Psychological Phenomena and Processes Commons^™

Expediting Tool-Use Learning: Effects Of Non-Invasive Neurostimulation Of The Left Anterior Supramarginal Gyrus, Kamila Haliru

Honors Thesis

The left anterior supramarginal gyrus (aSMG) has been implicated as an important brain region in tool use. While anodal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (atDCS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) has been shown to facilitate skilled tool use, the effects of aSMG stimulation remain largely unexplored. Using a chopstick-marble paradigm, this thesis examined whether atDCS to the left aSMG would enhance tool-use learning. Electroencephalography (EEG) was concurrently recorded to assess atDCS-dependent changes to the beta and gamma frequency bands. Our results demonstrated that atDCS over the left aSMG significantly expedited tool-use learning and was associated with increased gamma band activity …

Probing For Intentions: The Early Readiness Potential Does Not Reflect Awareness Of Motor Preparation, Jake Gavenas, Aaron Schurger, Uri Maoz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Voluntary actions are typically preceded by the readiness potential (RP), a negative midfrontal electroencephalography (EEG) deflection that begins ~2 s before movement. What cognitive and neural process the RP reflects and how it relates to conscious intention remain unclear due to conflicting findings. We investigated the neural basis and cognitive significance of the RP in a novel probe-based paradigm. Contrary to prior reports, we found that pre-probe RP buildups were not related to reported awareness of motor preparation. Computational modeling suggested that the best explanation for these results is via metacognitive access to stochastic accumulation. Reported preparation was also related …

Examining P3 And N2 Amplitudes Following Social Exclusion And Provocation In College Students With High And Low Narcissistic Traits, Kathleen Ramsey

Dissertations

Adults with narcissistic traits are prone to reacting aggressively following provocation due to elevations in emotional reactivity and perceived threat to their grandiose self-views. Prior studies have examined event-related potentials (ERPs) measures in college students with narcissistic traits in the context of risky decision making and facial emotion processing; however, no known studies have examined how those with narcissistic traits react to rejection and provocation at the neurophysiological level during an externally valid social rejection task (i.e., Cyberball). For the purposes of this study, it was predicted that participants with higher levels of narcissistic traits (both total narcissism and grandiose …

Walking Your Brain To Better Ideas: The Effects Of An Acute Bout Of Exercise On Creativity, Alexis Swingendorf

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Brain Activity During Paired And Individual Mindfulness Meditation: A Controlled Eeg Study, Hessel Engelbregt, Hugo F. Alderse Bass, Sietske De Grauw, Jan Berend Deijen

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Objective: In this study, we evaluated brain electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in healthy participants during the performance of paired and individual mindfulness meditation (MM). We hypothesized that EEG activity is differentially affected by meditation in pairs compared to individual meditation. Methods: A total of 20 healthy female university students (mean age 19.54 years, SD =1.53) with no prior experience in MM participated in this study. All participants had to perform a 5-minute MM task together and individually while the other participant was in rest or performing a concentration task (control condition). To exclude social interaction as main factor, participants were separated …

Neural Correlates Of The Dunning-Kruger Effect, Alana Muller, Lindsey A. Sirianni, Richard Addante

Psychology Faculty Publications

The Dunning-Kruger effect (DKE) is a metacognitive phenomenon of illusory superiority in which individuals who perform poorly on a task believe they performed better than others, yet individuals who performed very well believe they under-performed compared to others. This phenomenon has yet to be directly explored in episodic memory, nor explored for physiological correlates or reaction times. We designed a novel method to elicit the DKE via a test of item recognition while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Throughout the task, participants were asked to estimate the percentile in which they performed compared to others. Results revealed participants in the bottom …

Mood Effects And Individual Differences On Reappraisal And Distraction: An Erp Study Of The Sensitivity Of Emotion Regulation Strategies, Elsa Mastico

All Master's Theses

The present research evaluated the effect of mood and individual differences on the regulatory process of emotions by using a regulation task with negative and neutral images to assess reappraisal and distraction ability. Specifically, this research evaluated the average amplitude of the latent positive potential (latent positivity, LPP) brainwave linked to distraction and reappraisal using an ERP analysis. In addition, the current study compared the modulation of the LPP to the self-reported mood of the participants and their individual differences in regulation ability through scores of a self-report emotion regulation questionnaire. The latent positive potentials from an emotion regulation task …

Treating Adhd With Suggestion: Neurofeedback And Placebo Therapeutics, Robert T. Thibault, Samuel Vassière, Jay A. Olson, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: We propose that clinicians can use suggestion to help treat conditions such as ADHD. Methods: We use EEG neurofeedback as a case study, alongside evidence from a recent pilot experiment utilizing a sham MRI scanner to highlight the therapeutic potential of suggestion-based treatments. Results: The medical literature demonstrates that many practitioners already prescribe treatments that hardly outperform placebo comparators. Moreover, the sham MRI experiment showed that, even with full disclosure of the procedure, suggestion alone can reduce the symptomatology of ADHD. Conclusion: Non-deceptive suggestion-based treatments, especially those drawing on accessories from neuroscience, may offer a safe complement and potential …

The Signature Of Undetected Change: An Exploratory Electrotomographic Investigation Of Gradual Change Blindness, John E. Kiat, Michael D. Dodd, Robert F. Belli, Jacob E. Cheadle

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Neuroimaging-based investigations of change blindness, a phenomenon in which seemingly obvious changes in visual scenes fail to be detected, have significantly advanced our understanding of visual awareness. The vast majority of prior investigations, however, utilize paradigms involving visual disruptions (e.g., intervening blank screens, saccadic movements, “mudsplashes”), making it difficult to isolate neural responses toward visual changes cleanly. To address this issue in this present study, high-density EEG data (256 channel) were collected from 25 participants using a paradigm in which visual changes were progressively introduced into detailed real-world scenes without the use of visual disruption. Oscillatory activity associated with undetected …

The Psychology Of Neurofeedback: Clinical Intervention Even If Applied Placebo, Robert T. Thibault, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Advocates of neurofeedback make bold claims concerning brain regulation, treatment of disorders, and mental health. Decades of research and thousands of peer-reviewed publications support neurofeedback using electroencephalography (EEG-nf); yet, few experiments isolate the act of receiving feedback from a specific brain signal as a necessary precursor to obtain the purported benefits. Moreover, while psychosocial parameters including participant motivation and expectation, rather than neurobiological substrates, seem to fuel clinical improvement across a wide range of disorders, for-profit clinics continue to sprout across North America and Europe. Here, we highlight the tenuous evidence supporting EEG-nf and sketch out the weaknesses of this …

Examination Of Neurocorrelates Of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury In Young Adults, Rachel J. Raucci

Neuroscience Honors Papers

In recent years, there has been an upswing in the number of concussion diagnoses per year in the United States, particularly in young athletes with still-developing brains. Accompanying this recent trend is an increased amount of research on concussions and their long-term impacts. This ongoing research project collects and compares data from concussed and non-concussed individuals using various neuropsychological batteries, self-report surveys and participants’ EEG readings. Data analysis of the results from 51 participants indicates that previously concussed individuals differ from their non-concussed counterparts. Specifically, individuals who have suffered a concussion exhibit specific and occasionally idiosyncratic deficits in executive control …

System Identification Of Motion Artifact: Noise In Eeg Headsets From Locomotion, Kaela Shea, James Tung

H-Workload 2017: Models and Applications (Works in Progress)

Fall prevention for geriatric populations is a growing concern among clinicians and researchers due to severe risk of morbidity and loss of independence. Emerging evidence has demonstrated that mental workload while walking influences gait stability and the risk for falling. Electroencephalography (EEG) presents a potential method to provide objective measures of mental workload, particularly during daily activities. Noise introduced to the EEG signal during motion, however, is restrictive. The study presented in the following paper isolates EEG signal noise attained from gait for a commercially accessible EEG system, the "Emotiv" Time and spectral system identification techniques were applied to model …

Oscillatory Neural Responses Evoked By Natural Vestibular Stimuli In Humans, Steven Gale, Mario Prsa, Aaron Schurger, Annietta Gay, Aurore Paillard, Bruno Herbelin, Jean-Philippe Guyot, Christophe Lopez, Olaf Blanke

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

While there have been numerous studies of the vestibular system in mammals, less is known about the brain mechanisms of vestibular processing in humans. In particular, of the studies that have been carried out in humans over the last 30 years, none has investigated how vestibular stimulation (VS) affects cortical oscillations. Here we recorded high-density electroencephalography (EEG) in healthy human subjects and a group of bilateral vestibular loss patients (BVPs) undergoing transient and constant-velocity passive whole body yaw rotations, focusing our analyses on the modulation of cortical oscillations in response to natural VS. The present approach overcame significant technical challenges …

Reducing Multi-Sensor Data To A Single Time Course That Reveals Experimental Effects, Aaron Schurger, Sebastien Marti, Stanislas Dehaene

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background: Multi-sensor technologies such as EEG, MEG, and ECoG result in high-dimensional data sets. Given the high temporal resolution of such techniques, scientific questions very often focus on the time-course of an experimental effect. In many studies, researchers focus on a single sensor or the average over a subset of sensors covering a “region of interest” (ROI). However, single-sensor or ROI analyses ignore the fact that the spatial focus of activity is constantly changing, and fail to make full use of the information distributed over the sensor array.

Methods: We describe a technique that exploits the optimality and …

Single-Trial Decoding Of Auditory Novelty Responses Facilitates The Detection Of Residual Consciousness, J. R. King, F. Faugeras, A. Gramfort, Aaron Schurger, I. El Karoui, J. D. Sitt, B. Rohaut, C. Wacongne, E. Labyt, T. Bekinschtein, L. Cohen, L. Naccache, S. Dehaene

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Detecting residual consciousness in unresponsive patients is a major clinical concern and a challenge for theoretical neuroscience. To tackle this issue, we recently designed a paradigm that dissociates two electro-encephalographic (EEG) responses to auditory novelty. Whereas a local change in pitch automatically elicits a mismatch negativity (MMN), a change in global sound sequence leads to a late P300b response. The latter component is thought to be present only when subjects consciously perceive the global novelty. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to detect because individual variability is high, especially in clinical recordings. Here, we show that multivariate pattern classifiers can extract …