bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Averaged Evoked Responses and the Encoding of Perception
Authors: Schwartz Marvin 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThis paper reviews the hypothesis that averaged evoked response (AER) recordings encode the perception of stimulus content. AERs may be altered by changing subjects' expectancies, attention, affect, etc. AERs may also be altered by differences in the physical parameters of the eliciting stimuli. But if perception is viewed as the processing of the specific informational content of the stimuli, there is no convincing evidence that AERs encode perception. Thus, AKRs appear to be a summary of the activity of stimulus feature detectors and the results of decisions concerning the salience or importance of that information—AERs represent general operations not the specific content of the information being processed.
Patterns of Cerebral Lateralization During Cardiac Biofeedback versus the Self‐Regulation of Emotion: Sex Differences
Authors: Davidson Richard J. , Schwartz Gary E. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThe purpose of the present study was twofold: (1) to obtain information on central mechanisms underlying cardiac self‐regulation by comparing changes in cerebral asymmetry during self‐control of heart rate with changes observed during the production of affective imagery; and (2) to explore sex differences in hemispheric function during performance of these two tasks. Heart rate (HR) and bilateral parietal EEG filtered for alpha were recorded from 20 right‐handed males and females during two discrete experimental phases: cardiac control and image self‐generation. HR showed significant effects between up versus down in prefeedback and feedback, and between anger versus relaxing imagery in the image phase. The EEG data indicated similar patterns of hemispheric asymmetry in both sexes during prefeedback. However, with the introduction of feedback, females shifted to greater relative right hemisphere activation comparable to what they show when specifically instructed to think emotional thoughts; males showed little differentiation between conditions. These data indicate that the Self‐regulation of HR with biofeedback in males and females may be accomplished by the utilization of strategies involving different underlying patterns of neuropsychological processes.
Multiple Response Comparison of Parietal EEG and Frontalis EMG Biofeedback
Authors: DeGood Douglas E. , Chisholm Ronald C. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTIn Study I parietal EEG and frontalis EMG were simultaneously recorded from 20 normal subjects while half of the subjects received 45 min of eyes‐closed alpha EEG enhancement feedback and the other half received a similar amount of EMG suppression feedback. EMG feedback resulted in a significant reduction in frontalis EMG activity accompanied by a reliable increase in parietal alpha density, while EEG feedback produced only an increase in alpha without corresponding EMG reduction. In Study II, each of 8 subjects underwent four separate feedback contingencies in two 40‐min sessions—one session with eyes open and the other with eyes closed. The four types of feedback were: a) alpha‐up (alpha enhancement), b) alpha‐down (alpha suppression), c) EMG‐down (frontalis tension decrease), and d) EMG‐up (frontalis tension increase). EMG feedback, up and down, resulted in the more consistent pattern of generalized arousal changes reflected in heart rate and respiratory rate as well as EEG and EMG activity. Within the constraints of a limited training period, the results suggest that frontalis EMG feedback is the more efficient procedure for producing a generalized relaxation response. However, since fingertip vasoconstriction accompanied all four types of feedback, caution must be exercised to avoid the oversimplification of generalized organism effects.
Active Circuits for Direct Linear Measurement of Skin Resistance and Conductance
Authors: Lowry Richard 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTPassive voltage‐divider circuitries typically used for measuring skin resistance and conductance provide only indirect measures of these variables. Although the resulting errors of nonlinearity may not be critical for some research purposes, there is no reason why they should be tolerated, because it is possible to design simple active circuitry which avoids the errors by measuring skin resistance and conductance directly. Two such circuits are presented: a) a variable‐gain voltage amplifier for direct linear measurement of skin resistance; and b) a current‐to‐voltage transducer for direct linear measurement of skin conductance. A combined working circuit, suitable for practical research applications, is also presented.
Effects of the Expression of Pain on Autonomic and Pain Tolerance Responses to Subject‐Controlled Pain
Authors: Colby Carl Z. , Lanzetta John T. , Kleck Robert E. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTA within‐subjects experiment was performed to investigate the effect of various levels of pain expression on autonomic and tolerance responses to electrical shocks which were terminated by the subjects at their tolerance level. Ten male undergraduates posed three levels of pain expression while being shocked by a constant current source that was turned up rapidly, slowly, or not at all. It was found that skin conductance responses to shock are monotonically and positively related to the level of expression; skin conductance is not significantly affected by expression in the absence of shock; pain tolerance levels are not related to the level of expression; and tolerance levels are higher for rapidly ascending shock than for slowly ascending shock. The implications of these results for theories of the expression of emotion are discussed.
The Beneficial Effect of Sleep in an Extended Jenkins and Dallenbach Paradigm
Authors: Benson K. , Feinberg I. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTRetention of a paired‐associate list of common nouns was tested under two conditions: original learning at night prior to 8 hrs of sleep (Sleep condition), and original learning in the morning prior to a day of normal waking activity (Waking condition). Both conditions were subdivided so that retention was tested at intervals of 8, 16, and 24 hrs after original learning.For both paced and free recall measures of retention, the Sleep condition proved superior to the Waking condition at the 8 hr interval. At 24 hrs, when the amounts of sleep and waking were equated across both conditions thus normalizing for potential interference, the superiority of the Sleep condition over the Waking condition was also observed. There were no differences in retention between the Sleep and Waking conditions at 16 hrs after original learning. This finding was largely influenced by improved recall on the part of subjects in the Waking condition in the interval between 8 and 16 hrs.It was concluded that the consolidation during sleep of verbal materials learned shortly before sleep onset has a beneficial effect on their recall and temporal stability in the 8 to 24 hr period following original learning.
Heart Rate as a Discriminative Stimulus
Authors: Epstein Leonard H. , Cinciripini Paul M. , McCoy James F. , Marshall William R. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTTwo experiments were performed to evaluate characteristics of heart activity as discriminative stimuli. In Study I two multiple baseline across subjects designs were utilized to assess the efficacy of trial and error and fading procedures in increasing the detection of heart rate activity above and below an average level. Both trial and error and fading procedures were effective in increasing discrimination accuracy. A 4.4 bpm interval around the subject's mean heart rate was employed as the discriminative stimulus in Study II. Significant stimulus control exerted by the criterion stimuli was found during both training and testing conditions. Experimental procedures were discussed for determining which sensory events in a complex stimulus dimension such as a physiological change are actually exerting stimulus control.
Salivation: A Review and Experimental Investigation of Major Techniques
Authors: White K. D. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTTechniques for assessing salivation were reviewed and several problem areas highlighted including measurement and reliability problems, and questions relating to sex and gland differences. Ten mate and 10 female undergraduate students took part in an experiment to examine critical issues and assess the comparability of the most frequently used techniques (whole mouth, parotid capsule, and cotton swabs). Results showed that methods were significantly intercorrelated, sex differences were minimal, and laterality effects small and inconsistent.
Orienting and Defensive Responding in the Electrodermal System: Palmar‐Dorsal Differences and Recovery Rate during Conditioning to Potentially Phobic Stimuli
Authors: ÖHman Arne , Fredrikson Mats , Hugdahl Kenneth 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTIt was suggested that the effects of fear‐relevant pictures as conditioned stimuli (CSs) for electrodermal responses may be explained if it is assumed that they produce conditioned defense responses (DRs), as opposed to the orienting responses (ORs) that are produced by fear‐irrelevant stimuli. Some propositions in Edelberg's theory of electrodermal activity were used to differentiate between DRs and ORs in a test of this hypothesis. Groups of subjects were conditioned to fear‐relevant (snakes and spiders) or fear‐irrelevant (flowers and mushrooms) CSs by means of an aversive (electric shock) or a non‐aversive (imperative signal for a reaction time (RT) task) unconditioned stimulus in long interval differential paradigms. The neutral‐shock, phobic‐RT, and neutral‐RT groups showed no palmar‐dorsal differences either in magnitude, probability or amplitude, and no conditioning in the recovery rate measure. However, the phobic‐shock group showed a peak of dorsal magnitude early in training that subsequently habituated whereas the palmar magnitude data indicated a gradual conditioning effect that lasted throughout the 20 extinction trials. In addition, it showed slower recovery to the reinforced than to the nonreinforced stimulus. These data are taken as support for the hypothesis.
Vigilance and Human Attention Under Conditions of Methylphenidate and Secobarbital Intoxication: An Assessment Using Brain Potentials
Authors: Hink Robert F. , Fenton Wayne H. , Tinkleberg Jared R. , Pfefferbaum Adolf , Kopell Bert S. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTPerformance is known to fall‐off with the time on a vigilance task. Treatment with methylphenidate attenuates this decrement while treatment with secobarbital enhances it. This experiment was designed to test whether this performance decrement and the drug effects on it are associated with changes in selective attention or in general state (i.e. motivation, alertness, or arousal). Subjects were treated with either 10 mg of methylphenidate, 100 mg of secobarbital, or a placebo in a double‐blind cross‐over design. Two event‐related potentials (N1 and P3) were measured to four tone pips presented in a random sequence. Only two of the four tones could occur in each ear. The task during the vigil was to detect a designated target tone pip. The amplitude of N1 was larger to both target and non‐target stimuli in the attended ear than to those in the unattended ear; P3 amplitude was larger only to the target stimuli. N1 amplitude decreased with time especially when secobarbital was administered. This decrement in N1 amplitude was comparable for both attended and unattended stimuli. The data support the view that the vigilance performance decrement and related drug effects on it are associated primarily with changes in general state.
Imagery Vividness Affects Habituation Rate
Authors: Drummond Peter , White Ken , Ashton Rod 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTIn order to investigate the effect of individual differences in imagery vividness on habituation rate, 14 subjects were threatened with receiving and then imagined receiving an electric shock. Subjects first habituated to a tone which was then used as an auditory signal for the shock threat and the imagined shock. The skin conductance response (SCR) was used to follow the course of habituation. Results demonstrated that subjects with non‐vivid imagery habituated to the tone more rapidly than subjects with vivid imagery when the tone was associated with imagining an electric shock. Implications of this finding for therapeutic techniques using instructed imagery are discussed.
Psychophysiology and Psychometrics
Authors: Venables Peter 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTIn 1972, psychophysiological data were collected on 1800 3‐yr‐old children with the aim of selecting a subsample of whom some would have characteristics suggesting that they might later break down with schizophrenia and hence be at high‐risk. This approach contrasts with that usually adopted in high‐risk studies where a familial risk definition is employed. The paper examines the extent to which the necessarily crude initial selection procedure appears to have worked in terms of later more extensive analysis and the reliability of the procedures used over an 18 month period. Analogues between the technique used and those employed in psychometric analyses are suggested.
Stress and EEG‐Alpha
Authors: Frost Randy O. , Burish Thomas G. , Holmes David S. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTWhen stressed, subjectd showed increased arousal as measured by changes in pulse rate, skin conductance, and self‐reports but did not show changes in EEG‐alpha production. The finding that EEG‐alpha was not sensitive to changes in arousal above the normal level is inconsistent with what has generally been assumed and suggests that alpha biofeedback training will not be effective for teaching persons to reduce high levels of arousal.
Auditory Evoked Potentials and Divided Attention
Authors: Parasuraman Raja 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTIn a multi‐channel divided attention task, 8 subjects listened to a sequence of tones delivered at one of two stimulation rates and at one of three spatial locations (channels): left ear, right ear, and an apparent position midway between left and right ears. Subjects were instructed to monitor one, two, or all three channels and detect slightly louder target tones in the monitored channel(s). Seven listening conditions were used, three in which subjects monitored one channel and ignored the others, another three in which two channels were simultaneously monitored and the third ignored, and a further condition in which all three channels were monitored. With a high stimulation rate, the N1 component of the vertex evoked potential (latency 70–130 msec) in both attended and unattended channels significantly decreased in amplitude with an increase in the number of monitored channels. At the same time, N1 was significantly larger when a channel was attended than when it was ignored. There were no significant effects under slow stimulation rate conditions. Like N1, target detectability (d') declined with increasing monitoring load only with a fast stimulation rate, but the correspondence between these two measures was not upheld in every condition. The results indicate that with a high “information load” in a multi‐channel task, selective attention increases the vertex response in all attended channels, while divided attention decreases the response in both attended and unattended channels, thus suggesting that the N1 component of the auditory evoked potential reflects the apparent division of attentional capacity among competing auditory inputs.
Operant Conditioning of Blood Pressure: Effects of Mediators
Authors: Goldman Mark S. , Lee Richard M. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTRespiration and frontalis muscle activity were evaluated as mediators in the operant conditioning of systolic blood pressure (BP). Three groups of 7 normotensives received 5 training sessions with either: a) systolic BP feedback alone, b) systolic BP feedback plus respiration rate and volume feedback, or c) systolic BP feedback plus frontalis muscle activity feedback. Respiration and muscle feedback subjects were given BP feedback so that they might test various response strategies for BP control. Each session consisted of 5 training cycles, during which the subject was instructed to “lower” BP and then “don't lower” BP. This design demonstrated subjects' BP control, while eliminating extraneous factors as sources of BP change. Respiration feedback clearly enhanced acquisition of BP control, while frontalis muscle feedback was ineffective as a BP mediator. Respiration subjects slowed respiration rate and increased respiration volume when lowering BP. No other systematic physiological changes occurred in any group. Reflex instigation of BP lowering in the respiration group was improbable for a variety of reasons. It was concluded that while mediators may not be essential for response acquisition, they can serve to enhance autonomic self‐regulation. These findings have significant implications for hypertension treatment methodology.
Effects of Coping on Blood Pressure Responses to Threat of Aversive Stimulation
Authors: Manuck Stephen B. , Harvey Ann H. , Lechleiter Stephanie L. , Neal Karen S. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to examine effects on systolic and diastolic blood pressure due to availability and difficulty of control over anticipated aversive auditory stimulation. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, 44 subjects were presented either of two instructional sets regarding control: a) that exposure to the aversive stimulus would be contingent on the subject's performance at a cognitive task (Control), or b) that the stimulus would occur at random during the task period (No Control). The experimental task consisted of problems in concept formation and was presented to Control and No Control subjects at either of two levels of difficulty (Difficult or Easy); task success was manipulated by the experimenter to assure equivalent performance across groups. Results indicated that within the Task Difficult condition, Control subjects evidenced greater systolic blood pressure elevations than subjects in the No Control group, whereas Control and No Control subjects in the Task Easy condition showed no reliable differences. Diastolic blood pressure did not vary by control or task difficulty. It was concluded that the availability of control responses may induce greater arousal in situations involving threat of aversive stimulation, but that this effect obtains only when subjects experience some degree of difficulty employing available coping strategies.
Comparison Between Time‐Lapse Video Recordings of Behavior and Polygraphic State Determinations in Premature Infants
Authors: Fuller Peter W. , Wenner Waldemar H. , Blackburn Susan 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThis study was done to compare time‐lapse video recordings of eye and body activity with polygraphically determined states of activity from human premature infants. Time‐lapse video recording in neonates is new, and was first reported by Anders and Sostek (1976) who have used time‐lapse video recordings of sleep‐wake activity in full‐term infants. We recorded 8 prematurely born human infants, 5 males and 3 females between 29 and 34 weeks gestational age at birth. Behavioral and physiological states were scored from the polygraphic records. The video‐tape observations were coded for three levels of body movement: no body movement, some body movement, and a lot of body movement, and eyes: closed no rapid eye movements (REMs), REMs, and open. The following relationships (concordance) were observed: 1) 60% of the non‐REM/no movement epochs were in the Quiet state on the polygraph; 2) 83% of the REM/some movement epochs were in the REM state on the polygraph; and 3) 82% of the REM/ a lot of movement epochs were in the REM state on the polygraph.
Telemetry of Human Cerebral Temperature
Authors: Dabbs James M. , Neuman Michael R. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTCerebral temperature can be monitored unobtrusively on free‐ranging human subjects. We describe here a pulse‐modulated radio frequency transmitter that is worn behind the ear and transmits information on temperature in the ear canal. The information can be decoded by a portable monitor or recorded for later analysis. Preliminary findings suggest the equipment can be used in a variety of studies.
A Direct Comparison of the Skin Conductance and Skin Resistance Methods
Authors: Boucsein Wolfram , Hoffmann Georg 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThe purpose of the present study was a direct comparison between simultaneous recordings of skin conductance and skin resistance. Sixty male students received a series of 30 white noise stimuli, while measures were taken continuously from four sites on the palmar surfaces of the fingers. Evaluations were made for response amplitudes, recovery, and for an approximate area measure. Magnitude of reactions and reliabilities were compared using ANOVA procedures. Behavioral concordances were estimated as correlations with the subjects' ratings of stimulus intensities.Conductance and resistance measures do not differ in amplitude, in area, or in strength of their reliabilities and behavioral concordances. No differences in any respect are found between sites. Skin conductance yields significantly (p < .01) shorter recovery times than skin resistance, which is discussed in terms of membrane permeability change.
Stability of EEG Laterality Effects
Authors: Amochaev A. , Salamy A. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTTask related interhemispheric asymmetries of ongoing EEG activity (alpha band) were tested for stability across three separate occasions. Seven cognitive tasks, presumed to differentially engage either the left or right cerebral hemisphere, were presented to 6 subjects. Involvement with the tasks was determined by evaluation of performance and with a subjective report on degree of involvement. Bilateral EEG was recorded over the parietal areas referenced to an ipsilateral ear, vertex and a central placement, on separate channels. Spectral intensity estimates of 8–13 Hz activity were used to form left/right ratios for determination of asymmetry. Intra‐subject stability of alpha band activity was found to improve with the establishment of task validity and to be related to the electrode placement used.
Variations in Behavioral Response Threshold Within the REM Period of Human Sleep
Authors: Price Leonard J. , Kremen Irwin 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTBehavioral response threshold measures were compared between REM tonic, REM phasic, as well as NREM‐2 sleep. Eighteen young college males were each instructed to respond with one or two microswitch presses upon detection of either of two tones triggered during two non‐consecutive nights of sleep in the laboratory. Repeated measures comparisons (ANOVA) of average response threshold values, as determined via a method of limits procedure, showed REM tonic values to be significantly lower than both REM phasic and NREM‐2 values while the latter two did not differ significantly from each other. The average of REM period threshold values was significantly lower than NREM‐2 values, solely by virtue of the tonic component of the REM period. These differences within the REM period may account in part for greater variance in REM‐period behavioral thresholds within and between similar studies. This consideration deserves attention in any attempt to compare the REM period as a whole to NREM‐2 stage measures of responsiveness.