Multimodal hyperscanning reveals that synchrony of body and mind are distinct in mother-child dyads

Hyperscanning studies have begun to unravel the brain mechanisms underlying social interaction, indicating a functional role for interpersonal neural synchronization (INS), yet the mechanisms that drive INS are poorly understood. The current study, thus, addresses whether INS is functionally-distinct from synchrony in other systems – specifically the autonomic nervous system and motor behavior. To test this, we used concurrent functional near-infrared spectroscopy - electrocardiography recordings, while N = 34 mother-child and stranger-child dyads engaged in cooperative and competitive tasks. Only in the neural domain was a higher synchrony for mother-child compared to stranger-child dyads observed. Further, autonomic nervous system and neural synchrony were positively related during competition but not during cooperation. These results suggest that synchrony in different behavioral and biological systems may reflect distinct processes. Furthermore, they show that increased mother-child INS is unlikely to be explained solely by shared arousal and behavioral similarities, supporting recent theories that postulate that INS is higher in close relationships

Neuroeconomics: How Neuroscience Can Inform Economics

Neuroeconomics uses knowledge about brain mechanisms to inform economic analysis, and roots economics in biology. It opens up the "black box" of the brain, much as organizational economics adds detail to the theory of the firm. Neuroscientists use many tools— including brain imaging, behavior of patients with localized brain lesions, animal behavior, and recording single neuron activity. The key insight for economics is that the brain is composed of multiple systems which interact. Controlled systems ("executive function") interrupt automatic ones. Emotions and cognition both guide decisions. Just as prices and allocations emerge from the interaction of two processes—supply and demand— individual decisions can be modeled as the result of two (or more) processes interacting. Indeed, "dual-process" models of this sort are better rooted in neuroscientific fact, and more empirically accurate, than single-process models (such as utility-maximization). We discuss how brain evidence complicates standard assumptions about basic preference, to include homeostasis and other kinds of state-dependence. We also discuss applications to intertemporal choice, risk and decision making, and game theory. Intertemporal choice appears to be domain-specific and heavily influenced by emotion. The simplified ß-d of quasi-hyperbolic discounting is supported by activation in distinct regions of limbic and cortical systems. In risky decision, imaging data tentatively support the idea that gains and losses are coded separately, and that ambiguity is distinct from risk, because it activates fear and discomfort regions. (Ironically, lesion patients who do not receive fear signals in prefrontal cortex are "rationally" neutral toward ambiguity.) Game theory studies show the effect of brain regions implicated in "theory of mind", correlates of strategic skill, and effects of hormones and other biological variables. Finally, economics can contribute to neuroscience because simple rational-choice models are useful for understanding highly-evolved behavior like motor actions that earn rewards, and Bayesian integration of sensorimotor information

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

"Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging - Advanced Neuroimaging Applications" is a concise book on applied methods of fMRI used in assessment of cognitive functions in brain and neuropsychological evaluation using motor-sensory activities, language, orthographic disabilities in children. The book will serve the purpose of applied neuropsychological evaluation methods in neuropsychological research projects, as well as relatively experienced psychologists and neuroscientists. Chapters are arranged in the order of basic concepts of fMRI and physiological basis of fMRI after event-related stimulus in first two chapters followed by new concepts of fMRI applied in constraint-induced movement therapy; reliability analysis; refractory SMA epilepsy; consciousness states; rule-guided behavioral analysis; orthographic frequency neighbor analysis for phonological activation; and quantitative multimodal spectroscopic fMRI to evaluate different neuropsychological states

Increased Prefrontal-Parietal EEG Gamma Band Correlation during Motor Imagery in Expert Video Game Players

Abstract. The aim of this study was to characterize the prefrontal-parietal EEG correlation in experienced video game players (VGPs) in relation to individuals with little or no video game experience (NVGPs) during a motor imagery condition for an action-type video game. The participants in both groups watched a first-person shooter (FPS) gameplay from Halo Reach during five minutes. None of the participants was notified as to the content of the video before watching it. Only the VGPs showed an increased right intrahemispheric prefrontal-parietal correlation (F4-P4) in the gamma band (31-50 Hz) during the observation of the gameplay. These data provide novel information on the participation of the gamma band during motor imagery for an action-type video game. It is probable that this higher degree of coupling between the prefrontal and parietalcortices could represent a characteristic pattern of brain functionality in VGPs as they make motor representations

Brain computer interface gaming: development of concentration based game design for research environments

During the last couple of decades, there has been an exponential improvement in neuroimaging technologies that allowed researchers to evaluate cognitive workload, short term memory, and spatial/navigational behaviors in humans. Through the use of new experimental paradigms and brain imaging devices, researchers have gained deeper insight into the neural correlates of emotion, cognition and motor control. Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems utilize various neuroimaging tools to detect brain activation evoked by a specific thinking process and convert it to a command. We have developed a game environment called “MindTactics” as a test platform for BCI devices to conceptualize experimental cognitive paradigms in ecologically valid environments as well as test BCI gameplay paradigms. Unlike traditional video games where the challenge to the user is the designed game mechanics, BCI based gameplay also involves mastering the use of the BCI device itself. The purpose of this thesis is to develop compelling BCI game design methods. MindTactics is capable of integrating data from multiple devices including the optical brain imaging based BCI developed at Drexel University, and it records behavioral log files for further analysis.M.S., Digital Media -- Drexel University, 201

An open-source human-in-the-loop BCI research framework: method and design

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) translate brain activity into digital commands for interaction with the physical world. The technology has great potential in several applied areas, ranging from medical applications to entertainment industry, and creates new conditions for basic research in cognitive neuroscience. The BCIs of today, however, offer only crude online classification of the user's current state of mind, and more sophisticated decoding of mental states depends on time-consuming offline data analysis. The present paper addresses this limitation directly by leveraging a set of improvements to the analytical pipeline to pave the way for the next generation of online BCIs. Specifically, we introduce an open-source research framework that features a modular and customizable hardware-independent design. This framework facilitates human-in-the-loop (HIL) model training and retraining, real-time stimulus control, and enables transfer learning and cloud computing for the online classification of electroencephalography (EEG) data. Stimuli for the subject and diagnostics for the researcher are shown on separate displays using web browser technologies. Messages are sent using the Lab Streaming Layer standard and websockets. Real-time signal processing and classification, as well as training of machine learning models, is facilitated by the open-source Python package Timeflux. The framework runs on Linux, MacOS, and Windows. While online analysis is the main target of the BCI-HIL framework, offline analysis of the EEG data can be performed with Python, MATLAB, and Julia through packages like MNE, EEGLAB, or FieldTrip. The paper describes and discusses desirable properties of a human-in-the-loop BCI research platform. The BCI-HIL framework is released under MIT license with examples at: bci.lu.se/bci-hil (or at: github.com/bci-hil/bci-hil)

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Anatomical and behavioural correlates of emotion-induced social decision-making

2Abstract This thesis explored the behavioural and neural processes associated with the effect of sympathy and anger on socio-economic decision-making. Experiment 1 showed the defection rate decrease in sympathy and increase in anger compared to the neutral condition in the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Trust Game. Experiment 2 revealed that block and event-related designs have the same effect on defection over the three emotion conditions in the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Experiment 3 indicated that direct, but not displaced, emotion group participants’ defection rate replicated the finding of Experiment 1. Additionally, cognitive inhibition showed a consistent pattern over three experiments; while in the Prisoner’s Dilemma low cognitive inhibition participants’ defection decreased in sympathy and increased in anger compared to neutral, high cognitive inhibitors’ defection was similar across conditions. Yet, cognitive flexibility (Experiment 3) did not affect participants’ defection rate. Similarly, Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 found that defection rate in the Prisoner’s Dilemma was modulated by expressive suppression, but not cognitive reappraisal; low expressive suppression participants were defecting more in the anger and less in the sympathy compared to the neutral condition. The fMRI analysis in Experiment 4 showed increased left amygdala activation while defecting in the sympathy condition and decreased putamen activation while cooperating in the anger condition. These areas are possibly necessary to overcome the emotion driven impulses to cooperate in the sympathy and defect in the anger conditions. Finally, Experiment 5 revealed that vmPFC patients’ accuracy decreased from neutral to emotional exclusive disjunction trials, while parietal lobe and normal controls showed a reversed pattern signifying vmPFC’s role while making decisions under emotion. The combination of these findings highlights the importance of individual difference and the role of the amygdala, putamen and prefrontal cortex in socio-economic decision-making under emotion. However, alternative interpretations cannot be ruled out without further investigation

Acute Stress Exposure and Expression of Instrumentally Conditioned Financial Preferences: An fMRI Study

Recent research suggests acute stress exposure is associated with increased habit-based over goal-oriented decision making (e.g., Schwabe & Wolf, 2011). The current study examined whether acute stress promotes the expression of simple financial preferences “overtrained” to the point of habit in the face of a changing environment where said preferences were later rendered non-optimal. Over three days participants (N = 28) learned to discriminate between visual stimuli probabilistically associated with monetary gains or losses and made decisions between stimuli with real financial outcomes. On the fourth day after exposure to either an acute stressor or control procedure participants performed the same tasks during fMRI scanning, including a related task in which monetary values associated with the same stimuli were altered. Choice and fMRI data, psychophysiological measures and salivary cortisol were collected. Participants in both groups successfully made optimal decisions between stimuli on Days 1 to 3 (reaching asymptote on Day 2). During fMRI scanning after stimuli values were altered stressed participants made significantly more decisions consistent with original stimuli values, although these decisions were now financially detrimental, than did non-stressed participants. Thus, stressed participants made decisions more consistent with their overtrained (i.e., habit-based) preferences. In the control group, differential levels of BOLD activation, relative to stimulus valence, were observed in regions associated with goal-directed (i.e., caudate and prefrontal cortex) and habit-based (i.e., putamen) behaviors during both overtrained and novel stimulus-outcome pairings. In the acute stress group, similar differential BOLD activation was limited to the putamen and was only observed for overtrained pairings. During the decision-making portion of the task, increased BOLD activation was observed in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and insula for incorrect relative to correct responses in both groups. Further, alterations in dorsolateral prefrontal and entorhinal cortex suggest some stress-related impairment of executive control of memory. The current study adds to research that demonstrates a dual-process of decision-making and the propensity to resort to habitual behavior after exposure to acute stress. Further, these findings suggest stress-induced neural changes take place during both the learning and recall of reward-related information used in decision-making