Alpha and theta mechanisms operating in internal-external attention competition

Attention is the ability to prioritize a set of information at expense of others and can be internally- or externally-oriented. Alpha and theta oscillations have been extensively implicated in attention. However, it is unclear how these oscillations operate when sensory distractors are presented continuously during task-relevant internal processes, in close-to-real-life conditions. Here, EEG signals from healthy participants were obtained at rest and in three attentional conditions, characterized by the execution of a mental math task (internal attention), presentation of pictures on a monitor (external attention), and task execution under the distracting action of picture presentation (internal-external competition). Alpha and theta power were investigated at scalp level and at some cortical regions of interest (ROIs); moreover, functional directed connectivity was estimated via spectral Granger Causality. Results show that frontal midline theta was distinctive of mental task execution and was more prominent during competition compared to internal attention alone, possibly reflecting higher executive control; anterior cingulate cortex appeared as mainly involved and causally connected to distant (temporal/ occipital) regions. Alpha power in visual ROIs strongly decreased in external attention alone, while it assumed values close to rest during competition, reflecting reduced visual engagement against distractors; connectivity results suggested that bidirectional alpha influences between frontal and visual regions could contribute to reduce visual interference in internal attention. This study can help to understand how our brain copes with internal-external attention competition, a condition intrinsic in the human sensory-cognitive interplay, and to elucidate the relationships between brain oscillations and attentional functions/dysfunctions in daily tasks

Elektroentsefalograafiline vaade emotsionaalse tähelepanu mehhanismidele

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Miks ilus inimene rahvasummas silma jääb? Või ka kauguses kostuv pidurikrigin liiklusmürast üle kostab? Tartu Ülikoolis valminud doktoritöö kohaselt võib põhjuseks olla emotsionaalse informatsiooni kiirendatud töötlus. Aju on varustatud tähelepanumehhanismidega, mis valivad meeleorganite vahendatud infotulvast välja kõige olulisema teabe. Näiteks tahtlik tähelepanu aitab keskenduda käesolevale ning tahtmatu tähelepanu märgata ootamatusi. Neile sekundeerib ka kolmas süsteem, mis tõstab esile emotsionaalse tähendusega infot. Just afektiivne tähelepanu viib fookuse potentsiaalsetele hüvedele nagu kaunis kaaslane ja ohtudele nagu liiklusõnnetus. Seni on aga lahendamata küsimus, mis täpselt toimub ajus siis, kui erinevad tähelepanusüsteemid omavahel konkureerivad. Näiteks kui veebiuudise lugeja silm haarab ühtaegu nii pooleliolevat teksti kui mahlakat kõmupealkirja külgribal. Mõnikord jääb võitjaks emotsionaalne tähelepanu ning kõmulugu saab oodatud kliki. Teinekord suudab aga tahtlik tähelepanu ebaolulise ahvatluse kõrvale tõrjuda ja loo lugemine võib jätkuda. Oma doktoritöös uuris Andero Uusberg lähemalt võimalust, et tähelepanulises võistluses toimub esimese sekundikolmandiku jooksul liidritevahetus. Emotsionaalne tähelepanu reageerib stardis kiiremini, kuid umbes 350 ms järel on tahtlik süsteem seisu viigistanud ning aju fookust juhitakse edaspidi koostöös. Mitmed selle mõttemudeli ennustused leidsid kinnitust emotsionaalse sisuga fotode vaatamise ajal mõõdetud aju elektrilise aktiivsuse analüüsimisel. Üldisemalt aitab tähelepanusüsteemide erinev stardikiirus seletada, miks tegelikkuses ohutud stiimulid nagu kauge pidurikrigin kipuvad siiski tähelepanu haarama – kulub hetk, ette kui konteksti arvestav tahtlik tähelepanu jõuab korrigeerida primitiivsema emotsionaalse süsteemi esialgset valikut. Doktoritööst leiab ka vihjeid igapäevaseks emotsioonide reguleerimiseks. Ebameeldiva raviprotseduuri või muu ärevust tekitava olukorraga toimetulemiseks soovitatakse vahel mõelda millestki muust. Uusbergi uurimistöö näitas aga, et selline strateegia on suurema tõenäosusega edukas siis, kui mõte juhitakse millelegi piisavalt keerukale. Näiteks kui katseisikutel paluti võimalikult detailirohkelt kujutleda jalutamist kodulinnas, vähenes samal ajal esitletud emotsionaalsete piltide sisusse süvemine ning neile reageerimise intensiivsus. Kui ülesandeks oli aga keskenduda emotsionaalsete piltide neutraalsetele omadustele, vähenes afektiivne tähelepanu vaid mõnevõrra.Why does a beautiful face stand out from a crowd? Or even a distant braking screech captures attention? A recent doctoral thesis suggests the reason may be faster processing of emotional information. The brain is equipped with various attention mechanisms for sorting out important information from potentially overwhelming sensory input. While top-down attention enables us to concentrate and bottom-up attention to remain vigilant for unexpected aspects of the environment, there is also a third system sensitive to emotional information. This affective attention is responsible for spotting opportunities such as a valuable mate or threats such as a traffic accident. Scientists do not fully comprehend however, how does competition between attention systems is resolved in the brain. As an example, consider a reader of an online news story whose eyes also capture a juicy headline at a sidebar. Sometimes affective attention succeeds in breaking the concentration on the story in favour of the emotional distraction. At other times however, top-down attention prevails and reading continues uninterrupted. In his thesis, Andero Uusberg investigated the idea that the competition between attentional systems changes across time. More specifically, affective attention may be faster off the mark while after about a third of a second however, top-down attention catches up and the subsequent focus is determined in co-operation. This framework explained several aspects of electrical brain activity measured while participants viewed emotionally evocative photographs. More broadly, different onsets can explain why safe stimuli such as a distant braking screech still captivates us – it takes a moment for the more context-aware top-down attention system to correct the early reaction of the more primitive affective attention. The thesis also has implications for everyday emotion regulation. To cope with unpleasant events such as medical procedures, people are sometimes advised to distract themselves by thinking of something else. In this regard, the present findings imply that this strategy requires the distractive mental activity to be reasonably difficult. For instance, when participants were asked to imagine their neighbourhoods with high level of detail, they indeed paid less attention to unpleasant photographs as well as experienced less intense emotional reactions. When they merely thought of nonaffective features of affective images however, emotional attention was attenuated only modestly

The Neurophysiology of Auditory Hallucinations – A Historical and Contemporary Review

Electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography are two techniques that distinguish themselves from other neuroimaging methodologies through their ability to directly measure brain-related activity and their high temporal resolution. A large body of research has applied these techniques to study auditory hallucinations. Across a variety of approaches, the left superior temporal cortex is consistently reported to be involved in this symptom. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that a failure in corollary discharge, i.e., a neural signal originating in frontal speech areas that indicates to sensory areas that forthcoming thought is self-generated, may underlie the experience of auditory hallucinations

Enterprise risk management in the airline industry - risk management structures and practices

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University London.This thesis expands on the literature in the under-researched field of airline risk management by exploring organisational structures and practices of airline risk management systems and their technical and institutional drivers. In particular, it focuses on the phenomenon of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and its alignment to the requirements of airline business contexts. The theoretical framework informing this study combines structural contingency theory with two strands of institutional theory, namely old institutional economics and new institutional sociology. In this thesis, the phenomenon of risk management is investigated in situ as an organisational practice through a two-stage empirical study. Firstly, an exploratory field study was undertaken in a panel of ten international airlines. Secondly, the field study was complemented with findings from two explanatory case studies. This study explains how in developing risk management systems airlines balance the sometimes conflicting technical and institutional demands of their respective task and institutional environments. The adoption and implementation of ERM in airlines are found to be driven primarily by coercive and normative pressures, and expectations of improved organisational effectiveness and efficiency. This study additionally improves general understanding of the nature of ERM and its coupling and fluidity in the organisational settings of airlines. It lends evidence for systematic variations in roles, uses, and organisational design choices of ERM systems. It shows the interdependent nature of airlines’ ERM systems and other management systems. The study also demonstrates that the adoption of ERM in airlines drives development of new institutions, rules, and routines for comprehensive management of risks. Consistent with the tenets of contingency theory, this study conveys lack of a universally appropriate design of an airline ERM system. The main contribution of this thesis is to assess airline risk management systems, identify core drivers of effective risk management practice, and provide a framework with the aim of guiding airlines in the development of enterprise-wide risk management approaches aligned with the requirements of their institutional and technical contexts. Furthermore, this research overcomes the limitations of previous, mostly quantitative studies of ERM coupling and dynamics in organisations, as it explores and explains the structures, practices, and rationales of airline risk management systems within wider organisational contexts through the use of qualitative methodologies

On natural attunement:Shared rhythms between the brain and the environment

Rhythms exist both in the embodied brain and the built environment. Becoming attuned to the rhythms of the environment, such as repetitive columns, can greatly affect perception. Here, we explore how the built environment affects human cognition and behavior through the concept of natural attunement, often resulting from the coordination of a person's sensory and motor systems with the rhythmic elements of the environment. We argue that the built environment should not be reduced to mere states, representations, and single variables but instead be considered a bundle of highly related continuous signals with which we can resonate. Resonance and entrainment are dynamic processes observed when intrinsic frequencies of the oscillatory brain are influenced by the oscillations of an external signal. This allows visual rhythmic stimulations of the environment to affect the brain and body through neural entrainment, cross-frequency coupling, and phase resetting. We review how real-world architectural settings can affect neural dynamics, cognitive processes, and behavior in people, suggesting the crucial role of everyday rhythms in the brain-body-environment relationship

The Internationalization of Creative Professional Service Firms

The need to understand the internationalization process of the organization is a field of increasing contemporary interest due to greatly intensified trade flows between nations over the last two decades. While traditionally internationalization was generally pursued by manufacturing firms, service organizations, including creative professional service firms (creative PSFs) such as architects now commonly internationalize their activities. However, theory to date continues to focus on traditional manufacturing firms, and while insights relating to service firm internationalization have gained traction over the last decade, theoretical contributions remain fragmented and overlook the particular features of how creative PSFs internationalize. This is despite the growing recognition that trade in creative knowledge intensive services is a critical component to the health and competitiveness of both mature and emerging economies. This study addresses this gap by exploring how creative PSFs internationalize using ten case studies within the architecture sector. The in-depth qualitative analysis of interview and archival data enables the composition of three research papers, representing three key theoretical contributions. The primary contributions are to international business (IB) literature, firstly by unpacking the portfolio of business models that creative PSFs use to internationalize, and secondly by identifying how creative PSFs internationalize by moving from outside to inside relevant international networks. The second paper also adds to organizational status literature by uncovering the interplay between hierarchies of networks. The identification of a strategic dichotomy within the particular creative PSF sector detailed in the first paper represents a significant contribution to the PSF literature