Neural correlates of flow, boredom, and anxiety in gaming: An electroencephalogram study

Games are engaging and captivating from a human-computer interaction (HCI) perspective as they can facilitate a highly immersive experience. This research examines the neural correlates of flow, boredom, and anxiety during video gaming. A within-subject experimental study (N = 44) was carried out with the use of electroencephalogram (EEG) to assess the brain activity associated with three states of user experience - flow, boredom, and anxiety - in a controlled gaming environment. A video game, Tetris, was used to induce flow, boredom, and anxiety. A 64 channel EEG headset was used to track changes in activation patterns in the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes of the players\u27 brains during the experiment. EEG signals were pre-processed and Fast Fourier Transformation values were extracted and analyzed. The results suggest that the EEG potential in the left frontal lobe is lower in the flow state than in the resting and boredom states. The occipital alpha is lower in the flow state than in the resting state. Similarly, the EEG theta in the left parietal lobe is lower during the flow state than the resting state. However, the EEG theta in the frontal-temporal region of the brain is higher in the flow state than in the anxiety state. The flow state is associated with low cognitive load, presence of attention levels, and loss of self-consciousness when compared to resting and boredom states --Abstract, page iii

Network competition in a resin-modified glass-ionomer cement

Abstract no. 1972published_or_final_versio

Combined fluorescent in situ hybridization for detection of microRNAs and immunofluorescent labeling for cell-type markers

Identification of the cell type of origin for normal or aberrant gene expression is critical for many studies, and poses a significant problem for some regulatory RNAs such as microRNAs. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that regulate cellular function by targeting specific mRNAs and reducing the level of their protein product. Aberrant expression of miRNAs in cell-types where they are not normally expressed occurs in several disease conditions. Therefore, it is important to determine not only the expression level of microRNAs, but also where they are expressed. Here we describe a detailed method for fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) combined with immunofluorescent labeling for cell-type markers in formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) sections along with modifications required to adapt the protocol for primary neurons grown in culture. We have combined the specificity and stability of locked nucleic acid (LNA) probes with tyramide signal amplification. To prevent loss of small RNA species, we performed post-fixation with ethylcarbodiimide (EDC). Additionally by omitting protease digestion and using only high temperature with sodium citrate buffer for FFPE sections, we were able to perform immunolabeling for proteins concurrently with in situ hybridization without compromising efficacy of either procedure

Roles of Extracellular Vesicles in Opioid Addiction: Potential Applications

Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) are lipid-bilayer membranous vesicles that facilitate intercellular communication via their secretion. EVs contain a variety of cargoes that reflect the intracellular environment of their host cells, and these cargoes can induce functional changes in recipient cells. A wide body of previous research has demonstrated that EVs play a role in a diverse range of disease pathologies as well as regular function and have emerged as promising vehicles for therapeutics and drug-delivery systems. Unsurprisingly, some work has recently been published implicating EVs in drug addiction pathways and therapeutics. Given the pressing scope of the opioid misuse and abuse in the U.S., it is necessary to consider the role of EVs in the development of opioid dependence and tolerance, as well as their role in potential therapeutics. The current review seeks to identify work investigating the role of EVs in opioid addiction and identify gaps and future directions in the literature.https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/surp2020/1024/thumbnail.jp

Causal Effect of Economic Indicators on Indian Automobile Sector

In this paper we examine the co-movement and casual relationship between economic indicators and automobile index. We postulate that leading and coincident economic indicators will help explain, cause, and predict movements in automobile index. To test our hypotheses we source data for four coincident indicators, namely Index of Industrial Production (IIP); Index of Manufacture of Motor Vehicles, Trailers and Semi-trailers (MVI); Index of Manufacture of Other Transport Equipment (TEI); and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price, for leading indicator we use Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensitive index (SENSEX). We consider BSE's AUTO index as proxy for Indian Automobile Industry. We collect monthly data of our study variables from April 2012 to June 2019. We break our full sample into two sub-samples based on break point in AUTO index and run separate analysis for each sample period. We find significant contemporaneous co-movements between SENSEX and AUTO index. In contrast to our hypothesis AUTO index cause SENSEX in all the three sample periods. Granger test confirms this result with different lags. In addition, we also find evidence for causation from AUTO index to MVI and TEI with five and three lags respectively in our second sub-sample period. Our results indicate that automobile industry influence Indian stock markets and automobile industrial production. Our results suggest that policy makers and regulators should be vigilant in making policies pertaining to automobile industry and should consider the repercussions of their decisions, because wrong policy decisions about auto industry may hurt the Indian economy. Keywords: Indian economy, Indian stock markets, automobile industry performance, policy implications, regulatory norms JEL Classifications: G11, G18, E23, E32 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.917

MicroRNA-142 reduces monoamine oxidase A expression and activity in neuronal cells by downregulating SIRT1

Aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRs) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative disorders. In HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), miR-142 was found to be upregulated in neurons and myeloid cells in the brain. We investigated the downstream effects of chronic miR-142 upregulation in neuronal cells by comparing gene expression in stable clones of the human neuroblastoma cell line BE(2)M17 expressing miR-142 to controls. Microarray analysis revealed that miR-142 expression led to a reduction in monoamine oxidase (MAO) A mRNA, which was validated by qRT-PCR. In addition to the mRNA, the MAOA protein level and enzyme activity were also reduced. Examination of primary human neurons revealed that miR-142 expression indeed resulted in a downregulation of MAOA protein level. Although MAOA is not a direct target of miR-142, SIRT1, a key transcriptional upregulator of MAOA is, thus miR-142 downregulation of MAOA expression is indirect. MiR-142 induced decrease in MAOA expression and activity may contribute to the changes in dopaminergic neurotransmission reported in HAND