Competitive Semantic Memory Retrieval: Temporal Dynamics Revealed by Event-Related Potentials

PubMed Central

Hellerstedt, Robin; Johansson, Mikael

2016-01-01

Memories compete for retrieval when they are related to a common retrieval cue. Previous research has shown that retrieval of a target memory may lead to subsequent retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) of currently irrelevant competing memories. In the present study, we investigated the time course of competitive semantic retrieval and examined the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying RIF. We contrasted two theoretical accounts of RIF by examining a critical aspect of this memory phenomenon, namely the extent to which it depends on successful retrieval of the target memory. Participants first studied category-exemplar word-pairs (e.g. Fruit—Apple). Next, we recorded electrophysiological measures of brain activity while the participants performed a competitive semantic cued-recall task. In this task, the participants were provided with the studied categories but they were instructed to retrieve other unstudied exemplars (e.g. Fruit—Ma__?). We investigated the event-related potential (ERP) correlates of retrieval success by comparing ERPs from successful and failed retrieval trials. To isolate the ERP correlates of continuous retrieval attempts from the ERP correlates of retrieval success, we included an impossible retrieval condition, with incompletable word-stem cues (Drinks—Wy__) and compared it with a non-retrieval presentation baseline condition (Occupation—Dentist). The participants’ memory for all the studied exemplars was tested in the final phase of the experiment. Taken together, the behavioural results suggest that RIF is independent of target retrieval. Beyond investigating the mechanisms underlying RIF, the present study also elucidates the temporal dynamics of semantic cued-recall by isolating the ERP correlates of retrieval attempt and retrieval success. The ERP results revealed that retrieval attempt is reflected in a late posterior negativity, possibly indicating construction of candidates for completing the word-stem cue and retrieval monitoring whereas retrieval success was reflected in an anterior positive slow wave. PMID:26901865

Competitive Semantic Memory Retrieval: Temporal Dynamics Revealed by Event-Related Potentials.

PubMed

Hellerstedt, Robin; Johansson, Mikael

2016-01-01

Memories compete for retrieval when they are related to a common retrieval cue. Previous research has shown that retrieval of a target memory may lead to subsequent retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) of currently irrelevant competing memories. In the present study, we investigated the time course of competitive semantic retrieval and examined the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying RIF. We contrasted two theoretical accounts of RIF by examining a critical aspect of this memory phenomenon, namely the extent to which it depends on successful retrieval of the target memory. Participants first studied category-exemplar word-pairs (e.g. Fruit-Apple). Next, we recorded electrophysiological measures of brain activity while the participants performed a competitive semantic cued-recall task. In this task, the participants were provided with the studied categories but they were instructed to retrieve other unstudied exemplars (e.g. Fruit-Ma__?). We investigated the event-related potential (ERP) correlates of retrieval success by comparing ERPs from successful and failed retrieval trials. To isolate the ERP correlates of continuous retrieval attempts from the ERP correlates of retrieval success, we included an impossible retrieval condition, with incompletable word-stem cues (Drinks-Wy__) and compared it with a non-retrieval presentation baseline condition (Occupation-Dentist). The participants' memory for all the studied exemplars was tested in the final phase of the experiment. Taken together, the behavioural results suggest that RIF is independent of target retrieval. Beyond investigating the mechanisms underlying RIF, the present study also elucidates the temporal dynamics of semantic cued-recall by isolating the ERP correlates of retrieval attempt and retrieval success. The ERP results revealed that retrieval attempt is reflected in a late posterior negativity, possibly indicating construction of candidates for completing the word-stem cue and retrieval monitoring whereas retrieval success was reflected in an anterior positive slow wave.

Are Pumpkins Better than Heaven? An ERP Investigation of Order Effects in the Concrete-Word Advantage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tolentino, Leida C.; Tokowicz, Natasha

2009-01-01

The present study investigated the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying the processing of concrete and abstract words by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants performed an English lexical decision task. Concrete and abstract words were presented in three stimulus-order conditions: abstract before concrete, concrete…

Empirical models of scalp-EEG responses using non-concurrent intracranial responses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaur, Komalpreet; Shih, Jerry J.; Krusienski, Dean J.

2014-06-01

Objective. This study presents inter-subject models of scalp-recorded electroencephalographic (sEEG) event-related potentials (ERPs) using intracranially recorded ERPs from electrocorticography and stereotactic depth electrodes in the hippocampus, generally termed as intracranial EEG (iEEG). Approach. The participants were six patients with medically-intractable epilepsy that underwent temporary placement of intracranial electrode arrays to localize seizure foci. Participants performed one experimental session using a brain-computer interface matrix spelling paradigm controlled by sEEG prior to the iEEG electrode implantation, and one or more identical sessions controlled by iEEG after implantation. All participants were able to achieve excellent spelling accuracy using sEEG, four of the participants achieved roughly equivalent performance in the iEEG sessions, and all participants were significantly above chance accuracy for the iEEG sessions. The sERPs were modeled using a linear combination of iERPs using two different optimization criteria. Main results. The results indicate that sERPs can be accurately estimated from the iERPs for the patients that exhibited stable ERPs over the respective sessions, and that the transformed iERPs can be accurately classified with an sERP-derived classifier. Significance. The resulting models provide a new empirical representation of the formation and distribution of sERPs from underlying composite iERPs. These new insights provide a better understanding of ERP relationships and can potentially lead to the development of more robust signal processing methods for noninvasive EEG applications.

Neural correlates of emotional intelligence in a visual emotional oddball task: an ERP study.

PubMed

Raz, Sivan; Dan, Orrie; Zysberg, Leehu

2014-11-01

The present study was aimed at identifying potential behavioral and neural correlates of Emotional Intelligence (EI) by using scalp-recorded Event-Related Potentials (ERPs). EI levels were defined according to both self-report questionnaire and a performance-based ability test. We identified ERP correlates of emotional processing by using a visual-emotional oddball paradigm, in which subjects were confronted with one frequent standard stimulus (a neutral face) and two deviant stimuli (a happy and an angry face). The effects of these faces were then compared across groups with low and high EI levels. The ERP results indicate that participants with high EI exhibited significantly greater mean amplitudes of the P1, P2, N2, and P3 ERP components in response to emotional and neutral faces, at frontal, posterior-parietal and occipital scalp locations. P1, P2 and N2 are considered indexes of attention-related processes and have been associated with early attention to emotional stimuli. The later P3 component has been thought to reflect more elaborative, top-down, emotional information processing including emotional evaluation and memory encoding and formation. These results may suggest greater recruitment of resources to process all emotional and non-emotional faces at early and late processing stages among individuals with higher EI. The present study underscores the usefulness of ERP methodology as a sensitive measure for the study of emotional stimuli processing in the research field of EI. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Attentional Bias in Anxiety: A Behavioral and ERP Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bar-Haim, Yair; Lamy, Dominique; Glickman, Shlomit

2005-01-01

Accumulating evidence suggests the existence of a processing bias in favor of threat-related stimulation in anxious individuals. Using behavioral and ERP measures, the present study investigated the deployment of attention to face stimuli with different emotion expressions in high-anxious and low-anxious participants. An attention-shifting…

Auditory evoked potentials in patients with major depressive disorder measured by Emotiv system.

PubMed

Wang, Dongcui; Mo, Fongming; Zhang, Yangde; Yang, Chao; Liu, Jun; Chen, Zhencheng; Zhao, Jinfeng

2015-01-01

In a previous study (unpublished), Emotiv headset was validated for capturing event-related potentials (ERPs) from normal subjects. In the present follow-up study, the signal quality of Emotiv headset was tested by the accuracy rate of discriminating Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) patients from the normal subjects. ERPs of 22 MDD patients and 15 normal subjects were induced by an auditory oddball task and the amplitude of N1, N2 and P3 of ERP components were specifically analyzed. The features of ERPs were statistically investigated. It is found that Emotiv headset is capable of discriminating the abnormal N1, N2 and P3 components in MDD patients. Relief-F algorithm was applied to all features for feature selection. The selected features were then input to a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) classifier with leave-one-out cross-validation to characterize the ERP features of MDD. 127 possible combinations out of the selected 7 ERP features were classified using LDA. The best classification accuracy was achieved to be 89.66%. These results suggest that MDD patients are identifiable from normal subjects by ERPs measured by Emotiv headset.

Electrophysiological correlates of retrieval orientation in reality monitoring.

PubMed

Rosburg, Timm; Mecklinger, Axel; Johansson, Mikael

2011-02-14

Retrieval orientation describes the modulation in the processing of retrieval cues by the nature of the targeted material in memory. Retrieval orientation is usually investigated by analyzing the cortical responses to new (unstudied) material when different memory contents are targeted. This approach avoids confounding effects of retrieval success. We investigated the neural correlates of retrieval orientation in reality monitoring with event-related potentials (ERPs) and assessed the impact of retrieval accuracy on obtained ERP measures. Thirty-two subjects studied visually presented object names that were followed either by a picture of that object (perceived condition) or by the instruction to mentally generate such a picture (imagine condition). Subsequently, subjects had to identify object names of one study condition and reject object names of the second study condition together with newly presented object names. The data analysis showed that object names were more accurately identified when they had been presented in the perceived condition. Two topographically distinct ERP effects of retrieval orientation were revealed: From 600 to 1100 ms after stimulus representation, ERPs were more positive at frontal electrode sites when object names from the imagine condition were targeted. The analysis of response-locked ERP data revealed an additional effect at posterior electrode sites, with more negative ERPs shortly after response onset when items from the imagine condition were targeted. The ERP effect at frontal electrode sites, but not at posterior electrode sites was modulated by relative memory accuracy, with stronger effects in subjects who had lower memory accuracy for items of the imagine condition. The findings are suggestive for a contribution of frontal brain areas to retrieval orientation processes in reality monitoring and indicate that neural correlates of retrieval orientation can be modulated by retrieval effort, with stronger activation of these correlates with increasing task demands. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

False memory and level of processing effect: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Beato, Maria Soledad; Boldini, Angela; Cadavid, Sara

2012-09-12

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to determine the effects of level of processing on true and false memory, using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. In the DRM paradigm, lists of words highly associated to a single nonpresented word (the 'critical lure') are studied and, in a subsequent memory test, critical lures are often falsely remembered. Lists with three critical lures per list were auditorily presented here to participants who studied them with either a shallow (saying whether the word contained the letter 'o') or a deep (creating a mental image of the word) processing task. Visual presentation modality was used on a final recognition test. True recognition of studied words was significantly higher after deep encoding, whereas false recognition of nonpresented critical lures was similar in both experimental groups. At the ERP level, true and false recognition showed similar patterns: no FN400 effect was found, whereas comparable left parietal and late right frontal old/new effects were found for true and false recognition in both experimental conditions. Items studied under shallow encoding conditions elicited more positive ERP than items studied under deep encoding conditions at a 1000-1500 ms interval. These ERP results suggest that true and false recognition share some common underlying processes. Differential effects of level of processing on true and false memory were found only at the behavioral level but not at the ERP level.

ERP Correlates of Encoding Success and Encoding Selectivity in Attention Switching

PubMed Central

Yeung, Nick

2016-01-01

Long-term memory encoding depends critically on effective processing of incoming information. The degree to which participants engage in effective encoding can be indexed in electroencephalographic (EEG) data by studying event-related potential (ERP) subsequent memory effects. The current study investigated ERP correlates of memory success operationalised with two different measures—memory selectivity and global memory—to assess whether previously observed ERP subsequent memory effects reflect focused encoding of task-relevant information (memory selectivity), general encoding success (global memory), or both. Building on previous work, the present study combined an attention switching paradigm—in which participants were presented with compound object-word stimuli and switched between attending to the object or the word across trials—with a later recognition memory test for those stimuli, while recording their EEG. Our results provided clear evidence that subsequent memory effects resulted from selective attentional focusing and effective top-down control (memory selectivity) in contrast to more general encoding success effects (global memory). Further analyses addressed the question of whether successful encoding depended on similar control mechanisms to those involved in attention switching. Interestingly, differences in the ERP correlates of attention switching and successful encoding, particularly during the poststimulus period, indicated that variability in encoding success occurred independently of prestimulus demands for top-down cognitive control. These results suggest that while effects of selective attention and selective encoding co-occur behaviourally their ERP correlates are at least partly dissociable. PMID:27907075

Face repetition detection and social interest: An ERP study in adults with and without Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Key, Alexandra P; Dykens, Elisabeth M

2016-12-01

The present study examined possible neural mechanisms underlying increased social interest in persons with Williams syndrome (WS). Visual event-related potentials (ERPs) during passive viewing were used to compare incidental memory traces for repeated vs. single presentations of previously unfamiliar social (faces) and nonsocial (houses) images in 26 adults with WS and 26 typical adults. Results indicated that participants with WS developed familiarity with the repeated faces and houses (frontal N400 response), but only typical adults evidenced the parietal old/new effect (previously associated with stimulus recollection) for the repeated faces. There was also no evidence of exceptional salience of social information in WS, as ERP markers of memory for repeated faces vs. houses were not significantly different. Thus, while persons with WS exhibit behavioral evidence of increased social interest, their processing of social information in the absence of specific instructions may be relatively superficial. The ERP evidence of face repetition detection in WS was independent of IQ and the earlier perceptual differentiation of social vs. nonsocial stimuli. Large individual differences in ERPs of participants with WS may provide valuable information for understanding the WS phenotype and have relevance for educational and treatment purposes.

P300-based brain-computer interface (BCI) event-related potentials (ERPs): People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) vs. age-matched controls.

PubMed

McCane, Lynn M; Heckman, Susan M; McFarland, Dennis J; Townsend, George; Mak, Joseph N; Sellers, Eric W; Zeitlin, Debra; Tenteromano, Laura M; Wolpaw, Jonathan R; Vaughan, Theresa M

2015-11-01

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) aimed at restoring communication to people with severe neuromuscular disabilities often use event-related potentials (ERPs) in scalp-recorded EEG activity. Up to the present, most research and development in this area has been done in the laboratory with young healthy control subjects. In order to facilitate the development of BCI most useful to people with disabilities, the present study set out to: (1) determine whether people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and healthy, age-matched volunteers (HVs) differ in the speed and accuracy of their ERP-based BCI use; (2) compare the ERP characteristics of these two groups; and (3) identify ERP-related factors that might enable improvement in BCI performance for people with disabilities. Sixteen EEG channels were recorded while people with ALS or healthy age-matched volunteers (HVs) used a P300-based BCI. The subjects with ALS had little or no remaining useful motor control (mean ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised 9.4 (±9.5SD) (range 0-25)). Each subject attended to a target item as the items in a 6×6 visual matrix flashed. The BCI used a stepwise linear discriminant function (SWLDA) to determine the item the user wished to select (i.e., the target item). Offline analyses assessed the latencies, amplitudes, and locations of ERPs to the target and non-target items for people with ALS and age-matched control subjects. BCI accuracy and communication rate did not differ significantly between ALS users and HVs. Although ERP morphology was similar for the two groups, their target ERPs differed significantly in the location and amplitude of the late positivity (P300), the amplitude of the early negativity (N200), and the latency of the late negativity (LN). The differences in target ERP components between people with ALS and age-matched HVs are consistent with the growing recognition that ALS may affect cortical function. The development of BCIs for use by this population may begin with studies in HVs but also needs to include studies in people with ALS. Their differences in ERP components may affect the selection of electrode montages, and might also affect the selection of presentation parameters (e.g., matrix design, stimulation rate). P300-based BCI performance in people severely disabled by ALS is similar to that of age-matched control subjects. At the same time, their ERP components differ to some degree from those of controls. Attention to these differences could contribute to the development of BCIs useful to those with ALS and possibly to others with severe neuromuscular disabilities. Copyright © 2015 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Concealed Information Test with multimodal measurement.

PubMed

Ambach, Wolfgang; Bursch, Stephanie; Stark, Rudolf; Vaitl, Dieter

2010-03-01

A Concealed Information Test (CIT) investigates differential physiological responses to deed-related (probe) vs. irrelevant items. The present study focused on the detection of concealed information using simultaneous recordings of autonomic and brain electrical measures. As a secondary issue, verbal and pictorial presentations were compared with respect to their influence on the recorded measures. Thirty-one participants underwent a mock-crime scenario with a combined verbal and pictorial presentation of nine items. The subsequent CIT, designed with respect to event-related potential (ERP) measurement, used a 3-3.5s interstimulus interval. The item presentation modality, i.e. pictures or written words, was varied between subjects; no response was required from the participants. In addition to electroencephalogram (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), electrocardiogram (ECG), respiratory activity, and finger plethysmogram were recorded. A significant probe-vs.-irrelevant effect was found for each of the measures. Compared to sole ERP measurement, the combination of ERP and EDA yielded incremental information for detecting concealed information. Although, EDA per se did not reach the predictive value known from studies primarily designed for peripheral physiological measurement. Presentation modality neither influenced the detection accuracy for autonomic measures nor EEG measures; this underpins the equivalence of verbal and pictorial item presentation in a CIT, regardless of the physiological measures recorded. Future studies should further clarify whether the incremental validity observed in the present study reflects a differential sensitivity of ERP and EDA to different sub-processes in a CIT. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of interstimulus intervals on behavioral, heart rate, and event-related potential indices of infant engagement and sustained attention

PubMed Central

Xie, Wanze; Richards, John E.

2016-01-01

Maximizing infant attention to stimulus presentation during an EEG or ERP experiment is important for making valid inferences about the neural correlates of infant cognition. The present study examined the effects of stimulus presentation interstimulus interval (ISI) on behavioral and physiological indices of infant attention including infants’ fixation to visual presentation, the amount of heart rate (HR) change during sustained attention, and ERP components. This study compared an ISI that is typically used in infant EEG/ERP studies (e.g., 1,500–2,000 ms) with two shorter durations (400–600 ms and 600–1,000 ms). Thirty-six infants were tested cross-sectionally at 3, 4.5, and 6 months. It was found that using the short (400–600 ms) and medium (600–1,000 ms) ISIs resulted in more visually fixated trials and reduced frequency of fixation disengagement per experimental block. We also found larger HR changes during sustained attention to both of the shorter ISIs compared with the long ISI, and larger ERP responses when using the medium ISI compared to using the short and long ISIs. These data suggest that utilizing an optimal ISI (e.g., 600– 1,000 ms), which increases the presentation complexity and provides sufficient time for information processing, can promote infant engagement and sustained attention during stimulus presentation. PMID:27159263

The effect of encoding manipulation on word-stem cued recall: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Fay, Séverine; Isingrini, Michel; Ragot, Richard; Pouthas, Viviane

2005-08-01

The purpose of the present study was to find out whether the neural correlates of explicit retrieval from episodic memory would vary according to conditions at encoding when the words were presented in separate study/test blocks. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed a word-stem cued-recall task. Deeply (semantically) studied words were associated with higher levels of recall and faster response times than shallowly (lexically) studied words. Robust ERP old/new effects were observed for each encoding condition. They varied in magnitude, being largest in the semantic condition. As expected, scalp distributions also differed: for deeply studied words, the old/new effect resembled that found in previous ERP studies of word-stem cued-recall tasks (parietal and right frontal effects, between 400-800 and 800-1100 ms post-stimulus), whereas for shallowly studied words, the parietal old/new effect was absent in the latter latency window. These results can be interpreted as reflecting access to different kinds of memory representation depending on the nature of the processing engaged during encoding. Furthermore, differences in the ERPs elicited by new items indicate that subjects adopted different processing strategies in the test blocks following each encoding condition.

Configurations and implementation of payroll system using open source erp: a case study of Koperasi PT Sri

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Terminanto, A.; Swantoro, H. A.; Hidayanto, A. N.

2017-12-01

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an integrated information system to manage business processes of companies of various business scales. Because of the high cost of ERP investment, ERP implementation is usually done in large-scale enterprises, Due to the complexity of implementation problems, the success rate of ERP implementation is still low. Open Source System ERP becomes an alternative choice of ERP application to SME companies in terms of cost and customization. This study aims to identify characteristics and configure the implementation of OSS ERP Payroll module in KKPS (Employee Cooperative PT SRI) using OSS ERP Odoo and using ASAP method. This study is classified into case study research and action research. Implementation of OSS ERP Payroll module is done because the HR section of KKPS has not been integrated with other parts. The results of this study are the characteristics and configuration of OSS ERP payroll module in KKPS.

Does the therapy manual or the therapist matter most in treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder? A randomized controlled trial of exposure with response or ritual prevention in 118 patients.

PubMed

van Oppen, Patricia; van Balkom, Anton J L M; Smit, Johannes H; Schuurmans, Josien; van Dyck, Richard; Emmelkamp, Paul M G

2010-09-01

The importance of the therapist's education and experience for the successful behavior treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has not been investigated. Data on the relative effectiveness of self-controlled versus therapist-controlled in vivo exposure with response or ritual prevention (ERP) have yielded conflicting results. The present study compared the effectiveness of 4 different modes of delivery of ERP in a referred sample of OCD patients. Of the 146 eligible OCD outpatients, 118 patients enrolled in this randomized controlled trial and were randomly assigned to (1) therapist-controlled ERP performed by experienced behavior therapists; (2) therapist-controlled ERP performed by master's students of clinical psychology; (3) self-controlled ERP performed by experienced behavior therapists; and (4) self-controlled ERP performed by master's students of clinical psychology. This trial was performed from January 1999 to January 2005. Our analyses revealed no significant differences in clinical outcome between any of the different modes of delivery of ERP at posttreatment. The different ERP modes of delivery were associated with significant pretreatment to posttreatment improvement on all measurements, with large effect sizes on the primary outcome measure, the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. Our results indicate that clinically inexperienced master's students with no postgraduate training can be as capable as experienced and certified behavior therapists in treating OCD patients, as long as therapists adhere to a standardized treatment manual and adequate training and supervision is provided. In contrast to other studies, we did not find a supposed benefit of therapist-controlled ERP versus self-controlled ERP in patients with OCD. www.trialregister.nl Identifier: NTR1444. © Copyright 2010 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.

Processing Biological Gender and Number Information during Chinese Pronoun Resolution: ERP Evidence for Functional Differentiation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Xiaodong; Jiang, Xiaoming; Zhou, Xiaolin

2013-01-01

There have been a number of behavioral and neural studies on the processing of syntactic gender and number agreement information, marked by different morpho-syntactic features during sentence comprehension. By using the event-related potential (ERP) technique, the present study investigated whether the processing of semantic gender information and…

A Comparison of Semantic and Syntactic Event Related Potentials Generated by Children and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atchley, Ruth Ann; Rice, Mabel L.; Betz, Stacy K.; Kwasny, Kristin M.; Sereno, Joan A.; Jongman, Allard

2006-01-01

The present study employs event related potentials (ERPs) to verify the utility of using electrophysiological measures to study developmental questions within the field of language comprehension. Established ERP components (N400 and P600) that reflect semantic and syntactic processing were examined. Fifteen adults and 14 children (ages 8-13)…

Decomposing Animacy Reversals between Agents and Experiencers: An ERP Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bourguignon, Nicolas; Drury, John E.; Valois, Daniel; Steinhauer, Karsten

2012-01-01

The present study aimed to refine current hypotheses regarding thematic reversal anomalies, which have been found to elicit either N400 or--more frequently--"semantic-P600" (sP600) effects. Our goal was to investigate whether distinct ERP profiles reflect aspectual-thematic differences between Agent-Subject Verbs (ASVs; e.g., "to eat") and…

Critical challenges in ERP implementation: A qualitative case study in the Canadian oil and gas industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menon, Sreekumar A.

This exploratory qualitative single-case study examines critical challenges encountered during ERP implementation based on individual perspectives in four project roles: senior leaders, project managers, project team members, and business users, all specifically in Canadian oil and gas industry. Data was collected by interviewing participants belonging to these categories, and by analyzing project documentation about ERP implementation. The organization for the case study was a leading multinational oil and gas company having a substantial presence in the energy sector in Canada. The study results were aligned with the six management questions regarding critical challenges in ERP: (a) circumstances to implement ERP, (b) benefits and process improvements achieved, (c) best practices implemented, (d) critical challenges encountered, (e) strategies and mitigating actions used, and (f) recommendations to improve future ERP implementations. The study results highlight six key findings. First, the study provided valid circumstances for implementing ERP systems. Second, the study underscored the importance of benefits and process improvements in ERP implementation. Third, the study highlighted that adoption of best practices is crucial for ERP Implementation. Fourth, the study found that critical challenges are encountered in ERP Implementation and are significant during ERP implementation. Fifth, the study found that strategies and mitigating actions can overcome challenges in ERP implementation. Finally, the study provided ten major recommendations on how to improve future ERP implementations.

Event-related potential indices of workload in a single task paradigm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Horst, R. L.; Munson, R. C.; Ruchkin, D. S.

1984-01-01

Many previous studies of both behavioral and physiological correlates of cognitive workload have burdened subjects with a contrived secondary task in order to assess the workload of a primary task. The present study investigated event-related potential (ERP) indices of workload in a single task paradigm. Subjects monitored changing digital readouts for values that went 'out-of-bounds'. The amplitude of a long-latency positivity in the ERPs elicited by readout changes increased with the number of readouts being monitored. This effect of workload on ERPs is reported, along with plans for additional analyses to address theoretical implications.

Low-Level Contrast Statistics of Natural Images Can Modulate the Frequency of Event-Related Potentials (ERP) in Humans.

PubMed

Ghodrati, Masoud; Ghodousi, Mahrad; Yoonessi, Ali

2016-01-01

Humans are fast and accurate in categorizing complex natural images. It is, however, unclear what features of visual information are exploited by brain to perceive the images with such speed and accuracy. It has been shown that low-level contrast statistics of natural scenes can explain the variance of amplitude of event-related potentials (ERP) in response to rapidly presented images. In this study, we investigated the effect of these statistics on frequency content of ERPs. We recorded ERPs from human subjects, while they viewed natural images each presented for 70 ms. Our results showed that Weibull contrast statistics, as a biologically plausible model, explained the variance of ERPs the best, compared to other image statistics that we assessed. Our time-frequency analysis revealed a significant correlation between these statistics and ERPs' power within theta frequency band (~3-7 Hz). This is interesting, as theta band is believed to be involved in context updating and semantic encoding. This correlation became significant at ~110 ms after stimulus onset, and peaked at 138 ms. Our results show that not only the amplitude but also the frequency of neural responses can be modulated with low-level contrast statistics of natural images and highlights their potential role in scene perception.

Low-Level Contrast Statistics of Natural Images Can Modulate the Frequency of Event-Related Potentials (ERP) in Humans

PubMed Central

Ghodrati, Masoud; Ghodousi, Mahrad; Yoonessi, Ali

2016-01-01

Humans are fast and accurate in categorizing complex natural images. It is, however, unclear what features of visual information are exploited by brain to perceive the images with such speed and accuracy. It has been shown that low-level contrast statistics of natural scenes can explain the variance of amplitude of event-related potentials (ERP) in response to rapidly presented images. In this study, we investigated the effect of these statistics on frequency content of ERPs. We recorded ERPs from human subjects, while they viewed natural images each presented for 70 ms. Our results showed that Weibull contrast statistics, as a biologically plausible model, explained the variance of ERPs the best, compared to other image statistics that we assessed. Our time-frequency analysis revealed a significant correlation between these statistics and ERPs' power within theta frequency band (~3–7 Hz). This is interesting, as theta band is believed to be involved in context updating and semantic encoding. This correlation became significant at ~110 ms after stimulus onset, and peaked at 138 ms. Our results show that not only the amplitude but also the frequency of neural responses can be modulated with low-level contrast statistics of natural images and highlights their potential role in scene perception. PMID:28018197

The Use of Brain Electrophysiology Techniques To Study Language: A Basic Guide for the Beginning Consumer of Electrophysiology Information.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Molfese, Dennis L.; Molfese, Victoria J.; Kelly, Spencer

2001-01-01

This article provides an introduction to the use of event-related potential (ERP) approaches to study language processes. First, a brief history of the emergence of this technology is presented, followed by definitions, a theoretical overview, and a practical guide to conducting ERP studies. Examples of language studies that use this technique are…

The dissociable neural dynamics of cognitive conflict and emotional conflict control: An ERP study.

PubMed

Xue, Song; Li, Yu; Kong, Xia; He, Qiaolin; Liu, Jia; Qiu, Jiang

2016-04-21

This study investigated differences in the neural time-course of cognitive conflict and emotional conflict control, using event-related potentials (ERPs). Although imaging studies have provided some evidence that distinct, dissociable neural systems underlie emotional and nonemotional conflict resolution, no ERP study has directly compared these two types of conflict. Therefore, the present study used a modified face-word Stroop task to explore the electrophysiological correlates of cognitive and emotional conflict control. The behavioral data showed that the difference in response time of congruency (incongruent condition minus the congruent condition) was larger in the cognitive conflict task than in the emotional conflict task, which indicated that cognitive conflict was stronger than the emotional conflict in the present tasks. Analysis of the ERP data revealed a main effect of task type on N2, which may be associated with top-down attention. The N450 results showed an interaction between cognitive and emotional conflict, which might be related to conflict detection. In addition, we found the incongruent condition elicited a larger SP than the congruent condition, which might be related to conflict resolution. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Can Clouds Dance? Part 2: An ERP Investigation of Passive Conceptual Expansion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutter, Barbara; Kroger, Soren; Hill, Holger; Windmann, Sabine; Hermann, Christiane; Abraham, Anna

2012-01-01

Conceptual expansion, one of the core operations in creative cognition, was investigated in the present ERP study. An experimental paradigm using novel metaphoric, nonsensical and literal phrases was employed where individual differences in conceptual knowledge organization were accounted for by using participants' responses to categorize the…

Memory Effects in Syntactic ERP Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sabourin, Laura; Stowe, Laurie

2004-01-01

The study presented here investigated the role of memory in normal sentence processing by looking at ERP effects to normal sentences and sentences containing grammatical violations. Sentences where the critical word was in the middle of the sentence were compared to sentences where the critical word always occurred in sentence-final position.…

Dimension reduction: additional benefit of an optimal filter for independent component analysis to extract event-related potentials.

PubMed

Cong, Fengyu; Leppänen, Paavo H T; Astikainen, Piia; Hämäläinen, Jarmo; Hietanen, Jari K; Ristaniemi, Tapani

2011-09-30

The present study addresses benefits of a linear optimal filter (OF) for independent component analysis (ICA) in extracting brain event-related potentials (ERPs). A filter such as the digital filter is usually considered as a denoising tool. Actually, in filtering ERP recordings by an OF, the ERP' topography should not be changed by the filter, and the output should also be able to be modeled by the linear transformation. Moreover, an OF designed for a specific ERP source or component may remove noise, as well as reduce the overlap of sources and even reject some non-targeted sources in the ERP recordings. The OF can thus accomplish both the denoising and dimension reduction (reducing the number of sources) simultaneously. We demonstrated these effects using two datasets, one containing visual and the other auditory ERPs. The results showed that the method including OF and ICA extracted much more reliable components than the sole ICA without OF did, and that OF removed some non-targeted sources and made the underdetermined model of EEG recordings approach to the determined one. Thus, we suggest designing an OF based on the properties of an ERP to filter recordings before using ICA decomposition to extract the targeted ERP component. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Limited role of phonology in reading Chinese two-character compounds: evidence from an ERP study.

PubMed

Wong, A W-K; Wu, Y; Chen, H-C

2014-01-03

This study investigates the role of phonology in reading logographic Chinese. Specifically, whether phonological information is obligatorily activated in reading Chinese two-character compounds was examined using the masked-priming paradigm with event-related potential (ERP) recordings. Twenty-two native Cantonese Chinese speakers participated in a lexical decision experiment. The targets were visually presented Chinese two-character strings and the participants were asked to judge whether the target in each trial was a legitimate compound word in Chinese. Each target was preceded by a briefly presented word prime. The prime and target shared an identical constituent character in the Character-related condition, a syllable in the Syllable-related condition, were semantically related in the Semantic-related condition, and were unrelated (both phonologically and semantically) in the control condition. The prime–target relationship was manipulated to probe the effects of word-form (i.e., character- or syllable-relatedness) and word-semantic relatedness on phonological (as indexed by an N250 ERP component) and semantic (as indexed by an N400 ERP component) processing. Significant and comparable facilitation effects in reaction time, relative to the control, were observed in the Character-related and the Semantic-related conditions. Furthermore, a significant reduction in ERP amplitudes (N250), relative to the control, was obtained in the Character-related condition in the time window of 150-250 ms post target. In addition, attenuation in ERP amplitudes was found in the Semantic-related condition in the window of 250-500 ms (N400). However, no significant results (neither behavioral nor ERP) were found in the Syllable-related condition. These results suggest that phonological activation is not mandatory and the role of phonology is minimal at best in reading Chinese two-character compounds.

Electrophysiological correlates of competitor activation predict retrieval-induced forgetting.

PubMed

Hellerstedt, Robin; Johansson, Mikael

2014-06-01

The very act of retrieval modifies the accessibility of memory for knowledge and past events and can also cause forgetting. A prominent theory of such retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) holds that retrieval recruits inhibition to overcome interference from competing memories, rendering these memories inaccessible. The present study tested a fundamental tenet of the inhibitory-control account: The competition-dependence assumption. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants engaged in a competitive retrieval task. Competition levels were manipulated within the retrieval task by varying the cue-item associative strength of competing items. In order to temporally separate ERP correlates of competitor activation and target retrieval, memory was probed with the sequential presentation of 2 cues: A category cue, to reactivate competitors, and a target cue. As predicted by the inhibitory-control account, competitors with strong compared with weak cue-competitor association were more susceptible to forgetting. Furthermore, competition-sensitive ERP modulations, elicited by the category cue, were observed over anterior regions and reflected individual differences in ensuing forgetting. The present study demonstrates ERP correlates of the reactivation of tightly bound associated memories (the competitors) and provides support for the inhibitory-control account of RIF.

Chemosensory event-related potentials in relation to side of stimulation, age, sex, and stimulus concentration.

PubMed

Stuck, B A; Frey, S; Freiburg, C; Hörmann, K; Zahnert, T; Hummel, T

2006-06-01

For chemosensory event-related potentials (ERP) significant effects of age and sex have been demonstrated. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of stimulus concentration, side of stimulation, and sex on the topographical distribution of chemosensory ERP in a large group of subjects stratified for different age groups. In addition, psychophysical measures of both olfactory and trigeminal function should be assessed in greater detail compared to previous work. A total of 95 healthy subjects participated in the study. Olfactory functions were tested using the 'Sniffin' Sticks' comprising tests of odor identification, odor discrimination, and odor threshold. Trigeminal sensitivity was assessed on a psychophysical level using a lateralization paradigm. ERP to the olfactory stimulant H2S and the trigeminal irritant CO2 were recorded; stimuli were presented in different concentrations to the left and right nostril. Olfactory thresholds exhibited an age-related increase while the outcome of psychophysical trigeminal tests was not significantly affected by age. In contrast, there was no significant main effect of the factor 'sex' for olfactory tests, while women scored higher than men in the trigeminal task. ERP to olfactory and trigeminal stimuli exhibited a relationship to stimulus concentration, age, and sex with youngest women showing largest amplitudes and shortest latencies. There was no significant main effect of left- or right-sided stimulation on ERP. Measures of olfactory function were found to correlate with parameters of olfactory ERP even when controlling for the subject's age. In addition, correlations between scores in the lateralization task and parameters of the trigeminal ERP were found. Based on electrophysiological data obtained in a large sample size the present results established an age-related loss of olfactory and trigeminal function, which appears to be almost linear. Further, the present results emphasize that responses to chemosensory stimuli are related to sex, while the side of stimulation does not play a major role in the presently used paradigm. Finally, these data establish the lateralization paradigm as a psychophysical tool to investigate intranasal trigeminal function. The present results obtained in a representative group of healthy subjects establishes a comprehensive set of data, which will serve as reference for future work in this area of research.

Recognition memory advantage for negative emotional words has an early expiry date: Evidence from brain oscillations and ERPs.

PubMed

Santaniello, G; Ferré, P; Rodríguez-Gómez, P; Poch, C; Eva, M Moreno; Hinojosa, J A

2018-06-15

Evidence from prior studies has shown an advantage in recognition memory for emotional compared to neutral words. Whether this advantage is short-lived or rather extends over longer periods, as well as whether the effect depends on words' valence (i.e., positive or negative), remains unknown. In the present ERP/EEG study, we investigated this issue by manipulating the lag distance (LAG-2, LAG-8 and LAG-16) between the presentation of old and new words in an online recognition memory task. LAG differences were observed at behavior, ERPs and in the theta frequency band. In line with previous studies, negative words were associated with faster reaction times, higher hit rates and increased amplitude in a positive ERP component between 386 and 564 ms compared to positive and neutral words. Remarkably, the interaction of LAG by EMOTION revealed that negative words were associated with better performance and larger ERPs amplitudes only at LAG-2. Also in the LAG-2 condition, emotional words (i.e., positive and negative words) induced a stronger desynchronization in the beta band between 386 and 542 ms compared to neutral words. These early enhanced memory effects for emotional words are discussed in terms of the Negative Emotional Valence Enhances Recapitulation (NEVER) model and the mobilization-minimization hypothesis. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Choosing Open Source ERP Systems: What Reasons Are There For Doing So?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johansson, Björn; Sudzina, Frantisek

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems attract a high attention and open source software does it as well. The question is then if, and if so, when do open source ERP systems take off. The paper describes the status of open source ERP systems. Based on literature review of ERP system selection criteria based on Web of Science articles, it discusses reported reasons for choosing open source or proprietary ERP systems. Last but not least, the article presents some conclusions that could act as input for future research. The paper aims at building up a foundation for the basic question: What are the reasons for an organization to adopt open source ERP systems.

Using Family-Based Exposure With Response Prevention to Treat Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Young Children: A Case Study.

PubMed

Herren, Jenny; Freeman, Jennifer; Garcia, Abbe

2016-11-01

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) using exposure with response prevention (ERP) is the treatment of choice for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); however, developmental modifications should be considered when treating young children. This article presents a case study illustrating family-based CBT using ERP with a 7-year-old boy. The delivery of ERP for this case was guided by 3 main principles: (a) family involvement with a focus on reducing family accommodation, (b) understanding the functional relation between the client's obsessions and compulsions, and (c) creating conditions to facilitate habituation during exposure. Outcomes for this case indicate significant improvement in functioning and OCD symptoms. Results highlight the importance of family involvement and the applicability of using a function-based habituation framework when delivering ERP to this unique population. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Competitive advantage in the ERP system's value-chain and its influence on future development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johansson, Björn; Newman, Mike

2010-02-01

Using the resource-based view, we present a set of propositions related to enterprise resource planning (ERP) development, reflections on competitive advantage and the different roles that stakeholders play in the value-chain. This has the goal of building a foundation for future research on ERPs and how stakeholders' desire to achieve competitive advantage influence ERP development, especially when it comes to development of a more standardised or pre-customised ERP system. The propositions also act as a foundation for increasing our knowledge concerning the difficulty in developing improved ERP systems.

Investigation of Effects of Face Rotation on Race Processing: An ERPs Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montalan, Benoit; Veujoz, Mathieu; Boitout, Alexis; Leleu, Arnaud; Camus, Odile; Lalonde, Robert; Rebai, Mohamed

2013-01-01

Recent ERP research has indicated that the processing of faces of other races (OR) and same race (SR) as the perceiver differs at the perceptual level, more precisely for the N170 component. The purpose of the present study was to continue the investigation of the race-of-face processing across multiple orientations. Event-related brain potentials…

Attention-dependent sound offset-related brain potentials.

PubMed

Horváth, János

2016-05-01

When performing sensory tasks, knowing the potentially occurring goal-relevant and irrelevant stimulus events allows the establishment of selective attention sets, which result in enhanced sensory processing of goal-relevant events. In the auditory modality, such enhancements are reflected in the increased amplitude of the N1 ERP elicited by the onsets of task-relevant sounds. It has been recently suggested that ERPs to task-relevant sound offsets are similarly enhanced in a tone-focused state in comparison to a distracted one. The goal of the present study was to explore the influence of attention on ERPs elicited by sound offsets. ERPs elicited by tones in a duration-discrimination task were compared to ERPs elicited by the same tones in not-tone-focused attentional setting. Tone offsets elicited a consistent, attention-dependent biphasic (positive-negative--P1-N1) ERP waveform for tone durations ranging from 150 to 450 ms. The evidence, however, did not support the notion that the offset-related ERPs reflected an offset-specific attention set: The offset-related ERPs elicited in a duration-discrimination condition (in which offsets were task relevant) did not significantly differ from those elicited in a pitch-discrimination condition (in which the offsets were task irrelevant). Although an N2 reflecting the processing of offsets in task-related terms contributed to the observed waveform, this contribution was separable from the offset-related P1 and N1. The results demonstrate that when tones are attended, offset-related ERPs may substantially overlap endogenous ERP activity in the postoffset interval irrespective of tone duration, and attention differences may cause ERP differences in such postoffset intervals. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Brain Event-Related Potential Correlates of Concept Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Federico, Pat-Anthony

An irrelevant auditory probe procedure was used to evoke brain event-related potentials (ERPs) in 56 Navy recruits while they learned pulsed radar concepts presented to them in study booklets. A mastery test was administered to assess concept acquisition. The research issue was whether brain ERPs recorded while students are in the process of…

ERPs Associated with Monitoring and Evaluation of Monetary Reward and Punishment in Children with ADHD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Meel, Catharina S.; Heslenfeld, Dirk J.; Oosterlaan, Jaap; Luman, Marjolein; Sergeant, Joseph A.

2011-01-01

Background: Several models of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) propose abnormalities in the response to behavioural contingencies. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), the present study investigated the monitoring and subsequent evaluation of performance feedback resulting in either reward or punishment in children with ADHD (N =…

Linking customisation of ERP systems to support effort: an empirical study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koch, Stefan; Mitteregger, Kurt

2016-01-01

The amount of customisation to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system has always been a major concern in the context of the implementation. This article focuses on the phase of maintenance and presents an empirical study about the relationship between the amount of customising and the resulting support effort. We establish a structural equation modelling model that explains support effort using customisation effort, organisational characteristics and scope of implementation. The findings using data from an ERP provider show that there is a statistically significant effect: with an increasing amount of customisation, the quantity of telephone calls to support increases, as well as the duration of each call.

Let's face the music: a behavioral and electrophysiological exploration of score reading.

PubMed

Gunter, Thomas C; Schmidt, Björn-Helmer; Besson, Mireille

2003-09-01

This experiment was carried out to determine whether reading diatonic violations in a musical score elicits similar endogenous ERP components when hearing such violations in the auditory modality. In the behavioral study, musicians were visually presented with 120 scores of familiar musical pieces, half of which contained a diatonic violation. The score was presented in a measure-by-measure manner. Self-paced reading was significantly delayed for measures containing a violation, indicating that sight reading a violation requires additional effort. In the ERP study, the musical phrases were presented in a "RSVP"-like manner. We predicted that diatonic violations would elicit a late positive component. However, the ERP associated with the measure where a violation was presented showed a negativity instead. The negativity started around 100 ms and lasted for the entire recording period. This long-lasting negativity encompassed at least three distinct effects that were possibly related to violation detection, working memory processing, and a further integration/interpretation process.

Assessing the internal consistency of the event-related potential: An example analysis.

PubMed

Thigpen, Nina N; Kappenman, Emily S; Keil, Andreas

2017-01-01

ERPs are widely and increasingly used to address questions in psychophysiological research. As discussed in this special issue, a renewed focus on questions of reliability and stability marks the need for intuitive, quantitative descriptors that allow researchers to communicate the robustness of ERP measures used in a given study. This report argues that well-established indices of internal consistency and effect size meet this need and can be easily extracted from most ERP datasets, as demonstrated with example analyses using a representative dataset from a feature-based visual selective attention task. We demonstrate how to measure the internal consistency of three aspects commonly considered in ERP studies: voltage measurements for specific time ranges at selected sensors, voltage dynamics across all time points of the ERP waveform, and the distribution of voltages across the scalp. We illustrate methods for quantifying the robustness of experimental condition differences, by calculating effect size for different indices derived from the ERP. The number of trials contributing to the ERP waveform was manipulated to examine the relationship between signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), internal consistency, and effect size. In the present example dataset, satisfactory consistency (Cronbach's alpha > 0.7) of individual voltage measurements was reached at lower trial counts than were required to reach satisfactory effect sizes for differences between experimental conditions. Comparing different metrics of robustness, we conclude that the internal consistency and effect size of ERP findings greatly depend on the quantification strategy, the comparisons and analyses performed, and the SNR. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Assessing the internal consistency of the event-related potential: An example analysis

PubMed Central

Thigpen, Nina; Kappenman, Emily; Keil, Andreas

2017-01-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are widely and increasingly used to address questions in Psychophysiological research. As discussed in this special issue, a renewed focus on questions of reliability and stability marks the need for intuitive, quantitative descriptors that allow researchers to communicate the robustness of ERP measures used in a given study. This report argues that well-established indices of internal consistency and effect size meet this need and can be easily extracted from most ERP data sets, as demonstrated with example analyses using a representative data set from a feature-based visual selective attention task. We demonstrate how to measure the internal consistency of three aspects commonly considered in ERP studies: Voltage measurements for specific time ranges at selected sensors, voltage dynamics across all time points of the ERP waveform, and the distribution of voltages across the scalp. We illustrate methods for quantifying the robustness of experimental condition differences, by calculating effect size for different indices derived from the ERP. The number of trials contributing to the ERP waveform was manipulated to examine the relationship between signal-to-noise ratio, internal consistency, and effect size. In the present example data set, satisfactory consistency (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.7) of individual voltage measurements was reached at lower trial counts than were required to reach satisfactory effect sizes for differences between experimental conditions. Comparing different metrics of robustness, we conclude that the SNR, internal consistency, and effect size of ERP findings greatly depend on the quantification strategy, the comparisons and analyses performed, and the signal-to-noise ratio. PMID:28000264

Less precise representation of numerical magnitude in high math-anxious individuals: an ERP study of the size and distance effects.

PubMed

Núñez-Peña, M Isabel; Suárez-Pellicioni, Macarena

2014-12-01

Numerical comparison tasks are widely used to study the mental representation of numerical magnitude. In study, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while 26 high math-anxious (HMA) and 27 low math-anxious (LMA) individuals were presented with pairs of single-digit Arabic numbers and were asked to decide which one had the larger numerical magnitude. The size of the numbers and the distance between them were manipulated in order to study the size and the distance effects. The results showed that both distance and size effects were larger for the HMA group. As for ERPs, results showed that the ERP distance effect had larger amplitude for both the size and distance effects in the HMA group than among their LMA counterparts. Since this component has been taken as a marker of the processing of numerical magnitude, this result suggests that HMA individuals have a less precise representation of numerical magnitude. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The influence of caffeine on sustained attention: an ERP study.

PubMed

Ruijter, J; Lorist, M M; Snel, J; De Ruiter, M B

2000-05-01

The present study investigated the effects of caffeine on sustained attention by measuring concentration and fatigue. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures were recorded from 12 participants who worked continuously for approximately 10 min in a self-paced reaction task under conditions of both caffeine (250 mg) and placebo. The ERP data revealed more positive frontal P2 and parietal P3 components in the caffeine condition. However, a combination of different indices of the behavioral data did not reveal any effects of caffeine intake. These results suggest that caffeine increases arousal, thereby reducing fatigue, as was observed in the ERP results. A probable explanation for the absence of any effects of caffeine in the behavioral data can be found in the demanding properties of the task that was used, thereby supporting evidence for more pronounced effects of caffeine in suboptimal conditions. In addition, these results appeal for an increase in the use of ERPs in drug research, in order to discover possible effects on the brain which do not necessarily result in behavioral changes.

Applying Real Options for Evaluating Investments in ERP Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakagane, Jun; Sekozawa, Teruji

This paper intends to verify effectiveness of real options approach for evaluating investments in Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) and proves how important it is to disclose shadow options potentially embedded in ERP investment. The net present value (NPV) method is principally adopted to evaluate the value of ERP. However, the NPV method assumes no uncertainties exist in the object. It doesn't satisfy the current business circumstances which are filled with dynamic issues. Since the 1990s the effectiveness of option pricing models for Information System (IS) investment to solve issues in the NPV method has been discussed in the IS literature. This paper presents 3 business cases to review the practical advantages of such techniques for IS investments, especially ERP investments. The first case is EDI development. We evaluate the project by a new approach with lighting one of shadow options, EDI implementation. In the second case we reveal an ERP investment has an “expanding option” in a case of eliminating redundancy. The third case describes an option to contract which is deliberately slotted in ERP development to prepare transferring a manufacturing facility.

Self-reflection modulates the outcome evaluation process: Evidence from an ERP study.

PubMed

Zhu, Xiangru; Gu, Ruolei; Wu, Haiyan; Luo, Yuejia

2015-12-01

Recent research demonstrated structural overlap between reward and self processing, but the functional relationship that explains how self processing influences reward processing remains unclear. The present study used an experimentally constrained reflection task to investigate whether individuals' outcome evaluations in a gambling task are modulated by task-unrelated self- and other-reflection processes. The self- and other-reflection task contained descriptions of the self or others, and brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while 16 normal adults performed a gambling task. The ERP analysis focused on the feedback-related negativity (FRN) component. We found that the difference wave of FRN increased in the self-reflection condition compared with the other-reflection condition. The present findings provide direct evidence that self processing can influence reward processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Serial position effects in free memory recall--An ERP-study.

PubMed

Wiswede, Daniel; Rüsseler, Jascha; Münte, Thomas F

2007-05-01

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by recalled and non-recalled words were recorded from 18 female subjects to investigate primacy and recency effects in free memory recall. The typical pattern of a serial position curve (SPC) was obtained with words presented at first and final positions in a list recalled better than words presented in the middle of a list. A marked positivity is seen in the ERPs for words on Primacy, but not on Recency positions at frontocentral electrodes. In contrast, ERP amplitudes on parietal electrodes resemble the SPC seen in behavioral data: P300 amplitude is largest for words on Primacy and Recency positions and attenuated on Plateau positions. Furthermore, subjects with a clear Primacy effect in behavioral data show a distinct frontal positive slow wave for Primacy words only, whereas subjects without a clear primacy effect show a frontal "difference due to subsequent memory" (DM) effect for Primacy and Plateau words. These results are discussed in the framework of working memory and distinctiveness.

Verbal predicates foster conscious recollection but not familiarity of a task-irrelevant perceptual feature--an ERP study.

PubMed

Ecker, Ullrich K H; Arend, Anna M; Bergström, Kirstin; Zimmer, Hubert D

2009-09-01

Research on the effects of perceptual manipulations on recognition memory has suggested that (a) recollection is selectively influenced by task-relevant information and (b) familiarity can be considered perceptually specific. The present experiment tested divergent assumptions that (a) perceptual features can influence conscious object recollection via verbal code despite being task-irrelevant and that (b) perceptual features do not influence object familiarity if study is verbal-conceptual. At study, subjects named objects and their presentation colour; this was followed by an old/new object recognition test. Event-related potentials (ERP) showed that a study-test manipulation of colour impacted selectively on the ERP effect associated with recollection, while a size manipulation showed no effect. It is concluded that (a) verbal predicates generated at study are potent episodic memory agents that modulate recollection even if the recovered feature information is task-irrelevant and (b) commonly found perceptual match effects on familiarity critically depend on perceptual processing at study.

Design Patterns Application in the ERP Systems Improvements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jovičić, Bojan; Vlajić, Siniša

Design patterns application have long been present in software engineering. The same is true for ERP systems in business software. Is it possible that ERP systems do not have a good maintenance score? We have found out that there is room for maintenance improvement and that it is possible to improve ERP systems using design patterns. We have conducted comparative analysis of ease of maintenance of the ERP systems. The results show that the average score for our questions is 64%, with most answers for ERP systems like SAP, Oracle EBS, Dynamics AX. We found that 59% of ERP system developer users are not familiar with design patterns. Based on this research, we have chosen Dynamics AX as the ERP system for examination of design patterns improvement possibilities. We used software metrics to measure improvement possibility. We found that we could increase the Conditional Complexity score 17-fold by introducing design patterns.

Cued uncertainty modulates later recognition of emotional pictures: An ERP study.

PubMed

Lin, Huiyan; Xiang, Jing; Li, Saili; Liang, Jiafeng; Zhao, Dongmei; Yin, Desheng; Jin, Hua

2017-06-01

Previous studies have shown that uncertainty about the emotional content of an upcoming event modulates event-related potentials (ERPs) during the encoding of the event, and this modulation is affected by whether there are cues (i.e., cued uncertainty) or not (i.e., uncued uncertainty) prior to the encoding of the uncertain event. Recently, we showed that uncued uncertainty affected ERPs in later recognition of the emotional event. However, it is as yet unknown how the ERP effects of recognition are modulated by cued uncertainty. To address this issue, participants were asked to view emotional (negative and neutral) pictures that were presented after cues. The cues either indicated the emotional content of the pictures (the certain condition) or not (the cued uncertain condition). Subsequently, participants had to perform an unexpected old/new task in which old and novel pictures were shown without any cues. ERP data in the old/new task showed smaller P2 amplitudes for neutral pictures in the cued uncertain condition compared to the certain condition, but this uncertainty effect was not observed for negative pictures. Additionally, P3 amplitudes were generally enlarged for pictures in the cued uncertain condition. Taken together, the present findings indicate that cued uncertainty alters later recognition of emotional events in relevance to feature processing and attention allocation. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Second-Language Syntactic Processes Are Related to Native and Second Language Distance Regardless of Age of Acquisition

PubMed Central

Díaz, Begoña; Erdocia, Kepa; de Menezes, Robert F.; Mueller, Jutta L.; Sebastián-Gallés, Núria; Laka, Itziar

2016-01-01

In the present study, we investigate how early and late L2 learners process L2 grammatical traits that are either present or absent in their native language (L1). Thirteen early (AoA = 4 years old) and 13 late (AoA = 18 years old) Spanish learners of Basque performed a grammatical judgment task on auditory Basque sentences while their event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The sentences contained violations of a syntactic property specific to participants' L2, i.e., ergative case, or violations of a syntactic property present in both of the participants' languages, i.e., verb agreement. Two forms of verb agreement were tested: subject agreement, found in participants' L1 and L2, and object agreement, present only in participants' L2. Behaviorally, early bilinguals were more accurate in the judgment task than late L2 learners. Early bilinguals showed native-like ERPs for verb agreement, which differed from the late learners' ERP pattern. Nonetheless, approximation to native-likeness was greater for the subject-verb agreement processing, the type of verb-agreement present in participants' L1, compared to object-verb agreement, the type of verb-agreement present only in participants' L2. For the ergative argument alignment, unique to L2, the two non-native groups showed similar ERP patterns which did not correspond to the natives' ERP pattern. We conclude that non-native syntactic processing approximates native processing for early L2 acquisition and high proficiency levels when the syntactic property is common to the L1 and L2. However, syntactic traits that are not present in the L1 do not rely on native-like processing, despite early AoA and high proficiency. PMID:26903930

Relationship between neural response and adaptation selectivity to form and color: an ERP study.

PubMed

Rentzeperis, Ilias; Nikolaev, Andrey R; Kiper, Daniel C; van Leeuwen, Cees

2012-01-01

Adaptation is widely used as a tool for studying selectivity to visual features. In these studies it is usually assumed that the loci of feature selective neural responses and adaptation coincide. We used an adaptation paradigm to investigate the relationship between response and adaptation selectivity in event-related potentials (ERPs). ERPs were evoked by the presentation of colored Glass patterns in a form discrimination task. Response selectivities to form and, to some extent, color of the patterns were reflected in the C1 and N1 ERP components. Adaptation selectivity to color was reflected in N1 and was followed by a late (300-500 ms after stimulus onset) effect of form adaptation. Thus for form, response and adaptation selectivity were manifested in non-overlapping intervals. These results indicate that adaptation and response selectivity can be associated with different processes. Therefore, inferring selectivity from an adaptation paradigm requires analysis of both adaptation and neural response data.

Insights into MHC class I peptide loading from the structure of the tapasin/ERp57 heterodimer

PubMed Central

Dong, Gang; Wearsch, Pamela A.; Peaper, David R.; Cresswell, Peter; Reinisch, Karin M.

2009-01-01

SUMMARY Tapasin is a glycoprotein critical for loading Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class I molecules with high affinity peptides. It functions within the multimeric peptide-loading complex (PLC) as a disulfide-linked, stable heterodimer with the thiol oxidoreductase ERp57, and this covalent interaction is required to support optimal PLC activity. Here we present the 2.6 Å resolution structure of the tapasin/ERp57 core of the PLC. The structure reveals the basis for the stable dimerization of tapasin and ERp57 and provides the first example of a protein disulfide isomerase family member interacting with a substrate. Mutational analysis identified a conserved surface on tapasin that interacts with MHC class I molecules and is critical for the peptide loading and editing function of the tapasin-ERp57 heterodimer. By combining the tapasin/ERp57 structure with those of other defined PLC components we present a molecular model that illuminates the processes involved in MHC class I peptide loading. PMID:19119025

Purification and biochemical characterization of native ERp29 from rat liver

PubMed Central

2004-01-01

ERp29 is a recently characterized resident of the ER (endoplasmic reticulum) lumen that has broad biological significance, being expressed ubiquitously and abundantly in animal cells. As an apparent housekeeper, ERp29 is thought to be a general folding assistant for secretory proteins and to probably function as a PDI (protein disulphide isomerase)-like molecular chaperone. In the present paper, we report the first purification to homogeneity and direct functional analysis of native ERp29, which has led to the unexpected finding that ERp29 lacks PDI-like folding activities. ERp29 was purified 4800-fold in non-denaturing conditions exploiting an unusual affinity for heparin. Two additional biochemical hallmarks that will assist the classification of ERp29 homologues were identified, namely the idiosyncratic behaviours of ERp29 on size-exclusion chromatography (Mrmonomeric mass). In contrast with PDI and parallel-purified co-residents (calreticulin, ERp60), native ERp29 lacked classical chaperone, disulphide reductase and isomerase, and calcium-binding activities. In the chaperone assays, ERp29 neither protected substrate proteins against thermal aggregation nor interacted stably with chemically denatured proteins as detected by cross-linking. ERp29 also did not exhibit helper activity toward calreticulin (chaperone) or PDI and ERp60 (disulphide reductase). By refuting long-standing predictions about chaperone activity, these results expose ERp29 as a functionally distinct member of the ER machinery and prompt a revised hypothesis that ERp29 acts as a non-classical folding assistant. The native preparation and biochemical hallmarks established here provide a useful foundation for ongoing efforts to resolve the functional orphan status of ERp29. PMID:15500441

Response to own name in children: ERP study of auditory social information processing.

PubMed

Key, Alexandra P; Jones, Dorita; Peters, Sarika U

2016-09-01

Auditory processing is an important component of cognitive development, and names are among the most frequently occurring receptive language stimuli. Although own name processing has been examined in infants and adults, surprisingly little data exist on responses to own name in children. The present ERP study examined spoken name processing in 32 children (M=7.85years) using a passive listening paradigm. Our results demonstrated that children differentiate own and close other's names from unknown names, as reflected by the enhanced parietal P300 response. The responses to own and close other names did not differ between each other. Repeated presentations of an unknown name did not result in the same familiarity as the known names. These results suggest that auditory ERPs to known/unknown names are a feasible means to evaluate complex auditory processing without the need for overt behavioral responses. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Response to Own Name in Children: ERP Study of Auditory Social Information Processing

PubMed Central

Key, Alexandra P.; Jones, Dorita; Peters, Sarika U.

2016-01-01

Auditory processing is an important component of cognitive development, and names are among the most frequently occurring receptive language stimuli. Although own name processing has been examined in infants and adults, surprisingly little data exist on responses to own name in children. The present ERP study examined spoken name processing in 32 children (M=7.85 years) using a passive listening paradigm. Our results demonstrated that children differentiate own and close other’s names from unknown names, as reflected by the enhanced parietal P300 response. The responses to own and close other names did not differ between each other. Repeated presentations of an unknown name did not result in the same familiarity as the known names. These results suggest that auditory ERPs to known/unknown names are a feasible means to evaluate complex auditory processing without the need for overt behavioral responses. PMID:27456543

Selective attention to sound location or pitch studied with event-related brain potentials and magnetic fields.

PubMed

Degerman, Alexander; Rinne, Teemu; Särkkä, Anna-Kaisa; Salmi, Juha; Alho, Kimmo

2008-06-01

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and magnetic fields (ERFs) were used to compare brain activity associated with selective attention to sound location or pitch in humans. Sixteen healthy adults participated in the ERP experiment, and 11 adults in the ERF experiment. In different conditions, the participants focused their attention on a designated sound location or pitch, or pictures presented on a screen, in order to detect target sounds or pictures among the attended stimuli. In the Attend Location condition, the location of sounds varied randomly (left or right), while their pitch (high or low) was kept constant. In the Attend Pitch condition, sounds of varying pitch (high or low) were presented at a constant location (left or right). Consistent with previous ERP results, selective attention to either sound feature produced a negative difference (Nd) between ERPs to attended and unattended sounds. In addition, ERPs showed a more posterior scalp distribution for the location-related Nd than for the pitch-related Nd, suggesting partially different generators for these Nds. The ERF source analyses found no source distribution differences between the pitch-related Ndm (the magnetic counterpart of the Nd) and location-related Ndm in the superior temporal cortex (STC), where the main sources of the Ndm effects are thought to be located. Thus, the ERP scalp distribution differences between the location-related and pitch-related Nd effects may have been caused by activity of areas outside the STC, perhaps in the inferior parietal regions.

Propofol and midazolam inhibit conscious memory processes very soon after encoding: an event-related potential study of familiarity and recollection in volunteers.

PubMed

Veselis, Robert A; Pryor, Kane O; Reinsel, Ruth A; Li, Yuelin; Mehta, Meghana; Johnson, Ray

2009-02-01

Intravenous drugs active via gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors to produce memory impairment during conscious sedation. Memory function was assessed using event-related potentials (ERPs) while drug was present. The continuous recognition task measured recognition of photographs from working (6 s) and long-term (27 s) memory while ERPs were recorded from Cz (familiarity recognition) and Pz electrodes (recollection recognition). Volunteer participants received sequential doses of one of placebo (n = 11), 0.45 and 0.9 microg/ml propofol (n = 10), 20 and 40 ng/ml midazolam (n = 12), 1.5 and 3 microg/ml thiopental (n = 11), or 0.25 and 0.4 ng/ml dexmedetomidine (n = 11). End-of-day yes/no recognition 225 min after the end of drug infusion tested memory retention of pictures encoded on the continuous recognition tasks. Active drugs increased reaction times and impaired memory on the continuous recognition task equally, except for a greater effect of midazolam (P < 0.04). Forgetting from continuous recognition tasks to end of day was similar for all drugs (P = 0.40), greater than placebo (P < 0.001). Propofol and midazolam decreased the area between first presentation (new) and recognized (old, 27 s later) ERP waveforms from long-term memory for familiarity (P = 0.03) and possibly for recollection processes (P = 0.12). Propofol shifted ERP amplitudes to smaller voltages (P < 0.002). Dexmedetomidine may have impaired familiarity more than recollection processes (P = 0.10). Thiopental had no effect on ERPs. Propofol and midazolam impaired recognition ERPs from long-term memory but not working memory. ERP measures of memory revealed different pathways to end-of-day memory loss as early as 27 s after encoding.

Enterprise resource planning for hospitals.

PubMed

van Merode, Godefridus G; Groothuis, Siebren; Hasman, Arie

2004-06-30

Integrated hospitals need a central planning and control system to plan patients' processes and the required capacity. Given the changes in healthcare one can ask the question what type of information systems can best support these healthcare delivery organizations. We focus in this review on the potential of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for healthcare delivery organizations. First ERP systems are explained. An overview is then presented of the characteristics of the planning process in hospital environments. Problems with ERP that are due to the special characteristics of healthcare are presented. The situations in which ERP can or cannot be used are discussed. It is suggested to divide hospitals in a part that is concerned only with deterministic processes and a part that is concerned with non-deterministic processes. ERP can be very useful for planning and controlling the deterministic processes.

Anxiety and spatial attention moderate the electrocortical response to aversive pictures.

PubMed

MacNamara, Annmarie; Hajcak, Greg

2009-11-01

Aversive stimuli capture attention and elicit increased neural activity, as indexed by behavioral, electrocortical and hemodynamic measures; moreover, individual differences in anxiety relate to a further increased sensitivity to threatening stimuli. Evidence has been mixed, however, as to whether aversive pictures elicit increased neural response when presented in unattended spatial locations. In the current study, ERP and behavioral data were recorded from 49 participants as aversive and neutral pictures were simultaneously presented in spatially attended and unattended locations; on each trial, participants made same/different judgments about pictures presented in attended locations. Aversive images presented in unattended locations resulted in increased error rate and reaction time. The late positive potential (LPP) component of the ERP was only larger when aversive images were presented in attended locations, and this increase was positively correlated with self-reported state anxiety. Findings are discussed in regard to the sensitivity of ERP and behavioral responses to aversive distracters, and in terms of increased neural processing of threatening stimuli in anxiety.

Effects of expectation congruency on event-related potentials (ERPs) to facial expressions depend on cognitive load during the expectation phase.

PubMed

Lin, Huiyan; Schulz, Claudia; Straube, Thomas

2016-10-01

Previous studies have shown that event-related potentials (ERPs) to facial expressions are modulated by expectation (congruency) and that the ERP effects of expectation congruency are altered by cognitive tasks during the expectation phase. However, it is as yet unknown whether the congruency ERP effects can be modulated by the amount of cognitive load during the expectation phase. To address this question, electroencephalogram (EEG) was acquired when participants viewed fearful and neutral facial expressions. Before the presentation of facial expressions, a cue indicating the expression of a face and subsequently, an expectation interval without any cues were presented. Facial expressions were congruent with the cues in 75% of all trials. During the expectation interval, participants had to solve a cognitive task, in which several letters were presented for target letter detection. The letters were all the same under low load, but differed under high load. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that the amount of cognitive load during the expectation phase altered the congruency effect in N2 and EPN amplitudes for fearful faces. Congruent as compared to incongruent fearful expressions elicited larger N2 and smaller EPN amplitudes under low load, but these congruency effects were not observed under high load. For neutral faces, a congruency effect in late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes was modulated by cognitive load during the expectation phase. The LPP was more positive for incongruent as compared to congruent faces under low load, but the congruency effect was not evident under high load. The findings indicate that congruency effects on ERPs are modulated by the amount of cognitive load the expectation phase and that this modulation is altered by facial expression. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Feature-Specific Event-Related Potential Effects to Action- and Sound-Related Verbs during Visual Word Recognition

PubMed Central

Popp, Margot; Trumpp, Natalie M.; Kiefer, Markus

2016-01-01

Grounded cognition theories suggest that conceptual representations essentially depend on modality-specific sensory and motor systems. Feature-specific brain activation across different feature types such as action or audition has been intensively investigated in nouns, while feature-specific conceptual category differences in verbs mainly focused on body part specific effects. The present work aimed at assessing whether feature-specific event-related potential (ERP) differences between action and sound concepts, as previously observed in nouns, can also be found within the word class of verbs. In Experiment 1, participants were visually presented with carefully matched sound and action verbs within a lexical decision task, which provides implicit access to word meaning and minimizes strategic access to semantic word features. Experiment 2 tested whether pre-activating the verb concept in a context phase, in which the verb is presented with a related context noun, modulates subsequent feature-specific action vs. sound verb processing within the lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, ERP analyses revealed a differential ERP polarity pattern for action and sound verbs at parietal and central electrodes similar to previous results in nouns. Pre-activation of the meaning of verbs in the preceding context phase in Experiment 2 resulted in a polarity-reversal of feature-specific ERP effects in the lexical decision task compared with Experiment 1. This parallels analogous earlier findings for primed action and sound related nouns. In line with grounded cognitions theories, our ERP study provides evidence for a differential processing of action and sound verbs similar to earlier observation for concrete nouns. Although the localizational value of ERPs must be viewed with caution, our results indicate that the meaning of verbs is linked to different neural circuits depending on conceptual feature relevance. PMID:28018201

Feature-Specific Event-Related Potential Effects to Action- and Sound-Related Verbs during Visual Word Recognition.

PubMed

Popp, Margot; Trumpp, Natalie M; Kiefer, Markus

2016-01-01

Grounded cognition theories suggest that conceptual representations essentially depend on modality-specific sensory and motor systems. Feature-specific brain activation across different feature types such as action or audition has been intensively investigated in nouns, while feature-specific conceptual category differences in verbs mainly focused on body part specific effects. The present work aimed at assessing whether feature-specific event-related potential (ERP) differences between action and sound concepts, as previously observed in nouns, can also be found within the word class of verbs. In Experiment 1, participants were visually presented with carefully matched sound and action verbs within a lexical decision task, which provides implicit access to word meaning and minimizes strategic access to semantic word features. Experiment 2 tested whether pre-activating the verb concept in a context phase, in which the verb is presented with a related context noun, modulates subsequent feature-specific action vs. sound verb processing within the lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, ERP analyses revealed a differential ERP polarity pattern for action and sound verbs at parietal and central electrodes similar to previous results in nouns. Pre-activation of the meaning of verbs in the preceding context phase in Experiment 2 resulted in a polarity-reversal of feature-specific ERP effects in the lexical decision task compared with Experiment 1. This parallels analogous earlier findings for primed action and sound related nouns. In line with grounded cognitions theories, our ERP study provides evidence for a differential processing of action and sound verbs similar to earlier observation for concrete nouns. Although the localizational value of ERPs must be viewed with caution, our results indicate that the meaning of verbs is linked to different neural circuits depending on conceptual feature relevance.

Re-examination of Chinese semantic processing and syntactic processing: evidence from conventional ERPs and reconstructed ERPs by residue iteration decomposition (RIDE).

PubMed

Wang, Fang; Ouyang, Guang; Zhou, Changsong; Wang, Suiping

2015-01-01

A number of studies have explored the time course of Chinese semantic and syntactic processing. However, whether syntactic processing occurs earlier than semantics during Chinese sentence reading is still under debate. To further explore this issue, an event-related potentials (ERPs) experiment was conducted on 21 native Chinese speakers who read individually-presented Chinese simple sentences (NP1+VP+NP2) word-by-word for comprehension and made semantic plausibility judgments. The transitivity of the verbs was manipulated to form three types of stimuli: congruent sentences (CON), sentences with a semantically violated NP2 following a transitive verb (semantic violation, SEM), and sentences with a semantically violated NP2 following an intransitive verb (combined semantic and syntactic violation, SEM+SYN). The ERPs evoked from the target NP2 were analyzed by using the Residue Iteration Decomposition (RIDE) method to reconstruct the ERP waveform blurred by trial-to-trial variability, as well as by using the conventional ERP method based on stimulus-locked averaging. The conventional ERP analysis showed that, compared with the critical words in CON, those in SEM and SEM+SYN elicited an N400-P600 biphasic pattern. The N400 effects in both violation conditions were of similar size and distribution, but the P600 in SEM+SYN was bigger than that in SEM. Compared with the conventional ERP analysis, RIDE analysis revealed a larger N400 effect and an earlier P600 effect (in the time window of 500-800 ms instead of 570-810ms). Overall, the combination of conventional ERP analysis and the RIDE method for compensating for trial-to-trial variability confirmed the non-significant difference between SEM and SEM+SYN in the earlier N400 time window. Converging with previous findings on other Chinese structures, the current study provides further precise evidence that syntactic processing in Chinese does not occur earlier than semantic processing.

Hands-On ERP Learning: Using OpenERP[R], an Alternative to SAP[R

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayyagari, Ramakrishna

2011-01-01

Recent struggles with ERP systems (Kanaracus, 2010) highlight that teaching ERP skills is still very relevant today. Previous research suggests that knowledge of ERP concepts is more important than skills with any particular ERP package (Strong et al., 2006). However, a review of published studies in "JISE" shows a bias towards commercial ERP…

Hippocampal P3-like auditory event-related potentials are disrupted in a rat model of cholinergic degeneration in Alzheimer's disease: reversal by donepezil treatment.

PubMed

Laursen, Bettina; Mørk, Arne; Kristiansen, Uffe; Bastlund, Jesper Frank

2014-01-01

P300 (P3) event-related potentials (ERPs) have been suggested to be an endogenous marker of cognitive function and auditory oddball paradigms are frequently used to evaluate P3 ERPs in clinical settings. Deficits in P3 amplitude and latency reflect some of the neurological dysfunctions related to several psychiatric and neurological diseases, e.g., Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, only a very limited number of rodent studies have addressed the back-translational validity of the P3-like ERPs as suitable markers of cognition. Thus, the potential of rodent P3-like ERPs to predict pro-cognitive effects in humans remains to be fully validated. The current study characterizes P3-like ERPs in the 192-IgG-SAP (SAP) rat model of the cholinergic degeneration associated with AD. Following training in a combined auditory oddball and lever-press setup, rats were subjected to bilateral intracerebroventricular infusion of 1.25 μg SAP or PBS (sham lesion) and recording electrodes were implanted in hippocampal CA1. Relative to sham-lesioned rats, SAP-lesioned rats had significantly reduced amplitude of P3-like ERPs. P3 amplitude was significantly increased in SAP-treated rats following pre-treatment with 1 mg/kg donepezil. Infusion of SAP reduced the hippocampal choline acetyltransferase activity by 75%. Behaviorally defined cognitive performance was comparable between treatment groups. The present study suggests that AD-like deficits in P3-like ERPs may be mimicked by the basal forebrain cholinergic degeneration induced by SAP. SAP-lesioned rats may constitute a suitable model to test the efficacy of pro-cognitive substances in an applied experimental setup.

Implicit and explicit categorization of natural scenes.

PubMed

Codispoti, Maurizio; Ferrari, Vera; De Cesarei, Andrea; Cardinale, Rossella

2006-01-01

Event-related potential (ERP) studies have consistently found that emotionally arousing (pleasant and unpleasant) pictures elicit a larger late positive potential (LPP) than neutral pictures in a window from 400 to 800 ms after picture onset. In addition, an early ERP component has been reported to vary with emotional arousal in a window from about 150 to 300 ms with affective, compared to neutral stimuli, prompting significantly less positivity over occipito-temporal sites. Similar early and late ERP components have been found in explicit categorization tasks, suggesting that selective attention to target features results in similar cortical changes. Several studies have shown that the affective modulation of the LPP persisted even when the same pictures are repeated several times, when they are presented as distractors, or when participants are engaged in a competing task. These results indicate that categorization of affective stimuli is an obligatory process. On the other hand, perceptual factors (e.g., stimulus size) seem to affect the early ERP component but not the affective modulation of the LPP. Although early and late ERP components vary with stimulus relevance, given that they are differentially affected by stimulus and task manipulations, they appear to index different facets of picture processing.

Using ERP and WfM Systems for Implementing Business Processes: An Empirical Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aversano, Lerina; Tortorella, Maria

Software systems mainly considered from enterprises for dealing with a business process automation belong to the following two categories: Workflow Management Systems (WfMS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. The wider diffusion of ERP systems tends to favourite this solution, but there are several limitations of most ERP systems for automating business processes. This paper reports an empirical study aiming at comparing the ability of implementing business processes of ERP systems and WfMSs. Two different case studies have been considered in the empirical study. It evaluates and analyses the correctness and completeness of the process models implemented by using ERP and WfM systems.

Distinguishing Neurocognitive Processes Reflected by P600 Effects: Evidence from ERPs and Neural Oscillations

PubMed Central

Regel, Stefanie; Meyer, Lars; Gunter, Thomas C.

2014-01-01

Research on language comprehension using event-related potentials (ERPs) reported distinct ERP components reliably related to the processing of semantic (N400) and syntactic information (P600). Recent ERP studies have challenged this well-defined distinction by showing P600 effects for semantic and pragmatic anomalies. So far, it is still unresolved whether the P600 reflects specific or rather common processes. The present study addresses this question by investigating ERPs in response to a syntactic and pragmatic (irony) manipulation, as well as a combined syntactic and pragmatic manipulation. For the syntactic condition, a morphosyntactic violation was applied, whereas for the pragmatic condition, such as “That is rich”, either an ironic or literal interpretation was achieved, depending on the prior context. The ERPs at the critical word showed a LAN-P600 pattern for syntactically incorrect sentences relative to correct ones. For ironic compared to literal sentences, ERPs showed a P200 effect followed by a P600 component. In comparison of the syntax-related P600 to the irony-related P600, distributional differences were found. Moreover, for the P600 time window (i.e., 500–900 ms), different changes in theta power between the syntax and pragmatics effects were found, suggesting that different patterns of neural activity contributed to each respective effect. Thus, both late positivities seem to be differently sensitive to these two types of linguistic information, and might reflect distinct neurocognitive processes, such as reanalysis of the sentence structure versus pragmatic reanalysis. PMID:24844290

Event related potentials to digit learning: tracking neurophysiologic changes accompanying recall performance.

PubMed

Jongsma, Marijtje L A; Gerrits, Niels J H M; van Rijn, Clementina M; Quiroga, Rodrigo Quian; Maes, Joseph H R

2012-07-01

The aim of this study was to track recall performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) across multiple trials in a digit-learning task. When a sequence is practiced by repetition, the number of errors typically decreases and a learning curve emerges. Until now, almost all ERP learning and memory research has focused on effects after a single presentation and, therefore, fails to capture the dynamic changes that characterize a learning process. However, the current study used a free-recall task in which a sequence of ten auditory digits was presented repeatedly. Auditory sequences of ten digits were presented in a logical order (control sequences) or in a random order (experimental sequences). Each sequence was presented six times. Participants had to reproduce the sequence after each presentation. EEG recordings were made at the time of the digit presentations. Recall performance for the control sequences was close to asymptote right after the first learning trial, whereas performance for the experimental sequences initially displayed primacy and recency effects. However, these latter effects gradually disappeared over the six repetitions, resulting in near-asymptotic recall performance for all digits. The performance improvement for the middle items of the list was accompanied by an increase in P300 amplitude, implying a close correspondence between this ERP component and the behavioral data. These results, which were discussed in the framework of theories on the functional significance of the P300 amplitude, add to the scarce empirical data on the dynamics of ERP responses in the process of intentional learning. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stability of auditory discrimination and novelty processing in physiological aging.

PubMed

Raggi, Alberto; Tasca, Domenica; Rundo, Francesco; Ferri, Raffaele

2013-01-01

Complex higher-order cognitive functions and their possible changes with aging are mandatory objectives of cognitive neuroscience. Event-related potentials (ERPs) allow investigators to probe the earliest stages of information processing. N100, Mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a are auditory ERP components that reflect automatic sensory discrimination. The aim of the present study was to determine if N100, MMN and P3a parameters are stable in healthy aged subjects, compared to those of normal young adults. Normal young adults and older participants were assessed using standardized cognitive functional instruments and their ERPs were obtained with an auditory stimulation at two different interstimulus intervals, during a passive paradigm. All individuals were within the normal range on cognitive tests. No significant differences were found for any ERP parameters obtained from the two age groups. This study shows that aging is characterized by a stability of the auditory discrimination and novelty processing. This is important for the arrangement of normative for the detection of subtle preclinical changes due to abnormal brain aging.

Modafinil improves information processing speed and increases energetic resources for orientation of attention in narcoleptics: double-blind, placebo-controlled ERP studies with low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA).

PubMed

Saletu, Michael; Anderer, Peter; Saletu-Zyhlarz, Gerda Maria; Mandl, Magdalena; Saletu, Bernd; Zeitlhofer, Josef

2009-09-01

Recent neuroimaging studies in narcolepsy discovered significant gray matter loss in the right prefrontal and frontomesial cortex, a critical region for executive processing. In the present study, event-related potential (ERP) low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) was used to investigate cognition before and after modafinil as compared with placebo. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over design, 15 patients were treated with a 3-week fixed titration scheme of modafinil and placebo. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT) and auditory ERPs (odd-ball paradigm) were obtained before and after the 3 weeks of therapy. Latencies, amplitudes and LORETA sources were determined for standard (N1 and P2) and target (N2 and P300) ERP components. The ESS score improved significantly from 15.4 (+/- 4.0) under placebo to 10.2 (+/- 4.1) under 400mg modafinil (p=0.004). In the MWT, latency to sleep increased nonsignificantly after modafinil treatment (11.9+/-6.9 versus 13.3+/-7.1 min). In the ERP, N2 and P300 latencies were shortened significantly. While ERP amplitudes showed only minor changes, LORETA revealed increased source strengths: for N1 in the left auditory cortex and for P300 in the medial and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. LORETA revealed that modafinil improved information processing speed and increased energetic resources in prefrontal cortical regions, which is in agreement with other neuroimaging studies.

Event-related potential studies of post-traumatic stress disorder: a critical review and synthesis

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Despite the sparseness of the currently available data, there is accumulating evidence of information processing impairment in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies of event-related potentials (ERPs) are the main tool in real time examination of information processing. In this paper, we sought to critically review the ERP evidence of information processing abnormalities in patients with PTSD. We also examined the evidence supporting the existence of a relationship between ERP abnormalities and symptom profiles or severity in PTSD patients. An extensive Medline search was performed. Keywords included PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder, electrophysiology or EEG, electrophysiology, P50, P100, N100, P2, P200, P3, P300, sensory gating, CNV (contingent negative variation) and MMN (mismatch negativity). We limited the review to ERP adult human studies with control groups which were reported in the English language. After applying our inclusion-exclusion review criteria, 36 studies were included. Subjects exposed to wide ranges of military and civilian traumas were studied in these reports. Presented stimuli were both auditory and visual. The most widely studied components included P300, P50 gating, N100 and P200. Most of the studies reported increased P300 response to trauma-related stimuli in PTSD patients. A smaller group of studies reported dampening of responses or no change in responses to trauma-related and/or unrelated stimuli. P50 studies were strongly suggestive of impaired gating in patients with PTSD. In conclusion, the majority of reports support evidence of information processing abnormalities in patients with PTSD diagnosis. The predominance of evidence suggests presence of mid-latency and late ERP components differences in PTSD patients in comparison to healthy controls. Heterogeneity of assessment methods used contributes to difficulties in reaching firm conclusions regarding the nature of these differences. We suggest that future ERP-PTSD studies utilize standardized assessment scales that provide detailed information regarding the symptom clusters and the degree of symptom severity. This would allow assessment of electrophysiological indices-clinical symptoms relationships. Based on the available data, we suggest that ERP abnormalities in PTSD are possibly affected by the level of illness severity. If supported by future research, ERP studies may be used for both initial assessment and treatment follow-up. PMID:22738160

Lexical Planning in Sentence Production Is Highly Incremental: Evidence from ERPs.

PubMed

Zhao, Li-Ming; Yang, Yu-Fang

2016-01-01

The scope of lexical planning, which means how far ahead speakers plan lexically before they start producing an utterance, is an important issue for research into speech production, but remains highly controversial. The present research investigated this issue using the semantic blocking effect, which refers to the widely observed effects that participants take longer to say aloud the names of items in pictures when the pictures in a block of trials in an experiment depict items that belong to the same semantic category than different categories. As this effect is often interpreted as a reflection of difficulty in lexical selection, the current study took the semantic blocking effect and its associated pattern of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as a proxy to test whether lexical planning during sentence production extends beyond the first noun when a subject noun-phrase includes two nouns, such as "The chair and the boat are both red" and "The chair above the boat is red". The results showed a semantic blocking effect both in onset latencies and in ERPs during the utterance of the first noun of these complex noun-phrases but not for the second noun. The indication, therefore, is that the lexical planning scope does not encompass this second noun-phrase. Indeed, the present findings are in line with accounts that propose radically incremental lexical planning, in which speakers plan ahead only one word at a time. This study also provides a highly novel example of using ERPs to examine the production of long utterances, and it is hoped the present demonstration of the effectiveness of this approach inspires further application of ERP techniques in this area of research.

Syntax, concepts, and logic in the temporal dynamics of language comprehension: evidence from event-related potentials.

PubMed

Steinhauer, Karsten; Drury, John E; Portner, Paul; Walenski, Matthew; Ullman, Michael T

2010-05-01

Logic has been intertwined with the study of language and meaning since antiquity, and such connections persist in present day research in linguistic theory (formal semantics) and cognitive psychology (e.g., studies of human reasoning). However, few studies in cognitive neuroscience have addressed logical dimensions of sentence-level language processing, and none have directly compared these aspects of processing with syntax and lexical/conceptual-semantics. We used ERPs to examine a violation paradigm involving "Negative Polarity Items" or NPIs (e.g., ever/any), which are sensitive to logical/truth-conditional properties of the environments in which they occur (e.g., presence/absence of negation in: John hasn't ever been to Paris, versus: John has *ever been to Paris). Previous studies examining similar types of contrasts found a mix of effects on familiar ERP components (e.g., LAN, N400, P600). We argue that their experimental designs and/or analyses were incapable of separating which effects are connected to NPI-licensing violations proper. Our design enabled statistical analyses teasing apart genuine violation effects from independent effects tied solely to lexical/contextual factors. Here unlicensed NPIs elicited a late P600 followed in onset by a late left anterior negativity (or "L-LAN"), an ERP profile which has also appeared elsewhere in studies targeting logical semantics. Crucially, qualitatively distinct ERP-profiles emerged for syntactic and conceptual semantic violations which we also tested here. We discuss how these findings may be linked to previous findings in the ERP literature. Apart from methodological recommendations, we suggest that the study of logical semantics may aid advancing our understanding of the underlying neurocognitive etiology of ERP components. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

SYNTAX, CONCEPTS, AND LOGIC IN THE TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION: EVIDENCE FROM EVENT RELATED POTENTIALS

PubMed Central

Steinhauer, Karsten; Drury, John E.; Portner, Paul; Walenski, Matthew; Ullman, Michael T.

2010-01-01

Logic has been intertwined with the study of language and meaning since antiquity, and such connections persist in present day research in linguistic theory (formal semantics) and cognitive psychology (e.g., studies of human reasoning). However, few studies in cognitive neuroscience have addressed logical dimensions of sentence-level language processing, and none have directly compared these aspects of processing with syntax and lexical/conceptual-semantics. We used ERPs to examine a violation paradigm involving “Negative Polarity Items” or NPIs (e.g., ever/any), which are sensitive to logical/truth-conditional properties of the environments in which they occur (e.g., presence/absence of negation in: John hasn’t ever been to Paris, versus: John has *ever been to Paris). Previous studies examining similar types of contrasts found a mix of effects on familiar ERP components (e.g., LAN, N400, P600). We argue that their experimental designs and/or analyses were incapable of separating which effects are connected to NPI-licensing violations proper. Our design enabled statistical analyses teasing apart genuine violation effects from independent effects tied solely to lexical/contextual factors. Here unlicensed NPIs elicited a late P600 followed in onset by a late left anterior negativity (or “L-LAN”), an ERP profile which has also appeared elsewhere in studies targeting logical semantics. Crucially, qualitatively distinct ERP-profiles emerged for syntactic and conceptual semantic violations which we also tested here. We discuss how these findings may be linked to previous findings in the ERP literature. Apart from methodological recommendations, we suggest that the study of logical semantics may aid advancing our understanding of the underlying neurocognitive etiology of ERP components. PMID:20138065

Movement Interferes with Visuospatial Working Memory during the Encoding: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Gunduz Can, Rumeysa; Schack, Thomas; Koester, Dirk

2017-01-01

The present study focuses on the functional interactions of cognition and manual action control. Particularly, we investigated the neurophysiological correlates of the dual-task costs of a manual-motor task (requiring grasping an object, holding it, and subsequently placing it on a target) for working memory (WM) domains (verbal and visuospatial) and processes (encoding and retrieval). Thirty participants were tested in a cognitive-motor dual-task paradigm, in which a single block (a verbal or visuospatial WM task) was compared with a dual block (concurrent performance of a WM task and a motor task). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were analyzed separately for the encoding and retrieval processes of verbal and visuospatial WM domains both in single and dual blocks. The behavioral analyses show that the motor task interfered with WM and decreased the memory performance. The performance decrease was larger for the visuospatial task compared with the verbal task, i.e., domain-specific memory costs were obtained. The ERP analyses show the domain-specific interference also at the neurophysiological level, which is further process-specific to encoding. That is, comparing the patterns of WM-related ERPs in the single block and dual block, we showed that visuospatial ERPs changed only for the encoding process when a motor task was performed at the same time. Generally, the present study provides evidence for domain- and process-specific interactions of a prepared manual-motor movement with WM (visuospatial domain during the encoding process). This study, therefore, provides an initial neurophysiological characterization of functional interactions of WM and manual actions in a cognitive-motor dual-task setting, and contributes to a better understanding of the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of motor action control. PMID:28611714

Influence of Second Language Proficiency and Syntactic Structure Similarities on the Sensitivity and Processing of English Passive Sentence in Late Chinese-English Bilinguists: An ERP Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Xin; Wang, Pei

2016-01-01

To investigate the influence of L2 proficiency and syntactic similarity on English passive sentence processing, the present ERP study asked 40 late Chinese-English bilinguals (27 females and 13 males, mean age = 23.88) with high or intermediate L2 proficiency to read the sentences carefully and to indicate for each sentence whether or not it was…

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.

Visual gate for brain-computer interfaces.

PubMed

Dias, N S; Jacinto, L R; Mendes, P M; Correia, J H

2009-01-01

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) based on event related potentials (ERP) have been successfully developed for applications like virtual spellers and navigation systems. This study tests the use of visual stimuli unbalanced in the subject's field of view to simultaneously cue mental imagery tasks (left vs. right hand movement) and detect subject attention. The responses to unbalanced cues were compared with the responses to balanced cues in terms of classification accuracy. Subject specific ERP spatial filters were calculated for optimal group separation. The unbalanced cues appear to enhance early ERPs related to cue visuospatial processing that improved the classification accuracy (as low as 6%) of ERPs in response to left vs. right cues soon (150-200 ms) after the cue presentation. This work suggests that such visual interface may be of interest in BCI applications as a gate mechanism for attention estimation and validation of control decisions.

Internal versus external features in triggering the brain waveforms for conjunction and feature faces in recognition.

PubMed

Nie, Aiqing; Jiang, Jingguo; Fu, Qiao

2014-08-20

Previous research has found that conjunction faces (whose internal features, e.g. eyes, nose, and mouth, and external features, e.g. hairstyle and ears, are from separate studied faces) and feature faces (partial features of these are studied) can produce higher false alarms than both old and new faces (i.e. those that are exactly the same as the studied faces and those that have not been previously presented) in recognition. The event-related potentials (ERPs) that relate to conjunction and feature faces at recognition, however, have not been described as yet; in addition, the contributions of different facial features toward ERPs have not been differentiated. To address these issues, the present study compared the ERPs elicited by old faces, conjunction faces (the internal and the external features were from two studied faces), old internal feature faces (whose internal features were studied), and old external feature faces (whose external features were studied) with those of new faces separately. The results showed that old faces not only elicited an early familiarity-related FN400, but a more anterior distributed late old/new effect that reflected recollection. Conjunction faces evoked similar late brain waveforms as old internal feature faces, but not to old external feature faces. These results suggest that, at recognition, old faces hold higher familiarity than compound faces in the profiles of ERPs and internal facial features are more crucial than external ones in triggering the brain waveforms that are characterized as reflecting the result of familiarity.

Individual differences in the recognition of facial expressions: an event-related potentials study.

PubMed

Tamamiya, Yoshiyuki; Hiraki, Kazuo

2013-01-01

Previous studies have shown that early posterior components of event-related potentials (ERPs) are modulated by facial expressions. The goal of the current study was to investigate individual differences in the recognition of facial expressions by examining the relationship between ERP components and the discrimination of facial expressions. Pictures of 3 facial expressions (angry, happy, and neutral) were presented to 36 young adults during ERP recording. Participants were asked to respond with a button press as soon as they recognized the expression depicted. A multiple regression analysis, where ERP components were set as predictor variables, assessed hits and reaction times in response to the facial expressions as dependent variables. The N170 amplitudes significantly predicted for accuracy of angry and happy expressions, and the N170 latencies were predictive for accuracy of neutral expressions. The P2 amplitudes significantly predicted reaction time. The P2 latencies significantly predicted reaction times only for neutral faces. These results suggest that individual differences in the recognition of facial expressions emerge from early components in visual processing.

Articulation Artifacts During Overt Language Production in Event-Related Brain Potentials: Description and Correction.

PubMed

Ouyang, Guang; Sommer, Werner; Zhou, Changsong; Aristei, Sabrina; Pinkpank, Thomas; Abdel Rahman, Rasha

2016-11-01

Overt articulation produces strong artifacts in the electroencephalogram and in event-related potentials (ERPs), posing a serious problem for investigating language production with these variables. Here we describe the properties of articulation-related artifacts and propose a novel correction procedure. Experiment 1 co-recorded ERPs and trajectories of the articulators with an electromagnetic articulograph from a single participant. The generalization of the findings from the single participant to standard picture naming was investigated in Experiment 2. Both experiments provided evidence that articulation-induced artifacts may start up to 300 ms or more prior to voice onset or voice key onset-depending on the specific measure; they are highly similar in topography across many different phoneme patterns and differ mainly in their time course and amplitude. ERPs were separated from articulation-related artifacts with residue iteration decomposition (RIDE). After obtaining the artifact-free ERPs, their correlations with the articulatory trajectories dropped near to zero. Artifact removal with independent component analysis was less successful; while correlations with the articulatory movements remained substantial, early components prior to voice onset were attenuated in reconstructed ERPs. These findings offer new insights into the nature of articulation artifacts; together with RIDE as method for artifact removal the present report offers a fresh perspective for ERP studies requiring overt articulation.

ERP Go/NoGo condition effects are better detected with separate PCAs.

PubMed

Barry, Robert J; De Blasio, Frances M; Fogarty, Jack S; Karamacoska, Diana

2016-08-01

We explored the separation of Go and NoGo effects in the ERP components elicited in an equiprobable Go/NoGo task, using different forms of temporal Principal Components Analysis (PCA). Following exploratory simulation studies assessing the PCA impact of latency jitter and between-condition latency differences in the P3 latency range, an empirical study compared results of a Combined PCA carried out using both Go and NoGo ERPs together as input, with those from two Separate PCAs carried out on the Go and NoGo ERPs separately. The simulation studies indicated that Separate PCAs provide adequate component recovery in the presence of P3 latency jitter, and that Combined PCAs provide good separation of components only when systematic condition-related latency differences are sufficiently large (here ~110ms). In the empirical data, broadly-similar components were obtained from the Combined and Separate PCAs, supporting previous findings from Combined PCA investigations, and the consequent interpretations of the sequential processing involved. However, the Separate PCAs generated latency differences for components in the Go and NoGo processing chains that better matched the late Go/NoGo ERP peaks, and produced better-defined and larger components that fitted the stages in a hypothetical processing schema developed for this paradigm. Overall, the Separate PCAs yielded a better partitioning of the ERP variance associated with the Go and NoGo conditions, and should be considered as the first choice in future investigations if systematic component or subcomponent latency differences are present or suspected. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neural correlates of performance monitoring in chronic cannabis users and cannabis-naïve controls

PubMed Central

Fridberg, Daniel J; Skosnik, Patrick D; Hetrick, William P; O’Donnell, Brian F

2014-01-01

Chronic cannabis use is associated with residual negative effects on measures of executive functioning. However, little previous work has focused specifically on executive processes involved in performance monitoring in frequent cannabis users. The present study investigated event-related potential (ERP) correlates of performance monitoring in chronic cannabis users. The error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe), ERPs sensitive to performance monitoring, were recorded from 30 frequent cannabis users (mean usage=5.52 days/week) and 32 cannabis-naïve control participants during a speeded stimulus discrimination task. The “oddball” P3 ERP was recorded as well. Users and controls did not differ on the amplitude or latency of the ERN; however, Pe amplitude was larger among users. Users also showed increased amplitude and reduced latency of the P3 in response to infrequent stimuli presented during the task. Among users, urinary cannabinoid metabolite levels at testing were unrelated to ERP outcomes. However, total years of cannabis use correlated negatively with P3 latency and positively with P3 amplitude, and age of first cannabis use correlated negatively with P3 amplitude. The results of this study suggest that chronic cannabis use is associated with alterations in neural activity related to the processing of motivationally-relevant stimuli (P3) and errors (Pe). PMID:23427191

Recording event-related activity under hostile magnetic resonance environment: Is multimodal EEG/ERP-MRI recording possible?

PubMed

Karakaş, H M; Karakaş, S; Ozkan Ceylan, A; Tali, E T

2009-08-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) have high temporal resolution, but insufficient spatial resolution; the converse is true for the functional imaging techniques. The purpose of the study was to test the utility of a multimodal EEG/ERP-MRI technique which combines electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for a simultaneously high temporal and spatial resolution. The sample consisted of 32 healthy young adults of both sexes. Auditory stimuli were delivered according to the active and passive oddball paradigms in the MRI environment (MRI-e) and in the standard conditions of the electrophysiology laboratory environment (Lab-e). Tasks were presented in a fixed order. Participants were exposed to the recording environments in a counterbalanced order. EEG data were preprocessed for MRI-related artifacts. Source localization was made using a current density reconstruction technique. The ERP waveforms for the MRI-e were morphologically similar to those for the Lab-e. The effect of the recording environment, experimental paradigm and electrode location were analyzed using a 2x2x3 analysis of variance for repeated measures. The ERP components in the two environments showed parametric variations and characteristic topographical distributions. The calculated sources were in line with the related literature. The findings indicated effortful cognitive processing in MRI-e. The study provided preliminary data on the feasibility of the multimodal EEG/ERP-MRI technique. It also indicated lines of research that are to be pursued for a decisive testing of this technique and its implementation to clinical practice.

Attention effects on the processing of task-relevant and task-irrelevant speech sounds and letters

PubMed Central

Mittag, Maria; Inauri, Karina; Huovilainen, Tatu; Leminen, Miika; Salo, Emma; Rinne, Teemu; Kujala, Teija; Alho, Kimmo

2013-01-01

We used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to study effects of selective attention on the processing of attended and unattended spoken syllables and letters. Participants were presented with syllables randomly occurring in the left or right ear and spoken by different voices and with a concurrent foveal stream of consonant letters written in darker or lighter fonts. During auditory phonological (AP) and non-phonological tasks, they responded to syllables in a designated ear starting with a vowel and spoken by female voices, respectively. These syllables occurred infrequently among standard syllables starting with a consonant and spoken by male voices. During visual phonological and non-phonological tasks, they responded to consonant letters with names starting with a vowel and to letters written in dark fonts, respectively. These letters occurred infrequently among standard letters with names starting with a consonant and written in light fonts. To examine genuine effects of attention and task on ERPs not overlapped by ERPs associated with target processing or deviance detection, these effects were studied only in ERPs to auditory and visual standards. During selective listening to syllables in a designated ear, ERPs to the attended syllables were negatively displaced during both phonological and non-phonological auditory tasks. Selective attention to letters elicited an early negative displacement and a subsequent positive displacement (Pd) of ERPs to attended letters being larger during the visual phonological than non-phonological task suggesting a higher demand for attention during the visual phonological task. Active suppression of unattended speech during the AP and non-phonological tasks and during the visual phonological tasks was suggested by a rejection positivity (RP) to unattended syllables. We also found evidence for suppression of the processing of task-irrelevant visual stimuli in visual ERPs during auditory tasks involving left-ear syllables. PMID:24348324

A novel EOG/EEG hybrid human-machine interface adopting eye movements and ERPs: application to robot control.

PubMed

Ma, Jiaxin; Zhang, Yu; Cichocki, Andrzej; Matsuno, Fumitoshi

2015-03-01

This study presents a novel human-machine interface (HMI) based on both electrooculography (EOG) and electroencephalography (EEG). This hybrid interface works in two modes: an EOG mode recognizes eye movements such as blinks, and an EEG mode detects event related potentials (ERPs) like P300. While both eye movements and ERPs have been separately used for implementing assistive interfaces, which help patients with motor disabilities in performing daily tasks, the proposed hybrid interface integrates them together. In this way, both the eye movements and ERPs complement each other. Therefore, it can provide a better efficiency and a wider scope of application. In this study, we design a threshold algorithm that can recognize four kinds of eye movements including blink, wink, gaze, and frown. In addition, an oddball paradigm with stimuli of inverted faces is used to evoke multiple ERP components including P300, N170, and VPP. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed system, two different online experiments are carried out. One is to control a multifunctional humanoid robot, and the other is to control four mobile robots. In both experiments, the subjects can complete tasks effectively by using the proposed interface, whereas the best completion time is relatively short and very close to the one operated by hand.

Differences in behavioural phenotype between parental deletion and maternal uniparental disomy in Prader-Willi syndrome: an ERP study.

PubMed

Stauder, Johannes E A; Boer, Harm; Gerits, Rolf H A; Tummers, Anke; Whittington, Joyce; Curfs, Leopold M G

2005-06-01

Paternal deletion and maternal uniparental disomy are the principal genetic subtypes associated with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). Recent clinical findings suggest differences in phenotype between these subtypes. The present experimental study addresses this issue using a cognitive psycho-physiological setup. Behaviour and event-related brain activity (ERP) was recorded by a continuous performance response inhibition task (CPT-AX) in adults with paternal deletion PWS (n=11), maternal uniparental disomy PWS (n=11) and normal controls (n=11). The dependent behavioural variables of the CPT-AX task were reaction time and correct scores. For the ERPs the N200 and P300 components were included which are related to early modality-specific inhibition and late general inhibition, respectively. The disomy group had fewer correct scores and increased reaction times as compared to the CPT-AX task than the control and deletion group. Both PWS subgroups differed significantly from the control group for the N200 amplitude. Only the control group showed the typical task modulation for the N200 amplitude. The amplitude of the P300 component was considerably smaller in the uniparental disomy group than in the deletion and control groups. The ERP results suggest that early modality specific inhibition is impaired in both PWS genetic subtypes. Late general inhibition is impaired in the uniparental disomy group only. Thus, although the ERP data suggests a common impairment in early visual inhibition processing, uniparental disomy and parental deletion genetic PWS subtypes clearly differ in their behavioural and brain activation phenotypes. The present study is the first experimental demonstration which explains the two principal genetic mechanisms that hinder the expression of the genes at 15q11-q13g in PWS result in different behavioural phenotype.

Prevalence and associated factors of early repolarization pattern in healthy young northeastern Thai men: A correlation study with Brugada electrocardiography

PubMed Central

Makarawate, Pattarapong; Chaosuwannakit, Narumol; Ruamcharoen, Yossavadee; Panthongviriyakul, Aunejit; Pongchaiyakul, Choowong; Tharaksa, Prapapan; Sripo, Temsiri; Sawanyawisuth, Kittisak

2015-01-01

Background Early repolarization pattern (ERP) is characterized by J-point elevation with QRS notching or slurring in the terminal portion of the QRS complex. It may be associated with sudden death. Brugada syndrome (BS) is a genetic and fatal disease commonly found in northeastern Thai men. Data on the rate and predictors of ERP in Asian populations are limited. In addition, the correlation between ERP and BS has never been studied in an endemic area of BS. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of ERP and its associated factors in young, healthy male Asian subjects. Methods Between June 2011 and May 2012, 282 young, healthy men aged 20–45 years were enrolled at check-up clinics in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Subjects were divided into the ERP and non-ERP groups. Results There were 29 subjects with ERP (10.3%). The Sokolow–Lyon index was an independent factor for ERP with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.090 (95% CI: 1.027, 1.159). The Brugada ECG pattern was found in 11 (37.9%) subjects in the ERP group. The Brugada ECG pattern (non-type 1) was commonly found in lateral ERP patients. After the placement of high intercostal leads, the Brugada ECG pattern was dramatically increased compared with results obtained during standard ECG lead placement. Conclusions The ERP rate in young, healthy men from northeastern Thailand was 10.3%. A higher Sokolow–Lyon index was the only independent factor associated with ERP. Subjects with ERP should be examined with high intercostal leads to uncover Brugada ECG. PMID:26336562

Effects of facial attractiveness on personality stimuli in an implicit priming task: an ERP study.

PubMed

Zhang, Yan; Zheng, Minxiao; Wang, Xiaoying

2016-08-01

Using event-related potentials (ERPs) in a priming paradigm, this study examines implicit priming in the association of personality words with facial attractiveness. A total of 16 participants (8 males and 8 females; age range, 19-24 years; mean age, 21.30 years) were asked to judge the color (red and green) of positive or negative personality words after exposure to priming stimuli (attractive and unattractive facial images). The positive personality words primed by attractive faces or the negative personality words primed by unattractive faces were defined as congruent trials, whereas the positive personality words primed by unattractive faces or the negative personality words primed by attractive faces were defined as incongruent trials. Behavioral results showed that compared with the unattractive faces trials, the trials that attractive faces being the priming stimuli had longer reaction times and higher accuracy rates. Moreover, a more negative ERP deflection (N2) component was observed in the ERPs of the incongruent condition than in the ERPs of the congruent condition. In addition, the personality words presented after the attractive faces elicited larger amplitudes from the frontal region to the central region (P2 and P350-550 ms) compared with the personality words after unattractive faces as priming stimuli. The study provides evidence for the facial attractiveness stereotype ('What is beautiful is good') through an implicit priming task.

Dysfunctional information processing in individuals with acute exposure to sexual abuse: An ERP study.

PubMed

Han, Changwoo; Park, Minkyung; Lee, Jun-Young; Jung, Hee Yeon; Park, Su Mi; Choi, Jung-Seok

2018-06-01

Acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may occur after traumatic event and also cause significant life time impairment. P300 event-related potential (ERP) is a potential biological marker for PTSD and can reflect cognitive impairment in information processing and attention. Despite the usefulness of ERP, there are few attempts to reveal relationships between ASD and P300. In the present study, we aimed to determine if the P300 of the patients who were the victims of sexual abuse reflected the quantitative trait of ASD or if P300 is applicable as a state marker for predicting the risk of PTSD.Fifteen female victims of sexual abuse diagnosed with ASD and 18 healthy controls (HCs) without trauma exposure participated in this study. We investigated the P300 ERPs in patients with ASD to compare them with those of HCs. ERPs were acquired from female adults during an auditory oddball task. Between-group differences in amplitudes or latencies of P300 were investigated using repeated-measures analysis of variance.The ASD groups showed reduced P300 amplitudes at the midline centroparietal site as well as reduced accuracy rates during an auditory oddball task compared with the HCs.These results indicate that ASD have abnormalities in the P300 compared to those in HCs. Moreover, the reduction in P300 could be considered a candidate neurophysiological marker for ASD.

Cannabis with high δ9-THC contents affects perception and visual selective attention acutely: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Böcker, K B E; Gerritsen, J; Hunault, C C; Kruidenier, M; Mensinga, Tj T; Kenemans, J L

2010-07-01

Cannabis intake has been reported to affect cognitive functions such as selective attention. This study addressed the effects of exposure to cannabis with up to 69.4mg Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) recorded during a visual selective attention task. Twenty-four participants smoked cannabis cigarettes with four doses of THC on four test days in a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. Two hours after THC exposure the participants performed a visual selective attention task and concomitant ERPs were recorded. Accuracy decreased linearly and reaction times increased linearly with THC dose. However, performance measures and most of the ERP components related specifically to selective attention did not show significant dose effects. Only in relatively light cannabis users the Occipital Selection Negativity decreased linearly with dose. Furthermore, ERP components reflecting perceptual processing, as well as the P300 component, decreased in amplitude after THC exposure. Only the former effect showed a linear dose-response relation. The decrements in performance and ERP amplitudes induced by exposure to cannabis with high THC content resulted from a non-selective decrease in attentional or processing resources. Performance requiring attentional resources, such as vehicle control, may be compromised several hours after smoking cannabis cigarettes containing high doses of THC, as presently available in Europe and Northern America. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for Implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems in Various Industries, Including Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Debrosse-Bruno, Marie Michael

2017-01-01

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems present a management problem for various industries including institutions of higher education (IHEs) because they are costly to acquire, challenging to implement, and often fail to meet anticipated expectations. ERP systems are highly complex due to the nature of the operations they support. This…

Validation of the Emotiv EPOC® EEG gaming system for measuring research quality auditory ERPs

PubMed Central

Mousikou, Petroula; Mahajan, Yatin; de Lissa, Peter; Thie, Johnson; McArthur, Genevieve

2013-01-01

Background. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) have proved useful in investigating the role of auditory processing in cognitive disorders such as developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment (SLI), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and autism. However, laboratory recordings of auditory ERPs can be lengthy, uncomfortable, or threatening for some participants – particularly children. Recently, a commercial gaming electroencephalography (EEG) system has been developed that is portable, inexpensive, and easy to set up. In this study we tested if auditory ERPs measured using a gaming EEG system (Emotiv EPOC®, www.emotiv.com) were equivalent to those measured by a widely-used, laboratory-based, research EEG system (Neuroscan). Methods. We simultaneously recorded EEGs with the research and gaming EEG systems, whilst presenting 21 adults with 566 standard (1000 Hz) and 100 deviant (1200 Hz) tones under passive (non-attended) and active (attended) conditions. The onset of each tone was marked in the EEGs using a parallel port pulse (Neuroscan) or a stimulus-generated electrical pulse injected into the O1 and O2 channels (Emotiv EPOC®). These markers were used to calculate research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, and P3 peaks) and the mismatch negativity (MMN) in active and passive listening conditions for each participant. Results. Analyses were restricted to frontal sites as these are most commonly reported in auditory ERP research. Intra-class correlations (ICCs) indicated that the morphology of the research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERP waveforms were similar across all participants, but that the research and gaming EEG system MMN waveforms were only similar for participants with non-noisy MMN waveforms (N = 11 out of 21). Peak amplitude and latency measures revealed no significant differences between the size or the timing of the auditory P1, N1, P2, N2, P3, and MMN peaks. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that the gaming EEG system may prove a valid alternative to laboratory ERP systems for recording reliable late auditory ERPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, and the P3) over the frontal cortices. In the future, the gaming EEG system may also prove useful for measuring less reliable ERPs, such as the MMN, if the reliability of such ERPs can be boosted to the same level as late auditory ERPs. PMID:23638374

Validation of the Emotiv EPOC(®) EEG gaming system for measuring research quality auditory ERPs.

PubMed

Badcock, Nicholas A; Mousikou, Petroula; Mahajan, Yatin; de Lissa, Peter; Thie, Johnson; McArthur, Genevieve

2013-01-01

Background. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) have proved useful in investigating the role of auditory processing in cognitive disorders such as developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment (SLI), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and autism. However, laboratory recordings of auditory ERPs can be lengthy, uncomfortable, or threatening for some participants - particularly children. Recently, a commercial gaming electroencephalography (EEG) system has been developed that is portable, inexpensive, and easy to set up. In this study we tested if auditory ERPs measured using a gaming EEG system (Emotiv EPOC(®), www.emotiv.com) were equivalent to those measured by a widely-used, laboratory-based, research EEG system (Neuroscan). Methods. We simultaneously recorded EEGs with the research and gaming EEG systems, whilst presenting 21 adults with 566 standard (1000 Hz) and 100 deviant (1200 Hz) tones under passive (non-attended) and active (attended) conditions. The onset of each tone was marked in the EEGs using a parallel port pulse (Neuroscan) or a stimulus-generated electrical pulse injected into the O1 and O2 channels (Emotiv EPOC(®)). These markers were used to calculate research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, and P3 peaks) and the mismatch negativity (MMN) in active and passive listening conditions for each participant. Results. Analyses were restricted to frontal sites as these are most commonly reported in auditory ERP research. Intra-class correlations (ICCs) indicated that the morphology of the research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERP waveforms were similar across all participants, but that the research and gaming EEG system MMN waveforms were only similar for participants with non-noisy MMN waveforms (N = 11 out of 21). Peak amplitude and latency measures revealed no significant differences between the size or the timing of the auditory P1, N1, P2, N2, P3, and MMN peaks. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that the gaming EEG system may prove a valid alternative to laboratory ERP systems for recording reliable late auditory ERPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, and the P3) over the frontal cortices. In the future, the gaming EEG system may also prove useful for measuring less reliable ERPs, such as the MMN, if the reliability of such ERPs can be boosted to the same level as late auditory ERPs.

Functional Role of the Disulfide Isomerase ERp57 in Axonal Regeneration.

PubMed

Castillo, Valentina; Oñate, Maritza; Woehlbier, Ute; Rozas, Pablo; Andreu, Catherine; Medinas, Danilo; Valdés, Pamela; Osorio, Fabiola; Mercado, Gabriela; Vidal, René L; Kerr, Bredford; Court, Felipe A; Hetz, Claudio

2015-01-01

ERp57 (also known as grp58 and PDIA3) is a protein disulfide isomerase that catalyzes disulfide bonds formation of glycoproteins as part of the calnexin and calreticulin cycle. ERp57 is markedly upregulated in most common neurodegenerative diseases downstream of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response. Despite accumulating correlative evidence supporting a neuroprotective role of ERp57, the contribution of this foldase to the physiology of the nervous system remains unknown. Here we developed a transgenic mouse model that overexpresses ERp57 in the nervous system under the control of the prion promoter. We analyzed the susceptibility of ERp57 transgenic mice to undergo neurodegeneration. Unexpectedly, ERp57 overexpression did not affect dopaminergic neuron loss and striatal denervation after injection of a Parkinson's disease-inducing neurotoxin. In sharp contrast, ERp57 transgenic animals presented enhanced locomotor recovery after mechanical injury to the sciatic nerve. These protective effects were associated with enhanced myelin removal, macrophage infiltration and axonal regeneration. Our results suggest that ERp57 specifically contributes to peripheral nerve regeneration, whereas its activity is dispensable for the survival of a specific neuronal population of the central nervous system. These results demonstrate for the first time a functional role of a component of the ER proteostasis network in peripheral nerve regeneration.

An Efficient ERP-Based Brain-Computer Interface Using Random Set Presentation and Face Familiarity

PubMed Central

Müller, Klaus-Robert; Lee, Seong-Whan

2014-01-01

Event-related potential (ERP)-based P300 spellers are commonly used in the field of brain-computer interfaces as an alternative channel of communication for people with severe neuro-muscular diseases. This study introduces a novel P300 based brain-computer interface (BCI) stimulus paradigm using a random set presentation pattern and exploiting the effects of face familiarity. The effect of face familiarity is widely studied in the cognitive neurosciences and has recently been addressed for the purpose of BCI. In this study we compare P300-based BCI performances of a conventional row-column (RC)-based paradigm with our approach that combines a random set presentation paradigm with (non-) self-face stimuli. Our experimental results indicate stronger deflections of the ERPs in response to face stimuli, which are further enhanced when using the self-face images, and thereby improving P300-based spelling performance. This lead to a significant reduction of stimulus sequences required for correct character classification. These findings demonstrate a promising new approach for improving the speed and thus fluency of BCI-enhanced communication with the widely used P300-based BCI setup. PMID:25384045

An efficient ERP-based brain-computer interface using random set presentation and face familiarity.

PubMed

Yeom, Seul-Ki; Fazli, Siamac; Müller, Klaus-Robert; Lee, Seong-Whan

2014-01-01

Event-related potential (ERP)-based P300 spellers are commonly used in the field of brain-computer interfaces as an alternative channel of communication for people with severe neuro-muscular diseases. This study introduces a novel P300 based brain-computer interface (BCI) stimulus paradigm using a random set presentation pattern and exploiting the effects of face familiarity. The effect of face familiarity is widely studied in the cognitive neurosciences and has recently been addressed for the purpose of BCI. In this study we compare P300-based BCI performances of a conventional row-column (RC)-based paradigm with our approach that combines a random set presentation paradigm with (non-) self-face stimuli. Our experimental results indicate stronger deflections of the ERPs in response to face stimuli, which are further enhanced when using the self-face images, and thereby improving P300-based spelling performance. This lead to a significant reduction of stimulus sequences required for correct character classification. These findings demonstrate a promising new approach for improving the speed and thus fluency of BCI-enhanced communication with the widely used P300-based BCI setup.

Mothers' multimodal information processing is modulated by multimodal interactions with their infants.

PubMed

Tanaka, Yukari; Fukushima, Hirokata; Okanoya, Kazuo; Myowa-Yamakoshi, Masako

2014-10-17

Social learning in infancy is known to be facilitated by multimodal (e.g., visual, tactile, and verbal) cues provided by caregivers. In parallel with infants' development, recent research has revealed that maternal neural activity is altered through interaction with infants, for instance, to be sensitive to infant-directed speech (IDS). The present study investigated the effect of mother- infant multimodal interaction on maternal neural activity. Event-related potentials (ERPs) of mothers were compared to non-mothers during perception of tactile-related words primed by tactile cues. Only mothers showed ERP modulation when tactile cues were incongruent with the subsequent words, and only when the words were delivered with IDS prosody. Furthermore, the frequency of mothers' use of those words was correlated with the magnitude of ERP differentiation between congruent and incongruent stimuli presentations. These results suggest that mother-infant daily interactions enhance multimodal integration of the maternal brain in parenting contexts.

Mothers' multimodal information processing is modulated by multimodal interactions with their infants

PubMed Central

Tanaka, Yukari; Fukushima, Hirokata; Okanoya, Kazuo; Myowa-Yamakoshi, Masako

2014-01-01

Social learning in infancy is known to be facilitated by multimodal (e.g., visual, tactile, and verbal) cues provided by caregivers. In parallel with infants' development, recent research has revealed that maternal neural activity is altered through interaction with infants, for instance, to be sensitive to infant-directed speech (IDS). The present study investigated the effect of mother- infant multimodal interaction on maternal neural activity. Event-related potentials (ERPs) of mothers were compared to non-mothers during perception of tactile-related words primed by tactile cues. Only mothers showed ERP modulation when tactile cues were incongruent with the subsequent words, and only when the words were delivered with IDS prosody. Furthermore, the frequency of mothers' use of those words was correlated with the magnitude of ERP differentiation between congruent and incongruent stimuli presentations. These results suggest that mother-infant daily interactions enhance multimodal integration of the maternal brain in parenting contexts. PMID:25322936

ERP implementation in rural health care.

PubMed

Trimmer, Kenneth J; Pumphrey, Lela D; Wiggins, Carla

2002-01-01

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems provide organizations with the opportunity to integrate individual, functionally-oriented information systems. Although much of the focus in the popular press has been placed on ERP systems in large for-profit organizations, small hospitals and clinics are candidates for ERP systems. Focusing information systems on critical success factors (CSFs) allows the organization to address a limited number of areas associated with performance. This limited number of factors can provide management with an insight into dimensions of information that must be addressed by a system. Focuses on CSFs for small health-care organizations. In addition, also considers factors critical to the implementation of health-care information systems. Presents two cases. The results indicate support for the continuing use of CSFs to help focus on the benefits of ERPs. Focusing on groups of tangible and intangible benefits can also assist the rural health-care organization in the use of ERPs.

Two stages of directed forgetting: Electrophysiological evidence from a short-term memory task.

PubMed

Gao, Heming; Cao, Bihua; Qi, Mingming; Wang, Jing; Zhang, Qi; Li, Fuhong

2016-06-01

In this study, a short-term memory test was used to investigate the temporal course and neural mechanism of directed forgetting under different memory loads. Within each trial, two memory items with high or low load were presented sequentially, followed by a cue indicating whether the presented items should be remembered. After an interval, subjects were asked to respond to the probe stimuli. The ERPs locked to the cues showed that (a) the effect of cue type was initially observed during the P2 (160-240 ms) time window, with more positive ERPs for remembering relative to forgetting cues; (b) load effects were observed during the N2-P3 (250-500 ms) time window, with more positive ERPs for the high-load than low-load condition; (c) the cue effect was also observed during the N2-P3 time window, with more negative ERPs for forgetting versus remembering cues. These results demonstrated that directed forgetting involves two stages: task-relevance identification and information discarding. The cue effects during the N2 epoch supported the view that directed forgetting is an active process. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Exploring potential social influences on brain potentials during anticipation of tactile stimulation.

PubMed

Shen, Guannan; Saby, Joni N; Drew, Ashley R; Marshall, Peter J

2017-03-15

This study explored interpersonal influences on electrophysiological responses during the anticipation of tactile stimulation. It is well-known that broad, negative-going potentials are present in the event-related potential (ERP) between a forewarning cue and a tactile stimulus. It has also been shown that the alpha-range mu rhythm shows a lateralized desynchronization over central electrode sites during anticipation of tactile stimulation of the hand. The current study used a tactile discrimination task in which a visual cue signaled that an upcoming stimulus would either be delivered 1500ms later to the participant's hand, to a task partner's hand, or to neither person. For the condition in which participants anticipated the tactile stimulation to their own hand, a negative potential (contingent negative variation, CNV) was observed in the ERP at central sites in the 1000ms prior to the tactile stimulus. Significant mu rhythm desynchronization was also present in the same time window. The magnitudes of the ERPs and of the mu desynchronization were greater in the contralateral than in the ipsilateral hemisphere prior to right hand stimulation. Similar ERP and EEG changes were not present when the visual cue indicated that stimulation would be delivered to the task partner or to neither person. The absence of social influences during anticipation of tactile stimulation, and the relationship between the two brain signatures of anticipatory attention (CNV and mu rhythm) are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

From episodic to habitual prospective memory: ERP-evidence for a linear transition

PubMed Central

Meier, Beat; Matter, Sibylle; Baumann, Brigitta; Walter, Stefan; Koenig, Thomas

2014-01-01

Performing a prospective memory task repeatedly changes the nature of the task from episodic to habitual. The goal of the present study was to investigate the neural basis of this transition. In two experiments, we contrasted event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by correct responses to prospective memory targets in the first, more episodic part of the experiment with those of the second, more habitual part of the experiment. Specifically, we tested whether the early, middle, or late ERP-components, which are thought to reflect cue detection, retrieval of the intention, and post-retrieval processes, respectively, would be changed by routinely performing the prospective memory task. The results showed a differential ERP effect in the middle time window (450–650 ms post-stimulus). Source localization using low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography analysis suggests that the transition was accompanied by an increase of activation in the posterior parietal and occipital cortex. These findings indicate that habitual prospective memory involves retrieval processes guided more strongly by parietal brain structures. In brief, the study demonstrates that episodic and habitual prospective memory tasks recruit different brain areas. PMID:25071519

Cardiovascular fitness and executive control during task-switching: an ERP study.

PubMed

Scisco, Jenna L; Leynes, P Andrew; Kang, Jie

2008-07-01

Cardiovascular fitness recently has been linked to executive control function in older adults. The present study examined the relationship between cardiovascular fitness and executive control in young adults using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants completed a two-part experiment. In part one, a graded exercise test (GXT) was administered using a cycle ergometer to obtain VO(2)max, a measure of maximal oxygen uptake. High-fit participants had VO(2)max measures at or above the 70th percentile based on age and sex, and low-fit participants had VO(2)max measures at or below the 30th percentile. In part two, a task-switching paradigm was used to investigate executive control. Task-switching trials produced slower response times and greater amplitude for both the P3a and P3b components of the ERP relative to a non-switch trial block. No ERP components varied as a function of fitness group. These findings, combined with results from previous research, suggest that the relationship between greater cardiovascular fitness and better cognitive function emerges after early adulthood.

Attention that covers letters is necessary for the left-lateralization of an early print-tuned ERP in Japanese hiragana.

PubMed

Okumura, Yasuko; Kasai, Tetsuko; Murohashi, Harumitsu

2015-03-01

Extensive experience with reading develops expertise in acquiring information from print, and this is reflected in specific enhancement of the left-lateralized N170 component in event-related potentials. The N170 is generally considered to reflect visual/orthographic processing; while modulations of its left-lateralization related to phonological processes have also been indicated. However, in our previous study, N170-like response to Hiragana strings lacked left-lateralization when the stimuli were completely task-irrelevant in rapid-presentation sequences [Okumura et al. (2014). Early print-tuned ERP response with minimal involvement of linguistic processing in Japanese Hiragana strings. Neuroreport 25, 410-414]. This suggests that, despite the highly transparent character-to-syllable correspondence, the phonological mapping of Hiragana strings requires some kind of attention toward print. To verify this notion, the present study examined ERPs under the same experimental condition as in the previous study, except that the task required attention to a stimulus attribute (i.e., color). As a result, Hiragana words and nonwords elicited left-lateralized negative deflection in the occipito-temporal region during 130-170ms post-stimulus in comparison to symbol strings, but only when the print had a narrow intercharacter spacing. Moreover, we observed the enhancement of very early occipital ERP in response to words during 70-100ms. The present results suggest that visual attention plays a role in early print processing, which may contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie expert as well as impaired reading. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interaction of Erp Protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with Rv2212 Enhances Intracellular Survival of Mycobacterium smegmatis.

PubMed

Ganaie, Arsheed Ahmad; Trivedi, Garima; Kaur, Amanpreet; Jha, Sidharth Shankar; Anand, Shashi; Rana, Vibhuti; Singh, Amit; Kumar, Shekhar; Sharma, Charu

2016-10-15

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis exported repetitive protein (RvErp) is a crucial virulence-associated factor as determined by its role in the survival and multiplication of mycobacteria in cultured macrophages and in vivo Although attempts have been made to understand the function of Erp protein, its exact role in Mycobacterium pathogenesis is still elusive. One way to determine this is by searching for novel interactions of RvErp. Using a yeast two-hybrid assay, an adenylyl cyclase (AC), Rv2212, was found to interact with RvErp. The interaction between RvErp and Rv2212 is direct and occurs at the endogenous level. The Erp protein of Mycobacterium smegmatis (MSMEG_6405, or MsErp) interacts neither with Rv2212 nor with Ms_4279, the M. smegmatis homologue of Rv2212. Deletion mutants of Rv2212 revealed its adenylyl cyclase domain to be responsible for the interaction. RvErp enhances Rv2212-mediated cyclic AMP (cAMP) production. Also, the biological significance of the interaction between RvErp and Rv2212 was demonstrated by the enhanced survival of M. smegmatis within THP-1 macrophages. Taken together, these studies address a novel mechanism by which Erp executes its function. RvErp is one of the important virulence factors of M. tuberculosis This study describes a novel function of RvErp protein of M. tuberculosis by identifying Rv2212 as its interacting protein. Rv2212 is an adenylyl cyclase (AC) and produces cAMP, one of the prime second messengers that regulate the intracellular survival of mycobacteria. Therefore, the significance of investigating novel interactions of RvErp is paramount in unraveling the mechanisms governing the intracellular survival of mycobacteria. Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Alphabet Soup: ERP, CT, and ACT for OCD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tolin, David F.

2009-01-01

The present article comments on the case conference presented in this issue, namely, Himle and Franklin's (Himle & Franklin, 2009) exposure and response prevention (ERP); Chosak and colleagues' (Chosak, Marques, Fama, Renaud, & Wilhelm, 2009) cognitive therapy (CT); and (Twohig, 2009) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Two questions are…

Polygenic pleiotropy and potential causal relationships between educational attainment, neurobiological profile, and positive psychotic symptoms.

PubMed

Lin, Yen-Feng; Chen, Chia-Yen; Öngür, Dost; Betensky, Rebecca; Smoller, Jordan W; Blacker, Deborah; Hall, Mei-Hua

2018-05-16

Event-related potential (ERP) components have been used to assess cognitive functions in patients with psychotic illness. Evidence suggests that among patients with psychosis there is a distinct heritable neurophysiologic phenotypic subtype captured by impairments across a range of ERP measures. In this study, we investigated the genetic basis of this "globally impaired" ERP cluster and its relationship to psychosis and cognitive abilities. We applied K-means clustering to six ERP measures to re-derive the globally impaired (n = 60) and the non-globally impaired ERP clusters (n = 323) in a sample of cases with schizophrenia (SCZ = 136) or bipolar disorder (BPD = 121) and healthy controls (n = 126). We used genome-wide association study (GWAS) results for SCZ, BPD, college completion, and childhood intelligence as the discovery datasets to derive polygenic risk scores (PRS) in our study sample and tested their associations with globally impaired ERP. We conducted mediation analyses to estimate the proportion of each PRS effect on severity of psychotic symptoms that is mediated through membership in the globally impaired ERP. Individuals with globally impaired ERP had significantly higher PANSS-positive scores (β = 3.95, P = 0.005). The SCZ-PRS was nominally associated with globally impaired ERP (unadjusted P = 0.01; R 2  = 3.07%). We also found a significant positive association between the college-PRS and globally impaired ERP (FDR-corrected P = 0.004; R 2  = 6.15%). The effect of college-PRS on PANSS positivity was almost entirely (97.1%) mediated through globally impaired ERP. These results suggest that the globally impaired ERP phenotype may represent some aspects of brain physiology on the path between genetic influences on educational attainment and psychotic symptoms.

Event-related-potential low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (ERP-LORETA) suggests decreased energetic resources for cognitive processing in narcolepsy.

PubMed

Saletu, Michael; Anderer, Peter; Saletu-Zyhlarz, Gerda Maria; Mandl, Magdalena; Zeitlhofer, Josef; Saletu, Bernd

2008-08-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are sensitive measures of both perceptual and cognitive processes. The aim of the present study was to identify brain regions involved in the processes of cognitive dysfunction in narcolepsy by means of ERP tomography. In 17 drug-free patients with narcolepsy and 17 controls, ERPs were recorded (auditory odd-ball paradigm). Latencies, amplitudes and LORETA sources were determined for standard (N1 and P2) and target (N2 and P300) ERP components. Psychometry included measures of mental performance, affect and critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF). In the ERPs patients demonstrated delayed cognitive N2 and P300 components and reduced amplitudes in midline regions, while N1 and P2 components did not differ from controls. LORETA suggested reduced P300 sources bilaterally in the precuneus, the anterior and posterior cingulate gyri, the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the parahippocampal gyrus. In psychometry, patients demonstrated deteriorated mood, increased trait anxiety, decreased CFF and a trend toward reduced general verbal memory and psychomotor activity. Narcoleptic patients showed prolonged information processing, as indexed by N2 and P300 latencies and decreased energetic resources for cognitive processing. Electrophysiological aberrations in brain areas related to the 'executive attention network' and the 'limbic system' may contribute to a deterioration in mental performance and mood at the behavioral level.

Latency correction of event-related potentials between different experimental protocols

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iturrate, I.; Chavarriaga, R.; Montesano, L.; Minguez, J.; Millán, JdR

2014-06-01

Objective. A fundamental issue in EEG event-related potentials (ERPs) studies is the amount of data required to have an accurate ERP model. This also impacts the time required to train a classifier for a brain-computer interface (BCI). This issue is mainly due to the poor signal-to-noise ratio and the large fluctuations of the EEG caused by several sources of variability. One of these sources is directly related to the experimental protocol or application designed, and may affect the amplitude or latency of ERPs. This usually prevents BCI classifiers from generalizing among different experimental protocols. In this paper, we analyze the effect of the amplitude and the latency variations among different experimental protocols based on the same type of ERP. Approach. We present a method to analyze and compensate for the latency variations in BCI applications. The algorithm has been tested on two widely used ERPs (P300 and observation error potentials), in three experimental protocols in each case. We report the ERP analysis and single-trial classification. Main results. The results obtained show that the designed experimental protocols significantly affect the latency of the recorded potentials but not the amplitudes. Significance. These results show how the use of latency-corrected data can be used to generalize the BCIs, reducing the calibration time when facing a new experimental protocol.

Selective attention and the "Asynchrony Theory" in native Hebrew-speaking adult dyslexics: Behavioral and ERPs measures.

PubMed

Menashe, Shay

2017-01-01

The main aim of the present study was to determine whether adult dyslexic readers demonstrate the "Asynchrony Theory" (Breznitz [Reading Fluency: Synchronization of Processes, Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, Mahwah, NJ, USA, 2006]) when selective attention is studied. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral parameters were collected from nonimpaired readers group and dyslexic readers group performing alphabetic and nonalphabetic tasks. The dyslexic readers group was found to demonstrate asynchrony between the auditory and the visual modalities when it came to processing alphabetic stimuli. These findings were found both for behavioral and ERPs parameters. Unlike the dyslexic readers, the nonimpaired readers showed synchronized speed of processing in the auditory and the visual modalities while processing alphabetic stimuli. The current study suggests that established reading is dependent on a synchronization between the auditory and the visual modalities even when it comes to selective attention.

An empirical identification and categorisation of training best practices for ERP implementation projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Esteves, Jose Manuel

2014-11-01

Although training is one of the most cited critical success factors in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems implementations, few empirical studies have attempted to examine the characteristics of management of the training process within ERP implementation projects. Based on the data gathered from a sample of 158 respondents across four stakeholder groups involved in ERP implementation projects, and using a mixed method design, we have assembled a derived set of training best practices. Results suggest that the categorised list of ERP training best practices can be used to better understand training activities in ERP implementation projects. Furthermore, the results reveal that the company size and location have an impact on the relevance of training best practices. This empirical study also highlights the need to investigate the role of informal workplace trainers in ERP training activities.

Effects of people-centred factors on enterprise resource planning implementation project success: empirical evidence from Sri Lanka

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wickramasinghe, Vathsala; Gunawardena, Vathsala

2010-08-01

Extant literature suggests people-centred factors as one of the major areas influencing enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation project success. Yet, to date, few empirical studies attempted to validate the link between people-centred factors and ERP implementation project success. The purpose of this study is to empirically identify people-centred factors that are critical to ERP implementation projects in Sri Lanka. The study develops and empirically validates a framework for people-centred factors that influence the success of ERP implementation projects. Survey research methodology was used and collected data from 74 ERP implementation projects in Sri Lanka. The people-centred factors of 'project team competence', 'rewards' and 'communication and change' were found to predict significantly the ERP implementation project success.

Action-related auditory ERP attenuation: Paradigms and hypotheses.

PubMed

Horváth, János

2015-11-11

A number studies have shown that the auditory N1 event-related potential (ERP) is attenuated when elicited by self-induced or self-generated sounds. Because N1 is a correlate of auditory feature- and event-detection, it was generally assumed that N1-attenuation reflected the cancellation of auditory re-afference, enabled by the internal forward modeling of the predictable sensory consequences of the given action. Focusing on paradigms utilizing non-speech actions, the present review summarizes recent progress on action-related auditory attenuation. Following a critical analysis of the most widely used, contingent paradigm, two further hypotheses on the possible causes of action-related auditory ERP attenuation are presented. The attention hypotheses suggest that auditory ERP attenuation is brought about by a temporary division of attention between the action and the auditory stimulation. The pre-activation hypothesis suggests that the attenuation is caused by the activation of a sensory template during the initiation of the action, which interferes with the incoming stimulation. Although each hypothesis can account for a number of findings, none of them can accommodate the whole spectrum of results. It is suggested that a better understanding of auditory ERP attenuation phenomena could be achieved by systematic investigations of the types of actions, the degree of action-effect contingency, and the temporal characteristics of action-effect contingency representation-buildup and -deactivation. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Prediction and Attention. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

ERP Reliability Analysis (ERA) Toolbox: An open-source toolbox for analyzing the reliability of event-related brain potentials.

PubMed

Clayson, Peter E; Miller, Gregory A

2017-01-01

Generalizability theory (G theory) provides a flexible, multifaceted approach to estimating score reliability. G theory's approach to estimating score reliability has important advantages over classical test theory that are relevant for research using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). For example, G theory does not require parallel forms (i.e., equal means, variances, and covariances), can handle unbalanced designs, and provides a single reliability estimate for designs with multiple sources of error. This monograph provides a detailed description of the conceptual framework of G theory using examples relevant to ERP researchers, presents the algorithms needed to estimate ERP score reliability, and provides a detailed walkthrough of newly-developed software, the ERP Reliability Analysis (ERA) Toolbox, that calculates score reliability using G theory. The ERA Toolbox is open-source, Matlab software that uses G theory to estimate the contribution of the number of trials retained for averaging, group, and/or event types on ERP score reliability. The toolbox facilitates the rigorous evaluation of psychometric properties of ERP scores recommended elsewhere in this special issue. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

How stimulation speed affects Event-Related Potentials and BCI performance.

PubMed

Höhne, Johannes; Tangermann, Michael

2012-01-01

In most paradigms for Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) that are based on Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), stimuli are presented with a pre-defined and constant speed. In order to boost BCI performance by optimizing the parameters of stimulation, this offline study investigates the impact of the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) on ERPs and the resulting classification accuracy. The SOA is defined as the time between the onsets of two consecutive stimuli, which represents a measure for stimulation speed. A simple auditory oddball paradigm was tested in 14 SOA conditions with a SOA between 50 ms and 1000 ms. Based on an offline ERP analysis, the BCI performance (quantified by the Information Transfer Rate, ITR in bits/min) was simulated. A great variability in the simulated BCI performance was observed within subjects (N=11). This indicates a potential increase in BCI performance (≥ 1.6 bits/min) for ERP-based paradigms, if the stimulation speed is specified for each user individually.

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) in Second Language Research: A Brief Introduction to the Technique, a Selected Review, and an Invitation to Reconsider Critical Periods in L2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steinhauer, Karsten

2014-01-01

This article provides a selective overview of recent event-related brain potential (ERP) studies in L2 morpho-syntax, demonstrating that the ERP evidence supporting the critical period hypothesis (CPH) may be less compelling than previously thought. The article starts with a general introduction to ERP methodology and language-related ERP profiles…

The relation between race-related implicit associations and scalp-recorded neural activity evoked by faces from different races.

PubMed

He, Yi; Johnson, Marcia K; Dovidio, John F; McCarthy, Gregory

2009-01-01

The neural correlates of the perception of faces from different races were investigated. White participants performed a gender identification task in which Asian, Black, and White faces were presented while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Participants also completed an implicit association task for Black (IAT-Black) and Asian (IAT-Asian) faces. ERPs evoked by Black and White faces differed, with Black faces evoking a larger positive ERP that peaked at 168 ms over the frontal scalp, and White faces evoking a larger negative ERP that peaked at 244 ms. These Black/White ERP differences significantly correlated with participants' scores on the IAT-Black. ERPs also differentiated White from Asian faces and a significant correlation was obtained between the White-Asian ERP difference waves at approximately 500 ms and the IAT-Asian. A positive ERP at 116 ms over occipital scalp differentiated all three races, but was not correlated with either IAT. In addition, a late positive component (around 592 ms) was greater for the same race compared to either other race faces, suggesting potentially more extended or deeper processing of the same race faces. Taken together, the ERP/IAT correlations observed for both other races indicate the influence of a race-sensitive evaluative process that may include early more automatic and/or implicit processes and relatively later more controlled processes.

The Relation between Race-related Implicit Associations and Scalp-recorded Neural Activity Evoked by Faces from Different Races

PubMed Central

He, Yi; Johnson, Marcia K.; Dovidio, John F.; McCarthy, Gregory

2009-01-01

The neural correlates of the perception of faces from different races were investigated. White participants performed a gender identification task in which Asian, Black, and White faces were presented while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Participants also completed an implicit association task for Black (IAT-Black) and Asian (IAT-Asian) faces. ERPs evoked by Black and White faces differed, with Black faces evoking a larger positive ERP that peaked at 168 ms over the frontal scalp, and White faces evoking a larger negative ERP that peaked at 244 ms. These Black/White ERP differences significantly correlated with participants’ scores on the IAT-Black. ERPs also differentiated White from Asian faces and a significant correlation was obtained between the White-Asian ERP difference waves at ~500 ms and the IAT-Asian. A positive ERP at 116 ms over occipital scalp differentiated all three races, but was not correlated with either IAT. In addition, a late positive component (around 592 ms) was greater for the same race compared to either other race faces, suggesting potentially more extended or deeper processing of the same race faces. Taken together, the ERP/IAT correlations observed for both other races indicate the influence of a race-sensitive evaluative process that may include early more automatic and/or implicit processes and relatively later more controlled processes. PMID:19562628

Classifying four-category visual objects using multiple ERP components in single-trial ERP.

PubMed

Qin, Yu; Zhan, Yu; Wang, Changming; Zhang, Jiacai; Yao, Li; Guo, Xiaojuan; Wu, Xia; Hu, Bin

2016-08-01

Object categorization using single-trial electroencephalography (EEG) data measured while participants view images has been studied intensively. In previous studies, multiple event-related potential (ERP) components (e.g., P1, N1, P2, and P3) were used to improve the performance of object categorization of visual stimuli. In this study, we introduce a novel method that uses multiple-kernel support vector machine to fuse multiple ERP component features. We investigate whether fusing the potential complementary information of different ERP components (e.g., P1, N1, P2a, and P2b) can improve the performance of four-category visual object classification in single-trial EEGs. We also compare the classification accuracy of different ERP component fusion methods. Our experimental results indicate that the classification accuracy increases through multiple ERP fusion. Additional comparative analyses indicate that the multiple-kernel fusion method can achieve a mean classification accuracy higher than 72 %, which is substantially better than that achieved with any single ERP component feature (55.07 % for the best single ERP component, N1). We compare the classification results with those of other fusion methods and determine that the accuracy of the multiple-kernel fusion method is 5.47, 4.06, and 16.90 % higher than those of feature concatenation, feature extraction, and decision fusion, respectively. Our study shows that our multiple-kernel fusion method outperforms other fusion methods and thus provides a means to improve the classification performance of single-trial ERPs in brain-computer interface research.

The effects of memory load and stimulus relevance on the EEG during a visual selective memory search task: an ERP and ERD/ERS study.

PubMed

Gomarus, H Karin; Althaus, Monika; Wijers, Albertus A; Minderaa, Ruud B

2006-04-01

Psychophysiological correlates of selective attention and working memory were investigated in a group of 18 healthy children using a visually presented selective memory search task. Subjects had to memorize one (load1) or 3 (load3) letters (memory set) and search for these among a recognition set consisting of 4 letters only if the letters appeared in the correct (relevant) color. Event-related potentials (ERPs) as well as alpha and theta event-related synchronization and desynchronization (ERD/ERS) were derived from the EEG that was recorded during the task. In the ERP to the memory set, a prolonged load-related positivity was found. In response to the recognition set, effects of relevance were manifested in an early frontal positivity and a later frontal negativity. Effects of load were found in a search-related negativity within the attended category and a suppression of the P3-amplitude. Theta ERS was most pronounced for the most difficult task condition during the recognition set, whereas alpha ERD showed a load-effect only during memorization. The manipulation of stimulus relevance and memory load affected both ERP components and ERD/ERS. The present paradigm may supply a useful method for studying processes of selective attention and working memory and can be used to examine group differences between healthy controls and children showing psychopathology.

Mindfulness-based exposure and response prevention for obsessive compulsive disorder: study protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Strauss, Clara; Rosten, Claire; Hayward, Mark; Lea, Laura; Forrester, Elizabeth; Jones, Anna-Marie

2015-04-16

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a distressing and debilitating condition affecting 1-2% of the population. Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is a behaviour therapy for OCD with the strongest evidence for effectiveness of any psychological therapy for the condition. Even so, only about half of people offered ERP show recovery after the therapy. An important reason for ERP failure is that about 25% of people drop out early, and even for those who continue with the therapy, many do not regularly engage in ERP tasks, an essential element of ERP. A mindfulness-based approach has the potential to reduce drop-out from ERP and to improve ERP task engagement with an emphasis on accepting difficult thoughts, feelings and bodily sessions and on becoming more aware of urges, rather than automatically acting on them. This is a pilot randomised controlled trial of mindfulness-based ERP (MB-ERP) with the aim of establishing parameters for a definitive trial. Forty participants diagnosed with OCD will be allocated at random to a 10-session ERP group or to a 10-session MB-ERP group. Primary outcomes are OCD symptom severity and therapy engagement. Secondary outcomes are depressive symptom severity, wellbeing and obsessive-compulsive beliefs. A semi-structured interview with participants will guide understanding of change processes. Findings from this pilot study will inform future research in this area, and if effect sizes on primary outcomes are in favour of MB-ERP in comparison to ERP, funding for a definitive trial will be sought. Current Controlled Trials registration number ISRCTN52684820. Registered on 30 January 2014.

How microsaccades relate to lateralized ERP components of spatial attention: A co-registration study.

PubMed

Meyberg, Susann; Sommer, Werner; Dimigen, Olaf

2017-05-01

Covert shifts of attention that follow the presentation of a cue are associated with lateralized components in the event-related potential (ERP): the "early directing attention negativity" (EDAN) and the "anterior directing attention negativity" (ADAN). Traditionally, these shifts are thought to take place while gaze is fixated and, thus, in the absence of saccades. However, microsaccades of small amplitude (<1°) occur frequently and involuntarily also during fixation and are closely correlated with spatial attention. To investigate potential links between microsaccades and lateralized ERP components, we simultaneously recorded eye movements and ERPs in a spatial cueing task. As a first major result, we show that both the posterior EDAN and the orientation of microsaccades align more strongly with the location of the task-relevant part of the cue stimulus than with the direction of the attention shift indicated by that cue. A coupling between microsaccades and EDAN was also present on the single-trial level: The EDAN was largest when microsaccades were oriented toward the relevant cue, but absent when microsaccades were oriented away from it, suggesting that EDAN and microsaccades are generated by the same neural network, which selects relevant stimuli and orients behavior toward them. As a second major result, we show that small corneoretinal artifacts from microsaccades, which fall below conventional EOG rejection thresholds, contaminate the measurement of the ADAN. After correcting the EEG for microsaccade-related artifacts with an optimized variant of independent component analysis, ADAN was abolished at frontal sites, but a genuine ADAN was still present at central sites. Thus, the combined measurement of microsaccades and lateralized ERPs sheds new light onto cue-elicited shifts of covert attention. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gender Difference in Event Related Potentials to Masked Emotional Stimuli in the Oddball Task

PubMed Central

Kim, Eun Young; Park, Gewnhi; Kim, Sangrae; Kim, Imyel; Chae, Jeong-Ho; Kim, Hyun Taek

2013-01-01

Objective We investigated gender differences in event-related potential (ERP) responses to subliminally presented threat-related stimuli. Methods Twenty-four participants were presented with threat-related and neutral pictures for a very brief period of time (17 ms). To explore gender differences in ERP responses to subliminally presented stimuli, we examined six ERP components [P1, N170, N250, P300, Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) and Late Positive Potential (LPP)]. Results The result revealed that only female participants showed significant increases in the N170 and the EPN in response to subliminally presented threat-related stimuli compared to neutral stimuli. Conclusion Our results suggest that female participants exhibit greater cortical processing of subliminally presented threat-related stimuli than male participants. PMID:23798965

Memory and event-related potentials for rapidly presented emotional pictures.

PubMed

Versace, Francesco; Bradley, Margaret M; Lang, Peter J

2010-08-01

Dense array event-related potentials (ERPs) and memory performance were assessed following rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of emotional and neutral pictures. Despite the extremely brief presentation, emotionally arousing pictures prompted an enhanced negative voltage over occipital sensors, compared to neutral pictures, replicating previous encoding effects. Emotionally arousing pictures were also remembered better in a subsequent recognition test, with higher hit rates and better discrimination performance. ERPs measured during the recognition test showed both an early (250-350 ms) frontally distributed difference between hits and correct rejections, and a later (400-500 ms), more centrally distributed difference, consistent with effects of recognition on ERPs typically found using slower presentation rates. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that features of affective pictures pop out during rapid serial visual presentation, prompting better memory performance.

Teaching Medium-Sized ERP Systems - A Problem-Based Learning Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winkelmann, Axel; Matzner, Martin

In order to increase the diversity in IS education, we discuss an approach for teaching medium-sized ERP systems in master courses. Many of today's IS curricula are biased toward large ERP packages. Nevertheless, these ERP systems are only a part of the ERP market. Hence, this chapter describes a course outline for a course on medium-sized ERP systems. Students had to study, analyze, and compare five different ERP systems during a semester. The chapter introduces a procedure model and scenario for setting up similar courses at other universities. Furthermore, it describes some of the students' outcomes and evaluates the contribution of the course with regard to a practical but also academic IS education.

Crystal Structure of the ERp44-Peroxiredoxin 4 Complex Reveals the Molecular Mechanisms of Thiol-Mediated Protein Retention.

PubMed

Yang, Kai; Li, De-Feng; Wang, Xi'e; Liang, Jinzhao; Sitia, Roberto; Wang, Chih-Chen; Wang, Xi

2016-10-04

ERp44 controls the localization and transport of diverse proteins in the early secretory pathway. The mechanisms that allow client recognition and the source of the oxidative power for forming intermolecular disulfides are as yet unknown. Here we present the structure of ERp44 bound to a client, peroxiredoxin 4. Our data reveal that ERp44 binds the oxidized form of peroxiredoxin 4 via thiol-disulfide interchange reactions. The structure explains the redox-dependent recognition and characterizes the essential non-covalent interactions at the interface. The ERp44-Prx4 covalent complexes can be reduced by glutathione and protein disulfide isomerase family members in the ER, allowing the two components to recycle. This work provides insights into the mechanisms of thiol-mediated protein retention and indicates the key roles of ERp44 in this biochemical cycle to optimize oxidative folding and redox homeostasis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Retrospective attention enhances visual working memory in the young but not the old: an ERP study

PubMed Central

Duarte, Audrey; Hearons, Patricia; Jiang, Yashu; Delvin, Mary Courtney; Newsome, Rachel N.; Verhaeghen, Paul

2013-01-01

Behavioral evidence from the young suggests spatial cues that orient attention toward task relevant items in visual working memory (VWM) enhance memory capacity. Whether older adults can also use retrospective cues (“retro-cues”) to enhance VWM capacity is unknown. In the current event-related potential (ERP) study, young and old adults performed a VWM task in which spatially informative retro-cues were presented during maintenance. Young but not older adults’ VWM capacity benefitted from retro-cueing. The contralateral delay activity (CDA) ERP index of VWM maintenance was attenuated after the retro-cue, which effectively reduced the impact of memory load. CDA amplitudes were reduced prior to retro-cue onset in the old only. Despite a preserved ability to delete items from VWM, older adults may be less able to use retrospective attention to enhance memory capacity when expectancy of impending spatial cues disrupts effective VWM maintenance. PMID:23445536

Single-trial detection of visual evoked potentials by common spatial patterns and wavelet filtering for brain-computer interface.

PubMed

Tu, Yiheng; Huang, Gan; Hung, Yeung Sam; Hu, Li; Hu, Yong; Zhang, Zhiguo

2013-01-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are widely used in brain-computer interface (BCI) systems as input signals conveying a subject's intention. A fast and reliable single-trial ERP detection method can be used to develop a BCI system with both high speed and high accuracy. However, most of single-trial ERP detection methods are developed for offline EEG analysis and thus have a high computational complexity and need manual operations. Therefore, they are not applicable to practical BCI systems, which require a low-complexity and automatic ERP detection method. This work presents a joint spatial-time-frequency filter that combines common spatial patterns (CSP) and wavelet filtering (WF) for improving the signal-to-noise (SNR) of visual evoked potentials (VEP), which can lead to a single-trial ERP-based BCI.

Time is of the Essence: A Review of Electroencephalography (EEG) and Event-Related Brain Potentials (ERPs) in Language Research.

PubMed

Beres, Anna M

2017-12-01

The discovery of electroencephalography (EEG) over a century ago has changed the way we understand brain structure and function, in terms of both clinical and research applications. This paper starts with a short description of EEG and then focuses on the event-related brain potentials (ERPs), and their use in experimental settings. It describes the typical set-up of an ERP experiment. A description of a number of ERP components typically involved in language research is presented. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of using ERPs in language research are discussed. EEG has an extensive use in today's world, including medical, psychology, or linguistic research. The excellent temporal resolution of EEG information allows one to track a brain response in milliseconds and therefore makes it uniquely suited to research concerning language processing.

Working memory impairment and recovery in iron deficient children.

PubMed

Otero, Gloria A; Pliego-Rivero, F Bernardo; Porcayo-Mercado, Rosario; Mendieta-Alcántara, Gustavo

2008-08-01

Iron is an important oligoelement participating in multiple metabolic processes, including the synthesis of catecholamines, and its deficiency (ID) throughout development is particularly insidious on brain maturation and the emergence of cognitive functions during school age. A working memory (WM) study in 8-10-year-old ID children is presented. It is hypothesized that an impairment in WM exists in ID school-age children and a substantial restoration of this mental ability should occur after iron supplementation. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the completion of a Sternberg-type task in control, ID and ID-iron supplemented children. ID children showed less correct answers and diminished ERP amplitude in frontal, central, parietal and temporal regions compared to control children. After iron supplementation and normalizing bodily iron stores, behavioral and ERP differences disappeared between ID and control children. Considering that WM is fundamentally related to attention ability, the results presented here confirm and reinforce previous observations: ID severely diminishes attention [Otero GA, Pliego-Rivero FB, Contreras G, Ricardo J, Fernandez T. Iron supplementation brings up a lacking P300 in iron deficient children. Clin Neurophysiol 2004;115:2259-66] and WM while iron supplementation substantially restores the cognitive capabilities tested. This is one of very few reports using ERP showing a diminished WM capability in ID school-age children.

Combining Behavioral and ERP Methodologies to Investigate the Differences Between McGurk Effects Demonstrated by Cantonese and Mandarin Speakers.

PubMed

Zhang, Juan; Meng, Yaxuan; McBride, Catherine; Fan, Xitao; Yuan, Zhen

2018-01-01

The present study investigated the impact of Chinese dialects on McGurk effect using behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) methodologies. Specifically, intra-language comparison of McGurk effect was conducted between Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. The behavioral results showed that Cantonese speakers exhibited a stronger McGurk effect in audiovisual speech perception compared to Mandarin speakers, although both groups performed equally in the auditory and visual conditions. ERP results revealed that Cantonese speakers were more sensitive to visual cues than Mandarin speakers, though this was not the case for the auditory cues. Taken together, the current findings suggest that the McGurk effect generated by Chinese speakers is mainly influenced by segmental phonology during audiovisual speech integration.

Combining Behavioral and ERP Methodologies to Investigate the Differences Between McGurk Effects Demonstrated by Cantonese and Mandarin Speakers

PubMed Central

Zhang, Juan; Meng, Yaxuan; McBride, Catherine; Fan, Xitao; Yuan, Zhen

2018-01-01

The present study investigated the impact of Chinese dialects on McGurk effect using behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) methodologies. Specifically, intra-language comparison of McGurk effect was conducted between Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. The behavioral results showed that Cantonese speakers exhibited a stronger McGurk effect in audiovisual speech perception compared to Mandarin speakers, although both groups performed equally in the auditory and visual conditions. ERP results revealed that Cantonese speakers were more sensitive to visual cues than Mandarin speakers, though this was not the case for the auditory cues. Taken together, the current findings suggest that the McGurk effect generated by Chinese speakers is mainly influenced by segmental phonology during audiovisual speech integration. PMID:29780312

Emotion regulation in the brain: conceptual issues and directions for developmental research.

PubMed

Lewis, Marc D; Stieben, Jim

2004-01-01

Emotion regulation cannot be temporally distinguished from emotion in the brain, but activation patterns in prefrontal cortex appear to mediate cognitive control during emotion episodes. Frontal event-related potentials (ERPs) can tap cognitive control hypothetically mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex, and developmentalists have used these to differentiate age, individual, and emotion-valence factors. Extending this approach, the present article outlines a research strategy for studying emotion regulation in children by combining emotion induction with a go/no-go task known to produce frontal ERPs. Preliminary results indicate that medial-frontal ERP amplitudes diminish with age but become more sensitive to anxiety, and internalizing children show higher amplitudes than noninternalizing children, especially when anxious. These results may reflect age and individual differences in the effortful regulation of negative emotion.

Auditory event-related potentials in subcortical vascular cognitive impairment and in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Muscoso, E G; Costanzo, E; Daniele, O; Maugeri, D; Natale, E; Caravaglios, G

2006-11-01

Few studies exist on ERPs and patients with subcortical vascular cognitive impairment (SVCI). This latter is a quite homogeneous subtype of vascular dementia whose cognitive profile is quite different from that of Alzheimer disease (AD). The present study aims at comparing the ERPs profile both in patients with SVCI and in patients with AD. ERPs and psychometric tests were collected from 39 healthy elderly controls, 51 patients with SVCI and 43 patients with AD. Subjects mentally count high pitched target tones that were randomly intermixed with low pitched frequent tones. We measured ERPs latencies (N1, P2, N2 and P3), and interpeak latencies (N1-P3, N1-P2, N1-N2). Grand averaged potentials in SVCI showed a significant increase of P3 latency. AD patients showed a prolongation of N1, P2, N2, P3 latencies. As far as interpeak latencies are concerned, SVCI patients showed a significant prolongation of N1-P3, AD patients had a significant increase of N1-N2, and N1-P3 intervals. When all patients were considered as a single group, correlation of neuropsychological tests scores showed a significant negative relationship between P300 latency and, respectively, Mini Mental Status Examination, auditive and visual span forward. In both groups, ERPs latency sensitivity, was low, whilst specificity values were quite high. Our finding suggest that these two dementing diseases have different electrophysiologic features that may be related to their specific underlying pathogenetic mechanism; in particular, we hypothesise that, differently from AD, P300 latency prolongation characterizes the early stage of SVCI. So, this ERPs approach could be helpful to detect early alterations of the attentional/working-memory functions in patients with subcortical ischaemic vascular disease.

Using kinematic analysis of movement to predict the time occurrence of an evoked potential associated with a motor command.

PubMed

O'Reilly, Christian; Plamondon, Réjean; Landou, Mohamed K; Stemmer, Brigitte

2013-01-01

This article presents an exploratory study investigating the possibility of predicting the time occurrence of a motor event related potential (ERP) from a kinematic analysis of human movements. Although the response-locked motor potential may link the ERP components to the recorded response, to our knowledge no previous attempt has been made to predict a priori (i.e. before any contact with the electroencephalographic data) the time occurrence of an ERP component based only on the modeling of an overt response. The proposed analysis relies on the delta-lognormal modeling of velocity, as proposed by the kinematic theory of rapid human movement used in several studies of motor control. Although some methodological aspects of this technique still need to be fine-tuned, the initial results showed that the model-based kinematic analysis allowed the prediction of the time occurrence of a motor command ERP in most participants in the experiment. The average map of the motor command ERPs showed that this signal was stronger in electrodes close to the contra-lateral motor area (Fz, FCz, FC1, and FC3). These results seem to support the claims made by the kinematic theory that a motor command is emitted at time t(0), the time reference parameter of the model. This article proposes a new time marker directly associated with a cerebral event (i.e. the emission of a motor command) that can be used for the development of new data analysis methodologies and for the elaboration of new experimental protocols based on ERP. © 2012 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Hemodynamic and electrophysiological relationship involved in human face processing: evidence from a combined fMRI-ERP study.

PubMed

Iidaka, Tetsuya; Matsumoto, Atsushi; Haneda, Kaoruko; Okada, Tomohisa; Sadato, Norihiro

2006-03-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP) experiments were conducted in the same group of subjects and with an identical task paradigm to investigate a possible relationship between hemodynamic and electrophysiological responses within the brain. The subjects were instructed to judge whether visually presented stimuli were faces or houses and then press the corresponding button. Functional MRI identified face- and house-related regions in the lateral and medial part of the fusiform gyrus, respectively, while ERP showed significantly greater N170 negativity for face than for house stimuli in the temporo-occipital electrodes. Correlation analysis between the BOLD signal in the fusiform gyrus and ERP parameters demonstrated a close relationship between the signal and both latency and amplitude of N170 across the subjects. These correlations may indicate that the variation in cognitive demand and hemodynamic responses during the face/house discrimination task is coupled with the variation of N170 peak latency/amplitude across the subjects. Thus, integrative analysis of spatial and temporal information obtained from the two experimental modalities may help in studying neural correlates involved in a particular cognitive task.

Salient sounds activate human visual cortex automatically

PubMed Central

McDonald, John J.; Störmer, Viola S.; Martinez, Antigona; Feng, Wenfeng; Hillyard, Steven A.

2013-01-01

Sudden changes in the acoustic environment enhance perceptual processing of subsequent visual stimuli that appear in close spatial proximity. Little is known, however, about the neural mechanisms by which salient sounds affect visual processing. In particular, it is unclear whether such sounds automatically activate visual cortex. To shed light on this issue, the present study examined event-related brain potentials (ERPs) that were triggered either by peripheral sounds that preceded task-relevant visual targets (Experiment 1) or were presented during purely auditory tasks (Experiments 2, 3, and 4). In all experiments the sounds elicited a contralateral ERP over the occipital scalp that was localized to neural generators in extrastriate visual cortex of the ventral occipital lobe. The amplitude of this cross-modal ERP was predictive of perceptual judgments about the contrast of co-localized visual targets. These findings demonstrate that sudden, intrusive sounds reflexively activate human visual cortex in a spatially specific manner, even during purely auditory tasks when the sounds are not relevant to the ongoing task. PMID:23699530

Nicotine craving: ERPs correlates after VR exposure to smoking cues.

PubMed

Gamito, Pedro; Oliveira, Jorge; Baptista, André; Morais, Diogo; Lopes, Paulo; Saraiva, Tomaz; Rosa, Pedro; Santos, Nuno; Soares, Fábio; Sottomayor, Catarina; Barata, Filipa

2012-01-01

Even though it is diminishing in Europe, smoking is still a serious health problem. The craving of Nicotine is one of the hardest behaviours to tackle when a smoking cessation programme is implemented. Following on previous work [1], which aimed at evaluating the possibility of inducing smoking craving in smokers using a VR platform, the present study was devised to assess the role of craving in cognitive processing through event related potentials (ERP). From an initial sample of 89 university students (smokers and non-smokers), which was randomly exposed to VR smoking cues and VR non-smoking cue scenarios, a subsample of 13 smokers and non-smokers was drawn. This subsample (M = 23.08; SD = 4.39), which had previously been immersed in the VR smoking cues environment, was presented to a rapid (1 sec) serial of smoking and neutral images. Data on brain activity was recorded through an EEG during this task to further estimate ERPs. When compared to non-smokers, smokers showed higher frontal activation when watching smoking related images.

Event-related potential correlates of declarative and non-declarative sequence knowledge.

PubMed

Ferdinand, Nicola K; Rünger, Dennis; Frensch, Peter A; Mecklinger, Axel

2010-07-01

The goal of the present study was to demonstrate that declarative and non-declarative knowledge acquired in an incidental sequence learning task contributes differentially to memory retrieval and leads to dissociable ERP signatures in a recognition memory task. For this purpose, participants performed a sequence learning task and were classified as verbalizers, partial verbalizers, or nonverbalizers according to their ability to verbally report the systematic response sequence. Thereafter, ERPs were recorded in a recognition memory task time-locked to sequence triplets that were either part of the previously learned sequence or not. Although all three groups executed old sequence triplets faster than new triplets in the recognition memory task, qualitatively distinct ERP patterns were found for participants with and without reportable knowledge. Verbalizers and, to a lesser extent, partial verbalizers showed an ERP correlate of recollection for parts of the incidentally learned sequence. In contrast, nonverbalizers showed a different ERP effect with a reverse polarity that might reflect priming. This indicates that an ensemble of qualitatively different processes is at work when declarative and non-declarative sequence knowledge is retrieved. By this, our findings favor a multiple-systems view postulating that explicit and implicit learning are supported by different and functionally independent systems. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The t-CWT: a new ERP detection and quantification method based on the continuous wavelet transform and Student's t-statistics.

PubMed

Bostanov, Vladimir; Kotchoubey, Boris

2006-12-01

This study was aimed at developing a method for extraction and assessment of event-related brain potentials (ERP) from single-trials. This method should be applicable in the assessment of single persons' ERPs and should be able to handle both single ERP components and whole waveforms. We adopted a recently developed ERP feature extraction method, the t-CWT, for the purposes of hypothesis testing in the statistical assessment of ERPs. The t-CWT is based on the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and Student's t-statistics. The method was tested in two ERP paradigms, oddball and semantic priming, by assessing individual-participant data on a single-trial basis, and testing the significance of selected ERP components, P300 and N400, as well as of whole ERP waveforms. The t-CWT was also compared to other univariate and multivariate ERP assessment methods: peak picking, area computation, discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and principal component analysis (PCA). The t-CWT produced better results than all of the other assessment methods it was compared with. The t-CWT can be used as a reliable and powerful method for ERP-component detection and testing of statistical hypotheses concerning both single ERP components and whole waveforms extracted from either single persons' or group data. The t-CWT is the first such method based explicitly on the criteria of maximal statistical difference between two average ERPs in the time-frequency domain and is particularly suitable for ERP assessment of individual data (e.g. in clinical settings), but also for the investigation of small and/or novel ERP effects from group data.

Semantic processing during morphological priming: an ERP study.

PubMed

Beyersmann, Elisabeth; Iakimova, Galina; Ziegler, Johannes C; Colé, Pascale

2014-09-04

Previous research has yielded conflicting results regarding the onset of semantic processing during morphological priming. The present study was designed to further explore the time-course of morphological processing using event-related potentials (ERPs). We conducted a primed lexical decision study comparing a morphological (LAVAGE - laver [washing - wash]), a semantic (LINGE - laver [laundry - wash]), an orthographic (LAVANDE - laver [lavender - wash]), and an unrelated control condition (HOSPICE - laver [nursing home - wash]), using the same targets across the four priming conditions. The behavioral data showed significant effects of morphological and semantic priming, with the magnitude of morphological priming being significantly larger than the magnitude of semantic priming. The ERP data revealed significant morphological but no semantic priming at 100-250 ms. Furthermore, a reduction of the N400 amplitude in the morphological condition compared to the semantic and orthographic condition demonstrates that the morphological priming effect was not entirely due to the semantic or orthographic overlap between the prime and the target. The present data reflect an early process of semantically blind morphological decomposition, and a later process of morpho-semantic decomposition, which we discuss in the context of recent morphological processing theories. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Early visual ERPs are influenced by individual emotional skills

PubMed Central

Roux, Sylvie; Batty, Magali

2014-01-01

Processing information from faces is crucial to understanding others and to adapting to social life. Many studies have investigated responses to facial emotions to provide a better understanding of the processes and the neural networks involved. Moreover, several studies have revealed abnormalities of emotional face processing and their neural correlates in affective disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate whether early visual event-related potentials (ERPs) are affected by the emotional skills of healthy adults. Unfamiliar faces expressing the six basic emotions were presented to 28 young adults while recording visual ERPs. No specific task was required during the recording. Participants also completed the Social Skills Inventory (SSI) which measures social and emotional skills. The results confirmed that early visual ERPs (P1, N170) are affected by the emotions expressed by a face and also demonstrated that N170 and P2 are correlated to the emotional skills of healthy subjects. While N170 is sensitive to the subject’s emotional sensitivity and expressivity, P2 is modulated by the ability of the subjects to control their emotions. We therefore suggest that N170 and P2 could be used as individual markers to assess strengths and weaknesses in emotional areas and could provide information for further investigations of affective disorders. PMID:23720573

Friend or foe: Endoplasmic reticulum protein 29 (ERp29) in epithelial cancer

PubMed Central

Chen, Shaohua; Zhang, Daohai

2015-01-01

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein 29 (ERp29) is a molecular chaperone that plays a critical role in protein secretion from the ER in eukaryotic cells. Recent studies have also shown that ERp29 plays a role in cancer. It has been demonstrated that ERp29 is inversely associated with primary tumor development and functions as a tumor suppressor by inducing cell growth arrest in breast cancer. However, ERp29 has also been reported to promote epithelial cell morphogenesis, cell survival against genotoxic stress and distant metastasis. In this review, we summarize the current understanding on the biological and pathological functions of ERp29 in cancer and discuss the pivotal aspects of ERp29 as “friend or foe” in epithelial cancer. PMID:25709888

Managing the Challenges of Leadership in ERP Implementations: An Exploratory Study of the Leadership Challenges Encountered by Project Managers Involved in ERP Implementation Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wanjagi, James K.

2013-01-01

Increasingly, organizations are conducting more Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects in order to promote organizational efficiencies. Meanwhile, minimal research has been conducted on the leadership challenges faced by project managers during the ERP project implementations and how these challenges are managed. The existing project…

ERP-Variations on Time Scales Between Hours and Months Derived From GNSS Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weber, R.; Englich, S.; Mendes Cerveira, P.

2007-05-01

Current observations gained by the space geodetic techniques, especially VLBI, GPS and SLR, allow for the determination of Earth Rotation Parameters (ERPs - polar motion, UT1/LOD) with unprecedented accuracy and temporal resolution. This presentation focuses on contributions to the ERP recovery provided by satellite navigation systems (primarily GPS). The IGS (International GNSS Service), for example, currently provides daily polar motion with an accuracy of less than 0.1mas and LOD estimates with an accuracy of a few microseconds. To study more rapid variations in polar motion and LOD we established in a first step a high resolution (hourly resolution) ERP-time series from GPS observation data of the IGS network covering the year 2005. The calculations were carried out by means of the Bernese GPS Software V5.0 considering observations from a subset of 113 fairly stable stations out of the IGS05 reference frame sites. From these ERP time series the amplitudes of the major diurnal and semidiurnal variations caused by ocean tides are estimated. After correcting the series for ocean tides the remaining geodetic observed excitation is compared with variations of atmospheric excitation (AAM). To study the sensitivity of the estimates with respect to the applied mapping function we applied both the widely used NMF (Niell Mapping Function) and the VMF1 (Vienna Mapping Function 1). In addition, based on computations covering two months in 2005, the potential improvement due to the use of additional GLONASS data will be discussed.

Early ERP Modulation for Task-Irrelevant Subliminal Faces.

PubMed

Pegna, Alan J; Darque, Alexandra; Berrut, Claire; Khateb, Asaid

2011-01-01

A number of investigations have reported that emotional faces can be processed subliminally, and that they give rise to specific patterns of brain activation in the absence of awareness. Recent event-related potential (ERP) studies have suggested that electrophysiological differences occur early in time (<200 ms) in response to backward-masked emotional faces. These findings have been taken as evidence of a rapid non-conscious pathway, which would allow threatening stimuli to be processed rapidly and subsequently allow appropriate avoidance action to be taken. However, for this to be the case, subliminal processing should arise even if the threatening stimulus is not attended. This point has in fact not yet been clearly established. In this ERP study, we investigated whether subliminal processing of fearful faces occurs outside the focus of attention. Fourteen healthy participants performed a line judgment task while fearful and non-fearful (happy or neutral) faces were presented both subliminally and supraliminally. ERPs were compared across the four experimental conditions (i.e., subliminal and supraliminal; fearful and non-fearful). The earliest differences between fearful and non-fearful faces appeared as an enhanced posterior negativity for the former at 170 ms (the N170 component) over right temporo-occipital electrodes. This difference was observed for both subliminal (p < 0.05) and supraliminal presentations (p < 0.01). Our results confirm that subliminal processing of fearful faces occurs early in the course of visual processing, and more importantly, that this arises even when the subject's attention is engaged in an incidental task.

Analysis on the integration of ERP and e-commerce

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yongqing; Shi, Yuliana

2017-08-01

With the continuous development of China's modern economic construction, a variety of information technology are emerging. The new economic development characterized by e-commerce has accelerated the globalization of the economy. In face of increasingly fierce market competition, for enterprises, the constructions of ERP and e-commerce are necessary ways to enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises. At present, most of the internal ERP systems and external e-commerce systems are in relatively independent state. However, with the increasing fierce market competition, a single mode of operation has been unable to meet the requirements of enterprise development. Accordingly, the effective integration of ERP and e-commerce in the new era has become one of the most important topics for enterprise development. This paper firstly analyzes the relationship between ERP and e-commerce, and then analyzes the necessity and feasibility of integration, and finally discusses the integration strategies and technologies.

Beyond maximum speed—a novel two-stimulus paradigm for brain-computer interfaces based on event-related potentials (P300-BCI)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaufmann, Tobias; Kübler, Andrea

2014-10-01

Objective. The speed of brain-computer interfaces (BCI), based on event-related potentials (ERP), is inherently limited by the commonly used one-stimulus paradigm. In this paper, we introduce a novel paradigm that can increase the spelling speed by a factor of 2, thereby extending the one-stimulus paradigm to a two-stimulus paradigm. Two different stimuli (a face and a symbol) are presented at the same time, superimposed on different characters and ERPs are classified using a multi-class classifier. Here, we present the proof-of-principle that is achieved with healthy participants. Approach. Eight participants were confronted with the novel two-stimulus paradigm and, for comparison, with two one-stimulus paradigms that used either one of the stimuli. Classification accuracies (percentage of correctly predicted letters) and elicited ERPs from the three paradigms were compared in a comprehensive offline analysis. Main results. The accuracies slightly decreased with the novel system compared to the established one-stimulus face paradigm. However, the use of two stimuli allowed for spelling at twice the maximum speed of the one-stimulus paradigms, and participants still achieved an average accuracy of 81.25%. This study introduced an alternative way of increasing the spelling speed in ERP-BCIs and illustrated that ERP-BCIs may not yet have reached their speed limit. Future research is needed in order to improve the reliability of the novel approach, as some participants displayed reduced accuracies. Furthermore, a comparison to the most recent BCI systems with individually adjusted, rapid stimulus timing is needed to draw conclusions about the practical relevance of the proposed paradigm. Significance. We introduced a novel two-stimulus paradigm that might be of high value for users who have reached the speed limit with the current one-stimulus ERP-BCI systems.

Direct real-time neural evidence for task-set inertia.

PubMed

Evans, Lisa H; Herron, Jane E; Wilding, Edward L

2015-03-01

One influential explanation for the costs incurred when switching between tasks is that they reflect interference arising from completing the previous task-known as task-set inertia. We report a novel approach for assessing task-set inertia in a memory experiment using event-related potentials (ERPs). After a study phase, participants completed a test block in which they switched between a memory task (retrieving information from the study phase) and a perceptual task. These tasks alternated every two trials. An ERP index of the retrieval of study information was evident in the memory task. It was also present on the first trial of the perceptual task but was markedly attenuated on the second. Moreover, this task-irrelevant ERP activity was positively correlated with a behavioral cost associated with switching between tasks. This real-time measure of neural activity thus provides direct evidence of task-set inertia, its duration, and the functional role it plays in switch costs. © The Author(s) 2015.

Identical vs. Conceptual repetition FN400 and Parietal Old/New ERP components occur during encoding and predict subsequent memory

PubMed Central

Griffin, Michael; DeWolf, Melissa; Keinath, Alexander; Liu, Xiaonan; Reder, Lynne

2013-01-01

This Event-Related Potential (ERP) study investigated whether components commonly measured at test, such as the FN400 and the parietal old/new components, could be observed during encoding and, if so, whether they would predict different levels of accuracy on a subsequent memory test. ERPs were recorded while subjects classified pictures of objects as man-made or natural. Some objects were only classified once while others were classified twice during encoding, sometimes with an identical picture, and other times with a different exemplar from the same category. A subsequent surprise recognition test required subjects to judge whether each probe word corresponded to a picture shown earlier, and if so whether there were two identical pictures that corresponded to the word probe, two different pictures, or just one picture. When the second presentation showed a duplicate of an earlier picture, the FN400 effect (a significantly less negative deflection on the second presentation) was observed regardless of subsequent memory response; however, when the second presentation showed a different exemplar of the same concept, the FN400 effect was only marginally significant. In contrast, the parietal old/new effect was robust for the second presentation of conceptual repetitions when the test probe was subsequently recognized, but not for identical repetitions. These findings suggest that ERP components that are typically observed during an episodic memory test can be observed during an incidental encoding task, and that they are predictive of the degree of subsequent memory performance. PMID:23528265

Reactive recruitment of attentional control in math anxiety: an ERP study of numeric conflict monitoring and adaptation.

PubMed

Suárez-Pellicioni, Macarena; Núñez-Peña, María Isabel; Colomé, Àngels

2014-01-01

This study uses event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of numeric conflict monitoring in math-anxious individuals, by analyzing whether math anxiety is related to abnormal processing in early conflict detection (as shown by the N450 component) and/or in a later, response-related stage of processing (as shown by the conflict sustained potential; Conflict-SP). Conflict adaptation effects were also studied by analyzing the effect of the previous trial's congruence in current interference. To this end, 17 low math-anxious (LMA) and 17 high math-anxious (HMA) individuals were presented with a numerical Stroop task. Groups were extreme in math anxiety but did not differ in trait or state anxiety or in simple math ability. The interference effect of the current trial (incongruent-congruent) and the interference effect preceded by congruence and by incongruity were analyzed both for behavioral measures and for ERPs. A greater interference effect was found for response times in the HMA group than in the LMA one. Regarding ERPs, the LMA group showed a greater N450 component for the interference effect preceded by congruence than when preceded by incongruity, while the HMA group showed greater Conflict-SP amplitude for the interference effect preceded by congruence than when preceded by incongruity. Our study showed that the electrophysiological correlates of numeric interference in HMA individuals comprise the absence of a conflict adaptation effect in the first stage of conflict processing (N450) and an abnormal subsequent up-regulation of cognitive control in order to overcome the conflict (Conflict-SP). More concretely, our study shows that math anxiety is related to a reactive and compensatory recruitment of control resources that is implemented only when previously exposed to a stimuli presenting conflicting information.

Reactive Recruitment of Attentional Control in Math Anxiety: An ERP Study of Numeric Conflict Monitoring and Adaptation

PubMed Central

Suárez-Pellicioni, Macarena; Núñez-Peña, María Isabel; Colomé, Àngels

2014-01-01

This study uses event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of numeric conflict monitoring in math-anxious individuals, by analyzing whether math anxiety is related to abnormal processing in early conflict detection (as shown by the N450 component) and/or in a later, response-related stage of processing (as shown by the conflict sustained potential; Conflict-SP). Conflict adaptation effects were also studied by analyzing the effect of the previous trial’s congruence in current interference. To this end, 17 low math-anxious (LMA) and 17 high math-anxious (HMA) individuals were presented with a numerical Stroop task. Groups were extreme in math anxiety but did not differ in trait or state anxiety or in simple math ability. The interference effect of the current trial (incongruent-congruent) and the interference effect preceded by congruence and by incongruity were analyzed both for behavioral measures and for ERPs. A greater interference effect was found for response times in the HMA group than in the LMA one. Regarding ERPs, the LMA group showed a greater N450 component for the interference effect preceded by congruence than when preceded by incongruity, while the HMA group showed greater Conflict-SP amplitude for the interference effect preceded by congruence than when preceded by incongruity. Our study showed that the electrophysiological correlates of numeric interference in HMA individuals comprise the absence of a conflict adaptation effect in the first stage of conflict processing (N450) and an abnormal subsequent up-regulation of cognitive control in order to overcome the conflict (Conflict-SP). More concretely, our study shows that math anxiety is related to a reactive and compensatory recruitment of control resources that is implemented only when previously exposed to a stimuli presenting conflicting information. PMID:24918584

Musical chords and emotion: major and minor triads are processed for emotion.

PubMed

Bakker, David Radford; Martin, Frances Heritage

2015-03-01

Musical chords are arguably the smallest building blocks of music that retain emotional information. Major chords are generally perceived as positive- and minor chords as negative-sounding, but there has been debate concerning how early these emotional connotations may be processed. To investigate this, emotional facial stimuli and musical chord stimuli were simultaneously presented to participants, and facilitation of processing was measured via event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes. Decreased amplitudes of the P1 and N2 ERP components have been found to index the facilitation of early processing. If simultaneously presented musical chords and facial stimuli are perceived at early stages as belonging to the same emotional category, then early processing should be facilitated for these congruent pairs, and ERP amplitudes should therefore be decreased as compared to the incongruent pairs. ERPs were recorded from 30 musically naive participants as they viewed happy, sad, and neutral faces presented simultaneously with a major or minor chord. When faces and chords were presented that contained congruent emotional information (happy-major or sad-minor), processing was facilitated, as indexed by decreased N2 ERP amplitudes. This suggests that musical chords do possess emotional connotations that can be processed as early as 200 ms in naive listeners. The early stages of processing that are involved suggest that major and minor chords have deeply connected emotional meanings, rather than superficially attributed ones, indicating that minor triads possess negative emotional connotations and major triads possess positive emotional connotations.

ERPs and Eye Movements Reflect Atypical Visual Perception in Pervasive Developmental Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemner, Chantal; van Engeland, Herman

2006-01-01

Many studies of eye tracking or event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in subjects with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) have yielded inconsistent results on attentional processing. However, recent studies have indicated that there are specific abnormalities in early processing that are probably related to perception. ERP amplitudes in…

Neural correlates of multimodal metaphor comprehension: Evidence from event-related potentials and time-frequency decompositions.

PubMed

Ma, Qingguo; Hu, Linfeng; Xiao, Can; Bian, Jun; Jin, Jia; Wang, Qiuzhen

2016-11-01

The present study examined the event-related potential (ERP) and time-frequency components correlates with the comprehension process of multimodal metaphors that were represented by the combination of "a vehicle picture+a written word of an animal". Electroencephalogram data were recorded when participants decided whether the metaphor using an animal word for the vehicle rendered by a picture was appropriate or not. There were two conditions: appropriateness (e.g., sport utility vehicles+tiger) vs. inappropriateness (e.g., sport utility vehicles+cat). The ERP results showed that inappropriate metaphor elicited larger N300 (280-360ms) and N400 (380-460ms) amplitude than appropriate one, which were different from previous exclusively verbal metaphor studies that rarely observed the N300 effect. A P600 (550-750ms) was also observed and larger in appropriate metaphor condition. Besides, the time-frequency principal component analysis revealed that two independent theta activities indexed the separable processes (retrieval of semantic features and semantic integration) underlying the N300 and N400. Delta band was also induced within a later time window and best characterized the integration process underlying P600. These results indicate the specific cognitive mechanism of multimodal metaphor comprehension that is different from verbal metaphor processing, mirrored by several separable processes indexed by ERP components and time-frequency components. The present study extends the metaphor research by uncovering the functional roles of delta and theta as well as their unique contributions to the ERP components during multimodal metaphor comprehension. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The influence of directed attention at encoding on source memory retrieval in the young and old: an ERP study.

PubMed

Dulas, Michael R; Duarte, Audrey

2013-03-15

Neuroimaging evidence suggests that older adults exhibit deficits in frontally-mediated strategic retrieval processes, such as post-retrieval monitoring. Behavioral research suggests that explicitly directing attention toward source features during encoding may improve source memory for both young and older adults and alleviate age-related source memory impairments, in part, by reducing demands on post-retrieval monitoring. We investigated this hypothesis in the present event-related potential (ERP) study. Young and older adults attended to either objects and their presented color (source) or to the object alone during study and made color source memory decisions at test. We attempted to match performance between groups by halving the memory load for older adults. Behavioral results showed that, while direction of attention to object and color improved source memory for both groups, older adults benefited less than the young. ERPs revealed that demands on late right frontal effects, indicative of post-retrieval monitoring, were similarly reduced by directed attention at encoding for both groups. However, older adults showed reduced ERP correlates of recollection (parietal old-new effect), as well as a sustained widespread negativity, potentially indicative of memory searches for perceptual details in the face of impaired recollection. These results suggest that older adults, like the young, can engage in post-retrieval monitoring when source details are difficult to recover. However, impaired recollection may underlie persistent age-related source memory deficits, even when encoding is supported via directed attention. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A case study of exploiting enterprise resource planning requirements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niu, Nan; Jin, Mingzhou; Cheng, Jing-Ru C.

2011-05-01

The requirements engineering (RE) processes have become a key to conceptualising corporate-wide integrated solutions based on packaged enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The RE literature has mainly focused on procuring the most suitable ERP package. Little is known about how an organisation exploits the chosen ERP RE model to frame the business application development. This article reports an exploratory case study of a key tenet of ERP RE adoption, namely that aligning business applications to the packaged RE model leads to integral practices and economic development. The case study analysed a series interrelated pilot projects developed for a business division of a large IT manufacturing and service company, using Oracle's appl1ication implementation method (AIM). The study indicated that AIM RE improved team collaboration and project management experience, but needed to make hidden assumptions explicit to support data visibility and integrity. Our study can direct researchers towards rigorous empirical evaluations of ERP RE adoption, collect experiences and lessons learned for practitioners, and help generate more effective and mature processes when exploiting ERP RE methods.

Organization Readiness and ERP Implementation in Albaha University

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alaqeel, K.; Shakkah, M. S.; Rahmat, R. F.; Alfageeh, A.; Budiarto, R.

2017-04-01

This work studies the correlation between the organizational readiness in Albaha University and the respective Critical Success Factors with regards to the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. The study also considers some suggestions to improve the ABU’s ERP systems and roadmap towards the self -development strategy and to reduce vendor-dependency. A survey regarding ERP to the end-users, experts and developers in Albaha University was conducted. The analysis of the results in this work confirmed with the results of an existing work. The four significance success factors: Project Management, Business Process Re-engineering, System Integration, and Training and Education are recommended to be adopted to assure the smooth adoption of ERP at Albaha University.

Temporal Dynamics of Visual Attention Measured with Event-Related Potentials

PubMed Central

Kashiwase, Yoshiyuki; Matsumiya, Kazumichi; Kuriki, Ichiro; Shioiri, Satoshi

2013-01-01

How attentional modulation on brain activities determines behavioral performance has been one of the most important issues in cognitive neuroscience. This issue has been addressed by comparing the temporal relationship between attentional modulations on neural activities and behavior. Our previous study measured the time course of attention with amplitude and phase coherence of steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) and found that the modulation latency of phase coherence rather than that of amplitude was consistent with the latency of behavioral performance. In this study, as a complementary report, we compared the time course of visual attention shift measured by event-related potentials (ERPs) with that by target detection task. We developed a novel technique to compare ERPs with behavioral results and analyzed the EEG data in our previous study. Two sets of flickering stimulus at different frequencies were presented in the left and right visual hemifields, and a target or distracter pattern was presented randomly at various moments after an attention-cue presentation. The observers were asked to detect targets on the attended stimulus after the cue. We found that two ERP components, P300 and N2pc, were elicited by the target presented at the attended location. Time-course analyses revealed that attentional modulation of the P300 and N2pc amplitudes increased gradually until reaching a maximum and lasted at least 1.5 s after the cue onset, which is similar to the temporal dynamics of behavioral performance. However, attentional modulation of these ERP components started later than that of behavioral performance. Rather, the time course of attentional modulation of behavioral performance was more closely associated with that of the concurrently recorded SSVEPs analyzed. These results suggest that neural activities reflected not by either the P300 or N2pc, but by the SSVEPs, are the source of attentional modulation of behavioral performance. PMID:23976966

No meditation-related changes in the auditory N1 during first-time meditation.

PubMed

Barnes, L J; McArthur, G M; Biedermann, B A; de Lissa, P; Polito, V; Badcock, N A

2018-05-01

Recent studies link meditation expertise with enhanced low-level attention, measured through auditory event-related potentials (ERPs). In this study, we tested the reliability and validity of a recent finding that the N1 ERP in first-time meditators is smaller during meditation than non-meditation - an effect not present in long-term meditators. In the first experiment, we replicated the finding in first-time meditators. In two subsequent experiments, we discovered that this finding was not due to stimulus-related instructions, but was explained by an effect of the order of conditions. Extended exposure to the same tones has been linked with N1 decrement in other studies, and may explain N1 decrement across our two conditions. We give examples of existing meditation and ERP studies that may include similar condition order effects. The role of condition order among first-time meditators in this study indicates the importance of counterbalancing meditation and non-mediation conditions in meditation studies that use event-related potentials. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The utility of event-related potentials (ERPs) in understanding food-related cognition: A systematic review and recommendations.

PubMed

Carbine, Kaylie A; Rodeback, Rebekah; Modersitzki, Erin; Miner, Marshall; LeCheminant, James D; Larson, Michael J

2018-05-19

Daily dietary decisions have the potential to impact our physical, mental, and emotional health. Event-related potentials (ERPs) can provide insight into cognitive processes, such as attention, working memory, and inhibitory control, that may influence the food-related decisions we make on a daily basis. We conducted a systematic review of the food-related cognition and ERP research in order to summarize the extant literature, identify future research questions, synthesize how food-related ERP components relate to eating habits and appetite, and demonstrate the utility of ERPs in examining food-related cognition. Forty-three articles were systematically extracted. In general, results indicated food cues compared to less palatable foods or neutral cues elicited greater ERP amplitudes reflecting early or late attention allocation (e.g., increased P2, P3, late positive potential amplitudes). Food cues were associated with increased frontocentral P3 and N2 ERP amplitudes compared to neutral or less palatable food cues, suggesting increased recruitment of inhibitory control and conflict monitoring resources. However, there was significant heterogeneity in the literature, as experimental tasks, stimuli, and examined ERP components varied widely across studies, and therefore replication studies are needed. In-depth research is also needed to establish how food-related ERPs differ by BMI groups and relate to real-world eating habits and appetite, in order to establish the ecological validity. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Time will tell: A longitudinal investigation of brain-behavior relationships during reading development

DOE PAGES

Stites, Mallory C.; Laszlo, Sarah

2017-02-23

ERPs are a powerful tool for the study of reading, as they are both temporally precise and functionally specific. These are essential characteristics for studying a process that unfolds rapidly and consists of multiple, interactive subprocesses. In work with adults, clear, specific models exist linking components of the ERP with individual subprocesses of reading including orthographic decoding, phonological processing, and semantic access (e.g., Grainger & Holcomb, 2009). The relationships between ERP components and reading subprocesses are less clear in development; here, we address two questions regarding these relationships. First, we ask whether there are ERP markers that predict future readingmore » behaviors across a longitudinal year. Second, we ask whether any relationships observed between ERP components and reading behavior across time map onto the better-established relationships between ERPs and reading subprocesses in adults. To address these questions, we acquired ERPs from children engaging in a silent reading task and then, a year later, collected behavioral assessments of their reading ability. Finally, we find that ERPs collected in Year 1 do predict reading behaviors a year later. Further, we find that these relationships do conform, at least to some extent, to relationships between ERP components and reading subprocesses observed in adults, with, for example, N250 amplitude in Year 1 predicting phonological awareness in Year 2, and N400 amplitude in Year 1 predicting vocabulary in Year 2.« less

Time will tell: A longitudinal investigation of brain-behavior relationships during reading development

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stites, Mallory C.; Laszlo, Sarah

ERPs are a powerful tool for the study of reading, as they are both temporally precise and functionally specific. These are essential characteristics for studying a process that unfolds rapidly and consists of multiple, interactive subprocesses. In work with adults, clear, specific models exist linking components of the ERP with individual subprocesses of reading including orthographic decoding, phonological processing, and semantic access (e.g., Grainger & Holcomb, 2009). The relationships between ERP components and reading subprocesses are less clear in development; here, we address two questions regarding these relationships. First, we ask whether there are ERP markers that predict future readingmore » behaviors across a longitudinal year. Second, we ask whether any relationships observed between ERP components and reading behavior across time map onto the better-established relationships between ERPs and reading subprocesses in adults. To address these questions, we acquired ERPs from children engaging in a silent reading task and then, a year later, collected behavioral assessments of their reading ability. Finally, we find that ERPs collected in Year 1 do predict reading behaviors a year later. Further, we find that these relationships do conform, at least to some extent, to relationships between ERP components and reading subprocesses observed in adults, with, for example, N250 amplitude in Year 1 predicting phonological awareness in Year 2, and N400 amplitude in Year 1 predicting vocabulary in Year 2.« less

Towards User-Friendly Spelling with an Auditory Brain-Computer Interface: The CharStreamer Paradigm

PubMed Central

Höhne, Johannes; Tangermann, Michael

2014-01-01

Realizing the decoding of brain signals into control commands, brain-computer interfaces (BCI) aim to establish an alternative communication pathway for locked-in patients. In contrast to most visual BCI approaches which use event-related potentials (ERP) of the electroencephalogram, auditory BCI systems are challenged with ERP responses, which are less class-discriminant between attended and unattended stimuli. Furthermore, these auditory approaches have more complex interfaces which imposes a substantial workload on their users. Aiming for a maximally user-friendly spelling interface, this study introduces a novel auditory paradigm: “CharStreamer”. The speller can be used with an instruction as simple as “please attend to what you want to spell”. The stimuli of CharStreamer comprise 30 spoken sounds of letters and actions. As each of them is represented by the sound of itself and not by an artificial substitute, it can be selected in a one-step procedure. The mental mapping effort (sound stimuli to actions) is thus minimized. Usability is further accounted for by an alphabetical stimulus presentation: contrary to random presentation orders, the user can foresee the presentation time of the target letter sound. Healthy, normal hearing users (n = 10) of the CharStreamer paradigm displayed ERP responses that systematically differed between target and non-target sounds. Class-discriminant features, however, varied individually from the typical N1-P2 complex and P3 ERP components found in control conditions with random sequences. To fully exploit the sequential presentation structure of CharStreamer, novel data analysis approaches and classification methods were introduced. The results of online spelling tests showed that a competitive spelling speed can be achieved with CharStreamer. With respect to user rating, it clearly outperforms a control setup with random presentation sequences. PMID:24886978

N400 Deficits from Semantic Matching of Pictures in Probands and First-Degree Relatives from Multiplex Schizophrenia Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guerra, Seidel; Ibanez, Agustin; Martin, Migdyrai; Bobes, Maria Antonieta; Reyes, Adnelys; Mendoza, Raul; Bravo, Tania; Dominguez, Mayelin; Sosa, Mitchell Valdes

2009-01-01

Endophenotypes is one emerging strategy in schizophrenia research that is being used to identify the functional importance of genetically transmitted, brain-based deficits present in this disease. Currently, event-related potentials (ERPs) are timely used in this search. Several ERPs, including N400, present deficits in relation to schizophrenia.…

Neural activity associated with metaphor comprehension: spatial analysis.

PubMed

Sotillo, María; Carretié, Luis; Hinojosa, José A; Tapia, Manuel; Mercado, Francisco; López-Martín, Sara; Albert, Jacobo

2005-01-03

Though neuropsychological data indicate that the right hemisphere (RH) plays a major role in metaphor processing, other studies suggest that, at least during some phases of this processing, a RH advantage may not exist. The present study explores, through a temporally agile neural signal--the event-related potentials (ERPs)--, and through source-localization algorithms applied to ERP recordings, whether the crucial phase of metaphor comprehension presents or not a RH advantage. Participants (n=24) were submitted to a S1-S2 experimental paradigm. S1 consisted of visually presented metaphoric sentences (e.g., "Green lung of the city"), followed by S2, which consisted of words that could (i.e., "Park") or could not (i.e., "Semaphore") be defined by S1. ERPs elicited by S2 were analyzed using temporal principal component analysis (tPCA) and source-localization algorithms. These analyses revealed that metaphorically related S2 words showed significantly higher N400 amplitudes than non-related S2 words. Source-localization algorithms showed differential activity between the two S2 conditions in the right middle/superior temporal areas. These results support the existence of an important RH contribution to (at least) one phase of metaphor processing and, furthermore, implicate the temporal cortex with respect to that contribution.

Post-Decision Wagering Affects Metacognitive Awareness of Emotional Stimuli: An Event Related Potential Study

PubMed Central

Wierzchoń, Michał; Wronka, Eligiusz; Paulewicz, Borysław; Szczepanowski, Remigiusz

2016-01-01

The present research investigated metacognitive awareness of emotional stimuli and its psychophysiological correlates. We used a backward masking task presenting participants with fearful or neutral faces. We asked participants for face discrimination and then probed their metacognitive awareness with confidence rating (CR) and post-decision wagering (PDW) scales. We also analysed psychophysiological correlates of awareness with event-related potential (ERP) components: P1, N170, early posterior negativity (EPN), and P3. We have not observed any differences between PDW and CR conditions in the emotion identification task. However, the "aware" ratings were associated with increased accuracy performance. This effect was more pronounced in PDW, especially for fearful faces, suggesting that emotional stimuli awareness may be enhanced by monetary incentives. EEG analysis showed larger N170, EPN and P3 amplitudes in aware compared to unaware trials. It also appeared that both EPN and P3 ERP components were more pronounced in the PDW condition, especially when emotional faces were presented. Taken together, our ERP findings suggest that metacognitive awareness of emotional stimuli depends on the effectiveness of both early and late visual information processing. Our study also indicates that awareness of emotional stimuli can be enhanced by the motivation induced by wagering. PMID:27490816

Post-Decision Wagering Affects Metacognitive Awareness of Emotional Stimuli: An Event Related Potential Study.

PubMed

Wierzchoń, Michał; Wronka, Eligiusz; Paulewicz, Borysław; Szczepanowski, Remigiusz

2016-01-01

The present research investigated metacognitive awareness of emotional stimuli and its psychophysiological correlates. We used a backward masking task presenting participants with fearful or neutral faces. We asked participants for face discrimination and then probed their metacognitive awareness with confidence rating (CR) and post-decision wagering (PDW) scales. We also analysed psychophysiological correlates of awareness with event-related potential (ERP) components: P1, N170, early posterior negativity (EPN), and P3. We have not observed any differences between PDW and CR conditions in the emotion identification task. However, the "aware" ratings were associated with increased accuracy performance. This effect was more pronounced in PDW, especially for fearful faces, suggesting that emotional stimuli awareness may be enhanced by monetary incentives. EEG analysis showed larger N170, EPN and P3 amplitudes in aware compared to unaware trials. It also appeared that both EPN and P3 ERP components were more pronounced in the PDW condition, especially when emotional faces were presented. Taken together, our ERP findings suggest that metacognitive awareness of emotional stimuli depends on the effectiveness of both early and late visual information processing. Our study also indicates that awareness of emotional stimuli can be enhanced by the motivation induced by wagering.

Differentiating location- and distance-based processes in memory for time: an ERP study.

PubMed

Curran, Tim; Friedman, William J

2003-09-01

Memory for the time of events may benefit from reconstructive, location-based, and distance-based processes, but these processes are difficult to dissociate with behavioral methods. Neuropsychological research has emphasized the contribution of prefrontal brain mechanisms to memory for time but has not clearly differentiated location- from distance-based processing. The present experiment recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while subjects completed two different temporal memory tests, designed to emphasize either location- or distance-based processing. The subjects' reports of location-based versus distance-based strategies and the reaction time pattern validated our experimental manipulation. Late (800-1,800 msec) frontal ERP effects were related to location-based processing. The results provide support for a two-process theory of memory for time and suggest that frontal memory mechanisms are specifically related to reconstructive, location-based processing.

Explicitly represented polygon wall boundary model for the explicit MPS method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitsume, Naoto; Yoshimura, Shinobu; Murotani, Kohei; Yamada, Tomonori

2015-05-01

This study presents an accurate and robust boundary model, the explicitly represented polygon (ERP) wall boundary model, to treat arbitrarily shaped wall boundaries in the explicit moving particle simulation (E-MPS) method, which is a mesh-free particle method for strong form partial differential equations. The ERP model expresses wall boundaries as polygons, which are explicitly represented without using the distance function. These are derived so that for viscous fluids, and with less computational cost, they satisfy the Neumann boundary condition for the pressure and the slip/no-slip condition on the wall surface. The proposed model is verified and validated by comparing computed results with the theoretical solution, results obtained by other models, and experimental results. Two simulations with complex boundary movements are conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the E-MPS method to the ERP model.

Event-related potential study to aversive auditory stimuli.

PubMed

Czigler, István; Cox, Trevor J; Gyimesi, Kinga; Horváth, János

2007-06-15

In an auditory oddball task emotionally negative (aversive) sounds (e.g. rubbing together of polystyrene) and everyday sounds (e.g. ringing of a bicycle bell) were presented as task-irrelevant (novel) sounds. Both the aversive and the everyday sounds elicited the orientation-related P3a component of the event-related potentials (ERPs). In the 154-250 ms range the ERPs for the aversive sounds were more negative than the ERP of the everyday sounds. For the aversive sounds, this negativity was followed by a frontal positive wave (372-456 ms). The aversive sounds elicited larger late positive shift than the everyday sounds. The early negativity is considered as an initial effect in a broad neural network including limbic structures, while the later is related to the cognitive assessment of the stimuli and to memory-related processes.

Empirical Analysis of EEG and ERPs for Psychophysiological Adaptive Task Allocation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prinzel, Lawrence J., III; Pope, Alan T.; Freeman, Frederick G.; Scerbo, Mark W.; Mikulka, Peter J.

2001-01-01

The present study was designed to test the efficacy of using Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) for making task allocation decisions. Thirty-six participants were randomly assigned to an experimental, yoked, or control group condition. Under the experimental condition, a tracking task was switched between task modes based upon the participant's EEG. The results showed that the use of adaptive aiding improved performance and lowered subjective workload under negative feedback as predicted. Additionally, participants in the adaptive group had significantly lower RMSE and NASA-TLX ratings than participants in either the yoked or control group conditions. Furthermore, the amplitudes of the N1 and P3 ERP components were significantly larger under the experimental group condition than under either the yoked or control group conditions. These results are discussed in terms of the implications for adaptive automation design.

Pay attention to me! Late ERPs reveal gender differences in attention allocated to romantic partners.

PubMed

Burdwood, Erin N; Simons, Robert F

2016-04-01

The present study employed late ERPs to examine differences in the association between neural responses to romantic partners and relationship quality factors across men and women. Participants passively viewed photos of their romantic partners, celebrities, and strangers during a computerized facial processing task. All participants demonstrated enhanced positivity to partner faces at late ERP components (P3 and LPP), furthering the notion that significant others elicit more motivated and sustained attention than do other familiar or unfamiliar individuals. Neural responses to romantic partner faces were influenced by factors including overall relationship quality, investment, and communication quality, with associations varying by gender. Results highlight the key role that relationship quality factors play in the immediate processing of romantic partners-a finding with implications for couples counseling and research. © 2015 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

An ERP study of famous face incongruity detection in middle age.

PubMed

Chaby, L; Jemel, B; George, N; Renault, B; Fiori, N

2001-04-01

Age-related changes in famous face incongruity detection were examined in middle-aged (mean = 50.6) and young (mean = 24.8) subjects. Behavioral and ERP responses were recorded while subjects, after a presentation of a "prime face" (a famous person with the eyes masked), had to decide whether the following "test face" was completed with its authentic eyes (congruent) or with other eyes (incongruent). The principal effects of advancing age were (1) behavioral difficulties in discriminating between incongruent and congruent faces; (2) a reduced N400 effect due to N400 enhancement for both congruent and incongruent faces; (3) a latency increase of both N400 and P600 components. ERPs to primes (face encoding) were not affected by aging. These results are interpreted in terms of early signs of aging. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Tracking the dynamics of the social brain: ERP approaches for social cognitive and affective neuroscience

PubMed Central

Amodio, David M.; Ito, Tiffany A.

2014-01-01

Event-related potential (ERP) approaches to social cognitive and affective neuroscience (SCAN) are not as widely used as other neuroimaging techniques, yet they offer several unique advantages. In particular, the high temporal resolution of ERP measures of neural activity make them ideally suited for studying the dynamic interplay of rapidly unfolding cognitive and affective processes. In this article, we highlight the utility of ERP methods for scientists investigating questions of SCAN. We begin with a brief description of the physiological basis of ERPs and discussion of methodological practices. We then discuss how ERPs may be used to address a range of questions concerning social perception, social cognition, attitudes, affect and self-regulation, with examples of research that has used the ERP approach to contribute important theoretical advances in these areas. Whether used alone or in combination with other techniques, the ERP is an indispensable part of the social and affective neuroscientist’s methodological toolkit. PMID:24319116

Tracking the dynamics of the social brain: ERP approaches for social cognitive and affective neuroscience.

PubMed

Amodio, David M; Bartholow, Bruce D; Ito, Tiffany A

2014-03-01

Event-related potential (ERP) approaches to social cognitive and affective neuroscience (SCAN) are not as widely used as other neuroimaging techniques, yet they offer several unique advantages. In particular, the high temporal resolution of ERP measures of neural activity make them ideally suited for studying the dynamic interplay of rapidly unfolding cognitive and affective processes. In this article, we highlight the utility of ERP methods for scientists investigating questions of SCAN. We begin with a brief description of the physiological basis of ERPs and discussion of methodological practices. We then discuss how ERPs may be used to address a range of questions concerning social perception, social cognition, attitudes, affect and self-regulation, with examples of research that has used the ERP approach to contribute important theoretical advances in these areas. Whether used alone or in combination with other techniques, the ERP is an indispensable part of the social and affective neuroscientist's methodological toolkit.

Trust at first sight: evidence from ERPs.

PubMed

Marzi, Tessa; Righi, Stefania; Ottonello, Sara; Cincotta, Massimo; Viggiano, Maria Pia

2014-01-01

We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to tap the temporal dynamics of first impressions based on face appearance. Participants were asked to evaluate briefly presented faces for trustworthiness and political choice. Behaviorally, participants were better at discriminating faces that were pre-rated as untrustworthy. The ERP results showed that the P100 component was enhanced for untrustworthy faces, consistently with the view that signals of potential threat are given precedence in neural processing. The enhanced ERP responses to untrustworthy faces persisted throughout the processing sequence and the amplitude of early posterior negativity (EPN), and subsequent late positive potential (LPP) was increased with respect to trustworthy faces which, in contrast, elicited an enhanced positivity around 150 ms on frontal sites. These ERP patterns were found specifically for the trustworthiness evaluation and not for the political decision task. Political decision yielded an increase in the N170 amplitude, reflecting a more demanding and taxing structural encoding. Similar ERP responses, as previously reported in the literature for facial expressions processing, were found throughout the entire time course specifically elicited by faces explicitly judged as untrustworthy. One possibility might be that evolution has provided the brain with a 'special toolkit' for trust evaluation that is fast and triggers ERPs related to emotional processing.

sLORETA current source density analysis of evoked potentials for spatial updating in a virtual navigation task

PubMed Central

Nguyen, Hai M.; Matsumoto, Jumpei; Tran, Anh H.; Ono, Taketoshi; Nishijo, Hisao

2014-01-01

Previous studies have reported that multiple brain regions are activated during spatial navigation. However, it is unclear whether these activated brain regions are specifically associated with spatial updating or whether some regions are recruited for parallel cognitive processes. The present study aimed to localize current sources of event related potentials (ERPs) associated with spatial updating specifically. In the control phase of the experiment, electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded while subjects sequentially traced 10 blue checkpoints on the streets of a virtual town, which were sequentially connected by a green line, by manipulating a joystick. In the test phase of the experiment, the checkpoints and green line were not indicated. Instead, a tone was presented when the subjects entered the reference points where they were then required to trace the 10 invisible spatial reference points corresponding to the checkpoints. The vertex-positive ERPs with latencies of approximately 340 ms from the moment when the subjects entered the unmarked reference points were significantly larger in the test than in the control phases. Current source density analysis of the ERPs by standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) indicated activation of brain regions in the test phase that are associated with place and landmark recognition (entorhinal cortex/hippocampus, parahippocampal and retrosplenial cortices, fusiform, and lingual gyri), detecting self-motion (posterior cingulate and posterior insular cortices), motor planning (superior frontal gyrus, including the medial frontal cortex), and regions that process spatial attention (inferior parietal lobule). The present results provide the first identification of the current sources of ERPs associated with spatial updating, and suggest that multiple systems are active in parallel during spatial updating. PMID:24624067

Processing of musical syntax tonic versus subdominant: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Poulin-Charronnat, Bénédicte; Bigand, Emmanuel; Koelsch, Stefan

2006-09-01

The present study investigates the effect of a change in syntactic-like musical function on event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Eight-chord piano sequences were presented to musically expert and novice listeners. Instructed to watch a movie and to ignore the musical sequences, the participants had to react when a chord was played with a different instrument than the piano. Participants were not informed that the relevant manipulation was the musical function of the last chord (target) of the sequences. The target chord acted either as a syntactically stable tonic chord (i.e., a C major chord in the key of C major) or as a less syntactically stable subdominant chord (i.e., a C major chord in the key of G major). The critical aspect of the results related to the impact such a manipulation had on the ERPs. An N5-like frontal negative component was found to be larger for subdominant than for tonic chords and attained significance only in musically expert listeners. These findings suggest that the subdominant chord is more difficult to integrate with the previous context than the tonic chord (as indexing by the observed N5) and that the processing of a small change in musical function occurs in an automatic way in musically expert listeners. The present results are discussed in relation to previous studies investigating harmonic violations with ERPs.

Effect of attentional load on audiovisual speech perception: evidence from ERPs.

PubMed

Alsius, Agnès; Möttönen, Riikka; Sams, Mikko E; Soto-Faraco, Salvador; Tiippana, Kaisa

2014-01-01

Seeing articulatory movements influences perception of auditory speech. This is often reflected in a shortened latency of auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) generated in the auditory cortex. The present study addressed whether this early neural correlate of audiovisual interaction is modulated by attention. We recorded ERPs in 15 subjects while they were presented with auditory, visual, and audiovisual spoken syllables. Audiovisual stimuli consisted of incongruent auditory and visual components known to elicit a McGurk effect, i.e., a visually driven alteration in the auditory speech percept. In a Dual task condition, participants were asked to identify spoken syllables whilst monitoring a rapid visual stream of pictures for targets, i.e., they had to divide their attention. In a Single task condition, participants identified the syllables without any other tasks, i.e., they were asked to ignore the pictures and focus their attention fully on the spoken syllables. The McGurk effect was weaker in the Dual task than in the Single task condition, indicating an effect of attentional load on audiovisual speech perception. Early auditory ERP components, N1 and P2, peaked earlier to audiovisual stimuli than to auditory stimuli when attention was fully focused on syllables, indicating neurophysiological audiovisual interaction. This latency decrement was reduced when attention was loaded, suggesting that attention influences early neural processing of audiovisual speech. We conclude that reduced attention weakens the interaction between vision and audition in speech.

Aging and risky decision-making: New ERP evidence from the Iowa Gambling Task.

PubMed

Di Rosa, Elisa; Mapelli, Daniela; Arcara, Giorgio; Amodio, Piero; Tamburin, Stefano; Schiff, Sami

2017-02-15

Several pieces of evidence have highlighted the presence of an age-related decline in risky decision-making (DM), but the reason of this decline is still unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neural correlates of feedback processing in risky DM. Twenty-one younger (age <50 years) and 15 older (age >50 years) adults were tested with the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) during Event Related Potentials (ERP) recording. The analysis was focused on the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3, two ERP components that represent different stages of feedback processing. Behavioral results revealed that older adults, despite showing a significant learning trend, completed the IGT with a gain of a smaller amount of money compared to the younger ones. ERP results revealed that while the FRN response was comparable in the two groups, the P3 amplitude was significantly reduced after negative feedback in older adults, compared with the younger ones. Furthermore, the difference in the P3 amplitude evoked by positive and negative feedback was significantly correlated with age. Hence, the present findings suggest that older adults seem to be less willing to shift attention from positive to negative information, and that this relevant change in the later stages of feedback processing could be the cause of a poor performance in risky DM contexts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Arousal-state modulation in children with AD/HD.

PubMed

Benikos, Nicholas; Johnstone, Stuart J

2009-01-01

To investigate the effect of arousal-state modulation, via manipulation of stimulus event-rate, on response inhibition in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) using behavioural and ERP measures. Eighteen children with AD/HD, aged 7-14years, and 18 age-and sex-matched controls performed a cued visual Go/Nogo task (70% Go) with stimuli presented at fast, medium and slow event-rates. Task performance and ERPs to Warning, Go and Nogo stimuli, as well as preparation between the S1-S2 interval, were examined for group differences. AD/HD subjects displayed poorer response inhibition during the fast condition, accompanied by a reduced Nogo P3. Group differences during the fast rate extended to Warning cues, with the AD/HD group showing ERP evidence of atypical orienting/preparation, as indexed by the early and late CNV, and early sensory/attentive processing prior to S2. Although deficient response inhibition has been proposed as the core deficit in AD/HD, the results of the present study highlight the key role of energetic factors. Furthermore, group differences found to cues suggest that this effect extends to the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli. This was the first ERP Go/Nogo task investigation using three event-rates, and the results support the theory that state factors may contribute to response inhibition deficits in AD/HD.

Enhanced recovery protocol: implementation at a county institution with limited resources.

PubMed

Rona, Kais; Choi, J; Sigle, G; Kidd, S; Ault, G; Senagore, A J

2012-10-01

The benefits of an enhanced recovery protocol (ERP) in colorectal surgery have been well described; however, data on the implementation process is minimal, especially in a resource-limited institution. The purpose of this study was to evaluate outcomes during implementation of a physician-driven ERP at a public-funded institution. We retrospectively reviewed all elective colorectal surgery during a transition from standard care to an ERP (implemented via a standard order sheet). Data regarding use of care plan, length of stay (LOS), and rates of postoperative complications and readmission were recorded. One hundred eleven patients were included in the study; however, complete use of the ERP after its introduction occurred in a total of 50 patients for a compliance rate of 60 per cent (95% confidence interval [CI], 49 to 70). Late implementation of ERP diet, analgesics, and activity were the most common process errors. Full application of the ERP reduced mean LOS by 3 days (P=0.002), and there was a trend toward decreased postoperative morbidity without an increase in readmission rate (P=0.61). Full implementation of an ERP for colorectal surgery faces many challenges in a resource-limited county institution; however, when fully applied, the ERP safely reduced overall LOS, which is important in cost containment.

Combining features from ERP components in single-trial EEG for discriminating four-category visual objects.

PubMed

Wang, Changming; Xiong, Shi; Hu, Xiaoping; Yao, Li; Zhang, Jiacai

2012-10-01

Categorization of images containing visual objects can be successfully recognized using single-trial electroencephalograph (EEG) measured when subjects view images. Previous studies have shown that task-related information contained in event-related potential (ERP) components could discriminate two or three categories of object images. In this study, we investigated whether four categories of objects (human faces, buildings, cats and cars) could be mutually discriminated using single-trial EEG data. Here, the EEG waveforms acquired while subjects were viewing four categories of object images were segmented into several ERP components (P1, N1, P2a and P2b), and then Fisher linear discriminant analysis (Fisher-LDA) was used to classify EEG features extracted from ERP components. Firstly, we compared the classification results using features from single ERP components, and identified that the N1 component achieved the highest classification accuracies. Secondly, we discriminated four categories of objects using combining features from multiple ERP components, and showed that combination of ERP components improved four-category classification accuracies by utilizing the complementarity of discriminative information in ERP components. These findings confirmed that four categories of object images could be discriminated with single-trial EEG and could direct us to select effective EEG features for classifying visual objects.

Predicting variations of perceptual performance across individuals from neural activity using pattern classifiers.

PubMed

Das, Koel; Giesbrecht, Barry; Eckstein, Miguel P

2010-07-15

Within the past decade computational approaches adopted from the field of machine learning have provided neuroscientists with powerful new tools for analyzing neural data. For instance, previous studies have applied pattern classification algorithms to electroencephalography data to predict the category of presented visual stimuli, human observer decision choices and task difficulty. Here, we quantitatively compare the ability of pattern classifiers and three ERP metrics (peak amplitude, mean amplitude, and onset latency of the face-selective N170) to predict variations across individuals' behavioral performance in a difficult perceptual task identifying images of faces and cars embedded in noise. We investigate three different pattern classifiers (Classwise Principal Component Analysis, CPCA; Linear Discriminant Analysis, LDA; and Support Vector Machine, SVM), five training methods differing in the selection of training data sets and three analyses procedures for the ERP measures. We show that all three pattern classifier algorithms surpass traditional ERP measurements in their ability to predict individual differences in performance. Although the differences across pattern classifiers were not large, the CPCA method with training data sets restricted to EEG activity for trials in which observers expressed high confidence about their decisions performed the highest at predicting perceptual performance of observers. We also show that the neural activity predicting the performance across individuals was distributed through time starting at 120ms, and unlike the face-selective ERP response, sustained for more than 400ms after stimulus presentation, indicating that both early and late components contain information correlated with observers' behavioral performance. Together, our results further demonstrate the potential of pattern classifiers compared to more traditional ERP techniques as an analysis tool for modeling spatiotemporal dynamics of the human brain and relating neural activity to behavior. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

No effects of a single 3G UMTS mobile phone exposure on spontaneous EEG activity, ERP correlates, and automatic deviance detection.

PubMed

Trunk, Attila; Stefanics, Gábor; Zentai, Norbert; Kovács-Bálint, Zsófia; Thuróczy, György; Hernádi, István

2013-01-01

Potential effects of a 30 min exposure to third generation (3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile phone-like electromagnetic fields (EMFs) were investigated on human brain electrical activity in two experiments. In the first experiment, spontaneous electroencephalography (sEEG) was analyzed (n = 17); in the second experiment, auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) and automatic deviance detection processes reflected by mismatch negativity (MMN) were investigated in a passive oddball paradigm (n = 26). Both sEEG and ERP experiments followed a double-blind protocol where subjects were exposed to either genuine or sham irradiation in two separate sessions. In both experiments, electroencephalograms (EEG) were recorded at midline electrode sites before and after exposure while subjects were watching a silent documentary. Spectral power of sEEG data was analyzed in the delta, theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands. In the ERP experiment, subjects were presented with a random series of standard (90%) and frequency-deviant (10%) tones in a passive binaural oddball paradigm. The amplitude and latency of the P50, N100, P200, MMN, and P3a components were analyzed. We found no measurable effects of a 30 min 3G mobile phone irradiation on the EEG spectral power in any frequency band studied. Also, we found no significant effects of EMF irradiation on the amplitude and latency of any of the ERP components. In summary, the present results do not support the notion that a 30 min unilateral 3G EMF exposure interferes with human sEEG activity, auditory evoked potentials or automatic deviance detection indexed by MMN. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

ERPs and Psychopathology. I. Behavioral process issues.

PubMed

Roth, W T; Tecce, J J; Pfefferbaum, A; Rosenbloom, M; Callaway, E

1984-01-01

The clinical study of ERPs has an inherent defect--a self-selection of clinical populations that hampers equating of clinically defined groups on factors extraneous to the independent variables. Such ex post facto studies increase the likelihood of confounding variables in the interpretation of findings. Hence, the development of lawful relationships between clinical variables and ERPs is impeded and the fulfillment of description, explanation, prediction, and control in brain science is thwarted. Proper methodologies and theory development can increase the likelihood of establishing these lawful relationships. One methodology of potential value in the clinical application of ERPs, particularly in studies of aging, is that of divided attention. Two promising theoretical developments in the understanding of brain functioning and aging are the distraction-arousal hypothesis and the controlled-automatic attention model. The evaluation of ERPs in the study of brain-behavior relations in clinical populations might be facilitated by the differentiation of concurrent, predictive, content, and construct validities.

When people matter more than money: an ERPs study.

PubMed

Rigoni, Davide; Polezzi, David; Rumiati, Rino; Guarino, Ramona; Sartori, Giuseppe

2010-03-16

In the present study, we showed that, in a social gambling task, individuals are influenced more by the type of social interaction than by the pattern of gains and losses. More precisely, the neural responses, as well as the level of pleasantness/unpleasantness following gains and losses, are modulated by social interaction factors. Here we present an Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) study in which three groups of participants were compared. Subjects were engaged in gambling tasks differing with regard to social factors: in a first condition, there was no social context; in a second condition, participants compared their outcomes with those of another individual; in a third condition, participants competed for a limited amount of money with another contender. In all conditions, all participants were revealed the outcome of an unselected alternative (non-obtained outcome) prior to the payoff associated with their selected option (obtained outcome). In addition, affective ratings were measured after the outcomes were presented. In the group without social context, ERPs results replicated previous findings. Interestingly, the P200 was modulated by varying social contexts, suggesting that attentive resources allocated to payoffs in comparison and competitive situations are decreased presumably in favor of social cues. Furthermore, Feedback Related Negativity (FRN) was predictive of the subjective feeling of pleasantness/unpleasantness following monetary outcomes. The present data provide information about neural and cognitive processing underlying economic decision-making when other individuals are involved. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Grammatical number agreement processing using the visual half-field paradigm: an event-related brain potential study.

PubMed

Kemmer, Laura; Coulson, Seana; Kutas, Marta

2014-02-01

Despite indications in the split-brain and lesion literatures that the right hemisphere is capable of some syntactic analysis, few studies have investigated right hemisphere contributions to syntactic processing in people with intact brains. Here we used the visual half-field paradigm in healthy adults to examine each hemisphere's processing of correct and incorrect grammatical number agreement marked either lexically, e.g., antecedent/reflexive pronoun ("The grateful niece asked herself/*themselves…") or morphologically, e.g., subject/verb ("Industrial scientists develop/*develops…"). For reflexives, response times and accuracy of grammaticality decisions suggested similar processing regardless of visual field of presentation. In the subject/verb condition, we observed similar response times and accuracies for central and right visual field (RVF) presentations. For left visual field (LVF) presentation, response times were longer and accuracy rates were reduced relative to RVF presentation. An event-related brain potential (ERP) study using the same materials revealed similar ERP responses to the reflexive pronouns in the two visual fields, but very different ERP effects to the subject/verb violations. For lexically marked violations on reflexives, P600 was elicited by stimuli in both the LVF and RVF; for morphologically marked violations on verbs, P600 was elicited only by RVF stimuli. These data suggest that both hemispheres can process lexically marked pronoun agreement violations, and do so in a similar fashion. Morphologically marked subject/verb agreement errors, however, showed a distinct LH advantage. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Grammatical number agreement processing using the visual half-field paradigm: An event-related brain potential study

PubMed Central

Kemmer, Laura; Coulson, Seana; Kutas, Marta

2014-01-01

Despite indications in the split-brain and lesion literatures that the right hemisphere is capable of some syntactic analysis, few studies have investigated right hemisphere contributions to syntactic processing in people with intact brains. Here we used the visual half-field paradigm in healthy adults to examine each hemisphere’s processing of correct and incorrect grammatical number agreement marked either lexically, e.g., antecedent/reflexive pronoun (“The grateful niece asked herself/*themselves…”) or morphologically, e.g., subject/verb (“Industrial scientists develop/*develops…”). For reflexives, response times and accuracy of grammaticality decisions suggested similar processing regardless of visual field of presentation. In the subject/verb condition, we observed similar response times and accuracies for central and right visual field (RVF) presentations. For left visual field (LVF) presentation, response times were longer and accuracy rates were reduced relative to RVF presentation. An event-related brain potential (ERP) study using the same materials revealed similar ERP responses to the reflexive pronouns in the two visual fields, but very different ERP effects to the subject/verb violations. For lexically marked violations on reflexives, P600 was elicited by stimuli in both the LVF and RVF; for morphologically marked violations on verbs, P600 was elicited only by RVF stimuli. These data suggest that both hemispheres can process lexically marked pronoun agreement violations, and do so in a similar fashion. Morphologically marked subject/verb agreement errors, however, showed a distinct LH advantage. PMID:24326084

A Multi-Dimensional Functional Principal Components Analysis of EEG Data

PubMed Central

Hasenstab, Kyle; Scheffler, Aaron; Telesca, Donatello; Sugar, Catherine A.; Jeste, Shafali; DiStefano, Charlotte; Şentürk, Damla

2017-01-01

Summary The electroencephalography (EEG) data created in event-related potential (ERP) experiments have a complex high-dimensional structure. Each stimulus presentation, or trial, generates an ERP waveform which is an instance of functional data. The experiments are made up of sequences of multiple trials, resulting in longitudinal functional data and moreover, responses are recorded at multiple electrodes on the scalp, adding an electrode dimension. Traditional EEG analyses involve multiple simplifications of this structure to increase the signal-to-noise ratio, effectively collapsing the functional and longitudinal components by identifying key features of the ERPs and averaging them across trials. Motivated by an implicit learning paradigm used in autism research in which the functional, longitudinal and electrode components all have critical interpretations, we propose a multidimensional functional principal components analysis (MD-FPCA) technique which does not collapse any of the dimensions of the ERP data. The proposed decomposition is based on separation of the total variation into subject and subunit level variation which are further decomposed in a two-stage functional principal components analysis. The proposed methodology is shown to be useful for modeling longitudinal trends in the ERP functions, leading to novel insights into the learning patterns of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their typically developing peers as well as comparisons between the two groups. Finite sample properties of MD-FPCA are further studied via extensive simulations. PMID:28072468

A multi-dimensional functional principal components analysis of EEG data.

PubMed

Hasenstab, Kyle; Scheffler, Aaron; Telesca, Donatello; Sugar, Catherine A; Jeste, Shafali; DiStefano, Charlotte; Şentürk, Damla

2017-09-01

The electroencephalography (EEG) data created in event-related potential (ERP) experiments have a complex high-dimensional structure. Each stimulus presentation, or trial, generates an ERP waveform which is an instance of functional data. The experiments are made up of sequences of multiple trials, resulting in longitudinal functional data and moreover, responses are recorded at multiple electrodes on the scalp, adding an electrode dimension. Traditional EEG analyses involve multiple simplifications of this structure to increase the signal-to-noise ratio, effectively collapsing the functional and longitudinal components by identifying key features of the ERPs and averaging them across trials. Motivated by an implicit learning paradigm used in autism research in which the functional, longitudinal, and electrode components all have critical interpretations, we propose a multidimensional functional principal components analysis (MD-FPCA) technique which does not collapse any of the dimensions of the ERP data. The proposed decomposition is based on separation of the total variation into subject and subunit level variation which are further decomposed in a two-stage functional principal components analysis. The proposed methodology is shown to be useful for modeling longitudinal trends in the ERP functions, leading to novel insights into the learning patterns of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their typically developing peers as well as comparisons between the two groups. Finite sample properties of MD-FPCA are further studied via extensive simulations. © 2017, The International Biometric Society.

The role of semantic and phonological factors in word recognition: an ERP cross-modal priming study of derivational morphology.

PubMed

Kielar, Aneta; Joanisse, Marc F

2011-01-01

Theories of morphological processing differ on the issue of how lexical and grammatical information are stored and accessed. A key point of contention is whether complex forms are decomposed during recognition (e.g., establish+ment), compared to forms that cannot be analyzed into constituent morphemes (e.g., apartment). In the present study, we examined these issues with respect to English derivational morphology by measuring ERP responses during a cross-modal priming lexical decision task. ERP priming effects for semantically and phonologically transparent derived words (government-govern) were compared to those of semantically opaque derived words (apartment-apart) as well as "quasi-regular" items that represent intermediate cases of morphological transparency (dresser-dress). Additional conditions independently manipulated semantic and phonological relatedness in non-derived words (semantics: couch-sofa; phonology: panel-pan). The degree of N400 ERP priming to morphological forms varied depending on the amount of semantic and phonological overlap between word types, rather than respecting a bivariate distinction between derived and opaque forms. Moreover, these effects could not be accounted for by semantic or phonological relatedness alone. The findings support the theory that morphological relatedness is graded rather than absolute, and depend on the joint contribution of form and meaning overlap. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Gaze Independent Brain-Computer Interface Based on Visual Stimulation through Closed Eyelids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hwang, Han-Jeong; Ferreria, Valeria Y.; Ulrich, Daniel; Kilic, Tayfun; Chatziliadis, Xenofon; Blankertz, Benjamin; Treder, Matthias

2015-10-01

A classical brain-computer interface (BCI) based on visual event-related potentials (ERPs) is of limited application value for paralyzed patients with severe oculomotor impairments. In this study, we introduce a novel gaze independent BCI paradigm that can be potentially used for such end-users because visual stimuli are administered on closed eyelids. The paradigm involved verbally presented questions with 3 possible answers. Online BCI experiments were conducted with twelve healthy subjects, where they selected one option by attending to one of three different visual stimuli. It was confirmed that typical cognitive ERPs can be evidently modulated by the attention of a target stimulus in eyes-closed and gaze independent condition, and further classified with high accuracy during online operation (74.58% ± 17.85 s.d.; chance level 33.33%), demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed novel visual ERP paradigm. Also, stimulus-specific eye movements observed during stimulation were verified as reflex responses to light stimuli, and they did not contribute to classification. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to show the possibility of using a gaze independent visual ERP paradigm in an eyes-closed condition, thereby providing another communication option for severely locked-in patients suffering from complex ocular dysfunctions.

Modality Switching in a Property Verification Task: An ERP Study of What Happens When Candles Flicker after High Heels Click

PubMed Central

Collins, Jennifer; Pecher, Diane; Zeelenberg, René; Coulson, Seana

2011-01-01

The perceptual modalities associated with property words, such as flicker or click, have previously been demonstrated to affect subsequent property verification judgments (Pecher et al., 2003). Known as the conceptual modality switch effect, this finding supports the claim that brain systems for perception and action help subserve the representation of concepts. The present study addressed the cognitive and neural substrate of this effect by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) as participants performed a property verification task with visual or auditory properties in key trials. We found that for visual property verifications, modality switching was associated with an increased amplitude N400. For auditory verifications, switching led to a larger late positive complex. Observed ERP effects of modality switching suggest property words access perceptual brain systems. Moreover, the timing and pattern of the effects suggest perceptual systems impact the decision-making stage in the verification of auditory properties, and the semantic stage in the verification of visual properties. PMID:21713128

Modality Switching in a Property Verification Task: An ERP Study of What Happens When Candles Flicker after High Heels Click.

PubMed

Collins, Jennifer; Pecher, Diane; Zeelenberg, René; Coulson, Seana

2011-01-01

The perceptual modalities associated with property words, such as flicker or click, have previously been demonstrated to affect subsequent property verification judgments (Pecher et al., 2003). Known as the conceptual modality switch effect, this finding supports the claim that brain systems for perception and action help subserve the representation of concepts. The present study addressed the cognitive and neural substrate of this effect by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) as participants performed a property verification task with visual or auditory properties in key trials. We found that for visual property verifications, modality switching was associated with an increased amplitude N400. For auditory verifications, switching led to a larger late positive complex. Observed ERP effects of modality switching suggest property words access perceptual brain systems. Moreover, the timing and pattern of the effects suggest perceptual systems impact the decision-making stage in the verification of auditory properties, and the semantic stage in the verification of visual properties.

Conflict-Specific Aging Effects Mainly Manifest in Early Information Processing Stages-An ERP Study with Different Conflict Types.

PubMed

Korsch, Margarethe; Frühholz, Sascha; Herrmann, Manfred

2016-01-01

Aging is usually accompanied by alterations of cognitive control functions such as conflict processing. Recent research suggests that aging effects on cognitive control seem to vary with degree and source of conflict, and conflict specific aging effects on performance measures as well as neural activation patterns have been shown. However, there is sparse information whether and how aging affects different stages of conflict processing as indicated by event related potentials (ERPs) such as the P2, N2 and P3 components. In the present study, 19 young and 23 elderly adults performed a combined Flanker conflict and stimulus-response-conflict (SRC) task. Analysis of the reaction times (RTs) revealed an increased SRC related conflict effect in elderly. ERP analysis furthermore demonstrated an age-related increase of the P2 amplitude in response to the SRC task. In addition, elderly adults exhibited an increased P3 amplitude modulation induced by incongruent SRC and Flanker conflict trials.

Implicit conditioning of faces via the social regulation of emotion: ERP evidence of early attentional biases for security conditioned faces.

PubMed

Beckes, Lane; Coan, James A; Morris, James P

2013-08-01

Not much is known about the neural and psychological processes that promote the initial conditions necessary for positive social bonding. This study explores one method of conditioned bonding utilizing dynamics related to the social regulation of emotion and attachment theory. This form of conditioning involves repeated presentations of negative stimuli followed by images of warm, smiling faces. L. Beckes, J. Simpson, and A. Erickson (2010) found that this conditioning procedure results in positive associations with the faces measured via a lexical decision task, suggesting they are perceived as comforting. This study found that the P1 ERP was similarly modified by this conditioning procedure and the P1 amplitude predicted lexical decision times to insecure words primed by the faces. The findings have implications for understanding how the brain detects supportive people, the flexibility and modifiability of early ERP components, and social bonding more broadly. Copyright © 2013 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Alterations in neural processing of emotional faces in adolescent anorexia nervosa patients - an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Sfärlea, Anca; Greimel, Ellen; Platt, Belinda; Bartling, Jürgen; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Dieler, Alica C

2016-09-01

The present study explored the neurophysiological correlates of perception and recognition of emotional facial expressions in adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) patients using event-related potentials (ERPs). We included 20 adolescent girls with AN and 24 healthy girls and recorded ERPs during a passive viewing task and three active tasks requiring processing of emotional faces in varying processing depths; one of the tasks also assessed emotion recognition abilities behaviourally. Despite the absence of behavioural differences, we found that across all tasks AN patients exhibited a less pronounced early posterior negativity (EPN) in response to all facial expressions compared to controls. The EPN is an ERP component reflecting an automatic, perceptual processing stage which is modulated by the intrinsic salience of a stimulus. Hence, the less pronounced EPN in anorexic girls suggests that they might perceive other people's faces as less intrinsically relevant, i.e. as less "important" than do healthy girls. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neural Manifestations of Implicit Self-Esteem: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Wu, Lili; Cai, Huajian; Gu, Ruolei; Luo, Yu L. L.; Zhang, Jianxin; Yang, Jing; Shi, Yuanyuan; Ding, Lei

2014-01-01

Behavioral research has established that humans implicitly tend to hold a positive view toward themselves. In this study, we employed the event-related potential (ERP) technique to explore neural manifestations of positive implicit self-esteem using the Go/Nogo association task (GNAT). Participants generated a response (Go) or withheld a response (Nogo) to self or others words and good or bad attributes. Behavioral data showed that participants responded faster to the self paired with good than the self paired with bad, whereas the opposite proved true for others, reflecting the positive nature of implicit self-esteem. ERP results showed an augmented N200 over the frontal areas in Nogo responses relative to Go responses. Moreover, the positive implicit self-positivity bias delayed the onset time of the N200 wave difference between Nogo and Go trials, suggesting that positive implicit self-esteem is manifested on neural activity about 270 ms after the presentation of self-relevant stimuli. These findings provide neural evidence for the positivity and automaticity of implicit self-esteem. PMID:25006966

Adjectives That Aren't: An ERP-Theoretical Analysis of Adjectives in Spanish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartlett, Laura B.

2013-01-01

This thesis investigates the syntactic status of adjectives in Spanish through a crossdisciplinary perspective, incorporating methodologies from both theoretical linguistics and neurolinguistics, specifically, event-related potentials (ERPs). It presents conflicting theories about the syntax of adjectives and explores the ways that the processing…

Early visual ERPs are influenced by individual emotional skills.

PubMed

Meaux, Emilie; Roux, Sylvie; Batty, Magali

2014-08-01

Processing information from faces is crucial to understanding others and to adapting to social life. Many studies have investigated responses to facial emotions to provide a better understanding of the processes and the neural networks involved. Moreover, several studies have revealed abnormalities of emotional face processing and their neural correlates in affective disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate whether early visual event-related potentials (ERPs) are affected by the emotional skills of healthy adults. Unfamiliar faces expressing the six basic emotions were presented to 28 young adults while recording visual ERPs. No specific task was required during the recording. Participants also completed the Social Skills Inventory (SSI) which measures social and emotional skills. The results confirmed that early visual ERPs (P1, N170) are affected by the emotions expressed by a face and also demonstrated that N170 and P2 are correlated to the emotional skills of healthy subjects. While N170 is sensitive to the subject's emotional sensitivity and expressivity, P2 is modulated by the ability of the subjects to control their emotions. We therefore suggest that N170 and P2 could be used as individual markers to assess strengths and weaknesses in emotional areas and could provide information for further investigations of affective disorders. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Heritability of the neural response to emotional pictures: evidence from ERPs in an adult twin sample.

PubMed

Weinberg, Anna; Venables, Noah C; Proudfit, Greg Hajcak; Patrick, Christopher J

2015-03-01

Affect-modulated event-related potentials (ERPs) are increasingly used to study psychopathology and individual differences in emotion processing. Many have suggested that variation in these neural responses reflects genetically mediated risk. However, to date, no studies have demonstrated genetic contributions to affect-modulated ERPs. The present study therefore sought to examine the heritability of a range of ERPs elicited during affective picture viewing. One hundred and thirty monozygotic and 124 dizygotic twin pairs passively viewed 30 pleasant, 30 neutral and 30 unpleasant images for 6 s each. The early posterior negativity was scored for each subject; in addition, the P300/late positive potential (LPP) was scored in multiple time windows and sites. Results indicate that the centro-parietal P300 (occurring between 300 and 600 ms) is subject to substantial genetic contributions. Furthermore, variance in the P300 elicited by affective stimuli was moderately heritable even after controlling for the P300 elicited by neutral stimuli. Later and more frontal activation (i.e. between 1000 and 3000 ms) also showed evidence of heritablity. Early parietal, and perhaps later frontal portions of the P300/LPP complex, may therefore represent promising neurobehavioral markers of genetically influenced processing of emotional information. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The electrocortical correlates of fluctuating states of attention during vigilance tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cunningham, Stephen G.; Freeman, Frederick

1994-01-01

This study investigated the electrocortical correlates of attention. Sixteen subjects (seven females, nine males) engaged in a forty-minute target detection vigilance task. Task-irrelevant probe tones were presented every 2-4 seconds. While performing the vigilance task, the subjects were asked to press a button if they were daydreaming (i.e. having a task unrelated thought or TUT). Continuous electroencephalograms (EEG's) and event-related potentials (ERP's) were recorded from the subjects during the entire task. The continuous EEG data were analyzed for differences in absolute power throughout the task as well as before and after the subjects indicated that they were daydreaming (TUT response). ERP's elicited by task-irrelevant probe tones were analyzed in the same manner. The results indicated performance decrements as reflected by increased RT to correct detections, and decreased number of hits. Further, as the task progressed, the number of reports of daydreaming increased. The analysis of the EEG data indicated a significant difference in the absolute power of the different frequency bands across periods. The greatest difference was observed at the posterior parietal electrode sites. In addition, when the EEG data was converted into band ratios (beta/alpha and beta/alpha+theta), the pre-TUT conditions were found to be significantly different than the post-TUT conditions in the posterior sites. The ERP components (N1, N2, and P2) were not significantly different before and after a TUT response or across periods. However, the ERP's across periods exhibited amplitudes that were similar to those found in previous studies of vigilance and ERP's.

Deficits of unconscious emotional processing in patients with major depression: An ERP study.

PubMed

Zhang, Dandan; He, Zhenhong; Chen, Yuming; Wei, Zhaoguo

2016-07-15

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with behavioral and neurobiological evidences of negative bias in unconscious emotional processing. However, little is known about the time course of this deficit. The current study aimed to explore the unconscious processing of emotional facial expressions in MDD patients by means of event-related potentials (ERPs). The ERP responses to subliminally presented happy/neutral/sad faces were recorded in 26 medication-free patients and 26 healthy controls in a backward masking task. Three ERP components were compared between patients and controls. Detection accuracy was at chance level for both groups, suggesting that the process was performed in the absence of conscious awareness of the emotional stimuli. Robust emotion×group interactions were observed in P1, N170 and P3. Compared with the neutral faces, 1) the patients showed larger P1 for sad and smaller P1 for happy faces; however, the controls showed a completely inverse P1 pattern; 2) the controls exhibited larger N170 in the happy but not in the sad trials, whereas patients had comparable larger N170 amplitudes in sad and happy trials; 3) although both groups exhibited larger P3 for emotional faces, the patients showed a priority for sad trials while the controls showed a priority for happy trials. Our data suggested that negative processing bias exists on the unconscious level in individuals with MDD. The ERP measures indicated that the unconscious emotional processing in MDD patients has a time course of three-stage deflection. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Event-related potential studies of outcome processing and feedback-guided learning.

PubMed

San Martín, René

2012-01-01

In order to control behavior in an adaptive manner the brain has to learn how some situations and actions predict positive or negative outcomes. During the last decade cognitive neuroscientists have shown that the brain is able to evaluate and learn from outcomes within a few hundred milliseconds of their occurrence. This research has been primarily focused on the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the P3, two event-related potential (ERP) components that are elicited by outcomes. The FRN is a frontally distributed negative-polarity ERP component that typically reaches its maximal amplitude 250 ms after outcome presentation and tends to be larger for negative than for positive outcomes. The FRN has been associated with activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The P3 (~300-600 ms) is a parietally distributed positive-polarity ERP component that tends to be larger for large magnitude than for small magnitude outcomes. The neural sources of the P3 are probably distributed over different regions of the cortex. This paper examines the theories that have been proposed to explain the functional role of these two ERP components during outcome processing. Special attention is paid to extant literature addressing how these ERP components are modulated by outcome valence (negative vs. positive), outcome magnitude (large vs. small), outcome probability (unlikely vs. likely), and behavioral adjustment. The literature offers few generalizable conclusions, but is beset with a number of inconsistencies across studies. This paper discusses the potential reasons for these inconsistencies and points out some challenges that probably will shape the field over the next decade.

The role of retrieval mode and retrieval orientation in retrieval practice: insights from comparing recognition memory testing formats and restudying.

PubMed

Gao, Chuanji; Rosburg, Timm; Hou, Mingzhu; Li, Bingbing; Xiao, Xin; Guo, Chunyan

2016-12-01

The effectiveness of retrieval practice for aiding long-term memory, referred to as the testing effect, has been widely demonstrated. However, the specific neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain unclear. In the present study, we sought to explore the role of pre-retrieval processes at initial testing on later recognition performance by using event-related potentials (ERPs). Subjects studied two lists of words (Chinese characters) and then performed a recognition task or a source memory task, or restudied the word lists. At the end of the experiment, subjects received a final recognition test based on the remember-know paradigm. Behaviorally, initial testing (active retrieval) enhanced memory retention relative to restudying (passive retrieval). The retrieval mode at initial testing was indexed by more positive-going ERPs for unstudied items in the active-retrieval tasks than in passive retrieval from 300 to 900 ms. Follow-up analyses showed that the magnitude of the early ERP retrieval mode effect (300-500 ms) was predictive of the behavioral testing effect later on. In addition, the ERPs for correctly rejected new items during initial testing differed between the two active-retrieval tasks from 500 to 900 ms, and this ERP retrieval orientation effect predicted differential behavioral testing gains between the two active-retrieval conditions. Our findings confirm that initial testing promotes later retrieval relative to restudying, and they further suggest that adopting pre-retrieval processing in the forms of retrieval mode and retrieval orientation might contribute to these memory enhancements.

Exposure and response prevention process predicts treatment outcome in youth with OCD.

PubMed

Kircanski, Katharina; Peris, Tara S

2015-04-01

Recent research on the treatment of adults with anxiety disorders suggests that aspects of the in-session exposure therapy process are relevant to clinical outcomes. However, few comprehensive studies have been conducted with children and adolescents. In the present study, 35 youth diagnosed with primary obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD; M age = 12.9 years, 49% male, 63% Caucasian) completed 12 sessions of exposure and response prevention (ERP) in one of two treatment conditions as part of a pilot randomized controlled testing of a family focused intervention for OCD. Key exposure process variables, including youth self-reported distress during ERP and the quantity and quality of ERP completed, were computed. These variables were examined as predictors of treatment outcomes assessed at mid-treatment, post-treatment, and three-month follow-up, partialing treatment condition. In general, greater variability of distress during ERP and completing a greater proportion of combined exposures (i.e., exposures targeting more than one OC symptom at once) were predictive of better outcomes. Conversely, greater distress at the end of treatment was generally predictive of poorer outcomes. Finally, several variables, including within- and between-session decreases in distress during ERP, were not consistently predictive of outcomes. Findings signal potentially important facets of exposure for youth with OCD and have implications for treatment. A number of results also parallel recent findings in the adult literature, suggesting that there may be some continuity in exposure processes from child to adult development. Future work should examine additional measures of exposure process, such as psychophysiological arousal during exposure, in youth.

Plasticity in the adult language system: a longitudinal electrophysiological study on second language learning.

PubMed

Stein, M; Dierks, T; Brandeis, D; Wirth, M; Strik, W; Koenig, T

2006-11-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to trace changes in brain activity related to progress in second language learning. Twelve English-speaking exchange students learning German in Switzerland were recruited. ERPs to visually presented single words from the subjects' native language (English), second language (German) and an unknown language (Romansh) were measured before (day 1) and after (day 2) 5 months of intense German language learning. When comparing ERPs to German words from day 1 and day 2, we found topographic differences between 396 and 540 ms. These differences could be interpreted as a latency shift indicating faster processing of German words on day 2. Source analysis indicated that the topographic differences were accounted for by shorter activation of left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) on day 2. In ERPs to English words, we found Global Field Power differences between 472 and 644 ms. This may due to memory traces related to English words being less easily activated on day 2. Alternatively, it might reflect the fact that--with German words becoming familiar on day 2--English words loose their oddball character and thus produce a weaker P300-like effect on day 2. In ERPs to Romansh words, no differences were observed. Our results reflect plasticity in the neuronal networks underlying second language acquisition. They indicate that with a higher level of second language proficiency, second language word processing is faster and requires shorter frontal activation. Thus, our results suggest that the reduced IFG activation found in previous fMRI studies might not reflect a generally lower activation but rather a shorter duration of activity.

Seven years follow-up of early repolarisation patterns in French elite special forces.

PubMed

Roche, Nicolas-Charles; Massoure, Pierre-Laurent; Deharo, Jean-Claude; Paule, Philippe; Fourcade, Laurent

2018-06-01

The early repolarization pattern (ERP) may be a marker of increased risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD). Influence of ethnicity on the ERP has not been extensively studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiology of ERP in a male multiethnic population. ECG analysis was performed among consecutive recruits from the French Foreign Legion. ERP was characterized by a J-point elevation ≥0.1 mV in two continuous inferior-lateral leads, and high amplitude early repolarization (HAER-potentially malignant pattern) by an elevation ≥0.2 mV. Ethnical affiliation and level of physical activity were recorded. A total of 2508 healthy men (24 ± 5 years old) from 105 different native countries were divided into three ethnic groups: 1689 Whites, 388 Afro-Caribbean, and 431 Asians. ERP was found in 489 recruits (19%), 14% in Whites, 33% in Afro-Caribbeans, and 27% in Asians without any difference according to age and physical activity. Sub-Saharan Africans or Caribbeans had the highest rate of ERP (30%), and Hispanics the lowest (8%). People from occidental countries, Middle East, Central Asia or India had a rate of 12%-18%, East and South-Asia 20%-25%. Madagascar was an exception with only 16% of ERP. HAER (2.9%) was more frequent among Asian recruits. After 5 ± 2 years of follow up, one SCD occurred in the ERP group (p = 0.042). This study reports a large multiethnic analysis of ERP. HAER was more frequent in recruits from East and South-East Asia where sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome is endemic. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Does bimodal stimulus presentation increase ERP components usable in BCIs?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thurlings, Marieke E.; Brouwer, Anne-Marie; Van Erp, Jan B. F.; Blankertz, Benjamin; Werkhoven, Peter J.

2012-08-01

Event-related potential (ERP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) employ differences in brain responses to attended and ignored stimuli. Typically, visual stimuli are used. Tactile stimuli have recently been suggested as a gaze-independent alternative. Bimodal stimuli could evoke additional brain activity due to multisensory integration which may be of use in BCIs. We investigated the effect of visual-tactile stimulus presentation on the chain of ERP components, BCI performance (classification accuracies and bitrates) and participants’ task performance (counting of targets). Ten participants were instructed to navigate a visual display by attending (spatially) to targets in sequences of either visual, tactile or visual-tactile stimuli. We observe that attending to visual-tactile (compared to either visual or tactile) stimuli results in an enhanced early ERP component (N1). This bimodal N1 may enhance BCI performance, as suggested by a nonsignificant positive trend in offline classification accuracies. A late ERP component (P300) is reduced when attending to visual-tactile compared to visual stimuli, which is consistent with the nonsignificant negative trend of participants’ task performance. We discuss these findings in the light of affected spatial attention at high-level compared to low-level stimulus processing. Furthermore, we evaluate bimodal BCIs from a practical perspective and for future applications.

Telling good from bad news: ADHD differentially affects processing of positive and negative feedback during guessing.

PubMed

van Meel, Catharina S; Oosterlaan, Jaap; Heslenfeld, Dirk J; Sergeant, Joseph A

2005-01-01

Neuroimaging studies on ADHD suggest abnormalities in brain regions associated with decision-making and reward processing such as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and orbitofrontal cortex. Recently, event-related potential (ERP) studies demonstrated that the ACC is involved in processing feedback signals during guessing and gambling. The resulting negative deflection, the 'feedback-related negativity' (FRN) has been interpreted as reflecting an error in reward prediction. In the present study, ERPs elicited by positive and negative feedback were recorded in children with ADHD and normal controls during guessing. 'Correct' and 'incorrect' guesses resulted in respectively monetary gains and losses. The FRN amplitude to losses was more pronounced in the ADHD group than in normal controls. Positive and negative feedback differentially affected long latency components in the ERP waveforms of normal controls, but not ADHD children. These later deflections might be related to further emotional or strategic processing. The present findings suggest an enhanced sensitivity to unfavourable outcomes in children with ADHD, probably due to abnormalities in mesolimbic reward circuits. In addition, further processing, such as affective evaluation and the assessment of future consequences of the feedback signal seems to be altered in ADHD. These results may further help understanding the neural basis of decision-making deficits in ADHD.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation using the value engineering methodology and Six Sigma tools

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leu, Jun-Der; Lee, Larry Jung-Hsing

2017-09-01

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a software solution that integrates the operational processes of the business functions of an enterprise. However, implementing ERP systems is a complex process. In addition to the technical issues, companies must address problems associated with business process re-engineering, time and budget control, and organisational change. Numerous industrial studies have shown that the failure rate of ERP implementation is high, even for well-designed systems. Thus, ERP projects typically require a clear methodology to support the project execution and effectiveness. In this study, we propose a theoretical model for ERP implementation. The value engineering (VE) method forms the basis of the proposed framework, which integrates Six Sigma tools. The proposed framework encompasses five phases: knowledge generation, analysis, creation, development and execution. In the VE method, potential ERP problems related to software, hardware, consultation and organisation are analysed in a group-decision manner and in relation to value, and Six Sigma tools are applied to avoid any project defects. We validate the feasibility of the proposed model by applying it to an international manufacturing enterprise in Taiwan. The results show improvements in customer response time and operational efficiency in terms of work-in-process and turnover of materials. Based on the evidence from the case study, the theoretical framework is discussed together with the study's limitations and suggestions for future research.

Prefrontal cortex contributions to episodic retrieval monitoring and evaluation.

PubMed

Cruse, Damian; Wilding, Edward L

2009-11-01

Although the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays roles in episodic memory judgments, the specific processes it supports are not understood fully. Event-related potential (ERP) studies of episodic retrieval have revealed an electrophysiological modulation - the right-frontal ERP old/new effect - which is thought to reflect activity in PFC. The functional significance of this old/new effect remains a matter of debate, and this study was designed to test two accounts: (i) that the effect indexes processes linked to the monitoring or evaluation of the products of retrieval in service of task demands, or (ii) that it indexes the number of internal decisions required for a task judgment. Participants studied words in one of two colours. In a subsequent retrieval task, old (studied) and new words were presented in a neutral colour. Participants made initial old/new judgments, along with study colour judgments to words thought to be old. They also indicated their confidence (high/low) in the colour decision. Right-frontal ERP old/new effects were larger for high than for low confidence correct colour judgments, and the magnitude of the right-frontal effect was correlated with the proportions of low confidence judgments that were made. Because the numbers of decisions associated with these response categories are equivalent, these findings do not support a decision-based account of the right-frontal ERP old/new effect. Rather, the correlation between confidence and the magnitude of the effect links it with retrieval monitoring and evaluation processes.

Incidental memory for faces in children with different genetic subtypes of Prader-Willi syndrome.

PubMed

Key, Alexandra P; Dykens, Elisabeth M

2017-06-01

The present study examined the effects of genetic subtype on social memory in children (7-16 years) with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). Visual event-related potentials (ERPs) during a passive viewing task were used to compare incidental memory traces for repeated vs single presentations of previously unfamiliar social (faces) and nonsocial (houses) images in 15 children with the deletion subtype and 13 children with maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD). While all participants perceived faces as different from houses (N170 responses), repeated faces elicited more positive ERP amplitudes ('old/new' effect, 250-500ms) only in children with the deletion subtype. Conversely, the mUPD group demonstrated reduced amplitudes suggestive of habituation to the repeated faces. ERP responses to repeated vs single house images did not differ in either group. The results suggest that faces hold different motivational value for individuals with the deletion vs mUPD subtype of PWS and could contribute to the explanation of subtype differences in the psychiatric symptoms, including autism symptomatology. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

Evaluative conditioning of positive and negative valence affects P1 and N1 in verbal processing.

PubMed

Kuchinke, Lars; Fritsch, Nathalie; Müller, Christina J

2015-10-22

The present study examined the effect of contextual learning on the neural processing of previously meaningless pseudowords. During an evaluative conditioning session on 5 consecutive days, participants learned to associate 120 pseudowords with either positive, neutral or negative pictures. In a second session, participants were presented all conditioned pseudowords again together with 40 new pseudowords in a recognition memory task while their event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The behavioral data confirm successful learning of pseudoword valence. At the neural level, early modulations of the ERPs are visible at the P1 and the N1 components discriminating between positively and negatively conditioned pseudowords. Differences to new pseudowords were visible at later processing stages as indicated by modulations of the LPC. These results support a contextual learning hypothesis that is able to explain very early emotional ERP modulations in visual word recognition. Source localization indicates a role of medial-frontal brain regions as a likely origin of these early valence discrimination signals which are discussed to promote top-down signals to sensory processing. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Early ERP Modulation for Task-Irrelevant Subliminal Faces

PubMed Central

Pegna, Alan J.; Darque, Alexandra; Berrut, Claire; Khateb, Asaid

2011-01-01

A number of investigations have reported that emotional faces can be processed subliminally, and that they give rise to specific patterns of brain activation in the absence of awareness. Recent event-related potential (ERP) studies have suggested that electrophysiological differences occur early in time (<200 ms) in response to backward-masked emotional faces. These findings have been taken as evidence of a rapid non-conscious pathway, which would allow threatening stimuli to be processed rapidly and subsequently allow appropriate avoidance action to be taken. However, for this to be the case, subliminal processing should arise even if the threatening stimulus is not attended. This point has in fact not yet been clearly established. In this ERP study, we investigated whether subliminal processing of fearful faces occurs outside the focus of attention. Fourteen healthy participants performed a line judgment task while fearful and non-fearful (happy or neutral) faces were presented both subliminally and supraliminally. ERPs were compared across the four experimental conditions (i.e., subliminal and supraliminal; fearful and non-fearful). The earliest differences between fearful and non-fearful faces appeared as an enhanced posterior negativity for the former at 170 ms (the N170 component) over right temporo-occipital electrodes. This difference was observed for both subliminal (p < 0.05) and supraliminal presentations (p < 0.01). Our results confirm that subliminal processing of fearful faces occurs early in the course of visual processing, and more importantly, that this arises even when the subject's attention is engaged in an incidental task. PMID:21687457

On the Agreement between Manual and Automated Methods for Single-Trial Detection and Estimation of Features from Event-Related Potentials

PubMed Central

Biurrun Manresa, José A.; Arguissain, Federico G.; Medina Redondo, David E.; Mørch, Carsten D.; Andersen, Ole K.

2015-01-01

The agreement between humans and algorithms on whether an event-related potential (ERP) is present or not and the level of variation in the estimated values of its relevant features are largely unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the categorical and quantitative agreement between manual and automated methods for single-trial detection and estimation of ERP features. To this end, ERPs were elicited in sixteen healthy volunteers using electrical stimulation at graded intensities below and above the nociceptive withdrawal reflex threshold. Presence/absence of an ERP peak (categorical outcome) and its amplitude and latency (quantitative outcome) in each single-trial were evaluated independently by two human observers and two automated algorithms taken from existing literature. Categorical agreement was assessed using percentage positive and negative agreement and Cohen’s κ, whereas quantitative agreement was evaluated using Bland-Altman analysis and the coefficient of variation. Typical values for the categorical agreement between manual and automated methods were derived, as well as reference values for the average and maximum differences that can be expected if one method is used instead of the others. Results showed that the human observers presented the highest categorical and quantitative agreement, and there were significantly large differences between detection and estimation of quantitative features among methods. In conclusion, substantial care should be taken in the selection of the detection/estimation approach, since factors like stimulation intensity and expected number of trials with/without response can play a significant role in the outcome of a study. PMID:26258532

[Spatiotemporal pattern analysis of event-related potentials elicited by emotional Stroop task].

PubMed

Liu, Qi; Liu, Ling; He, Hui; Zhou, Shu

2007-05-01

To investigate the spatiotemporal pattern of event-related potentials (ERPs) induced by emotional Stroop task. The ERPs of 19 channels were recorded from 13 healthy subjects while performing emotional Stroop task by pressing the buttons representing the colors in which the words denoting different emotions were displayed. A repeated-measures factorial design was adopted with three levels (word valence: positive, neutral and negative). The result of ERP analysis was presented in the form of statistical parametric mapping (SPM) of F value. No significant difference was found in either reaction time or accuracy. The SPM of ERPs suggested significant emotional valence effects in the occipital region (200-220 ms), the left and central frontal regions (270-300 ms), and the bilateral temporal and parietal cortex (560-580 and 620-630 ms, respectively). Processing of task-irrelevant emotional valence information involves the dynamic operation of extensive brain regions. The ERPs are more sensitive than the behavioral indices in emotional evaluation.

High density event-related potential data acquisition in cognitive neuroscience.

PubMed

Slotnick, Scott D

2010-04-16

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is currently the standard method of evaluating brain function in the field of Cognitive Neuroscience, in part because fMRI data acquisition and analysis techniques are readily available. Because fMRI has excellent spatial resolution but poor temporal resolution, this method can only be used to identify the spatial location of brain activity associated with a given cognitive process (and reveals virtually nothing about the time course of brain activity). By contrast, event-related potential (ERP) recording, a method that is used much less frequently than fMRI, has excellent temporal resolution and thus can track rapid temporal modulations in neural activity. Unfortunately, ERPs are under utilized in Cognitive Neuroscience because data acquisition techniques are not readily available and low density ERP recording has poor spatial resolution. In an effort to foster the increased use of ERPs in Cognitive Neuroscience, the present article details key techniques involved in high density ERP data acquisition. Critically, high density ERPs offer the promise of excellent temporal resolution and good spatial resolution (or excellent spatial resolution if coupled with fMRI), which is necessary to capture the spatial-temporal dynamics of human brain function.

Impact of Intention on the ERP Correlates of Face Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guillaume, Fabrice; Tiberghien, Guy

2013-01-01

The present study investigated the impact of study-test similarity on face recognition by manipulating, in the same experiment, the expression change (same vs. different) and the task-processing context (inclusion vs. exclusion instructions) as within-subject variables. Consistent with the dual-process framework, the present results showed that…

Differential involvement of episodic and face representations in ERP repetition effects.

PubMed

Jemel, Boutheina; Calabria, Marco; Delvenne, Jean-François; Crommelinck, Marc; Bruyer, Raymond

2003-03-03

The purpose of this study was to disentangle the contribution of episodic-perceptual from pre-existing memory representations of faces to repetition effects. ERPs were recorded to first and second presentations of same and different photos of famous and unfamiliar faces, in an incidental task where occasional non-targets had to be detected. Repetition of same and different photos of famous faces resulted in an N400 amplitude decrement. No such N400 repetition-induced attenuation was observed for unfamiliar faces. In addition, repetition of same photos of faces, and not different ones, gave rise to an early ERP repetition effect (starting at approximately 350 ms) with an occipito-temporal scalp distribution. Together, these results suggest that repetition effects depend on two temporally and may be neuro-functionally distinct loci, episode-based representation and face recognition units stored in long-term memory.

Iconic gestures prime related concepts: an ERP study.

PubMed

Wu, Ying Croon; Coulson, Seana

2007-02-01

To assess priming by iconic gestures, we recorded EEG (at 29 scalp sites) in two experiments while adults watched short, soundless videos of spontaneously produced, cospeech iconic gestures followed by related or unrelated probe words. In Experiment 1, participants classified the relatedness between gestures and words. In Experiment 2, they attended to stimuli, and performed an incidental recognition memory test on words presented during the EEG recording session. Event-related potentials (ERPs) time-locked to the onset of probe words were measured, along with response latencies and word recognition rates. Although word relatedness did not affect reaction times or recognition rates, contextually related probe words elicited less-negative ERPs than did unrelated ones between 300 and 500 msec after stimulus onset (N400) in both experiments. These findings demonstrate sensitivity to semantic relations between iconic gestures and words in brain activity engendered during word comprehension.

Conflict monitoring and stimulus categorization processes involved in the prosocial attitude implicit association test: Evidence from event-related potentials.

PubMed

Xiao, Fengqiu; Zheng, Zhiwei; Wang, Ya; Cui, Jifang; Chen, Yinghe

2015-08-01

The implicit association test (IAT) is a promising method used to assess individual implicit attitudes by indirectly measuring the strengths of associations between target and attribute categories. To date, the cognitive processes involved in the prosocial attitude IAT task have received little attention. The present study examined the temporal dynamics of the IAT that measures prosocial attitude using event-related potentials (ERPs). ERP results revealed enhanced N2 amplitudes for incongruent trials when compared with congruent trials and enhanced P300 amplitudes for congruent trials when compared with incongruent trials. In addition, the N2 amplitude differences were significantly correlated with individual prosocial behavior (the amount of donation). Our findings suggest that conflict monitoring and stimulus categorization processes are involved in the prosocial attitude IAT task and that the ERP indices of IATs that measure prosocial attitude may predict individual prosocial behavior.

Electrophysiological correlates of the retention of tones differing in timbre in auditory short-term memory.

PubMed

Nolden, Sophie; Bermudez, Patrick; Alunni-Menichini, Kristelle; Lefebvre, Christine; Grimault, Stephan; Jolicoeur, Pierre

2013-11-01

We examined the electrophysiological correlates of retention in auditory short-term memory (ASTM) for sequences of one, two, or three tones differing in timbre but having the same pitch. We focused on event-related potentials (ERPs) during the retention interval and revealed a sustained fronto-central ERP component (most likely a sustained anterior negativity; SAN) that became more negative as memory load increased. Our results are consistent with recent ERP studies on the retention of pitch and suggest that the SAN reflects brain activity mediating the low-level retention of basic acoustic features in ASTM. The present work shows that the retention of timbre shares common features with the retention of pitch, hence supporting the notion that the retention of basic sensory features is an active process that recruits modality-specific brain areas. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ERP implementation in hospitals: a case study.

PubMed

Agarwal, Divya; Garg, Poonam

2012-01-01

In a competitive healthcare sector, hospitals have to focus on their processes in order to deliver high-quality care while at the same time reducing costs. Many hospitals have decided to adopt one or another Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to improve their businesses, but implementing an ERP system can be a demanding endeavour. The systems are so difficult to implement that some are successful; many have failed, causing multimillion dollar losses. The challenge of ERP solutions lie in implementation because they are complex, time consuming and expensive too. This paper describes the various process workflows and phases of ERP implementation at Fortis Hospital Cunningham Road, Bangalore, India. This knowledge will provide valuable insights for the researchers and practitioners to understand the different process workflows and to make informed decisions when implementing ERP in any hospital.

The extended fronto-striatal model of obsessive compulsive disorder: convergence from event-related potentials, neuropsychology and neuroimaging

PubMed Central

Melloni, Margherita; Urbistondo, Claudia; Sedeño, Lucas; Gelormini, Carlos; Kichic, Rafael; Ibanez, Agustin

2012-01-01

In this work, we explored convergent evidence supporting the fronto-striatal model of obsessive-compulsive disorder (FSMOCD) and the contribution of event-related potential (ERP) studies to this model. First, we considered minor modifications to the FSMOCD model based on neuroimaging and neuropsychological data. We noted the brain areas most affected in this disorder -anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), basal ganglia (BG), and orbito-frontal cortex (OFC) and their related cognitive functions, such as monitoring and inhibition. Then, we assessed the ERPs that are directly related to the FSMOCD, including the error-related negativity (ERN), N200, and P600. Several OCD studies present enhanced ERN and N2 responses during conflict tasks as well as an enhanced P600 during working memory (WM) tasks. Evidence from ERP studies (especially regarding ERN and N200 amplitude enhancement), neuroimaging and neuropsychological findings suggests abnormal activity in the OFC, ACC, and BG in OCD patients. Moreover, additional findings from these analyses suggest dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal cortex involvement, which might be related to executive function (EF) deficits. Thus, these convergent results suggest the existence of a self-monitoring imbalance involving inhibitory deficits and executive dysfunctions. OCD patients present an impaired ability to monitor, control, and inhibit intrusive thoughts, urges, feelings, and behaviors. In the current model, this imbalance is triggered by an excitatory role of the BG (associated with cognitive or motor actions without volitional control) and inhibitory activity of the OFC as well as excessive monitoring of the ACC to block excitatory impulses. This imbalance would interact with the reduced activation of the parietal-DLPC network, leading to executive dysfunction. ERP research may provide further insight regarding the temporal dynamics of action monitoring and executive functioning in OCD. PMID:23015786

Altered neural processing of reward and punishment in adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder.

PubMed

Landes, I; Bakos, S; Kohls, G; Bartling, J; Schulte-Körne, G; Greimel, E

2018-05-01

Altered reward and punishment function has been suggested as an important vulnerability factor for the development of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Prior ERP studies found evidence for neurophysiological dysfunctions in reinforcement processes in adults with MDD. To date, only few ERP studies have examined the neural underpinnings of reinforcement processing in adolescents diagnosed with MDD. The present event-related potential (ERP) study aimed to investigate neurophysiological mechanisms of anticipation and consumption of reward and punishment in adolescents with MDD in one comprehensive paradigm. During ERP recording, 25 adolescents with MDD and 29 healthy controls (12-17 years) completed a Monetary Incentive Delay Task comprising both a monetary reward and a monetary punishment condition. During anticipation, the cue-P3 signaling attentional allocation was recorded. During consumption, the feedback-P3 and Reward Positivity (RewP) were recorded to capture attentional allocation and outcome evaluation, respectively. Compared to controls, adolescents with MDD showed prolonged cue-P3 latencies to reward cues. Furthermore, unlike controls, adolescents with MDD displayed shorter feedback-P3 latencies in the reward versus punishment condition. RewPs did not differ between groups. It remains unanswered whether the observed alterations in adolescent MDD represent a state or trait. Delayed neural processing of reward cues corresponds to the clinical presentation of adolescent MDD with reduced motivational tendencies to obtain rewards. Relatively shorter feedback-P3 latencies in the reward versus punishment condition could indicate a high salience of performance-contingent reward. Frequent exposure of negatively biased adolescents with MDD to performance-contingent rewards might constitute a promising intervention approach. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Amplitude modulation of steady-state visual evoked potentials by event-related potentials in a working memory task

PubMed Central

Yao, Dezhong; Tang, Yu; Huang, Yilan; Su, Sheng

2009-01-01

Previous studies have shown that the amplitude and phase of the steady-state visual-evoked potential (SSVEP) can be influenced by a cognitive task, yet the mechanism of this influence has not been understood. As the event-related potential (ERP) is the direct neural electric response to a cognitive task, studying the relationship between the SSVEP and ERP would be meaningful in understanding this underlying mechanism. In this work, the traditional average method was applied to extract the ERP directly, following the stimulus of a working memory task, while a technique named steady-state probe topography was utilized to estimate the SSVEP under the simultaneous stimulus of an 8.3-Hz flicker and a working memory task; a comparison between the ERP and SSVEP was completed. The results show that the ERP can modulate the SSVEP amplitude, and for regions where both SSVEP and ERP are strong, the modulation depth is large. PMID:19960240

GPS determination of diurnal and semidiurnal variations in earth rotation parameters and the geocenter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nam, Young-Sun

One year of GPS data collected from the dense, global network of the International GPS Service for Geodynamics (IGS) stations are processed to generate a continuous time series of Earth Rotation Parameters (ERP: Polar Motion and UT1) and Geocenter (GC) with a time resolution of one hour. The spectral analysis of the time series shows that the high-frequency variations in ERP are dominated by the tidal terms at nearly diurnal and semidiurnal frequencies due to ocean tides. The amplitudes and phases of ERP variations at the 8 major diurnal and semidiurnal tidal frequencies (Q 1, O1, P1, K1, N2, M 2, S2 and K2) are estimated and compared with the results from GPS, VLBI, SLR and ocean tide models. The agreement between GPS results from this study and others is about 20 muas for PM and 2 mus for UT1. However, the. GPS results show substantial discrepancies at or near the orbit period, K2 and S2 , and less substantial but considerable discrepancies at or near twice the orbit period, K1 and P 1. The impacts of three different force models---ROCK, RTN and RPR---on the HF-ERP estimation are evaluated. The RTN and RPR model improves the orbit repeatability and accuracy of the HF-ERP/GC estimation. Diurnal and semidiurnal ERP coefficients from the RTN model augmented by the RPR model in semidiurnal retrograde PM is presented as the best GPS HF-ERP model. One year of IGS data with the currently available force models could not successfully determine HF-GC. The annual or semiannual variations in the force parameters as the function of the attitude of the satellite to the Sun are identified. Anomalies in Y-bias during eclipsing season are explained by the effects of noon-turns.

Implementation of an enhanced recovery protocol in pediatric colorectal surgery.

PubMed

Short, Heather L; Heiss, Kurt F; Burch, Katelyn; Travers, Curtis; Edney, John; Venable, Claudia; Raval, Mehul V

2018-04-01

Enhanced recovery protocols (ERPs) have been shown to improve outcomes in adult surgical populations. Our purpose was to compare outcomes before and after implementation of an ERP in children undergoing elective colorectal surgery. A pediatric-specific colorectal ERP was developed and implemented at a single center starting in January 2015. A retrospective review was performed including 43 patients in the pre-ERP period (2012-2014) and 36 patients in the post-ERP period (2015-2016). Outcomes of interest included number of ERP interventions received, length of stay (LOS), complications, and readmissions. The median number of ERP interventions received per patient increased from 5 to 11 from 2012 to 2016. The median LOS decreased from 5days to 3days in the post-ERP period (p=0.01). We observed a simultaneous decrease in median time to regular diet, mean dose of narcotics, and mean volume of intraoperative fluids (p<0.001). The complication rate (21% vs. 17%, p=0.85) and 30-day readmission rate (23% vs. 11%, p=0.63) were not significantly different in the pre- and post-ERP periods. Implementation of a pediatric-specific ERP in children undergoing colorectal surgery is feasible, safe and may lead to improved outcomes. Further experience may highlight other opportunities for increased compliance and improved care. Treatment Study. Level III. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

ERPS to Monitor Non-conscious Mentation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donchin, E.

1984-01-01

Event Related Brain Potentials (or ERPs) are extracted from the EEG that can be recorded between a pair of electrodes placed on a person's scalp. The EEG is recorded as a continual fluctuation in voltage. It is the results of the integration of the potential fields generated by a multitude of neuronal ensembles that are active as the brain goes about its business. Within this ongoing signal it is possible to distinguish voltage fluctuations that are triggered in neural structures by the occurrence of specific events. This activity, evoked as it is by an external event, is known as the Evoked, or Event Related, Potential. The ERPs provide a unique opportunity to monitor non-conscious mentation. The inferences that can be based on ERP data are described and the limits of these inferences are emphasized. This, however, will not be an exhaustive review of the use of ERPs in Engineering Psychology. The application, its scope, and its limitations will be illustrated by means of one example. This example is preceded by a brief technical introduction to the methodology used in the study of ERPs. The manner in which ERPs are used to study cognition is described.

Manipulating Bodily Presence Affects Cross-Modal Spatial Attention: A Virtual-Reality-Based ERP Study.

PubMed

Harjunen, Ville J; Ahmed, Imtiaj; Jacucci, Giulio; Ravaja, Niklas; Spapé, Michiel M

2017-01-01

Earlier studies have revealed cross-modal visuo-tactile interactions in endogenous spatial attention. The current research used event-related potentials (ERPs) and virtual reality (VR) to identify how the visual cues of the perceiver's body affect visuo-tactile interaction in endogenous spatial attention and at what point in time the effect takes place. A bimodal oddball task with lateralized tactile and visual stimuli was presented in two VR conditions, one with and one without visible hands, and one VR-free control with hands in view. Participants were required to silently count one type of stimulus and ignore all other stimuli presented in irrelevant modality or location. The presence of hands was found to modulate early and late components of somatosensory and visual evoked potentials. For sensory-perceptual stages, the presence of virtual or real hands was found to amplify attention-related negativity on the somatosensory N140 and cross-modal interaction in somatosensory and visual P200. For postperceptual stages, an amplified N200 component was obtained in somatosensory and visual evoked potentials, indicating increased response inhibition in response to non-target stimuli. The effect of somatosensory, but not visual, N200 enhanced when the virtual hands were present. The findings suggest that bodily presence affects sustained cross-modal spatial attention between vision and touch and that this effect is specifically present in ERPs related to early- and late-sensory processing, as well as response inhibition, but do not affect later attention and memory-related P3 activity. Finally, the experiments provide commeasurable scenarios for the estimation of the signal and noise ratio to quantify effects related to the use of a head mounted display (HMD). However, despite valid a-priori reasons for fearing signal interference due to a HMD, we observed no significant drop in the robustness of our ERP measurements.

Manipulating Bodily Presence Affects Cross-Modal Spatial Attention: A Virtual-Reality-Based ERP Study

PubMed Central

Harjunen, Ville J.; Ahmed, Imtiaj; Jacucci, Giulio; Ravaja, Niklas; Spapé, Michiel M.

2017-01-01

Earlier studies have revealed cross-modal visuo-tactile interactions in endogenous spatial attention. The current research used event-related potentials (ERPs) and virtual reality (VR) to identify how the visual cues of the perceiver’s body affect visuo-tactile interaction in endogenous spatial attention and at what point in time the effect takes place. A bimodal oddball task with lateralized tactile and visual stimuli was presented in two VR conditions, one with and one without visible hands, and one VR-free control with hands in view. Participants were required to silently count one type of stimulus and ignore all other stimuli presented in irrelevant modality or location. The presence of hands was found to modulate early and late components of somatosensory and visual evoked potentials. For sensory-perceptual stages, the presence of virtual or real hands was found to amplify attention-related negativity on the somatosensory N140 and cross-modal interaction in somatosensory and visual P200. For postperceptual stages, an amplified N200 component was obtained in somatosensory and visual evoked potentials, indicating increased response inhibition in response to non-target stimuli. The effect of somatosensory, but not visual, N200 enhanced when the virtual hands were present. The findings suggest that bodily presence affects sustained cross-modal spatial attention between vision and touch and that this effect is specifically present in ERPs related to early- and late-sensory processing, as well as response inhibition, but do not affect later attention and memory-related P3 activity. Finally, the experiments provide commeasurable scenarios for the estimation of the signal and noise ratio to quantify effects related to the use of a head mounted display (HMD). However, despite valid a-priori reasons for fearing signal interference due to a HMD, we observed no significant drop in the robustness of our ERP measurements. PMID:28275346

The Earliest Electrophysiological Correlate of Visual Awareness?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koivisto, Mika; Lahteenmaki, Mikko; Sorensen, Thomas Alrik; Vangkilde, Signe; Overgaard, Morten; Revonsuo, Antti

2008-01-01

To examine the neural correlates and timing of human visual awareness, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in two experiments while the observers were detecting a grey dot that was presented near subjective threshold. ERPs were averaged for conscious detections of the stimulus (hits) and nondetections (misses) separately. Our results…

"One-Size-Does-Not-Fit-All": Teaching MBA Students Different ERP Implementation Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Venkatesh, Viswanath

2008-01-01

This teaching tip discusses an approach to educating MBA students regarding strategies to select, design, and implement enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The teaching approach presented here discusses how to teach students about different strategies based success stories from three different organizations, namely Cisco, Tektronix, and…

Neural mechanisms underlying attribution of hostile intention in nonaggressive individuals: An ERP study.

PubMed

Gagnon, Jean; Aubin, Mercédès; Emond, Fannie Carrier; Derguy, Sophie; Bessette, Monique; Jolicoeur, Pierre

2016-12-01

Although the perception of hostile intentions in other people can have a clear adaptive function, researchers have paid little attention to the capacity of nonaggressive individuals to infer hostile intentions in others. The goal of the present study was to study brain mechanisms associated with expectations of hostile/non-hostile intent and their on-line evaluation. Scenarios with a hostile versus non-hostile social context followed by a character's ambiguous aversive behavior were presented to readers, and we recorded and analyzed event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to critical words that disambiguated the hostile versus non-hostile intent behind the behavior. Fifty nonaggressive individuals participated in the study. Non-hostile critical words that violated hostile intention expectations elicited a larger negative-going ERP deflection with central and posterior maximums between 400 and 600ms after word onset compatible with an N400 effect. Finally, there were marginally significant correlations between N400 effect sizes and hostile as well as neutral attribution bias measured by a self-report questionnaire. The results suggest that nonaggressive individuals evaluate rapidly, on-line, their attributions of the hostile intent of others. The methodology we developed provides the field with a new paradigm with which to study social attributions of hostile intent likely to contribute to hostile or aggressive reactions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neural network approach in multichannel auditory event-related potential analysis.

PubMed

Wu, F Y; Slater, J D; Ramsay, R E

1994-04-01

Even though there are presently no clearly defined criteria for the assessment of P300 event-related potential (ERP) abnormality, it is strongly indicated through statistical analysis that such criteria exist for classifying control subjects and patients with diseases resulting in neuropsychological impairment such as multiple sclerosis (MS). We have demonstrated the feasibility of artificial neural network (ANN) methods in classifying ERP waveforms measured at a single channel (Cz) from control subjects and MS patients. In this paper, we report the results of multichannel ERP analysis and a modified network analysis methodology to enhance automation of the classification rule extraction process. The proposed methodology significantly reduces the work of statistical analysis. It also helps to standardize the criteria of P300 ERP assessment and facilitate the computer-aided analysis on neuropsychological functions.

Study of target and non-target interplay in spatial attention task.

PubMed

Sweeti; Joshi, Deepak; Panigrahi, B K; Anand, Sneh; Santhosh, Jayasree

2018-02-01

Selective visual attention is the ability to selectively pay attention to the targets while inhibiting the distractors. This paper aims to study the targets and non-targets interplay in spatial attention task while subject attends to the target object present in one visual hemifield and ignores the distractor present in another visual hemifield. This paper performs the averaged evoked response potential (ERP) analysis and time-frequency analysis. ERP analysis agrees to the left hemisphere superiority over late potentials for the targets present in right visual hemifield. Time-frequency analysis performed suggests two parameters i.e. event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) and inter-trial coherence (ITC). These parameters show the same properties for the target present in either of the visual hemifields but show the difference while comparing the activity corresponding to the targets and non-targets. In this way, this study helps to visualise the difference between targets present in the left and right visual hemifields and, also the targets and non-targets present in the left and right visual hemifields. These results could be utilised to monitor subjects' performance in brain-computer interface (BCI) and neurorehabilitation.

Neural Patterns of the Implicit Association Test

PubMed Central

Healy, Graham F.; Boran, Lorraine; Smeaton, Alan F.

2015-01-01

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a reaction time based categorization task that measures the differential associative strength between bipolar targets and evaluative attribute concepts as an approach to indexing implicit beliefs or biases. An open question exists as to what exactly the IAT measures, and here EEG (Electroencephalography) has been used to investigate the time course of ERPs (Event-related Potential) indices and implicated brain regions in the IAT. IAT-EEG research identifies a number of early (250–450 ms) negative ERPs indexing early-(pre-response) processing stages of the IAT. ERP activity in this time range is known to index processes related to cognitive control and semantic processing. A central focus of these efforts has been to use IAT-ERPs to delineate the implicit and explicit factors contributing to measured IAT effects. Increasing evidence indicates that cognitive control (and related top-down modulation of attention/perceptual processing) may be components in the effective measurement of IAT effects, as factors such as physical setting or task instruction can change an IAT measurement. In this study we further implicate the role of proactive cognitive control and top-down modulation of attention/perceptual processing in the IAT-EEG. We find statistically significant relationships between D-score (a reaction-time based measure of the IAT-effect) and early ERP-time windows, indicating where more rapid word categorizations driving the IAT effect are present, they are at least partly explainable by neural activity not significantly correlated with the IAT measurement itself. Using LORETA, we identify a number of brain regions driving these ERP-IAT relationships notably involving left-temporal, insular, cingulate, medial frontal and parietal cortex in time regions corresponding to the N2- and P3-related activity. The identified brain regions involved with reduced reaction times on congruent blocks coincide with those of previous studies. PMID:26635570

Towards a holistic assessment of the user experience with hybrid BCIs.

PubMed

Lorenz, Romy; Pascual, Javier; Blankertz, Benjamin; Vidaurre, Carmen

2014-06-01

In recent years, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have become mature enough to immensely benefit from the expertise and tools established in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). One of the core objectives in HCI research is the design of systems that provide a pleasurable user experience (UX). While the majority of BCI studies exclusively evaluate common efficiency measures such as classification accuracy and speed, single research groups have begun to look at further usability aspects such as ease of use, workload and learnability. However, these evaluation metrics only cover pragmatic aspects of UX while still not considering the hedonic quality of UX. In order to gain a holistic perspective on UX, hedonic quality aspects such as motivation and frustration were also taken into account for our evaluation of three BCI-driven interfaces, which were proposed to be used as a two-stage neuroprosthetic control within the EU project MUNDUS. At the first stage, one of six possible actions was selected and either confirmed or cancelled at the second stage. For the experiment, a solely event-related-potential-based interface (ERP-ERP) and two hybrid solutions were tested that were controlled by ERP and motor imagery (MI)--resulting in the two possible combinations: ERP selection/MI confirmation (ERP-MI) or MI selection/ERP confirmation (MI-ERP). Behavioural, subjective and encephalographic (EEG) data of 12 healthy subjects were collected during an online experiment with the three graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Results showed a significantly greater pragmatic quality (in terms of accuracy, efficiency, workload, use quality and learnability) for the ERP-ERP and ERP-MI GUIs in contrast to the MI-ERP GUI. Consequently, the MI-ERP GUI is least suited for use as a neuroprosthetic control. With respect to the comparison of the ERP-ERP and ERP-MI GUIs, no significant differences in pragmatic and hedonic quality of UX were found. Since throughout better results were obtained for the conventional approach and it was most preferred by the subjects, the ERP-ERP GUI seems more suitable for its deployment in actual end-users. Nevertheless, for individuals with stable MI patterns, the hybrid interface can be provided as an additional option of choice within the MUNDUS framework. Although the paramount goal in BCI research still remains the improvement of classification accuracy and communication speed, it is of significance to note that it is equally important for end-users to keep up their motivation and prevent frustration. By including pragmatic as well as hedonic quality aspects, this study is the first effort to gain a holistic perspective of the UX while interacting with BCI-driven assistive technology aimed at actual end-users. The broad-scale methodology provided valuable insights into the underlying dynamics causing the users' experience to differ across the GUIs. The results will be used to refine a BCI-driven neuroprosthesis and test it with end-users.

Towards a holistic assessment of the user experience with hybrid BCIs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lorenz, Romy; Pascual, Javier; Blankertz, Benjamin; Vidaurre, Carmen

2014-06-01

Objective. In recent years, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have become mature enough to immensely benefit from the expertise and tools established in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). One of the core objectives in HCI research is the design of systems that provide a pleasurable user experience (UX). While the majority of BCI studies exclusively evaluate common efficiency measures such as classification accuracy and speed, single research groups have begun to look at further usability aspects such as ease of use, workload and learnability. However, these evaluation metrics only cover pragmatic aspects of UX while still not considering the hedonic quality of UX. In order to gain a holistic perspective on UX, hedonic quality aspects such as motivation and frustration were also taken into account for our evaluation of three BCI-driven interfaces, which were proposed to be used as a two-stage neuroprosthetic control within the EU project MUNDUS. Approach. At the first stage, one of six possible actions was selected and either confirmed or cancelled at the second stage. For the experiment, a solely event-related-potential-based interface (ERP-ERP) and two hybrid solutions were tested that were controlled by ERP and motor imagery (MI)—resulting in the two possible combinations: ERP selection/MI confirmation (ERP-MI) or MI selection/ERP confirmation (MI-ERP). Behavioural, subjective and encephalographic (EEG) data of 12 healthy subjects were collected during an online experiment with the three graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Main results. Results showed a significantly greater pragmatic quality (in terms of accuracy, efficiency, workload, use quality and learnability) for the ERP-ERP and ERP-MI GUIs in contrast to the MI-ERP GUI. Consequently, the MI-ERP GUI is least suited for use as a neuroprosthetic control. With respect to the comparison of the ERP-ERP and ERP-MI GUIs, no significant differences in pragmatic and hedonic quality of UX were found. Since throughout better results were obtained for the conventional approach and it was most preferred by the subjects, the ERP-ERP GUI seems more suitable for its deployment in actual end-users. Nevertheless, for individuals with stable MI patterns, the hybrid interface can be provided as an additional option of choice within the MUNDUS framework. Significance. Although the paramount goal in BCI research still remains the improvement of classification accuracy and communication speed, it is of significance to note that it is equally important for end-users to keep up their motivation and prevent frustration. By including pragmatic as well as hedonic quality aspects, this study is the first effort to gain a holistic perspective of the UX while interacting with BCI-driven assistive technology aimed at actual end-users. The broad-scale methodology provided valuable insights into the underlying dynamics causing the users’ experience to differ across the GUIs. The results will be used to refine a BCI-driven neuroprosthesis and test it with end-users.

Age-related changes in cognitive conflict processing: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Mager, Ralph; Bullinger, Alex H; Brand, Serge; Schmidlin, Maria; Schärli, Heinz; Müller-Spahn, Franz; Störmer, Robert; Falkenstein, Michael

2007-12-01

Cognitive tasks involving conflicting stimuli and responses are associated with an early age-related decline in performance. Conflict and conflict-induced interference can be stimulus- or response-related. In classical stimulus-response compatibility tasks, such as the Stroop task, the event-related potential (ERP) usually reveals a greater negativity on incongruent versus congruent trials which has often been linked with conflict processing. However, it is unclear whether this negativity is related to stimulus- or response-related conflict, thus rendering the meaning of age-related changes inconclusive. In the present study, a modified Stroop task was used to focus on stimulus-related interference processes while excluding response-related interference. Since we intended to study work-relevant effects ERPs and performance were determined in young (about 30 years old) and middle-aged (about 50 years old) healthy subjects (total n=80). In the ERP, a broad negativity developed after incongruent versus congruent stimuli between 350 and 650 ms. An age-related increase of the latency and amplitude of this negativity was observed. These results indicate age-related alterations in the processing of conflicting stimuli already in middle age.

Comparison of spatiotemporal cortical activation pattern during visual perception of Korean, English, Chinese words: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Kim, Kyung Hwan; Kim, Ja Hyun

2006-02-20

The aim of this study was to compare spatiotemporal cortical activation patterns during the visual perception of Korean, English, and Chinese words. The comparison of these three languages offers an opportunity to study the effect of written forms on cortical processing of visually presented words, because of partial similarity/difference among words of these languages, and the familiarity of native Koreans with these three languages at the word level. Single-character words and pictograms were excluded from the stimuli in order to activate neuronal circuitries that are involved only in word perception. Since a variety of cerebral processes are sequentially evoked during visual word perception, a high-temporal resolution is required and thus we utilized event-related potential (ERP) obtained from high-density electroencephalograms. The differences and similarities observed from statistical analyses of ERP amplitudes, the correlation between ERP amplitudes and response times, and the patterns of current source density, appear to be in line with demands of visual and semantic analysis resulting from the characteristics of each language, and the expected task difficulties for native Korean subjects.

An event-related potential study of memory for words spoken aloud or heard.

PubMed

Wilding, E L; Rugg, M D

1997-09-01

Subjects made old/new recognition judgements to visually presented words, half of which had been encountered in a prior study phase. For each word judged old, subjects made a subsequent source judgement, indicating whether they had pronounced the word aloud at study (spoken words), or whether they had heard the word spoken to them (heard words). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were compared for three classes of test item; words correctly judged to be new (correct rejections), and spoken and heard words that were correctly assigned to source (spoken hit/hit and heard hit/hit response categories). Consistent with previous findings (Wilding, E. L. and Rugg, M. D., Brain, 1996, 119, 889-905), two temporally and topographically dissociable components, with parietal and frontal maxima respectively, differentiated the ERPs to the hit/hit and correct rejection response categories. In addition, there was some evidence that the frontally distributed component could be decomposed into two distinct components, only one of which differentiated the two classes of hit/hit ERPs. The findings suggest that at least three functionally and neurologically dissociable processes can contribute to successful recovery of source information.

Bootstrap Signal-to-Noise Confidence Intervals: An Objective Method for Subject Exclusion and Quality Control in ERP Studies

PubMed Central

Parks, Nathan A.; Gannon, Matthew A.; Long, Stephanie M.; Young, Madeleine E.

2016-01-01

Analysis of event-related potential (ERP) data includes several steps to ensure that ERPs meet an appropriate level of signal quality. One such step, subject exclusion, rejects subject data if ERP waveforms fail to meet an appropriate level of signal quality. Subject exclusion is an important quality control step in the ERP analysis pipeline as it ensures that statistical inference is based only upon those subjects exhibiting clear evoked brain responses. This critical quality control step is most often performed simply through visual inspection of subject-level ERPs by investigators. Such an approach is qualitative, subjective, and susceptible to investigator bias, as there are no standards as to what constitutes an ERP of sufficient signal quality. Here, we describe a standardized and objective method for quantifying waveform quality in individual subjects and establishing criteria for subject exclusion. The approach uses bootstrap resampling of ERP waveforms (from a pool of all available trials) to compute a signal-to-noise ratio confidence interval (SNR-CI) for individual subject waveforms. The lower bound of this SNR-CI (SNRLB) yields an effective and objective measure of signal quality as it ensures that ERP waveforms statistically exceed a desired signal-to-noise criterion. SNRLB provides a quantifiable metric of individual subject ERP quality and eliminates the need for subjective evaluation of waveform quality by the investigator. We detail the SNR-CI methodology, establish the efficacy of employing this approach with Monte Carlo simulations, and demonstrate its utility in practice when applied to ERP datasets. PMID:26903849

Driving with Intuition: A Preregistered Study about the EEG Anticipation of Simulated Random Car Accidents

PubMed Central

Duma, Gian Marco; Mento, Giovanni; Manari, Tommaso; Martinelli, Massimiliano

2017-01-01

The study of neural pre-stimulus or “anticipatory” activity opened a new window for understanding how the brain actively constructs the forthcoming reality. Usually, experimental paradigms designed to study anticipatory activity make use of stimuli. The purpose of the present study is to expand the study of neural anticipatory activity upon the temporal occurrence of dichotomic, statistically unpredictable (random) stimuli within an ecological experimental paradigm. To this purpose, we used a simplified driving simulation including two possible, randomly-presented trial types: a car crash end trial and a no car crash end trial. Event Related Potentials (ERP) were extracted -3,000 ms before stimulus onset. We identified a fronto-central negativity starting around 1,000 ms before car crash presentation. By contrast, a whole-scalp distributed positivity characterized the anticipatory activity observed before the end of the trial in the no car crash end condition. The present data are in line with the hypothesis that the brain may also anticipate dichotomic, statistically unpredictable stimuli, relaying onto different pre-stimulus ERP activity. Possible integration with car-smart-systems is also suggested. PMID:28103303

Event-related Potentials Reveal Age Differences in the Encoding and Recognition of Scenes

PubMed Central

Gutchess, Angela H.; Ieuji, Yoko; Federmeier, Kara D.

2009-01-01

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how the encoding and recognition of complex scenes change with normal aging. Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified more drastic age impairments at encoding than at recognition, ERP studies accumulate more evidence for age differences at retrieval. However, stimulus type and paradigm differences across the two literatures have made direct comparisons difficult. Here, we collected young and elderly adults’ encoding- and recognition-phase ERPs using the same materials and paradigm as a previous fMRI study. Twenty young and 20 elderly adults incidentally encoded and then recognized photographs of outdoor scenes. During encoding, young adults showed a frontocentral subsequent memory effect, with high-confidence hits exhibiting greater positivity than misses. Elderly adults showed a similar subsequent memory effect, which, however, did not differ as a function of confidence. During recognition, young adults elicited a widespread old/new effect, and high-confidence hits were distinct from both low-confidence hits and false alarms. Elderly adults elicited a smaller and later old/new effect, which was unaffected by confidence, and hits and false alarms were indistinguishable in the waveforms. Consistent with prior ERP work, these results point to important age-related changes in recognition-phase brain activity, even when behavioral measures of memory and confidence pattern similarly across groups. We speculate that memory processes with different time signatures contribute to the apparent differences across encoding and retrieval stages, and across methods. PMID:17583986

Knowledge Management ERP Curriculum Design/Mapping (Theory and Development Tools)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, Zane; Hepner, Michelle

2011-01-01

This study proposes a knowledge management framework for developing and managing enterprise resource planning (ERP) curriculum within business schools. Both theory and a practical implementation are addressed. The knowledge management (KM) framework has two components which utilize ERP from a big picture curriculum overview and a ground level…

The undermining effect of facial attractiveness on brain responses to fairness in the Ultimatum Game: an ERP study

PubMed Central

Ma, Qingguo; Hu, Yue; Jiang, Shushu; Meng, Liang

2015-01-01

To investigate the time course of the neural processing of facial attractiveness and its influence on fairness consideration during social interactions, event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded from 21 male subjects performing a two-person Ultimatum Game (UG). During this bargaining game, the male subjects played responders who decided whether to accept offers from female proposers, whose facial images (grouped as “attractive” and “unattractive”) were presented prior to the offer presentation. The behavioral data demonstrated that the acceptance ratio increased with the fairness level of the offers and, more importantly, the subjects were more likely to accept unfair offers when presented with the attractive-face condition compared with the unattractive-face condition. The reaction times (RTs) for five offers (1:9, 2:8, 3:7, 4:6, and 5:5) in the unattractive-face condition were not significantly different. In contrast, the subjects reacted slower to the attractive proposers' unfair offers and quicker to fair offers. The ERP analysis of the face presentation demonstrated a decreased early negativity (N2) and enhanced late positive potentials (LPPs) elicited by the attractive faces compared with the unattractive faces. In addition, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) in response to an offer presentation was not significantly different for the unfair (1:9 and 2:8) and fair (4:6 and 5:5) offers in the attractive-face condition. However, the unfair offers generated larger FRNs compared with the fair offers in the unattractive-face condition (consistent with prior studies). A similar effect was identified for P300. The present study demonstrated an undermining effect of proposer facial attractiveness on responder consideration of offer fairness during the UG. PMID:25805967

Assessing ERP SAP implementation in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yohannes; Gunawan, W.; Ikhsan, R. B.; Aries

2018-03-01

The consistent growth of Indonesian SMEs has received attention of global IT vendors. One of major ERP player in Indonesian market such as SAP, has introduced ERP solutions for SMEs through SAP Business One. Due to its fast growth, unfortunately, there are still very few articles can be found to understand the ERP implementation in Indonesian SMEs. The article addressed the common factors that affect the successful of the ERP implementation at SMEs. They are: identifying vendor quality, opening balance data migration, and A-SAP methodology. The article applied case study method to examine the fast growth companies owned by same owners, such as: GRK, MMM, and KM25; with the objectives to identify the practical pattern of ERP implementation in SMEs that will be useful for SAP project manager and consultants.

Probe-evoked event-related potential techniques for evaluating aspects of attention and information processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stern, John A.

1988-01-01

The study of probe event related potentials (probe ERPs) is reviewed. Several recent experiments are described which seem to leave in doubt the usefulness of applying ERP to simulation and field conditions as well as laboratory situations. Relatively minor changes in the experimental paradigm can produce major shifts in ERP findings, for reasons that are not clear. However, task-elicited ERPs might be used on a flight simulator if the experimenter takes time of arrival of the eyes on a particular instrument as one variable of concern and dwell time on the instrument as a second variable. One can then look at ERPs triggered by saccade termination for fixation pauses of specified durations. It may well be that ERP to a momentarily important display will differ from that elicited by routine instrument check.

Studies of Plasma Instabilities Excited by Ground-Based High Power HF (Heating) Facilities and of X and Gamma Ray Emission in Runaway Breakdown Processes

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-08-01

latitude ( HAARP , TROMSO) and mid latitude (SURA) facilities [1]. The very strong and fully reproducible plasma perturbations in ionosphere are observed...beam propagating along magnetic field (θ = 0), in this case factor κs ≈ 1. As an a example we will consider now the HAARP facility. The ERP for HAARP ...as a function of fre- quency f0 is presented in the Table 1. ISTC 2236p 12 Table 1 ERP as function of wave frequency for HAARP (2001) f0 (MHz

A Comparative Analysis of Strategic Approaches for Information Technology (IT) Management for Commander Naval Surface Forces

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-01

29 d. Coca Cola Case Study .............................................................31 3. Outsourcing...Electric, Coca - Cola , Hershey Foods, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), and BP/Amoco (Lousek, 2000). c. Disadvantages of ERP ERP...look at all aspects of the organization to determine if the value added is worth the cost of implementing an ERP system. d. Coca Cola Case Study

ERP System Implementation: An Oil and Gas Exploration Sector Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mishra, Alok; Mishra, Deepti

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems provide integration and optimization of various business processes which leads to improved planning and decision quality, smoother coordination between business units resulting in higher efficiency, and quicker response time to customer demands and inquiries. This paper reports challenges, opportunities and outcome of ERP implementation in Oil & Gas exploration sector. This study will facilitate in understanding transition, constraints and implementation of ERP in this sector and also provide guidelines from lessons learned in this regard.

ERp29 controls invasion and metastasis of gastric carcinoma by inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition via PI3K/Aktsignaling pathway.

PubMed

Ye, Jianxin; Huang, Jinsheng; Xu, Jie; Huang, Qiang; Wang, Jinzhou; Zhong, Wenjing; Lin, Xinjian; Li, Yun; Lin, Xu

2017-09-06

Gastric cancer (GC) accounts for the fourth most occurring malignancy and the third major cause of cancer death. Identifying novel molecular signaling pathways participating in gastric tumorigenesis and progression is pivotal for rational design of targeted therapies to improve advanced GC outcome. Recently, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein 29 (ERp29) has been shown to inversely associate with primary tumor development and function as a tumor suppressor in breast cancer. However, the role of ERp29 in GC patients' prognosis and its function in GC progression is unknown. Clinical importance of ERp29 in the prognosis of GC patients was assessed by examining its expression in 148 GC tumor samples and correlation with clinicopathological characteristics and survival of the patients. The function and underlying mechanisms of ERp29 in GC growth, invasion and metastasis were explored both in vitro and in vivo. Downregulation of ERp29 was commonly found in GC tissues and highly correlated with more aggressive phenotypes and poorer prognosis. Functional assays demonstrated that knockdown of ERp29 increased GC cell migration and invasion and promoted metastasis. Conversely, ectopic overexpression of ERp29 produced opposite effects. Mechanistic studies revealed that loss of ERp29 induced an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in the GC cells through activation of PI3K/Akt pathway signaling. These findings suggest that downregulation of ERp29 is probably one of the key molecular mechanisms responsible for the development and progression of GC.

Investigation of the mediating effects of IT governance-value delivery on service quality and ERP performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, Wen-Hsien; Chou, Yu-Wei; Leu, Jun-Der; Chao Chen, Der; Tsaur, Tsen-Shu

2015-02-01

This study aimed to explore the mediating effects of IT governance (ITG)-value delivery in the relationships among the quality of vendor service, the quality of consultant services, ITG-value delivery and enterprise resource planning (ERP) performance. The sampling of this research was acquired from a questionnaire survey concerning ERP implementations in Taiwan. In this survey, 4366 questionnaires were sent to manufacturing and service companies listed in the TOP 5000: The Largest Corporations in Taiwan 2009. The results showed that an ERP system will exhibit a decreased error rate and improved performance if ERP system vendors and consultants provide good service quality. The results also demonstrated that significant relationships exist among the quality of vendor service, the quality of consultant services and value delivery. The contribution of this article is twofold. First, it found that value delivery provides an effective measure of ERP performance under an ITG framework. Second, it provides evidence of the partial mediating effects of value delivery between service quality and ERP performance. In other words, if enterprises want to improve ERP performance, they need to consider factors such as value delivery and the quality of a vendor/consultant's service.

Effect of attentional load on audiovisual speech perception: evidence from ERPs

PubMed Central

Alsius, Agnès; Möttönen, Riikka; Sams, Mikko E.; Soto-Faraco, Salvador; Tiippana, Kaisa

2014-01-01

Seeing articulatory movements influences perception of auditory speech. This is often reflected in a shortened latency of auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) generated in the auditory cortex. The present study addressed whether this early neural correlate of audiovisual interaction is modulated by attention. We recorded ERPs in 15 subjects while they were presented with auditory, visual, and audiovisual spoken syllables. Audiovisual stimuli consisted of incongruent auditory and visual components known to elicit a McGurk effect, i.e., a visually driven alteration in the auditory speech percept. In a Dual task condition, participants were asked to identify spoken syllables whilst monitoring a rapid visual stream of pictures for targets, i.e., they had to divide their attention. In a Single task condition, participants identified the syllables without any other tasks, i.e., they were asked to ignore the pictures and focus their attention fully on the spoken syllables. The McGurk effect was weaker in the Dual task than in the Single task condition, indicating an effect of attentional load on audiovisual speech perception. Early auditory ERP components, N1 and P2, peaked earlier to audiovisual stimuli than to auditory stimuli when attention was fully focused on syllables, indicating neurophysiological audiovisual interaction. This latency decrement was reduced when attention was loaded, suggesting that attention influences early neural processing of audiovisual speech. We conclude that reduced attention weakens the interaction between vision and audition in speech. PMID:25076922

Acquiring research-grade ERPs on a shoestring budget: A comparison of a modified Emotiv and commercial SynAmps EEG system.

PubMed

Barham, Michael P; Clark, Gillian M; Hayden, Melissa J; Enticott, Peter G; Conduit, Russell; Lum, Jarrad A G

2017-09-01

This study compared the performance of a low-cost wireless EEG system to a research-grade EEG system on an auditory oddball task designed to elicit N200 and P300 ERP components. Participants were 15 healthy adults (6 female) aged between 19 and 40 (M = 28.56; SD = 6.38). An auditory oddball task was presented comprising 1,200 presentations of a standard tone interspersed by 300 trials comprising a deviant tone. EEG was simultaneously recorded from a modified Emotiv EPOC and a NeuroScan SynAmps RT EEG system. The modifications made to the Emotiv system included attaching research grade electrodes to the Bluetooth transmitter. Additional modifications enabled the Emotiv system to connect to a portable impedance meter. The cost of these modifications and portable impedance meter approached the purchase value of the Emotiv system. Preliminary analyses revealed significantly more trials were rejected from data acquired by the modified Emotiv compared to the SynAmps system. However, the ERP waveforms captured by the Emotiv system were found to be highly similar to the corresponding waveform from the SynAmps system. The latency and peak amplitude of N200 and P300 components were also found to be similar between systems. Overall, the results indicate that, in the context of an oddball task, the ERP acquired by a low-cost wireless EEG system can be of comparable quality to research-grade EEG acquisition equipment. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

A simple ERP method for quantitative analysis of cognitive workload in myoelectric prosthesis control and human-machine interaction.

PubMed

Deeny, Sean; Chicoine, Caitlin; Hargrove, Levi; Parrish, Todd; Jayaraman, Arun

2014-01-01

Common goals in the development of human-machine interface (HMI) technology are to reduce cognitive workload and increase function. However, objective and quantitative outcome measures assessing cognitive workload have not been standardized for HMI research. The present study examines the efficacy of a simple event-related potential (ERP) measure of cortical effort during myoelectric control of a virtual limb for use as an outcome tool. Participants trained and tested on two methods of control, direct control (DC) and pattern recognition control (PRC), while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded. Eighteen healthy participants with intact limbs were tested using DC and PRC under three conditions: passive viewing, easy, and hard. Novel auditory probes were presented at random intervals during testing, and significant task-difficulty effects were observed in the P200, P300, and a late positive potential (LPP), supporting the efficacy of ERPs as a cognitive workload measure in HMI tasks. LPP amplitude distinguished DC from PRC in the hard condition with higher amplitude in PRC, consistent with lower cognitive workload in PRC relative to DC for complex movements. Participants completed trials faster in the easy condition using DC relative to PRC, but completed trials more slowly using DC relative to PRC in the hard condition. The results provide promising support for ERPs as an outcome measure for cognitive workload in HMI research such as prosthetics, exoskeletons, and other assistive devices, and can be used to evaluate and guide new technologies for more intuitive HMI control.

Auditory selective attention in adolescents with major depression: An event-related potential study.

PubMed

Greimel, E; Trinkl, M; Bartling, J; Bakos, S; Grossheinrich, N; Schulte-Körne, G

2015-02-01

Major depression (MD) is associated with deficits in selective attention. Previous studies in adults with MD using event-related potentials (ERPs) reported abnormalities in the neurophysiological correlates of auditory selective attention. However, it is yet unclear whether these findings can be generalized to MD in adolescence. Thus, the aim of the present ERP study was to explore the neural mechanisms of auditory selective attention in adolescents with MD. 24 male and female unmedicated adolescents with MD and 21 control subjects were included in the study. ERPs were collected during an auditory oddball paradigm. Depressive adolescents tended to show a longer N100 latency to target and non-target tones. Moreover, MD subjects showed a prolonged latency of the P200 component to targets. Across groups, longer P200 latency was associated with a decreased tendency of disinhibited behavior as assessed by a behavioral questionnaire. To be able to draw more precise conclusions about differences between the neural bases of selective attention in adolescents vs. adults with MD, future studies should include both age groups and apply the same experimental setting across all subjects. The study provides strong support for abnormalities in the neurophysiolgical bases of selective attention in adolecents with MD at early stages of auditory information processing. Absent group differences in later ERP components reflecting voluntary attentional processes stand in contrast to results reported in adults with MD and may suggest that adolescents with MD possess mechanisms to compensate for abnormalities in the early stages of selective attention. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Has the butcher on the bus dyed his hair? When color changes modulate ERP correlates of familiarity and recollection.

PubMed

Groh-Bordin, Christian; Zimmer, Hubert D; Ecker, Ullrich K H

2006-10-01

Recognition memory is usually thought of as comprising two distinct memory processes, namely familiarity and recollection. This distinction is reflected in specific event-related potential (ERP) components associated with both subprocesses. A mid-frontal attenuated negativity for correctly recognized old items relative to new ones around 400 ms has been typically linked to familiarity, whereas a parietally accentuated, more pronounced positivity for old items from 500 to 800 ms has been connected with recollection. Recently, this classification has been challenged by relating the mid-frontal old/new effect to conceptual priming mechanisms. Moreover, the perceptual sensitivity of both old/new effects is still under debate. The present study used a recognition memory task for visual objects and nonsense figures in order to investigate the functional significance of both ERP old/new effects. With respect to study presentation, all items were either presented in a perceptually identical or a color-modified version at test. Old nonsense figures, despite being meaningless, elicited a reliable mid-frontal old/new effect, thereby strongly suggesting a close relationship to familiarity processes rather than conceptual priming. Additionally, both the mid-frontal and the parietal old/new effect for real objects were graded with respect to the perceptual similarity between study and test. We argue that not only recollection, but also familiarity processes can provide information about perceptual atttributes, which is used in the course of recognition memory decisions.

Research on ERP Teaching Model Reform for Application-Oriented Talents Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fan, Chongjun; Zhang, Peng; Liu, Qin; Yang, Jianzheng; Xi, Wanyu

2011-01-01

Enterprise Resource Planning is one of the core courses of management. According to the educational characteristics of application-oriented talents training, this paper discussed the issues of ERP teaching for application-oriented talents training at present and proposed a number of ideas and strategies in the aspects of modifying the teaching…

Maturing Brain Mechanisms and Developing Behavioral Language Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedrich, Manuela; Friederici, Angela D.

2010-01-01

The relation between the maturation of brain mechanisms responsible for the N400 elicitation in the event-related brain potential (ERP) and the development of behavioral language skills was investigated in 12-month-old infants. ERPs to words presented in a picture-word priming paradigm were analyzed according to the infants' production and…

P300 Latency and the Development of Memory Span.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Lawrence

The way cognitive, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) can aid in further understanding of memory span change in children is discussed. ERPs are time-dependent changes in electrical activity of the brain (as recorded by scalp electrodes) following the presentation of a physical stimulus through auditory, visual, or somatosensory modalities. The…

Implementation of false discovery rate for exploring novel paradigms and trait dimensions with ERPs.

PubMed

Crowley, Michael J; Wu, Jia; McCreary, Scott; Miller, Kelly; Mayes, Linda C

2012-01-01

False discovery rate (FDR) is a multiple comparison procedure that targets the expected proportion of false discoveries among the discoveries. Employing FDR methods in event-related potential (ERP) research provides an approach to explore new ERP paradigms and ERP-psychological trait/behavior relations. In Study 1, we examined neural responses to escape behavior from an aversive noise. In Study 2, we correlated a relatively unexplored trait dimension, ostracism, with neural response. In both situations we focused on the frontal cortical region, applying a channel by time plots to display statistically significant uncorrected data and FDR corrected data, controlling for multiple comparisons.

Gender differences in the processing of standard emotional visual stimuli: integrating ERP and fMRI results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Lei; Tian, Jie; Wang, Xiaoxiang; Hu, Jin

2005-04-01

The comprehensive understanding of human emotion processing needs consideration both in the spatial distribution and the temporal sequencing of neural activity. The aim of our work is to identify brain regions involved in emotional recognition as well as to follow the time sequence in the millisecond-range resolution. The effect of activation upon visual stimuli in different gender by International Affective Picture System (IAPS) has been examined. Hemodynamic and electrophysiological responses were measured in the same subjects. Both fMRI and ERP study were employed in an event-related study. fMRI have been obtained with 3.0 T Siemens Magnetom whole-body MRI scanner. 128-channel ERP data were recorded using an EGI system. ERP is sensitive to millisecond changes in mental activity, but the source localization and timing is limited by the ill-posed 'inversed' problem. We try to investigate the ERP source reconstruction problem in this study using fMRI constraint. We chose ICA as a pre-processing step of ERP source reconstruction to exclude the artifacts and provide a prior estimate of the number of dipoles. The results indicate that male and female show differences in neural mechanism during emotion visual stimuli.

Ten years on: a follow-up review of ERP research in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Johnstone, Stuart J; Barry, Robert J; Clarke, Adam R

2013-04-01

This article reviews the event-related potential (ERP) literature in relation to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) over the years 2002-2012. ERP studies exploring various aspects of brain functioning in children and adolescents with AD/HD are reviewed, with a focus on group effects and interpretations in the domains of attention, inhibitory control, performance monitoring, non-pharmacological treatments, and ERP/energetics interactions. There has been a distinct shift in research intensity over the past 10 years, with a large increase in ERP studies conducted in the areas of inhibitory control and performance monitoring. Overall, the research has identified a substantial number of ERP correlates of AD/HD. Robust differences from healthy controls have been reported in early orienting, inhibitory control, and error-processing components. These data offer potential to improve our understanding of the specific brain dysfunction(s) which contribute to the disorder. The literature would benefit from a more rigorous approach to clinical group composition and consideration of age effects, as well as increased emphasis on replication and extension studies using exacting participant, task, and analysis parameters. Copyright © 2012 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

EDI and ERP: a real-time framework for healthcare data exchange.

PubMed

Woodside, Joseph M

2007-06-01

A framework is presented for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in the healthcare industry. As the total cost of healthcare continues to rise and competitive pressures increase, the ability to reduce expenses while at the same time improving overall business characteristics, create an opportunity and necessity for technology usage. The framework addresses current barriers of EDI setup such as cost and flexibility along with ERP communication between entities. A prototype system is created to show feasibility of recent technology improvements and generate a proof of concept for the real-time framework.

Motivational intensity modulates attentional scope: evidence from behavioral and ERP studies.

PubMed

Liu, Lei; Zhang, Guangnan; Zhou, Renlai; Wang, Zuowei

2014-10-01

Previous studies have found that affective states with high motivational intensity narrow attentional scope, whereas affective states with low motivational intensity broaden attentional scope. This conclusion, however, is based on fragmented evidence based on several separate studies. The present study tests this conclusion within a single study using both behavioral (Experiment 1) and neurophysiological (Experiment 2) measures. Experiment 1 showed that individuals had the global precedence effect in the neutral affective state. However, the global precedence effect was reduced for affective states with high motivational intensity, whereas the global precedence effect was not significantly enhanced for those with low motivational intensity. Experiment 2 replicated these results with event-related potential (ERP) recording. ERP results showed that affective states with high motivational intensity induced smaller N2 and greater late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes than low motivational intensity and neutral affective states. However, no differences were found between the low motivational intensity and neutral affective states. Furthermore, smaller LPP predicted the tendency a global attentional focus in the frontal and central areas and larger LPP predicted a narrowed focus in the frontal area. The findings suggested that high motivational intensity of affective states can affect attentional scope.

Social identity modifies face perception: an ERP study of social categorization

PubMed Central

Stedehouder, Jeffrey; Ito, Tiffany A.

2015-01-01

Two studies examined whether social identity processes, i.e. group identification and social identity threat, amplify the degree to which people attend to social category information in early perception [assessed with event-related brain potentials (ERPs)]. Participants were presented with faces of Muslims and non-Muslims in an evaluative priming task while ERPs were measured and implicit evaluative bias was assessed. Study 1 revealed that non-Muslims showed stronger differentiation between ingroup and outgroup faces in both early (N200) and later processing stages (implicit evaluations) when they identified more strongly with their ethnic group. Moreover, identification effects on implicit bias were mediated by intergroup differentiation in the N200. In Study 2, social identity threat (vs control) was manipulated among Muslims. Results revealed that high social identity threat resulted in stronger differentiation of Muslims from non-Muslims in early (N200) and late (implicit evaluations) processing stages, with N200 effects again predicting implicit bias. Combined, these studies reveal how seemingly bottom-up early social categorization processes are affected by individual and contextual variables that affect the meaning of social identity. Implications of these results for the social identity perspective as well as social cognitive theories of person perception are discussed. PMID:25140049

Electrophysiological Correlates of Impaired Reading in Dyslexic Pre-Adolescent Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Araujo, Susana; Bramao, Ines; Faisca, Luis; Petersson, Karl Magnus; Reis, Alexandra

2012-01-01

In this study, event related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the extent to which dyslexics (aged 9-13 years) differ from normally reading controls in early ERPs, which reflect prelexical orthographic processing, and in late ERPs, which reflect implicit phonological processing. The participants performed an implicit reading task, which…

Improving Training in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Implementation through Communities of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerr, Don; Burgess, Kevin J.; Houghton, Luke; Murray, Peter A.

2012-01-01

The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) literature suggests that effective training is one of the key reasons for success in ERP implementations. However, limited research has been conducted on what constitutes effective training in an ERP environment. A case study approach was used to explore the effectiveness of traditional training and to…

Does ERP Hands-On Experience Help Students Learning Business Process Concepts?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rienzo, Thomas; Han, Bernard

2011-01-01

Over the past decade, more and more business schools are attempting to teach business processes (BPs) by using enterprise resource planning (ERP) software in their curricula. Currently, most studies involving ERP software in the academy have concentrated on learning and teaching via self-assessment surveys or curriculum integration. This research…

University ERP Implementation in Germany: Qualitative Exploratory Case Study of Administrative Staff Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thelen, Anja

2015-01-01

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations are expensive, time-consuming, and often do not lead to the expected outcome of integrated IT systems. Many German universities are implementing ERP systems as Campus Management Systems (CMS) and a solution to any problem, need, or requirement the organization has. This exploratory case study…

Gender Differences in Memory Processing: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials to Faces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guillem, F.; Mograss, M.

2005-01-01

This study investigated gender differences on memory processing using event-related potentials (ERPs). Behavioral data and ERPs were recorded in 16 males and 10 females during a recognition memory task for faces. The behavioral data results showed that females performed better than males. Gender differences on ERPs were evidenced over anterior…

Spelling is Just a Click Away - A User-Centered Brain-Computer Interface Including Auto-Calibration and Predictive Text Entry.

PubMed

Kaufmann, Tobias; Völker, Stefan; Gunesch, Laura; Kübler, Andrea

2012-01-01

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) based on event-related potentials (ERP) allow for selection of characters from a visually presented character-matrix and thus provide a communication channel for users with neurodegenerative disease. Although they have been topic of research for more than 20 years and were multiply proven to be a reliable communication method, BCIs are almost exclusively used in experimental settings, handled by qualified experts. This study investigates if ERP-BCIs can be handled independently by laymen without expert support, which is inevitable for establishing BCIs in end-user's daily life situations. Furthermore we compared the classic character-by-character text entry against a predictive text entry (PTE) that directly incorporates predictive text into the character-matrix. N = 19 BCI novices handled a user-centered ERP-BCI application on their own without expert support. The software individually adjusted classifier weights and control parameters in the background, invisible to the user (auto-calibration). All participants were able to operate the software on their own and to twice correctly spell a sentence with the auto-calibrated classifier (once with PTE, once without). Our PTE increased spelling speed and, importantly, did not reduce accuracy. In sum, this study demonstrates feasibility of auto-calibrating ERP-BCI use, independently by laymen and the strong benefit of integrating predictive text directly into the character-matrix.

The role of hunger state and dieting history in neural response to food cues: An event-related potential study.

PubMed

Feig, Emily H; Winter, Samantha R; Kounios, John; Erickson, Brian; Berkowitz, Staci A; Lowe, Michael R

2017-10-01

A history of dieting to lose weight has been shown to be a robust predictor of future weight gain. A potential factor in propensity towards weight gain is the nature of people's reactions to the abundance of highly palatable food cues in the environment. Event Related Potentials (ERPs) have revealed differences in how the brain processes food cues between obese and normal weight individuals, as well as between restrained and unrestrained eaters. However, comparisons by weight status are not informative regarding whether differences predate or follow weight gain in obese individuals and restrained eating has not consistently been found to predict future weight gain. The present study compared ERP responses to food cues in non-obese historic dieters (HDs) to non-obese never dieters (NDs). HDs showed a blunted N1 component relative to NDs overall, and delayed N1 and P2 components compared to NDs in the hungry state, suggesting that early, perceptual processing of food cues differs between these groups, especially when food-deprived. HDs also showed a more hunger-dependent sustained ERP (LPP) compared to NDs. Future research should test ERP-based food cue responsivity as a mediator between dieting history and future weight gain to better identify those most at risk for weight gain as well as the nature of their vulnerability. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The disulfide isomerase ERp57 is required for fibrin deposition in vivo.

PubMed

Zhou, J; Wu, Y; Wang, L; Rauova, L; Hayes, V M; Poncz, M; Essex, D W

2014-11-01

ERp57 is required for platelet function; however, whether ERp57 contributes to fibrin generation is unknown. Using an inhibitory anti-ERp57 antibody (mAb1), Pf4-Cre/ERp57(fl/fl) mice, Tie2-Cre/ERp57(fl/fl) mice, and mutants of ERp57, we analyzed the function of ERp57 in laser-induced thrombosis. Fibrin deposition was decreased in Pf4-Cre/ERp57(fl/fl) mice, consistent with a role for platelet ERp57 in fibrin generation. Fibrin deposition was further decreased with infusion of mAb1 and in Tie2-Cre/ERp57(fl/fl) mice, consistent with endothelial cells also contributing to fibrin deposition. Infusion of eptibifatide inhibited platelet and fibrin deposition, confirming a role for platelets in fibrin deposition. Infusion of recombinant ERp57 corrected the defect in fibrin deposition but not platelet accumulation, suggesting a direct effect of ERp57 on coagulation. mAb1 inhibited thrombin generation in vitro, consistent with a requirement for ERp57 in coagulation. Platelet accumulation was decreased to similar extents in Pf4-Cre/ERp57(fl/fl) mice, Tie2-Cre/ERp57(fl/fl) mice and normal mice infused with mAb1. Infusion of completely inactivated ERp57 or ERp57 with a non-functional second active site inhibited fibrin deposition and platelet accumulation, indicating that the isomerase activity of the second active site is required for these processes. ERp57 regulates thrombosis via multiple targets. © 2014 International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

ERP correlates of word production predictors in picture naming: a trial by trial multiple regression analysis from stimulus onset to response.

PubMed

Valente, Andrea; Bürki, Audrey; Laganaro, Marina

2014-01-01

A major effort in cognitive neuroscience of language is to define the temporal and spatial characteristics of the core cognitive processes involved in word production. One approach consists in studying the effects of linguistic and pre-linguistic variables in picture naming tasks. So far, studies have analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) during word production by examining one or two variables with factorial designs. Here we extended this approach by investigating simultaneously the effects of multiple theoretical relevant predictors in a picture naming task. High density EEG was recorded on 31 participants during overt naming of 100 pictures. ERPs were extracted on a trial by trial basis from picture onset to 100 ms before the onset of articulation. Mixed-effects regression models were conducted to examine which variables affected production latencies and the duration of periods of stable electrophysiological patterns (topographic maps). Results revealed an effect of a pre-linguistic variable, visual complexity, on an early period of stable electric field at scalp, from 140 to 180 ms after picture presentation, a result consistent with the proposal that this time period is associated with visual object recognition processes. Three other variables, word Age of Acquisition, Name Agreement, and Image Agreement influenced response latencies and modulated ERPs from ~380 ms to the end of the analyzed period. These results demonstrate that a topographic analysis fitted into the single trial ERPs and covering the entire processing period allows one to associate the cost generated by psycholinguistic variables to the duration of specific stable electrophysiological processes and to pinpoint the precise time-course of multiple word production predictors at once.

Altered Cortical Responsiveness to Pain Stimuli after High Frequency Electrical Stimulation of the Skin in Patients with Persistent Pain after Inguinal Hernia Repair

PubMed Central

van den Broeke, Emanuel N.; Koeslag, Lonneke; Arendsen, Laura J.; Nienhuijs, Simon W.; Rosman, Camiel; van Rijn, Clementina M.; Wilder-Smith, Oliver H. G.; van Goor, Harry

2013-01-01

Background High Frequency electrical Stimulation (HFS) of the skin induces enhanced brain responsiveness expressed as enhanced Event-Related Potential (ERP) N1 amplitude to stimuli applied to the surrounding unconditioned skin in healthy volunteers. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether this enhanced ERP N1 amplitude could be a potential marker for altered cortical sensory processing in patients with persistent pain after surgery. Materials and Methods Nineteen male patients; 9 with and 10 without persistent pain after inguinal hernia repair received HFS. Before, directly after and thirty minutes after HFS evoked potentials and the subjective pain intensity were measured in response to electric pain stimuli applied to the surrounding unconditioned skin. Results The results show that, thirty minutes after HFS, the ERP N1 amplitude observed at the conditioned arm was statistically significantly larger than the amplitude at the control arm across all patients. No statistically significant differences were observed regarding ERP N1 amplitude between patients with and without persistent pain. However, thirty minutes after HFS we did observe statistically significant differences of P2 amplitude at the conditioned arm between the two groups. The P2 amplitude decreased in comparison to baseline in the group of patients with pain. Conclusion The ERP N1 effect, induced after HFS, was not different between patients with vs. without persistent pain. The decreasing P2 amplitude was not observed in the patients without pain and also not in the previous healthy volunteer study and thus might be a marker for altered cortical sensory processing in patients with persistent pain after surgery. PMID:24376568

Contributions of spectral frequency analyses to the study of P50 ERP amplitude and suppression in bipolar disorder with or without a history of psychosis.

PubMed

Carroll, Christine A; Kieffaber, Paul D; Vohs, Jenifer L; O'Donnell, Brian F; Shekhar, Anantha; Hetrick, William P

2008-11-01

The present study investigated event-related brain potential (ERP) indices of auditory processing and sensory gating in bipolar disorder and subgroups of bipolar patients with or without a history of psychosis using the P50 dual-click procedure. Auditory-evoked activity in two discrete frequency bands also was explored to distinguish between sensory registration and selective attention deficits. Thirty-one individuals with bipolar disorder and 28 non-psychiatric controls were compared on ERP indices of auditory processing using a dual-click procedure. In addition to conventional P50 ERP peak-picking techniques, quantitative frequency analyses were applied to the ERP data to isolate stages of information processing associated with sensory registration (20-50 Hz; gamma band) and selective attention (0-20 Hz; low-frequency band). Compared to the non-psychiatric control group, patients with bipolar disorder exhibited reduced S1 response magnitudes for the conventional P50 peak-picking and low-frequency response analyses. A bipolar subgroup effect suggested that the attenuated S1 magnitudes from the P50 peak-picking and low-frequency analyses were largely attributable to patients without a history of psychosis. The analysis of distinct frequency bands of the auditory-evoked response elicited during the dual-click procedure allowed further specification of the nature of auditory sensory processing and gating deficits in bipolar disorder with or without a history of psychosis. The observed S1 effects in the low-frequency band suggest selective attention deficits in bipolar patients, especially those patients without a history of psychosis, which may reflect a diminished capacity to selectively attend to salient stimuli as opposed to impairments of inhibitory sensory processes.

Ageing affects event-related potentials and brain oscillations: a behavioral and electrophysiological study using a haptic recognition memory task.

PubMed

Sebastián, Manuel; Reales, José M; Ballesteros, Soledad

2011-12-01

In this electrophysiological study, we investigated the effects of ageing on recognition memory for three-dimensional (3D) familiar objects presented to touch in a continuous paradigm. To examine changes in event-related potentials (ERPs) and brain oscillations, we recorded the EEGs of healthy groups of young (n=14; mean age=32.3 years) and older adults (n=14; mean age=65.1). Both age groups exhibited similar accuracy and exploration times when making old-new judgments. Young and older participants showed a marginally significant ERP old/new effect widely distributed over the scalp between 550-750 ms. In addition, the elders showed lower amplitude than younger participants within 1200-1500 ms. There were age-related differences in brain oscillations as measured by event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP). Older adults showed greater alpha and beta power reductions than young participants, suggesting the recruitment of additional neural resources. In contrast, the two age groups showed a reliable old/new effect in the theta band that temporarily overlapped the ERP old/new effect. The present results suggest that despite similar behavioral performance, the young and older adults recruited different neural resources to perform a haptic recognition task. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

True- and false-belief reasoning in children and adults: an event-related potential study of theory of mind.

PubMed

Meinhardt, Jörg; Sodian, Beate; Thoermer, Claudia; Döhnel, Katrin; Sommer, Monika

2011-01-01

The understanding that another person's belief can differ from reality and that behaviour is guided by beliefs and not by reality reflects an important cornerstone in the development of a Theory of Mind. The present event-related potential (ERP) study had two aims: first, to reveal ERPs that distinguish between false- and true-belief reasoning and second, to investigate the neural changes in the development of false- and true-belief reasoning from childhood to adulthood. True- and false-belief cartoon stories were presented to adults and 6-8-year-old children. Results revealed two waveforms that differentiated between the two conditions: a late positive complex (LPC) associated with the reorientation from external stimuli to internal mental representations and a late anterior slow wave (LSW) associated with stimulus-independent processing of internal mental representations, a process that might be centrally involved in the decoupling mechanism. Additionally, we found developmental effects at an ERP level. Children showed a more posterior localization of the LPC and a broader frontal distribution of the LSW. The results may reflect developmental progress in conceptualizing the mental domain and support the idea that the cortical mentalizing network continues to develop even after children are able to master false beliefs. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gestalt Perceptual Organization of Visual Stimuli Captures Attention Automatically: Electrophysiological Evidence

PubMed Central

Marini, Francesco; Marzi, Carlo A.

2016-01-01

The visual system leverages organizational regularities of perceptual elements to create meaningful representations of the world. One clear example of such function, which has been formalized in the Gestalt psychology principles, is the perceptual grouping of simple visual elements (e.g., lines and arcs) into unitary objects (e.g., forms and shapes). The present study sought to characterize automatic attentional capture and related cognitive processing of Gestalt-like visual stimuli at the psychophysiological level by using event-related potentials (ERPs). We measured ERPs during a simple visual reaction time task with bilateral presentations of physically matched elements with or without a Gestalt organization. Results showed that Gestalt (vs. non-Gestalt) stimuli are characterized by a larger N2pc together with enhanced ERP amplitudes of non-lateralized components (N1, N2, P3) starting around 150 ms post-stimulus onset. Thus, we conclude that Gestalt stimuli capture attention automatically and entail characteristic psychophysiological signatures at both early and late processing stages. Highlights We studied the neural signatures of the automatic processes of visual attention elicited by Gestalt stimuli. We found that a reliable early correlate of attentional capture turned out to be the N2pc component. Perceptual and cognitive processing of Gestalt stimuli is associated with larger N1, N2, and P3 PMID:27630555

Discrimination of animate and inanimate motion in 9-month-old infants: an ERP study.

PubMed

Kaduk, Katharina; Elsner, Birgit; Reid, Vincent M

2013-10-01

Simple geometric shapes moving in a self-propelled manner, and violating Newtonian laws of motion by acting against gravitational forces tend to induce a judgement that an object is animate. Objects that change their motion only due to external causes are more likely judged as inanimate. How the developing brain is employed in the perception of animacy in early ontogeny is currently unknown. The aim of this study was to use ERP techniques to determine if the negative central component (Nc), a waveform related to attention allocation, was differentially affected when an infant observed animate or inanimate motion. Short animated movies comprising a marble moving along a marble run either in an animate or an inanimate manner were presented to 15 infants who were 9 months of age. The ERPs were time-locked to a still frame representing animate or inanimate motion that was displayed following each movie. We found that 9-month-olds are able to discriminate between animate and inanimate motion based on motion cues alone and most likely allocate more attentional resources to the inanimate motion. The present data contribute to our understanding of the animate-inanimate distinction and the Nc as a correlate of infant cognitive processing. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing Neurocognition via Gamified Experimental Logic: A Novel Approach to Simultaneous Acquisition of Multiple ERPs.

PubMed

Nair, Ajay K; Sasidharan, Arun; John, John P; Mehrotra, Seema; Kutty, Bindu M

2016-01-01

The present study describes the development of a neurocognitive paradigm: "Assessing Neurocognition via Gamified Experimental Logic" (ANGEL), for performing the parametric evaluation of multiple neurocognitive functions simultaneously. ANGEL employs an audiovisual sensory motor design for the acquisition of multiple event related potentials (ERPs)-the C1, P50, MMN, N1, N170, P2, N2pc, LRP, P300, and ERN. The ANGEL paradigm allows assessment of 10 neurocognitive variables over the course of three "game" levels of increasing complexity ranging from simple passive observation to complex discrimination and response in the presence of multiple distractors. The paradigm allows assessment of several levels of rapid decision making: speeded up response vs. response-inhibition; responses to easy vs. difficult tasks; responses based on gestalt perception of clear vs. ambiguous stimuli; and finally, responses with set shifting during challenging tasks. The paradigm has been tested using 18 healthy participants from both sexes and the possibilities of varied data analyses have been presented in this paper. The ANGEL approach provides an ecologically valid assessment (as compared to existing tools) that quickly yields a very rich dataset and helps to assess multiple ERPs that can be studied extensively to assess cognitive functions in health and disease conditions.

Assessing Neurocognition via Gamified Experimental Logic: A Novel Approach to Simultaneous Acquisition of Multiple ERPs

PubMed Central

Nair, Ajay K.; Sasidharan, Arun; John, John P.; Mehrotra, Seema; Kutty, Bindu M.

2016-01-01

The present study describes the development of a neurocognitive paradigm: “Assessing Neurocognition via Gamified Experimental Logic” (ANGEL), for performing the parametric evaluation of multiple neurocognitive functions simultaneously. ANGEL employs an audiovisual sensory motor design for the acquisition of multiple event related potentials (ERPs)—the C1, P50, MMN, N1, N170, P2, N2pc, LRP, P300, and ERN. The ANGEL paradigm allows assessment of 10 neurocognitive variables over the course of three “game” levels of increasing complexity ranging from simple passive observation to complex discrimination and response in the presence of multiple distractors. The paradigm allows assessment of several levels of rapid decision making: speeded up response vs. response-inhibition; responses to easy vs. difficult tasks; responses based on gestalt perception of clear vs. ambiguous stimuli; and finally, responses with set shifting during challenging tasks. The paradigm has been tested using 18 healthy participants from both sexes and the possibilities of varied data analyses have been presented in this paper. The ANGEL approach provides an ecologically valid assessment (as compared to existing tools) that quickly yields a very rich dataset and helps to assess multiple ERPs that can be studied extensively to assess cognitive functions in health and disease conditions. PMID:26858586

Memory Distortion and Its Avoidance: An Event-Related Potentials Study on False Recognition and Correct Rejection

PubMed Central

Beato, Maria Soledad

2016-01-01

Memory researchers have long been captivated by the nature of memory distortions and have made efforts to identify the neural correlates of true and false memories. However, the underlying mechanisms of avoiding false memories by correctly rejecting related lures remains underexplored. In this study, we employed a variant of the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm to explore neural signatures of committing and avoiding false memories. ERP were obtained for True recognition, False recognition, Correct rejection of new items, and, more importantly, Correct rejection of related lures. With these ERP data, early-frontal, left-parietal, and late right-frontal old/new effects (associated with familiarity, recollection, and monitoring processes, respectively) were analysed. Results indicated that there were similar patterns for True and False recognition in all three old/new effects analysed in our study. Also, False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures activities seemed to share common underlying familiarity-based processes. The ERP similarities between False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures disappeared when recollection processes were examined because only False recognition presented a parietal old/new effect. This finding supported the view that actual false recollections underlie false memories, providing evidence consistent with previous behavioural research and with most ERP and neuroimaging studies. Later, with the onset of monitoring processes, False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures waveforms presented, again, clearly dissociated patterns. Specifically, False recognition and True recognition showed more positive going patterns than Correct rejection of related lures signal and Correct rejection of new items signature. Since False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures triggered familiarity-recognition processes, our results suggest that deciding which items are studied is based more on recollection processes, which are later supported by monitoring processes. Results are discussed in terms of Activation-Monitoring Framework and Fuzzy Trace-Theory, the most prominent explanatory theories of false memory raised with the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm. PMID:27711125

Memory Distortion and Its Avoidance: An Event-Related Potentials Study on False Recognition and Correct Rejection.

PubMed

Cadavid, Sara; Beato, Maria Soledad

2016-01-01

Memory researchers have long been captivated by the nature of memory distortions and have made efforts to identify the neural correlates of true and false memories. However, the underlying mechanisms of avoiding false memories by correctly rejecting related lures remains underexplored. In this study, we employed a variant of the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm to explore neural signatures of committing and avoiding false memories. ERP were obtained for True recognition, False recognition, Correct rejection of new items, and, more importantly, Correct rejection of related lures. With these ERP data, early-frontal, left-parietal, and late right-frontal old/new effects (associated with familiarity, recollection, and monitoring processes, respectively) were analysed. Results indicated that there were similar patterns for True and False recognition in all three old/new effects analysed in our study. Also, False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures activities seemed to share common underlying familiarity-based processes. The ERP similarities between False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures disappeared when recollection processes were examined because only False recognition presented a parietal old/new effect. This finding supported the view that actual false recollections underlie false memories, providing evidence consistent with previous behavioural research and with most ERP and neuroimaging studies. Later, with the onset of monitoring processes, False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures waveforms presented, again, clearly dissociated patterns. Specifically, False recognition and True recognition showed more positive going patterns than Correct rejection of related lures signal and Correct rejection of new items signature. Since False recognition and Correct rejection of related lures triggered familiarity-recognition processes, our results suggest that deciding which items are studied is based more on recollection processes, which are later supported by monitoring processes. Results are discussed in terms of Activation-Monitoring Framework and Fuzzy Trace-Theory, the most prominent explanatory theories of false memory raised with the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm.

Event-related potential evidence for separable automatic and controlled retrieval processes in proactive interference.

PubMed

Bergström, Zara M; O'Connor, Richard J; Li, Martin K-H; Simons, Jon S

2012-05-21

Interference between competing memories is a major source of retrieval failure, yet, surprisingly little is known about how competitive memory activation arises in the brain. One possibility is that interference during episodic retrieval might be produced by relatively automatic conceptual priming mechanisms that are independent of strategic retrieval processes. Such priming-driven interference might occur when the competing memories have strong pre-existing associations to the retrieval cue. We used ERPs to measure the neural dynamics of retrieval competition, and investigated whether the ERP correlates of interference were affected by varying task demands for selective retrieval. Participants encoded cue words that were presented either two or four times, paired either with the same or different strongly associated words across repetitions. In a subsequent test, participants either selectively recalled each cue's most recent associate, or simply judged how many times a cue had been presented, without requiring selective recall. Interference effects on test performance were only seen in the recall task. In contrast, ERPs during test revealed an early posterior positivity for high interference items that was present in both retrieval tasks. This early ERP effect likely reflects a conceptual priming-related N400 reduction when many associations to a cue were pre-activated. A later parietal positivity resembling the ERP correlate of conscious recollection was found only in the recall task. The results suggest that early effects of proactive interference are relatively automatic and independent of intentional retrieval processes, consistent with suggestions that interference can arise through conceptual priming. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Method of evaluating the impact of ERP implementation critical success factors - a case study in oil and gas industries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gajic, Gordana; Stankovski, Stevan; Ostojic, Gordana; Tesic, Zdravko; Miladinovic, Ljubomir

2014-01-01

The so far implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have in many cases failed to meet the requirements regarding the business process control, decrease of business costs and increase of company profit margin. Therefore, there is a real need for an evaluation of the influence of ERP on the company's performance indicators. Proposed in this article is an advanced model for the evaluation of the success of ERP implementation on organisational and operational performance indicators in oil-gas companies. The recommended method establishes a correlation between a process-based method, a scorecard model and ERP critical success factors. The method was verified and tested on two case studies in oil-gas companies using the following procedure: the model was developed, tested and implemented in a pilot gas-oil company, while the results were implemented and verified in another gas-oil company.

Beta/Gamma Oscillations and Event-Related Potentials Indicate Aberrant Multisensory Processing in Schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Balz, Johanna; Roa Romero, Yadira; Keil, Julian; Krebber, Martin; Niedeggen, Michael; Gallinat, Jürgen; Senkowski, Daniel

2016-01-01

Recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies have suggested multisensory processing deficits in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). Thus far, the neural mechanisms underlying these deficits are not well understood. Previous studies with unisensory stimulation have shown altered neural oscillations in SCZ. As such, altered oscillations could contribute to aberrant multisensory processing in this patient group. To test this assumption, we conducted an electroencephalography (EEG) study in 15 SCZ and 15 control participants in whom we examined neural oscillations and event-related potentials (ERPs) in the sound-induced flash illusion (SIFI). In the SIFI multiple auditory stimuli that are presented alongside a single visual stimulus can induce the illusory percept of multiple visual stimuli. In SCZ and control participants we compared ERPs and neural oscillations between trials that induced an illusion and trials that did not induce an illusion. On the behavioral level, SCZ (55.7%) and control participants (55.4%) did not significantly differ in illusion rates. The analysis of ERPs revealed diminished amplitudes and altered multisensory processing in SCZ compared to controls around 135 ms after stimulus onset. Moreover, the analysis of neural oscillations revealed altered 25–35 Hz power after 100 to 150 ms over occipital scalp for SCZ compared to controls. Our findings extend previous observations of aberrant neural oscillations in unisensory perception paradigms. They suggest that altered ERPs and altered occipital beta/gamma band power reflect aberrant multisensory processing in SCZ. PMID:27999553

Effects of auditory stimuli in the horizontal plane on audiovisual integration: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Yang, Weiping; Li, Qi; Ochi, Tatsuya; Yang, Jingjing; Gao, Yulin; Tang, Xiaoyu; Takahashi, Satoshi; Wu, Jinglong

2013-01-01

This article aims to investigate whether auditory stimuli in the horizontal plane, particularly originating from behind the participant, affect audiovisual integration by using behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measurements. In this study, visual stimuli were presented directly in front of the participants, auditory stimuli were presented at one location in an equidistant horizontal plane at the front (0°, the fixation point), right (90°), back (180°), or left (270°) of the participants, and audiovisual stimuli that include both visual stimuli and auditory stimuli originating from one of the four locations were simultaneously presented. These stimuli were presented randomly with equal probability; during this time, participants were asked to attend to the visual stimulus and respond promptly only to visual target stimuli (a unimodal visual target stimulus and the visual target of the audiovisual stimulus). A significant facilitation of reaction times and hit rates was obtained following audiovisual stimulation, irrespective of whether the auditory stimuli were presented in the front or back of the participant. However, no significant interactions were found between visual stimuli and auditory stimuli from the right or left. Two main ERP components related to audiovisual integration were found: first, auditory stimuli from the front location produced an ERP reaction over the right temporal area and right occipital area at approximately 160-200 milliseconds; second, auditory stimuli from the back produced a reaction over the parietal and occipital areas at approximately 360-400 milliseconds. Our results confirmed that audiovisual integration was also elicited, even though auditory stimuli were presented behind the participant, but no integration occurred when auditory stimuli were presented in the right or left spaces, suggesting that the human brain might be particularly sensitive to information received from behind than both sides.

Effects of Auditory Stimuli in the Horizontal Plane on Audiovisual Integration: An Event-Related Potential Study

PubMed Central

Yang, Weiping; Li, Qi; Ochi, Tatsuya; Yang, Jingjing; Gao, Yulin; Tang, Xiaoyu; Takahashi, Satoshi; Wu, Jinglong

2013-01-01

This article aims to investigate whether auditory stimuli in the horizontal plane, particularly originating from behind the participant, affect audiovisual integration by using behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measurements. In this study, visual stimuli were presented directly in front of the participants, auditory stimuli were presented at one location in an equidistant horizontal plane at the front (0°, the fixation point), right (90°), back (180°), or left (270°) of the participants, and audiovisual stimuli that include both visual stimuli and auditory stimuli originating from one of the four locations were simultaneously presented. These stimuli were presented randomly with equal probability; during this time, participants were asked to attend to the visual stimulus and respond promptly only to visual target stimuli (a unimodal visual target stimulus and the visual target of the audiovisual stimulus). A significant facilitation of reaction times and hit rates was obtained following audiovisual stimulation, irrespective of whether the auditory stimuli were presented in the front or back of the participant. However, no significant interactions were found between visual stimuli and auditory stimuli from the right or left. Two main ERP components related to audiovisual integration were found: first, auditory stimuli from the front location produced an ERP reaction over the right temporal area and right occipital area at approximately 160–200 milliseconds; second, auditory stimuli from the back produced a reaction over the parietal and occipital areas at approximately 360–400 milliseconds. Our results confirmed that audiovisual integration was also elicited, even though auditory stimuli were presented behind the participant, but no integration occurred when auditory stimuli were presented in the right or left spaces, suggesting that the human brain might be particularly sensitive to information received from behind than both sides. PMID:23799097

Crystal structures of the Erp protein family members ErpP and ErpC from Borrelia burgdorferi reveal the reason for different affinities for complement regulator factor H.

PubMed

Brangulis, Kalvis; Petrovskis, Ivars; Kazaks, Andris; Akopjana, Inara; Tars, Kaspars

2015-05-01

Borrelia burgdorferi is the causative agent of Lyme disease, which can be acquired after the bite of an infected Ixodes tick. As a strategy to resist the innate immunity and to successfully spread and proliferate, B. burgdorferi expresses a set of outer membrane proteins that are capable of binding complement regulator factor H (CFH), factor H-like protein 1 (CFHL-1) and factor H-related proteins (CFHR) to avoid complement-mediated killing. B. burgdorferi B31 contains three proteins that belong to the Erp (OspE/F-related) protein family and are capable of binding CFH and some CFHRs, namely ErpA, ErpC and ErpP. We have determined the crystal structure of ErpP at 2.53Å resolution and the crystal structure of ErpC at 2.15Å resolution. Recently, the crystal structure of the Erp family member OspE from B. burgdorferi N40 was determined in complex with CFH domains 19-20, revealing the residues involved in the complex formation. Despite the high sequence conservation between ErpA, ErpC, ErpP and the homologous protein OspE (78-80%), the affinity for CFH and CFHRs differs markedly among the Erp family members, suggesting that ErpC may bind only CFHRs but not CFH. A comparison of the binding site in OspE with those of ErpC and ErpP revealed that the extended loop region, which is only observed in the potential binding site of ErpC, plays an important role by preventing the binding of CFH. These results can explain the inability of ErpC to bind CFH, whereas ErpP and ErpA still possess the ability to bind CFH. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neurophysiological evidence for a recollection impairment in amnesia patients that leaves familiarity intact

PubMed Central

Addante, Richard J.; Ranganath, Charan; Olichney, John; Yonelinas, Andrew P.

2012-01-01

In several previous behavioral studies, we have identified a group of amnestic patients that, behaviorally, appear to exhibit severe deficits in recollection with relative preservation of familiarity-based recognition. However, these studies have relied exclusively on behavioral measures, rather than direct measures of physiology. Event-related potentials (ERPs) have been used to identify putative neural correlates of familiarity- and recollection-based recognition memory, but little work has been done to determine the extent to which these ERP correlates are spared in patients with relatively specific memory disorders. ERP studies of recognition in healthy subjects have indicated that recollection and familiarity are related to a parietal old-new effect characterized as a late positive component (LPC) and an earlier mid-frontal old-new effect referred to as an ‘FN400’, respectively. Here, we sought to determine the extent to which the putative ERP correlates of recollection and familiarity are intact or impaired in these patients. We recorded ERPs in three amnestic patients and six age matched controls while they made item recognition and source recognition judgments. The current patients were able to discriminate between old and new items fairly well, but showed nearly chance-level performance at source recognition. Moreover, whereas control subjects exhibited ERP correlates of memory that have been linked to recollection and familiarity, the patients only exhibited the mid-frontal FN400 ERP effect related to familiarity-based recognition. The results show that recollection can be severely impaired in amnesia even when familiarity-related processing is relatively spared, and they also provide further evidence that ERPs can be used to distinguish between neural correlates of familiarity and recollection. PMID:22898646

Adapted wavelet transform improves time-frequency representations: a study of auditory elicited P300-like event-related potentials in rats.

PubMed

Richard, Nelly; Laursen, Bettina; Grupe, Morten; Drewes, Asbjørn M; Graversen, Carina; Sørensen, Helge B D; Bastlund, Jesper F

2017-04-01

Active auditory oddball paradigms are simple tone discrimination tasks used to study the P300 deflection of event-related potentials (ERPs). These ERPs may be quantified by time-frequency analysis. As auditory stimuli cause early high frequency and late low frequency ERP oscillations, the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is often chosen for decomposition due to its multi-resolution properties. However, as the conventional CWT traditionally applies only one mother wavelet to represent the entire spectrum, the time-frequency resolution is not optimal across all scales. To account for this, we developed and validated a novel method specifically refined to analyse P300-like ERPs in rats. An adapted CWT (aCWT) was implemented to preserve high time-frequency resolution across all scales by commissioning of multiple wavelets operating at different scales. First, decomposition of simulated ERPs was illustrated using the classical CWT and the aCWT. Next, the two methods were applied to EEG recordings obtained from prefrontal cortex in rats performing a two-tone auditory discrimination task. While only early ERP frequency changes between responses to target and non-target tones were detected by the CWT, both early and late changes were successfully described with strong accuracy by the aCWT in rat ERPs. Increased frontal gamma power and phase synchrony was observed particularly within theta and gamma frequency bands during deviant tones. The study suggests superior performance of the aCWT over the CWT in terms of detailed quantification of time-frequency properties of ERPs. Our methodological investigation indicates that accurate and complete assessment of time-frequency components of short-time neural signals is feasible with the novel analysis approach which may be advantageous for characterisation of several types of evoked potentials in particularly rodents.

Electrophysiological evidence for the modulation of retrieval orientation by depth of study processing.

PubMed

Rugg, M D; Allan, K; Birch, C S

2000-07-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were employed to investigate whether brain activity elicited by retrieval cues in a memory test varies according to the encoding task undertaken at study. Two recognition memory test blocks were administered, preceded, in one case, by a "shallow" study task (alphabetic judgement) and, in the other case, by a "deep" task (sentence generation). ERPs elicited by the new words in each test block differed, the ERPs elicited in the block following the shallow study task exhibiting the more positive-going waveforms. This finding was taken as evidence that subjects adopt different "retrieval sets" when attempting to retrieve items that had been encoded in terms of alphabetic versus semantic attributes. Differences between the ERPs elicited by correctly classified old and new words (old/new effects) also varied with encoding task. The effects for deeply studied words resembled those found in previous ERP studies of recognition memory, whereas old/new effects for shallowly studied words were confined to a late-onsetting, right frontal positivity. Together, the findings indicate that the depth of study processing influences two kinds of memory-related neural activity, associated with memory search operations, and the processing of retrieved information, respectively.

Case study of open-source enterprise resource planning implementation in a small business

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olson, David L.; Staley, Jesse

2012-02-01

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been recognised as offering great benefit to some organisations, although they are expensive and problematic to implement. The cost and risk make well-developed proprietorial systems unaffordable to small businesses. Open-source software (OSS) has become a viable means of producing ERP system products. The question this paper addresses is the feasibility of OSS ERP systems for small businesses. A case is reported involving two efforts to implement freely distributed ERP software products in a small US make-to-order engineering firm. The case emphasises the potential of freely distributed ERP systems, as well as some of the hurdles involved in their implementation. The paper briefly reviews highlights of OSS ERP systems, with the primary focus on reporting the case experiences for efforts to implement ERPLite software and xTuple software. While both systems worked from a technical perspective, both failed due to economic factors. While these economic conditions led to imperfect results, the case demonstrates the feasibility of OSS ERP for small businesses. Both experiences are evaluated in terms of risk dimension.

The oxidoreductase ERp57 efficiently reduces partially folded in preference to fully folded MHC class I molecules

PubMed Central

Antoniou, Antony N.; Ford, Stuart; Alphey, Magnus; Osborne, Andrew; Elliott, Tim; Powis, Simon J.

2002-01-01

The oxidoreductase ERp57 is an integral component of the peptide loading complex of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules, formed during their chaperone-assisted assembly in the endoplasmic reticulum. Misfolded MHC class I molecules or those denied suitable peptides are retrotranslocated and degraded in the cytosol. The presence of ERp57 during class I assembly suggests it may be involved in the reduction of intrachain disulfides prior to retrotranslocation. We have studied the ability of ERp57 to reduce MHC class I molecules in vitro. Recombinant ERp57 specifically reduced partially folded MHC class I molecules, whereas it had little or no effect on folded and peptide-loaded MHC class I molecules. Reductase activity was associated with cysteines at positions 56 and 405 of ERp57, the N-terminal residues of the active CXXC motifs. Our data suggest that the reductase activity of ERp57 may be involved during the unfolding of MHC class I molecules, leading to targeting for degradation. PMID:12032078

Modulation of Electrophysiology by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Kim, Minah; Kwak, Yoo Bin; Lee, Tae Young; Kwon, Jun Soo

2018-04-27

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique increasingly used to relieve symptoms of psychiatric disorders. Electrophysiologic markers, such as electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERP), have high temporal resolution sensitive to detect plastic changes of the brain associated with symptomatic improvement following tDCS application. We performed systematic review to identify electrophysiological markers that reflect tDCS effects on plastic brain changes in psychiatric disorders. A total of 638 studies were identified by searching PubMed, Embase, psychINFPO. Of these, 21 full-text articles were assessed eligible and included in the review. Although the reviewed studies were heterogeneous in their choices of tDCS protocols, targeted electrophysiological markers, and disease entities, their results strongly support EEG/ERPs to sensitively reflect plastic brain changes and the associated symptomatic improvement following tDCS. EEG/ERPs may serve a potent tool in revealing the mechanisms underlying psychiatric symptoms, as well as in localizing the brain area targeted for stimulation. Future studies in each disease entities employing consistent tDCS protocols and electrophysiological markers would be necessary in order to substantiate and further elaborate the findings of studies included in the present systematic review.

Prolongation of ERP latency and reaction time (RT) in simultaneous EEG/fMRI data acquisition.

PubMed

Chun, Jinsoo; Peltier, Scott J; Yoon, Daehyun; Manschreck, Theo C; Deldin, Patricia J

2016-08-01

Recording EEG and fMRI data simultaneously inside a fully-operating scanner has been recognized as a novel approach in human brain research. Studies have demonstrated high concordance between the EEG signals and hemodynamic response. However, a few studies reported altered cognitive process inside the fMRI scanner such as delayed reaction time (RT) and reduced and/or delayed N100 and P300 event-related brain potential (ERP) components. The present study investigated the influence of electromagnetic field (static magnetic field, radio frequency (RF) pulse, and gradient switching) and experimental environment on posterior N100 and P300 ERP components in four different settings with six healthy subjects using a visual oddball task: (1) classic fMRI acquisition inside the scanner (e.g., supine position, mirror glasses for stimulus presentation), (2) standard behavioral experiment outside the scanner (e.g., seated position, keyboard response), (3) controlled fMRI acquisition inside the scanner (e.g., organic light-emitting diode (OLED) goggles for stimulus presentation) inside; and (4) modified behavioral experiment outside the scanner (e.g., supine position, OLED goggles). The study findings indicated that the experimental environment in simultaneous EEG/fMRI acquisition could substantially delay N1P, P300 latency, and RT inside the scanner, and was associated with a reduced N1P amplitude. There was no effect of electromagnetic field in the prolongation of RT, N1P and P300 latency inside the scanner. N1P, but not P300, latency was sensitive to stimulus presentation method inside the scanner. Future simultaneous EEG/fMRI data collection should consider experimental environment in both design and analysis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Deep and shallow encoding effects on face recognition: an ERP study.

PubMed

Marzi, Tessa; Viggiano, Maria Pia

2010-12-01

Event related potentials (ERPs) were employed to investigate whether and when brain activity related to face recognition varies according to the processing level undertaken at encoding. Recognition was assessed when preceded by a "shallow" (orientation judgement) or by a "deep" study task (occupation judgement). Moreover, we included a further manipulation by presenting at encoding faces either in the upright or inverted orientation. As expected, deeply encoded faces were recognized more accurately and more quickly with respect to shallowly encoded faces. The ERP showed three main findings: i) as witnessed by more positive-going potentials for deeply encoded faces, at early and later processing stage, face recognition was influenced by the processing strategy adopted during encoding; ii) structural encoding, indexed by the N170, turned out to be "cognitively penetrable" showing repetition priming effects for deeply encoded faces; iii) face inversion, by disrupting configural processing during encoding, influenced memory related processes for deeply encoded faces and impaired the recognition of faces shallowly processed. The present study adds weight to the concept that the depth of processing during memory encoding affects retrieval. We found that successful retrieval following deep encoding involved both familiarity- and recollection-related processes showing from 500 ms a fronto-parietal distribution, whereas shallow encoding affected only earlier processing stages reflecting perceptual priming. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The interoperability force in the ERP field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boza, Andrés; Cuenca, Llanos; Poler, Raúl; Michaelides, Zenon

2015-04-01

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems participate in interoperability projects and this participation sometimes leads to new proposals for the ERP field. The aim of this paper is to identify the role that interoperability plays in the evolution of ERP systems. To go about this, ERP systems have been first identified within interoperability frameworks. Second, the initiatives in the ERP field driven by interoperability requirements have been identified from two perspectives: technological and business. The ERP field is evolving from classical ERP as information system integrators to a new generation of fully interoperable ERP. Interoperability is changing the way of running business, and ERP systems are changing to adapt to the current stream of interoperability.

ERp57 interacts with conserved cysteine residues in the MHC class I peptide-binding groove.

PubMed

Antoniou, Antony N; Santos, Susana G; Campbell, Elaine C; Lynch, Sarah; Arosa, Fernando A; Powis, Simon J

2007-05-15

The oxidoreductase ERp57 is a component of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I peptide-loading complex. ERp57 can interact directly with MHC class I molecules, however, little is known about which of the cysteine residues within the MHC class I molecule are relevant to this interaction. MHC class I molecules possess conserved disulfide bonds between cysteines 101-164, and 203-259 in the peptide-binding and alpha3 domain, respectively. By studying a series of mutants of these conserved residues, we demonstrate that ERp57 predominantly associates with cysteine residues in the peptide-binding domain, thus indicating ERp57 has direct access to the peptide-binding groove of MHC class I molecules during assembly.

Implementation of enhanced recovery programme after pancreatoduodenectomy: a single-centre UK pilot study.

PubMed

Abu Hilal, Mohammed; Di Fabio, Francesco; Badran, Abdallah; Alsaati, Hani; Clarke, Hannah; Fecher, Imogen; Armstrong, Thomas H; Johnson, Colin D; Pearce, Neil W

2013-01-01

Data on enhanced recovery programmes after pancreatoduodenectomy (ERP-PD) is limited. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility, safety and clinical outcomes of ERP-PD when implemented at a high-volume UK university referral centre. This was an observational single-surgeon case-control study (before-and-after pathway). A total of 20 consecutive patients were prospectively enrolled for the ERP-PD and compared with 24 consecutive patients previously treated during an equal time frame. Patients in the ERP-PD group had a significant shorter time to remove naso-gastric tube (median of 5 vs. 7 days, p = 0.0001), start liquid diet (median of 2 vs. 5 days, p < 0.0001), start solid food (median of 4 vs. 9 days, p < 0.0001), pass stools (median of 6 vs. 7 days, p = 0.002), and had shorter length of stay (median of 8.5 days vs. 13 days, p = 0.015) compared to the pre-pathway group. Postoperative complications were overall less frequent but not significantly different in the ERP-PD group (p = 0.077). No difference in mortality and readmission rates was found. Our findings support the feasibility and safety of ERP-PD. Improved patients' outcomes, significant bed day savings and increase National Health Service productivity are anticipated with implementation of ERP-PD on a larger scale. Copyright © 2012 IAP and EPC. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

On the Screen, in the Mind: An ERP Investigation into the Interaction between Visuo-Spatial Information and Spatial Language during On-Line Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zane, Emily

2016-01-01

This project used Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to explore neurophysiological brain responses to prepositional phrases involving concrete and abstract reference nouns (e.g., "plate" and "moment," respectively) after the presentation of objects with varying spatial features. Prepositional phrases were headed by "in"…

Auditory Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) in Audiovisual Speech Perception

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pilling, Michael

2009-01-01

Purpose: It has recently been reported (e.g., V. van Wassenhove, K. W. Grant, & D. Poeppel, 2005) that audiovisual (AV) presented speech is associated with an N1/P2 auditory event-related potential (ERP) response that is lower in peak amplitude compared with the responses associated with auditory only (AO) speech. This effect was replicated.…

Proposing a New Framework and an Innovative Approach to Teaching Reengineering and ERP Implementation Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pellerin, Robert; Hadaya, Pierre

2008-01-01

Recognizing the need to teach ERP implementation and business process reengineering (BPR) concepts simultaneously, as well as the pedagogical limitations of the case teaching method and simulation tools, the objective of this study is to propose a new framework and an innovative teaching approach to improve the ERP training experience for IS…

Inadequate and Infrequent Are Not Alike: ERPs to Deviant Prosodic Patterns in Spoken Sentence Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mietz, Anja; Toepel, Ulrike; Ischebeck, Anja; Alter, Kai

2008-01-01

The current study on German investigates Event-Related brain Potentials (ERPs) for the perception of sentences with intonations which are infrequent (i.e. vocatives) or inadequate in daily conversation. These ERPs are compared to the processing correlates for sentences in which the syntax-to-prosody relations are congruent and used frequently…

Increased Error-Related Negativity (ERN) in Childhood Anxiety Disorders: ERP and Source Localization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladouceur, Cecile D.; Dahl, Ronald E.; Birmaher, Boris; Axelson, David A.; Ryan, Neal D.

2006-01-01

Background: In this study we used event-related potentials (ERPs) and source localization analyses to track the time course of neural activity underlying response monitoring in children diagnosed with an anxiety disorder compared to age-matched low-risk normal controls. Methods: High-density ERPs were examined following errors on a flanker task…

Development of Action Monitoring through Adolescence into Adulthood: ERP and Source Localization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladouceur, Cecile D.; Dahl, Ronald E.; Carter, Cameron S.

2007-01-01

In this study we examined the development of three action monitoring event-related potentials (ERPs)--the error-related negativity (ERN/Ne), error positivity (P[subscript E]) and the N2--and estimated their neural sources. These ERPs were recorded during a flanker task in the following groups: early adolescents (mean age = 12 years), late…

Working memory load modulates the neural response to other's pain: Evidence from an ERP study.

PubMed

Cui, Fang; Zhu, Xiangru; Luo, Yuejia; Cheng, Jiaping

2017-03-22

The present study investigated the time course of processing other's pain under different conditions of working memory (WM) load. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while the participants held two digits (low WM load) or six digits (high WM load) in WM and viewed pictures that showed others who were in painful or non-painful situations. Robust WM-load×Picture interactions were found for the N2 and LPP components. In the high WM-load condition, painful pictures elicited significantly larger amplitudes than non-painful pictures. In the low WM load condition, the difference between the painful and non-painful pictures was not significant. These ERP results indicate that WM load can influence both the early automatic N2 component and late cognitive LPP component. Compared with high WM load, low WM load reduced affective arousal and emotional sharing in response to other's pain and weakened the cognitive evaluation of task irrelevant stimuli. These findings are explained from the load theory perspective. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Interaction of Arousal and Valence in Affective Priming: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence

PubMed Central

Zhang, Qin; Kong, Lingyue; Jiang, Yang

2013-01-01

The affective priming paradigm has been studied extensively and applied in many fields during the past two decades. Most research thus far has focused on the valence dimension. Whether emotional arousal influences affective priming remains poorly understood. The present study demonstrates how arousal impacts evaluation of affective words using reaction time and event-related potential (ERP) measures. Eighteen younger subjects evaluated pleasantness of target words after seeing affective pictures as primes. The participants’ responses were faster and/or more accurate for valence-congruent trials than for incongruent trials, particularly with high-arousal stimuli. An ERP affective priming effect (N400) also occurred mainly in high-arousing stimulus pairs. In addition, whereas valence congruency influenced both the N400 and the LPP, arousal congruency influenced only the LPP, suggesting that arousal congruency mainly modulates post-semantic processes, but valence congruency effects begin with semantic processes. Overall, our current findings indicate that the arousal level of visual images impacts both behavioral and ERP effects of affective priming. Section Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience PMID:22820299

The effects of decreased audibility produced by high-pass noise masking on cortical event-related potentials to speech sounds/ba/and/da.

PubMed

Martin, B A; Sigal, A; Kurtzberg, D; Stapells, D R

1997-03-01

This study investigated the effects of decreased audibility produced by high-pass noise masking on cortical event-related potentials (ERPs) N1, N2, and P3 to the speech sounds /ba/and/da/presented at 65 and 80 dB SPL. Normal-hearing subjects pressed a button in response to the deviant sound in an oddball paradigm. Broadband masking noise was presented at an intensity sufficient to completely mask the response to the 65-dB SPL speech sounds, and subsequently high-pass filtered at 4000, 2000, 1000, 500, and 250 Hz. With high-pass masking noise, pure-tone behavioral thresholds increased by an average of 38 dB at the high-pass cutoff and by 50 dB one octave above the cutoff frequency. Results show that as the cutoff frequency of the high-pass masker was lowered, ERP latencies to speech sounds increased and amplitudes decreased. The cutoff frequency where these changes first occurred and the rate of the change differed for N1 compared to N2, P3, and the behavioral measures. N1 showed gradual changes as the masker cutoff frequency was lowered. N2, P3, and behavioral measures showed marked changes below a masker cutoff of 2000 Hz. These results indicate that the decreased audibility resulting from the noise masking affects the various ERP components in a differential manner. N1 is related to the presence of audible stimulus energy, being present whether audible stimuli are discriminable or not. In contrast, N2 and P3 were absent when the stimuli were audible but not discriminable (i.e., when the second formant transitions were masked), reflecting stimulus discrimination. These data have implications regarding the effects of decreased audibility on cortical processing of speech sounds and for the study of cortical ERPs in populations with hearing impairment.

A Roadmap for the Development and Validation of ERP Biomarkers in Schizophrenia Research

PubMed Central

Luck, Steven J.; Mathalon, Daniel H.; O'Donnell, Brian F.; Hämäläinen, Matti S.; Spencer, Kevin M.; Javitt, Daniel C.; Uhlhaas, Peter J.

2010-01-01

New efforts to develop treatments for cognitive dysfunction in mental illnesses would benefit enormously from biomarkers that provide sensitive and reliable measures of the neural events underlying cognition. Here we evaluate the promise of event-related potentials (ERPs) as biomarkers of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. We conclude that ERPs have several desirable properties: (a) they provide a direct measure of electrical activity during neurotransmission; (b) their high temporal resolutions makes it possible to measure neural synchrony and oscillations; (c) they are relatively inexpensive and convenient to record; (d) animal models are readily available for several ERP components; (e) decades of research has established the sensitivity and reliability of ERP measures in psychiatric illnesses; and (f) feasibility of large N (>500) multi-site studies has been demonstrated for key measures. Consequently, ERPs may be useful for identifying endophenotypes and defining treatment targets, for evaluating new compounds in animals and in humans, and for identifying individuals who are good candidates for early interventions or for specific treatments. However, several challenges must be overcome before ERPs gain widespread use as biomarkers in schizophrenia research, and we make several recommendations for the research that is necessary to develop and validate ERP-based biomarkers that can have a real impact on treatment development. PMID:21111401

A graphical user interface for infant ERP analysis.

PubMed

Kaatiala, Jussi; Yrttiaho, Santeri; Forssman, Linda; Perdue, Katherine; Leppänen, Jukka

2014-09-01

Recording of event-related potentials (ERPs) is one of the best-suited technologies for examining brain function in human infants. Yet the existing software packages are not optimized for the unique requirements of analyzing artifact-prone ERP data from infants. We developed a new graphical user interface that enables an efficient implementation of a two-stage approach to the analysis of infant ERPs. In the first stage, video records of infant behavior are synchronized with ERPs at the level of individual trials to reject epochs with noncompliant behavior and other artifacts. In the second stage, the interface calls MATLAB and EEGLAB (Delorme & Makeig, Journal of Neuroscience Methods 134(1):9-21, 2004) functions for further preprocessing of the ERP signal itself (i.e., filtering, artifact removal, interpolation, and rereferencing). Finally, methods are included for data visualization and analysis by using bootstrapped group averages. Analyses of simulated and real EEG data demonstrated that the proposed approach can be effectively used to establish task compliance, remove various types of artifacts, and perform representative visualizations and statistical comparisons of ERPs. The interface is available for download from http://www.uta.fi/med/icl/methods/eeg.html in a format that is widely applicable to ERP studies with special populations and open for further editing by users.

Using ERPs to Investigate Valence Processing in the Affect Misattribution Procedure

PubMed Central

Von Gunten, Curtis D.; Bartholow, Bruce D.; Scherer, Laura D.

2016-01-01

The construct validity of the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) has been challenged by theories proposing that the task does not actually measure affect misattribution. The current study tested the validity of the AMP as a measure of affect misattribution by examining three components of the event-related potential (ERP) known to be associated with the allocation of motivated attention. Results revealed that ERP amplitudes varied in response to affectively ambiguous targets as a function of the valence of preceding primes. Furthermore, differences in ERP responses to the targets were largely similar to differences in ERPs elicited by the primes. The existence of valence differentiation in both the prime-locked and the target-locked ERPs, along with the similarity in this differentiation, provides evidence that the affective content of the primes is psychologically registered, and that this content influences the processing of the subsequent, evaluatively ambiguous targets, both of which are required if the priming effects found in the AMP are the result of affect misattribution. However, the behavioral priming effect was uncorrelated with ERP amplitudes, leaving some question as to the locus of this effect in the information-processing system. Findings are discussed in light of the strengths and weaknesses of using ERPs to understand the priming effects in the AMP. PMID:27754548

Neurophysiological evidence for the influence of past experience on figure-ground perception.

PubMed

Trujillo, Logan T; Allen, John J B; Schnyer, David M; Peterson, Mary A

2010-02-10

A fundamental aspect of perceptual organization entails segregating visual input into shaped figures presented against shapeless backgrounds; an outcome termed "figure-ground perception" or "shape assignment." The present study examined how early in processing past experience exerts an influence on shape assignment. Event-related potential (ERP) measures of brain activity were recorded while observers viewed silhouettes of novel objects that differed in whether or not a familiar shape was suggested on the outside-the groundside-of their bounding edges (experimental versus control silhouettes, respectively). Observers perceived both types of silhouettes as novel shapes and were unaware of the familiar shape suggested on the groundside of experimental silhouettes. Nevertheless, we expected that the familiar shape would be implicitly identified early in processing and would compete for figural status with the novel shape on the inside. Early (106-156 ms) ERPs were larger for experimental silhouettes than for control silhouettes lacking familiarity cues. The early ERP difference occurred during a time interval within which edge-segmentation-dependent response differences have been observed in previous neurophysiological investigations of figure-ground perception. These results provide the first neurophysiological evidence for an influence of past experience during the earliest stages of shape assignment.

The role of inhibition for working memory processes: ERP evidence from a short-term storage task.

PubMed

Getzmann, Stephan; Wascher, Edmund; Schneider, Daniel

2018-05-01

Human working memory is the central unit for short-term storage of information. In addition to the selection and adequate storage of relevant information, the suppression of irrelevant stimuli from the environment seems to be of importance for working memory processes. To learn more about the interplay of information uptake and inhibition of irrelevant information, the present study used ERP measures and a short-term storage and retrieval task, in which pairs of either numbers or letters had to be compared. Random sequences of four stimuli (two numbers and two letters) were presented, with either the numbers or the letters being relevant for comparison. The analysis of ERPs to each of the four stimuli indicated more pronounced P2 and P3b amplitudes for relevant than irrelevant stimuli. In contrast, the N2 (reflecting inhibitory control) was only elicited by irrelevant stimuli. Moreover, the N2 amplitude of the second irrelevant stimulus was associated with behavioral performance, indicating the importance of inhibition of task-irrelevant stimuli for working memory processes. In sum, the findings demonstrate the role of cognitive control mechanisms for protecting relevant contents in working memory against irrelevant information. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Socio-emotionally Significant Experience and Children’s Processing of Irrelevant Auditory Stimuli

PubMed Central

Schermerhorn, Alice C.; Bates, John E.; Puce, Aina; Molfese, Dennis L.

2017-01-01

Theory and research indicate considerable influence of socio-emotionally significant experiences on children’s functioning and adaptation. In the current study, we examined neurophysiological correlates of children’s allocation of information processing resources to socio-emotionally significant events, specifically, simulated marital interactions. We presented 9- to 11-year-old children (n = 24; 11 females) with 15 videos of interactions between two actors posing as a married couple. Task-irrelevant brief auditory probes were presented during the videos, and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited to the auditory probes were measured. As hypothesized, exposure to higher levels of interparental conflict was associated with smaller P1, P2, and N2 ERPs to the probes. This finding is consistent with the idea that children who had been exposed to more interparental conflict attended more to the videos and diverted fewer cognitive resources to processing the probes, thereby producing smaller ERPs to the probes. In addition, smaller N2s were associated with more child behavior problems, suggesting that allocating fewer processing resources to the probes was associated with more problem behavior. Results are discussed in terms of implications of socio-emotionally significant experiences for children’s processing of interpersonal interactions. PMID:27993611

ERP correlates of German Sign Language processing in deaf native signers.

PubMed

Hänel-Faulhaber, Barbara; Skotara, Nils; Kügow, Monique; Salden, Uta; Bottari, Davide; Röder, Brigitte

2014-05-10

The present study investigated the neural correlates of sign language processing of Deaf people who had learned German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache, DGS) from their Deaf parents as their first language. Correct and incorrect signed sentences were presented sign by sign on a computer screen. At the end of each sentence the participants had to judge whether or not the sentence was an appropriate DGS sentence. Two types of violations were introduced: (1) semantically incorrect sentences containing a selectional restriction violation (implausible object); (2) morphosyntactically incorrect sentences containing a verb that was incorrectly inflected (i.e., incorrect direction of movement). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 74 scalp electrodes. Semantic violations (implausible signs) elicited an N400 effect followed by a positivity. Sentences with a morphosyntactic violation (verb agreement violation) elicited a negativity followed by a broad centro-parietal positivity. ERP correlates of semantic and morphosyntactic aspects of DGS clearly differed from each other and showed a number of similarities with those observed in other signed and oral languages. These data suggest a similar functional organization of signed and oral languages despite the visual-spacial modality of sign language.

ERP correlates of German Sign Language processing in deaf native signers

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The present study investigated the neural correlates of sign language processing of Deaf people who had learned German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache, DGS) from their Deaf parents as their first language. Correct and incorrect signed sentences were presented sign by sign on a computer screen. At the end of each sentence the participants had to judge whether or not the sentence was an appropriate DGS sentence. Two types of violations were introduced: (1) semantically incorrect sentences containing a selectional restriction violation (implausible object); (2) morphosyntactically incorrect sentences containing a verb that was incorrectly inflected (i.e., incorrect direction of movement). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 74 scalp electrodes. Results Semantic violations (implausible signs) elicited an N400 effect followed by a positivity. Sentences with a morphosyntactic violation (verb agreement violation) elicited a negativity followed by a broad centro-parietal positivity. Conclusions ERP correlates of semantic and morphosyntactic aspects of DGS clearly differed from each other and showed a number of similarities with those observed in other signed and oral languages. These data suggest a similar functional organization of signed and oral languages despite the visual-spacial modality of sign language. PMID:24884527

Synchronized tapping facilitates learning sound sequences as indexed by the P300.

PubMed

Kamiyama, Keiko S; Okanoya, Kazuo

2014-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether and how single finger tapping in synchrony with sound sequences contributed to the auditory processing of them. The participants learned two unfamiliar sound sequences via different methods. In the tapping condition, they learned an auditory sequence while they tapped in synchrony with each sound onset. In the no tapping condition, they learned another sequence while they kept pressing a key until the sequence ended. After these learning sessions, we presented the two melodies again and recorded event-related potentials (ERPs). During the ERP recordings, 10% of the tones within each melody deviated from the original tones. An analysis of the grand average ERPs showed that deviant stimuli elicited a significant P300 in the tapping but not in the no-tapping condition. In addition, the significance of the P300 effect in the tapping condition increased as the participants showed highly synchronized tapping behavior during the learning sessions. These results indicated that single finger tapping promoted the conscious detection and evaluation of deviants within the learned sequences. The effect was related to individuals' musical ability to coordinate their finger movements along with external auditory events.

Synchronized tapping facilitates learning sound sequences as indexed by the P300

PubMed Central

Kamiyama, Keiko S.; Okanoya, Kazuo

2014-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether and how single finger tapping in synchrony with sound sequences contributed to the auditory processing of them. The participants learned two unfamiliar sound sequences via different methods. In the tapping condition, they learned an auditory sequence while they tapped in synchrony with each sound onset. In the no tapping condition, they learned another sequence while they kept pressing a key until the sequence ended. After these learning sessions, we presented the two melodies again and recorded event-related potentials (ERPs). During the ERP recordings, 10% of the tones within each melody deviated from the original tones. An analysis of the grand average ERPs showed that deviant stimuli elicited a significant P300 in the tapping but not in the no-tapping condition. In addition, the significance of the P300 effect in the tapping condition increased as the participants showed highly synchronized tapping behavior during the learning sessions. These results indicated that single finger tapping promoted the conscious detection and evaluation of deviants within the learned sequences. The effect was related to individuals’ musical ability to coordinate their finger movements along with external auditory events. PMID:25400564

Beyond the initial 140 ms, lexical decision and reading aloud are different tasks: An ERP study with topographic analysis.

PubMed

Mahé, Gwendoline; Zesiger, Pascal; Laganaro, Marina

2015-11-15

Most of our knowledge on the time-course of the mechanisms involved in reading derived from electrophysiological studies is based on lexical decision tasks. By contrast, very few ERP studies investigated the processes involved in reading aloud. It has been suggested that the lexical decision task provides a good index of the processes occurring during reading aloud, with only late processing differences related to task response modalities. However, some behavioral studies reported different sensitivity to psycholinguistic factors between the two tasks, suggesting that print processing could differ at earlier processing stages. The aim of the present study was thus to carry out an ERP comparison between lexical decision and reading aloud in order to determine when print processing differs between these two tasks. Twenty native French speakers performed a lexical decision task and a reading aloud task with the same written stimuli. Results revealed different electrophysiological patterns on both waveform amplitudes and global topography between lexical decision and reading aloud from about 140 ms after stimulus presentation for both words and pseudowords, i.e., as early as the N170 component. These results suggest that only very early, low-level visual processes are common to the two tasks which differ in core processes. Taken together, our main finding questions the use of the lexical decision task as an appropriate paradigm to investigate reading processes and warns against generalizing its results to word reading. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neurophysiological Effects of Meditation Based on Evoked and Event Related Potential Recordings

PubMed Central

Singh, Nilkamal; Telles, Shirley

2015-01-01

Evoked potentials (EPs) are a relatively noninvasive method to assess the integrity of sensory pathways. As the neural generators for most of the components are relatively well worked out, EPs have been used to understand the changes occurring during meditation. Event-related potentials (ERPs) yield useful information about the response to tasks, usually assessing attention. A brief review of the literature yielded eleven studies on EPs and seventeen on ERPs from 1978 to 2014. The EP studies covered short, mid, and long latency EPs, using both auditory and visual modalities. ERP studies reported the effects of meditation on tasks such as the auditory oddball paradigm, the attentional blink task, mismatched negativity, and affective picture viewing among others. Both EP and ERPs were recorded in several meditations detailed in the review. Maximum changes occurred in mid latency (auditory) EPs suggesting that maximum changes occur in the corresponding neural generators in the thalamus, thalamic radiations, and primary auditory cortical areas. ERP studies showed meditation can increase attention and enhance efficiency of brain resource allocation with greater emotional control. PMID:26137479

Neurophysiological Effects of Meditation Based on Evoked and Event Related Potential Recordings.

PubMed

Singh, Nilkamal; Telles, Shirley

2015-01-01

Evoked potentials (EPs) are a relatively noninvasive method to assess the integrity of sensory pathways. As the neural generators for most of the components are relatively well worked out, EPs have been used to understand the changes occurring during meditation. Event-related potentials (ERPs) yield useful information about the response to tasks, usually assessing attention. A brief review of the literature yielded eleven studies on EPs and seventeen on ERPs from 1978 to 2014. The EP studies covered short, mid, and long latency EPs, using both auditory and visual modalities. ERP studies reported the effects of meditation on tasks such as the auditory oddball paradigm, the attentional blink task, mismatched negativity, and affective picture viewing among others. Both EP and ERPs were recorded in several meditations detailed in the review. Maximum changes occurred in mid latency (auditory) EPs suggesting that maximum changes occur in the corresponding neural generators in the thalamus, thalamic radiations, and primary auditory cortical areas. ERP studies showed meditation can increase attention and enhance efficiency of brain resource allocation with greater emotional control.

[Extraction of evoked related potentials by using the combination of independent component analysis and wavelet analysis].

PubMed

Zou, Ling; Chen, Shuyue; Sun, Yuqiang; Ma, Zhenghua

2010-08-01

In this paper we present a new method of combining Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Wavelet de-noising algorithm to extract Evoked Related Potentials (ERPs). First, the extended Infomax-ICA algorithm is used to analyze EEG signals and obtain the independent components (Ics); Then, the Wave Shrink (WS) method is applied to the demixed Ics as an intermediate step; the EEG data were rebuilt by using the inverse ICA based on the new Ics; the ERPs were extracted by using de-noised EEG data after being averaged several trials. The experimental results showed that the combined method and ICA method could remove eye artifacts and muscle artifacts mixed in the ERPs, while the combined method could retain the brain neural activity mixed in the noise Ics and could extract the weak ERPs efficiently from strong background artifacts.

Long-Lasting Cortical Reorganization as the Result of Motor Imagery of Throwing a Ball in a Virtual Tennis Court

PubMed Central

Cebolla, Ana M.; Petieau, Mathieu; Cevallos, Carlos; Leroy, Axelle; Dan, Bernard; Cheron, Guy

2015-01-01

In order to characterize the neural signature of a motor imagery (MI) task, the present study investigates for the first time the oscillation characteristics including both of the time-frequency measurements, event related spectral perturbation and intertrial coherence (ITC) underlying the variations in the temporal measurements (event related potentials, ERP) directly related to a MI task. We hypothesize that significant variations in both of the time-frequency measurements underlie the specific changes in the ERP directly related to MI. For the MI task, we chose a simple everyday task (throwing a tennis ball), that does not require any particular motor expertise, set within the controlled virtual reality scenario of a tennis court. When compared to the rest condition a consistent, long-lasting negative fronto-central ERP wave was accompanied by significant changes in both time frequency measurements suggesting long-lasting cortical activity reorganization. The ERP wave was characterized by two peaks at about 300 ms (N300) and 1000 ms (N1000). The N300 component was centrally localized on the scalp and was accompanied by significant phase consistency in the delta brain rhythms in the contralateral central scalp areas. The N1000 component spread wider centrally and was accompanied by a significant power decrease (or event related desynchronization) in low beta brain rhythms localized in fronto-precentral and parieto-occipital scalp areas and also by a significant power increase (or event related synchronization) in theta brain rhythms spreading fronto-centrally. During the transition from N300 to N1000, a contralateral alpha (mu) as well as post-central and parieto-theta rhythms occurred. The visual representation of movement formed in the minds of participants might underlie a top-down process from the fronto-central areas which is reflected by the amplitude changes observed in the fronto-central ERPs and by the significant phase synchrony in contralateral fronto-central delta and contralateral central mu to parietal theta presented here. PMID:26648903

The impact of symptomatic mild traumatic brain injury on complex everyday activities and the link with alterations in cerebral functioning: Exploratory case studies.

PubMed

Bottari, Carolina; Gosselin, Nadia; Chen, Jen-Kai; Ptito, Alain

2017-07-01

The objective of the study was to explore the neurophysiological correlates of altered functional independence using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potentials (ERP) after a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The participants consisted of three individuals with symptomatic mTBI (3.9 ± 3.6 months post-mTBI) and 12 healthy controls. The main measures used were the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) Profile observation-based assessment; a visual externally ordered working memory task combined to event-related potentials (ERP) and fMRI recordings; neuropsychological tests; post-concussion symptoms questionnaires; and the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Profile interview. Compared to normal controls, all three patients had difficulty with a real-world complex budgeting activity due to deficits in planning, ineffective strategy use and/or a prolonged time to detect and correct errors. Reduced activations in the right mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on fMRI as well as abnormal frontal or parietal components of the ERP occurred alongside these deficits. Results of this exploratory study suggest that reduced independence in complex everyday activities in symptomatic mTBI may be at least partly explained by a decrease in brain activation in the prefrontal cortex, abnormal ERP, or slower reaction times on working memory tasks. The study presents an initial attempt at combining research in neuroscience with ecological real-world evaluation research to further our understanding of the difficulties in complex everyday activities experienced by individuals with mTBI.

Sustained attention in skilled and novice martial arts athletes: a study of event-related potentials and current sources.

PubMed

Sanchez-Lopez, Javier; Silva-Pereyra, Juan; Fernandez, Thalia

2016-01-01

Background. Research on sports has revealed that behavioral responses and event-related brain potentials (ERP) are better in expert than in novice athletes for sport-related tasks. Focused attention is essential for optimal athletic performance across different sports but mainly in combat disciplines. During combat, long periods of focused attention (i.e., sustained attention) are required for a good performance. Few investigations have reported effects of expertise on brain electrical activity and its neural generators during sport-unrelated attention tasks. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of expertise (i.e., skilled and novice martial arts athletes) analyzing the ERP during a sustained attention task (Continuous Performance Task; CPT) and the cortical three-dimensional distribution of current density, using the sLORETA technique. Methods. CPT consisted in an oddball-type paradigm presentation of five stimuli (different pointing arrows) where only one of them (an arrow pointing up right) required a motor response (i.e., target). CPT was administered to skilled and novice martial arts athletes while EEG were recorded. Amplitude ERP data from target and non-target stimuli were compared between groups. Subsequently, current source analysis for each ERP component was performed on each subject. sLORETA images were compared by condition and group using Statistical Non-Parametric Mapping analysis. Results. Skilled athletes showed significant amplitude differences between target and non-target conditions in early ERP components (P100 and P200) as opposed to the novice group; however, skilled athletes showed no significant effect of condition in N200 but novices did show a significant effect. Current source analysis showed greater differences in activations in skilled compared with novice athletes between conditions in the frontal (mainly in the Superior Frontal Gyrus and Medial Frontal Gyrus) and limbic (mainly in the Anterior Cingulate Gyrus) lobes. Discussion. These results are supported by previous findings regarding activation of neural structures that underlie sustained attention. Our findings may indicate a better-controlled attention in skilled athletes, which suggests that expertise can improve effectiveness in allocation of attentional resources during the first stages of cognitive processing during combat.

Sublexical Ambiguity Effect in Reading Chinese Disyllabic Compounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Hsu-Wen; Lee, Chia-Ying; Tsai, Jie-Li; Tzeng, Ovid J.-L.

2011-01-01

For Chinese compounds, neighbors can share either both orthographic forms and meanings, or orthographic forms only. In this study, central presentation and visual half-field (VF) presentation methods were used in conjunction with ERP measures to investigate how readers solve the sublexical semantic ambiguity of the first constituent character in…

Estimating workload using EEG spectral power and ERPs in the n-back task

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brouwer, Anne-Marie; Hogervorst, Maarten A.; van Erp, Jan B. F.; Heffelaar, Tobias; Zimmerman, Patrick H.; Oostenveld, Robert

2012-08-01

Previous studies indicate that both electroencephalogram (EEG) spectral power (in particular the alpha and theta band) and event-related potentials (ERPs) (in particular the P300) can be used as a measure of mental work or memory load. We compare their ability to estimate workload level in a well-controlled task. In addition, we combine both types of measures in a single classification model to examine whether this results in higher classification accuracy than either one alone. Participants watched a sequence of visually presented letters and indicated whether or not the current letter was the same as the one (n instances) before. Workload was varied by varying n. We developed different classification models using ERP features, frequency power features or a combination (fusion). Training and testing of the models simulated an online workload estimation situation. All our ERP, power and fusion models provide classification accuracies between 80% and 90% when distinguishing between the highest and the lowest workload condition after 2 min. For 32 out of 35 participants, classification was significantly higher than chance level after 2.5 s (or one letter) as estimated by the fusion model. Differences between the models are rather small, though the fusion model performs better than the other models when only short data segments are available for estimating workload.

Oxidative Processing of Latent Fas in the Endoplasmic Reticulum Controls the Strength of Apoptosis

PubMed Central

Anathy, Vikas; Roberson, Elle; Cunniff, Brian; Nolin, James D.; Hoffman, Sidra; Spiess, Page; Guala, Amy S.; Lahue, Karolyn G.; Goldman, Dylan; Flemer, Stevenson; van der Vliet, Albert; Heintz, Nicholas H.; Budd, Ralph C.; Tew, Kenneth D.

2012-01-01

We recently demonstrated that S-glutathionylation of the death receptor Fas (Fas-SSG) amplifies apoptosis (V. Anathy et al., J. Cell Biol. 184:241–252, 2009). In the present study, we demonstrate that distinct pools of Fas exist in cells. Upon ligation of surface Fas, a separate pool of latent Fas in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) underwent rapid oxidative processing characterized by the loss of free sulfhydryl content (Fas-SH) and resultant increases in S-glutathionylation of Cys294, leading to increases of surface Fas. Stimulation with FasL rapidly induced associations of Fas with ERp57 and glutathione S-transferase π (GSTP), a protein disulfide isomerase and catalyst of S-glutathionylation, respectively, in the ER. Knockdown or inhibition of ERp57 and GSTP1 substantially decreased FasL-induced oxidative processing and S-glutathionylation of Fas, resulting in decreased death-inducing signaling complex formation and caspase activity and enhanced survival. Bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis was accompanied by increased interactions between Fas-ERp57-GSTP1 and S-glutathionylation of Fas. Importantly, fibrosis was largely prevented following short interfering RNA-mediated ablation of ERp57 and GSTP. Collectively, these findings illuminate a regulatory switch, a ligand-initiated oxidative processing of latent Fas, that controls the strength of apoptosis. PMID:22751926

Switching between univalent task-sets in schizophrenia: ERP evidence of an anticipatory task-set reconfiguration deficit.

PubMed

Karayanidis, Frini; Nicholson, Rebecca; Schall, Ulrich; Meem, Lydia; Fulham, Ross; Michie, Patricia T

2006-10-01

The present study used behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) indices of task-switching to examine whether schizophrenia patients have a specific deficit in anticipatory task-set reconfiguration. Participants switched between univalent tasks in an alternating runs paradigms with blocked response-stimulus interval (RSI) manipulation (150, 300, 600, and 1200ms). Nineteen high functioning people with schizophrenia were compared to controls that were matched for age, gender, education and premorbid IQ estimate. Schizophrenia patients had overall increased RT, but no increase in corrected RT switch cost. In the schizophrenia group, ERPs showed reduced activation of the differential positivity in anticipation of switch trial at the optimal 600ms RSI and reduced activation of the frontal post-stimulus switch negativity at both 600 and 1200ms RSI compared to the control group. Despite no behavioral differences in task switching performance, anticipatory and stimulus-triggered ERP indices of task-switching suggest group differences in processing of switch and repeat trials, especially at longer RSI conditions that for control participants provide opportunity for anticipatory activation of task-set reconfiguration processes. These results are compatible with impaired implementation of endogenously driven processes in schizophrenia and greater reliance on external task cues, especially at long preparation intervals.

Effects of Pre-Encoding Stress on Brain Correlates Associated with the Long-Term Memory for Emotional Scenes

PubMed Central

Wirkner, Janine; Weymar, Mathias; Löw, Andreas; Hamm, Alfons O.

2013-01-01

Recent animal and human research indicates that stress around the time of encoding enhances long-term memory for emotionally arousing events but neural evidence remains unclear. In the present study we used the ERP old/new effect to investigate brain dynamics underlying the long-term effects of acute pre-encoding stress on memory for emotional and neutral scenes. Participants were exposed either to the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressure Test (SECPT) or a warm water control procedure before viewing 30 unpleasant, 30 neutral and 30 pleasant pictures. Two weeks after encoding, recognition memory was tested using 90 old and 90 new pictures. Emotional pictures were better recognized than neutral pictures in both groups and related to an enhanced centro-parietal ERP old/new difference (400–800 ms) during recognition, which suggests better recollection. Most interestingly, pre-encoding stress exposure specifically increased the ERP old/new-effect for emotional (unpleasant) pictures, but not for neutral pictures. These enhanced ERP/old new differences for emotional (unpleasant) scenes were particularly pronounced for those participants who reported high levels of stress during the SECPT. The results suggest that acute pre-encoding stress specifically strengthens brain signals of emotional memories, substantiating a facilitating role of stress on memory for emotional scenes. PMID:24039697

Increased attention but more efficient disengagement: neuroscientific evidence for defensive processing of threatening health information.

PubMed

Kessels, Loes T E; Ruiter, Robert A C; Jansma, Bernadette M

2010-07-01

Previous studies indicate that people respond defensively to threatening health information, especially when the information challenges self-relevant goals. The authors investigated whether reduced acceptance of self-relevant health risk information is already visible in early attention processes, that is, attention disengagement processes. In a randomized, controlled trial with 29 smoking and nonsmoking students, a variant of Posner's cueing task was used in combination with the high-temporal resolution method of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Reaction times and P300 ERP. Smokers showed lower P300 amplitudes in response to high- as opposed to low-threat invalid trials when moving their attention to a target in the opposite visual field, indicating more efficient attention disengagement processes. Furthermore, both smokers and nonsmokers showed increased P300 amplitudes in response to the presentation of high- as opposed to low-threat valid trials, indicating threat-induced attention-capturing processes. Reaction time measures did not support the ERP data, indicating that the ERP measure can be extremely informative to measure low-level attention biases in health communication. The findings provide the first neuroscientific support for the hypothesis that threatening health information causes more efficient disengagement among those for whom the health threat is self-relevant. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

ERPs reveal subliminal processing of fearful faces.

PubMed

Kiss, Monika; Eimer, Martin

2008-03-01

To investigate whether facial expression is processed in the absence of conscious awareness, ERPs were recorded in a task in which participants had to identify the expression of masked fearful and neutral target faces. On supraliminal trials (200 ms target duration), in which identification performance was high, a sustained positivity to fearful versus neutral target faces started 140 ms after target face onset. On subliminal trials (8 ms target duration), identification performance was at chance level, but ERPs still showed systematic fear-specific effects. An early positivity to fearful target faces was present but smaller than on supraliminal trials. A subsequent enhanced N2 to fearful faces was only present for subliminal trials. In contrast, a P3 enhancement to fearful faces was observed on supraliminal but not subliminal trials. Results demonstrate rapid emotional expression processing in the absence of awareness.

ERPs reveal subliminal processing of fearful faces

PubMed Central

Kiss, Monika; Eimer, Martin

2008-01-01

To investigate whether facial expression is processed in the absence of conscious awareness, ERPs were recorded in a task where participants had to identify the expression of masked fearful and neutral target faces. On supraliminal trials (200 ms target duration), where identification performance was high, a sustained positivity to fearful versus neutral target faces started 140 ms after target face onset. On subliminal trials (8 ms target duration), identification performance was at chance level, but ERPs still showed systematic fear-specific effects. An early positivity to fearful target faces was present but smaller than on supraliminal trials. A subsequent enhanced N2 to fearful faces was only present for subliminal trials. In contrast, a P3 enhancement to fearful faces was observed on supraliminal but not subliminal trials. Results demonstrate rapid emotional expression processing in the absence of awareness. PMID:17995905

Usability evaluation of in-housed developed ERP system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faisal, Chaudhry Muhammad Nadeem; Shakeel Faridi, Muhammad; Javed, Zahid

2011-10-01

Enterprise Resource Planning systems are the combination of different business IS (Information System) applications that are designed according to the organization requirements. Generally ERP systems are suffering from complex user interface issues. Recent research shows that there is a need for improvement concerning, the user interface from their perspectives. In order to design the software applications that are easy to use, memorize and apply to new problems, we must know the users philosophy and something about learning, reminiscence and problems solving. The Usability engineering is the only way to study the deeds of users while interacting with ERP (Enterprise Resource & Planning). This paper will focus on the users' experiences view of financial module in ERP system. The HCI research method, explicitly survey questionnaire method was adopted to gather users understanding in order to evaluate the selected modules for in-housed ERP system. The study involved group of users from two industries, the results can not be generalized as a whole. The study was first time successfully applied Usability evaluation on in-housed ERP in local industry (Masood Textile Mills, Interloop Ltd) in Pakistan. The results may hopefully opened-up an area of research and methodology that could provide considerable further benefits to Industry in developments of Industrial information systems.

The Challenge of Implementing an ERP System in a Small and Medium Enterprise--A Teaching Case of ERP Project Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Hongjiang; Rondeau, Patrick J.; Mahenthiran, Sakthi

2011-01-01

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation projects are notoriously risky. While large-scale ERP cases continue to be developed, relatively few new ERP cases have been published that further ERP implementation education in small to medium size firms. This case details the implementation of a new ERP system in a medium sized…

Implementation of an Enhanced Recovery Pathway After Pancreaticoduodenectomy in Patients with Low Drain Fluid Amylase.

PubMed

Sutcliffe, Robert P; Hamoui, Majd; Isaac, John; Marudanayagam, Ravi; Mirza, Darius F; Muiesan, Paolo; Roberts, John K

2015-08-01

The safety and feasibility of an enhanced recovery pathway (ERP) after pancreatic surgery is largely unknown. Our aim was to prospectively evaluate a targeted ERP after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD), using first postoperative day (POD) drain fluid amylase (DFA1) values to identify patients at low risk of pancreatic fistula (PF). Non-randomized cohort study of 130 consecutive patients. Perioperative outcomes were compared before (pre-ERP; N=65) and after (post-ERP; N=65) implementation of an ERP. Patients in each group were stratified according to the risk of PF using DFA1<350 IU/l. Low-risk patients in the post-ERP group were selected for early oral intake and early drain removal. 81/130 patients had a DFA1<350. Incidence of PF was significantly lower in low-risk patients (9 vs. 45%, P=0.0001). In low-risk patients, morbidity (43 vs. 36%) and mortality (2.7 vs. 4.5%) were similar for both pre- and post-ERP patients. Hospital stay (median 9 vs. 7 days, P=0.03) and 30-day readmissions (17 vs. 2%, P=0.04) were lower in low-risk patients in the post-ERP group. In high-risk patients, there was no difference in outcomes between pre- and post-ERP. Patients at low risk of PF after PD can be identified by first POD DFA1. Enhanced recovery after PD is safe and leads to improved short-term outcomes in low-risk patients.

Overcoming Murphy`s Law to gain ERP - a case study at Gibbons Creek Lignite Mine, Texas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lancaster, E.M.; Horbaczewski, J.K.

1997-12-31

As of January 1997, there are 2,586 acres of reclaimed land in the Extended Responsibility Period (ERP) at Gibbons Creek Lignite Mine, Texas. This achievement has taken approximately five years to accomplish - from 1991 to 1996. During this period, there were a number of issues, some of which appeared to follow Murphy`s Law (whatever can go wrong, will go wrong!). For example, the ERP candidate areas were split among three permit areas, which first had to be consolidated to facilitate the ERP process. Minesoil issues, identified as ERP prerequisites, became entangled in an overall renewal/revision of the newly-consolidated Permitmore » 26B. Special-purpose vegetation studies were performed to investigate the effects of different minesoil textures. In the meantime, small depressional areas, wetland/wildlife enhancement areas, reclamation ponds and restored drainages became the subjects of attention from landowners and regulatory agencies. Some of these structures and features were subsequently reclaimed; others were approved via the permitting process. In some cases, the only way out of the impasse was through land acquisition. Finally, after all these issues had been resolved, an unforeseen oil-well drilling program crisscrossed the proposed ERP areas with a network of oil well pads and service roads, requiring a post-mining land use change. Eventually, whatever could go wrong, went right, and entry of lands into ERP was accomplished.« less

Multimodal processing of emotional information in 9-month-old infants I: emotional faces and voices.

PubMed

Otte, R A; Donkers, F C L; Braeken, M A K A; Van den Bergh, B R H

2015-04-01

Making sense of emotions manifesting in human voice is an important social skill which is influenced by emotions in other modalities, such as that of the corresponding face. Although processing emotional information from voices and faces simultaneously has been studied in adults, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying the development of this ability in infancy. Here we investigated multimodal processing of fearful and happy face/voice pairs using event-related potential (ERP) measures in a group of 84 9-month-olds. Infants were presented with emotional vocalisations (fearful/happy) preceded by the same or a different facial expression (fearful/happy). The ERP data revealed that the processing of emotional information appearing in human voice was modulated by the emotional expression appearing on the corresponding face: Infants responded with larger auditory ERPs after fearful compared to happy facial primes. This finding suggests that infants dedicate more processing capacities to potentially threatening than to non-threatening stimuli. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The event-related potential component P3a is diminished by identical deviance repetition, but not by non-identical repetitions.

PubMed

Rosburg, Timm; Weigl, Michael; Thiel, Ronja; Mager, Ralph

2018-05-01

Mismatch negativity (MMN) represents an event-related potential (ERP) component which is elicited by deviant sound events in an otherwise regular, repetitive stimulation. The MMN amplitude typically decreases when two identical deviants are presented in direct succession, but it remains stable when the two deviants vary from the standard in different features. Less is known about such repetition effects on another ERP component, the P3a, which usually follows the MMN. In the current study, we investigated how the P3a was affected by identical and non-identical repetitions of sound deviants. The ERP analysis revealed that the P3a amplitudes were strongly diminished when the repeated deviants were identical, but the P3a remained stable when the repeated deviants varied. The findings suggest that not only the deviance detection system, as reflected in the MMN, but also subsequent attention switch systems, as reflected in the P3a, operate independently across different sound features.

Salient sounds activate human visual cortex automatically.

PubMed

McDonald, John J; Störmer, Viola S; Martinez, Antigona; Feng, Wenfeng; Hillyard, Steven A

2013-05-22

Sudden changes in the acoustic environment enhance perceptual processing of subsequent visual stimuli that appear in close spatial proximity. Little is known, however, about the neural mechanisms by which salient sounds affect visual processing. In particular, it is unclear whether such sounds automatically activate visual cortex. To shed light on this issue, this study examined event-related brain potentials (ERPs) that were triggered either by peripheral sounds that preceded task-relevant visual targets (Experiment 1) or were presented during purely auditory tasks (Experiments 2-4). In all experiments the sounds elicited a contralateral ERP over the occipital scalp that was localized to neural generators in extrastriate visual cortex of the ventral occipital lobe. The amplitude of this cross-modal ERP was predictive of perceptual judgments about the contrast of colocalized visual targets. These findings demonstrate that sudden, intrusive sounds reflexively activate human visual cortex in a spatially specific manner, even during purely auditory tasks when the sounds are not relevant to the ongoing task.

Adapting another person's affective state modulates brain potentials to unpleasant pictures.

PubMed

Paul, Sandra; Endrass, Tanja; Kathmann, Norbert; Simon, Daniela

2016-10-01

Emotional processing is influenced by top-down processes such as reappraisal of emotion-inducing events. Besides one's own stimulus appraisal, information from the social environment can be used to modify the stimulus' meaning. This study investigated whether perspective taking changes participants' brain potentials to unpleasant pictures. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured while twenty-nine participants evaluated arousal of neutral or negative pictures. Subsequently, they received bogus feedback about another person's picture evaluation. Then, the same picture was presented again and participants were instructed to view the picture from the other person's perspective. Higher bogus- versus self-ratings of picture arousal increased P300 and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes to unpleasant stimuli, whereas lower bogus- versus self-ratings did not influence ERPs. Thus, perspective taking only modulated ERPs when bogus ratings signaled potential underestimation of arousal. Resulting increases in responsiveness might constitute an adaptive mechanism preparing the organism against harm. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Differences in ERP topographies during color matching of smoking-related and neutral pictures in smokers and non-smokers.

PubMed

Fehr, Thorsten; Wiedenmann, Patrick; Herrmann, Manfred

2007-09-01

The concept of a specific memory network that drives addictive behavior has often been discussed in relation to the phenomenon of sudden relapse into addiction after years of abstinence. But there is still a lack of data that shows a link between drug-related cue processing and specific changes of behavior in addicts. In the present study we investigated the relationship between smoking-related picture processing, performance in a color matching task, and ERP topographies. Fifteen smokers and 19 non-smoking participants performed a color matching task including monochromic pictures with smoking-related and neutral content. Smokers and non-smokers showed remarkable differences between stimulus category-related ERP topographies. Furthermore, both smokers and non-smokers showed increased reaction times during color matching when the picture contents were related to smoking behavior. The results are discussed with respect to different drug-cue-related patterns of information processing in smokers and non-smokers.

Emotionally positive stimuli facilitate lexical decisions-an ERP study.

PubMed

Kissler, Johanna; Koessler, Susanne

2011-03-01

The influence of briefly presented positive and negative emotional pictures on lexical decisions on positive, negative and neutral words or pseudowords was investigated. Behavioural reactions were the fastest following all positive stimuli and most accurate for positive words. Stimulus-locked ERPs revealed enhanced early posterior and late parietal attention effects following positive pictures. A small neural affective priming effect was reflected by P3 modulation, indicating more attention allocation to affectively incongruent prime-target pairs. N400 was insensitive to emotion. Response-locked ERPs revealed an early fronto-central negativity from 480ms before reactions to positive words. It was generated in both fronto-central and extra-striate visual areas, demonstrating a contribution of perceptual and, notably, motor preparation processes. Thus, no behavioural and little neural evidence for congruency-driven affective priming with emotional pictures was found, but positive stimuli generally facilitated lexical decisions, not only enhancing perception, but also acting rapidly on response preparation and by-passing full semantic analysis. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The "electrophysiological sandwich": a method for amplifying ERP priming effects.

PubMed

Ktori, Maria; Grainger, Jonathan; Dufau, Stéphane; Holcomb, Phillip J

2012-08-01

We describe the results of a study that combines ERP recordings and sandwich priming, a variant of masked priming that provides a brief preview of the target prior to prime presentation (S. J. Lupker & C. J. Davis, 2009). This has been shown to increase the size of masked priming effects seen in behavioral responses. We found the same increase in sensitivity to ERP priming effects in an orthographic priming experiment manipulating the position of overlap of letters shared by primes and targets. Targets were 6-letter words and primes were formed of the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 6th letters of targets in the related condition. Primes could be concatenated or hyphenated and could be centered on fixation or displaced by two letter spaces to the left or right. Priming effects with concatenated and/or displaced primes only started to emerge at 250 ms post-target onset, whereas priming effects from centrally located hyphenated primes emerged about 100 ms earlier. Copyright © 2012 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

The “Electrophysiological Sandwich”: A Method for Amplifying ERP Priming Effects

PubMed Central

Ktori, Maria; Grainger, Jonathan; Dufau, Stéphane; Holcomb, Phillip J.

2012-01-01

We describe the results of a study that combines ERP recordings and sandwich priming, a variant of masked priming that provides a brief preview of the target prior to prime presentation (Lupker & Davis, 2009). This has been shown to increase the size of masked priming effects seen in behavioral responses. We found the same increase in sensitivity to ERP priming effects in an orthographic priming experiment manipulating the position of overlap of letters shared by primes and targets. Targets were 6-letter words and primes were formed of the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 6th letters of targets in the related condition. Primes could be concatenated or hyphenated and could be centered on fixation or displaced by two letter spaces to the left or right. Priming effects with concatenated and/or displaced primes only started to emerge at 250ms post-target onset, whereas priming effects from centrally located hyphenated primes emerged about 100ms earlier. PMID:22681238

The regulation of inflammation and oxidative status against lung injury of residue polysaccharides by Lentinula edodes.

PubMed

Ren, Zhenzhen; Li, Juan; Song, Xinling; Zhang, Jianjun; Wang, Wenshuai; Wang, Xiuxiu; Gao, Zheng; Jing, Huijuan; Li, Shangshang; Jia, Le

2018-01-01

In present study, two hydrolyzed residue polysaccharides (RPS) of enzymatic-RPS (ERPS) and acidic-RPS (ARPS) were successfully obtained from the residue of Lentinula edodes, and the anti-inflammatory as well as antioxidative effects on lipopolysaccharide-induced (LPS-induced) lung injured mice were investigated. The results demonstrated that ERPS showed superior lung protective effects by ameliorating the lung wet-to-dry weight (W/D) ratio, reducing the TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β levels in BALF, lowing the pulmonary MPO activity, decreasing the serum C3 and hs-CPR contents, as well as improving the antioxidant status by enhancing pulmonary enzyme activities (SOD, GSH-Px, CAT, and T-AOC) and eliminating the lipid peroxidation (MDA and LPO), respectively. These conclusions indicated that both RPS and its hydrolysates (ARPS and ERPS) might be suitable for functional foods and a potentially effective candidate medicine for the treatment of lung injury. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhanced ERPs to visual stimuli in unaffected male siblings of ASD children.

PubMed

Anzures, Gizelle; Goyet, Louise; Ganea, Natasa; Johnson, Mark H

2016-01-01

Autism spectrum disorders are characterized by deficits in social and communication abilities. While unaffected relatives lack severe deficits, milder impairments have been reported in some first-degree relatives. The present study sought to verify whether mild deficits in face perception are evident among the unaffected younger siblings of children with ASD. Children between 6-9 years of age completed a face-recognition task and a passive viewing ERP task with face and house stimuli. Sixteen children were typically developing with no family history of ASD, and 17 were unaffected children with an older sibling with ASD. Findings indicate that, while unaffected siblings are comparable to controls in their face-recognition abilities, unaffected male siblings in particular show relatively enhanced P100 and P100-N170 peak-to-peak amplitude responses to faces and houses. Enhanced ERPs among unaffected male siblings is discussed in relation to potential differences in neural network recruitment during visual and face processing.

Event-related brain potentials and cognitive processes related to perceptual-motor information transmission.

PubMed

Kopp, Bruno; Wessel, Karl

2010-05-01

In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to investigate cognitive processes related to the partial transmission of information from stimulus recognition to response preparation. Participants classified two-dimensional visual stimuli with dimensions size and form. One feature combination was designated as the go-target, whereas the other three feature combinations served as no-go distractors. Size discriminability was manipulated across three experimental conditions. N2c and P3a amplitudes were enhanced in response to those distractors that shared the feature from the faster dimension with the target. Moreover, N2c and P3a amplitudes showed a crossover effect: Size distractors evoked more pronounced ERPs under high size discriminability, but form distractors elicited enhanced ERPs under low size discriminability. These results suggest that partial perceptual-motor transmission of information is accompanied by acts of cognitive control and by shifts of attention between the sources of conflicting information. Selection negativity findings imply adaptive allocation of visual feature-based attention across the two stimulus dimensions.

ERP evidence for flexible adjustment of retrieval orientation and its influence on familiarity.

PubMed

Ecker, Ullrich K H; Zimmer, Hubert D

2009-10-01

The assumption was tested that familiarity memory as indexed by a mid-frontal ERP old-new effect is modulated by retrieval orientation. A randomly cued category-based versus exemplar-specific recognition memory test, requiring flexible adjustment of retrieval orientation, was conducted. Results show that the mid-frontal ERP old-new effect is sensitive to the manipulation of study-test congruency-that is, whether the same object is repeated identically or a different category exemplar is presented at test. Importantly, the effect pattern depends on subjects' retrieval orientation. With a specific orientation, only same items elicited an early old-new effect (same > different = new), whereas in the general condition, the old-new effect was graded (same > different > new). This supports the view that both perceptual and conceptual processes can contribute to familiarity memory and demonstrates that the rather automatic process of familiarity is not only data driven but influenced by top-down retrieval orientation, which subjects are able to adjust on a flexible basis.

Mechanisms of change in ERP treatment of compulsive hand washing: does primary threat make a difference?

PubMed

Cougle, Jesse R; Wolitzky-Taylor, Kate B; Lee, Han-Joo; Telch, Michael J

2007-07-01

The present study sought to examine patterns of habituation in exposure and response prevention (ERP) treatment of compulsive hand washing. Sub-clinical compulsive washers (n=27) with illness or non-illness primary threats were compared in order to detect potential differences in response to a single session of ERP. Changes in anxiety, disgust, and urge to wash were analyzed, and significant reductions in both anxiety and disgust were noted. Urge to wash significantly declined among washers primarily concerned with illness; among those concerned with non-illness threats, urge to wash did not significantly decline. Moreover, anxiety was found to decline when controlling for disgust and vice versa. Lastly, when both anxiety and disgust were entered into a model predicting changes in urge to wash, anxiety but not disgust predicted urge to wash for those with illness-related threats; for washers with non-illness threats, the findings were the reverse. Several clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Emotions in word and face processing: early and late cortical responses.

PubMed

Schacht, Annekathrin; Sommer, Werner

2009-04-01

Recent research suggests that emotion effects in word processing resemble those in other stimulus domains such as pictures or faces. The present study aims to provide more direct evidence for this notion by comparing emotion effects in word and face processing in a within-subject design. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded as participants made decisions on the lexicality of emotionally positive, negative, and neutral German verbs or pseudowords, and on the integrity of intact happy, angry, and neutral faces or slightly distorted faces. Relative to neutral and negative stimuli both positive verbs and happy faces elicited posterior ERP negativities that were indistinguishable in scalp distribution and resembled the early posterior negativities reported by others. Importantly, these ERP modulations appeared at very different latencies. Therefore, it appears that similar brain systems reflect the decoding of both biological and symbolic emotional signals of positive valence, differing mainly in the speed of meaning access, which is more direct and faster for facial expressions than for words.

N250r and N400 ERP correlates of immediate famous face repetition are independent of perceptual load.

PubMed

Neumann, Markus F; Schweinberger, Stefan R

2008-11-06

It is a matter of considerable debate whether attention to initial stimulus presentations is required for repetition-related neural modulations to occur. Recently, it has been assumed that faces are particularly hard to ignore, and can capture attention in a reflexive manner. In line with this idea, electrophysiological evidence for long-term repetition effects of unattended famous faces has been reported. The present study investigated influences of attention to prime faces on short-term repetition effects in event-related potentials (ERPs). We manipulated attention to short (200 ms) prime presentations (S1) of task-irrelevant famous faces according to Lavie's Perceptual Load Theory. Participants attended to letter strings superimposed on face images, and identified target letters "X" vs. "N" embedded in strings of either 6 different (high load) or 6 identical (low load) letters. Letter identification was followed by probe presentations (S2), which were either repetitions of S1 faces, new famous faces, or infrequent butterflies, to which participants responded. Our ERP data revealed repetition effects in terms of an N250r at occipito-temporal regions, suggesting priming of face identification processes, and in terms of an N400 at the vertex, suggesting semantic priming. Crucially, the magnitude of these effects was unaffected by perceptual load at S1 presentation. This indicates that task-irrelevant face processing is remarkably preserved even in a demanding letter detection task, supporting recent notions of face-specific attentional resources.

Do the early attentional components of ERPs reflect attentional bias in depression? It depends on the stimulus presentation time.

PubMed

Mingtian, Zhong; Xiongzhao, Zhu; Jinyao, Yi; Shuqiao, Yao; Atchley, Ruth Ann

2011-07-01

The study aimed to utilize behavioral and electrophysiological data to investigate whether depressed patients show an attentional bias in a task that allows for explicit insight into the time course of selective attention processes. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected from 24 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 25 never-depressed individuals (ND) during a dot-probe task, using pairs of affectively valenced pictures as cues. Cue presentation time was either 100 ms or 500 ms. When the cue presentation time was 500 ms, bias scores for positive-neutral picture pairs (POS-NEU) were negative for the MDD group and positive for the ND group which means ND individuals were able to successfully select positive information. These behavioral effects were supported by ERP results. In the ND group, at the right parietal-occipital region, P1 amplitude during valid POS-NEU pairs was significantly larger than that during invalid POS-NEU pairs; this pattern did not appear in the MDD group. These results suggest that MDD patients are characterized by a deficit in protection bias, meaning that these participants cannot avoid attending to negative information in their environment, but only when negative stimuli are presented for a sufficient period of time. Attentional bias is modulated by duration of emotional pictures presentation in depression. Copyright © 2010 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Age-dependent impairment of auditory processing under spatially focused and divided attention: an electrophysiological study.

PubMed

Wild-Wall, Nele; Falkenstein, Michael

2010-01-01

By using event-related potentials (ERPs) the present study examines if age-related differences in preparation and processing especially emerge during divided attention. Binaurally presented auditory cues called for focused (valid and invalid) or divided attention to one or both ears. Responses were required to subsequent monaurally presented valid targets (vowels), but had to be suppressed to non-target vowels or invalidly cued vowels. Middle-aged participants were more impaired under divided attention than young ones, likely due to an age-related decline in preparatory attention following cues as was reflected in a decreased CNV. Under divided attention, target processing was increased in the middle-aged, likely reflecting compensatory effort to fulfill task requirements in the difficult condition. Additionally, middle-aged participants processed invalidly cued stimuli more intensely as was reflected by stimulus ERPs. The results suggest an age-related impairment in attentional preparation after auditory cues especially under divided attention and latent difficulties to suppress irrelevant information.

Perceived Use and Acceptance of Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation in the Manufacturing Industries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adeboje, Adewale

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to gain an insight into perceived use and acceptance for implementing an enterprise resource planning system and the decision whether to contract out the enterprise resource planning (ERP) service to a cloud provider. Cloud-based ERP systems can provide many advantages to the normal implementation of the same systems…

An ERP Study of Emotional Face Processing in the Adult and Infant Brain

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leppanen, Jukka M.; Moulson, Margaret C.; Vogel-Farley, Vanessa K.; Nelson, Charles A.

2007-01-01

To examine the ontogeny of emotional face processing, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from adults and 7-month-old infants while viewing pictures of fearful, happy, and neutral faces. Face-sensitive ERPs at occipital-temporal scalp regions differentiated between fearful and neutral/happy faces in both adults (N170 was larger for fear)…

Individual Differences in ERPs during Mental Rotation of Characters: Lateralization, and Performance Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beste, Christian; Heil, Martin; Konrad, Carsten

2010-01-01

The cognitive process of imaging an object turning around is called mental rotation. Many studies have been put forward analyzing mental rotation by means of event-related potentials (ERPs). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured during mental rotation of characters in a sample (N = 82) with a sufficient size to obtain even small effects. A…

Efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

PubMed

McKay, Dean; Sookman, Debbie; Neziroglu, Fugen; Wilhelm, Sabine; Stein, Dan J; Kyrios, Michael; Matthews, Keith; Veale, David

2015-05-30

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which encompasses exposure with response prevention (ERP) and cognitive therapy (CT), has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, the samples studied (reflecting the heterogeneity of OCD), the interventions examined (reflecting the heterogeneity of CBT), and the definitions of treatment response vary considerably across studies. This review examined the meta-analyses conducted on ERP and cognitive therapy (CT) for OCD. Also examined was the available research on long-term outcome associated with ERP and CT. The available research indicates that ERP is the first line evidence based psychotherapeutic treatment for OCD and that concurrent administration of cognitive therapy that targets specific symptom-related difficulties characteristic of OCD may improve tolerance of distress, symptom-related dysfunctional beliefs, adherence to treatment, and reduce drop out. Recommendations are provided for treatment delivery for OCD in general practice and other service delivery settings. The literature suggests that ERP and CT may be delivered in a wide range of clinical settings. Although the data are not extensive, the available research suggests that treatment gains following ERP are durable. Suggestions for future research to refine therapeutic outcome are also considered. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

PubMed

McKay, Dean; Sookman, Debbie; Neziroglu, Fugen; Wilhelm, Sabine; Stein, Dan J; Kyrios, Michael; Matthews, Keith; Veale, David

2015-02-28

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which encompasses exposure with response prevention (ERP) and cognitive therapy, has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, the samples studied (reflecting the heterogeneity of OCD), the interventions examined (reflecting the heterogeneity of CBT), and the definitions of treatment response vary considerably across studies. This review examined the meta-analyses conducted on ERP and cognitive therapy (CT) for OCD. Also examined was the available research on long-term outcome associated with ERP and CT. The available research indicates that ERP is the first line evidence based psychotherapeutic treatment for OCD and that concurrent administration of cognitive therapy that targets specific symptom-related difficulties characteristic of OCD may improve tolerance of distress, symptom-related dysfunctional beliefs, adherence to treatment, and reduce drop out. Recommendations are provided for treatment delivery for OCD in general practice and other service delivery settings. The literature suggests that ERP and CT may be delivered in a wide range of clinical settings. Although the data are not extensive, the available research suggests that treatment gains following ERP are durable. Suggestions for future research to refine therapeutic outcome are also considered. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attentional Modulation of Change Detection ERP Components by Peripheral Retro-Cueing

PubMed Central

Pazo-Álvarez, Paula; Roca-Fernández, Adriana; Gutiérrez-Domínguez, Francisco-Javier; Amenedo, Elena

2017-01-01

Change detection is essential for visual perception and performance in our environment. However, observers often miss changes that should be easily noticed. A failure in any of the processes involved in conscious detection (encoding the pre-change display, maintenance of that information within working memory, and comparison of the pre and post change displays) can lead to change blindness. Given that unnoticed visual changes in a scene can be easily detected once attention is drawn to them, it has been suggested that attention plays an important role on visual awareness. In the present study, we used behavioral and electrophysiological (ERPs) measures to study whether the manipulation of retrospective spatial attention affects performance and modulates brain activity related to the awareness of a change. To that end, exogenous peripheral cues were presented during the delay period (retro-cues) between the first and the second array using a one-shot change detection task. Awareness of a change was associated with a posterior negative amplitude shift around 228–292 ms (“Visual Awareness Negativity”), which was independent of retrospective spatial attention, as it was elicited to both validly and invalidly cued change trials. Change detection was also associated with a larger positive deflection around 420–580 ms (“Late Positivity”), but only when the peripheral retro-cues correctly predicted the change. Present results confirm that the early and late ERP components related to change detection can be functionally dissociated through manipulations of exogenous retro-cueing using a change blindness paradigm. PMID:28270759

Hemispheric Asymmetry in Event Knowledge Activation During Incremental Language Comprehension: A Visual Half-Field ERP Study

PubMed Central

Metusalem, Ross; Kutas, Marta; Urbach, Thomas P.; Elman, Jeffrey L.

2016-01-01

During incremental language comprehension, the brain activates knowledge of described events, including knowledge elements that constitute semantic anomalies in their linguistic context. The present study investigates hemispheric asymmetries in this process, with the aim of advancing our understanding of the neural basis and functional properties of event knowledge activation during incremental comprehension. In a visual half-field event-related brain potential (ERP) experiment, participants read brief discourses in which the third sentence contained a word that was either highly expected, semantically anomalous but related to the described event, or semantically anomalous but unrelated to the described event. For both visual fields of target word presentation, semantically anomalous words elicited N400 ERP components of greater amplitude than did expected words. Crucially, event-related anomalous words elicited a reduced N400 relative to event-unrelated anomalous words only with left visual field/right hemisphere presentation. This result suggests that right hemisphere processes are critical to the activation of event knowledge elements that violate the linguistic context, and in doing so informs existing theories of hemispheric asymmetries in semantic processing during language comprehension. Additionally, this finding coincides with past research suggesting a crucial role for the right hemisphere in elaborative inference generation, raises interesting questions regarding hemispheric coordination in generating event-specific linguistic expectancies, and more generally highlights the possibility of functional dissociation between event knowledge activation for the generation of elaborative inferences and for linguistic expectancies. PMID:26878980

Hemispheric asymmetry in event knowledge activation during incremental language comprehension: A visual half-field ERP study.

PubMed

Metusalem, Ross; Kutas, Marta; Urbach, Thomas P; Elman, Jeffrey L

2016-04-01

During incremental language comprehension, the brain activates knowledge of described events, including knowledge elements that constitute semantic anomalies in their linguistic context. The present study investigates hemispheric asymmetries in this process, with the aim of advancing our understanding of the neural basis and functional properties of event knowledge activation during incremental comprehension. In a visual half-field event-related brain potential (ERP) experiment, participants read brief discourses in which the third sentence contained a word that was either highly expected, semantically anomalous but related to the described event (Event-Related), or semantically anomalous but unrelated to the described event (Event-Unrelated). For both visual fields of target word presentation, semantically anomalous words elicited N400 ERP components of greater amplitude than did expected words. Crucially, Event-Related anomalous words elicited a reduced N400 relative to Event-Unrelated anomalous words only with left visual field/right hemisphere presentation. This result suggests that right hemisphere processes are critical to the activation of event knowledge elements that violate the linguistic context, and in doing so informs existing theories of hemispheric asymmetries in semantic processing during language comprehension. Additionally, this finding coincides with past research suggesting a crucial role for the right hemisphere in elaborative inference generation, raises interesting questions regarding hemispheric coordination in generating event-specific linguistic expectancies, and more generally highlights the possibility of functional dissociation of event knowledge activation for the generation of elaborative inferences and for linguistic expectancies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An electrophysiological index of changes in risk decision-making strategies.

PubMed

Zhang, Dandan; Gu, Ruolei; Wu, Tingting; Broster, Lucas S; Luo, Yi; Jiang, Yang; Luo, Yue-jia

2013-07-01

Human decision-making is significantly modulated by previously experienced outcomes. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we examined whether ERP components evoked by outcome feedbacks could serve as biomarkers to signal the influence of current outcome evaluation on subsequent decision-making. In this study, 18 adult volunteers participated in a simple monetary gambling task, in which they were asked to choose between two options that differed in risk. Their decisions were immediately followed by outcome presentation. Temporospatial principle component analysis (PCA) was applied to the outcome-onset locked ERPs in the 200-1000 ms time window. The PCA factors that approximated classical ERP components (P2, feedback-related negativity, P3a, and P3b) in terms of time course and scalp distribution were tested for their association with subsequent decision-making strategies. Our results revealed that a fronto-central PCA factor approximating the classical P3a was related to changes of decision-making strategies on subsequent trials. The decision to switch between high- and low-risk options resulted in a larger P3a relative to the decision to retain the same choice. According to the results, we suggest that the amplitude of the fronto-central P3a is an electrophysiological index of the influence of current outcome on subsequent risk decision-making. Furthermore, the ERP source analysis indicated that the activations of the frontopolar cortex and sensorimotor cortex were involved in subsequent changes of strategies, which enriches our understanding of the neural mechanisms of adjusting decision-making strategies based on previous experience. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Towards a unified understanding of event-related changes in the EEG: the firefly model of synchronization through cross-frequency phase modulation.

PubMed

Burgess, Adrian P

2012-01-01

Although event-related potentials (ERPs) are widely used to study sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes, it remains unknown whether they are phase-locked signals superimposed upon the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) or result from phase-alignment of the EEG. Previous attempts to discriminate between these hypotheses have been unsuccessful but here a new test is presented based on the prediction that ERPs generated by phase-alignment will be associated with event-related changes in frequency whereas evoked-ERPs will not. Using empirical mode decomposition (EMD), which allows measurement of narrow-band changes in the EEG without predefining frequency bands, evidence was found for transient frequency slowing in recognition memory ERPs but not in simulated data derived from the evoked model. Furthermore, the timing of phase-alignment was frequency dependent with the earliest alignment occurring at high frequencies. Based on these findings, the Firefly model was developed, which proposes that both evoked and induced power changes derive from frequency-dependent phase-alignment of the ongoing EEG. Simulated data derived from the Firefly model provided a close match with empirical data and the model was able to account for i) the shape and timing of ERPs at different scalp sites, ii) the event-related desynchronization in alpha and synchronization in theta, and iii) changes in the power density spectrum from the pre-stimulus baseline to the post-stimulus period. The Firefly Model, therefore, provides not only a unifying account of event-related changes in the EEG but also a possible mechanism for cross-frequency information processing.

Towards a Unified Understanding of Event-Related Changes in the EEG: The Firefly Model of Synchronization through Cross-Frequency Phase Modulation

PubMed Central

Burgess, Adrian P.

2012-01-01

Although event-related potentials (ERPs) are widely used to study sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes, it remains unknown whether they are phase-locked signals superimposed upon the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) or result from phase-alignment of the EEG. Previous attempts to discriminate between these hypotheses have been unsuccessful but here a new test is presented based on the prediction that ERPs generated by phase-alignment will be associated with event-related changes in frequency whereas evoked-ERPs will not. Using empirical mode decomposition (EMD), which allows measurement of narrow-band changes in the EEG without predefining frequency bands, evidence was found for transient frequency slowing in recognition memory ERPs but not in simulated data derived from the evoked model. Furthermore, the timing of phase-alignment was frequency dependent with the earliest alignment occurring at high frequencies. Based on these findings, the Firefly model was developed, which proposes that both evoked and induced power changes derive from frequency-dependent phase-alignment of the ongoing EEG. Simulated data derived from the Firefly model provided a close match with empirical data and the model was able to account for i) the shape and timing of ERPs at different scalp sites, ii) the event-related desynchronization in alpha and synchronization in theta, and iii) changes in the power density spectrum from the pre-stimulus baseline to the post-stimulus period. The Firefly Model, therefore, provides not only a unifying account of event-related changes in the EEG but also a possible mechanism for cross-frequency information processing. PMID:23049827

Two sides of gender: ERP evidence for the presence of two routes during gender agreement processing.

PubMed

Caffarra, Sendy; Janssen, Niels; Barber, Horacio A

2014-10-01

The present ERP study aimed at providing evidence for the existence of two routes in the brain for the processing of morphosyntactic features during language comprehension; a lexical route which retrieves grammatical properties stored in the lexicon without reliance on formal cues, and a form-based route that takes advantage of sub-lexical units strongly related to a specific grammatical class. In the experiment, we investigated grammatical gender agreement processing in Spanish article-noun word pairs using a grammaticality judgment task. Article-noun pairs either agreed or did not agree in gender. Noun transparency was manipulated such that the ending could be strongly associated with a specific gender class (i.e., transparent nouns) or not (i.e., opaque nouns). A visual half-field method was employed and ERPs were recorded in response to the target nouns in order to disentangle the initial hemisphere-specific computations of gender processing. ERP results showed that, while both hemispheres compute agreement dependencies, the left hemisphere is sensitive to the presence of formal gender cues at an early stage (i.e., 350-500 ms) indicating the presence of a form-based route. The right hemisphere showed an ERP effect of transparency, but later than the left hemisphere (i.e., 500-750 ms). These findings confirm the presence of two routes to gender, which can be differently used depending on the availability of transparent endings. In addition, the results showed hemispheric differences in the time course of the form-based route. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An electrophysiological index of changes in risk decision-making strategies

PubMed Central

Zhang, Dandan; Gu, Ruolei; Wu, Tingting; Broster, Lucas S.; Luo, Yi; Jiang, Yang; Luo, Yue-jia

2014-01-01

Human decision-making is significantly modulated by previously experienced outcomes. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we examined whether ERP components evoked by outcome feedbacks could serve as biomarkers to signal the influence of current outcome evaluation on subsequent decision-making. In this study, eighteen adult volunteers participated in a simple monetary gambling task, in which they were asked to choose between two options that differed in risk. Their decisions were immediately followed by outcome presentation. Temporospatial principle component analysis (PCA) was applied to the outcome-onset locked ERPs in the -200 – 1000 ms time window. The PCA factors that approximated classical ERP components (P2, feedback-related negativity, P3a, & P3b) in terms of time course and scalp distribution were tested for their association with subsequent decision-making strategies. Our results revealed that a fronto-central PCA factor approximating the classical P3a was related to changes of decision-making strategies on subsequent trials. The decision to switch between high- and low-risk options resulted in a larger P3a relative to the decision to retain the same choice. According to the results, we suggest the amplitude of the fronto-central P3a is an electrophysiological index of the influence of current outcome on subsequent risk decision-making. Furthermore, the ERP source analysis indicated that the activations of the frontopolar cortex and sensorimotor cortex were involved in subsequent changes of strategies, which enriches our understanding of the neural mechanisms of adjusting decision-making strategies based on previous experience. PMID:23643796

Neuroelectrical signs of selective attention to color in boys with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

van der Stelt, O; van der Molen, M; Boudewijn Gunning, W; Kok, A

2001-10-01

In order to gain insight into the functional and macroanatomical loci of visual selective processing deficits that may be basic to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the present study examined multi-channel event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded from 7- to 11-year-old boys clinically diagnosed as having ADHD (n=24) and age-matched healthy control boys (n=24) while they performed a visual (color) selective attention task. The spatio-temporal dynamics of several ERP components related to attention to color were characterized using topographic profile analysis, topographic mapping of the ERP and associated scalp current density distributions, and spatio-temporal source potential modeling. Boys with ADHD showed a lower target hit rate, a higher false-alarm rate, and a lower perceptual sensitivity than controls. Also, whereas color attention induced in the ERPs from controls a characteristic early frontally maximal selection positivity (FSP), ADHD boys displayed little or no FSP. Similarly, ADHD boys manifested P3b amplitude decrements that were partially lateralized (i.e., maximal at left temporal scalp locations) as well as affected by maturation. These results indicate that ADHD boys suffer from deficits at both relatively early (sensory) and late (semantic) levels of visual selective information processing. The data also support the hypothesis that the visual selective processing deficits observed in the ADHD boys originate from deficits in the strength of activation of a neural network comprising prefrontal and occipito-temporal brain regions. This network seems to be actively engaged during attention to color and may contain the major intracerebral generating sources of the associated scalp-recorded ERP components.

Evaluation of post-traumatic anosmia with MRI and chemosensory ERPs.

PubMed

Miao, Xutao; Yang, Ling; Gu, Hua; Ren, Yuanyuan; Chen, Guowei; Liu, Jia; Wei, Yongxiang

2015-08-01

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and chemosensory event-related potentials (ERPs) are important methods to evaluate olfactory function, but there is lack of study to explore the application of MRI and chemosensory ERPs in the patients with traumatic anosmia. The data of 26 post-traumatic anosmic patients and 21 healthy controls were retrospectively surveyed; olfaction and olfactory pathway of all participants were measured clinically using the T&T olfactometer, the Sniffin' Sticks, chemosensory ERPs and MRI. All patients were anosmic based on complaints and clinical examinations. In five patients, the olfactory bulb volume was significantly lower than control group. In 18 patients, the olfactory sulcus (OS) depth was similar to control group, but all the participants had a deeper right OS (right = 7.79 ± 1.31, left = 7.06 ± 1.44, p < 0.01). Olfactory ERPs (oERPs) could be evoked in 17 patients, but these signals showed longer latencies and lower amplitude than controls in the N1 (latency p < 0.05, amplitude p < 0.01) and P2 (latency p < 0.01, amplitude p < 0.05) waves. Nine traumatic anosmic patients had no identifiable oERPs; most of them had olfactory center injury. Trigeminal ERPs were detected in all anosmic patients and controls; patients had longer latencies for N1 (p < 0.05) and P2 (p < 0.05) waves, while there was no similar change in amplitude. Older subjects had smaller OB volume and OS depth. Closed head injury could induce anosmia; the severity extent, injury site and subsequent consciousness are related to the olfaction. oERP is the gold standard for olfactory subjective examination; MRI could indicate the lesions on the olfactory pathway and reflect the possibility of detectable oERPs.

The ERP Effects of Combined Cognitive Training on Intention-Based and Stimulus-Based Actions in Older Chinese Adults.

PubMed

Niu, Ya-Nan; Zhu, Xinyi; Li, Juan; Fu, Jiang-Ning

2016-01-01

Age-related decreases in action are caused by neuromuscular weakness and cognitive decline. Although physical interventions have been reported to have beneficial effects on cognitive function in older adults, whether cognitive training improves action-related function remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of combined cognitive training on intention-based and stimulus-based actions in older adults using event-related potentials (ERPs). A total of 26 healthy older adults (16 in the training group and 10 in the control group) participated in the study. The training group received 16 sessions of cognitive training, including eight sessions of executive function training and eight sessions of memory strategy training. Before and after training, both groups of participants underwent cognitive assessments and ERP recordings during both the acquisition and test phases with a motor cognitive paradigm. During the acquisition phase, subjects were asked to press one of two keys, either using a self-selected (intention-based) method or based on the preceding stimulus (stimulus-based). During the test phase, subjects were asked to respond to the pre-cues with either congruent or incongruent tasks. Using ERP indices-including readiness potential, P3 and contingent negative variation to identify motor preparation, stimulus processing and interference effect, respectively-we revealed the effects of training on both intention-based and stimulus-based actions. The correlations were also computed between the improved cognitive performance and the ERP amplitudes. It was shown that the improved executive function might extend substantial benefits to both actions, whereas associative memory may be specifically related to the bidirectional action-effect association of intention-based action, although the training effect of memory was absent during the insufficient training hours. In sum, the present study provided empirical evidence demonstrating that action could benefit from cognitive training. www.chictr.org.cn, identifier: ChiCTR-OON-16007793.

Aging memory for pictures: using high-density event-related potentials to understand the effect of aging on the picture superiority effect.

PubMed

Ally, Brandon A; Waring, Jill D; Beth, Ellen H; McKeever, Joshua D; Milberg, William P; Budson, Andrew E

2008-01-31

High-density event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to understand the effect of aging on the neural correlates of the picture superiority effect. Pictures and words were systematically varied at study and test while ERPs were recorded at retrieval. Here, the results of the word-word and picture-picture study-test conditions are presented. Behavioral results showed that older adults demonstrated the picture superiority effect to a greater extent than younger adults. The ERP data helped to explain these findings. The early frontal effect, parietal effect, and late frontal effect were all indistinguishable between older and younger adults for pictures. In contrast, for words, the early frontal and parietal effects were significantly diminished for the older adults compared to the younger adults. These two old/new effects have been linked to familiarity and recollection, respectively, and the authors speculate that these processes are impaired for word-based memory in the course of healthy aging. The findings of this study suggest that pictures allow older adults to compensate for their impaired memorial processes, and may allow these memorial components to function more effectively in older adults.

Aging memory for pictures: Using high-density event-related potentials to understand the effect of aging on the picture superiority effect

PubMed Central

Ally, Brandon A.; Waring, Jill D.; Beth, Ellen H.; McKeever, Joshua D.; Milberg, William P.; Budson, Andrew E.

2008-01-01

High-density event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to understand the effect of aging on the neural correlates of the picture superiority effect. Pictures and words were systematically varied at study and test while ERPs were recorded at retrieval. Here, the results of the word-word and picture-picture study-test conditions are presented. Behavioral results showed that older adults demonstrated the picture superiority effect to a greater extent than younger adults. The ERP data helped to explain these findings. The early frontal effect, parietal effect, and late frontal effect, were all indistinguishable between older and younger adults for pictures. In contrast, for words, the early frontal and parietal effects were significantly diminished for the older adults compared to the younger adults. These two old/new effects have been linked to familiarity and recollection, respectively, and the authors speculate that these processes are impaired for word-based memory in the course of healthy aging. The findings of this study suggest that pictures allow older adults to compensate for their impaired memorial processes, and may allow these memorial components to function more effectively in older adults. PMID:17981307

Victims' time discounting 2.5 years after the Wenchuan earthquake: an ERP study.

PubMed

Li, Jin-Zhen; Gui, Dan-Yang; Feng, Chun-Liang; Wang, Wen-Zhong; Du, Bo-Qi; Gan, Tian; Luo, Yue-Jia

2012-01-01

Time discounting refers to the fact that the subjective value of a reward decreases as the delay until its occurrence increases. The present study investigated how time discounting has been affected in survivors of the magnitude-8.0 Wenchuan earthquake that occurred in China in 2008. Nineteen earthquake survivors and 22 controls, all school teachers, participated in the study. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) for time discounting tasks involving gains and losses were acquired in both the victims and controls. The behavioral data replicated our previous findings that delayed gains were discounted more steeply after a disaster. ERP results revealed that the P200 and P300 amplitudes were increased in earthquake survivors. There was a significant group (earthquake vs. non-earthquake) × task (gain vs. loss) interaction for the N300 amplitude, with a marginally significantly reduced N300 for gain tasks in the experimental group, which may suggest a deficiency in inhibitory control for gains among victims. The results suggest that post-disaster decisions might involve more emotional (System 1) and less rational thinking (System 2) in terms of a dual-process model of decision making. The implications for post-disaster intervention and management are also discussed.

Untangling syntactic and sensory processing: an ERP study of music perception.

PubMed

Koelsch, Stefan; Jentschke, Sebastian; Sammler, Daniela; Mietchen, Daniel

2007-05-01

The present study investigated music-syntactic processing with chord sequences that ended on either regular or irregular chord functions. Sequences were composed such that perceived differences in the cognitive processing between syntactically regular and irregular chords could not be due to the sensory processing of acoustic factors like pitch repetition, pitch commonality (the major component of "sensory dissonance"), or roughness. Three experiments with independent groups of subjects were conducted: a behavioral experiment and two experiments using electroencephalography. Irregular chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN) in the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) under both task-relevant and task-irrelevant conditions. Behaviorally, participants detected around 75% of the irregular chords, indicating that these chords were only moderately salient. Nevertheless, the irregular chords reliably elicited clear ERP effects. Amateur musicians were slightly more sensitive to musical irregularities than nonmusicians, supporting previous studies demonstrating effects of musical training on music-syntactic processing. The findings indicate that the ERAN is an index of music-syntactic processing and that the ERAN can be elicited even when irregular chords are not detectable based on acoustical factors such as pitch repetition, sensory dissonance, or roughness.

Positive emotion modulates cognitive control: an event-related potentials study.

PubMed

Xue, Song; Cui, Jingjing; Wang, Kangcheng; Zhang, Songyan; Qiu, Jiang; Luo, Yuejia

2013-04-01

There is substantial evidence to indicate that negative emotion can modulate cognitive control processing. However, only a few studies have investigated this effect with positive emotion. Therefore, the present study explored the electrophysiological correlates of the impact of positive emotional stimuli on cognitive control, using event-related potentials (ERPs). Sixteen healthy young adults completed a modified Simon task (Simon, 1969). Behavioral data indicated that reaction times were faster for positive emotional stimuli than for neutral emotional stimuli in the incongruent condition, but not in the congruent condition, which suggested that positive emotion expedited conflict resolution. The ERP data showed that two negative ERP components (N300-400 and N450-550) were associated with the positive emotional stimuli in the incongruent minus congruent condition. It is suggested that these components may respectively be related to the conflict monitoring (N300-400) and response selection (N450-550) stages of cognitive control processing. Overall, our results indicated that positive emotion could facilitate cognitive control processing. These results are in line with the neuropsychological theory, according to which, positive emotion could modulate cognitive control mediated by increased dopamine levels in frontal brain areas. © 2013 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2013 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

Distinct electrocortical and behavioral evidence for increased attention to threat in generalized anxiety disorder.

PubMed

MacNamara, Annmarie; Hajcak, Greg

2010-03-01

Neural activity is increasingly used in addition to behavioral measures to study anxiety and attentional biases toward threatening stimuli. Event-related potentials (ERPs) might be particularly useful because of their excellent temporal resolution. In particular, the late positive potential (LPP) reflects increased attention to emotional stimuli-and was recently found to be larger with increasing state anxiety. This study sought to examine the LPP among individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Fifteen individuals with GAD and 15 healthy controls (HCs) viewed briefly presented pairs of aversive and neutral pictures that were presented to the left and right of, as well as above and below, fixation on each trial; ERP and behavioral measures were recorded as participants indicated whether the horizontal or vertical image pairs were the same or different. Aversive pictures presented in unattended locations were associated with more errors overall, and this effect was larger in GAD than HC participants. Moreover, aversive targets elicited larger LPPs across all participants; this difference was larger in GAD than HC participants when distracters were neutral. Threatening stimuli presented in both target and distracting spatial locations have a greater impact on GAD than HC participants. Behavioral and ERP measures provide complimentary indices of attention toward threat in GAD. In terms of attentional control theory, behavioral interference indexes impaired processing effectiveness, whereas the LPP might index reduced processing efficiency in GAD. Both measures may provide unique windows onto how increased stimulus-driven attention to threat impacts and characterizes GAD. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The Stroop matching task presents conflict at both the response and nonresponse levels: an event-related potential and electromyography study.

PubMed

Caldas, A L; Machado-Pinheiro, W; Souza, L B; Motta-Ribeiro, G C; David, I A

2012-09-01

In the Stroop matching task, a Stroop word is compared to a colored bar. The origin of the conflict presented by this task is a topic of current debate. In an effort to disentangle nonresponse and response conflicts, we recorded electromyography (EMG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants performed the task. The N450 component was sensitive to the relationship of color surfaces, regardless of the response, suggesting the participation of nonresponse conflict. Incompatible arrays (e.g., incongruent Stroop stimuli during "same" responses) presented a substantial amount of double EMG activation and slower EMG latencies, suggesting the participation of response conflict. We propose that both response and nonresponse conflicts are sources of these effects. The combined use of the EMG and ERP techniques played an important role in elucidating the conflicts immersed in the Stroop matching task. Copyright © 2012 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Word and pseudoword superiority effects reflected in the ERP waveform

PubMed Central

Coch, Donna; Mitra, Priya

2010-01-01

A variant of the Reicher-Wheeler task was used to determine when in the event-related potential (ERP) waveform indices of word and pseudoword superiority effects might be present, and whether ERP measures of superiority effects correlated with standardized behavioral measures of orthographic fluency and single word reading. ERPs were recorded to briefly presented, masked letter strings that included real words (DARK/PARK), pseudowords (DARL/PARL), nonwords (RDKA/RPKA), and letter-in-xs (DXXX, PXXX) stimuli. Participants decided which of two letters occurred at a given position in the string (here, forced-choice alternatives D and P). Behaviorally, both word (more accurate choices for letters in words than in baseline nonwords or letter-in-xs) and pseudoword (more accurate choices for letters in pseudowords than in baseline conditions) superiority effects were observed. Electrophysiologically, effects of orthographic regularity and familiarity were apparent as early as the P150 time window (100–160 ms), an effect of lexicality was observed as early as the N200 time window (160–200 ms), and peak amplitude of the N300 and N400 also differentiated word and pseudoword as compared to baseline stimuli. Further, the size of the P150 and N400 ERP word superiority effects was related to standardized behavioral measures of fluency and reading. Results suggest that orthographic fluency is reflected in both lower-level, sublexical, perceptual processing and higher-level, lexical processing in fluently reading adults. PMID:20211607

Non-target adjacent stimuli classification improves performance of classical ERP-based brain computer interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceballos, G. A.; Hernández, L. F.

2015-04-01

Objective. The classical ERP-based speller, or P300 Speller, is one of the most commonly used paradigms in the field of Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI). Several alterations to the visual stimuli presentation system have been developed to avoid unfavorable effects elicited by adjacent stimuli. However, there has been little, if any, regard to useful information contained in responses to adjacent stimuli about spatial location of target symbols. This paper aims to demonstrate that combining the classification of non-target adjacent stimuli with standard classification (target versus non-target) significantly improves classical ERP-based speller efficiency. Approach. Four SWLDA classifiers were trained and combined with the standard classifier: the lower row, upper row, right column and left column classifiers. This new feature extraction procedure and the classification method were carried out on three open databases: the UAM P300 database (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico), BCI competition II (dataset IIb) and BCI competition III (dataset II). Main results. The inclusion of the classification of non-target adjacent stimuli improves target classification in the classical row/column paradigm. A gain in mean single trial classification of 9.6% and an overall improvement of 25% in simulated spelling speed was achieved. Significance. We have provided further evidence that the ERPs produced by adjacent stimuli present discriminable features, which could provide additional information about the spatial location of intended symbols. This work promotes the searching of information on the peripheral stimulation responses to improve the performance of emerging visual ERP-based spellers.

Multivariate assessment of event-related potentials with the t-CWT method.

PubMed

Bostanov, Vladimir

2015-11-05

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) are usually assessed with univariate statistical tests although they are essentially multivariate objects. Brain-computer interface applications are a notable exception to this practice, because they are based on multivariate classification of single-trial ERPs. Multivariate ERP assessment can be facilitated by feature extraction methods. One such method is t-CWT, a mathematical-statistical algorithm based on the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and Student's t-test. This article begins with a geometric primer on some basic concepts of multivariate statistics as applied to ERP assessment in general and to the t-CWT method in particular. Further, it presents for the first time a detailed, step-by-step, formal mathematical description of the t-CWT algorithm. A new multivariate outlier rejection procedure based on principal component analysis in the frequency domain is presented as an important pre-processing step. The MATLAB and GNU Octave implementation of t-CWT is also made publicly available for the first time as free and open source code. The method is demonstrated on some example ERP data obtained in a passive oddball paradigm. Finally, some conceptually novel applications of the multivariate approach in general and of the t-CWT method in particular are suggested and discussed. Hopefully, the publication of both the t-CWT source code and its underlying mathematical algorithm along with a didactic geometric introduction to some basic concepts of multivariate statistics would make t-CWT more accessible to both users and developers in the field of neuroscience research.

Intrinsic Factors for Continued ERP Learning: A Precursor to Interdisciplinary ERP Curriculum Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Kuanchin; Razi, Muhammad; Rienzo, Thomas

2011-01-01

Unilateral enterprise resource planning (ERP) curriculum improvements from the instructor's perspective are likely to generate only limited success. Understanding student motivations and beliefs with ERP systems is the missing link to effective ERP education. Relatively little attention in the ERP literature has been given to student learning…

Teasing apart the anticipatory and consummatory processing of monetary incentives: An event-related potential study of reward dynamics.

PubMed

Novak, Keisha D; Foti, Dan

2015-11-01

The monetary incentive delay (MID) task has been widely used in fMRI studies to investigate the neural networks involved in anticipatory and consummatory reward processing. Previous efforts to adapt the MID task for use with ERPs, however, have had limited success. Here, we sought to further decompose reward dynamics using a comprehensive set of anticipatory (cue-N2, cue-P3, contingent negative variation [CNV]) and consummatory ERPs (feedback negativity [FN], feedback P3 [fb-P3]). ERP data was recorded during adapted versions of the MID task across two experiments. Unlike previous studies, monetary incentive cues modulated the cue-N2, cue-P3, and CNV; however, cue-related ERPs and the CNV were uncorrelated with one another, indicating distinct anticipatory subprocesses. With regard to consummatory processing, FN amplitude primarily tracked outcome valence (reward vs. nonreward), whereas fb-P3 amplitude primarily tracked outcome salience (uncertain vs. certain). Independent modulation of the cue-P3 and fb-P3 was observed, indicating that these two P3 responses may uniquely capture the allocation of attention during anticipatory and consummatory reward processing, respectively. Overall, across two samples, consistent evidence of both anticipatory and consummatory ERP activity was observed on an adapted version of the MID paradigm, demonstrating for the first time how these ERP components may be integrated with one another to more fully characterize the time course of reward processing. This ERP-MID paradigm is well suited to parsing reward dynamics, and can be applied to both healthy and clinical populations. © 2015 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Event-Related Potential Responses to Task Switching Are Sensitive to Choice of Spatial Filter

PubMed Central

Wong, Aaron S. W.; Cooper, Patrick S.; Conley, Alexander C.; McKewen, Montana; Fulham, W. Ross; Michie, Patricia T.; Karayanidis, Frini

2018-01-01

Event-related potential (ERP) studies using the task-switching paradigm show that multiple ERP components are modulated by activation of proactive control processes involved in preparing to repeat or switch task and reactive control processes involved in implementation of the current or new task. Our understanding of the functional significance of these ERP components has been hampered by variability in their robustness, as well as their temporal and scalp distribution across studies. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of choice of reference electrode or spatial filter on the number, timing and scalp distribution of ERP elicited during task-switching. We compared four configurations, including the two most common (i.e., average mastoid reference and common average reference) and two novel ones that aim to reduce volume conduction (i.e., reference electrode standardization technique (REST) and surface Laplacian) on mixing cost and switch cost effects in cue-locked and target-locked ERP waveforms in 201 healthy participants. All four spatial filters showed the same well-characterized ERP components that are typically seen in task-switching paradigms: the cue-locked switch positivity and target-locked N2/P3 effect. However, both the number of ERP effects associated with mixing and switch cost, and their temporal and spatial resolution were greater with the surface Laplacian transformation which revealed rapid temporal adjustments that were not identifiable with other spatial filters. We conclude that the surface Laplacian transformation may be more suited to characterize EEG signatures of complex spatiotemporal networks involved in cognitive control. PMID:29568260

The Effects of Face Inversion and Face Race on the P100 ERP.

PubMed

Colombatto, Clara; McCarthy, Gregory

2017-04-01

Research about the neural basis of face recognition has investigated the timing and anatomical substrates of different stages of face processing. Scalp-recorded ERP studies of face processing have focused on the N170, an ERP with a peak latency of ∼170 msec that has long been associated with the initial structural encoding of faces. However, several studies have reported earlier ERP differences related to faces, suggesting that face-specific processes might occur before N170. Here, we examined the influence of face inversion and face race on the timing of face-sensitive scalp-recorded ERPs by examining neural responses to upright and inverted line-drawn and luminance-matched white and black faces in a sample of white participants. We found that the P100 ERP evoked by inverted faces was significantly larger than that evoked by upright faces. Although this inversion effect was statistically significant at 100 msec, the inverted-upright ERP difference peaked at 138 msec, suggesting that it might represent an activity in neural sources that overlap with P100. Inverse modeling of the inversion effect difference waveform suggested possible neural sources in pericalcarine extrastriate visual cortex and lateral occipito-temporal cortex. We also found that the inversion effect difference wave was larger for white faces. These results are consistent with behavioral evidence that individuals process the faces of their own races more configurally than faces of other races. Taken together, the inversion and race effects observed in the current study suggest that configuration influences face processing by at least 100 msec.

Blocked versus randomized presentation modes differentially modulate feedback-related negativity and P3b amplitudes

PubMed Central

Pfabigan, Daniela M.; Zeiler, Michael; Lamm, Claus; Sailer, Uta

2014-01-01

Objective Electrophysiological studies on feedback processing typically use a wide range of feedback stimuli which might not always be comparable. The current study investigated whether two indicators of feedback processing – feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3b – differ for feedback stimuli with explicit (facial expressions) or assigned valence information (symbols). In addition, we assessed whether presenting feedback in either a trial-by-trial or a block-wise fashion affected these ERPs. Methods EEG was recorded in three experiments while participants performed a time estimation task and received two different types of performance feedback. Results Only P3b amplitudes varied consistently in response to feedback type for both presentation types. Moreover, the blocked feedback type presentation yielded more distinct FRN peaks, higher effect sizes, and a significant relation between FRN amplitudes and behavioral task performance measures. Conclusion Both stimulus type and presentation mode may provoke systematic changes in feedback-related ERPs. The current findings point at important potential confounds that need to be controlled for when designing FRN or P3b studies. Significance Studies investigating P3b amplitudes using mixed types of stimuli have to be interpreted with caution. Furthermore, we suggest implementing a blocked presentation format when presenting different feedback types within the same experiment. PMID:24144779

Virtual Characters: Visual Realism Affects Response Time and Decision-Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sibuma, Bernadette

2012-01-01

This study integrates agent research with a neurocognitive technique to study how character faces affect cognitive processing. The N170 event-related potential (ERP) was used to study face processing during simple decision-making tasks. Twenty-five adults responded to facial expressions (fear/neutral) presented in three designs…

Impacts of Earth rotation parameters on GNSS ultra-rapid orbit prediction: Derivation and real-time correction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Qianxin; Hu, Chao; Xu, Tianhe; Chang, Guobin; Hernández Moraleda, Alberto

2017-12-01

Analysis centers (ACs) for global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) cannot accurately obtain real-time Earth rotation parameters (ERPs). Thus, the prediction of ultra-rapid orbits in the international terrestrial reference system (ITRS) has to utilize the predicted ERPs issued by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) or the International GNSS Service (IGS). In this study, the accuracy of ERPs predicted by IERS and IGS is analyzed. The error of the ERPs predicted for one day can reach 0.15 mas and 0.053 ms in polar motion and UT1-UTC direction, respectively. Then, the impact of ERP errors on ultra-rapid orbit prediction by GNSS is studied. The methods for orbit integration and frame transformation in orbit prediction with introduced ERP errors dominate the accuracy of the predicted orbit. Experimental results show that the transformation from the geocentric celestial references system (GCRS) to ITRS exerts the strongest effect on the accuracy of the predicted ultra-rapid orbit. To obtain the most accurate predicted ultra-rapid orbit, a corresponding real-time orbit correction method is developed. First, orbits without ERP-related errors are predicted on the basis of ITRS observed part of ultra-rapid orbit for use as reference. Then, the corresponding predicted orbit is transformed from GCRS to ITRS to adjust for the predicted ERPs. Finally, the corrected ERPs with error slopes are re-introduced to correct the predicted orbit in ITRS. To validate the proposed method, three experimental schemes are designed: function extrapolation, simulation experiments, and experiments with predicted ultra-rapid orbits and international GNSS Monitoring and Assessment System (iGMAS) products. Experimental results show that using the proposed correction method with IERS products considerably improved the accuracy of ultra-rapid orbit prediction (except the geosynchronous BeiDou orbits). The accuracy of orbit prediction is enhanced by at least 50% (error related to ERP) when a highly accurate observed orbit is used with the correction method. For iGMAS-predicted orbits, the accuracy improvement ranges from 8.5% for the inclined BeiDou orbits to 17.99% for the GPS orbits. This demonstrates that the correction method proposed by this study can optimize the ultra-rapid orbit prediction.

American Society for Enhanced Recovery and Perioperative Quality Initiative Joint Consensus Statement on Patient-Reported Outcomes in an Enhanced Recovery Pathway.

PubMed

Abola, Ramon E; Bennett-Guerrero, Elliott; Kent, Michael L; Feldman, Liane S; Fiore, Julio F; Shaw, Andrew D; Thacker, Julie K M; Gan, Tong J; Miller, Timothy E; Hedrick, Traci L; McEvoy, Matthew D; Mythen, Michael G; Bergamaschi, Roberto; Gupta, Ruchir; Holubar, Stefan D; Senagore, Anthony J; Wischmeyer, Paul E; Carli, Franco; Evans, David C; Guilbert, Sarah; Kozar, Rosemary; Pryor, Aurora; Thiele, Robert H; Everett, Sotiria; Grocott, Mike

2018-06-01

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are measures of health status that come directly from the patient. PROs are an underutilized tool in the perioperative setting. Enhanced recovery pathways (ERPs) have primarily focused on traditional measures of health care quality such as complications and hospital length of stay. These measures do not capture postdischarge outcomes that are meaningful to patients such as function or freedom from disability. PROs can be used to facilitate shared decisions between patients and providers before surgery and establish benchmark recovery goals after surgery. PROs can also be utilized in quality improvement initiatives and clinical research studies. An expert panel, the Perioperative Quality Initiative (POQI) workgroup, conducted an extensive literature review to determine best practices for the incorporation of PROs in an ERP. This international group of experienced clinicians from North America and Europe met at Stony Brook, NY, on December 2-3, 2016, to review the evidence supporting the use of PROs in the context of surgical recovery. A modified Delphi method was used to capture the collective expertise of a diverse group to answer clinical questions. During 3 plenary sessions, the POQI PRO subgroup presented clinical questions based on a literature review, presented evidenced-based answers to those questions, and developed recommendations which represented a consensus opinion regarding the use of PROs in the context of an ERP. The POQI workgroup identified key criteria to evaluate patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for their incorporation in an ERP. The POQI workgroup agreed on the following recommendations: (1) PROMs in the perioperative setting should be collected in the framework of physical, mental, and social domains. (2) These data should be collected preoperatively at baseline, during the immediate postoperative time period, and after hospital discharge. (3) In the immediate postoperative setting, we recommend using the Quality of Recovery-15 score. After discharge at 30 and 90 days, we recommend the use of the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale 2.0, or a tailored use of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System. (4) Future study that consistently applies PROMs in an ERP will define the role these measures will have evaluating quality and guiding clinical care. Consensus guidelines regarding the incorporation of PRO measures in an ERP were created by the POQI workgroup. The inclusion of PROMs with traditional measures of health care quality after surgery provides an opportunity to improve clinical care.

Strategic retrieval processing and the impact of knowing when a memory was first created.

PubMed

Roberts, J S; Tsivilis, D; Mayes, A R

2014-04-01

Retrieval orientation refers to a process where participants strategically alter how a memory cue is processed in response to different task demands. In the present study we explored whether retrieval orientation is influenced by knowing when an old stimulus was first encoded. Participants completed separate remember/know test blocks for old items from a recent delay (40min) and old items from a remote delay (48h). Manipulations at encoding ensured that performance levels were matched between these two blocks, thus avoiding confounds with differences in retrieval effort. Importantly, a third test block comprised old items from both delays randomly intermixed. As the nature of the old items varies unpredictably in the mixed block, it should not be possibly to adopt a specific retrieval orientation and the mixed block therefore acts as a control condition. Participants saw the words "mixed," "recent" or "remote" prior to each test block. Comparing ERPs from the recent and remote blocks permitted an investigation of whether participants alter their retrieval orientation in response to the specific length of the retention interval. Comparing ERPs from the pure (recent and remote) test blocks to ERPs from the mixed block permitted an investigation of whether delay information per se led to differences in retrieval strategy. Analysis of the ERP data found no differences between the recent and remote blocks. However, ERPs from these pure blocks were significantly less positive than ERPs from the mixed block from 200ms towards the end of the epoch. The findings suggest that the delay information was useful in a general sense and encouraged retrieval strategies distinct from those engaged in the mixed block. We speculate that such strategies might relate to whether or not the retrieval search is specific and constrained and/or whether processes that serve to reinstate the original encoding context are engaged. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Exploration on Electroencephalogram Mechanism Differences of Negative Emotions Induced by Disgusted and Sad Situation Images].

PubMed

Wang, Xin; Jin, Jingna; Li, Song; Liu, Zhipeng; Yin, Tao

2015-12-01

Evolutionary psychology holds such an opinion that negative situation may threaten survival, trigger avoidance motive and have poor effects on the human-body function and the psychological quality. Both disgusted and sad situations can induce negative emotions. However, differences between the two situations on attention capture and emotion cognition during the emotion induction are still not well known. Typical disgusted and sad situation images were used in the present study to induce two negative emotions, and 15 young students (7 males and 8 females, aged 27 ± 3) were recruited in the experiments. Electroencephalogram of 32 leads was recorded when the subjects were viewing situation images, and event-related potentials (ERP) of all leads were obtained for future analysis. Paired sample t tests were carried out on two ERP signals separately induced by disgusted and sad situation images to get time quantum with significant statistical differences between the two ERP signals. Root-mean-square deviations of two ERP signals during each time quantum were calculated and the brain topographic map based on root-mean-square deviations was drawn to display differences of two ERP signals in spatial. Results showed that differences of ERP signals induced by disgusted and sad situation images were mainly manifested in T1 (120-450 ms) early and T2 (800-1,000 ms) later. During the period of T1, the occipital lobe reflecting attention capture was activated by both disgusted and sad situation images, but the prefrontal cortex reflecting emotion sense was activated only by disgusted situation images. During the period of T2, the prefrontal cortex was activated by both disgusted and sad situation images. However, the parietal lobe was activated only by disgusted situation images, which showed stronger emotional perception. The research results would have enlightenment to deepen understanding of negative emotion and to exploredeep cognitive neuroscience mechanisms of negative emotion induction.

Research in China on event-related potentials in patients with schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Wang, Jijun; Guo, Qian

2012-01-01

Abstract Event-related potentials (ERPs) are objective electrophysiological indicators that can be used to assess cognitive processes in the human brain. Psychiatric researchers in China have applied this method to study schizophrenia since the early 1980s. ERP measures used in the study of schizophrenia include contingent negative variation (CNV), P300, mismatch negativity (MMN), error-related negativity (ERN) and auditory P50 inhibition. This review summarizes the main findings of ERP research in patients with schizophrenia reported by Chinese investigators. PMID:25324605

An empirical analysis of ERP adoption by oil and gas firms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romero, Jorge

2005-07-01

Despite the growing popularity of enterprise-resource-planning (ERP) systems for the information technology infrastructure of large and medium-sized businesses, there is limited empirical evidence on the competitive benefits of ERP implementations. Case studies of individual firms provide insights but do not provide sufficient evidence to draw reliable inferences and cross-sectional studies of firms in multiple industries provide a broad-brush perspective of the performance effects associated with ERP installations. To narrow the focus to a specific competitive arena, I analyze the impact of ERP adoption on various dimensions of performance for firms in the Oil and Gas Industry. I selected the Oil and Gas Industry because several companies installed a specific type of ERP system, SAP R/3, during the period from 1990 to 2002. In fact, SAP was the dominant provider of enterprise software to oil and gas companies during this period. I evaluate performance of firms that implemented SAP R/3 relative to firms that did not adopt ERP systems in the pre-implementation, implementation and post-implementation periods. My analysis takes two different approaches, the first from a financial perspective and the second from a strategic perspective. Using the Sloan (General Motors) model commonly applied in financial statement analysis, I examine changes in performance for ERP-adopting firms versus non-adopting firms along the dimensions of asset utilization and return on sales. Asset utilization is more closely aligned with changes in leanness of operations, and return on sales is more closely aligned with customer-value-added. I test hypotheses related to the timing and magnitude of the impact of ERP implementation with respect to leanness of operations and customer value added. I find that SAP-adopting companies performed relatively better in terms of asset turnover than non-SAP-adopting companies during both the implementation and post-implementation periods and that SAP-adopting firms outperformed non-SAP-adopting firms in terms of return on sales during the post-implementation period. These findings indicate that the impact of ERP implementation on return on sales occurred after an assimilation period. I perform an analysis of the impact of ERP in the Oil and Gas Industry using strategic performance metrics described in Banker et al. (1996) including profitability, productivity, price recovery, product mix, and capacity utilization. My results show that the benefits obtained from ERP implementation in terms of productivity and capacity utilization are persistently positive during and after the installation.

Social identity modifies face perception: an ERP study of social categorization.

PubMed

Derks, Belle; Stedehouder, Jeffrey; Ito, Tiffany A

2015-05-01

Two studies examined whether social identity processes, i.e. group identification and social identity threat, amplify the degree to which people attend to social category information in early perception [assessed with event-related brain potentials (ERPs)]. Participants were presented with faces of Muslims and non-Muslims in an evaluative priming task while ERPs were measured and implicit evaluative bias was assessed. Study 1 revealed that non-Muslims showed stronger differentiation between ingroup and outgroup faces in both early (N200) and later processing stages (implicit evaluations) when they identified more strongly with their ethnic group. Moreover, identification effects on implicit bias were mediated by intergroup differentiation in the N200. In Study 2, social identity threat (vs control) was manipulated among Muslims. Results revealed that high social identity threat resulted in stronger differentiation of Muslims from non-Muslims in early (N200) and late (implicit evaluations) processing stages, with N200 effects again predicting implicit bias. Combined, these studies reveal how seemingly bottom-up early social categorization processes are affected by individual and contextual variables that affect the meaning of social identity. Implications of these results for the social identity perspective as well as social cognitive theories of person perception are discussed. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The roles of protein disulphide isomerase family A, member 3 (ERp57) and surface thiol/disulphide exchange in human spermatozoa-zona pellucida binding.

PubMed

Wong, Chi-Wai; Lam, Kevin K W; Lee, Cheuk-Lun; Yeung, William S B; Zhao, Wei E; Ho, Pak-Chung; Ou, Jian-Ping; Chiu, Philip C N

2017-04-01

Are multimeric sperm plasma membrane protein complexes, ERp57 and sperm surface thiol content involved in human spermatozoa-zona pellucida (ZP) interaction? ERp57 is a component of a multimeric spermatozoa-ZP receptor complex involved in regulation of human spermatozoa-ZP binding via up-regulation of sperm surface thiol content. A spermatozoon acquires its fertilization capacity within the female reproductive tract by capacitation. Spermatozoa-ZP receptor is suggested to be a composite structure that is assembled into a functional complex during capacitation. Sperm surface thiol content is elevated during capacitation. ERp57 is a protein disulphide isomerase that modulates the thiol-disulphide status of proteins. The binding ability and components of protein complexes in extracted membrane protein fractions of spermatozoa were studied. The roles of capacitation, thiol-disulphide reagent treatments and ERp57 on sperm functions and sperm surface thiol content were assessed. Spermatozoa were obtained from semen samples from normozoospermic men. Human oocytes were obtained from an assisted reproduction programme. Blue native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, western ligand blotting and mass spectrometry were used to identify the components of solubilized ZP/ZP3-binding complexes. The localization and expression of sperm surface thiol and ERp57 were studied by immunostaining and sperm surface protein biotinylation followed by western blotting. Sperm functions were assessed by standard assays. Several ZP-binding complexes were isolated from the cell membrane of capacitated spermatozoa. ERp57 was a component of one of these complexes. Capacitation significantly increased the sperm surface thiol content, acrosomal thiol distribution and ERp57 expression on sperm surface. Sperm surface thiol and ERp57 immunoreactivity were localized to the acrosomal region of spermatozoa, a region responsible for ZP-binding. Up-regulation of the surface thiol content or ERp57 surface expression in vitro stimulated ZP-binding capacity of human spermatozoa. Blocking of ERp57 function by specific antibody or inhibitors against ERp57 reduced the surface thiol content and ZP-binding capacity of human spermatozoa. N/A. The mechanisms by which up-regulation of surface thiol content stimulates spermatozoa-ZP binding have not been depicted. Thiol-disulphide exchange is a crucial event in capacitation. ERp57 modulates the event and the subsequent fertilization process. Modulation of the surface thiol content of the spermatozoa of subfertile men may help to increase fertilization rate in assisted reproduction. This work was supported by The Hong Kong Research Grant Council Grant HKU764611 and HKU764512M to P.C.N.C. The authors have no competing interests. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

Electrophysiological assessments of cognition and sensory processing in TBI: applications for diagnosis, prognosis and rehabilitation.

PubMed

Folmer, Robert L; Billings, Curtis J; Diedesch-Rouse, Anna C; Gallun, Frederick J; Lew, Henry L

2011-10-01

Traumatic brain injuries are often associated with damage to sensory and cognitive processing pathways. Because evoked potentials (EPs) and event-related potentials (ERPs) are generated by neuronal activity, they are useful for assessing the integrity of neural processing capabilities in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This review of somatosensory, auditory and visual ERPs in assessments of TBI patients is provided with the hope that it will be of interest to clinicians and researchers who conduct or interpret electrophysiological evaluations of this population. Because this article reviews ERP studies conducted in three different sensory modalities, involving patients with a wide range of TBI severity ratings and circumstances, it is difficult to provide a coherent summary of findings. However, some general trends emerge that give rise to the following observations and recommendations: 1) bilateral absence of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) is often associated with poor clinical prognosis and outcome; 2) the presence of normal ERPs does not guarantee favorable outcome; 3) ERPs evoked by a variety of sensory stimuli should be used to evaluate TBI patients, especially those with severe injuries; 4) time since onset of injury should be taken into account when conducting ERP evaluations of TBI patients or interpreting results; 5) because sensory deficits (e.g., vision impairment or hearing loss) affect ERP results, tests of peripheral sensory integrity should be conducted in conjunction with ERP recordings; and 6) patients' state of consciousness, physical and cognitive abilities to respond and follow directions should be considered when conducting or interpreting ERP evaluations. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Implicit and Explicit Mechanisms of Word Learning in a Narrative Context: An Event-Related Potential Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Batterink, Laura; Neville, Helen

2011-01-01

The vast majority of word meanings are learned simply by extracting them from context rather than by rote memorization or explicit instruction. Although this skill is remarkable, little is known about the brain mechanisms involved. In the present study, ERPs were recorded as participants read stories in which pseudowords were presented multiple…

The influence of language deprivation in early childhood on L2 processing: An ERP comparison of deaf native signers and deaf signers with a delayed language acquisition.

PubMed

Skotara, Nils; Salden, Uta; Kügow, Monique; Hänel-Faulhaber, Barbara; Röder, Brigitte

2012-05-03

To examine which language function depends on early experience, the present study compared deaf native signers, deaf non-native signers and hearing German native speakers while processing German sentences. The participants watched simple written sentences while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. At the end of each sentence they were asked to judge whether the sentence was correct or not. Two types of violations were introduced in the middle of the sentence: a semantically implausible noun or a violation of subject-verb number agreement. The results showed a similar ERP pattern after semantic violations (an N400 followed by a positivity) in all three groups. After syntactic violations, native German speakers and native signers of German sign language (DGS) with German as second language (L2) showed a left anterior negativity (LAN) followed by a P600, whereas no LAN but a negativity over the right hemisphere instead was found in deaf participants with a delayed onset of first language (L1) acquisition. The P600 of this group had a smaller amplitude and a different scalp distribution as compared to German native speakers. The results of the present study suggest that language deprivation in early childhood alters the cerebral organization of syntactic language processing mechanisms for L2. Semantic language processing instead was unaffected.

Neurodynamics of executive control processes in bilinguals: evidence from ERP and source reconstruction analyses.

PubMed

Heidlmayr, Karin; Hemforth, Barbara; Moutier, Sylvain; Isel, Frédéric

2015-01-01

The present study was designed to examine the impact of bilingualism on the neuronal activity in different executive control processes namely conflict monitoring, control implementation (i.e., interference suppression and conflict resolution) and overcoming of inhibition. Twenty-two highly proficient but non-balanced successive French-German bilingual adults and 22 monolingual adults performed a combined Stroop/Negative priming task while event-related potential (ERP) were recorded online. The data revealed that the ERP effects were reduced in bilinguals in comparison to monolinguals but only in the Stroop task and limited to the N400 and the sustained fronto-central negative-going potential time windows. This result suggests that bilingualism may impact the process of control implementation rather than the process of conflict monitoring (N200). Critically, our study revealed a differential time course of the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in conflict processing. While the ACC showed major activation in the early time windows (N200 and N400) but not in the latest time window (late sustained negative-going potential), the PFC became unilaterally active in the left hemisphere in the N400 and the late sustained negative-going potential time windows. Taken together, the present electroencephalography data lend support to a cascading neurophysiological model of executive control processes, in which ACC and PFC may play a determining role.

Neurodynamics of executive control processes in bilinguals: evidence from ERP and source reconstruction analyses

PubMed Central

Heidlmayr, Karin; Hemforth, Barbara; Moutier, Sylvain; Isel, Frédéric

2015-01-01

The present study was designed to examine the impact of bilingualism on the neuronal activity in different executive control processes namely conflict monitoring, control implementation (i.e., interference suppression and conflict resolution) and overcoming of inhibition. Twenty-two highly proficient but non-balanced successive French–German bilingual adults and 22 monolingual adults performed a combined Stroop/Negative priming task while event-related potential (ERP) were recorded online. The data revealed that the ERP effects were reduced in bilinguals in comparison to monolinguals but only in the Stroop task and limited to the N400 and the sustained fronto-central negative-going potential time windows. This result suggests that bilingualism may impact the process of control implementation rather than the process of conflict monitoring (N200). Critically, our study revealed a differential time course of the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in conflict processing. While the ACC showed major activation in the early time windows (N200 and N400) but not in the latest time window (late sustained negative-going potential), the PFC became unilaterally active in the left hemisphere in the N400 and the late sustained negative-going potential time windows. Taken together, the present electroencephalography data lend support to a cascading neurophysiological model of executive control processes, in which ACC and PFC may play a determining role. PMID:26124740

Mind Wandering and Task-Focused Attention: ERP Correlates.

PubMed

Gonçalves, Óscar F; Rêgo, Gabriel; Conde, Tatiana; Leite, Jorge; Carvalho, Sandra; Lapenta, Olívia Morgan; Boggio, Paulo S

2018-05-15

Previous studies looking at how Mind Wandering (MW) impacts performance in distinct Focused Attention (FA) systems, using the Attention Network Task (ANT), showed that the presence of pure MW thoughts did not impact the overall performance of ANT (alert, orienting and conflict) performance. However, it still remains unclear if the lack of interference of MW in the ANT, reported at the behavioral level, has a neurophysiological correspondence. We hypothesize that a distinct cortical processing may be required to meet attentional demands during MW. The objective of the present study was to test if, given similar levels of ANT performance, individuals predominantly focusing on MW or FA show distinct cortical processing. Thirty-three healthy participants underwent an EEG high-density acquisition while they were performing the ANT. MW was assessed following the ANT using an adapted version of the Resting State Questionnaire (ReSQ). The following ERP's were analyzed: pN1, pP1, P1, N1, pN, and P3. At the behavioral level, participants were slower and less accurate when responding to incongruent than to congruent targets (conflict effect), benefiting from the presentation of the double (alerting effect) and spatial (orienting effect) cues. Consistent with the behavioral data, ERP's waves were discriminative of distinct attentional effects. However, these results remained true irrespective of the MW condition, suggesting that MW imposed no additional cortical demand in alert, orienting, and conflict attention tasks.

Orthographic Facilitation in Chinese Spoken Word Recognition: An ERP Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zou, Lijuan; Desroches, Amy S.; Liu, Youyi; Xia, Zhichao; Shu, Hua

2012-01-01

Orthographic influences in spoken word recognition have been previously examined in alphabetic languages. However, it is unknown whether orthographic information affects spoken word recognition in Chinese, which has a clean dissociation between orthography (O) and phonology (P). The present study investigated orthographic effects using event…

The Neural Mechanisms of Word Order Processing Revisited: Electrophysiological Evidence from Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolff, Susann; Schlesewsky, Matthias; Hirotani, Masako; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina

2008-01-01

We present two ERP studies on the processing of word order variations in Japanese, a language that is suited to shedding further light on the implications of word order freedom for neurocognitive approaches to sentence comprehension. Experiment 1 used auditory presentation and revealed that initial accusative objects elicit increased processing…

Toward the influence of temporal attention on the selection of targets in a visual search task: An ERP study.

PubMed

Rolke, Bettina; Festl, Freya; Seibold, Verena C

2016-11-01

We used ERPs to investigate whether temporal attention interacts with spatial attention and feature-based attention to enhance visual processing. We presented a visual search display containing one singleton stimulus among a set of homogenous distractors. Participants were asked to respond only to target singletons of a particular color and shape that were presented in an attended spatial position. We manipulated temporal attention by presenting a warning signal before each search display and varying the foreperiod (FP) between the warning signal and the search display in a blocked manner. We observed distinctive ERP effects of both spatial and temporal attention. The amplitudes for the N2pc, SPCN, and P3 were enhanced by spatial attention indicating a processing benefit of relevant stimulus features at the attended side. Temporal attention accelerated stimulus processing; this was indexed by an earlier onset of the N2pc component and a reduction in reaction times to targets. Most importantly, temporal attention did not interact with spatial attention or stimulus features to influence visual processing. Taken together, the results suggest that temporal attention fosters visual perceptual processing in a visual search task independently from spatial attention and feature-based attention; this provides support for the nonspecific enhancement hypothesis of temporal attention. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

The semantic origin of unconscious priming: Behavioral and event-related potential evidence during category congruency priming from strongly and weakly related masked words.

PubMed

Ortells, Juan J; Kiefer, Markus; Castillo, Alejandro; Megías, Montserrat; Morillas, Alejandro

2016-01-01

The mechanisms underlying masked congruency priming, semantic mechanisms such as semantic activation or non-semantic mechanisms, for example response activation, remain a matter of debate. In order to decide between these alternatives, reaction times (RTs) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in the present study, while participants performed a semantic categorization task on visible word targets that were preceded either 167 ms (Experiment 1) or 34 ms before (Experiment 2) by briefly presented (33 ms) novel (unpracticed) masked prime words. The primes and targets belonged to different categories (unrelated), or they were either strongly or weakly semantically related category co-exemplars. Behavioral (RT) and electrophysiological masked congruency priming effects were significantly greater for strongly related pairs than for weakly related pairs, indicating a semantic origin of effects. Priming in the latter condition was not statistically reliable. Furthermore, priming effects modulated the N400 event-related potential (ERP) component, an electrophysiological index of semantic processing, but not ERPs in the time range of the N200 component, associated with response conflict and visuo-motor response priming. The present results demonstrate that masked congruency priming from novel prime words also depends on semantic processing of the primes and is not exclusively driven by non-semantic mechanisms such as response activation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Identification of a novel dynamic red blindness in human by event-related brain potentials.

PubMed

Zhang, Jiahua; Kong, Weijia; Yang, Zhongle

2010-12-01

Dynamic color is an important carrier that takes information in some special occupations. However, up to the present, there are no available and objective tests to evaluate dynamic color processing. To investigate the characteristics of dynamic color processing, we adopted two patterns of visual stimulus called "onset-offset" which reflected static color stimuli and "sustained moving" without abrupt mode which reflected dynamic color stimuli to evoke event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in primary color amblyopia patients (abnormal group) and subjects with normal color recognition ability (normal group). ERPs were recorded by Neuroscan system. The results showed that in the normal group, ERPs in response to the dynamic red stimulus showed frontal positive amplitudes with a latency of about 180 ms, a negative peak at about 240 ms and a peak latency of the late positive potential (LPP) in a time window between 290 and 580 ms. In the abnormal group, ERPs in response to the dynamic red stimulus were fully lost and characterized by vanished amplitudes between 0 and 800 ms. No significant difference was noted in ERPs in response to the dynamic green and blue stimulus between the two groups (P>0.05). ERPs of the two groups in response to the static red, green and blue stimulus were not much different, showing a transient negative peak at about 170 ms and a peak latency of LPP in a time window between 350 and 650 ms. Our results first revealed that some subjects who were not identified as color blindness under static color recognition could not completely apperceive a sort of dynamic red stimulus by ERPs, which was called "dynamic red blindness". Furthermore, these results also indicated that low-frequency ERPs induced by "sustained moving" may be a good and new method to test dynamic color perception competence.

Adapted wavelet transform improves time-frequency representations: a study of auditory elicited P300-like event-related potentials in rats

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richard, Nelly; Laursen, Bettina; Grupe, Morten; Drewes, Asbjørn M.; Graversen, Carina; Sørensen, Helge B. D.; Bastlund, Jesper F.

2017-04-01

Objective. Active auditory oddball paradigms are simple tone discrimination tasks used to study the P300 deflection of event-related potentials (ERPs). These ERPs may be quantified by time-frequency analysis. As auditory stimuli cause early high frequency and late low frequency ERP oscillations, the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is often chosen for decomposition due to its multi-resolution properties. However, as the conventional CWT traditionally applies only one mother wavelet to represent the entire spectrum, the time-frequency resolution is not optimal across all scales. To account for this, we developed and validated a novel method specifically refined to analyse P300-like ERPs in rats. Approach. An adapted CWT (aCWT) was implemented to preserve high time-frequency resolution across all scales by commissioning of multiple wavelets operating at different scales. First, decomposition of simulated ERPs was illustrated using the classical CWT and the aCWT. Next, the two methods were applied to EEG recordings obtained from prefrontal cortex in rats performing a two-tone auditory discrimination task. Main results. While only early ERP frequency changes between responses to target and non-target tones were detected by the CWT, both early and late changes were successfully described with strong accuracy by the aCWT in rat ERPs. Increased frontal gamma power and phase synchrony was observed particularly within theta and gamma frequency bands during deviant tones. Significance. The study suggests superior performance of the aCWT over the CWT in terms of detailed quantification of time-frequency properties of ERPs. Our methodological investigation indicates that accurate and complete assessment of time-frequency components of short-time neural signals is feasible with the novel analysis approach which may be advantageous for characterisation of several types of evoked potentials in particularly rodents.

Teaching ERP Systems: A Multi-Perspective View on the ERP System Market

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winkelmann, Axel; Leyh, Christian

2010-01-01

In order to increase the diversity in IS education, we discuss an approach for teaching medium-sized ERP systems in university courses. Many of today's IS curricula are biased toward a few large ERP packages. Nevertheless, these ERP systems are only a part of the ERP market. Therefore, this paper describes a course outline for an additional course…

Exploring Education Culture by Employing Hofstede?s Cultural Dimensions to Evaluate the Effectiveness of the Current ERP Training Approach in Thailand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chayakonvikom, Monta; Fuangvut, Parin; Cannell, Stephen

2016-01-01

ERP training is a critical success factor in ERP implementation. The current ERP training was largely ineffective and caused user resistance and ERP implementation failure. The objective of this paper is to investigate whether the current ERP training approach can accommodate the cultural learning behaviors of end-users. Hofstede's cultural…

The time course of reading processes in children with and without dyslexia: an ERP study

PubMed Central

Hasko, Sandra; Groth, Katarina; Bruder, Jennifer; Bartling, Jürgen; Schulte-Körne, Gerd

2013-01-01

The main diagnostic criterion for developmental dyslexia (DD) in transparent orthographies is a remarkable reading speed deficit, which is often accompanied by spelling difficulties. These deficits have been traced back to both deficits in orthographic and phonological processing. For a better understanding of the reading speed deficit in DD it is necessary to clarify which processing steps are degraded in children with DD during reading. In order to address this question the present study used EEG to investigate three reading related ERPs: the N170, N400 and LPC. Twenty-nine children without DD and 52 children with DD performed a phonological lexical decision (PLD)—task, which tapped both orthographic and phonological processing. Children were presented with words, pseudohomophones, pseudowords and false fonts and had to decide whether the presented stimulus sounded like an existing German word or not. Compared to control children, children with DD showed deficits in all the investigated ERPs. Firstly, a diminished mean area under the curve for the word material-false font contrasts in the time window of the N170 was observed, indicating a reduced degree of print sensitivity; secondly, N400 amplitudes, as suggested to reflect the access to the orthographic lexicon and grapheme-phoneme conversion, were attenuated; and lastly, phonological access as indexed by the LPC was degraded in children with DD. Processing differences dependent on the linguistic material in children without DD were observed only in the LPC, suggesting that similar reading processes were adopted independent of orthographic familiarity. The results of this study suggest that effective treatment should include both orthographic and phonological training. Furthermore, more longitudinal studies utilizing the same task and stimuli are needed to clarify how these processing steps and their time course change during reading development. PMID:24109444

Punctuation and Implicit Prosody in Silent Reading: An ERP Study Investigating English Garden-Path Sentences.

PubMed

Drury, John E; Baum, Shari R; Valeriote, Hope; Steinhauer, Karsten

2016-01-01

This study presents the first two ERP reading studies of comma-induced effects of covert (implicit) prosody on syntactic parsing decisions in English. The first experiment used a balanced 2 × 2 design in which the presence/absence of commas determined plausibility (e.g., John, said Mary, was the nicest boy at the party vs. John said Mary was the nicest boy at the party ). The second reading experiment replicated a previous auditory study investigating the role of overt prosodic boundaries in closure ambiguities (Pauker et al., 2011). In both experiments, commas reliably elicited CPS components and generally played a dominant role in determining parsing decisions in the face of input ambiguity. The combined set of findings provides further evidence supporting the claim that mechanisms subserving speech processing play an active role during silent reading.

The time course of individual face recognition: A pattern analysis of ERP signals.

PubMed

Nemrodov, Dan; Niemeier, Matthias; Mok, Jenkin Ngo Yin; Nestor, Adrian

2016-05-15

An extensive body of work documents the time course of neural face processing in the human visual cortex. However, the majority of this work has focused on specific temporal landmarks, such as N170 and N250 components, derived through univariate analyses of EEG data. Here, we take on a broader evaluation of ERP signals related to individual face recognition as we attempt to move beyond the leading theoretical and methodological framework through the application of pattern analysis to ERP data. Specifically, we investigate the spatiotemporal profile of identity recognition across variation in emotional expression. To this end, we apply pattern classification to ERP signals both in time, for any single electrode, and in space, across multiple electrodes. Our results confirm the significance of traditional ERP components in face processing. At the same time though, they support the idea that the temporal profile of face recognition is incompletely described by such components. First, we show that signals associated with different facial identities can be discriminated from each other outside the scope of these components, as early as 70ms following stimulus presentation. Next, electrodes associated with traditional ERP components as well as, critically, those not associated with such components are shown to contribute information to stimulus discriminability. And last, the levels of ERP-based pattern discrimination are found to correlate with recognition accuracy across subjects confirming the relevance of these methods for bridging brain and behavior data. Altogether, the current results shed new light on the fine-grained time course of neural face processing and showcase the value of novel methods for pattern analysis to investigating fundamental aspects of visual recognition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Temporally and functionally dissociable retrieval processing operations revealed by event-related potentials.

PubMed

Cruse, Damian; Wilding, Edward L

2011-06-01

In a pair of recent studies, frontally distributed event-related potential (ERP) indices of two distinct post-retrieval processes were identified. It has been proposed that one of these processes operates over any kinds of task relevant information in service of task demands, while the other operates selectively over recovered contextual (episodic) information. The experiment described here was designed to test this account, by requiring retrieval of different kinds of contextual information to that required in previous relevant studies. Participants heard words spoken in either a male or female voice at study and ERPs were acquired at test where all words were presented visually. Half of the test words had been spoken at study. Participants first made an old/new judgment, distinguishing via key press between studied and unstudied words. For words judged 'old', participants indicated the voice in which the word had been spoken at study, and their confidence (high/low) in the voice judgment. There was evidence for only one of the two frontal old/new effects that had been identified in the previous studies. One possibility is that the ERP effect in previous studies that was tied specifically to recollection reflects processes operating over only some kinds of contextual information. An alternative is that the index reflects processes that are engaged primarily when there are few contextual features that distinguish between studied stimuli. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fast and slow readers of the Hebrew language show divergence in brain response ∼200 ms post stimulus: an ERP study.

PubMed

Korinth, Sebastian Peter; Breznitz, Zvia

2014-01-01

Higher N170 amplitudes to words and to faces were recently reported for faster readers of German. Since the shallow German orthography allows phonological recoding of single letters, the reported speed advantages might have their origin in especially well-developed visual processing skills of faster readers. In contrast to German, adult readers of Hebrew are forced to process letter chunks up to whole words. This dependence on more complex visual processing might have created ceiling effects for this skill. Therefore, the current study examined whether also in the deep Hebrew orthography visual processing skills as reflected by N170 amplitudes explain reading speed differences. Forty university students, native speakers of Hebrew without reading impairments, accomplished a lexical decision task (i.e., deciding whether a visually presented stimulus represents a real or a pseudo word) and a face decision task (i.e., deciding whether a face was presented complete or with missing facial features) while their electroencephalogram was recorded from 64 scalp positions. In both tasks stronger event related potentials (ERPs) were observed for faster readers in time windows at about 200 ms. Unlike in previous studies, ERP waveforms in relevant time windows did not correspond to N170 scalp topographies. The results support the notion of visual processing ability as an orthography independent marker of reading proficiency, which advances our understanding about regular and impaired reading development.

Mass counts: ERP correlates of non-adjacent dependency learning under different exposure conditions.

PubMed

Citron, Francesca M M; Oberecker, Regine; Friederici, Angela D; Mueller, Jutta L

2011-01-10

Miniature language learning can serve to model real language learning as high proficiency can be reached after very little exposure. In a previous study by Mueller et al. [18] German participants acquired non-adjacent syntactic dependencies by mere exposure to correct Italian sentences, but their ERP pattern differed from the one shown by native speakers. The present study follows up on that experiment using a similar design and material and is focused on two important issues: the influence of acoustic cues in the material and the impact of the learning procedure. With respect to the latter we compared alternating learning and test phases to a continuous learning and test phase. In addition, a splicing procedure eliminated prosodic cues in order to ensure that non-adjacent dependencies were learned instead of adjacent ones. Results for the continuous phase design showed a native-like biphasic ERP pattern, an N400 followed by a left-focused positivity. In the alternating design behavioural accuracy was lower and only an N400 was found. The results suggest an advantage of continuous learning phases for adult learners, possibly due to the absence of ungrammatical items present in the test phases in the alternating learning procedure. Furthermore, the replication of the earlier study with prosodically controlled material adds evidence to the general finding that syntactic non-adjacent dependencies can be learned from mere exposure to correct examples. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhanced long-term recollection for emotional pictures: evidence from high-density ERPs.

PubMed

Weymar, Mathias; Löw, Andreas; Melzig, Christiane A; Hamm, Alfons O

2009-11-01

The present study used behavioral and electrophysiological measures to investigate the processes mediating long-term recognition memory for emotional and neutral pictures. The results show enhanced memory recollection for emotional arousing pictures compared to neutral low arousing pictures. In accordance with the behavioral data, we observed enhanced old/new effects in the ERPs for emotionally arousing pictures in the recollection-sensitive old/new component at centro-parietal sites (500-800 ms). Moreover, early old/new effects were present over frontal and parietal sites (300-500 ms) irrespective of picture contents. Analysis of the subjective awareness, indexed by the confidence ratings, showed that the late parietal old/new effect was increased for high confidence responses whereas the early component (300-500 ms) was mainly driven by low confidence responses, an indication for familiarity based recognition processes.

Influence of long-term Sahaja Yoga meditation practice on emotional processing in the brain: An ERP study.

PubMed

Reva, N V; Pavlov, S V; Loktev, K V; Korenyok, V V; Aftanas, L I

2014-12-05

Despite growing interest in meditation as a tool for alternative therapy of stress-related and psychosomatic diseases, brain mechanisms of beneficial influences of meditation practice on health and quality of life are still unclear. We propose that the key point is a persistent change in emotional functioning, specifically the modulation of the early appraisal of motivational significance of events. The main aim was to study the effects of long-term meditation practice on event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during affective picture viewing. ERPs were recorded in 20 long-term Sahaja Yoga meditators and 20 control subjects without prior experience in meditation. The meditators' mid-latency (140-400ms) ERPs were attenuated for both positive and negative pictures (i.e. there were no arousal-related increases in ERP positivity) and this effect was more prominent over the right hemisphere. However, we found no differences in the long latency (400-800ms) responses to emotional images, associated with meditation practice. In addition we found stronger ERP negativity in the time window 200-300ms for meditators compared to the controls, regardless of picture valence. We assume that long-term meditation practice enhances frontal top-down control over fast automatic salience detection, based on amygdala functions. Copyright © 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustained dysfunctional information processing in patients with Internet gaming disorder: 6-month follow-up ERP study.

PubMed

Park, Minkyung; Kim, Yeon Jin; Kim, Dai Jin; Choi, Jung-Seok

2017-09-01

Internet gaming disorder (IGD), defined as an inability to control Internet-based game play, leads to serious impairment in psychological and social functioning, but few studies have identified the neurophysiological characteristics of patients with IGD. The aim of this study was to determine neurophysiological markers of P300 components associated with changes in symptoms after outpatient management with pharmacotherapy in patients with IGD. The present prospective longitudinal study included 18 patients with IGD and 29 healthy controls. The patients with IGD completed a 6-month outpatient management program including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor-based pharmacotherapy. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were acquired during the auditory oddball task. ERPs of the patients with IGD were recorded before and after treatment. Between-group differences and the pre-to-post treatment differences in P300 components were investigated using repeated-measures analysis of variance. The primary treatment outcome was a change in score on Young Internet Addiction Test between before and after treatment. At baseline assessments, the IGD group showed significantly reduced P300 amplitudes and delayed latencies at the midline centro-parietal site compared with those in the healthy controls. No significant changes in the P300 indices were observed between pre and post-treatment in the patients with IGD after 6 months of treatment, even though the patients with IGD exhibited significant improvements in their IGD symptoms. Furthermore, no significant difference in ERPs was observed between responders and nonresponders to a 6-month treatment in patients with IGD. These results suggest that reduced P300 amplitudes and delayed latencies are candidate endophenotypes in the pathophysiology of IGD.

Electrophysiological Responses to Expectancy Violations in Semantic and Gambling Tasks: A Comparison of Different EEG Reference Approaches

PubMed Central

Li, Ya; Wang, Yongchun; Zhang, Baoqiang; Wang, Yonghui; Zhou, Xiaolin

2018-01-01

Dynamically evaluating the outcomes of our actions and thoughts is a fundamental cognitive ability. Given its excellent temporal resolution, the event-related potential (ERP) technology has been used to address this issue. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) component of ERPs has been studied intensively with the averaged linked mastoid reference method (LM). However, it is unknown whether FRN can be induced by an expectancy violation in an antonym relations context and whether LM is the most suitable reference approach. To address these issues, the current research directly compared the ERP components induced by expectancy violations in antonym expectation and gambling tasks with a within-subjects design and investigated the effect of the reference approach on the experimental effects. Specifically, we systematically compared the influence of the LM, reference electrode standardization technique (REST) and average reference (AVE) approaches on the amplitude, scalp distribution and magnitude of ERP effects as a function of expectancy violation type. The expectancy deviation in the antonym expectation task elicited an N400 effect that differed from the FRN effect induced in the gambling task; this difference was confirmed by all the three reference methods. Both the amplitudes of the ERP effects (N400 and FRN) and the magnitude as the expectancy violation increased were greater under the LM approach than those under the REST approach, followed by those under the AVE approach. Based on the statistical results, the electrode sites that showed the N400 and FRN effects critically depended on the reference method, and the results of the REST analysis were consistent with previous ERP studies. Combined with evidence from simulation studies, we suggest that REST is an optional reference method to be used in future ERP data analysis. PMID:29615858

The Effects of Acute Dopamine Precursor Depletion on the Cognitive Control Functions of Performance Monitoring and Conflict Processing: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Study.

PubMed

Larson, Michael J; Clayson, Peter E; Primosch, Mark; Leyton, Marco; Steffensen, Scott C

2015-01-01

Studies using medications and psychiatric populations implicate dopamine in cognitive control and performance monitoring processes. However, side effects associated with medication or studying psychiatric groups may confound the relationship between dopamine and cognitive control. To circumvent such possibilities, we utilized a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects design wherein participants were administered a nutritionally-balanced amino acid mixture (BAL) and an amino acid mixture deficient in the dopamine precursors tyrosine (TYR) and phenylalanine (PHE) on two separate occasions. Order of sessions was randomly assigned. Cognitive control and performance monitoring were assessed using response times (RT), error rates, the N450, an event-related potential (ERP) index of conflict monitoring, the conflict slow potential (conflict SP), an ERP index of conflict resolution, and the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe), ERPs associated with performance monitoring. Participants were twelve males who completed a Stroop color-word task while ERPs were collected four hours following acute PHE and TYR depletion (APTD) or balanced (BAL) mixture ingestion in two separate sessions. N450 and conflict SP ERP amplitudes significantly differentiated congruent from incongruent trials, but did not differ as a function of APTD or BAL mixture ingestion. Similarly, ERN and Pe amplitudes showed significant differences between error and correct trials that were not different between APTD and BAL conditions. Findings indicate that acute dopamine precursor depletion does not significantly alter cognitive control and performance monitoring ERPs. Current results do not preclude the role of dopamine in these processes, but suggest that multiple methods for dopamine-related hypothesis testing are needed.

Rhythmic Activity and Individual Variability in Recognition Memory: Theta Oscillations Correlate with Performance whereas Alpha Oscillations Correlate with ERPs.

PubMed

Chen, Yvonne Y; Caplan, Jeremy B

2017-01-01

During study trials of a recognition memory task, alpha (∼10 Hz) oscillations decrease, and concurrently, theta (4-8 Hz) oscillations increase when later memory is successful versus unsuccessful (subsequent memory effect). Likewise, at test, reduced alpha and increased theta activity are associated with successful memory (retrieval success effect). Here we take an individual-differences approach to test three hypotheses about theta and alpha oscillations in verbal, old/new recognition, measuring the difference in oscillations between hit trials and miss trials. First, we test the hypothesis that theta and alpha oscillations have a moderately mutually exclusive relationship; but no support for this hypothesis was found. Second, we test the hypothesis that theta oscillations explain not only memory effects within participants, but also individual differences. Supporting this prediction, durations of theta (but not alpha) oscillations at study and at test correlated significantly with d' across participants. Third, we test the hypothesis that theta and alpha oscillations reflect familiarity and recollection processes by comparing oscillation measures to ERPs that are implicated in familiarity and recollection. The alpha-oscillation effects correlated with some ERP measures, but inversely, suggesting that the actions of alpha oscillations on memory processes are distinct from the roles of familiarity- and recollection-linked ERP signals. The theta-oscillation measures, despite differentiating hits from misses, did not correlate with any ERP measure; thus, theta oscillations may reflect elaborative processes not tapped by recollection-related ERPs. Our findings are consistent with alpha oscillations reflecting visual inattention, which can modulate memory, and with theta oscillations supporting recognition memory in ways that complement the most commonly studied ERPs.

Acquired Affective Associations Induce Emotion Effects in Word Recognition: An ERP Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fritsch, Nathalie; Kuchinke, Lars

2013-01-01

The present study examined how contextual learning and in particular emotionality conditioning impacts the neural processing of words, as possible key factors for the acquisition of words' emotional connotation. 21 participants learned on five consecutive days associations between meaningless pseudowords and unpleasant or neutral pictures using an…

Hemispheric Asymmetries and Cognitive Flexibility: An ERP and sLORETA Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ocklenburg, Sebastian; Gunturkun, Onur; Beste, Christian

2012-01-01

Although functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs) affect all cognitive domains, their modulation of the efficacy of specific executive functions is largely unexplored. In the present study, we used a lateralized version of the task switching paradigm to investigate the relevance of hemispheric asymmetries for cognitive control processes. Words were…

An electrophysiological study of the mental rotation of polygons.

PubMed

Pierret, A; Peronnet, F; Thevenet, M

1994-05-09

Reaction times and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a task requiring subjects to decide whether two sequentially presented polygons had the same shape regardless of differences in orientation. Reaction times increased approximately linearly with angular departure from upright orientation, which suggests that mental rotation was involved in the comparison process. The ERPs showed, between 665 and 1055 ms, a late posterior negativity also increasing with angular disparity from upright, which we assumed to reflect mental rotation. Two other activities were exhibited, from 265 to 665 ms, which may be related either to an evaluation of the stimulus or a predetermination of its orientation, and from 1055 to 1600 ms attributed to the decision process.

Need for speed: evaluating slopes of OCD recovery in behavior therapy enhanced with d-cycloserine.

PubMed

Chasson, Gregory S; Buhlmann, Ulrike; Tolin, David F; Rao, Sowmya R; Reese, Hannah E; Rowley, Theresa; Welsh, Kaitlyn S; Wilhelm, Sabine

2010-07-01

Evidence suggests that the antibiotic d-cycloserine (DCS) enhances the treatment effects of exposure and response prevention (ERP) for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Further, evidence suggests that the effects of DCS diminish partway through treatment, but it is unclear to what extent. In an effort to evaluate these issues, the current study re-analyzes data from a 10-session randomized controlled trial of ERP+DCS versus ERP+placebo in a sample of 22 adults with OCD. We analyzed repeated-measures mixed models with random slopes and intercepts across different intervals: sessions 1-10, 1-5, and 6-10. The results indicate that the course of ERP was 2.3 times faster over the full 10 sessions for the DCS compared to the placebo group, and nearly six times quicker in the first half of ERP. Further interpretation of the results suggests that DCS does not amplify the effects of ERP, but instead initiates treatment effects sooner in treatment. In addition, DCS does not necessarily lose its effect over repeated use, but instead may exhaust its maximum utility after effectively jump-starting ERP. Ultimately, DCS may provide a means for curtailing treatment costs, decreasing treatment dropout and refusal rates, and enhancing access to care. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Signal enhancement, not active suppression, follows the contingent capture of visual attention.

PubMed

Livingstone, Ashley C; Christie, Gregory J; Wright, Richard D; McDonald, John J

2017-02-01

Irrelevant visual cues capture attention when they possess a task-relevant feature. Electrophysiologically, this contingent capture of attention is evidenced by the N2pc component of the visual event-related potential (ERP) and an enlarged ERP positivity over the occipital hemisphere contralateral to the cued location. The N2pc reflects an early stage of attentional selection, but presently it is unclear what the contralateral ERP positivity reflects. One hypothesis is that it reflects the perceptual enhancement of the cued search-array item; another hypothesis is that it is time-locked to the preceding cue display and reflects active suppression of the cue itself. Here, we varied the time interval between a cue display and a subsequent target display to evaluate these competing hypotheses. The results demonstrated that the contralateral ERP positivity is tightly time-locked to the appearance of the search display rather than the cue display, thereby supporting the perceptual enhancement hypothesis and disconfirming the cue-suppression hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

When emotional prosody and semantics dance cheek to cheek: ERP evidence.

PubMed

Kotz, Sonja A; Paulmann, Silke

2007-06-02

To communicate emotionally entails that a listener understands a verbal message but also the emotional prosody going along with it. So far the time course and interaction of these emotional 'channels' is still poorly understood. The current set of event-related brain potential (ERP) experiments investigated both the interactive time course of emotional prosody with semantics and of emotional prosody independent of emotional semantics using a cross-splicing method. In a probe verification task (Experiment 1) prosodic expectancy violations elicited a positivity, while a combined prosodic-semantic expectancy violation elicited a negativity. Comparable ERP results were obtained in an emotional prosodic categorization task (Experiment 2). The present data support different ERP responses with distinct time courses and topographies elicited as a function of prosodic expectancy and combined prosodic-semantic expectancy during emotional prosodic processing and combined emotional prosody/emotional semantic processing. These differences suggest that the interaction of more than one emotional channel facilitates subtle transitions in an emotional sentence context.

Visual search and spatial attention: ERPs in focussed and divided attention conditions.

PubMed

Wijers, A A; Okita, T; Mulder, G; Mulder, L J; Lorist, M M; Poiesz, R; Scheffers, M K

1987-08-01

ERPs and performance were measured in divided and focussed attention visual search tasks. In focussed attention tasks, to-be-attended and to-be-ignored letters were presented simultaneously. We varied display load, mapping conditions and display size. RT, P3b-latency and negativity in the ERP associated with controlled search all increased with display load. Each of these measures showed selectivity of controlled search, in that they decreased with focussing of attention. An occipital N230, on the other hand, was not sensitive to focussing of attention, but was primarily affected by display load. ERPs to both attended and unattended targets in focussed attention conditions showed and N2 compared to nontargets, suggesting that both automatic and controlled letter classifications are possible. These effects were not affected by display size. Consistent mapping resulted in shorter RT and P3b-latency in divided attention conditions, compared to varied mapping conditions, but had no effect in focussed attention conditions.

ERP correlates of letter identity and letter position are modulated by lexical frequency

PubMed Central

Vergara-Martínez, Marta; Perea, Manuel; Gómez, Pablo; Swaab, Tamara Y.

2013-01-01

The encoding of letter position is a key aspect in all recently proposed models of visual-word recognition. We analyzed the impact of lexical frequency on letter position assignment by examining the temporal dynamics of lexical activation induced by pseudowords extracted from words of different frequencies. For each word (e.g., BRIDGE), we created two pseudowords: A transposed-letter (TL: BRIGDE) and a replaced-letter pseudoword (RL: BRITGE). ERPs were recorded while participants read words and pseudowords in two tasks: Semantic categorization (Experiment 1) and lexical decision (Experiment 2). For high-frequency stimuli, similar ERPs were obtained for words and TL-pseudowords, but the N400 component to words was reduced relative to RL-pseudowords, indicating less lexical/semantic activation. In contrast, TL- and RL-pseudowords created from low-frequency stimuli elicited similar ERPs. Behavioral responses in the lexical decision task paralleled this asymmetry. The present findings impose constraints on computational and neural models of visual-word recognition. PMID:23454070

Mindfulness based cognitive therapy may improve emotional processing in bipolar disorder: pilot ERP and HRV study.

PubMed

Howells, Fleur M; Laurie Rauch, H G; Ives-Deliperi, Victoria L; Horn, Neil R; Stein, Dan J

2014-06-01

Emotional processing in bipolar disorder (BD) is impaired. We aimed to measure the effects of mindfulness based cognitive-behavioral therapy (MBCT) in BD on emotional processing, as measured by event related potentials (ERP) and by heart rate variability (HRV). ERP and HRV were recorded during the completion of a visual matching task, which included object matching, affect matching, and affect labeling. Individuals with BD (n = 12) were compared with controls (n = 9) to obtain baseline data prior to the individuals with BD undergoing an 8-week MBCT intervention. ERP and HRV recording was repeated after the MBCT intervention in BD. Participants with BD had exaggerated ERP N170 amplitude and increased HRV HF peak compared to controls, particularly during the affect matching condition. After an 8-week MBCT intervention, participants with BD showed attenuation of ERP N170 amplitude and reduced HRV HF peak. Our findings support findings from the literature emphasizing that emotional processing in BD is altered, and suggesting that MBCT may improve emotional processing in BD.

Gaze-independent ERP-BCIs: augmenting performance through location-congruent bimodal stimuli

PubMed Central

Thurlings, Marieke E.; Brouwer, Anne-Marie; Van Erp, Jan B. F.; Werkhoven, Peter

2014-01-01

Gaze-independent event-related potential (ERP) based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) yield relatively low BCI performance and traditionally employ unimodal stimuli. Bimodal ERP-BCIs may increase BCI performance due to multisensory integration or summation in the brain. An additional advantage of bimodal BCIs may be that the user can choose which modality or modalities to attend to. We studied bimodal, visual-tactile, gaze-independent BCIs and investigated whether or not ERP components’ tAUCs and subsequent classification accuracies are increased for (1) bimodal vs. unimodal stimuli; (2) location-congruent vs. location-incongruent bimodal stimuli; and (3) attending to both modalities vs. to either one modality. We observed an enhanced bimodal (compared to unimodal) P300 tAUC, which appeared to be positively affected by location-congruency (p = 0.056) and resulted in higher classification accuracies. Attending either to one or to both modalities of the bimodal location-congruent stimuli resulted in differences between ERP components, but not in classification performance. We conclude that location-congruent bimodal stimuli improve ERP-BCIs, and offer the user the possibility to switch the attended modality without losing performance. PMID:25249947

Bilateral brain reorganization with memantine and constraint-induced aphasia therapy in chronic post-stroke aphasia: An ERP study.

PubMed

Barbancho, Miguel A; Berthier, Marcelo L; Navas-Sánchez, Patricia; Dávila, Guadalupe; Green-Heredia, Cristina; García-Alberca, José M; Ruiz-Cruces, Rafael; López-González, Manuel V; Dawid-Milner, Marc S; Pulvermüller, Friedemann; Lara, J Pablo

2015-01-01

Changes in ERP (P100 and N400) and root mean square (RMS) were obtained during a silent reading task in 28 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of both memantine and constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT). Participants received memantine/placebo alone (weeks 0-16), followed by drug treatment combined with CIAT (weeks 16-18), and then memantine/placebo alone (weeks 18-20). ERP/RMS values (week 16) decreased more in the memantine group than in the placebo group. During CIAT application (weeks 16-18), improvements in aphasia severity and ERP/RMS values were amplified by memantine and changes remained stable thereafter (weeks 18-20). Changes in ERP/RMS occurred in left and right hemispheres and correlated with gains in language performance. No changes in ERP/RMS were found in a healthy group in two separated evaluations. Our results show that aphasia recovery induced by both memantine alone and in combination with CIAT is indexed by bilateral cortical potentials. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Event-related potentials indicate that fluency can be interpreted as familiarity.

PubMed

Bruett, Heather; Leynes, P Andrew

2015-11-01

Recent evidence suggests that fluency may be capable of supporting recognition independently of familiarity. This hypothesis was further tested in the present study. 29 participants encoded name-brand and off-brand products in an incidental task. Participants then judged whether the product was old or new during two tests with products from one category (i.e., only name-brand or only off-brand products) and a mixed test (where both name-brand and off-brand products were shown). The ERP data elicited by off-brand products varied as a function of test format. During the mixed test, off-brand products were correlated with a FN400 effect, whereas a fluency ERP (old ERPs were more negative than new at parietal electrodes 225-400ms) was observed during the other test. Importantly, no FN400 was detected during this test. The ERP results suggest that viewing the off-brand products during the mixed test produced a familiarity experience; however, fluency supported recognition when viewing off-brand products on the other test. The results are strong evidence that top-down processing of visual features during recognition interprets the information relative to the context. This process results in either fluency or, in other contexts, it is interpreted as familiarity as the Discrepancy-Attribution Hypothesis (Whittlesea and Williams, 2001a, 2001b) contends. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electrocortical Reactivity During Self-referential Processing in Female Youth With Borderline Personality Disorder.

PubMed

Auerbach, Randy P; Tarlow, Naomi; Bondy, Erin; Stewart, Jeremy G; Aguirre, Blaise; Kaplan, Cynthia; Yang, Wenhui; Pizzagalli, Diego A

2016-07-01

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is debilitating, and theoretical models have postulated that cognitive-affective biases contribute to the onset and maintenance of BPD symptoms. Despite advances, our understanding of BPD pathophysiology in youth is limited. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to identify cognitive-affective processes that underlie negative self-referential processing in BPD youth. Healthy females ( n = 33) and females with BPD ( n = 26) 13 to 22 years of age completed a self-referential encoding task while 128-channel electroencephalography data were recorded to examine early (i.e., P1 and P2) and late (late positive potential [LPP]) ERP components. Whole-brain standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography explored intracortical sources underlying significant scalp ERP effects. Compared to healthy females, participants with BPD endorsed, recalled, and recognized fewer positive and more negative words. Moreover, unlike the healthy group, females with BPD had faster reaction times to endorse negative versus positive words. In the scalp ERP analyses, the BPD group had greater P2 and late LPP positivity to negative as opposed to positive words. For P2 and late LPP, whole-brain standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography analyses suggested that females with BPD overrecruit frontolimbic circuitry in response to negative stimuli. Collectively, these findings show that females with BPD process negative self-relevant information differently than healthy females. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

Electrocortical Reactivity During Self-referential Processing in Female Youth With Borderline Personality Disorder

PubMed Central

Auerbach, Randy P.; Tarlow, Naomi; Bondy, Erin; Stewart, Jeremy G.; Aguirre, Blaise; Kaplan, Cynthia; Yang, Wenhui; Pizzagalli, Diego A.

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is debilitating, and theoretical models have postulated that cognitive-affective biases contribute to the onset and maintenance of BPD symptoms. Despite advances, our understanding of BPD pathophysiology in youth is limited. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to identify cognitive-affective processes that underlie negative self-referential processing in BPD youth. METHODS Healthy females (n = 33) and females with BPD (n = 26) 13 to 22 years of age completed a self-referential encoding task while 128-channel electroencephalography data were recorded to examine early (i.e., P1 and P2) and late (late positive potential [LPP]) ERP components. Whole-brain standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography explored intracortical sources underlying significant scalp ERP effects. RESULTS Compared to healthy females, participants with BPD endorsed, recalled, and recognized fewer positive and more negative words. Moreover, unlike the healthy group, females with BPD had faster reaction times to endorse negative versus positive words. In the scalp ERP analyses, the BPD group had greater P2 and late LPP positivity to negative as opposed to positive words. For P2 and late LPP, whole-brain standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography analyses suggested that females with BPD overrecruit frontolimbic circuitry in response to negative stimuli. CONCLUSIONS Collectively, these findings show that females with BPD process negative self-relevant information differently than healthy females. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed. PMID:28626812

Sandwich masking eliminates both visual awareness of faces and face-specific brain activity through a feedforward mechanism.

PubMed

Harris, Joseph A; Wu, Chien-Te; Woldorff, Marty G

2011-06-07

It is generally agreed that considerable amounts of low-level sensory processing of visual stimuli can occur without conscious awareness. On the other hand, the degree of higher level visual processing that occurs in the absence of awareness is as yet unclear. Here, event-related potential (ERP) measures of brain activity were recorded during a sandwich-masking paradigm, a commonly used approach for attenuating conscious awareness of visual stimulus content. In particular, the present study used a combination of ERP activation contrasts to track both early sensory-processing ERP components and face-specific N170 ERP activations, in trials with versus without awareness. The electrophysiological measures revealed that the sandwich masking abolished the early face-specific N170 neural response (peaking at ~170 ms post-stimulus), an effect that paralleled the abolition of awareness of face versus non-face image content. Furthermore, however, the masking appeared to render a strong attenuation of earlier feedforward visual sensory-processing signals. This early attenuation presumably resulted in insufficient information being fed into the higher level visual system pathways specific to object category processing, thus leading to unawareness of the visual object content. These results support a coupling of visual awareness and neural indices of face processing, while also demonstrating an early low-level mechanism of interference in sandwich masking.

Instructions to suppress semantic memory enhances or has no effect on P300 in a concealed information test (CIT).

PubMed

Rosenfeld, J Peter; Ward, Anne; Drapekin, Jesse; Labkovsky, Elena; Tullman, Samuel

2017-03-01

The present study investigated the extent to which people can suppress semantic memory as indexed with the P300 ERP and the autobiographical implicit association test (aIAT). In EXP 1, participants (22) were run in a counterbalanced repeated measures study in both simply knowledgeable (SK) and knowledgeable with suppression (SP) conditions. A P300-based, concealed information test ("Complex Trial Protocol"; CTP) with a 50/50 Target/Nontarget (T/NT) ratio was given both with and without instructions to suppress semantic memories. The results showed increased P300s to probe name stimuli, reduced (but still high positive) aIAT d-scores, and increased simple reaction times to all stimuli used in ERP tests in the SP condition. EXP 2 was similar, but with SP and SK in two separate groups, and a 20/80 T/NT ratio. Again, ERP and aIAT results failed to show a suppression effect for semantic memory. The behavioral data suggest some task demand effects under suppression instructions, and that EXP 1 was more demanding than EXP 2. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neurofeedback training for peak performance.

PubMed

Graczyk, Marek; Pąchalska, Maria; Ziółkowski, Artur; Mańko, Grzegorz; Łukaszewska, Beata; Kochanowicz, Kazimierz; Mirski, Andrzej; Kropotov, Iurii D

2014-01-01

One of the applications of the Neurofeedback methodology is peak performance in sport. The protocols of the neurofeedback are usually based on an assessment of the spectral parameters of spontaneous EEG in resting state conditions. The aim of the paper was to study whether the intensive neurofeedback training of a well-functioning Olympic athlete who has lost his performance confidence after injury in sport, could change the brain functioning reflected in changes in spontaneous EEG and event related potentials (ERPs). The case is presented of an Olympic athlete who has lost his performance confidence after injury in sport. He wanted to resume his activities by means of neurofeedback training. His QEEG/ERP parameters were assessed before and after 4 intensive sessions of neurotherapy. Dramatic and statistically significant changes that could not be explained by error measurement were observed in the patient. Neurofeedback training in the subject under study increased the amplitude of the monitoring component of ERPs generated in the anterior cingulate cortex, accompanied by an increase in beta activity over the medial prefrontal cortex. Taking these changes together, it can be concluded that that even a few sessions of neurofeedback in a high performance brain can significantly activate the prefrontal cortical areas associated with increasing confidence in sport performance.

Natural stimuli improve auditory BCIs with respect to ergonomics and performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Höhne, Johannes; Krenzlin, Konrad; Dähne, Sven; Tangermann, Michael

2012-08-01

Moving from well-controlled, brisk artificial stimuli to natural and less-controlled stimuli seems counter-intuitive for event-related potential (ERP) studies. As natural stimuli typically contain a richer internal structure, they might introduce higher levels of variance and jitter in the ERP responses. Both characteristics are unfavorable for a good single-trial classification of ERPs in the context of a multi-class brain-computer interface (BCI) system, where the class-discriminant information between target stimuli and non-target stimuli must be maximized. For the application in an auditory BCI system, however, the transition from simple artificial tones to natural syllables can be useful despite the variance introduced. In the presented study, healthy users (N = 9) participated in an offline auditory nine-class BCI experiment with artificial and natural stimuli. It is shown that the use of syllables as natural stimuli does not only improve the users’ ergonomic ratings; also the classification performance is increased. Moreover, natural stimuli obtain a better balance in multi-class decisions, such that the number of systematic confusions between the nine classes is reduced. Hopefully, our findings may contribute to make auditory BCI paradigms more user friendly and applicable for patients.

Event-related potentials reveal linguistic suppression effect but not enhancement effect on categorical perception of color.

PubMed

Lu, Aitao; Yang, Ling; Yu, Yanping; Zhang, Meichao; Shao, Yulan; Zhang, Honghong

2014-08-01

The present study used the event-related potential technique to investigate the nature of linguistic effect on color perception. Four types of stimuli based on hue differences between a target color and a preceding color were used: zero hue step within-category color (0-WC); one hue step within-category color (1-WC); one hue step between-category color (1-BC); and two hue step between-category color (2-BC). The ERP results showed no significant effect of stimulus type in the 100-200 ms time window. However, in the 200-350 ms time window, ERP responses to 1-WC target color overlapped with that to 0-WC target color for right visual field (RVF) but not left visual field (LVF) presentation. For the 1-BC condition, ERP amplitudes were comparable in the two visual fields, both being significantly different from the 0-WC condition. The 2-BC condition showed the same pattern as the 1-BC condition. These results suggest that the categorical perception of color in RVF is due to linguistic suppression on within-category color discrimination but not between-category color enhancement, and that the effect is independent of early perceptual processes. © 2014 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

How the Emotional Content of Discourse Affects Language Comprehension

PubMed Central

Jiménez-Ortega, Laura; Martín-Loeches, Manuel; Casado, Pilar; Sel, Alejandra; Fondevila, Sabela; de Tejada, Pilar Herreros; Schacht, Annekathrin; Sommer, Werner

2012-01-01

Emotion effects on cognition have often been reported. However, only few studies investigated emotional effects on subsequent language processing, and in most cases these effects were induced by non-linguistic stimuli such as films, faces, or pictures. Here, we investigated how a paragraph of positive, negative, or neutral emotional valence affects the processing of a subsequent emotionally neutral sentence, which contained either semantic, syntactic, or no violation, respectively, by means of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Behavioral data revealed strong effects of emotion; error rates and reaction times increased significantly in sentences preceded by a positive paragraph relative to negative and neutral ones. In ERPs, the N400 to semantic violations was not affected by emotion. In the syntactic experiment, however, clear emotion effects were observed on ERPs. The left anterior negativity (LAN) to syntactic violations, which was not visible in the neutral condition, was present in the negative and positive conditions. This is interpreted as reflecting modulatory effects of prior emotions on syntactic processing, which is discussed in the light of three alternative or complementary explanations based on emotion-induced cognitive styles, working memory, and arousal models. The present effects of emotion on the LAN are especially remarkable considering that syntactic processing has often been regarded as encapsulated and autonomous. PMID:22479432

The effect of monitor raster latency on VEPs, ERPs and Brain-Computer Interface performance.

PubMed

Nagel, Sebastian; Dreher, Werner; Rosenstiel, Wolfgang; Spüler, Martin

2018-02-01

Visual neuroscience experiments and Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) control often require strict timings in a millisecond scale. As most experiments are performed using a personal computer (PC), the latencies that are introduced by the setup should be taken into account and be corrected. As a standard computer monitor uses a rastering to update each line of the image sequentially, this causes a monitor raster latency which depends on the position, on the monitor and the refresh rate. We technically measured the raster latencies of different monitors and present the effects on visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and event-related potentials (ERPs). Additionally we present a method for correcting the monitor raster latency and analyzed the performance difference of a code-modulated VEP BCI speller by correcting the latency. There are currently no other methods validating the effects of monitor raster latency on VEPs and ERPs. The timings of VEPs and ERPs are directly affected by the raster latency. Furthermore, correcting the raster latency resulted in a significant reduction of the target prediction error from 7.98% to 4.61% and also in a more reliable classification of targets by significantly increasing the distance between the most probable and the second most probable target by 18.23%. The monitor raster latency affects the timings of VEPs and ERPs, and correcting resulted in a significant error reduction of 42.23%. It is recommend to correct the raster latency for an increased BCI performance and methodical correctness. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Patient satisfaction with the use of an enhanced recovery programme for primary arthroplasty

PubMed Central

Phillips, S; Parker, M; Carrannante, J; Hearth, MW

2013-01-01

Introduction Enhanced recovery programmes (ERPs) are increasingly being used for arthroplasty. One of the core aims of an ERP is to improve the quality of patient experience. However, there is currently no published evaluation of patient satisfaction in relation to this new programme of care within orthopaedic surgery. The aim of this study was to compare the ERP against the standard care programme (SCP) at one centre. Methods A satisfaction survey addressing patient opinions on the key objectives of the ERP was conducted by telephone, using a set script. Of the 226 patients contacted, 143 (63.3%) responded (69 from the ERP and 74 from the SCP). Of the respondents, 71 received a total hip arthroplasty and 72 a total knee arthroplasty. Patients were contacted at a mean time from operation to survey of 27.2 weeks. They were asked to rate satisfaction on a five-point scale and complete the EQ-5D™ health questionnaire (EuroQol, Rotterdam, Netherlands) to measure healthcare outcomes. Results The mean patient satisfaction score of 4.07 for speed of recovery in the ERP group was significantly higher than the SCP group’s score of 3.68 (p=0.037). Adjusting for the preoperative health score, the postoperative health score was higher for ERP patients at 74.1 compared with 64.7 for SCP patients (p=0.0029). Furthermore, the percentage of patients who had a better than expected recovery was significantly greater in the ERP group at 85.5% compared with 58.1% (p=0.0004) in the SCP group. Conclusions We believe that the previously established reduction in length of hospital stay delivered by ERPs is not achieved at the expense of the patient’s experience. PMID:24165340

Patient satisfaction with the use of an enhanced recovery programme for primary arthroplasty.

PubMed

Machin, J T; Phillips, S; Parker, M; Carrannante, J; Hearth, M W

2013-11-01

Enhanced recovery programmes (ErPs) are increasingly being used for arthroplasty. One of the core aims of an ErP is to improve the quality of patient experience. However, there is currently no published evaluation of patient satisfaction in relation to this new programme of care within orthopaedic surgery. The aim of this study was to compare the ErP against the standard care programme (SCP) at one centre. A satisfaction survey addressing patient opinions on the key objectives of the ErP was conducted by telephone, using a set script. Of the 226 patients contacted, 143 (63.3%) responded (69 from the ErP and 74 from the SCP). Of the respondents, 71 received a total hip arthroplasty and 72 a total knee arthroplasty. Patients were contacted at a mean time from operation to survey of 27.2 weeks. They were asked to rate satisfaction on a five-point scale and complete the EQ-5D™ health questionnaire (EuroQol, rotterdam, Netherlands) to measure healthcare outcomes. The mean patient satisfaction score of 4.07 for speed of recovery in the ErP group was significantly higher than the SCP group's score of 3.68 (p=0.037). Adjusting for the preoperative health score, the postoperative health score was higher for ErP patients at 74.1 compared with 64.7 for SCP patients (p=0.0029). Furthermore, the percentage of patients who had a better than expected recovery was significantly greater in the ErP group at 85.5% compared with 58.1% (p=0.0004) in the SCP group. We believe that the previously established reduction in length of hospital stay delivered by ErPs is not achieved at the expense of the patient's experience.

Implementation of enterprise resource planning systems: a user perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reitsma, E.; Hilletofth, P.; Mukhtar, U.

2018-04-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from a user perspective. Users play a vital role when implementing an ERP system, but their perspective has been neglected in the literature. A better understanding of their perspective promises to contribute to the design of more effective ERP systems, its implementation, and management. In order to identify the user perspective, a survey was conducted within three Pakistani companies that recently have implemented a new ERP system. The questionnaire was developed based on thirteen CSFs deduced from literature. Based on each CSF’s level of importance, they are ranked in order of importance and divided into three groups: most important, important and not important. Findings reveal that users believe that management should prioritize the following four CSFs when implementing an ERP system: education and training, strategic decision-making, communication, and business process alignment.

Comprehending how visual context influences incremental sentence processing: insights from ERPs and picture-sentence verification

PubMed Central

Knoeferle, Pia; Urbach, Thomas P.; Kutas, Marta

2010-01-01

To re-establish picture-sentence verification – discredited possibly for its over-reliance on post-sentence response time (RT) measures - as a task for situated comprehension, we collected event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as participants read a subject-verb-object sentence, and RTs indicating whether or not the verb matched a previously depicted action. For mismatches (vs matches), speeded RTs were longer, verb N400s over centro-parietal scalp larger, and ERPs to the object noun more negative. RTs (congruence effect) correlated inversely with the centro-parietal verb N400s, and positively with the object ERP congruence effects. Verb N400s, object ERPs, and verbal working memory scores predicted more variance in RT effects (50%) than N400s alone. Thus, (1) verification processing is not all post-sentence; (2) simple priming cannot account for these results; and (3) verification tasks can inform studies of situated comprehension. PMID:20701712

Affective picture processing: An integrative review of ERP findings

PubMed Central

Olofsson, Jonas K.; Nordin, Steven; Sequeira, Henrique; Polich, John

2008-01-01

The review summarizes and integrates findings from 40 years of event-related potential (ERP) studies using pictures that differ in valence (unpleasant-to-pleasant) and arousal (low-to-high) and that are used to elicit emotional processing. Affective stimulus factors primarily modulate ERP component amplitude, with little change in peak latency observed. Arousal effects are consistently obtained, and generally occur at longer latencies. Valence effects are inconsistently reported at several latency ranges, including very early components. Some affective ERP modulations vary with recording methodology, stimulus factors, as well as task-relevance and emotional state. Affective ERPs have been linked theoretically to attention orientation for unpleasant pictures at earlier components (< 300 ms). Enhanced stimulus processing has been associated with memory encoding for arousing pictures of assumed intrinsic motivational relevance, with task-induced differences contributing to emotional reactivity at later components (> 300 ms). Theoretical issues, stimulus factors, task demands, and individual differences are discussed. PMID:18164800

Electrophysiological quantification of underlying mechanism of decision making from auto dealers advertisement - A neuromarketing research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samsuri, Norlyiana; Reza, Faruque; Begum, Tahamina; Yusoff, Nasir; Idris, Badrisyah; Omar, Hazim; Isa, Salmi Mohd

2016-10-01

This study focused on which display design of advertisement that would be able to attract most attention by measuring cognitive response and gaze behavior. Total of 15 subjects were recruited from USM undergraduate medical students. The event related potential (ERP) as a cognitive response during viewing different display design were recorded from 17 electrode sites using 128 electrode sensors net which was applied on the subject's scalp according to the 10-20 international electrode placement system. The amplitude of the evoked N100 and P300 ERP components were identified. To determine the statistical significance, amplitude data were analyzed using one way ANOVA test and reaction time was analyzed using Independent t-test. Two out of the 15 subjects participated in the ERP recording in order to measure the fixation duration, pupil size and attention maps of eye movement as a gaze behavioral response to the different display design using Eye Tracking. The ERP and the gaze behavior results were consistent. Higher amplitudes of the N100 and the P300 ERP components during the RLG view proved that participants had larger visual selective attention and visual cognitive processing during visual presentation of the RLG view. Visual interpretation of the attention map together with the fixation duration and the pupil size of gaze behavior data from two case studies revealed that the RLG view attracted more attention than its counterpart. In regards to color as a confounder, gaze performance data from two cases opened an interesting finding is that both subjects showed common interest in red color during both the LLG and the RLG view, indicating color may play a different role in the display design. The finding of this research has important information for the marketers to design their advertisement making it cost-effective and limited space advertising. And on that case, RLG view is the most prioritize display design.

Introducing an enhanced recovery programme to an established totally intracorporeal robot-assisted radical cystectomy service.

PubMed

Collins, Justin W; Adding, Christofer; Hosseini, Abolfazl; Nyberg, Tommy; Pini, Giovannalberto; Dey, Linda; Wiklund, Peter N

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of introducing an enhanced recovery programme (ERP) to an established robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) service. Data were prospectively collected on 221 consecutive patients undergoing totally intracorporeal RARC between December 2003 and May 2014. The ERP was specifically designed to support an evolving RARC service, where increasing proportions of patients requiring radical cystectomy underwent RARC. Patient demographics and outcomes before and after implementation of the ERP were compared. The primary endpoint was length of stay (LOS). Secondary outcomes included age, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, preoperative staging, operative time, complications and readmissions. Differences in outcomes between patients before and after implementation of ERP were tested with the Jonckheere-Terpstra trend test and quantile regression with backward selection. Following implementation of the ERP, the demographics of the patients (n = 135) changed, with median age increasing from 66 to 70 years (p < 0.01), higher ASA grade (p < 0.001), higher preoperative stage cancer (pT ≥ 2, p < 0.05) and increased likelihood of undergoing an ileal conduit diversion (p < 0.001). Median LOS before ERP was 9 days [interquartile range (IQR) 8-13 days] and after ERP was 8 days (IQR 6-10 days) (p < 0.001). ASA grade and neoadjuvant chemotherapy also affected LOS (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively). There was no significant difference in 30 day complication rates, readmission rates or 90 day mortality, with 59% experiencing complications before ERP implementation and 57% after implementation. The majority of complications were low grade. Patient demographics changed as the RARC service evolved from selected patients to a general service. Despite worsening demographics, LOS decreased following ERP implementation. This evidence-based ERP safely standardized perioperative care, resulting in decreased LOS and decreased variability in LOS.

Motivational processes from expectancy-value theory are associated with variability in the error positivity in young children

PubMed Central

Kim, Matthew H.; Marulis, Loren M.; Grammer, Jennie K.; Morrison, Frederick J.; Gehring, William J.

2016-01-01

Motivational beliefs and values influence how children approach challenging activities. The present study explores motivational processes from an expectancy-value theory framework by studying children's mistakes and their responses to them by focusing on two ERP components, the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe). Motivation was assessed using a child-friendly challenge puzzle task and a brief interview measure prior to ERP testing. Data from 50 four- to six-year-old children revealed that greater perceived competence beliefs were related to a larger Pe, while stronger intrinsic task value beliefs were associated with a smaller Pe. Motivation was unrelated to the ERN. Individual differences in early motivational processes may reflect electrophysiological activity related to conscious error awareness. PMID:27898304

Behavioral and brain pattern differences between acting and observing in an auditory task

PubMed Central

Karanasiou, Irene S; Papageorgiou, Charalabos; Tsianaka, Eleni I; Matsopoulos, George K; Ventouras, Errikos M; Uzunoglu, Nikolaos K

2009-01-01

Background Recent research has shown that errors seem to influence the patterns of brain activity. Additionally current notions support the idea that similar brain mechanisms are activated during acting and observing. The aim of the present study was to examine the patterns of brain activity of actors and observers elicited upon receiving feedback information of the actor's response. Methods The task used in the present research was an auditory identification task that included both acting and observing settings, ensuring concurrent ERP measurements of both participants. The performance of the participants was investigated in conditions of varying complexity. ERP data were analyzed with regards to the conditions of acting and observing in conjunction to correct and erroneous responses. Results The obtained results showed that the complexity induced by cue dissimilarity between trials was a demodulating factor leading to poorer performance. The electrophysiological results suggest that feedback information results in different intensities of the ERP patterns of observers and actors depending on whether the actor had made an error or not. The LORETA source localization method yielded significantly larger electrical activity in the supplementary motor area (Brodmann area 6), the posterior cingulate gyrus (Brodmann area 31/23) and the parietal lobe (Precuneus/Brodmann area 7/5). Conclusion These findings suggest that feedback information has a different effect on the intensities of the ERP patterns of actors and observers depending on whether the actor committed an error. Certain neural systems, including medial frontal area, posterior cingulate gyrus and precuneus may mediate these modulating effects. Further research is needed to elucidate in more detail the neuroanatomical and neuropsychological substrates of these systems. PMID:19154586

Eye movement related brain responses to emotional scenes during free viewing

PubMed Central

Simola, Jaana; Torniainen, Jari; Moisala, Mona; Kivikangas, Markus; Krause, Christina M.

2013-01-01

Emotional stimuli are preferentially processed over neutral stimuli. Previous studies, however, disagree on whether emotional stimuli capture attention preattentively or whether the processing advantage is dependent on allocation of attention. The present study investigated attention and emotion processes by measuring brain responses related to eye movement events while 11 participants viewed images selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Brain responses to emotional stimuli were compared between serial and parallel presentation. An “emotional” set included one image with high positive or negative valence among neutral images. A “neutral” set comprised four neutral images. The participants were asked to indicate which picture—if any—was emotional and to rate that picture on valence and arousal. In the serial condition, the event-related potentials (ERPs) were time-locked to the stimulus onset. In the parallel condition, the ERPs were time-locked to the first eye entry on an image. The eye movement results showed facilitated processing of emotional, especially unpleasant information. The EEG results in both presentation conditions showed that the LPP (“late positive potential”) amplitudes at 400–500 ms were enlarged for the unpleasant and pleasant pictures as compared to neutral pictures. Moreover, the unpleasant scenes elicited stronger responses than pleasant scenes. The ERP results did not support parafoveal emotional processing, although the eye movement results suggested faster attention capture by emotional stimuli. Our findings, thus, suggested that emotional processing depends on overt attentional resources engaged in the processing of emotional content. The results also indicate that brain responses to emotional images can be analyzed time-locked to eye movement events, although the response amplitudes were larger during serial presentation. PMID:23970856

Hypnotically facilitated exposure response prevention therapy for an OIF veteran with OCD.

PubMed

Proescher, Eric J

2010-07-01

The highly stressful conditions of a war zone may exacerbate or trigger a wide variety of symptoms including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) once a service member returns home. Service members and new veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars present to treatment with multiple psychosocial concerns and co-morbid psychiatric conditions. Evidence-based treatments including exposure based therapies are commonly recommended for use with returning veterans. Although studies support the efficacy of Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) therapy for treating OCD, eligibility for these studies limits participation to subjects who self-report a well-defined, circumscribed complaint. This approach is not typical of clinic clients who, more often than not, report multiple psychological issues. The following individual case study demonstrates how integrating hypnosis facilitated the cognitive-behavioral ERP therapy and treatment for a patient suffering from OCD.

Dynamics of task sets: evidence from dense-array event-related potentials.

PubMed

Poulsen, Catherine; Luu, Phan; Davey, Colin; Tucker, Don M

2005-06-01

Prior research suggests that task sets facilitate coherent, goal-directed behavior by providing an internal, contextual frame that biases selection toward context-relevant stimulus attributes and responses. Questions about how task sets are engaged, maintained, and shifted have recently become a major focus of research on executive control processes. We employed dense-array (128-channel) event-related potential (ERP) methodology to examine the dynamics of brain systems engaged during the preparation and implementation of task switching. The EEG was recorded while participants performed letter and digit judgments to pseudorandomly-ordered, univalent (#3, A%) and bivalent (G5) stimulus trials, with the appropriate task cued by a colored rectangle presented 450 ms before target onset. Results revealed spatial and temporal variations in brain activity that could be related to preparatory processes common to both switch and repeat trials, switch-specific control processes engaged to reconfigure and maintain task set under conflict, and visual priming benefits of task repetition. Despite extensive practice and improvement, both behavioral and ERP results indicated that subjects maintained high levels of executive control processing with extended task engagement. The patterns of ERP activity obtained in the present study fit well with functional neuroanatomical models of self-regulation of action. The frontopolar and right-lateralized frontal switch effects obtained in the present study are consistent with the role of these regions in adapting to changing contextual contingencies. In contrast, the centroparietal P3b and N384 effects related to the contextual ambiguity of bivalent trials are consistent with the context monitoring and updating functions associated with the posterior cingulate learning circuit.

Episodic acidification of small streams in the northeastern united states: episodic response project

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wigington, P.J.; Baker, J.P.; DeWalle, David R.; Kretser, W.A.; Murdoch, Peter S.; Simonin, H.A.; Van Sickle, J.; Mcdowell, M.K.; Peck, D.V.; Barchet, W.R.

1996-01-01

The Episodic Response Project (ERP) was an interdisciplinary study designed to address uncertainties about the occurrence, nature, and biological effects of episodic acidification of streams in the northeastern United States. The ERP research consisted of intensive studies of the chemistry and biological effects of episodes in 13 streams draining forested watersheds in the three study regions: the Northern Appalachian region of Pennsylvania and the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains of New York. Wet deposition was measured in each of the three study regions. Using automated instruments and samplers, discharge and chemistry of each stream was monitored intensively from fall 1988 through spring 1990. Biological studies focused on brook trout and native forage fish. Experimental approaches included in situ bioassays, radio transmitter studies of fish movement, and fish population studies. This paper provides an overview of the ERP, describes the methodology used in hydrologic and water chemistry components of the study, and summarizes the characteristics of the study sites, including the climatic and deposition conditions during the ERP and the general chemical characteristics of the study streams.

The Complex Pre-Execution Stage of Auditory Cognitive Control: ERPs Evidence from Stroop Tasks

PubMed Central

Yu, Bo; Wang, Xunda; Ma, Lin; Li, Liang; Li, Haifeng

2015-01-01

Cognitive control has been extensively studied from Event-Related Potential (ERP) point of view in visual modality using Stroop paradigms. Little work has been done in auditory Stroop paradigms, and inconsistent conclusions have been reported, especially on the conflict detection stage of cognitive control. This study investigated the early ERP components in an auditory Stroop paradigm, during which participants were asked to identify the volume of spoken words and ignore the word meanings. A series of significant ERP components were revealed that distinguished incongruent and congruent trials: two declined negative polarity waves (the N1 and the N2) and three declined positive polarity wave (the P1, the P2 and the P3) over the fronto-central area for the incongruent trials. These early ERP components imply that both a perceptual stage and an identification stage exist in the auditory Stroop effect. A 3-stage cognitive control model was thus proposed for a more detailed description of the human cognitive control mechanism in the auditory Stroop tasks. PMID:26368570

A Regulatory Circuit Composed of a Transcription Factor, IscR, and a Regulatory RNA, RyhB, Controls Fe-S Cluster Delivery.

PubMed

Mandin, Pierre; Chareyre, Sylvia; Barras, Frédéric

2016-09-20

Fe-S clusters are cofactors conserved through all domains of life. Once assembled by dedicated ISC and/or SUF scaffolds, Fe-S clusters are conveyed to their apo-targets via A-type carrier proteins (ATCs). Escherichia coli possesses four such ATCs. ErpA is the only ATC essential under aerobiosis. Recent studies reported a possible regulation of the erpA mRNA by the small RNA (sRNA) RyhB, which controls the expression of many genes under iron starvation. Surprisingly, erpA has not been identified in recent transcriptomic analysis of the iron starvation response, thus bringing into question the actual physiological significance of the putative regulation of erpA by RyhB. Using an sRNA library, we show that among 26 sRNAs, only RyhB represses the expression of an erpA-lacZ translational fusion. We further demonstrate that this repression occurs during iron starvation. Using mutational analysis, we show that RyhB base pairs to the erpA mRNA, inducing its disappearance. In addition, IscR, the master regulator of Fe-S homeostasis, represses expression of erpA at the transcriptional level when iron is abundant, but depleting iron from the medium alleviates this repression. The conjunction of transcriptional derepression by IscR and posttranscriptional repression by RyhB under Fe-limiting conditions is best described as an incoherent regulatory circuit. This double regulation allows full expression of erpA at iron concentrations for which Fe-S biogenesis switches from the ISC to the SUF system. We further provide evidence that this regulatory circuit coordinates ATC usage to iron availability. Regulatory small RNAs (sRNAs) have emerged as major actors in the control of gene expression in the last few decades. Relatively little is known about how these regulators interact with classical transcription factors to coordinate genetic responses. We show here how an sRNA, RyhB, and a transcription factor, IscR, regulate expression of an essential gene, erpA, in the bacterium E. coli ErpA is involved in the biogenesis of Fe-S clusters, an important class of cofactors involved in a plethora of cellular reactions. Interestingly, we show that RyhB and IscR repress expression of erpA under opposite conditions in regard to iron concentration, forming a regulatory circuit called an "incoherent network." This incoherent network serves to maximize expression of erpA at iron concentrations where it is most needed. Altogether, our study paves the way for a better understanding of mixed regulatory networks composed of RNAs and transcription factors. Copyright © 2016 Mandin et al.

Enhanced recovery program (ERP) in major laryngeal surgery: building a protocol and testing its feasibility.

PubMed

Gemma, M; Toma, S; Lira Luce, F; Beretta, L; Braga, M; Bussi, M

2017-12-01

Enhanced recovery programs (ERP) represent a multimodal approach to perioperative patient care. The benefits of ERP are well demonstrated in colorectal surgery and Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS®) programs, that epitomise the ERP concept, have being introduced in different specialties, including vascular, gastric, pancreatic, urogynecologic and orthopaedic surgery. However, no ERP has been proposed for head and neck surgery. We developed an expert-opinion-based ERP for laryngeal surgery based on the key principles of colorectal surgery ERAS®. Twenty-four patients undergoing major laryngeal surgery (total and partial laryngectomies or surgical removal of oropharyngeal tumour with muscle flap reconstruction) were treated according to such an ERP protocol, which differed under several respects from our previous standard practice (described in 70 consecutive patients who underwent major laryngeal surgery before ERP implementation. The adherence rate to the different ERP items is reported. Adherence to ERP items was high. Nutritional assessment, antibiotic prophylaxis, postoperative nausea and vomit (PONV) prophylaxis and postoperative speech therapy targets were applied as required in 100% of cases. Some ERP items (antibiotic prophylaxis, intraoperative infusion rate, and postoperative speech therapy) were already frequently implemented before ERP adoption. Postoperative medical complications occurred in 8.3% of patients. Our expert opinion-based ERP protocol for major laryngeal surgery proved feasible. The degree of benefit deriving from its implementation has yet to be assessed. © Copyright by Società Italiana di Otorinolaringologia e Chirurgia Cervico-Facciale, Rome, Italy.

Unconscious Processing of Facial Expressions in Individuals with Internet Gaming Disorder.

PubMed

Peng, Xiaozhe; Cui, Fang; Wang, Ting; Jiao, Can

2017-01-01

Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) is characterized by impairments in social communication and the avoidance of social contact. Facial expression processing is the basis of social communication. However, few studies have investigated how individuals with IGD process facial expressions, and whether they have deficits in emotional facial processing remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to explore these two issues by investigating the time course of emotional facial processing in individuals with IGD. A backward masking task was used to investigate the differences between individuals with IGD and normal controls (NC) in the processing of subliminally presented facial expressions (sad, happy, and neutral) with event-related potentials (ERPs). The behavioral results showed that individuals with IGD are slower than NC in response to both sad and neutral expressions in the sad-neutral context. The ERP results showed that individuals with IGD exhibit decreased amplitudes in ERP component N170 (an index of early face processing) in response to neutral expressions compared to happy expressions in the happy-neutral expressions context, which might be due to their expectancies for positive emotional content. The NC, on the other hand, exhibited comparable N170 amplitudes in response to both happy and neutral expressions in the happy-neutral expressions context, as well as sad and neutral expressions in the sad-neutral expressions context. Both individuals with IGD and NC showed comparable ERP amplitudes during the processing of sad expressions and neutral expressions. The present study revealed that individuals with IGD have different unconscious neutral facial processing patterns compared with normal individuals and suggested that individuals with IGD may expect more positive emotion in the happy-neutral expressions context. • The present study investigated whether the unconscious processing of facial expressions is influenced by excessive online gaming. A validated backward masking paradigm was used to investigate whether individuals with Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and normal controls (NC) exhibit different patterns in facial expression processing.• The results demonstrated that individuals with IGD respond differently to facial expressions compared with NC on a preattentive level. Behaviorally, individuals with IGD are slower than NC in response to both sad and neutral expressions in the sad-neutral context. The ERP results further showed (1) decreased amplitudes in the N170 component (an index of early face processing) in individuals with IGD when they process neutral expressions compared with happy expressions in the happy-neutral expressions context, whereas the NC exhibited comparable N170 amplitudes in response to these two expressions; (2) both the IGD and NC group demonstrated similar N170 amplitudes in response to sad and neutral faces in the sad-neutral expressions context.• The decreased amplitudes of N170 to neutral faces than happy faces in individuals with IGD might due to their less expectancies for neutral content in the happy-neutral expressions context, while individuals with IGD may have no different expectancies for neutral and sad faces in the sad-neutral expressions context.

Event-Related Potentials: Search for Positive and Negative Child-Related Schemata in Individuals at Low and High Risk for Child Physical Abuse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milner, Joel S.; Rabenhorst, Mandy M.; McCanne, Thomas R.; Crouch, Julie L.; Skowronski, John J.; Fleming, Matthew T.; Hiraoka, Regina; Risser, Heather J.

2011-01-01

Objective: The present investigation used event-related potentials (ERPs, N400 and N300) to determine the extent to which individuals at low and high risk for child physical abuse (CPA) have pre-existing positive and negative child-related schemata that can be automatically activated by ambiguous child stimuli. Methods: ERP data were obtained from…

Font Effects of Chinese Characters and Pseudo-Characters on the N400: Evidence for an Orthographic Processing View

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lv, Caixia; Wang, Quanhong

2012-01-01

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a Chinese character decision task to examine whether N400 amplitude is modulated by stimulus font. Results revealed large negative-going ERPs in an N400 time window of 300-500 ms to stimuli presented in degraded Xing Kai Ti (XKT) font compared with more intact Song Ti (ST) font regardless…

Spatiotemporal patterns of ERP based on combined ICA-LORETA analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jiacai; Guo, Taomei; Xu, Yaqin; Zhao, Xiaojie; Yao, Li

2007-03-01

In contrast to the FMRI methods widely used up to now, this method try to understand more profoundly how the brain systems work under sentence processing task map accurately the spatiotemporal patterns of activity of the large neuronal populations in the human brain from the analysis of ERP data recorded on the brain scalp. In this study, an event-related brain potential (ERP) paradigm to record the on-line responses to the processing of sentences is chosen as an example. In order to give attention to both utilizing the ERPs' temporal resolution of milliseconds and overcoming the insensibility of cerebral location ERP sources, we separate these sources in space and time based on a combined method of independent component analysis (ICA) and low-resolution tomography (LORETA) algorithms. ICA blindly separate the input ERP data into a sum of temporally independent and spatially fixed components arising from distinct or overlapping brain or extra-brain sources. And then the spatial maps associated with each ICA component are analyzed, with use of LORETA to uniquely locate its cerebral sources throughout the full brain according to the assumption that neighboring neurons are simultaneously and synchronously activated. Our results show that the cerebral computation mechanism underlies content words reading is mediated by the orchestrated activity of several spatially distributed brain sources located in the temporal, frontal, and parietal areas, and activate at distinct time intervals and are grouped into different statistically independent components. Thus ICA-LORETA analysis provides an encouraging and effective method to study brain dynamics from ERP.

Mind wandering and retrieval from episodic memory: a pilot event-related potential study.

PubMed

Riby, Leigh Martin; Smallwood, Jonathan; Gunn, Valerie P

2008-06-01

The present study investigated the effects of mind wandering (task-unrelated thought) on the subcomponents of episodic memory as reflected by event-related potentials (ERPs). Specifically, individual differences in the pattern of ERP episodic 'old/new' effects (left-parietal, right-frontal and central-negativity effects) were examined across groups of participants experiencing either high or low frequencies of task-unrelated thought during encoding. Twenty participants studied lists of words and line drawings in one of two contexts (red versus green coloured boxes). At test, participants discriminated between target (old words or line drawings presented in one colour) and nontargets (old items from the other colour and new items). On completion of the memory task, participants completed the 'thinking' component of the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire to provide a retrospective measure of task-unrelated thought. Behavioural data indicated that irrespective of the presence of task-unrelated thought, participants were able to complete the memory task equally well. However, an analysis of ERPs across High and Low task-unrelated thought groups revealed differences in retrieval strategy. Those individuals with infrequent episodes of task-unrelated thought at study used a 'pure' recollection strategy (left-parietal effect only). Conversely, those participants experiencing frequent episodes of task-unrelated thought were unable to recollect the stimuli with ease, as indexed by a diminished parietal effect. As a consequence, these participants employed additional strategic processes for task completion, as indexed by an elevated amplitude of central negativity effects. These data are consistent with the decoupling hypothesis of mind wandering which suggests impaired recollection when attention becomes directed away from the task.

An ERP study on hostile attribution bias in aggressive and nonaggressive individuals.

PubMed

Gagnon, Jean; Aubin, Mercédès; Emond, Fannie Carrier; Derguy, Sophie; Brochu, Alex Fernet; Bessette, Monique; Jolicoeur, Pierre

2017-05-01

Hostile attribution bias (e.g., tendency to interpret the intention of others as hostile in ambiguous social contexts) has been associated with impulsive aggression in adults, but the results are mixed and the complete sequence of hostile inferential processes leading to aggression has not been investigated yet. The goal of this event-related brain potentials (ERPs) study was to track the neural activity associated with the violation of expectations about hostile versus nonhostile intentions in aggressive and nonaggressive individuals and examine how this neural activity relates to self-reported hostile attributional bias and impulsive aggression in real life. To this end, scenarios with a hostile versus nonhostile social context followed by a character's ambiguous aversive behavior were presented to readers, and ERPs to critical words that specified the hostile versus nonhostile intent behind the behavior were analysed. Thirty-seven aggressive and fifty nonaggressive individuals participated in the study. The presentation of a critical word that violated hostile expectation caused an N400 response that was significantly larger in aggressive than nonaggressive individuals. Results also showed an enhanced late positive potential-like component in aggressive individuals when hostile intention scenarios took place in a nonhostile context, which is associated with impulsive aggression in real life even after having controlled for the effect of self-reported hostile attributional bias. The Hostile Expectancy Violation paradigm evaluated in this study represents a promising tool to investigate the relationship between the online processing of hostile intent in others and impulsive aggression. Aggr. Behav. 43:217-229, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

ERP manifestations of processing printed words at different psycholinguistic levels: time course and scalp distribution.

PubMed

Bentin, S; Mouchetant-Rostaing, Y; Giard, M H; Echallier, J F; Pernier, J

1999-05-01

The aim of the present study was to examine the time course and scalp distribution of electrophysiological manifestations of the visual word recognition mechanism. Event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by visually presented lists of words were recorded while subjects were involved in a series of oddball tasks. The distinction between the designated target and nontarget stimuli was manipulated to induce a different level of processing in each session (visual, phonological/phonetic, phonological/lexical, and semantic). The ERPs of main interest in this study were those elicited by nontarget stimuli. In the visual task the targets were twice as big as the nontargets. Words, pseudowords, strings of consonants, strings of alphanumeric symbols, and strings of forms elicited a sharp negative peak at 170 msec (N170); their distribution was limited to the occipito-temporal sites. For the left hemisphere electrode sites, the N170 was larger for orthographic than for nonorthographic stimuli and vice versa for the right hemisphere. The ERPs elicited by all orthographic stimuli formed a clearly distinct cluster that was different from the ERPs elicited by nonorthographic stimuli. In the phonological/phonetic decision task the targets were words and pseudowords rhyming with the French word vitrail, whereas the nontargets were words, pseudowords, and strings of consonants that did not rhyme with vitrail. The most conspicuous potential was a negative peak at 320 msec, which was similarly elicited by pronounceable stimuli but not by nonpronounceable stimuli. The N320 was bilaterally distributed over the middle temporal lobe and was significantly larger over the left than over the right hemisphere. In the phonological/lexical processing task we compared the ERPs elicited by strings of consonants (among which words were selected), pseudowords (among which words were selected), and by words (among which pseudowords were selected). The most conspicuous potential in these tasks was a negative potential peaking at 350 msec (N350) elicited by phonologically legal but not by phonologically illegal stimuli. The distribution of the N350 was similar to that of the N320, but it was broader and including temporo-parietal areas that were not activated in the "rhyme" task. Finally, in the semantic task the targets were abstract words, and the nontargets were concrete words, pseudowords, and strings of consonants. The negative potential in this task peaked at 450 msec. Unlike the lexical decision, the negative peak in this task significantly distinguished not only between phonologically legal and illegal words but also between meaningful (words) and meaningless (pseudowords) phonologically legal structures. The distribution of the N450 included the areas activated in the lexical decision task but also areas in the fronto-central regions. The present data corroborated the functional neuroanatomy of word recognition systems suggested by other neuroimaging methods and described their timecourse, supporting a cascade-type process that involves different but interconnected neural modules, each responsible for a different level of processing word-related information.

Effects of production training and perception training on lexical tone perception--A behavioral and ERP study.

PubMed

Lu, Shuang; Wayland, Ratree; Kaan, Edith

2015-10-22

The present study recorded both behavioral data and event-related brain potentials to examine the effectiveness of a perception-only training and a perception-plus-production training procedure on the intentional and unintentional perception of lexical tone by native English listeners. In the behavioral task, both the perception-only and the perception-plus-production groups improved on the tone discrimination abilities after the training session. Moreover, the participants in both groups generalized the improvements gained through the trained stimuli to the untrained stimuli. In the ERP task, the Mismatch Negativity was smaller in the post-training task than in the pre-training task. However, the two training groups did not differ in tone processing at the intentional or unintentional level after training. These results suggest that the employment of the motor system does not specifically benefit the tone perceptual skills. Furthermore, the present study investigated whether some tone pairs are more easily confused than others by native English listeners, and whether the order of tone presentation influences non-native tone discrimination. In the behavioral task, Tone2-Tone1 (rising-level) and Tone2-Tone4 (rising-falling) were the most difficult tone pairs, while Tone1-Tone2 and Tone4-Tone2 were the easiest tone pairs, even though they involved the same tone contrasts respectively. In the ERP task, the native English listeners had good discrimination when Tone2 and Tone4 were embedded in strings of Tone1, while poor discrimination when Tone1 was inserted in the context of Tone2 or Tone4. These asymmetries in tone perception might be attributed to the interference of native intonation system and can be altered by training. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A comparative study on long-term evoked auditory and visual potential responses between Schizophrenic patients and normal subjects

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The electrical signals measuring method is recommended to examine the relationship between neuronal activities and measure with the event related potentials (ERPs) during an auditory and a visual oddball paradigm between schizophrenic patients and normal subjects. The aim of this study is to discriminate the activation changes of different stimulations evoked by auditory and visual ERPs between schizophrenic patients and normal subjects. Methods Forty-three schizophrenic patients were selected as experimental group patients, and 40 healthy subjects with no medical history of any kind of psychiatric diseases, neurological diseases, or drug abuse, were recruited as a control group. Auditory and visual ERPs were studied with an oddball paradigm. All the data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software version 10.0. Results In the comparative study of auditory and visual ERPs between the schizophrenic and healthy patients, P300 amplitude at Fz, Cz, and Pz and N100, N200, and P200 latencies at Fz, Cz, and Pz were shown significantly different. The cognitive processing reflected by the auditory and the visual P300 latency to rare target stimuli was probably an indicator of the cognitive function in schizophrenic patients. Conclusions This study shows the methodology of application of auditory and visual oddball paradigm identifies task-relevant sources of activity and allows separation of regions that have different response properties. Our study indicates that there may be slowness of automatic cognitive processing and controlled cognitive processing of visual ERPs compared to auditory ERPs in schizophrenic patients. The activation changes of visual evoked potentials are more regionally specific than auditory evoked potentials. PMID:21542917

Assessing Leading ERP-SAP Implementation in Leading Firms in Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Syaiful, B.; Gunawan, W.

2017-01-01

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) enables to bring critical capabilities to an organisation, however, the implementation of such capabilities is often surrounded with problems. The implementing ERP-SAP in Indonesian enterprises are still facing tremendous challenges with the failure rate can reach more than 80% of the cases. The article examines the common problems faced by the consultants whenever they deal with their clients, from the practical perspectives. The article takes the multiple case studies of the leading enterprises in Indonesia, such as: KS (largest steel producer), GEM (large mining producer), and HS (large retailer), with the aim to identify the root of problems of SAP implementation. The outcome of the study is expected to provide the consultants with the guideline to understand the ERP implementation process in their clients and effective solutions to cope with it.