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Recent studies suggest that time estimation relies on bodily rhythms and interoceptive signals. We provide the first direct electrophysiological evidence suggesting an association between the brain's processing of heartbeat and duration judgment. We examined heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP) and contingent negative variation (CNV) during an auditory duration-reproduction task and a control reaction-time task spanning 4, 8, and 12 s intervals, in both male and female participants. Interoceptive awareness was assessed with the Self-Awareness Questionnaire (SAQ) and interoceptive accuracy through the heartbeat-counting task (HCT). Results revealed that SAQ scores, but not the HCT, correlated with mean reproduced durations with higher SAQ scores associating with longer and more accurate duration reproductions. Notably, the HEP amplitude changes during the encoding phase of the timing task, particularly within 130-270 ms (HEP1) and 470-520 ms (HEP2) after the R-peak, demonstrated interval-specific modulations that did not emerge in the control task. A significant ramp-like increase in HEP2 amplitudes occurred during the duration-encoding phase of the timing but not during the control task. This increase within the reproduction phase of the timing task correlated significantly with the reproduced durations for the 8 s and the 4 s intervals. The larger the increase in HEP2, the greater the under-reproduction of the estimated duration. CNV components during the encoding phase of the timing task were more negative than those in the reaction-time task, suggesting greater executive resources orientation toward time. We conclude that interoceptive awareness (SAQ) and cortical responses to heartbeats (HEP) predict duration reproductions, emphasizing the embodied nature of time.
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Patients with schizophrenia have often been described as insensitive to nociceptive signals, but objective evidence is sparse. We address this question by combining subjective behavioral and objective neurochemical and neurophysiological measures. The present study involved 21 stabilized and mildly symptomatic patients with schizophrenia and 21 control subjects. We applied electrical stimulations below the pain threshold and assessed sensations of pain and unpleasantness with rating scales, and Somatosensory Evoked Potentials (SEPs/EEG). We also measured attention, two neurochemical stress indices (ACTH/cortisol), and subjective VEPs/EEG responses to visual emotional stimuli. Our results revealed that, subjectively, patients' evaluations do not differ from controls. However, the amplitude of EEG evoked potentials was greater in patients than controls as early as 50 ms after electrical stimulations and beyond one second after visual processing of emotional pictures. Such responses could not be linked to the stress induced by the stimulations, since stress hormone levels were stable. Nor was there a difference between patients and controls in respect of attention performance and tactile sensitivity. Taken together, all indices measured in patients in our study were either heightened or equivalent relative to healthy volunteers.
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Ambiguous figures induce sudden transitions between rivaling percepts. We investigated electroencephalogram frequency modulations of accompanying change-related de- and rebinding processes. Presenting the stimuli discontinously, we synchronized perceptual reversals with stimulus onset, which served as a time reference for averaging. The resultant gain in temporal resolution revealed a sequence of time-frequency correlates of the reversal process. Most conspicuous was a transient right-hemispheric gamma modulation preceding endogenous reversals by at least 200 ms. No such modulation occurred with exogenously induced reversals of unambiguous stimulus variants. Post-onset components were delayed for ambiguous compared to unambiguous stimuli. The time course of oscillatory activity differed in several respects from predictions based on binding-related hypotheses. The gamma modulation preceding endogenous reversals may indicate an unstable brain state, ready to switch.
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OBJECTIVE: The quality of averaged gradient artifact subtraction from EEG recorded during fMRI is highly dependent on the accuracy of gradient artifact sampling. Even small sampling shifts (e.g. a single datapoint at 5kHz) increase the variance of the sampled gradient artifacts because of very steep slopes in the signal time course. Hence, although principally gradient artifacts are invariant signals because of their technical origin, variance attributed to sampling errors attenuates the effect of artifact removal. Recently, it has been shown that synchronizing the EEG-amplifier clock to the MR-scanner control-device clock improves artifact reduction by subtraction. METHODS: In order to investigate the synchronized measurement of combined EEG-fMRI, we used simulated EEG by measuring function generator signals in the MR-scanner. Only the usage of known signals allows an assessment of the improvement in accuracy of artifact recording by synchronized compared to non-synchronized measurement, since the signal is identical in both conditions. RESULTS: After averaged gradient artifact subtraction synchronized recorded signals were apparently less distorted than non-synchronized recorded signals. Spectral analyses revealed that especially artifact frequencies above 50Hz had less power in restored synchronized compared to restored non-synchronized recorded signals. Computed total signal variances were not always less in restored synchronized compared to restored non-synchronized recorded signals. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, synchronizing simultaneous EEG-fMRI measurement is a useful enhancement for averaged gradient artifact subtraction although post-correction filtering is still necessary. SIGNIFICANCE: Our results support the recent finding that synchronization improves the quality of averaged gradient artifact subtraction. However, quantitatively we could not verify a systematic benefit of recording electrical signals during fMRI synchronously rather than non-synchronously to the MR-scanner control-device clock.
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Normally we experience the visual world as stable. Ambiguous figures provide a fascinating exception: On prolonged inspection, the "Necker cube" undergoes a sudden, unavoidable reversal of its perceived front-back orientation. What happens in the brain when spontaneously switching between these equally likely interpretations? Does neural processing differ between an endogenously perceived reversal of a physically unchanged ambiguous stimulus and an exogenously caused reversal of an unambiguous stimulus? A refined EEG paradigm to measure such endogenous events uncovered an early electrophysiological correlate of this spontaneous reversal, a negativity beginning at 160 ms. Comparing across nine electrode locations suggests that this component originates in early visual areas. An EEG component of similar shape and scalp distribution, but 50 ms earlier, was evoked by an external reversal of unambiguous figures. Perceptual disambiguation seems to be accomplished by the same structures that represent objects per se, and to occur early in the visual stream. This suggests that low-level mechanisms play a crucial role in resolving perceptual ambiguity.
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Eintragsart
Sprache
- Englisch (5)
Thema
- *Electroencephalography
- Adult (4)
- Artifacts (1)
- Awareness/physiology (1)
- Brain/*blood supply/*physiology (1)
- *Brain Mapping (1)
- Brain Mapping (1)
- *Brain/physiology (1)
- Computer Simulation (1)
- contingent negative variation (CNV) (1)
- Contingent Negative Variation/*physiology (1)
- Contingent Negative Variation/physiology (1)
- *Cortical Synchronization (1)
- Data Interpretation, Statistical (1)
- Depth Perception/*physiology (1)
- Discrimination Learning/physiology (1)
- duration reproduction (1)
- Electric Stimulation (1)
- *Emotions (1)
- Evoked Potentials/physiology (1)
- *Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory (1)
- Evoked Potentials, Visual (1)
- Evoked Potentials, Visual/physiology (1)
- Female (4)
- Fourier Analysis (1)
- Functional Laterality/physiology (1)
- *Heart Rate/physiology (1)
- heartbeat-counting task (1)
- heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP) (1)
- Humans (5)
- Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods (1)
- *Interoception/physiology (1)
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging/*methods (1)
- Male (4)
- Middle Aged (1)
- Models, Biological (1)
- Optical Illusions/*physiology (1)
- Orientation/*physiology (1)
- Oxygen/blood (1)
- Pain/*physiopathology (1)
- Pattern Recognition, Visual/*physiology (1)
- Perceptual Closure/*physiology (1)
- Photic Stimulation (1)
- Reaction Time/physiology (1)
- Reversal Learning/physiology (1)
- Schizophrenia/*physiopathology (1)
- Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted (1)
- Spectrum Analysis (1)
- Stress, Psychological/*physiopathology (1)
- Time Factors (1)
- time perception (1)
- *Time Perception/physiology (1)
- Vision, Binocular/physiology (1)
- Visual Cortex/physiology (1)
- Visual Perception/*physiology (1)
- Young Adult (2)