scholarly journals Electrocortical Evidence for Impaired Affective Picture Processing after Long-Term Immobilization

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Brauns ◽  
Anika Werner ◽  
Hanns-Christian Gunga ◽  
Martina A. Maggioni ◽  
David F. Dinges ◽  
...  

Abstract The neurobehavioral risks associated with spaceflight are not well understood. In particular, little attention has been paid on the role of resilience, social processes and emotion regulation during long-duration spaceflight. Bed rest is a well-established spaceflight analogue that combines the adaptations associated with physical inactivity and semi-isolation and confinement. We here investigated the effects of 30 days of 6 degrees head-down tilt bed rest on affective picture processing using event-related potentials (ERP) in healthy men. Compared to a control group, bed rest participants showed significantly decreased P300 and LPP amplitudes to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli, especially in centroparietal regions, after 30 days of bed rest. Source localization revealed a bilateral lower activity in the posterior cingulate gyrus, insula and precuneus in the bed rest group in both ERP time frames for emotional, but not neutral stimuli.

Author(s):  
Uroš Marušič ◽  
Rado Pišot ◽  
Vojko Kavčič

Prolonged periods of complete physical inactivity or bed rest trigger various alterations in the functional and metabolic levels of the human body. However, bed rest-related adaptations of the central nervous system are less known and thoroughly studied. The aim of this study was to investigate brain electrophysiological changes using event-related potentials (ERPs) after 14 days of bed rest and 12 consecutive sessions of computerized cognitive training (CCT). Sixteen older (Mage= 60 years) healthy volunteers were randomly divided into a CCT treatment group and an active control group. All participants performed ERP measurements based on the foveal visual presentation of a circle on a black background before and after bed rest. After 14 days of bed rest, participants in the control group showed increased peak P1 amplitude (p = .012), decreased P1 latency (p = .024), and increased P2 amplitude (p = .036), while the CCT group also showed decreased P1 latency (p = .023) and decreased P2 latency (p = .049). Our results suggest that, even from a central adaptation perspective, prolonged periods of physical inactivity or bed rest trigger additional neural recruitment and should therefore be minimized, and that CCT may serve as a tool to mitigate this. Future research should focus on other aspects of central nervous system adaptation following periods of immobilization/hospitalization to improve our knowledge of influence of physical inactivity and its effects on cortical activity and to develop appropriate countermeasures to mitigate functional dysregulation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Mendt ◽  
Hanns-Christian Gunga ◽  
Dieter Felsenberg ◽  
Daniel L. Belavy ◽  
Mathias Steinach ◽  
...  

AbstractWith NASA’s plans for the human exploration of Mars, astronauts will be exposed to mission durations much longer than current spaceflight missions on the International Space Station. These mission durations will increase the risk for circadian misalignment. Exercise has gained increasing interest as a non-pharmacological aid to entrain the circadian system. To assess the potential of exercise as a countermeasure to mitigate the risk for circadian disorders during spaceflight, we investigated the effects of long-term head-down tilt bed rest (HDBR) with and without exercise on the circadian rhythm of core body temperature. Core body temperature was recorded for 24 h using a rectal probe in sixteen healthy men (age: 30.5 ± 7.5 years (mean ± SD)) after 7 days and 49 days of HDBR. Five participants underwent HDBR only (CTR), five participants underwent HDBR and performed resistive exercises (RE), and six participants underwent HDBR and performed resistive exercises superimposed with vibrations (RVE). The exercise was scheduled three times per week. CTR showed a phase delay of 0.69 h. In contrast, both exercise groups were characterized by a phase advance (0.45 h for RE and 0.45 h for RVE; p = 0.026 for interaction between time and group). These findings suggest that resistive exercise (with or without vibration) may also serve as a countermeasure during spaceflight to mitigate circadian misalignments. The results could also be important for increasing awareness about the role of circadian disorders in long-term bedridden patients.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Brydges ◽  
Andrew Gordon ◽  
Ullrich K. H. Ecker

Misinformation often affects inferences and judgments even after it has been retracted. This is known as the continued influence effect (CIE). Previous behavioural research into the effect’s underlying mechanisms has focussed on the role of long-term memory processes at the time misinformation is retrieved during inferential reasoning and judgments. We present the first investigation into the CIE using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants (N = 47) completed a continued-influence task whilst electroencephalographic data were recorded. Analysis was guided by previous ERP research investigating the effects of post-event misinformation. The ERP elicited at a left parieto-occipital region of interest was significantly more positive for incorrectly accepted retracted misinformation than correctly accepted true information at a late (800-900 ms) time window. This suggests that post-retraction reliance on misinformation is driven by particularly strong recollection of the misinformation, ostensibly following poor integration of the retraction into the initial, partially invalid mental model.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. R. Scott ◽  
Andreas Kramer ◽  
Nora Petersen ◽  
David A. Green

Exposure to the spaceflight environment results in profound multi-system physiological adaptations in which there appears to be substantial inter-individual variability (IV) between crewmembers. However, performance of countermeasure exercise renders it impossible to separate the effects of the spaceflight environment alone from those associated with exercise, whilst differences in exercise programs, spaceflight operations constraints, and environmental factors further complicate the interpretation of IV. In contrast, long-term head-down bed rest (HDBR) studies isolate (by means of a control group) the effects of mechanical unloading from those associated with countermeasures and control many of the factors that may contribute to IV. In this perspective, we review the available evidence of IV in response to the spaceflight environment and discuss factors that complicate its interpretation. We present individual data from two 60-d HDBR studies that demonstrate that, despite the highly standardized experimental conditions, marked quantitative differences still exist in the response of the cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal systems between individuals. We also discuss the statistical concept of “true” and “false” individual differences and its potential application to HDBR data. We contend that it is currently not possible to evaluate IV in response to the spaceflight environment and countermeasure exercise. However, with highly standardized experimental conditions and the presence of a control group, HDBR is suitable for the investigation of IV in the physiological responses to gravitational unloading and countermeasures. Such investigations may provide valuable insights into the potential role of IV in adaptations to the spaceflight environment and the effectiveness of current and future countermeasures.


Author(s):  
Justine Niemczyk ◽  
Monika Equit ◽  
Katja Rieck ◽  
Mathias Rubly ◽  
Catharina Wagner ◽  
...  

Abstract. Objective: Daytime urinary incontinence (DUI) is common in childhood. The aim of the study was to neurophysiologically analyse the central emotion processing in children with DUI. Method: In 20 children with DUI (mean age 8.1 years, 55 % male) and 20 controls (mean age 9.1 years, 75 % male) visual event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded after presenting emotionally valent (80 neutral, 40 positive, and 40 negative) pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) as an oddball-paradigm. All children received a full organic and psychiatric assessment. Results: Children with DUI did not differ significantly from controls regarding responses to emotional pictures in the frontal, central, and parietal regions and in the time intervals 250–450 ms, 450–650 ms, and 650–850 ms after stimulus onset. The patient group had more psychological symptoms and psychiatric comorbidities than the control group. Conclusions: EEG responses to emotional stimuli are not altered in children with DUI. Central emotion processing does not play a major role in DUI. Further research, including a larger sample size, a more homogeneous patient group (regarding subtype of DUI) or brain imaging techniques, could reveal more about the central processing in DUI.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Chamine ◽  
Barry S. Oken

Objective. Stress-reducing therapies help maintain cognitive performance during stress. Aromatherapy is popular for stress reduction, but its effectiveness and mechanism are unclear. This study examined stress-reducing effects of aromatherapy on cognitive function using the go/no-go (GNG) task performance and event related potentials (ERP) components sensitive to stress. The study also assessed the importance of expectancy in aromatherapy actions.Methods. 81 adults were randomized to 3 aroma groups (active experimental, detectable, and undetectable placebo) and 2 prime subgroups (prime suggesting stress-reducing aroma effects or no-prime). GNG performance, ERPs, subjective expected aroma effects, and stress ratings were assessed at baseline and poststress.Results. No specific aroma effects on stress or cognition were observed. However, regardless of experienced aroma, people receiving a prime displayed faster poststress median reaction times than those receiving no prime. A significant interaction for N200 amplitude indicated divergent ERP patterns between baseline and poststress for go and no-go stimuli depending on the prime subgroup. Furthermore, trends for beneficial prime effects were shown on poststress no-go N200/P300 latencies and N200 amplitude.Conclusion. While there were no aroma-specific effects on stress or cognition, these results highlight the role of expectancy for poststress response inhibition and attention.


2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN ◽  
JOSEPH KIRKHAM ◽  
FRANK WIJNEN

According to recent views of L2-sentence processing, L2-speakers do not predict upcoming information to the same extent as do native speakers. To investigate L2-speakers’ predictive use and integration of syntactic information across clauses, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from advanced L2-learners and native speakers while they read sentences in which the syntactic context did or did not allow noun-ellipsis (Lau, E., Stroud, C., Plesch, S., & Phillips, C. (2006). The role of structural prediction in rapid syntactic analysis. Brain and Language, 98, 74–88.) Both native and L2-speakers were sensitive to the context when integrating words after the potential ellipsis-site. However, native, but not L2-speakers, anticipated the ellipsis, as suggested by an ERP difference between elliptical and non-elliptical contexts preceding the potential ellipsis-site. In addition, L2-learners displayed a late frontal negativity for ungrammaticalities, suggesting differences in repair strategies or resources compared with native speakers.


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