9173-4.

Ego-rotation and object-rotation in major depressive disorder.

PubMed

Chen, Jiu; Yang, Laiqi; Ma, Wentao; Wu, Xingqu; Zhang, Yan; Wei, Dunhong; Liu, Guangxiong; Deng, Zihe; Hua, Zhen; Jia, Ting

2013-08-30

Mental rotation (MR) performance provides a direct insight into a prototypical higher-level visuo-spatial cognitive operation. Previous studies suggest that progressive slowing with an increasing angle of orientation indicates a specific wing of object-based mental transformations in the psychomotor retardation that occurs in major depressive disorder (MDD). It is still not known, however, whether the ability of object-rotation is associated with the ability of ego-rotation in MDD. The present study was designed to investigate the level of impairment of mental transformation abilities in MDD. For this purpose we tested 33 MDD (aged 18-52 years, 16 women) and 30 healthy control subjects (15 women, age and education matched) by evaluating the performance of MDD subjects with regard to ego-rotation and object-rotation tasks. First, MDD subjects were significantly slower and made more errors than controls in mentally rotating hands and letters. Second, MDD and control subjects displayed the same pattern of response times to stimuli at various orientations in the letter task but not the hand task. Third, in particular, MDD subjects were significantly slower and made more errors during the mental transformation of hands than letters relative to control subjects and were significantly slower and made more errors in physiologically impossible angles than physiologically possible angles in the mental rotation hand task. In conclusion, MDD subjects present with more serious mental rotation deficits specific to the hand than the letter task. Importantly, deficits were more present during the mental transformation in outward rotation angles, thus suggesting that the mental imagery for hands and letters relies on different processing mechanisms which suggest a module that is more complex for the processing of human hands than for letters during mental rotation tasks. Our study emphasises the necessity of distinguishing different levels of impairment of action in MDD subjects. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mental Rotation and Diagrammatic Reasoning in Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stieff, M.

2007-01-01

This article presents 3 studies that examine how students and experts employ mental rotation and a learned heuristic to solve chemistry tasks that involve spatial information. Results from Study 1 indicate that despite instruction in analytical strategies, students choose to employ mental rotation on canonical assessment tasks. In Study 2, experts…

Improving Ghana's mental healthcare through task-shifting- psychiatrists and health policy directors perceptions about government's commitment and the role of community mental health workers.

PubMed

Agyapong, Vincent Israel Opoku; Farren, Conor; McAuliffe, Eilish

2016-10-01

The scarcity of mental health professionals places specialist psychiatric care out of the reach of most people in low and middle income countries. There is growing interest in the effectiveness of task shifting as a strategy for targeting expanding health care demands in settings with shortages of qualified health personnel. Given this background, the aim of our study was to examine the perceptions of psychiatrists and health policy directors about the policy to expand mental health care delivery in Ghana through a system of task-shifting from psychiatrists to community mental health workers (CMHWs). A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was developed and administered to 11 psychiatrists and 29 health policy directors. Key informant interviews were also held with five psychiatrists and four health policy directors. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analysed thematically. Almost all the psychiatrists and 23 (79.3 %) health policy directors were aware of the policy of the Government of Ghana to improve on the human resource base within mental health through a system of task-shifting. Overall, about half of the psychiatrists and 9 (31 %) health policy directors perceived there is some professional resistance to the implementation of the policy of task shifting. The majority of respondents were of the view that CMHWs should be allowed to assess, diagnose and treat most of the common mental disorders. The respondents identified that CMHWs usually perform two sets of roles, namely; officially assigned roles for which they have the requisite training and assumed roles for which they usually do not have the requisite training. The stakeholders identified multiple challenges associated with current task shifting arrangements within Ghana's mental health delivery system, including inadequate training and supervision, poor awareness of the scope of their expertise on the part of the CMHWs. Psychiatrists and health policy directors support the policy to expand mental health service coverage in Ghana through a system of task-shifting, despite their awareness of resistance from some professionals. It is important that the Government of Ghana upholds its commitment of expanding mental healthcare by maintaining and prioritizing its policy on task shifting and also providing the necessary resources to ensure its success.

A caffeine-maltodextrin mouth rinse counters mental fatigue.

PubMed

Van Cutsem, Jeroen; De Pauw, Kevin; Marcora, Samuele; Meeusen, Romain; Roelands, Bart

2018-04-01

Mental fatigue is a psychobiological state caused by prolonged periods of demanding cognitive activity that has negative implications on many aspects in daily life. Caffeine and carbohydrate ingestion have been shown to be able to reduce these negative effects of mental fatigue. Intake of these substances might however be less desirable in some situations (e.g., restricted caloric intake, Ramadan). Rinsing caffeine or glucose within the mouth has already been shown to improve exercise performance. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the effect of frequent caffeine-maltodextrin (CAF-MALT) mouth rinsing on mental fatigue induced by a prolonged cognitive task. Ten males (age 23 ± 2 years, physical activity 7.3 ± 4.3 h/week, low CAF users) performed two trials. Participants first completed a Flanker task (3 min), then performed a 90-min mentally fatiguing task (Stroop task), followed by another Flanker task. Before the start and after each 12.5% of the Stroop task (eight blocks), subjects received a CAF-MALT mouth rinse (MR: 0.3 g/25 ml CAF: 1.6g/25 ml MALT) or placebo (PLAC: 25 ml artificial saliva). Self-reported mental fatigue was lower in MR (p = 0.017) compared to PLAC. Normalized accuracy (accuracy first block = 100%) was higher in the last block of the Stroop in MR (p = 0.032) compared to PLAC. P2 amplitude in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) decreased over time only in PLAC (p = 0.017). Frequent mouth rinsing during a prolonged and demanding cognitive task reduces mental fatigue compared to mouth rinsing with artificial saliva.

ICA-Derived EEG Correlates to Mental Fatigue, Effort, and Workload in a Realistically Simulated Air Traffic Control Task.

PubMed

Dasari, Deepika; Shou, Guofa; Ding, Lei

2017-01-01

Electroencephalograph (EEG) has been increasingly studied to identify distinct mental factors when persons perform cognitively demanding tasks. However, most of these studies examined EEG correlates at channel domain, which suffers the limitation that EEG signals are the mixture of multiple underlying neuronal sources due to the volume conduction effect. Moreover, few studies have been conducted in real-world tasks. To precisely probe EEG correlates with specific neural substrates to mental factors in real-world tasks, the present study examined EEG correlates to three mental factors, i.e., mental fatigue [also known as time-on-task (TOT) effect], workload and effort, in EEG component signals, which were obtained using an independent component analysis (ICA) on high-density EEG data. EEG data were recorded when subjects performed a realistically simulated air traffic control (ATC) task for 2 h. Five EEG independent component (IC) signals that were associated with specific neural substrates (i.e., the frontal, central medial, motor, parietal, occipital areas) were identified. Their spectral powers at their corresponding dominant bands, i.e., the theta power of the frontal IC and the alpha power of the other four ICs, were detected to be correlated to mental workload and effort levels, measured by behavioral metrics. Meanwhile, a linear regression analysis indicated that spectral powers at five ICs significantly increased with TOT. These findings indicated that different levels of mental factors can be sensitively reflected in EEG signals associated with various brain functions, including visual perception, cognitive processing, and motor outputs, in real-world tasks. These results can potentially aid in the development of efficient operational interfaces to ensure productivity and safety in ATC and beyond.

Gender differences in brain activation on a mental rotation task.

PubMed

Semrud-Clikeman, Margaret; Fine, Jodene Goldenring; Bledsoe, Jesse; Zhu, David C

2012-10-01

Few neuroimaging studies have explored gender differences on mental rotation tasks. Most studies have utilized samples with both genders, samples mainly consisting of men, or samples with six or fewer females. Graduate students in science fields or liberal arts programs (20 males, 20 females) completed a mental rotation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). When a pair of cube figures was shown, the participant made a keypad response based on whether the pair is the same/similar or different. Regardless of gender, the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS), and the left precuneus were activated when a subject tried to solve the mental rotation task. Increased activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus/middle frontal gyrus, the left precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex/cuneus region, and the left middle occipital gyrus was found for men as compared to women. Better accuracy and shorter response times were correlated with an increased activation in the bilateral intraparietal sulcus. No significant brain activity differences related to mental rotation were found between academic majors. These findings suggest that networks involved in visual attention appear to be more strongly activated in the mental rotation tasks in men as compared to women. It also suggests that men use a more automatic process when analyzing complex visual reasoning tasks while women use a more top-down process.

Effects of Relaxing Music on Mental Fatigue Induced by a Continuous Performance Task: Behavioral and ERPs Evidence.

PubMed

Guo, Wei; Ren, Jie; Wang, Biye; Zhu, Qin

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether listening to relaxing music would help reduce mental fatigue and to maintain performance after a continuous performance task. The experiment involved two fatigue evaluation phases carried out before and after a fatigue inducing phase. A 1-hour AX-continuous performance test was used to induce mental fatigue in the fatigue-inducing phase, and participants' subjective evaluation on the mental fatigue, as well as their neurobehavioral performance in a Go/NoGo task, were measured before and after the fatigue-inducing phase. A total of 36 undergraduate students (18-22 years) participated in the study and were randomly assigned to the music group and control group. The music group performed the fatigue-inducing task while listening to relaxing music, and the control group performed the same task without any music. Our results revealed that after the fatigue-inducing phase, (a) the music group demonstrated significantly less mental fatigue than control group, (b) reaction time significantly increased for the control group but not for the music group, (c) larger Go-P3 and NoGo-P3 amplitudes were observed in the music group, although larger NoGo-N2 amplitudes were detected for both groups. These results combined to suggest that listening to relaxing music alleviated the mental fatigue associated with performing an enduring cognitive-motor task.

Mental Imagery and Idiom Understanding in Adults: Examining Dual Coding Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Pei-Fang

2010-01-01

This study examined idiom understanding in 120 neurologically healthy adults, ages 20-29 (20s Group), 40-49 (40s Group), 60-69 (60s Group), and 80-89 (80s Group) years old. Each participant was administered a familiarity task, definition explanation task, mental imagery task, and forced-choice comprehension task. Twenty idioms, 10 transparent and…

Social-cognitive deficits in normal aging

PubMed Central

Moran, Joseph M.; Jolly, Eshin; Mitchell, Jason P.

2012-01-01

A sizeable number of studies have implicated the default network (e.g., medial prefrontal and parietal cortices) in tasks that require participants to infer the mental states of others—that is, to mentalize. Parallel research has demonstrated that default network function declines over the lifespan, suggesting that older adults may show impairments in social-cognitive tasks that require mentalizing. Older and younger human adults were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing three different social-cognitive tasks. Across three mentalizing paradigms, younger and older adults viewed animated shapes in brief social vignettes, stories about a person's moral actions and false belief stories. Consistent with predictions, older adults responded less accurately to stories about others' false beliefs and made less use of actors' intentions to judge the moral permissibility of behavior. These impairments in performance during social-cognitive tasks were accompanied by age-related decreases across all three paradigms in the BOLD response of a single brain region—dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. These findings suggest specific, task-independent age-related deficits in mentalizing that are localizeable to changes in circumscribed subregions of the default network. PMID:22514317

Abacus Training Affects Math and Task Switching Abilities and Modulates Their Relationships in Chinese Children

PubMed Central

Yao, Yuan; Weng, Jian; Hu, Yuzheng; Chen, Feiyan

2015-01-01

Our previous work demonstrated that abacus-based mental calculation (AMC), a traditional Chinese calculation method, could help children improve their math abilities (e.g. basic arithmetical ability) and executive function (e.g. working memory). This study further examined the effects of long-term AMC training on math ability in visual-spatial domain and the task switching component of executive function. More importantly, this study investigated whether AMC training modulated the relationship between math abilities and task switching. The participants were seventy 7-year-old children who were randomly assigned into AMC and control groups at primary school entry. Children in AMC group received 2-hour AMC training every week since primary school entry. On the contrary, children in the control group had never received any AMC training. Math and task switching abilities were measured one year and three years respectively after AMC training began. The results showed that AMC children performed better than their peers on math abilities in arithmetical and visual-spatial domains. In addition, AMC group responded faster than control group in the switching task, while no group difference was found in switch cost. Most interestingly, group difference was present in the relationships between math abilities and switch cost. These results implied the effect of AMC training on math abilities as well as its relationship with executive function. PMID:26444689

Abacus Training Affects Math and Task Switching Abilities and Modulates Their Relationships in Chinese Children.

PubMed

Wang, Chunjie; Geng, Fengji; Yao, Yuan; Weng, Jian; Hu, Yuzheng; Chen, Feiyan

2015-01-01

Our previous work demonstrated that abacus-based mental calculation (AMC), a traditional Chinese calculation method, could help children improve their math abilities (e.g. basic arithmetical ability) and executive function (e.g. working memory). This study further examined the effects of long-term AMC training on math ability in visual-spatial domain and the task switching component of executive function. More importantly, this study investigated whether AMC training modulated the relationship between math abilities and task switching. The participants were seventy 7-year-old children who were randomly assigned into AMC and control groups at primary school entry. Children in AMC group received 2-hour AMC training every week since primary school entry. On the contrary, children in the control group had never received any AMC training. Math and task switching abilities were measured one year and three years respectively after AMC training began. The results showed that AMC children performed better than their peers on math abilities in arithmetical and visual-spatial domains. In addition, AMC group responded faster than control group in the switching task, while no group difference was found in switch cost. Most interestingly, group difference was present in the relationships between math abilities and switch cost. These results implied the effect of AMC training on math abilities as well as its relationship with executive function.

Estimating mental fatigue based on electroencephalogram and heart rate variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Chong; Yu, Xiaolin

2010-01-01

The effects of long term mental arithmetic task on psychology are investigated by subjective self-reporting measures and action performance test. Based on electroencephalogram (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV), the impacts of prolonged cognitive activity on central nervous system and autonomic nervous system are observed and analyzed. Wavelet packet parameters of EEG and power spectral indices of HRV are combined to estimate the change of mental fatigue. Then wavelet packet parameters of EEG which change significantly are extracted as the features of brain activity in different mental fatigue state, support vector machine (SVM) algorithm is applied to differentiate two mental fatigue states. The experimental results show that long term mental arithmetic task induces the mental fatigue. The wavelet packet parameters of EEG and power spectral indices of HRV are strongly correlated with mental fatigue. The predominant activity of autonomic nervous system of subjects turns to the sympathetic activity from parasympathetic activity after the task. Moreover, the slow waves of EEG increase, the fast waves of EEG and the degree of disorder of brain decrease compared with the pre-task. The SVM algorithm can effectively differentiate two mental fatigue states, which achieves the maximum classification accuracy (91%). The SVM algorithm could be a promising tool for the evaluation of mental fatigue. Fatigue, especially mental fatigue, is a common phenomenon in modern life, is a persistent occupational hazard for professional. Mental fatigue is usually accompanied with a sense of weariness, reduced alertness, and reduced mental performance, which would lead the accidents in life, decrease productivity in workplace and harm the health. Therefore, the evaluation of mental fatigue is important for the occupational risk protection, productivity, and occupational health.

Usefulness of near-infrared spectroscopy to detect brain dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorder when inferring the mental state of others.

PubMed

Iwanaga, Ryoichiro; Tanaka, Goro; Nakane, Hideyuki; Honda, Sumihisa; Imamura, Akira; Ozawa, Hiroki

2013-05-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for identifying abnormalities in prefrontal brain activity in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as they inferred the mental states of others. The subjects were 16 children with ASD aged between 8 and 14 years and 16 age-matched healthy control children. Oxygenated hemoglobin concentration was measured in the subject's prefrontal brain region on NIRS during tasks expressing a person's mental state (MS task) and expressing an object's characteristics (OC task). There was a significant main effect of group (ASD vs control), with the control group having more activity than the ASD group. But there was no significant main effect of task (MS task vs OC task) or hemisphere (right vs left). Significant interactions of task and group were found, with the control group showing more activity than the ASD group during the MS task relative to the OC task. NIRS showed that there was lower activity in the prefrontal brain area when children with ASD performed MS tasks. Therefore, clinicians might be able to use NIRS and these tasks for conveniently detecting brain dysfunction in children with ASD related to inferring mental states, in the clinical setting. © 2013 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2013 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

The Effects of Mental Fatigue on Physical Performance: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Van Cutsem, Jeroen; Marcora, Samuele; De Pauw, Kevin; Bailey, Stephen; Meeusen, Romain; Roelands, Bart

2017-08-01

Mental fatigue is a psychobiological state caused by prolonged periods of demanding cognitive activity. It has recently been suggested that mental fatigue can affect physical performance. Our objective was to evaluate the literature on impairment of physical performance due to mental fatigue and to create an overview of the potential factors underlying this effect. Two electronic databases, PubMed and Web of Science (until 28 April 2016), were searched for studies designed to test whether mental fatigue influenced performance of a physical task or influenced physiological and/or perceptual responses during the physical task. Studies using short (<30 min) self-regulatory depletion tasks were excluded from the review. A total of 11 articles were included, of which six were of strong and five of moderate quality. The general finding was a decline in endurance performance (decreased time to exhaustion and self-selected power output/velocity or increased completion time) associated with a higher than normal perceived exertion. Physiological variables traditionally associated with endurance performance (heart rate, blood lactate, oxygen uptake, cardiac output, maximal aerobic capacity) were unaffected by mental fatigue. Maximal strength, power, and anaerobic work were not affected by mental fatigue. The duration and intensity of the physical task appear to be important factors in the decrease in physical performance due to mental fatigue. The most important factor responsible for the negative impact of mental fatigue on endurance performance is a higher perceived exertion.

Using Mental Transformation Strategies for Spatial Scaling: Evidence from a Discrimination Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Möhring, Wenke; Newcombe, Nora S.; Frick, Andrea

2016-01-01

Spatial scaling, or an understanding of how distances in different-sized spaces relate to each other, is fundamental for many spatial tasks and relevant for success in numerous professions. Previous research has suggested that adults use mental transformation strategies to mentally scale spatial input, as indicated by linear increases in response…

The sensitivity of Galvanic Skin Response for assessing mental workload in Indonesia.

PubMed

Widyanti, Ari; Muslim, Khoirul; Sutalaksana, Iftikar Zahedi

2017-01-01

Objective measures have been shown to be equally sensitive in different cultures. However, these measures need special devices that are relatively expensive and need expertise to analyze the result. In Indonesia, there is a need for a sensitive and affordable mental workload measure. To evaluate the sensitivity of Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) in assessing mental workload in Indonesia. A total of 72 Indonesian students with normal visual capability. Participants were asked to work on visual memory search task with a secondary task of counting with three different levels of difficulty. GSR, Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and the NASA-TLX were administered prior to, during, and after the tasks. GSR measure was compared to NASA-TLX and HRV measures. Like the HRV, GSR showed to be sensitive in distinguishing rest and task condition significantly but not sensitive in distinguishing different levels of mental workload. In contrast, both the NASA-TLX and performance measure were sensitive in differentiating different levels of mental workload. GSR has potential as a simple, cost-effective tool for measuring mental workload in Indonesia.

Mental rotation training: transfer and maintenance effects on spatial abilities.

PubMed

Meneghetti, Chiara; Borella, Erika; Pazzaglia, Francesca

2016-01-01

One of the aims of research in spatial cognition is to examine whether spatial skills can be enhanced. The goal of the present study was thus to assess the benefit and maintenance effects of mental rotation training in young adults. Forty-eight females took part in the study: 16 were randomly assigned to receive the mental rotation training (based on comparing pairs of 2D or 3D objects and rotation games), 16 served as active controls (performing parallel non-spatial activities), and 16 as passive controls. Transfer effects to both untrained spatial tasks (testing both object rotation and perspective taking) and visual and verbal tasks were examined. Across the training sessions, the group given mental rotation training revealed benefits in the time it took to make judgments when comparing 3D and 2D objects, but their mental rotation speed did not improve. When compared with the other groups, the mental rotation training group did show transfer effects, however, in tasks other than those practiced (i.e., in object rotation and perspective-taking tasks), and these benefits persisted after 1 month. The training had no effect on visual or verbal tasks. These findings are discussed from the spatial cognition standpoint and with reference to the (rotation) training literature.

Sensitivity to Mental Effort and Test-Retest Reliability of Heart Rate Variability Measures in Healthy Seniors

PubMed Central

Mukherjee, Shalini; Yadav, Rajeev; Yung, Iris; Zajdel, Daniel P.; Oken, Barry S.

2011-01-01

Objectives To determine 1) whether heart rate variability (HRV) was a sensitive and reliable measure in mental effort tasks carried out by healthy seniors and 2) whether non-linear approaches to HRV analysis, in addition to traditional time and frequency domain approaches were useful to study such effects. Methods Forty healthy seniors performed two visual working memory tasks requiring different levels of mental effort, while ECG was recorded. They underwent the same tasks and recordings two weeks later. Traditional and 13 non-linear indices of HRV including Poincaré, entropy and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) were determined. Results Time domain (especially mean R-R interval/RRI), frequency domain and, among nonlinear parameters- Poincaré and DFA were the most reliable indices. Mean RRI, time domain and Poincaré were also the most sensitive to different mental effort task loads and had the largest effect size. Conclusions Overall, linear measures were the most sensitive and reliable indices to mental effort. In non-linear measures, Poincaré was the most reliable and sensitive, suggesting possible usefulness as an independent marker in cognitive function tasks in healthy seniors. Significance A large number of HRV parameters was both reliable as well as sensitive indices of mental effort, although the simple linear methods were the most sensitive. PMID:21459665

Contributions of episodic retrieval and mentalizing to autobiographical thought: evidence from functional neuroimaging, resting-state connectivity, and fMRI meta-analyses

PubMed Central

Andrews-Hanna, Jessica R.; Saxe, Rebecca; Yarkoni, Tal

2014-01-01

A growing number of studies suggest the brain’s “default network” becomes engaged when individuals recall their personal past or simulate their future. Recent reports of heterogeneity within the network raises the possibility that these autobiographical processes are comprised of multiple component processes, each supported by distinct functional-anatomic subsystems. We previously hypothesized that a medial temporal subsystem contributes to autobiographical memory and future thought by enabling individuals to retrieve prior information and bind this information into a mental scene. Conversely, a dorsal medial subsystem was proposed to support social-reflective aspects of autobiographical thought, allowing individuals to reflect on the mental states of one’s self and others (i.e. “mentalizing”). To test these hypotheses, we first examined activity in the default network subsystems as participants performed two commonly employed tasks of episodic retrieval and mentalizing. In a subset of participants, relationships among task-evoked regions were examined at rest, in the absence of an overt task. Finally, large-scale fMRI meta-analyses were conducted to identify brain regions that most strongly predicted the presence of episodic retrieval and mentalizing, and these results were compared to meta-analyses of autobiographical tasks. Across studies, laboratory-based episodic retrieval tasks were preferentially linked to the medial temporal subsystem, while mentalizing tasks were preferentially linked to the dorsal medial subsystem. In turn, autobiographical tasks engaged aspects of both subsystems. These results suggest the default network is a heterogeneous brain system whose subsystems support distinct component processes of autobiographical thought. PMID:24486981

Using Fiction to Assess Mental State Understanding: A New Task for Assessing Theory of Mind in Adults

PubMed Central

Dodell-Feder, David; Lincoln, Sarah Hope; Coulson, Joseph P.; Hooker, Christine I.

2013-01-01

Social functioning depends on the ability to attribute and reason about the mental states of others – an ability known as theory of mind (ToM). Research in this field is limited by the use of tasks in which ceiling effects are ubiquitous, rendering them insensitive to individual differences in ToM ability and instances of subtle ToM impairment. Here, we present data from a new ToM task – the Short Story Task (SST) - intended to improve upon many aspects of existing ToM measures. More specifically, the SST was designed to: (a) assess the full range of individual differences in ToM ability without suffering from ceiling effects; (b) incorporate a range of mental states of differing complexity, including epistemic states, affective states, and intentions to be inferred from a first- and second-order level; (c) use ToM stimuli representative of real-world social interactions; (d) require participants to utilize social context when making mental state inferences; (e) exhibit adequate psychometric properties; and (f) be quick and easy to administer and score. In the task, participants read a short story and were asked questions that assessed explicit mental state reasoning, spontaneous mental state inference, and comprehension of the non-mental aspects of the story. Responses were scored according to a rubric that assigned greater points for accurate mental state attributions that included multiple characters’ mental states. Results demonstrate that the SST is sensitive to variation in ToM ability, can be accurately scored by multiple raters, and exhibits concurrent validity with other social cognitive tasks. The results support the effectiveness of this new measure of ToM in the study of social cognition. The findings are also consistent with studies demonstrating significant relationships among narrative transportation, ToM, and the reading of fiction. Together, the data indicate that reading fiction may be an avenue for improving ToM ability. PMID:24244736

Spatio-temporal brain activity related to rotation method during a mental rotation task of three-dimensional objects: an MEG study.

PubMed

Kawamichi, Hiroaki; Kikuchi, Yoshiaki; Ueno, Shoogo

2007-09-01

During mental rotation tasks, subjects perform mental simulation to solve tasks. However, detailed neural mechanisms underlying mental rotation of three-dimensional (3D) objects, particularly, whether higher motor areas related to mental simulation are activated, remain unknown. We hypothesized that environmental monitoring-a process based on environmental information and is included in motor execution-is as a key factor affecting the utilization of higher motor areas. Therefore, using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we measured spatio-temporal brain activities during two types (two-dimensional (2D) and 3D rotation tasks) of mental rotation of 3D objects. Only the 3D rotation tasks required subjects to mentally rotate objects in a depth plane with visualization of hidden parts of the visual stimuli by acquiring and retrieving 3D information. In cases showing significant differences in the averaged activities at 100-ms intervals between the two rotations, the activities were located in the right dorsal premotor (PMd) at approximately 500 ms. In these cases, averaged activities during 3D rotation were greater than those during 2D rotation, implying that the right PMd activities are related to environmental monitoring. During 3D rotation, higher activities were observed from 200 to 300 ms in the left PMd and from 400 to 700 ms in the right PMd. It is considered that the left PMd is related to primary motor control, whereas the right PMd plays a supplementary role during mental simulation. Further, during 3D rotation, late higher activities related to mental simulation are observed in the right superior parietal lobule (SPL), which is connected to PMd.

Object-based and egocentric mental rotation performance in older adults: the importance of gender differences and motor ability.

PubMed

Jansen, Petra; Kaltner, Sandra

2014-01-01

In this study, mental rotation performance was assessed in both an object-based task, human figures and letters as stimuli, and in an egocentric-based task, a human figure as a stimulus, in 60 older persons between 60 and 71 years old (30 women, 30 men). Additionally all participants completed three motor tests measuring balance and mobility. The results show that the reaction time was slower for letters than for both human figure tasks and the mental rotation speed was faster over all for egocentric mental rotation tasks. Gender differences were found in the accuracy measurement, favoring males, and were independent of stimulus type, kind of transformation, and angular disparity. Furthermore, a regression analysis showed that the accuracy rate for object-based transformations with body stimuli could be predicted by gender and balance ability. This study showed that the mental rotation performance in older adults depends on stimulus type, kind of transformation, and gender and that performance partially relates to motor ability.

Understanding of thought bubbles as mental representations in children with autism: implications for theory of mind.

PubMed

Kerr, Sharyn; Durkin, Kevin

2004-12-01

Standard false belief tasks indicate that normally developing children do not fully develop a theory of mind until the age of 4 years and that children with autism have an impaired theory of mind. Recent evidence, however, suggests that children as young as 3 years of age understand that thought bubbles depict mental representations and that these can be false. Twelve normally developing children and 11 children with autism were tested on a standard false belief task and a number of tasks that employed thought bubbles to represent mental states. While the majority of normally developing children and children with autism failed the standard false belief task, they understood that (i) thought bubbles represent thought, (ii) thought bubbles can be used to infer an unknown reality, (iii) thoughts can be different, and (iv) thoughts can be false. These results indicate that autistic children with a relatively low verbal mental age may be capable of understanding mental representations.

Effect of time span and task load on pilot mental workload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berg, S. L.; Sheridan, T. B.

1986-01-01

Two sets of simulations designed to examine how a pilot's mental workload is affected by continuous manual-control activity versus discrete mental tasks that included the length of time between receiving an assignment and executing it are described. The first experiment evaluated two types of measures: objective performance indicators and subjective ratings. Subjective ratings for the two missions were different, but the objective performance measures were similar. In the second experiments, workload levels were increased and a second performance measure was taken. Mental workload had no influence on either performance-based workload measure. Subjective ratings discriminated among the scenarios and correlated with performance measures for high-workload flights. The number of mental tasks performed did not influence error rates, although high manual workloads did increase errors.

Effects of gender, imagery ability, and sports practice on the performance of a mental rotation task.

PubMed

Habacha, Hamdi; Molinaro, Corinne; Dosseville, Fabrice

2014-01-01

Mental rotation is one of the main spatial abilities necessary in the spatial transformation of mental images and the manipulation of spatial parameters. Researchers have shown that mental rotation abilities differ between populations depending on several variables. This study uses a mental rotation task to investigate effects of several factors on the spatial abilities of 277 volunteers. The results demonstrate that high and low imagers performed equally well on this tasks. Athletes outperformed nonathletes regardless of their discipline, and athletes with greater expertise outperformed those with less experience. The results replicate the previously reported finding that men exhibit better spatial abilities than women. However, with high amounts of practice, the women in the current study were able to perform as well as men.

Enhancing independent time-management skills of individuals with mental retardation using a Palmtop personal computer.

PubMed

Davies, Daniel K; Stock, Steven E; Wehmeyer, Michael L

2002-10-01

Achieving greater independence for individuals with mental retardation depends upon the acquisition of several key skills, including time-management and scheduling skills. The ability to perform tasks according to a schedule is essential to domains like independent living and employment. The use of a portable schedule prompting system to increase independence and self-regulation in time-management for individuals with mental retardation was examined. Twelve people with mental retardation participated in a comparison of their use of the technology system to perform tasks on a schedule with use of a written schedule. Results demonstrated the utility of a Palmtop computer with schedule prompting software to increase independence in the performance of vocational and daily living tasks by individuals with mental retardation.

Exploring the social brain in schizophrenia: left prefrontal underactivation during mental state attribution.

PubMed

Russell, T A; Rubia, K; Bullmore, E T; Soni, W; Suckling, J; Brammer, M J; Simmons, A; Williams, S C; Sharma, T

2000-12-01

Evidence suggests that patients with schizophrenia have a deficit in "theory of mind," i.e., interpretation of the mental state of others. The authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the hypothesis that patients with schizophrenia have a dysfunction in brain regions responsible for mental state attribution. Mean brain activation in five male patients with schizophrenia was compared to that in seven comparison subjects during performance of a task involving attribution of mental state. During performance of the mental state attribution task, the patients made more errors and showed less blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal in the left inferior frontal gyrus. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first functional MRI study to show a deficit in the left prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia during a socioemotional task.

A lateralization of function approach to sex differences in spatial ability: a reexamination.

PubMed

Rilea, Stacy L

2008-07-01

The current study assessed the lateralization of function hypothesis (Rilea, S. L., Roskos-Ewoldsen, B., & Boles, D. (2004). Sex differences in spatial ability: A lateralization of function approach. Brain and Cognition, 56, 332-343) which suggested that it was the interaction of brain organization and the type of spatial task that led to sex differences in spatial ability. A second purpose was to evaluate explanations for their unexpected findings on the mental rotation task. In Experiment 1, participants completed the Water Level, Paper Folding, and mental rotation tasks (using an object-based or self-based perspective), presented bilaterally. Sex differences were only observed on the Water Level Task; a right hemisphere advantage was observed on Water Level and mental rotation tasks. In Experiment 2, a human stick figure or a polygon was mentally rotated. Men outperformed women when rotating polygons, but not when rotating stick figures. Men demonstrated a right hemisphere advantage when rotating polygons; women showed no hemisphere differences for either stimulus. Thus, hemisphere processing, task complexity, and stimulus type may influence performance for men and women across different spatial measures.

Interference and Inhibition in Tasks of Selective Attention by Persons with and without Mental Retardation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merrill, Edward C.

2006-01-01

Persons with mental retardation often exhibit greater interference in visual selective attention tasks than do persons matched with them on CA. My goal here was to evaluate whether differences in distractor interference between persons with and without mental retardation may be related to differences in negative priming. Fifteen participants with…

Sex Differences in Mental Rotation Tasks: Not Just in the Mental Rotation Process!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boone, Alexander P.; Hegarty, Mary

2017-01-01

The paper-and-pencil Mental Rotation Test (Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978) consistently produces large sex differences favoring men (Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995). In this task, participants select 2 of 4 answer choices that are rotations of a probe stimulus. Incorrect choices (i.e., foils) are either mirror reflections of the probe or…

Allocation of Attention and Effect of Practice on Persons with and without Mental Retardation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oka, Kohei; Miura, Toshiaki

2008-01-01

Persons with mild and moderate mental retardation and CA-matched persons without mental retardation performed a dual-task, "pencil-and-paper task" (Baddeley, Della Sala, Gray, Papagno, & Spinnler (1997). Testing central executive functioning with a pencil-and-paper test. In Rabbit (Ed.), Methodology of Frontal and Executive Function (pp. 61-80).…

Spatial and numerical processing in children with high and low visuospatial abilities.

PubMed

Crollen, Virginie; Noël, Marie-Pascale

2015-04-01

In the literature on numerical cognition, a strong association between numbers and space has been repeatedly demonstrated. However, only a few recent studies have been devoted to examine the consequences of low visuospatial abilities on calculation processing. In this study, we wanted to investigate whether visuospatial weakness may affect pure spatial processing as well as basic numerical reasoning. To do so, the performances of children with high and low visuospatial abilities were directly compared on different spatial tasks (the line bisection and Simon tasks) and numerical tasks (the number bisection, number-to-position, and numerical comparison tasks). Children from the low visuospatial group presented the classic Simon and SNARC (spatial numerical association of response codes) effects but showed larger deviation errors as compared with the high visuospatial group. Our results, therefore, demonstrated that low visuospatial abilities did not change the nature of the mental number line but rather led to a decrease in its accuracy. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Regret causes ego-depletion and finding benefits in the regrettable events alleviates ego-depletion.

PubMed

Gao, Hongmei; Zhang, Yan; Wang, Fang; Xu, Yan; Hong, Ying-Yi; Jiang, Jiang

2014-01-01

This study tested the hypotheses that experiencing regret would result in ego-depletion, while finding benefits (i.e., "silver linings") in the regret-eliciting events counteracted the ego-depletion effect. Using a modified gambling paradigm (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) and a retrospective method (Experiments 3 and 5), five experiments were conducted to induce regret. Results revealed that experiencing regret undermined performance on subsequent tasks, including a paper-and-pencil calculation task (Experiment 1), a Stroop task (Experiment 2), and a mental arithmetic task (Experiment 3). Furthermore, finding benefits in the regret-eliciting events improved subsequent performance (Experiments 4 and 5), and this improvement was mediated by participants' perceived vitality (Experiment 4). This study extended the depletion model of self-regulation by considering emotions with self-conscious components (in our case, regret). Moreover, it provided a comprehensive understanding of how people felt and performed after experiencing regret and after finding benefits in the events that caused the regret.

Mental Workload during Brain-Computer Interface Training

PubMed Central

Felton, Elizabeth A.; Williams, Justin C.; Vanderheiden, Gregg C.; Radwin, Robert G.

2012-01-01

It is not well understood how people perceive the difficulty of performing brain-computer interface (BCI) tasks, which specific aspects of mental workload contribute the most, and whether there is a difference in perceived workload between participants who are able-bodied and disabled. This study evaluated mental workload using the NASA Task Load Index (TLX), a multi-dimensional rating procedure with six subscales: Mental Demands, Physical Demands, Temporal Demands, Performance, Effort, and Frustration. Able-bodied and motor disabled participants completed the survey after performing EEG-based BCI Fitts’ law target acquisition and phrase spelling tasks. The NASA-TLX scores were similar for able-bodied and disabled participants. For example, overall workload scores (range 0 – 100) for 1D horizontal tasks were 48.5 (SD = 17.7) and 46.6 (SD 10.3), respectively. The TLX can be used to inform the design of BCIs that will have greater usability by evaluating subjective workload between BCI tasks, participant groups, and control modalities. PMID:22506483

Examining depletion theories under conditions of within-task transfer.

PubMed

Brewer, Gene A; Lau, Kevin K H; Wingert, Kimberly M; Ball, B Hunter; Blais, Chris

2017-07-01

In everyday life, mental fatigue can be detrimental across many domains including driving, learning, and working. Given the importance of understanding and accounting for the deleterious effects of mental fatigue on behavior, a growing body of literature has studied the role of motivational and executive control processes in mental fatigue. In typical laboratory paradigms, participants complete a task that places demand on these self-control processes and are later given a subsequent task. Generally speaking, decrements to subsequent task performance are taken as evidence that the initial task created mental fatigue through the continued engagement of motivational and executive functions. Several models have been developed to account for negative transfer resulting from this "ego depletion." In the current study, we provide a brief literature review, specify current theoretical approaches to ego-depletion, and report an empirical test of current models of depletion. Across 4 experiments we found minimal evidence for executive control depletion along with strong evidence for motivation mediated ego depletion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Numerical processing efficiency improved in children using mental abacus: ERP evidence utilizing a numerical Stroop task

PubMed Central

Yao, Yuan; Du, Fenglei; Wang, Chunjie; Liu, Yuqiu; Weng, Jian; Chen, Feiyan

2015-01-01

This study examined whether long-term abacus-based mental calculation (AMC) training improved numerical processing efficiency and at what stage of information processing the effect appeard. Thirty-three children participated in the study and were randomly assigned to two groups at primary school entry, matched for age, gender and IQ. All children went through the same curriculum except that the abacus group received a 2-h/per week AMC training, while the control group did traditional numerical practice for a similar amount of time. After a 2-year training, they were tested with a numerical Stroop task. Electroencephalographic (EEG) and event related potential (ERP) recording techniques were used to monitor the temporal dynamics during the task. Children were required to determine the numerical magnitude (NC) (NC task) or the physical size (PC task) of two numbers presented simultaneously. In the NC task, the AMC group showed faster response times but similar accuracy compared to the control group. In the PC task, the two groups exhibited the same speed and accuracy. The saliency of numerical information relative to physical information was greater in AMC group. With regards to ERP results, the AMC group displayed congruity effects both in the earlier (N1) and later (N2 and LPC (late positive component) time domain, while the control group only displayed congruity effects for LPC. In the left parietal region, LPC amplitudes were larger for the AMC than the control group. Individual differences for LPC amplitudes over left parietal area showed a positive correlation with RTs in the NC task in both congruent and neutral conditions. After controlling for the N2 amplitude, this correlation also became significant in the incongruent condition. Our results suggest that AMC training can strengthen the relationship between symbolic representation and numerical magnitude so that numerical information processing becomes quicker and automatic in AMC children. PMID:26042012

Empathy and aversion: the neural signature of mentalizing in Tourette syndrome.

PubMed

Eddy, C M; Cavanna, A E; Hansen, P C

2017-02-01

Previous studies suggest that adults with Tourette syndrome (TS) can respond unconventionally on tasks involving social cognition. We therefore hypothesized that these patients would exhibit different neural responses to healthy controls in response to emotionally salient expressions of human eyes. Twenty-five adults with TS and 25 matched healthy controls were scanned using fMRI during the standard version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task which requires mental state judgements, and a novel comparison version requiring judgements about age. During prompted mental state recognition, greater activity was apparent in TS within left orbitofrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, right amygdala and right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), while reduced activity was apparent in regions including left inferior parietal cortex. Age judgement elicited greater activity in TS within precuneus, medial prefrontal and temporal regions involved in mentalizing. The interaction between group and task revealed differential activity in areas including right inferior frontal gyrus. Task-related activity in the TPJ covaried with global ratings of the urge to tic. While recognizing mental states, adults with TS exhibit greater activity than controls in brain areas involved in the processing of negative emotion, in addition to reduced activity in regions associated with the attribution of agency. In addition, increased recruitment of areas involved in mental state reasoning is apparent in these patients when mentalizing is not a task requirement. Our findings highlight differential neural reactivity in response to emotive social cues in TS, which may interact with tic expression.

Keep calm! Gender differences in mental rotation performance are modulated by habitual expressive suppression.

PubMed

Fladung, Anne-Katharina; Kiefer, Markus

2016-11-01

Men have been frequently found to perform more accurately than women in mental rotation tasks. However, men and women also differ with regard to the habitual use of emotion regulation strategies, particularly with regard to expressive suppression, i.e., the suppression of emotional expression in behavior. As emotional suppression is more often used by men, emotion regulation strategies might be a variable modulating gender differences in mental rotation performance. The present study, therefore, examined the influences of gender and emotion regulation strategies on mental rotation performance accuracy and feedback processing. Twenty-eight men and 28 women matched for relevant demographic variables performed mental rotation tasks of varying difficulty over a prolonged time. Emotional feedback was given immediately after each trial. Results showed that women reported to use expressive suppression less frequently than men. Women made more errors in the mental rotation task than men confirming earlier demonstrations of gender differences. Furthermore, women were more impaired by the negative feedback as indicated by the increased likelihood of subsequent errors compared with men. Task performance of women not habitually using expressive suppression was most inferior and most strongly influenced by failure feedback compared with men. Women using expressive suppression more habitually did not significantly differ in mental rotation accuracy and feedback processing from men. Hence, expressive suppression reduces gender differences in mental rotation accuracy by improving cognitive performance following failure feedback.

Prior Acute Mental Exertion in Exercise and Sport

PubMed Central

Silva-Júnior, Fernando Lopes e; Emanuel, Patrick; Sousa, Jordan; Silva, Matheus; Teixeira, Silmar; Pires, Flávio Oliveira; Machado, Sérgio; Arias-Carrion, Oscar

2016-01-01

Introduction: Mental exertion is a psychophysiological state caused by sustained and prolonged cognitive activity. The understanding of the possible effects of acute mental exertion on physical performance, and their physiological and psychological responses are of great importance for the performance of different occupations, such as military, construction workers, athletes (professional or recreational) or simply practicing regular exercise, since these occupations often combine physical and mental tasks while performing their activities. However, the effects of implementation of a cognitive task on responses to aerobic exercise and sports are poorly understood. Our narrative review aims to provide information on the current research related to the effects of prior acute mental fatigue on physical performance and their physiological and psychological responses associated with exercise and sports. Methods: The literature search was conducted using the databases PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge and PsycInfo using the following terms and their combinations: “mental exertion”, “mental fatigue”, “mental fatigue and performance”, “mental exertion and sports” “mental exertion and exercise”. Results: We concluded that prior acute mental exertion affects effectively the physiological and psychophysiological responses during the cognitive task, and performance in exercise. Conclusion: Additional studies involving prior acute mental exertion, exercise/sports and physical performance still need to be carried out in order to analyze the physiological, psychophysiological and neurophysiological responses subsequently to acute mental exertion in order to identify cardiovascular factors, psychological, neuropsychological associates. PMID:27867415

Sex differences in prefrontal hemodynamic response to mental arithmetic as assessed by near-infrared spectroscopy.

PubMed

Yang, Hongyu; Wang, Ying; Zhou, Zhenyu; Gong, Hui; Luo, Qingming; Wang, Yiwen; Lu, Zuhong

2009-12-01

Sex differences in cognitive tasks have been widely investigated. With brain-imaging techniques, the functions of the brain during the performance of tasks can be examined. Mental arithmetic and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) were used to assess sex differences in prefrontal area activation in a functional brain study. Healthy college students were recruited to perform 2 mental arithmetic tasks. In the first (easy) task, students had to subtract a 1-digit number from a 3-digit number. In the second (difficult) task, they had to subtract a 2-digit number from a 3-digit number. Changes in the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hgb) in the prefrontal area during the tasks were measured with NIRS. Thirty students (15 men, 15 women; mean [SD] age: 24.9 [2.2] and 24.3 [2.6] years, respectively) were recruited from Southeast University, Nanjing, China, to participate in the study. The concentration of oxy-Hgb increased during both mental arithmetic tasks (difficult task vs easy task, mean [SD] % arbitrary units: 4.36 [4.38] vs 2.26 [2.82]; F(1,28) = 222.80; P < 0.01). Significant interactions of task x sex (F(1,28) = 82.95), time x sex (F(1,28) = 34.48), task x time (F(1,28) = 222.57), and task x time x sex (F(1,28) = 83.09) were obtained (all, P < 0.01). However, for the 2 tasks, no significant differences between men and women were observed in the mean (SD) response time (men vs women, sec: 3.60 [0.74] vs 3.56 [0.49] for the easy task, 6.55 [0.77] vs 6.44 [0.75] for the difficult task; F(1,28) = 0.67; P = NS) or accuracy rate (men vs women, %: 95.33 [7.40] vs 92.77 [8.80] for the easy task, 62.67 [28.56] vs 54.67 [18.75] for the difficult task; F(1,28) = 0.54; P = NS). Male students showed neural efficiency (less prefrontal activation in subjects with better performance) during the difficult task. In these subjects, sex differences in prefrontal response when performing mental arithmetic were associated with the intensity of the task. Compared with men, women had greater efficiency in task performance (ie, less activation or oxygen consumption for equal performance). Copyright 2009 Excerpta Medica Inc. All rights reserved.

(Lack of) Corticospinal facilitation in association with hand laterality judgments.

PubMed

Ferron, Lucas; Tremblay, François

2017-07-01

In recent years, mental practice strategies have drawn much interest in the field of rehabilitation. One form of mental practice particularly advocated involves judging the laterality of images depicting body parts. Such laterality judgments are thought to rely on implicit motor imagery via mental rotation of one own's limb. In this study, we sought to further characterize the involvement of the primary motor cortex (M1) in hand laterality judgments (HLJ) as performed in the context of an application designed for rehabilitation. To this end, we measured variations in corticospinal excitability in both hemispheres with motor evoked potentials (MEPs) while participants (n = 18, young adults) performed either HLJ or a mental counting task. A third condition (foot observation) provided additional control. We hypothesized that HLJ would lead to a selective MEP facilitation when compared to the other tasks and that this facilitation would be greater on the right than the left hemisphere. Contrary to our predictions, we found no evidence of task effects and hemispheric effects for the HLJ task. Significant task-related MEP facilitation was detected only for the mental counting task. A secondary experiment performed in a subset of participants (n = 6) to further test modulation during HLJ yielded the same results. We interpret the lack of facilitation with HLJ in the light of evidence that participants may rely on alternative strategies when asked to judge laterality when viewing depictions of body parts. The use of visual strategies notably would reduce the need to engage in mental rotation, thus reducing M1 involvement. These results have implications for applications of laterality tasks in the context of the rehabilitation program.

Heritability of Cognitive Abilities as Measured by Mental Chronometric Tasks: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beaujean, A.A.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this study is to meta-analyze the published studies that measure the performance differences in mental chronometric tasks using a behavioral genetic research design. Because chronometric tasks are so simple, individual differences in the time it takes to complete them are largely due to underlying biological and physiological…

The Relationship between Systemising and Mental Rotation and the Implications for the Extreme Male Brain Theory of Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brosnan, Mark; Daggar, Rajiv; Collomosse, John

2010-01-01

Within the Extreme Male Brain theory, Autism Spectrum Disorder is characterised as a deficit in empathising in conjunction with preserved or enhanced systemising. A male advantage in systemising is argued to underpin the traditional male advantage in mental rotation tasks. Mental rotation tasks can be separated into rotational and non-rotational…

Subjective evaluation of physical and mental workload interactions across different muscle groups.

PubMed

Mehta, Ranjana K; Agnew, Michael J

2015-01-01

Both physical and mental demands, and their interactions, have been shown to increase biomechanical loading and physiological reactivity as well as impair task performance. Because these interactions have shown to be muscle-dependent, the aim of this study was to determine the sensitivity of the NASA Task Load Index (NASA TLX) and Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) to evaluate physical and mental workload during muscle-specific tasks. Twenty-four participants performed upper extremity and low back exertions at three physical workload levels in the absence and presence of a mental stressor. Outcome measures included RPE and NASA TLX (six sub-scales) ratings. The findings indicate that while both RPEs and NASA TLX ratings were sensitive to muscle-specific changes in physical demand, only an additional mental stressor and its interaction with either physical demand or muscle groups influenced the effort sub-scale and overall workload scores of the NASA TLX. While additional investigations in actual work settings are warranted, the NASA TLX shows promise in evaluating perceived workload that is sensitive not only to physical and mental demands but also sensitive in determining workload for tasks that employ different muscle groups.

Neurophysiological correlates of visuo-motor learning through mental and physical practice.

PubMed

Allami, Nadia; Brovelli, Andrea; Hamzaoui, El Mehdi; Regragui, Fakhita; Paulignan, Yves; Boussaoud, Driss

2014-03-01

We have previously shown that mental rehearsal can replace up to 75% of physical practice for learning a visuomotor task (Allami, Paulignan, Brovelli, & Boussaoud, (2008). Experimental Brain Research, 184, 105-113). Presumably, mental rehearsal must induce brain changes that facilitate motor learning. We tested this hypothesis by recording scalp electroencephalographic activity (EEG) in two groups of subjects. In one group, subjects executed a reach to grasp task for 240 trials. In the second group, subjects learned the task through a combination of mental rehearsal for the initial 180 trials followed by the execution of 60 trials. Thus, one group physically executed the task for 240 trials, the other only for 60 trials. Amplitudes and latencies of event-related potentials (ERPs) were compared across groups at different stages during learning. We found that ERP activity increases dramatically with training and reaches the same amplitude over the premotor regions in the two groups, despite large differences in physically executed trials. These findings suggest that during mental rehearsal, neuronal changes occur in the motor networks that make physical practice after mental rehearsal more effective in configuring functional networks for skilful behaviour. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sensitivity to mental effort and test-retest reliability of heart rate variability measures in healthy seniors.

PubMed

Mukherjee, Shalini; Yadav, Rajeev; Yung, Iris; Zajdel, Daniel P; Oken, Barry S

2011-10-01

To determine (1) whether heart rate variability (HRV) was a sensitive and reliable measure in mental effort tasks carried out by healthy seniors and (2) whether non-linear approaches to HRV analysis, in addition to traditional time and frequency domain approaches were useful to study such effects. Forty healthy seniors performed two visual working memory tasks requiring different levels of mental effort, while ECG was recorded. They underwent the same tasks and recordings 2 weeks later. Traditional and 13 non-linear indices of HRV including Poincaré, entropy and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) were determined. Time domain, especially mean R-R interval (RRI), frequency domain and, among non-linear parameters - Poincaré and DFA were the most reliable indices. Mean RRI, time domain and Poincaré were also the most sensitive to different mental effort task loads and had the largest effect size. Overall, linear measures were the most sensitive and reliable indices to mental effort. In non-linear measures, Poincaré was the most reliable and sensitive, suggesting possible usefulness as an independent marker in cognitive function tasks in healthy seniors. A large number of HRV parameters was both reliable as well as sensitive indices of mental effort, although the simple linear methods were the most sensitive. Copyright © 2011 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coordinate Axes and Mental Rotation Tasks: A Solomon Four Group Design.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Branoff, Theodore J.

1999-01-01

Studies the effectiveness of adding coordinate axes to mental rotations tasks. Assesses the effect of the coordinate axes, the effect of pretest sensitization, and interaction between the pretest and posttest conditions. (Author/CCM)

Theory of mind and central coherence in adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome.

PubMed

Beaumont, Renae; Newcombe, Peter

2006-07-01

The study investigated theory of mind and central coherence abilities in adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger syndrome (AS) using naturalistic tasks. Twenty adults with HFA/AS correctly answered significantly fewer theory of mind questions than 20 controls on a forced-choice response task. On a narrative task, there were no differences in the proportion of mental state words between the two groups, although the participants with HFA/AS were less inclined to provide explanations for characters' mental states. No between-group differences existed on the central coherence questions of the forced-choice response task, and the participants with HFA/AS included an equivalent proportion of explanations for non-mental state phenomena in their narratives as did controls. These results support the theory of mind deficit account of autism spectrum disorders, and suggest that difficulties in mental state attribution cannot be exclusively attributed to weak central coherence.

Superior Inhibitory Control and Resistance to Mental Fatigue in Professional Road Cyclists.

PubMed

Martin, Kristy; Staiano, Walter; Menaspà, Paolo; Hennessey, Tom; Marcora, Samuele; Keegan, Richard; Thompson, Kevin G; Martin, David; Halson, Shona; Rattray, Ben

2016-01-01

Given the important role of the brain in regulating endurance performance, this comparative study sought to determine whether professional road cyclists have superior inhibitory control and resistance to mental fatigue compared to recreational road cyclists. After preliminary testing and familiarization, eleven professional and nine recreational road cyclists visited the lab on two occasions to complete a modified incongruent colour-word Stroop task (a cognitive task requiring inhibitory control) for 30 min (mental exertion condition), or an easy cognitive task for 10 min (control condition) in a randomized, counterbalanced cross-over order. After each cognitive task, participants completed a 20-min time trial on a cycle ergometer. During the time trial, heart rate, blood lactate concentration, and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded. The professional cyclists completed more correct responses during the Stroop task than the recreational cyclists (705±68 vs 576±74, p = 0.001). During the time trial, the recreational cyclists produced a lower mean power output in the mental exertion condition compared to the control condition (216±33 vs 226±25 W, p = 0.014). There was no difference between conditions for the professional cyclists (323±42 vs 326±35 W, p = 0.502). Heart rate, blood lactate concentration, and RPE were not significantly different between the mental exertion and control conditions in both groups. The professional cyclists exhibited superior performance during the Stroop task which is indicative of stronger inhibitory control than the recreational cyclists. The professional cyclists also displayed a greater resistance to the negative effects of mental fatigue as demonstrated by no significant differences in perception of effort and time trial performance between the mental exertion and control conditions. These findings suggest that inhibitory control and resistance to mental fatigue may contribute to successful road cycling performance. These psychobiological characteristics may be either genetic and/or developed through the training and lifestyle of professional road cyclists.

The functional role of dorso-lateral premotor cortex during mental rotation: an event-related fMRI study separating cognitive processing steps using a novel task paradigm.

PubMed

Lamm, Claus; Windischberger, Christian; Moser, Ewald; Bauer, Herbert

2007-07-15

Subjects deciding whether two objects presented at angular disparity are identical or mirror versions of each other usually show response times that linearly increase with the angle between objects. This phenomenon has been termed mental rotation. While there is widespread agreement that parietal cortex plays a dominant role in mental rotation, reports concerning the involvement of motor areas are less consistent. From a theoretical point of view, activation in motor areas suggests that mental rotation relies upon visuo-motor rather than visuo-spatial processing alone. However, the type of information that is processed by motor areas during mental rotation remains unclear. In this study we used event-related fMRI to assess whether activation in parietal and dorsolateral premotor areas (dPM) during mental rotation is distinctively related to processing spatial orientation information. Using a newly developed task paradigm we explicitly separated the processing steps (encoding, mental rotation proper and object matching) required by mental rotation tasks and additionally modulated the amount of spatial orientation information that had to be processed. Our results show that activation in dPM during mental rotation is not strongly modulated by the processing of spatial orientation information, and that activation in dPM areas is strongest during mental rotation proper. The latter finding suggests that dPM is involved in more generalized processes such as visuo-spatial attention and movement anticipation. We propose that solving mental rotation tasks is heavily dependent upon visuo-motor processes and evokes neural processing that may be considered as an implicit simulation of actual object rotation.

The Montreal Imaging Stress Task: using functional imaging to investigate the effects of perceiving and processing psychosocial stress in the human brain

PubMed Central

Dedovic, Katarina; Renwick, Robert; Mahani, Najmeh Khalili; Engert, Veronika; Lupien, Sonia J.; Pruessner, Jens C.

2005-01-01

Objective We developed a protocol for inducing moderate psychologic stress in a functional imaging setting and evaluated the effects of stress on physiology and brain activation. Methods The Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST), derived from the Trier Mental Challenge Test, consists of a series of computerized mental arithmetic challenges, along with social evaluative threat components that are built into the program or presented by the investigator. To allow the effects of stress and mental arithmetic to be investigated separately, the MIST has 3 test conditions (rest, control and experimental), which can be presented in either a block or an event-related design, for use with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET). In the rest condition, subjects look at a static computer screen on which no tasks are shown. In the control condition, a series of mental arithmetic tasks are displayed on the computer screen, and subjects submit their answers by means of a response interface. In the experimental condition, the difficulty and time limit of the tasks are manipulated to be just beyond the individual's mental capacity. In addition, in this condition the presentation of the mental arithmetic tasks is supplemented by a display of information on individual and average performance, as well as expected performance. Upon completion of each task, the program presents a performance evaluation to further increase the social evaluative threat of the situation. Results In 2 independent studies using PET and a third independent study using fMRI, with a total of 42 subjects, levels of salivary free cortisol for the whole group were significantly increased under the experimental condition, relative to the control and rest conditions. Performing mental arithmetic was linked to activation of motor and visual association cortices, as well as brain structures involved in the performance of these tasks (e.g., the angular gyrus). Conclusions We propose the MIST as a tool for investigating the effects of perceiving and processing psychosocial stress in functional imaging studies. PMID:16151536

Effect of acute psychological stress on response inhibition: An event-related potential study.

PubMed

Qi, Mingming; Gao, Heming; Liu, Guangyuan

2017-04-14

This study aimed to investigate the effect of acute psychological stress on response inhibition and its electrophysiological correlates using a dual-task paradigm. Acute stress was induced by a primary task (mental arithmetic task), which consisted of a stress block and a control block. Response inhibition was measured using a secondary task (Go/NoGo task). In each trial, a Go/NoGo stimulus was presented immediately after the mental arithmetic task. The results revealed increased subjective stress and negative affect for the stress relative to control block, suggesting that the mental arithmetic task triggered a reliable stress response. ERPs locked to the Go/NoGo stimuli revealed that decreased P2 and increased N2 components were evoked for the stress block compared to the control block. These results demonstrated that acute psychological stress alters the response inhibition process by reducing the early selective attention process and enhancing the cognitive control process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neurobiological differences in mental rotation and instrument interpretation in airline pilots.

PubMed

Sladky, Ronald; Stepniczka, Irene; Boland, Edzard; Tik, Martin; Lamm, Claus; Hoffmann, André; Buch, Jan-Philipp; Niedermeier, Dominik; Field, Joris; Windischberger, Christian

2016-06-21

Airline pilots and similar professions require reliable spatial cognition abilities, such as mental imagery of static and moving three-dimensional objects in space. A well-known task to investigate these skills is the Shepard and Metzler mental rotation task (SMT), which is also frequently used during pre-assessment of pilot candidates. Despite the intuitive relationship between real-life spatial cognition and SMT, several studies have challenged its predictive value. Here we report on a novel instrument interpretation task (IIT) based on a realistic attitude indicator used in modern aircrafts that was designed to bridge the gap between the abstract SMT and a cockpit environment. We investigated 18 professional airline pilots using fMRI. No significant correlation was found between SMT and IIT task accuracies. Contrasting both tasks revealed higher activation in the fusiform gyrus, angular gyrus, and medial precuneus for IIT, whereas SMT elicited significantly stronger activation in pre- and supplementary motor areas, as well as lateral precuneus and superior parietal lobe. Our results show that SMT skills per se are not sufficient to predict task accuracy during (close to) real-life instrument interpretation. While there is a substantial overlap of activation across the task conditions, we found that there are important differences between instrument interpretation and non-aviation based mental rotation.

Neurobiological differences in mental rotation and instrument interpretation in airline pilots

PubMed Central

Sladky, Ronald; Stepniczka, Irene; Boland, Edzard; Tik, Martin; Lamm, Claus; Hoffmann, André; Buch, Jan-Philipp; Niedermeier, Dominik; Field, Joris; Windischberger, Christian

2016-01-01

Airline pilots and similar professions require reliable spatial cognition abilities, such as mental imagery of static and moving three-dimensional objects in space. A well-known task to investigate these skills is the Shepard and Metzler mental rotation task (SMT), which is also frequently used during pre-assessment of pilot candidates. Despite the intuitive relationship between real-life spatial cognition and SMT, several studies have challenged its predictive value. Here we report on a novel instrument interpretation task (IIT) based on a realistic attitude indicator used in modern aircrafts that was designed to bridge the gap between the abstract SMT and a cockpit environment. We investigated 18 professional airline pilots using fMRI. No significant correlation was found between SMT and IIT task accuracies. Contrasting both tasks revealed higher activation in the fusiform gyrus, angular gyrus, and medial precuneus for IIT, whereas SMT elicited significantly stronger activation in pre- and supplementary motor areas, as well as lateral precuneus and superior parietal lobe. Our results show that SMT skills per se are not sufficient to predict task accuracy during (close to) real-life instrument interpretation. While there is a substantial overlap of activation across the task conditions, we found that there are important differences between instrument interpretation and non-aviation based mental rotation. PMID:27323913

Mental workload and motor performance dynamics during practice of reaching movements under various levels of task difficulty.

PubMed

Shuggi, Isabelle M; Oh, Hyuk; Shewokis, Patricia A; Gentili, Rodolphe J

2017-09-30

The assessment of mental workload can inform attentional resource allocation during task performance that is essential for understanding the underlying principles of human cognitive-motor behavior. While many studies have focused on mental workload in relation to human performance, a modest body of work has examined it in a motor practice/learning context without considering individual variability. Thus, this work aimed to examine mental workload by employing the NASA TLX as well as the changes in motor performance resulting from the practice of a novel reaching task. Two groups of participants practiced a reaching task at a high and low nominal difficulty during which a group-level analysis assessed the mental workload, motor performance and motor improvement dynamics. A secondary cluster analysis was also conducted to identify specific individual patterns of cognitive-motor responses. Overall, both group- and cluster-level analyses revealed that: (i) all participants improved their performance throughout motor practice, and (ii) an increase in mental workload was associated with a reduction of the quality of motor performance along with a slower rate of motor improvement. The results are discussed in the context of the optimal challenge point framework and in particular it is proposed that under the experimental conditions employed here, functional task difficulty: (i) would possibly depend on an individuals' information processing capabilities, and (ii) could be indexed by the level of mental workload which, when excessively heightened can decrease the quality of performance and more generally result in delayed motor improvements. Copyright © 2017 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automation - Changes in cognitive demands and mental workload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tsang, Pamela S.; Johnson, Walter W.

1987-01-01

The effect of partial automation on mental workloads in man/machine tasks is investigated experimentally. Subjective workload measures are obtained from six subjects after performance of a task battery comprising two manual (flight-path control, FC, and target acquisition, TA) tasks and one decisionmaking (engine failure, EF) task; the FC task was performed in both a fully manual (altitude and lateral control) mode and in a semiautomated mode (autmatic latitude control). The performance results and subjective evaluations are presented in graphs and characterized in detail. The automation is shown to improve objective performance and lower subjective workload significantly in the combined FC/TA task, but not in the FC task alone or in the FC/EF task.

Impact of brain tumour location on emotion and personality: a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping study on mentalization processes.

PubMed

Campanella, Fabio; Shallice, Tim; Ius, Tamara; Fabbro, Franco; Skrap, Miran

2014-09-01

Patients affected by brain tumours may show behavioural and emotional regulation deficits, sometimes showing flattened affect and sometimes experiencing a true 'change' in personality. However, little evidence is available to the surgeon as to what changes are likely to occur with damage at specific sites, as previous studies have either relied on single cases or provided only limited anatomical specificity, mostly reporting associations rather than dissociations of symptoms. We investigated these aspects in patients undergoing surgery for the removal of cerebral tumours. We argued that many of the problems described can be ascribed to the onset of difficulties in one or more of the different levels of the process of mentalizing (i.e. abstracting and reflecting upon) emotion and intentions, which impacts on everyday behaviour. These were investigated in terms of (i) emotion recognition; (ii) Theory of Mind; (iii) alexithymia; and (iv) self-maturity (personality disorder). We hypothesized that temporo/limbic areas would be critical for processing emotion and intentions at a more perceptual level, while frontal lobe structures would be more critical when higher levels of mentalization/abstraction are required. We administered four different tasks, Task 1: emotion recognition of Ekman faces; Task 2: the Eyes Test (Theory of Mind); Task 3: Toronto Alexithymia Scale; and Task 4: Temperament and Character Inventory (a personality inventory), both immediately before and few days after the operation for the removal of brain tumours in a series of 71 patients (age range: 18-75 years; 33 female) with lesions located in the left or right frontal, temporal and parietal lobes. Lobe-based and voxel-based analysis confirmed that tasks requiring interpretation of emotions and intentions at more basic (less mentalized) levels (Tasks 1 and 2) were more affected by temporo/insular lesions, with emotion recognition (Task 1) being maximally impaired by anterior temporal and amygdala lesions and Task 2 (found to be a 'basic' Theory of Mind task involving only limited mentalization) being mostly impaired by posterior temporoparietal lesions. Tasks relying on higher-level mentalization (Tasks 3 and 4) were maximally affected by prefrontal lesions, with the alexithymia scale (Task 3) being mostly associated with anterior/medial lesions and the self-maturity measure (Task 4) with lateral prefrontal ones. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Three Nontraditional Approaches to Improving the Capacity, Accessibility, and Quality of Mental Health Services: An Overview.

PubMed

Grant, Kiran L; Simmons, Magenta Bender; Davey, Christopher G

2018-05-01

To provide evidence for wider use of peer workers and other nonprofessionals, the authors examined three approaches to mental health service provision-peer support worker (PSW) programs, task shifting, and mental health first-aid and community advocacy organizations-summarizing their effectiveness, identifying similarities and differences, and highlighting opportunities for integration. Relevant articles obtained from PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar searches are discussed. Studies indicate that PSWs can achieve outcomes equal to or better than those achieved by nonpeer mental health professionals. PSWs can be particularly effective in reducing hospital admissions and inpatient days and engaging severely ill patients. When certain care tasks are given to individuals with less training than professionals (task shifting), these staff members can provide psychoeducation, engage service users in treatment, and help them achieve symptom reduction and manage risk of relapse. Mental health first-aid and community organizations can reduce stigma, increase awareness of mental health issues, and encourage help seeking. Most PSW programs have reported implementation challenges, whereas such challenges are fewer in task-shifting programs and minimal in mental health first-aid. Despite challenges in scaling and integrating these approaches into larger systems, they hold promise for improving access to and quality of care. Research is needed on how these approaches can be combined to expand a community's capacity to provide care. Because of the serious shortage of mental health providers globally and the rising prevalence of mental illness, utilizing nontraditional providers may be the only solution in both low- and high-resource settings, at least in the short term.

Mental fatigue detection based on the functional near infrared spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zhen; Xu, Fenggang; Yang, Hanjun; Jiang, Jin; Cao, Yong; Jiao, Xuejun

2017-02-01

Mental fatigue can be induced by long time mental work, mental fatigue caused worse performance and accidents. As a non-invasive technique, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can measure blood oxygen activity in the cerebral cortex which reflect the cognitive function of brain indirectly. Aiming at investigating whether fNIRS can measure the mental fatigue and study the spatial pattern of hemodynamic response for mental fatigue, we used three sessions of verbal 2-back working memory task for a total of 120 minutes to induce mental fatigue, 15 healthy subjects were recruited and 30 channels including prefrontal cortex (PFC) and motor cortex (MC) were measured by fNIRS. The mean oxyhemoglobin feature for 20s was extracted as well as subjective fatigue level and performance. The results showed significant increase of subjected fatigue level as well as significant decrease performance from session one to three task. With the increased level of fatigue, oxyhemoglobin in PFC increase significantly and the spatial pattern of hemodynamic response in the all 30 channels varied with task duration as well. These findings indicated the potential of fNIRS measured hemodynamic as a mental fatigue indicator.

Effects of Dietary Supplementation of Astaxanthin and Sesamin on Daily Fatigue: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Two-Way Crossover Study

PubMed Central

Imai, Ayano; Oda, Yuriko; Seki, Shinobu; Nakagawa, Kiyotaka; Miyazawa, Teruo; Ueda, Fumitaka

2018-01-01

Severe fatigue can negatively affect quality of life, and oxidative stress may play a role in its mechanism. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of astaxanthin and sesamin (AS), strong food-derived antioxidants, on fatigue. Twenty-four healthy volunteers were supplemented with AS and placebo, each for four weeks. After each supplementation period, participants underwent tasks inducing mental and physical fatigue (visual display terminal task and ergometer task, respectively). Subjective fatigue was evaluated using a visual analogue scale during and after the mental and physical tasks, and daily subjective fatigue was evaluated by the Chalder fatigue questionnaire. Secondary outcomes included other subjective feelings, work efficiency, autonomic nerve activity, levels of an oxidative stress marker (plasma phosphatidylcholine hydroperoxide (PCOOH)) and safety. AS supplementation was associated with significantly improved recovery from mental fatigue compared with placebo. Increased PCOOH levels during mental and physical tasks were attenuated by AS supplementation. No differences between AS and placebo were detected in secondary outcomes, and no adverse effects of AS supplementation were observed. In conclusion, AS supplementation may be a candidate to promote recovery from mental fatigue which is experienced by many healthy people. PMID:29495607

Usability assessment of an electronic health record in a comprehensive dental clinic.

PubMed

Suebnukarn, Siriwan; Rittipakorn, Pawornwan; Thongyoi, Budsara; Boonpitak, Kwanwong; Wongsapai, Mansuang; Pakdeesan, Panu

2013-12-01

In this paper we present the development and usability of an electronic health record (EHR) system in a comprehensive dental clinic.The graphic user interface of the system was designed to consider the concept of cognitive ergonomics.The cognitive task analysis was used to evaluate the user interface of the EHR by identifying all sub-tasks and classifying them into mental or physical operators, and to predict task execution time required to perform the given task. We randomly selected 30 cases that had oral examinations for routine clinical care in a comprehensive dental clinic. The results were based on the analysis of 4 prototypical tasks performed by ten EHR users. The results showed that on average a user needed to go through 27 steps to complete all tasks for one case. To perform all 4 tasks of 30 cases, they spent about 91 min (independent of system response time) for data entry, of which 51.8 min were spent on more effortful mental operators. In conclusion, the user interface can be improved by reducing the percentage of mental effort required for the tasks.

Spatial task performance, sex differences, and motion sickness susceptibility.

PubMed

Levine, Max E; Stern, Robert M

2002-10-01

There are substantial individual differences in susceptibility to motion sickness, yet little is known about what mediates these differences. Spatial ability and sex have been suggested as possible factors in this relationship. 89 participants (57 women) were administered a Motion Sickness Questionnaire that assesses motion sickness susceptibility, a Water-level Task that gauges sensitivity to gravitational upright, and a Mental Rotation Task that tests an individual's awareness of how objects typically move in space. Significant sex differences were observed in performance of both the Water-level Task (p<.01), and the Mental Rotation Task (p<.005), with women performing less accurately than men. Women also had significantly higher scores on the Motion Sickness Questionnaire (p<.005). Among men, but not women, significant negative relationships were observed between Water-level Task performance and Motion Sickness Questionnaire score (p<.001) and between Mental Rotation Task performance and Motion Sickness Questionnaire score (p<.005). In conclusion, women performed significantly more poorly than men did on the spatial ability tasks and reported significantly more bouts of motion sickness. In addition, men showed a significant negative relationship between spatial ability and motion sickness susceptibility.

The Role of Task Understanding on Younger and Older Adults' Performance.

PubMed

Frank, David J; Touron, Dayna R

2016-12-16

Age-related performance decrements have been linked to inferior strategic choices. Strategy selection models argue that accurate task representations are necessary for choosing appropriate strategies. But no studies to date have compared task representations in younger and older adults. Metacognition research suggests age-related deficits in updating and utilizing strategy knowledge, but other research suggests age-related sparing when information can be consolidated into a coherent mental model. Study 1 validated the use of concept mapping as a tool for measuring task representation accuracy. Study 2 measured task representations before and after a complex strategic task to test for age-related decrements in task representation formation and updating. Task representation accuracy and task performance were equivalent across age groups. Better task representations were related to better performance. However, task representation scores remained fairly stable over the task with minimal evidence of updating. Our findings mirror those in the mental model literature suggesting age-related sparing of strategy use when information can be integrated into a coherent mental model. Future research should manipulate the presence of a unifying context to better evaluate this hypothesis. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Evaluating low-resolution tomography neurofeedback by single dissociation of mental grotation task from stop signal task performance.

PubMed

Getter, Nir; Kaplan, Zeev; Todder, Doron

2015-10-01

Electroencephalography source localization neurofeedback, i.e Standardized low-resolution tomography (sLORETA) neurofeedback are non-invasive method for altering region specific brain activity. This is an improvement over traditional neurofeedback which were based on recordings from a single scalp-electrode. We proposed three criteria clusters as a methodological framework to evaluate electroencephalography source localization neurofeedback and present relevant data. Our objective was to evaluate standardized low resolution EEG tomography neurofeedback by examining how training one neuroanatomical area effects the mental rotation task (which is related to the activity of bilateral Parietal regions) and the stop-signal test (which is related to frontal structures). Twelve healthy participants were enrolled in a single session sLORETA neurofeedback protocol. The participants completed both the mental rotation task and the stop-signal test before and after one sLORETA neurofeedback session. During sLORETA neurofeedback sessions participants watched one sitcom episode while the picture quality co-varied with activity in the superior parietal lobule. Participants were rewarded for increasing activity in this region only. Results showed a significant reaction time decrease and an increase in accuracy after sLORETA neurofeedback on the mental rotation task but not after stop signal task. Together with behavioral changes a significant activity increase was found at the left parietal brain after sLORETA neurofeedback compared with baseline. We concluded that activity increase in the parietal region had a specific effect on the mental rotation task. Tasks unrelated to parietal brain activity were unaffected. Therefore, sLORETA neurofeedback could be used as a research, or clinical tool for cognitive disorders. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Teaching Mental Abacus Calculation to Students with Mental Retardation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shen, Hong

2006-01-01

The abacus is a calculating tool that has been used in Asia for thousands of years. Mental abacus calculation is a skill in which an abacus image in the mind is used without the actual physical manipulation of the abacus. Using this method, people can perform extremely rapid and accurate mental calculations. Research indicates that abacus training…

A study on the effect of varying sequence of lab performance skills on lab performance of high school physics students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bournia-Petrou, Ethel A.

The main goal of this investigation was to study how student rank in class, student gender and skill sequence affect high school students' performance on the lab skills involved in a laboratory-based inquiry task in physics. The focus of the investigation was the effect of skill sequence as determined by the particular task. The skills considered were: Hypothesis, Procedure, Planning, Data, Graph, Calculations and Conclusion. Three physics lab tasks based on the simple pendulum concept were administered to 282 Regents physics high school students. The reliability of the designed tasks was high. Student performance was evaluated on individual student written responses and a scoring rubric. The tasks had high discrimination power and were of moderate difficulty (65%). It was found that, student performance was weak on Conclusion (42%), Hypothesis (48%), and Procedure (51%), where the numbers in parentheses represent the mean as a percentage of the maximum possible score. Student performance was strong on Calculations (91%), Data (82%), Graph (74%) and Plan (68%). Out of all seven skills, Procedure had the strongest correlation (.73) with the overall task performance. Correlation analysis revealed some strong relationships among the seven skills which were grouped in two distinct clusters: Hypothesis, Procedure and Plan belong to one, and Data, Graph, Calculations, and Conclusion belong to the other. This distinction may indicate different mental processes at play within each skill cluster. The effect of student rank was not statistically significant according to the MANOVA results due to the large variation of rank levels among the participating schools. The effect of gender was significant on the entire test because of performance differences on Calculations and Graph, where male students performed better than female students. Skill sequence had a significant effect on the skills of Procedure, Plan, Data and Conclusion. Students are rather weak in proposing a sensible, detailed procedure for the inquiry task which involves the "novel" concept. However they perform better on Procedure and Plan, if the "novel" task is not preceded by another, which explicitly offers step-by-step procedure instructions. It was concluded that the format of detailed, structured instructions often adopted by many commercial and school-developed lab books and conventional lab practices, fails to prepare students to propose a successful, detailed procedure when faced with a slightly "novel", lab-based inquiry task. Student performance on Data collection was higher in the tasks that involved the more familiar experimental arrangement than in the tasks using the slightly "novel" equipment. Student performance on Conclusion was better in tasks where they had to collect the Data themselves than in tasks, where all relevant Data information was given to them.

Assessment of Mental, Emotional and Physical Stress through Analysis of Physiological Signals Using Smartphones.

PubMed

Mohino-Herranz, Inma; Gil-Pita, Roberto; Ferreira, Javier; Rosa-Zurera, Manuel; Seoane, Fernando

2015-10-08

Determining the stress level of a subject in real time could be of special interest in certain professional activities to allow the monitoring of soldiers, pilots, emergency personnel and other professionals responsible for human lives. Assessment of current mental fitness for executing a task at hand might avoid unnecessary risks. To obtain this knowledge, two physiological measurements were recorded in this work using customized non-invasive wearable instrumentation that measures electrocardiogram (ECG) and thoracic electrical bioimpedance (TEB) signals. The relevant information from each measurement is extracted via evaluation of a reduced set of selected features. These features are primarily obtained from filtered and processed versions of the raw time measurements with calculations of certain statistical and descriptive parameters. Selection of the reduced set of features was performed using genetic algorithms, thus constraining the computational cost of the real-time implementation. Different classification approaches have been studied, but neural networks were chosen for this investigation because they represent a good tradeoff between the intelligence of the solution and computational complexity. Three different application scenarios were considered. In the first scenario, the proposed system is capable of distinguishing among different types of activity with a 21.2% probability error, for activities coded as neutral, emotional, mental and physical. In the second scenario, the proposed solution distinguishes among the three different emotional states of neutral, sadness and disgust, with a probability error of 4.8%. In the third scenario, the system is able to distinguish between low mental load and mental overload with a probability error of 32.3%. The computational cost was calculated, and the solution was implemented in commercially available Android-based smartphones. The results indicate that execution of such a monitoring solution is negligible compared to the nominal computational load of current smartphones.

Submentalizing or Mentalizing in a Level 1 Perspective-Taking Task: A Cloak and Goggles Test

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

It has been proposed that humans possess an automatic system to represent mental states (‘implicit mentalizing’). The existence of an implicit mentalizing system has generated considerable debate however, centered on the ability of various experimental paradigms to demonstrate unambiguously such mentalizing. Evidence for implicit mentalizing has previously been provided by the ‘dot perspective task,’ where participants are slower to verify the number of dots they can see when an avatar can see a different number of dots. However, recent evidence challenged a mentalizing interpretation of this effect by showing it was unaltered when the avatar was replaced with an inanimate arrow stimulus. Here we present an extension of the dot perspective task using an invisibility cloaking device to render the dots invisible on certain trials. This paradigm is capable of providing unambiguous evidence of automatic mentalizing, but no such evidence was found. Two further well-powered experiments used opaque and transparent goggles to manipulate visibility but found no evidence of automatic mentalizing, nor of individual differences in empathy or perspective-taking predicting performance, contradicting previous studies using the same design. The results cast doubt on the existence of an implicit mentalizing system, suggesting that previous effects were due to domain-general processes. PMID:27893269

Differential recruitment of theory of mind brain network across three tasks: An independent component analysis.

PubMed

Thye, Melissa D; Ammons, Carla J; Murdaugh, Donna L; Kana, Rajesh K

2018-07-16

Social neuroscience research has focused on an identified network of brain regions primarily associated with processing Theory of Mind (ToM). However, ToM is a broad cognitive process, which encompasses several sub-processes, such as mental state detection and intentional attribution, and the connectivity of brain regions underlying the broader ToM network in response to paradigms assessing these sub-processes requires further characterization. Standard fMRI analyses which focus only on brain activity cannot capture information about ToM processing at a network level. An alternative method, independent component analysis (ICA), is a data-driven technique used to isolate intrinsic connectivity networks, and this approach provides insight into network-level regional recruitment. In this fMRI study, three complementary, but distinct ToM tasks assessing mental state detection (e.g. RMIE: Reading the Mind in the Eyes; RMIV: Reading the Mind in the Voice) and intentional attribution (Causality task) were each analyzed using ICA in order to separately characterize the recruitment and functional connectivity of core nodes in the ToM network in response to the sub-processes of ToM. Based on visual comparison of the derived networks for each task, the spatiotemporal network patterns were similar between the RMIE and RMIV tasks, which elicited mentalizing about the mental states of others, and these networks differed from the network derived for the Causality task, which elicited mentalizing about goal-directed actions. The medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and right inferior frontal gyrus were seen in the components with the highest correlation with the task condition for each of the tasks highlighting the role of these regions in general ToM processing. Using a data-driven approach, the current study captured the differences in task-related brain response to ToM in three distinct ToM paradigms. The findings of this study further elucidate the neural mechanisms associated with mental state detection and causal attribution, which represent possible sub-processes of the complex construct of ToM processing. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Task Monotony and Performance Efficacy of Mentally Retarded Young Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Locke, Bill J.; And Others

1982-01-01

Thirty-six mildly mentally retarded young adults were exposed to one of three training arrangements for vigilance performance, a monitoring task that some professionals consider uniquely appropriate for such persons because they are assumed to be less susceptible to boredom. (Author)

Soldier Cognitive Processes: Supporting Teleoperated Ground Vehicle Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-01

They also examined training materials available to train robotic operators. Materials came from a pilot SUGV Master Trainer Course as well as from the...Allocation of Scarce Mental Resources. It is increasingly difficult to multitask if the similarity of the mental resources used in each task...1984). If separate tasks are not competing as much for the same mental resources, multitasking can be accomplished more effectively. Further, when

Is the Male Advantage in Mental-Rotation Performance Task Independent? On the Usability of Chronometric Tests and Paper-and-Pencil Tests in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quaiser-Pohl, Claudia; Neuburger, Sarah; Heil, Martin; Jansen, Petra; Schmelter, Andrea

2014-01-01

This article presents a reanalysis of the data of 862 second and fourth graders collected in two previous studies, focusing on the influence of method (psychometric vs. chronometric) and stimulus type on the gender difference in mental-rotation accuracy. The children had to solve mental-rotation tasks with animal pictures, letters, or cube…

Understanding the Effects of Team Cognition Associated with Complex Engineering Tasks: Dynamics of Shared Mental Models, Task-SMM, and Team-SMM

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Miyoung; Johnson, Tristan E.

2008-01-01

This study investigates how shared mental models (SMMs) change over time in teams of students in a manufacturing engineering course. A complex ill-structured project was given to each team. The objective of the team project was to analyze, test, and propose ways to improve their given manufactured product. Shared mental models were measured in…

Different hemodynamic response of prefontal area for men and women to mental arithmetic: a near-infrared spectroscopy study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Hongyu; Zhou, Zhenyu; Liu, Yun; Ruan, Zongcai; Gong, Hui; Luo, Qingming; Lu, Zuhong

2007-05-01

A 16-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to measure concentration changes of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-HB and deoxy-HB) in prefrontal area while the subjects were performing mental works. Thirty healthy college participants were administered two mental arithmetic tasks while the changes of concentration on oxy-HB and deoxy-HB were measured. Oxy-HB increased during the mental works, and the increases of oxy-HB were greater in male subjects than in female subjects during the difficult task. These results suggest that NIRS is sensitive to evaluate the oxy-HB activity of prefrontal cortex during mental works.

Defining and measuring pilot mental workload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kantowitz, Barry H.

1988-01-01

A theory is sought that is general enough to help the researcher deal with a wide range of situations involving pilot mental stress. A limited capacity theory of attention forms the basis for the theory. Mental workload is then defined as an intervening variable, similar to attention, that modulates or indexes the tuning between the demands of the environment and the capacity of the organism. Two methods for measuring pilot mental workload are endorsed: (1) objective measures based on secondary tasks; and (2) psychophysiological measures, which have not yet been perfected but which will become more useful as theoretical models are refined. Secondary-task research is illustrated by simulator studies in which flying performance has been shown not to be adversely affected by adding a complex choice-reaction secondary task.

Sense of agency and mentalizing: dissociation of subdomains of social cognition in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Schimansky, Jenny; David, Nicole; Rössler, Wulf; Haker, Helene

2010-06-30

The sense of agency, i.e., the sense that "I am the one who is causing an action", and mentalizing, the ability to understand the mental states of other individuals, are key domains of social cognition. It has been hypothesized that an intact sense of agency is an important precondition for higher-level mentalizing abilities. A substantial body of evidence shows that both processes rely on similar brain areas and are severely impaired in schizophrenia, suggesting a close link between agency and mentalizing. Yet this relationship has not been explicitly tested. We investigated 40 individuals with schizophrenia and 40 healthy controls on an agency and mentalizing task. On the agency task, participants carried out simple mouse movements and judged the partially manipulated visual feedback as either self- or other-generated. On the mentalizing task, participants inferred mental states from pictures that depicted others' eyes ("Reading the mind in the eyes test"). Neuropsychological, psychopathological and social functioning levels were also evaluated. Both sense of agency and mentalizing were impaired in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. However, testing for a relationship revealed no significant correlations between the two processes, either in the schizophrenia or the control group. The present findings demonstrate a dissociation of agency and mentalizing deficits in schizophrenia, suggesting that the multifaceted construct of social cognition consists of independent subdomains in healthy and psychiatrically ill individuals.

Compound risk judgment in tasks with both idiosyncratic and systematic risk: The "Robust Beauty" of additive probability integration.

PubMed

Sundh, Joakim; Juslin, Peter

2018-02-01

In this study, we explore how people integrate risks of assets in a simulated financial market into a judgment of the conjunctive risk that all assets decrease in value, both when assets are independent and when there is a systematic risk present affecting all assets. Simulations indicate that while mental calculation according to naïve application of probability theory is best when the assets are independent, additive or exemplar-based algorithms perform better when systematic risk is high. Considering that people tend to intuitively approach compound probability tasks using additive heuristics, we expected the participants to find it easiest to master tasks with high systematic risk - the most complex tasks from the standpoint of probability theory - while they should shift to probability theory or exemplar memory with independence between the assets. The results from 3 experiments confirm that participants shift between strategies depending on the task, starting off with the default of additive integration. In contrast to results in similar multiple cue judgment tasks, there is little evidence for use of exemplar memory. The additive heuristics also appear to be surprisingly context-sensitive, with limited generalization across formally very similar tasks. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Levels of Information Processing in a Fitts law task (LIPFitts)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mosier, K. L.; Hart, S. G.

1986-01-01

State-of-the-art flight technology has restructured the task of human operators, decreasing the need for physical and sensory resources, and increasing the quantity of cognitive effort required, changing it qualitatively. Recent technological advances have the most potential for impacting a pilot in two areas: performance and mental workload. In an environment in which timing is critical, additional cognitive processing can cause performance decrements, and increase a pilot's perception of the mental workload involved. The effects of stimulus processing demands on motor response performance and subjective mental workload are examined, using different combinations of response selection and target acquisition tasks. The information processing demands of the response selection were varied (e.g., Sternberg memory set tasks, math equations, pattern matching), as was the difficulty of the response execution. Response latency as well as subjective workload ratings varied in accordance with the cognitive complexity of the task. Movement times varied according to the difficulty of the response execution task. Implications in terms of real-world flight situations are discussed.

Effects of several mental tasks on auditory fatigue.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1965-01-01

Eight males were exposed for three minutes to a 4000 cps fatigue tone at 40 dB SL. Each S was tested under four task-conditions: mental arithmetic (MA), written ling division (LD), threshold determination of a 500 cps tone (TD), and reverie (REV). Te...

Determination of the Proper Rest Time for a Cyclic Mental Task Using ACT-R Architecture.

PubMed

Atashfeshan, Nooshin; Razavi, Hamideh

2017-03-01

Objective Analysis of the effect of mental fatigue on a cognitive task and determination of the right start time for rest breaks in work environments. Background Mental fatigue has been recognized as one of the most important factors influencing individual performance. Subjective and physiological measures are popular methods for analyzing fatigue, but they are restricted to physical experiments. Computational cognitive models are useful for predicting operator performance and can be used for analyzing fatigue in the design phase, particularly in industrial operations and inspections where cognitive tasks are frequent and the effects of mental fatigue are crucial. Method A cyclic mental task is modeled by the ACT-R architecture, and the effect of mental fatigue on response time and error rate is studied. The task includes visual inspections in a production line or control workstation where an operator has to check products' conformity to specifications. Initially, simulated and experimental results are compared using correlation coefficients and paired t test statistics. After validation of the model, the effects are studied by human and simulated results, which are obtained by running 50-minute tests. Results It is revealed that during the last 20 minutes of the tests, the response time increased by 20%, and during the last 12.5 minutes, the error rate increased by 7% on average. Conclusion The proper start time for the rest period can be identified by setting a limit on the error rate or response time. Application The proposed model can be applied early in production planning to decrease the negative effects of mental fatigue by predicting the operator performance. It can also be used for determining the rest breaks in the design phase without an operator in the loop.

A Comparison of Children's Ability to Read Children's and Adults' Mental States in an Adaptation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task

PubMed Central

van der Meulen, Anna; Roerig, Simone; de Ruyter, Doret; van Lier, Pol; Krabbendam, Lydia

2017-01-01

The ability to read mental states from subtle facial cues is an important part of Theory of Mind, which can contribute to children's daily life social functioning. Mental state reading performance is influenced by the specific interactions in which it is applied; familiarity with characteristics of these interactions (such as the person) can enhance performance. The aim of this research is to gain insight in this context effect for mental state reading in children, assessed with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) task that originally consists of pictures of adults' eyes. Because of differences between children and adults in roles, development and frequency of interaction, children are more familiar with mental state reading of other children. It can therefore be expected that children's mental state reading depends on whether this is assessed with children's or adults' eyes. A new 14 item version of the RME for children was constructed with pictures of children instead of adults (study 1). This task was used and compared to the original child RME in 6–10 year olds (N = 718, study 2) and 8–14 year olds (N = 182, study 3). Children in both groups performed better on the new RME than on the original RME. Item level findings of the new RME were in line with previous findings on the task and test re-test reliability (in a subgroup of older children, n = 95) was adequate (0.47). This suggests that the RME with children's eyes can assess children's daily life mental state reading and supplement existing ToM tasks. PMID:28491043

Working through disaster: re-establishing mental health care after Hurricane Katrina.

PubMed

Baker, Natalie D; Feldman, Martha S; Lowerson, Victoria

2013-06-01

Our research explored how mental health care providers continued to work during and after Hurricane Katrina. We interviewed 32 practitioners working in the New Orleans mental health care community during and after Hurricane Katrina. Through qualitative data analysis, we developed three temporal periods of disruption: the evacuation period, the surreal period, and the new normal period. We analyzed the actions informants took during these time periods. The mental health care providers adapted to disruption by displaying two forms of flexibility: doing different tasks and doing tasks differently. How much and how they engaged in these forms of flexibility varied during the three periods. Informants' actions helped to create system resilience by adjusting the extent to which they were doing different tasks and the ways in which they were doing tasks differently during the three time periods. Their flexibility allowed them to provide basic care and adapt to changed circumstances. Their flexibility also contributed to maintaining a skilled workforce in the affected region.

Working through disaster: re-establishing mental health care after Hurricane Katrina.

PubMed

Baker, Natalie D; Feldman, Martha S; Lowerson, Victoria

2012-10-01

Our research explored how mental health care providers continued to work during and after Hurricane Katrina. We interviewed 32 practitioners working in the New Orleans mental health care community during and after Hurricane Katrina. Through qualitative data analysis, we developed three temporal periods of disruption: the evacuation period, the surreal period, and the new normal period. We analyzed the actions informants took during these time periods. The mental health care providers adapted to disruption by displaying two forms of flexibility: doing different tasks and doing tasks differently. How much and how they engaged in these forms of flexibility varied during the three periods. Informants' actions helped to create system resilience by adjusting the extent to which they were doing different tasks and the ways in which they were doing tasks differently during the three time periods. Their flexibility allowed them to provide basic care and adapt to changed circumstances. Their flexibility also contributed to maintaining a skilled workforce in the affected region.

Temporal Comparison Between NIRS and EEG Signals During a Mental Arithmetic Task Evaluated with Self-Organizing Maps.

PubMed

Oyama, Katsunori; Sakatani, Kaoru

2016-01-01

Simultaneous monitoring of brain activity with near-infrared spectroscopy and electroencephalography allows spatiotemporal reconstruction of the hemodynamic response regarding the concentration changes in oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin that are associated with recorded brain activity such as cognitive functions. However, the accuracy of state estimation during mental arithmetic tasks is often different depending on the length of the segment for sampling of NIRS and EEG signals. This study compared the results of a self-organizing map and ANOVA, which were both used to assess the accuracy of state estimation. We conducted an experiment with a mental arithmetic task performed by 10 participants. The lengths of the segment in each time frame for observation of NIRS and EEG signals were compared with the 30-s, 1-min, and 2-min segment lengths. The optimal segment lengths were different for NIRS and EEG signals in the case of classification of feature vectors into the states of performing a mental arithmetic task and being at rest.

Analysis of Subjects' Vulnerability in a Touch Screen Game Using Behavioral Metrics.

PubMed

Parsinejad, Payam; Sipahi, Rifat

2017-12-01

In this article, we report results on an experimental study conducted with volunteer subjects playing a touch-screen game with two unique difficulty levels. Subjects have knowledge about the rules of both game levels, but only sufficient playing experience with the easy level of the game, making them vulnerable with the difficult level. Several behavioral metrics associated with subjects' playing the game are studied in order to assess subjects' mental-workload changes induced by their vulnerability. Specifically, these metrics are calculated based on subjects' finger kinematics and decision making times, which are then compared with baseline metrics, namely, performance metrics pertaining to how well the game is played and a physiological metric called pnn50 extracted from heart rate measurements. In balanced experiments and supported by comparisons with baseline metrics, it is found that some of the studied behavioral metrics have the potential to be used to infer subjects' mental workload changes through different levels of the game. These metrics, which are decoupled from task specifics, relate to subjects' ability to develop strategies to play the game, and hence have the advantage of offering insight into subjects' task-load and vulnerability assessment across various experimental settings.

Partly randomised, controlled study in children aged 6-10 years to investigate motor and cognitive effects of a 9-week coordination training intervention with concurrent mental tasks.

PubMed

Santner, Antonia; Kopp, Martin; Federolf, Peter

2018-05-24

Physical training may play a prominent role in the development of preadolescent brains, but it is yet to be determined what type of exercise may generate higher cognitive effects, and if concurrent mental engagement provides further efficacy. The aim of this study is to investigate motor and cognitive effects of a 9-week exercise intervention in children aged 6-10 years. Trainings include the automatisation of challenging coordination exercises with concurrent mental tasks (intervention group) and multisport exercises with and without mental tasks (two control groups). It is hypothesised that all groups gain motor and cognitive effects, but highest benefits are expected for the combination of automatised coordination exercises with mental tasks. Two elementary schools (∼500 students) take part in the study. Data are generated by using the German Motor Performance Test 6-18 (Deutscher Motorik-Test 6-18), TDS (Match 4 Point), d2-R test of attention and Kasel-Concentration-Task for Children Aged 3-8 Years; test-duration: 6-7 min. After pretesting in September 2017 and a 9-week training intervention, post-testing takes place in December 2017 and March 2018 (long-term effects). Training interventions consist of coordination exercises with concurrent mental tasks (intervention group) and multimotor exercises with and without concurrent mental tasks (control groups). Shapiro-Wilk test will be used to test for normal distribution and the Levene test for variance homogeneity. The appropriate multivariate statistical methods (multivariate analysis of variance or Kruskal-Wallis test) will be used for analysing differences among the groups and for comparing preintervention with postintervention performances. All procedures have been approved by the board for ethical questions in science of the University of Innsbruck. Findings will be published in 2018 in international journals and presented at conferences. Schools will be informed of key results. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Mental additions and verbal-domain interference in children with developmental dyscalculia.

PubMed

Mammarella, Irene C; Caviola, Sara; Cornoldi, Cesare; Lucangeli, Daniela

2013-09-01

This study examined the involvement of verbal and visuo-spatial domains in solving addition problems with carrying in a sample of children diagnosed with developmental dyscalculia (DD) divided into two groups: (i) those with DD alone and (ii) those with DD and dyslexia. Age and stage matched typically developing (TD) children were also studied. The addition problems were presented horizontally or vertically and associated with verbal or visuo-spatial information. Study results showed that DD children's performance on mental calculation tasks was more impaired when they tackled horizontally presented addition problems compared to vertically presented ones that are associated to verbal domain involvement. The performance pattern in the two DD groups was found to be similar. The theoretical, clinical and educational implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The combined fatigue effects of sequential exposure to seated whole body vibration and physical, mental, or concurrent work demands

PubMed Central

Lang, Angelica E.; Stobart, Jamie; Kociolek, Aaron M.; Milosavljevic, Stephan; Trask, Catherine

2017-01-01

Many occupations in agriculture, construction, transportation, and forestry are non-routine, involving non-cyclical tasks, both discretionary and non-discretionary work breaks, and a mix of work activities. Workers in these industries are exposed to seated whole body vibration (WBV) and tasks consisting of physical, mental, or a combination of demands. Risk assessment tools for non-routinized jobs have emerged but there remains a need to understand the combined effects of different work demands to improve risk assessment methods and ultimately inform ergonomists and workers on optimum work arrangement and scheduling strategies. The objective of this study was to investigate fatigue-related human responses of WBV sequentially combined with physical, mental, or concurrent physical and mental demands. Sixteen healthy participants performed four conditions on four separate days: (1) physically demanding work, (2) mentally demanding work, (3) concurrent work, and (4) control quiet sitting. For each condition, participants performed two 15-minute bouts of the experimental task, separated by 30-minutes of simulated WBV based on realistic all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riding data. A test battery of fatigue measures consisting of biomechanical, physiological, cognitive, and sensorimotor measurements were collected at four interval periods: pre-session, after the first bout of the experimental task and before WBV, after WBV and before the second bout of the experimental task, and post-session. Nine measures demonstrated statistically significant time effects during the control condition; 11, 7, and 12 measures were significant in the physical, mental, and concurrent conditions, respectively. Overall, the effects of seated WBV in combination with different tasks are not additive but possibly synergistic or antagonistic. There appears to be a beneficial effect of seated ATV operation as a means of increasing task variation; but since excessive WBV may independently pose a health risk in the longer-term, these beneficial results may not be sensible as a long-term solution. PMID:29236752

The combined fatigue effects of sequential exposure to seated whole body vibration and physical, mental, or concurrent work demands.

PubMed

Yung, Marcus; Lang, Angelica E; Stobart, Jamie; Kociolek, Aaron M; Milosavljevic, Stephan; Trask, Catherine

2017-01-01

Many occupations in agriculture, construction, transportation, and forestry are non-routine, involving non-cyclical tasks, both discretionary and non-discretionary work breaks, and a mix of work activities. Workers in these industries are exposed to seated whole body vibration (WBV) and tasks consisting of physical, mental, or a combination of demands. Risk assessment tools for non-routinized jobs have emerged but there remains a need to understand the combined effects of different work demands to improve risk assessment methods and ultimately inform ergonomists and workers on optimum work arrangement and scheduling strategies. The objective of this study was to investigate fatigue-related human responses of WBV sequentially combined with physical, mental, or concurrent physical and mental demands. Sixteen healthy participants performed four conditions on four separate days: (1) physically demanding work, (2) mentally demanding work, (3) concurrent work, and (4) control quiet sitting. For each condition, participants performed two 15-minute bouts of the experimental task, separated by 30-minutes of simulated WBV based on realistic all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riding data. A test battery of fatigue measures consisting of biomechanical, physiological, cognitive, and sensorimotor measurements were collected at four interval periods: pre-session, after the first bout of the experimental task and before WBV, after WBV and before the second bout of the experimental task, and post-session. Nine measures demonstrated statistically significant time effects during the control condition; 11, 7, and 12 measures were significant in the physical, mental, and concurrent conditions, respectively. Overall, the effects of seated WBV in combination with different tasks are not additive but possibly synergistic or antagonistic. There appears to be a beneficial effect of seated ATV operation as a means of increasing task variation; but since excessive WBV may independently pose a health risk in the longer-term, these beneficial results may not be sensible as a long-term solution.

Task-specific activity and connectivity within the mentalizing network during emotion and intention mentalizing.

PubMed

Atique, Bijoy; Erb, Michael; Gharabaghi, Alireza; Grodd, Wolfgang; Anders, Silke

2011-04-15

Mentalizing, i.e. the process of inferring another person's mental state, is thought to be primarily subserved by three brain regions, the VMPFC (ventromedial prefrontal cortex), precuneus and TPJ (temporo-parietal junction). However, it is still unclear what the exact roles of these regions in mentalizing are. Here, we compare activity within, and functional connectivity between, the VMPFC, precuneus and TPJ during two different mentalizing tasks. Specifically, we examine whether inferring another person's emotion ("emotion mentalizing") and inferring another person's intention ("intention mentalizing") activate similar or distinct subregions within the VMPFC, precuneus and TPJ, and whether these different kinds of mentalizing are associated with different patterns of functional connectivity between these regions. Our results indicate that emotion mentalizing and intention mentalizing activate partly distinct subregions of the right and left TPJ that can be spatially separated across participants. These subregions also showed different patterns of functional connectivity with the VMPFC: a more anterior region of the right and left TPJ, which was more strongly activated during emotion mentalizing, showed stronger functional connectivity with the VMPFC, particularly during emotion mentalizing, than a more posterior region that was more strongly activated during intention mentalizing. Critically, this double dissociation became evident only when the fine-scale distribution of activity within activated regions was analysed, and despite the fact that there was also a significant overlap of activity during the two tasks. Our findings provide first evidence that different neural modules might have evolved within the TPJ that show distinct patterns of functional connectivity and might subserve slightly different subfunctions of mentalizing. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigating neural efficiency of elite karate athletes during a mental arithmetic task using EEG.

PubMed

Duru, Adil Deniz; Assem, Moataz

2018-02-01

Neural efficiency is proposed as one of the neural mechanisms underlying elite athletic performances. Previous sports studies examined neural efficiency using tasks that involve motor functions. In this study we investigate the extent of neural efficiency beyond motor tasks by using a mental subtraction task. A group of elite karate athletes are compared to a matched group of non-athletes. Electroencephalogram is used to measure cognitive dynamics during resting and increased mental workload periods. Mainly posterior alpha band power of the karate players was found to be higher than control subjects under both tasks. Moreover, event related synchronization/desynchronization has been computed to investigate the neural efficiency hypothesis among subjects. Finally, this study is the first study to examine neural efficiency related to a cognitive task, not a motor task, in elite karate players using ERD/ERS analysis. The results suggest that the effect of neural efficiency in the brain is global rather than local and thus might be contributing to the elite athletic performances. Also the results are in line with the neural efficiency hypothesis tested for motor performance studies.

Effects of Telephone Ring on Two Mental Tasks Relative to AN Office

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mouri, K.; Akiyama, K.; Ando, Y.

2001-03-01

In many cases, there are a lot of noise sources in an office and particularly, telephone ringing often irritates the office workers. Effects of aircraft noise on the mental work of pupils were reported by Ando et al.[1]. In spite of its serious effect, it has not yet been found how the physical parameters of the wave form influence the perception of noise. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of telephone ringing on two mental tasks. This investigation is based on the human auditory-brain model consisting of the auto-correlation function (ACF) of sound source, the interaural cross-correlation function (IACF) for sound signals arriving at the two ears, and the specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. Under the stimulus of a telephone ringing, an adding task and a drawing task were performed. Results show that telephone ringing influences differently the two tasks: the V-type relaxation was observed only during the drawing task. It is revealed that the interference effect between the drawing task and the noise may occur in the right hemisphere.

Visual perspective taking impairment in children with autistic spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Hamilton, Antonia F de C; Brindley, Rachel; Frith, Uta

2009-10-01

Evidence from typical development and neuroimaging studies suggests that level 2 visual perspective taking - the knowledge that different people may see the same thing differently at the same time - is a mentalising task. Thus, we would expect children with autism, who fail typical mentalising tasks like false belief, to perform poorly on level 2 visual perspective taking as well. However, prior data on this issue are inconclusive. We re-examined this question, testing a group of 23 young autistic children, aged around 8years with a verbal mental age of around 4years and three groups of typical children (n=60) ranging in age from 4 to 8years on a level 2 visual perspective task and a closely matched mental rotation task. The results demonstrate that autistic children have difficulty with visual perspective taking compared to a task requiring mental rotation, relative to typical children. Furthermore, performance on the level 2 visual perspective taking task correlated with theory of mind performance. These findings resolve discrepancies in previous studies of visual perspective taking in autism, and demonstrate that level 2 visual perspective taking is a mentalising task.

Evaluation of the Military Functional Assessment Program: Inter rater Reliability of Task Scores

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-09-19

return-to-duty. Performance on the tasks is rated by a non-commissioned officer (NCO), occupational therapist, physical therapist, and mental health ...and additional ratings are provided on a subset of the tasks by an occupational therapist (OT), physical therapist (PT), and mental health (MH...3National Intrepid Center of Excellence United States Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory Aircrew Health and Performance Division September 2017

Temporal patterns of mental model convergence: implications for distributed teams interacting in electronic collaboration spaces.

PubMed

McComb, Sara; Kennedy, Deanna; Perryman, Rebecca; Warner, Norman; Letsky, Michael

2010-04-01

Our objective is to capture temporal patterns in mental model convergence processes and differences in these patterns between distributed teams using an electronic collaboration space and face-to-face teams with no interface. Distributed teams, as sociotechnical systems, collaborate via technology to work on their task. The way in which they process information to inform their mental models may be examined via team communication and may unfold differently than it does in face-to-face teams. We conducted our analysis on 32 three-member teams working on a planning task. Half of the teams worked as distributed teams in an electronic collaboration space, and the other half worked face-to-face without an interface. Using event history analysis, we found temporal interdependencies among the initial convergence points of the multiple mental models we examined. Furthermore, the timing of mental model convergence and the onset of task work discussions were related to team performance. Differences existed in the temporal patterns of convergence and task work discussions across conditions. Distributed teams interacting via an electronic interface and face-to-face teams with no interface converged on multiple mental models, but their communication patterns differed. In particular, distributed teams with an electronic interface required less overall communication, converged on all mental models later in their life cycles, and exhibited more linear cognitive processes than did face-to-face teams interacting verbally. Managers need unique strategies for facilitating communication and mental model convergence depending on teams' degrees of collocation and access to an interface, which in turn will enhance team performance.

Tolerance of negative emotion moderates the amplification of mental contamination following an evoking task: A randomized experimental study.

PubMed

Fergus, Thomas A

2018-06-01

Contamination is a near universal feeling, with mental contamination representing a contamination feeling in the absence of direct physical contact with a source. Extant research indicates that tolerance of negative emotion is important for understanding emotional reactions to images, thoughts, and memories, all of which are common sources of mental contamination. Extending research linking distress tolerance to mental contamination, this study examined if individual differences in the tolerance of negative emotion moderates the amplification of mental contamination following an evoking task. Unselected participants completed a self-report measure of tolerance of negative emotion during an online session. They later attended an in-person session and were randomized to an experimental scenario group: betrayal (n = 49) or control (n = 49). Participants imagined themselves in a scenario, with the betrayal scenario designed to evoke mental contamination. Mental contamination was assessed by self-report before and after the scenario. The betrayal, but not control, scenario caused an increase in mental contamination. Tolerance for negative emotion moderated the effect of group on mental contamination. Group differences in mental contamination evidenced at low, but not high, distress tolerance. A novel experimental manipulation and an unselected sample were used. Future research could assess tolerance of negative emotion using a behavioral task. These results indicate that tolerance of negative emotion may be important for understanding when individuals experience mental contamination. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abnormalities of mental rotation of hands associated with speed of information processing and executive function in chronic schizophrenic patients.

PubMed

Mazhari, Shahrzad; Moghadas Tabrizi, Yousef

2014-06-01

Deficits in mental imagery ability have been reported in patients with schizophrenia. However, there is scarce evidence about the correlation between impairment in mental rotation and other cognitive deficits in the patients. The aim of this study was to assess mental rotation ability, along with other measures of cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia. The performance of 29 patients with schizophrenia was compared with 29 healthy controls. Mental rotation was measured with the Hand Rotation Task, and cognitive functions were measured with the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS). On Hand Rotation Task, the patients were significantly slower and less accurate compared to controls. Moreover, mental rotation accuracy was significantly correlated with all the BACS domains except verbal memory. In multiple regression analysis, the two BACS subscales, Tower of London and Symbol Coding tasks, were significant predictors and accounted for 41% of the variance in accuracy in the patients. These results support previous findings showing dysfunction of the posterior parietal cortex in schizophrenia, which is involved in general mental rotation, as well as other cognitive processes. © 2014 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2014 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Selective Effects of Sport Expertise on the Stages of Mental Rotation Tasks With Object-Based and Egocentric Transformations

PubMed Central

Feng, Tian; Zhang, Zhongqiu; Ji, Zhiguang; Jia, Binbin; Li, Yawei

2017-01-01

It is well established that motor expertise is linked to superior mental rotation ability, but few studies have attempted to explain the factors that influence the stages of mental rotation in sport experts. Some authors have argued that athletes are faster in the perceptual and decision stages but not in the rotation stages of object-based transformations; however, stimuli related to sport have not been used to test mental rotation with egocentric transformations. Therefore, 24 adolescent elite divers and 23 adolescent nonathletes completed mental rotation tasks with object-based and egocentric transformations. The results showed faster reaction times (RTs) for the motor experts in tasks with both types of transformations (object-based cube, object-based body, and egocentric body). Additionally, the differences in favour of motor experts in the perceptual and decision stages were confirmed. Interestingly, motor experts also outperformed nonathletes in the rotation stages in the egocentric transformations. These findings are discussed against the background of the effects of sport expertise on mental rotation. PMID:29071008

[Influence of mental rotation of objects on psychophysiological functions of women].

PubMed

Chikina, L V; Fedorchuk, S V; Trushina, V A; Ianchuk, P I; Makarchuk, M Iu

2012-01-01

An integral part of activity of modern human beings is an involvement to work with the computer systems which, in turn, produces a nervous - emotional tension. Hence, a problem of control of the psychophysiological state of workmen with the purpose of health preservation and success of their activity and the problem of application of rehabilitational actions are actual. At present it is known that the efficiency of rehabilitational procedures rises following application of the complex of regenerative programs. Previously performed by us investigation showed that mental rotation is capable to compensate the consequences of a nervous - emotional tension. Therefore, in the present work we investigated how the complex of spatial tasks developed by us influences psychophysiological performances of tested women for which the psycho-emotional tension with the usage of computer technologies is more essential, and the procedure of mental rotation is more complex task for them, than for men. The complex of spatial tasks applied in the given work included: mental rotation of simple objects (letters and digits), mental rotation of complex objects (geometrical figures) and mental rotation of complex objects with the usage of a short-term memory. Execution of the complex of spatial tasks reduces the time of simple and complex sensomotor response, raises parameters of a short-term memory, brain work capacity and improves nervous processes. Collectively, mental rotation of objects can be recommended as a rehabilitational resource for compensation of consequences of any psycho-emotional strain, both for men, and for women.

Effects of L-theanine or caffeine intake on changes in blood pressure under physical and psychological stresses

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background L-theanine, an amino acid contained in green tea leaves, is known to block the binding of L-glutamic acid to glutamate receptors in the brain, and has been considered to cause anti-stress effects by inhibiting cortical neuron excitation. Both L-theanine and caffeine, which green tea contains, have been highlighted for their beneficial effects on cognition and mood. Methods In this study, we investigated the effects of orally administered L-theanine or caffeine on mental task performance and physiological activities under conditions of physical or psychological stress in humans. Fourteen participants each underwent three separate trials, in which they orally took either L-theanine + placebo, caffeine + placebo, or placebo only. Results The results after the mental tasks showed that L-theanine significantly inhibited the blood-pressure increases in a high-response group, which consisted of participants whose blood pressure increased more than average by a performance of a mental task after placebo intake. Caffeine tended to have a similar but smaller inhibition of the blood-pressure increases caused by the mental tasks. The result of the Profile of Mood States after the mental tasks also showed that L-theanine reduced the Tension-Anxiety scores as compared with placebo intake. Conclusions The findings above denote that L-theanine not only reduces anxiety but also attenuates the blood-pressure increase in high-stress-response adults. PMID:23107346

Effects of L-theanine or caffeine intake on changes in blood pressure under physical and psychological stresses.

PubMed

Yoto, Ai; Motoki, Mao; Murao, Sato; Yokogoshi, Hidehiko

2012-10-29

L-theanine, an amino acid contained in green tea leaves, is known to block the binding of L-glutamic acid to glutamate receptors in the brain, and has been considered to cause anti-stress effects by inhibiting cortical neuron excitation. Both L-theanine and caffeine, which green tea contains, have been highlighted for their beneficial effects on cognition and mood. In this study, we investigated the effects of orally administered L-theanine or caffeine on mental task performance and physiological activities under conditions of physical or psychological stress in humans. Fourteen participants each underwent three separate trials, in which they orally took either L-theanine + placebo, caffeine + placebo, or placebo only. The results after the mental tasks showed that L-theanine significantly inhibited the blood-pressure increases in a high-response group, which consisted of participants whose blood pressure increased more than average by a performance of a mental task after placebo intake. Caffeine tended to have a similar but smaller inhibition of the blood-pressure increases caused by the mental tasks. The result of the Profile of Mood States after the mental tasks also showed that L-theanine reduced the Tension-Anxiety scores as compared with placebo intake. The findings above denote that L-theanine not only reduces anxiety but also attenuates the blood-pressure increase in high-stress-response adults.

Neural Correlates of Belief and Emotion Attribution in Schizophrenia.

PubMed

Lee, Junghee; Horan, William P; Wynn, Jonathan K; Green, Michael F

2016-01-01

Impaired mental state attribution is a core social cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. With functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this study examined the extent to which the core neural system of mental state attribution is involved in mental state attribution, focusing on belief attribution and emotion attribution. Fifteen schizophrenia outpatients and 14 healthy controls performed two mental state attribution tasks in the scanner. In a Belief Attribution Task, after reading a short vignette, participants were asked infer either the belief of a character (a false belief condition) or a physical state of an affair (a false photograph condition). In an Emotion Attribution Task, participants were asked either to judge whether character(s) in pictures felt unpleasant, pleasant, or neutral emotion (other condition) or to look at pictures that did not have any human characters (view condition). fMRI data were analyzing focusing on a priori regions of interest (ROIs) of the core neural systems of mental state attribution: the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and precuneus. An exploratory whole brain analysis was also performed. Both patients and controls showed greater activation in all four ROIs during the Belief Attribution Task than the Emotion Attribution Task. Patients also showed less activation in the precuneus and left TPJ compared to controls during the Belief Attribution Task. No significant group difference was found during the Emotion Attribution Task in any of ROIs. An exploratory whole brain analysis showed a similar pattern of neural activations. These findings suggest that while schizophrenia patients rely on the same neural network as controls do when attributing beliefs of others, patients did not show reduced activation in the key regions such as the TPJ. Further, this study did not find evidence for aberrant neural activation during emotion attribution or recruitment of compensatory brain regions in schizophrenia.

Arithmetic processing in the brain shaped by cultures

PubMed Central

Tang, Yiyuan; Zhang, Wutian; Chen, Kewei; Feng, Shigang; Ji, Ye; Shen, Junxian; Reiman, Eric M.; Liu, Yijun

2006-01-01

The universal use of Arabic numbers in mathematics raises a question whether these digits are processed the same way in people speaking various languages, such as Chinese and English, which reflect differences in Eastern and Western cultures. Using functional MRI, we demonstrated a differential cortical representation of numbers between native Chinese and English speakers. Contrasting to native English speakers, who largely employ a language process that relies on the left perisylvian cortices for mental calculation such as a simple addition task, native Chinese speakers, instead, engage a visuo-premotor association network for the same task. Whereas in both groups the inferior parietal cortex was activated by a task for numerical quantity comparison, functional MRI connectivity analyses revealed a functional distinction between Chinese and English groups among the brain networks involved in the task. Our results further indicate that the different biological encoding of numbers may be shaped by visual reading experience during language acquisition and other cultural factors such as mathematics learning strategies and education systems, which cannot be explained completely by the differences in languages per se. PMID:16815966

Theta and Alpha Oscillations in Attentional Interaction during Distracted Driving

PubMed Central

Wang, Yu-Kai; Jung, Tzyy-Ping; Lin, Chin-Teng

2018-01-01

Performing multiple tasks simultaneously usually affects the behavioral performance as compared with executing the single task. Moreover, processing multiple tasks simultaneously often involve more cognitive demands. Two visual tasks, lane-keeping task and mental calculation, were utilized to assess the brain dynamics through 32-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded from 14 participants. A 400-ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) factor was used to induce distinct levels of attentional requirements. In the dual-task conditions, the deteriorated behavior reflected the divided attention and the overlapping brain resources used. The frontal, parietal and occipital components were decomposed by independent component analysis (ICA) algorithm. The event- and response-related theta and alpha oscillations in selected brain regions were investigated first. The increased theta oscillation in frontal component and decreased alpha oscillations in parietal and occipital components reflect the cognitive demands and attentional requirements as executing the designed tasks. Furthermore, time-varying interactive over-additive (O-Add), additive (Add) and under-additive (U-Add) activations were explored and summarized through the comparison between the summation of the elicited spectral perturbations in two single-task conditions and the spectral perturbations in the dual task. Add and U-Add activations were observed while executing the dual tasks. U-Add theta and alpha activations dominated the posterior region in dual-task situations. Our results show that both deteriorated behaviors and interactive brain activations should be comprehensively considered for evaluating workload or attentional interaction precisely. PMID:29479310

Reduced mental capacity and behavior of a rider of a bicycle simulator under alcohol stress or under dual task load

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soede, M.

1977-01-01

Experiments were carried out on a bicycle simulator with alcohol administration and a binary choice task in separate sessions, intending to reduce the subject's mental capacity. Before and after such sessions a visual evoked response measurement was done. The subject's performance was analyzed with describing function techniques. The results indicate that the alcohol affects the course-following task as well as the balancing task. The binary choice task is more specifically influencing the course-following task. The dual task shows a more pronounced effect on the recovery of the evoked response. The alcohol is delaying the recovery curve of the evoked response. A tentative explanation can be given which agrees with the performance data.

Visual scanning behavior and pilot workload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harris, R. L., Sr.; Tole, J. R.; Stephens, A. T.; Ephrath, A. R.

1982-01-01

This paper describes an experimental paradigm and a set of results which demonstrate a relationship between the level of performance on a skilled man-machine control task, the skill of the operator, the level of mental difficulty induced by an additional task imposed on the basic control task, and visual scanning performance. During a constant, simulated piloting task, visual scanning of instruments was found to vary with the difficulty of a verbal mental loading task. The average dwell time of each fixation on the pilot's primary instrument increased with the estimated skill level of the pilots, with novices being affected by the loading task much more than experts. The results suggest that visual scanning of instruments in a controlled task may be an indicator of both workload and skill.

What is the relationship between mental workload factors and cognitive load types?

PubMed

Galy, Edith; Cariou, Magali; Mélan, Claudine

2012-03-01

The present study tested the hypothesis of an additive interaction between intrinsic, extraneous and germane cognitive load, by manipulating factors of mental workload assumed to have a specific effect on either type of cognitive load. The study of cognitive load factors and their interaction is essential if we are to improve workers' wellbeing and safety at work. High cognitive load requires the individual to allocate extra resources to entering information. It is thought that this demand for extra resources may reduce processing efficiency and performance. The present study tested the effects of three factors thought to act on either cognitive load type, i.e. task difficulty, time pressure and alertness in a working memory task. Results revealed additive effects of task difficulty and time pressure, and a modulation by alertness on behavioral, subjective and psychophysiological workload measures. Mental overload can be the result of a combination of task-related components, but its occurrence may also depend on subject-related characteristics, including alertness. Solutions designed to reduce incidents and accidents at work should consider work organization in addition to task constraints in so far that both these factors may interfere with mental workload. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Complexity quantification of dense array EEG using sample entropy analysis.

PubMed

Ramanand, Pravitha; Nampoori, V P N; Sreenivasan, R

2004-09-01

In this paper, a time series complexity analysis of dense array electroencephalogram signals is carried out using the recently introduced Sample Entropy (SampEn) measure. This statistic quantifies the regularity in signals recorded from systems that can vary from the purely deterministic to purely stochastic realm. The present analysis is conducted with an objective of gaining insight into complexity variations related to changing brain dynamics for EEG recorded from the three cases of passive, eyes closed condition, a mental arithmetic task and the same mental task carried out after a physical exertion task. It is observed that the statistic is a robust quantifier of complexity suited for short physiological signals such as the EEG and it points to the specific brain regions that exhibit lowered complexity during the mental task state as compared to a passive, relaxed state. In the case of mental tasks carried out before and after the performance of a physical exercise, the statistic can detect the variations brought in by the intermediate fatigue inducing exercise period. This enhances its utility in detecting subtle changes in the brain state that can find wider scope for applications in EEG based brain studies.

Mental Task Classification Scheme Utilizing Correlation Coefficient Extracted from Interchannel Intrinsic Mode Function.

PubMed

Rahman, Md Mostafizur; Fattah, Shaikh Anowarul

2017-01-01

In view of recent increase of brain computer interface (BCI) based applications, the importance of efficient classification of various mental tasks has increased prodigiously nowadays. In order to obtain effective classification, efficient feature extraction scheme is necessary, for which, in the proposed method, the interchannel relationship among electroencephalogram (EEG) data is utilized. It is expected that the correlation obtained from different combination of channels will be different for different mental tasks, which can be exploited to extract distinctive feature. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) technique is employed on a test EEG signal obtained from a channel, which provides a number of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), and correlation coefficient is extracted from interchannel IMF data. Simultaneously, different statistical features are also obtained from each IMF. Finally, the feature matrix is formed utilizing interchannel correlation features and intrachannel statistical features of the selected IMFs of EEG signal. Different kernels of the support vector machine (SVM) classifier are used to carry out the classification task. An EEG dataset containing ten different combinations of five different mental tasks is utilized to demonstrate the classification performance and a very high level of accuracy is achieved by the proposed scheme compared to existing methods.

Assessing physician job satisfaction and mental workload.

PubMed

Boultinghouse, Oscar W; Hammack, Glenn G; Vo, Alexander H; Dittmar, Mary Lynne

2007-12-01

Physician job satisfaction and mental workload were evaluated in a pilot study of five physicians engaged in a telemedicine practice at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Electronic Health Network. Several previous studies have examined physician satisfaction with specific telemedicine applications; however, few have attempted to identify the underlying factors that contribute to physician satisfaction or lack thereof. One factor that has been found to affect well-being and functionality in the workplace-particularly with regard to human interaction with complex systems and tasks as seen in telemedicine-is mental workload. Workload is generally defined as the "cost" to a person for performing a complex task or tasks; however, prior to this study, it was unexplored as a variable that influences physician satisfaction. Two measures of job satisfaction were used: The Job Descriptive Index and the Job In General scales. Mental workload was evaluated by means of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index. The measures were administered by means of Web-based surveys and were given twice over a 6-month period. Nonparametric statistical analyses revealed that physician job satisfaction was generally high relative to that of the general population and other professionals. Mental workload scores associated with the practice of telemedicine in this environment are also high, and appeared stable over time. In addition, they are commensurate with scores found in individuals practicing tasks with elevated information-processing demands, such as quality control engineers and air traffic controllers. No relationship was found between the measures of job satisfaction and mental workload.

Performance of children with autism spectrum disorder on advanced theory of mind tasks.

PubMed

Brent, Ella; Rios, Patricia; Happé, Francesca; Charman, Tony

2004-09-01

Although a number of advanced theory of mind tasks have been developed, there is sparse information on whether performance on different tasks is associated. The study examined the performance of 20 high-functioning 6- to 12-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder and 20 controls on three high-level theory of mind tasks: Strange Stories, Cartoons and the children's version of the Eyes task. The pattern of findings suggests that the three tasks may share differing, non-specific, information-processing requirements in addition to tapping any putative mentalizing ability. They may also indicate a degree of dissociation between social-cognitive and social-perceptual or affective components of the mentalizing system.

Discovering the Sequential Structure of Thought

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, John R.; Fincham, Jon M.

2014-01-01

Multi-voxel pattern recognition techniques combined with Hidden Markov models can be used to discover the mental states that people go through in performing a task. The combined method identifies both the mental states and how their durations vary with experimental conditions. We apply this method to a task where participants solve novel…

Attention and Encoding in Physics Learning and Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feil, Adam John

2009-01-01

This dissertation presents several studies designed to probe the mental representations that physics experts and novices form when interacting with typical instructional materials, such as diagrams and problem statements. By using recognition tasks and a change detection task, the mental representations of experts and novices are studied in a more…

Risk approximation in decision making: approximative numeric abilities predict advantageous decisions under objective risk.

PubMed

Mueller, Silke M; Schiebener, Johannes; Delazer, Margarete; Brand, Matthias

2018-01-22

Many decision situations in everyday life involve mathematical considerations. In decisions under objective risk, i.e., when explicit numeric information is available, executive functions and abilities to handle exact numbers and ratios are predictors of objectively advantageous choices. Although still debated, exact numeric abilities, e.g., normative calculation skills, are assumed to be related to approximate number processing skills. The current study investigates the effects of approximative numeric abilities on decision making under objective risk. Participants (N = 153) performed a paradigm measuring number-comparison, quantity-estimation, risk-estimation, and decision-making skills on the basis of rapid dot comparisons. Additionally, a risky decision-making task with exact numeric information was administered, as well as tasks measuring executive functions and exact numeric abilities, e.g., mental calculation and ratio processing skills, were conducted. Approximative numeric abilities significantly predicted advantageous decision making, even beyond the effects of executive functions and exact numeric skills. Especially being able to make accurate risk estimations seemed to contribute to superior choices. We recommend approximation skills and approximate number processing to be subject of future investigations on decision making under risk.

Using mental rotation to evaluate the benefits of stereoscopic displays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aitsiselmi, Y.; Holliman, N. S.

2009-02-01

Context: The idea behind stereoscopic displays is to create the illusion of depth and this concept could have many practical applications. A common spatial ability test involves mental rotation. Therefore a mental rotation task should be easier if being undertaken on a stereoscopic screen. Aim: The aim of this project is to evaluate stereoscopic displays (3D screen) and to assess whether they are better for performing a certain task than over a 2D display. A secondary aim was to perform a similar study but replicating the conditions of using a stereoscopic mobile phone screen. Method: We devised a spatial ability test involving a mental rotation task that participants were asked to complete on either a 3D or 2D screen. We also design a similar task to simulate the experience on a stereoscopic cell phone. The participants' error rate and response times were recorded. Using statistical analysis, we then compared the error rate and response times of the groups to see if there were any significant differences. Results: We found that the participants got better scores if they were doing the task on a stereoscopic screen as opposed to a 2D screen. However there was no statistically significant difference in the time it took them to complete the task. We also found similar results for 3D cell phone display condition. Conclusions: The results show that the extra depth information given by a stereoscopic display makes it easier to mentally rotate a shape as depth cues are readily available. These results could have many useful implications to certain industries.

Mental Fatigue and Physical and Cognitive Performance During a 2-Bout Exercise Test.

PubMed

Vrijkotte, Susan; Meeusen, Romain; Vandervaeren, Cloe; Buyse, Luk; Cutsem, Jeroen van; Pattyn, Nathalie; Roelands, Bart

2018-04-01

The 2-bout exercise protocol has been developed to diagnose nonfunctional overreaching and the "overtraining syndrome." It consists of 2 maximal exercise bouts separated by 4 hours. Mental fatigue negatively influences performance, but the effects of its occurrence during the 2-bout exercise protocol have never been investigated. The aim of this study was to examine whether mental fatigue (induced during the rest period) influences physical and cognitive performance during/after the second exercise bout of the 2-bout exercise protocol. Nine healthy, well-trained male cyclists participated in a single-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study. The intervention consisted of either 1.5-hour rest (control) or performing a computer-based Stroop task to induce mental fatigue. Cognitive (Eriksen Flanker task), physiological (lactate, maximum heart rate, and maximum wattage), and subjective data (mental fatigue-visual analog scale, Profile of Mood States, and rating of perceived exertion) were gathered. Ratings of fatigue, tension, and mental fatigue were affected in the mental fatigue condition (P < .05). Neither physiological nor cognitive differences were found between conditions. Ratings of mental fatigue were already affected after the first maximum exercise test (P < .05). Neither physical nor cognitive performance was affected by mental fatigue, but subjective ratings did reveal significant differences. It is recommended to exclude mentally challenging tasks during the 2-bout exercise protocol rest period to ascertain unaffected subjective test results. This study should be repeated in athletes diagnosed with nonfunctional overreaching/overtraining syndrome.

The 'Reading the Mind in Films' Task [child version]: complex emotion and mental state recognition in children with and without autism spectrum conditions.

PubMed

Golan, Ofer; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Golan, Yael

2008-09-01

Children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have difficulties recognizing others' emotions. Research has mostly focused on basic emotion recognition, devoid of context. This study reports the results of a new task, assessing recognition of complex emotions and mental states in social contexts. An ASC group (n = 23) was compared to a general population control group (n = 24). Children with ASC performed lower than controls on the task. Using task scores, more than 87% of the participants were allocated to their group. This new test quantifies complex emotion and mental state recognition in life-like situations. Our findings reveal that children with ASC have residual difficulties in this aspect of empathy. The use of language-based compensatory strategies for emotion recognition is discussed.

Gunslingers, poker players, and chickens 3: Decision making under mental performance pressure in junior elite athletes.

PubMed

Parkin, Beth L; Walsh, Vincent

2017-01-01

Having investigated the decision making of world class elite and subelite athletes (see Parkin and Walsh, 2017; Parkin et al., 2017), here the abilities of those at the earliest stage of entry to elite sport are examined. Junior elite athletes have undergone initial national selection and are younger than athletes examined previously (mean age 13 years). Decision making under mental pressure is explored in this sample. During performance an athlete encounters a wide array of mental pressures; these include the psychological impact of errors, negative feedback, and requirements for sustained attention in a dynamic environment (Anshel and Wells, 2000; Mellalieu et al., 2009). Such factors increase the cognitive demands of the athletes, inducing distracting anxiety-related thoughts known as rumination (Beilock and Gray, 2007). Mental pressure has been shown to reduce performance of decision-making tasks where reward and loss contingencies are explicit, with a shift toward increased risk taking (Pabst et al., 2013; Starcke et al., 2011). Mental pressure has been shown to be detrimental to decision-making speed in comparison to physical stress, highlighting the importance of considering a range of different pressures encountered by athletes (Hepler, 2015). To investigate the influence of mental pressure on key indicators of decision making in junior elite athletes. This chapter concludes a wider project examining decision making across developmental stages in elite sport. The work further explores how psychological insights can be applied in an elite sporting environment and in particular tailored to the requirements of junior athletes. Seventeen junior elite athletes (10 males, mean age: 13.80 years) enrolled on a national youth athletic development program participated in the study. Performance across three categories of decision making was assessed under conditions of low and high mental pressure. Decision making under risk was measured via the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT; Rogers et al., 1999), decision making under uncertainty via the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART; Lejuez et al., 2002), and fast reactive responses to perceptual stimuli via the Visual Search Task (Treisman, 1982). Mental pressure was induced with the addition of a concurrent verbal memory task, used to increase cognitive load and mimic the distracting effects of anxiety-related rumination. In junior elite athletes, fast reactive responses to perceptual stimuli (on the Visual Search Task) were slower under conditions of mental pressure. For decision making under risk there was an interaction of mental pressure and gender on the amount of points gambled, under pressure there was a higher level of risk taking in male athletes compared to females. There was no influence of mental pressure on decision making under uncertainity. There were no significant correlations in the degree to which individual's responses changed under pressure across the three measures of decision making. When assessing the applicability of results based on group averages there were no junior elite athletes who showed an "average" response (within 1SD of the mean) to mental pressure across all the three decision-making tasks. Mental pressure affects decision making in a sample of junior elite athletes, with a slowing of response times, and modulations to performance of decision making under risk that have a high requirement for working memory. In relation to sport, these findings suggest that novel situations that place high cognitive demands on the athlete may be particularly influenced by mental pressure. The application of this work in junior elite athletes included the feedback of individual results and the implementation of a decision-making taxonomy. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An investigation of mental imagery in bipolar disorder: Exploring "the mind's eye".

PubMed

Di Simplicio, Martina; Renner, Fritz; Blackwell, Simon E; Mitchell, Heather; Stratford, Hannah J; Watson, Peter; Myers, Nick; Nobre, Anna C; Lau-Zhu, Alex; Holmes, Emily A

2016-12-01

Mental imagery abnormalities occur across psychopathologies and are hypothesized to drive emotional difficulties in bipolar disorder (BD). A comprehensive assessment of mental imagery in BD is lacking. We aimed to test whether (i) mental imagery abnormalities (abnormalities in cognitive stages and subjective domains) occur in BD relative to non-clinical controls; and (ii) to determine the specificity of any abnormalities in BD relative to depression and anxiety disorders. Participants included 54 subjects in the BD group (depressed/euthymic; n=27 in each subgroup), subjects with unipolar depression (n=26), subjects with anxiety disorders (n=25), and non-clinical controls (n=27) matched for age, gender, ethnicity, education, and premorbid IQ. Experimental tasks assessed cognitive (non-emotional) measures of mental imagery (cognitive stages). Questionnaires, experimental tasks, and a phenomenological interview assessed subjective domains including spontaneous imagery use, interpretation bias, and emotional mental imagery. (i) Compared to non-clinical controls, the BD combined group reported a greater impact of intrusive prospective imagery in daily life, more vivid and "real" negative images (prospective imagery task), and higher self-involvement (picture-word task). The BD combined group showed no clear abnormalities in cognitive stages of mental imagery. (ii) When depressed individuals with BD were compared to the depressed or anxious clinical control groups, no significant differences remained-across all groups, imagery differences were associated with affective lability and anxiety. Compared to non-clinical controls, BD is characterized by abnormalities in aspects of emotional mental imagery within the context of otherwise normal cognitive aspects. When matched for depression and anxiety, these abnormalities are not specific to BD-rather, imagery may reflect a transdiagnostic marker of emotional psychopathology. © 2016 Medical Research Council. Bipolar Disorders Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Discriminating autism spectrum disorders from schizophrenia by investigation of mental state attribution on an on-line mentalizing task: A review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Bliksted, Vibeke; Ubukata, Shiho; Koelkebeck, Katja

2016-03-01

In recent years, theories of how humans form a "theory of mind" of others ("mentalizing") have increasingly been called upon to explain impairments in social interaction in mental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and schizophrenia. However, it remains unclear whether tasks that assess impairments in mentalizing can also contribute to determining differential deficits across disorders, which may be important for early identification and treatment. Paradigms that challenge mentalizing abilities in an on-line, real-life fashion have been considered helpful in detecting disease-specific deficits. In this review, we are therefore summarizing results of studies that assess the attribution of mental states using an animated triangles task. Behavioral as well as brain imaging studies in ASD and schizophrenia have been taken into account. While for neuroimaging methods, data are sparse and investigation methods inconsistent, we performed a meta-analysis of behavioral data to directly investigate performance deficits across disorders. Here, more impaired abilities in the appropriate description of interactions were found in ASD patients than in patients with schizophrenia. Moreover, an analysis of first-episode (FES) versus longer lasting (LLS) schizophrenia showed that usage of mental state terms was reduced in the LLS group. In our review and meta-analysis, we identified performance differences between ASD and schizophrenia that seem helpful in targeting differential deficits, taking into account different stages of schizophrenia. However, to tackle the deficits in more detail, studies are needed that directly compare patients with ASD and schizophrenia using behavioral or neuroimaging methods with more standardized task versions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

How we can measure the non-driving-task engagement in automated driving: Comparing flow experience and workload.

PubMed

Ko, Sang Min; Ji, Yong Gu

2018-02-01

In automated driving, a driver can completely concentrate on non-driving-related tasks (NDRTs). This study investigated the flow experience of a driver who concentrated on NDRTs and tasks that induce mental workload under conditional automation. Participants performed NDRTs under different demand levels: a balanced demand-skill level (fit condition) to induce flow, low-demand level to induce boredom, and high-demand level to induce anxiety. In addition, they performed the additional N-Back task, which artificially induces mental workload. The results showed participants had the longest reaction time when they indicated the highest flow score, and had the longest gaze-on time, road-fixation time, hands-on time, and take-over time under the fit condition. Significant differences were not observed in the driver reaction times in the fit condition and the additional N-Back task, indicating that performing NDRTs that induce a high flow experience could influence driver reaction time similar to performing tasks with a high mental workload. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Effects of mental tasks on the cardiorespiratory synchronization.

PubMed

Zhang, Jianbao; Yu, Xiaolin; Xie, Dongdong

2010-01-31

The cardiovascular and respiratory systems are functionally related to each other, but it is unclear if the cerebral cortex can affect their interaction. The effect of a mental task on the synchronization between cardiovascular and respiratory systems was investigated in the article. Electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG) and respiratory signal (RES) were collected from 29 healthy male subjects during the mental arithmetic (MA) task and the synchrogram was used to estimate the strength of cardiorespiratory synchronization. Our results showed that MA task significantly increased the breath rate, the heart rate and the EEG power spectral energy in theta band at FC3, FC4 and C4 electrodes (p<0.01), decreased the duration of cardiorespiratory synchronization epochs (p<0.05). Moreover the duration of cardiorespiratory synchronization epochs during MA task was negatively correlated with the EEG power spectral energy in theta band at FC3, FC4 and C4 electrodes and the sympathetic activity (p<0.05). The results demonstrated that ANS and cerebral cortex are implicated in the changes of cardiorespiratory synchronization during MA task. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Collaborative Efforts: Developing Clinical Experiences for Nursing Students in Public Sector Settings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carmichael, Tyra; And Others

1993-01-01

The Nurse Academic Collaboration Task Force was formed by the Texas Mental Health and Mental Retardation Commissioner to facilitate linkages between schools of nursing and state facilities, thereby improving the quality of nursing services and assisting in nurse recruitment for state facilities. The task force has identified practice opportunities…

Mental Load in Listening, Speech Shadowing and Simultaneous Interpreting: A Pupillometric Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tommola, Jorma; Hyona, Jukka

This study investigated the sensitivity of the pupillary response as an indicator of average mental load during three language processing tasks of varying complexity. The tasks included: (1) listening (without any subsequent comprehension testing); (2) speech shadowing (repeating a message in the same language while listening to it); and (3)…

Cognitive Task Analysis of Prioritization in Air Traffic Control.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Redding, Richard E.; And Others

A cognitive task analysis was performed to analyze the key cognitive components of the en route air traffic controllers' jobs. The goals were to ascertain expert mental models and decision-making strategies and to identify important differences in controller knowledge, skills, and mental models as a function of expertise. Four groups of…

Visual scanning behavior and pilot workload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harris, R. L., Sr.; Tole, J. R.; Stephens, A. T.; Ephrath, A. R.

1981-01-01

An experimental paradigm and a set of results which demonstrate a relationship between the level of performance on a skilled man-machine control task, the skill of the operator, the level of mental difficulty induced by an additional task imposed on the basic control task, and visual scanning performance. During a constant, simulated piloting task, visual scanning of instruments was found to vary as a function of the level of difficulty of a verbal mental loading task. The average dwell time of each fixation on the pilot's primary instrument increased as a function of the estimated skill level of the pilots, with novices being affected by the loading task much more than the experts. The results suggest that visual scanning of instruments in a controlled task may be an indicator of both workload and skill.

The influence of spatial ability and experience on performance during spaceship rendezvous and docking.

PubMed

Du, Xiaoping; Zhang, Yijing; Tian, Yu; Huang, Weifen; Wu, Bin; Zhang, Jingyu

2015-01-01

Manual rendezvous and docking (manual RVD) is a challenging space task for astronauts. Previous research showed a correlation between spatial ability and manual RVD skills among participants at early stages of training, but paid less attention to experts. Therefore, this study tried to explore the role of spatial ability in manual RVD skills in two groups of trainees, one relatively inexperienced and the other experienced operators. Additionally, mental rotation has been proven essential in RVD and was tested in this study among 27 male participants, 15 novices, and 12 experts. The participants performed manual RVD tasks in a high fidelity simulator. Results showed that experience moderated the relation between mental rotation ability and manual RVD performance. On one hand, novices with high mental rotation ability tended to perform that RVD task more successfully; on the other hand, experts with high mental rotation ability showed not only no performance advantage in the final stage of the RVD task, but had certain disadvantages in their earlier processes. Both theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

The influence of spatial ability and experience on performance during spaceship rendezvous and docking

PubMed Central

Du, Xiaoping; Zhang, Yijing; Tian, Yu; Huang, Weifen; Wu, Bin; Zhang, Jingyu

2015-01-01

Manual rendezvous and docking (manual RVD) is a challenging space task for astronauts. Previous research showed a correlation between spatial ability and manual RVD skills among participants at early stages of training, but paid less attention to experts. Therefore, this study tried to explore the role of spatial ability in manual RVD skills in two groups of trainees, one relatively inexperienced and the other experienced operators. Additionally, mental rotation has been proven essential in RVD and was tested in this study among 27 male participants, 15 novices, and 12 experts. The participants performed manual RVD tasks in a high fidelity simulator. Results showed that experience moderated the relation between mental rotation ability and manual RVD performance. On one hand, novices with high mental rotation ability tended to perform that RVD task more successfully; on the other hand, experts with high mental rotation ability showed not only no performance advantage in the final stage of the RVD task, but had certain disadvantages in their earlier processes. Both theoretical and practical implications were discussed. PMID:26236252

Effects of Mental Load and Fatigue on Steady-State Evoked Potential Based Brain Computer Interface Tasks: A Comparison of Periodic Flickering and Motion-Reversal Based Visual Attention.

PubMed

Xie, Jun; Xu, Guanghua; Wang, Jing; Li, Min; Han, Chengcheng; Jia, Yaguang

Steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) based paradigm is a conventional BCI method with the advantages of high information transfer rate, high tolerance to artifacts and the robust performance across users. But the occurrence of mental load and fatigue when users stare at flickering stimuli is a critical problem in implementation of SSVEP-based BCIs. Based on electroencephalography (EEG) power indices α, θ, θ + α, ratio index θ/α and response properties of amplitude and SNR, this study quantitatively evaluated the mental load and fatigue in both of conventional flickering and the novel motion-reversal visual attention tasks. Results over nine subjects revealed significant mental load alleviation in motion-reversal task rather than flickering task. The interaction between factors of "stimulation type" and "fatigue level" also illustrated the motion-reversal stimulation as a superior anti-fatigue solution for long-term BCI operation. Taken together, our work provided an objective method favorable for the design of more practically applicable steady-state evoked potential based BCIs.

Improving mental task classification by adding high frequency band information.

PubMed

Zhang, Li; He, Wei; He, Chuanhong; Wang, Ping

2010-02-01

Features extracted from delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma bands spanning low frequency range are commonly used to classify scalp-recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) for designing brain-computer interface (BCI) and higher frequencies are often neglected as noise. In this paper, we implemented an experimental validation to demonstrate that high frequency components could provide helpful information for improving the performance of the mental task based BCI. Electromyography (EMG) and electrooculography (EOG) artifacts were removed by using blind source separation (BSS) techniques. Frequency band powers and asymmetry ratios from the high frequency band (40-100 Hz) together with those from the lower frequency bands were used to represent EEG features. Finally, Fisher discriminant analysis (FDA) combining with Mahalanobis distance were used as the classifier. In this study, four types of classifications were performed using EEG signals recorded from four subjects during five mental tasks. We obtained significantly higher classification accuracy by adding the high frequency band features compared to using the low frequency bands alone, which demonstrated that the information in high frequency components from scalp-recorded EEG is valuable for the mental task based BCI.

A Novel Design of 4-Class BCI Using Two Binary Classifiers and Parallel Mental Tasks

PubMed Central

Geng, Tao; Gan, John Q.; Dyson, Matthew; Tsui, Chun SL; Sepulveda, Francisco

2008-01-01

A novel 4-class single-trial brain computer interface (BCI) based on two (rather than four or more) binary linear discriminant analysis (LDA) classifiers is proposed, which is called a “parallel BCI.” Unlike other BCIs where mental tasks are executed and classified in a serial way one after another, the parallel BCI uses properly designed parallel mental tasks that are executed on both sides of the subject body simultaneously, which is the main novelty of the BCI paradigm used in our experiments. Each of the two binary classifiers only classifies the mental tasks executed on one side of the subject body, and the results of the two binary classifiers are combined to give the result of the 4-class BCI. Data was recorded in experiments with both real movement and motor imagery in 3 able-bodied subjects. Artifacts were not detected or removed. Offline analysis has shown that, in some subjects, the parallel BCI can generate a higher accuracy than a conventional 4-class BCI, although both of them have used the same feature selection and classification algorithms. PMID:18584040

Heuristics in Managing Complex Clinical Decision Tasks in Experts’ Decision Making

PubMed Central

Islam, Roosan; Weir, Charlene; Del Fiol, Guilherme

2016-01-01

Background Clinical decision support is a tool to help experts make optimal and efficient decisions. However, little is known about the high level of abstractions in the thinking process for the experts. Objective The objective of the study is to understand how clinicians manage complexity while dealing with complex clinical decision tasks. Method After approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), three clinical experts were interviewed the transcripts from these interviews were analyzed. Results We found five broad categories of strategies by experts for managing complex clinical decision tasks: decision conflict, mental projection, decision trade-offs, managing uncertainty and generating rule of thumb. Conclusion Complexity is created by decision conflicts, mental projection, limited options and treatment uncertainty. Experts cope with complexity in a variety of ways, including using efficient and fast decision strategies to simplify complex decision tasks, mentally simulating outcomes and focusing on only the most relevant information. Application Understanding complex decision making processes can help design allocation based on the complexity of task for clinical decision support design. PMID:27275019

Heuristics in Managing Complex Clinical Decision Tasks in Experts' Decision Making.

PubMed

Islam, Roosan; Weir, Charlene; Del Fiol, Guilherme

2014-09-01

Clinical decision support is a tool to help experts make optimal and efficient decisions. However, little is known about the high level of abstractions in the thinking process for the experts. The objective of the study is to understand how clinicians manage complexity while dealing with complex clinical decision tasks. After approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), three clinical experts were interviewed the transcripts from these interviews were analyzed. We found five broad categories of strategies by experts for managing complex clinical decision tasks: decision conflict, mental projection, decision trade-offs, managing uncertainty and generating rule of thumb. Complexity is created by decision conflicts, mental projection, limited options and treatment uncertainty. Experts cope with complexity in a variety of ways, including using efficient and fast decision strategies to simplify complex decision tasks, mentally simulating outcomes and focusing on only the most relevant information. Understanding complex decision making processes can help design allocation based on the complexity of task for clinical decision support design.

A reaction time advantage for calculating beliefs over public representations signals domain specificity for 'theory of mind'.

PubMed

Cohen, Adam S; German, Tamsin C

2010-06-01

In a task where participants' overt task was to track the location of an object across a sequence of events, reaction times to unpredictable probes requiring an inference about a social agent's beliefs about the location of that object were obtained. Reaction times to false belief situations were faster than responses about the (false) contents of a map showing the location of the object (Experiment 1) and about the (false) direction of an arrow signaling the location of the object (Experiment 2). These results are consistent with developmental, neuro-imaging and neuropsychological evidence that there exist domain specific mechanisms within human cognition for encoding and reasoning about mental states. Specialization of these mechanisms may arise from either core cognitive architecture or via the accumulation of expertise in the social domain.

Effects of chicken essence on recovery from mental fatigue in healthy males

PubMed Central

Yamano, Emi; Tanaka, Masaaki; Ishii, Akira; Tsuruoka, Nobuo; Abe, Keiichi; Watanabe, Yasuyoshi

2013-01-01

Background Fatigue is a common symptom in modern society. There has been a recent resurgence of interest in traditional remedies for fatigue. Chicken essence, which is rich in anserine and carnosine, has been widely taken in Asian countries as a traditional remedy with various aims, including attenuation of physical and mental fatigue. However, the evidence for its efficacy specifically for mental fatigue remains unclear. We examined the effect of essence of chicken on mental fatigue in humans, using our established fatigue-inducing task and evaluation methods. Material/Methods In this placebo-controlled crossover study, 20 healthy male volunteers were randomized to receive daily oral administration of essence of chicken or placebo drink provided by Cerebos Pacific Ltd. via Suntory holdings Ltd. for 4 weeks. The participants performed 2-back test trials as a fatigue-inducing mental task and then had a rest session. Just before and after each session, they completed cognitive task trials focusing on selective attention to evaluate the level of mental fatigue. Results After essence of chicken intake for 1 and 4 weeks, the reaction times on the cognitive task trials after the rest session were significantly shorter than those at baseline, and significant changes were not observed with placebo intake. The reaction times before and after the fatigue-inducing session were not altered by either essence of chicken or placebo intake. Conclusions We showed that daily intake of essence of chicken could be effective for the recovery from mental fatigue and is a promising candidate for use as an anti-fatigue food. PMID:23831862

Processing deficits in monitoring analog and digital displays: Implications for attentional theory and mental-state estimation research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Payne, David G.; Gunther, Virginia A. L.

1988-01-01

Subjects performed short term memory tasks, involving both spatial and verbal components, and a visual monitoring task involving either analog or digital display formats. These two tasks (memory vs. monitoring) were performed both singly and in conjunction. Contrary to expectations derived from multiple resource theories of attentional processes, there was no evidence that when the two tasks involved the same cognitive codes (i.e., either both spatial or both verbal/linguistics) there was more of a dual task performance decrement than when the two tasks employed different cognitive codes/processes. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of attentional processes and also for research in mental state estimation.

Spectral feature extraction of EEG signals and pattern recognition during mental tasks of 2-D cursor movements for BCI using SVM and ANN.

PubMed

Bascil, M Serdar; Tesneli, Ahmet Y; Temurtas, Feyzullah

2016-09-01

Brain computer interface (BCI) is a new communication way between man and machine. It identifies mental task patterns stored in electroencephalogram (EEG). So, it extracts brain electrical activities recorded by EEG and transforms them machine control commands. The main goal of BCI is to make available assistive environmental devices for paralyzed people such as computers and makes their life easier. This study deals with feature extraction and mental task pattern recognition on 2-D cursor control from EEG as offline analysis approach. The hemispherical power density changes are computed and compared on alpha-beta frequency bands with only mental imagination of cursor movements. First of all, power spectral density (PSD) features of EEG signals are extracted and high dimensional data reduced by principle component analysis (PCA) and independent component analysis (ICA) which are statistical algorithms. In the last stage, all features are classified with two types of support vector machine (SVM) which are linear and least squares (LS-SVM) and three different artificial neural network (ANN) structures which are learning vector quantization (LVQ), multilayer neural network (MLNN) and probabilistic neural network (PNN) and mental task patterns are successfully identified via k-fold cross validation technique.

Applying systems thinking to task shifting for mental health using lay providers: a review of the evidence.

PubMed

Javadi, D; Feldhaus, I; Mancuso, A; Ghaffar, A

2017-01-01

This paper seeks to review the available evidence to determine whether a systems approach is employed in the implementation and evaluation of task shifting for mental health using lay providers in low- and middle-income countries, and to highlight system-wide effects of task-shifting strategies in order to better inform efforts to strength community mental health systems. Pubmed, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library databases were searched. Articles were screened by two independent reviewers with a third reviewer resolving discrepancies. Two stages of screens were done to ensure sensitivity. Studies were analysed using the World Health Organization's building blocks framework with the addition of a community building block, and systems thinking characteristics to determine the extent to which system-wide effects had been considered. Thirty studies were included. Almost all studies displayed positive findings on mental health using task shifting. One study showed no effect. No studies explicitly employed systems thinking tools, but some demonstrated systems thinking characteristics, such as exploring various stakeholder perspectives, capturing unintended consequences, and looking across sectors for system-wide impact. Twenty-five of the 30 studies captured elements other than the most directly relevant building blocks of service delivery and health workforce. There is a lack of systematic approaches to exploring complexity in the evaluation of task-shifting interventions. Systems thinking tools should support evidence-informed decision making for a more complete understanding of community-based systems strengthening interventions for mental health.

Positive emotion inducement modulates cardiovascular responses caused by mental work.

PubMed

Liu, Xinxin; Ishimatsu, Kazuma; Sotoyama, Midori; Iwakiri, Kazuyuki

2016-11-16

Positive emotion is considered as an important factor related to health-relevant biological processes, including cardiovascular responses. To explore the possibility of using positive emotion as a tool to manage cardiovascular response of white-collar workers, we examined the influence on cardiovascular response of positive emotion inducement before a mental work. Seventeen healthy males participated and performed a 10-min, PC-based Stroop color word task as their mental work. Before the task, 60 pleasant pictures chosen from the International Affective Picture System were presented in a random order under a positive emotion inducement condition while a gray screen was presented under a control condition. A 30-min relaxation period after completing the task was provided to examine the aftereffects of positive emotion inducement. Throughout these periods, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial blood pressure, heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, and total peripheral resistance were measured continuously. Blood pressure and total peripheral resistance were lower during the picture presentation period under the positive emotion inducement period compared to the control condition. All indices did not differ during the color word task period. During the relaxation period after the task, however, blood pressure and total peripheral resistance were lower under the positive emotion inducement condition compared to the control condition. Positive emotion inducement before a mental work beneficially modulates cardiovascular responses, suggesting that positive emotion inducement may be a useful tool to manage the cardiovascular response to mental work.

Formative research on a teacher accompaniment model to promote youth mental health in Haiti: Relevance to mental health task-sharing in low-resource school settings

PubMed Central

Eustache, Eddy; Gerbasi, Margaret E.; Severe, Jennifer; Fils-Aimé, J. Reginald; Smith Fawzi, Mary C.; Raviola, Giuseppe J.; Darghouth, Sarah; Boyd, Kate; Thérosmé, Tatiana; Legha, Rupinder; Pierre, Ermaze L.; Affricot, Emmeline; Alcindor, Yoldie; Grelotti, David J.; Becker, Anne E.

2017-01-01

Background Task-sharing with teachers to promote youth mental health is a promising but underdeveloped strategy in improving care access in low-income countries. Aims To assess feasibility, acceptability, and utility of the teacher accompaniment phase of a school-based teacher accompagnateur pilot study (TAPS) in Haiti. Methods We assigned student participants, ages 18–22 (n=120) to a teacher participant (n=22) within four Haitian schools; we instructed participants to arrange meetings with their assigned counterparts to discuss mental health treatment, academic skills, and/or well-being. We measured student and teacher perceived feasibility, acceptability, and utility of meetings with self-report Likert-style questions. We examined overall program feasibility by the percentage of students with a documented meeting, acceptability by a composite measure of student satisfaction, and utility by the percentage with identified mental health need who discussed treatment with a teacher. Results Favorable ratings support feasibility, acceptability, and utility of teacher-accompagnateur meetings with students. The majority of students (54%) met with a teacher. Among students with an identified mental disorder, 43.2% discussed treatment during a meeting. Conclusions This accompaniment approach to mental health task-sharing with teachers provided a school-based opportunity for students with mental health need to discuss treatment and has potential relevance to other low-income settings. PMID:28367718

Formative research on a teacher accompaniment model to promote youth mental health in Haiti: Relevance to mental health task-sharing in low-resource school settings.

PubMed

Eustache, Eddy; Gerbasi, Margaret E; Severe, Jennifer; Fils-Aimé, J Reginald; Smith Fawzi, Mary C; Raviola, Giuseppe J; Darghouth, Sarah; Boyd, Kate; Thérosmé, Tatiana; Legha, Rupinder; Pierre, Ermaze L; Affricot, Emmeline; Alcindor, Yoldie; Grelotti, David J; Becker, Anne E

2017-06-01

Task-sharing with teachers to promote youth mental health is a promising but underdeveloped strategy in improving care access in low-income countries. To assess feasibility, acceptability and utility of the teacher accompaniment phase of a school-based Teacher- Accompagnateur Pilot Study (TAPS) in Haiti. We assigned student participants, aged 18-22 years ( n = 120), to teacher participants ( n = 22) within four Haitian schools; we instructed participants to arrange meetings with their assigned counterparts to discuss mental health treatment, academic skills, and/or well-being. We measured student and teacher perceived feasibility, acceptability and utility of meetings with self-report Likert-style questions. We examined overall program feasibility by the percentage of students with a documented meeting, acceptability by a composite measure of student satisfaction and utility by the percentage with identified mental health need who discussed treatment with a teacher. Favorable ratings support feasibility, acceptability and utility of teacher- accompagnateur meetings with students. The majority of students (54%) met with a teacher. Among students with an identified mental disorder, 43.2% discussed treatment during a meeting. This accompaniment approach to mental health task-sharing with teachers provided a school-based opportunity for students with mental health need to discuss treatment and has potential relevance to other low-income settings.

Investigating the effects of a sensorimotor rhythm-based BCI training on the cortical activity elicited by mental imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toppi, J.; Risetti, M.; Quitadamo, L. R.; Petti, M.; Bianchi, L.; Salinari, S.; Babiloni, F.; Cincotti, F.; Mattia, D.; Astolfi, L.

2014-06-01

Objective. It is well known that to acquire sensorimotor (SMR)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) control requires a training period before users can achieve their best possible performances. Nevertheless, the effect of this training procedure on the cortical activity related to the mental imagery ability still requires investigation to be fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to gain insights into the effects of SMR-based BCI training on the cortical spectral activity associated with the performance of different mental imagery tasks. Approach. Linear cortical estimation and statistical brain mapping techniques were applied on high-density EEG data acquired from 18 healthy participants performing three different mental imagery tasks. Subjects were divided in two groups, one of BCI trained subjects, according to their previous exposure (at least six months before this study) to motor imagery-based BCI training, and one of subjects who were naive to any BCI paradigms. Main results. Cortical activation maps obtained for trained and naive subjects indicated different spectral and spatial activity patterns in response to the mental imagery tasks. Long-term effects of the previous SMR-based BCI training were observed on the motor cortical spectral activity specific to the BCI trained motor imagery task (simple hand movements) and partially generalized to more complex motor imagery task (playing tennis). Differently, mental imagery with spatial attention and memory content could elicit recognizable cortical spectral activity even in subjects completely naive to (BCI) training. Significance. The present findings contribute to our understanding of BCI technology usage and might be of relevance in those clinical conditions when training to master a BCI application is challenging or even not possible.

Maternal Talk in Cognitive Development: Relations between Psychological Lexicon, Semantic Development, Empathy, and Temperament

PubMed Central

Rollo, Dolores; Sulla, Francesco

2016-01-01

In this study, we investigated the relationship between mothers' psychological lexicon and children's cognitive and socio-emotive development as assessed through conceptual and semantic understanding tasks, in addition to the traditional tasks of theory of mind. Currently, there is considerable evidence to suggest that the frequency of mothers' mental state words used in mother-child picture-book reading is linked with children's theory of mind skills. Furthermore, mothers' use of cognitive terms is more strongly related to children's theory of mind performances than the mothers' references to other mental states, such as desires or emotions (Rollo and Buttiglieri, 2009). Current literature has established that early maternal input is related to later child mental state understanding; however it has not yet clarified which maternal terms are most useful for the socio-emotional and cognitive development of the child, and which aspect of the cognitive development benefits from the mother-child interaction. The present study addresses this issue and focuses on the relationship between mothers' mental state talk and children's behavior in conceptual and semantic tasks, and in a theory of mind task. In this study fifty pairs consisting of mothers and their 3 to 6-year-old children participated in two sessions: (1) The mothers read a picture book to their children. To assess the maternal psychological lexicon, their narrative was codified according to the categories of mental state references used in literature: perceptual, emotional, volitional, cognitive, moral, and communicative. (2) After a few days, the conceptual and semantic skills of the children (tasks of contextualization and classification, memory, and definition of words) and their psychological lexicon were assessed. The results suggest close links between the frequency and variety of mothers' mental state words and some semantic and conceptual skills of children. PMID:27047421

Investigating the effects of a sensorimotor rhythm-based BCI training on the cortical activity elicited by mental imagery.

PubMed

Toppi, J; Risetti, M; Quitadamo, L R; Petti, M; Bianchi, L; Salinari, S; Babiloni, F; Cincotti, F; Mattia, D; Astolfi, L

2014-06-01

It is well known that to acquire sensorimotor (SMR)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) control requires a training period before users can achieve their best possible performances. Nevertheless, the effect of this training procedure on the cortical activity related to the mental imagery ability still requires investigation to be fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to gain insights into the effects of SMR-based BCI training on the cortical spectral activity associated with the performance of different mental imagery tasks. Linear cortical estimation and statistical brain mapping techniques were applied on high-density EEG data acquired from 18 healthy participants performing three different mental imagery tasks. Subjects were divided in two groups, one of BCI trained subjects, according to their previous exposure (at least six months before this study) to motor imagery-based BCI training, and one of subjects who were naive to any BCI paradigms. Cortical activation maps obtained for trained and naive subjects indicated different spectral and spatial activity patterns in response to the mental imagery tasks. Long-term effects of the previous SMR-based BCI training were observed on the motor cortical spectral activity specific to the BCI trained motor imagery task (simple hand movements) and partially generalized to more complex motor imagery task (playing tennis). Differently, mental imagery with spatial attention and memory content could elicit recognizable cortical spectral activity even in subjects completely naive to (BCI) training. The present findings contribute to our understanding of BCI technology usage and might be of relevance in those clinical conditions when training to master a BCI application is challenging or even not possible.

Maternal Talk in Cognitive Development: Relations between Psychological Lexicon, Semantic Development, Empathy, and Temperament.

PubMed

Rollo, Dolores; Sulla, Francesco

2016-01-01

In this study, we investigated the relationship between mothers' psychological lexicon and children's cognitive and socio-emotive development as assessed through conceptual and semantic understanding tasks, in addition to the traditional tasks of theory of mind. Currently, there is considerable evidence to suggest that the frequency of mothers' mental state words used in mother-child picture-book reading is linked with children's theory of mind skills. Furthermore, mothers' use of cognitive terms is more strongly related to children's theory of mind performances than the mothers' references to other mental states, such as desires or emotions (Rollo and Buttiglieri, 2009). Current literature has established that early maternal input is related to later child mental state understanding; however it has not yet clarified which maternal terms are most useful for the socio-emotional and cognitive development of the child, and which aspect of the cognitive development benefits from the mother-child interaction. The present study addresses this issue and focuses on the relationship between mothers' mental state talk and children's behavior in conceptual and semantic tasks, and in a theory of mind task. In this study fifty pairs consisting of mothers and their 3 to 6-year-old children participated in two sessions: (1) The mothers read a picture book to their children. To assess the maternal psychological lexicon, their narrative was codified according to the categories of mental state references used in literature: perceptual, emotional, volitional, cognitive, moral, and communicative. (2) After a few days, the conceptual and semantic skills of the children (tasks of contextualization and classification, memory, and definition of words) and their psychological lexicon were assessed. The results suggest close links between the frequency and variety of mothers' mental state words and some semantic and conceptual skills of children.

Social representations and contextual adjustments as two distinct components of the Theory of Mind brain network: Evidence from the REMICS task.

PubMed

Lavoie, Marie-Audrey; Vistoli, Damien; Sutliff, Stephanie; Jackson, Philip L; Achim, Amélie M

2016-08-01

Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the ability to infer the mental states of others. Behavioral measures of ToM usually present information about both a character and the context in which this character is placed, and these different pieces of information can be used to infer the character's mental states. A set of brain regions designated as the ToM brain network is recognized to support (ToM) inferences. Different brain regions within that network could however support different ToM processes. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study aimed to distinguish the brain regions supporting two aspects inherent to many ToM tasks, i.e., the ability to infer or represent mental states and the ability to use the context to adjust these inferences. Nineteen healthy subjects were scanned during the REMICS task, a novel task designed to orthogonally manipulate mental state inferences (as opposed to physical inferences) and contextual adjustments of inferences (as opposed to inferences that do not require contextual adjustments). We observed that mental state inferences and contextual adjustments, which are important aspects of most behavioral ToM tasks, rely on distinct brain regions or subregions within the classical brain network activated in previous ToM research. Notably, an interesting dissociation emerged within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and temporo-parietal junctions (TPJ) such that the inferior part of these brain regions responded to mental state inferences while the superior part of these brain regions responded to the requirement for contextual adjustments. This study provides evidence that the overall set of brain regions activated during ToM tasks supports different processes, and highlights that cognitive processes related to contextual adjustments have an important role in ToM and should be further studied. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reduced Attention Allocation during Short Periods of Partially Automated Driving: An Event-Related Potentials Study

PubMed Central

Solís-Marcos, Ignacio; Galvao-Carmona, Alejandro; Kircher, Katja

2017-01-01

Research on partially automated driving has revealed relevant problems with driving performance, particularly when drivers’ intervention is required (e.g., take-over when automation fails). Mental fatigue has commonly been proposed to explain these effects after prolonged automated drives. However, performance problems have also been reported after just a few minutes of automated driving, indicating that other factors may also be involved. We hypothesize that, besides mental fatigue, an underload effect of partial automation may also affect driver attention. In this study, such potential effect was investigated during short periods of partially automated and manual driving and at different speeds. Subjective measures of mental demand and vigilance and performance to a secondary task (an auditory oddball task) were used to assess driver attention. Additionally, modulations of some specific attention-related event-related potentials (ERPs, N1 and P3 components) were investigated. The mental fatigue effects associated with the time on task were also evaluated by using the same measurements. Twenty participants drove in a fixed-base simulator while performing an auditory oddball task that elicited the ERPs. Six conditions were presented (5–6 min each) combining three speed levels (low, comfortable and high) and two automation levels (manual and partially automated). The results showed that, when driving partially automated, scores in subjective mental demand and P3 amplitudes were lower than in the manual conditions. Similarly, P3 amplitude and self-reported vigilance levels decreased with the time on task. Based on previous studies, these findings might reflect a reduction in drivers’ attention resource allocation, presumably due to the underload effects of partial automation and to the mental fatigue associated with the time on task. Particularly, such underload effects on attention could explain the performance decrements after short periods of automated driving reported in other studies. However, further studies are needed to investigate this relationship in partial automation and in other automation levels. PMID:29163112

Effect of time span and task load on pilot mental workload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berg, S. L.; Sheridan, T. B.

1985-01-01

Two sets of experiments were run to examine how the mental workload of a pilot might be measured. The effects of continuous manual control activity versus discrete assigned mental tasks (including the length of time between receiving an assignment and executing it) were examined. The first experiment evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of measuring mental workload with an objective perforamance (altitude deviations) and five subjective ratings (activity level, complexity, difficulty, stress, and workload). The second set of experiments built upon the first set by increasing workload intensities and adding another performance measure: airspeed deviation. The results are discussed for both low and high experience pilots.

The Mental Number Line in Dyscalculia: Impaired Number Sense or Access From Symbolic Numbers?

PubMed

Lafay, Anne; St-Pierre, Marie-Catherine; Macoir, Joël

Numbers may be manipulated and represented mentally over a compressible number line oriented from left to right. According to numerous studies, one of the primary reasons for dyscalculia is related to improper understanding of the mental number line. Children with dyscalculia usually show difficulty when they have to place Arabic numbers on a physical number line. However, it remains unclear whether they have a deficit with the mental number line per se or a deficit with accessing it from nonsymbolic and/or symbolic numbers. Quebec French-speaking 8- to 9-year-old children with (24) and without (37) dyscalculia were assessed with transcoding tasks ( number-to-position and position-to-number) designed to assess the acuity of the mental number line with Arabic and spoken numbers as well as with analogic numerosities. Results showed that children with dyscalculia produced a larger percentage absolute error than children without mathematics difficulties in every task except the number-to-position transcoding task with analogic numerosities. Hence, these results suggested that children with dyscalculia do not have a general deficit of the mental number line but rather a deficit with accessing it from symbolic numbers.

Event-related desynchronization (ERD) in the alpha band during a hand mental rotation task.

PubMed

Chen, Xiaogang; Bin, Guangyu; Daly, Ian; Gao, Xiaorong

2013-04-29

Recent studies have demonstrated that mentally rotating the hands involves participants engaging in motor imagery processing. However, far less is known about the possible neurophysiological basis of such processing. To contribute to a better understanding of hand mental rotation processing, event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) methods were applied to electroencephalography (EEG) data collected from participants mentally rotating their hands. Time-frequency analyses revealed that alpha-band power suppression was larger over central-parietal regions. This is in accordance with motor imagery findings suggesting that the motor regions may be involved in processing or detection of kinaesthetic information. Furthermore, the presence of a significant negative correlation between reaction times (RTs) and alpha-band power suppression over central regions is illustrated. These findings are consistent with the neural efficiency hypothesis, which proposes the non-use of many brain regions irrelevant for the task performance as well as the more focused use of specific task-related regions in individuals with better performance. These results indicate that ERSP provides some independent insights into the mental rotation process and further confirms that parietal and motor cortices are involved in mental rotation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceived task complexity of trunk stability exercises.

PubMed

McPhee, Megan; Tucker, Kylie J; Wan, Alan; MacDonald, David A

2017-02-01

Perceived task complexity can impact participation in an exercise programme and the level of skill acquisition resulting from participation. Although trunk stability exercises are commonly included in the management of people with low back pain, potential differences in perceived task complexity between those exercises have not been investigated previously. To investigate the perceived task complexity following first time instruction of two common stability exercises: the abdominal brace and abdominal hollow. Cross-sectional. Twenty-four naïve healthy participants received instruction in the performance of an abdominal brace and an abdominal hollow with feedback. Participants rated their perceived task complexity (mental, physical, and temporal demand, performance, effort, frustration) for each exercise on the NASA-Task Load Index. The abdominal hollow was associated with higher perceived mental demand than the abdominal brace (p = 0.01), and required more time to learn (p < 0.01). The abdominal brace was associated with greater mental demand and frustration when performed after the abdominal hollow than before. This study has provided the first evidence for differences in perceived task complexity between two commonly used trunk stability exercises. Those differences in perceived task complexity may influence the selection of exercises intended to enhance the robustness of spinal stability. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language and False-Belief Task Performance in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Jeffrey Farrar, M; Seung, Hye Kyeung; Lee, Hyeonjin

2017-07-12

Language is related to false-belief (FB) understanding in both typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study examined the role of complementation and general language in FB understanding. Of interest was whether language plays similar or different roles in the groups' FB performance. Participants were 16 typically developing children (mean age = 5.0 years; mental age = 6.7) and 18 with ASD (mean age = 7.3 years; mental age = 8.3). Children were administered FB and language tasks (say- and think-complements), receptive and expressive vocabulary tests, and relative clauses. When mental age and receptive and expressive vocabulary were used as separate covariates, the typical control group outperformed the children with ASD in FB task performance. Chi-square analyses indicated that passing both complementation tasks was linked to the FB understanding of children with ASD. Children with ASD who passed FB tasks all passed say- and think-complement tasks. However, some children in the control group were able to pass the FB tasks, even if they failed the say- and think-complement tasks. The results indicate that children with ASD relied more on complement understanding to pass FB than typically developing children. Results are discussed regarding the developmental pathways for FB understanding.

Plausibility assessment of a 2-state self-paced mental task-based BCI using the no-control performance analysis.

PubMed

Faradji, Farhad; Ward, Rabab K; Birch, Gary E

2009-06-15

The feasibility of having a self-paced brain-computer interface (BCI) based on mental tasks is investigated. The EEG signals of four subjects performing five mental tasks each are used in the design of a 2-state self-paced BCI. The output of the BCI should only be activated when the subject performs a specific mental task and should remain inactive otherwise. For each subject and each task, the feature coefficient and the classifier that yield the best performance are selected, using the autoregressive coefficients as the features. The classifier with a zero false positive rate and the highest true positive rate is selected as the best classifier. The classifiers tested include: linear discriminant analysis, quadratic discriminant analysis, Mahalanobis discriminant analysis, support vector machine, and radial basis function neural network. The results show that: (1) some classifiers obtained the desired zero false positive rate; (2) the linear discriminant analysis classifier does not yield acceptable performance; (3) the quadratic discriminant analysis classifier outperforms the Mahalanobis discriminant analysis classifier and performs almost as well as the radial basis function neural network; and (4) the support vector machine classifier has the highest true positive rates but unfortunately has nonzero false positive rates in most cases.

Mental Task Evaluation for Hybrid NIRS-EEG Brain-Computer Interfaces

PubMed Central

Gupta, Rishabh; Falk, Tiago H.

2017-01-01

Based on recent electroencephalography (EEG) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) studies that showed that tasks such as motor imagery and mental arithmetic induce specific neural response patterns, we propose a hybrid brain-computer interface (hBCI) paradigm in which EEG and NIRS data are fused to improve binary classification performance. We recorded simultaneous NIRS-EEG data from nine participants performing seven mental tasks (word generation, mental rotation, subtraction, singing and navigation, and motor and face imagery). Classifiers were trained for each possible pair of tasks using (1) EEG features alone, (2) NIRS features alone, and (3) EEG and NIRS features combined, to identify the best task pairs and assess the usefulness of a multimodal approach. The NIRS-EEG approach led to an average increase in peak kappa of 0.03 when using features extracted from one-second windows (equivalent to an increase of 1.5% in classification accuracy for balanced classes). The increase was much stronger (0.20, corresponding to an 10% accuracy increase) when focusing on time windows of high NIRS performance. The EEG and NIRS analyses further unveiled relevant brain regions and important feature types. This work provides a basis for future NIRS-EEG hBCI studies aiming to improve classification performance toward more efficient and flexible BCIs. PMID:29181021

The role of the hippocampus in memory and mental construction.

PubMed

Sheldon, Signy; Levine, Brian

2016-04-01

Much has been learned about the processes that support the remembrance of past autobiographical episodes and their importance for a number of cognitive tasks. This work has focused on hippocampal contributions to constructing coherent mental representations of scenarios for these tasks, which has opened up new questions about the underlying hippocampal mechanisms. We propose a new framework to answer these questions, which incorporates task demands that prompt hippocampal contributions to mental construction, the online formation of such mental representations, and how these demands relate to the functional organization of the hippocampus. Synthesizing findings from autobiographical memory research, our framework suggests that the interaction of two task characteristics influences the recruitment of the hippocampus: (1) the degree of task open-endedness (quantified by the presence/absence of a retrieval framework) and (2) the degree to which the integration of perceptual details is required. These characteristics inform the relative weighting of anterior and posterior hippocampal involvement, following an organizational model in which the anterior and posterior hippocampus support constructions on the basis of conceptual and perceptual representations, respectively. The anticipated outcome of our framework is a refined understanding of hippocampal contributions to memory and to the host of related cognitive functions. © 2016 New York Academy of Sciences.

Taboo: Working memory and mental control in an interactive task

PubMed Central

Hansen, Whitney A.; Goldinger, Stephen D.

2014-01-01

Individual differences in working memory (WM) predict principled variation in tasks of reasoning, response time, memory, and other abilities. Theoretically, a central function of WM is keeping task-relevant information easily accessible while suppressing irrelevant information. The present experiment was a novel study of mental control, using performance in the game Taboo as a measure. We tested effects of WM capacity on several indices, including perseveration errors (repeating previous guesses or clues) and taboo errors (saying at least part of a taboo or target word). By most measures, high-span participants were superior to low-span participants: High-spans were better at guessing answers, better at encouraging correct guesses from teammates, and less likely to either repeat themselves or produce taboo clues. Differences in taboo errors occurred only in an easy control condition. The results suggest that WM capacity predicts behavior in tasks requiring mental control, extending this finding to an interactive group setting. PMID:19827699

The embodied nature of motor imagery processes highlighted by short-term limb immobilization.

PubMed

Meugnot, Aurore; Almecija, Yves; Toussaint, Lucette

2014-01-01

We investigated the embodied nature of motor imagery processes through a recent use-dependent plasticity approach, a short-term limb immobilization paradigm. A splint placed on the participants' left-hand during a brief period of 24 h was used for immobilization. The immobilized participants performed two mental rotation tasks (a hand mental rotation task and a number mental rotation task) before (pre-test) and immediately after (post-test) the splint removal. The control group did not undergo the immobilization procedure. The main results showed an immobilization-induced effect on left-hand stimuli, resulting in a lack of task-repetition benefit. By contrast, accuracy was higher and response times were shorter for right-hand stimuli. No immobilization-induced effects appeared for number stimuli. These results revealed that the cognitive representation of hand movements can be modified by a brief period of sensorimotor deprivation, supporting the hypothesis of the embodied nature of motor simulation processes.

Sex differences in mental rotation and line angle judgments are positively associated with gender equality and economic development across 53 nations.

PubMed

Lippa, Richard A; Collaer, Marcia L; Peters, Michael

2010-08-01

Mental rotation and line angle judgment performance were assessed in more than 90,000 women and 111,000 men from 53 nations. In all nations, men's mean performance exceeded women's on these two visuospatial tasks. Gender equality (as assessed by United Nations indices) and economic development (as assessed by per capita income and life expectancy) were significantly associated, across nations, with larger sex differences, contrary to the predictions of social role theory. For both men and women, across nations, gender equality and economic development were significantly associated with better performance on the two visuospatial tasks. However, these associations were stronger for the mental rotation task than for the line angle judgment task, and they were stronger for men than for women. Results were discussed in terms of evolutionary, social role, and stereotype threat theories of sex differences.

Hemispheric dominance during the mental rotation task in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Chen, Jiu; Yang, Laiqi; Zhao, Jin; Li, Lanlan; Liu, Guangxiong; Ma, Wentao; Zhang, Yan; Wu, Xingqu; Deng, Zihe; Tuo, Ran

2012-04-01

Mental rotation is a spatial representation conversion capability using an imagined object and either object or self-rotation. This capability is impaired in schizophrenia. To provide a more detailed assessment of impaired cognitive functioning in schizophrenia by comparing the electrophysiological profiles of patients with schizophrenia and controls while completing a mental rotation task using both normally-oriented images and mirror images. This electroencephalographic study compared error rates, reaction times and the topographic map of event-related potentials in 32 participants with schizophrenia and 29 healthy controls during mental rotation tasks involving both normal images and mirror images. Among controls the mean error rate and the mean reaction time for normal images and mirror images were not significantly different but in the patient group the mean (sd) error rate was higher for mirror images than for normal images (42% [6%] vs. 32% [9%], t=2.64, p=0.031) and the mean reaction time was longer for mirror images than for normal images (587 [11] ms vs. 571 [18] ms, t=2.83, p=0.028). The amplitude of the P500 component at Pz (parietal area), Cz (central area), P3 (left parietal area) and P4 (right parietal area) were significantly lower in the patient group than in the control group for both normal images and mirror images. In both groups the P500 for both the normal and mirror images was significantly higher in the right parietal area (P4) compared with left parietal area (P3). The mental rotation abilities of patients with schizophrenia for both normally-oriented images and mirror images are impaired. Patients with schizophrenia show a diminished left cerebral contribution to the mental rotation task, a more rapid response time, and a differential response to normal images versus mirror images not seen in healthy controls. Specific topographic characteristics of the EEG during mental rotation tasks are potential biomarkers for schizophrenia.

Task-induced Changes in Idiopathic Infantile Nystagmus Vary with Gaze.

PubMed

Salehi Fadardi, Marzieh; Bathke, Arne C; Harrar, Solomon W; Abel, Larry Allen

2017-05-01

Investigations of infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) at center or at the null position have reported that INS worsens when visual demand is combined with internal states, e.g. stress. Visual function and INS parameters such as foveation time, frequency, amplitude, and intensity can also be influenced by gaze position. We hypothesized that increases from baseline in visual demand and mental load would affect INS parameters at the null position differently than at other gaze positions. Eleven participants with idiopathic INS were asked to determine the direction of Tumbling-E targets, whose visual demand was varied through changes in size and contrast, using a staircase procedure. Targets appeared between ±25° in 5° steps. The task was repeated with both mental arithmetic and time restriction to impose higher mental load, confirmed through subjective ratings and concurrent physiological measurements. Within-subject comparisons were limited to the null and 15° away from it. No significant main effects of task on any INS parameters were found. At both locations, high mental load worsened task performance metrics, i.e. lowest contrast (P = .001) and smallest optotype size reached (P = .012). There was a significant interaction between mental load and gaze position for foveation time (P = .02) and for the smallest optotype reached (P = .028). The increase in threshold optotype size from the low to high mental load was greater at the null than away from it. During high visual demand, foveation time significantly decreased from baseline at the null as compared to away from it (mean difference ± SE: 14.19 ± 0.7 msec; P = .010). Under high visual demand, the effects of increased mental load on foveation time and visual task performance differed at the null as compared to 15° away from it. Assessment of these effects could be valuable when evaluating INS clinically and when considering its impact on patients' daily activities.

Associations between body weight and depression, social phobia, insomnia, and self-esteem among Taiwanese adolescents.

PubMed

Lee, Jia-In; Yen, Cheng-Fang

2014-12-01

The aims of this cross-sectional study were to examine the associations between body weight and mental health indicators including depression, social phobia, insomnia, and self-esteem among Taiwanese adolescents in Grades 7-12. The body mass index (BMI) of 5254 adolescents was calculated based on self-reported weight and height measurements. Body weight status was determined by the age- and gender-specific International Obesity Task Force reference tables. By using participants of average weight as the reference group, the association between body weight status (underweight, overweight, and obesity) and mental health indicators (depression, social phobia, insomnia, and self-esteem) were examined by using multiple regression analysis. The possible moderating effects of sociodemographic characteristics on the association were also examined. After controlling for the effects of sociodemographic characteristics, both overweight (p < 0.05) and obese adolescents (p < 0.001) had a lower level of self-esteem than did those of average weight; however, no significant differences in depression, social phobia, or insomnia were found between those who were overweight/obese and those of average weight. No significant differences in the four mental health indicators were found between those who were underweight and those of average weight. Sociodemographic characteristics had no moderating effect on the association between body weight and mental health indicators. In conclusion, mental health and school professionals must take the association between overweight/obesity and self-esteem into consideration when approaching the issue of mental health among adolescents. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Taiwan.

Individual differences in mathematical competence predict parietal brain activation during mental calculation.

PubMed

Grabner, Roland H; Ansari, Daniel; Reishofer, Gernot; Stern, Elsbeth; Ebner, Franz; Neuper, Christa

2007-11-01

Functional neuroimaging studies have revealed that parietal brain circuits subserve arithmetic problem solving and that their recruitment dynamically changes as a function of training and development. The present study investigated whether the brain activation during mental calculation is also modulated by individual differences in mathematical competence. Twenty-five adult students were selected from a larger pool based on their performance on standardized tests of intelligence and arithmetic and divided into groups of individuals with relatively lower and higher mathematical competence. These groups did not differ in their non-numerical intelligence or age. In an fMRI block-design, participants had to verify the correctness of single-digit and multi-digit multiplication problems. Analyses revealed that the individuals with higher mathematical competence displayed stronger activation of the left angular gyrus while solving both types of arithmetic problems. Additional correlational analyses corroborated the association between individual differences in mathematical competence and angular gyrus activation, even when variability in task performance was controlled for. These findings demonstrate that the recruitment of the left angular gyrus during arithmetic problem solving underlies individual differences in mathematical ability and suggests a stronger reliance on automatic, language-mediated processes in more competent individuals.

The effect of obesity on inflammatory cytokine and leptin production following acute mental stress.

PubMed

Caslin, H L; Franco, R L; Crabb, E B; Huang, C J; Bowen, M K; Acevedo, E O

2016-02-01

Obesity may contribute to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk by eliciting chronic systemic inflammation and impairing the immune response to additional stressors. There has been little assessment of the effect of obesity on psychological stress, an independent risk factor for CVD. Therefore, it was of interest to examine interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), and leptin following an acute mental stress task in nonobese and obese males. Twenty college-aged males (21.3 ± 0.56 years) volunteered to participate in a 20-min Stroop color-word and mirror-tracing task. Subjects were recruited for obese (body mass index: BMI > 30) and nonobese (BMI < 25) groups, and blood samples were collected for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analysis. The acute mental stress task elicited an increase in heart rate, catecholamines, and IL-1β in all subjects. Additionally, acute mental stress increased cortisol concentrations in the nonobese group. There was a significant reduction in leptin in obese subjects 30 min posttask compared with a decrease in nonobese subjects 120 min posttask. Interestingly, the relationship between the percent change in leptin and IL-1Ra at 120 min posttask in response to an acute mental stress task was only observed in nonobese individuals. This is the first study to suggest that adiposity in males may impact leptin and inflammatory signaling mechanisms following acute mental stress. © 2015 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Task Prioritization in Dual-Tasking: Instructions versus Preferences

PubMed Central

Jansen, Reinier J.; van Egmond, René; de Ridder, Huib

2016-01-01

The role of task prioritization in performance tradeoffs during multi-tasking has received widespread attention. However, little is known on whether people have preferences regarding tasks, and if so, whether these preferences conflict with priority instructions. Three experiments were conducted with a high-speed driving game and an auditory memory task. In Experiment 1, participants did not receive priority instructions. Participants performed different sequences of single-task and dual-task conditions. Task performance was evaluated according to participants’ retrospective accounts on preferences. These preferences were reformulated as priority instructions in Experiments 2 and 3. The results showed that people differ in their preferences regarding task prioritization in an experimental setting, which can be overruled by priority instructions, but only after increased dual-task exposure. Additional measures of mental effort showed that performance tradeoffs had an impact on mental effort. The interpretation of these findings was used to explore an extension of Threaded Cognition Theory with Hockey’s Compensatory Control Model. PMID:27391779

Exploring College Students' Mental Representations of Inferential Statistics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lavigne, Nancy C.; Salkind, Sara J.; Yan, Jie

2008-01-01

We report a case study that explored how three college students mentally represented the knowledge they held of inferential statistics, how this knowledge was connected, and how it was applied in two problem solving situations. A concept map task and two problem categorization tasks were used along with interviews to gather the data. We found that…

Spontaneous Gestures during Mental Rotation Tasks: Insights into the Microdevelopment of the Motor Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chu, Mingyuan; Kita, Sotaro

2008-01-01

This study investigated the motor strategy involved in mental rotation tasks by examining 2 types of spontaneous gestures (hand-object interaction gestures, representing the agentive hand action on an object, vs. object-movement gestures, representing the movement of an object by itself) and different types of verbal descriptions of rotation.…

Role of Mental Representations in Problem Solving: Students' Approaches to Nondirected Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ibrahim, Bashirah; Rebello, N. Sanjay

2013-01-01

In this paper, we report on a project concerned with the role of cognition during problem solving. We specifically explore the categories of mental representations that students work with during problem solving of different representational task formats. The sample, consisting of 19 engineering students taking a calculus-based physics course,…

Mental and Physical Workload, Salivary Stress Biomarkers and Taste Perception: Mars Desert Research Station Expedition

PubMed Central

Rai, Balwant; Kaur, Jasdeep

2012-01-01

Background: Very few studies have been conducted on the effects of simulation of Mars conditions on taste. Aims: This study was planned to find the effects of physical and mental workload on taste sensitivity and salivary stress biomarkers. Materials and Methods: Twelve crew members were selected. Taste reactions and intensity of the taste sensations to quinine sulfate, citric acid, and sucrose were tested before and after mental and physical tasks for one hour. Also, psychological mood states by profile of mood state, salivary, salivary alpha amylase and cortisol, and current stress test scores were measured before and after mental and physical tasks. Results: Average time intensity evaluation showed that after the mental and physical tasks, the perceived duration of bitter, sour, and sweet taste sensations was significantly shortened relative to control group. There were good correlations between average time intensity of sweetness, bitterness, sourness and cortisol levels. Conclusions: Taste alterations due to stress can have an effect on the health and confidence of astronauts in long- term space missions. Thus, this issue remains one of the important issues for future human explorations. PMID:23181230

On the measurement of pilot perceptual workload - A comparison of assessment techniques addressing sensitivity and intrusion issues

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Casali, J. G.; Wierwille, W. W.

1984-01-01

A flight simulator-based study was conducted to examine fourteen distinct mental workload estimation measures, including opinion, secondary task, physiological, and primary task measures. Both the relative sensitivity of the measures to changes in mental workload and the differential intrusion of the changes on primary task performance were assessed. The flight task was varied in difficulty by manipulation of the presentation rate and complexity of a hazard-perception task that required each of 48 licensed pilots to rely heavily on their perceptual abilities. Three rating scales (Modified Cooper-Harper, Multi-descriptor, and Workload-Compensation-Interference/Technical Effectiveness), two secondary task measures (time estimation and tapping regularity), one physiological measure (respiration frequency), and one primary task measure (danger-condition response time) were reliable indicants of workload changes. Recommendations for applying the workload measures are presented.

Dual Frequency Head Maps: A New Method for Indexing Mental Workload Continuously during Execution of Cognitive Tasks

PubMed Central

Radüntz, Thea

2017-01-01

One goal of advanced information and communication technology is to simplify work. However, there is growing consensus regarding the negative consequences of inappropriate workload on employee's health and the safety of persons. In order to develop a method for continuous mental workload monitoring, we implemented a task battery consisting of cognitive tasks with diverse levels of complexity and difficulty. We conducted experiments and registered the electroencephalogram (EEG), performance data, and the NASA-TLX questionnaire from 54 people. Analysis of the EEG spectra demonstrates an increase of the frontal theta band power and a decrease of the parietal alpha band power, both under increasing task difficulty level. Based on these findings we implemented a new method for monitoring mental workload, the so-called Dual Frequency Head Maps (DFHM) that are classified by support vectors machines (SVMs) in three different workload levels. The results are in accordance with the expected difficulty levels arising from the requirements of the tasks on the executive functions. Furthermore, this article includes an empirical validation of the new method on a secondary subset with new subjects and one additional new task without any adjustment of the classifiers. Hence, the main advantage of the proposed method compared with the existing solutions is that it provides an automatic, continuous classification of the mental workload state without any need for retraining the classifier—neither for new subjects nor for new tasks. The continuous workload monitoring can help ensure good working conditions, maintain a good level of performance, and simultaneously preserve a good state of health. PMID:29276490

Vagal and sympathetic activity in burnouts during a mentally demanding workday.

PubMed

Zanstra, Ydwine J; Schellekens, Jan M H; Schaap, Cas; Kooistra, Libbe

2006-01-01

We study differences in task performance and related sympathetic-vagal reaction patterns between burnouts and controls during a mentally demanding workday. Thirty-nine adults with burnout and 40 healthy controls performed mental tasks during a simulated workday. At pretest, just before lunch (lunch test) and at the end of the day (posttest), a Stroop color word task was administered as a probe task. Efficiency (the relation between performance and effort during the probe task), performance (reaction time and errors), and effort (self-report) were measured, as well as cardiovascular indices of sympathetic (blood pressure) and vagal (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) activity. Performance and effort investment of both burnouts and controls did not differ during pretest. As the day progressed the performance of controls improved more than the performance of burnouts. Moreover, the control group showed a decrease of blood pressure in response to mental task demands, a decrease in respiratory sinus arrhythmia activity, and no change in experienced effort. In the burnout group, no change could be demonstrated in blood pressure, suggesting a sympathetic predominance in the sympathetic-vagal balance. Burnouts experienced an increase in effort and were more tired at the end of the workday. Burnouts and healthy controls differ in their pattern of sympathetic-vagal activity only after long-lasting work demands. Findings give limited support to Porges's view that in healthy subjects, the vagal system is more responsive to challenging task situations than in chronically stressed individuals. The distinction between two phases in the burnout on the basis of behavioral and physiological characteristics is discussed.

Changing needs and new perspectives for psychiatry and mental health services in Korea.

PubMed

Park, Jong-Ik; Kim, Yong Sik

2006-01-01

Although western psychiatry was introduced more than one hundred years ago, the history of Korean psychiatry actually began with the foundation of the Cho-sun Neuropsychiatric Association (formerly Korean Neuropsychiatric Association) in 1945. Since the initiation of Korean national economic development plan in 1960s, the number of mental institutions grew gradually but a large portion of patients suffering from psychosis and alcohol dependence still remained in the asylum. Rapid industrialization in the 80's brought about family disintegration and breakdown of the social support system, resulting in displacement of mentally ill persons outside of the family. In 1995, the Mental Health Law was enacted and with the introduction of the concept of community mental health, construction of many mental health centers commenced. Korea faces important tasks of further developing local community mental health and predicting and resolving the mental health problems related to the issues of rapid aging society, transformation in family structure, foreign laborers, and North Korean refugees. Such tasks must be met through refined mental health policy plans, effective allocation of mental health-related human resources and funding, and fostering of social concern and consensus about the issues of mental health.

Promoting Mentalizing in Pupils by Acting on Teachers: Preliminary Italian Evidence of the “Thought in Mind” Project

PubMed Central

Valle, Annalisa; Massaro, Davide; Castelli, Ilaria; Sangiuliano Intra, Francesca; Lombardi, Elisabetta; Bracaglia, Edoardo; Marchetti, Antonella

2016-01-01

Mentalization research focuses on different aspects of this topic, highlighting individual differences in mentalizing and proposing programs of intervention for children and adults to increase this ability. The “Thought in Mind Project” (TiM Project) provides training targeted to adults—teachers or parents—to increase their mentalization and, consequently, to obtain mentalization improvement in children. The present research aimed to explore for the first time ever the potential of training for teachers based on the TiM Project, regarding the enhancement of mentalizing of an adult who would have interacted as a teacher with children. For this reason, two teachers – similar for meta-cognitive and meta-emotional skills - and their classes (N = 46) were randomly assigned to the training or control condition. In the first case, the teacher participated in training on the implementation of promotion of mentalizing in everyday school teaching strategies; in the second case the teacher participated in a control activity, similar to training for scheduling and methods, but without promoting the implementation of mentalization (in both conditions two meetings lasting about 3 h at the beginning of the school year and two supervisions during the school year were conducted). The children were tested by tasks assessing several aspects of mentalization (second and third-order false belief understanding, Strange Stories, Reading the mind in the Eyes, Mentalizing Task) both before and after the teacher participate in the TiM or control training (i.e., at the beginning and at the end of the school year). The results showed that, although some measured components of mentalization progressed over time, only the TiM Project training group significantly improved in third order false belief understanding and changed - in a greater way compared to the control group – in two of the three components of the Mentalizing Task. These evidences are promising about the idea that the creation of a mentalizing community promotes the mentalization abilities of its members. PMID:27630586

Promoting Mentalizing in Pupils by Acting on Teachers: Preliminary Italian Evidence of the "Thought in Mind" Project.

PubMed

Valle, Annalisa; Massaro, Davide; Castelli, Ilaria; Sangiuliano Intra, Francesca; Lombardi, Elisabetta; Bracaglia, Edoardo; Marchetti, Antonella

2016-01-01

Mentalization research focuses on different aspects of this topic, highlighting individual differences in mentalizing and proposing programs of intervention for children and adults to increase this ability. The "Thought in Mind Project" (TiM Project) provides training targeted to adults-teachers or parents-to increase their mentalization and, consequently, to obtain mentalization improvement in children. The present research aimed to explore for the first time ever the potential of training for teachers based on the TiM Project, regarding the enhancement of mentalizing of an adult who would have interacted as a teacher with children. For this reason, two teachers - similar for meta-cognitive and meta-emotional skills - and their classes (N = 46) were randomly assigned to the training or control condition. In the first case, the teacher participated in training on the implementation of promotion of mentalizing in everyday school teaching strategies; in the second case the teacher participated in a control activity, similar to training for scheduling and methods, but without promoting the implementation of mentalization (in both conditions two meetings lasting about 3 h at the beginning of the school year and two supervisions during the school year were conducted). The children were tested by tasks assessing several aspects of mentalization (second and third-order false belief understanding, Strange Stories, Reading the mind in the Eyes, Mentalizing Task) both before and after the teacher participate in the TiM or control training (i.e., at the beginning and at the end of the school year). The results showed that, although some measured components of mentalization progressed over time, only the TiM Project training group significantly improved in third order false belief understanding and changed - in a greater way compared to the control group - in two of the three components of the Mentalizing Task. These evidences are promising about the idea that the creation of a mentalizing community promotes the mentalization abilities of its members.

Rate of rise in diastolic blood pressure influences vascular sympathetic response to mental stress.

PubMed

El Sayed, Khadigeh; Macefield, Vaughan G; Hissen, Sarah L; Joyner, Michael J; Taylor, Chloe E

2016-12-15

Research indicates that individuals may experience a rise (positive responders) or fall (negative responders) in muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) during mental stress. In this study, we examined the early blood pressure responses (including the peak, time of peak and rate of rise in blood pressure) to mental stress in positive and negative responders. Negative MSNA responders to mental stress exhibit a more rapid rise in diastolic pressure at the onset of the stressor, suggesting a baroreflex-mediated suppression of MSNA. In positive responders there is a more sluggish rise in blood pressure during mental stress, which appears to be MSNA-driven. This study suggests that whether MSNA has a role in the pressor response is dependent upon the reactivity of blood pressure early in the task. Research indicates that individuals may experience a rise (positive responders) or fall (negative responders) in muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) during mental stress. The aim was to examine the early blood pressure response to stress in positive and negative responders and thus its influence on the direction of change in MSNA. Blood pressure and MSNA were recorded continuously in 21 healthy young males during 2 min mental stressors (mental arithmetic, Stroop test) and physical stressors (cold pressor, handgrip exercise, post-exercise ischaemia). Participants were classified as negative or positive responders according to the direction of the mean change in MSNA during the stressor tasks. The peak changes, time of peak and rate of changes in blood pressure were compared between groups. During mental arithmetic negative responders experienced a significantly greater rate of rise in diastolic blood pressure in the first minute of the task (1.3 ± 0.5 mmHg s -1 ) compared with positive responders (0.4 ± 0.1 mmHg s -1 ; P = 0.03). Similar results were found for the Stroop test. Physical tasks elicited robust parallel increases in blood pressure and MSNA across participants. It is concluded that negative MSNA responders to mental stress exhibit a more rapid rise in diastolic pressure at the onset of the stressor, suggesting a baroreflex-mediated suppression of MSNA. In positive responders there is a more sluggish rise in blood pressure during mental stress, which appears to be MSNA-driven. This study suggests that whether MSNA has a role in the pressor response is dependent upon the reactivity of blood pressure early in the task. © 2016 The Authors. The Journal of Physiology © 2016 The Physiological Society.

Rate of rise in diastolic blood pressure influences vascular sympathetic response to mental stress

PubMed Central

El Sayed, Khadigeh; Macefield, Vaughan G.; Hissen, Sarah L.; Joyner, Michael J.

2016-01-01

Key points Research indicates that individuals may experience a rise (positive responders) or fall (negative responders) in muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) during mental stress.In this study, we examined the early blood pressure responses (including the peak, time of peak and rate of rise in blood pressure) to mental stress in positive and negative responders.Negative MSNA responders to mental stress exhibit a more rapid rise in diastolic pressure at the onset of the stressor, suggesting a baroreflex‐mediated suppression of MSNA. In positive responders there is a more sluggish rise in blood pressure during mental stress, which appears to be MSNA‐driven.This study suggests that whether MSNA has a role in the pressor response is dependent upon the reactivity of blood pressure early in the task. Abstract Research indicates that individuals may experience a rise (positive responders) or fall (negative responders) in muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) during mental stress. The aim was to examine the early blood pressure response to stress in positive and negative responders and thus its influence on the direction of change in MSNA. Blood pressure and MSNA were recorded continuously in 21 healthy young males during 2 min mental stressors (mental arithmetic, Stroop test) and physical stressors (cold pressor, handgrip exercise, post‐exercise ischaemia). Participants were classified as negative or positive responders according to the direction of the mean change in MSNA during the stressor tasks. The peak changes, time of peak and rate of changes in blood pressure were compared between groups. During mental arithmetic negative responders experienced a significantly greater rate of rise in diastolic blood pressure in the first minute of the task (1.3 ± 0.5 mmHg s−1) compared with positive responders (0.4 ± 0.1 mmHg s−1; P = 0.03). Similar results were found for the Stroop test. Physical tasks elicited robust parallel increases in blood pressure and MSNA across participants. It is concluded that negative MSNA responders to mental stress exhibit a more rapid rise in diastolic pressure at the onset of the stressor, suggesting a baroreflex‐mediated suppression of MSNA. In positive responders there is a more sluggish rise in blood pressure during mental stress, which appears to be MSNA‐driven. This study suggests that whether MSNA has a role in the pressor response is dependent upon the reactivity of blood pressure early in the task. PMID:27690366

Neural Correlates of Belief and Emotion Attribution in Schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Lee, Junghee; Horan, William P.; Wynn, Jonathan K.; Green, Michael F.

2016-01-01

Impaired mental state attribution is a core social cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. With functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this study examined the extent to which the core neural system of mental state attribution is involved in mental state attribution, focusing on belief attribution and emotion attribution. Fifteen schizophrenia outpatients and 14 healthy controls performed two mental state attribution tasks in the scanner. In a Belief Attribution Task, after reading a short vignette, participants were asked infer either the belief of a character (a false belief condition) or a physical state of an affair (a false photograph condition). In an Emotion Attribution Task, participants were asked either to judge whether character(s) in pictures felt unpleasant, pleasant, or neutral emotion (other condition) or to look at pictures that did not have any human characters (view condition). fMRI data were analyzing focusing on a priori regions of interest (ROIs) of the core neural systems of mental state attribution: the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and precuneus. An exploratory whole brain analysis was also performed. Both patients and controls showed greater activation in all four ROIs during the Belief Attribution Task than the Emotion Attribution Task. Patients also showed less activation in the precuneus and left TPJ compared to controls during the Belief Attribution Task. No significant group difference was found during the Emotion Attribution Task in any of ROIs. An exploratory whole brain analysis showed a similar pattern of neural activations. These findings suggest that while schizophrenia patients rely on the same neural network as controls do when attributing beliefs of others, patients did not show reduced activation in the key regions such as the TPJ. Further, this study did not find evidence for aberrant neural activation during emotion attribution or recruitment of compensatory brain regions in schizophrenia. PMID:27812142

Assessing performance of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) using Cognitive Task Analysis.

PubMed

Saitwal, Himali; Feng, Xuan; Walji, Muhammad; Patel, Vimla; Zhang, Jiajie

2010-07-01

Many Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems fail to provide user-friendly interfaces due to the lack of systematic consideration of human-centered computing issues. Such interfaces can be improved to provide easy to use, easy to learn, and error-resistant EHR systems to the users. To evaluate the usability of an EHR system and suggest areas of improvement in the user interface. The user interface of the AHLTA (Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application) was analyzed using the Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) method called GOMS (Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection rules) and an associated technique called KLM (Keystroke Level Model). The GOMS method was used to evaluate the AHLTA user interface by classifying each step of a given task into Mental (Internal) or Physical (External) operators. This analysis was performed by two analysts independently and the inter-rater reliability was computed to verify the reliability of the GOMS method. Further evaluation was performed using KLM to estimate the execution time required to perform the given task through application of its standard set of operators. The results are based on the analysis of 14 prototypical tasks performed by AHLTA users. The results show that on average a user needs to go through 106 steps to complete a task. To perform all 14 tasks, they would spend about 22 min (independent of system response time) for data entry, of which 11 min are spent on more effortful mental operators. The inter-rater reliability analysis performed for all 14 tasks was 0.8 (kappa), indicating good reliability of the method. This paper empirically reveals and identifies the following finding related to the performance of AHLTA: (1) large number of average total steps to complete common tasks, (2) high average execution time and (3) large percentage of mental operators. The user interface can be improved by reducing (a) the total number of steps and (b) the percentage of mental effort, required for the tasks. 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Personality, relationship conflict, and teamwork-related mental models.

PubMed

Vîrgă, Delia; Curşeu, Petru Lucian; CurŞeu, Petru Lucian; Maricuţoiu, Laurenţiu; Sava, Florin A; Macsinga, Irina; Măgurean, Silvia

2014-01-01

This study seeks to explore whether neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness moderate the influence of relationship conflict experienced in groups on changes in group members' evaluative cognitions related to teamwork quality (teamwork-related mental models). Data from 216 students, nested in 48 groups were analyzed using a multilevel modeling approach. Our results show that the experience of relationship conflict leads to a negative shift from the pre-task to the post-task teamwork-related mental models. Moreover, the results indicate that conscientiousness buffered the negative association between relationship conflict and the change in teamwork-related mental models. Our results did not support the hypothesized moderating effect of agreeableness and show that the detrimental effect of relationship conflict on the shift in teamwork-related mental models is accentuated for group members scoring low rather than high on neuroticism. These findings open new research venues for exploring the association between personality, coping styles and change in teamwork-related mental models.

Using Psychophysiological Sensors to Assess Mental Workload During Web Browsing.

PubMed

Jimenez-Molina, Angel; Retamal, Cristian; Lira, Hernan

2018-02-03

Knowledge of the mental workload induced by a Web page is essential for improving users' browsing experience. However, continuously assessing the mental workload during a browsing task is challenging. To address this issue, this paper leverages the correlation between stimuli and physiological responses, which are measured with high-frequency, non-invasive psychophysiological sensors during very short span windows. An experiment was conducted to identify levels of mental workload through the analysis of pupil dilation measured by an eye-tracking sensor. In addition, a method was developed to classify mental workload by appropriately combining different signals (electrodermal activity (EDA), electrocardiogram, photoplethysmo-graphy (PPG), electroencephalogram (EEG), temperature and pupil dilation) obtained with non-invasive psychophysiological sensors. The results show that the Web browsing task involves four levels of mental workload. Also, by combining all the sensors, the efficiency of the classification reaches 93.7%.

Personality, Relationship Conflict, and Teamwork-Related Mental Models

PubMed Central

Vîrgă, Delia; CurŞeu, Petru Lucian; Maricuţoiu, Laurenţiu; Sava, Florin A.; Macsinga, Irina; Măgurean, Silvia

2014-01-01

This study seeks to explore whether neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness moderate the influence of relationship conflict experienced in groups on changes in group members' evaluative cognitions related to teamwork quality (teamwork-related mental models). Data from 216 students, nested in 48 groups were analyzed using a multilevel modeling approach. Our results show that the experience of relationship conflict leads to a negative shift from the pre-task to the post-task teamwork-related mental models. Moreover, the results indicate that conscientiousness buffered the negative association between relationship conflict and the change in teamwork-related mental models. Our results did not support the hypothesized moderating effect of agreeableness and show that the detrimental effect of relationship conflict on the shift in teamwork-related mental models is accentuated for group members scoring low rather than high on neuroticism. These findings open new research venues for exploring the association between personality, coping styles and change in teamwork-related mental models. PMID:25372143

Using Psychophysiological Sensors to Assess Mental Workload During Web Browsing

PubMed Central

Jimenez-Molina, Angel; Retamal, Cristian; Lira, Hernan

2018-01-01

Knowledge of the mental workload induced by a Web page is essential for improving users’ browsing experience. However, continuously assessing the mental workload during a browsing task is challenging. To address this issue, this paper leverages the correlation between stimuli and physiological responses, which are measured with high-frequency, non-invasive psychophysiological sensors during very short span windows. An experiment was conducted to identify levels of mental workload through the analysis of pupil dilation measured by an eye-tracking sensor. In addition, a method was developed to classify mental workload by appropriately combining different signals (electrodermal activity (EDA), electrocardiogram, photoplethysmo-graphy (PPG), electroencephalogram (EEG), temperature and pupil dilation) obtained with non-invasive psychophysiological sensors. The results show that the Web browsing task involves four levels of mental workload. Also, by combining all the sensors, the efficiency of the classification reaches 93.7%. PMID:29401688

Confidence mediates the sex difference in mental rotation performance.

PubMed

Estes, Zachary; Felker, Sydney

2012-06-01

On tasks that require the mental rotation of 3-dimensional figures, males typically exhibit higher accuracy than females. Using the most common measure of mental rotation (i.e., the Mental Rotations Test), we investigated whether individual variability in confidence mediates this sex difference in mental rotation performance. In each of four experiments, the sex difference was reliably elicited and eliminated by controlling or manipulating participants' confidence. Specifically, confidence predicted performance within and between sexes (Experiment 1), rendering confidence irrelevant to the task reliably eliminated the sex difference in performance (Experiments 2 and 3), and manipulating confidence significantly affected performance (Experiment 4). Thus, confidence mediates the sex difference in mental rotation performance and hence the sex difference appears to be a difference of performance rather than ability. Results are discussed in relation to other potential mediators and mechanisms, such as gender roles, sex stereotypes, spatial experience, rotation strategies, working memory, and spatial attention.

Enhancing performance of P300-Speller under mental workload by incorporating dual-task data during classifier training.

PubMed

Chen, Yuqian; Ke, Yufeng; Meng, Guifang; Jiang, Jin; Qi, Hongzhi; Jiao, Xuejun; Xu, Minpeng; Zhou, Peng; He, Feng; Ming, Dong

2017-12-01

As one of the most important brain-computer interface (BCI) paradigms, P300-Speller was shown to be significantly impaired once applied in practical situations due to effects of mental workload. This study aims to provide a new method of building training models to enhance performance of P300-Speller under mental workload. Three experiment conditions based on row-column P300-Speller paradigm were performed including speller-only, 3-back-speller and mental-arithmetic-speller. Data under dual-task conditions were introduced to speller-only data respectively to build new training models. Then performance of classifiers with different models was compared under the same testing condition. The results showed that when tasks of imported training data and testing data were the same, character recognition accuracies and round accuracies of P300-Speller with mixed-data training models significantly improved (FDR, p < 0.005). When they were different, performance significantly improved when tested on mental-arithmetic-speller (FDR, p < 0.05) while the improvement was modest when tested on n-back-speller (FDR, p < 0.1). The analysis of ERPs revealed that ERP difference between training data and testing data was significantly diminished when the dual-task data was introduced to training data (FDR, p < 0.05). The new method of training classifier on mixed data proved to be effective in enhancing performance of P300-Speller under mental workload, confirmed the feasibility to build a universal training model and overcome the effects of mental workload in its practical applications. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The feasibility of a role for community health workers in integrated mental health care for perinatal depression: a qualitative study from Surabaya, Indonesia.

PubMed

Surjaningrum, Endang R; Minas, Harry; Jorm, Anthony F; Kakuma, Ritsuko

2018-01-01

Indonesian maternal health policies state that community health workers (CHWs) are responsible for detection and referral of pregnant women and postpartum mothers who might suffer from mental health problems (task-sharing). The documents have been published for a while, however reports on the implementation are hardly found which possibly resulted from feasibility issue within the health system. To examine the feasibility of task-sharing in integrated mental health care to identify perinatal depression in Surabaya, Indonesia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 62 participants representing four stakeholder groups in primary health care: program managers from the health office and the community, health workers and CHWs, mental health specialists, and service users. Questions on the feasibility were supported by vignettes about perinatal depression. WHO's health systems framework was applied to analyse the data using framework analysis. Findings indicated the policy initiative is feasible to the district health system. A strong basis within the health system for task-sharing in maternal mental health rests on health leadership and governance that open an opportunity for training and supervision, financing, and intersectoral collaboration. The infrastructure and resources in the city provide potential for a continuity of care. Nevertheless, feasibility is challenged by gaps between policy and practices, inadequate support system in technologies and information system, assigning the workforce and strategies to be applied, and the lack of practical guidelines to guide the implementation. The health system and resources in Surabaya provide opportunities for task-sharing to detect and refer cases of perinatal depression in an integrated mental health care system. Participation of informal workforce might facilitate in closing the gap in the provision of information on perinatal mental health.

The degree of postural automaticity influences the prime movement and the anticipatory postural adjustments during standing in healthy young individuals.

PubMed

Sakamoto, Sadanori; Iguchi, Masaki

2018-06-08

Less attention to a balance task reduces the center of foot pressure (COP) variability by automating the task. However, it is not fully understood how the degree of postural automaticity influences the voluntary movement and anticipatory postural adjustments. Eleven healthy young adults performed a bipedal, eyes closed standing task under the three conditions: Control (C, standing task), Single (S, standing + reaction tasks), and Dual (D, standing  +  reaction + mental tasks). The reaction task was flexing the right shoulder to an auditory stimulus, which causes counter-clockwise rotational torque, and the mental task was arithmetic task. The COP variance before the reaction task was reduced in the D condition compared to that in the C and S conditions. On average the onsets of the arm movement and the vertical torque (Tz, anticipatory clockwise rotational torque) were both delayed, and the maximal Tz slope (the rate at which the torque develops) became less steep in the D condition compared to those in the S condition. When these data in the D condition were expressed as a percentage of those in the S condition, the arm movement onset and the Tz slope were positively and negatively, respectively, correlated with the COP variance. By using the mental-task induced COP variance reduction as the indicator of postural automaticity, our data suggest that the balance task for those with more COP variance reduction is less cognitively demanding, leading to the shorter reaction time probably due to the attention shift from the automated balance task to the reaction task. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Causal Interactions between Frontalθ – Parieto-Occipitalα2 Predict Performance on a Mental Arithmetic Task

PubMed Central

Dimitriadis, Stavros I.; Sun, Yu; Thakor, Nitish V.; Bezerianos, Anastasios

2016-01-01

Many neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the different functional contributions of spatially distinct brain areas to working memory (WM) subsystems in cognitive tasks that demand both local information processing and interregional coordination. In WM cognitive task paradigms employing electroencephalography (EEG), brain rhythms such as θ and α have been linked to specific functional roles over given brain areas, but their functional coupling has not been extensively studied. Here we analyzed an arithmetic task with five cognitive workload levels (CWLs) and demonstrated functional/effective coupling between the two WM subsystems: the central executive located over frontal (F) brain areas that oscillates on the dominant θ rhythm (Frontalθ/Fθ) and the storage buffer located over parieto-occipital (PO) brain areas that operates on the α2 dominant brain rhythm (Parieto-Occipitalα2/POα2). We focused on important differences between and within WM subsystems in relation to behavioral performance. A repertoire of brain connectivity estimators was employed to elucidate the distinct roles of amplitude, phase within and between frequencies, and the hierarchical role of functionally specialized brain areas related to the task. Specifically, for each CWL, we conducted a) a conventional signal power analysis within both frequency bands at Fθ and POα2, b) the intra- and inter-frequency phase interactions between Fθ and POα2, and c) their causal phase and amplitude relationship. We found no significant statistical difference of signal power or phase interactions between correct and wrong answers. Interestingly, the study of causal interactions between Fθ and POα2 revealed frontal brain region(s) as the leader, while the strength differentiated between correct and wrong responses in every CWL with absolute accuracy. Additionally, zero time-lag between bilateral Fθ and right POa2 could serve as an indicator of mental calculation failure. Overall, our study highlights the significant role of coordinated activity between Fθ and POα2 via their causal interactions and the timing for arithmetic performance. PMID:27683547

Limitations of subjective cognitive load measures in simulation-based procedural training.

PubMed

Naismith, Laura M; Cheung, Jeffrey J H; Ringsted, Charlotte; Cavalcanti, Rodrigo B

2015-08-01

The effective implementation of cognitive load theory (CLT) to optimise the instructional design of simulation-based training requires sensitive and reliable measures of cognitive load. This mixed-methods study assessed relationships between commonly used measures of total cognitive load and the extent to which these measures reflected participants' experiences of cognitive load in simulation-based procedural skills training. Two groups of medical residents (n = 38) completed three questionnaires after participating in simulation-based procedural skills training sessions: the Paas Cognitive Load Scale; the NASA Task Load Index (TLX), and a cognitive load component (CLC) questionnaire we developed to assess total cognitive load as the sum of intrinsic load (how complex the task is), extraneous load (how the task is presented) and germane load (how the learner processes the task for learning). We calculated Pearson's correlation coefficients to assess agreement among these instruments. Group interviews explored residents' perceptions about how the simulation sessions contributed to their total cognitive load. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and subjected to qualitative content analysis. Total cognitive load scores differed significantly according to the instrument used to assess them. In particular, there was poor agreement between the Paas Scale and the TLX. Quantitative and qualitative findings supported intrinsic cognitive load as synonymous with mental effort (Paas Scale), mental demand (TLX) and task difficulty and complexity (CLC questionnaire). Additional qualitative themes relating to extraneous and germane cognitive loads were not reflected in any of the questionnaires. The Paas Scale, TLX and CLC questionnaire appear to be interchangeable as measures of intrinsic cognitive load, but not of total cognitive load. A more complete understanding of the sources of extraneous and germane cognitive loads in simulation-based training contexts is necessary to determine how best to measure and assess their effects on learning and performance outcomes. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Effect of bright light on EEG activities and subjective sleepiness to mental task during nocturnal sleep deprivation.

PubMed

Yokoi, Mari; Aoki, Ken; Shimomura, Yoshihiro; Iwanaga, Koichi; Katsuura, Tetsuo; Shiomura, Yoshihiro

2003-11-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the exposure to bright light on EEG activity and subjective sleepiness at rest and at the mental task during nocturnal sleep deprivation. Eight male subjects lay awake in semi-supine in a reclining seat from 21:00 to 04:30 under the bright (BL; >2500 lux) or the dim (DL; <150 lux) light conditions. During the sleep deprivation, the mental task (Stroop color-word conflict test: CWT) was performed each 15 min in one hour. EEG, subjective sleepiness, rectal and mean skin temperatures and urinary melatonin concentrations were measured. The subjective sleepiness increased with time of sleep deprivation during both rest and CWT under the DL condition. The exposure to bright light delayed for 2 hours the increase in subjective sleepiness at rest and suppressed the increase in that during CWT. The bright light exposure also delayed the increase in the theta and alpha wave activities in EEG at rest. In contrast, the effect of the bright light exposure on the theta and alpha wave activities disappeared by CWT. Additionally, under the BL condition, the entire theta activity during CWT throughout nocturnal sleep deprivation increased significantly from that in a rest condition. Our results suggest that the exposure to bright light throughout nocturnal sleep deprivation influences the subjective sleepiness during the mental task and the EEG activity, as well as the subjective sleepiness at rest. However, the effect of the bright light exposure on the EEG activity at the mental task diminishes throughout nocturnal sleep deprivation.

A new brain-computer interface design using fuzzy ARTMAP.

PubMed

Palaniappan, Ramaswamy; Paramesran, Raveendran; Nishida, Shogo; Saiwaki, Naoki

2002-09-01

This paper proposes a new brain-computer interface (BCI) design using fuzzy ARTMAP (FA) neural network, as well as an application of the design. The objective of this BCI-FA design is to classify the best three of the five available mental tasks for each subject using power spectral density (PSD) values of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. These PSD values are extracted using the Wiener-Khinchine and autoregressive methods. Ten experiments employing different triplets of mental tasks are studied for each subject. The findings show that the average BCI-FA outputs for four subjects gave less than 6% of error using the best triplets of mental tasks identified from the classification performances of FA. This implies that the BCI-FA can be successfully used with a tri-state switching device. As an application, a proposed tri-state Morse code scheme could be utilized to translate the outputs of this BCI-FA design into English letters. In this scheme, the three BCI-FA outputs correspond to a dot and a dash, which are the two basic Morse code alphabets and a space to denote the end (or beginning) of a dot or a dash. The construction of English letters using this tri-state Morse code scheme is determined only by the sequence of mental tasks and is independent of the time duration of each mental task. This is especially useful for constructing letters that are represented as multiple dots or dashes. This combination of BCI-FA design and the tri-state Morse code scheme could be developed as a communication system for paralyzed patients.

Laterality-Specific Training Improves Mental Rotation Performance in Young Soccer Players.

PubMed

Pietsch, Stefanie; Jansen, Petra

2018-01-01

This study investigates the influence of specific soccer training with the non-dominant leg on mental rotation performance of 20 adolescent soccer players between 10 and 11 years of age. While the experimental group performed soccer specific tasks only with the non-dominant foot once a week for 10 weeks, the control group absolved the same exercises with the dominant foot for the same period of time. Both groups performed a mental rotation task and shot, dribbling and ball control tests before and after the 10 week intervention. The most relevant result was that the experimental group showed a significantly larger increase in mental rotation ability than the control group.

Laterality-Specific Training Improves Mental Rotation Performance in Young Soccer Players

PubMed Central

Pietsch, Stefanie; Jansen, Petra

2018-01-01

This study investigates the influence of specific soccer training with the non-dominant leg on mental rotation performance of 20 adolescent soccer players between 10 and 11 years of age. While the experimental group performed soccer specific tasks only with the non-dominant foot once a week for 10 weeks, the control group absolved the same exercises with the dominant foot for the same period of time. Both groups performed a mental rotation task and shot, dribbling and ball control tests before and after the 10 week intervention. The most relevant result was that the experimental group showed a significantly larger increase in mental rotation ability than the control group. PMID:29535665

Volitional control of attention and brain activation in dual task performance.

PubMed

Newman, Sharlene D; Keller, Timothy A; Just, Marcel Adam

2007-02-01

This study used functional MRI (fMRI) to examine the neural effects of willfully allocating one's attention to one of two ongoing tasks. In a dual task paradigm, participants were instructed to focus either on auditory sentence comprehension, mental rotation, or both. One of the major findings is that the distribution of brain activation was amenable to strategic control, such that the amount of activation per task was systematically related to the attention-dividing instructions. The activation in language processing regions was lower when attending to mental rotation than when attending to the sentences, and the activation in visuospatial processing regions was lower when attending to sentences than when attending to mental rotations. Additionally, the activation was found to be underadditive, with the dual-task condition eliciting less activation than the sum of the attend sentence and attend rotation conditions. We also observed a laterality shift across conditions within language-processing regions, with the attend sentence condition showing bilateral activation, while the dual task condition showed a left hemispheric dominance. This shift suggests multiple language-processing modes and may explain the underadditivity in activation observed in the current and previous studies.

Mental state attribution in schizophrenia: what distinguishes patients with "poor" from patients with "fair" mentalising skills?

PubMed

Brüne, M; Schaub, D

2012-07-01

Although many patients with schizophrenia are impaired in mental states attribution abilities, a significant number perform within normal or near-normal ranges in mental state attribution tasks. No studies have analysed cognitive or behavioural differences between patients with - to some extent - preserved mental state attribution skills and those with poor mentalising abilities. To examine characteristics of "poor" and "fair" mentalisers, 58 patients with schizophrenia performed a mental state attribution task, a test of general intelligence, and two executive functioning tests. "Poor" and "fair" mentalising skills were defined according to a median-split procedure; the median score in the patient group was also within two standard deviations of the control group. In addition, patients' social behavioural skills and psychopathological profiles were rated. Patients performing within normal or near normal ranges on the mental state attribution task had fewer social behavioural abnormalities than patients with poor mentalising abilities (even when controlled for intelligence), but did not differ in executive functioning. Fair mental state performers showed less disorganisation and excitement symptoms than poor performers. The degree of disorganisation mediated the influence of mental state attribution on social behavioural skills. Schizophrenia patients with (partially) preserved mentalising skills have fewer behavioural problems in the social domain than patients with poor mentalising abilities. Conceptual disorganisation mediates the prediction of social behavioural skills through mentalising skills, suggesting that disorganised patients may require special attention regarding social-cognitive skills training. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

A test-retest assessment of the effects of mental load on ratings of affect, arousal and perceived exertion during submaximal cycling.

PubMed

Vera, Jesús; Perales, José C; Jiménez, Raimundo; Cárdenas, David

2018-04-24

This study aimed to test the effects of mental (i.e. executive) load during a dual physical-mental task on ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), affective valence, and arousal. The protocol included two dual tasks with matched physical demands but different executive demands (2-back and oddball), carried out on different days. The procedure was run twice to assess the sensitivity and stability of RPE, valence and arousal across the two trials. Linear mixed-effects analyses showed less positive valence (-0.44 points on average in a 1-9 scale; R β 2  = 0.074 [CI90%, 0.052-0.098]), and heightened arousal (+0.13 points on average in a 1-9 scale; R β 2  = 0.006 [CI90%, 0.001-0.015]), for the high executive load condition, but showed no effect of mental load on RPE. Separated analyses for the two task trials yielded best-fitting models that were identical across trials for RPE and valence, but not for arousal. Model fitting was improved by assuming a 1-level autoregressive covariance structure for all analyses. In conclusion, executive load during a dual physical-mental task modulates the emotional response to effort, but not RPE. The autoregressive covariance suggests that people tend to anchor estimates on prior ones, which imposes certain limits on scales' usability.

The Effects of Adding Coordinate Axes To a Mental Rotations Task in Measuring Spatial Visualization Ability in Introductory Undergraduate Technical Graphics Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Branoff, Ted

1998-01-01

Reports on a study to determine whether the presence of coordinate axes in a test of spatial-visualization ability affects scores and response times on a mental-rotations task for students enrolled in undergraduate introductory graphic communications classes. Based on Pavios's dual-coding theory. Contains 36 references. (DDR)

Leisure Activities for Retarded Children. A Task Analysis Approach. Integrating Trainable Mentally Retarded Children Through Community Education. ESEA Title IV, Part C.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minneapolis Public Schools, Minn.

Designed to meet the need of trainable mentally retarded persons for recreation skill training and for opportunities to experience leisure/social skill development in a community setting, the packet provides task analysis information on 114 activities. Information is provided on behavioral objectives, basic skills required, materials and…

Control over the Scheduling of Simulated Office Work Reduces the Impact of Workload on Mental Fatigue and Task Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hockey, G. Robert J.; Earle, Fiona

2006-01-01

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that task-induced mental fatigue is moderated by control over work scheduling. Participants worked for 2 hr on simulated office work, with control manipulated by a yoking procedure. Matched participants were assigned to conditions of either high control (HC) or low control (LC). HC participants decided their…

Effects of Mental and Physical Practice on a Finger Opposition Task among Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Paula Asa, Sabrina Kyoko; Santos Melo, Mara Cristina; Piemonte, Maria Elisa Pimentel

2014-01-01

Purpose: We sought to compare the effects of physical practice (PP) and mental practice (MP) on the immediate and long-term learning of the finger-to-thumb opposition sequence task (FOS) in children; in addition, we investigated the transfer of this learning to an untrained sequence of movements and to the contralateral untrained hand. Method:…

Mental rotation impairs attention shifting and short-term memory encoding: neurophysiological evidence against the response-selection bottleneck model of dual-task performance.

PubMed

Pannebakker, Merel M; Jolicœur, Pierre; van Dam, Wessel O; Band, Guido P H; Ridderinkhof, K Richard; Hommel, Bernhard

2011-09-01

Dual tasks and their associated delays have often been used to examine the boundaries of processing in the brain. We used the dual-task procedure and recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how mental rotation of a first stimulus (S1) influences the shifting of visual-spatial attention to a second stimulus (S2). Visual-spatial attention was monitored by using the N2pc component of the ERP. In addition, we examined the sustained posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN) believed to index the retention of information in visual short-term memory. We found modulations of both the N2pc and the SPCN, suggesting that engaging mechanisms of mental rotation impairs the deployment of visual-spatial attention and delays the passage of a representation of S2 into visual short-term memory. Both results suggest interactions between mental rotation and visual-spatial attention in capacity-limited processing mechanisms indicating that response selection is not pivotal in dual-task delays and all three processes are likely to share a common resource like executive control. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Functional MR imaging and traumatic paraplegia: preliminary report.

PubMed

Sabbah, P; Lévêque, C; Pfefer, F; Nioche, C; Gay, S; Sarrazin, J L; Barouti, H; Tadie, M; Cordoliani, Y S

2000-12-01

To evaluate residual activity in the sensorimotor cortex of the lower limbs in paraplegia. 5 patients suffering from a complete paralysis after traumatic medullar lesion (ASIA=A). Clinical evaluation of motility and sensitivity. 1. Control functional MR study of the sensorimotor cortex during simultaneous movements of hands, imaginary motor task and passive hands stimulation. 2. Concerning the lower limbs, 3 fMRI conditions: 1-patient attempts to move his toes with flexion-extension, 2-mental imagery task of the same movement, 3-peripheral passive proprio-somesthesic stimulation (squeezing) of the big toes. Activations were observed in the primary sensorimotor cortex (M1), premotor regions and in the supplementary motor area (SMA) during movement and mental imaginary tasks in the control study and during attempt to move and mental imaginary tasks in the study concerning the lower limbs. Passive somesthesic stimulation generated activation posterior to the central sulcus for 2 patients. Activations in the sensorimotor cortex of the lower limbs can be generated either by attempting to move or mental evocation. In spite of a clinical evaluation of complete paraplegia, fMRI can show a persistence of sensitive anatomic conduction, confirmed by Somesthesic Evoked Potentials.

Taking the load off: investigations of how adaptive cruise control affects mental workload.

PubMed

Young, Mark S; Stanton, Neville A

2004-07-15

It has been posited that Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) represents a new generation of vehicle automation, in that it has the potential to relieve drivers of mental as well as physical workload. The results of previous research however, have raised some confusing issues about the specific effects of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) on driver mental workload (MWL)--some studies report reduced MWL compared to manual driving, while others find no effect. Two hypotheses are proposed in an attempt to explain these discrepancies: (a) that any potential MWL reductions due to ACC could be masked by the overriding influence of steering demand; or (b) that the tasks designed in some experiments do not exploit the adaptive nature of the ACC system, therefore precluding any potential benefits. Two related experiments were designed to test these hypotheses. It was found that the main reason for the discrepant findings was the nature of the driving task chosen--constant-speed tasks do not realise the mental workload benefits of ACC. Future researchers using ACC devices are advised to use variable-speed tasks to ensure that all aspects of device functionality are covered.

The Development of the Mental Representations of the Magnitude of Fractions

PubMed Central

Gabriel, Florence C.; Szucs, Denes; Content, Alain

2013-01-01

We investigated the development of the mental representation of the magnitude of fractions during the initial stages of fraction learning in grade 5, 6 and 7 children as well as in adults. We examined the activation of global fraction magnitude in a numerical comparison task and a matching task. There were global distance effects in the comparison task, but not in the matching task. This suggests that the activation of the global magnitude representation of fractions is not automatic in all tasks involving magnitude judgments. The slope of the global distance effect increased during early fraction learning and declined by adulthood, demonstrating that the development of the fraction global distance effect differs from that of the integer distance effect. PMID:24236169

The Effect of a Workload-Preview on Task-Prioritization and Task-Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minotra, Dev

2012-01-01

With increased volume and sophistication of cyber attacks in recent years, maintaining situation awareness and effective task-prioritization strategy is critical to the task of cybersecurity analysts. However, high levels of mental-workload associated with the task of cybersecurity analyst's limits their ability to prioritize tasks.…

1 CFR 457.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term “physical or mental impairment” includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

12 CFR 794.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term physical or mental impairment includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

31 CFR 17.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term physical or mental impairment includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and..., performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3) Has a...

22 CFR 711.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term physical or mental impairment includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

22 CFR 1005.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term physical or mental impairment includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

5 CFR 723.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term physical or mental impairment includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

29 CFR 4907.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term “physical or mental impairment” includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

45 CFR 606.3 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term physical or mental impairment includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

10 CFR 4.503 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term “physical or mental impairment” includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

5 CFR 900.703 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term physical or mental impairment includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and..., performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3) Has a...

20 CFR 365.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term “physical or mental impairment” includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

10 CFR 1041.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term physical or mental impairment includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and..., performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3) Has a...

32 CFR 1699.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term physical or mental impairment includes, but is not limited to, such disease and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

The effect of acute physical and mental stress on soluble cellular adhesion molecule concentration.

PubMed

Crabb, E Blake; Franco, R Lee; Caslin, Heather L; Blanks, Anson M; Bowen, Mary K; Acevedo, Edmund O

2016-07-15

This study investigated the impact of acute physical and mental stress on serum concentrations of vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 and CX3CL1/fractalkine. Male volunteers (n=20; 21.3±0.55years of age) completed a graded treadmill test to exhaustion and a 20-minute mental stress task (Stroop Color-Word Test, mental arithmetic) on separate, non-consecutive days. Heart rate (HR) was measured at baseline and throughout exercise and mental stress. Blood was collected at baseline (PRE), immediately following (POST) and 30min after (POST30) exercise and mental stress. Soluble VCAM-1 and fractalkine were quantified in participant serum via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Both treadmill exercise and the mental stress task significantly increased participant HR; although, exercise resulted in a substantially greater increase in participant HR compared to mental stress (197.82±11.99 vs. 38.67±3.10% [p<0.001]). VCAM-1 (815.74±139.55 vs. 738.67±131.59ng/mL [p=0.002]) and fractalkine (1.032±0.33 vs. 0.59±0.20ng/mL [p<0.001]) were significantly elevated in participant serum POST maximal exercise before returning to values similar to baseline at POST30. The acute mental stress task did not significantly alter serum VCAM-1 or fractalkine at any time point. In conclusion, maximal aerobic exercise results in a significant elevation of the soluble adhesion molecules VCAM-1 and fractalkine in the serum of adult males that does not occur following laboratory-induced mental stress. The findings of the current investigation may suggest a novel protective role for acute aerobic exercise in vascular health via exercise-induced CAM proteolysis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Single-Word Recognition Need Not Depend on Single-Word Features: Narrative Coherence Counteracts Effects of Single-Word Features that Lexical Decision Emphasizes.

PubMed

Teng, Dan W; Wallot, Sebastian; Kelty-Stephen, Damian G

2016-12-01

Research on reading comprehension of connected text emphasizes reliance on single-word features that organize a stable, mental lexicon of words and that speed or slow the recognition of each new word. However, the time needed to recognize a word might not actually be as fixed as previous research indicates, and the stability of the mental lexicon may change with task demands. The present study explores the effects of narrative coherence in self-paced story reading to single-word feature effects in lexical decision. We presented single strings of letters to 24 participants, in both lexical decision and self-paced story reading. Both tasks included the same words composing a set of adjective-noun pairs. Reading times revealed that the tasks, and the order of the presentation of the tasks, changed and/or eliminated familiar effects of single-word features. Specifically, experiencing the lexical-decision task first gradually emphasized the role of single-word features, and experiencing the self-paced story-reading task afterwards counteracted the effect of single-word features. We discuss the implications that task-dependence and narrative coherence might have for the organization of the mental lexicon. Future work will need to consider what architectures suit the apparent flexibility with which task can accentuate or diminish effects of single-word features.

The Effects of Romantic Love on Mentalizing Abilities

PubMed Central

Wlodarski, Rafael; Dunbar, Robin I. M.

2015-01-01

The effects of the human pair-bonded state of “romantic love” on cognitive function remain relatively unexplored. Theories on cognitive priming suggest that a state of love may activate love-relevant schemas, such as mentalizing about the beliefs of another individual, and may thus improve mentalizing abilities. On the other hand, recent functional MRI (fMRI) research on individuals who are in love suggests that several brain regions associated with mentalizing may be “deactivated” during the presentation of a love prime, potentially affecting mentalizing cognitions and behaviors. The current study aimed to investigate experimentally the effect of a love prime on a constituent aspect of mentalizing—the attribution of emotional states to others. Ninety-one participants who stated they were “deeply in love” with their romantic partner completed a cognitive task involving the assessment of emotional content of facial stimuli (the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task) immediately after the presentation of either a love prime or a neutral prime. Individuals were significantly better at interpreting the emotional states of others after a love prime than after a neutral prime, particularly males assessing negative emotional stimuli. These results suggest that presentation of a love stimulus can prime love-relevant networks and enhance subsequent performance on conceptually related mentalizing tasks. PMID:26167112

Measuring Pilot Workload in a Moving-base Simulator. Part 2: Building Levels of Workload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kantowitz, B. H.; Hart, S. G.; Bortolussi, M. R.; Shively, R. J.; Kantowitz, S. C.

1984-01-01

Pilot behavior in flight simulators often use a secondary task as an index of workload. His routine to regard flying as the primary task and some less complex task as the secondary task. While this assumption is quite reasonable for most secondary tasks used to study mental workload in aircraft, the treatment of flying a simulator through some carefully crafted flight scenario as a unitary task is less justified. The present research acknowledges that total mental workload depends upon the specific nature of the sub-tasks that a pilot must complete as a first approximation, flight tasks were divided into three levels of complexity. The simplest level (called the Base Level) requires elementary maneuvers that do not utilize all the degrees of freedom of which an aircraft, or a moving-base simulator; is capable. The second level (called the Paired Level) requires the pilot to simultaneously execute two Base Level tasks. The third level (called the Complex Level) imposes three simultaneous constraints upon the pilot.

Visual scanning behavior and mental workload in aircraft pilots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tole, J. R.; Harris, R. L., Sr.; Stephens, A. T.; Ephrath, A. R.

1982-01-01

This paper describes an experimental paradigm and a set of preliminary results which demonstrate a relationship between the level of performance on a skilled man-machine control task, the skill of the operator, the level of mental difficulty induced by an additional task imposed on the basic control task, and visual scanning performance. During a constant, simulated piloting task, visual scanning of instruments was found to vary as a function of the level of difficulty of a verbal loading task. The average dwell time of each fixation on the pilot's primary instrument increased as a function of the loading. The scanning behavior was also a function of the estimated skill level of the pilots, with novices being affected by the loading task much more than experts. The results suggest that visual scanning of instruments in a controlled task may be an indicator of both workload and skill.

Language, culture, and task shifting--an emerging challenge for global mental health.

PubMed

Swartz, Leslie; Kilian, Sanja; Twesigye, Justus; Attah, Dzifa; Chiliza, Bonginkosi

2014-01-01

Language is at the heart of mental health care. Many high-income countries have sophisticated interpreter services, but in low- and middle-income countries there are not sufficient professional services, let alone interpreter services, and task shifting is used. In this article, we discuss this neglected issue in the context of low- and middle-income countries, where task shifting has been suggested as a solution to the problem of scarce mental health resources. The large diversity of languages in low- and middle-income countries, exacerbated by wide-scale migration, has implications for the scale-up of services. We suggest that it would be useful for those who are working innovatively to develop locally delivered mental health programmes in low- and middle-income countries to explore and report on issues of language and how these have been addressed. We need to know more about local challenges, but also about local solutions which seem to work, and for this we need more information from the field than is currently available.

Effects of oral administration of caffeine and D-ribose on mental fatigue.

PubMed

Ataka, Suzuka; Tanaka, Masaaki; Nozaki, Satoshi; Mizuma, Hiroshi; Mizuno, Kei; Tahara, Tsuyoshi; Sugino, Tomohiro; Shirai, Tomoko; Kajimoto, Yoshitaka; Kuratsune, Hirohiko; Kajimoto, Osami; Watanabe, Yasuyoshi

2008-03-01

We examined the effects of administering two different candidate antifatigue substances, caffeine and D-ribose, on mental fatigue. In a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, three-way crossover design, 17 healthy volunteers were randomized to oral caffeine (200 mg/d), D-ribose (2000 mg/d), or placebo for 8 d. As fatigue-inducing mental tasks, subjects performed a 30-min Uchida-Kraepelin psychodiagnostic test and a 30-min advanced trail-making test on four occasions. During the tasks, the task performance of the caffeine group was better than that of the placebo group. However, after the fatigue-inducing tasks, although subjective perception of fatigue, motivation, or sleepiness was not significantly different, plasma branched-chain amino acid levels in the caffeine group were lower than those of the placebo group. Administration of D-ribose had no effect. Because plasma branched-chain amino acid levels are decreased by mental fatigue, these results suggest that administration of caffeine improved task performance through the enhancement of central nervous system activity without increasing the sensation of fatigue. However, further decreases in branched-chain amino acid levels indicate that caffeine might promote deeper fatigue than placebo. Unfortunately, research subsequent to our study design has shown that D-ribose dosing higher than we used is needed to see a clinical effect and therefore no conclusions can be made from this study as to the efficacy of D-ribose.

Intracorporeal suturing: Transfer from Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery to cadavers results in substantial increase in mental workload.

PubMed

Britt, Rebecca C; Scerbo, Mark W; Montano, Michael; Kennedy, Rebecca A; Prytz, Erik; Stefanidis, Dimitrios

2015-11-01

A spatial secondary task developed by the authors was used to measure the mental workload of the participant when transferring suturing skills from a box simulator to more realistic surgical conditions using a fresh cadaver. We hypothesized that laparoscopic suturing on genuine bowel would be more challenging than on the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS)-simulated bowel as reflected in differences on both suturing and secondary task scores. We trained 14 surgical assistant students to FLS proficiency in intracorporeal suturing. Participants practiced suturing on the FLS box for 30 minutes and then were tested on both the FLS box and the bowel of a fresh cadaver using the spatial, secondary dual-task conditions developed by the authors. Suturing times increased by >333% when moving from the FLS platform to the cadaver F(1,13) = 44.04, P < .001. The increased completion times were accompanied by a 70% decrease in secondary task scores, F(1,13) = 21.21, P < .001. The mental workload associated with intracorporeal suturing increases dramatically when trainees transfer from the FLS platform to human tissue under more realistic conditions of suturing. The increase in mental workload is indexed by both an increase in suturing times and a decrease in the ability to attend to the secondary task. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Towards a National Mental Retardation Manpower Model for Canada.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linton, Thomas E.

The stated need for developing a national mental retardation manpower model for Canada is not the manpower shortages in mental retardation, but the unsound conceptual and functional approaches to the socialization and education of the mentally retarded. The report is divided into the four major areas investigated by a task force. First, the…

Development and neurophysiology of mentalizing.

PubMed Central

Frith, Uta; Frith, Christopher D

2003-01-01

The mentalizing (theory of mind) system of the brain is probably in operation from ca. 18 months of age, allowing implicit attribution of intentions and other mental states. Between the ages of 4 and 6 years explicit mentalizing becomes possible, and from this age children are able to explain the misleading reasons that have given rise to a false belief. Neuroimaging studies of mentalizing have so far only been carried out in adults. They reveal a system with three components consistently activated during both implicit and explicit mentalizing tasks: medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), temporal poles and posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS). The functions of these components can be elucidated, to some extent, from their role in other tasks used in neuroimaging studies. Thus, the MPFC region is probably the basis of the decoupling mechanism that distinguishes mental state representations from physical state representations; the STS region is probably the basis of the detection of agency, and the temporal poles might be involved in access to social knowledge in the form of scripts. The activation of these components in concert appears to be critical to mentalizing. PMID:12689373

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the role of mental training in the acquisition of technical skills in surgery.

PubMed

Rao, Ahsan; Tait, Ian; Alijani, Afshin

2015-09-01

Mental training is rehearsal of mental imagery without physically performing the task. The aim of the study was to perform systematic review and meta-analysis on all the available data to evaluate the role of mental training in the acquisition of surgical technical skills. The following search databases were used: EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Clinicaltrials.gov.uk, SIGN guidelines, NICE guidelines, and Cochrane review register. Meta-analysis was performed using Revman 5.2 statistical software. There were a total of 9 randomized controlled trials with 474 participants, of which 189 participants received mental training. Five randomized controlled trials concluded positive impact of mental training. Mental training group did not show any significant improvement in overall performance of the task carried in each study (P = .06). Mental training can be used as an important supplementary tool in learning surgical skills when run in parallel with physical training and applied to trainees with some experience of the skill. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sex differences in spatial ability: a lateralization of function approach.

PubMed

Rilea, Stacy L; Roskos-Ewoldsen, Beverly; Boles, David

2004-12-01

The current study was designed to examine whether the extent of the male advantage in performance on a spatial task was determined by the extent to which the task was right-hemisphere dependent. Participants included 108 right-handed men and women who completed the mental rotation, waterlevel, and paperfolding tasks, all of which were presented bilaterally. The results partially supported the hypothesis. On the mental rotation task, men showed a right-hemisphere advantage, whereas women showed no hemispheric differences; however, no overall sex differences were observed. On the waterlevel task, men outperformed women, and both men and women showed a right-hemisphere advantage. On the paperfolding task, no sex or hemispheric differences were observed. Although the findings of the current study were mixed, the study provides a framework for examining sex differences across different types of spatial ability.

Towards a ternary NIRS-BCI: single-trial classification of verbal fluency task, Stroop task and unconstrained rest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schudlo, Larissa C.; Chau, Tom

2015-12-01

Objective. The majority of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) brain-computer interface (BCI) studies have investigated binary classification problems. Limited work has considered differentiation of more than two mental states, or multi-class differentiation of higher-level cognitive tasks using measurements outside of the anterior prefrontal cortex. Improvements in accuracies are needed to deliver effective communication with a multi-class NIRS system. We investigated the feasibility of a ternary NIRS-BCI that supports mental states corresponding to verbal fluency task (VFT) performance, Stroop task performance, and unconstrained rest using prefrontal and parietal measurements. Approach. Prefrontal and parietal NIRS signals were acquired from 11 able-bodied adults during rest and performance of the VFT or Stroop task. Classification was performed offline using bagging with a linear discriminant base classifier trained on a 10 dimensional feature set. Main results. VFT, Stroop task and rest were classified at an average accuracy of 71.7% ± 7.9%. The ternary classification system provided a statistically significant improvement in information transfer rate relative to a binary system controlled by either mental task (0.87 ± 0.35 bits/min versus 0.73 ± 0.24 bits/min). Significance. These results suggest that effective communication can be achieved with a ternary NIRS-BCI that supports VFT, Stroop task and rest via measurements from the frontal and parietal cortices. Further development of such a system is warranted. Accurate ternary classification can enhance communication rates offered by NIRS-BCIs, improving the practicality of this technology.

Generating evidence to narrow the treatment gap for mental disorders in sub-Saharan Africa: rationale, overview and methods of AFFIRM.

PubMed

Lund, C; Alem, A; Schneider, M; Hanlon, C; Ahrens, J; Bandawe, C; Bass, J; Bhana, A; Burns, J; Chibanda, D; Cowan, F; Davies, T; Dewey, M; Fekadu, A; Freeman, M; Honikman, S; Joska, J; Kagee, A; Mayston, R; Medhin, G; Musisi, S; Myer, L; Ntulo, T; Nyatsanza, M; Ofori-Atta, A; Petersen, I; Phakathi, S; Prince, M; Shibre, T; Stein, D J; Swartz, L; Thornicroft, G; Tomlinson, M; Wissow, L; Susser, E

2015-06-01

There is limited evidence on the acceptability, feasibility and cost-effectiveness of task-sharing interventions to narrow the treatment gap for mental disorders in sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of this article is to describe the rationale, aims and methods of the Africa Focus on Intervention Research for Mental health (AFFIRM) collaborative research hub. AFFIRM is investigating strategies for narrowing the treatment gap for mental disorders in sub-Saharan Africa in four areas. First, it is assessing the feasibility, acceptability and cost-effectiveness of task-sharing interventions by conducting randomised controlled trials in Ethiopia and South Africa. The AFFIRM Task-sharing for the Care of Severe mental disorders (TaSCS) trial in Ethiopia aims to determine the acceptability, affordability, effectiveness and sustainability of mental health care for people with severe mental disorder delivered by trained and supervised non-specialist, primary health care workers compared with an existing psychiatric nurse-led service. The AFFIRM trial in South Africa aims to determine the cost-effectiveness of a task-sharing counselling intervention for maternal depression, delivered by non-specialist community health workers, and to examine factors influencing the implementation of the intervention and future scale up. Second, AFFIRM is building individual and institutional capacity for intervention research in sub-Saharan Africa by providing fellowship and mentorship programmes for candidates in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Each year five Fellowships are awarded (one to each country) to attend the MPhil in Public Mental Health, a joint postgraduate programme at the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University. AFFIRM also offers short courses in intervention research, and supports PhD students attached to the trials in Ethiopia and South Africa. Third, AFFIRM is collaborating with other regional National Institute of Mental Health funded hubs in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, by designing and executing shared research projects related to task-sharing and narrowing the treatment gap. Finally, it is establishing a network of collaboration between researchers, non-governmental organisations and government agencies that facilitates the translation of research knowledge into policy and practice. This article describes the developmental process of this multi-site approach, and provides a narrative of challenges and opportunities that have arisen during the early phases. Crucial to the long-term sustainability of this work is the nurturing and sustaining of partnerships between African mental health researchers, policy makers, practitioners and international collaborators.

41 CFR 51-10.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term “physical or mental impairment” includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and... self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. (3...

32 CFR 1906.103 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities. The term “physical or mental impairment” includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and..., performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working; (3) Has a...

Mid-Task Break Improves Global Integration of Functional Connectivity in Lower Alpha Band

PubMed Central

Li, Junhua; Lim, Julian; Chen, Yu; Wong, Kianfoong; Thakor, Nitish; Bezerianos, Anastasios; Sun, Yu

2016-01-01

Numerous efforts have been devoted to revealing neurophysiological mechanisms of mental fatigue, aiming to find an effective way to reduce the undesirable fatigue-related outcomes. Until recently, mental fatigue is thought to be related to functional dysconnectivity among brain regions. However, the topological representation of brain functional connectivity altered by mental fatigue is only beginning to be revealed. In the current study, we applied a graph theoretical approach to analyse such topological alterations in the lower alpha band (8~10 Hz) of EEG data from 20 subjects undergoing a two-session experiment, in which one session includes four successive blocks with visual oddball tasks (session 1) whereas a mid-task break was introduced in the middle of four task blocks in the other session (session 2). Phase lag index (PLI) was then employed to measure functional connectivity strengths for all pairs of EEG channels. Behavior and connectivity maps were compared between the first and last task blocks in both sessions. Inverse efficiency scores (IES = reaction time/response accuracy) were significantly increased in the last task block, showing a clear effect of time-on-task in participants. Furthermore, a significant block-by-session interaction was revealed in the IES, suggesting the effectiveness of the mid-task break on maintaining task performance. More importantly, a significant session-independent deficit of global integration and an increase of local segregation were found in the last task block across both sessions, providing further support for the presence of a reshaped topology in functional brain connectivity networks under fatigue state. Moreover, a significant block-by-session interaction was revealed in the characteristic path length, small-worldness, and global efficiency, attributing to the significantly disrupted network topology in session 1 in comparison of the maintained network structure in session 2. Specifically, we found increased nodal betweenness centrality in several channels resided in frontal regions in session 1, resembling the observations of more segregated global architecture under fatigue state. Taken together, our findings provide insights into the substrates of brain functional dysconnectivity patterns for mental fatigue and reiterate the effectiveness of the mid-task break on maintaining brain network efficiency. PMID:27378894

Inhibitory control and visuo-spatial reversibility in Piaget's seminal number conservation task: a high-density ERP study

PubMed Central

Borst, Grégoire; Simon, Grégory; Vidal, Julie; Houdé, Olivier

2013-01-01

The present high-density event-related potential (ERP) study on 13 adults aimed to determine whether number conservation relies on the ability to inhibit the overlearned length-equals-number strategy and then imagine the shortening of the row that was lengthened. Participants performed the number-conservation task and, after the EEG session, the mental imagery task. In the number-conservation task, first two rows with the same number of tokens and the same length were presented on a computer screen (COV condition) and then, the tokens in one of the two rows were spread apart (INT condition). Participants were instructed to determine whether the two rows had an identical number of tokens. In the mental imagery task, two rows with different lengths but the same number of tokens were presented and participants were instructed to imagine the tokens in the longer row aligning with the tokens in the shorter row. In the number-conservation task, we found that the amplitudes of the centro-parietal N2 and fronto-central P3 were higher in the INT than in the COV conditions. In addition, the differences in response times between the two conditions were correlated with the differences in the amplitudes of the fronto-central P3. In light of previous results reported on the number-conservation task in adults, the present results suggest that inhibition might be necessary to succeed the number-conservation task in adults even when the transformation of the length of one of the row is displayed. Finally, we also reported correlations between the speed at which participants could imagine the shortening of one of the row in the mental imagery task, the speed at which participants could determine that the two rows had the same number of tokens after the tokens in one of the row were spread apart and the latency of the late positive parietal component in the number-conservation task. Therefore, performing the number-conservation task might involve mental transformation processes in adults. PMID:24409135

Classification of Self-Driven Mental Tasks from Whole-Brain Activity Patterns

PubMed Central

Nawa, Norberto Eiji; Ando, Hiroshi

2014-01-01

During wakefulness, a constant and continuous stream of complex stimuli and self-driven thoughts permeate the human mind. Here, eleven participants were asked to count down numbers and remember negative or positive autobiographical episodes of their personal lives, for 32 seconds at a time, during which they could freely engage in the execution of those tasks. We then examined the possibility of determining from a single whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging scan which one of the two mental tasks each participant was performing at a given point in time. Linear support-vector machines were used to build within-participant classifiers and across-participants classifiers. The within-participant classifiers could correctly discriminate scans with an average accuracy as high as 82%, when using data from all individual voxels in the brain. These results demonstrate that it is possible to accurately classify self-driven mental tasks from whole-brain activity patterns recorded in a time interval as short as 2 seconds. PMID:24824899

Sex differences in event-related potential components during the solution of complex mental rotation tasks.

PubMed

Jaušovec, Norbert

2012-04-18

The objective of the study was to evaluate the factor of sex in terms of its influence on event-related potential components during the solution of a complex mental rotation task. To evaluate the factor of sex, independent of differences in ability levels and hormonal changes, women and men were equalized with respect to general intelligence and spatial ability. In addition, all women were tested during the low-estrogen phase of the menstrual cycle. The event-related potential analysis indicated that men showed shorter P3 and longer P1 latencies, as well as lower N1 amplitudes. These results suggest that men devoted more time to the analysis of irrelevant information presented in the rotation tasks, which resulted in mental rotation taking place earlier in men than in women. It can be concluded that, even though men and women showed similar performances on complex rotation tasks, they differed in their solution processes.

The Effects of Environmental Factors on Worker Productivity in the Construction Industry.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-07-01

Decreased attention to direction * Deterioration of handwriting * Mental and physical fatique * Decreased hand steadiness in manual tasks * Mood ...decreased with hypoxia development (102) (134), there is a deterioration in handwriting (101) (134), mental fatique was noted (3) (134), and hand...steadiness occurred in manual tasks (116) (134). Mood changes were also observed under these condi- tions. Shephard (102) (134) relates the following: Two

Understanding the Effect of Audio Communication Delay on Distributed Team Interaction

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-01

means for members to socialize and learn about each other, engenders development cooperative relationships, and lays a foundation for future interaction...length will result in increases in task completion time and mental workload. 3. Audiovisual technology will moderate the effect of communication...than audio alone. 4. Audiovisual technology will moderate the effect of communication delays such that task completion time and mental workload will

The "Reading the Mind in Films" Task [Child Version]: Complex Emotion and Mental State Recognition in Children with and without Autism Spectrum Conditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Golan, Ofer; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Golan, Yael

2008-01-01

Children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have difficulties recognizing others' emotions. Research has mostly focused on "basic" emotion recognition, devoid of context. This study reports the results of a new task, assessing recognition of "complex" emotions and mental states in social contexts. An ASC group (n = 23) was compared to a general…

Relating 7-Month-Olds Visuo-Spatial Working Memory to Other Basic Mental Skills Assessed with Two Different Versions of the Habituation-Dishabituation Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ropeter, Anna; Pauen, Sabina

2013-01-01

This study examines the relationship between various basic mental processing abilities in infancy. Two groups of 7-month-olds received the same delayed-response task to assess visuo-spatial working memory, but two different habituation-dishabituation tasks to assess processing speed and recognition memory. The single-stimulus group ("N"…

A Lag between Understanding False Belief and Emotion Attribution in Young Children: Relationships with Linguistic Ability and Mothers' Mental-State Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Rosnay, Marc; Pons, Francisco; Harris, Paul L.; Morrell, Julian M. B.

2004-01-01

This study examines the contribution of children's linguistic ability and mothers' use of mental-state language to young children's understanding of false belief and their subsequent ability to make belief-based emotion attributions. In Experiment 1, children (N = 51) were given three belief-based emotion-attribution tasks. A standard task in…

Mental object rotation and the planning of hand movements.

PubMed

Wohlschläger, A

2001-05-01

Recently, we showed that the simultaneous execution of rotational hand movements interferes with mental object rotation, provided that the axes of rotation coincide in space. We hypothesized that mental object rotation and the programming of rotational hand movements share a common process presumably involved in action planning. Two experiments are reported here that show that the mere planning of a rotational hand movement is sufficient to cause interference with mental object rotation. Subjects had to plan different spatially directed hand movements that they were asked to execute only after they had solved a mental object rotation task. Experiment 1 showed that mental object rotation was slower if hand movements were planned in a direction opposite to the presumed mental rotation direction, but only if the axes of hand rotation and mental object rotation were parallel in space. Experiment 2 showed that this interference occurred independent of the preparatory hand movements observed in Experiment 1. Thus, it is the planning of hand movements and not their preparation or execution that interferes with mental object rotation. This finding underlines the idea that mental object rotation is an imagined (covert) action, rather than a pure visual-spatial imagery task, and that the interference between mental object rotation and rotational hand movements is an interference between goals of actions.

The impact of ageing and gender on visual mental imagery processes: A study of performance on tasks from the Complete Visual Mental Imagery Battery (CVMIB).

PubMed

Palermo, Liana; Piccardi, Laura; Nori, Raffaella; Giusberti, Fiorella; Guariglia, Cecilia

2016-09-01

In this study we aim to evaluate the impact of ageing and gender on different visual mental imagery processes. Two hundred and fifty-one participants (130 women and 121 men; age range = 18-77 years) were given an extensive neuropsychological battery including tasks probing the generation, maintenance, inspection, and transformation of visual mental images (Complete Visual Mental Imagery Battery, CVMIB). Our results show that all mental imagery processes with the exception of the maintenance are affected by ageing, suggesting that other deficits, such as working memory deficits, could account for this effect. However, the analysis of the transformation process, investigated in terms of mental rotation and mental folding skills, shows a steeper decline in mental rotation, suggesting that age could affect rigid transformations of objects and spare non-rigid transformations. Our study also adds to previous ones in showing gender differences favoring men across the lifespan in the transformation process, and, interestingly, it shows a steeper decline in men than in women in inspecting mental images, which could partially account for the mixed results about the effect of ageing on this specific process. We also discuss the possibility to introduce the CVMIB in clinical assessment in the context of theoretical models of mental imagery.

EFFECTIVE INDICES FOR MONITORING MENTAL WORKLOAD WHILE PERFORMING MULTIPLE TASKS.

PubMed

Hsu, Bin-Wei; Wang, Mao-Jiun J; Chen, Chi-Yuan; Chen, Fang

2015-08-01

This study identified several physiological indices that can accurately monitor mental workload while participants performed multiple tasks with the strategy of maintaining stable performance and maximizing accuracy. Thirty male participants completed three 10-min. simulated multitasks: MATB (Multi-Attribute Task Battery) with three workload levels. Twenty-five commonly used mental workload measures were collected, including heart rate, 12 HRV (heart rate variability), 10 EEG (electroencephalography) indices (α, β, θ, α/θ, θ/β from O1-O2 and F4-C4), and two subjective measures. Analyses of index sensitivity showed that two EEG indices, θ and α/θ (F4-C4), one time-domain HRV-SDNN (standard deviation of inter-beat intervals), and four frequency-domain HRV: VLF (very low frequency), LF (low frequency), %HF (percentage of high frequency), and LF/HF were sensitive to differentiate high workload. EEG α/θ (F4-C4) and LF/HF were most effective for monitoring high mental workload. LF/HF showed the highest correlations with other physiological indices. EEG α/θ (F4-C4) showed strong correlations with subjective measures across different mental workload levels. Operation strategy would affect the sensitivity of EEG α (F4-C4) and HF.

How Do Clinical Information Systems Affect the Cognitive Demands of General Practitioners?: Usability Study with a Focus on Cognitive Workload.

PubMed

Ariza, Ferran; Kalra, Dipak; Potts, Henry Ww

2015-11-20

Clinical information systems in the National Health Service do not need to conform to any explicit usability requirements. Poor usability can increase the mental workload experienced by clinicians and cause fatigue, increase error rates and impact the overall patient safety. Mental workload can be used as a measure of usability. To assess the subjective cognitive workload experienced by general practitioners (GPs) with their systems. To raise awareness of the importance of usability in system design among users, designers, developers and policymakers. We used a modified version of the NASA Task Load Index, adapted for web. We developed a set of common clinical scenarios and computer tasks on an online survey. We emailed the study link to 199 clinical commissioning groups and 1,646 GP practices in England. Sixty-seven responders completed the survey. The respondents had spent an average of 17 years in general practice, had experience of using a mean of 1.5 GP computer systems and had used their current system for a mean time of 6.7 years. The mental workload score was not different among systems. There were significant differences among the task scores, but these differences were not specific to particular systems. The overall score and task scores were related to the length of experience with their present system. Four tasks imposed a higher mental workload on GPs: 'repeat prescribing', 'find episode', 'drug management' and 'overview records'. Further usability studies on GP systems should focus on these tasks. Users, policymakers, designers and developers should remain aware of the importance of usability in system design.What does this study add?• Current GP systems in England do not need to conform to explicit usability requirements. Poor usability can increase the mental workload of clinicians and lead to errors.• Some clinical computer tasks incur more cognitive workload than others and should be considered carefully during the design of a system.• GPs did not report overall very high levels of subjective cognitive workload when undertaking common clinical tasks with their systems.• Further usability studies on GP systems should focus on the tasks incurring higher cognitive workload.• Users, policymakers, and designers and developers should remain aware of the importance of usability in system design.

The cognitive atlas: toward a knowledge foundation for cognitive neuroscience.

PubMed

Poldrack, Russell A; Kittur, Aniket; Kalar, Donald; Miller, Eric; Seppa, Christian; Gil, Yolanda; Parker, D Stott; Sabb, Fred W; Bilder, Robert M

2011-01-01

Cognitive neuroscience aims to map mental processes onto brain function, which begs the question of what "mental processes" exist and how they relate to the tasks that are used to manipulate and measure them. This topic has been addressed informally in prior work, but we propose that cumulative progress in cognitive neuroscience requires a more systematic approach to representing the mental entities that are being mapped to brain function and the tasks used to manipulate and measure mental processes. We describe a new open collaborative project that aims to provide a knowledge base for cognitive neuroscience, called the Cognitive Atlas (accessible online at http://www.cognitiveatlas.org), and outline how this project has the potential to drive novel discoveries about both mind and brain.

Auditory fatigue : influence of mental factors.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1965-01-01

Conflicting reports regarding the influence of mental tasks on auditory fatigue have recently appeared in the literature. In the present study, 10 male subjects were exposed to 4000 cps fatigue toe at 40 dB SL for 3 min under conditions of mental ari...

Efficient mental workload estimation using task-independent EEG features.

PubMed

Roy, R N; Charbonnier, S; Campagne, A; Bonnet, S

2016-04-01

Mental workload is frequently estimated by EEG-based mental state monitoring systems. Usually, these systems use spectral markers and event-related potentials (ERPs). To our knowledge, no study has directly compared their performance for mental workload assessment, nor evaluated the stability in time of these markers and of the performance of the associated mental workload estimators.  This study proposes a comparison of two processing chains, one based on the power in five frequency bands, and one based on ERPs, both including a spatial filtering step (respectively CSP and CCA), an FLDA classification and a 10-fold cross-validation. To get closer to a real life implementation, spectral markers were extracted from a short window (i.e. towards reactive systems) that did not include any motor activity and the analyzed ERPs were elicited by a task-independent probe that required a reflex-like answer (i.e. close to the ones required by dead man's vigilance devices). The data were acquired from 20 participants who performed a Sternberg memory task for 90 min (i.e. 2/6 digits to memorize) inside which a simple detection task was inserted. The results were compared both when the testing was performed at the beginning and end of the session. Both chains performed significantly better than random; however the one based on the spectral markers had a low performance (60%) and was not stable in time. Conversely, the ERP-based chain gave very high results (91%) and was stable in time. This study demonstrates that an efficient and stable in time workload estimation can be achieved using task-independent spatially filtered ERPs elicited in a minimally intrusive manner.

Efficient mental workload estimation using task-independent EEG features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roy, R. N.; Charbonnier, S.; Campagne, A.; Bonnet, S.

2016-04-01

Objective. Mental workload is frequently estimated by EEG-based mental state monitoring systems. Usually, these systems use spectral markers and event-related potentials (ERPs). To our knowledge, no study has directly compared their performance for mental workload assessment, nor evaluated the stability in time of these markers and of the performance of the associated mental workload estimators. This study proposes a comparison of two processing chains, one based on the power in five frequency bands, and one based on ERPs, both including a spatial filtering step (respectively CSP and CCA), an FLDA classification and a 10-fold cross-validation. Approach. To get closer to a real life implementation, spectral markers were extracted from a short window (i.e. towards reactive systems) that did not include any motor activity and the analyzed ERPs were elicited by a task-independent probe that required a reflex-like answer (i.e. close to the ones required by dead man’s vigilance devices). The data were acquired from 20 participants who performed a Sternberg memory task for 90 min (i.e. 2/6 digits to memorize) inside which a simple detection task was inserted. The results were compared both when the testing was performed at the beginning and end of the session. Main results. Both chains performed significantly better than random; however the one based on the spectral markers had a low performance (60%) and was not stable in time. Conversely, the ERP-based chain gave very high results (91%) and was stable in time. Significance. This study demonstrates that an efficient and stable in time workload estimation can be achieved using task-independent spatially filtered ERPs elicited in a minimally intrusive manner.

Cognitive and affective components of mental workload: Understanding the effects of each on human decision making behavior

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nygren, Thomas E.

1992-01-01

Human factors and ergonomics researchers have recognized for some time the increasing importance of understanding the role of the construct of mental workload in flight research. Current models of mental workload suggest that it is a multidimensional and complex construct, but one that has proved difficult to measure. Because of this difficulty, emphasis has usually been placed on using direct reports through subjective measures such as rating scales to assess levels of mental workload. The NASA Task Load Index (NASA/TLX, Hart and Staveland) has been shown to be a highly reliable and sensitive measure of perceived mental workload. But a problem with measures like TLX is that there is still considerable disagreement as to what it is about mental workload that these subjective measures are actually measuring. The empirical use of subjective workload measures has largely been to provide estimates of the cognitive components of the actual mental workload required for a task. However, my research suggests that these measures may, in fact have greater potential in accurately assessing the affective components of workload. That is, for example, TLX may be more likely to assess the positive and negative feelings associated with varying workload levels, which in turn may potentially influence the decision making behavior that directly bears on performance and safety issues. Pilots, for example, are often called upon to complete many complex tasks that are high in mental workload, stress, and frustration, and that have significant dynamic decision making components -- often ones that involve risk as well.

The capacity of people with a 'mental disability' to make a health care decision.

PubMed

Wong, J G; Clare, C H; Holland, A J; Watson, P C; Gunn, M

2000-03-01

Based on the developing clinical and legal literature, and using the framework adopted in draft legislation, capacity to make a valid decision about a clinically required blood test was investigated in three groups of people with a 'mental disability' (i.e. mental illness (chronic schizophrenia), 'learning disability' ('mental retardation', or intellectual or developmental disability), or, dementia) and a fourth, comparison group. The three 'mental disability' groups (N = 20 in the 'learning disability' group, N = 21 in each of the other two groups) were recruited through the relevant local clinical services; and through a phlebotomy clinic for the 'general population' comparison group (N = 20). The decision-making task was progressively simplified by presenting the relevant information as separate elements and modifying the assessment of capacity so that responding became gradually less dependent on expressive verbal ability. Compared with the 'general population' group, capacity to make the particular decision was significantly more impaired in the 'learning disability' and 'dementia' groups. Importantly, however, it was not more impaired among the 'mental illness' group. All the groups benefited as the decision-making task was simplified, but at different stages. In each of the 'mental disability' groups, one participant benefited only when responding did not require any expensive verbal ability. Consistent with current views, capacity reflected an interaction between the decision-maker and the demands of the decision-making task. The findings have implications for the way in which decisions about health care interventions are sought from people with a 'mental disability'. The methodology may be extended to assess capacity to make other legally-significant decisions.

A Test of Learned Industriousness in the Physical Activity Domain

PubMed Central

Bustamante, Eduardo E.; Davis, Catherine L.; Marquez, David X.

2015-01-01

Background The Theory of Learned Industriousness states that durable individual differences in industriousness are due in part to differences in the extent to which individuals were rewarded for high effort at an earlier time. Individuals rewarded for high effort during training are thought to generalize greater persistence to subsequent tasks than those rewarded for low effort. This study tested whether rewarded physical and/or mental effort at different intensities generalized to greater persistence at a subsequent mental task. Methods 80 inactive 18–25 year-olds were randomized into four groups: Low Mental Effort, High Mental Effort, Low Physical Effort, and High Physical Effort. Each completed group-specific effort training and a mental persistence task at baseline and posttest. Results Factorial analysis of covariance revealed a significant domain x effort interaction on persistence (F[1,75]=4.93, p=.029). High Mental Effort and Low Mental Effort groups demonstrated similar gains in persistence (d=-0.08, p>.05) and points earned (d=0.11, p>.05) following effort training. High Physical Effort and Low Physical Effort diverged on persistence (d=-0.49, p=.004) but not points earned (d =-0.12, p>.05). Conclusions Findings suggest either that training and test stimuli were too dissimilar to cue effects of associative learning in physical effort groups, or that effects were present but overpowered by the affective and neurocognitive consequences of an acute bout of intense aerobic physical activity. Findings do not support the Theory of Learned Industriousness nor generalization of effort across physical and mental domains. PMID:26052372

Factors promoting and inhibiting sustained impact of a mental health task-shifting program for HIV providers in Ethiopia.

PubMed

Jerene, D; Biru, M; Teklu, A; Rehman, T; Ruff, A; Wissow, L

2017-01-01

Task-shifting mental health into general medical care requires more than brief provider training. Generalists need long-term support to master new skills and changes to work context are required to sustain change in the face of competing priorities. We examined program and context factors promoting sustainability of a mental health task-shifting training for hospital-based HIV providers in Ethiopia. Convergent mixed-methods quasi-experimental study. Sustained impact was measured by trained/not-trained provider differences in case detection and management 16 months following the end of formal support. Factors related to sustainability were examined through interviews with trained providers. Extent of sustained impact: Trained providers demonstrated modest but better agreement with standardized screeners (greater sensitivity with similar specificity). They were more likely to request that patients with mental health problems return to see them v. making a referral. Factors promoting sustainability (reported in semi-structured interviews): provider belief that the treatments they had learned were effective. New interactions with on-site mental health staff were a source of ongoing learning and encouragement. Factors diminishing sustainability: providers feelings of isolation when mental health partners left for work elsewhere, failure to incorporate mental health indicators into administrative data, to re-stock staff education materials, and to build formal mechanisms for generalist-mental health staff interaction. An intervention seen as feasible and effective, and promotion of relationships across professional lines, helped generalists sustain new skills. Failure to address key system context issues made use of the skills unsustainable as external supports ended.

Not all anxious individuals get lost: Trait anxiety and mental rotation ability interact to explain performance in map-based route learning in men.

PubMed

Thoresen, John C; Francelet, Rebecca; Coltekin, Arzu; Richter, Kai-Florian; Fabrikant, Sara I; Sandi, Carmen

2016-07-01

Navigation through an environment is a fundamental human activity. Although group differences in navigational ability are documented (e.g., gender), little is known about traits that predict these abilities. Apart from a well-established link between mental rotational abilities and navigational learning abilities, recent studies point to an influence of trait anxiety on the formation of internal cognitive spatial representations. However, it is unknown whether trait anxiety affects the processing of information obtained through externalized representations such as maps. Here, we addressed this question by taking into account emerging evidence indicating impaired performance in executive tasks by high trait anxiety specifically in individuals with lower executive capacities. For this purpose, we tested 104 male participants, previously characterised on trait anxiety and mental rotation ability, on a newly-designed map-based route learning task, where participants matched routes presented dynamically on a city map to one presented immediately before (same/different judgments). We predicted an interaction between trait anxiety and mental rotation ability, specifically that performance in the route learning task would be negatively affected by anxiety in participants with low mental rotation ability. Importantly, and as predicted, an interaction between anxiety and mental rotation ability was observed: trait anxiety negatively affected participants with low-but not high-mental rotation ability. Our study reveals a detrimental role of trait anxiety in map-based route learning and specifies a disadvantage in the processing of map representations for high-anxious individuals with low mental rotation abilities. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessment of operators’ mental workload using physiological and subjective measures in cement, city traffic and power plant control centers

PubMed Central

Fallahi, Majid; Motamedzade, Majid; Heidarimoghadam, Rashid; Soltanian, Ali Reza; Miyake, Shinji

2016-01-01

Background: The present study aimed to evaluate the operators’ mental workload (MW) of cement, city traffic control and power plant control centers using subjective and objective measures during system vital parameters monitoring. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2014 to February 2015 at the cement, city traffic control and power plant control centers. Electrocardiography and electroencephalography data were recorded from forty males during performing their daily working in resting, low mental workload (LMW), high mental workload (HMW) and recovery conditions (each block 5 minutes). The NASA-Task Load Index (TLX) was used to evaluate the subjective workload of the operators. Results: The results showed that increasing MW had a significant effect on the operators subjective responses in two conditions ([1,53] = 216.303, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.803). Also,the Task-MW interaction effect on operators subjective responses was significant (F [3, 53] = 12.628,P < 0.001, η2 = 0.417). Analysis of repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that increasing mental demands had a significant effect on heart rate, low frequency/high frequency ratio, theta and alpha band activity. Conclusion: The results suggested that when operators’ mental demands especially in traffic control and power plant tasks increased, their mental fatigue and stress level increased and their mental health deteriorated. Therefore, it may be necessary to implement an ergonomic program or administrative control to manage mental probably health in these control centers. Furthermore, by evaluating MW, the control center director can organize the human resources for each MW condition to sustain the appropriate performance as well as improve system functions. PMID:27386425

Imagery May Arise from Associations Formed through Sensory Experience: A Network of Spiking Neurons Controlling a Robot Learns Visual Sequences in Order to Perform a Mental Rotation Task

PubMed Central

McKinstry, Jeffrey L.; Fleischer, Jason G.; Chen, Yanqing; Gall, W. Einar; Edelman, Gerald M.

2016-01-01

Mental imagery occurs “when a representation of the type created during the initial phases of perception is present but the stimulus is not actually being perceived.” How does the capability to perform mental imagery arise? Extending the idea that imagery arises from learned associations, we propose that mental rotation, a specific form of imagery, could arise through the mechanism of sequence learning–that is, by learning to regenerate the sequence of mental images perceived while passively observing a rotating object. To demonstrate the feasibility of this proposal, we constructed a simulated nervous system and embedded it within a behaving humanoid robot. By observing a rotating object, the system learns the sequence of neural activity patterns generated by the visual system in response to the object. After learning, it can internally regenerate a similar sequence of neural activations upon briefly viewing the static object. This system learns to perform a mental rotation task in which the subject must determine whether two objects are identical despite differences in orientation. As with human subjects, the time taken to respond is proportional to the angular difference between the two stimuli. Moreover, as reported in humans, the system fills in intermediate angles during the task, and this putative mental rotation activates the same pathways that are activated when the system views physical rotation. This work supports the proposal that mental rotation arises through sequence learning and the idea that mental imagery aids perception through learned associations, and suggests testable predictions for biological experiments. PMID:27653977

Assessment of operators' mental workload using physiological and subjective measures in cement, city traffic and power plant control centers.

PubMed

Fallahi, Majid; Motamedzade, Majid; Heidarimoghadam, Rashid; Soltanian, Ali Reza; Miyake, Shinji

2016-01-01

The present study aimed to evaluate the operators' mental workload (MW) of cement, city traffic control and power plant control centers using subjective and objective measures during system vital parameters monitoring. This cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2014 to February 2015 at the cement, city traffic control and power plant control centers. Electrocardiography and electroencephalography data were recorded from forty males during performing their daily working in resting, low mental workload (LMW), high mental workload (HMW) and recovery conditions (each block 5 minutes). The NASA-Task Load Index (TLX) was used to evaluate the subjective workload of the operators. The results showed that increasing MW had a significant effect on the operators subjective responses in two conditions ([1,53] = 216.303, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.803). Also,the Task-MW interaction effect on operators subjective responses was significant (F [3, 53] = 12.628,P < 0.001, η2 = 0.417). Analysis of repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that increasing mental demands had a significant effect on heart rate, low frequency/high frequency ratio, theta and alpha band activity. The results suggested that when operators' mental demands especially in traffic control and power plant tasks increased, their mental fatigue and stress level increased and their mental health deteriorated. Therefore, it may be necessary to implement an ergonomic program or administrative control to manage mental probably health in these control centers. Furthermore, by evaluating MW, the control center director can organize the human resources for each MW condition to sustain the appropriate performance as well as improve system functions.

Mental Health in Deafness. Experimental Issue 2. Fall 1978.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Luther D., Ed.

The publication contains four articles on the subject of mental health as it relates to deaf persons. "Deaf Americans and the President's Commission on Mental Health" discusses the Commission Report as a whole (by L. Robinson), the Report of the Task Subpanel on Special Populations (by B. Sachs), and the section on mental health needs of…

Autistic children and the object permanence task.

PubMed

Adrien, J L; Tanguay, P; Barthélémy, C; Martineaú, J; Perrot, A; Hameury, L; Sauvage, D

1993-01-01

Many mentally retarded autistic children can understand the concept of object permanence, but, in comparison to developmental-age matched normal children, the behavioral strategies they employ in carrying out the Casati-Lezine Object Permanence Test are deficient and lead to failure. These deficiencies appear unrelated to interference of stereotypic or other bizarre behavior in task performance. Similar problem-solving deficiencies can be found in mentally retarded children who are not autistic, suggesting that the deficiencies themselves are less related to the social-communication deficits of autistic children, but more to the general problem-solving difficulties found in children with a lower developmental quotient. Nevertheless, the qualitative analysis of results shows a tendency in autistic children, despite their better developmental level, to use less coordinated and regular sequences to solve the task than normal or mentally retarded children.

Age difference in numeral recognition and calculation: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Xuan, Dong; Wang, Suhong; Yang, Yilin; Meng, Ping; Xu, Feng; Yang, Wen; Sheng, Wei; Yang, Yuxia

2007-01-01

In this study, we investigated the age difference in numeral recognition and calculation in one group of school-aged children (n = 38) and one of undergraduate students (n = 26) using the event-related potential (ERP) methods. Consistent with previous reports, the age difference was significant in behavioral results. Both numeral recognition and calculation elicited a negativity peaking at about 170-280 ms (N2) and a positivity peaking at 200-470 ms (pSW) in raw ERPs, and a difference potential (dN3) between 360 and 450 ms. The difference between the two age groups indicated that more attention resources were devoted to arithmetical tasks in school-aged children, and that school-aged children and undergraduate students appear to use different strategies to solve arithmetical problems. The analysis of frontal negativity suggested that numeral recognition and mental calculation impose greater load on working memory and executive function in schoolchildren than in undergraduate students. The topography data determined that the parietal regions were responsible for arithmetical function in humans, and there was an age-related difference in the area of cerebral activation.

fMRI reveals reciprocal inhibition between social and physical cognitive domains

PubMed Central

Jack, Anthony I.; Dawson, Abigail; Begany, Katelyn; Leckie, Regina L.; Barry, Kevin; Ciccia, Angela; Snyder, Abraham

2012-01-01

Two lines of evidence indicate that there exists a reciprocal inhibitory relationship between opposed brain networks. First, most attention-demanding cognitive tasks activate a stereotypical set of brain areas, known as the task-positive network and simultaneously deactivate a different set of brain regions, commonly referred to as the task negative or default mode network. Second, functional connectivity analyses show that these same opposed networks are anti-correlated in the resting state. We hypothesize that these reciprocally inhibitory effects reflect two incompatible cognitive modes, each of which is directed towards understanding the external world. Thus, engaging one mode activates one set of regions and suppresses activity in the other. We test this hypothesis by identifying two types of problem-solving task which, on the basis of prior work, have been consistently associated with the task positive and task negative regions: tasks requiring social cognition, i.e., reasoning about the mental states of other persons, and tasks requiring physical cognition, i.e., reasoning about the causal/mechanical properties of inanimate objects. Social and mechanical reasoning tasks were presented to neurologically normal participants during fMRI. Each task type was presented using both text and video clips. Regardless of presentation modality, we observed clear evidence of reciprocal suppression: social tasks deactivated regions associated with mechanical reasoning and mechanical tasks deactivated regions associated with social reasoning. These findings are not explained by self-referential processes, task engagement, mental simulation, mental time travel or external vs. internal attention, all factors previously hypothesized to explain default mode network activity. Analyses of resting state data revealed a close match between the regions our tasks identified as reciprocally inhibitory and regions of maximal anti-correlation in the resting state. These results indicate the reciprocal inhibition is not attributable to constraints inherent in the tasks, but is neural in origin. Hence, there is a physiological constraint on our ability to simultaneously engage two distinct cognitive modes. Further work is needed to more precisely characterize these opposing cognitive domains. PMID:23110882

Mental Rotation Performance in Male Soccer Players

PubMed Central

Jansen, Petra; Lehmann, Jennifer; Van Doren, Jessica

2012-01-01

It is the main goal of this study to investigate the visual-spatial cognition in male soccer players. Forty males (20 soccer players and 20 non-athletes) solved a chronometric mental rotation task with both cubed and embodied figures (human figures, body postures). The results confirm previous results that all participants had a lower mental rotation speed for cube figures compared to embodied figures and a higher error rate for cube figures, but only at angular disparities greater than 90°. It is a new finding that soccer–players showed a faster reaction time for embodied stimuli. Because rotation speed did not differ between soccer-players and non-athletes this finding cannot be attributed to the mental rotation process itself but instead to differences in one of the following processes which are involved in a mental rotation task: the encoding process, the maintanence of readiness, or the motor process. The results are discussed against the background of the influence on longterm physical activity on mental rotation and the context of embodied cognition. PMID:23119073

Breaking new ground in the mind: an initial study of mental brittle transformation and mental rigid rotation in science experts.

PubMed

Resnick, Ilyse; Shipley, Thomas F

2013-05-01

The current study examines the spatial skills employed in different spatial reasoning tasks, by asking how science experts who are practiced in different types of visualizations perform on different spatial tasks. Specifically, the current study examines the varieties of mental transformations. We hypothesize that there may be two broad classes of mental transformations: rigid body mental transformations and non-rigid mental transformations. We focus on the disciplines of geology and organic chemistry because different types of transformations are central to the two disciplines: While geologists and organic chemists may both confront rotation in the practice of their profession, only geologists confront brittle transformations. A new instrument was developed to measure mental brittle transformation (visualizing breaking). Geologists and organic chemists performed similarly on a measure of mental rotation, while geologists outperformed organic chemists on the mental brittle transformation test. The differential pattern of skill on the two tests for the two groups of experts suggests that mental brittle transformation and mental rotation are different spatial skills. The roles of domain general cognitive resources (attentional control, spatial working memory, and perceptual filling in) and strategy in completing mental brittle transformation are discussed. The current study illustrates how ecological and interdisciplinary approaches complement traditional cognitive science to offer a comprehensive approach to understanding the nature of spatial thinking.

What's skill got to do with it? Vehicle automation and driver mental workload.

PubMed

Young, M S; Stanton, N A

2007-08-01

Previous research has found that vehicle automation systems can reduce driver mental workload, with implications for attentional resources that can be detrimental to performance. The present paper considers how the development of automaticity within the driving task may influence performance in underload situations. Driver skill and vehicle automation were manipulated in a driving simulator, with four levels of each variable. Mental workload was assessed using a secondary task measure and eye movements were recorded to infer attentional capacity. The effects of automation on driver mental workload were quite robust across skill levels, but the most intriguing findings were from the eye movement data. It was found that, with little exception, attentional capacity and mental workload were directly related at all levels of driver skill, consistent with earlier studies. The results are discussed with reference to applied theories of cognition and the design of automation.

Cognitive strategies in the mental rotation task revealed by EEG spectral power.

PubMed

Gardony, Aaron L; Eddy, Marianna D; Brunyé, Tad T; Taylor, Holly A

2017-11-01

The classic mental rotation task (MRT; Shepard & Metzler, 1971) is commonly thought to measure mental rotation, a cognitive process involving covert simulation of motor rotation. Yet much research suggests that the MRT recruits both motor simulation and other analytic cognitive strategies that depend on visuospatial representation and visual working memory (WM). In the present study, we investigated cognitive strategies in the MRT using time-frequency analysis of EEG and independent component analysis. We scrutinized sensorimotor mu (µ) power reduction, associated with motor simulation, parietal alpha (pα) power reduction, associated with visuospatial representation, and frontal midline theta (fmθ) power enhancement, associated with WM maintenance and manipulation. µ power increased concomitant with increasing task difficulty, suggesting reduced use of motor simulation, while pα decreased and fmθ power increased, suggesting heightened use of visuospatial representation processing and WM, respectively. These findings suggest that MRT performance involves flexibly trading off between cognitive strategies, namely a motor simulation-based mental rotation strategy and WM-intensive analytic strategies based on task difficulty. Flexible cognitive strategy use may be a domain-general cognitive principle that underlies aptitude and spatial intelligence in a variety of cognitive domains. We close with discussion of the present study's implications as well as future directions. Published by Elsevier Inc.

A Quality Improvement Study on Avoidable Stressors and Countermeasures Affecting Surgical Motor Performance and Learning

PubMed Central

Conrad, Claudius; Konuk, Yusuf; Werner, Paul D.; Cao, Caroline G.; Warshaw, Andrew L.; Rattner, David W.; Stangenberg, Lars; Ott, Harald C.; Jones, Daniel B.; Miller, Diane L; Gee, Denise W.

2012-01-01

OBJECTIVE To explore how the two most important components of surgical performance - speed and accuracy - are influenced by different forms of stress and what the impact of music on these factors is. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA Based on a recently published pilot study on surgical experts, we designed an experiment examining the effects of auditory stress, mental stress, and music on surgical performance and learning, and then correlated the data psychometric measures to the role of music in a novice surgeon’s life. METHODS 31 surgeons were recruited for a crossover study. Surgeons were randomized to four simple standardized tasks to be performed on the Surgical SIM VR laparoscopic simulator, allowing exact tracking of speed and accuracy. Tasks were performed under a variety of conditions, including silence, dichotic music (auditory stress), defined classical music (auditory relaxation), and mental loading (mental arithmetic tasks). Tasks were performed twice to test for memory consolidation and to accommodate for baseline variability. Performance was correlated to the Brief Musical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ). RESULTS Mental loading influences performance with respect to accuracy, speed, and recall more negatively than does auditory stress. Defined classical music might lead to minimally worse performance initially, but leads to significantly improved memory consolidation. Furthermore, psychologic testing of the volunteers suggests that surgeons with greater musical commitment, measured by the MEQ, perform worse under the mental loading condition. CONCLUSION Mental distraction and auditory stress negatively affect specific components of surgical learning and performance. If used appropriately, classical music may positively affect surgical memory consolidation. It also may be possible to predict surgeons’ performance and learning under stress through psychological tests on the role of music in a surgeon’s life. Further investigation is necessary to determine the cognitive processes behind these correlations. PMID:22584632

Visual information processing in the lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus): mental rotation or rotational invariance?

PubMed

Burmann, Britta; Dehnhardt, Guido; Mauck, Björn

2005-01-01

Mental rotation is a widely accepted concept indicating an image-like mental representation of visual information and an analogue mode of information processing in certain visuospatial tasks. In the task of discriminating between image and mirror-image of rotated figures, human reaction times increase with the angular disparity between the figures. In animals, tests of this kind yield inconsistent results. Pigeons were found to use a time-independent rotational invariance, possibly indicating a non-analogue information processing system that evolved in response to the horizontal plane of reference birds perceive during flight. Despite similar ecological demands concerning the visual reference plane, a sea lion was found to use mental rotation in similar tasks, but its processing speed while rotating three-dimensional stimuli seemed to depend on the axis of rotation in a different way than found for humans in similar tasks. If ecological demands influence the way information processing systems evolve, hominids might have secondarily lost the ability of rotational invariance while retreating from arboreal living and evolving an upright gait in which the vertical reference plane is more important. We therefore conducted mental rotation experiments with an arboreal living primate species, the lion-tailed macaque. Performing a two-alternative matching-to-sample procedure, the animal had to decide between rotated figures representing image and mirror-image of a previously shown upright sample. Although non-rotated stimuli were recognized faster than rotated ones, the animal's mean reaction times did not clearly increase with the angle of rotation. These results are inconsistent with the mental rotation concept but also cannot be explained assuming a mere rotational invariance. Our study thus seems to support the idea of information processing systems evolving gradually in response to specific ecological demands.

Factors Contributing to Single- and Dual-Task Timed "Up & Go" Test Performance in Middle-Aged and Older Adults Who Are Active and Dwell in the Community.

PubMed

Chen, Hui-Ya; Tang, Pei-Fang

2016-03-01

Dual-task Timed "Up & Go" (TUG) tests are likely to have applications different from those of a single-task TUG test and may have different contributing factors. The purpose of this study was to compare factors contributing to performance on single- and dual-task TUG tests. This investigation was a cross-sectional study. Sixty-four adults who were more than 50 years of age and dwelled in the community were recruited. Interviews and physical examinations were performed to identify potential contributors to TUG test performance. The time to complete the single-task TUG test (TUGsingle) or the dual-task TUG test, which consisted of completing the TUG test while performing a serial subtraction task (TUGcognitive) or while carrying water (TUGmanual), was measured. Age, hip extensor strength, walking speed, general mental function, and Stroop scores for word and color were significantly associated with performance on all TUG tests. Hierarchical multiple regression models, without the input of walking speed, revealed different independent factors contributing to TUGsingle performance (Mini-Mental Status Examination score, β=-0.32), TUGmanual performance (age, β=0.35), and TUGcognitive performance (Stroop word score, β=-0.40; Mini-Mental Status Examination score, β=-0.31). At least 40% of the variance in the performance on the 3 TUG tests was not explained by common clinical measures, even when the factor of walking speed was considered. However, this study successfully identified some important factors contributing to performance on different TUG tests, and other studies have reported similar findings for single-task TUG test and dual-task gait performance. Although the TUGsingle and the TUGcognitive shared general mental function as a common factor, the TUGmanual was uniquely influenced by age and the TUGcognitive was uniquely influenced by focused attention. These results suggest that both common and unique factors contribute to performance on single- and dual-task TUG tests and suggest important applications of the combined use of the 3 TUG tests. © 2016 American Physical Therapy Association.

Reverse ego-depletion: Acts of self-control can improve subsequent performance in Indian cultural contexts.

PubMed

Savani, Krishna; Job, Veronika

2017-10-01

The strength model of self-control has been predominantly tested with people from Western cultures. The present research asks whether the phenomenon of ego-depletion generalizes to a culture emphasizing the virtues of exerting mental self-control in everyday life. A pilot study found that whereas Americans tended to believe that exerting willpower on mental tasks is depleting, Indians tended to believe that exerting willpower is energizing. Using dual task ego-depletion paradigms, Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c found reverse ego-depletion among Indian participants, such that participants exhibited better mental self-control on a subsequent task after initially working on strenuous rather than nonstrenuous cognitive tasks. Studies 2 and 3 found that Westerners exhibited the ego-depletion effect whereas Indians exhibited the reverse ego-depletion effect on the same set of tasks. Study 4 documented the causal effect of lay beliefs about whether exerting willpower is depleting versus energizing on reverse ego-depletion with both Indian and Western participants. Together, these studies reveal the underlying basis of the ego-depletion phenomenon in culturally shaped lay theories about willpower. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

EEG alpha spindles and prolonged brake reaction times during auditory distraction in an on-road driving study.

PubMed

Sonnleitner, Andreas; Treder, Matthias Sebastian; Simon, Michael; Willmann, Sven; Ewald, Arne; Buchner, Axel; Schrauf, Michael

2014-01-01

Driver distraction is responsible for a substantial number of traffic accidents. This paper describes the impact of an auditory secondary task on drivers' mental states during a primary driving task. N=20 participants performed the test procedure in a car following task with repeated forced braking on a non-public test track. Performance measures (provoked reaction time to brake lights) and brain activity (EEG alpha spindles) were analyzed to describe distracted drivers. Further, a classification approach was used to investigate whether alpha spindles can predict drivers' mental states. Results show that reaction times and alpha spindle rate increased with time-on-task. Moreover, brake reaction times and alpha spindle rate were significantly higher while driving with auditory secondary task opposed to driving only. In single-trial classification, a combination of spindle parameters yielded a median classification error of about 8% in discriminating the distracted from the alert driving. Reduced driving performance (i.e., prolonged brake reaction times) during increased cognitive load is assumed to be indicated by EEG alpha spindles, enabling the quantification of driver distraction in experiments on public roads without verbally assessing the drivers' mental states. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Integrating Cognitive Task Analysis into Instructional Systems Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryder, Joan M.; Redding, Richard E.

1993-01-01

Discussion of instructional systems development (ISD) focuses on recent developments in cognitive task analysis and describes the Integrated Task Analysis Model, a framework for integrating cognitive and behavioral task analysis methods within the ISD model. Three components of expertise are analyzed: skills, knowledge, and mental models. (96…

Teaching Task Sequencing via Verbal Mediation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rusch, Frank R.; And Others

1987-01-01

Verbal sequence training was used to teach a moderately mentally retarded woman to sequence job-related tasks. Learning to say the tasks in the proper sequence resulted in the employee performing her tasks in that sequence, and the employee was capable of mediating her own work behavior when scheduled changes occurred. (Author/JDD)

A National Mental Retardation Manpower Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Inst. on Mental Retardation, Toronto (Ontario).

The report of the Task Force established by the Canadian National Institute on Mental Retardation concerns a comprehensive planning and organization program for training personnel, especially associate professionals, in the field of mental retardation to provide a more effective utilization of manpower. Summarized are results of surveys of…

Personality and Neural Correlates of Mentalizing Ability.

PubMed

Allen, Timothy A; Rueter, Amanda R; Abram, Samantha V; Brown, James S; DeYoung, Colin G

2017-01-01

Theory of mind, or mentalizing , defined as the ability to reason about another's mental states, is a crucial psychological function that is disrupted in some forms of psychopathology, but little is known about how individual differences in this ability relate to personality or brain function. One previous study linked mentalizing ability to individual differences in the personality trait Agreeableness. Agreeableness encompasses two major subdimensions: Compassion reflects tendencies toward empathy, prosocial behavior, and interpersonal concern, whereas Politeness captures tendencies to suppress aggressive and exploitative impulses. We hypothesized that Compassion but not Politeness would be associated with better mentalizing ability. This hypothesis was confirmed in Study 1 ( N = 329) using a theory of mind task that required reasoning about the beliefs of fictional characters. Post hoc analyses indicated that the honesty facet of Agreeableness was negatively associated with mentalizing. In Study 2 ( N = 217), we examined whether individual differences in mentalizing and related traits were associated with patterns of resting-state functional connectivity in the brain. Performance on the theory of mind task was significantly associated with patterns of connectivity between the dorsal medial and core subsystems of the default network, consistent with evidence implicating these regions in mentalization.

The role of child and parental mentalizing for the development of conduct problems over time.

PubMed

Ha, Carolyn; Sharp, Carla; Goodyer, Ian

2011-06-01

The current study aimed to investigate the role of parental and child mentalizing in the development of conduct problems over time in a community sample of 7- to 11-year-olds (N = 659). To measure child mentalizing, children were asked to complete a social vignettes task at baseline as a measure of distorted mentalizing. Parents (primarily mothers) were asked to complete the same task, guessing their child's responses in the social scenarios as a measure of maternal mentalizing. Conduct problems were evaluated using repeated measures from multi-informant (self-, teacher-, and parent-report) questionnaires completed at baseline and 1-year follow-up. As expected, children who had an overly positive mentalizing style were more likely to be reported by teachers as having conduct problems at 1-year follow-up. These findings held when controlling for baseline conduct problems, IQ, SES, and sex. Findings for maternal mentalizing were significant for follow-up parent-report conduct problem symptoms at the bivariate level of analyses, but not at the multivariate level when controlling for baseline conduct problems and age. These findings extend previous reports by providing predictive validity for distorted mentalizing in the development of conduct problems.

Re: Madsen et al. "Unnecessary work tasks and mental health: a prospective analysis of Danish human service workers".

PubMed

Durand-Moreau, Quentin; Loddé, Brice; Dewitte, Jean-Dominique

2015-03-01

Madsen et al (1) recently published a secondary analysis on data provided by the Project on Burnout, Motivation and Job Satisfaction (PUMA). The aim of their study, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health was to examine the associations between unnecessary work tasks and a decreased level of mental health. Though the topic was quite novel, reading this work proved disturbing and raised issues. Based on the results of this study, the authors stated that there is an association between unnecessary work tasks (assessed by a single question) and a decreased level of mental health, idem [assessed by the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5)], in the specific population included in this PUMA survey. The authors point out a limitation of the study, namely that unnecessary work tasks were evaluated using one single question: "Do you sometimes have to do things in your job which appear to be unnecessary?". Semmer defines unnecessary work task as "tasks that should not be carried out at all because they do not make sense or because they could have been avoided, or could be carried out with less effort if things were organized more efficiently" (2). De facto, qualifying what an unnecessary task is requires stating or explaining whether the task makes sense. Making sense or not is not an objective notion. It is very difficult for either a manager or an employee to say if a task is necessary or not. Most important is that it makes sense from the worker's point of view. Making sense and being necessary are not synonyms. Some tasks do not make sense but are economically necessary (eg, when, as physicians, we are reporting our activity using ICD-10 on computers instead of being at patients' bedsides or reading this journal). Thus, there is a wide gap between Semmer's definition and the question used by the authors to evaluate his concept. A secondary analysis based on a single question is not adequate to evaluate unnecessary tasks. Nowadays, the general trend is to reduce the size of questionnaires because they are too long and cannot be used in a routine practice. But an analysis performed on a single question is quite risky: in psychometrics, redundancy is used to confirm a measurement. We lose precision on what exactly we are testing by asking a single question. Madsen et al's results show that among workers saying they are always or often performing unnecessary tasks, the MHI mean score was 74.00 versus 78.20 for people who never or almost never perform unnecessary tasks (P=0.0038). Even though it is a statistically significant result, its clinical relevance is never questioned. What is the impact of losing 4.20 points at MHI test instead of losing 20 points for instance? Statistical difference does not mean clinical relevance. These results show a statistical association, not a causality relationship. The authors did not show that performing unnecessary tasks lowers the level of mental health. It may be the exact opposite. Maybe having poorer mental health (eg, depression, with anhedonia) may make the workers think that what they're doing is useless. In their conclusion, Madsen et al suggest that the elimination of unnecessary work tasks may be beneficial for employees' mental health. To our mind, on the contrary, it may increase psychic suffering. If we suggest to fight unnecessary tasks in workplaces, this may encourage reduction of the margin of manoeuvre (3). The principle of removing unnecessary tasks is part of a Taylorized organization. Some tasks may seem unnecessary or bothersome, but may correspond to work periods that allow for temporary rest. Concretely, in the workplace, managers rather than the employee will be the ones to decide whether a task is useless or not. To improve well-being in the workplace, a global vision of work organization is required. From our point of view, the conclusion drawn from this study should not be that we must eliminate unnecessary tasks, but that we should focus on what makes sense for the worker, with a global view on his work and - as usual - the aim of carrying out further studies on this subject. Conflicts of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest. References 1. Madsen IEH, Tripathi M, Borritz M, Rugulies R, Unnecessary work tasks and mental health: a prospective analysis of Danish human service workers, Scand J Work Environ Health. 2014;40(6):631-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3453.  2. Semmer NK, Tschan F, Meier LL, Facchin S, Jacobshagen N, Illegitimate tasks and counterproductive work behavior, Appl Psychol. 2010;59:70-96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2009.00416.x.  3. Durand MJ, Vézina N, Baril R, Loisel P, Richard MC, Ngomo S, Margin of manoeuvre indicators in the workplace during the rehabilitation process: a qualitative analysis, J Occup Rehab. 2009;19:194-202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10926-009-9173-4.

The Cognitive Atlas: Toward a Knowledge Foundation for Cognitive Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Poldrack, Russell A.; Kittur, Aniket; Kalar, Donald; Miller, Eric; Seppa, Christian; Gil, Yolanda; Parker, D. Stott; Sabb, Fred W.; Bilder, Robert M.

2011-01-01

Cognitive neuroscience aims to map mental processes onto brain function, which begs the question of what “mental processes” exist and how they relate to the tasks that are used to manipulate and measure them. This topic has been addressed informally in prior work, but we propose that cumulative progress in cognitive neuroscience requires a more systematic approach to representing the mental entities that are being mapped to brain function and the tasks used to manipulate and measure mental processes. We describe a new open collaborative project that aims to provide a knowledge base for cognitive neuroscience, called the Cognitive Atlas (accessible online at http://www.cognitiveatlas.org), and outline how this project has the potential to drive novel discoveries about both mind and brain. PMID:21922006

More visual mind wandering occurrence during visual task performance: Modality of the concurrent task affects how the mind wanders.

PubMed

Choi, HeeSun; Geden, Michael; Feng, Jing

2017-01-01

Mind wandering has been considered as a mental process that is either independent from the concurrent task or regulated like a secondary task. These accounts predict that the form of mind wandering (i.e., images or words) should be either unaffected by or different from the modality form (i.e., visual or auditory) of the concurrent task. Findings from this study challenge these accounts. We measured the rate and the form of mind wandering in three task conditions: fixation, visual 2-back, and auditory 2-back. Contrary to the general expectation, we found that mind wandering was more likely in the same form as the task. This result can be interpreted in light of recent findings on overlapping brain activations during internally- and externally-oriented processes. Our result highlights the importance to consider the unique interplay between the internal and external mental processes and to measure mind wandering as a multifaceted rather than a unitary construct.

More visual mind wandering occurrence during visual task performance: Modality of the concurrent task affects how the mind wanders

PubMed Central

Choi, HeeSun; Geden, Michael

2017-01-01

Mind wandering has been considered as a mental process that is either independent from the concurrent task or regulated like a secondary task. These accounts predict that the form of mind wandering (i.e., images or words) should be either unaffected by or different from the modality form (i.e., visual or auditory) of the concurrent task. Findings from this study challenge these accounts. We measured the rate and the form of mind wandering in three task conditions: fixation, visual 2-back, and auditory 2-back. Contrary to the general expectation, we found that mind wandering was more likely in the same form as the task. This result can be interpreted in light of recent findings on overlapping brain activations during internally- and externally-oriented processes. Our result highlights the importance to consider the unique interplay between the internal and external mental processes and to measure mind wandering as a multifaceted rather than a unitary construct. PMID:29240817

Sample and design considerations in post-disaster mental health needs assessment tracking surveys

PubMed Central

Kessler, Ronald C.; Keane, Terence M.; Ursano, Robert J.; Mokdad, Ali; Zaslavsky, Alan M.

2009-01-01

Although needs assessment surveys are carried out after many large natural and man-made disasters, synthesis of findings across these surveys and disaster situations about patterns and correlates of need is hampered by inconsistencies in study designs and measures. Recognizing this problem, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) assembled a task force in 2004 to develop a model study design and interview schedule for use in post-disaster needs assessment surveys. The US National Institute of Mental Health subsequently approved a plan to establish a center to implement post-disaster mental health needs assessment surveys in the future using an integrated series of measures and designs of the sort proposed by the SAMHSA task force. A wide range of measurement, design, and analysis issues will arise in developing this center. Given that the least widely discussed of these issues concerns study design, the current report focuses on the most important sampling and design issues proposed for this center based on our experiences with the SAMHSA task force, subsequent Katrina surveys, and earlier work in other disaster situations. PMID:19035440

Abnormal functional specialization within medial prefrontal cortex in high-functioning autism: a multi-voxel similarity analysis

PubMed Central

Meuwese, Julia D.I.; Towgood, Karren J.; Frith, Christopher D.; Burgess, Paul W.

2009-01-01

Multi-voxel pattern analyses have proved successful in ‘decoding’ mental states from fMRI data, but have not been used to examine brain differences associated with atypical populations. We investigated a group of 16 (14 males) high-functioning participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 16 non-autistic control participants (12 males) performing two tasks (spatial/verbal) previously shown to activate medial rostral prefrontal cortex (mrPFC). Each task manipulated: (i) attention towards perceptual versus self-generated information and (ii) reflection on another person's mental state (‘mentalizing'versus ‘non-mentalizing’) in a 2 × 2 design. Behavioral performance and group-level fMRI results were similar between groups. However, multi-voxel similarity analyses revealed strong differences. In control participants, the spatial distribution of activity generalized significantly between task contexts (spatial/verbal) when examining the same function (attention/mentalizing) but not when comparing different functions. This pattern was disrupted in the ASD group, indicating abnormal functional specialization within mrPFC, and demonstrating the applicability of multi-voxel pattern analysis to investigations of atypical populations. PMID:19174370

Detecting number processing and mental calculation in patients with disorders of consciousness using a hybrid brain-computer interface system.

PubMed

Li, Yuanqing; Pan, Jiahui; He, Yanbin; Wang, Fei; Laureys, Steven; Xie, Qiuyou; Yu, Ronghao

2015-12-15

For patients with disorders of consciousness such as coma, a vegetative state or a minimally conscious state, one challenge is to detect and assess the residual cognitive functions in their brains. Number processing and mental calculation are important brain functions but are difficult to detect in patients with disorders of consciousness using motor response-based clinical assessment scales such as the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised due to the patients' motor impairments and inability to provide sufficient motor responses for number- and calculation-based communication. In this study, we presented a hybrid brain-computer interface that combines P300 and steady state visual evoked potentials to detect number processing and mental calculation in Han Chinese patients with disorders of consciousness. Eleven patients with disorders of consciousness who were in a vegetative state (n = 6) or in a minimally conscious state (n = 3) or who emerged from a minimally conscious state (n = 2) participated in the brain-computer interface-based experiment. During the experiment, the patients with disorders of consciousness were instructed to perform three tasks, i.e., number recognition, number comparison, and mental calculation, including addition and subtraction. In each experimental trial, an arithmetic problem was first presented. Next, two number buttons, only one of which was the correct answer to the problem, flickered at different frequencies to evoke steady state visual evoked potentials, while the frames of the two buttons flashed in a random order to evoke P300 potentials. The patients needed to focus on the target number button (the correct answer). Finally, the brain-computer interface system detected P300 and steady state visual evoked potentials to determine the button to which the patients attended, further presenting the results as feedback. Two of the six patients who were in a vegetative state, one of the three patients who were in a minimally conscious state, and the two patients that emerged from a minimally conscious state achieved accuracies significantly greater than the chance level. Furthermore, P300 potentials and steady state visual evoked potentials were observed in the electroencephalography signals from the five patients. Number processing and arithmetic abilities as well as command following were demonstrated in the five patients. Furthermore, our results suggested that through brain-computer interface systems, many cognitive experiments may be conducted in patients with disorders of consciousness, although they cannot provide sufficient behavioral responses.

Basic math in monkeys and college students.

PubMed

Cantlon, Jessica F; Brannon, Elizabeth M

2007-12-01

Adult humans possess a sophisticated repertoire of mathematical faculties. Many of these capacities are rooted in symbolic language and are therefore unlikely to be shared with nonhuman animals. However, a subset of these skills is shared with other animals, and this set is considered a cognitive vestige of our common evolutionary history. Current evidence indicates that humans and nonhuman animals share a core set of abilities for representing and comparing approximate numerosities nonverbally; however, it remains unclear whether nonhuman animals can perform approximate mental arithmetic. Here we show that monkeys can mentally add the numerical values of two sets of objects and choose a visual array that roughly corresponds to the arithmetic sum of these two sets. Furthermore, monkeys' performance during these calculations adheres to the same pattern as humans tested on the same nonverbal addition task. Our data demonstrate that nonverbal arithmetic is not unique to humans but is instead part of an evolutionarily primitive system for mathematical thinking shared by monkeys.

Python Executable Script for Estimating Two Effective Parameters to Individualize Brain-Computer Interfaces: Individual Alpha Frequency and Neurophysiological Predictor.

PubMed

Alonso-Valerdi, Luz María

2016-01-01

A brain-computer interface (BCI) aims to establish communication between the human brain and a computing system so as to enable the interaction between an individual and his environment without using the brain output pathways. Individuals control a BCI system by modulating their brain signals through mental tasks (e.g., motor imagery or mental calculation) or sensory stimulation (e.g., auditory, visual, or tactile). As users modulate their brain signals at different frequencies and at different levels, the appropriate characterization of those signals is necessary. The modulation of brain signals through mental tasks is furthermore a skill that requires training. Unfortunately, not all the users acquire such skill. A practical solution to this problem is to assess the user probability of controlling a BCI system. Another possible solution is to set the bandwidth of the brain oscillations, which is highly sensitive to the users' age, sex and anatomy. With this in mind, NeuroIndex, a Python executable script, estimates a neurophysiological prediction index and the individual alpha frequency (IAF) of the user in question. These two parameters are useful to characterize the user EEG signals, and decide how to go through the complex process of adapting the human brain and the computing system on the basis of previously proposed methods. NeuroIndeX is not only the implementation of those methods, but it also complements the methods each other and provides an alternative way to obtain the prediction parameter. However, an important limitation of this application is its dependency on the IAF value, and some results should be interpreted with caution. The script along with some electroencephalographic datasets are available on a GitHub repository in order to corroborate the functionality and usability of this application.

Python Executable Script for Estimating Two Effective Parameters to Individualize Brain-Computer Interfaces: Individual Alpha Frequency and Neurophysiological Predictor

PubMed Central

Alonso-Valerdi, Luz María

2016-01-01

A brain-computer interface (BCI) aims to establish communication between the human brain and a computing system so as to enable the interaction between an individual and his environment without using the brain output pathways. Individuals control a BCI system by modulating their brain signals through mental tasks (e.g., motor imagery or mental calculation) or sensory stimulation (e.g., auditory, visual, or tactile). As users modulate their brain signals at different frequencies and at different levels, the appropriate characterization of those signals is necessary. The modulation of brain signals through mental tasks is furthermore a skill that requires training. Unfortunately, not all the users acquire such skill. A practical solution to this problem is to assess the user probability of controlling a BCI system. Another possible solution is to set the bandwidth of the brain oscillations, which is highly sensitive to the users' age, sex and anatomy. With this in mind, NeuroIndex, a Python executable script, estimates a neurophysiological prediction index and the individual alpha frequency (IAF) of the user in question. These two parameters are useful to characterize the user EEG signals, and decide how to go through the complex process of adapting the human brain and the computing system on the basis of previously proposed methods. NeuroIndeX is not only the implementation of those methods, but it also complements the methods each other and provides an alternative way to obtain the prediction parameter. However, an important limitation of this application is its dependency on the IAF value, and some results should be interpreted with caution. The script along with some electroencephalographic datasets are available on a GitHub repository in order to corroborate the functionality and usability of this application. PMID:27445783

Self-perception of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: effects on institutionalized mentally retarded adolescents.

PubMed

Lee, D Y; Syrnyk, R

1977-01-01

Self-perception theory predicts that the introduction of extrinsic rewards for behavior that was intrinsically rewarding may decrease rather than enhance overall motivation. This hypothesis was tested on a group of institutionalized mentally retarded adolescents (34 boys, 10 girls). Intrinsic (high and low task interest) and extrinsic (high- and low-incentive objects) motivation were both manipulated as independent variables, and the dependent variable was task persistence during a free-play period. Results indicated that for a high intrinsically interesting task, the task persistence was greater under the external reward of low- rather than high-incentive value conditions. The opposite trend was revealed for the low intrinsically interesting task. The results provided some evidence that the greater the amount of the reward for an interesting activity, the greater the degree to which the intrinsic interest is undermined.

Event-related potentials in homosexual and heterosexual men and women: sex-dimorphic patterns in verbal asymmetries and mental rotation.

PubMed

Wegesin, D J

1998-02-01

To elucidate neurobiological factors related to gender and sexual orientation, event-related brain potentials of 20 heterosexual (HT) men, 20 HT women, 20 homosexual (HM) men, and 20 HM women were examined for neurophysiological differences. Cognitive tasks which typically elicit sex differences were administered. A mental rotation (MR) task assessed spatial ability, and a divided-visual-field lexical-decision/semantic monitoring task (LD/SM) assessed verbal ability and relative degrees of language lateralization. Slow wave activity recorded during MR was greater for HT men than for HT women and gay men. N400 asymmetries recorded during the LD/SM task revealed differences between men and women, but no intrasex differences. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

Role of strategies and prior exposure in mental rotation.

PubMed

Cherney, Isabelle D; Neff, Nicole L

2004-06-01

The purpose of these two studies was to examine sex differences in strategy use and the effect of prior exposure on the performance on Vandenberg and Kuse's 1978 Mental Rotation Test. A total of 152 participants completed the spatial task and self-reported their strategy use. Consistent with previous studies, men outperformed women. Strategy usage did not account for these differences, although guessing did. Previous exposure to the Mental Rotation Test, American College Test scores and frequent computer or video game play predicted performance on the test. These results suggest that prior exposure to spatial tasks may provide cues to improve participants' performance.

Measuring cognitive load: performance, mental effort and simulation task complexity.

PubMed

Haji, Faizal A; Rojas, David; Childs, Ruth; de Ribaupierre, Sandrine; Dubrowski, Adam

2015-08-01

Interest in applying cognitive load theory in health care simulation is growing. This line of inquiry requires measures that are sensitive to changes in cognitive load arising from different instructional designs. Recently, mental effort ratings and secondary task performance have shown promise as measures of cognitive load in health care simulation. We investigate the sensitivity of these measures to predicted differences in intrinsic load arising from variations in task complexity and learner expertise during simulation-based surgical skills training. We randomly assigned 28 novice medical students to simulation training on a simple or complex surgical knot-tying task. Participants completed 13 practice trials, interspersed with computer-based video instruction. On trials 1, 5, 9 and 13, knot-tying performance was assessed using time and movement efficiency measures, and cognitive load was assessed using subjective rating of mental effort (SRME) and simple reaction time (SRT) on a vibrotactile stimulus-monitoring secondary task. Significant improvements in knot-tying performance (F(1.04,24.95)  = 41.1, p < 0.001 for movements; F(1.04,25.90)  = 49.9, p < 0.001 for time) and reduced cognitive load (F(2.3,58.5)  = 57.7, p < 0.001 for SRME; F(1.8,47.3)  = 10.5, p < 0.001 for SRT) were observed in both groups during training. The simple-task group demonstrated superior knot tying (F(1,24)  = 5.2, p = 0.031 for movements; F(1,24)  = 6.5, p = 0.017 for time) and a faster decline in SRME over the first five trials (F(1,26)  = 6.45, p = 0.017) compared with their peers. Although SRT followed a similar pattern, group differences were not statistically significant. Both secondary task performance and mental effort ratings are sensitive to changes in intrinsic load among novices engaged in simulation-based learning. These measures can be used to track cognitive load during skills training. Mental effort ratings are also sensitive to small differences in intrinsic load arising from variations in the physical complexity of a simulation task. The complementary nature of these subjective and objective measures suggests their combined use is advantageous in simulation instructional design research. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The brain-sex theory of occupational choice: a counterexample.

PubMed

Esgate, Anthony; Flynn, Maria

2005-02-01

The brain-sex theory of occupational choice suggests that males and females in male-typical careers show a male pattern of cognitive ability in terms of better spatial than verbal performance on cognitive tests with the reverse pattern for females and males in female-typical careers. These differences are thought to result from patterns of cerebral functional lateralisation. This study sought such occupationally related effects using synonym generation (verbal ability) and mental rotation (spatial ability) tasks used previously. It also used entrants to these careers as participants to examine whether patterns of cognitive abilities might predate explicit training and practice. Using a population of entrants to sex-differentiated university courses, a moderate occupational effect on the synonym generation task was found, along with a weak (p < .10) sex effect on the mental rotation task. Highest performance on the mental rotation task was by female students in fashion design, a female-dominated occupation which makes substantial visuospatial demands and attracts many students with literacy problems such as dyslexia. This group then appears to be a counterexample to the brain-sex theory. However, methodological issues surrounding previous studies are highlighted: the simple synonym task appears to show limited discrimination of the sexes, leading to questions concerning the legitimacy of inferences about lateralisation based on scores from that test. Moreover, the human figure-based mental rotation task appears to tap the wrong aspect of visuospatial skill, likely to be needed for male-typical courses such as engineering. Since the fashion-design career is also one that attracts disproportionately many male students whose sexual orientation is homosexual, data were examined for evidence of female-typical patterns of cognitive performance among that subgroup. This was not found. This study therefore provides no evidence for the claim that female-pattern cerebral functional lateralisation is likely in gay males.

Executive and attentional functions in chronic pain: Does performance decrease with increasing task load?

PubMed Central

Oosterman, Joukje M; Derksen, Laura C; van Wijck, Albert JM; Kessels, Roy PC; Veldhuijzen, Dieuwke S

2012-01-01

BACKGROUND: Diminished executive function and attentional control has been reported in chronic pain patients. However, the precise pattern of impairment in these aspects of cognition in chronic pain remains unclear. Moreover, a decline in psychomotor speed could potentially influence executive and attentional control performance in pain patients. OBJECTIVE: To examine different aspects of executive and attentional control in chronic pain together with the confounding role of psychomotor slowing. METHODS: Neuropsychological tests of sustained attention, planning ability, inhibition and mental flexibility were administered to 34 participants with chronic pain and 32 control participants. RESULTS: Compared with the controls, participants with chronic pain took longer to complete tests of sustained attention and mental flexibility, but did not perform worse on inhibition or planning tasks. The decreased performance on the mental flexibility task likely reflects a reduction in psychomotor speed. The pattern of performance on the sustained attention task reveals a specific decline in attention, indicated by a disproportionate decline in performance with an increase in task duration and by increased fluctuations in attention during task performance. No additional effect was noted of pain intensity, pain duration, pain catastrophizing, depressive symptoms, reduced sleep because of the pain or opioid use. CONCLUSIONS: Executive and attention functions are not uniformly affected in chronic pain. At least part of the previously reported decline in executive function in this group may reflect psychomotor slowing. Overall, limited evidence was found that executive and attention performance is indeed lower in chronic pain. Therefore, it can be concluded that in chronic pain sustained attention performance is diminished while mental flexibility, planning and inhibition appear to be intact. PMID:22606680

The Learners' Mental Models of Television in Mathematics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sumalee, Chaijaroen

1999-01-01

Examines the learners' mental models of television in actual media classroom activity by which knowledge was constructed. Findings revealed how media capabilities and the instructional designs that employ them interact with the learners and the task characteristics to influence the formation of the learners' mental models and their learning…

Students' Mental Models of the Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shepardson, Daniel P.; Wee, Bryan; Priddy, Michelle; Harbor, Jon

2007-01-01

What are students' mental models of the environment? In what ways, if any, do students' mental models vary by grade level or community setting? These two questions guided the research reported in this article. The Environments Task was administered to students from 25 different teacher-classrooms. The student responses were first inductively…

Cognitive Aspects and Behavioral Effects of Transitions Between Levels of Automation

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-06

operator’s mental load: − changes in performance due to the allocation of resources to multiple tasks; − operator’s self-reports (e.g., NASA - TLX , SWAT...difficulty was randomized across participants. After each block participants compiled the NASA -Task Load indeX ( NASA - TLX : Hart & Staveland, 1988) for...the subjective assessment of mental workload. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS NASA - TLX weighted scores and number of completed lines (an index of

The Use of EEG as a Workload Assessment Tool in Flight Test

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-10-01

resource, single pool, mental model (Wickens) 9 which postulates that the human has a limited source of mental potential and when tasked with multiple...psychological spectrum presents an interesting challenge for future research. 10 EP Amplitude Microvolts) I-J ---- Single Task ......... Difficult...example, they obtained a p value of .000025 for a single test and then applied a Bonferroni correction to yield a conservatively corrected value of p

The effects of a mid-task break on the brain connectome in healthy participants: A resting-state functional MRI study.

PubMed

Sun, Yu; Lim, Julian; Dai, Zhongxiang; Wong, KianFoong; Taya, Fumihiko; Chen, Yu; Li, Junhua; Thakor, Nitish; Bezerianos, Anastasios

2017-05-15

Although rest breaks are commonly administered as a countermeasure to reduce mental fatigue and boost cognitive performance, the effects of taking a break on behavior are not consistent. Moreover, our understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms of rest breaks and how they modulate mental fatigue is still rudimentary. In this study, we investigated the effects of receiving a rest break on the topological properties of brain connectivity networks via a two-session experimental paradigm, in which one session comprised four successive blocks of a mentally demanding visual selective attention task (No-rest session), whereas the other contained a rest break between the second and third task blocks (Rest session). Functional brain networks were constructed using resting-state functional MRI data recorded from 20 healthy adults before and after the performance of the task blocks. Behaviorally, subjects displayed robust time-on-task (TOT) declines, as reflected by increasingly slower reaction time as the test progressed and lower post-task self-reported ratings of engagement. However, we did not find a significant effect on task performance due to administering a mid-task break. Compared to pre-task measurements, post-task functional brain networks demonstrated an overall decrease of optimal small-world properties together with lower global efficiency. Specifically, we found TOT-related reduced nodal efficiency in brain regions that mainly resided in the subcortical areas. More interestingly, a significant block-by-session interaction was revealed in local efficiency, attributing to a significant post-task decline in No-rest session and a preserved local efficiency when a mid-task break opportunity was introduced in the Rest session. Taken together, these findings augment our understanding of how the resting brain reorganizes following the accumulation of prolonged task, suggest dissociable processes between the neural mechanisms of fatigue and recovery, and provide some of the first quantitative insights into the cognitive neuroscience of work and rest. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The neural architecture of expert calendar calculation: a matter of strategy?

PubMed

Fehr, Thorsten; Wallace, Gregory L; Erhard, Peter; Herrmann, Manfred

2011-08-01

Savants and prodigies are individuals with exceptional skills in particular mental domains. In the present study we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine neural correlates of calendar calculation in two individuals, a savant with Asperger's disorder and a self-taught mathematical prodigy. If there is a modular neural organization of exceptional performance in a specific mental domain, calendar calculation should be reflected in a considerable overlap in the recruitment of brain circuits across expert individuals. However, considerable individual differences in activation patterns during calendar calculation were noted. The present results indicate that activation patterns produced by complex mental processing, such as calendar calculation, seem to be influenced strongly by learning history and idiosyncratic strategy usage rather than a modular neural organization. Thus, well-known individual differences in complex cognition play a major role even in experts with exceptional abilities in a particular mental domain and should in particular be considered when examining the neural architecture of complex mental processes and skills.

Planning-related motor processes underlie mental practice and imitation learning.

PubMed

Bach, Patric; Allami, Bassem Khalaf; Tucker, Mike; Ellis, Rob

2014-06-01

It is still controversial whether mental practice-the internal rehearsal of movements to improve later performance-relies on processes engaged during physical motor performance and, if so, which processes these are. We report data from 5 experiments, in which participants mentally practiced complex rhythms with either feet or hands while using the same or different body parts to respond to unrelated sounds. We found that responses were impaired for those body parts that were concurrently used in mental practice, suggesting a binding of body-part-specific motor processes to action plans. This result was found when participants mentally trained to memorize the rhythms, to merely improve their performance, when mental practice and execution directly followed one another and when separated by a different task. Finally, it was found irrespective of whether participants practiced on the basis of a symbolic rhythm description and when they practiced by watching somebody perform the rhythms (imitation learning). The effect was eliminated only when the requirement for mental practice was eliminated from the task while keeping visual stimulation identical. These data link mental practice not to execution but planning related motor processes and reveal that these planning processes underlie both mental practice and imitation learning. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Uncovering the cognitive processes underlying mental rotation: an eye-movement study.

PubMed

Xue, Jiguo; Li, Chunyong; Quan, Cheng; Lu, Yiming; Yue, Jingwei; Zhang, Chenggang

2017-08-30

Mental rotation is an important paradigm for spatial ability. Mental-rotation tasks are assumed to involve five or three sequential cognitive-processing states, though this has not been demonstrated experimentally. Here, we investigated how processing states alternate during mental-rotation tasks. Inference was carried out using an advanced statistical modelling and data-driven approach - a discriminative hidden Markov model (dHMM) trained using eye-movement data obtained from an experiment consisting of two different strategies: (I) mentally rotate the right-side figure to be aligned with the left-side figure and (II) mentally rotate the left-side figure to be aligned with the right-side figure. Eye movements were found to contain the necessary information for determining the processing strategy, and the dHMM that best fit our data segmented the mental-rotation process into three hidden states, which we termed encoding and searching, comparison, and searching on one-side pair. Additionally, we applied three classification methods, logistic regression, support vector model and dHMM, of which dHMM predicted the strategies with the highest accuracy (76.8%). Our study did confirm that there are differences in processing states between these two of mental-rotation strategies, and were consistent with the previous suggestion that mental rotation is discrete process that is accomplished in a piecemeal fashion.

Operational Stress and Correlates of Mental Health Among Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay Military Personnel.

PubMed

Webb-Murphy, Jennifer A; De La Rosa, Gabriel M; Schmitz, Kimberly J; Vishnyak, Elizabeth J; Raducha, Stephanie C; Roesch, Scott C; Johnston, Scott L

2015-12-01

Military personnel deployed to Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay (JTF-GTMO) faced numerous occupational stressors. As part of a program evaluation, personnel working at JTF-GTMO completed several validated self-report measures. Personnel were at the beginning, middle, or end of their deployment phase. This study presents data regarding symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse, depression, and resilience among 498 U.S. military personnel deployed to JTF-GTMO in 2009. We also investigated individual and organizational correlates of mental health among these personnel. Findings indicated that tenure at JTF-GTMO was positively related to adverse mental health outcomes. Regression models including these variables had R2 values ranging from .02 to .11. Occupation at JTF-GTMO also related to mental health such that guards reported poorer mental health than medical staff. Reluctance to seek out mental health care was also related to mental health outcomes. Those who reported being most reluctant to seek out care tended to report poorer mental health than those who were more willing to seek out care. Results suggested that the JTF-GTMO deployment was associated with significant psychological stress, and that both job-related and attitude-related variables were important to understanding mental health symptoms in this sample. Copyright © 2015 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Sex Differences and Autism: Brain Function during Verbal Fluency and Mental Rotation

PubMed Central

Minati, Ludovico; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Lombardo, Michael V.; Lai, Meng-Chuan; Walker, Anne; Howard, Dawn; Gray, Marcus A.; Harrison, Neil A.; Critchley, Hugo D.

2012-01-01

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect more males than females. This suggests that the neurobiology of autism: 1) may overlap with mechanisms underlying typical sex-differentiation or 2) alternately reflect sex-specificity in how autism is expressed in males and females. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test these alternate hypotheses. Fifteen men and fourteen women with Asperger syndrome (AS), and sixteen typically developing men and sixteen typically developing women underwent fMRI during performance of mental rotation and verbal fluency tasks. All groups performed the tasks equally well. On the verbal fluency task, despite equivalent task-performance, both males and females with AS showed enhanced activation of left occipitoparietal and inferior prefrontal activity compared to controls. During mental rotation, there was a significant diagnosis-by-sex interaction across occipital, temporal, parietal, middle frontal regions, with greater activation in AS males and typical females compared to AS females and typical males. These findings suggest a complex relationship between autism and sex that is differentially expressed in verbal and visuospatial domains. PMID:22701630

Sex differences and autism: brain function during verbal fluency and mental rotation.

PubMed

Beacher, Felix D C C; Radulescu, Eugenia; Minati, Ludovico; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Lombardo, Michael V; Lai, Meng-Chuan; Walker, Anne; Howard, Dawn; Gray, Marcus A; Harrison, Neil A; Critchley, Hugo D

2012-01-01

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect more males than females. This suggests that the neurobiology of autism: 1) may overlap with mechanisms underlying typical sex-differentiation or 2) alternately reflect sex-specificity in how autism is expressed in males and females. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test these alternate hypotheses. Fifteen men and fourteen women with Asperger syndrome (AS), and sixteen typically developing men and sixteen typically developing women underwent fMRI during performance of mental rotation and verbal fluency tasks. All groups performed the tasks equally well. On the verbal fluency task, despite equivalent task-performance, both males and females with AS showed enhanced activation of left occipitoparietal and inferior prefrontal activity compared to controls. During mental rotation, there was a significant diagnosis-by-sex interaction across occipital, temporal, parietal, middle frontal regions, with greater activation in AS males and typical females compared to AS females and typical males. These findings suggest a complex relationship between autism and sex that is differentially expressed in verbal and visuospatial domains.

Dual-Task Processing When Task 1 Is Hard and Task 2 Is Easy: Reversed Central Processing Order?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leonhard, Tanja; Fernandez, Susana Ruiz; Ulrich, Rolf; Miller, Jeff

2011-01-01

Five psychological refractory period (PRP) experiments were conducted with an especially time-consuming first task (Experiments 1, 3, and 5: mental rotation; Experiments 2 and 4: memory scanning) and with equal emphasis on the first task and on the second (left-right tone judgment). The standard design with varying stimulus onset asynchronies…

Age-Related Changes in Brain Activation Underlying Single- and Dual-Task Performance: Visuomanual Drawing and Mental Arithmetic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Impe, A.; Coxon, J. P.; Goble, D. J.; Wenderoth, N.; Swinnen, S. P.

2011-01-01

Depending on task combination, dual-tasking can either be performed successfully or can lead to performance decrements in one or both tasks. Interference is believed to be caused by limitations in central processing, i.e. structural interference between the neural activation patterns associated with each task. In the present study, single- and…

Theory of Mind in Williams Syndrome Assessed Using a Nonverbal Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porter, Melanie A.; Coltheart, Max; Langdon, Robyn

2008-01-01

This study examined Theory of Mind in Williams syndrome (WS) and in normal chronological age-matched and mental age-matched control groups, using a picture sequencing task. This task assesses understanding of pretence, intention and false belief, while controlling for social-script knowledge and physical cause-and-effect reasoning. The task was…

Goal Profiles, Mental Toughness and its Influence on Performance Outcomes among Wushu Athletes

PubMed Central

Roy, Jolly

2007-01-01

This study examined the association between goal orientations and mental toughness and its influence on performance outcomes in competition. Wushu athletes (n = 40) competing in Intervarsity championships in Malaysia completed Task and Ego Orientations in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) and Psychological Performance Inventory (PPI). Using cluster analysis techniques including hierarchical methods and the non-hierarchical method (k-means cluster) to examine goal profiles, a three cluster solution emerged viz. cluster 1 - high task and moderate ego (HT/ME), cluster 2 - moderate task and low ego (MT/LE) and, cluster 3 - moderate task and moderate ego (MT/ME). Analysis of the fundamental areas of mental toughness based on goal profiles revealed that athletes in cluster 1 scored significantly higher on negative energy control than athletes in cluster 2. Further, athletes in cluster 1 also scored significantly higher on positive energy control than athletes in cluster 3. Chi-square (χ2) test revealed no significant differences among athletes with different goal profiles on performance outcomes in the competition. However, significant differences were observed between athletes (medallist and non medallist) in self- confidence (p = 0.001) and negative energy control (p = 0.042). Medallist’s scored significantly higher on self-confidence (mean = 21.82 ± 2.72) and negative energy control (mean = 19.59 ± 2.32) than the non-medallists (self confidence-mean = 18.76 ± 2.49; negative energy control mean = 18.14 ± 1.91). Key points Mental toughness can be influenced by certain goal profile combination. Athletes with successful outcomes in performance (medallist) displayed greater mental toughness. PMID:24198700

Exceptional visuospatial imagery in schizophrenia; implications for madness and creativity

PubMed Central

Benson, Taylor L.; Park, Sohee

2013-01-01

Biographical and historical accounts suggest a link between scientific creativity and schizophrenia. Longitudinal studies of gifted children indicate that visuospatial imagery plays a pivotal role in exceptional achievements in science and mathematics. We asked whether visuospatial imagery is enhanced in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ). We compared SZ and matched healthy controls (HC) on five visuospatial tasks tapping parietal and frontoparietal functions. Two aspects of visuospatial transformation, spatial location and mental imagery manipulation were examined with Paper Folding Test (PFT) and jigsaw puzzle task (JPT), respectively. Visuospatial intelligence was assessed with Ravens Progressive Matrices, which is associated with frontoparietal network activity. Hemispatial inattention implicating parietal function was assessed with line bisection (LB) task. Mediated by prefrontal cortex, spatial delayed response task (DRT) was used to index working memory maintenance, which was impaired in SZ compared to HC. In contrast, SZ showed intact visuospatial intelligence and transformation of location. Further, SZ performed significantly better than HC on JPT indicating enhanced mental imagery manipulation. Spatial working memory (SWM) maintenance and mental imagery manipulation were strongly associated in HC but dissociated in SZ. Thus, we observed enhanced mental imagery manipulation in SZ but the dissociation of mental imagery from working memory suggests a disrupted frontoparietal network. Finally, while HC showed the expected leftward pseudoneglect, SZ showed increased rightward LB bias implicating left hemispatial inattention and impaired right parietal control of spatial attention. The current results chart a unique profile of impaired, spared and enhanced parietal-mediated visuospatial functions implicating parietal abnormalities as a biobehavioral marker for SZ. We discuss these results in relation to creative cognition. PMID:24273503

Job attributes, job satisfaction and the return to health after breast cancer diagnosis and treatment

PubMed Central

Barnes, Andrew J.; Robert, Nicholas; Bradley, Cathy J.

2015-01-01

Background As detection and treatment of cancer has advanced, the number of working age women with breast cancer has increased. This study provides new information on the intersection of breast cancer treatment and job tasks and how, together, they impact employed and newly diagnosed women. Methods The sample comprised 493 employed women within 2 months of initiating treatment. Job satisfaction and demands were assessed by a pre-diagnosis recall along with measures of mental and physical health and assessed again 9 months after initiating treatment. Using seemingly unrelated regression, we tested the effect of job tasks and satisfaction on mental and physical health 9 months post-treatment initiation, controlling for pre-diagnosis health status, patient characteristics, and job tasks. Results Physical job demands prior to diagnosis were not significantly associated with mental or physical health 9 months after treatment initiation. Employment in cognitively demanding and less satisfying jobs was associated with decreases in mental health and increases in problems with work or daily activities 9 months post-treatment initiation (p<0.05). Women who received five or more cycles of chemotherapy reported lower vitality, social functioning, and worse measures of physical health compared with those who did not receive chemotherapy (p<0.05). Conclusions Employment in cognitively demanding and unsatisfying jobs may impede mental health recovery, particularly in patients who receive longer chemotherapy regimens. Such information may be used by patients and clinicians in deciding when to undergo chemotherapy and whether job tasks can be restructured to hasten recovery. PMID:24000141

Single doses of Panax ginseng (G115) reduce blood glucose levels and improve cognitive performance during sustained mental activity.

PubMed

Reay, Jonathon L; Kennedy, David O; Scholey, Andrew B

2005-07-01

Single doses of the traditional herbal treatment Panax ginseng have recently been shown to elicit cognitive improvements in healthy young volunteers. The mechanisms by which ginseng improves cognitive performance are not known. However, they may be related to the glycaemic properties of some Panax species. Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled, balanced crossover design, 30 healthy young adults completed a 10 min test battery at baseline, and then six times in immediate succession commencing 60 min after the day's treatment (placebo, 200mg G115 or 400mg G115). The 10 min battery comprised a Serial Threes subtraction task (2 min); a Serial Sevens task (2 min); a Rapid Visual Information Processing task (5 min); then a 'mental fatigue' visual analogue scale. Blood glucose was measured prior to each day's treatment, and before, during and after the post-dose completions of the battery. Both the 200mg and 400mg treatments led to significant reductions in blood glucose levels at all three post-treatment measurements (p 0.005 in all cases). The most notable behavioural effects were associated with 200mg of ginseng and included significantly improved Serial Sevens subtraction task performance and significantly reduced subjective mental fatigue throughout all (with the exception of one time point in each case) of the post-dose completions of the 10 min battery (p 0.05). Overall these data suggest that Panax ginseng can improve performance and subjective feelings of mental fatigue during sustained mental activity. This effect may be related to the acute gluco-regulatory properties of the extract.

Ergonomics and human factors in endoscopic surgery: a comparison of manual vs telerobotic simulation systems.

PubMed

Lee, E C; Rafiq, A; Merrell, R; Ackerman, R; Dennerlein, J T

2005-08-01

Minimally invasive surgical techniques expose surgeons to a variety of occupational hazards that may promote musculoskeletal disorders. Telerobotic systems for minimally invasive surgery may help to reduce these stressors. The objective of this study was to compare manual and telerobotic endoscopic surgery in terms of postural and mental stress. Thirteen participants with no experience as primary surgeons in endoscopic surgery performed a set of simulated surgical tasks using two different techniques--a telerobotic master--slave system and a manual endoscopic surgery system. The tasks consisted of passing a soft spherical object through a series of parallel rings, suturing along a line 5-cm long, running a 32-in ribbon, and cannulation. The Job Strain Index (JSI) and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) were used to quantify upper extremity exposure to postural and force risk factors. Task duration was quantified in seconds. A questionnaire provided measures of the participants' intuitiveness and mental stress. The JSI and RULA scores for all four tasks were significantly lower for the telerobotic technique than for the manual one. Task duration was significantly longer for telerobotic than for manual tasks. Participants reported that the telerobotic technique was as intuitive as, and no more stressful than, the manual technique. Given identical tasks, the time to completion is longer using the telerobotic technique than its manual counterpart. For the given simulated tasks in the laboratory setting, the better scores for the upper extremity postural analysis indicate that telerobotic surgery provides a more comfortable environment for the surgeon without any additional mental stress.

Mental Health and the Elderly: Recommendations for Action. The Reports of the President's Commission on Mental Health: Task Panel on the Elderly and the Secretary's Committee on Mental Health and Illness of the Elderly.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Administration on Aging (DHEW), Washington, DC. Federal Council on the Aging.

This publication contains the reports of two major public advisory bodies which studied and conducted hearings on mental health needs of the elderly and developed recommendations for public policy to address these needs. The first report reviews current mental health needs and considers the projected needs for dealing with emotional stress during…

Putting Primary Prevention to Work: Administrative Dilemmas.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Sanford

1982-01-01

Explores primary prevention as an integral part of community mental health practice. Considers the impact of primary prevention on the fundamental tasks of mental health administrators. Suggests ways of overcoming anticipated dilemmas. (RC)

The effects of mental representation on performance in a navigation task

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barshi, Immanuel; Healy, Alice F.

2002-01-01

In three experiments, we investigated the mental representations employed when instructions were followed that involved navigation in a space displayed as a grid on a computer screen. Performance was affected much more by the number of instructional units than by the number of words per unit. Performance in a three-dimensional space was independent of the number of dimensions along which participants navigated. However, memory for and accuracy in following the instructions were reduced when the task required mentally representing a three-dimensional space, as compared with representing a two-dimensional space, although the words used in the instructions were identical in the two cases. These results demonstrate the interdependence of verbal and spatial memory representations, because individuals' immediate memory for verbal navigation instructions is affected by their mental representation of the space referred to by the instructions.

Occupational stress, mental health and coping among information technology professionals.

PubMed

Rao, Jakkula V; Chandraiah, K

2012-01-01

Experience of occupational stress is inevitably involved in the execution of any type of work. Stress has an adaptive value. It motivates the individual to attend to the task and get rid of the tension or demand the unattended task produced. The study was planned to investigate the differences between executives and shop floor workers on occupational stress, mental health, job satisfaction and coping. A random sample of 200 executives and shop floor employees collected from Nuclear Fuel Complex of Hyderabad City. A well developed sub-scales of Occupational Stress indicator like Mental Health, and Coping behavior were used in the present study. The shop floor workers experiencing more job stress and lower mental health. But these two groups did not differ in their coping behaviour. The executives are better with work home balance.

Exposure to bright light modifies HRV responses to mental tasks during nocturnal sleep deprivation.

PubMed

Yokoi, Mari; Aoki, Ken; Shimomura, Yoshihiro; Iwanaga, Koichi; Katsuura, Tetsuo

2006-03-01

This study was intended to determine the effects of continuous bright light exposure on cardiovascular responses, particularly heart rate variability (HRV), at rest and during performance of mental tasks with acute nocturnal sleep deprivation. Eight healthy male subjects stayed awake from 21.00 to 04.30 hours under bright (BL, 2800 lux) or dim (DL, 120 lux) light conditions. During sleep deprivation, mental tasks (Stroop color-word conflict test: CWT) were performed for 15 min each hour. Blood pressure, electrocardiogram, respiratory rate, urinary melatonin concentrations and rectal temperature were measured. During sleep deprivation, BL exposure depressed melatonin secretion in comparison to DL conditions. During sleep deprivation, exposure to BL delayed the decline in heart rate (HR) for 4 h in resting periods. A significant increment of HR induced by each CWT was detected, especially at 03.00 h and later, under DL conditions only. In addition, at 04.00 h, an index of sympathetic activity and sympatho-vagal balance on HRV during CWT increased significantly under DL conditions. In contrast, an index of parasympathetic activity during CWT decreased significantly under DL conditions. However, the indexes of HRV during CWT did not change throughout sleep deprivation under BL conditions. Our results suggest that BL exposure not only delays the nocturnal decrease in HR at rest but also maintains HR and balance of cardiac autonomic modulation to mental tasks during nocturnal sleep deprivation.

Impaired performance on advanced Theory of Mind tasks in children with epilepsy is related to poor communication and increased attention problems.

PubMed

Lunn, Judith; Lewis, Charlie; Sherlock, Christopher

2015-02-01

Children with epilepsy (CWE) have social difficulties that can persist into adulthood, and this could be related to problems with understanding others' thoughts, feelings, and intentions. This study assessed children's ability to interpret and reason on mental and emotional states (Theory of Mind) and examined the relationships between task scores and reports of communication and behavior. Performance of 56 CWE (8-16years of age) with below average IQ (n=17) or an average IQ (n=39) was compared with that of 62 healthy controls with an average IQ (6-16years of age) on cognition, language, and two advanced Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks that required children to attribute mental or emotional states to eye regions and to reason on internal mental states in order to explain behavior. The CWE-below average group were significantly poorer in both ToM tasks compared with controls. The CWE - average group showed a significantly poorer ability to reason on mental states in order to explain behavior, a difference that remained after accounting for lower IQ and language deficits. Poor ToM skills were related to increased communication and attention problems in both CWE groups. There is a risk for atypical social understanding in CWE, even for children with average cognitive function. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Theory of mind as a predictor of maternal sensitivity in women with severe mental illness.

PubMed

Rigby, J; Conroy, S; Miele-Norton, M; Pawlby, S; Happé, F

2016-07-01

Research has shown that maternal mental illness can affect mother-infant interactions with implications for infant outcomes. Severe and chronic mental illness (SMI), particularly schizophrenia, is associated with the greatest risk. Schizophrenia is also associated with impairments in attribution of mental states, 'theory of mind' (ToM). Recent attachment research has suggested that maternal mentalizing skills are strongly associated with attachment outcome in infants. To date, no research has explored the relationship between ToM and maternal sensitivity in mothers with SMI using standard tests of ToM. The present study was designed as an exploratory study in order to investigate this. A total of 40 women with SMI in the postpartum period were administered a battery of ToM tasks and general neuropsychological tasks. The women were also filmed in an unstructured play session with their infants, which was coded for maternal sensitivity using the Crittenden CARE-Index. One ToM task, the Frith-Happé Animations, predicted maternal sensitivity across all diagnoses. There was also an effect of diagnosis, with lower sensitivity observed in women with schizophrenia. ToM impairments did not fully explain the effect of diagnosis on sensitivity. Mothers of girls were rated as being more sensitive than mothers of boys. The results suggest that ToM is a significant predictor of maternal sensitivity across all mental health diagnoses, extending the results of studies focusing on healthy populations. Clinical interventions emphasizing the importance of understanding the perspective of the infant may enhance maternal sensitivity.

Mental workload measurement for emergency operating procedures in digital nuclear power plants.

PubMed

Gao, Qin; Wang, Yang; Song, Fei; Li, Zhizhong; Dong, Xiaolu

2013-01-01

Mental workload is a major consideration for the design of emergency operation procedures (EOPs) in nuclear power plants. Continuous and objective measures are desired. This paper compares seven mental workload measurement methods (pupil size, blink rate, blink duration, heart rate variability, parasympathetic/sympathetic ratio, total power and (Goals, Operations, Methods, and Section Rules)-(Keystroke Level Model) GOMS-KLM-based workload index) with regard to sensitivity, validity and intrusiveness. Eighteen participants performed two computerised EOPs of different complexity levels, and mental workload measures were collected during the experiment. The results show that the blink rate is sensitive to both the difference in the overall task complexity and changes in peak complexity within EOPs, that the error rate is sensitive to the level of arousal and correlate to the step error rate and that blink duration increases over the task period in both low and high complexity EOPs. Cardiac measures were able to distinguish tasks with different overall complexity. The intrusiveness of the physiological instruments is acceptable. Finally, the six physiological measures were integrated using group method of data handling to predict perceived overall mental workload. The study compared seven measures for evaluating the mental workload with emergency operation procedure in nuclear power plants. An experiment with simulated procedures was carried out, and the results show that eye response measures are useful for assessing temporal changes of workload whereas cardiac measures are useful for evaluating the overall workload.

Primary task event-related potentials related to different aspects of information processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Munson, Robert C.; Horst, Richard L.; Mahaffey, David L.

1988-01-01

The results of two studies which investigated the relationships between cognitive processing and components of transient event-related potentials (ERPs) are presented in a task in which mental workload was manipulated. The task involved the monitoring of an array of discrete readouts for values that went out of bounds, and was somewhat analogous to tasks performed in cockpits. The ERPs elicited by the changing readouts varied with the number of readouts being monitored, the number of monitored readouts that were close to going out of bounds, and whether or not the change took a monitored readout out of bounds. Moreover, different regions of the waveform differentially reflected these effects. The results confirm the sensitivity of scalp-recorded ERPs to the cognitive processes affected by mental workload and suggest the possibility of extracting useful ERP indices of primary task performance in a wide range of man-machine settings.

Evaluation of 16 measures of mental workload using a simulated flight task emphasizing mediational activity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wierwille, W. W.; Rahimi, M.; Casali, J. G.

1985-01-01

As aircraft and other systems become more automated, a shift is occurring in human operator participation in these systems. This shift is away from manual control and toward activities that tap the higher mental functioning of human operators. Therefore, an experiment was performed in a moving-base flight simulator to assess mediational (cognitive) workload measurement. Specifically, 16 workload estimation techniques were evaluated as to their sensitivity and intrusion in a flight task emphasizing mediational behavior. Task loading, using navigation problems presented on a display, was treated as an independent variable, and workload-measure values were treated as dependent variables. Results indicate that two mediational task measures, two rating scale measures, time estimation, and two eye behavior measures were reliably sensitive to mediational loading. The time estimation measure did, however, intrude on mediational task performance. Several of the remaining measures were completely insensitive to mediational load.

Mental Health, United States, 2000.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manderscheid, Ronald W., Ed.; Henderson, Marilyn J., Ed.

In recent years, the mental health community has made great strides in understanding more about the delivery of mental health services, improving efficiency and quality in services, and also about how to build strengths and resilience in the face of lifes stresses. This volume adds to the knowledge base so that the important task of system change…

Facial Emotion Recognition by Persons with Mental Retardation: A Review of the Experimental Literature.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rojahn, Johannes; And Others

1995-01-01

This literature review discusses 21 studies on facial emotion recognition by persons with mental retardation in terms of methodological characteristics, stimulus material, salient variables and their relation to recognition tasks, and emotion recognition deficits in mental retardation. A table provides comparative data on all 21 studies. (DB)

Left to Right: Representational Biases for Numbers and the Effect of Visuomotor Adaptation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loftus, Andrea M.; Nicholls, Michael E. R.; Mattingley, Jason B.; Bradshaw, John L.

2008-01-01

Adaptation to right-shifting prisms improves left neglect for mental number line bisection. This study examined whether adaptation affects the mental number line in normal participants. Thirty-six participants completed a mental number line task before and after adaptation to either: left-shifting prisms, right-shifting prisms or control…

Empowering Preschool Teachers to Identify Mental Health Problems: A Task-Sharing Intervention in Ethiopia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Desta, Menelik; Deyessa, Negussie; Fish, Irving; Maxwell, Benjamin; Zerihun, Tigist; Levine, Saul; Fox, Claire; Giedd, Jay; Zelleke, Tesfaye G.; Alem, Atalay; Garland, Ann F.

2017-01-01

In Ethiopia there is a severe shortage of child mental health professionals. Identification and intervention for young children's mental health problems is crucial to improve developmental trajectories and reduce the severity of emotional and behavioral disorders. Teachers can play an important role in early problem detection. This role is…

The Metrics of Spatial Distance Traversed During Mental Imagery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rinck, Mike; Denis, Michel

2004-01-01

The authors conducted 2 experiments to study the metrics of spatial distance in a mental imagery task. In both experiments, participants first memorized the layout of a building containing 10 rooms with 24 objects. Participants then received mental imagery instructions and imagined how they walked through the building from one room to another. The…

On the Relationship between Solution Strategies in Two Mental Rotation Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Janssen, Anne B.; Geiser, Christian

2010-01-01

Individual differences in solution strategies have frequently been reported for different measures of mental rotation (MR) ability. In the present study (N=346 German students), we investigated the relationship between solution strategies on two tests commonly used to identify different patterns of strategies: the Mental Rotations Test (MRT;…

Reduced Pseudoneglect for Physical Space, but Not Mental Representations of Space, for Adults with Autistic Traits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

English, Michael C.; Maybery, Murray T.; Visser, Troy A.

2017-01-01

Neurotypical individuals display a leftward attentional bias, called pseudoneglect, for physical space (e.g. landmark task) and mental representations of space (e.g. mental number line bisection). However, leftward bias is reduced in autistic individuals viewing faces, and neurotypical individuals with autistic traits viewing "greyscale"…

External and Internal Representations in the Acquisition and Use of Knowledge: Visualization Effects on Mental Model Construction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schnotz, Wolfgang; Kurschner, Christian

2008-01-01

This article investigates whether different formats of visualizing information result in different mental models constructed in learning from pictures, whether the different mental models lead to different patterns of performance in subsequently presented tasks, and how these visualization effects can be modified by further external…

Prospective Chemistry Teachers' Mental Models of Vapor Pressure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tumay, Halil

2014-01-01

The main purpose of this study was to identify prospective chemistry teachers' mental models of vapor pressure. The study involved 85 students in the Chemistry Teacher Training Department of a state university in Turkey. Participants' mental models of vapor pressure were explored using a concept test that involved qualitative comparison tasks.…

Do You Hear Voices? Problems in Assessment of Mental Status in Deaf Persons with Severe Language Deprivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glickman, Neil

2007-01-01

When mental health clinicians perform mental status examinations, they examine the language patterns of patients because abnormal language patterns, sometimes referred to as language dysfluency, may indicate a thought disorder. Performing such examinations with deaf patients is a far more complex task, especially with traditionally underserved…

Cognitive Motor Coordination Training Improves Mental Rotation Performance in Primary School-Aged Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pietsch, Stefanie; Böttcher, Caroline; Jansen, Petra

2017-01-01

The long-term physical activity in specific sport activities can change the quality of mental rotation performance. This study investigates the influence of "Life Kinetik"--a motion program with tasks of cognition and motor coordination--on mental rotation performance of 44 primary school-aged children. While the experimental group…

Mental Capacity and Working Memory in Chemistry: Algorithmic "versus" Open-Ended Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

St Clair-Thompson, Helen; Overton, Tina; Bugler, Myfanwy

2012-01-01

Previous research has revealed that problem solving and attainment in chemistry are constrained by mental capacity and working memory. However, the terms mental capacity and working memory come from different theories of cognitive resources, and are assessed using different tasks. The current study examined the relationships between mental…

Visual mental image generation does not overlap with visual short-term memory: a dual-task interference study.

PubMed

Borst, Gregoire; Niven, Elaine; Logie, Robert H

2012-04-01

Visual mental imagery and working memory are often assumed to play similar roles in high-order functions, but little is known of their functional relationship. In this study, we investigated whether similar cognitive processes are involved in the generation of visual mental images, in short-term retention of those mental images, and in short-term retention of visual information. Participants encoded and recalled visually or aurally presented sequences of letters under two interference conditions: spatial tapping or irrelevant visual input (IVI). In Experiment 1, spatial tapping selectively interfered with the retention of sequences of letters when participants generated visual mental images from aural presentation of the letter names and when the letters were presented visually. In Experiment 2, encoding of the sequences was disrupted by both interference tasks. However, in Experiment 3, IVI interfered with the generation of the mental images, but not with their retention, whereas spatial tapping was more disruptive during retention than during encoding. Results suggest that the temporary retention of visual mental images and of visual information may be supported by the same visual short-term memory store but that this store is not involved in image generation.

Anatomically remote muscle contraction facilitates patellar tendon reflex reinforcement while mental activity does not: a within-participants experimental trial.

PubMed

Passmore, Steven R; Bruno, Paul A

2012-09-07

The Jendrassik maneuver (JM) is a remote facilitation muscular contraction shown to affect amplitude and temporal components of the human stretch reflex. Conflicting theoretical models exist regarding the neurological mechanism related to its ability to reinforce reflex parameters. One mechanism involves the gamma motoneurons of the fusimotor system, which are subject to both physical and mental activity. A second mechanism describes reduced alpha motoneuron presynaptic inhibition, which is not subject to mental activity. In the current study, we determined if mental activity could be used to create a reflex facilitation comparable to a remote muscle contraction. Using a within-participants design, we investigated the relative effect of the JM and a successfully employed mental task (Stroop task) on the amplitude and temporal components of the patellar tendon reflex. We found that the addition of mental activity had no influence on the patellar tendon reflex parameters measured, while the JM provided facilitation (increased reflex amplitude, decreased total reflex time). The findings from this study support the view that the mechanism for the JM is a reduction in presynaptic inhibition of alpha motoneurons as it is influenced by physical and not mental activity.

Formal Models of the Network Co-occurrence Underlying Mental Operations.

PubMed

Bzdok, Danilo; Varoquaux, Gaël; Grisel, Olivier; Eickenberg, Michael; Poupon, Cyril; Thirion, Bertrand

2016-06-01

Systems neuroscience has identified a set of canonical large-scale networks in humans. These have predominantly been characterized by resting-state analyses of the task-unconstrained, mind-wandering brain. Their explicit relationship to defined task performance is largely unknown and remains challenging. The present work contributes a multivariate statistical learning approach that can extract the major brain networks and quantify their configuration during various psychological tasks. The method is validated in two extensive datasets (n = 500 and n = 81) by model-based generation of synthetic activity maps from recombination of shared network topographies. To study a use case, we formally revisited the poorly understood difference between neural activity underlying idling versus goal-directed behavior. We demonstrate that task-specific neural activity patterns can be explained by plausible combinations of resting-state networks. The possibility of decomposing a mental task into the relative contributions of major brain networks, the "network co-occurrence architecture" of a given task, opens an alternative access to the neural substrates of human cognition.

Formal Models of the Network Co-occurrence Underlying Mental Operations

PubMed Central

Bzdok, Danilo; Varoquaux, Gaël; Grisel, Olivier; Eickenberg, Michael; Poupon, Cyril; Thirion, Bertrand

2016-01-01

Systems neuroscience has identified a set of canonical large-scale networks in humans. These have predominantly been characterized by resting-state analyses of the task-unconstrained, mind-wandering brain. Their explicit relationship to defined task performance is largely unknown and remains challenging. The present work contributes a multivariate statistical learning approach that can extract the major brain networks and quantify their configuration during various psychological tasks. The method is validated in two extensive datasets (n = 500 and n = 81) by model-based generation of synthetic activity maps from recombination of shared network topographies. To study a use case, we formally revisited the poorly understood difference between neural activity underlying idling versus goal-directed behavior. We demonstrate that task-specific neural activity patterns can be explained by plausible combinations of resting-state networks. The possibility of decomposing a mental task into the relative contributions of major brain networks, the "network co-occurrence architecture" of a given task, opens an alternative access to the neural substrates of human cognition. PMID:27310288

Mothers' use of cognitive state verbs in picture-book reading and the development of children's understanding of mind: a longitudinal study.

PubMed

Adrián, Juan E; Clemente, Rosa Ana; Villanueva, Lidón

2007-01-01

Mothers read stories to their children (N=41) aged between 3.3 years and 5.11 years old, and children then completed two false-belief tasks. One year later, mothers read a story to 37 of those children who were also given four tasks to assess their advanced understanding of mental states. Mothers' early use of cognitive verbs in picture-book reading correlated with their children's later understanding of mental states. Some pragmatic aspects of maternal input correlated with children's later outcomes. Two different factors in mothers' cognitive discourse were identified, suggesting a zone of proximal development in children's understanding of mental states.

Mental models and other misconceptions in children's understanding of the earth.

PubMed

Panagiotaki, Georgia; Nobes, Gavin; Potton, Anita

2009-09-01

This study investigated the claim (e.g., Vosniadou & Brewer's, 1992) that children have naive "mental models" of the earth and believe, for example, that the earth is flat or hollow. It tested the proposal that children appear to have these misconceptions because they find the researchers' tasks and questions to be confusing and ambiguous. Participants were 6- and 7-year-olds (N=127) who were given either the mental model theorists' original drawing task or a new version in which the same instructions and questions were rephrased to minimize ambiguity and, thus, possible misinterpretation. In response to the new version, children gave substantially more indication of having scientific understanding and less of having naive mental models, suggesting that the misconceptions reported by the mental model theorists are largely methodological artifacts. There were also differences between the responses to the original version and those reported by Vosniadou and Brewer, indicating that other factors, such as cohort and cultural effects, are also likely to help explain the discrepant findings of previous research.

Mental chronometry with simple linear regression.

PubMed

Chen, J Y

1997-10-01

Typically, mental chronometry is performed by means of introducing an independent variable postulated to affect selectively some stage of a presumed multistage process. However, the effect could be a global one that spreads proportionally over all stages of the process. Currently, there is no method to test this possibility although simple linear regression might serve the purpose. In the present study, the regression approach was tested with tasks (memory scanning and mental rotation) that involved a selective effect and with a task (word superiority effect) that involved a global effect, by the dominant theories. The results indicate (1) the manipulation of the size of a memory set or of angular disparity affects the intercept of the regression function that relates the times for memory scanning with different set sizes or for mental rotation with different angular disparities and (2) the manipulation of context affects the slope of the regression function that relates the times for detecting a target character under word and nonword conditions. These ratify the regression approach as a useful method for doing mental chronometry.

fMRI reveals reciprocal inhibition between social and physical cognitive domains.

PubMed

Jack, Anthony I; Dawson, Abigail J; Begany, Katelyn L; Leckie, Regina L; Barry, Kevin P; Ciccia, Angela H; Snyder, Abraham Z

2013-02-01

Two lines of evidence indicate that there exists a reciprocal inhibitory relationship between opposed brain networks. First, most attention-demanding cognitive tasks activate a stereotypical set of brain areas, known as the task-positive network and simultaneously deactivate a different set of brain regions, commonly referred to as the task negative or default mode network. Second, functional connectivity analyses show that these same opposed networks are anti-correlated in the resting state. We hypothesize that these reciprocally inhibitory effects reflect two incompatible cognitive modes, each of which may be directed towards understanding the external world. Thus, engaging one mode activates one set of regions and suppresses activity in the other. We test this hypothesis by identifying two types of problem-solving task which, on the basis of prior work, have been consistently associated with the task positive and task negative regions: tasks requiring social cognition, i.e., reasoning about the mental states of other persons, and tasks requiring physical cognition, i.e., reasoning about the causal/mechanical properties of inanimate objects. Social and mechanical reasoning tasks were presented to neurologically normal participants during fMRI. Each task type was presented using both text and video clips. Regardless of presentation modality, we observed clear evidence of reciprocal suppression: social tasks deactivated regions associated with mechanical reasoning and mechanical tasks deactivated regions associated with social reasoning. These findings are not explained by self-referential processes, task engagement, mental simulation, mental time travel or external vs. internal attention, all factors previously hypothesized to explain default mode network activity. Analyses of resting state data revealed a close match between the regions our tasks identified as reciprocally inhibitory and regions of maximal anti-correlation in the resting state. These results indicate the reciprocal inhibition is not attributable to constraints inherent in the tasks, but is neural in origin. Hence, there is a physiological constraint on our ability to simultaneously engage two distinct cognitive modes. Further work is needed to more precisely characterize these opposing cognitive domains. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Later abortions and mental health: psychological experiences of women having later abortions--a critical review of research.

PubMed

Steinberg, Julia R

2011-01-01

Some abortion policies in the U.S. are based on the notion that abortion harms women's mental health. The American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Abortion and Mental Health concluded that first-trimester abortions do not harm women's mental health. However, the APA task force does not make conclusions regarding later abortions (second trimester or beyond) and mental health. This paper critically evaluates studies on later abortion and mental health in order to inform both policy and practice. Using guidelines outlined by Steinberg and Russo (2009), post 1989 quantitative studies on later abortion and mental health were evaluated on the following qualities: 1) composition of comparison groups, 2) how prior mental health was assessed, and 3) whether common risk factors were controlled for in analyses if a significant relationship between abortion and mental health was found. Studies were evaluated with respect to the claim that later abortions harm women's mental health. Eleven quantitative studies that compared the mental health of women having later abortions (for reasons of fetal anomaly) with other groups were evaluated. Findings differed depending on the comparison group. No studies considered the role of prepregnancy mental health, and one study considered whether factors common among women having later abortions and mental health problems drove the association between later abortion and mental health. Policies based on the notion that later abortions (because of fetal anomaly) harm women's mental health are unwarranted. Because research suggests that most women who have later abortions do so for reasons other than fetal anomaly, future investigations should examine women's psychological experiences around later abortions. Copyright © 2011 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Preclinical endoscopic training using a part-task simulator: learning curve assessment and determination of threshold score for advancement to clinical endoscopy.

PubMed

Jirapinyo, Pichamol; Abidi, Wasif M; Aihara, Hiroyuki; Zaki, Theodore; Tsay, Cynthia; Imaeda, Avlin B; Thompson, Christopher C

2017-10-01

Preclinical simulator training has the potential to decrease endoscopic procedure time and patient discomfort. This study aims to characterize the learning curve of endoscopic novices in a part-task simulator and propose a threshold score for advancement to initial clinical cases. Twenty novices with no prior endoscopic experience underwent repeated endoscopic simulator sessions using the part-task simulator. Simulator scores were collected; their inverse was averaged and fit to an exponential curve. The incremental improvement after each session was calculated. Plateau was defined as the session after which incremental improvement in simulator score model was less than 5%. Additionally, all participants filled out questionnaires regarding simulator experience after sessions 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20. A visual analog scale and NASA task load index were used to assess levels of comfort and demand. Twenty novices underwent 400 simulator sessions. Mean simulator scores at sessions 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 were 78.5 ± 5.95, 176.5 ± 17.7, 275.55 ± 23.56, 347 ± 26.49, and 441.11 ± 38.14. The best fit exponential model was [time/score] = 26.1 × [session #] -0.615 ; r 2  = 0.99. This corresponded to an incremental improvement in score of 35% after the first session, 22% after the second, 16% after the third and so on. Incremental improvement dropped below 5% after the 12th session corresponding to the predicted score of 265. Simulator training was related to higher comfort maneuvering an endoscope and increased readiness for supervised clinical endoscopy, both plateauing between sessions 10 and 15. Mental demand, physical demand, and frustration levels decreased with increased simulator training. Preclinical training using an endoscopic part-task simulator appears to increase comfort level and decrease mental and physical demand associated with endoscopy. Based on a rigorous model, we recommend that novices complete a minimum of 12 training sessions and obtain a simulator score of at least 265 to be best prepared for clinical endoscopy.

Interrelations in Children's Learning of Verbal and Pictorial Paired Associates.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hale, Gordon A.

This study was designed to investigate the functional similarity of the mental processes children use to learn verbal tasks and pictorial tasks. Children in grades 3 and 6 (n=144) and in grade 9 (n=112) were given four short paired-associate tasks entitled Pictures, Concrete Words, Abstract Words, and Japanese Characters. The tasks consisted of…

Fatigue sensation induced by the sounds associated with mental fatigue and its related neural activities: revealed by magnetoencephalography.

PubMed

Ishii, Akira; Tanaka, Masaaki; Iwamae, Masayoshi; Kim, Chongsoo; Yamano, Emi; Watanabe, Yasuyoshi

2013-06-13

It has been proposed that an inappropriately conditioned fatigue sensation could be one cause of chronic fatigue. Although classical conditioning of the fatigue sensation has been reported in rats, there have been no reports in humans. Our aim was to examine whether classical conditioning of the mental fatigue sensation can take place in humans and to clarify the neural mechanisms of fatigue sensation using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Ten and 9 healthy volunteers participated in a conditioning and a control experiment, respectively. In the conditioning experiment, we used metronome sounds as conditioned stimuli and two-back task trials as unconditioned stimuli to cause fatigue sensation. Participants underwent MEG measurement while listening to the metronome sounds for 6 min. Thereafter, fatigue-inducing mental task trials (two-back task trials), which are demanding working-memory task trials, were performed for 60 min; metronome sounds were started 30 min after the start of the task trials (conditioning session). The next day, neural activities while listening to the metronome for 6 min were measured. Levels of fatigue sensation were also assessed using a visual analogue scale. In the control experiment, participants listened to the metronome on the first and second days, but they did not perform conditioning session. MEG was not recorded in the control experiment. The level of fatigue sensation caused by listening to the metronome on the second day was significantly higher relative to that on the first day only when participants performed the conditioning session on the first day. Equivalent current dipoles (ECDs) in the insular cortex, with mean latencies of approximately 190 ms, were observed in six of eight participants after the conditioning session, although ECDs were not identified in any participant before the conditioning session. We demonstrated that the metronome sounds can cause mental fatigue sensation as a result of repeated pairings of the sounds with mental fatigue and that the insular cortex is involved in the neural substrates of this phenomenon.

Individually adapted imagery improves brain-computer interface performance in end-users with disability.

PubMed

Scherer, Reinhold; Faller, Josef; Friedrich, Elisabeth V C; Opisso, Eloy; Costa, Ursula; Kübler, Andrea; Müller-Putz, Gernot R

2015-01-01

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) translate oscillatory electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns into action. Different mental activities modulate spontaneous EEG rhythms in various ways. Non-stationarity and inherent variability of EEG signals, however, make reliable recognition of modulated EEG patterns challenging. Able-bodied individuals who use a BCI for the first time achieve - on average - binary classification performance of about 75%. Performance in users with central nervous system (CNS) tissue damage is typically lower. User training generally enhances reliability of EEG pattern generation and thus also robustness of pattern recognition. In this study, we investigated the impact of mental tasks on binary classification performance in BCI users with central nervous system (CNS) tissue damage such as persons with stroke or spinal cord injury (SCI). Motor imagery (MI), that is the kinesthetic imagination of movement (e.g. squeezing a rubber ball with the right hand), is the "gold standard" and mainly used to modulate EEG patterns. Based on our recent results in able-bodied users, we hypothesized that pair-wise combination of "brain-teaser" (e.g. mental subtraction and mental word association) and "dynamic imagery" (e.g. hand and feet MI) tasks significantly increases classification performance of induced EEG patterns in the selected end-user group. Within-day (How stable is the classification within a day?) and between-day (How well does a model trained on day one perform on unseen data of day two?) analysis of variability of mental task pair classification in nine individuals confirmed the hypothesis. We found that the use of the classical MI task pair hand vs. feed leads to significantly lower classification accuracy - in average up to 15% less - in most users with stroke or SCI. User-specific selection of task pairs was again essential to enhance performance. We expect that the gained evidence will significantly contribute to make imagery-based BCI technology become accessible to a larger population of users including individuals with special needs due to CNS damage.

Separate and combined effects of exposure to heat stress and mental fatigue on endurance exercise capacity in the heat.

PubMed

Otani, Hidenori; Kaya, Mitsuharu; Tamaki, Akira; Watson, Phillip

2017-01-01

This study investigated the effects of exposure to pre-exercise heat stress and mental fatigue on endurance exercise capacity in a hot environment. Eight volunteers completed four cycle exercise trials at 80% maximum oxygen uptake until exhaustion in an environmental chamber maintained at 30 °C and 50% relative humidity. The four trials required them to complete a 90 min pre-exercise routine of either a seated rest (CON), a prolonged demanding cognitive task to induce mental fatigue (MF), warm water immersion at 40 °C during the last 30 min to induce increasing core temperature (WI), or a prolonged demanding cognitive task and warm water immersion at 40 °C during the last 30 min (MF + WI). Core temperature when starting exercise was higher following warm water immersion (~38 °C; WI and MF + WI) than with no water immersion (~36.8 °C; CON and MF, P < 0.001). Self-reported mental fatigue when commencing exercise was higher following cognitive task (MF and MF + WI) than with no cognitive task (CON and WI; P < 0.05). Exercise time to exhaustion was reduced by warm water immersion (P < 0.001) and cognitive task (P < 0.05). Compared with CON (18 ± 7 min), exercise duration reduced 0.8, 26.6 and 46.3% in MF (17 ± 7 min), WI (12 ± 5 min) and MF + WI (9 ± 3 min), respectively. This study demonstrates that endurance exercise capacity in a hot environment is impaired by either exposure to pre-exercise heat stress or mental fatigue, and this response is synergistically increased during combined exposure to them.

Individually Adapted Imagery Improves Brain-Computer Interface Performance in End-Users with Disability

PubMed Central

Scherer, Reinhold; Faller, Josef; Friedrich, Elisabeth V. C.; Opisso, Eloy; Costa, Ursula; Kübler, Andrea; Müller-Putz, Gernot R.

2015-01-01

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) translate oscillatory electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns into action. Different mental activities modulate spontaneous EEG rhythms in various ways. Non-stationarity and inherent variability of EEG signals, however, make reliable recognition of modulated EEG patterns challenging. Able-bodied individuals who use a BCI for the first time achieve - on average - binary classification performance of about 75%. Performance in users with central nervous system (CNS) tissue damage is typically lower. User training generally enhances reliability of EEG pattern generation and thus also robustness of pattern recognition. In this study, we investigated the impact of mental tasks on binary classification performance in BCI users with central nervous system (CNS) tissue damage such as persons with stroke or spinal cord injury (SCI). Motor imagery (MI), that is the kinesthetic imagination of movement (e.g. squeezing a rubber ball with the right hand), is the "gold standard" and mainly used to modulate EEG patterns. Based on our recent results in able-bodied users, we hypothesized that pair-wise combination of "brain-teaser" (e.g. mental subtraction and mental word association) and "dynamic imagery" (e.g. hand and feet MI) tasks significantly increases classification performance of induced EEG patterns in the selected end-user group. Within-day (How stable is the classification within a day?) and between-day (How well does a model trained on day one perform on unseen data of day two?) analysis of variability of mental task pair classification in nine individuals confirmed the hypothesis. We found that the use of the classical MI task pair hand vs. feed leads to significantly lower classification accuracy - in average up to 15% less - in most users with stroke or SCI. User-specific selection of task pairs was again essential to enhance performance. We expect that the gained evidence will significantly contribute to make imagery-based BCI technology become accessible to a larger population of users including individuals with special needs due to CNS damage. PMID:25992718

The curious incident of the photo that was accused of being false: issues of domain specificity in development, autism, and brain imaging.

PubMed

Perner, Josef; Leekam, Susan

2008-01-01

We resume an exchange of ideas with Uta Frith that started before the turn of the century. The curious incident responsible for this exchange was the finding that children with autism fail tests of false belief, while they pass Zaitchik's (1990) photograph task (Leekam & Perner, 1991). This finding led to the conclusion that children with autism have a domain-specific impairment in Theory of Mind (mental representations), because the photograph task and the false-belief task are structurally equivalent except for the nonmental character of photographs. In this paper we argue that the false-belief task and the false-photograph task are not structurally equivalent and are not empirically associated. Instead a truly structurally equivalent task is the false-sign task. Performance on this task is strongly associated with the false-belief task. A version of this task, the misleading-signal task, also poses severe problems for children with autism (Bowler, Briskman, Gurvidi, & Fornells-Ambrojo, 2005). These new findings therefore challenge the earlier interpretation of a domain-specific difficulty in inferring mental states and suggest that children with autism also have difficulty understanding misleading nonmental objects. Brain imaging data using false-belief, "false"-photo, and false-sign scenarios provide further supporting evidence for our conclusions.

Surveying perceptions of the progress of national mental health reform.

PubMed

Hickie, Ian; Groom, Grace

2004-06-01

To provide comment on the latest Australian government commitment to a 5 year plan under the National Mental Health Strategy. In the absence of a credible system of accountability for the implementation of mental health reform, the Mental Health Council of Australia, in association with the Brain and Mind Research Institute, has taken up the task of auditing. A national, government-supported system needs to be developed in order to monitor progress of genuine mental health reform in Australia.

The mental representations of fractions: adults' same–different judgments

PubMed Central

Gabriel, Florence; Szucs, Denes; Content, Alain

2013-01-01

Two experiments examined whether the processing of the magnitude of fractions is global or componential. Previously, some authors concluded that adults process the numerators and denominators of fractions separately and do not access the global magnitude of fractions. Conversely, others reported evidence suggesting that the global magnitude of fractions is accessed. We hypothesized that in a fraction matching task, participants automatically extract the magnitude of the components but that the activation of the global magnitude of the whole fraction is only optional or strategic. Participants carried out same/different judgment tasks. Two different tasks were used: a physical matching task and a numerical matching task. Pairs of fractions were presented either simultaneously or sequentially. Results showed that participants only accessed the representation of the global magnitude of fractions in the numerical matching task. The mode of stimulus presentation did not affect the processing of fractions. The present study allows a deeper understanding of the conditions in which the magnitude of fractions is mentally represented by using matching tasks and two different modes of presentation. PMID:23847562

Classification of prefrontal activity due to mental arithmetic and music imagery using hidden Markov models and frequency domain near-infrared spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Power, Sarah D.; Falk, Tiago H.; Chau, Tom

2010-04-01

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has recently been investigated as a non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI). In particular, previous research has shown that NIRS signals recorded from the motor cortex during left- and right-hand imagery can be distinguished, providing a basis for a two-choice NIRS-BCI. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of an alternative two-choice NIRS-BCI paradigm based on the classification of prefrontal activity due to two cognitive tasks, specifically mental arithmetic and music imagery. Deploying a dual-wavelength frequency domain near-infrared spectrometer, we interrogated nine sites around the frontopolar locations (International 10-20 System) while ten able-bodied adults performed mental arithmetic and music imagery within a synchronous shape-matching paradigm. With the 18 filtered AC signals, we created task- and subject-specific maximum likelihood classifiers using hidden Markov models. Mental arithmetic and music imagery were classified with an average accuracy of 77.2% ± 7.0 across participants, with all participants significantly exceeding chance accuracies. The results suggest the potential of a two-choice NIRS-BCI based on cognitive rather than motor tasks.

Production-orientated education and training of the mentally disabled in sheltered employment (PIONIER).

PubMed

Eicker, A; Schneider, S

2000-03-10

The development and realization of a production-orientated education and training system for mentally disabled people in sheltered employment in the course of the project PIONIER. It focuses on the metal and electronic branches of a workshop with a mentally disabled workforce in Alsdorf, Germany. For the development of the modules an assessment tool called MELBA was used to determine the abilities of the disabled people and the requirements of the tasks. Methods for the collection of this information was: observation, questionnaires and documents. Three months after the introduction of educational measures the improvements of the capacity for learning and education of disabled persons was visible. In the same way the development of their self-reliance and social abilities was recorded. The metal working branch was capable of fulfilling every task with respect to quality issues and within set delivery times. The electro working branch was accomplished enough to create new workplaces and to get orders from the computer industry. By the use of a qualification system like PIONIER the tasks of the disabled employees have been enlarged and enriched. In order to cope with the increase competition sheltered workshops have to realize new ways of vocational training for mentally disabled employees.

Psychology of knowledge representation.

PubMed

Grimm, Lisa R

2014-05-01

Every cognitive enterprise involves some form of knowledge representation. Humans represent information about the external world and internal mental states, like beliefs and desires, and use this information to meet goals (e.g., classification or problem solving). Unfortunately, researchers do not have direct access to mental representations. Instead, cognitive scientists design experiments and implement computational models to develop theories about the mental representations present during task performance. There are several main types of mental representation and corresponding processes that have been posited: spatial, feature, network, and structured. Each type has a particular structure and a set of processes that are capable of accessing and manipulating information within the representation. The structure and processes determine what information can be used during task performance and what information has not been represented at all. As such, the different types of representation are likely used to solve different kinds of tasks. For example, structured representations are more complex and computationally demanding, but are good at representing relational information. Researchers interested in human psychology would benefit from considering how knowledge is represented in their domain of inquiry. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Plasticity of attentional functions in older adults after non-action video game training: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Mayas, Julia; Parmentier, Fabrice B R; Andrés, Pilar; Ballesteros, Soledad

2014-01-01

A major goal of recent research in aging has been to examine cognitive plasticity in older adults and its capacity to counteract cognitive decline. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether older adults could benefit from brain training with video games in a cross-modal oddball task designed to assess distraction and alertness. Twenty-seven healthy older adults participated in the study (15 in the experimental group, 12 in the control group. The experimental group received 20 1-hr video game training sessions using a commercially available brain-training package (Lumosity) involving problem solving, mental calculation, working memory and attention tasks. The control group did not practice this package and, instead, attended meetings with the other members of the study several times along the course of the study. Both groups were evaluated before and after the intervention using a cross-modal oddball task measuring alertness and distraction. The results showed a significant reduction of distraction and an increase of alertness in the experimental group and no variation in the control group. These results suggest neurocognitive plasticity in the old human brain as training enhanced cognitive performance on attentional functions. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02007616.

Dissecting hemisphere-specific contributions to visual spatial imagery using parametric brain mapping.

PubMed

Bien, Nina; Sack, Alexander T

2014-07-01

In the current study we aimed to empirically test previously proposed accounts of a division of labour between the left and right posterior parietal cortices during visuospatial mental imagery. The representation of mental images in the brain has been a topic of debate for several decades. Although the posterior parietal cortex is involved bilaterally, previous studies have postulated that hemispheric specialisation might result in a division of labour between the left and right parietal cortices. In the current fMRI study, we used an elaborated version of a behaviourally-controlled spatial imagery paradigm, the mental clock task, which involves mental image generation and a subsequent spatial comparison between two angles. By systematically varying the difference between the two angles that are mentally compared, we induced a symbolic distance effect: smaller differences between the two angles result in higher task difficulty. We employed parametrically weighed brain imaging to reveal brain areas showing a graded activation pattern in accordance with the induced distance effect. The parametric difficulty manipulation influenced behavioural data and brain activation patterns in a similar matter. Moreover, since this difficulty manipulation only starts to play a role from the angle comparison phase onwards, it allows for a top-down dissociation between the initial mental image formation, and the subsequent angle comparison phase of the spatial imagery task. Employing parametrically weighed fMRI analysis enabled us to top-down disentangle brain activation related to mental image formation, and activation reflecting spatial angle comparison. The results provide first empirical evidence for the repeatedly proposed division of labour between the left and right posterior parietal cortices during spatial imagery. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mental chronometry and mental rotation abilities in stroke patients with different degrees of sensory deficit.

PubMed

Liepert, Joachim; Büsching, Imke; Sehle, Aida; Schoenfeld, Mircea Ariel

2016-11-22

Motor imagery is used for treatment of motor deficits after stroke. Clinical observations suggested that motor imagery abilities might be reduced in patients with severe sensory deficits. This study investigated the influence of somatosensory deficits on temporal (mental chronometry, MC) and spatial aspects of motor imagery abilities. Stroke patients (n = 70; <6 months after stroke) were subdivided into 3 groups according to their somatosensory functions. Group 1 (n = 31) had no sensory deficits, group 2 (n = 27) had a mild to moderate sensory impairment and group 3 (n = 12) had severe sensory deficits. Patients and a healthy age-matched control group (n = 23) participated in a mental chronometry task (Box and Block Test, BBT) and a mental rotation task (Hand Identification Test, HIT). MC abilities were expressed as a ratio (motor execution time-motor imagery time/motor execution time). MC for the affected hand was significantly impaired in group 3 in comparison to stroke patients of group 1 (p = 0.006), group 2 (p = 0.005) and healthy controls (p < 0.001). For the non-affected hand MC was similar across all groups. Stroke patients had a slower BBT motor execution than healthy controls (p < 0.001), and group 1 executed the task faster than group 3 (p = 0.002). The percentage of correct responses in the HIT was similar for all groups. Severe sensory deficits impair mental chronometry abilities but have no impact on mental rotation abilities. Future studies should explore whether the presence of severe sensory deficits in stroke patients reduces the benefit from motor imagery therapy.

Theta, mental flexibility, and post-traumatic stress disorder: connecting in the parietal cortex.

PubMed

Dunkley, Benjamin T; Sedge, Paul A; Doesburg, Sam M; Grodecki, Richard J; Jetly, Rakesh; Shek, Pang N; Taylor, Margot J; Pang, Elizabeth W

2015-01-01

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health injury characterised by re-experiencing, avoidance, numbing and hyperarousal. Whilst the aetiology of the disorder is relatively well understood, there is debate about the prevalence of cognitive sequelae that manifest in PTSD. In particular, there are conflicting reports about deficits in executive function and mental flexibility. Even less is known about the neural changes that underlie such deficits. Here, we used magnetoencephalography to study differences in functional connectivity during a mental flexibility task in combat-related PTSD (all males, mean age = 37.4, n = 18) versus a military control (all males, mean age = 33.05, n = 19) group. We observed large-scale increases in theta connectivity in the PTSD group compared to controls. The PTSD group performance was compromised in the more attentionally-demanding task and this was characterised by 'late-stage' theta hyperconnectivity, concentrated in network connections involving right parietal cortex. Furthermore, we observed significant correlations with the connectivity strength in this region with a number of cognitive-behavioural outcomes, including measures of attention, depression and anxiety. These findings suggest atypical coordination of neural synchronisation in large scale networks contributes to deficits in mental flexibility for PTSD populations in timed, attentionally-demanding tasks, and this propensity toward network hyperconnectivity may play a more general role in the cognitive sequelae evident in this disorder.

Mother and Infant Talk about Mental States Relates to Desire Language and Emotion Understanding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taumoepeau, Mele; Ruffman, Ted

2006-01-01

This study assessed the relation between mother mental state language and child desire language and emotion understanding in 15--24-month-olds. At both times point, mothers described pictures to their infants and mother talk was coded for mental and nonmental state language. Children were administered 2 emotion understanding tasks and their mental…

Primacy Effects in Short-Term Memory with the Mentally Retarded.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Detterman, Douglas K.

This paper reports on two experiments conducted in an attempt to extend findings by Ellis which suggest a rehearsal deficit in mentally retarded subjects. In experiment one, mentally retarded subjects saw nine stimuli in a serial position probe task for either two, four, or six seconds each. Performances for the two and four second-per-item rates…

The Role of Motor Processes in Three-Dimensional Mental Rotation: Shaping Cognitive Processing via Sensorimotor Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moreau, David

2012-01-01

An extensive body of literature has explored the involvement of motor processes in mental rotation, yet underlying individual differences are less documented and remain to be fully understood. We propose that sensorimotor experience shapes spatial abilities such as assessed in mental rotation tasks. Elite wrestlers' and non-athletes' mental…

Comparison of Sustained and Selective Attention in Children Who Have Mental Retardation with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pearson, Deborah A.; And Others

1996-01-01

This study compared children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and mental retardation with children with only mental retardation on tasks involving sustained and selective attention. No compelling evidence emerged for sustained attention deficits in the ADHD children, though evidence suggesting selective attention deficits was…

The Study on the Psychological Problems and Countermeasures of the Full-Time Professional Masters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hui, Tang; Liang, Ma

2012-01-01

Mental health education is one of the most important tasks in postgraduate education. Professional master, as a graduate of an emerging group, its mental health education cannot be ignored. This paper focuses on the existence of some mental health problems of Chinese full-time professional master, explores and analyzes their causes and finally…

Effects of a novel mental skills curriculum on surgical novices' attention.

PubMed

Anton, Nicholas E; Mulji, Neelam; Howley, Lisa D; Yurco, Ashley M; Tobben, Daniel; Bean, Eric; Stefanidis, Dimitrios

2017-11-01

Surgery is very cognitively demanding, particularly for novices. Novices are required to direct full attention on the procedure at hand, and additional demands can lead to cognitive overload. Through extensive practice, experts develop spare attentional capacity (SAC) for simultaneous tasks. However, little effort has been made to enhance novices' SAC. Mental skills may enhance attention management and increase SAC. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a novel mental skills curriculum (MSC) to enhance novices' attention management. Sixty novice volunteers were randomly stratified to a control or MSC group based on baseline laparoscopic skill and mental skill use (assessed with the Test of Performance Strategies version 2 [TOPS-2]). All participants received laparoscopic training, whereas the MSC group received additional mental skills training. At all sessions, participants completed a secondary task during laparoscopy, which assessed SAC. Participants also completed the D2 Test of Attention and the TOPS-2 attention control subscale, which are valid attention measures. Fifty-five novices completed the study. Both groups displayed significantly improved laparoscopic suturing ability (P < 0.001) and D2 performance (control: P < 0.005, MSC: P < 0.01), but there were no between-group differences in D2 or TOPS attention control scores. However, only the MSC group displayed significantly improved hit rate on the secondary task (P < 0.05). The novel MSC implemented in this study enhanced surgical novices' SAC compared to controls, and it is clear that this curriculum may be effective at enhancing learners' ability to attend multiple task-relevant stimuli concurrently. Additional study of the impact of this MSC on learners' attentional capacity is currently underway. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Localization of Cognitive Operations in the Human Brain.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Posner, Michael I.; And Others

1988-01-01

Hypothesizes that the human brain localizes mental operations which are integrated in the performance of cognitive tasks such as reading. Provides support of this hypothesis from studies in neural imaging, mental imagery, timing, and memory. (RT)

Predictive value and construct validity of the work functioning screener-healthcare (WFS-H).

PubMed

Boezeman, Edwin J; Nieuwenhuijsen, Karen; Sluiter, Judith K

2016-05-25

To test the predictive value and convergent construct validity of a 6-item work functioning screener (WFS-H). Healthcare workers (249 nurses) completed a questionnaire containing the work functioning screener (WFS-H) and a work functioning instrument (NWFQ) measuring the following: cognitive aspects of task execution and general incidents, avoidance behavior, conflicts and irritation with colleagues, impaired contact with patients and their family, and level of energy and motivation. Productivity and mental health were also measured. Negative and positive predictive values, AUC values, and sensitivity and specificity were calculated to examine the predictive value of the screener. Correlation analysis was used to examine the construct validity. The screener had good predictive value, since the results showed that a negative screener score is a strong indicator of work functioning not hindered by mental health problems (negative predictive values: 94%-98%; positive predictive values: 21%-36%; AUC:.64-.82; sensitivity: 42%-76%; and specificity 85%-87%). The screener has good construct validity due to moderate, but significant (p<.001), associations with productivity (r=.51), mental health (r=.48), and distress (r=.47). The screener (WFS-H) had good predictive value and good construct validity. Its score offers occupational health professionals a helpful preliminary insight into the work functioning of healthcare workers.

Dissociation between mental fatigue and motivational state during prolonged mental activity.

PubMed

Gergelyfi, Mónika; Jacob, Benvenuto; Olivier, Etienne; Zénon, Alexandre

2015-01-01

Mental fatigue (MF) is commonly observed following prolonged cognitive activity and can have major repercussions on the daily life of patients as well as healthy individuals. Despite its important impact, the cognitive processes involved in MF remain largely unknown. An influential hypothesis states that MF does not arise from a disruption of overused neural processes but, rather, is caused by a progressive decrease in motivation-related task engagement. Here, to test this hypothesis, we measured various neural, autonomic, psychometric and behavioral signatures of MF and motivation (EEG, ECG, pupil size, eye blinks, Skin conductance responses (SCRs), questionnaires and performance in a working memory (WM) task) in healthy volunteers, while MF was induced by Sudoku tasks performed for 120 min. Moreover extrinsic motivation was manipulated by using different levels of monetary reward. We found that, during the course of the experiment, the participants' subjective feeling of fatigue increased and their performance worsened while their blink rate and heart rate variability (HRV) increased. Conversely, reward-induced EEG, pupillometric and skin conductance signal changes, regarded as indicators of task engagement, remained constant during the experiment, and failed to correlate with the indices of MF. In addition, MF did not affect a simple reaction time task, despite the strong influence of extrinsic motivation on this task. Finally, alterations of the motivational state through monetary incentives failed to compensate the effects of MF. These findings indicate that MF in healthy subjects is not caused by an alteration of task engagement but is likely to be the consequence of a decrease in the efficiency, or availability, of cognitive resources.

Driver state examination--Treading new paths.

PubMed

Wascher, Edmund; Getzmann, Stephan; Karthaus, Melanie

2016-06-01

A large proportion of crashes in road driving can be attributed to driver fatigue. Several types of fatigue are discussed, comprising sleep-related fatigue, active task-related fatigue (as a consequence of workload in demanding driving situations) as well as passive task-related fatigue (as related to monotonous driving situations). The present study investigated actual states of fatigue in a monotonous driving situation, using EEG measures and a long-lasting driving simulation experiment, in which drivers had to keep the vehicle on track by compensating crosswind of different strength. Performance data and electrophysiological correlates of mental fatigue (EEG Alpha and Theta power, Inter Trial Coherence (ITC), and auditory event-related potentials to short sound stimuli) were analyzed. Driving errors and driving lane variability increased with time on task and with increasing crosswind. The posterior Alpha and Theta power also increased with time on task, but decreased with stronger crosswind. The P3a to sound stimuli decreased with time on task when the crosswind was weak, but remained stable when the crosswind was strong. The analysis of ITC revealed less frontal Alpha and Theta band synchronization with time on task, but no effect of crosswind. The results suggest that Alpha power in monotonous driving situations reflects boredom or attentional withdrawal due to monotony rather than the decline of processing abilities as a consequence of high mental effort. A more valid indicator of declining mental resources with increasing time on task seems to be provided by brain oscillatory synchronization measures and event-related activity. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using the Hand Laterality Judgement Task to Assess Motor Imagery: A Study of Practice Effects in Repeated Measurements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boonstra, Anne M.; de Vries, Sjoerd J.; Veenstra, Evelien; Tepper, Marga; Feenstra, Wya; Otten, Egbert

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a practice effect on the Hand Laterality Judgement Task (HLJT). The HLJT task is a mental rotation task that can be used to assess motor imagery ability in stroke patients. Thirty-three healthy individuals performed the HLJT and two control tasks twice at a 3-week interval. Differences in the…

Does Dysphoria Lead to Divergent Mental Fatigue Effects on a Cognitive Task?

PubMed

Hopstaken, Jesper F; Wanmaker, Sabine; van der Linden, Dimitri; Bakker, Arnold B

2015-01-01

Tiredness, low energy, and listlessness are common symptoms to be associated with depression. The question remains to what extent these symptoms influence the effects of fatigue on sustained performance tasks, such as impaired task engagement and performance. Based on earlier findings, it was hypothesized that dysphoric (i.e., mildly depressed) individuals, compared to healthy controls, would display earlier fatigue onset and more severe fatigue effects on task engagement and performance during a cognitive task. Sixty-one dysphoric and twenty-one non-dysphoric control participants were compared during one hour of continuous performance on a 2-back task. During the task subjective fatigue, subjective engagement, objective task performance, baseline pupil diameter and stimulus-evoked pupil dilation were measured. While we found that the dysphoric group reported relatively higher subjective fatigue than the healthy control group at the start of the experiment, we did not find any other divergent fatigue effects during the experimental task. One explanation for the absence of divergent effect is that dysphoria may not have such a profound impact on available cognitive resources, like attention, as initially thought. Based on the results of the present study, we conclude that dysphoria is not necessarily an increased risk factor for impaired sustained performance on cognitive tasks that may induce mental fatigue.

Employment, family roles, and mental ill health in young married women.

PubMed

Woods, N F

1985-01-01

Women are entering the labor force at unprecedented rates, many combining employment with their roles as wives and mothers. The purpose of this study was to determine if the complement of women's roles was associated with negative mental health effects. It was hypothesized that multiple roles would have negative effects on mental health only in the presence of a social context that itself was associated with symptoms of mental ill health. The contextual variables included influence of sex role norms, task-sharing support from the spouse, and support from a confidant. A sample of 140 married women randomly selected from registrants at a family health clinic were interviewed about their roles and mental health. The complement of the women's roles was not associated with mental ill health, nor was there a clear relationship between employment or parenting on mental health. Each of the contextual variables had a moderate influence on symptoms of mental ill health. Women who had traditional sex role norms, little task-sharing support from a spouse, and little support from a confidant had poorer mental health than their counterparts. Thus, in this sample, the context for role performance had a stronger influence on mental health than did the actual roles women performed. In addition, the importance of the social contextual variables was contingent on the woman's complement of roles. For women who were both spouse and parent, confiding support was most important.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Individual Difference Relations in Psychometric and Experimental Cognitive Tasks. Final Report. No. 163.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, John B.

Fifty-five recent studies of individual differences (IDs) in elementary cognitive tasks (ECTs) are reviewed. Twenty-five data sets are examined, analyzed, or reanalyzed by factor analysis. The following promising dimensions are identified: basic perceptual processes, reaction and movement times, mental comparison and recognition tasks, retrieval…

A Bilingual Advantage in Task Switching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prior, Anat; MacWhinney, Brian

2010-01-01

This study investigated the possibility that lifelong bilingualism may lead to enhanced efficiency in the ability to shift between mental sets. We compared the performance of monolingual and fluent bilingual college students in a task-switching paradigm. Bilinguals incurred reduced switching costs in the task-switching paradigm when compared with…

Complexity as a Reflection of the Dimensionality of a Task.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spilsbury, Georgina

1992-01-01

The hypothesis that a task that increases in complexity (increasing its correlation with a central measure of intelligence) does so by increasing its dimensionality by tapping individual differences or another variable was supported by findings from 46 adults aged 20-70 years performing a mental counting task. (SLD)

Temporal Sequences Quantify the Contributions of Individual Fixations in Complex Perceptual Matching Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Busey, Thomas; Yu, Chen; Wyatte, Dean; Vanderkolk, John

2013-01-01

Perceptual tasks such as object matching, mammogram interpretation, mental rotation, and satellite imagery change detection often require the assignment of correspondences to fuse information across views. We apply techniques developed for machine translation to the gaze data recorded from a complex perceptual matching task modeled after…

Towards a hemodynamic BCI using transcranial Doppler without user-specific training data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aleem, Idris; Chau, Tom

2013-02-01

Transcranial Doppler (TCD) was recently introduced as a new brain-computer interface (BCI) modality for detecting task-induced hemispheric lateralization. To date, single-trial discrimination between a lateralized mental activity and a rest state has been demonstrated with long (45 s) activation time periods. However, the possibility of detecting successive activations in a user-independent framework (i.e. without training data from the user) remains an open question. Objective. The objective of this research was to assess TCD-based detection of lateralized mental activity with a user-independent classifier. In so doing, we also investigated the accuracy of detecting successive lateralizations. Approach. TCD data from 18 participants were collected during verbal fluency, mental rotation tasks and baseline counting tasks. Linear discriminant analysis and a set of four time-domain features were used to classify successive left and right brain activations. Main results. In a user-independent framework, accuracies up to 74.6 ± 12.6% were achieved using training data from a single participant, and lateralization task durations of 18 s. Significance. Subject-independent, algorithmic classification of TCD signals corresponding to successive brain lateralization may be a feasible paradigm for TCD-BCI design.

Entropy, instrument scan and pilot workload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tole, J. R.; Stephens, A. T.; Vivaudou, M.; Harris, R. L., Jr.; Ephrath, A. R.

1982-01-01

Correlation and information theory which analyze the relationships between mental loading and visual scanpath of aircraft pilots are described. The relationship between skill, performance, mental workload, and visual scanning behavior are investigated. The experimental method required pilots to maintain a general aviation flight simulator on a straight and level, constant sensitivity, Instrument Landing System (ILS) course with a low level of turbulence. An additional periodic verbal task whose difficulty increased with frequency was used to increment the subject's mental workload. The subject's looppoint on the instrument panel during each ten minute run was computed via a TV oculometer and stored. Several pilots ranging in skill from novices to test pilots took part in the experiment. Analysis of the periodicity of the subject's instrument scan was accomplished by means of correlation techniques. For skilled pilots, the autocorrelation of instrument/dwell times sequences showed the same periodicity as the verbal task. The ability to multiplex simultaneous tasks increases with skill. Thus autocorrelation provides a way of evaluating the operator's skill level.

For love or money? What motivates people to know the minds of others?

PubMed

Harkness, Kate L; Jacobson, Jill A; Sinclair, Brooke; Chan, Emilie; Sabbagh, Mark A

2012-01-01

Mood affects social cognition and "theory of mind", such that people in a persistent negative mood (i.e., dysphoria) have enhanced abilities at making subtle judgements about others' mental states. Theorists have argued that this hypersensitivity to subtle social cues may have adaptive significance in terms of solving interpersonal problems and/or minimising social risk. We tested whether increasing the social salience of a theory of mind task would preferentially increase dyspshoric individuals' performance on the task. Forty-four dysphoric and 51 non-dysphoric undergraduate women participated in a theory of mind decoding task following one of three motivational manipulations: (i) social motivation (ii) monetary motivation, or (iii) no motivation. Social motivation was associated with the greatest accuracy of mental state decoding for the dysphoric group, whereas the non-dysphoric group showed the highest accuracy in the monetary motivation condition. These results suggest that dysphoric individuals may be especially, and preferentially, motivated to understand the mental states of others.

Measuring Mindreading: A Review of Behavioral Approaches to Testing Cognitive and Affective Mental State Attribution in Neurologically Typical Adults.

PubMed

Turner, Rose; Felisberti, Fatima M

2017-01-01

Mindreading refers to the ability to attribute mental states, including thoughts, intentions and emotions, to oneself and others, and is essential for navigating the social world. Empirical mindreading research has predominantly featured children, groups with autism spectrum disorder and clinical samples, and many standard tasks suffer ceiling effects with neurologically typical (NT) adults. We first outline a case for studying mindreading in NT adults and proceed to review tests of emotion perception, cognitive and affective mentalizing, and multidimensional tasks combining these facets. We focus on selected examples of core experimental paradigms including emotion recognition tests, social vignettes, narrative fiction (prose and film) and participative interaction (in real and virtual worlds), highlighting challenges for studies with NT adult cohorts. We conclude that naturalistic, multidimensional approaches may be productively applied alongside traditional tasks to facilitate a more nuanced picture of mindreading in adulthood, and to ensure construct validity whilst remaining sensitive to variation at the upper echelons of the ability.

Cardiac autonomic responses induced by mental tasks and the influence of musical auditory stimulation.

PubMed

Barbosa, Juliana Cristina; Guida, Heraldo L; Fontes, Anne M G; Antonio, Ana M S; de Abreu, Luiz Carlos; Barnabé, Viviani; Marcomini, Renata S; Vanderlei, Luiz Carlos M; da Silva, Meire L; Valenti, Vitor E

2014-08-01

We investigated the acute effects of musical auditory stimulation on cardiac autonomic responses to a mental task in 28 healthy men (18-22 years old). In the control protocol (no music), the volunteers remained at seated rest for 10 min and the test was applied for five minutes. After the end of test the subjects remained seated for five more minutes. In the music protocol, the volunteers remained at seated rest for 10 min, then were exposed to music for 10 min; the test was then applied over five minutes, and the subjects remained seated for five more minutes after the test. In the control and music protocols the time domain and frequency domain indices of heart rate variability remained unchanged before, during and after the test. We found that musical auditory stimulation with baroque music did not influence cardiac autonomic responses to the mental task. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Measuring Mindreading: A Review of Behavioral Approaches to Testing Cognitive and Affective Mental State Attribution in Neurologically Typical Adults

PubMed Central

Turner, Rose; Felisberti, Fatima M.

2017-01-01

Mindreading refers to the ability to attribute mental states, including thoughts, intentions and emotions, to oneself and others, and is essential for navigating the social world. Empirical mindreading research has predominantly featured children, groups with autism spectrum disorder and clinical samples, and many standard tasks suffer ceiling effects with neurologically typical (NT) adults. We first outline a case for studying mindreading in NT adults and proceed to review tests of emotion perception, cognitive and affective mentalizing, and multidimensional tasks combining these facets. We focus on selected examples of core experimental paradigms including emotion recognition tests, social vignettes, narrative fiction (prose and film) and participative interaction (in real and virtual worlds), highlighting challenges for studies with NT adult cohorts. We conclude that naturalistic, multidimensional approaches may be productively applied alongside traditional tasks to facilitate a more nuanced picture of mindreading in adulthood, and to ensure construct validity whilst remaining sensitive to variation at the upper echelons of the ability. PMID:28174552

Task-Appropriate Visualizations: Can the Very Same Visualization Format Either Promote or Hinder Learning Depending on the Task Requirements?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soemer, Alexander; Schwan, Stephan

2016-01-01

In a series of experiments, we tested a recently proposed hypothesis stating that the degree of alignment between the form of a mental representation resulting from learning with a particular visualization format and the specific requirements of a learning task determines learning performance (task-appropriateness). Groups of participants were…