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Biomedical subjects

W Lutzenberger

Publications and source records attributed to W Lutzenberger.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

Brain potentials during mental arithmetic: effects of extensive practice and problem difficulty.

Recent behavioral investigations indicate that the processes underlying mental arithmetic change systematically with practice from deliberate, conscious calculation to automatic, direct retrieval of answers from memory [Bourne, L.E.Jr. and Rickard, T.C., Mental calculation: The development of a cognitive skill, Paper presented at the Interamerican Congress of Psychology, San Jose, Costa Rica, 1991: Psychol. Rev., 95 (1988) 492-527]. Results reviewed by Moscovitch and Winocur [In: The handbook of aging and cognition, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1992, pp. 315-372] suggest that consciously controlled processes are more dependent on frontal lobe function than are automatic processes. It is appropriate, therefore to determine whether transitions in the locus of primary brain activity occur with practice on mental calculation. In this experiment, we examine the relationship between characteristics of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and mental arithmetic. Single-digit mental multiplication problems varying in difficulty (problem size) were used, and subjects were trained on these problems for four sessions. Problem-size and practice effects were reliably found in behavioral measures (RT). The ERP was characterized by a pronounced late positivity after task presentation followed by a slow wave, and a negativity during response indication. These components responded differentially to the practice and problem-size manipulations. Practice mainly affected topography of the amplitude of positivity and offset latency of slow wave, and problem-size mainly offset latency of slow wave and pre-response negativity. Fronto-central positivity diminished from session to session, and the focus of positivity centered finally at centro-parietal regions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Memory performance and area-specific self-regulation of slow cortical potentials: dual-task interference.

We examined the effect of area-specific feedback for slow potentials on sensorimotor and memory performance under single and dual-task conditions. Subjects observed a memory set for 400 ms and then determined 5 s later whether a target letter had been contained in the original presentation (Sternberg task). After one session of Sternberg-only training, feedback training was added for production of negative and positive slow potentials area-specifically at Fz, Cz or Pz during the 5-s interval separating the memory set and target probes. Addition of the feedback task resulted in an increase in Sternberg response latency and errors which was followed by gradual recovery over five dual-task sessions (recovery not complete for the error measure). Subjects successfully regulated their slow potentials, but only in an area-nonspecific fashion, even though area-specific control was observed in an earlier study under a feedback-only condition. Sternberg performance did not depend on whether slow potential negativity or positivity was produced. These findings indicate that competition between tasks was a more important determinant of performance than was modulation of dendritic polarization by feedback-induced slow potentials.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Cortical self-regulation in patients with epilepsies.

The present study aimed at investigating to what extent the regulation of excitability in cortical networks, as indicated by surface-negative slow cortical potentials (SCPs), is impaired in epileptic patients and to what extent training of SCP self-regulation by means of biofeedback and instrumental learning procedures might affect seizure frequency. Twenty-five patients suffering from drug-refractory epilepsies (complex focal, grand mal, and absence type of seizures) participated in 28 1-h sessions of feedback and instrumental conditioning of their SCPs. Subjects' EEGs were obtained from the vertex. Depending on discriminative stimuli DC shifts towards increased or suppressed negativity relative to the pre-trial baseline were demonstrated by on-line visual feedback during intervals of 8 s each; each session comprised 110 trials. While performance on the SCP self-regulation task was initially below normal (as compared to healthy subjects), significant increases in SCP control were achieved by the patients across the 28 training sessions. In 18 patients at least 1-year follow-up data are available. Changes in seizure frequency were related to transfer of SCP control with six of the patients becoming seizure-free. Age affected the ability to acquire SCP control and its impact on seizure frequency.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Classical conditioning after cerebellar lesions in humans.

We explored classical conditioning in human subjects who had lesions in their cerebellar circuitry. Seven patients with damage to cerebellar structures and matched control subjects underwent simple delay tone-airpuff conditioning. Eyelid conditioned response (CR) acquisition was severely disrupted in the patient group, whereas autonomic CRs and slow cortical potentials developing between conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) were unaffected. Results are consistent with animal studies and earlier case reports indicating that intact cerebellar structures are necessary for the acquisition of classically conditioned motor responses.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Behavioural treatment of slow cortical potentials in intractable epilepsy: neuropsychological predictors of outcome.

The study aimed to explore the predictive value of neuropsychological tests within the context of acquisition of slow cortical potential (SCP) self-control, a technique which has beneficial effects on seizure frequency in epilepsy. Patients with epilepsy who successfully achieved SCP control had longer digit or block-tapping spans than less successful patients. Patients who showed a better learning rate across training also displayed better verbal memory and learning abilities. Seizure reduction was related to block-tapping spans only. The results indicate that measures of attention, as indicated by digit spans or block-tapping spans, offer some predictive value for acquisition of SCP control and treatment outcome, whilst measures of visuospatial or frontal lobe function are unrelated to SCP acquisition and seizure reduction.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Physical aspects of the EEG in schizophrenics.

Physical and dynamic aspects of the electroencephalogram (EEG) were evaluated in 12 schizophrenic patients and 12 matched healthy control subjects by means of two descriptive measures proposed by Hjorth (complexity and mobility) and by a nonlinear measure, dimensional complexity. These measures were compared to power spectra analyses. EEG was recorded from frontal, central, and parietal leads under resting conditions (eyes open and eyes closed) for 12 epochs each of 25 sec. Patients showed the expected increased activity in the 1-7 Hz band and, furthermore, a scalp distribution of dimensional complexity and Hjorth complexity opposite to the distribution in controls: in patients dimensional complexity yielded higher values at frontal (Fz) than central (Cz) leads, whereas the resemblance to sinusoidal waveshape (Hjorth complexity) was larger at Fz than Cz. Results indicate more dynamic complexity or variables determining the dynamics of brain processes in frontal areas in patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Dimensional analysis of the human EEG and intelligence.

The purpose of this study was the determination of the relationship between the dimensional complexity of the electroencephalogam (EEG) and the level of intelligence in humans. In two experiments 34 male subjects were divided into two groups, with high and low levels of intelligence (as measured by the intelligence quotient (IQ)). During a resting phase and various mental imagery conditions the EEG was recorded from several scalp sites. Nonlinear analysis, based on the theory of deterministic chaos, revealed that subjects with high IQs demonstrate higher dimensional complexity of the EEG attractors than subjects with low IQs only during resting conditions. During performance of the imagery tasks the less intelligent subjects increase the complexity of electrical brain dynamics such that IQ-dependency vanishes. The gross (mass) neuronal manifestation of general intelligence seems to depend on task conditions and may be related to the individual brain dynamics only when no specific task is present.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Self-regulation of slow cortical potentials in psychiatric patients: schizophrenia.

Slow cortical potentials (SCPs) are considered to reflect the regulation of attention resources and cortical excitability in cortical neuronal networks. Impaired attentional functioning, as found in patients with schizophrenic disorders, may covary with impaired SCP regulation. This hypothesis was tested using a self-regulation paradigm. Twelve medicated male schizophrenic inpatients and 12 healthy male controls received continuous feedback of their SCPs, during intervals of 8 s each, by means of a visual stimulus (a stylized rocket) moving horizontally across a TV screen. The position of the feedback stimulus was a linear function of the integrated SCP at each point in time during the feedback interval. Subjects were required to increase or reduce negative SCPs (referred to pretrial baseline) depending on the presentation of a discriminative stimulus. The correct response was indicated by the amount of forward movement of the feedback stimulus and by monetary rewards. Schizophrenics participated in 20 sessions (each comprising 110 trials), while controls participated in 5 sessions. Compared with the healthy controls, schizophrenics showed no significant differentiation between negativity increase and negativity suppression during the first sessions. However, in the last 3 sessions, patients achieved differentiation similar to controls, demonstrating the acquisition of SCP control after extensive training.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Effects of inhaled nicotine on instrumental learning of blood pressure responses.

The present study investigated the effects of biofeedback of arterial blood pressure on cortical, peripheral, and psychological measures and the dependence of these effects on nicotine. Four groups of subjects, nonsmokers, and habitual smokers who smoked cigarettes during the experimental sessions containing 0.3, 0.8, or 1.5 mg nicotine, respectively, participated in a feedback paradigm in which continuous feedback of mean blood pressure was provided for intervals of 8 s each. While tonic blood pressure did not differ between the groups, the ability to modulate blood pressure (under feedback conditions) was restricted in smokers as compared to nonsmoking subjects; increasing nicotine dosage was accompanied by poorer performance. Independently of habitual smoking and nicotine doses, heart rate increased during feedback and under conditions of blood pressure increase. In smokers, activity in the alpha band was reduced in a dose-dependent manner. Slow cortical potentials (SCPs) during the feedback interval varied with self-induced blood pressure changes in nonsmokers (blood pressure increase was accompanied by reduced surface-negative potential shifts and vice versa), while SCP variations during feedback conditions were small in smokers, more so under the influence of 0.3 and 0.8-mg nicotine, less so under 1.5 mg. Verbal reports suggest that awareness of performance strategies may not be a necessary variable for performance on the blood pressure regulation task.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Self-regulation of slow cortical potentials in psychiatric patients: depression.

Findings on depressive patients indicate that depressives have electrophysiological characteristics similar to those of schizophrenics, in that they exhibit reduced Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) amplitudes and more distinct Postimperative Negative Variations (PINVs) than normal controls. In a biofeedback experiment, 8 medicated male inpatients with the DSM III-R diagnosis of "Bipolar Disorder, Depressive," and "Major Depression" demonstrated no impairment in the self-regulation of Slow Cortical Potentials (SCP) in comparison to schizophrenics in terms of increasing and suppressing negativity. Continuous visual SCP feedback is presented to the patient as a horizontally moving rocket in a video game format. The direction changes of the rocket represented SCP changes at each point in time, recorded by the central EEG (based on the pretrial baseline). Depressives demonstrated SCP self-regulation across 20 sessions, although with many between-and-within variations. The 8 male controls were unable to regulate their SCPs across 5 sessions. This result contradicts other findings of our laboratory on normal controls. Motivational factors and insufficient operant reinforcement (financial reward) may have facilitated this effect.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

The scalp distribution of the fractal dimension of the EEG and its variation with mental tasks.

The insights gained by the concept of deterministic chaos for the EEG is that this seemingly disordered process may be governed by relatively few simple laws which could be determined. One of the quantitative measures of a complex dynamical system is that of its dimension. The term 'dimension' refers to the ability of a space to contain a set of points. We estimated the correlational dimension of the EEG and compared the outcome to traditional Fourier analyses. In addition, we tested the hypothesis that the EEG can be described as filtered noise. Data from 15 electrode sites and 31 subjects are reported in the present study. We have utilized a variety of tasks that cut across sensory modalities including touch, vision, and imagery which reflect neuropsychological processes that differentially engage areas of the cortex in the first part of the study. In the second part, the differences between the perception of an object and the imagination of the same object were evaluated. The outcome shows variations between scalp sites for all measures and also variations between tasks in terms of dimensionality of the EEG. The hypothesis of a higher dimensionality ("complexity") of imagery compared to actual perceptual processing was confirmed. A statistical comparison between the maps generated by means of the various measures shows that different informations are extracted when using the different measures. There is also statistical evidence that the EEG cannot completely be described by the model of filtered noise.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Modulation of slow cortical potentials by instrumentally learned blood pressure responses.

We assessed whether instrumentally-learned pressor responses inhibit electrocortical activity, as predicted by learning theories of idiopathic hypertension. Subjects received beat-by-beat feedback for increases and decreases in mean arterial pressure measured from the finger (Peñáz method). Slow potentials were recorded from the midsagittal line during the final training session. Also recorded at this time were heart rate, eye movements, respiration, and post-session verbal reports of the subject's control strategies. Thirteen of 14 subjects differentiated blood pressure increases and decreases at p less than .05 or better during the final session (within-subject discriminative operant procedure). Slow potentials were less negative on blood pressure increase compared to decrease trials at all midsagittal sites (p less than .02), indicating relative cortical inhibition by pressor responses. This effect occurred even though subjects reported tensing of muscles on increase trials (p less than .01), a behavioral activity previously associated with augmented rather than diminished cortical negativity. On increase trials slow potentials shifted toward positivity just prior to heart rate deceleration (the latter effect confirming activation of the baroreceptors).

Adult↗
PubMed1992

PRES: the controlled noninvasive stimulation of the carotid baroreceptors in humans.

To study physiological and psychological effects of baroreceptor activity, the cervical neck cuff technique has been frequently used to stimulate the carotid baroreceptors mechanically. Using this technique, no satisfying control conditions to date have been available. Because the carotid stretch receptors are sensitive not only to the pressure level, but also to the rate of change, it is possible to manipulate the receptor firing through changes in carotid pulse amplitude. The device described here relies on the application of short changes in cuff pressure tied to different phases within the cardiac cycle (phase related external suction (PRES)). A brief external suction during systole has potent stimulatory effects on baroreceptors whereas the application of the very same pressure pulse during diastole inhibits the firing burst associated with the pulse wave. To allow an ongoing period of stimulation, a sequence of alternating negative/positive pressure pulses is applied. In the stimulation condition, the R-wave of the electrocardiogram triggers a negative pulse which is followed by a positive one during diastole. In the control condition this relationship is reversed. Two experiments are reported confirming different baroreceptor effects of the two conditions. PRES allows for blind or double-blind experiments to investigate effects of baroreceptor activity on physiology and behavior.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Symptom-specific psychophysiological responses in chronic pain patients.

Symptom-specific psychophysiological responding was assessed in 20 chronic back pain patients, 20 patients suffering from temporomandibular pain and dysfunction, and 20 matched healthy controls. Surface EMG from the lower and upper back, the masseter, and the biceps muscles, and heart rate and skin conductance level were continuously recorded during adaptation, resting baseline, and stressful and neutral imagery phases. Univariate and multivariate analyses of variance were performed on raw data as well as data corrected for autocorrelation. The results showed significantly higher EMG reactivity which was lateralized to the left side at the patients' site of pain but not distal sites. This hyperreactivity was observed only during stressful imagery. The healthy controls displayed a significantly higher response in heart rate, but skin conductance level was not significantly different. The results are interpreted as indicative of idiosyncratic muscular response patterns to personally relevant situations at the site of pain in patients suffering from chronic muscular pain.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Effects of the anticonvulsant benzodiazepine clonazepam on event-related brain potentials in humans.

The effects of the benzodiazepine clonazepam (a drug used as anticonvulsant) on event-related brain potentials were investigated in healthy human subjects. Thirty-six male student volunteers (mean age 30 years) received clonazepam or a placebo in a double-blind setting. VEPs (visual evoked potentials) were obtained from the standard checkerboard reversal procedure; AEPs (auditory evoked potentials) and slow cortical potentials (CNV) were measured during a 2-stimulus reaction time paradigm, in which the quality of the acoustic S1 signalled whether the acoustic S2 would follow after 2 sec or after 6 sec. Each S2 requested a speeded button press. Compared to placebo, clonazepam significantly reduced P100 amplitude of the VEP and the amplitudes of the AEP components N1 and P3. On the other hand, clonazepam boosted the development of a distinct N2 which was not apparent in placebo subjects. The CNV was significantly reduced and reaction time increased under clonazepam compared to placebo. Specific versus non-specific damping effects of the benzodiazepine are discussed, comparing the present result with the pattern of ERP effects of the anticonvulsant carbamazepine that had been obtained using the same experimental paradigms.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The processing of temporal intervals reflected by CNV-like brain potentials.

The present study employed event-related potentials (ERPs) of the brain to improve the understanding of temporal processing. A reproduction paradigm was realized by presenting a visual stimulus (illuminated screen) for intervals of varying length. A few seconds after presentation of such standard intervals the visual stimulus was switched on again and subjects were asked to reproduce the duration of the standard interval by turning off the illumination after a corresponding interval had elapsed. The length of standard intervals varied randomly with each of the following lengths being presented 20 times: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 s. Reproduction was accurate for standard intervals up to 3 s but deteriorated with increasing interval length. Brain potentials during reproduction intervals of 1-3 s differed from those recorded during the longer intervals. A CNV-like slow negative shift developed during the shorter reproduction intervals. Negatively was reduced or even absent, when subjects had to reproduce standard intervals of 4 s or longer. The ERP results suggest that intervals shorter than 3-4 s may evoke a processing mode that is qualitatively different from the one dominating when periods in the range of several seconds have to be processed.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Biofeedback-produced hemispheric asymmetry of slow cortical potentials and its behavioural effects.

Two studies served to examine behavioural effects of slow cortical potentials (SPs). SPs were manipulated by means of a biofeedback procedure. The ability of human subjects to alter SPs differentially between the two hemispheres--specifically over the lateral aspects of the central sulcus--was tested by providing feedback of the SP difference between C3 and C4. In Expt. I, 21 of the 45 subjects produced hemispheric asymmetries of more than 2 microV between C3 and C4 on an average after 80 trials of analogue, continuous and immediate feedback. In Expt. II, SP changes were fed back digitally at the end of each trial. Within 120 trials, 20 of the 48 subjects reached the criterion of a minimum 2-microV difference in SPs between C3 and C4 on the average. Average differentiation remained significantly below the SP differentiations achieved for continuous feedback. Trials with feedback were followed by 'task' trials without feedback, during which subjects were still requested to produce SP changes but also had to complete a task: Either sensorimotor tasks (Expt. I) or forced choice handedness tasks (Expt. II) were presented to evaluate behavioural consequences of hemispheric SP differences. In subjects achieving the required SP differentiation it affected the behavioural output in agreement with the known functions of the respective cortical area.

Adult↗