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Biomedical subjects

N Birbaumer

Publications and source records attributed to N Birbaumer.

At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Evaluation of contingencies and conditional probabilities. A psychophysiological approach to anhedonia.

Slow brain potentials, evoked potentials and autonomic responses were investigated in anhedonic subjects and controls. The distribution of physical anhedonia (PA) scores from different samples (students, soldiers, schizophrenics, depressives) is compared. Within a S1-S2 reaction time paradigm, an additional, S2-similar stimulus was introduced during the anticipation interval in 50% of trials (pseudorandom). Subjects had to press the button only to the S2. The additional stimulus (AS) elicits a distinct positive deflection. Anhedonics show larger pre-AS negativity and less reduction in negativity after the S2 (PINV) than controls. The slow wave to S1 as well as the pre-AS negativity vary with the conditional probability of the AS, but to a lesser extent in anhedonics. Anhedonics provide more preparatory negativity prior to and following ambiguous or difficult discrimination tasks, but at the frontal site. Results may suggest impaired contingency evaluation in anhedonic subjects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Distractability under the influence of an ACTH 4-9 derivative.

Event-related brain potentials, autonomic responses, and response latency under distraction conditions served to investigate the effects of an ACTH 4-9 derivative (ORG 2766) on attention. Male volunteers (45) received either 40 mg ORG 2766 or placebo in a double-blind setting. Two-stimulus trials with acoustic warning signal (S1) and acoustic S2 which had to be interrupted by immediate button press, preceded trials with distraction during the warning interval in 50% of the trials. A final period without distraction served to test for rebound effects. A reduction in early CNV was found in placebo subjects under distraction, while subjects under ORG 2766 showed no reduced early negativity, but increased late negativity under this condition. Peptide subjects differed from controls in evoked potential components, showing enhanced N1 and P3 amplitudes. Activity in the alpha band was elevated. Postexperimental systolic blood pressure was raised by 15 mm Hg under ORG 2766. Results are in agreement with previous findings and suggest ORG 2766 effects on distraction resistance and attention fixation.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗
PubMed1982

Slow brain potentials after withdrawal of control.

The present experiment was designed to replicate and extend the previous finding of an increased postimperative negative slow brain potential shift (PINV) in healthy subjects following an unexpected change from the condition of control over an aversive imperative stimulus to that of loss of control. Two groups of 16 male students each participated in a constant-foreperiod reaction time paradigm with two warning stimuli (WS), each of 6 s duration, followed by two imperative stimuli (IS) of either aversive (loud noise) or neutral (soft tone) quality. The experimental subjects could terminate each IS by pressing a microswitch within 300 ms of IS-onset. After they had experienced this contingency for 40 trials, control was withdrawn in that the IS lasted for 5 s during another 40-trial block, irrespective of the actual motor response of the subject. The yoked control subjects received the same stimuli and performed the same motor response as the experimental subjects, but experienced no contingency between response and IS-termination. EEGs were recorded monopolarly from Fz, Cz, and Pz. In response to the unexpectedly uncontrollable aversive IS, the experimental subjects showed a pronounced PINV over frontal areas, while no comparable PINV developed in yoked controls. Experimental subjects showed no PINV during the first trial block (control conditions), and in response to the neutral uncontrollable IS. Statistical analyses of principle components documented that the PINV can be considered an independent endogenous component.

Avoidance Learning↗
PubMed1982

EEG and slow brain potentials during anticipation and control of painful stimulation.

Cerebral responses in anticipation of painful stimulation and while coping with it were investigated in a "fakir" and 12 male volunteers. Experiment 1 consisted of 3 periods of 40 trials each. During period 1, subjects heart one of two acoustic warning stimuli of 6 sec duration signalling that either an aversive noise or a neutral tone would be presented at S1 offset. During period 2, subjects were asked to use any technique for coping with pain that they had ever found to be successful. During period 3, the neutral S2 was presented simultaneously with a weak electric shock and the aversive noise was presented simultaneously with a strong, painful shock, again under pain copying instructions. EEG activity within the theta band increased in anticipation of aversive events. Theta peak was most prominent in the fakir's EEG. A negative slow potential shift during the S1-82 interval was generally more pronounced in anticipation of the aversive events that the neutral ones, even though no overt motor response was required. Negativity tended to increase across the three periods, opposite to the usually observed diminution. In Experiment 2, all subjects self-administered 21 strong shock-noise presentations. The fakir again showed more theta power and more pronounced EEG negativity after stimulus delivery compared with control subjects. Contrary to the controls, self-administration of shocks evoked a larger skin conductance response in the fakir than warned external application.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

EEG and slow cortical potentials in anticipation of mental tasks with different hemispheric involvement.

Mental arithmetic is supposed to be processed by the left hemisphere, while pattern matching has been considered to be processed by the right hemisphere. These different mental tasks were presented to 16 right-handed male subjects. As a variable task difficulty was varied for the two task categories. The task presentations were preceded by 6 sec warning stimuli which indicated the level of difficulty of the task. EEG and slow cortical potentials (SCPs) were recorded from temporal and precentral leads of both hemispheres. The reference was noncephalic. During the anticipation interval beta-activity was enhanced above the hemisphere primarily involved in the particular task. SCPs failed to show a comparable clear pattern. A late negative component showed task-dependent asymmetries prior to easy tasks, but not prior to difficult tasks.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Principal component analysis of slow brain potentials during six second anticipation intervals.

The comparison of principal component analyses between seven experimental studies demonstrates a remarkable similarity of the extracted components. Slow scalp-recorded potentials of the brain (SPs) during a constant 6 sec foreperiod can be described by an early frontal, and a late preparatory component. Furthermore, an additional intermediate component may be retained by the PCA. This component seems to reduce the between-subject variance and often describes processes dependent on stimulus repetition. There is evidence favoring the varimaxed solution of the PCA for the parametrization of most of the experimental data.

Biofeedback, Psychology↗
PubMed1981

The influence of low-level transcortical DC-currents on response speed in humans.

Low-level direct currents (DC) are thought to polarize brain tissue and to affect brain processes. The present experiments investigated the effects of low-level transcortical DC-currents on response speed and physiological variables in humans. The DC-currents were applied during the warning interval within a constant foreperiod reaction time paradigm. Currents of less than 0.3 mA were applied between a vertex electrode and a noncephalic reference. The polarity of the electrical source varied randomly across trials within subjects. The first two studies showed that subjects respond fastest when the positive pole is applied to the vertex. Under the same conditions higher skin conductance responses were observed as compared to vertex negative conditions. The dynamics of the observed responses suggest that the brain "learns" to respond differentially to the different current polarities. This was confirmed by the third study, which documented different conditioned electroencephalic responses subsequent to current application.

Cerebral Cortex↗
PubMed1981

The influence of low-level, event-related DC-currents during time estimation in humans.

Two experiments were designed to investigate further the influence of low-level transcephalic DC currents on human reaction time and time perception. Thirty-two subjects participated in the experiments, with the second one a replication of the first. During a first trial series, subjects responded to the offset of a 6 second tone. Simultaneous to tone presentation a current was applied between vertex and collar bone electrodes. Current polarity varied randomly across trials. During a second trial series, subjects interrupted tone and current when they estimated a time interval of same length as the previously experienced had elapsed. In both studies subjects interrupted the tone/current after a shorter interval when the negative pole was applied as compared to vertex-positive trials. Results suggest that a vertex-negative external current suppresses an internally required state, whereas an external positive current supports internal SP-generation. The brain may tend to terminate the former state earlier than the latter.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1980

Biofeedback of slow cortical potentials. I.

An experiment was performed to investigate the self-regulation of slow cortical potentials (SCP) found in a previous study (Elbert et al. 1979). Seventeen subjects received continuous visual feedback of their actual cortical shift perceptible as a rocket moving across a TV-screen during intervals of 6 sec; subjects had to direct the rocket into one of two goals representing more or less cortical negativity, depending on the pitch of two signal tones. Within two identical experimental sessions feedback trials alternated with test trials without feedback. Highly significant differences of SCP between the two required polarities were demonstrated. The most pronounced differences were observed during test trials without feedback of the second session in which a positive shift below baseline level occurred when positivity (or less negativity) was required.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Biofeedback of slow cortical potentials. II. Analysis of single event-related slow potentials by time series analysis.

A single trial analysis of slow cortical potentials treating the EEG as a time series was developed. The method was applied to data resulting from an experiment on self-regulation of slow cortical potentials (SCP). Parametric models of the EEG were developed on the basis of autoregressive filter models and a two-component model of SCP (during 6 sec intervals), taking into account ocular influences as a further parameter. Results from different models were compared with each other and with results of averaging SCP data. For the present data time series analysis and traditional analysis provided qualitatively equal results, but fewer trials were necessary for analysis in the single trial approach and more detailed structures of the data became evident. If the EEG was filtered above 5 Hz it could be described by an autoregressive filter model of low order. Ocular influences were estimated as too small in a non-filtered EEG compared to the filtered EEG.

Biofeedback, Psychology↗