• Langhoff Waugh posted an update 1 month, 2 weeks ago

    Introduction In this study, we examined whether the self-selection of occupations of interest affects reaction times (RTs) and cognitive processing by using the Aid for Decision-making in Occupation Choice (ADOC) and event-related potentials (ERP). We also assessed the relationship of these with psychological indicators. Method We extracted 78 occupations from the ADOC in consideration of the subjects’ age, and three conditions were set (1) self-selection of an interesting occupation; (2) self-selection of a disliked occupation; and (3) forced selection. The RT task was executed under their conditions during which ERP was measured. We compared the P300 component of ERP in these conditions. Moreover, we examined the association of cognitive processing and degree of satisfaction and performance concerning occupation, with psychological indicators. Results P300 amplitude at Fz significantly increased in the self-selection of an interesting occupation. P300 amplitude at Pz was significantly positively correlated with the occupational satisfaction score. Conclusion Self-selection of interesting occupations in the ADOC resulted in increased attention resource allocation by increasing motivation. Further, there was a positive correlation between satisfaction concerning the occupation and attention of resource allocation. selleckchem Therefore, occupational therapists should know which occupations the patients consider interesting and help them to select by themselves, thus enhancing their satisfaction after consultation. These interventions may contribute to promoting motivation and cognitive processing.Adolescence is an important ontogenetic period that is characterized by behaviors such as enhanced novelty-seeking, impulsivity, and reward preference, which can give rise to an increased risk for substance use. While substance use rates in adolescence are generally on a decline, the current rates combined with emerging trends, such as increases in e-cigarette use, remain a significant public health concern. In this review, we focus on the neurobiological divergences associated with adolescent substance use, derived from a cross-sectional, retrospective, and longitudinal studies, and highlight how the use of these substances during adolescence may relate to behavioral and neuroimaging-based outcomes. Identifying and understanding the associations between adolescent substance use and changes in cognition, mental health, and future substance use risk may assist our understanding of the consequences of drug exposure during this critical window.The process of aging commonly features a gradual deterioration in cognitive performance and, in particular, the decline of memory. Despite the increased longevity of the world’s population, the prevalence of neurodegenerative conditions, such as dementia, continues to be a major burden on public health, and consequently, the latest research has been focused on memory and aging. Currently, the failure of episodic and Prospective memory (PM) is one of the main complaints in the elderly, considered among the early symptoms of dementia. It is therefore increasingly important to define more clearly the boundaries between normal and pathological aging. Recently, researchers have begun to build and apply Virtual Environments (VE) to the explicit purpose of better understanding the performance of episodic and PM in complex and realistic contexts, with the perspective of further developing effective training procedures that depend on reliable cognitive assessment methods. Virtual technology offers higher levels of realism than “pen and paper” testing and at the same time more experimental control than naturalistic settings. In this mini-review article, we examine the outcomes of recently available studies on virtual reality technology applications developed for the assessment and improvement of episodic and/or PM. To consider the latest technology, we selected 29 articles that have been published in the last 10 years. These documents show that VR-based technologies can provide a valid basis for screening and treatment and, through increased sensory stimulation and enriched environments reproducing the scenarios of everyday life, could represent effective stimulating experiences even in pathological aging.The brain-computer interface (BCI) is a system that is designed to provide communication channels to anyone through a computer. Initially, it was suggested to help the disabled, but actually had been proposed a wider range of applications. However, the cross-subject recognition in BCI systems is difficult to break apart from the individual specific characteristics, unsteady characteristics, and environmental specific characteristics, which also makes it difficult to develop highly reliable and highly stable BCI systems. Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) is one of the most recent spellers with a clean, unified background and a single stimulus, which may evoke event-related potential (ERP) patterns with less individual difference. In order to build a BCI system that allows new users to use it directly without calibration or with less calibration time, RSVP was employed as evoked paradigm, then correlation analysis rank (CAR) algorithm was proposed to improve the cross-individual classification and simulta than the matrix paradigm. Then, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve value was computed and compared using the proposed CAR algorithm and traditional random selection. The results showed that the proposed CAR got significantly better performance than the traditional random selection and got the best AUC value of 0.8, while the traditional random selection only achieved 0.65. These encouraging results suggest that with proper evoked paradigm and classification methods, it is feasible to get stable performance across subjects for ERP-based BCI. Thus, our findings provide a new approach to improve BCI performances.Cooperation and competition are two ways of social interaction keys to life in society. Recent EEG-based hyperscanning studies reveal that cooperative and competitive interactions induce an increase in interbrain coupling. However, whether this interbrain coupling effect is just a reflection of inter-subject motor coordination or can also signal the type of social interaction is unknown. Here, we show that behavioral coordination and social interaction type can be distinguished according to the frequency of oscillation in which the brains are coupled. We use EEG to simultaneously measure the brain activity of pairs of subjects, while they were performing a visual cue-target task in a cooperative and competitive manner. Behavioral responses were quasi-simultaneous between subject pairs for both competitive and cooperative conditions, with faster average response times for the competitive condition. Concerning brain activity, we found increased interbrain coupling in theta band (3-7 Hz) during cooperation and competition, with stronger coupling during competitive interactions.