scholarly journals Behavioural effects of task-relevant neuromodulation by rTMS on giving-up

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eri Miyauchi ◽  
Masahiro Kawasaki

AbstractRecent studies suggest that online repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can induce local entrainment of ongoing endogenous oscillatory activity during a task. This effect may impact cognitive performance, depending on the function of the oscillation. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of stimulation frequency and target location that are relevant to the cognitive processes of giving-up. We first investigated the correlations between the EEG oscillations and cognitive giving-up processes during problem-solving tasks (Experiment 1). We then conducted online rTMS to examine the frequency-dependent stimulation effects of rTMS on the performance of problem-solving tasks and ongoing oscillations (Experiment 2). The results of Experiment 1 suggested that the frontal theta rhythm is associated with the giving-up processes and that the frontal alpha rhythm is associated with problem-solving behaviour. Accordingly, we hypothesised that rTMS at the theta frequency would induce ongoing theta activity and accelerate the giving-up behaviour, while rTMS at the alpha frequency would induce ongoing alpha activity and slow down the giving-up behaviour in Experiment 2. The results showed that theta-frequency rTMS application induced an increase in theta amplitudes and shortened the giving-up response. Alpha-frequency rTMS application induced an increase in alpha amplitudes, but did not change giving-up responses. Considering the close resemblance between giving-up behaviour and rumination in depression, neuromodulation of cognitive giving-up processes may lead to a new intervention to treat depression by rTMS. Furthermore, this study strengthens the hypothesis that modulating task-relevant oscillations by rTMS could induce behavioural changes related to cognitive performance.

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 152
Author(s):  
Manuela Ruzzoli ◽  
Salvador Soto-Faraco

It is widely recognized that oscillatory activity plays an important functional role in neural systems. Decreases in alpha (∼10 Hz) EEG/MEG activity in the parietal cortex correlate with the deployment of spatial attention controlateral to target location in visual, auditory and tactile domains. Recently, repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) has been successfully applied to entrain a specific frequency at the parietal cortex (IPS) and the visual cortex. A short burst of 10 Hz rTMS impaired contralateral visual target detection and improved it ipsilaterally, compared to other control frequencies. This finding suggests a causal role of rhythmic activity in the alfa range in perception. The aim of the present study is to address whether entraining alpha frequency in the IPS plays a role in tactile orienting, indicating similarities between senses (vision and touch) in the communication between top-down (parietal) and primary sensory areas (V1 or S1). We applied rhythmic TMS at 10 and 20 Hz to the (right or left) IPS and S1, immediately before a masked vibrotactile target stimulus (present in 50% of the trials) to the left or right hand. Preliminary results lean towards the consequential effects of entraining alpha frequency into IPS for tactile detection such that it decreases tactile perception contralaterally and increases it ipsilaterally, compared to Beta frequency.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. 416-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sushma Rathee ◽  
Divya Bhatia ◽  
Vikas Punia ◽  
Rajbir Singh

Abstract Objective  Peak alpha frequency (PAF) is reported to be a nervous system property which is genetically endowed and reflected in individual’s cognitive functioning. Cognitive performance denotes the mental processes for effective changes in response to situations in general and mental task in particular. None of the study has till now used reading comprehension as a measure of cognitive functioning, which is considered to be a measure of higher cognitive processes. The reading comprehension task used in the study implies certain cognitive processes such as reading ability, comprehension, memory performance involving information maintenance, and retrieval. Therefore, the study was conducted to test the hypothesis of differences in cognitive reading comprehension performance between high- and low-peak alpha subjects. Materials and Methods A group of 300 healthy participants were selected on the basis of incidental-cum-probabilistic sampling from seven districts of Indian state of Haryana. In the present study, reading comprehension task (Hindi–English; bilingual format) was used to assess the cognitive performance and multichannel electroencephalography alpha frequencies were recorded to measure PAF through power spectrum density analysis of each subject. Results The findings revealed that individuals with high-peak alpha frequency had significantly higher score (p < 0.05) on reading comprehension task as compared with individuals with low PAF. Conclusion The present study concluded that the reading comprehension task is effected by peak alpha frequency of an individual. PAF can be considered to be a correlate of cognitive performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 6434
Author(s):  
Cecilia Hammar Wijkmark ◽  
Maria Monika Metallinou ◽  
Ilona Heldal

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, on-site Incident Commander (IC) practical training and examinations in Sweden were canceled as of March 2020. The graduation of one IC class was, however, conducted through Remote Virtual Simulation (RVS), the first such examination to our current knowledge. This paper presents the necessary enablers for setting up RVS and its influence on cognitive aspects of assessing practical competences. Data were gathered through observations, questionnaires, and interviews from students and instructors, using action-case research methodology. The results show the potential of RVS for supporting higher cognitive processes, such as recognition, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, and allowed students to demonstrate whether they had achieved the required learning objectives. Other reported benefits were the value of not gathering people (imposed by the pandemic), experiencing new, challenging incident scenarios, increased motivation for applying RVS based training both for students and instructors, and reduced traveling (corresponding to 15,400 km for a class). While further research is needed for defining how to integrate RVS in practical training and assessment for IC education and for increased generalizability, this research pinpoints current benefits and limitations, in relation to the cognitive aspects and in comparison, to previous examination formats.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 1199-1205
Author(s):  
Fanny Vallet ◽  
Nathalie Mella ◽  
Andreas Ihle ◽  
Marine Beaudoin ◽  
Delphine Fagot ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives Interindividual differences in cognitive aging may be explained by differences in cognitive reserve (CR) that are built up across the life span. A plausible but underresearched mechanism for these differences is that CR helps compensating cognitive decline by enhancing motivation to cope with challenging cognitive situations. Theories of motivation on cognition suggest that perceived capacity and intrinsic motivation may be key mediators in this respect. Method In 506 older adults, we assessed CR proxies (education, occupation, leisure activities), motivation (perceived capacity, intrinsic motivation), and a global measure of cognitive functioning. Results Perceived capacity, but not intrinsic motivation, significantly mediated the relation between CR and cognitive performance. Discussion Complementary with neurobiological and cognitive processes, our results suggest a more comprehensive view of the role of motivational aspects built up across the life span in determining differences in cognitive performance in old age.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Fazeli Falavarjani ◽  
Forozan Irandust

Today’s diverse community often includes culturally rich environments that contain cues pertaining to more than one culture. These cultural cues can shape cognitive processes, such as creativity. This study aims to investigate the interactive effects of Openness to Experience, Extroversion and Multicultural Experience (including the real and desired experiences) on creative problem-solving ability using the quantitative method on a diverse sample of international students (N= 102). The findings indicate that the interactive effect of extensive multicultural experience and Openness to Experience predict the creative solution. It means the multicultural experience is beneficial for individuals to foster creative ability when they are highly open to experience, whereas, among those who are not open, more extensive multicultural experience do not lead to enhancement of creating the correct solution. Furthermore, this interaction term was not pronounced among the extroverted individuals. Implications of these findings for promoting creativity in learning environments are discussed.


Author(s):  
Ricardo Muñoz Martín ◽  
Celia Martín de Leon

The Monitor Model fosters a view of translating where two mind modes stand out and alternate when trying to render originals word-by-word by default: shallow, uneventful processing vs problem solving. Research may have been biased towards problem solving, often operationalized with a pause of, or above, 3 seconds. This project analyzed 16 translation log files by four informants from four originals. A baseline minimal pause of 200 ms was instrumental to calculate two individual thresholds for each log file: (a) A low one – 1.5 times the median pause within words – and (b) a high one – 3 times the median pause between words. Pauses were then characterized as short (between 200 ms and the lower threshold), mid, and long (above the higher threshold, chunking the recorded activities in the translation task into task segments), and assumed to respond to different causes. Weak correlations between short, mid and long pauses were found, hinting at possible different cognitive processes. Inferred processes did not fall neatly into categories depending on the length of possibly associated pauses. Mid pauses occurred more often than long pauses between sentences and paragraphs, and they also more often flanked information searches and even problem-solving instances. Chains of proximal mid pauses marked cases of potential hesitations. Task segments tended to happen within 4–8 minute cycles, nested in a possible initial phase for contextualization, followed by long periods of sustained attention. We found no evidence for problem-solving thresholds, and no trace of behavior supporting the Monitor Model. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rooselyna Ekawati ◽  
Ahmad Wachidul Kohar ◽  
Elly Matul Imah ◽  
Siti Maghfirotun Amin ◽  
Shofan Fiangga

This study aimed to determine the cognitive process employed in problem-solving related to the concept of area conservation for seventh graders. Two students with different mathematical ability were chosen to be the subjects of this research. Each of them was the representative of high achievers and low achievers based on a set of area conservation test. Results indicate that both samples performed more cyclic processes on formulating solution planning, regulating solution part and detecting and correcting error during the problem-solving. However, it was found that the high achiever student performed some processes than those of low achiever. Also, while the high achiever student did not predict any outcomes of his formulated strategies, the low achiever did not carry out the thought process after detecting errors of the initial solution gained. About the concept of area conservation, the finding also reveals that within the samples’ cognitive processes, the use of area formula come first before students decided to look for another strategy such as doing ‘cut-rotate-paste’ for the curved planes, which do not have any direct formula. The possible causes of the results were discussed to derive some recommendation for future studies.


2005 ◽  
Vol 100 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 943-954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kong-King Shieh ◽  
Mei-Hsiang Chen

Reading from a visual display terminal (VDT) has increased enormously with widespread computer use. Whether such reading affects higher cognitive processes requires study so the effect of display medium (LCD screen vs paper) and luminance contrast (1:3, 1:7, 1:11) on concept-formation performance and EEG responses was investigated. 96 men and 24 women participated in two concept-formation tasks (rule learning vs attribute and rule learning). Concept-formation performance and EEG responses were similar for stimuli displayed on paper or LCD screen. The concern that the screen may be detrimental to conception-formation performance was not confirmed; however, luminance contrast significantly affected time to complete a concept-formation task and EEG response. The middle contrast (1:7) had the smallest mean EEG power, so this contrast might be appropriate for cognitive performance. Participants' performance was significantly faster and EEG power lower for the rule-learning task than for an attribute and rule-learning task.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacek Wróbel ◽  
Władysław Średniawa ◽  
Gabriela Jurkiewicz ◽  
Jarosław Żygierewicz ◽  
Daniel K. Wójcik ◽  
...  

Abstract Changes in oscillatory activity are widely reported after subanesthetic ketamine, however their mechanisms of generation are unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that nasal respiration underlies the emergence of high-frequency oscillations (130–180 Hz, HFO) and behavioral activation after ketamine in freely moving rats. We found ketamine 20 mg/kg provoked “fast” theta sniffing in rodents which correlated with increased locomotor activity and HFO power in the OB. Bursts of ketamine-dependent HFO were coupled to “fast” theta frequency sniffing. Theta coupling of HFO bursts were also found in the prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum which, although of smaller amplitude, were coherent with OB activity. Haloperidol 1 mg/kg pretreatment prevented ketamine-dependent increases in fast sniffing and instead HFO coupling to slower basal respiration. Consistent with ketamine-dependent HFO being driven by nasal respiration, unilateral naris blockade led to an ipsilateral reduction in ketamine-dependent HFO power compared to the control side. Bilateral nares blockade reduced ketamine-induced hyperactivity and HFO power and frequency. These findings suggest that nasal airflow entrains ketamine-dependent HFO in diverse brain regions, and that the OB plays an important role in the broadcast of this rhythm.


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