The more, the better? Learning rate and self-pacing in neurofeedback enhance cognitive performance in healthy adults

Real time electroencephalogram (EEG) based neurofeedback has been shown to be effective in regulating brain activity, thereby modifying cognitive performance and behavior. Nevertheless, individual variations in neurofeedback learning rates limit the overall efficacy of EEG based neurofeedback. In the present study we investigated the effects of learning rate and control over training realized by self-pacing on cognitive performance and electrocortical activity. Using a double-blind design, we randomly allocated 60 participants to either individual upper alpha (IUA) or sham neurofeedback and subsequently to self- or externally paced training. Participants receiving IUA neurofeedback improved their IUA activity more than participants receiving sham neurofeedback. Furthermore, the learning rate predicted enhancements in resting-state activity and mental rotation ability. The direction of this linear relationship depended on the neurofeedback condition being positive for IUA and negative for sham neurofeedback. Finally, self-paced training increased higher-level cognitive skills more than externally paced training. These results underpin the important role of learning rate in enhancing both resting-state activity and cognitive performance. Our design allowed us to differentiate the effect of learning rate between neurofeedback conditions, and to demonstrate the positive effect of self-paced training on cognitive performance in IUA neurofeedback

The more, the better? Learning rate and self-pacing in neurofeedback enhance cognitive performance in healthy adults

Real time electroencephalogram (EEG) based neurofeedback has been shown to be effective in regulating brain activity, thereby modifying cognitive performance and behavior. Nevertheless, individual variations in neurofeedback learning rates limit the overall efficacy of EEG based neurofeedback. In the present study we investigated the effects of learning rate and control over training realized by self-pacing on cognitive performance and electrocortical activity. Using a double-blind design, we randomly allocated 60 participants to either individual upper alpha (IUA) or sham neurofeedback and subsequently to self- or externally paced training. Participants receiving IUA neurofeedback improved their IUA activity more than participants receiving sham neurofeedback. Furthermore, the learning rate predicted enhancements in resting-state activity and mental rotation ability. The direction of this linear relationship depended on the neurofeedback condition being positive for IUA and negative for sham neurofeedback. Finally, self-paced training increased higher-level cognitive skills more than externally paced training. These results underpin the important role of learning rate in enhancing both resting-state activity and cognitive performance. Our design allowed us to differentiate the effect of learning rate between neurofeedback conditions, and to demonstrate the positive effect of self-paced training on cognitive performance in IUA neurofeedback

International Congress of Emerging Trends in Tourism (ICETT 2021)

Kitap (Açık Erişim)Son dönemde dünyanın birçok bölgesinde meydana gelen değişimler, olumlu ve olumsuz yönleri ile turizm hareketlerini kolaylıkla yönlendirmektedir. Covid-19 Salgını bu durumun son örneklerinin başında gelmekte ve halen sonuçları tam olarak bilinememektedir. Yeni normal olarak ifade edilen dünya düzeninde turizm işletmeleri yönetimi, turizm pazarlaması, turizm yatırımları, turizm faaliyetine yönelik işbirliği olanakları, turistik tüketici eğilimleri, turizm eğitimi, turizm planlaması ve politikaları alanlarında gelişmeler ve değişimlerin ortaya çıkması kaçınılmaz hale gelmiştir. Bu muhtemel değişimler ve gelişmeler, mevcut alan araştırmalarına ek olarak yeni yaklaşımların, teorilerin ve incelemelerin geliştirilmesini gerekli kılmaktadır. Giderek artan rekabet ortamında, turizm sektöründeki uygulamaların da yapılan araştırma çalışmaları ile uyumlaştırılması ve geliştirilmesi önemli bir süreçtir. Bu bağlamda, 30 Eylül - 02 Ekim 2021 tarihleri arasında, Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi Turizm Fakültesi ev sahipliğinde, Konya Büyükşehir Belediyesi işbirliğiyle, tarihi ve kültürel değerleri ve gelişmiş alt ve üst yapı donanımlarıyla öne çıkan, kadim şehrimiz Konya’da “Uluslararası Turizmde Yükselen Eğilimler Kongresi ” isimli Uluslararası bir kongre gerçekleşmiştir. Bu kongrenin, turizm endüstrisine yönelik yeni pazarlama, organizasyon, işbirlikleri, gelişen ve dönüşen teknolojik yaklaşımlar, farklılaşan tüketici eğilimleri ve yeni oluşumların tartışılacağı bir bilimsel platform olmuştur. Bu kongreye ait özet bildirilerin yer aldığı kitab açık erişim olarak sunulmuştur

Exploring personalized approaches for neurofeedback optimization

Neurofeedback is an intervention which is designed to alter cognitive-behavioral functions by inducing neural activity. Despite the growing evidence supporting its validity in healthy and clinical populations, there is current debate on its underlying mechanisms and its limited efficacy in mediating lasting changes to cognitive-behavioral outcomes. Recent neurofeedback studies suggest that inter-individual variations in neurophysiological and psychological factors may explain some of the heterogenous findings and may, further, inspire the individual adaptation of neurofeedback protocols. In a series of studies, we investigated how tailoring specific parameters of neurofeedback interventions may increase the overall efficacy in mediating changes to both neurophysiological and cognitive outcomes. In study 1, we assessed the effect of self-pacing training-time during neurofeedback on cognitive outcomes and how the learning-rate of gaining control over the targeted neural feature related to changes in neurophysiological and cognitive functions measured before and after a single session of neurofeedback. Our results indicate that handing healthy participants the ability to adapt the training-time to their needs improved higher cognitive functions more than externally-pacing the training. We, further, observed that the more successful healthy participants were in regulating their brain activity, the more they increased their neurophysiological and cognitive-behavioral functions from before to after neurofeedback. Next, we assessed person-specific neural correlates of mental rotation in study 2 by applying a machine learning approach. Modelling the time of correct responses as a function of preceding EEG activity in a mental rotation task revealed inter-individual differences in the importance of spectral and spatial EEG features for the prediction on the one hand and similar group-based EEG features as reported in previous studies on the other hand. More specifically, our findings highlighted the relevance of alpha and beta band-related activity as well as left frontal and right parieto-occipital activity for mental rotation. In study 3, we finally investigated the efficacy of personalized target feature specification in a neurofeedback intervention by applying the methodology detailed in study 2. Our results suggest that compared to sham feedback, participants receiving personalized neurofeedback improved their mental rotation performance significantly more. Furthermore, the mediated effect of neurofeedback training was specific to mental rotation and did not transfer to other cognitive functions. The results from the conducted neurofeedback studies provide partial support for the notion that adapting neurofeedback protocols to user characteristics increases the efficacy of neurofeedback interventions in mediating changes to neurophysiological and cognitive-behavioral functions. Future studies are required to overcome some of our limitations also related to the spatial resolution of the chosen brain imaging technique, our adaptation of the mental rotation task, and the specificity of neurofeedback as an intervention to exclusively induce changes to the targeted neural feature

Safety perceptions and viewpoints on Turkey of foreing tourists visiting Cappadocia in context of sustainable tourism

Güvenlik, insanlar için temel ihtiyaçlarından sonra gelen çok önemli bir kavramdır. Turizm sektörü de yapısı itibariyle insan odaklı olduğu için, güvenlikle ilgili yaşanan en küçük olumsuzluklardan bile çok çabuk etkilenebilmektedir. Turistler bir destinasyona seyahat etmeden önce kendi can ve mal güvenliklerinden emin olmak isterler. Bu yüzden seyahat etmeyi düşündükleri bir destinasyon hakkında bilgi arayışı içine girerler ve bu bölge hakkında çeşitli yollar aracılığı ile bilgi edinebilirler. Turistler gerek yazılı ve görsel medya gerek arkadaş tavsiyesi ve gerekse geçmiş deneyimleri sayesinde edindikleri bilgiler sonucunda seyahat etme konusunda olumlu ya da olumsuz bir karar vermektedirler. Genellikle turistler güvenlik riskinin en az olduğu ve kendileri güvende hissettikleri yerleri ziyaret ederler. Aksi durumlarda ise aynı destinasyonu gelecekte tekrar ziyaret etmekten vazgeçmektedirler. Sürekli suç olaylarının yaşandığı bir destinasyon ne kadar turistik çekiciliklere sahip olsa da bölgede turist sayısının tatmin edici olması ve turizmin faaliyetlerinin sürdürülebilir olması mümkün değildir. Çalışmanın temel amacı ülkemizin önemli turizm merkezlerinden biri olan Kapadokya bölgesini ziyaret eden turistlerin Türkiye hakkındaki genel görüşlerini öğrenmek ve bölgedeki potansiyel suç ve güvenlik algılarını tespit etmek ve daha sonra potansiyel suç ve güvenlik algısının turistlerin tekrar ziyaret niyetlerine etkisi olup olmadığını araştırmaktır. Bu kapsamda Kapadokya'yı ziyaret eden yabancı turistlerden 2016 yılı ağustos-ekim aylarında 388 adet anket toplanmış ve sonuçlar analiz edilmiştir. Kavramsal çerçeve tamamlandıktan sonra bölgeyi ziyaret eden turistlerin demografik özelliklerine göre potansiyel suç ve güvenlik algılarında anlamlı farklılıklar olduğu ve potansiyel suç ve güvenlik algılarının tekrar ziyaret niyetlerini etkilediği sonucuna varılmıştır.Safety is a very important concept that comes after people's basic needs. Because the tourism sector is also human-focused in nature, it can be affected very quickly by even the little negativeness about safety and security incidents. Tourists want to be sure of their safety of life and property before traveling to a destination. So they search for information about a destination where they think to travel. And they can get information about this region through various ways. Tourists make a positive or negative decision to travel as a result of informations they receive thanks to written and visual media, friend suggestions and with their past experiences. Tourists usually visit places where they feel safe and security risks are minimal. Otherwise, they won't revisit the same destination in the future. No matter how many touristic attractivnesses a destination have where continous crime incidents happen, it is not possible that the number of tourists is satisfactory and the tourism activities are sustainable in there. The main purpose of the study is to learn the general opinions of the tourists about Turkey visiting Cappadocia region which is one of the important tourism centers of Turkey and to determine the potential crime and security perceptions of the tourists in the region and then to investigate whether the potential crime perception and safety and security perception have an effect on tourists' revisit intention or not. In this context, 388 questionnaires were collected from foreign tourists visiting Cappadocia during the August-October 2016 period and the results were analyzed. After conceptual framework it was concluded that there were significant differences in potential crime and safety and security perceptions according to the demographics of tourists visiting the region and that potential crime and safety and security perceptions affected their revisit intention

Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Microorganisms Isolated from Orofacial Infections

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine an effective antimicrobial therapy ofcausative agents for orofacial abscesses. In order to do that, bacterial strains isolated from patientsamples were identified based on “bacterial fatty acid profiles” and determined the antimicrobialsusceptibilities by using disc diffusion test for aerobic bacteria, and E test for anaerobic bacteria.Materials and Methods: The present study was carried out in 71 patients with a diagnosis oforofacial infections in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic of Atatürk University. Aerobic andanaerobic bacteria were isolated from 71 clinical specimens by Microbial Identification Systemand their antibiotic sensitivity was tested. Results: The most frequently isolated species were Streptococcus spp., Staphylococcus spp.and Bacteroides spp. The highest rate of resistance was detected in the aerobic strains againstpenicillin (58.4%), followed by eriythromycin (46.7%), clindamycin (35.1%), tetracycline(32.5%), amoxycillin/clavulonic acid (31.1%) and cefazoline (27.3%), respectively. The highestrate of resistance was detected in the anaerobic strains against to penicillin (60%), clindamycin(53.3%), metronidazole (30%), cefoxitin (20%) piperacillin/tazobactam (11.6%) and imipenem(0.3%), respectively. Conclusions: In order to treat orofacial infections more effectively, and to prevent antimicrobialresistance which has increased recently, antibiotic susceptility tests should be performedroutinely in regions where antibacterial resistance is high like our area