PsychophysiologyThis is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader, such as GoogleReader, or to display this data on your own website or blog. Subscribe to this data using MyMedWorm.Subscribe to this data using GoogleReader.Subscribe to this data using Bloglines.Subscribe to this data using MyYahoo.

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For distinguished contributions to psychophysiology: Marta KutasEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: Psychophysiology)
Source: Psychophysiology - November 20, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Cyma Van Petten, Kara D. Federmeier, Phillip J. Holcomb Source Type: journals

The way of our errors: Theme and variationsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Negative feedback, either internal or external, is a fundamental guide to human learning and performance. The neural system that underlies the monitoring of performance and the adjustment of behavior has been subject to multiple neuroimaging investigations that uniformly implicate the anterior cingulate cortex and other prefrontal structures as crucial to these executive functions. The present article describes a series of experiments that employed event-related potentials to study a variety of processes associated with internal or external feedback. Three medial-frontal negativities (error-related negativity, correct-resp...
Source: Psychophysiology - November 19, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Robert F. Simons Source Type: journals

Time course of attentional bias in anxiety: Emotion and gender specificityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Anxiety is characterized by cognitive biases, including attentional bias to emotional (especially threatening) stimuli. Accounts differ on the time course of attention to threat, but the literature generally confounds emotional valence and arousal and overlooks gender effects, both addressed in the present study. Nonpatients high in self-reported anxious apprehension, anxious arousal, or neither completed an emotion-word Stroop task during event-related potential (ERP) recording. Hypotheses differentiated time course of preferential attention to emotional stimuli. Individuals high in anxious apprehension and anxious arousa...
Source: Psychophysiology - October 27, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Sarah M. Sass, Wendy Heller, Jennifer L. Stewart, Rebecca Levin Silton, J. Christopher Edgar, Joscelyn E. Fisher, Gregory A. Miller Source Type: journals

The scalp-recorded brainstem response to speech: Neural origins and plasticityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Considerable progress has been made in our understanding of the remarkable fidelity with which the human auditory brainstem represents key acoustic features of the speech signal. The brainstem response to speech can be assessed noninvasively by examining scalp-recorded evoked potentials. Morphologically, two main components of the scalp-recorded brainstem response can be differentiated, a transient onset response and a sustained frequency-following response (FFR). Together, these two components are capable of conveying important segmental and suprasegmental information inherent in the typical speech syllable. Here we exami...
Source: Psychophysiology - October 12, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Bharath Chandrasekaran, Nina Kraus Source Type: journals

Disturbed prepulse inhibition in patients with schizophrenia is consequential to dysfunction of selective attentionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In conclusion, disturbed PPI in schizophrenia appears to result from deficits in selective attention, rather than from preattentive dysfunction. (Source: Psychophysiology)
Source: Psychophysiology - October 11, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Kirsty E. Scholes, Mathew T. Martin-Iverson Source Type: journals

Affect-modulated startle reflex and dopamine D4 receptor gene variationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The affect-modulated acoustic startle response (ASR) might be a promising indicator for emotional reactivity as an endophenotype (an intermediate level between genetics and phenotypes), which we expected to be associated with the DRD4 polymorphism. Therefore, the affect-modulated ASR was examined in 114 healthy volunteers, 74 lacking the DRD4 7R allele (7R-absent group) and 41 with at least one DRD4 7R allele (7R group). Results revealed the well-known affect[ndash]modulated ASR in the 7R-absent group. The 7R group, however, was characterized by a blunted affect-modulated ASR, especially by a reduced startle potentiation t...
Source: Psychophysiology - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Paul Pauli, Annette Conzelmann, Ronald F. Mucha, Peter Weyers, Christina G. Baehne, Andreas J. Fallgatter, Christian P. Jacob, Klaus Peter Lesch Source Type: journals

Neuroelectric correlates of auditory attentional blinkEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Attentional blink (AB) refers to the situation where the correct identification of a first target causes a processing deficit of a second target. The present study aims to clarify the stage at which the auditory AB occurs by means of scalp-recorded event-related potentials. On each trial, participants indicated whether predefined target sounds were presented in a rapid series of distractor sounds. The results showed a large AB when the presentation rate was fast. This auditory AB was paralleled by a suppression of the P3b wave to the second target. During the AB, the second target generated N1 and P2 waves, suggesting that...
Source: Psychophysiology - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Dawei Shen, Claude Alain Source Type: journals

A negative association between video game experience and proactive cognitive controlEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In this study we examined the specificity of the influence of video game experience on cognitive control. Participants with high and low video game experience performed the Stroop task while event-related brain potentials were recorded. The behavioral data revealed no difference between high and low gamers for the Stroop interference effect and a reduction in the conflict adaptation effect in high gamers. The amplitude of the medial frontal negativity and a frontal slow wave was attenuated in high gamers, and there was no effect of gaming status on the conflict slow potential. These data lead to the suggestion that video g...
Source: Psychophysiology - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Kira Bailey, Robert West, Craig A. Anderson Source Type: journals

Evaluating two-step PCA of ERP data with Geomin, Infomax, Oblimin, Promax, and Varimax rotationsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Principal components analysis (PCA) can facilitate analysis of event-related potential (ERP) components. Geomin, Oblimin, Varimax, Promax, and Infomax (independent components analysis) were compared using a simulated data set. Kappa settings for Oblimin and Promax were also systematically compared. Finally, the rotations were also analyzed in a two-step PCA procedure, including a contrast between spatiotemporal and temporospatial procedures. Promax was found to give the best overall results for temporal PCA, and Infomax was found to give the best overall results for spatial PCA. The current practice of kappa values of 3 or...
Source: Psychophysiology - September 16, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Joseph Dien Source Type: journals

Novelty P3 reductions in depression: Characterization using principal components analysis (PCA) of current source density (CSD) waveformsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We previously reported a novelty P3 reduction in depressed patients compared to healthy controls (n=20 per group) in a novelty oddball task using a 31-channel montage. In an independent replication and extension using a 67-channel montage (n=49 per group), reference-free current source density (CSD) waveforms were simplified and quantified by a temporal, covariance-based principal components analysis (PCA) (unrestricted Varimax rotation), yielding factor solutions consistent with other oddball tasks. A factor with a loadings peak at 343 ms summarized the target P3b source as well as a secondary midline frontocentral source...
Source: Psychophysiology - September 14, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Craig E. Tenke, Jürgen Kayser, Jonathan W. Stewart, Gerard E. Bruder Source Type: journals

The effect of face inversion on intracranial and scalp recordings of event-related potentialsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The face inversion effect (FIE) refers to a disproportionate disruption of the processing of face information by inverting faces. We investigated the FIE in epilepsy patients by simultaneous intracranial and scalp recordings of event-related potentials (ERPs). In scalp recordings, a typical FIE on ERPs was observed with increased latencies and amplitudes of the positive counterpart of the occipito-temporal N170, namely, the vertex positive potential (VPP), in response to inverted faces. Similar amplitude and latency increases were revealed for the intracranial N200 recorded over face-sensitive and non-face-sensitive areas ...
Source: Psychophysiology - September 14, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: TIMM ROSBURG, EVA LUDOWIG, MATTHIAS DÜMPELMANN, LUCIA ALBA-FERRARA, HORST URBACH, CHRISTIAN E. ELGER Source Type: journals

The effects of smoking on selective attention as measured by startle reflex, skin conductance, and heart rate responses to auditory startle stimuliEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The present study examined the effects of cigarette smoking on attentional processing by measuring nondeprived smokers' (n=39), minimally deprived smokers' (n=36), and nonsmokers' (n=34) startle eyeblink reflex, heart rate, and skin conductance responses (SCR) to acoustic startle stimuli (105 dB) during directed attention tasks. Whereas smokers demonstrated smaller startle responses than nonsmokers during a directed attention visual task, no difference in startle response magnitude emerged between the two smoking groups, nor did we observe an effect of smoking on SCR or heart rate response to the startle stimuli. Our findi...
Source: Psychophysiology - September 14, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Justin E. Greenstein, Jon D. Kassel Source Type: journals

Countermeasure mechanisms in a P300-based concealed information testEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We recently introduced an accurate and countermeasure (CM)-resistant P300-based deception detection test (J.P. Rosenfeld et al., 2008). When subjects use CMs to all irrelevant items in the test, the probe P300 is increased rather than reduced, as in previous P300-based deception protocols, allowing detection of CM users. Evidence herein suggests this is partly due to an omit effect; the probe was the only uncountered item. Three groups were tested: a guilty omit probe group performed an explicit response to each irrelevant item but not to the probe, an innocent omit irrelevant group saw only irrelevant items and omitted a ...
Source: Psychophysiology - September 14, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: JOHN B. MEIXNER, J. PETER ROSENFELD Source Type: journals

Resource allocation and fluid intelligence: Insights from pupillometryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Thinking is biological work and involves the allocation of cognitive resources. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of fluid intelligence on the allocation of cognitive resources while one is processing low-level and high-level cognitive tasks. Individuals with high versus average fluid intelligence performed low-level choice reaction time tasks and high-level geometric analogy tasks. We combined behavioral measures to examine speed and accuracy of processing with pupillary measures that indicate resource allocation. Individuals with high fluid intelligence processed the low-level choice reaction time tasks...
Source: Psychophysiology - September 14, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Elke van der Meer, Reinhard Beyer, Judith Horn, Manja Foth, Boris Bornemann, Jan Ries, Juerg Kramer, Elke Warmuth, Hauke R. Heekeren, Isabell Wartenburger Source Type: journals

Visuo-spatial processing and the N1 component of the ERPEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Asymmetries in posterior ERP components, such as the N1, are generally taken to reflect the visual processing of spatial information in absolute (fixation-based) coordinates. Yet, it is also well established that the position of an object can be coded relative to the position of other objects. To examine the ERP correlates of relative spatial coding, two experiments were conducted in which spatially neutral target stimuli were preceded, accompanied, or followed by laterally presented, task-irrelevant accessory stimuli. Targets presented simultaneously with a lateral accessory evoked, despite physical asymmetry, a bilateral...
Source: Psychophysiology - September 9, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Edmund Wascher, Sven Hoffmann, Jessica Sänger, Marc Grosjean Source Type: journals

Unconscious priming of a no-go responseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Although previous findings suggest that motor preparation can be initiated unconsciously, there is some debate as to whether inhibitory control can occur unconsciously. Results from research involving response conflict points to an association between inhibitory control and conscious awareness. However, no previous research has assessed whether unconscious information can influence brain activity correlates of inhibition when a response must be completely withheld. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in a go/no-go task with subliminal primes and demonstrated that inhibition-related ERP components were modulated as ...
Source: Psychophysiology - August 17, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Gethin Hughes, Max Velmans, Jan De Fockert Source Type: journals

An electrophysiological measure of access to representations in visual working memoryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Previous research has demonstrated that the maintenance of visual information in working memory is associated with a sustained posterior contralateral negativity. Here we show that this component is also elicited during the spatially selective access to visual working memory. Participants memorized a bilateral visual search array that contained two potential targets on the left and right side. The task-relevant side was signalled by post-cues that were presented either 150 ms after array offset or after a longer interval (700[ndash]1000 ms). Enhanced negativities at posterior electrodes contralateral to the cued side of a ...
Source: Psychophysiology - August 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Martin Eimer, Monika Kiss Source Type: journals

The effects of valence and arousal on the neural activity leading to subsequent memoryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study examined how valence and arousal affect the processes linked to subsequent memory for emotional information. While undergoing an fMRI scan, participants viewed neutral pictures and emotional pictures varying by valence and arousal. After the scan, participants performed a recognition test. Subsequent memory for negative or high arousal information was associated with occipital and temporal activity, whereas memory for positive or low arousal information was associated with frontal activity. Regression analyses confirmed that for negative or high arousal items, temporal lobe activity was the strongest predictor o...
Source: Psychophysiology - August 6, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Katherine R. Mickley Steinmetz, Elizabeth A. Kensinger Source Type: journals

Enhanced long-term recollection for emotional pictures: Evidence from high-density ERPsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The present study used behavioral and electrophysiological measures to investigate the processes mediating long-term recognition memory for emotional and neutral pictures. The results show enhanced memory recollection for emotional arousing pictures compared to neutral low arousing pictures. In accordance with the behavioral data, we observed enhanced old/new effects in the ERPs for emotionally arousing pictures in the recollection-sensitive old/new component at centro-parietal sites (500[ndash]800 ms). Moreover, early old/new effects were present over frontal and parietal sites (300[ndash]500 ms) irrespective of picture c...
Source: Psychophysiology - August 6, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Mathias Weymar, Andreas Löw, Christiane A. Melzig, Alfons O. Hamm Source Type: journals

Effects of prior stimulus and prior perception on neural correlates of auditory stream segregationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined whether effects of prior experience are mediated by distinct brain processes from those processing current stimulus features. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) during an auditory stream segregation task that presented an adaptation sequence with a small, intermediate, or large frequency separation between low and high tones ([Delta]f), followed by a test sequence with intermediate [Delta]f. Perception of two streams during the test was facilitated by small prior [Delta]f and by prior perception of two streams and was accompanied by more positive ERPs. The scalp topography of these perception-related c...
Source: Psychophysiology - August 6, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Joel S. Snyder, W. Trent Holder, David M. Weintraub, Olivia L. Carter, Claude Alain Source Type: journals

Early life stress and psychiatric disorder modulate cortical responses to affective stimuliEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Altered affective processing has been proposed as mediating between early life stress (ELS) and subsequent psychopathology. The present study examined whether ELS influences affective cortical processing differently in psychiatric patients and healthy subjects. The number of stressful experiences before onset of puberty was assessed in 50 inpatients with diagnoses of Major Depressive Disorder, schizophrenia, drug addiction, or Borderline Personality Disorder and in 20 healthy comparison subjects. Subjects monitored pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures during magnetoencephalographic recording. Suppression of right-pos...
Source: Psychophysiology - August 6, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Katja Weber, Gregory A. Miller, Harald T. Schupp, Jens Borgelt, Barbara Awiszus, Tzvetan Popov, Thomas Elbert, Brigitte Rockstroh Source Type: journals

On the differentiation of N2 components in an appetitive choice task: Evidence for the revised Reinforcement Sensitivity TheoryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Task- and personality-related modulations of the N2 were probed within the framework of the revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST). Using an appetitive choice task, we investigated 58 students with extreme scores on the behavioral inhibition system and behavioral approach system (BIS/BAS) scales. The baseline-to-peak N2 amplitude was sensitive to the strength of decision conflict and demonstrated RST-related personality differences. In addition to the baseline N2 amplitude, temporal PCA results suggested two N2 components accounting for a laterality effect and capturing different N2 patterns for BIS/BAS groups with...
Source: Psychophysiology - August 6, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Anja Leue, Mira-Lynn Chavanon, Jan Wacker, Gerhard Stemmler Source Type: journals

ERP correlates of online monitoring of auditory feedback during vocalizationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
When speakers hear the fundamental frequency (F0) of their voice altered, they shift their F0 in the direction opposite the perturbation. The current study used ERPs to examine sensory processing of short feedback perturbations during an ongoing utterance. In one session, participants produced a vowel at an F0 of their own choosing. In another session, participants matched the F0 of a cue voice. An F0 perturbation of 0, 25, 50, 100, or 200 cents was introduced for 100 ms. A mismatch negativity (MMN) was observed. Differences between sessions were only found for 200-cent perturbations. Reduced compensation when speakers exp...
Source: Psychophysiology - August 6, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Colin S. Hawco, Jeffery A. Jones, Todd R. Ferretti, Dwayne Keough Source Type: journals

Relationship between the P3 event-related potential, its associated time-frequency components, and externalizing psychopathologyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
P3 amplitude reduction (P3-AR) is associated with biological vulnerability to a spectrum of externalizing disorders, such as ADHD, conduct disorder, and substance use disorders. P3, however, is generally characterized as a broad activation involving multiple neurophysiological processes. One approach to separating P3-related processes is time-frequency (TF) analysis. The current study used a novel PCA-based TF analysis method to investigate relationships between P3, its associated TF components, and externalizing in a community-based sample of adolescent males. Results showed that 1) alone, P3 and each TF-PCA derived compo...
Source: Psychophysiology - August 6, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Casey S. Gilmore, Stephen M. Malone, Edward M. Bernat, William G. Iacono Source Type: journals

Error-related negativity predicts academic performanceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been linked to the processes of error detection and conflict monitoring, along with the subsequent engagement of cognitive-control mechanisms. The error-related negativity (ERN) is an electrophysiological signal associated with this ACC monitoring process, occurring approximately 100 ms after an error is made. The current study examined the possibility that individual differences in ERN magnitude would predict performance outcomes related to cognitive control. Undergraduate students completed a color-naming Stroop task while their neural activity was recorded via electroe...
Source: Psychophysiology - August 6, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Jacob B. Hirsh, Michael Inzlicht Source Type: journals

Modeling single-trial LRP waveforms using gamma functionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The lateralized readiness potential (LRP) is a component of average event-related potentials that has proven very useful in the study of hand-specific motor preparation. We developed a model of single-trial LRP waveforms that produces realistic average waveforms for both stimulus-locked and response-locked averaging. This model may be useful in computer simulation studies of LRP scoring methods, and it may open up the possibility of ultimately retrieving trial-by-trial information about LRP activity. (Source: Psychophysiology)
Source: Psychophysiology - August 6, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Jutta Stahl, Henning Gibbons, Jeff Miller Source Type: journals

Stimulus-hand correspondence and direct response activation: An electromyographic analysisEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a common version of the Simon task, the subjects respond by a left- or a right-hand key press to the color of a stimulus (S) presented to the left or right of a fixation point. Albeit S location is irrelevant, the incorrect response is more often activated when the required response is contralateral to the S (incongruent) than when it is ipsilateral to the S (congruent). The aim of the present study was to decipher the respective contributions of S-response key location correspondence and S-hand correspondence to such incorrect activations (IAs). The subjects were required to perform a Simon task with the arms not cross...
Source: Psychophysiology - July 29, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Thierry Hasbroucq, Boris Burle, Franck Vidal, Camille-Aime PossamaÏ Source Type: journals

Parsing the componential structure of post-error ERPs: A principal component analysis of ERPs following errorsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We report the results of two experiments designed to clarify the spatial and temporal characteristics of the positive deflection that follows the error related negativity (ERN) elicited to incorrect responses in speeded reaction time tasks. Principal components analysis (PCA) indicates that the positive deflection reported to follow the ERN is composed of two different components: (a) a fronto-cental positive deflection that follows the ERN and shares its spatial distribution and (b) a P300. When accuracy was required of the participants, the ERN and the P300 were larger in amplitude than when speed and accuracy were equal...
Source: Psychophysiology - July 28, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Yael Arbel, Emanuel Donchin Source Type: journals

Mismatch negativity (MMN), the deviance-elicited auditory deflection, explainedEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The current review constitutes the first comprehensive look at the possibility that the mismatch negativity (MMN, the deflection of the auditory ERP/ERF elicited by stimulus change) might be generated by so-called fresh-afferent neuronal activity. This possibility has been repeatedly ruled out for the past 30 years, with the prevailing theoretical accounts relying on a memory-based explanation instead. We propose that the MMN is, in essence, a latency- and amplitude-modulated expression of the auditory N1 response, generated by fresh-afferent activity of cortical neurons that are under nonuniform levels of adaptation. (Sou...
Source: Psychophysiology - July 21, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Patrick J. C. May, Hannu Tiitinen Source Type: journals

Interoceptive awareness declines with ageEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Aging has been shown to increase sensory thresholds for a variety of exteroceptive and proprioceptive stimuli. However, the influence of aging on interoceptive awareness has received relatively little empirical attention. Here we report an inverse association between aging and interoception, as indexed by the ability to sense the heartbeat at rest. In a group of 59 participants ranging in age from 22 to 63 years, age inversely predicted heartbeat detection ability, both within and across several measurement sessions. On average, age accounted for 30% of the variance in heartbeat detection accuracy. Other attribute variable...
Source: Psychophysiology - July 6, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Sahib S. Khalsa, David Rudrauf, Daniel Tranel Source Type: journals

Reciprocal modulation of eye-blink and pinna-flexion components of startle during reward anticipationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Because expectancies play a central role in current theories of dopaminergic neuron function, it is important to develop measures of reward anticipation processes. In the present study, reflexogenic bursts of white noise were presented to 39 healthy young adults as they awaited rewards and punishments in a gambling-like task. The rewards were small pieces of chocolate; the punishments, segments of bitter-tasting banana peel. Consistent with prior research on affective valence, postauricular reflexes were larger prior to rewards than punishments, whereas the reverse was true for acoustic blink reflexes. We theorized that po...
Source: Psychophysiology - July 4, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Steven A. Hackley, Miguel Ángel Muñoz, Karen Hebert, Fernando Valle-Inclán, Jaime Vila Source Type: journals

Share or compete? Load-dependent recruitment of prefrontal cortex during dual-task performanceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Dual-task performance requires flexible attention allocation to two or more streams of information. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is considered important for executive function, and recent modeling work proposes that attention control may arise from selective activation and inhibition of different processing units within this region. Here, we used a tone discrimination task and a visual letter memory task to examine whether this type of competition could be measurable using a neuroimaging technique, the event-related optical signal, with high spatial and temporal resolution. Left and right DLPFC structures were di...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 30, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Kathy A. Low, Echo E. Leaver, Arthur F. Kramer, Monica Fabiani, Gabriele Gratton Source Type: journals

On the relationship between occipital cortex activity and inhibition of returnEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The present study explored the relationship between inhibition of return (IOR) and visual processes by seeking evidence that IOR and changes in event-related potential (ERP) indices of occipital cortex activity covary in response to experimental manipulation. The presence or absence of a central reorienting event was manipulated within the context of a cue[ndash]target experiment. When a reorienting event was presented in the interval between cue and target, IOR was accompanied by reductions in the amplitudes of early occipital ERP peaks on validly cued trials relative to invalidly cued trials. When a reorienting event was...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 30, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: David J. Prime, Pierre Jolic[oelig]ur Source Type: journals

Modulation of the error-related negativity by response conflictEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An arrow version of the Eriksen flanker task was employed to investigate the influence of conflict on the error-related negativity (ERN). The degree of conflict was modulated by varying the distance between flankers and the target arrow (CLOSE and FAR conditions). Error rates and reaction time data from a behavioral experiment were used to adapt a connectionist model of this task. This model was based on the conflict monitoring theory and simulated behavioral and event-related potential data. The computational model predicted an increased ERN amplitude in FAR incompatible (the low-conflict condition) compared to CLOSE inco...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 30, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Claudia Danielmeier, Jan R. Wessel, Marco Steinhauser, Markus Ullsperger Source Type: journals

Communalities and differences in fear potentiation between cardiac defense and eyeblink startleEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study examines similarities and differences in fear potentiation between two protective reflexes: cardiac defense and eyeblink startle. Women reporting intense fear of animals but low fear of blood or intense fear of blood but low fear of animals viewed pictures depicting blood or the feared animal for 6 s in 2 separate trials in counterbalanced order. An intense burst of white noise, able to elicit both a cardiac defense response and a reflexive startle blink, was presented 3.5 s after picture onset. Both cardiac and blink responses were potentiated when highly fearful individuals viewed fearful pictures. However, di...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 30, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: María B. Sánchez, Pedro Guerra, Miguel A. Muñoz, José Luís Mata, Margaret M. Bradley, Peter J. Lang, Jaime Vila Source Type: journals

Outcome expectancy as a moderator of mental fatigue influence on cardiovascular responseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Female undergraduates performed an easy (fatigue low) or difficult (fatigue high) scanning task and then were presented mental arithmetic problems with instructions that they would earn a high or low chance of winning a prize if they did as well as or better than 50% of those who had performed previously. As expected, blood pressure responses in the second work period rose or tended to rise with fatigue where the chance of winning was high. By contrast, the responses tended weakly to decline with fatigue where the chance of winning was low. The pressure findings support the suggestion of a recent fatigue analysis that succ...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 30, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Christopher C. Stewart, Rex A. Wright, Siu-Kuen Azor Hui, Angel Simmons Source Type: journals

Prediction of peak oxygen uptake from sub-maximal ratings of perceived exertion elicited during a graded exercise test in obese womenEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The purpose was to assess the validity of predicting peak oxygen uptake from Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE)[le]15, during a graded exercise test (GXT), in obese women. Forty-three obese women performed GXT to volitional exhaustion. During GXT, oxygen uptake and RPE were measured. Individual linear regressions between and RPE[le]15 were extrapolated to RPE 20 in order to predict . Actual and predicted were not significantly different (13.9±3.0 vs 14.2±3.3 ml kg[minus]1 min[minus]1, respectively; p=.26). The Pearson product moment correlation between actual and predicted was high (r=0.82). The 95% limits of agreement ...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 30, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Jeremy B. J. Coquart, Christine Lemaire, Alain-Eric Dubart, Claire Douillard, David-Pol Luttenbacher, Frederique Wibaux, Murielle Garcin Source Type: journals

When cognitive control is calibrated: Event-related potential correlates of adapting to information-processing conflict despite erroneous response preparationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
To examine when in the perception-action cycle resolving information-processing conflict modulates signals of the current need for cognitive control, the present work examined event-related potential correlates of response preparation (lateralized readiness potentials; LRPs) and of information-processing conflict (fronto-central N2 responses) on trial n flanker trials, as a function of whether trial n[ndash]1 entailed a congruent flanker, an incongruent flanker, or a NoGo cue. Although LRP-indexed erroneous response preparation was substantial on incongruent trials across all levels of trial n[ndash]1, N2 amplitudes and be...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 30, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Antonio L. Freitas, Ruslan Banai, Sheri L. Clark Source Type: journals

Preparing hearts and minds: Cardiac slowing and a cortical inhibitory networkEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Preparing for a cued, speeded response induces a set of physiological changes. A review of the psychophysiology of preparation suggested that inhibition of action was an important process among the constellation of changes constituting attentive preparation. The current experiment combined event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and cardiac inter-beat interval measures in an experiment that compared preparing for a response, watching stimuli without responding, and responding in the absence of preparation. Ten college-aged participants were tested in an initial psychophysiological experiment followed by two sca...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 30, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: J. R. Jennings, M.W. van der Molen, C. Tanase Source Type: journals

The stability of error-related brain activity with increasing trialsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) are increasingly being examined as neural correlates of response monitoring. The minimum number of error trials included in grand averages varies across studies; indeed, there has not been a systematic investigation on the number of trials required to obtain a stable ERN and Pe. In the current study, the ERN and Pe were quantified as two random trials were added to participants' (N=53) ERP averages. Adding trials increased the correlation with the grand average ERN and Pe; however, high correlations (rs>.80) were obtained with only 6 trials. Internal reliability ...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 24, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Doreen M. Olvet, Greg Hajcak Source Type: journals

Facial EMG and heart rate responses to emotion-inducing film clips in boys with disruptive behavior disordersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined aspects of emotional empathy across different physiological response systems in boys with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) and normal controls. Heart rate (HR) and electromyographic (EMG) reactivity in zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles were monitored during sadness-, anger-, or happiness-inducing film clips. Relative to controls, DBD boys showed significantly less HR reduction during sadness, and a smaller increase in corrugator EMG activity both during sadness and anger. No significant group differences emerged in HR and zygomaticus EMG responsivity during happiness. We also examined cardi...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 21, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Minet De Wied, Anton Van Boxtel, Jocelyne A. Posthumus, Paul P. Goudena, Walter Matthys Source Type: journals

The heritability of P300 amplitude in 18-year-olds is robust to adolescent alcohol useEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In this report, we describe the use of recent advancements in biometric modeling to examine changes in the genetic and environmental contributions to variability in P3 amplitude related to cumulative AAU by late adolescence in a large community-based twin sample. We found that the genetic and environmental contributions to variability in P3 amplitude were unaffected by AAU. This suggests that P3AR indexes risk for alcoholism independent of any deleterious effect of AAU on adolescent brain development. (Source: Psychophysiology)
Source: Psychophysiology - June 21, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Greg Perlman, Wendy Johnson, William G. Iacono Source Type: journals

An alternative scoring method for skin conductance responding in a differential fear conditioning paradigm with a long-duration conditioned stimulusEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Researchers examining skin conductance (SC) as a measure of aversive conditioning commonly separate the SC response into two components when the CS-UCS interval is sufficiently long. This convention drew from early theorists who described these components, the first- and second-interval responses, as measuring orienting and conditional responses, respectively. The present report critically examines this scoring method through a literature review and a secondary data analysis of a large-scale study of police and firefighter trainees that used a differential aversive conditioning procedure (n=287). The task included habituat...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 21, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Suzanne L. Pineles, Matthew R. Orr, Scott P. Orr Source Type: journals

Aging effects on early-stage face perception: An ERP studyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We compared early stages of face processing in young and older participants as indexed by ERPs elicited by faces and non-face stimuli presented in upright and inverted orientations. The P1 and N170 components were larger in older than in young participants. However, the early distinction between stimulus categories as reflected by N170 face was similar across groups. Face inversion increased and delayed the N170 peak in the younger group while in older participants inversion delayed the N170 peak but had no effect on amplitude. The N170 amplitude was right-lateralized in the young, but not in the older group. Yet, the diff...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 21, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Lei Gao, Jing Xu, Bingwei Zhang, Lun Zhao, Assaf Harel, Shlomo Bentin Source Type: journals

Enhanced cardiac perception is associated with benefits in decision-makingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In the present study we provide the first empirical evidence that viscero-sensory feedback from an internal organ is associated with decision-making processes. Participants with accurate vs. poor perception of their heart activity were compared with regard to their performance in the Iowa Gambling Task. During this task, participants have to choose between four card decks. Decks A and B yield high gains and high losses, and if played continuously, result in net loss. In contrast, decks C and D yield small gains and also small losses, but result in net profit if they are selected continuously. Accordingly, participants have...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 21, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Natalie S. Werner, Katharina Jung, Stefan Duschek, Rainer Schandry Source Type: journals

Inside the wire: Aggression and functional interhemispheric connectivity in the human brainEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An aggressive personality style has been proposed to arise from a cortical asymmetry between the left and right frontal hemispheres. In the present transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study, evidence was sought for a link between an aggressive personality style and functional interhemispheric connectivity between the left and right frontal cortices. Functional interhemispheric connectivity was measured by determining transcallosal inhibition (TCI) using TMS in 20 healthy right-handed volunteers, who were given the Buss[ndash]Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) and a selective attention task. Analyses showed higher leve...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 9, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: DENNIS HOFMAN, DENNIS J. L. G. SCHUTTER Source Type: journals

P50, N100, and P200 sensory gating: Relationships with behavioral inhibition, attention, and working memoryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
P50, N100, and P200 auditory sensory gating could reflect mechanisms involved in protecting higher-order cognitive functions, suggesting relationships between sensory gating and cognition. This hypothesis was tested in 56 healthy adults who were administered the paired-click paradigm and two adaptations of the continuous performance test (Immediate/Delayed Memory Task, IMT/DMT). Stronger P50 gating correlated with fewer commission errors and prolonged reaction times on the DMT. Stronger N100 and P200 gating correlated with better discriminability on the DMT. Finally, prolonged P200 latency related to better discriminabilit...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 8, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Marijn Lijffijt, Scott D. Lane, Stacey L. Meier, Nash N. Boutros, Scott Burroughs, Joel L. Steinberg, F. Gerard Moeller, Alan C. Swann Source Type: journals

The time course of orthography and phonology: ERP correlates of masked priming effects in SpanishEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
One key issue for computational models of visual-word recognition is the time course of orthographic and phonological information during reading. Previous research, using both behavioral and event related brain potential (ERP) measures, has shown that orthographic codes are activated very early but that phonological activation starts to occur immediately afterward. Here we report an ERP masked priming experiment in Spanish that investigates this issue further by using very strict control conditions. The critical phonological comparison was between two pairs of primes having the same orthographic similarity to the target wo...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 8, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Manuel Carreiras, Manuel Perea, Marta Vergara, Alexander Pollatsek Source Type: journals

Contextual modulation of oculomotor control reflected in N2 and saccade reaction time distributionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Avoiding reflexive saccades triggered by salient yet task-irrelevant stimuli requires the engagement of control processes that inhibit attention toward irrelevant objects and prevent reflex-like oculomotor action. In the current study participants made saccades to visual targets to the left and right of fixation as directed by target appearance. A distractor could either be presented in the same (congruent trials) or the opposite hemifield (incongruent trials) as the target. Trial context was manipulated, creating risky (mostly incongruent blocks), safe (mostly congruent blocks), or neutral conditions. Electroencephalogram...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 8, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Jasper G. Wijnen, K. Richard Ridderinkhof Source Type: journals

Competitive interaction degrades target selection: An ERP studyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Localized attentional interference (LAI) occurs when attending to a visual object degrades processing of nearby objects. Competitive interaction accounts of LAI explain the phenomenon as the result of competition among objects for representation in extrastriate cortex. Here, we examined the N2pc component of the event-related potential (ERP) as a likely neural correlate of LAI. In Experiment 1, participants responded to the orientation of a target while ignoring a nearby decoy. At small target[ndash]decoy separations, N2pc amplitude was attenuated whereas the amplitude of a later, positive component (Ptc) was potentiated. ...
Source: Psychophysiology - June 2, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Matthew R. Hilimire, Jeffrey R. W. Mounts, Nathan A. Parks, Paul M. Corballis Source Type: journals