scholarly journals Training the Conductor of the Brainwave Symphony: In Search of a Common Mechanism of Action for All Methods of Neurofeedback

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jen A. Markovics
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Mechanisms Of Action ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Conditioning Model ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Brain

There are several different methods of neurofeedback, most of which presume an operant conditioning model whereby the subject learns to control their brain activity in particular regions of the brain and/or at particular brainwave frequencies based on reinforcement. One method, however, called infra-low frequency [ILF] neurofeedback cannot be explained through this paradigm, yet it has profound effects on brain function. Like a conductor of a symphony, recent evidence demonstrates that the primary ILF (typically between 0.01–0.1 Hz), which correlates with the fluctuation of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood in the brain, regulates all of the classic brainwave bands (i.e. alpha, theta, delta, beta, gamma). The success of ILF neurofeedback suggests that all forms of neurofeedback may work through a similar mechanism that does not fit the operant conditioning paradigm. This chapter focuses on the possible mechanisms of action for ILF neurofeedback, which may be generalized, based on current evidence.

Acupuncture for Gastrointestinal Disorders

2019 ◽  
pp. 229-254
Author(s):  
Malcolm B. Taw ◽  
Andrew Shubov
Keyword(s):  
Gastric Emptying ◽  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
Vagal Tone ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Mechanisms Of Action ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Gastrointestinal Disorders ◽  
Current Evidence Base ◽  
The Brain ◽  
East West

This chapter provides an introduction to acupuncture, elucidates known neurobiological mechanisms of action, and summarizes the current evidence base for the use of acupuncture in the treatment of various gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. It reviews how acupuncture can increase esophageal and GI motility, reduce transient lower esophageal sphincter relaxations, stimulate gastric emptying, accelerate antral contractions, regulate neurohormonal mediators, promote autonomic and vagal tone, and modulate different regions of the brain-gut-microbiota axis. The therapeutic rationale for acupuncture as well as basic theories and concepts from a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) perspective are also described. This chapter concludes with a discussion about the potential therapeutic combination of integrative East-West medicine to treat GI disorders.

scholarly journals Use of Brain-Machine Interface technology in the rehabilitation of patients

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. e84691110016
Author(s):  
Bruna Corrêa Nolêto ◽  
Fernanda Rodrigues de Araújo Paiva Campelo ◽  
Karleth Costa Spíndola Rodrigues ◽  
Letice Mendes Ribeiro ◽  
Mauricio Salviano
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Machine Interface ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Motor Rehabilitation ◽  
Technological Revolution ◽  
Innovative Technologies ◽  
Motor Disability ◽  
Machine Interface ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Brain

In the last few decades, there have been advances in the field of innovative technologies used for the rehabilitation of people with a motor disability. A great example is the Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) technologies, which allow the control of machines through the brain activity of individuals and contributes to a reorganization of their motor and sensory systems. Thus, several evidences have suggested the use of technologies in the rehabilitation of these patients. The aim of this study was to perform a literature review on the use of technologies applied to motor rehabilitation. To carry out this study, a search for scientific articles was performed in the Pubmed, Scielo and Lilacs databases, in addition to the dissertations and theses found on the CAPES database. There were a total of 24 references, published between 2002 and 2020. According to the literature studied, there is an increase in resources that use technologies as therapeutic options. Many of the conventional interventions are being replaced or associated with these innovative technologies. With the advent of BMI technology and its use in human beings, a technological revolution can be observed in several biomedical areas, thus allowing a multidisciplinary application in the rehabilitation of motor, sensory or cognitive functions in patients. Despite the advances, this subject still shows controversies and before a broad recommendation, more randomized studies and a greater ethical recommendation on the subject will be needed.

scholarly journals Remote Photonic Detection of Human Senses Using Secondary Speckle Patterns

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeev Kalyuzhner ◽  
Sergey Agdarov ◽  
Itai Orr ◽  
Yafim Beiderman ◽  
Aviya Bennett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Spatiotemporal Analysis ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Speckle Patterns ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Activity Sensing ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Neural activity research has recently gained significant attention due to its association with sensory information and behavior control. However, current methods of brain activity sensing require expensive equipment and physical contact with the subject. We propose a novel photonic-based method for remote detection of human senses. Physiological processes associated with hemodynamic activity due to activation of the cerebral cortex affected by different senses have been detected by remote monitoring of nano‐vibrations generated due to the transient blood flow to specific regions of the brain. We have found that combination of defocused, self‐interference random speckle patterns with a spatiotemporal analysis using Deep Neural Network (DNN) allows associating between the activated sense and the seemingly random speckle patterns.

Five Constraints on Predicting Behavior

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome Kagan
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Behavioral Outcomes ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Experimental Setting ◽  
Psychological Data ◽  
Predicting Behavior ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Brain Data ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Age And Sex

Scientists were unable to study the relation of brain to mind until the invention of technologies that measured the brain activity accompanying psychological processes. Yet even with these new tools, conclusions are tentative or simply wrong. This book describes five conditions that place serious constraints on the ability to predict mental or behavioral outcomes based on brain data: the setting in which evidence is gathered, the expectations of the subject, the source of the evidence that supports the conclusion, the absence of studies that examine patterns of causes with patterns of measures, and the habit of borrowing terms from psychology. The book describes the importance of context, and how the experimental setting—including the room, the procedure, and the species, age, and sex of both subject and examiner—can influence the conclusions. It explains how subject expectations affect all brain measures; considers why brain and psychological data often yield different conclusions; argues for relations between patterns of causes and outcomes rather than correlating single variables; and criticizes the borrowing of psychological terms to describe brain evidence. Brain sites cannot be in a state of “fear.” A deeper understanding of the brain's contributions to behavior, the book argues, requires investigators to acknowledge these five constraints in the design or interpretation of an experiment.

scholarly journals Abnormal Baseline Brain Activity in Patients with Pulsatile Tinnitus: A Resting-State fMRI Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lv Han ◽  
Liu Zhaohui ◽  
Yan Fei ◽  
Li Ting ◽  
Zhao Pengfei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Pulsatile Tinnitus ◽  
Spontaneous Brain Activity ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Brain

Numerous investigations studying the brain functional activity of the tinnitus patients have indicated that neurological changes are important findings of this kind of disease. However, the pulsatile tinnitus (PT) patients were excluded in previous studies because of the totally different mechanisms of the two subtype tinnitus. The aim of this study is to investigate whether altered baseline brain activity presents in patients with PT using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) technique. The present study used unilateral PT patients (n=42) and age-, sex-, and education-matched normal control subjects (n=42) to investigate the changes in structural and amplitude of low-frequency (ALFF) of the brain. Also, we analyzed the relationships between these changes with clinical data of the PT patients. Compared with normal controls, PT patients did not show any structural changes. PT patients showed significant increased ALFF in the bilateral precuneus, and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and decreased ALFF in multiple occipital areas. Moreover, the increased THI score and PT duration was correlated with increased ALFF in precuneus and bilateral IFG. The abnormalities of spontaneous brain activity reflected by ALFF measurements in the absence of structural changes may provide insights into the neural reorganization in PT patients.

Dynamics of Brain Electric Field during Recall of Salpuri Dance Performance

2002 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 955-962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jong Ran Park ◽  
Takami Yagyu ◽  
Naomi Saito ◽  
Toshihiko Kinoshita ◽  
Takane Hirai
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Activity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Wave Activity ◽  
Global Field Power ◽  
Brain Wave ◽  
Frontal Midline Theta ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Brain Wave Activity ◽  
The Brain

The brain wave activity of a professional Salpuri dancer was observed while the subject recalled her performance of the Salpuri dance when sitting in a chair with closed eyes. As she recalled the feeling of the ecstatic trance state induced by the dance, an increase in alpha brain activity was observed together with marked frontal midline theta activity. Compared to a resting state, the dynamics of the electrical activity in the brain showed an increase in the global field power integral and a decrease in generalized frequency and spatial complexity.

scholarly journals White matter of perinatally HIV infected older youths shows low frequency fluctuations that may reflect glial cycling

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manoj K. Sarma ◽  
Amrita Pal ◽  
Margaret A. Keller ◽  
Tamara Welikson ◽  
Joseph Ventura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cerebral White Matter ◽  
Frequency Fluctuations ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Latent Hiv ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Brain

AbstractIn perinatally HIV-infected (PHIV) children, neurodevelopment occurs in the presence of HIV-infection, and even with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) the brain can be a reservoir for latent HIV. Consequently, patients often demonstrate long-term cognitive deficits and developmental delay, which may be reflected in altered functional brain activity. Our objective was to examine brain function in PHIV on cART by quantifying the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo). Further, we studied ALFF and ReHo changes with neuropsychological performance and measures of immune health including CD4 count and viral loads in the HIV-infected youths. We found higher ALFF and ReHo in cerebral white matter in the medial orbital lobe for PHIV (N = 11, age mean ± sd = 22.5 ± 2.9 years) compared to controls (N = 16, age = 22.5 ± 3.0 years), with age and gender as co-variates. Bilateral cerebral white matter showed increased spontaneous regional activity in PHIV compared to healthy controls. No brain regions showed lower ALFF or ReHo in PHIV compared to controls. Higher log10 viral load was associated with higher ALFF and ReHo in PHIV in bilateral cerebral white matter and right cerebral white matter respectively after masking the outcomes intrinsic to the brain regions that showed significantly higher ALFF and ReHo in the PHIV compared to the control. Reductions in social cognition and abstract thinking in PHIV were correlated with higher ALFF at the left cerebral white matter in the left medial orbital gyrus and higher ReHo at the right cerebral white matter in the PHIV patients. Although neuroinflammation and associated neuro repair were not directly measured, the findings support their potential role in PHIV impacting neurodevelopment and cognition.

scholarly journals Enhancing the Effects of Neurofeedback Training: The Motivational Value of the Reinforcers

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 457
Author(s):  
Rubén Pérez-Elvira ◽  
Javier Oltra-Cucarella ◽  
José Antonio Carrobles ◽  
Jorge Moltó ◽  
Mercedes Flórez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Neurofeedback Training ◽  
Adequate Response ◽  
Sensorimotor Rhythm ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Informational Value

The brain activity that is measured by electroencephalography (EEG) can be modified through operant conditioning, specifically using neurofeedback (NF). NF has been applied to several disorders claiming that a change in the erratic brain activity would be accompanied by a reduction of the symptoms. However, the expected results are not always achieved. Some authors have suggested that the lack of an adequate response may be due to an incorrect application of the operant conditioning principles. A key factor in operant conditioning is the use of reinforcers and their value in modifying behavior, something that is not always sufficiently taken into account. This work aims to clarify the relevance of the motivational value versus the purely informational value of the reinforcer. In this study, 113 subjects were randomly assigned two different reinforcer conditions: a selected reinforcer—the subjects subjectively selected the reinforcers—or an imposed reinforcer—the reinforcers were assigned by the experimenter—and both groups undertook NF sessions to enhance the sensorimotor rhythm (SMR). In addition, the selected reinforcer group was divided into two subgroups: one receiving real NF and the other one sham NF. There were no significant differences between the groups at baseline in terms of SMR amplitude. After the intervention, only those subjects belonging to the selected reinforcer group and receiving real NF increased their SMR. Our results provide evidence for the importance of the motivational value of the reinforcer in Neurofeedback success.

scholarly journals Salience-weighted agreement feature hierarchy modulates language comprehension

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Muralikrishnan ◽  
Ali Idrissi
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Positivity Effect ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Biphasic Effect ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Plural Subjects ◽  
The Brain

AbstractThe brain establishes relations between elements of an unfolding sentence in order to incrementally build a representation of who is doing what based on various linguistic cues. Many languages systematically mark the verb and/or its arguments to imply the manner in which they are related. A common mechanism to this end is subject-verb agreement, whereby the marking on the verb covaries with one or more of the features such as person, number and gender of the subject argument in a sentence. The cross-linguistic variability of these features would suggest that they may modulate language comprehension differentially based on their relative weightings in a given language. To test this, we investigated the processing of subject-verb agreement in simple intransitive Arabic sentences in a visual event-related brain potential (ERP) study. Specifically, we examined the differences, if any, that ensue in the processing of person, number and gender features during online comprehension, employing sentences in which the verb either showed full agreement with the subject noun (singular or plural) or did not agree in one of the features. ERP responses were measured at the post-nominal verb. Results showed a biphasic negativity−late-positivity effect when the verb did not agree with its subject noun in one of the features, in line with similar findings from other languages. Crucially however, the biphasic effect for agreement violations was systematically graded based on the feature that was violated, which is a novel finding in view of results from other languages. Furthermore, this graded effect was qualitatively different for singular and plural subjects based on the differing salience of the features for each subject-type. These results suggest that agreement features, varying in their salience due to their language-specific weightings, differentially modulate language comprehension. We postulate a Salience-weighted Feature Hierarchy based on our findings and argue that this parsimoniously accounts for the diversity of existing cross-linguistic neurophysiological results on verb agreement processing.

scholarly journals Dissonance of Selected Neuroscience Techniques at Detection of Emotions in Advertising Spots

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 969-977
Author(s):  
Katarína Neomániová ◽  
Jakub Berčík ◽  
Elena Horská
Keyword(s):  
Brain Imaging ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Emotional Involvement ◽  
Emotional Appeals ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Somatic Nervous System ◽  
Interdisciplinary Study ◽  
The Brain

In addition to advanced brain imaging techniques and growing interest in the study of consumer reactions with influence of marketing stimuli a new interdisciplinary study has developed on a borderland of neuroscience, economic and psychological studies – neuromarketing. Despite a certain form of insecurity whether the brain imaging technologies provide useful information for control of marketing, more and more marketers identify with their application in conventional market research. The main aim of this contribution is to clarify the influence of a selected advertising spot on the final emotional state of consumers by researching a brain activity of respondents and activity of somatic nervous system, specifically the face expressions. Cortical brain activity was detected by 16channel wireless electroencephalograph by Epoc and changes of mimic muscles were monitored by a biometric device the Facereader by Noldus. The subject of the research is the dissonance of the selected neuroscience techniques with influence of chosen advertising emotional appeals like fear, disgust and sadness. In the end of our contribution, the way of using the neuroscience technology and psychology for detection of consumer emotional involvement of consumers is explained.

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