We live in a visually rich environment yet our brains are only equipped to process a small fraction of all available information at any point in time. For successful and efficient perception, the brain relies on attention to differentiate and select specific stimuli for further analysis. Attention can be directed to features – feature based attention – which enhances the processing of other similar features independent of spatial location. I have recently shown that the benefits of feature-based attention not only apply to lower-level features, but also to processes of object perception. The aim of the thesis was to examine the behavioural and electrophysiological correlates underlying the influence of feature-based attention on object perception. Chapter 1 measured the electric field activity associated with attending to higher-level features (object contours) and comparing it with the neural activity while attending to motion stimuli. We found temporally later effects for contours relative to motion, suggesting that feature-based attention to objects might be mediated by higher-tier visual areas, such as the lateral occipital cortex. In Chapter 2, I describe a study designed to investigate the time course of neural activity while cueing attention within the feature dimension of shape that more directly targets higher-tier visual areas. Consistent with Chapter 1, I iii found temporally late modulation, but behavioural effects that were weaker than expected. To account for these findings, I proposed a “wrong-turn” model which explains the perceptual benefits and costs coupled to expecting the correct or incorrect feature by taking into consideration the hierarchical structure of the visual system. Moreover, the model also makes specific predictions about the pattern of behavioural and electrophysiological activity while attending to features of varying complexity during object perception. The aim of Chapter 3 was to test the predictions of the model; I cued attention to colour, a lower-level feature essential to perceiving the object. I found much stronger behavioural cueing effects, and a biphasic pattern (early and late) electric brain activity that confirmed the predictions of the model. Together the results indicate that feature-based attention plays an important role in object perception that is mediated by a flexible perceptual system.

The brain is a complex dynamic and self-organizing system. Normal brain function emerges from synchronized neuronal firing between local neurons which are integrated into large scale networks via white matter tracts. Normal brain function and consciousness arise from the continual integration and dissolution of neuronal networks, and this fluctuation in synchronization is termed variability. Brain electrical activity is recorded as local field potentials using electroencephalography (EEG). The phase synchrony and variability of EEG waveforms can be quantified. The healthy brain exhibits a relatively low degree of phase synchrony and a high degree of variability. Clinicians are interested in using a complex system approach to brain function to provide dynamic information on neuronal physiology and pathology not available by other evaluation methods. A common challenge in paediatric critical care is evaluation of the comatose child post brain injury. Coma and medical interventions confound the clinical examination making monitoring and prognostication of outcome difficult. Brain cells and white matter tracts are disrupted post injury altering the phase synchrony between neuronal networks. It is proposed in this thesis that the estimation of the variability in EEG phase synchrony can evaluate paediatric brain function. The EEG recordings of normal children and patients in coma post brain injury are used, in a series of studies, to test the main hypothesis that slow EEG wave brain states associated with brain injury have higher magnitudes of EEG phase synchrony and lower variability values than those of EEG waves associated with consciousness. Further, the effects of age, brain development brain and the effect of a conscious slow wave EEG state (hyperventilation) on phase synchrony and variability are evaluated. Results of the studies showed that EEG phase synchrony is increased in all slow wave states and is highest in comatose children with poor neurological outcome. Younger children’s brains have higher phase synchrony than older children. The variability of the EEG phase synchrony differentiates between the awake (higher values) and unconscious states (lower values). Physiologic models underlying EEG phase synchrony are discussed. The EEG phase synchrony and variability measures provide new insight into paediatric brain function.

The neural signature and cognitive architecture of how a visual stimulus reaches conscious awareness have not been conclusively determined. Recently, we have reported an ERP activity corresponding with a period of perceptual persistence which has been typically reported in working memory research, known as the contralateral delay activity (CDA). Specifically, we reported how the CDA can be used to track how on object fades in out of consciousness. Here, we report on the behaviour of the CDA when the type of item in this paradigm is manipulated between face, animal and object stimuli. We recorded EEG activity while participants viewed a bilateral Shape-from-Motion display and analyzed where and how large a CDA is observed. Our findings show that the CDA is generalizable to different item types fading from awareness, with no differences between item conditions. This work supports the content-invariant involvement of working memory processes in sustaining conscious awareness.

The purpose of this thesis was to create and test a proof-of-concept novel ambulatory EEG system to monitor emotional valence in real-time. A qualitative comparison of a wireless EEG acquisition system by the imec group to a gold standard laboratory EEG system was successfully performed. A new wireless transmission system was created using the Texas Instruments’ ADS1299 EEG front-end chip and quantitatively compared to the gold standard system. This system and the ADS1299 performance demonstration kit were used to evaluate several equations for emotional valence classification. Three of these equations were able to correctly classify emotional valence on a positive-neutral vs. negative basis over 90% of the time on the performance demonstration kit and over 90% of the time on the wireless system. The wireless data was acquired and saved on a novel BlackBerry application that also allowed emotional self-assessment by the user during testing.

The neural signature and cognitive architecture of how a visual stimulus reaches conscious awareness have not been conclusively determined. Recently, we have reported an ERP activity corresponding with a period of perceptual persistence which has been typically reported in working memory research, known as the contralateral delay activity (CDA). Specifically, we reported how the CDA can be used to track how on object fades in out of consciousness. Here, we report on the behaviour of the CDA when the type of item in this paradigm is manipulated between face, animal and object stimuli. We recorded EEG activity while participants viewed a bilateral Shape-from-Motion display and analyzed where and how large a CDA is observed. Our findings show that the CDA is generalizable to different item types fading from awareness, with no differences between item conditions. This work supports the content-invariant involvement of working memory processes in sustaining conscious awareness.

The purpose of this thesis was to create and test a proof-of-concept novel ambulatory EEG system to monitor emotional valence in real-time. A qualitative comparison of a wireless EEG acquisition system by the imec group to a gold standard laboratory EEG system was successfully performed. A new wireless transmission system was created using the Texas Instruments’ ADS1299 EEG front-end chip and quantitatively compared to the gold standard system. This system and the ADS1299 performance demonstration kit were used to evaluate several equations for emotional valence classification. Three of these equations were able to correctly classify emotional valence on a positive-neutral vs. negative basis over 90% of the time on the performance demonstration kit and over 90% of the time on the wireless system. The wireless data was acquired and saved on a novel BlackBerry application that also allowed emotional self-assessment by the user during testing.

Listening to music is rated as one of the most pleasurable activities in human life and,in fact, listeners report the emotional impact of music to be one of the main motivatorsas to why they listen to music. This thesis focuses on the positive affective statesexperienced when listening to music and their underlying neural substrates. Despite thefact that research on the neural correlates of music-induced positive affect is arelatively recent undertaking our understanding has significantly improved during thelast decades. The aim of the current thesis is to give an overview of the neuralcorrelates of music-induced positive affect in healthy individuals. As such,psychophysiological, neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies are reviewed.Across studies the consistent involvement of brain regions, such as the orbitofrontalcortex, the striatum and the amygdala and left hemisphere frontal regions in response tomusic-induced positive affect has been found. These structures constitute an importantpart of the mesolimbocortical reward circuitry found to be involved in the processing ofa wide range of pleasures. The thesis also discusses conceptual and methodologicallimitations inherent in the studies reviewed. Understanding the nature and underlyingneural basis of music-induced positive affect is important because of the implications itmay have for psychological and physical wellbeing.

<p>At every moment in life we are receiving input from multiple sensory modalities. We are limited, however, in the amount of information we can selectively attend to and fully process at any one time. The ability to integrate the relevant corresponding multisensory inputs together and to segregate other sensory information that is conflicting or distracting is therefore fundamental to our ability to successfully navigate through our complex environment. Such multisensory integration and segregation is done on the basis of temporal, spatial, and semantic cues, often aided by selective attention to particular inputs from one or multiple modalities. The precise nature of how attention interacts with multisensory perception, and how this ramifies behaviorally and neurally, has been largely underexplored. Here, in a series of six cognitive experiments in humans using auditory and visual stimuli, along with electroencephalography (EEG) measures of brain activity and behavioral measures of task performance, I examine the interactions between attention, stimulus conflict, and multisensory processing. I demonstrate that attention can spread across modalities in a pattern that closely follows the temporal linking of multisensory stimuli, while also engendering the spatial linking of such multisensory stimuli. When stimulus inputs either within audition or across modalities conflict, I observe an electrophysiological signature of the processing of this conflict that is similar to what had been previously observed within the visual modality. Moreover, using neural measures of attentional distraction, I show that when task-irrelevant stimulus input from one modality conflicts with task-relevant input from another, attention is initially pulled toward the conflicting irrelevant modality, thereby contributing to the observed impairment in task performance. Finally, I demonstrate that there are individual differences in multisensory temporal processing in the population, in particular between those with extensive action-video-game experience versus those with little. However, everyone appears to be susceptible to multisensory distraction, a finding that should be taken into serious consideration in today's complex world of multitasking.</p> / Dissertation

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a simple, non-invasive technique used in the control of chronic pain. Despite the success of TENS and its continued use for over twenty years, some patients either fail to respond or show only a partial response. Furthermore some patients respond initially to TENS but then become tolerant to its analgesic effects. The reasons for poor response to TENS are unknown; different clinics report widely differing success rates, and information on long-term efficacy is sparse. Furthermore, TENS is still administered on an empirical basis in which the patient determines by trial and error the most appropriate stimulator settings (i. e. electrical characteristics of TENS) to treat his or her particular pain. It is impossible to predict whether an individual patient will respond to TENS or which stimulator settings will be optimal. In an attempt to elucidate these problems, the clinical, electrophysiological, neuropharmacological, psychological and sociological factors that influence the analgesic effects and clinical efficacy of TENS have been examined in this thesis. Three clinical studies were performed. The first (Study 2.1) reviewed the use of TENS since its introduction to Newcastle Pain Relief Clinic in 1979. It was found that 1582 patients have been given a trial of TENS of which 927 (58.6%) continue to use a stimulator on a long-term basis (Study 2.1). The clinical use of TENS by 179 of these patients was examined in-depth (Study 2.2). Although previous literature suggests that TENS is most efficacious for pains of neurogenic (neuropathic) origin, it was found that any type of pain may respond. No relationships were found to exist between the electrical characteristics of TENS (i. e. stimulator settings) used by patients during TENS treatment and the cause and site of pain. However, patients utilised specific pulse frequencies and patterns and consistently used these settings on subsequent treatment sessions (Study 2.3). These clinical studies showed that in this population, 41.4% of patients failed to respond to TENS and half using TENS on a long-term basis achieved less than 50% relief of pain. Thus, a systematic investigation to determine optimal electrical characteristics of TENS was performed. Three experiments were undertaken to examine separately the analgesic effects of different electrical characteristics of TENS (pulse frequency, pulse pattern and stimulation mode) on cold-pressor pain in healthy subjects. The effects of a range of Long Abstract pulse frequencies (10Hz to 160Hz) applied to produce a 'strong but comfortable' electrical paraesthesia within the painful site were measured (Exp. 3.1). It was found that frequencies between 20-80Hz were most effective. However, no differential effects were observed between a range of pulse patterns (continuous, burst, modulation, random; Exp. 3.2). When TENS was applied in burst mode at an intensity sufficient to produce phasic muscle twitches at a site distant yet myotomally related to the site of pain (acupuncture-like TENS) a powerful analgesic effect was observed during and post-stimulation (Exp. 3.3). It is suggested that continuous mode stimulation at 80Hz, producing a 'strong but comfortable' electrical paraesthesia within the painful site, should be the primary TENS treatment choice in the clinic but that in selected cases AL-TENS may be more effective. A number of improvements in stimulator design are suggested. Further experiments were aimed at elucidating the mechanism of TENS effects by investigating the influence of TENS on electrophysiological and neuropharmacological variables. It was found that TENS reduced peak-to-peak amplitudes of the late waveform components (N1P2) of somatosensory evoked potentials (Exp. 4.1) and increased alpha, beta and theta activity of spontaneous EEG in healthy subjects (Exp. 4.2) and/or pain patients (Exp. 4.3). As TENS produced changes in SEPs elicited from non-painful stimuli, and also changes in spontaneous EEG in pain-free subjects, it is suggested that the effects of TENS may be due in part to changes in sensory processing at several levels in the nervous system which may not specific for the perception of pain. The surprising finding that TENS increased peripheral circulating met-enkephalin in chronic pain patients was attributed to a stress-like release although this observation remains to be confirmed using a larger population sample (Exp. 5.1). The results of these experiments suggest that baseline electrophysiological and neuropharmacological variables may be important determinants of individual response to TENS. Thus, a prospective investigation was undertaken on 29 patients who were undergoing a trial of TENS to control chronic pain, in an attempt to identify predictors of patient response. Patient response to TENS was related to baseline SEP amplitudes and spontaneous EEG but was not related to biochemical, psycho-social, personality or pain related factors (Exp. 6.1). Thus, patients with small peak-to-peak amplitudes of the SEP, and low power spectrum of spontaneous EEG showed poor response to TENS (Exp. 6.1). It is suggested that an individual's intrinsic central response pattern to external stimuli may influence response to TENS.

Iatrogenic hypoglycemia is a limiting factor for managing diabetes mellitus and can have severe outcomes such as seizures and coma. Although several studies have investigated the central nervous system consequences of hypoglycemia, the effects of seizures, as well as possible treatment strategies, have yet to be elucidated in juvenile animals. The objective of this thesis was to establish an in vivo model of severe hypoglycemia and seizures in juvenile diabetic and non-diabetic rats. In both groups there existed a similar blood glucose threshold for seizures, and mortality only occurred following severe seizures, particularly with repeated seizures that were unresponsive to treatment. While the administration of anticonvulsants temporarily mitigated seizures, glucose administration was required to prevent mortality. Abnormalities in the hippocampal and brainstem electroencephalograms (EEG) were observed in hypoglycemic animals without a clear correlate to convulsive activity.