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Cognitive load is a critical internal state associated with learners' learning process and significantly influences learning outcomes. With the worldwide popularity of video‐based learning (VBL), tracking real‐time cognitive load variations becomes more and more important for the timely provision of adaptive learning support during the learning process. This study proposed and validated an electroencephalogram (EEG)‐supported approach to tracking real‐time cognitive load variations during continuous VBL. We recruited 108 healthy adult participants to watch a specially designed video lecture with a sequence of interconnected slides of equal length. EEG signals were continuously recorded throughout the session. The video lecture was designed with varying levels of content difficulty (ie, rated from 1 to 5) across slides and was narrated at three different speeds (ie, slow, normal and fast) to induce cognitive load variations. For each slide, the cognitive load was quantified using both subjective ratings (ie, self‐reported difficulty) and an EEG‐derived measure (ie, alpha power). Through linear mixed model analysis, we demonstrated the feasibility of using alpha power to track real‐time cognitive load variations during the continuous VBL process after controlling the effect of mental fatigue. This study provides a foundation for developing learning enhancement technologies that enable the timely provision of adaptive learning support in VBL. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Video‐based learning has become a prevailing learning method for the current generation. Tracking the internal learning state of learners is essential for the timely provision of adaptive learning support during the video‐based learning process. Cognitive load is a critical aspect of internal learning state. While EEG has been proven to be valuable in assessing average cognitive load of a task, few studies have investigated the feasibility of utilizing EEG to track real‐time cognitive load variations in a task. What this paper adds An EEG‐supported approach was proposed to track real‐time cognitive load variations in video‐based learning. A high consistency was found between subjective ratings and EEG‐derived measure of cognitive load. The presence of mental fatigue exerted a significant impact on EEG‐derived measure of cognitive load. Implications for practice and/or policy Generative AI can be leveraged to facilitate mass production of lectures required in the approach. Real‐time tracking of cognitive load variations in video‐based learning enables the timely provision of adaptive learning supports. Additional research is warranted to mitigate the effect of mental fatigue on real‐time tracking of cognitive load variations. What is already known about this topic Video‐based learning has become a prevailing learning method for the current generation. Tracking the internal learning state of learners is essential for the timely provision of adaptive learning support during the video‐based learning process. Cognitive load is a critical aspect of internal learning state. While EEG has been proven to be valuable in assessing average cognitive load of a task, few studies have investigated the feasibility of utilizing EEG to track real‐time cognitive load variations in a task. What this paper adds An EEG‐supported approach was proposed to track real‐time cognitive load variations in video‐based learning. A high consistency was found between subjective ratings and EEG‐derived measure of cognitive load. The presence of mental fatigue exerted a significant impact on EEG‐derived measure of cognitive load. Implications for practice and/or policy Generative AI can be leveraged to facilitate mass production of lectures required in the approach. Real‐time tracking of cognitive load variations in video‐based learning enables the timely provision of adaptive learning supports. Additional research is warranted to mitigate the effect of mental fatigue on real‐time tracking of cognitive load variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As evidence mounts that the cardiac-sympathetic nervous system reacts to challenging cognitive settings, we ask if these responses are epiphenomenal companions or if there is evidence suggesting a more intertwined role of this system with cognitive function. Healthy male and female human participants performed an approach-avoidance paradigm, trading off monetary reward for painful electric shock, while we recorded simultaneous electroencephalographic and cardiac-sympathetic signals. Participants were reward sensitive but also experienced approach-avoidance "conflict" when the subjective appeal of the reward was near equivalent to the revulsion of the cost. Drift-diffusion model parameters suggested that participants managed conflict in part by integrating larger volumes of evidence into choices (wider decision boundaries). Late alpha-band (neural) dynamics were consistent with widening decision boundaries serving to combat reward sensitivity and spread attention more fairly to all dimensions of available information. Independently, wider boundaries were also associated with cardiac "contractility" (an index of sympathetically mediated positive inotropy). We also saw evidence of conflict-specific "collaboration" between the neural and cardiac-sympathetic signals. In states of high conflict, the alignment (i.e., product) of alpha dynamics and contractility were associated with a further widening of the boundary, independent of either signal's singular association. Cross-trial coherence analyses provided additional evidence that the autonomic systems controlling cardiac-sympathetics might influence the assessment of information streams during conflict by disrupting or overriding reward processing. We conclude that cardiac-sympathetic control might play a critical role, in collaboration with cognitive processes, during the approach-avoidance conflict in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electroencephalographic (EEG) microstates can provide a unique window into the temporal dynamics of large-scale brain networks across brief (millisecond) timescales. Here, we analysed fundamental temporal features of microstates extracted from the broadband EEG signal in a large (N = 139) cohort of children spanning early-to-middle childhood (4-12 years of age). Linear regression models were used to examine if participants age and biological sex could predict the temporal parameters GEV, duration, coverage, and occurrence, for five microstate classes (A-E) across both eyes-closed and eyes-open resting-state recordings. We further explored associations between these microstate parameters and posterior alpha power after removal of the 1/f-like aperiodic signal. The microstates obtained from our neurodevelopmental EEG recordings broadly replicated the four canonical microstate classes (A to D) frequently reported in adults, with the addition of the more recently established microstate class E. Biological sex served as a significant predictor in the regression models for four of the five microstate classes (A, C, D, and E). In addition, duration and occurrence for microstate E were both found to be positively associated with age for the eyes-open recordings, while the temporal parameters of microstates C and E both exhibited associations with alpha band spectral power. Together, these findings highlight the influence of age and sex on large-scale functional brain networks during early-to-middle childhood, extending understanding of neural dynamics across this important period for brain development.

Xiao-Meng Xie,1 Sha Sha,1 Hong Cai,2 Xinyu Liu,1 Isadora Jiang,3 Ling Zhang,1 Gang Wang1 1The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders Beijing Anding Hospital & the Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Capital Medical University, School of Mental Health, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Unit of Medical Psychology and Behavior Medicine, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China; 3Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USACorrespondence: Gang Wang, Beijing Anding Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, Email gangwangdoc@gmail.comBackground: Major depressive disorder (MDD) becomes one of the psychiatric disorders characteristic of a combination of cognitive, emotional, and somatic symptoms. Additionally, cognitive impairment has the most significant impact on functional results. However, the evaluation of cognitive level is still based on various subjective questionnaires as there is no objective standard assessment yet. This research focuses on resting-state alpha activity to identify cognition in MDD patients using electroencephalography (EEG) signals.Methods: Ninety-two subjects were recruited: 44 patients with MDD and 48 healthy individuals as controls. Functional outcome and cognition were assessed using standardized instruments, and the EEG resting state signal of open and closed eyes was recorded. The comparison and correlation of cognitive levels with alpha power in the bilateral frontal region, bilateral central region, bilateral occipital region, and middle line was evaluated.Results: The relative alpha power in MDD group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05). Through correlation analysis, it was shown that the bilateral frontal and occipital alpha power of MDD patients in the closed-eyes state was positively correlated with information processing rate, verbal learning, working memory, and attention retention. The alpha power of the bilateral frontal region in the open-eyes state was positively correlated with information processing rate, working memory, and attention retention (P < 0.05).Conclusion: The research indicates that the changes in frontal and occipital alpha activities may be a promising neurophysiological indicator of cognitive level to diagnose and treat response prediction.Keywords: major depressive disorder, MDD, EEG, alpha power, cognition impairment

Objective Method Results Conclusion The traditional research on evaluating psychological interventions has primarily relied on behavioural measurements (e.g. self‐report questionnaires). This study aimed to investigate the effects of child‐centred play therapy (CCPT) on autistic children at both behavioural and neural levels, as well as the association between the changes in neural and behavioural measurements induced by CCPT. It is hypothesised that alpha power would increase after CCPT, along with improvements in social responsiveness, adaptive social behaviour and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) social symptom measures and that these changes would be correlated across participants.A total of 65 autistic children were randomly assigned to a CCPT experimental group (n = 34; M age = 7.50) or a waitlist control group (n = 31; M age = 7.47). Electroencephalography (EEG) alpha power and behavioural data were recorded during pre‐ and post‐intervention assessment sessions. The behavioural measurements included the Social Responsiveness Scale‐2, Autism Spectrum Quotient—Child (social skill subscale) and Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System‐II (social domain). t‐Tests and correlational analyses were conducted to examine the CCPT effects and brain–behaviour associations.The results confirmed the effects of CCPT at both neural and behavioural levels and the association between these two levels across participants. Specifically, individuals with larger increases in alpha power after CCPT also showed greater behavioural improvement.This study marks an initial endeavour, providing the first cross‐validation of CCPT effects on autistic children by demonstrating the brain–behaviour association. This approach advances the understanding of the therapeutic intervention effects of CCPT by presenting its multilevel impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work has indicated that individual differences in cognitive performance can be predicted by characteristics of resting state oscillations, such as individual peak alpha frequency (IAF). Although IAF has previously been correlated with cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, or mental speed, its link to cognitive conflict processing remains unexplored. The current work investigated the relationship between IAF and inhibitory cognitive control in two well‐established conflict tasks, Stroop and Navon task, while also controlling for alpha power, theta power, and the 1/f offset of aperiodic broadband activity. In Bayesian analyses on a large sample of 127 healthy participants, we found substantial evidence against the assumption that IAF predicts individual abilities to spontaneously exert cognitive control. Similarly, our findings yielded substantial evidence against links between cognitive control and resting state power in the alpha and theta bands or between cognitive control and aperiodic 1/f offset. In sum, our results challenge frameworks suggesting that an individual's ability to spontaneously engage attentional control networks may be mirrored in resting state EEG characteristics. In the first work investigating the relationship between individual peak alpha frequency (IAF) and two classical conflict tasks (Stroop and Navon task), we demonstrate that individual differences in cognitive control are not related to IAF nor to other oscillatory or aperiodic aspects of the resting state EEG signal. We complement and challenge previous findings suggesting IAF as a neurophysiological indicator of general human performance functions and cognitive control specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: During general anesthesia, frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) activity in the alpha frequency band (8-12 Hz) correlates with the adequacy of analgesia. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and auditory stimulation, two noninvasive neuromodulation techniques, can entrain alpha activity in awake or sleeping patients. This study evaluates their effects on alpha oscillations in patients under general anesthesia. Methods: 30 patients receiving general anesthesia for surgery were enrolled in this two-by-two randomized clinical trial. Each participant received active or sham tDCS followed by auditory stimulation or silence according to assigned group (TDCS/AUD, TDCS/SIL, SHAM/AUD, SHAM/SIL). Frontal EEG was recorded before and after neuromodulation. Patients with burst suppression, mid-study changes in anesthetic, or incomplete EEG recordings were excluded from analysis. The primary outcome was post-stimulation change in oscillatory alpha power, compared in each intervention group against the change in the control group SHAM/SIL by Wilcoxon Rank Sum testing. Results: All 30 enrolled participants completed the study. Of the 22 included for analysis, 8 were in TDCS/AUD, 4 were in TDCS/SIL, 5 were in SHAM/AUD, and 5 were in SHAM/SIL. The median change in oscillatory alpha power was +4.7 dB (IQR 4.4, 5.8 dB) in SHAM/SIL, +2.8 dB (IQR 1.5, 8.9 dB) in TDCS/SIL (p = 0.730), +5.5 dB in SHAM/AUD (p=0.421), and-6.1 dB (IQR -10.2, -2.2dB) inTDCS/AUD(p=0.045). Conclusion: tDCS and auditory stimulation can be administered safely intraoperatively. However, these interventions did not increase alpha power as administered and measured in this pilot study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A large proportion of stroke survivors suffer from sensory loss, negatively impacting their independence, quality of life, and neurorehabilitation prognosis. Despite the high prevalence of somatosensory impairments, our understanding of somatosensory interventions such as sensory electrical stimulation (SES) in neurorehabilitation is limited. We aimed to study the effectiveness of SES combined with a sensory discrimination task in a well-controlled virtual environment in healthy participants, setting a foundation for its potential application in stroke rehabilitation. We employed electroencephalography (EEG) to gain a better understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms and dynamics associated with sensory training and SES. We conducted a single-session experiment with 26 healthy participants who explored a set of three visually identical virtual textures—haptically rendered by a robotic device and that differed in their spatial period—while physically guided by the robot to identify the odd texture. The experiment consisted of three phases: pre-intervention, intervention, and post-intervention. Half the participants received subthreshold whole-hand SES during the intervention, while the other half received sham stimulation. We evaluated changes in task performance—assessed by the probability of correct responses—before and after intervention and between groups. We also evaluated differences in the exploration behavior, e.g., scanning speed. EEG was employed to examine the effects of the intervention on brain activity, particularly in the alpha frequency band (8–13 Hz) associated with sensory processing. We found that participants in the SES group improved their task performance after intervention and their scanning speed during and after intervention, while the sham group did not improve their task performance. However, the differences in task performance improvements between groups only approached significance. Furthermore, we found that alpha power was sensitive to the effects of SES; participants in the stimulation group exhibited enhanced brain signals associated with improved touch sensitivity likely due to the effects of SES on the central nervous system, while the increase in alpha power for the sham group was less pronounced. Our findings suggest that SES enhances texture discrimination after training and has a positive effect on sensory-related brain areas. Further research involving brain-injured patients is needed to confirm the potential benefit of our solution in neurorehabilitation.

A large proportion of stroke survivors suffer from sensory loss, negatively impacting their independence, quality of life, and neurorehabilitation prognosis. Despite the high prevalence of somatosensory impairments, our understanding of somatosensory interventions such as sensory electrical stimulation (SES) in neurorehabilitation is limited. We aimed to study the effectiveness of SES combined with a sensory discrimination task in a well-controlled virtual environment in healthy participants, setting a foundation for its potential application in stroke rehabilitation. We employed electroencephalography (EEG) to gain a better understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms and dynamics associated with sensory training and SES. We conducted a single-session experiment with 26 healthy participants who explored a set of three visually identical virtual textures—haptically rendered by a robotic device and that differed in their spatial period—while physically guided by the robot to identify the odd texture. The experiment consisted of three phases: pre-intervention, intervention, and post-intervention. Half the participants received subthreshold whole-hand SES during the intervention, while the other half received sham stimulation. We evaluated changes in task performance—assessed by the probability of correct responses—before and after intervention and between groups. We also evaluated differences in the exploration behavior, e.g., scanning speed. EEG was employed to examine the effects of the intervention on brain activity, particularly in the alpha frequency band (8–13 Hz) associated with sensory processing. We found that participants in the SES group improved their task performance after intervention and their scanning speed during and after intervention, while the sham group did not improve their task performance. However, the differences in task performance improvements between groups only approached significance. Furthermore, we found that alpha power was sensitive to the effects of SES; participants in the stimulation group exhibited enhanced brain signals associated with improved touch sensitivity likely due to the effects of SES on the central nervous system, while the increase in alpha power for the sham group was less pronounced. Our findings suggest that SES enhances texture discrimination after training and has a positive effect on sensory-related brain areas. Further research involving brain-injured patients is needed to confirm the potential benefit of our solution in neurorehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memories of painful events constitute the basis for assessing patients' pain. This study explores the brain oscillatory activity during short‐term memorization of a nociceptive stimulus. High‐density EEG activity (128 electrodes) was recorded in 13 healthy subjects during a match‐to‐sample sensory discrimination task, whereby participants compared the intensity of a thumb‐located electric shock (S2) with a prior stimulus to the same location (S1) delivered 8–10 s earlier. Stimuli were above or below the individual nociceptive threshold. EEG activity with intracortical source localization via LORETA source reconstruction was analysed during the inter‐stimuli period and contrasted with a non‐memory‐related control task. The inter‐stimulus memorization phase was characterized by a focal alpha‐activity enhancement, significant during the nociceptive condition only, which progressed from bilateral occipital regions (cuneus and mid‐occipital gyri) during the first encoding—memorization phase towards the right‐superior and right mid‐temporal gyri during the 2–4 s immediately preceding S2. Initial alpha enhancement in occipital areas/cuneus is consistent with rapid non‐specific inhibition of task‐irrelevant visual processing during initial stimulus encoding. Its transfer to the right‐temporal regions was concomitant to the temporary upholding of the stimulus perceptual representation, previous to receiving S2, and suggests an active and local blockade of external interferences while these regions actively maintain internal information. These results add to a growing field indicating that alpha oscillations, while indicating local inhibitory processes, can also indirectly reveal active stimulus handling, including maintenance in short‐term memory buffers, by objectivizing the filtering out of irrelevant and potentially disrupting inputs in brain regions engaged in internally driven operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alpha power modulations and slow negative potentials have previously been associated with anticipatory processes in spatial and temporal top‐down attention. In typical experimental designs, however, neural responses triggered by transient stimulus onsets can interfere with attention‐driven activity patterns and our interpretation of such. Here, we investigated these signatures of spatio‐temporal attention in a dynamic paradigm free from potentially confounding stimulus‐driven activity using electroencephalography. Participants attended the cued side of a bilateral stimulus rotation and mentally counted how often one of two remembered sample orientations (i.e., the target) was displayed while ignoring the uncued side and non‐target orientation. Afterwards, participants performed a delayed match‐to‐sample task, in which they indicated if the orientation of a probe stimulus matched the corresponding sample orientation (previously target or non‐target). We observed dynamic alpha power reductions and slow negative waves around task‐relevant points in space and time (i.e., onset of the target orientation in the cued hemifield) over posterior electrodes contralateral to the locus of attention. In contrast to static alpha power lateralization, these dynamic signatures correlated with subsequent memory performance (primarily detriments for matching probes of the non‐target orientation), suggesting a preferential allocation of attention to task‐relevant locations and time points at the expense of reduced resources and impaired performance for information outside the current focus of attention. Our findings suggest that humans can naturally and dynamically focus their attention at relevant points in space and time and that such spatio‐temporal attention shifts can be reflected by dynamic alpha power modulations and slow negative potentials. Psychophysiological processes like spatio‐temporal top‐down attention and its underlying neural signatures rarely operate in isolation and can thus be easily confounded by secondary processes like stimulus‐triggered neural activity inherent to traditional research designs. Here, we used a dynamic paradigm free from such interference to reveal previously hidden and behaviorally relevant dynamics of alpha power and slow negative potentials, thereby providing a significant contribution to our knowledge about these key signatures of spatio‐temporal top‐down attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is one of the most common inherited causes of intellectual disabilities. While there is currently no cure for FXS, EEG is considered an important method to investigate the pathophysiology and evaluate behavioral and cognitive treatments. We conducted EEG microstate analysis to investigate resting brain dynamics in FXS participants. Resting-state recordings from 70 FXS participants and 71 chronological age-matched typically developing control (TDC) participants were used to derive microstates via modified k-means clustering. The occurrence, mean global field power (GFP), and global explained variance (GEV) of microstate C were significantly higher in the FXS group compared to the TDC group. The mean GFP was significantly negatively correlated with non-verbal IQ (NVIQ) in the FXS group, where lower NVIQ scores were associated with greater GFP. In addition, the occurrence, mean duration, mean GFP, and GEV of microstate D were significantly greater in the FXS group than the TDC group. The mean GFP and occurrence of microstate D were also correlated with individual alpha frequencies in the FXS group, where lower IAF frequencies accompanied greater microstate GFP and occurrence. Alterations in microstates C and D may be related to the two well-established cognitive characteristics of FXS, intellectual disabilities and attention impairments, suggesting that microstate parameters could serve as markers to study cognitive impairments and evaluate treatment outcomes in this population. Slowing of the alpha peak frequency and its correlation to microstate D parameters may suggest changes in thalamocortical dynamics in FXS, which could be specifically related to attention control. (250 words) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Humor stands out as the most dynamic and innovative aspect of human intelligence. Drawing on the cognitive parallels between humor and creativity, this study explored the EEG alpha frequency band activity patterns during humor generation by comparing the process of generating humorous and creative ideas. (2) Methods: Thirty-six participants were randomly assigned to either the humor generation group or the creative generation group, and the dependent variable was the neural oscillation in both low-frequency and high-frequency alpha during the early, middle, and late stages of both humor and creative generation. (3) Results: In the early stages, both humor and creative generation exhibited significantly higher power in low-frequency alpha and high-frequency alpha in the temporal region compared to the middle and late stages. In the middle and late stages, the low-frequency alpha oscillation in the frontal region for humor generation was significantly higher than that for creative generation. (4) Conclusions: Humor and creative generation share similar neural activation patterns in the early stages, involving the activation and retrieval of long-term memory information based on contextual cues. The differences between the two primarily manifest in the middle and late stages, where the selection of humorous ideas requires inhibiting not only irrelevant or ordinary ideas, akin to creative generation but also novel yet non-humorous ideas. This study sheds light on the neurocognitive mechanisms of humor generation and provides insights into the cognitive parallels and distinctions between humor generation and creative generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested predictions deriving from the "Pleasure-Interest Model of Aesthetic Liking" (PIA Model), whereby aesthetic preferences arise from two fluency-based processes: an initial automatic, percept-driven default process and a subsequent perceiver-driven reflective process. One key trigger for reflective processing is stimulus complexity. Moreover, if meaning can be derived from such complexity, then this can engender increased interest and elevated liking. Experiment 1 involved graffiti street-art images, pre-normed to elicit low, moderate and high levels of interest. Subjective reports indicated a predicted enhancement in liking across increasing interest levels. Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings during image viewing revealed different patterns of alpha power in temporal brain regions across interest levels. Experiment 2 enforced a brief initial image-viewing stage and a subsequent reflective image-viewing stage. Differences in alpha power arose in most EEG channels between the initial and deliberative viewing stages. A linear increase in aesthetic liking was again seen across interest levels, with different patterns of alpha activity in temporal and occipital regions across these levels. Overall, the phenomenological data support the PIA Model, while the physiological data suggest that enhanced aesthetic liking might be associated with "flow-feelings" indexed by alpha activity in brain regions linked to visual attention and reducing distraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionDuring general anesthesia, frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) activity in the alpha frequency band (8–12 Hz) correlates with the adequacy of analgesia. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and auditory stimulation, two noninvasive neuromodulation techniques, can entrain alpha activity in awake or sleeping patients. This study evaluates their effects on alpha oscillations in patients under general anesthesia.Methods30 patients receiving general anesthesia for surgery were enrolled in this two-by-two randomized clinical trial. Each participant received active or sham tDCS followed by auditory stimulation or silence according to assigned group (TDCS/AUD, TDCS/SIL, SHAM/AUD, SHAM/SIL). Frontal EEG was recorded before and after neuromodulation. Patients with burst suppression, mid-study changes in anesthetic, or incomplete EEG recordings were excluded from analysis. The primary outcome was post-stimulation change in oscillatory alpha power, compared in each intervention group against the change in the control group SHAM/SIL by Wilcoxon Rank Sum testing.ResultsAll 30 enrolled participants completed the study. Of the 22 included for analysis, 8 were in TDCS/AUD, 4 were in TDCS/SIL, 5 were in SHAM/AUD, and 5 were in SHAM/SIL. The median change in oscillatory alpha power was +4.7 dB (IQR 4.4, 5.8 dB) in SHAM/SIL, +2.8 dB (IQR 1.5, 8.9 dB) in TDCS/SIL (p = 0.730), +5.5 dB in SHAM/AUD (p = 0.421), and -6.1 dB (IQR -10.2, -2.2 dB) in TDCS/AUD (p = 0.045).ConclusiontDCS and auditory stimulation can be administered safely intraoperatively. However, these interventions did not increase alpha power as administered and measured in this pilot study.

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate alpha power in successful and unsuccessful free throws of elite and novice basketball players.Methods: The current research was quasi-experimental and was implemented in a time series design. Two Elite (10 participants with a mean age of 22.25 ± 1.34) and Novice (10 participants with a mean age of 22.55 ± 1.80) groups participated voluntarily. The data were measured using 28 electrodes from a 32-channel wireless device and were analyzed using the repeated measures analysis of variance test (p≥0.05).Results: The alpha power of the elite group was higher than the novice group (P=0.001). The successful throws showed lower alpha power than unsuccessful throws (P=0.006). In the comparison of the two groups, the alpha power in the unsuccessful throws of the elite group was higher than in their successful throws (p=0.001), but no difference was observed between the alpha power of the successful and unsuccessful throws of the novice group (p=0.584). The alpha power during the execution time of the free throw task was higher than the pre-execution time (p

Accurate interpretation of the emotional information conveyed by others' facial expressions is crucial for social interactions. Event‐related alpha power, measured by time‐frequency analysis, is a frequently used EEG index of emotional information processing. However, it is still unclear how event‐related alpha power varies in emotional information processing in social anxiety groups. In the present study, we recorded event‐related potentials (ERPs) while participants from the social anxiety and healthy control groups viewed facial expressions (angry, happy, neutral) preceded by contextual sentences conveying either a positive or negative evaluation of the subject. The impact of context on facial expression processing in both groups of participants was explored by assessing behavioral ratings and event‐related alpha power (0–200 ms after expression presentation). In comparison to the healthy control group, the social anxiety group exhibited significantly lower occipital alpha power in response to angry facial expressions in negative contexts and neutral facial expressions in positive contexts. The influence of language context on facial expression processing in individuals with social anxiety may occur at an early stage of processing. The study investigated context‐influenced facial expression processing in individuals with social anxiety, revealing lower occipital alpha power for angry expressions in negative contexts and neutral expressions in positive contexts, compared to healthy controls. Our findings provide strong evidence for the early‐stage impact of context on facial expression processing in individuals with social anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human brain is in distinct processing modes at different times. Specifically, a distinction can be made between encoding and retrieval modes, which refer to the brain's state when it is storing new information or searching for old information, respectively. Recent research proposed the idea of a "ready‐to‐encode" mode, which describes a prestimulus effect in brain activity that signals (external) attention to encoding and predicts subsequent memory performance. Whether there is also a corresponding "ready‐to‐retrieve" mode in human brain activity is currently unclear. In this study, we examined whether prestimulus oscillations can be linked to (internal) attention to retrieval. We show that task cues to prepare for retrieval (or testing) in comparison with restudy of previously studied vocabulary word pairs led to a significant decrease of prestimulus alpha power just before the onset of word stimuli. Beamformer analysis localized this effect in the right secondary visual cortex (Brodmann area 18). Correlation analysis showed that the task cue‐induced, prestimulus alpha power effect is positively related to stimulus‐induced alpha/beta power, which in turn predicted participants' memory performance. The results are consistent with the idea that prestimulus alpha power signals internal attention to retrieval, which promotes the elaborative processing of episodic memories. Future research on brain‐computer interfaces may find the findings interesting regarding the potential of using online measures of fluctuating alpha oscillations to trigger the presentation and sequencing of restudy and testing trials, ultimately enhancing instructional learning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Response inhibition is an important instance of cognitive control and can be complicated by perceptual conflict. The neurophysiological mechanisms underlying these processes are still not understood. Especially the relationship between neural processes directly preceding cognitive control (proactive control) and processes underlying cognitive control (reactive control) has not been examined although there should be close links. In the current study, we investigate these aspects in a sample of N = 50 healthy adults. Time‐frequency and beamforming approaches were applied to analyze the interrelation of brain states before (pre‐trial) and during (within‐trial) cognitive control. The behavioral data replicate a perceptual conflict‐dependent modulation of response inhibition. During the pre‐trial period, insular, inferior frontal, superior temporal, and precentral alpha activity was positively correlated with theta activity in the same regions and the superior frontal gyrus. Additionally, participants with a stronger pre‐trial alpha activity in the primary motor cortex showed a stronger (within‐trial) conflict effect in the theta band in the primary motor cortex. This theta conflict effect was further related to a stronger theta conflict effect in the midcingulate cortex until the end of the trial. The temporal cascade of these processes suggests that successful proactive preparation (anticipatory information gating) entails a stronger reactive processing of the conflicting stimulus information likely resulting in a realization of the need to adapt the current action plan. The results indicate that theta and alpha band activity share and transfer aspects of information when it comes to the interrelationship between proactive and reactive control during conflict‐modulated motor inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate alpha power in successful and unsuccessful free throws of elite and novice basketball players. Methods: The current research was quasi-experimental and was implemented in a time series design. Two Elite (10 participants with a mean age of 22.25 ± 1.34) and Novice (10 participants with a mean age of 22.55 ± 1.80) groups participated voluntarily. The data were measured using 28 electrodes from a 32-channel wireless device and were analyzed using the repeated measures analysis of variance test (p≥0.05). Results: The alpha power of the elite group was higher than the novice group (P=0.001). The successful throws showed lower alpha power than unsuccessful throws (P=0.006). In the comparison of the two groups, the alpha power in the unsuccessful throws of the elite group was higher than in their successful throws (p=0.001), but no difference was observed between the alpha power of the successful and unsuccessful throws of the novice group (p=0.584). The alpha power during the execution time of the free throw task was higher than the pre-execution time (p<0.005), but there was no difference between the first and second pre-execution times (p=1.000). The results of the present study showed that the elite group had higher cortical activity than the novice group in all electrodes (p<0.001). Conclusion: The findings show that the elite group performed the task with less cortical complexity by inhibiting irrelevant information. In addition, the decrease in alpha power in successful throws indicates an increase in activation of cerebral cortex and an increase in concentration, so that the task can be performed with fewer neural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: According to the theory of sensitivity to reinforcement, behavioral differences of people in sensitivity to reward and avoidance of punishment are the basis of stable personality, mood, and mental and cognitive differences. People with a behavioral inhibition system turn to defense, inhibition, and avoidance when faced with a threatening situation. Another group of behavioral activation systems is looking for positive motivations. Reward-sensitive people tend to drive, make risky decisions, and engage in risky health behaviors. Based on this, there is a research gap in the field of using neurophysiology methods in determining behavioral activation and inhibition systems and possibly the relationship between alpha power and activation of behavioral brain systems and a model that can predict the type of behavioral brain system of people. Aims: Considering the research gap, this study is designed and implemented with the aim of providing a neurophysiology method to determine the behavioral brain systems based on the data obtained from the electroencephalography analysis of people. Methods: The research method is correlational and based on regression equation modeling. A sample of 300 students of the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology of Tabriz University were randomly screened using Carver and Wright's questionnaire (1994) and 15 subjects were assigned to the activation group and another 15 subjects were assigned to the behavioral inhibition group. The selection criterion was to obtain a score of more than one standard deviation higher than the average in inhibition and activation scores. Brain waves were recorded with a 19-channel Norscan amplifier based on the international 10-20 system. Results: The statistical analysis of the results showed that the average alpha power in two groups with different behavioral core systems is statistically significant (p

IntroductionAgainst the background of demographic change and the need for enhancement techniques for an aging society, we set out to repeat a study that utilized 40-Hz transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to counteract the slowdown of reaction times in a vigilance experiment but with participants aged 65 years and older. On an oscillatory level, vigilance decrement is linked to rising occipital alpha power, which has been shown to be downregulated using gamma-tACS.MethodWe applied tACS on the visual cortex and compared reaction times, error rates, and alpha power of a group stimulated with 40 Hz to a sham and a 5-Hz-stimulated control group. All groups executed two 30-min-long blocks of a visual task and were stimulated according to group in the second block. We hypothesized that the expected increase in reaction times and alpha power would be reduced in the 40-Hz group compared to the control groups in the second block (INTERVENTION).ResultsStatistical analysis with linear mixed models showed that reaction times increased significantly over time in the first block (BASELINE) with approximately 3 ms/min for the SHAM and 2 ms/min for the 5-Hz and 40-Hz groups, with no difference between the groups. The increase was less pronounced in the INTERVENTION block (1 ms/min for SHAM and 5-Hz groups, 3 ms/min for the 40-Hz group). Differences among groups in the INTERVENTION block were not significant if the 5-Hz or the 40-Hz group was used as the base group for the linear mixed model. Statistical analysis with a generalized linear mixed model showed that alpha power was significantly higher after the experiment (1.37 μV2) compared to before (1 μV2). No influence of stimulation (40 Hz, 5 Hz, or sham) could be detected.DiscussionAlthough the literature has shown that tACS offers potential for older adults, our results indicate that findings from general studies cannot simply be transferred to an old-aged group. We suggest adjusting stimulation parameters to the neurophysiological features expected in this group. Next to heterogeneity and cognitive fitness, the influence of motivation and medication should be considered.

Insomnia, often associated with anxiety and depression, is a prevalent sleep disorder. Biofeedback (BFB) treatment can help patients gain voluntary control over physiological events such as by utilizing electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) power. Previous studies have rarely predicted biofeedback efficacy by measuring the changes in relative EEG power; therefore, we investigated the clinical efficacy of biofeedback for insomnia and its potential neural mechanisms. We administered biofeedback to 82 patients with insomnia, of whom 68 completed 10 sessions and 14 completed 20 sessions. The average age of the participants was 49.38 ± 12.78 years, with 26 men and 56 women. Each biofeedback session consisted of 5 min of EMG and 30 min of EEG feedback, with 2 min of data recorded before and after the session. Sessions were conducted every other day, and four scale measures were taken before the first, fifth, and tenth sessions and after the twentieth session. After 20 sessions of biofeedback treatment, scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were significantly reduced compared with those before treatment (−5.5 ± 1.43,t = −3.85, p = 0.006), and scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) (−7.15 ± 2.43, t = −2.94, p = 0.012) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (STAI-S: −12.36 ± 3.40, t = −3.63, p = 0.003; and STAI-T: −9.86 ± 2.38, t = −4.41, p = 0.001) were significantly lower after treatment than before treatment. Beta and theta power were significantly reduced after treatment, compared with before treatment (F = 6.25, p = 0.014; and F = 11.91, p = 0.001). Alpha power was increased after treatment, compared with before treatment, but the difference was not prominently significant (p > 0.05). EMG activity was significantly decreased after treatment, compared with before treatment (F = 2.11, p = 0.015). Our findings suggest that BFB treatment based on alpha power and prefrontal EMG relieves insomnia as well as anxiety and depression and may be associated with increased alpha power, decreased beta and theta power, and decreased EMG power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alpha-band (8–12 Hz) event-related desynchronization (ERD) or a decrease in alpha power in electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG and MEG) reflects the involvement of a neural tissue in information processing. It is known that most children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in information processing, and, thus, investigation of alpha oscillations is of particular interest in this population. Previous studies have demonstrated alterations in this neural activity in individuals with ASD; however, little is known about alpha ERD during simultaneous presentation of auditory and visual stimuli in children with and without ASD. As alpha oscillations are intimately related to attention, and attention deficit is one of the common co-occurring conditions of ASD, we predict that children with ASD can have altered alpha ERD in one of the sensory domains. In the present study, we used MEG to investigate alpha ERD in groups of 20 children with ASD and 20 age-matched typically developing controls. Simple amplitude-modulated tones were presented together with a fixation cross appearing on the screen. The results showed that children with ASD had a bilateral reduction in alpha-band ERD in the auditory but not visual cortex. Moreover, alterations in the auditory cortex were associated with a higher presence of autistic traits measured in behavioral assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Cognitive impairment is common in multiple sclerosis (MS), significantly impacts daily functioning, is time‐consuming to assess, and is prone to practice effects. We examined whether the alpha band power measured with magnetoencephalography (MEG) is associated with the different cognitive domains affected by MS. Methods: Sixty‐eight MS patients and 47 healthy controls underwent MEG, T1‐ and FLAIR‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and neuropsychological testing. Alpha power in the occipital cortex was quantified in the alpha1 (8–10 Hz) and alpha2 (10–12 Hz) bands. Next, we performed best subset regression to assess the added value of neurophysiological measures to commonly available MRI measures. Results: Alpha2 power significantly correlated with information processing speed (p < 0.001) and was always retained in all multilinear models, whereas thalamic volume was retained in 80% of all models. Alpha1 power was correlated with visual memory (p < 0.001) but only retained in 38% of all models. Conclusions: Alpha2 (10–12 Hz) power in rest is associated with IPS, independent of standard MRI parameters. This study stresses that a multimodal assessment, including structural and functional biomarkers, is likely required to characterize cognitive impairment in MS. Resting‐state neurophysiology is thus a promising tool to understand and follow up changes in IPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Humor stands out as the most dynamic and innovative aspect of human intelligence. Drawing on the cognitive parallels between humor and creativity, this study explored the EEG alpha frequency band activity patterns during humor generation by comparing the process of generating humorous and creative ideas. (2) Methods: Thirty-six participants were randomly assigned to either the humor generation group or the creative generation group, and the dependent variable was the neural oscillation in both low-frequency and high-frequency alpha during the early, middle, and late stages of both humor and creative generation. (3) Results: In the early stages, both humor and creative generation exhibited significantly higher power in low-frequency alpha and high-frequency alpha in the temporal region compared to the middle and late stages. In the middle and late stages, the low-frequency alpha oscillation in the frontal region for humor generation was significantly higher than that for creative generation. (4) Conclusions: Humor and creative generation share similar neural activation patterns in the early stages, involving the activation and retrieval of long-term memory information based on contextual cues. The differences between the two primarily manifest in the middle and late stages, where the selection of humorous ideas requires inhibiting not only irrelevant or ordinary ideas, akin to creative generation but also novel yet non-humorous ideas. This study sheds light on the neurocognitive mechanisms of humor generation and provides insights into the cognitive parallels and distinctions between humor generation and creative generation.

The EEG alpha rhythm (∼ 8–13 Hz) is one of the most salient human brain activity rhythms, modulated by the level of attention and vigilance and related to cerebral energy metabolism. Spectral power in the alpha range in wakefulness and sleep strongly varies among individuals based on genetic predisposition. Knowledge about the underlying genes is scarce, yet small studies indicated that the variant rs5751876 of the gene encoding A2A adenosine receptors (ADORA2A) may contribute to the inter-individual variation. The neuromodulator adenosine is directly linked to energy metabolism as product of adenosine tri-phosphate breakdown and acts as a sleep promoting molecule by activating A1 and A2A adenosine receptors. We performed sleep and positron emission tomography studies in 59 healthy carriers of different rs5751876 alleles, and quantified EEG oscillatory alpha power in wakefulness and sleep, as well as A1 adenosine receptor availability with 18F-CPFPX. Oscillatory alpha power was higher in homozygous C-allele carriers (n = 27, 11 females) compared to heterozygous and homozygous carriers of the T-allele (n(C/T) = 23, n(T/T) = 5, 13 females) (F(18,37) = 2.35, p = 0.014, Wilk's Λ = 0.487). Furthermore, a modulatory effect of ADORA2A genotype on A1 adenosine receptor binding potential was found across all considered brain regions (F(18,40) = 2.62, p = 0.006, Wilk's Λ = 0.459), which remained significant for circumscribed occipital region of calcarine fissures after correction for multiple comparisons. In female participants, a correlation between individual differences in oscillatory alpha power and A1 receptor availability was observed. In conclusion, we confirmed that a genetic variant of ADORA2A affects individual alpha power, while a direct modulatory effect via A1 adenosine receptors in females is suggested.

Background: According to the theory of sensitivity to reinforcement, behavioral differences of people in sensitivity to reward and avoidance of punishment are the basis of stable personality, mood, and mental and cognitive differences. People with a behavioral inhibition system turn to defense, inhibition, and avoidance when faced with a threatening situation. Another group of behavioral activation systems is looking for positive motivations. Reward-sensitive people tend to drive, make risky decisions, and engage in risky health behaviors. Based on this, there is a research gap in the field of using neurophysiology methods in determining behavioral activation and inhibition systems and possibly the relationship between alpha power and activation of behavioral brain systems and a model that can predict the type of behavioral brain system of people. Aims: Considering the research gap, this study is designed and implemented with the aim of providing a neurophysiology method to determine the behavioral brain systems based on the data obtained from the electroencephalography analysis of people. Methods: The research method is correlational and based on regression equation modeling. A sample of 300 students of the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology of Tabriz University were randomly screened using Carver and Wright's questionnaire (1994) and 15 subjects were assigned to the activation group and another 15 subjects were assigned to the behavioral inhibition group. The selection criterion was to obtain a score of more than one standard deviation higher than the average in inhibition and activation scores. Brain waves were recorded with a 19-channel Norscan amplifier based on the international 10-20 system. Results: The statistical analysis of the results showed that the average alpha power in two groups with different behavioral core systems is statistically significant (p<0.05). In addition, the correlation between alpha power and behavioral brain systems was statistically significant at the p<0.05 level. Then, a model was determined using regression analysis, and the coefficients were significant at the p<0.01 level. Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that a linear regression model has been obtained. The model was able to significantly separate the behavioral inhibition group from the behavioral activation group. After confirmation with similar studies, the model can be used as a neurophysiological tool in business centers for employment, as well as in counseling, psychotherapy, and psychiatric clinics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • EEG alpha patterns of malevolent creativity mirror conventional creative ideation. • Time-related activity changes during malevolent creativity were observed. • Early frontal alpha increases may reflect conceptual expansion to antisocial ideas. • Mid-stage temporal alpha increases may indicate remote associations of novel harm. • Right-lateralized activity may signal the emotional load of malevolent ideas. On the dark side of creativity, creative ideation is intentionally used to damage others. This first electroencephalogram (EEG) study on malevolent creativity investigated task-related power (TRP) changes in the alpha band while n = 89 participants (52 women, 37 men) generated original ideas for revenge in the psychometric Malevolent Creativity Test. TRP changes were assessed for different stages of the idea generation process and linked to performance indicators of malevolent creativity. This study revealed three crucial findings: 1) Malevolent creativity yielded topographically distinct alpha power increases similar to conventional creative ideation. 2) Time-related activity changes during malevolent creative ideation were reflected in early prefrontal and mid-stage temporal alpha power increases in individuals with higher malevolent creativity performance. This performance-related, time-sensitive pattern of TRP changes during malevolent creativity may reflect early conceptual expansion from prosocial to antisocial perspectives, and subsequent inhibition of dominant semantic associations in favor of novel revenge ideas. 3) The observed, right-lateralized alpha power increases over the entire ideation phase may denote an additional emotional load of creative ideation. Our study highlights the seminal role of EEG alpha oscillations as a biomarker for creativity, also when creative processes operate in a malevolent context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a novel practical strategy to emulate a reactor scenario on present tokamak experiments is presented. A recipe how to scale several relevant parameters from a hypothetical reactor scenario down to present devices is discussed. Equivalence between the energy flux channels is detailed, and the practical actuation scheme is presented. The application of the proposed protocol on the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak is shown foremost using the virtual flight simulator Fenix, with practical experiments planned for future campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a relaxed and awake state with the eyes closed, 8–12 Hz neural oscillations are the dominant rhythm, most prominent in parietal‐occipital regions. Resting‐state (RS) alpha is associated with processing speed and is also thought to be central to how networks process information. Unfortunately, the RS eyes‐closed (EC) exam can only be used with individuals who can remain awake with their eyes closed for an extended period. As such, infants, toddlers, and individuals with intellectual disabilities are usually excluded from RS alpha studies. Previous research suggests obtaining RS alpha measures in a dark room with the eyes open as a viable alternative to the traditional RS EC exam. To further explore this, RS EC and RS dark room (DR) eyes‐open alpha activity was recorded using magnetoencephalography in children with typical development (TD; N = 37) and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; N = 30) 6.9–12.6 years old. Findings showed good reliability for the RS EC and DR peak alpha frequency (frequency with strongest alpha power; interclass correlation (ICC) = 0.83). ICCs for posterior alpha power were slightly lower (ICCs in the 0.70 s), with an ~ 5% reduction in posterior alpha power in the DR than EC condition. No differences in the EC and DR associations were observed between the TD and ASD groups. Finally, age was associated with both EC and DR peak alpha frequency. Findings thus indicate the DR exam as a viable way to obtain RS alpha measures in populations frequently excluded from electrophysiology RS studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have demonstrated that motor imagery leads to desynchronization in the alpha rhythm within the contralateral primary motor cortex. However, the underlying electrophysiological mechanisms responsible for this desynchronization during motor imagery remain unclear. To examine this question, we conducted an investigation using EEG in combination with noninvasive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) during index finger abduction (ABD) and power grip imaginations. The TMS was administered employing diverse coil orientations to selectively stimulate corticospinal axons, aiming to target both early and late synaptic inputs to corticospinal neurons. TMS was triggered based on the alpha power levels, categorized in 20th percentile bins, derived from the individual alpha power distribution during the imagined tasks of ABD and power grip. Our analysis revealed negative correlations between alpha power and motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude, as well as positive correlations with MEP latency across all coil orientations for each imagined task. Furthermore, we conducted functional network analysis in the alpha band to explore network connectivity during imagined index finger abduction and power grip tasks. Our findings indicate that network connections were denser in the fronto-parietal area during imagined ABD compared to power grip conditions. Moreover, the functional network properties demonstrated potential for effectively classifying between these two imagined tasks. These results provide functional evidence supporting the hypothesis that alpha oscillations may play a role in suppressing MEP amplitude and latency during imagined power grip. We propose that imagined ABD and power grip tasks may activate different populations and densities of axons at the cortical level.

PURPOSE The quiet eye (QE) is defined as the final fixation time that is a specific target prior to initiating movement. This study aimed to identify the cause of QE in golf putting and to present an efficient practice method for improving putting skills. METHODS Thirty participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Each group practiced golf putting in different ways for two days. RESULTS The QE group showed a significant difference in putting scores, which was higher than that of the control group. The visual-occlusion group showed no difference compared to the other groups in terms of putting scores. The QE group showed a significant difference in terms of QE in the retention and competition tests compared to the pretest. The control group tended to have a slightly longer QE in competition tests compared to the pretest. The visualocclusion group showed no statistically significant difference in QE based on the period. All three groups had significantly longer swing times over the selected period. There was no significant difference in terms of the alpha power of the occipital lobe based on group and period. CONCLUSIONS The position of the visual-occlusion group became stable. However, the QE did not lengthen. The QE group had a longer QE. Furthermore, the control group that practiced with their eyes open tended to have longer QE. Therefore, QE may be related to visual-based cognitive processing rather than posturalkinematics. Finally, this study proved that QE practice is a more efficient method for novices in golf putting.

The goal of this study was to examine the effect of hearing loss on theta and alpha electroencephalography (EEG) frequency power measures of performance monitoring and cognitive inhibition, respectively, during a speech-in-noise task. It was hypothesized that hearing loss would be associated with an increase in the peak power of theta and alpha frequencies toward easier conditions compared to normal hearing adults. The shift would reflect how hearing loss modulates the recruitment of listening effort to easier listening conditions. Nine older adults with normal hearing (ONH) and 10 older adults with hearing loss (OHL) participated in this study. EEG data were collected from all participants while they completed the words-in-noise task. It hypothesized that hearing loss would also have an effect on theta and alpha power. The ONH group showed an inverted U -shape effect of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), but there were limited effects of SNR on theta or alpha power in the OHL group. The results of the ONH group support the growing body of literature showing effects of listening conditions on alpha and theta power. The null results of listening condition in the OHL group add to a smaller body of literature, suggesting that listening effort research conditions should have near ceiling performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to investigate the alpha (α) activity in operators experiencing boredom while performing prolonged monitoring and prospective memory tasks using different processing mechanisms. Fifty-four participants underwent electroencephalography (EEG) and were found to have poorer prospective memory performance under top-down conditions. Further, α power and synchronisation were higher during bottom-up than in top-down processes, revealing an inhibition effect of the former. Significant differences in brain regions and hemispheres were identified to distinguish different cognitive processes in both information-processing mechanisms. Thus, people are likely to cope with boredom differently in terms of top-down and bottom-up processes. Specifically, a higher attention level was reported during top-down processing, to mitigate the negative influences of boredom. Overall, this study provides EEG evidence which suggests that prospective memory can be enhanced in top-down processing during prolonged monitoring tasks by increasing the salience of cues. Boredom is a growing problem as tasks requiring monitoring increase. We explored how people process information to perform prospective memory tasks while monitoring. The prospective memory was poorer during top-down processing, but stronger cortical activation indicated an inhibitory effect on inattention. Information-processing mechanisms are suggested for designing boredom interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Several studies have continuously investigated FFRs using binaural beat (BB) stimulations and their related effects. However, only a few studies have investigated the differences in BB stimulation effects according to basic demographic characteristics, such as gender and age. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the alpha wave activity after a 10-Hz BB stimulation and subsequently identify differences according to gender across all brain areas (frontal, central, parietal, temporal, and occipital areas). METHODS: A total of 23 healthy adults (11 male and 12 female), aged 20–29, participated in the study. For the 10-Hz BB stimulation, pure tone auditory stimuli of 250 and 260 Hz were given to the left and right ear, respectively. Through a power spectrum analysis of the phase-excluding BBs (non-BBs) and phase-including 10-Hz BBs (α -BBs), the alpha power at each brain area was estimated. These values were compared using a mixed-design ANOVA. RESULTS: With the exception of the temporal area, all other brain areas showed a significant increase in alpha power for α -BBs compared to those of non-BBs. However, the difference according to gender was not significant. CONCLUSION: The results indicated the lack of gender effects in alpha wave generation through a 10-Hz BB stimulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aim: The same neural processes may govern older people's motor and cognitive abilities since an inability to switch between actions develops with aging. In this study, a dexterity test was used to measure motor and cognitive perseverance, which required participants to move their fingers fast and correctly on hole boards. Materials and Methods: An electroencephalography (EEG) recording was used to evaluate how healthy young and older adults process brain signals when performing the test. Results: A significant difference was found between the young and older groups in the average time taken to complete the test, with the older group taking 87.4 s and the young group taking 55.21 s. During motor movement, young participants showed alpha desynchronization over the cortex (Fz, Cz, Oz, Pz, T5, T6, P3, P4) in comparison to the resting state. However, compared to the younger group, no alpha desynchronization was found in the aging group during motor performance. It was noteworthy that alpha power (Pz, P3, and P4) in the parietal cortex was significantly lower in older compared to young adults. Conclusion: Age-related slowdown in motor performance may be caused by deteriorating alpha activity in the parietal cortex, which functions as a sensorimotor interface. This study provides new insights into how perception and action are distributed between brain regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolving behavioral goals require the existence of selection mechanisms that prioritize task-relevant working memory (WM) content for action. Selecting an item stored in WM is known to blunt and/or reverse information loss in stimulus-specific representations of that item reconstructed from human brain activity, but extant studies have focused on all-or-none circumstances that allow or disallow an agent to select one of several items stored in WM. Conversely, behavioral studies suggest that humans can flexibly assign different levels of priority to different items stored in WM, but how doing so influences neural representations of WM content is unclear. One possibility is that assigning different levels of priority to items in WM influences the quality of those representations, resulting in more robust neural representations of high- vs. low-priority WM content. A second – and non-exclusive – possibility is that asymmetries in behavioral priority influence how rapidly neural representations of high- vs. low-priority WM content can be selected and reported. We tested these possibilities in two experiments by decoding high- and low-priority WM content from EEG recordings obtained while human volunteers performed a retrospectively cued WM task. Probabilistic changes in the behavioral relevance of a remembered item had no effect on our ability to decode it from EEG signals; instead, these changes influenced the latency at which above-chance decoding performance was reached. Thus, our results indicate that probabilistic changes in the behavioral relevance of WM content influence the ease with which memories can be selected independently of their strength.

Listening in everyday life requires attention to be deployed dynamically – when listening is expected to be difficult and when relevant information is expected to occur – to conserve mental resources. Conserving mental resources may be particularly important for older adults who often experience difficulties understanding speech. In the current study, we use electro- and magnetoencephalography to investigate the neural and behavioral mechanics of attention regulation during listening and the effects that aging has on these. We first show in younger adults (17–31 years) that neural alpha oscillatory activity indicates when in time attention is deployed (Experiment 1) and that deployment depends on listening difficulty (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 investigated age-related changes in auditory attention regulation. Middle-aged and older adults (54–72 years) show successful attention regulation but appear to utilize timing information differently compared to younger adults (20–33 years). We show a notable age-group dissociation in recruited brain regions. In younger adults, superior parietal cortex underlies alpha power during attention regulation, whereas, in middle-aged and older adults, alpha power emerges from more ventro-lateral areas (posterior temporal cortex). This difference in the sources of alpha activity between age groups only occurred during task performance and was absent during rest (Experiment S1). In sum, our study suggests that middle-aged and older adults employ different neural control strategies compared to younger adults to regulate attention in time under listening challenges.

Background: Previous studies detected changes in the electroencephalographic (EEG) signal as an effect of psychoanalytic interventions. However, no study has investigated neural correlates of specific psychoanalytic interventions in the EEG power spectrum yet. In the present case study, we contrasted three types of interventions (clarification, confrontation, and interpretation) and a neutral control condition during a structural psychoanalytic interview conducted while EEG was recorded. Methods: A 27-year-old male patient diagnosed with major depressive disorder and borderline personality disorder with recurrent suicidal and selfinjurious behavior underwent a structural interview while recording EEG. Two independent experts selected by consensus the characteristic episodes of the four conditions (clarification, confrontation, interpretation, and neutral control) within the interview, which were included in the EEG analyses. Fast Fourier transformation (FFT) was applied to subsegments of the intervention type to analyze the EEG power spectra. Alpha and beta power from central, frontal, and parietal sites were considered in linear mixed-effects models with segments as a random factor with maximum-likelihood estimates due to the lack of balance in the length of the interview segments. Results: The interventions "interpretation" and "confrontation" showed a significantly lower alpha power compared with the control condition in the central electrodes. In the frontal and parietal sites of the alpha power and all beta power sites, the omnibus tests (full model/model without intervention) and comparisons relative to control conditions showed no significant overall result or failed significance after alpha error correction. Conclusion: Incisive interventions, such as confrontation with discrepancies and interpretation of unconscious intrapsychic conflicts, may have provoked temporary emotional lability, leading to a change in psychic processing akin to interference from external stimuli. This conclusion is consistent with the finding that interpretations, which are potentially the most concise interventions, had the strongest effects on alpha power. Using EEG during therapeutic psychoanalytic intervention techniques might be a helpful tool to evaluate differential responses to the psychotherapeutic process on a neural level. However, this single-case result has to be replicated in a larger sample and does not allow generalizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as an intervention tool has gained promising results in major depression disorder. However, studies related to subthreshold depression's (SD) cognitive deficits and neuromodulation approaches for the treatment of SD are still rare. We adopted Beck's cognitive model of depression and tested the tDCS stimulation effects on attentional and memory deficits on SD. First, this was a single‐blinded, randomized, sham‐controlled clinical trial to determine a 13‐day tDCS modulation effect on 49 SD (27: Stimulation; 22: Sham) and 17 healthy controls. Second, the intervention effects of the consecutive and single‐session tDCS were compared. Furthermore, the attentional and memory biases were explored in SD. Anodal tDCS was administrated over left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 13 consecutive days. Attentional and memory bias were assessed through a modified Sternberg task and a dot‐probe task on the 1st, 2nd, and 15th day while their EEG was being recorded. After the 13‐day tDCS stimulation (not after single‐session stimulation), we found reduced memory bias (Stimulation vs. Sham, p =.02, r2 =.09) and decreased mid‐frontal alpha power (p <.01, r2 =.13). In contrast, tDCS did not affect any attentional related behavioral or neural indexes (all ps >.15). Finally, reduced depressive symptoms (e.g., BDI score) were found for both groups. The criteria of SD varied across studies; the efficacy of this protocol should be tested in elderly patients. Our study suggests memory bias of SD can be modulated by the multisession tDCS and alpha power could serve as a neural index for intervention. The effectiveness of different treatments remains inconclusive in subthreshold depression. The effect of cognitive interventions, such as transcranial direct current stimulation, in subthreshold depression (SD) is unclear. After 13 successive days of stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (F3), we found reduced memory bias and alpha power but no attentional biases, suggesting memory bias of SD can be modulated by multisession tDCS and alpha power can serve as a neural index for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on the electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) is widely utilized for wheelchair control. The ability of the user is one factor of BCI efficiency. Therefore, we focused on BCI tasks and protocols to yield high efficiency from the robust EEG features of individual users. This study proposes a task-based brain activity to gain the power of the alpha band, which included eyes closed for alpha response at the occipital area, attention to an upward arrow for alpha response at the frontal area, and an imagined left/right motor for alpha event-related desynchronization at the left/right motor cortex. An EPOC X neuroheadset was used to acquire the EEG signals. We also proposed user proficiency in motor imagery sessions with limb movement paradigms by recommending motor imagination tasks. Using the proposed system, we verified the feature extraction algorithms and command translation. Twelve volunteers participated in the experiment, and the conventional paradigm of motor imagery was used to compare the efficiencies. With utilized user proficiency in motor imagery, an average accuracy of 83.7% across the left and right commands was achieved. The recommended MI paradigm via user proficiency achieved an approximately 4% higher accuracy than the conventional MI paradigm. Moreover, the real-time control results of a simulated wheelchair revealed a high efficiency based on the time condition. The time results for the same task as the joystick-based control were still approximately three times longer. We suggest that user proficiency be used to recommend an individual MI paradigm for beginners. Furthermore, the proposed BCI system can be used for electric wheelchair control by people with severe disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that symptoms of anxiety may result in atypical alpha activity associated with cognitive functioning. It is well documented that symptoms of anxiety are often comorbid with symptoms of depression. However, the combined influence of these symptoms on alpha activity changes between engaged attention states and rest is poorly understood. We therefore aimed to investigate the specific added contribution depressive symptoms may have in predicting alpha power compared to anxiety alone. We measured the disparity in alpha power between a selective attention state compared to a resting state using EEG. Selective attention was engaged using the Eriksen flanker task. Our results show that alpha disparity was predicted significantly better when symptoms of depression were incorporated into the model, compared to trait anxiety alone. Also, both symptoms were significant predictors of alpha power change, but in opposite directions. Alpha disparity increased between rest and attention as trait anxiety symptoms increased, while disparity was negatively correlated with increased symptoms of depression. Clinical symptoms did not predict flanker task performance during incongruent trials, but did strongly relate to global executive dysfunction. Given that clinical symptoms were related to alpha change between attention and rest but not behavioral performance on the flanker task, it is possible that these neural patterns could reflect a compensatory strategy. These results further emphasize the importance of examining how the compounded influence symptoms of anxiety and depression manifest in executive abilities, and add to the growing body of evidence that there is a neurological differentiation between these disorders. • Symptoms of depression and anxiety together predicted alpha change. • Predicting alpha disparity was significantly improved with depression symptoms. • Alpha change was related to clinical symptoms in opposite directions. • Trait anxiety and depressive symptoms predicted general executive dysfunction. • The flanker effect was not predicted by clinical symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insomnia, often associated with anxiety and depression, is a prevalent sleep disorder. Biofeedback (BFB) treatment can help patients gain voluntary control over physiological events such as by utilizing electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) power. Previous studies have rarely predicted biofeedback efficacy by measuring the changes in relative EEG power; therefore, we investigated the clinical efficacy of biofeedback for insomnia and its potential neural mechanisms. We administered biofeedback to 82 patients with insomnia, of whom 68 completed 10 sessions and 14 completed 20 sessions. The average age of the participants was 49.38 ± 12.78 years, with 26 men and 56 women. Each biofeedback session consisted of 5 min of EMG and 30 min of EEG feedback, with 2 min of data recorded before and after the session. Sessions were conducted every other day, and four scale measures were taken before the first, fifth, and tenth sessions and after the twentieth session. After 20 sessions of biofeedback treatment, scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were significantly reduced compared with those before treatment (−5.5 ± 1.43,t = −3.85, p = 0.006), and scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) (−7.15 ± 2.43, t = −2.94, p = 0.012) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (STAI-S: −12.36 ± 3.40, t = −3.63, p = 0.003; and STAI-T: −9.86 ± 2.38, t = −4.41, p = 0.001) were significantly lower after treatment than before treatment. Beta and theta power were significantly reduced after treatment, compared with before treatment (F = 6.25, p = 0.014; and F = 11.91, p = 0.001). Alpha power was increased after treatment, compared with before treatment, but the difference was not prominently significant (p > 0.05). EMG activity was significantly decreased after treatment, compared with before treatment (F = 2.11, p = 0.015). Our findings suggest that BFB treatment based on alpha power and prefrontal EMG relieves insomnia as well as anxiety and depression and may be associated with increased alpha power, decreased beta and theta power, and decreased EMG power.

Alpha-band (8–12 Hz) event-related desynchronization (ERD) or a decrease in alpha power in electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG and MEG) reflects the involvement of a neural tissue in information processing. It is known that most children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in information processing, and, thus, investigation of alpha oscillations is of particular interest in this population. Previous studies have demonstrated alterations in this neural activity in individuals with ASD; however, little is known about alpha ERD during simultaneous presentation of auditory and visual stimuli in children with and without ASD. As alpha oscillations are intimately related to attention, and attention deficit is one of the common co-occurring conditions of ASD, we predict that children with ASD can have altered alpha ERD in one of the sensory domains. In the present study, we used MEG to investigate alpha ERD in groups of 20 children with ASD and 20 age-matched typically developing controls. Simple amplitude-modulated tones were presented together with a fixation cross appearing on the screen. The results showed that children with ASD had a bilateral reduction in alpha-band ERD in the auditory but not visual cortex. Moreover, alterations in the auditory cortex were associated with a higher presence of autistic traits measured in behavioral assessment.

Walking influences visual processing but the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the influence of walking on pre-stimulus and stimulus-induced visual neural activity and behavioural performance in a discrimination task while participants were standing or freely walking. The results showed dissociable pre- and post-stimulus influences by the movement state. Walking was associated with a reduced pre-stimulus alpha power, which predicted enhanced N1 and decreased P3 components during walking. This pre-stimulus alpha activity was additionally modulated by time on the task, which was paralleled by a similar behavioural modulation. In contrast, the post-stimulus alpha power was reduced in its modulation due to stimulus onset during walking but showed no evidence of modulation by time on the task. Additionally, stimulus parameters (eccentricity, laterality, distractor presence significantly influenced post-stimulus alpha power, whereas the visually evoked components showed no evidence of such an influence. There was further no evidence of a correlation between pre-stimulus and post stimulus alpha power. We conclude that walking has two dissociable influences on visual processing: while the walking induced reduction in alpha power suggests an attentional state change that relates to visual awareness, the post-stimulus influence on alpha power modulation indicates changed spatial visual processing during walking.

• EEG alpha power increased in the frontal regions when generating creative ideas. • Task-related alpha coherence enhanced between frontal and parietal/temporal sites. • Everyday creativity influenced EEG alpha activity during creative ideation. • The higher the everyday creativity, the stronger increases in alpha power. • Highly creative individuals showed greater increases in alpha coherence. Everyday creativity is the basic ability of human survival and penetrates every aspect of life. Nevertheless, the neural mechanisms underlying everyday creativity was largely unexplored. In this study, seventy-five participants completed the creative behaviour inventory, a tool for assessing creative behaviour in daily life. The participants also completed the alternate uses task (AUT) during an electroencephalography (EEG) assessment to evaluate creative thinking. Alpha power was used to quantify neural oscillations during the creative process, while alpha coherence was used to quantify information communication between frontal regions and other sites during creative ideation. Moreover, these two task-related quantitative measures were combined to investigate the relationship between individual differences in everyday creativity and EEG alpha activity during creative idea generation. Compared with the reference period, increased alpha power was observed in the frontal cortex of the right hemisphere and increased functional coupling was observed between frontal and parietal/temporal regions during the activation period. Interestingly, individual differences in everyday creativity were associated with distinct patterns of EEG alpha activity. Specifically, individuals with higher everyday creativity had increased alpha power in the frontal cortex, and increased changes in coherence in frontal-temporal regions of the right hemisphere while performing the AUT. It might indicate that individuals with higher everyday creativity had an enhanced ability to focus on internal information processing and control bottom-up stimuli, as well as better selection of novel semantic information when performing creative ideation tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we exhibit a general family of distributions called alpha power odd generalized exponential family of distributions. The new family is very flexible with increasing, decreasing, J, reversed-J, bathtub shapes. Statistical properties of the family such as quantile, expansion of density function, moments, incomplete moments, mean deviation, Bonferroni and Lorenz curves are proposed. The method of maximum likelihood to estimate the model parameters is used. Three applications based on real data sets are the importance and flexibility of the three proposed models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This parallel, 2-arm, blinded, randomized controlled superiority trial examined whether, when added to usual care, active-electroencephalography neurofeedback (EEG NFB) was safe and more effective than sham control-EEG NFB for chronic pain. In total, 116 participants with chronic pain were randomly assigned (1:1) to usual care plus ≥32 sessions of active-EEG NFB upregulating relative alpha power over C4 or usual care plus ≥32 sessions of sham control-EEG NFB. Per-protocol analyses revealed no significant between-group differences in the primary outcome, Brief Pain Inventory average pain (mean difference [95% confidence interval]: -.04 [-.39 to .31], P = .90), or any secondary outcomes. However, 44% of participants in the active-EEG NFB group and 45% in the control-EEG NFB group reported at least a moderate (≥30%), clinically important improvement in Brief Pain Inventory average pain. The number of treatment-emergent adverse events were similar in both groups (P = .83), and none were serious. Post hoc analyses revealed similar upregulated relative alpha power in both groups during training, with concordant positive rewards delivered to the active-EEG group 100% of the time and the control-EEG group ∼25% of the time, suggesting a partially active sham intervention. When added to usual care, the active-EEG NFB intervention used in this study was not superior to the sham control-EEG NFB intervention. However, a large proportion of participants in both groups reported a clinically important reduction in pain intensity. A partially active sham intervention may have obscured between-group differences. The intervention was free of important side effects, with no safety concerns identified. PERSPECTIVE: This study is the first attempt at an appropriately blinded, randomized, sham-controlled trial of alpha EEG NFB for the treatment of chronic pain. The findings may interest people living with chronic pain, clinicians involved in chronic pain management, and may inform the design of future EEG NFB trials. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR): ACTRN12621000667819., (Copyright © 2024 United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)