The effects of visual feedback on hemispheric alpha asymmetries and reported processing strategies: a single-subject experimental design

A double reversal single-subject experimental design was used to study the effects of visual feedback on the hemispheric alpha asymmetries of a male subject during a linguistic task. Results indicated that the subject demonstrated flexibility in hemispheric alpha and corresponding processing strategies employed when an alpha biofeedback procedure was used. These results provide further support for the notion that right and left hemispheric activation is associated with different, yet compatible, cognitive strategies and that both can be manipulated under conditions of feedback.     

Motor and cognitive interference effects on unimanual tapping rates

Experiments conducted on both normal and disordered populations have led to the hypothesis that the left hemisphere's specialization for language results from its control over motor activities. This control is reflected in the lateralized disruption of manual activity during cerebral time-sharing tasks. Recent studies have challenged this hypothesis, stating that the interference effects reflect both cognitive and motor mechanisms in the left hemisphere. This experiment investigates whether the left hemisphere's control over speech involves both of these components or is purely motor. The question was examined by measuring the effect of concurrent hemispheric activity on single-finger tapping rates. Forty subjects tapped under two conditions: speaking and listening. The data show there may be both motor and cognitive mechanisms involved in left-hemisphere control.     

The minimal self hypothesis

For millennia self has been conjectured to be necessary for consciousness. But scant empirical evidence has been adduced to support this hypothesis. Inconsistent explications of “self” and failure to design apt experiments have impeded progress. Advocates of phenomenological psychiatry, however, have helped explicate “self,” and employed it to explain some psychopathological symptoms. In those studies, “self” is understood in a minimalist sense, sheer “for-me-ness.” Unfortunately, explication of the “minimal self” (MS) has relied on conceptual analysis, and applications to psychopathology have been hermeneutic, allowing for many degrees of interpretive latitude. The result is that MS’s current scientific status is analogous to that of the “atom,” at the time when “atom” was just beginning to undergo transformation from a philosophical to a scientific concept. Fortunately, there is now an opportunity to promote a similar transformation for “MS.” Discovery of the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN) opened the door to neuroimaging investigations of self. Taking the DMN and other forms of intrinsic activity as a starting point, an empirical foothold can be established, one that spurs experimental research and that enables extension of research into multiple phenomena. New experimental protocols that posit “MS” can help explain phenomena hitherto not thought to be related to self, thereby hastening development of a mature science of self. In particular, targeting phenomena wherein consciousness is lost and recovered, as in some cases of Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS), allow for design of neuroimaging probes that enable detection of MS during non-conscious states. These probes, as well as other experimental protocols applied to NREM Sleep, General Anesthesia (GA), and the waking state, provide some evidence to suggest that not only can self and consciousness dissociate, MS might be a necessary precondition for conscious experience. Finally, these findings have implications for the science of consciousness: it has been suggested that “levels of consciousness” (LoC) is not a legitimate concept for the science of consciousness. But because we have the conceptual and methodological tools with which to refine investigations of MS, we have the means to identify a possible foundation—a bifurcation point—for consciousness, as well as the means by which to measure degrees of distance from that foundation. These neuroimaging investigations of MS position us to better assess whether LoC has a role to play in a mature science of consciousness.     

战场睡眠管理研究

良好的睡眠是完成作战任务的重要保障,但艰苦而残酷的现代战场环境很容易诱发参战人员产生睡眠障碍。为此,战场睡眠管理首先着眼战场心理防护,研究并总结战场睡眠规律,实施睡眠援助,保障我军战斗力。在此基础上,运用灵活的战术、攻心宣传和睡眠武器对敌实施睡眠干扰。     

Towards modern post-coma care based on neuroscientific evidence

BackgroundUnderstanding the mechanisms underlying human consciousness is pivotal to improve the prognostication and treatment of severely brain-injured patients. Consciousness remains an elusive concept and the identification of its neural correlates is an active subject of research, however recent neuroscientific advances have allowed scientists to better characterize disorders of consciousness. These breakthroughs question the historical nomenclature and our current management of post-comatose patients.MethodThis review examines the contribution of consciousness neurosciences to the current clinical management of severe brain injury. It investigates the major impact of consciousness disorders on healthcare systems, the scientific frameworks employed to identify their neural correlates and how evidence-based data from neuroimaging research have reshaped the landscape of post-coma care in recent years.ResultsOur increased ability to detect behavioral and neurophysiological signatures of consciousness has led to significant changes in taxonomy and clinical practice. We advocate for a multimodal framework for the management of severely brain-injured patients based on precision medicine and evidence-based decisions, integrating epidemiology, health economics and neuroethics.ConclusionsMajor progress in brain imaging and clinical assessment have opened the door to a new era of post-coma care based on standardized neuroscientific evidence. We highlight its implications in clinical applications and call for improved collaborations between researchers and clinicians to better translate findings to the bedside.