Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268

I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

http://apsychoserver.psychofizz.psych.arizona.edu/JJBAReprints/PSYC501A/Readings/Polich_2007_Clin_Neurophys_Review_P3s.pdf

Updating P300: An Integrative Theory of P3a and P3b

The organization of behavior: A neuropsychological theory

Thank you for downloading an introduction to the event related potential technique. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have look hundreds times for their favorite readings like this an introduction to the event related potential technique, but end up in malicious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some malicious bugs inside their laptop.

An Introduction To The Event Related Potential Technique

Hypotheses about the P3 component of the event-related EEG potential have usually assumed that P3b reflects some processing independent from organizing the response. In contrast, the notion that P3b is related to a decision process implies some mediating function between stimulus and response. If P3b does indeed reflect the link between perceptual processing and response preparation (1) amplitudes should be as large in response-locked averages as in stimulus-locked averages, (2) this should be true independent of response speed, for separate subaverages of slow and fast responses, and (3) latencies should vary across response speed both in stimulus-locked and in response-locked averages. These hypotheses were tested in data evoked by visual and auditory stimuli in choice-response tasks. All three predictions were confirmed. In contrast to this balanced relation to perception and responding, fronto-central P3 with auditory stimuli was stimulus-related and, for comparison, the peak amplitudes of both the response-force and of the lateralized readiness potential were response-related. We conclude that P3b reflects a process that mediates between perceptual analysis and response initiation, possibly monitoring whether the decision to classify some stimulus is appropriately transformed into action.

Evidence for an Integrative Role of P3b in Linking Reaction to Perception

Frontal theta activity reflects distinct aspects of mental fatigue.

Previous studies have shown that perceiving another's actions activates corresponding representations in an observer's action system. The present study investigated how performing a task with another person affects action planning and control. Reaction times (RTs) and event-related potentials were measured while participants performed a go/no-go task alone and with another person. Three effects of acting together were observed. First, RTs were slowed when individuals had to respond to a stimulus referring to the other's action, suggesting that an action selection conflict occurred. Second, at frontal sites, a stimulus referring to the other's action elicited a similar electrophysiological response as a stimulus referring to one's own action. Finally, on no-go trials, P300 amplitude was significantly larger in a group setting, indicating that an action was suppressed. These findings provide evidence that individuals acting in a social context form shared action representations.

/pdf/twin-peaks-an-erp-study-of-action-planning-and-control-in-450yufmdjq.pdf

Twin Peaks: An ERP Study of Action Planning and Control in Coacting Individuals

Three experiments were conducted to determine whether spatial stimulus-response compatibility effects are caused by automatic response activation by stimulus properties or by interference between codes during translation of stimulus into response coordinates. The main evidence against activation has been that in a Simon task with hands crossed, responses are faster at the response location ipsilateral to the stimulus though manipulated by the hand contralateral to the stimulus. The experiments were conducted with hands in standard and in crossed positions and electroencephalogram measures showed coactivation of the motor cortex induced by stimulus position primarily during standard hand positions with visual stimuli. Only in this condition did the Simon effect decay with longer response times. The visual Simon effect appeared to be due to specific mechanisms of visuomotor information transmission that are not responsible for the effects obtained with crossed hands or auditory stimuli.

Validity and boundary conditions of automatic response activation in the Simon task.

For the selection of relevant information out of a continuous stream of information, which is a common definition of attention, two core mechanisms are assumed: a competition-based comparison of the neuronal activity in sensory areas and the top-down modulation of this competition by frontal executive control functions. Those control functions are thought to bias the processing of information towards the intended goals. Acute stress is thought to impair these frontal functions through the release of cortisol. In the present study, subjects had to detect a luminance change of a stimulus and ignore more salient but task irrelevant orientation changes. Before the execution of this task, subjects underwent a socially evaluated cold pressor test (SECPT) or a non-stressful control situation. The SECPT revealed reliable stress response with a significant increase of cortisol and alpha-amylase. Stressed subjects showed higher error rates than controls, particularly in conditions which require top-down control processing to bias the less salient target feature against the more salient and spatially separated distracter. By means of the EEG, subjects who got stressed showed a reduced allocation to the relevant luminance change apparent in a modulation of the N1pc. The following N2pc, which reflects a re-allocation of attentional resources, supports the error pattern. There was only an N2pc in conditions, which required to bias the less salient luminance change. Moreover, this N2pc was decreased as a consequence of the induced stress. These results allow the conclusion that acute stress impairs the intention-based attentional allocation and enhances the stimulus-driven selection, leading to a strong distractibility during attentional information selection.

/pdf/the-influence-of-acute-stress-on-attention-mechanisms-and-4vjo920aj5.pdf

Edmund Wascher

Papers

Evidence for an Integrative Role of P3b in Linking Reaction to Perception

Frontal theta activity reflects distinct aspects of mental fatigue.

Twin Peaks: An ERP Study of Action Planning and Control in Coacting Individuals

Validity and boundary conditions of automatic response activation in the Simon task.

The influence of acute stress on attention mechanisms and its electrophysiological correlates.