Theta Activity Research Articles

Primacy Effect of Dynamic Multi-Sensory Covid ADV Influences Cognitive and Emotional EEG Responses.

Advertising uses sounds and dynamic images to provide visual, auditory, and tactile experiences, and to make the audience feel like the protagonist. During COVID-19, companies modified their communication by including pandemic references, but without penalizing multisensorial advertising. This study investigated how dynamic and emotional COVID-19-related advertising affects consumer cognitive and emotional responses. Nineteen participants, divided into two groups, watched three COVID-19-related and three non-COVID-19-related advertisements in two different orders (Order 1: COVID-19 and non-COVID-19; Order 2: non-COVID-19 and COVID-19), while electrophysiological data were collected. EEG showed theta activation in frontal and temporo-central areas when comparing Order 2 to Order 1, interpreted as cognitive control over salient emotional stimuli. An increase in alpha activity in parieto-occipital area was found in Order 2 compared to Order 1, suggesting an index of cognitive engagement. Higher beta activity in frontal area was observed for COVID-19 stimuli in Order 1 compared to Order 2, which can be defined as an indicator of high cognitive impact. Order 1 showed a greater beta activation in parieto-occipital area for non-COVID-19 stimuli compared to Order 2, as an index of reaction for painful images. This work suggests that order of exposure, more than advertising content, affects electrophysiological consumer responses, leading to a primacy effect.

Abnormalities in EEG as migraine marker: a mini review

The electroencephalogram (EEG) records the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain and is useful in diagnosing various brain conditions. It is commonly used in diagnosing epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and multiple sclerosis. Recent research has also suggested that EEG can be used to detect migraine, although the findings in this area are still being investigated. The aim of this study is to review the use of EEG in detecting migraine in past and recent investigations. EEG has been used in migraine studies since the early 20th century, and subsequent studies have explored its use in understanding the pathophysiology of migraine and developing new treatments for the condition. Abnormal EEG patterns, including increased theta and delta activity and decreased alpha and beta activity, have been found in migraine patients during attacks. Studies have shown that EEG can be used to detect migraine and identify specific EEG biomarkers of the condition. Resting-state functional connectivity and altered connectivity in the anterior cingulate cortex have been linked to migraine chronification and may predict treatment outcomes in patients with chronic migraine. However, the specificity of EEG in diagnosing migraine is low, and more research is needed to determine its diagnostic utility.

Hippocampal theta activity during encoding promotes subsequent associative memory in humans.

Hippocampal theta oscillations have been implicated in associative memory in humans. However, findings from electrophysiological studies using scalp electroencephalography or magnetoencephalography, and those using intracranial electroencephalography are mixed. Here we asked 10 pre-surgical epilepsy patients undergoing intracranial electroencephalography recording, along with 21 participants undergoing magnetoencephalography recordings, to perform an associative memory task, and examined whether hippocampal theta activity during encoding was predictive of subsequent associative memory performance. Across the intracranial electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography studies, we observed that theta power in the hippocampus increased during encoding, and that this increase differed as a function of subsequent memory, with greater theta activity for pairs that were successfully retrieved in their entirety compared with those that were not remembered. This helps to clarify the role of theta oscillations in associative memory formation in humans, and further, demonstrates that findings in epilepsy patients undergoing intracranial electroencephalography recordings can be extended to healthy participants undergoing magnetoencephalography recordings.

Transcranial direct-current stimulation enhances Pavlovian tendencies during intermittent loss of control.

Pavlovian bias is an innate motivational tendency to approach rewards and remain passive in the face of punishment. The relative reliance on Pavlovian valuation has been found to increase when the perceived control over environmental reinforcers is compromised, leading to behavior resembling learned helplessness (LH). Sixty healthy young adults underwent a Go-NoGo reinforcement learning task and received anodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the medial prefrontal/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in our randomized, double-blind, sham- controlled study. Furthermore, we evaluated changes in cue-locked mid-frontal theta power derived from simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG). We hypothesized that active stimulation would reduce Pavlovian bias during manipulation of outcome controllability, and the effect would be accompanied by stronger mid-frontal theta activity, representing arbitration between choice strategies in favor of instrumental relative to Pavlovian valuation. We found a progressive decrease in Pavlovian bias during and after loss of control over feedback. Active HD-tDCS counteracted this effect while not affecting the mid-frontal theta signal. The results were at odds with our hypotheses but also with previous findings reporting LH-like patterns during and after loss of control without brain stimulation. The discrepancy may be related to different protocols for the controllability manipulation. We argue that the subjective evaluation of task controllability is crucial in mediating the balance between Pavlovian and instrumental valuation during reinforcement learning and that the medial prefrontal/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex is a key region in this respect. These findings have implications for understanding the behavioral and neural underpinnings of LH in humans.

Electroencephalographic slowdowns during sleepare associated with cognitive impairment in patients who have obstructive sleep apneabut no dementia.

To research the relationship between quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) and impaired cognitive function patients who have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)but no dementia. Subjects who complained of snoring between March 2020 and April 2021 in the Sleep Medicine Center of Weihai Municipal Hospital were included. All subjects underwent overnight in-laboratory polysomnography (PSG) and were assessed using a neuropsychological scale. Standard fast fourier transform (FFT) was usedto obtain the electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectral density curve, and tocalculate the delta, theta, alpha, and beta relative power and the ratio between slow and fast frequencies. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the risk factors for cognitive impairment in patients who had OSAbut no dementia. Correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationship between qEEG and cognitive impairment. A total of 175 participants without dementiawho met the inclusion criteria were included in this study. There were 137 patients withOSA, including 76 with mild cognitive impairment (OSA + MCI), 61 without mild cognitive impairment (OSA-MCI), and 38 participants without OSA (non-OSA). The relative theta power in the frontal lobe in stage 2 of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM 2) in OSA + MCI was higher than that in OSA-MCI (P = 0.038) and non-OSA (P = 0.018). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the relative theta power in the frontal lobe in NREM 2 was negatively correlated with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) Beijing version scores, and MoCA subdomains scores (visual executive function, naming, attention, language, abstraction, delayed recall and orientation) outside language. In patients who had OSAbut no dementia, the EEG slower frequency power increased. The relative theta power in the frontal lobe in NREM 2 was associated with MCI of patients withOSA. These results suggest that the slowing of theta activity may be one of the neurophysiological changes in the early stage of cognitive impairment in patients withOSA.

Exergaming in older adults: the effects of game characteristics on brain activity and physical activity.

Exergames are increasingly used in rehabilitation settings for older adults to train physical and cognitive abilities. To meet the potential that exergames hold, they need to be adapted to the individual abilities of the player and their training objectives. Therefore, it is important to know whether and how game characteristics affect their playing. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of two different kinds of exergame (step game and balance game) played at two difficulty levels on brain activity and physical activity. Twenty-eight older independently living adults played two different exergames at two difficulty levels each. In addition, the same movements as during gaming (leaning sideways with feet in place and stepping sideways) were performed as reference movements. Brain activity was recorded using a 64-channel EEG system to assess brain activity, while physical activity was recorded using an accelerometer at the lower back and a heart rate sensor. Source-space analysis was applied to analyze the power spectral density in theta (4 Hz-7 Hz) and alpha-2 (10 Hz-12 Hz) frequency bands. Vector magnitude was applied to the acceleration data. Friedman ANOVA revealed significantly higher theta power for the exergaming conditions compared to the reference movement for both games. Alpha-2 power showed a more diverse pattern which might be attributed to task-specific conditions. Acceleration decreased significantly from the reference movement to the easy condition to the hard condition for both games. The results indicate that exergaming increases frontal theta activity irrespective of type of game or difficulty level, while physical activity decreases with increasing difficulty level. Heart rate was found to be an inappropriate measure in this population older adults. These findings contribute to understanding of how game characteristics affect physical and cognitive activity and consequently need to be taken into account when choosing appropriate games and game settings for exergame interventions.

Measurement of craving among gamers with internet gaming disorder using repeated presentations of game videos: a resting-state electroencephalography study

BackgroundInternet gaming disorder (IGD) is receiving increasing attention owing to its effects on daily living and psychological function.MethodsIn this study, electroencephalography was used to compare neural activity triggered by repeated presentation of a stimulus in healthy controls (HCs) and those with IGD. A total of 42 adult men were categorized into two groups (IGD, n = 21) based on Y-IAT-K scores. Participants were required to watch repeated presentations of video games while wearing a head-mounted display, and the delta (D), theta (T), alpha (A), beta (B), and gamma (G) activities in the prefrontal (PF), central (C), and parieto-occipital (PO) regions were analyzed.ResultsThe IGD group exhibited higher absolute powers of DC, DPO, TC, TPO, BC, and BPO than HCs. Among the IGD classification models, a neural network achieves the highest average accuracy of 93% (5-fold cross validation) and 84% (test).ConclusionsThese findings may significantly contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the neurological features associated with IGD and provide potential neurological markers that can be used to distinguish between individuals with IGD and HCs.

The effects of deep transcranial magnetic stimulation on Alzheimer’s disease: a case report examining cognitive functioning, memory, and QEEG

ABSTRACT Numerous treatment options are being studied for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) given the rising prevalence of this condition worldwide. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a promising option for regulating specific neurological abnormalities pertaining to this condition. This case presents a patient with AD and co-occurring major depressive disorder that received 36 sessions of Deep TMS to the frontal and temporal lobes. This patient experienced improved general cognitive functioning and memory, remission from depression, and reduced slow-frequency theta activity in frontal and temporal sites. Following 7 months of weekly maintenance, additional improvements occurred. This report suggests that Deep TMS may be effective in mitigating AD symptoms, and maintenance sessions are advisable.

Investigating the Efficacy of Theta Binaural Beat on the Absolute Power of Theta Activity in Primary Insomniacs

Introduction: The brain waves pattern in primary insomniacs is different from healthy subjects. Studies have shown that binaural beats can alter the pattern of brain waves in healthy individuals; however, the efficacy of binaural beats in altering the pattern of brain waves in primary insomniacs has not yet been investigated. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of theta binaural beat on the absolute power of theta activity in primary insomniacs. Methods: This study was a randomized clinical trial with experimental and control groups. The primary insomniacs received theta binaural beats in the experimental group while the control group received white noise. Their brain waves were recorded by electroencephalogram for 25 min; the first 5 min was without stimulus (first block), the next was followed by 15 min of receiving stimulus (binaural beat or white noise), and the last 5 min without stimulus (fifth block). The Matlab software, version R2019a, EEGLAB toolbox, and SPSS software, version 24 were used to analyze the data. Results: The absolute power of theta activity in the experimental group was significantly higher in the last block compared to the first block in all brain lobes (P<0.05). The largest changes in theta activity were in the temporal and parietal lobes, and the last one was in the prefrontal lobe. In the control group, none of the brain lobes showed significant differences in the last block compared to the first block. Conclusion: Theta binaural beat can alter the absolute power of theta activity in primary insomniacs. The implications of the study are discussed.

Behavioral Discrepancy of P300 and Cognitive Load in Varying Auditory Speech Perception

People with hearing loss find it challenging to process complex speech signals and yet mislead speech perception. The relationship between P300 evoked response and cognitive load from electroencephalography (EEG) frequency bandwidth could inform speech perception discrepancy. This study aims to investigate functional relationship of P3b behavioural response and cortical neuronal oscillations of cognitive load activity at different phonological features of speech stimulus. Two groups of participants recruited: 10 male adults having bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and 10 male adults with normal hearing. They underwent EEG recording while delivered with two distinctive speech stimuli namely voicing contrast and placing contrast at 80 dB. The P3b evoked potential and cortical oscillatory activities were measured throughout the targeted potential window. Statistically significant differences between speech stimulus amplitude responses were noted on the control participants, especially on Cz and Pz. In the control group, placing contrast showed higher amplitudes and delayed latency compared to voicing contrast. The patient group had lower P3b amplitudes and earlier latency at similar conditions. Greater power energy was deployed at alpha and theta activities for the control participants at placing contrast. Higher complexity discriminant was evident in placing contrast when delayed latency with higher energy power for alpha and theta activities were constantly observed. The peak P3b highlighted the functional relationship with cognitive load response when evaluated at different hearing capabilities. The diminished power levels in higher complexity discriminant have brought an objective understanding on the loss of attention and perception task withdrawal during higher order processing among disability.

Deep learning-based electroencephalic diagnosis of tinnitus symptom.

Tinnitus is a neuropathological phenomenon caused by the recognition of external sound that does not actually exist. Existing diagnostic methods for tinnitus are rather subjective and complicated medical examination procedures. The present study aimed to diagnose tinnitus using deep learning analysis of electroencephalographic (EEG) signals while patients performed auditory cognitive tasks. We found that, during an active oddball task, patients with tinnitus could be identified with an area under the curve of 0.886 through a deep learning model (EEGNet) using EEG signals. Furthermore, using broadband (0.5 to 50 Hz) EEG signals, an analysis of the EEGNet convolutional kernel feature maps revealed that alpha activity might play a crucial role in identifying patients with tinnitus. A subsequent time-frequency analysis of the EEG signals indicated that the tinnitus group had significantly reduced pre-stimulus alpha activity compared with the healthy group. These differences were observed in both the active and passive oddball tasks. Only the target stimuli during the active oddball task yielded significantly higher evoked theta activity in the healthy group compared with the tinnitus group. Our findings suggest that task-relevant EEG features can be considered as a neural signature of tinnitus symptoms and support the feasibility of EEG-based deep-learning approach for the diagnosis of tinnitus.

The Outcome of Traumatic Intra-diploic Meningoencephalocele with Recurrent seizures - A case report and literature review of 20 cases (P12-1.004)

<h3>Objective:</h3> We highlight an under-recognized epileptic pathology in a 56-year-old left-handed female with progressive right facial numbness and weekly focal seizures characterized by episodic aphasia. Additionally, we provide a thorough literature review of reported IDME patients along with their clinical presentation and outcomes. <h3>Background:</h3> Delayed neurological symptoms may arise years later in traumatic intradiploic meningoencephalocele (IDME) which creates potential diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. <h3>Design/Methods:</h3> Retrospective chart review and literature search. <h3>Results:</h3> 56-year-old left-handed female presented with progressive right facial numbness and focal seizures characterized by episodes of aphasia for a year. Episodes are characterized by worsening right facial numbness followed by garbled speech, word-finding difficulty, and grammatical errors when she attempts to talk or text over the phone, while she remains conscious and is aware of her surroundings. Her only epilepsy risk factor was minor head trauma ten years prior to presentation. Episodes were evaluated in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at Cleveland Clinic Foundation. An ictal event characterized by rhythmic sharply contoured delta and theta activity in the left hemisphere, most prominently in the left frontocentral region, This was clinically associated with numbness in the right side of the face progressing into an aphasic seizure. She was found to have left frontoparietal intradiploic meningoencephalocele (IDME) on imaging studies. Positron emission tomography (PET) showing mild metabolism corresponding to Intradiploic meningoencephalocele in left parietal bone, and subtle hypometabolism in the adjacent posterior left frontal lobe operculum. She had a craniotomy for encephalocele resection and mesh cranioplasty. At 3-year follow-up visit, patient was seizure free without residual neurological deficits. She remains on lacosamide 100 mg BID as seizures recurred after attempting to discontinue it. <h3>Conclusions:</h3> Traumatic IDME is a rare disorder and a presentation with seizures specifically is rarely encountered. A cranioplasty and dural repair, with or without resecting the projecting parenchyma, is likely the definitive treatment. <b>Disclosure:</b> Dr. Alsallom has nothing to disclose. Dr. Alzahrany has nothing to disclose. Dr. Gonzalez has nothing to disclose. Dr. Jehi has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as an Editor, Associate Editor, or Editorial Advisory Board Member for wolters kluwer. Dr. Jehi has a non-compensated relationship as a PI with Cleveland Clinic that is relevant to AAN interests or activities.

Signs of Electro-cortical Disconnection revealed by Hd-EEG in Acute Stroke Patients: a Case Study. (P10-1.010)

<h3>Objective:</h3> To assess electro-cortical disconnection induced by stroke lesions in two patients with Hd-EEG study. <h3>Background:</h3> There are overwhelming evidences that stroke lesions induce local and remote effects beyond the site of the primary anatomical damage. These networks effects have been studied mainly via neuroimaging techniques. However, little is known about the electrocortical disconnection caused by acute stroke. Moreover, the spatial resolution has been limited by the adoption of standard EEG. <h3>Design/Methods:</h3> 128 channels Hd-EEG was recorded in two acute stroke patients (Patient 1 and Patient 2) in awake state. Patient 1 presented with aphasia and neglect in ischemic stroke involving left insula, temporal and parietal lobe. Patient 2 had mild left side paresis with evidence of extensive hypoperfusion and small multiple ischemic infarcts in right ICA occlusion. Raw data were pre-processed in MATLAB using AMICA in EEGLAB. Power spectra analysis was performed on delta (1–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz) and beta (12–25 Hz) frequencies at whole-brain level and within each hemisphere. Values were then compared between the two hemispheres (lesioned vs not lesioned) using a t-test analysis (p&lt;0.05). <h3>Results:</h3> Patient 1 had not only higher delta and theta power over temporo-parietal and posterior frontal regions but also absence of alpha power over posterior occipital regions. In addition to high delta and theta activity over a broad region including frontal and temporoparietal areas in the hypo-perfused hemisphere, Hd-EEG in Patient 2 showed abnormal delta activity over contralateral frontal regions. <h3>Conclusions:</h3> Our findings point to the presence of electro-cortical disconnection that extends the focal lesion borders. Both patients had either delta activity or loss of alpha power in regions distant from the location of the primary local damage/hypoperfusion that was characterized by slowing. Hd-EEG may reveal network disruption in acute stroke patients in a novel and complementary way compared to neuroimaging. <b>Disclosure:</b> Dr. Monai has nothing to disclose. Miss Sevak has nothing to disclose. The institution of Dr. GJINI has received research support from NIH. The institution of Dr. Struck has received research support from Ceribell. Dr. Boly has nothing to disclose.

Epilepsia Partialis Continua Presenting as Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure (P9-1.004)

<h3>Objective:</h3> An unusual case of a patient with epilepsia partialis continua (EPC) who presented with abdominal spasm and hypoxemic respiratory failure necessitating intubation. <h3>Background:</h3> EPC, also known as focal motor status epilepticus, is a is a rare, recurrent, focal seizure disorder that has a wide range of clinical presentation. EPC usually manifests with treatment-resistant seizures with retained awareness and unilateral motor symptoms. The differential diagnosis of the underlying causes of EPC is broad, including structural etiologies such as malignancy, focal cortical dysplasia, and ischemic stroke, and metabolic disorders such as non-ketotic hyperglycemia. <h3>Design/Methods:</h3> <h3>Case Presentation:</h3> Our patient is a 23-year-old woman with a history of a steroid responsive encephalitis complicated by focal aware and focal impaired awareness seizures as well as psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. She presented to a regional emergency department three times over a 48 hours period for episodes of abdominal spasms that spread through all of her limbs equally and occurred very briefly every two to three minutes. She was told each time that her episodes were nonepileptic. <h3>Results:</h3> Upon transfer to our center, she continued to have frequent episodes of diaphragmatic spasm without EEG correlate until she developed respiratory failure and altered mental status. She was intubated and placed on continuous EEG. After a paralytic trial, she was found to have focal electrographic seizures with bilateral (left &gt; right) parasaggital, sharp rhythmic, alpha activity evolving to theta activity. <h3>Conclusions:</h3> EPC is frequently silent on EEG. This patient had a rare form of abdominal and diaphragmatic epilepsy with preserved awareness that ultimately progressed to respiratory failure. The ictal nature of her symptoms only became apparent on EEG after administration of paralytics. In patients with abdominal spasm, it is important to consider ictal causes that may not be electrographically evident. <b>Disclosure:</b> Dr. O’Connor has nothing to disclose. Dr. Stulberg has nothing to disclose. Dr. Johnson has nothing to disclose. The institution of Dr. Peters has received research support from NIH.

The temporal structure of REM sleep shows minute-scale fluctuations across brain and body in mice and humans

Rapid eye movement sleep (REM) is believed to have a binary temporal structure with "phasic" and "tonic" microstates, characterized by motoric activity versus quiescence, respectively. However, we observed in mice that the frequency of theta activity (a marker of rodent REM) fluctuates in a nonbinary fashion, with the extremes of that fluctuation correlating with phasic-type and tonic-type facial motricity. Thus, phasic and tonic REM may instead represent ends of a continuum. These cycles of brain physiology and facial movement occurred at 0.01 to 0.06Hz, or infraslow frequencies, and affected cross-frequency coupling and neuronal activity in the neocortex, suggesting network functional impact. We then analyzed human data and observed that humans also demonstrate nonbinary phasic/tonic microstates, with continuous 0.01 to 0.04-Hz respiratory rate cycles matching the incidence of eye movements.These fundamental properties of REM can yield insights into our understanding of sleep health.

Effects of Very Low- and High-Frequency Subthalamic Stimulation on Motor Cortical Oscillations During Rhythmic Lower-Limb Movements in Parkinson's Disease Patients.

Standard high-frequency deep brain stimulation (HF-DBS) at the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is less effective for lower-limb motor dysfunctions in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. However, the effects of very low frequency (VLF; 4 Hz)-DBS on lower-limb movement and motor cortical oscillations have not been compared. To compare the effects of VLF-DBS and HF-DBS at the STN on a lower-limb pedaling motor task and motor cortical oscillations in patients with PD and with and without freezing of gait (FOG). Thirteen PD patients with bilateral STN-DBS performed a cue-triggered lower-limb pedaling motor task with electroencephalography (EEG) in OFF-DBS, VLF-DBS (4 Hz), and HF-DBS (120-175 Hz) states. We performed spectral analysis on the preparatory signals and compared GO-cue-triggered theta and movement-related beta oscillations over motor cortical regions across DBS conditions in PD patients and subgroups (PDFOG-and PDFOG+). Both VLF-DBS and HF-DBS decreased the linear speed of the pedaling task in PD, and HF-DBS decreased speed in both PDFOG-and PDFOG+. Preparatory theta and beta activities were increased with both stimulation frequencies. Both DBS frequencies increased motor cortical theta activity during pedaling movement in PD patients, but this increase was only observed in the PDFOG + group. Beta activity was not significantly different from OFF-DBS at either frequency regardless of FOG status. Results suggest that VL and HF DBS may induce similar effects on lower-limb kinematics by impairing movement speed and modulating motor cortical oscillations in the lower frequency band.

Soccer heading immediately alters brain function and brain-muscle communication.

There is growing evidence of a link between repetitive soccer heading and the increased incidence of neurodegenerative disease. Even a short bout of soccer heading has been shown to impair cognitive performance and disrupt movement control. However, a greater understanding of the mechanisms behind these immediate impairments is needed. The current study attempted to identify how a short bout of soccer heading alters brain function and brain-muscle communication during a movement task. Sixty soccer players were exposed to either an acute bout (i.e., 20 balls thrown underarm) of soccer heading (n = 30) or a control condition where participants (n = 30) headed soccer balls in virtual reality (VR). Before and after heading, we measured cognitive performance on the King-Devick test, as well as electromyography (EMG), electroencephalography (EEG) and brain-muscle communication (i.e., corticomuscular coherence; CMC) during a force precision task. Following the heading protocol, the VR group improved their cognitive performance whereas the Heading group showed no change. Both groups displayed more precise force contractions at post-test. However, the VR group displayed elevated frontal theta activity and global increases in alpha and beta activity during the contraction task, whereas the Heading group did not. Contrary to our expectations, the Heading group displayed elevated CMC, whereas the VR group showed no change. Our findings indicate a short bout of soccer heading may impair cognitive function and disrupt the organization of efficient neural processes that typically accompany motor skill proficiency. Soccer heading also induced corticomuscular hyperconnectivity, which could represent compensatory brain-muscle communication and an inefficient allocation of increased task-related neuromuscular resources. These initial findings offer insights to the mechanisms behind the impairments experienced after a short bout of repetitive soccer heading.

A parahippocampal-sensory Bayesian vicious circle generates pain or tinnitus: a source-localized EEG study.

Pain and tinnitus share common pathophysiological mechanisms, clinical features, and treatment approaches. A source-localized resting-state EEG study was conducted in 150 participants: 50 healthy controls, 50 pain, and 50 tinnitus patients. Resting-state activity as well as functional and effective connectivity was computed in source space. Pain and tinnitus were characterized by increased theta activity in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, extending to the lateral prefrontal cortex and medial anterior temporal lobe. Gamma-band activity was increased in both auditory and somatosensory cortex, irrespective of the pathology, and extended to the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and parahippocampus. Functional and effective connectivity were largely similar in pain and tinnitus, except for a parahippocampal-sensory loop that distinguished pain from tinnitus. In tinnitus, the effective connectivity between parahippocampus and auditory cortex is bidirectional, whereas the effective connectivity between parahippocampus and somatosensory cortex is unidirectional. In pain, the parahippocampal-somatosensory cortex is bidirectional, but parahippocampal auditory cortex unidirectional. These modality-specific loops exhibited theta-gamma nesting. Applying a Bayesian brain model of brain functioning, these findings suggest that the phenomenological difference between auditory and somatosensory phantom percepts result from a vicious circle of belief updating in the context of missing sensory information. This finding may further our understanding of multisensory integration and speaks to a universal treatment for pain and tinnitus-by selectively disrupting parahippocampal-somatosensory and parahippocampal-auditory theta-gamma activity and connectivity.

The contribution of theta and delta to feedback processing in children with developmental language disorder

PurposeThe study aimed at evaluating feedback processing at the electrophysiological level and its relation to learning in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) to further advance our understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms of feedback-based learning in children with this disorder.MethodA feedback-based probabilistic learning task required children to classify novel cartoon animals into two categories that differ on five binary features, the probabilistic combination of which determined classification. The learning outcomes’ variance in relation to time- and time–frequency measures of feedback processing were examined and compared between 20 children with developmental language disorder and 25 age-matched children with typical language development.ResultsChildren with developmental language disorder (DLD) performed poorer on the task when compared with their age-matched peers with typical language development (TD). The electrophysiological data in the time domain indicated no differences in the processing of positive and negative feedback among children with DLD. However, the time–frequency analysis revealed a strong theta activity in response to negative feedback in this group, suggesting an initial distinction between positive and negative feedback that was not captured by the ERP data. In the TD group, delta activity played a major role in shaping the FRN and P3a and was found to predict test performance. Delta did not contribute to the FRN and P3a in the DLD group. Additionally, theta and delta activities were not associated with the learning outcomes of children with DLD.ConclusionTheta activity, which is associated with the initial processing of feedback at the level of the anterior cingulate cortex, was detected in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) but was not associated with their learning outcomes. Delta activity, which is assumed to be generated by the striatum and to be linked to elaborate processing of outcomes and adjustment of future actions, contributed to processing and learning outcomes of children with typical language development but not of children with DLD. The results provide evidence for atypical striatum-based feedback processing in children with DLD.

Effect of auditory noise circumstance on visual images encoding based electroencephalography analysis

ABSTRACT Auditory stimulation may be beneficial or detrimental to human cognitive and memory processing. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the influence of various sounds on human performance. The current research discovers the impact of auditory white noise on the memory performance of 60 college students using different difficulty levels in visual object-number pair assessment. Memory perfomance is accessed based on the assessment recall scores and brain activities. An electroencephalography (EEG) device measures and records the brain's electrical activity during the experimental session. Nine EEG channel locations are selected for brain activities analysis. The raw EEG dataset is processed using wavelet methods of stationary wavelet transform (SWT) and discrete wavelet transfrom (DWT) using the Daubechies (db) function to eliminate the artifact components and extract the required EEG features. The result indicated that the college student remembered the object-number pair assessment better under auditory white noise rather than no audio condition. This contributed from the activation of alpha, theta, gamma, and beta activities that increased the subject's attention, alertness, and sensory processing during memorizing. Therefore, it is suggested that the auditory white noise should be listened to during remembering and learning visual items, which can boost memory performance.