447 research outputs found
The Aha! Experience of Spatial Reorientation
The experience of spatial re-orientation is investigated as an instance of the wellknown phenomenon of the Aha! moment. The research question is: What are the visuospatial conditions that are most likely to trigger the spatial Aha! experience? The literature suggests that spatial re-orientation relies mainly on the geometry of the environment and a visibility graph analysis is used to quantify the visuospatial information. Theories from environmental psychology point towards two hypotheses. The Aha! experience may be triggered by a change in the amount of visual information, described by the isovist properties of area and revelation, or by a change in the complexity of the visual information associated with the isovist properties of clustering coefficient and visual control. Data from participants’ exploratory behaviour and EEG recordings are collected during wayfinding in virtual reality urban environments. Two types of events are of interest here: (a) sudden changes of the visuospatial information preceding subjects' response to investigate changes in EEG power; and (b) participants brain dynamics (Aha! effect) just before the response to examine differences in isovist values at this location. Research on insights, time-frequency analysis of the P3 component and findings from navigation and orientation studies suggest that the spatial Aha! experience may be reflected by: a parietal alpha power decrease associated with the switch of the representation and a frontocentral theta increase indexing spatial processing during decision-making. Single-trial time-frequency analysis is used to classify trials into two conditions based on the alpha/theta power differences between a 3s time-period before participants’ response and a time-period of equal duration before that. Behavioural results show that participants are more likely to respond at locations with low values of clustering coefficient and high values of visual control. The EEG analysis suggests that the alpha decrease/theta increase condition occurs at locations with significantly lower values of clustering coefficient and higher values of visual control. Small and large decreases in clustering coefficient, just before the response, are associated with significant differences in delta/theta power. The values of area and revelation do not show significant differences. Both behavioural and EEG results suggest that the Aha! experience of re-orientation is more likely to be triggered by a change in the complexity of the visual-spatial environment rather than a change in the amount, as measured by the relevant isovist properties
Teacher torque: A research project investigating student cognitive engagement through observations of non-verbal responses to certain forms of classroom questions
This research project investigates student cognitive engagement through observations of nonverbal responses to certain forms of classroom questions. The basic assumption of this thesis is that education is the intentional act of expanding or evolving each individual student\u27s model of the world. This study explores the non-verbal responses that various forms of questions generate in order to assess the level of student thinking that occurs as a direct result of the question. It looks at responses to closed, open and schema accessing questions to discover the role that they play in the expansion of student schema. The expected readership of this thesis is teacher educators who will be able to use this information to train teachers to use questions for fulfilling their educational outcomes. It investigates the assumption that questions cause people to think. and shows that not al1 forms of questions consistently do this. The link between questions and thinking was investigated by examination of brain research which shows that ..... blood flow level reflects the level of neural activity (Goldberg. 2001. p49) and Greenfield (2000. p23) who tells us The harder working the brain region. the greater it\u27s consumption [of brain nutrients] and the greater the blood flow to that site . An external manifestation of the level of brain activity was sought by filming the non-verbal responses of a small group of students to their teachers\u27 classroom questions. See pages 35-37 of the literature review where it reveals that eye movements are both caused and are caused by stimulation to specific brain areas, and that the activation of the brain could be clearly seen by teachers when they watched the eye movements of their students. The study showed that observation of more movements of the eyes meant activation of more areas of the brain. Therefore the chain of events found in this study is: when students are focussing on the lesson they may choose to either discard or respond to questions. The level of cognition caused by response to the questions can be assessed by observation of eye movements Gust as external eye tracking can be observed when reading, so eye movements can be seen while people are tracking internally _ that is thinking). Eye movements are indicative of brain activation such as memory and thinking so we can postulate that learning is the result of brain activity. Teachers can therefore assess the level of cognitive involvement occurring in response to the various forms of questions they ask by observing the eye movements of their students
Bilateral Multi-Electrode Neurophysiological Recordings Coupled to Local Pharmacology in Awake Songbirds
Here we describe a protocol for bilateral multielectrode neurophysiological recordings during intracerebral pharmacological manipulations in awake songbirds. This protocol encompasses fitting adult animals with head-posts and recording chambers, and acclimating them to periods of restraint. The adaptation period is followed by bilateral penetrations of multiple electrodes to obtain acute, sensory-driven neurophysiological responses before versus during the application of pharmacological agents of interest. These local manipulations are achieved by simultaneous and restricted drug infusions carried out independently for each hemisphere. We have used this protocol to elucidate how neurotransmitter and neuroendocrine systems shape the auditory and perceptual processing of natural, learned communication signals. However, this protocol can be used to explore the neurochemical basis of sensory processing in other small vertebrates. Representative results and troubleshooting of key steps of this protocol are presented. Following the animal\u27s recovery from head-post and recording chamber implantation surgery, the length of the procedure is 2 d
A Quest for Meaning in Spontaneous Brain Activity - From fMRI to Electrophysiology to Complexity Science
The brain is not a silent, complex input/output system waiting to be driven by external stimuli; instead, it is a closed, self-referential system operating on its own with sensory information modulating rather than determining its activity. Ongoing spontaneous brain activity costs the majority of the brain\u27s energy budget, maintains the brain\u27s functional architecture, and makes predictions about the environment and the future. I have completed three separate studies on the functional significance and the organization of spontaneous brain activity. The first study showed that strokes disrupt large-scale network coherence in the spontaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging: fMRI) signals, and that the degree of such disruption predicts the behavioral impairment of the patient. This study established the functional significance of coherent patterns in the spontaneous fMRI signals. In the second study, by combining fMRI and electrophysiology in neurosurgical patients, I identified the neurophysiological signal underlying the coherent patterns in the spontaneous fMRI signal, the slow cortical potential: SCP). The SCP is a novel neural correlate of the fMRI signal, most likely underlying both spontaneous fMRI signal fluctuations and task-evoked fMRI responses. Some theoretical considerations have led me to propose a hypothesis on the involvement of the neural activity indexed by the SCP in the emergence of consciousness. In the last study I investigated the temporal organization across a wide range of frequencies in the spontaneous electrical field potentials recorded from the human brain. This study demonstrated that the arrhythmic, scale-free brain activity often discarded in human and animal electrophysiology studies in fact contains rich, complex structures, and further provided evidence supporting the functional significance of such activity
Gaze behaviour and brain activation patterns during real-space navigation in hippocampal dysfunction
The role of the musical intelligence in whole brain education
This study was prompted by the recent increase in academic and public interest in neuromusical brain research, which provides information about how the brain processes music. It is the task of neural science to explain how the individual units of the brain are used to control behaviour, and how the functioning of these units is influenced by an individual's specific environment and relationships with other people. However, the concept of neuromusical research is relatively new to music education. In any learning experience, brain processing (of information) is not an end in itself. The skill of 'thinking' is dependent on the whole integrated mind/body system, with skills being a manifestation of conscious physical responses that demonstrate knowledge acquisition. Howard Gardner's 'Theory of Multiple Intelligences' lists the musical intelligence as one of eight autonomous intelligences: linguistic, logic-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental. All of these intelligences can be developed to a reasonably high level. This thesis uses David Elliott's praxial philosophy as a conceptual basis. Elliott's four meanings of music education: education in music, by music, for music, and by means of music, have been selected to determine the parameters for an 'inclusive' understanding of musical intelligence. Scientific research findings, brain based data, and behavioural results with educational implications have been used to define what is meant by the musical intelligence, and its role in whole brain learning. Whole brain learning (also referred to as 'accelerated' learning or 'super' learning) is examined in the framwork of IQ (intellectual quotient/intelligence), EQ (emotional intelligence), and SQ (spiritual intelligence). It is important to note that the brain imposes certain constraints on the learning ability of individuals, but that there are also numerous benefits to be derived from an awarenss of brain functions pertaining to education in general and music education in particular. These constraints and benefits are an important feature of whole brain learning, with the musical intelligence playing a vital role.Dissertation (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2003.Musicunrestricte
Neuroimaging and the Complexity of Capital Punishment
The growing use of brain imaging technology to explore the causes of morally, socially, and legally relevant behavior is the subject of much discussion and controversy in both scholarly and popular circles. From the efforts of cognitive neuroscientists in the courtroom and the public square, the contours of a project to transform capital sentencing both in principle and in practice have emerged. In the short term, these scientists seek to play a role in the process of capital sentencing by serving as mitigation experts for defendants, invoking neuroimaging research on the roots of criminal violence to support their arguments. Over the long term, these same experts (and their like-minded colleagues) hope to appeal to the recent findings of their discipline to embarrass, discredit, and ultimately overthrow retributive justice as a principle of punishment. Taken as a whole, these short- and long-term efforts are ultimately meant to usher in a more compassionate and humane regime for capital defendants. This Article seeks to articulate, analyze, and provide a critique of this project according to the metric of its own humanitarian aspirations. It proceeds by exploring the implications of the project in light of the mechanics of capital sentencing and the heterogeneous array of competing doctrinal rationales in which they are rooted. The Article concludes that the project as currently conceived is internally inconsistent and would, if implemented, result in ironic and tragic consequences, producing a death penalty regime that is even more draconian and less humane than the deeply flawed framework currently in place
Neuroimaging and the Complexity of Capital Punishment
The growing use of brain imaging technology to explore the causes of morally, socially, and legally relevant behavior is the subject of much discussion and controversy in both scholarly and popular circles. From the efforts of cognitive neuroscientists in the courtroom and the public square, the contours of a project to transform capital sentencing both in principle and in practice have emerged. In the short term, these scientists seek to play a role in the process of capital sentencing by serving as mitigation experts for defendants, invoking neuroimaging research on the roots of criminal violence to support their arguments. Over the long term, these same experts (and their like-minded colleagues) hope to appeal to the recent findings of their discipline to embarrass, discredit, and ultimately overthrow retributive justice as a principle of punishment. Taken as a whole, these short- and long-term efforts are ultimately meant to usher in a more compassionate and humane regime for capital defendants. This Article seeks to articulate, analyze, and provide a critique of this project according to the metric of its own humanitarian aspirations. It proceeds by exploring the implications of the project in light of the mechanics of capital sentencing and the heterogeneous array of competing doctrinal rationales in which they are rooted. The Article concludes that the project as currently conceived is internally inconsistent and would, if implemented, result in ironic and tragic consequences, producing a death penalty regime that is even more draconian and less humane than the deeply flawed framework currently in place
Spatiotemporal techniques in multimodal imaging for brain mapping and epilepsy
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThis thesis explored multimodal brain imaging using advanced
spatiotemporal techniques. The first set of experiments were based on
simulations. Much controversy exists in the literature regarding the differences
between magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG},
both practically and theoretically. The differences were explored using
simulations that evaluated the expected signal-to-noise ratios from reasonable brain sources. MEG and EEG were found to be complementary, with each
modality optimally suited to image activity from different areas of the cortical
surface. Consequently, evaluations of epileptic patients and general
neuroscience experiments will both benefit from simultaneously collected
MEG/EEG. The second set of experiments represent an example of MEG
combined with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional MRI (fMRI)
applied to healthy subjects. The study set out to resolve two questions relating to
shape perception. First, does the brain activate functional areas sequentially
during shape perception, as has been suggested in recent literature? Second,
which , if any, functional areas are active time-locked with reaction-time? The
study found that functional areas are non-sequentially activated, and that area IT
is active time-locked with reaction-time. These two points, coupled with the
method for multimodal integration , can help further develop our understanding of
shape perception in particular, and cortical dynamics in general for healthy
subjects. Broadly, these two studies represent practical guidelines for epilepsy
evaluations and brain mapping studies. For epilepsy studies, clinicians could
combine MEG and EEG to maximize the probability of finding the source of
seizures. For brain mapping in general, EEG, MEG, MRI and fMRI can be
combined in the methods outlined here to obtain more sophisticated views of
cortical dynamics
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