Compassion is a particular form of empathic reaction to harm that befalls others and is accompanied by a desire to alleviate their suffering. This altruistic behavior is often manifested through ...altruistic punishment, wherein individuals penalize a deprecated human's actions, even if they are directed toward strangers. By adopting a dual approach, we provide empirical evidence that compassion is a multifaceted prosocial behavior and can predict altruistic punishment. In particular, in this multiple-brain connectivity study in an EEG hyperscanning setting, compassion was examined during real-time social interactions in a third-party punishment (TPP) experiment. We observed that specific connectivity patterns were linked to behavioral and psychological intra- and interpersonal factors. Thus, our results suggest that an ecological approach based on simultaneous dual-scanning and multiple-brain connectivity is suitable for analyzing complex social phenomena.
Empathy is defined as the ability to vicariously experience others' suffering (vicarious pain) or feeling their joy (vicarious reward). While most neuroimaging studies have focused on vicarious pain ...and describe similar neural responses during the observed and the personal negative affective involvement, only initial evidence has been reported for the neural responses to others' rewards and positive empathy. Here, we propose a novel approach, based on the simultaneous recording of multi-subject EEG signals and exploiting the wavelet coherence decomposition to measure the temporal alignment between ERPs in a dyad of interacting subjects. We used the Third-Party Punishment (TPP) paradigm to elicit the personal and vicarious experiences. During a positive experience, we observed the simultaneous presence in both agents of the Late Positive Potential (LPP), an ERP component related to emotion processing, as well as the existence of an inter-subject ERPs synchronization in the related time window. Moreover, the amplitude of the LPP synchronization was modulated by the presence of a human-agent. Finally, the localized brain circuits subtending the ERP-synchronization correspond to key-regions of personal and vicarious reward. Our findings suggest that the temporal and spatial ERPs alignment might be a novel and direct proxy measure of empathy.
Physical activity (PA) helps prevention and aftercare of sporadic breast cancer (BC), cardiopulmonary fitness (CPF) being an age-independent predictor of tumor-specific mortality. Therefore, we ...wanted to identify predictors of CPF (represented by peak oxygen uptake: VO
) in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers whose risk of developing BC is high. We used cross-sectional data from 68 BRCA1/2 germline mutation carrying women participating in the randomized, prospective, controlled clinical study LIBRE-1. Assessments included cardiopulmonary exercise testing, medical and lifestyle history plus socioeconomic status. Additionally, the participants completed a psychological questionnaire regarding their attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior control and intention towards PA. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to identify predictors for participants reaching their age- and sex-adjusted VO
reference values. 22 participants (median age: 40 years, interquartile range (IQR) 33-46) were cancer-unaffected and 46 cancer-affected (median age: 44 years, IQR 35-50). The strongest predictor for reaching the reference VO
value was attitude towards PA (Odds Ratio 3.0; 95% Confidence Interval 1.3-8.4; p = 0.021). None of the other predictors showed a significant association. A positive attitude towards PA seems to be associated with VO
, which should be considered in developing therapeutic and preventive strategies.Trial registrations: NCT02087592; DRKS00005736.
Introduction Tranccranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) induces a consistent excitability increase lasting at least 60 min after 10 min of stimulation, as demonstrated by both physiological ...measures and behavioural Tasks ( Terney et al., 2008 ). The present study tests whether the tRNS-induced changes in corticospinal excitability varies as a function of individual differences in sensitivity to sham stimulation. Methods The study was approved by the Ethic Committee of the Faculty of Medicine Christian-Albrechts University Kiel. 24 participants, aged between 18 and 30 years, participated in the study. All subjects were right-handed according to the Edinburgh handedness inventory ( Oldfield, 1971 ). Stimulation techniques : tRNS (1 mA, 10 min) was applied through a pair of saline-soaked surface sponge electrodes (5 × 7 cm). The minimum period between sessions for a single subject was 7 days, and sessions were applied in randomized order. Monitoring of motor cortical excitability: To examine changes in corticospinal excitability, motor evoked potentials (MEPs) of the right first dorsal interosseous muscle (FDI) were recording following stimulation of its motor-cortical representation field by single-pulse TMS. For further analysis we divided three subgroups according to excitatory (‘Excitatory group’, n = 9), inhibitory (‘Inhibitory group’, n = 7) or no respond (‘Non responder group’, n = 8) to sham- stimulation (Wilcoxon signed-rank test for dependent sampling). For this, we compared the MEP-amplitude in mean of the three time points after stimulation with the MEP-amplitude in mean before. Results In all subjects the tRNS was well tolerated. The general finding of present study is that sensitivity to sham stimulation has impact on effect of tRNS; namely, ‘Excitatory group’ resulted in inhibition of tRNS, whereas inhibitory group shows excitation of tRNS. For ‘Non responder group’ the 1 mA tRNS resulted in a significant increase of MEP amplitudes compared to sham stimulation, which is consistent with the literature Conclusion Accounting for variation in individual sensitivity to sham stimulation, stimulation may influence the utility of tRNS as a tool for understanding brain-behavior interactions and as a method for clinical interventions.
Introduction Response inhibition, as a hallmark of executive control, refers to the suppression of actions that are no longer required or that are inappropriate, which supports flexible and ...goal-directed behaviour in ever-changing environments. In this study, we intend to prove whether the boosting of theta activity by electrical stimulation in the prefrontal cortex (pre-SMA & IFC) would (1) increase theta power in prefrontal cortex; reduce alpha power in OPC; (2) reduce number of errors in a continuous performance task; (3) to see whether pre-SMA or IFG is the important structure for motor response inhibition and process monitoring. Methods The studies were approved by the Ethic Committee of the Faculty of Medicine Christian-Albrechts University Kiel. Stimulation Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) was delivering by a battery driven stimulator (NeuroConn GmbH, Ilmenau, Germany) through conductive-rubber electrodes (9 cm2 ). So far, 12 subjects participated in four different experimental studies and they received on separate days tACS at three frequencies (6 Hz over preSMA and over rIFG, 20 Hz (frequency of no interest) over rIFG and sham stimulation. The minimum period between sessions for a single subject was 7 days. To stimulate pre-SMA: 4 cm anterior to Cz ( matches Fz) and reference electrode over contralateral supraorbital area ; to stimulate IFG: crossing point between T8-Fz and AF8-Cz. Go/NoGo task each stimulus was displayed for 0.2 s and the inter-trial interval was 1.5 s. Participants were asked to respond to all digits except of “5” by pressing a button with the right index finger. Digits “1–4” and “6-9” are thus the Go stimuli and digit “5” the NoGo stimulus. Correct Go-trials were categorized as “hits”, correct No-Go-trials as “withholds”, and responses on No-Go as “false alarms”. Results Preliminary results with 14 subjects in each condition indicate that there’s a significant difference in reaction times between hits and false alarms (in all conditions), which is consistent with the literature. Regarding the differences between conditions, there are no significant statistical differences as of now, but this might be due to the small number of subjects in each condition. There seem to be slight trends for 6Hz pSMA compared to sham: Mean reaction times for hits and false alarms were highest for 6 Hz stimulation at the pSMA. Regarding the ratio of hits and false alarms (actual number divided by potential number), subjects had the highest ratio of hits in sham stimulation and the lowest ratio in 6 Hz stimulation of pSMA. The pattern for false alarms is similar: subjects had the lowest ratio of FAs in 6 Hz stimulation of pSMA with all other conditions appearing mostly equal. Conclusion Our behavioral results so far showed that tACS could have potential in modulating behavioral responses, however future studies could improve on this study by analyzing EEG-data as correlates of the behavioral data and having larger sample sizes.
Abstract In the past decade, several genetic mutations have been associated with different forms of familial focal and generalized epilepsies. Most of these genes encode ion-channel subunits. Based ...on neurophysiological in vitro and in vivo animal studies, substantial progress has been made in understanding the functional consequences of gene defects associated with epilepsies. However, the knowledge transition from animal studies to patients carrying a mutation, or even suffering from a nonfamilial form of epilepsy, is very limited. This review will illustrate how neuroimaging studies in humans may help to bridge the gap between genotype and phenotype. We will be presenting examples of familial focal (autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy), idiopathic generalized epilepsies (severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy). Such studies will help to better understand functional consequences of genetic alterations and may contribute to a better phenotype characterization.
Introduction Flexible goal-directed behaviour requires an adaptive cognitive control system for context-specific organization and optimization of information processing. Because the continuous ...monitoring of the outcome of ongoing actions as well as the subject’s motivation are essential for adaptive control over one’s own performance, neuronal mechanisms of post-error processing were investigated in the motivational context of trials with different incentive load. These mechanisms were characterized in terms of changes of post-error oscillatory processes in a Go-NoGo task performed in MEG scanner. Developmental influences on neuronal mechanisms of error monitoring in the context of motivation were studied in different age groups of healthy children and adolescents. Methods Fifteen healthy right-handed children aged 10–16 years participated as subjects. The Go-NoGo task was applied in two conditions: (A) standard Non-incentive Go-NoGo , and (B) rewarded Incentive Go- No-Go with two reward valences: reward for successful inhibition and response cost for error (for detailed description see Liddle et al., 2011; Mazaheri et al., 2009 ). The visual stimuli were single digits between 1 and 9 presented in the lower left visual field. Non-incentive Go-NoGo : each stimulus was displayed for 0.2 s and the inter-trial interval was 1.5 s. Participants were asked to respond to all digits except of “5” by pressing a button with the right index finger. Digits “1–4” and “6–9” are thus the Go stimuli and digit “5” the NoGo stimulus. Incentive Go-NoGo : the procedure was as in the non-incentive condition with a one difference: for each successful NoGo the subjects obtained a point, and for each false alarm they lost 5 points. The MEG data were acquired using a 275-channel whole-head MEG system (Omega 2005, CTF-MEG, VSM MedTech Inc., Coquitlam, Canada). Results In the non-incentive Go-NoGo condition, there was a significant increase of power in the theta frequency band in the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex bilaterally immediately after an error and reduction of alpha power in the parietal cortex 200–800 ms after an error ( p < 0.001). In the incentive Go-NoGo condition, the changes after an error were similar and significant, but less pronounced. The direct comparison between conditions with and without incentive load revealed significant differences in the left parietal and central cortex for the alpha frequency band ( p = 0.028). In these regions, there was a reduction of alpha activity in the condition without motivation and an increase in the motivational context. The described changes were more pronounced in adolescents than in children. Conclusion The error monitoring and adaptive post-error optimization in children and adolescents is based on the neuronal signature related to the increase in activity in the prefrontal cortex and decrease in the regions of the default mode network. The increased motivation causes significant changes in pre-activation in the central motor region. The study illustrates neuronal mechanisms responsible to the improvement of performance in the motivation context.
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