AVDOS-VR: Affective Video Database with Physiological Signals and Continuous Ratings Collected Remotely in VR.

Investigating emotions relies on pre-validated stimuli to evaluate induced responses through subjective self-ratings and physiological changes. The creation of precise affect models necessitates extensive datasets. While datasets related to pictures, words, and sounds are abundant, those associated with videos are comparatively scarce. To overcome this challenge, we present the first virtual reality (VR) database with continuous self-ratings and physiological measures, including facial EMG. Videos were rated online using a head-mounted VR device (HMD) with attached emteqPRO mask and a cinema VR environment in remote home and laboratory settings with minimal setup requirements. This led to an affective video database with continuous valence and arousal self-rating measures and physiological responses (PPG, facial-EMG (7x), IMU). The AVDOS-VR database includes data from 37 participants who watched 30 randomly ordered videos (10 positive, neutral, and negative). Each 30-second video was assessed with two-minute relaxation between categories. Validation results suggest that remote data collection is ecologically valid, providing an effective strategy for future affective study designs. All data can be accessed via: www.gnacek.com/affective-video-database-online-study .

A reliable and robust online validation method for creating a novel 3D Affective Virtual Environment and Event Library (AVEL).

This paper describes the development and validation of 3D Affective Virtual environments and Event Library (AVEL) for affect induction in Virtual Reality (VR) settings with an online survey; a cost-effective method for remote stimuli validation which has not been sufficiently explored. Three virtual office-replica environments were designed to induce negative, neutral and positive valence. Each virtual environment also had several affect inducing events/objects. The environments were validated using an online survey containing videos of the virtual environments and pictures of the events/objects. They survey was conducted with 67 participants. Participants were instructed to rate their perceived levels of valence and arousal for each virtual environment (VE), and separately for each event/object. They also rated their perceived levels of presence for each VE, and they were asked how well they remembered the events/objects presented in each VE. Finally, an alexithymia questionnaire was administered at the end of the survey. User ratings were analysed and successfully validated the expected affect and presence levels of each VE and affect ratings for each event/object. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of the online validation of VE material in affective and cognitive neuroscience and wider research settings as a good scientific practice for future affect induction VR studies.

Functional equivalence revisited: Costs and benefits of priming action with motor imagery and motor preparation.

The functional equivalence (FE) hypothesis suggests motor imagery (MI) is comparable with the planning stages of action. A strong interpretation of this hypothesis suggests MI can prime subsequent actions in a way that should be indistinguishable from motor preparation (MP). Alternatively, MI could involve more richly informative motor plans than MP, producing different effects on the performance of subsequent actions. Although past research has demonstrated MI can prime action, little research has directly compared it with MP, and so the value of a strong FE interpretation for understanding MI remains unclear. In the present study, a precueing paradigm was used in 4 experiments, and congruency effects of MI and MP on subsequent action were compared. Precues instructed participants to prepare for (MP condition) or imagine (MI condition) a corresponding response prior to making a real response to the imperative stimulus, which was either congruent or incongruent with the precue information. Experiment 1 provided first evidence favoring our alternative hypothesis that imagery-primed responses should result in larger response priming effects than prepared-responses, suggesting that MI might involve more richly informative motor plans than preparation for action alone. In experiment 2, we manipulated interstimulus foreperiods and replicated the MI-priming effect, showing it to be independent of differences in temporal uncertainty between MI and MP. Experiment 3 showed the MI-priming effect is present in both foot and finger responses, and Experiment 4 suggested the larger congruency effects in the MI condition could not be explained by differences in cognitive load between MI and MP. These results suggest that a strong FE hypothesis does not hold. Findings are discussed in line with the predictive processing models of action and MI. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The relationship between dietary restraint and deficits in reasoning about causes of obesity.

Objective: Increased levels of dietary restraint are associated with deficits on many cognitive tasks. Less is known about how individual differences in restraint influences complex cognition such as reasoning which is the focus of this research.Design: Two experimental studies are reported. In study 1, participants (n = 158) completed a causal conditional reasoning task with statements about weight-related and general causal relationships. Study 2 replicated and extended study 1. Participants (n = 108) completed a causal conditional reasoning task focusing on behavioural causes of weight change or general statements.Main outcome measure: Causal conditional reasoning task performance.Results: In study 1, levels of dietary restraint were negatively associated with reasoning abilities for weight-related statements only. Study 2 replicated the negative association between dietary restraint and reasoning finding the effect in both weight-related, and general, causal judgements.Conclusion: The novel findings show that individual differences in dietary restraint have a wider relationship with cognition than previously demonstrated. Results tentatively support theoretical explanations of a reduction in cognitive capacity, rather than differences in belief, explaining reasoning deficits. These findings open an interesting avenue for research and might have implications for effective decision making about personal health behaviours, such as food choice.

Eating behaviour associated with differences in conflict adaptation for food pictures.

OBJECTIVE: The goal conflict model of eating (Stroebe, Mensink, Aarts, Schut, & Kruglanski, 2008) proposes differences in eating behaviour result from peoples' experience of holding conflicting goals of eating enjoyment and weight maintenance. However, little is understood about the relationship between eating behaviour and the cognitive processes involved in conflict. This study aims to investigate associations between eating behaviour traits and cognitive conflict processes, specifically the application of cognitive control when processing distracting food pictures. METHOD: A flanker task using food and non-food pictures was used to examine individual differences in conflict adaptation. Participants responded to target pictures whilst ignoring distracting flanking pictures. Individual differences in eating behaviour traits, attention towards target pictures, and ability to apply cognitive control through adaptation to conflicting picture trials were analysed. RESULTS: Increased levels of external and emotional eating were related to slower responses to food pictures indicating food target avoidance. All participants showed greater distraction by food compared to non-food pictures. Of particular significance, increased levels of emotional eating were associated with greater conflict adaptation for conflicting food pictures only. CONCLUSION: Emotional eaters demonstrate greater application of cognitive control for conflicting food pictures as part of a food avoidance strategy. This could represent an attempt to inhibit their eating enjoyment goal in order for their weight maintenance goal to dominate.

Quantitative electroencephalography and behavioural correlates of daytime sleepiness in chronic stroke.

Sleepiness is common after stroke, but in contrast to its importance for rehabilitation, existing studies focus primarily on the acute state and often use subjective sleepiness measures only. We used quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) to extract physiological sleepiness, as well as subjective reports, in response to motor-cognitive demand in stroke patients and controls. We hypothesised that (a) slowing of the EEG is chronically sustained after stroke; (b) increased power in lower frequencies and increased sleepiness are associated; and (c) sleepiness is modulated by motor-cognitive demand. QEEGs were recorded in 32 chronic stroke patients and 20 controls using a Karolinska Drowsiness Test protocol administered before and after a motor priming task. Subjective sleepiness was measured using the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale. The findings showed that power density was significantly increased in delta and theta frequency bands over both hemispheres in patients which were not associated with subjective sleepiness ratings. This effect was not observed in controls. The motor priming task induced differential hemispheric effects with greater increase in low-frequency bands and presumably compensatory increases in higher frequency bands. The results indicate sustained slowing in the qEEG in chronic stroke, but in contrast to healthy controls, these changes are not related to perceived sleepiness.

The relationship between reversed masked priming and the tri-phasic pattern of the lateralised readiness potential.

One of the potential explanations for negative compatibility effects (NCE) in subliminal motor priming tasks has been perceptual prime-target interactions. Here, we investigate whether the characteristic tri-phasic LRP pattern associated with the NCE is caused by these prime-target interactions. We found that both the prime-related phase and the critical reversal phase remain present even on trials where the target is omitted, confirming they are elicited by the prime and mask, not by prime-target interactions. We also report that shape and size of the reversal phase are associated with response speed, consistent with a causal role for the reversal for the subsequent response latency. Additionally, we analysed sequential modulation of the NCE by previous conflicting events, even though such conflict is subliminal. In accordance with previous literature, this modulation is small but significant.

Consumption of glucose drinks slows sensorimotor processing: double-blind placebo-controlled studies with the Eriksen flanker task.

Modulations of blood glucose concentration (BGC) in the normal range are known to facilitate performance in memory and other cognitive tasks but few studies have investigated the effects of BGC variations on complex sensorimotor task so far. The present study aimed to examine glucose effects with the Eriksen flanker task. This task was chosen because it can dissociate between the effects of BGC on sensorimotor processing and cognitive control by assessing congruency effects. In two linked double-blind placebo-controlled experiments BGC was elevated within the normal BGC range (4-7 mmol/l) by approx. 1.5 mmol/l with glucose drinks and compared to a placebo drink condition while a flanker task with either strong or weak stimulus-response (SR) mapping was performed. Modulation of the performance in the flanker task by glucose was linked to the strength of the SR mapping but not congruency effects. Under weak SR mapping, reaction times (RTs) were slowed in the glucose condition compared to placebo while error rates remained unchanged, whereas cognitive control was not affected by glucose. When SR mapping was strong, no differences were found between glucose and placebo. Enhanced glucose levels differentially affect behavior. Whereas the literature mainly reports facilitating characteristics of enhanced glucose levels in the normal range, the present study shows that higher glucose levels can slow RTs. This suggests that glucose does not have a uniform effect on cognition and that it might be differential depending on the cognitive domain.

Monitoring long-term effects of mild traumatic brain injury with magnetic resonance spectroscopy: a pilot study.

This pilot study explores the metabolic changes associated with persistent postconcussion syndrome (PCS) after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI; >12 months after injury) using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We hypothesized that those mTBI participants with PCS will have larger metabolic differences than those without. Data were collected from mTBI participants with PCS, mTBI participants without PCS and non-head-injured participants (all groups: n=8). Magnetic resonance spectroscopy metabolite profiles within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex showed a reduced creatine/choline ratio in mTBI patients compared with control participants. This data provides initial evidence for residual metabolic changes in chronic mTBI patients, but there was no conclusive relationship between these metabolic changes and PCS symptom report. Creatine is involved in maintaining energy levels in cells with high or fluctuating energy demand, suggesting that there may be some residual energy impairment in chronic mTBI.

Motor planning in chronic upper-limb hemiparesis: evidence from movement-related potentials.

BACKGROUND: Chronic hemiplegia is a common long-term consequence of stroke, and subsequent motor recovery is often incomplete. Neurophysiological studies have focused on motor execution deficits in relatively high functioning patients. Much less is known about the influence exerted by processes related to motor preparation, particularly in patients with poor motor recovery. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The current study investigates motor preparation using a modified response-priming experiment in a large sample of patients (n = 50) with moderate-to-severe chronic hemiparesis. The behavioural results revealed that hemiparetic patients had an increased response-priming effect compared to controls, but that their response times were markedly slower for both hands. Patients also demonstrated significantly enhanced midline late contingent negative variation (CNV) during paretic hand preparation, despite the absence of overall group differences when compared to controls. Furthermore, increased amplitude of the midline CNV correlated with a greater response-priming effect. We propose that these changes might reflect greater anticipated effort to respond in patients, and consequently that advance cueing of motor responses may be of benefit in these individuals. We further observed significantly reduced CNV amplitudes over the lesioned hemisphere in hemiparetic patients compared to controls during non-paretic hand preparation, preparation of both hands and no hand preparation. Two potential explanations for these CNV reductions are discussed: alterations in anticipatory attention or state changes in motor processing, for example an imbalance in inter-hemispheric inhibition. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Overall, this study provides evidence that movement preparation could play a crucial role in hemiparetic motor deficits, and that advance motor cueing may be of benefit in future therapeutic interventions. In addition, it demonstrates the importance of monitoring both the non-paretic and paretic hand after stroke and during therapeutic intervention.

Cognitive functioning and work success in adults with dyslexia.

Dyslexic adults completed questionnaires designed to investigate relationships between cognitive functioning, especially executive aspects, and work success. The study was designed to determine whether quantitative support could be provided for the model of adult dyslexic success derived from the work of Gerber and his colleagues (Gerber, Ginsberg, & Reiff, 1992). A planning/metacognitive awareness scale and a cognitive failures scale were used as measures of cognitive skill. Personal success was assessed with job satisfaction and work-based self-efficacy scales, and societal success was determined by assessing the salary level, promotion in the current profession and academic qualifications. Correlational analyses indicated that people with dyslexia with higher levels of planning and metacognition reported higher levels of job satisfaction and self-efficacy. However, these measures were not related to societal success. The findings are discussed in terms of avenues for further investigation of factors leading to more positive outcomes for dyslexic individuals and ways to increase the likelihood of dyslexic adults achieving success in the workplace.

Does focused endogenous attention prevent attentional capture in pop-out visual search?

To investigate whether salient visual singletons capture attention when they appear outside the current endogenous attentional focus, we measured the N2pc component as a marker of attentional capture in a visual search task where target or nontarget singletons were presented at locations previously cued as task-relevant, or in the uncued irrelevant hemifield. In two experiments, targets were either defined by color or by a combination of color and shape. The N2pc was elicited both for attended singletons and for singletons on the uncued side, demonstrating that focused endogenous attention cannot prevent attentional capture by salient unattended visual events. However, N2pc amplitudes were larger for attended and unattended singletons that shared features with the current target, suggesting that top-down task sets modulate the capacity of visual singletons to capture attention both within and outside the current attentional focus.

Effects of attentional filtering demands on preparatory ERPs elicited in a spatial cueing task.

OBJECTIVE: We used ERP measures to investigate how attentional filtering requirements affect preparatory attentional control and spatially selective visual processing. METHODS: In a spatial cueing experiment, attentional filtering demands were manipulated by presenting task-relevant visual stimuli either in isolation (target-only task) or together with irrelevant adjacent distractors (target-plus-distractors task). ERPs were recorded in response to informative spatial precues, and in response to subsequent visual stimuli at attended and unattended locations. RESULTS: The preparatory ADAN component elicited during the cue-target interval was larger and more sustained in the target-plus-distractors task, reflecting the demand of stronger attentional filtering. By contrast, two other preparatory lateralised components (EDAN and LDAP) were unaffected by the attentional filtering demand. Similar enhancements of P1 and N1 components in response to the lateral imperative visual stimuli were observed at cued versus uncued locations, regardless of filtering demand, whereas later attentional-related negativities beyond 200 ms post-stimulus were larger the target-plus-distractor task. CONCLUSIONS: Our results implicate that the ADAN component is linked to preparatory top-down control processes involved in the attentional filtering of irrelevant distractors; such filtering also affects later attention-related negativities recorded after the onset of the imperative stimulus. SIGNIFICANCE: ERPs can reveal effects of expected attentional filtering of irrelevant distractors on preparatory attentional control processes and spatially selective visual processing.

Movement-related changes in cortical excitability: a steady-state SEP approach.

This study explored the use of steady-state somatosensory evoked potentials (ssSEPs) as a continuous probe on the excitability of the somatosensory cortex during the foreperiod and the response time of a cued choice reaction time task. ssSEPs were elicited by electrical median nerve stimulation at the left and right wrist, using a stimulation frequency of 22.2 Hz. Scalp-recorded ssSEPs were analysed by means of dipole source analysis to achieve optimal separation of left and right hemisphere ssSEPs. The time course of ssSEP modulation at the source level was extracted by means of a wavelet transform. In addition to the extraction of ssSEPs, the analysis included the derivation of lateralized attention and movement-related potentials, i.e. the attention-directing anterior negativity (ADAN) and the lateralized readiness potential (LRP). The results revealed a time course of ssSEP modulation remarkably similar to the time course of ADAN and LRP. The time course was characterized by a reduction of ssSEP amplitude at latencies just following the peak latency of the ADAN (approximately 400 ms) and the peak latency of the LRP (approximately 1200 ms). This reduction was greater for contralateral than for ipsilateral movements. The study demonstrates that ssSEP methodology represents a feasible approach to the measurement of movement-related changes in cortical excitability, which may be used to resolve ambiguities in the interpretation of lateralized event-related brain potentials.

Do ERP components triggered during attentional orienting represent supramodal attentional control?

Lateralized ERP components triggered during cued shifts of spatial attention (anterior directing attention negativity [ADAN], late directing attention positivity [LDAP]) have been observed during visual, auditory, and tactile attention tasks, suggesting that these components reflect supramodal attentional control processes. This interpretation has recently been called into question by the finding that the ADAN is absent in response to auditory attention cues. Here we demonstrate that ADAN and LDAP components are reliably elicited in a purely unimodal auditory attention task where auditory cues are followed by auditory imperative stimuli. The fact that the ADAN is not restricted to task contexts where visual or tactile stimuli are relevant is consistent with the hypothesis that this component is linked to supramodal attentional control.

Time-course of masked response priming and inhibition in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease patients have enhanced interference effects arising from the conflict between competing responses, as probed in various 'conflict tasks'. The possibility that this is due to an inhibitory deficit received recent support from a masked response priming task [Seiss, E., & Praamstra, P. (2004). The basal ganglia and inhibitory mechanisms in response selection: Evidence from subliminal priming of motor responses in Parkinson's disease. Brain, 127, 330-339]. The added information from a masked priming task is that the introduction of a delay between presentation of prime and target stimuli reveals an inhibition of the covert response activation induced by the masked prime stimulus. This inhibition results in a reversal of normal priming effects, such that performance is better with incompatible than with compatible prime-target pairs. We previously found that this reversal is attenuated in Parkinson's disease, when tested at a prime-target delay of 100 ms, thus revealing deficient inhibition of covert response activation. The present study was undertaken to investigate the time course of the underlying inhibition process, using five prime-target ISIs between 0 and 200 ms. While we reproduced the attenuation at ISI 100 ms, the time course information revealed that the rate of change of the compatibility effect over ISIs from 0 to 200 ms was identical for patients and controls. This result indicates that the inhibition underlying the reversal of masked priming effects is normal in Parkinson's disease.

The neurophysiology of response competition: motor cortex activation and inhibition following subliminal response priming.

Some widely used tasks in cognitive neuroscience depend on the induction of a response conflict between choice alternatives, involving partial activation of the incorrect response before the correct response is emitted. Although such ''conflict tasks'' are often used to investigate frontal-lobe-based conflict-monitoring processes, it is not known how response competition evolves in the motor cortex. To investigate the dynamics of motor cortex activation during response competition, we used a subliminal priming task that induced response competition while bypassing pre-response stage processing conflict. Analyses of movement-related EEG potentials supported an interaction between competing responses characterized by reciprocal inhibition. Inhibitory interactions between response channels contribute to the resolution of response conflict. However, the reciprocal inhibition at motor cortex level seemed to operate independent of higher level conflict-monitoring processes, which were relatively insensitive to response conflict induced by subliminal priming. These results elucidate how response conflict causes interference as well as the conditions under which frontal-lobe-based interference control processes are engaged.

The basal ganglia and inhibitory mechanisms in response selection: evidence from subliminal priming of motor responses in Parkinson's disease.

Subliminal response priming was used to investigate inhibitory control processes relevant to response selection impairments in Parkinson's disease. Using a backward masking technique, covert activation of left- or right-hand responses was induced without subjects consciously perceiving the stimuli (right- or left-pointing arrows). The masked priming stimuli were followed by visible arrow stimuli, instructing for a left- or right-hand response, at a delay (interstimulus interval, ISI) of 0 or 100 ms. Motor cortex activation was recorded by means of the electroencephalographic lateralized readiness potential (LRP). Parkinson's disease patients (n = 12) were compared with age-matched controls (n = 12) and young controls (n = 10). In young controls, the ISI = 100 ms task effectively invoked inhibition of the subliminally primed responses, as demonstrated by a reversal of prime-target compatibility effects compared with the ISI = 0 ms task. This reversal implied that there was a so-called negative compatibility effect with faster responses and fewer errors when prime and target arrows pointed in opposite directions than when they required the same response. This negative compatibility effect turned into a positive compatibility effect in Parkinson's disease patients, while age-matched controls produced intermediate values. Together, these results support the view that response selection involves competitive, mutually inhibitory interactions between response alternatives, influenced by basal ganglia-thalamocortical mechanisms. As indicated by the reduced inhibition of partially activated responses, Parkinson's disease and, to a lesser degree, normal ageing affect the efficiency of these inhibitory interactions.