To date, only one study has situationally bolstered attentional resources in an effort to improve P300-BCI performance. The current study implements a 4-week Mindfulness Meditation Training Program (MMTP) as a nonmedicinal means to increase concentrative attention and to reduce lapses of attention; MMTP is expected to improve P300-BCI performance by enhancing attentional resources and reducing distractibility. A second aim is to test the efficacy of the checkerboard paradigm (CBP) against the standard row-column paradigm (RCP). Online results show that MMTP had greater accuracies than CTRL and that CBP outperformed the RCP. MMTP participants provided greater amplitude positive target responses, but these differences were not statistically significant. CBP had greater positive amplitude peaks and negative peaks than RCP. The discussion focuses on potential benefits of MMTP for P300-based BCIs, provides further support for the construct validity of mindfulness, and addresses future directions of the translational applicability of MMTP to in-home settings.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: B, page: 0531. Adviser: William P. Hetrick. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Feb. 22, 2007)."

The left fusiform gyrus is hypothesized to be selectively involved in visual word processing. Nevertheless, the particular components of reading to which this area responds is the subject of much controversy. In Experiment 1, activity in the left fusiform gyrus was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects performed a phonological task with regular and irregular Chinese characters. Results exhibited greater activity for irregular than regular characters in the left fusiform gyrus, suggesting that this region is involved in the direct route of the dual-route model. In Experiment 2, activity was measured using fMRI while subjects performed phonological, semantic, and orthographic tasks with irregular Chinese characters. The left fusiform gyrus exhibited greater activity during the orthographic task than during the phonological and semantic tasks, which did not differ, suggesting that this region is involved in orthographic processing to a greater extent than phonological or semantic access.

<p>In most aspects of music--e.g., tempo, intensity, and rhythm--the emotional coloring of a melody is due at least in part to physical imitation of the characteristics of emotional expression in human behavior. Thus excited, happy melodies are fast and loud, with syncopated rhythms, whereas subdued sad melodies are slow and quiet, with more even rhythms. The tonality of a melody (e.g. major or minor) also conveys emotion, but unlike other aspects of music, the basis for its affective impact is not clear. This thesis examines the hypothesis that different collections of musical tones are associated with specific emotions because they mimic the natural relationship between emotion and tonality present in the human voice. To evaluate this possibility, I have conducted acoustical analyses on databases of music and speech drawn from a variety of cultures, and compared the tonal characteristics of emotional expression between these two forms of social communication. I find that: (1) the melodic characteristics of music and the prosodic characteristics of speech co-vary when examined across cultures; (2) the principal tonal characteristics of melodies composed in tonalities associated with positive/excited emotion and negative/subdued emotion are much the same in different cultures; (3) cross-cultural tonal similarities in music parallel cross-cultural tonal similarities in vocal expression; and (4) the tonal characteristics of emotional expression in the voice convey distinct emotions, thereby accounting for the specificity of emotional association in musical tonality. These findings, and the implausibility of alternative explanations that could account for them, suggest that the affective impact of musical tonality derives from mimicry of the tonal characteristics of vocalization in different emotional states.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Cognitive Science, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Feb. 5, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-04, Section: B, page: 2609. Adviser: Olaf Sporns.

<p> This study examined the relationships between internalized racism, perceived minority status, code-switching and three types of organizational commitment of African Americans. Overall, internalized racism and code-switching were related to less positive forms of organizational commitment. The perception of minority status was not related to affective or continuance commitment, but was strongly related to code-switching.</p>

This study was designed to assess the impact of aging and Alzheimer's disease on conscious appraisal of emotional experience, facial expression, and emotion-modulated action tendencies. Participants included healthy young adults (YA), healthy older adults (OA), and individuals in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Self-report of emotional experience while viewing emotionally-salient images was recorded, action tendencies in the form of eye-blink startle reflex modulation and its resolution over time (300ms and 3000ms post-stimulus offset) were recorded, and facial expression of emotion was assessed utilizing EMG recordings of corrugator and zygomatic facial muscles. Consistent with previous studies of emotion in YA, showed the predicted linear relationship with normatively-determined image type (positive, neutral, & negative), and arousal experience ratings were in the predicted quadratic pattern. Corrugator EMG activity increased while viewing negative images and zygomatic EMG activity increased while viewing positive images, as predicted. Startle reflex magnitude was observed in the predicted valenced direction (i.e., greatest for negative images) while viewing images and 300ms post-image removal, but this pattern inverted at the 3000ms probe-time. Similar findings were observed in a comparison of the YA and OA groups, however a difference was observed in the resolution of the startle reflex, with the expected valenced pattern dissipating by the 300ms probe-time for the OA group. Comparisons of the OA and AD groups were limited by small sample sizes, but the AD group was similar to the OA group on measures of self-report of emotional experience patterns and corrugator EMG activity. Zygomatic EMG activity while viewing positive images appeared reduced in the AD group, and no effect of startle reflex modulation was observed in the AD group. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The heritability of personality was addressed using a psychophysiological measure, midfrontal EEG asymmetry, and a paper and pencil measure, the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). The degree to which midfrontal EEG asymmetry was correlated with the scales of the MPQ was assessed. Relatively greater right midfrontal EEG asymmetry was associated with higher Absorption and Negative Emotionality scores in both the Cz and linked mastoid reference schemes in females, but not in males. Relatively greater right midfrontal EEG asymmetry was also associated with higher Traditionalism and Positive Emotionality scores in the Cz reference scheme in females but not in males. Midfrontal EEG asymmetry was found to be modestly heritable in females, but not in males. Further, each of the scales of the MPQ correlated with midfrontal EEG asymmetry demonstrated moderate to high heritability. A bivariate Cholesky model was used to estimate the heritability of the phenotypic correlations between midfrontal EEG asymmetry and each of the scales with which it was related. Only the midfrontal EEG Asymmetry/Negative Emotionality Cholesky model demonstrated sufficient fit the observed data. According to this model, common genetic effects accounted for approximately 40% of the observed phenotypic correlation between midfrontal EEG asymmetry and Negative Emotionality.

Extensive evidence from animal and human studies suggests that glucocorticoids have a major impact on cognitive functioning. The hippocampus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are two structures which contain high concentrations of neuronal receptor sites sensitive to glucocorticoids, which when occupied, are known to produce both short- and long-term changes in neuronal activity. It is therefore of interest to investigate how early life experiences with glucocorticoids might impact the cognitive abilities, behavior, and, by implication, developing brain structures. Hence, the present study examined relations between chronic administration of glucocorticoid-based corticosteroids and performance on a neuropsychological battery of cognitive and behavioral tasks. The study used samples of children and adult non-asthmatics, asthmatics, and asthmatics receiving prescription corticosteroids. We found that children and adult asthmatics who received prescription corticosteroids exhibited deficits on tests of episodic memory, cognitive mapping, and working memory. In contrast, no differences were present between individuals in the groups on a variety of demographic, and cognitive and behavioral functions not related to hippocampal or dorsolateral prefrontal functioning (e.g., motor skills, language, estimated intelligence). Additionally, asthmatic adults with no history of corticosteroid use show some difficulty on tasks of working memory and cognitive mapping. Their performance is neither as efficient as healthy adults, nor as inefficient as asthmatics receiving prescription corticosteroids. Finally, the data also suggest that the detrimental impact of corticosteroids on functioning of the hippocampal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may be rather chronic than acute. Adult asthmatics with a history of corticosteroid prescriptions, but no use in at least the past year, continue to show the same deficits as documented in asthmatic adults with current corticosteroid prescriptions. This observation is in direct contrast to reports of cognitive performance returning to normal as glucocorticoids return to baseline levels. However, it is in accordance with the literature that suggests more permanent damage due to excessive glucocorticoid exposure.

Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research has shown that older adults activated bilateral frontal regions during tasks in which young adults had unilateral frontal activation (Cabeza, 2001). It has been suggested that older adults recruit bilateral frontal regions to compensate for declining brain function in other regions (Cabeza, Anderson, Locantore, and McIntosh, 2002). The primary aim of the current study was to determine how bilateral activation patterns observed in the frontal lobe during encoding and recognition were related to both cognitive performance of older adults and to function in other brain regions. Thirty-five older adults and 9 young adults completed an encoding and recognition task during fMRI scanning. During the encoding scans participants determined whether presented words were "natural" or "man made" objects. During the recognition scans, participants made "old/new" judgments for each word presented. Four sets of bilateral regions of interest (ROI) were defined from an overlap image of all participants' fMRI data: (1) right and left frontal cortex, (2) right and left medial temporal lobe, (3) right and left parietal lobe, and (4) right and left lateral temporal lobe. On a separate day participants completed a neuropsychological testing session that included a series of tests that had been previously used to characterize older adults in two cognitive domains, frontal (FL) and medial temporal lobe (MTL) function (Glisky, Polster & Routhieaux, 1995; Glisky, Rubin & Davidson, 2001). Consistent with the previous research, older adults showed greater bilateral fMRI activation in the frontal lobes during encoding than young adults. However, bilateral activation in the frontal lobes during encoding was associated with two different activation patterns: (1) when MTL activation was present, bilateral frontal activation was observed in older adults with high FL factor scores; (2) when the MTL was not active, bilateral frontal activation was found in older adults with low MTL factor scores. Older adults with high FL factor scores but who did not activate MTL had left lateralized frontal activation. Importantly, older adults with and without MTL activation did not differ in recognition performance scores, or factor scores.