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.

scholarly journals Brain activity is contingent on neuropsychological function in an fMRI study of Verbal Working Memory in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xenia Kobeleva ◽  
Judith Machts ◽  
Maria Veit ◽  
Stefan Vielhaber ◽  
Susanne Petri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Lateral Sclerosis

AbstractAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive degeneration of neurons in motor and non-motor regions, affecting multiple cognitive domains. In order to contribute to the growing research field that employs structural and functional neuroimaging to investigate the effect of ALS on different working memory components, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study exploring the localization and intensity of alterations in neural activity. Being the first study to specifically address verbal working memory via fMRI in the context of ALS, we employed the verbal n-back task with 0-back and 2-back conditions. Despite ALS patients showing unimpaired accuracies and reaction times, there was significantly increased brain activity of frontotemporal and parietal regions in the 2-back minus 0-back contrast in patients compared to controls. This increased brain activity was largely associated with a better neuropsychological performance within the ALS group, suggesting a compensatory effect. This study therefore adds to the current knowledge on neural correlates of working memory in ALS and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of hyperactivity during cognitive processes in fMRI studies of ALS.

Match and Mismatch of Taste, Odor, and Color is Reflected by Electrical Activity in the Human Brain

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 175-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Skrandies ◽  
Nicole Reuther
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Time Range ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Food Items ◽  
Electrical Brain Activity ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Topographical Effects

We aimed at elucidating the relationship between odor, taste, color, and food stimuli where subjects were studied either with questionnaires or in electrophysiological experiments. First, a total of 144 word pairs were rated by 660 subjects who determined whether the first stimulus (odor or taste word) matched the second one (color or food word). In an electrophysiological experiment, EEG was recorded from 30 electrodes in 24 healthy adults while clearly matching, or nonmatching, word pairs were presented on a monitor. Evoked potentials were computed for different stimulus classes (matching or nonmatching combinations of odor or taste and color or food words). Six components were identified and compared between conditions. For most components, field strength (GFP) was lower for nonmatching than for matching word pairs. In addition to late effects, electrical brain activity was influenced by experimental conditions as early as at 100 ms latency. Most effects observed were in the time range between 100 and 250 ms. Our data show how color and food words are differently affected when paired with odor or taste words. Complex interactions between stimulus modality (taste/odor) and different target words (color/food) occurred depending on whether the pairs were seen by the subjects as appropriate or inappropriate. Topographical effects indicated that different neural populations were activated in different conditions. Most interestingly, there were many cognitive effects occurring quite early (on the order of 100 ms) after stimulus presentation, and our results suggest rapid cognitive processing of information on odor, taste, color, and food items. This is an important prerequisite for the preconscious and fast choice of food items in everyday behavior, and the data confirm earlier findings on rapid and preconscious semantic processing in the visual cortex.

scholarly journals Processing Tonal Modulations: An ERP Study

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 1149-1159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Koelsch ◽  
Thomas Gunter ◽  
Erich Schröger ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Frontal Negativity ◽  
Anterior Negativity ◽  
Harmonic Stability ◽  
Musical Sequence

A common stylistic element of Western tonal music is the change of key within a musical sequence (known as modulation in musical terms). The aim of the present study was to investigate neural correlates of the cognitive processing of modulations with event-related brain potentials. Participants listened to sequences of chords that were infrequently modulating. Modulating chords elicited distinct effects in the event-related brain potentials: an early right anterior negativity reflecting the processing of a violation of musical regularities and a late frontal negativity taken to reflect processes of harmonic integration. Additionally, modulations elicited a tonic negative potential suggested to reflect cognitive processes characteristic for the processing of tonal modulations, namely, the restructuring of the “hierarchy of harmonic stability” (which specifies musical expectations), presumably entailing working memory operations. Participants were “nonmusicians”; results thus support the hypothesis that nonmusicians have a sophisticated (implicit) knowledge about musical regularities.

scholarly journals Cholinergic Enhancement Eliminates Modulation of Neural Activity by Task Difficulty in the Prefrontal Cortex during Working Memory

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1342-1353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maura L. Furey ◽  
Emiliano Ricciardi ◽  
Mark B. Schapiro ◽  
Stanley I. Rapoport ◽  
Pietro Pietrini
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Blood Flow ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
The Right

Previously, we demonstrated that enhancing cholinergic activity during a working memory (WM) task improves performance and reduces blood flow in the right anterior middle/superior frontal cortex, an area known to be important for WM. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the interaction between WM task demands and cholinergic enhancement on neural responses in the prefrontal cortex. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured using H215O and positron emission tomography, as 10 young healthy volunteers performed a parametrically varied match-to-sample WM for faces task. For each item, a picture of a face was presented, followed by a delay (1, 6, 11, or 16 sec), then by the presentation of two faces. Subjects were instructed to identify which face they previously had seen. For control items, nonsense pictures were presented in the same spatial and temporal manner. All conditions were performed during an intravenous infusion of saline and physostigmine (1 mg/hr). Subjects were blind to the substance being infused. Reaction time increased significantly with WM delay, and physostigmine decreased reaction time across delay conditions. Significant task-related rCBF increases during saline infusion were seen in superior frontal, middle frontal, and inferior frontal regions, and the response magnitudes in the regions increased systematically with task difficulty. In all of these prefrontal regions, physostigmine administration significantly reduced rCBF during task, particularly at longer task delays, so that no correlation between task delay and rCBF was observed. In the ventral visual cortex, physostigmine increased rCBF at longer task delays in medial regions, and decreased rCBF over delay conditions in lateral cortical areas. These results indicate that, during cholinergic potentiation, brain activity in prefrontal regions is not modulated by increases in WM task demands, and lends further support to the hypothesis that cholinergic modulation enhances visual processing, making the task easier to perform, and thus, compensate for the need to recruit prefrontal cortical regions as task demands increase.

scholarly journals Mindfulness meditation alters neural activity underpinning working memory during tactile distraction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Yufeng Wang ◽  
Gabrielle Freedman ◽  
Kavya Raj ◽  
Bernadette Mary Fitzgibbon ◽  
Caley Sullivan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Tactile Stimulation ◽  
Mindfulness Meditation ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Alpha Activity ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Attentional Function ◽  
Tactile Stimuli

AbstractEvidence suggests that mindfulness meditation (MM) improves selective attention and reduces distractibility by enhancing top-down neural modulation. Altered P300 and alpha neural activity from MM have been identified and may reflect the neural changes that underpin these improvements. Given the proposed role of alpha activity in supressing processing of task-irrelevant information, it is theorised that altered alpha activity may underlie increased availability of neural resources in meditators. The present study investigated attentional function in meditators using a cross-modal study design, examining the P300 during working memory (WM) and alpha activity during concurrent distracting tactile stimuli. Thirty-three meditators and 27 healthy controls participated in the study. Meditators showed a more frontal distribution of P300 neural activity following WM stimuli (p = 0.005, η² = 0.060) and more modulation of alpha activity at parietal-occipital regions between single (tactile stimulation only) and dual task demands (tactile stimulation plus WM task) (p < 0.001, η² = 0.065). Additionally, meditators performed more accurately than controls (p = 0.038, η² = 0.067). The altered distribution of neural activity concurrent with improved WM performance suggests greater attentional resources dedicated to task related functions such as WM in meditators. Thus, meditation-related neural changes are likely multi-faceted involving both altered distribution and also amplitudes of brain activity, enhancing attentional processes depending on task requirements.

scholarly journals Effects of 12-WeekBacopa monnieriConsumption on Attention, Cognitive Processing, Working Memory, and Functions of Both Cholinergic and Monoaminergic Systems in Healthy Elderly Volunteers

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatimah Peth-Nui ◽  
Jintanaporn Wattanathorn ◽  
Supaporn Muchimapura ◽  
Terdthai Tong-Un ◽  
Nawanant Piyavhatkul ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Ache Activity ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Treated Group ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Healthy Elderly

At present, the scientific evidence concerning the effect ofBacopa monnierion brain activity together with working memory is less available. Therefore, we aimed to determine the effect ofB. monnierion attention, cognitive processing, working memory, and cholinergic and monoaminergic functions in healthy elderly. A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled design was utilized. Sixty healthy elderly subjects (mean age 62.62 years; SD 6.46), consisting of 23 males and 37 females, received either a standardized extract ofB. monnieri(300 and 600 mg) or placebo once daily for 12 weeks. The cholinergic and monoaminergic systems functions were determined using AChE and MAO activities. Working memory was assessed using percent accuracy and reaction time of various memory tests as indices, whereas attention and cognitive processing were assessed using latencies and amplitude of N100 and P300 components of event-related potential. All assessments were performed before treatment, every four weeks throughout study period, and at four weeks after the cessation of intervention.B. monnieri-treated group showed improved working memory together with a decrease in both N100 and P300 latencies. The suppression of plasma AChE activity was also observed. These results suggest thatB. monnierican improve attention, cognitive processing, and working memory partly via the suppression of AChE activity.

Involuntary Orienting of Attention to Nociceptive Events: Neural and Behavioral Signatures

2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 2423-2434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valéry Legrain ◽  
Caroline Perchet ◽  
Luis García-Larrea
Keyword(s):  
Evoked Potentials ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Neural System ◽  
Delayed Reaction ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Behavioral Signatures ◽  
Cognitive Activities ◽  
Visual Targets ◽  
Standard Laser

Pain can involuntarily capture attention and disrupt pain-unrelated cognitive activities. The brain mechanisms of these effects were explored by laser- and visual-evoked potentials. Consecutive nociceptive laser stimuli and visual stimuli were delivered in pairs. Subjects were instructed to ignore nociceptive stimuli while performing a task on visual targets. Because involuntary attention is particularly sensitive to novelty, in some trials (17%), unexpected laser stimuli were delivered on a different hand area (location-deviant) relative to the more frequent standard laser stimuli. Compared with frequent standard laser stimuli, deviant stimuli enhanced all nociceptive-evoked brain potentials (laser N1, N2, P2a, P2b). Deviant laser stimuli also decreased the amplitude of late latency–evoked responses (visual N2-P3) to the subsequent visual targets and delayed reaction times to them. The data confirm that nociceptive processing competes with pain-unrelated cognitive activities for attentional resources and that concomitant nociceptive events affect behavior by depressing attention allocation to ongoing cognitive processing. The laser-evoked potential magnitude reflected the engagement of attention to the novel nociceptive stimuli. We conclude that the laser-evoked potentials index the activity of a neural system involved in the detection of novel salient stimuli in order to focus attention and prioritize action to potentially damaging dangers.

Faster Choice-Reaction Times to Positive than to Negative Facial Expressions

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jukka M. Leppänen ◽  
Mirja Tenhunen ◽  
Jari K. Hietanen
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Happy Face ◽  
Response Onset ◽  
Response Execution ◽  
Onset Response ◽  
Positive Stimuli ◽  
Choice Reaction Times

Abstract Several studies have shown faster choice-reaction times to positive than to negative facial expressions. The present study examined whether this effect is exclusively due to faster cognitive processing of positive stimuli (i.e., processes leading up to, and including, response selection), or whether it also involves faster motor execution of the selected response. In two experiments, response selection (onset of the lateralized readiness potential, LRP) and response execution (LRP onset-response onset) times for positive (happy) and negative (disgusted/angry) faces were examined. Shorter response selection times for positive than for negative faces were found in both experiments but there was no difference in response execution times. Together, these results suggest that the happy-face advantage occurs primarily at premotoric processing stages. Implications that the happy-face advantage may reflect an interaction between emotional and cognitive factors are discussed.

The Relation Between Aerobic Fitness and Cognitive Performance

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 102-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun-Hao Wang ◽  
Chun-Ming Shih ◽  
Chia-Liang Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Aerobic Fitness ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Fitness Level ◽  
Eeg Data ◽  
Attention Performance ◽  
P3 Amplitude ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. This study aimed to assess whether brain potentials have significant influences on the relationship between aerobic fitness and cognition. Behavioral and electroencephalographic (EEG) data was collected from 48 young adults when performing a Posner task. Higher aerobic fitness is related to faster reaction times (RTs) along with greater P3 amplitude and shorter P3 latency in the valid trials, after controlling for age and body mass index. Moreover, RTs were selectively related to P3 amplitude rather than P3 latency. Specifically, the bootstrap-based mediation model indicates that P3 amplitude mediates the relationship between fitness level and attention performance. Possible explanations regarding the relationships among aerobic fitness, cognitive performance, and brain potentials are discussed.

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