An unsatisfactory status quo and promising perspectives: why links between brain activity and personality remain elusive and what we need to change to do better

2022 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 224-229
Author(s):  
Jan Wacker ◽  
Katharina Paul
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Status Quo

Going Creative: Becoming Free

1990 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-200
Author(s):  
Nigel Bakker
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Real Possibility ◽  
The Real ◽  
Primary Schooling ◽  
Left Brain ◽  
The Status ◽  
Creative Becoming ◽  
Schooling System

Originally an address at a pre-primary conference, this paper examines the real possibility of creative activity in schools that are institutionalised and state-controlled. The dominance of left-brain activity, the bureaucratic pressure and the maintenance of the status quo argue against any full respect for creativity. The extent to which pre-primary schooling is part of such a schooling system is implicitly examined. As a useful alternative, Huston Smith's fourfold education scheme, subjective education, education for surprise, education for surrender and education for words, is presented as providing important contrasts to current education priorities.

Terra incognita Hausarztpraxis – Tabakentwöhnung in der deutschen Primärversorgung

2014 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Schneider ◽  
Katharina Diehl ◽  
Christina Bock ◽  
Raphael M. Herr ◽  
Manfred Mayer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo ◽  
Expert Review ◽  
Terra Incognita

Zielsetzung: Die Hausarztpraxis gilt als ideales Setting für die Tabakentwöhnung. Die bundesweite „ÄSP-kardio-Studie“ liefert aktuelle Daten zum Status quo der Tabakentwöhnung nach der „5 A-Strategie“ in deutschen Hausarztpraxen. Methodik: Zwischen 10/2011 und 03/2012 wurden über 4.000 Hausärzte repräsentativ befragt. Der Fragebogen wurde vorab einem Expert Review unterzogen, durch kognitive Interviews validiert und in einer Pilotstudie getestet. Ergebnisse: Routinemäßig erfassten 89 % der Hausärzte etwaigen Tabakkonsum („Assess“), 82 % rieten Rauchern zu einem Rauchstopp („Advise“) und 12 % vereinbarten schriftliche Ziele einer Entwöhnung („Agree“). Hilfestellungen („Assist“) in Form einer Kurzintervention fanden mit 72 % deutlich häufiger statt als in Form von Informationsmaterial (33 %) oder einer Entwöhnungstherapie (27 %). Etwa die Hälfte (54 %) vereinbarte Folgetermine zur Überprüfung des Rauchstopps („Arrange“). Das Angebot war von arzt-, praxis- sowie patientenspezifischen Faktoren abhängig und in den nordöstlichen Bundesländern unterdurchschnittlich. Acht von 10 Hausärzten (77 %) bewerteten ihre Maßnahmen als nicht erfolgreich. Schlussfolgerungen: Deutlich wird die suboptimale und ungleich verteilte Versorgung von Rauchern mit angemessenen Entwöhnungsmaßnahmen in deutschen Hausarztpraxen.

ADHS im Kindesalter: ätiologische und therapeutische Ansätze mit dem Schwerpunkt der Bildgebung

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 193-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Steinmann ◽  
Michael Siniatchkin ◽  
Franz Petermann ◽  
Wolf-Dieter Gerber
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo

Die Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-/Hyperaktivitätsstörung (ADHS) zählt zu den häufigsten psychischen Störungen im Kindesalter. Ziel ist es, den Status Quo der Ätiologie hinsichtlich genetischer, neurobiologischer und neuropsychologischer Faktoren zu beschreiben. Es werden die derzeit anerkannten Therapiemethoden in der Behandlung der ADHS sowie ihre Wirksamkeit vorgestellt. Moderne Bildgebungsmethoden (z. B. MRT; fMRT) bieten die Möglichkeit, nichtinvasiv spezifische Aussagen über anatomische und funktionelle Änderungen zutreffen. Untersuchungen mit Hilfe dieser bildgebenden Verfahren stehen deswegen im Fokus der hier zitierten Ätiologie- und Therapieforschung. Abschließend folgt ein kurzer Ausblick auf mögliche Zukunftsfragen.

Skipping Breakfast Affects the Early Steps of Cognitive Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
Andrés Antonio González-Garrido ◽  
Jacobo José Brofman-Epelbaum ◽  
Fabiola Reveca Gómez-Velázquez ◽  
Sebastián Agustín Balart-Sánchez ◽  
Julieta Ramos-Loyo
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Brain Functioning ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Electrical Brain Activity ◽  
Skipping Breakfast

Abstract. It has been generally accepted that skipping breakfast adversely affects cognition, mainly disturbing the attentional processes. However, the effects of short-term fasting upon brain functioning are still unclear. We aimed to evaluate the effect of skipping breakfast on cognitive processing by studying the electrical brain activity of young healthy individuals while performing several working memory tasks. Accordingly, the behavioral results and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) of 20 healthy university students (10 males) were obtained and compared through analysis of variances (ANOVAs), during the performance of three n-back working memory (WM) tasks in two morning sessions on both normal (after breakfast) and 12-hour fasting conditions. Significantly fewer correct responses were achieved during fasting, mainly affecting the higher WM load task. In addition, there were prolonged reaction times with increased task difficulty, regardless of breakfast intake. ERP showed a significant voltage decrement for N200 and P300 during fasting, while the amplitude of P200 notably increased. The results suggest skipping breakfast disturbs earlier cognitive processing steps, particularly attention allocation, early decoding in working memory, and stimulus evaluation, and this effect increases with task difficulty.

Complexity Measures of Brain Electrophysiological Activity

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Włodzimierz Klonowski ◽  
Pawel Stepien ◽  
Robert Stepien
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Deterministic Chaos ◽  
Epileptic Seizures ◽  
Eeg Signal ◽  
Eeg Signals ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Electrophysiological Activity ◽  
Signal Complexity ◽  
Physiological Sleep ◽  
The Brain

Over 20 years ago, Watt and Hameroff (1987 ) suggested that consciousness may be described as a manifestation of deterministic chaos in the brain/mind. To analyze EEG-signal complexity, we used Higuchi’s fractal dimension in time domain and symbolic analysis methods. Our results of analysis of EEG-signals under anesthesia, during physiological sleep, and during epileptic seizures lead to a conclusion similar to that of Watt and Hameroff: Brain activity, measured by complexity of the EEG-signal, diminishes (becomes less chaotic) when consciousness is being “switched off”. So, consciousness may be described as a manifestation of deterministic chaos in the brain/mind.

Behavior in the Brain

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin M. Monti ◽  
Adrian M. Owen
Keyword(s):  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Motor Output ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Minimally Conscious ◽  
Brain Insults ◽  
Brain Behavior

Recent evidence has suggested that functional neuroimaging may play a crucial role in assessing residual cognition and awareness in brain injury survivors. In particular, brain insults that compromise the patient’s ability to produce motor output may render standard clinical testing ineffective. Indeed, if patients were aware but unable to signal so via motor behavior, they would be impossible to distinguish, at the bedside, from vegetative patients. Considering the alarming rate with which minimally conscious patients are misdiagnosed as vegetative, and the severe medical, legal, and ethical implications of such decisions, novel tools are urgently required to complement current clinical-assessment protocols. Functional neuroimaging may be particularly suited to this aim by providing a window on brain function without requiring patients to produce any motor output. Specifically, the possibility of detecting signs of willful behavior by directly observing brain activity (i.e., “brain behavior”), rather than motoric output, allows this approach to reach beyond what is observable at the bedside with standard clinical assessments. In addition, several neuroimaging studies have already highlighted neuroimaging protocols that can distinguish automatic brain responses from willful brain activity, making it possible to employ willful brain activations as an index of awareness. Certainly, neuroimaging in patient populations faces some theoretical and experimental difficulties, but willful, task-dependent, brain activation may be the only way to discriminate the conscious, but immobile, patient from the unconscious one.

Food-Evoked Changes in Humans

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Walla ◽  
Maria Richter ◽  
Stella Färber ◽  
Ulrich Leodolter ◽  
Herbert Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Food Intake ◽  
Startle Response ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Soft Drink ◽  
Ice Cream ◽  
Response Amplitude ◽  
Response Modulation ◽  
Motivational States ◽  
Localization Analysis ◽  
Study Participants

Two experiments investigate effects related to food intake in humans. In Experiment 1, we measured startle response modulation while study participants ate ice cream, yoghurt, and chocolate. Statistical analysis revealed that ice cream intake resulted in the most robust startle inhibition compared to no food. Contrasting females and males, we found significant differences related to the conditions yoghurt and chocolate. In females, chocolate elicited the lowest response amplitude followed by yoghurt and ice cream. In males, chocolate produced the highest startle response amplitude even higher than eating nothing, whereas ice cream produced the lowest. Assuming that high response amplitudes reflect aversive motivation while low response amplitudes reflect appetitive motivational states, it is interpreted that eating ice cream is associated with the most appetitive state given the alternatives of chocolate and yoghurt across gender. However, in females alone eating chocolate, and in males alone eating ice cream, led to the most appetitive state. Experiment 2 was conducted to describe food intake-related brain activity by means of source localization analysis applied to electroencephalography data (EEG). Ice cream, yoghurt, a soft drink, and water were compared. Brain activity in rostral portions of the superior frontal gyrus was found in all conditions. No localization differences between conditions occurred. While EEG was found to be insensitive, startle response modulation seems to be a reliable method to objectively quantify motivational states related to the intake of different foods.

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