Acoustic Neurofeedback Increases Beta ERD During Mental Rotation Task

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to identify the effect of acoustic neurofeedback on brain activity during consecutive stages of mental rotation of 3D objects. Given the fact that the process of mental rotation of objects is associated with desynchronisation of beta rhythm (beta ERD), it was expected that suppression in this band would be greater in the experimental group than in the controls. Thirty-three participants were randomly allocated to two groups performing the classic Shepard–Metzler mental rotation task (1971). The experimental group received auditory stimuli when the level of concentration fell below the threshold value determined separately for each participant based on the engagement index [β/(α + Θ)]. The level of concentration in the control group was not stimulated. Compared to the controls, the experimental group was found with greater beta-band suppression recorded above the left parietal cortex during the early stage and above the right parietal cortex during the late stage of mental rotation task. At the late stage of mental rotation, only the experimental group was found with differences in beta ERD related to varied degrees of the rotation angle and the control condition (zero angles, no rotation) recorded above the right parietal cortex and the central area of cerebral cortex. The present findings suggest that acoustic feedback might improve the process of mental rotation.

Decreased Event-Related Desynchronization of Mental Rotation Tasks in Young Tibetan Immigrants

“…The beta ERD was decreased in the high-altitude group, suggesting that high-altitude immigrants needed a longer response time to complete the mental rotation task, which may be associated with the impaired control function. The beta ERD in the premotor cortex with the increase in rotation angles might be related to using motor strategies during the mental rotation task (Ozga et al, 2018 ). We speculated that using the motor imagination strategy to complete mental rotation task was able to consume more mental resources, and there was a significant difference in beta power between the two groups, which indicated that the high-altitude group needed more cognitive control processing ability.…”

“…Of note, the central alpha ERD was correlated with mental rotation processing, in which the alpha ERD was increased with the slower reaction time (Chen et al, 2013 ). Beta ERD was related to the rotation angles at the later stage of the mental rotation task (Ozga et al, 2018 ). As to the parietal region, previous studies have already confirmed that it is a target region to be significantly activated during the mental rotation task (Alivisatos and Petrides, 1997 ; Harris and Miniussi, 2003 ).…”

Analysis of Decision-Making Process Using Methods of Quantitative Electroencephalography and Machine Learning Tools

“…The rapid increase in the number of publications concerning Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) is observed (Mikołajewska and Mikołajewski, 2012, 2013, 2014; Teruel et al, 2017; Ozga et al, 2018; Wierzgała et al, 2018) and the EEG activity can be recognized as one of possible solutions in BCI engineering (Kotyra and Wojcik, 2017a,b). In addition, any ideas for finding biomarkers of psychiatric disorders (Chapman and Bragdon, 1964; Sutton et al, 1965; Campanella, 2013; Golonka et al, 2017) are in demand as the interview is still the most often used tool in psychiatry to make the diagnosis.…”

Improving Debt Literacy by 2/3 Through Four Simple Infographics Requires Numeracy and Not Focusing on Negatives of Debt

“…Studies on visual perception indicate that top-down visual attention can be activated in parallel with bottom-up driven object recognition processes, afforded by bidirectional information flow (Noorman et al, 2018 ). Linguistic cues guide interpretation of visual scenes (top-down), while perceptual information shapes interpretation of linguistic input (Vulchanova et al, 2019 ) and acoustic neurofeedback might improve the process of mental rotation of 3D objects (bottom-up) (Ozga et al, 2019 ). The interaction between top-down and bottom-up driven visual and auditory attention again raises questions about the learning styles hypothesis.…”