scholarly journals EEG and behavioral correlates of attentional processing while walking and navigating naturalistic environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Liebherr ◽  
Andrew W. Corcoran ◽  
Phillip M. Alday ◽  
Scott Coussens ◽  
Valeria Bellan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Behavioral Correlates ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Auditory Oddball ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Auditory Oddball Task

AbstractThe capacity to regulate one’s attention in accordance with fluctuating task demands and environmental contexts is an essential feature of adaptive behavior. Although the electrophysiological correlates of attentional processing have been extensively studied in the laboratory, relatively little is known about the way they unfold under more variable, ecologically-valid conditions. Accordingly, this study employed a ‘real-world’ EEG design to investigate how attentional processing varies under increasing cognitive, motor, and environmental demands. Forty-four participants were exposed to an auditory oddball task while (1) sitting in a quiet room inside the lab, (2) walking around a sports field, and (3) wayfinding across a university campus. In each condition, participants were instructed to either count or ignore oddball stimuli. While behavioral performance was similar across the lab and field conditions, oddball count accuracy was significantly reduced in the campus condition. Moreover, event-related potential components (mismatch negativity and P3) elicited in both ‘real-world’ settings differed significantly from those obtained under laboratory conditions. These findings demonstrate the impact of environmental factors on attentional processing during simultaneously-performed motor and cognitive tasks, highlighting the value of incorporating dynamic and unpredictable contexts within naturalistic designs.

scholarly journals Additive Effects of Cognitive Load, Motor Demand, and Environmental Complexity on Attention: A Real-World EEG-study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Liebherr ◽  
Andrew W. Corcoran ◽  
Phillip M. Alday ◽  
Scott Coussens ◽  
Valeria Bellan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Environmental Complexity ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Auditory Oddball ◽  
Environmental Demand ◽  
The Impact

The capacity to regulate ones attention in accordance with fluctuating task demands and environmental contexts is an essential feature of adaptive behavior. Although the electrophysiological correlates of attentional processing have been extensively studied in the laboratory, relatively little is known about the way they unfold under more variable, ecologically-valid conditions. Accordingly, this study employed a real-world EEG design to investigate how attentional processing varies under increasing levels of cognitive, motor, and environmental demand. Forty-four participants were exposed to an auditory oddball task while (1) sitting in a quiet room inside the lab, (2) walking around a sports field, and (3) wayfinding across a university campus. In each condition, participants were instructed to either attend to (i.e., count) or ignore oddball stimuli. While behavioral performance was similar across the lab and field conditions, oddball count accuracy was significantly reduced in the campus condition. Moreover, event-related potential components (mismatch negativity and P3) elicited in both real-world settings differed significantly from those obtained under laboratory conditions. These findings demonstrate the impact of environmental factors on attentional processing during simultaneously-performed motor and cognitive tasks, highlighting the value of incorporating dynamic and unpredictable contexts within naturalistic designs.

scholarly journals Dry EEG Measurement of P3 to Evaluate Cognitive Load During Sitting, Standing, and Walking

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Swerdloff ◽  
Levi Hargrove
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Motor Impairments ◽  
Auditory Oddball ◽  
Brain Signals ◽  
Subjective Assessments ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The impact of cognitive load on individuals with motor impairments is poorly understood. Cognitive load has been studied using subjective assessments, dual-task studies, physiological measures, and clinical metrics, which are specific to the motor task being performed and do not measure brain signals directly. Combining brain imaging with dual-task paradigms provides a quantitative, direct metric of cognitive load that is agnostic to the motor task. To better understand the impact of cognitive load during activities of daily living, we measured brain activity from a dry EEG headset as participants attended to an auditory stimulus paradigm during sitting, standing, and walking. The stimulus paradigm consisted of an auditory oddball task in which they had to report the number of oddball tones that were heard during each task. The P3 event-related potential, which is sensitive to cognitive load, was extracted from EEG signals in each condition. Results showed that P3 was significantly lower during walking compared to sitting (p = .039), indicating that cognitive load was higher during walking compared to the other activities. No significant differences in P3 were found between sitting and standing. Head motion did not have a significant impact on the measurement of cognitive load. These results encourage the use of a dry EEG system to further investigate cognitive load during dynamic activities in individuals with and without motor impairments.

scholarly journals Interpretability of Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Brain Processes Followed by Mindfulness Intervention in a Brain-Inspired Spiking Neural Network Architecture

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (24) ◽  
pp. 7354
Author(s):  
Zohreh Doborjeh ◽  
Maryam Doborjeh ◽  
Mark Crook-Rumsey ◽  
Tamasin Taylor ◽  
Grace Y. Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Psychological Intervention ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Mindfulness Training ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Spiking Neural Network ◽  
Auditory Oddball ◽  
Brain States

Mindfulness training is associated with improvements in psychological wellbeing and cognition, yet the specific underlying neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning these changes are uncertain. This study uses a novel brain-inspired artificial neural network to investigate the effect of mindfulness training on electroencephalographic function. Participants completed a 4-tone auditory oddball task (that included targets and physically similar distractors) at three assessment time points. In Group A (n = 10), these tasks were given immediately prior to 6-week mindfulness training, immediately after training and at a 3-week follow-up; in Group B (n = 10), these were during an intervention waitlist period (3 weeks prior to training), pre-mindfulness training and post-mindfulness training. Using a spiking neural network (SNN) model, we evaluated concurrent neural patterns generated across space and time from features of electroencephalographic data capturing the neural dynamics associated with the event-related potential (ERP). This technique capitalises on the temporal dynamics of the shifts in polarity throughout the ERP and spatially across electrodes. Findings support anteriorisation of connection weights in response to distractors relative to target stimuli. Right frontal connection weights to distractors were associated with trait mindfulness (positively) and depression (inversely). Moreover, mindfulness training was associated with an increase in connection weights to targets (bilateral frontal, left frontocentral, and temporal regions only) and distractors. SNN models were superior to other machine learning methods in the classification of brain states as a function of mindfulness training. Findings suggest SNN models can provide useful information that differentiates brain states based on distinct task demands and stimuli, as well as changes in brain states as a function of psychological intervention.

scholarly journals A frontal cortex event-related potential driven by the basal forebrain

eLife ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P Nguyen ◽  
Shih-Chieh Lin
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Common Belief ◽  
Auditory Oddball ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
The Common ◽  
Auditory Oddball Task

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are widely used in both healthy and neuropsychiatric conditions as physiological indices of cognitive functions. Contrary to the common belief that cognitive ERPs are generated by local activity within the cerebral cortex, here we show that an attention-related ERP in the frontal cortex is correlated with, and likely generated by, subcortical inputs from the basal forebrain (BF). In rats performing an auditory oddball task, both the amplitude and timing of the frontal ERP were coupled with BF neuronal activity in single trials. The local field potentials (LFPs) associated with the frontal ERP, concentrated in deep cortical layers corresponding to the zone of BF input, were similarly coupled with BF activity and consistently triggered by BF electrical stimulation within 5–10 msec. These results highlight the important and previously unrecognized role of long-range subcortical inputs from the BF in the generation of cognitive ERPs.

scholarly journals Economic threat heightens conflict detection: sLORETA evidence

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 981-990
Author(s):  
Kyle Nash ◽  
Alex Tran ◽  
Josh Leota ◽  
Andy Scott
Keyword(s):  
White Noise ◽  
Conflict Detection ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Economic Forecast ◽  
Auditory Oddball ◽  
Economic Threat ◽  
Potential Component ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Economic threat has far-reaching emotional and social consequences, yet the impact of economic threat on neurocognitive processes has received little empirical scrutiny. Here, we examined the causal relationship between economic threat and conflict detection, a critical process in cognitive control associated with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Participants (N = 103) were first randomly assigned to read about a gloomy economic forecast (Economic Threat condition) or a stable economic forecast (No-Threat Control condition). Notably, these forecasts were based on real, publicly available economic predictions. Participants then completed a passive auditory oddball task composed of frequent standard tones and infrequent, aversive white-noise bursts, a task that elicits the N2, an event-related potential component linked to conflict detection. Results revealed that participants in the Economic Threat condition evidenced increased activation source localized to the ACC during the N2 to white-noise stimuli. Further, ACC activation to conflict mediated an effect of Economic Threat on increased justification for personal wealth. Economic threat thus has implications for basic neurocognitive function. Discussion centers on how effects on conflict detection could shed light on the broader emotional and social consequences of economic threat.

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