Frontal Midline Research Articles

Enlarged Interior Built Environment Scale Modulates High-Frequency EEG Oscillations.

There is currently no robust method to evaluate how built environment design affects our emotion. Understanding emotion is significant, as it influences cognitive processes, behavior, and wellbeing, and is linked to the functioning of physiological systems. As mental health problems are becoming more prevalent, and exposure to indoor environments is increasing, it is important we develop rigorous methods to understand whether design elements in our environment affect emotion. This study examines whether the scale of interior built environments modulate neural networks involved in emotion regulation. Using a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) and controlling for indoor environmental quality (IEQ), 66 adults (31 female, aged 18-55) were exposed to context-neutral enclosed indoor room scenes to understand whether built environment scale affected self-report, autonomic nervous system, and central nervous system correlates of emotion. Our results revealed enlarged scale increased electroencephalography (EEG) power in the β bandwidth. Frontal midline low-γ and high-γ power were also found to increase with enlarged scale, but contrary to our hypothesis, scale did not modulate frontal midline power or lateralization in the θ or α bandwidths. We did not detect an effect of scale on autonomic indicators or self-reported emotion. However, we did find increased range in skin conductance response (SCR) and heart rate variability (HRV) to the built environment conditions. This study provides a rigorous empirical framework for assessing the environmental impact of a design characteristic on human emotion and suggests that measures of high-frequency oscillations may provide a useful marker of the response to built environment.

Frontal midline theta and cross-frequency coupling during short term memory and resting state

This paper aims to establish how frontal midline theta and theta-gamma coupling are altered by memory load as well as by recall performance during a verbal digit span task using an open EEG dataset. Traditional behavioral scores, as well as new measure were used, as the recall accuracy as a function of the order of the digits followed a sigmoid curve. The new behavioral score was strongly correlated with traditional measures. The EEG results show that neither the resting state theta nor the theta during the digit span task is predictive of the task performance. However, there was a strong positive correlation between cognitive load and theta power as well as a negative correlation between cognitive load and theta peak frequency during the task. These results are in line with earlier studies indicating that frontal midline theta is modulated by cognitive load rather than memory performance. Furthermore, there was an increased alpha-beta cross frequency coupling during resting state but that was not correlated with the performance of the upcoming memory task. During the task the cross-frequency coupling was minimal, and it did not correlate with memory performance nor with task load, that raises the possibility that EEG is not sensitive enough for cross-frequency coupling measures.

Behavioral and neurophysiological aspects of working memory impairment in children with dyslexia

The present study aimed to identify behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of dyslexia which could potentially predict reading difficulty. One hundred and three Chinese children with and without dyslexia (Grade 2 or 3, 7- to 11-year-old) completed both verbal and visual working memory (n-back) tasks with concurrent EEG recording. Data of 74 children with sufficient usable EEG data are reported here. Overall, the typically developing control group (N = 28) responded significantly faster and more accurately than the group with dyslexia (N = 46), in both types of tasks. Group differences were also found in EEG band power in the retention phase of the tasks. Moreover, forward stepwise logistic regression demonstrated that both behavioral and neurophysiological measures predicted reading difficulty uniquely. Dyslexia was associated with higher frontal midline theta activity and reduced upper-alpha power in the posterior region. This finding is discussed in relation to the neural efficiency hypothesis. Whether these behavioral and neurophysiological patterns can longitudinally predict later reading development among preliterate children requires further investigation.

A Combination of Green Tea, Rhodiola, Magnesium, and B Vitamins Increases Electroencephalogram Theta Activity During Attentional Task Performance Under Conditions of Induced Social Stress.

BackgroundA combination of green tea, rhodiola and magnesium with B vitamins has previously been reported to significantly increase EEG resting state theta, attenuate subjective stress, anxiety and mood disturbance, and heighten subjective and autonomic arousal under acute psychosocial laboratory stress. Here we examine the capacity of green tea and rhodiola extract administered in combination or in isolation with magnesium and B vitamins to moderate spectral brain activity during attentional task performance under stress.Materials and MethodsOne-hundred moderately stressed adults received oral supplementation of (i) Mg + B vitamins + green tea + rhodiola; (ii) Mg + B vitamins + rhodiola; (iii) Mg + B vitamins + green tea; or (iv) placebo, in a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel-group design (Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03262376; 25/0817). Participants completed an attention switching and emotionally threatening attentional bias task after stress induction (Trier Social Stress Test). Spectral alpha and theta brain activity and event related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during cognitive task performance by electroencephalogram (EEG; BioSemi ActiveTwo 64 channel).ResultsThe combined treatment of Mg + B vitamins + green tea + rhodiola significantly increased frontal midline theta vs. placebo and rhodiola in isolation during the attention switching task, specifically in anticipation of a change in task performance parameter. The combined treatment also significantly increased contralateral theta activation in relation to viewing emotionally threatening images in the left (vs. placebo and rhodiola in isolation) and right parietal (vs. placebo) regions. Further, this treatment demonstrated significantly heightened ipsilateral left parietal theta activation in relation to viewing emotionally threatening images. The combined treatment attenuated a decrease in alpha power during the attentional bias task evident in comparator treatments, but this did not reach significance. No significant effects of treatments on behavioural performance or ERP were found.ConclusionThe combination of Mg + B vitamins + green tea + rhodiola increased spectral theta brain activity during the execution of two attentional tasks suggestive of a potential to increase attentional capacity under conditions of stress. Further examination of these ingredients in relation to attentional performance under stress is warranted to ascertain if functional benefits suggested by theta activation can be shown behaviourally.

Built environment color modulates autonomic and EEG indices of emotional response.

Understanding built environment exposure as a component of environmental enrichment has significant implications for mental health, but little is known about the effects design characteristics have on our emotions and associated neurophysiology. Using a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment while monitoring indoor environmental quality (IEQ), 18 participants were exposed to a resting state (black), and two room scenes, control (white) and condition (blue), to understand if the color of the virtual walls affected self-report, autonomic nervous system, and central nervous system correlates of emotion. Our findings showed that exposure to the chromatic color condition (blue) compared to the achromatic control (white) and resting-state (black, no built environment) significantly increased the range in respiration and skin conductance response. We also detected a significant increase in alpha frontal midline power and frontal hemispheric lateralization relative to blue condition, and increased power spectral density across all electrodes in the blue condition for theta, alpha, and beta bandwidths. The ability for built environment design to modulate emotional response has the potential to deliver significant public health, economic, and social benefits to the entire community. The findings show that blue coloring of the built environment increases autonomic range and is associated with modulations of brain activity linked to emotional processing.

Automatic Discrimination of Task Difficulty Predicted by Frontal EEG Activity During Working Memory Tasks in Young and Elderly Drivers

It is desirable to prevent traffic accidents by focusing on elderly people’s brain characteristics. The attention level during driving depends on the amount of information-processing resources. This study first aimed at investigating the effects of the change in attention levels on the electroencephalogram (EEG) waves during the graded working memory tasks for a traffic situation. With the increase in memory loads, reaction times were delayed in the elderly than the young group. The difficult tasks activated the induced [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] powers in the frontal midline area primarily in the elderly, during the selective task for a target. The elderly could retain the attention level because of the activated slow EEG responses, regardless of the task performance, although the increased [Formula: see text] wave may reflect drowsiness. Because the assistance system based on drivers’ brain signals can prevent car accidents, this study also aimed at evaluating the analytical method to automatically discriminate the different attentional tasks from the EEG signals. Compared with [Formula: see text]-nearest neighbors and artificial neural networks, support vector machines more accurately classified attention levels (i.e., task difficulty) during working memory tasks reflecting a change in the induced [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] waves. This result can be related to a brain-computer interface system to judge the task difficulty during driving and alert a driver to danger. The experimental tasks for this study were limited because they involved simulations only in which participants recognized guided boards and removed irrelevant information. Real-time judgments should be investigated using EEG data to improve systems that can alert drivers to oncoming dangers.

Effects of the function-specific instruction approach to neurofeedback training on frontal midline theta waves and golf putting performance

A recent meta-analysis has shown inconclusive results on the effectiveness of traditional electroencephalography (EEG) neurofeedback training (NFT) protocols in changing EEG activity and improving sports performance. To enhance the effectiveness of EEG NFT protocols, we explored a new approach to EEG NFT, namely the function-specific instruction (FSI) approach. The basic tenet underpinning effective verbal instruction is to induce mental states as the verbal instructions consider the meaning of the brainwave function in the target region and the EEG power magnitude. This study aimed to test whether a single session of FSI is efficacious in improving frontal midline theta (FMT) activity and putting performance. Method: Thirty-six skilled golfers with a handicap of 14.05 ± 9.43 were recruited. A consecutive sampling method was used to form three groups: an FSI group (n = 12), a traditional instruction (TI) group (n = 12), and a sham control (SC) group (n = 12). In the pre- and post-tests, each participant performed 40 putts from a distance of 3 m, and the number of holed putts was recorded. The participants were asked to perform 50 trials in a single session of NFT. Putting performance improved significantly from before to after NFT in the FSI group. Moreover, the FSI group demonstrated a significant decrease in FMT power, whereas the SC group demonstrated a significant increase in FMT power from before to after NFT. These findings suggest that the FSI approach is more effective in enhancing sustained attention and putting performance in skilled golfers than TI.

Brain rhythms: How control gets into working memory

New research suggests that frontal midline theta EEG activity in humans controls activity in parietal cortex associated with memory maintenance. In turn, the speed of this frontal theta is modulated by the number of items to be handled, potentially indicating strong bidirectional communication within a fronto-parietal network.

Effects of facial expression and gaze interaction on brain dynamics during a working memory task in preschool children.

Executive functioning in preschool children is important for building social relationships during the early stages of development. We investigated the brain dynamics of preschool children during an attention-shifting task involving congruent and incongruent gaze directions in emotional facial expressions (neutral, angry, and happy faces). Ignoring distracting stimuli (gaze direction and expression), participants (17 preschool children and 17 young adults) were required to detect and memorize the location (left or right) of a target symbol as a simple working memory task (i.e., no general priming paradigm in which a target appears after a cue stimulus). For the preschool children, the frontal late positive response and the central and parietal P3 responses increased for angry faces. In addition, a parietal midline α (Pmα) power to change attention levels decreased mainly during the encoding of a target for angry faces, possibly causing an association of no congruency effect on reaction times (i.e., no faster response in the congruent than incongruent gaze condition). For the adults, parietal P3 response and frontal midline θ (Fmθ) power increased mainly during the encoding period for incongruent gaze shifts in happy faces. The Pmα power for happy faces decreased for incongruent gaze during the encoding period and increased for congruent gaze during the first retention period. These results suggest that adults can quickly shift attention to a target in happy faces, sufficiently allocating attentional resources to ignore incongruent gazes and detect a target, which can attenuate a congruency effect on reaction times. By contrast, possibly because of underdeveloped brain activity, preschool children did not show the happy face superiority effect and they may be more responsive to angry faces. These observations imply a crucial key point to build better relationships between developing preschoolers and their parents and educators, incorporating nonverbal communication into social and emotional learning.

P244. Enhanced Frontal Midline Theta (fmTheta) Power After Mindfulness Training in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) Patients Correlates With Improvements in Mindfulness, Depression, and Perceived Stress

Mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has been shown effective for individuals with a history of MDD, significantly decreasing depressive episode relapse. These benefits may be related to mindfulness practice-related enhanced capacity for cognitive control, and decreased depressive rumination, and greater attentional engagement with the sensory surround. It is not yet clear what neural mechanisms may facilitate the benefits of mindfulness practice for MDD, however enhanced anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity has been demonstrated in previous studies of mindfulness interventions.

Effect of the Temporal Window of Integration of Speech Sound on Mismatch Negativity.

Speech-sound stimuli have a complex structure, and it is unclear how the brain processes them. An event-related potential (ERP), known as mismatch negativity (MMN), is elicited when an individual's brain detects a rare sound. In this study, MMNs were measured in response to an omitted segment of a complex sound consisting of a Japanese vowel. The results indicated that the latency from onset in the right hemisphere was significantly shorter than that in the frontal midline and left hemispheres during left ear stimulation. Additionally, the results of latency from omission showed that the latency of stimuli omitted in the latter part of the temporal window of integration (TWI) was longer than that of stimuli omitted in the first part of the TWI. The mean peak amplitude was found to be higher in the right hemisphere than in the frontal midline and left hemispheres in response to left ear stimulation. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that would be incorrect to believe that the stimuli have strictly the characteristics of speech-sound. However. the results of the interaction effect in the latencies from omission were insignificant. These results suggest that the detection time for deviance may not be related to the stimulus ear. However, the type of deviant stimuli on latencies was found to be significant. This is because the detection of the deviants was delayed when a deviation occurred in the latter part of the TWI, regardless of the stimulation of the ear.

Midfrontal Theta Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Facilitates Motor Coordination in Dyadic Human-Avatar Interactions.

Synchronous interpersonal motor interactions require moment-to-moment prediction and proactive monitoring of the partner's actions. Neurophysiologically, this is highlighted by an enhancement of midfrontal theta (4-7 Hz) oscillations. In this study, we explored the causal role of midfrontal theta for interpersonal motor interactions using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). We implemented a realistic human-avatar interaction task in immersive virtual reality where participants controlled a virtual arm and hand to press a button synchronously with a virtual partner. Participants completed the task while receiving EEG-informed theta (Experiment 1) or beta (control frequency, Experiment 2) tACS over the frontal midline, as well as sham stimulation as a control. Results showed that midfrontal theta tACS significantly improved behavioral performance (i.e., reduced interpersonal asynchrony) and participants' motor strategies (i.e., increased movement times and reduced RTs), whereas beta tACS had no effect on these measures. These results suggest that theta tACS over frontal areas facilitates action monitoring and motor abilities supporting interpersonal interactions.

Amphetamine alters an EEG marker of reward processing in humans and mice.

The bench-to-bedside development of pro-cognitive therapeutics for psychiatric disorders has been mired by translational failures. This is, in part, due to the absence of pharmacologically sensitive cognitive biomarkers common to humans and rodents. Here, we describe a cross-species translational marker of reward processing that is sensitive to the aminergicagonist, d-amphetamine. Motivated by human electroencephalographic (EEG) findings, we recently reported that frontal midline delta-band power is an electrophysiological biomarker of reward surprise in humans and in mice. In the current series of experiments, we determined the impact of parametric doses of d-amphetamine on this reward-related EEG response from humans (n = 23) and mice (n = 28) performing a probabilistic learning task. In humans, d-amphetamine (placebo, 10mg, 20mg) boosted the Reward Positivity event-related potential (ERP) component as well as the spectral delta-band representations of this signal. In mice, d-amphetamine (placebo, 0.1mg/kg, 0.3mg/kg, 1.0mg/kg) boosted both reward and punishment ERP features, yet there was no modulation of spectral activities. In sum, the present results confirm the role of dopamine in the generation of the Reward Positivity in humans, and pave the way toward a pharmacologically valid biomarker of reward sensitivity across species.

Electrophysiological signatures of inhibitory control in children with Tourette syndrome and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Tourette syndrome (TS) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently co-occur, especially in children. Reduced inhibitory control abilities have been suggested as a shared phenotype across both conditions but its neural underpinnings remain unclear. Here, we tested the behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of inhibitory control in children with TS, ADHD, TS+ADHD, and typically developing controls (TDC). One hundred and thirty-eight children, aged 7–14 years, performed a Go/NoGo task during dense-array EEG recording. The sample included four groups: children with TS only (n = 47), TS+ADHD (n = 32), ADHD only (n = 22), and matched TDC (n = 35). Brain activity was assessed with the means of frontal midline theta oscillations, as well as the N200 and P300 components of the event-related potentials. Our analyses revealed that both groups with TS did not differ from other groups in terms of behavioral performance, frontal midline theta oscillations, and event-related potentials. Children with ADHD-only had worse Go/NoGo task performance, decreased NoGo frontal midline theta power, and delayed N200 and P300 latencies, compared to typically developing controls. In the current study, we found that children with TS or TS+ADHD do not show differences in EEG during a Go/NoGo task compared to typically developing children. Our findings however suggest that children with ADHD-only have a distinct electrophysiological profile during the Go/NoGo task as indexed by reduced frontal midline theta power and delayed N200 and P300 latencies.

Direct feedback and social conformity promote behavioral change via mechanisms indexed by centroparietal positivity: Electrophysiological evidence from a role-swapping ultimatum game.

Our behavior is shaped by multiple factors, including direct feedback (seeing the outcomes of our past actions) and social observation (in part, via a drive to conform to other peoples' behaviors). However, it remains unclear how these two processes are linked in the context of behavioral change. This is important to investigate, as behavioral change is associated with distinct neural correlates that reflect specific aspects of processing, such as information integration and rule updating. To clarify whether these processes characterize both direct learning and conformity, we elicited the two within the same task, using a role-swapping version of the Ultimatum Game-a fairness paradigm where subjects decide how to share a pot of money with other players-while electroencephalography (EEG) data were recorded. Behavioral results showed that subjects decided how to divide the pot based on both direct feedback (seeing whether their past proposals were accepted or rejected) and social observation (copying the splits that others just proposed). Converging EEG evidence revealed that increased centroparietal positivity (P2, P3b, and late positivity) indexed behavioral changes motivated by direct feedback and those motivated by drives to conform. However, exploratory analyses also suggest that these two motivating factors may also be dissociable, and that frontal midline theta oscillations may predict behavioral changes linked to direct feedback but not conformity. Overall, this study provides novel electrophysiological evidence regarding the different forms of behavioral change. These findings are also relevant for understanding the mechanisms of social information processing that underlie successful cooperation.

Individual differences in error-related frontal midline theta activity during visuomotor adaptation

Post-feedback frontal midline EEG activity has been found to correlate with error magnitude during motor adaptation. However, the role of this neuronal activity remains to be elucidated. It has been hypothesized that post-feedback frontal midline activity may represent a prediction error, which in turn may be directly related to the adaptation process or to an unspecific orienting response. To address these hypotheses, we replicated a previous visuomotor adaptation experiment with very small perturbations, likely to invoke implicit adaptation, in a new group of 60 participants and combined it with EEG recordings. We found error-related peaks in the frontal midline electrodes in the time domain. However, these were best understood as modulations of frontal midline theta activity (FMT, 4–8 Hz). Trial-level differences in FMT correlated with error magnitude. This correlation was robust even for very small errors as well as in the absence of imposed perturbations, indicating that FMT does not depend on explicit or strategic re-aiming. Within participants, trial-level differences in FMT were not related to between-trial error corrections. Between participants, individual differences in FMT-error-sensitivity did not predict differences in adaptation rate. Taken together, these results imply that FMT does not drive implicit motor adaptation. Finally, individual differences in FMT-error-sensitivity negatively correlate to motor execution noise. This suggests that FMT reflects saliency: larger execution noise means a larger standard deviation of errors so that a fixed error magnitude is less salient. In conclusion, this study suggests that frontal midline theta activity represents a saliency signal and does not directly drive motor adaptation.

Distractor filtering and its electrophysiological correlates in schizophrenia

ObjectivePatients with schizophrenia are characterized by compromised working memory (WM) performance and increased distractibility. Theta synchronization (especially over the frontal midline areas) is related to cognitive control and executive processes during WM encoding and retention. Alpha event-related desynchronization (ERD) is associated with information processing and attention. MethodsParticipants (35 patients and 39 matched controls) performed a modified Sternberg WM task, containing salient and non-salient distractor items in the retention period. A high-density 128 channel EEG was recorded during the task. Theta (4–7 Hz) and fast alpha (10–13 Hz) event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) were analyzed during the retention and encoding period. ResultsPatients with schizophrenia showed worse WM performance and increased attentional distractibility in terms of lower hit rates and increased distractor-related commission errors compared to healthy controls. Theta synchronization was modulated by condition (learning vs. distractor) in both groups but it was modulated by salience only in controls. Furthermore, salience of distractors modulated less the fast alpha ERD in patients. ConclusionsOur results suggest that patients with schizophrenia process salient and non-salient distracting information less efficiently and show weaker cognitive control compared to controls. SignificanceThese differences may partly account for diminished WM performance and increased distractibility in schizophrenia.

Modulation of the superior medial frontal cortex using anodal high definition transcranial direct current stimulation affects frontal midline theta oscillations during a Go-Nogo task in veterans with chronic traumatic brain injury

Modulation of the superior medial frontal cortex using anodal high definition transcranial direct current stimulation affects frontal midline theta oscillations during a Go-Nogo task in veterans with chronic traumatic brain injury

Neurofeedback Modulation of Frontal Midline Theta Activity at the Rostral Anterior Cingulate Cortex (rACC) to Promote Improved Response Rates in High-Frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) : A Case Series

Neurofeedback Modulation of Frontal Midline Theta Activity at the Rostral Anterior Cingulate Cortex (rACC) to Promote Improved Response Rates in High-Frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) : A Case Series

Theta and Alpha Oscillatory Activity During Working Memory Maintenance in Long-Term Cannabis Users: The Importance of the Polydrug Use Context.

Background: Impairments in various subdomains of memory have been associated with chronic cannabis use, but less is known about their neural underpinnings, especially in the domain of the brain’s oscillatory activity.Aims: To investigate neural oscillatory activity supporting working memory (WM) in regular cannabis users and non-using controls. We focused our analyses on frontal midline theta and posterior alpha asymmetry as oscillatory fingerprints for the WM’s maintenance process.Methods: 30 non-using controls (CG) and 57 regular cannabis users—27 exclusive cannabis users (CU) and 30 polydrug cannabis users (PU) completed a Sternberg modified WM task with a concurrent electroencephalography recording. Theta, alpha and beta frequency bands were examined during WM maintenance.Results: When compared to non-using controls, the PU group displayed increased frontal midline theta (FMT) power during WM maintenance, which was positively correlated with RT. The posterior alpha asymmetry during the maintenance phase, on the other hand, was negatively correlated with RT in the CU group. WM performance did not differ between groups.Conclusions: Both groups of cannabis users (CU and PU), when compared to the control group, displayed differences in oscillatory activity during WM maintenance, unique for each group (in CU posterior alpha and in PU FMT correlated with performance). We interpret those differences as a reflection of compensatory strategies, as there were no differences between groups in task performance. Understanding the psychophysiological processes in regular cannabis users may provide insight on how chronic use may affect neural networks underlying cognitive processes, however, a polydrug use context (i.e., combining cannabis with other illegal substances) seems to be an important factor.