Kognitive Neurophysiologie des Menschen - Human cognitive...

KOGNITIVE

NEUROPHYSIOLOGIE DES

MENSCHEN

HUMAN COGNITIVE

NEUROPHYSIOLOGY

© 2016 W. Skrandies, Aulweg 129, D-35392 Giessenhttp://geb.uni-giessen.de/geb/volltexte/2008/6504/

ImpressumHerausgeber: Wolfgang Skrandies

© 2016 W. Skrandies, Aulweg 129, D-35392 [email protected]

Editorial Board:M. Doppelmayr, MainzA. Fallgatter, TübingenT. Koenig, BernH. Witte, Jena

ISSN 1867-576X

ii Human Cognitive Neurophysiology 2016, 9 (1)

Editorial

This is the first issue of the journal for 2016. I contains another paper on the achievements ofProfessor Dr. Dietrich Lehmann (1929–2014). In addition, we include the abstracts of the 24th

German EEG/EP Mapping Meeting that took place in October 2015.Two book reviews on recent publications are also included.

Wolfgang Skrandies

2016, 9 (1) Kognitive Neurophysiologie des Menschen iii

Kognitive Neurophysiologie des Menschen wurde im Jahr 2008 gegründet. Hier sollen wis-senschaftliche Artikel zu Themen der kognitiven Neurophysiologie des Menschen erscheinen SowohlBeiträge über Methoden als auch Ergebnisse der Grundlagen- und klinischen Forschung werden akzep-tiert. Jedes Manuskript wird von 3 unabhängigen Gutachtern beurteilt und so rasch wie möglichpubliziert werden.Die Zeitschrift ist ein elektronisches ”Open Access”-Journal, ohne kommerzielle Interessen;http://geb.uni-giessen.de/geb/volltexte/2008/6504/.

Eine dauerhafte Präsenz der Zeitschrift im Internet wird durch die Universität Giessen gewährleistet.

Human Cognitive Neurophysiology was founded in 2008. This journal will publish contributions onmethodological advances as well as results from basic and applied research on cognitive neurophysi-ology. Both, German and English manuscripts will be accepted. Each manuscript will be reviewed bythree independent referees.This is an electronic ”Open Access”-Journal with no commercial interest, published athttp://geb.uni-giessen.de/geb/volltexte/2008/6504/.

Online presence is guaranteed by the University of Giessen.

iv Human Cognitive Neurophysiology 2016, 9 (1)

Instructions for Authors

Only original and unpublished work will be considered for publication unless it is explicitly stated thatthe topic is a review. All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed. Both German and English versions areacceptable. After publication, the copyright will be with the editor of the journal. Usage of publishedmaterial for review papers will be granted. Manuscripts (as WORD or TEX files) should be sent [email protected].

Organization of manuscripts: The title page with a concise title should give the authors’ names,address(es), and e-mail address of the corresponding author. The manuscript should include anabstract in English (maximum 300 words). Organize your work in the sections Introduction, Methods,Results, Discussion, and References. Please also supply a short list of keywords that may help to findyour publication.

Illustrations: All figures should be submitted as png or Coreldraw files. Please supply figurelegends that explain the content of the figures in detail. Since this is an electronic journal colorfigures will be published free-of-charge.

The Literature should only include papers that have been published or accepted for publication. Thereference list should be in alphabetical order by author. In the text, references should be cited byauthor(s) and year (e.g. Johnson, Hsiao, & Twombly, 1995; Pascual-Marqui, Michel, & Lehmann,1994; Zani & Proverbio, 2002).

Examples of reference format:

Johnson, K., Hsiao, S., & Twombly, L. (1995). Neural mechanisms of tactile form recognition. InM. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences (p. 253-267). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Pascual-Marqui, R., Michel, C., & Lehmann, D. (1994). Low resolution electromagnetic tomography:a new method for localizing electrical activity in the brain. International Journal of Psychophysiol-ogy , 18 , 49-65.

Zani, A., & Proverbio, A. (Eds.). (2002). The Cognitive Electrophysiology of Mind and Brain. SanDiego: Elsevier.

2016, 9 (1) Kognitive Neurophysiologie des Menschen v

Contents

Contents

EEG Dynamics, Microstates, and Mind: Philosophical Reflections on the Contributions ofDietrich Lehmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Buchbesprechung: Dein Gehirn weiß mehr, als du denkst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Book Review: From Psychophysics and Psychophysiology to Phenomenology of Perception 7Abstracts of the 24th German EEG/EP Mapping Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Announcements — Ankündigungen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

vi Human Cognitive Neurophysiology 2016, 9 (1)

Warren S. Brown — EEG Dynamics, Microstates, and Mind: Philosophical Reflections on the Contributions of Dietrich Lehmann

EEG Dynamics, Microstates, and Mind: Philosophical

Reflections on the Contributions of Dietrich Lehmann

Warren S. Brown, Ph.D.

Travis Research Institute and Fuller Graduate School of Psychology, Pasadena, CA, USA

Almost forty years ago now (1976–1977), I spenta year working with Dietrich Lehmann in theDepartment of Neurology of the University Hos-pital in Zurich. I was there as a visiting scholarfrom the Department of Psychiatry and the BrainResearch Institute at UCLA, and sponsored bya U. S. National Institute of Mental Health, Re-search Scientist Development Award. Part of my“career development” during this particular year ofmy award was to learn from Dietrich what I couldabout spatial analysis of EEG signals. First, itmust be said what a wonderful host Dietrich wasto me as a visiting scientist and to my family. Wehad a wonderful year that remains marked in ourmemories as an exciting and adventurous time.From this respect, my year with Dietrich certainlycould not have been better, and my family will al-ways be grateful to Dietrich and Martha for theirgraciousness as our hosts.

A Tale of Two Papers

Dietrich’s impact on my work at the time wassubstantial. I had been working on EEG eventrelated potential (ERP) correlates of human lan-guage perception. His impact is best illustratedby two papers: one published just prior to myyear with Dietrich (W. S. Brown, Marsh, & Smith,1976); see also W. S. Brown, Marsh, and Smith(1973, 1979), and another representing work donewith Dietrich and published several years later

(W. S. Brown, Lehmann, & Marsh, 1980); seealso W. Brown and Lehmann (1979). In thefirst paper we demonstrated contextual meaningdifferences in ERPs to verbal stimuli such thatthe same phonetic stimulus (a spoken word) wasfound to elicit different ERP waveforms when thestimulus was perceived as either a noun or as averb. ERPs were recorded from 4 electrodes: overthe anterior and posterior language areas of theleft hemisphere, and over homologous points overthe right hemisphere. ERPs to noun and verbmeaning were clearly more different in waveformmorphology when recorded from the left anteriorarea than over the left posterior or either righthemisphere sites. The analyses used for this re-search were entirely temporal (that is, ERP wave-forms) with spatial considerations entirely sec-ondary, at very low resolution (four recording elec-trodes), and theoretically understood out of amodel of cortical localizationism. The second pa-per explored that same issue – i. e. ERP correlatesof the perception of an ambiguous verbal stimulusas either a noun or a verb – but this time, influ-enced by Dietrich, ERP data were analyzed withrespect to spatial topography. As we described itin the introduction to the paper, “We treated theERP data from a given moment in time as a spa-tial field with peaks and valleys at different scalplocations (the topography) rather than as a set ofindependent, time-domain responses recorded at

2016, 9 (1) Kognitive Neurophysiologie des Menschen 1


different electrode locations.” (p. 342) There were3 experiments, all versions of this same paradigmwhere ambiguous verbal stimuli were contextu-ally disambiguated as either a noun or a verb (ex-periments 1 and 2) or where a degraded stim-ulus was imagined to be a phrase ending eitherin a noun or a verb (experiment 3). In orderto detect something about topography (howevercoarsely), a transverse 3× 4 electrode array wasused. Topography was first analyzed in this studywith respect to the relative positions of the fieldmaxima and minima for nouns versus verbs. Inall 3 experiments, maxima for nouns versus verbswere separate in an anterior-posterior direction atthe 175ms point, and minima clearly separate inan opposite anterior-posterior direction at 330ms.Subsequently, all waveforms in each experimentwere subjected to a principal components anal-ysis, in each case extracting early, middle, andlate ERP components. Topographic analysis offactor scores from these components again in-dicated that nouns and verbs differed in theiranterior-posterior topography, with nouns result-ing in greater anterior positivity and greater pos-terior negativity.

EEG Analysis and NeurocognitiveModels

These two papers, both involving similar ques-tions about ERP correlates of syntax in languageprocessing, illustrate a major shift in views of theway ERPs should be understood and analyzed –a shift in the field that Dietrich Lehmann was in-strumental in promoting. But they also differ inthe underlying model of brain functioning that ispresumed in each analysis method. Separate anal-yses of ERPs waveforms from each electrode, asrepresented by the first paper, is clearly a reflec-tion of an implicit localizationist understanding of

how the brain functions – that is, a model basedon the presumption of functionally and anatom-ically discreet brain areas that work by receivinginformation, doing the particular processing taskunique to that area, and then passing the re-sults on to the next processing module. In thisview, relatively high-level cognitive processes canbe localized in specific cortical areas that couldhypothetically function on their own to accom-plish a particular cognitive task given an inputand output stream. Thus, in the case of the firstpaper, Broca’s area (approximately under theleft anterior electrode) would be presumed, basedon the experimental outcome, to be the site forthis form of language processing – distinguishingnouns and verbs. That is, the different scalp elec-trodes were presumed to measure mostly electri-cal activity from a focal source somewhere in thegeneral vicinity of the electrode, and higher-levelcognitive processes were expected to be local-ized in specific cortical locations somewhere neara particular recording electrode. The alternativeview that underlies topographic analysis of ERPsused in the second paper presumes that cognitiveprocesses occur within widely distributed dynam-ical networks. In this view, the ultimate men-tal event (such as perception of a verbal stimulusas a noun or a verb) is a function of the pat-tern of activity occurring over time in widespreadcortical and subcortical areas. These functionalnetworks fluctuate over small increments of time,creating the ongoing temporal dynamics of men-tal activity. Therefore, the best representation ofthe electrophysiological consequences of mentalactivity is a temporally fluctuating spatial topog-raphy. Thus, as found in the results of the secondpaper, processing of nouns and verbs is reflectedin anterior-posterior shifts in the topography ofscalp electrical field peaks and valleys. Dietrich

2 Human Cognitive Neurophysiology 2016, 9 (1)


Lehmann’s contribution to the field of electroen-cephalography is most clearly represented in hisdemonstration of EEG microstates that can be de-tected in EEG topographies. These states are rep-resented in stable topographies that last around70 to 125ms (e. g. Lehmann, Strik, Henggeler,Koenig, and Koukkou (1998)), and then rapidlyshift to a new spatial topography. It is presumedthat the temporal fluctuations of moments of cog-nitive processing are at least grossly represented inthese microstates as defined by shifts in the spa-tial pattern of EEG/ERP fields. Dietrich and hiscollaborators have demonstrated repeatable rela-tionships between characteristic microstates andspecific forms of mental activity.

Neuroscience and Philosophy ofMind

I still do neuroscience research, but in recent yearsI have been reading, thinking, and writing aboutbrain and mind from a more philosophical per-spective. In thinking back on the shift in mythinking about the meaning of brain electrical sig-nals, it has impressed me how parallel have beenthe developments Dietrich has led in EEG anal-ysis methodology and recent moves in the phi-losophy of mind. These moves in philosophy in-clude ideas about interactivity, self-organization,functional patterns, and emergent higher cogni-tive properties – as well as the modeling of theseprocesses as a complex dynamic system. Thereare philosophical issues associated with localiza-tion of higher cognitive processes in specific brainsubsystems – the issues of reductionism and deter-minism (Murphy & Brown, 2007). If it is true thata particular human cognitive function can be saidto reside uniquely in a particular cortical area orsubcortical nucleus, then it can be argued that theparticular cognitive function can be reduced to the

activity of cells in that nucleus. Of course, the ac-tivity of networks of cells in a cortical area or sub-cortical area might be further reduced to molecu-lar events in the membranes and synapses of thesecells. When higher level properties are assumedto be reducible to more microlevel neural proper-ties, it is logically consistent to also assume thathigher-level properties of mind are determined atthe molecular level. In light of human intelligenceand creativity, this is a hard position to maintain.Can mental phenomena be reduced to nothing butthe activity of certain neuron interactions, or fur-ther reduced to certain synaptic transactions orepigenetic fluctuations at the micro level – eventhough we credit the importance of phenomena atthis level in instantiating and influencing ongoingcognition? In philosophy of mind, the move thatavoids this sort of reductionism (without escapingto non-material causes) is the idea of emergence– that is, the idea that the higher-level propertiesof mental life emerge from widespread patterns ofinteractivity between neurons or neural circuits.The best model of the emergence of causal prop-erties of mind from patterns of interactivity is thatof a complex dynamic system (Juarrero, 1999;Johnson, 2001). The critical idea is that a com-plex and highly interactive system self-organizesinto interactive patterns in order to meet the dis-equilibrium created by environmental challenges.Successful reorganization occurs in the form ofa new interactive pattern that allows the systemto meet the environmental challenge by way of anew form of emergent neural/mental/behavioralpattern. This is basically a description of adapta-tion and learning in biological systems, where thecognitive outcome is new large-scale neural pat-terns of interactivity. Higher cognitive functionsare emergent properties of the nature of patternsof whole-system interactivity. In fact many in the



philosophy of mind would include ongoing pat-terns of interaction between brain and body (em-bodied cognition; see Clark (1997); Lakoff andJohnson (1998)), and between body and envi-ronment (extended cognition; see Clark (2011)),as constitutive of mind. This philosophical shiftin understanding of mind is much like the movefrom understanding EEG/ERP data as an index ofdiscreet neural/cognitive events occuring at eachrecording electrode (or discreet events in underly-ing cortical locations reflected in at least regionalEEG events) to an understanding mental eventsas best represented in the EEG activity over widelydistributed scalp fields. The innovations of Diet-rich Lehmann have occurred in parallel with, andI suspect often predictive of, major changes in thephilosophy of mind that have a very similar corepremise.

References

Brown, W., & Lehmann, D. (1979). Linguis-tic meaning-related differences in ERP scalp to-pography. In D. Lehmann & E. Callaway (Eds.),Human Evoked Potentials: Applications andProblems. New York: Plenum.

Brown, W. S., Lehmann, D., & Marsh, J. T.(1980, Nov). Linguistic meaning related differ-ences in evoked potential topography: English,Swiss-German, and imagined. Brain Lang.,11(2), 340–353.

Brown, W. S., Marsh, J. T., & Smith, J. C.(1976, Aug). Evoked potential waveform dif-ferences produced by the perception of differentmeanings of an ambiguous phrase. Electroen-cephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol., 41(2), 113–123.

Brown, W. S., Marsh, J. T., & Smith, J. C. (1979,Jun). Principal component analysis of ERP dif-

ferences related to the meaning of an ambigu-ous word. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophys-iol , 46(6), 709–714.

Brown, W. S., Marsh, J. T., & Smith, J. C. C.(1973). Contextual meaning effects on speechevoked potentials. Behav. Biol., 9 , 755–761.

Clark, A. (1997). Being there: Putting brain,body, and world together again. Cambridge:MIT Press.

Clark, A. (2011). Supersizing the Mind: Embodi-ment, Action, and Cognitive Extension. Oxford:Oxford University Press.

Johnson, S. (2001). Emergence: The connectedlives of ants, brains, cities, and software. NewYork: Scribner.

Juarrero, A. (1999). Dynamics in Action. Cam-bridge: MIT Press.

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1998). Philosophy inthe Flesh: The Embodied Mind & its Challengeto Western Thought. New York: Basic Book.

Lehmann, D., Strik, W. K., Henggeler, B.,Koenig, T., & Koukkou, M. (1998, Jun).Brain electric microstates and momentary con-scious mind states as building blocks of sponta-neous thinking: I. Visual imagery and abstractthoughts. Int. J. Psychophysiol., 29(1), 1–11.

Murphy, N., & Brown, W. S. (2007). Did my neu-rons make me do it? Philosophical and neuro-biological perspectives on moral responsibilityand free will. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


W. Skrandies – Dein Gehirn weiß mehr, als du denkst (Buchbesprechung)

Buchbesprechung: Dein Gehirn weiß mehr, als du denkst

Wolfgang SkrandiesPhysiologisches Institut der Justus-Liebig-Universität

Aulweg 129, D-35392 Gießen

eMail: [email protected]

In diesem populärwissenschaftlich geschriebenenBuch beschreibt Niels Birbaumer die Anwendun-gen von Lernmechanismen für die Therapie ver-schiedener Erkrankungungen. Nachdem es inzwi-schen zu dem anerkannten Grundwissen über neu-rophysiologische Prozesse gehört, dass nicht nurdas Zentrale Nervensystem von Kleinkindern, son-dern auch von Erwachsenen sich massiv verändernkann, existiert eine umfangreiche wissenschaft-liche Literatur zu dem Thema ”Neuronale Pla-stizität”. Das Gehirn des Menschen und folglichauch kognitive Prozesse, Emotionen und Persön-lichkeitsmerkmale verändern sich im Laufe des Le-bens. Neue synaptische Kontakte bilden sich alsFolge von Lernprozessen zwischen den Nervenzel-len; unbenutzte Verbindungen verkümmern. Wieaus tierexperimentellen Studien bekannt ist, las-sen sich solche Lernvorgänge auch bei Erwach-senen nutzen, um Hirnfunktionen langfristig zubeeinflussen.

Niels Birbaumer arbeitet seit Jahrzehnten auf demGebiet des Lernens, wobei meist die praktischeklinische Anwendung der Erkenntnisse das Zielist. Die Basis der Studien sind u.a. ältere Befun-de zu dem Mechanismen des Biofeedback. Mitdieser Methode können Tiere und auch Men-schen lernen, weitgehend unbewusst ablaufendephysiologische Prozesse willkürlich zu beeinflus-sen. Dies funktioniert nach entsprechendem Trai-ning nicht nur für vegetative Parameter wie Blut-

druck, Durchblutung oder Pulsfrequenz, sondernauch für hirnphysiologische Abläufe. Dabei ste-hen für die Untersuchung der Veränderung derelektrischen Hirnaktivität (EEG/ERPs) oder derHirndurchblutung (fMRI) inzwischen relativ ein-fach einsetzbare Methoden zur Verfügung.

Die Arbeitsgruppe von N. Birbaumer konnte wie-derholt zeigen, dass auch vollständig gelähmte(“locked-in”) Patienten lernen können, ihre Ge-hirnaktivität zu beeinflussen und so zu kommu-nizieren. Dies ist sowohl für die Angehörigen alsauch für die Patienten sehr wichtig. “Locked-in”Patienten können sich aufgrund der Lähmung we-der durch Sprache noch durch Gesten verständlichmachen, aber durch die gelernte Beeinflussung ih-rer Hirnaktivität kommunizieren. Dieses Verfah-ren wurde über lange Zeit fortentwickelt und ver-bessert, so dass es inzwischen eine Reihe von kli-nischen Anwendungen gibt. Neben der Kommuni-kation mit “locked-in” Patienten wird das Neuro-feedback bei der Rehabilitation von Ausfällennach Schlaganfällen eingesetzt oder auch bei derTherapie von psychiatrischen Symptomen. Bir-baumer beschreibt in den einzelnen Kapiteln vieleverschiedene Patienten, die er offensichtlich mitgroßem persönlichen Engagement begleitet hat.So werden die eher theoretischen Grundgedankenzu Lerntheorien durch anschaulichen Schilderun-gen praxisnah illustriert. Die zentrale Darstellungder Möglichkeiten der Biofeedbacks, mit vollstän-


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W. Skrandies – Dein Gehirn weiß mehr, als du denkst (Buchbesprechung)

dig gelähmten Patienten zu “sprechen” und da-bei zu erfahren, dass diese überraschenderweisesehr wohl Bewusstsein und Lebenswillen haben,ist sicher auch für die Beurteilung der Frage derSterbehilfe wichtig.Der Text ist flüssig geschrieben und leicht ver-ständlich. Inwieweit man den Therapievorschlä-gen folgen mag, muss jeder für sich überlegen(wobei Niels Birbaumer zugibt, dass hier weitererForschungsbedarf besteht). Aber die gezielte undkontrollierte Veränderung von Hirnmechanismenbietet bestimmt eine sinnvolle Alternative zu oftwenig erfolgreichen pharmakologischen Therapien(wie beispielsweise der massenhafte Einsatz vonRitalin). Der Leser lernt in diesem Buch viel überdie Grundlagen von menschlichen Hirnfunktionen,die anhand von empirischen Befunden erläutertwerden. Niels Birbaumer ist auf diese Weise ein le-senswertes Buch geglückt, das illustriert, dass diepopulärwissenschaftliche Hirnforschung vor allemauf Fakten und nicht nur philosophischen Annah-men basiert.

Literatur

Birbaumer, N. (2014). Dein Gehirn weiß mehr,als du denkst. Berlin: Ullstein Buchverla-ge. (269 Seiten, € 19,99 (Taschenbuchausga-be, 2015, € 9,99))


J. Wackermann — Book Review: From Psychophysics and Psychophysiology to Phenomenology of Perception

Book Review: From Psychophysics and Psychophysiology to

Phenomenology of Perception

Jiří WackermannIndependent researcher

D-79261 Gutach im Breisgau, Germany

eMail: [email protected]

The book under review is an introduction into sci-entific work of a Finnish physiologist and philoso-pher, Yrjö Reenpää (1894–1976). Reenpää’sname is likely to be hardly known, or maybe to-tally unknown, to most readers of Human Cog-nitive Neurophysiology; a fact indicating one ofthose blind spots that are not so rare in the historyof academic science. For Reenpää was not just aprofessor of physiology with some philosophicalhobbies; he was a truly philosophically mindedscientist, dealing with fundamental problems ofsensory physiology and revealing the philosophicaldimension of those problems. That his work is solittle known follows from a synergy of several fac-tors: he was studying fundamental (that is to say:difficult) problems, and so his writings are nevereasy reading; he cultivated mainly scientific con-tacts with colleagues in Germany and publishedmost of his works in German language; and hisurge for logical and epistemological grounding ofscience did not square well with the straightfor-ward empiricism dominating sciences in the post-WW2 era.

Fortunately, ‘little known’ is not the same as‘completely forgotten’. Three authors – all ofthem former students and co-workers of the lateYrjö Reenpää, and experts in their respective ar-eas of medical or psychological sciences, linguis-

tics, and philosophy – combined their efforts toprovide a compact and comprehensive overviewof Reenpää’s works for the English speaking sci-entific community.

The book is structured in twelve sections. A shortForeword (Section 1) explains the motivation andthe aim of the book project. Section 2 then pro-vides a biographic sketch, focusing on key mo-ments of Reenpää’s academic career, and devel-opment of his scientific and philosophical inter-ests, in which repeated visits to Germany andexchange of ideas with mentors and colleaguesat German universities played a constitutive rôle.Reenpää’s early experimental research on sensorypsychophysics is reviewed in Section 3, subdividedby sensory modalities: sense of taste, kinæstheticand tactile sensation, vision and audition. Sec-tion 4 follows the relation between Reenpää’s re-search in sensory psychophysics and his theoreti-cal views of psychophysiology, and of the mind–body problem in general. Section 5 is dedicated tocentral questions and problems on Reenpää’s wayto a ‘general sensory physiology’, progressing froma focus on sensation to a broader scheme em-bracing sensation, perception and concept-basedunderstanding. This is the domain where fun-damental problems of subjectivity, spatiality andtemporality etc. arise that cannot be solved on


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J. Wackermann — Book Review: From Psychophysics and Psychophysiology to Phenomenology of Perception

the empirical bases, and thus enforce philosoph-ical reflexion and strict conceptualisation. Reen-pää’s ideas based on different philosophical influ-ences, that of Kant’s transcendental philosophy,Husserl’s phenomenology, and Heidegger’sexistential analysis, are presented in separate sub-sections, followed by remarks on Reenpää’s rela-tion to Gestalt psychology and theory of language.Section 6 deals with reception of Reenpää’s ideasby some physiologists, but also mathematiciansand physicists, thus showing that Reenpää’s influ-ence is existent but limited. (Most of the namesare Finnish, Germany is represented by the phys-iologist Herbert Hensel.) In the Postscript(Section 7) the authors sketch prospects for fur-ther research in the study of mind inspired byReenpää’s approach. Sections 8 to 10 comprisereferences to cited sources, a complete bibliog-raphy of Reenpää’s writings, and short authors’profiles. This is rounded up by a glossary of spe-cial terms (Section 11), and names index (Sec-tion 12).

The authors were facing a difficult task, in facta dual task: on the one hand, to reduce Reen-pää’s contributions to sensory physiology, psy-chophysics and philosophy of mind to the essen-tials, and on the other hand, to trace the innerlogic of Reenpää’s intellectual development andto show how he arrived, by necessity, to his ideas.I dare say that they succeeded in their enterprise;a few critical remarks that follow do not changeanything in this general evaluation. Some typ-ing errors that escaped the proofreader’s atten-tion should be corrected; this is the least problem.Section 5 being a ‘center of gravity’ of the entirework, is still a ‘heavy’ reading. This applies espe-cially to parts 5.1 (‘The science of sensory physiol-ogy between observational and natural sciences’)and 5.2 (‘The Kantian starting points’). Here,

in my opinion, a slower pace and more explana-tory style would be helpful. Also, a more detailedexposition of Reenpää’s axiomatic theory of sen-sory manifolds – in my view his most elaboratedtheoretical contribution – would be appreciated.Summarizing: Everyone interested in the historyand/or in the conceptual foundations of sensoryphysiology, neurophysiology, and psychophysics,will find in this book a good introduction to Reen-pää’s works and ideas. We may wish that thebook will be read not only out of historical inter-est but will also stimulate further creative worksin the fields of theoretical psychology, philosophyof mind, and related disciplines.

References

Jauhiainen, T., Häkkinen, V., & Schaf-frath, D. (2015). From Psychophysicsand Psychophysiology to Phenomenology ofPerception. The Ontological and Epistemo-logical Approach of Yrjö Reenpää (KindleeBook ed.). Amazon Digital Services, Inc.(ISBN-13: 9789529360550, € 3.57, US$ 4.05)


Abstracts of the 24th German EEG/EP Mapping Meeting

Abstracts of the 24th German EEG/EP Mapping Meeting,

Giessen, October 23–25, 2015

Komplexe Kognitionen und das inverse Pro-blem der Neurowissenschaften — individuellementale Strategien machen das Gedankenle-sen unmöglich Th. Fehr Universität Bremen

Üblicherweise ertappt man den Neurowissen-schaftler dabei, wie er versucht irgendeinerStruktur des Gehirns seinen Namen aufzudrückenund es damit prominenten Vertretern modula-rer Hirnfunktionsorganisation wie Broca oderWernicke gleich zu tun. Allerdings sprechenmehr und mehr Argumente für eine individuell-vernetzte Organisation komplexer kognitiverund emotionaler Prozesse. Während modula-re Modelle von eng umgrenzten Hirnregionenausgehen, in denen selbst komplexe mentaleVorgänge über verschiedene Individuen hinwegähnlich oder gleich organisiert sind, geht man inNetzwerkmodellen davon aus, dass ein großer,bisher nicht gut quantifizierter und mangelsangemessener Methoden quantifizierbarer, An-teil an neuronalen Ressourcen eher individuelleinzugartig organisiert ist. Ausgehend von Hirn-regionen, welche typischerweise mit primärenperzeptuellen oder grundlegenden motorischenFunktionen beschäftigt sind und Regionen, dieim weiteren Sinne mit prinzipiellen Funktionen,wie Objektrepräsentation, räumliches Realisierenoder verschiedenen exekutiven Funktionen, diedem Arbeitsgedächtnis oder dem Unterdrückenirrelevanter Informationsverarbeitung zugeordnetwerden können, vernetzen sich neuronale Struk-turen im individuellen lebenslangen Lernkontext

in entsprechend benachbarte höhere heteromoda-le Kortexbereiche hinein. Aktivierungen in diesenheteromodalen Hirnregionen müssen sich wedernotwendig noch hinreichend über verschiedeneIndividuen hinweg überlappen, was sie für metho-dische Ansätze, welche auf regionale und/oderoszillatorische Überlappung und darüber hinausauf strenge für Betafehler anfällige statistischeKorrekturen setzen, unsichtbar erscheinen lassenmuss. Mit unseren zeitgenössischen methodischenAnsätzen sehen wir insbesondere einen Teil vondem wie (mentale Strategie) und weniger etwasvon dem was (konkrete Inhalte) jemand men-tal verarbeitet. Letzteres wird wohl angesichtsindividuell wechselnder mentaler Denkstrategi-en und der generellen Natur der Organisationkomplexer mentaler Prozesse im Gehirn einWunschtraum bleiben. Der Vortrag setzt sichkritisch mit gängigem – nach wie vor strengfunktions-phrenologisch geprägtem – Denken inden Neurowissenschaften auseinander und fordertden wissenschaftskritischen Zuhörer auf aktiv ander Diskussion teilzunehmen. Fehr, T. (2013).A hybrid model for the neural representation ofcomplex mental processing in the human brain.Cognitive Neurodynamics, 7, 89-103.

EEG/fNIRS approach in emotions and em-pathic behaviour M. Balconi, M. E. VanutelliDepartment of Psychology, Catholic University ofMilan, Italy



Emotional empathy is crucial to understand howwe react to interpersonal situations. In thepresent study we aim to identify the neural net-works underlying the human ability to perceiveand empathize with others’ emotions during theobservation of cooperative or uncooperative in-teractions. In addition, for the first time amultimethodological approach was adopted. In-deed the indubitable vantage of acquiring boththe autonomic (arousal-related) and the central(cortical-related) activities stands in the possibil-ity to better elucidate the reciprocal interplay ofthe two compartments in empathy behavior. Elec-troencephalography (EEG, frequency band anal-ysis; source generators analysis, sLORETA), sys-temic skin conductance response (SCR) and heartrate (HR) were all recorded simultaneously withhemodynamic (fNIRS, functional Near-InfraredSpectroscopy) measurements as potential biolog-ical markers of emotional empathy, related toboth central and peripheral systems. Subjectswere required to empathize with observed inter-personal interaction. As shown by fNIRS and EEGmeasures, uncooperative situations elicited an in-creased brain activity within the right prefrontalcortex (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), whereascooperative situations showed an increased re-sponse within the left prefrontal cortex. Thereforea relevant lateralization effect was induced by thespecific valence (mainly for negative conditions)of the emotional interactions. Also the autonomicresponse (SCR modulation) was modulated by co-operative/uncooperative conditions. Finally EEGactivity (mainly low-frequency theta and deltabands) was intrinsically correlated with the cor-tical hemodynamic responsiveness, and they bothpredicted the autonomic activity. The integratedcentral and autonomic measures better elucidated

the significance of empathic behavior in interper-sonal interactions.

EEG NIRS: light through the developingbrain F. Wallois, M. Mahmoudzadeh, G. Dehae-ne, G. Kongolo, S. Goudjil Amiens, France

Cerebral function rely on the both the neuronaland vascular systems which are intimately linkedthrough the neurovascular coupling mechanisms.Both technics HD EEG and HD NIRS allow tomonitor the dynamic of these two systems. Fastoptical signal with NIRS allows in addition to eval-uate with similar temporal resolution as EEG butbetter spatial resolution changes in neuronal con-figuration linked to the activated neurons. Be-cause EEG and Fast optical Signal have a veryhigh temporal resolution and because NIRS has ahigh temporal and spatial resolution, combiningboth technics offers the opportunity to addressthe neuronal mechanisms that are solicited andthe spatial distribution of the neuronal networkinvolved.

First, we will use the advantage of both, HDEEG/HD NIRS and Fast Optical signal, to de-scribe the strategy of the neuronal networks andthe spatial dynamics involved in the prematurebrain, as early as 28 weeks gestational age, ina task of phoneme discrimination. Such multi-modal, noninvasive approach open new avenuesin the understanding of the developing brain andis well adapted for clinical purposes.

Visual and auditory processing in cochlearimplant users with simultaneous EEG andfNIRS measurement L.-C. Chen (1), P. Sand-mann (2,3), J. D. Thorne (1), M. G. Bleich-ner (1,3), S. Debener (1,3,4) (1)NeuropsychologyLab, Department of Psychology, European Medi-cal School, (2) Carl-von-Ossietzky University Old-



enburg, Oldenburg, Germany, (3)Department ofNeurology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover,Germany, (4) Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all,Germany Research Center Neurosensory Science,University of Oldenburg, Germany

With functional near-infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS), we have recently confirmed previousobservations of higher visual-evoked activationin auditory cortex and higher auditory-evokedactivation in visual cortex in cochlear implant(CI) users compared to normal hearing (NH) con-trols. This potentially reflects residual sensorydeprivation-induced and sensory restoration-induced functional reorganizations. It is notwell understood how cross-modal reorganiza-tions relate to the functionality of intra-modalprocessing. Particularly, previous studies havefound a lower amount of auditory adaptationin CI users compared to NH controls, and thedecrease of auditory adaptation was associatedto speech recognition abilities. We investigatedwhether intra-modal sensory processing in CIusers is altered. This was done by investigatingneural adaptation in visual and auditory sensorysystems with concurrent EEG-fNIRS. EEG wasused to estimate the amount of activation inresponse to individual stimuli presented within atrain of stimuli. Each block-averaged single-trialresponse was then convolved with a hemody-namic response function (HRF) to simulate theblock-accumulated hemodynamic response asmeasured by fNIRS. We found a higher amountof visual adaptation and a lower amount ofauditory adaptation in CI users compared to NHcontrols. Interestingly, stronger neural adapta-tion yielded differences in the peak latency ofthe accumulated hemodynamic response. Specif-ically, stronger adaptation resulted in earlier peaklatency and vice versa. Our adaptation findings

suggest that CI users have higher efficiency inprocessing visual stimuli.

Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy(fNIRS) & Physiological Signals G. Bauern-feind Technische Universität Graz, MedizinischeHochschule Hannover

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) isan emerging technique for the in-vivo assessmentof functional activity of the cerebral cortex as wellas in the field of brain-computer-interface (BCI)research. A common challenge for the utiliza-tion of fNIRS in these areas is a stable and reli-able investigation of the spatio-temporal hemody-namic patterns. However, the recorded patternsmay be influenced and superimposed by signalsgenerated from physiological processes, resultingin an inaccurate estimation of the cortical activ-ity. Up to now only a few studies have investi-gated these influences, and still less has been at-tempted to remove/reduce these influences. Dif-ferent sources of systemic signals, located in thetissue overlaying the brain (superficial scalp inter-ference) as well as in the brain tissue itself can in-fluence the recording. These signals include heartpulsation, breathing cycles, or low frequency os-cillations of the blood pressure (BP) and heartrate (HR). These various quasi-periodic physio-logical rhythms are clearly visible in the frequencyspectrum of the recorded hemodynamic signals.In addition to these more or less uncorrelated sig-nals also task-evoked changes can mask the cere-bral activation patterns. Therefore, for the in-vestigation of detailed fNIRS-based brain activitypatterns, as well as for the use of these patternsin different applications, it is essential to includemethods that detect and reduce the effect of thesystemic influences in the cortical activity. How-ever, considering the idea that not only the (cen-



tral) fNIRS but also the peripheral physiologicalmeasures reflect different aspects of the task, acombination of both measures in a “hybrid” or“multimodal” investigation might lead to betterassessment and investigation of the task perfor-mance.

Die Bedeutung des medialen präfrontalenKortex bei der Furchtextinktion M. Herr-mann, A. Guhn, B. Brunhuber, Th. Polak Psycho-physiologie und funktionelle Bildgebung, Zentrumfür Psychische Gesundheit (ZEP), Würzburg

In Tierexperimenten konnte gezeigt werden, dasseine elektrische Stimulation des medialen präfron-talen Kortex (mPFC) die Furchtextinktion verbes-sert (Milad 2002). In einer ersten Untersuchungüberprüfen wir mit Hilfe der Nahinfrarotspektro-skopie (NIRS) in Kombination mit verschiedenenpsychophysiologischen Maßen (wie Hautleitfähig-keitsreaktion und emotionale Startlemodulation),ob diese Region auch beim Menschen beim Ex-tinktionslernen aktiv ist. In einer zweiten Unter-suchung konnten wir zeigen, dass eine hochfre-quente Stimulation mittels transkranieller Gleich-stromstimulation die Aktivität dieser Region wäh-rend der Extinktion verbessern kann (NIRS) undzu einer deutlicheren Abnahme der Furchtreaktionin den psychophysiologischen Maßen führt. In derdritten, noch nicht abgeschlossenen Studie über-prüfen wir die Bedeutung von theta-Oszillationenim EEG für das Extinktions-gedächtnis in Kombi-nation mit verschiedenen psychophysiologischenMaßen, wieder mit der Frage der Modulierbar-keit durch Neurostimulation. Die Arbeiten stelleneinen wichtigen Beitrag zur Pathophysiologie vonAngststörungen dar, und haben das Ziel, die Be-handlung von Patienten zu verbessern. Die Me-thodenkombination NIRS, Psychophysiologie und

EEG erlaubt uns hierbei eine detaillierte Betrach-tung der beteiligten Prozesse.

Performance monitoring, response controland post-error adjustments in adults withAttention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD): a combined NIRS/EEG studyS. Deppermann, J. Hudak, A. J. Fallgatter,A.-C. Ehlis Psychophysiologie und optischeBildgebung, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psycho-therapie, Tübingen

Our study aimed at characterizing the neuro-biological underpinnings of post-error behaviouralalterations in adult patients with attentiondefi-cit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and at relatingthese alterations to other known endophenotypesof ADHD, such as disturbed response control andperformance monitoring deficits. To this end, amodified Eriksen flanker task was used that wasembedded within a Go-NoGo paradigm. Simul-taneously, neurophysiological responses were as-sessed using a combined electroencephalography(EEG) – near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) setup.

24 healthy controls and 34 ADHD patients con-ducted a combined Flanker/Go-NoGo task whileEEG and NIRS signals were recorded. Data we-re analyzed in terms of event-related potentials(EEG) as well as frontal lobe activation (NIRS)elicited by the flanker stimuli, correct and incor-rect button presses as well as the inter-trial inter-val; the correctness of the previous trial was ad-ditionally considered (post-correct vs. post-errortrials).

EEG data show significant differences between pa-tients and controls for the stimulus-elicited P300as well as for the error-related negativity (ERN).Moreover, differences were observed with respectto the inter-trial interval, with an opposite effectof previous errors on slow potential shifts in pati-



ents vs. controls. Regarding the NIRS data, preli-minary results indicate reduced activation in AD-HD patients within a prefrontal region of interest(ROI) specifically for go trials following errors.

Our results further support the notion of perfor-mance monitoring deficits and attentional altera-tions in adults with ADHD. Additionally, prelimi-nary evidence is given on the neurobiological basisof deficient post-error adjustments as indicated byrecent behavioural findings.

Eine perfekte Kombi?! Die Möglichkeitenund Herausforderungen simultaner fNIRS-EEG Messungen A.M. Kroczek, F. B. Häußin-ger, A. J. Fallgatter, A.-C. Ehlis Klinik für Psych-iatrie und Psychotherapie, Tübingen

Simultane fNIRS-EEG Messungen bieten durchihre interferenzfreie Anwendung eine vielverspre-chende Möglichkeit zur zeitgleichen Erfassung derElektrophysiologie und Hämodynamik kognitiverProzesse im Neokortex. Die angewandten Analy-seansätze sind vielfältig. Deren Entwicklung reichtvon Korrelationen gemittelter Haemoglobin Kon-zentrationen und ereigniskorrelierter Potentialebis hin zur Betrachtung der Daten auf Einzeltrial-Ebene. Eine Übersicht theoretischer Möglichkei-ten und deren praktischer Umsetzung und re-sultierender Herausforderung soll anhand eigenerDaten kritisch diskutiert werden.

Effects of arousal on funtional near-infraredspectroscopy (fNIRS) F. Häußinger, A. Kroc-zek, A.-C. Ehlis Universitätsklinik für Psychiatrieund Psychotherapie, Tübingen

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) isan optical neuroimaging method that detectstemporal concentration changes of oxygenated(oxy) and deoxygenated (deoxy) hemoglobin wi-thin the cortex, so that neural activation can

be educed. However, fNIRS has been shown tobe confounded by systemic signals with extra-cerebral origin. One cause of extra-cerebral arti-facts is the task-related vaso-constriction of cu-taneous vessels that is driven by increased arou-sal, i.e. an increased activity of the sympathe-tic nervous system. These arousal induced si-gnal patterns can disturbingly overlay cerebral si-gnals during mentally challenging tasks, such asthe n-back task. Therefore, our aim is to deve-lop an “arousal localizer”, i.e. a short and simpleparadigm that is able to reliably elicit arousal-related fNIRS-signals for each subject. The re-sulting arousal-patterns could be used to indivi-dually identify affected regions and to correct forsystemic artifacts. Within a pilot study we testedtwo different stimuli for their suitability to act asarousal localizer: emotional pictures and short to-nes of noise (to provoke the startle reflex). Wefound that the presentation of emotional picturesis suited to provoke a reliable and strong arou-sal response, whereas as the data from the startlereflex paradigm was critically confounded by moti-on artifacts. To obtain a measure for sympatheticactivity, we extracted the blood pulse wave fromthe raw fNIRS-data, analyzed the heart rate va-riability and calculated the low to high frequencyratio (LH/HF). This ratio (a higher value indi-cates increased sympathetic activity) was signifi-cantly higher during the presentation of emotio-nal pictures than during a 3 minute resting statemeasurement. The result indicates that it may bepossible to measure arousal with fNIRS.

Time-variant modeling of brain processesH. Witte Institut für Medizinische Statistik, In-formatik und Dokumentation, Friedrich-Schiller-Uiversität Jena



In science and engineering mathematical mod-eling serves as a tool for the understanding ofprocesses and systems and as a testing bed forseveral hypotheses e.g. concerning the testing(prediction) of functional limits by simulations.A brief overview of current modeling strategiesin brain research is given, spatial scales rangingfrom single neuron to large scale activity of andbetween brain regions are considered. The mod-els are mainly time-invariant. Three time-variantmodeling strategies, which enable a model-basedsignal analysis, are described and applied to largescale signals. The first is derived from adaptivefilter theory and covers linear systems and linearas well as nonlinear process models. The sec-ond is based on modeled brain source signals, i.e.the inverse problem must be solved. The thirdstrategy consists of a generalization of DynamicCausal Modeling (DCM); DCM is frequently usedfor analysis of directed interactions between brainstructures. Examples are derived from neona-tal electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring ofpreterm and fullterm newborns. A further exam-ple is based on high-density recordings of event-related potentials (ERPs) and shows the combi-nation of a time-variant ERP-based source model,as a part of a realistic head model, with a mul-tivariate process model to analyze the time evo-lution of interactions between source pro-cessesbefore and during the execution of a complex mo-toric task. In two other examples hemodynamicsignals (functional magnetic resonance imaging –fMRI) are utilized for analysis of interactions be-tween brain regions, where nonlinear, multivariatemodels are used.

Feasibility of EEG-Neurofeedback to modifyresting state microstates L. Diaz Hernandez,

K. Heri K, A. Baenninger, Th. Koenig Universityof Bern, Switzerland

Spontaneous EEG signal can be parsed into sub-second time epochs with quasi-stable EEG scalpfield topographies separated by rapid configura-tion changes. These epochs are called microstatesand reflect different brain functional states thatexert different effects on information processing.A specific class of microstates with a fronto-central distribution has been found to be consis-tently shorter in schizophrenia patients than inhealthy controls, the so called microstate D. Thisshortening has been correlated to the presence ofpositive psychotic symptoms. Therefore it is rea-sonable to think that if patients can learn to nor-malize microstate D, this might help them reducepositive symptoms. We propose a neurofeedbacktraining protocol for self-regulating microstate D.

20 healthy subjects followed a neurofeedbacktraining to up-regulate the presence of mi-crostate D. The protocol included 20 trainingsessions and each session included 3 conditions:regulation trials interspersed with baseline trials(resting state) and a transfer trial. Brain ac-tivity was recorded with thirty-two active EEGelectrodes. In-lab software was used to computeon-line the percentage of microstate D and deliverauditory feedback when this percentage exceededa threshold. Response to neurofeedback wasassessed with mixed effects modelling. Patternsof response within and between-subjects, within-and across-sessions were extracted.

All participants increased the percentage of timespent producing microstate D in at least one ofthe 3 conditions. Between-subjects acrossses-sions results showed that there was an increaseof 0.42% of time spent producing microstate Din baseline (showing a tonic change in the EEG),1.93% of increase during regulation and 1.83%



during transfer. Withinsession analysis showed a1.65% increase in baseline and 0.53% increase inregulation.

Microstate-neurofeedback training was feasible inhealthy subjects, therefore it would be reasonableto implement the same protocol in schizophreniapatients. The ultimate aim of this training is toempower patients to reduce positive symptoms bymeans of EEG-neurofeedback.

Neural correlates of planning processes: Afunctional near-infrared spectroscopy studyA. Berger (1), D. Koester (1), H. Lausberg (2),I. Helmich (2) (1) Faculty of Psychology andSport Science, Department Neurocognition andMovement, Bielefeld University, (2)Departmentof Neurology, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psy-chiatry, Institute of Health Promotion and Clini-cal Movement Science, German Sport UniversityCologne

Numerous studies demonstrated the essentialrole of prefrontal regions in cognitive processeslike planning. A hierarchical organization ofprefrontal functions is proposed in which dorso-lateral regions are involved in heuristic planning,whereas frontopolar regions are involved in al-gorithmic planning. To clarify the suggestion,neural correlates of both planning processes wereexplored while solving the Tower-of-London prob-lems (TOL). An effect of problem complexity andplanning strategy on behavior and brain activationpatterns in dorsolateral and frontopolar regionswere hypothesized. Twenty healthy participantsperformed the TOL by using both the algorith-mic strategy where all planning processes forproblem solving were performed in mind and theheuristic strategy where planning was processedduring the motor execution of the TOL problem.Brain activation above prefrontal cortices of each

hemisphere was examined using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS, NIRSport System,NIRx, 8 channels, wavelengths: 760 nm, 850 nm,Sampling rate: 15625Hz) during the solution ofTOL problems which differ in complexity: easyproblems (2 and 3 moves) and complex problems(5 and 6 moves). Regarding the effect of problemcomplexity, results demonstrated for the heuristicstrategy a significant increased brain oxygenationin frontopolar regions of the left hemisphere andin dorsolateral regions of the right hemispherewhile solving complex problems compared to easyproblems. By using the algorithmic strategy forproblem solving, no significant effects of problemcomplexity were observed. Regarding the com-parison of both planning strategies, behavioralresults showed significantly more moves to gen-erate the plan during the motor execution of theTOL compared to planning in mind. FunctionalNIRS results showed significant brain activationsin frontopolar regions of the left hemispherein both planning processes and additionally indorsolateral regions of the right hemisphere forheuristic planning during the motor execution ofthe TOL. The present study suggests that fron-topolar regions generate algorithmic planning,whereas both the frontopolar and dorsolateral re-gions play an important role in heuristic planningfor solving Tower-of-London problems.

Influence of acute hypoxia during maximalbreath-holding on visual evoked potentialsF. Steinberg, M. Doppelmayr Institut für Sport-wissenschaft, Johannes Gutenberg UniversitätMainz

Little is known about neural activity associatedwith short periods of acute hypoxia induced bymaximum breath-holding in humans. Therefore,



in a first approach electro-cortical activity was re-gistered by EEG while evoking visual potentials inthe occipital lobe of the brain. Based on decre-asing oxygen saturation with increasing breath-hold duration it was hypothesized that hypoxiaalters the early components of visual processingin the brain. Cortical activity of 34 healthy parti-cipants (25.14±2.2 years; 31 male) was measuredby a 32 channel EEG system (10-20) while pre-senting checkerboard reversals (2Hz and 5Hz re-versal frequency) to evoke visual potentials in theoccipital lobe (N75, P100 and N135 at Oz elec-trode). 17 participants performed phases of 90 se-conds (Short-BH) and 17 participants 120 secondphases (Long-BH). Stimuli were presented coun-terbalanced during breath holding phases (BH)and during normal breathing (NB). Amplitudesand latencies were calculated for each 30 seconds(= 60 reversals per segment) to account for de-creasing oxygen saturation over breath hold time.For transient VEPs (2Hz), repeated measures ofANOVA with the factors CONDITION (BH; NB)and TIME (Segment 1–4) showed in the Long-BHT group a significant interaction CONDITI-ON×TIME (p<0.05) for the P100 amplitude anda significant TIME effect with increasing amplitu-des (p<0.05) and latencies (p<0.001) over time.N135 showed a significant CONDITION×TIMEinteraction for the latency (p<0.05) and signi-ficant TIME effects with decreasing amplitudes(p<0.001) and increasing latencies (p<0.01). Ba-sed on the controversial differences between VEPsin BH and NB and the lack of any CONDITIONeffects we conclude that human visual processingis highly capable to deal with short periods of acu-te hypoxia in breath holding and that the emergedinteractions over time might be more associatedwith different attentional processes than by hypo-xia.

Motor imagery interventions for spring-board divers and their changes in μ-activityJ.M. Pithan, O. Stoll Martin-Luther-UniversitätHalle-Wittenberg

Springboard diving comes with a lot of cogni-tive demands. Therefore, mental practice has ahigh value in diving. Several theories discuss mo-tor imagery and mental practice from a neuro-psychophysiological perspective. The imaginationcould be seen as a neuronal simulation of the mo-vement (Jeannerod, 2001). Thus, mental prac-tice should obtain as many aspects of the realmovement as possible (Holmes & Collins, 2001).But does an imagery training intervention basedon neuropsychological approaches lead to biggerchances in neural activation compared to classi-cal imagery interventions (Eberspächer, 2007)?This was explored using a sample consisting of12 internationally competing, youth springboarddivers (age:m=15.7, sd=1.6; experience: m=9.3,sd=2.2). The object of investigation was one sin-gle dive (the reverse two-and-a-half somersaults,tuck). Participants were tested on motor image-ry from an external and internal visual perspectiveprevious to and after one of two imagery interven-tions (video supported, relaxed) lasting for appro-ximately 10 weeks. A 32-channel EEG was recor-ded for 40 trials of each condition (RCT). Even-trelated desynchronization (ERD) analysis wasperformed in μ-rhythm (8–13Hz). The EEG datareveal group× time interaction at the electrodePz. μ power decreased more in participants fromthe video supported intervention compared to theintervention in a relaxed state at the post mea-surement. This effect was shown for preparationand execution of the imagery but only for the ex-ternal and not for the internal visual perspecti-ve. One explanation could be the favored imageryperspective of most athletes being external. The



results indicate a transfer effect from using videotapes on the learning process of motor imagery.

Motor sequence learning can be enhancedby high definition transcranial direct currentstimulation (HD-tDCS) N.H. Pixa, F. Stein-berg, M. Doppelmayr Institut für Sportwissen-schaft, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)is a non-invasive technique to modulate neuralactivity. It has been reported that conventionalanodal tDCS can increase motor performance.However, it is not known whether high definitionHD-tDCS effects performance in a simple motortask. In this double-blind pre-post study, we inve-stigated effects of repeated anodal HD-tDCS inmotor sequence learning. 31 right-handed partici-pants (11 female, age M=23.42, SD=2.45) wererandomly assigned in two groups. The task wasto perform the Purdue-Pegboard-Test (PPT), tomeasure unimanual and bimanual finger and handdexterity. Both groups performed the PPT, mean-while the STIM-group received 1mA HD-atDCSvia two Pi-Electrodes (3.14 cm² Ag/AgCl) by C1and C2 for 15 minutes. Six Return electrodeswere positioned by FC5, T7, CP5, FC6, T8 andCP6 (10-20-EEG-System). For the SHAM-grouponly sham stimulation was applied. A follow-uptest of PPT was performed five to seven daysafter the posttest. 3 (TIME)× 2 (GROUP)ANOVAs show significant benefit for theSTIM-group in unimanual right hand dex-terity for TIME (F(2,58)=58.79, p=.000,η2=.670), TIME×GROUP (F(2,58)=6.23,p=.004, η2=.177), bimanual dexterity forTIME (F(2,58)=39.71, p=.000, η2=.578),TIME× GROUP (F(2,58)=4.2, p=.026,η2=.126) and the sum of right+ left+ bothhands for TIME (F(2,58)=82.42, p=.000,

η2=.740) and TIME×GROUP (F(2,58)=6.58,p=.004, η2=.185). No significant effects forGROUP were found. The results support thepositive effects of anodal tDCS and suggest thatHD-tDCS exerts an effective influence on lear-ning a simple motor sequence. However, furtherresearch is needed to investigate and differentiatebetween cognitive and motor aspects as well asmore complex motor tasks, like in sports.

Manipulation of gamma-band oscillationswith MEG neurofeedback in early visual cor-tex N. Merkel, M. Wibral, G. Bland, W. SingerGoethe-Universität Frankfurt/MainThe brain can learn to modify ongoing activi-ty through neurofeedback (NFB). Subjects canlearn to deliberately influence the hemodynamicresponse (Caria et al., 2010), the power of oscil-latory activity in selected frequency bands (Gruze-lier, J. 2014) and neuronal discharge rates (Clancyet al., 2014). However, little is known about thespecificity of NFB effects in the spatio-temporaldomain and on the dynamic mechanisms media-ting them. We attempt to

1. contribute knowledge about the specificity ofNFB training,

2. expand existing approaches to gamma bandactivity and

3. use MEG source data for NFB training.

We trained 9 human subjects with MEG NFB tomanipulate gamma band power in early visual cor-tex. We restricted training effects to a small vo-lume of visual cortex and to a narrow frequencyband. With online beamforming techniques we ex-tracted the feedback signal in source space. Thepitch of a tone feedback signaled the increase ofnarrow band gamma oscillations. Subjects had tomodulate this pitch in a controlled way.



Manipulation of gamma-band power in early vi-sual cortex is possible for some but not all sub-jects. In the successful subjects the modulationwas closely related to the frequency band and lo-cation selected for training. Some of the subjectslearned to modulate muscle activity rather thanneuronal activity. In the successful subjects, be-ta oscillations became prominent as performanceimproved and synchronized across the right mid-frontal and left parietal cortex, presumably reflec-ting enhanced topdown control by the visual at-tention network (Buschman & Miller, 2007). Thisactivation could be instrumental for establishingoccipital gamma band oscillations.

Sound localization in a “cocktail-party” situa-tion: An EEG study using an auditory odd-ball paradigm M.-Ch. Schlüter, St. Getzmann,J. Lewald Leibnitz-Institut für Arbeitsforschung,TU Dortmund, Dortmund

Selectively attending to a sound source of interestin complex auditory scenes composed of multi-ple competing sources is a remarkable capacity ofhuman perception. The neural basis of this so-called “cocktail-party effect” is insufficiently un-derstood. Here, we addressed this issue using au-ditory evoked potentials in combination with anoddball design, in which subjects either had todetect rare spatial deviants in a series of stan-dard sounds (attention condition) or passively li-stened to the standard and deviant sounds (pas-sive condition). Deviants differed in location fromstandard sounds by 20 °. Two conditions of sti-mulation were employed: standards and deviantseither appeared in isolation (single-source condi-tion) or in the presence of two distractor soundsources at different locations (multi-source con-dition). Three animal vocalizations of differentspecies were used as sound stimuli. Event-related

potentials (ERPs) for standards and deviants we-re recorded, and difference ERPs (deviant mi-nus standard location ERPs) were calculated. Da-ta obtained in the single-source condition werecompared with those of the multi-source condi-tion. The ERP analyses focused on MMN, P3a,and P3b components. With multiple sources, theMMN, P3a, and P3b amplitudes were larger in theattention condition than in the passive condition.A difference between the multiand single-sourceconditions was observed for the P3b componentin attention and passive conditions. Cortical sour-ce localization (sLORETA) revealed at the timeof the P3a bilateral anterior cingulate cortex andat the time of the P3b bilateral posterior cingula-te cortex for the contrast of attention vs. passivelistening with multiple sources. For the contrastof multiple vs. single sources in the attention con-dition, there was significant peak activity in rightposterior superior temporal gyrus at the time ofthe MMN and in right precentral gyrus and leftprecuneus at the time of the P3b.

Cross-Frequency Functional IndependentBrain Networks -– Associations with Modali-ties of Thinking P. Milz, R. D Pascual-Marqui,D. Lehmann, K. Kochi, P. L Faber The KEY In-stitute for Brain-Mind Research, Department ofPsychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomat-ics, University Hospital of Psychiatry, Zurich,Switzerland

Different functional brain states are constitutedby different spatially distributed brain networks.Brain networks can be identified via indepen-dent component analysis (ICA) applied to brainactivity-derived data. ICA has frequently beenapplied to fMRI data. However, this approachsuffers from the method’s limited temporal res-olution and indirect measurement of neural ac-



tivity via blood metabolism. Applying ICA tosource-localized EEG does not suffer from theselimitations. Moreover, EEGderived networks havethe advantage of allowing a functional distinc-tion between the varying ranges of EEG fre-quencies involved. EEG activity is sensitive tochanges in demands on modality-specific pro-cessing. Consequently, we tested the effect ofshort-term (tasks) and long-term (person param-eters) modality-specific processing on brain net-works. Brain networks were derived based onfunctional ICA applied to source-localized EEGdata. Clean 64-channel EEG and modality-related person parameters were available from61 male, right-handed students. EEG record-ings were obtained during four conditions: spa-tial visualization, object visualization, verbaliza-tion, and resting. Cross-frequency functional in-dependent networks were obtained by applyingICA to source-localized EEG data in 6 frequencybands (delta to beta-2). Modality-related personparameters were obtained via visual-verbal cog-nitive style questionnaires and modality-relatedcognitive tests. Effects of conditions were evalu-ated by repeated-measures MANOVAs, post-hocunivariate ANOVAs, and paired ttests. Effectsof person parameters were evaluated by Pear-son correlations and path modelling. Results re-vealed four task-dependent and three personal-parameterdependent networks. Task-dependentnetworks were characterized by alpha decreasesin modality-specific pathways. Person-parameterdependent networks were characterized by alphaincreases in modalityspecific pathways. All net-works were additionally characterized by oppos-ing alpha changes in pathways of other modalities.Results imply a different functional significance oftask- (short-term) and person-parameter (long-term) dependent alpha changes. Phasic, task-

dependent alpha decreases may reflect decreasedinhibition on modality-specific pathways. Tonic,person-parameter-dependent alpha increases mayreflect increased automated processing (neuralefficiency) in frequently applied modalityspecificpathways. Antagonistic alpha changes in otherareas may reflect the prevention of intruding ef-fects of modality-irrelevant processing.

Topographische Effekte des Lernens japani-scher Schriftzeichen in der Wavelettransfor-mation A. Klein, W. Skrandies PhysiologischesInstitut, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germa-ny

Japanische Schriftzeichen unterscheiden sich so-wohl in ihrem Aussehen als auch in ihrer Bedeu-tung sehr stark von den in Mitteleuropa verwende-ten Schriftsystemen. Während mitteleuropäischeSprachen Wörter vor allem als Sequenz von Sil-ben abbilden, die allein für sich genommen häufigkeine Bedeutung haben, sind in der traditionellenjapanischen Kanji-Schrift Symbole mit Wortbe-deutungen belegt, so wird zum Beispiel das Wort„Schnee“ durch das Symbol „ ” repräsentiert.In vielen Arbeiten wurde bereits untersucht, wel-che Kompetenzen beim Lesen dieser verschiede-nen Schriftsysteme benötigt werden, und wie sichdie zentrale Verarbeitung von Wörtern aus japani-schen oder chinesischen und europäischen Schrift-systemen bei Muttersprachlern aus beiden Kultur-kreisen unterscheidet. Allerdings gibt es bislangnur wenige Befunde zum Lernen von Wörtern ausdem jeweils anderen Schriftsystem, wenn diesesnoch nicht bekannt ist. Wir zeigen Befunde aus ei-nem Lernexperiment, die die topographischen Un-terschiede der Frequenzaktivierung mit Hilfe derWavelettransformation illustrieren. Dazu wurdenbei 41 Versuchspersonen VEPs als Reaktion auf40 Lern- und 40 Kontrollreize (Bedingung „Grup-



pe“) vor und nach dem Lernen (Bedingung „Zeit“)erhoben, gemittelt und einer Wavelettransforma-tion unterzogen. Aus diesen Wavelettransforma-tionen wurden dann im Rahmen der klassischenEEG-Bänder die Frequenzen und Latenzen ma-ximaler Amplitude bestimmt und mit Hilfe ei-ner zweifaktoriellen ANOVA verglichen. Dabei zei-gen sich vor allem linkshemisphärisch interessan-te Interaktionen zwischen Gruppe und Zeit fürFrequenzen im θ-Band, während in anderen Fre-quenzbändern und für die Latenzen kaum signifi-kante Interaktionen zu finden sind.

Durch semantisches Lernen ausgelöste to-pographische Komponenten hirnelektrischerAktivität W. Skrandies, H. Shinoda Institute ofPhysiology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Ger-many

We studied event-related brain activity elicitedby reading learned (i.e., meaningful) or unlear-ned (i.e., meaningless) Japanese symbols. Twen-ty healthy native German adults participated in alearning experiment. In a training phase of about20 minutes, subjects acquired the meaning of 20Kanji characters. As control stimuli 20 differentKanji characters with similar physical features we-re used. Stimuli were presented on a monitor, andelectrical brain activity was obtained before andafter learning. The learning performance of thesubjects averaged 92.5% correct responses. EEGwas measured simultaneously from 30 channels,artifacts were removed offline, and the data ob-tained before and after learning were compared.We found five spatial principal components thataccounted for 83.8% of the variance. Significantinteractions between training time (before/afterlearning) and stimulus (learning/control) illustra-te the relation between successful learning andtopographical changes of brain activity elicited by

Kanji characters. Significant effects of learningwere observed at short latencies in the order ofabout 100 ms. In addition, we present evidencethat differences in the weighted combination ofspatial components allow to identify experimen-tal conditions successfully by linear discriminantanalysis using topographical ERP data that hadoccurred at a single time point. Our data showhow the scalp distribution of brain electrical ac-tivity relates to successful learning of semanticmeaning.

The cortical signature of nociception and painin circuits of the lateral somatosensory sy-stem: a translational approach U. Baumgärt-ner, M. Mahmotoglu, B. Kretzschmar, C. Heid,A. Draguhn, A. Rupp Mannheim/Heidelberg

The processing of nociceptive signals in the cen-tral nervous system involves a network of brainareas that has been characterised using neuro-physiological and imaging methods. However, theterm pain matrix for this network might be mis-leading, since most sensory stimuli of different ori-gin (somatosensory, auditory, visual) can activatemajor parts of this system, rendering cortical re-sponses like evoked potentials or BOLD responsesless specific with respect to the original specificinput. Recent findings have opened new ways toidentify a general signature of nociception and –even more challenging – of on-going pain. Theysuggest that gamma band oscillations show a clo-ser relationship to perceived phasic pain comparedto standard evoked potentials. In this project, wewant to apply advanced methods of data analysisin complementary models of acute, prolonged andchronic pain in rodents and in humans. Our over-arching aim is to identify a functional signatureof pain perception at the network level.



1. Rodents: Phasic, tonic and chronic pain mo-dels in mice; LFP- and unitrecordings in vivo,analysis of specific waveform patterns, cross-frequency and cross-regional coupling.

2. Humans: Simultaneous EEG-MEG recor-dings of evoked and on-going brain activityduring pain in contrast to non-painful sti-mulation combined with behavioural ratings;analyses of spectro-temporal responses,source localisation and coherence; structuraland functional MR imaging for unambiguouslocalisation of responses and connectivityanalysis.

Pilot data yielded differential evoked brain respon-ses in the time-frequency domain following tactileand nociceptive stimuli in both rodents and hu-mans, similar shifts of the alpha rhythm peak fre-quency during ongoing pain in both species, andchanges in frequency coupling within the insula.These findings may help identify more specificmarkers of nociceptive processing than previouslyshown. Supported by DFG: SFB1158 B05

Gamma-Oscillations as a clinical markerof pain perception. A promising approach?C. Heid, A. Mouraux, S. Schuh-Hofer, R.-D. Tree-de, U. Baumgärtner Mannheim and BrusselsUp to now there have already been a lot of studiesusing evoked potentials of the EEG elicited bothwith nociceptive as well as tactile stimuli. Fromrecent studies the idea emerged that gamma-bandoscillations (GBOs), a pattern of neural oscillati-on in humans with a frequency between 25 and100Hz, though 40Hz is typical, play an import-ant role in conscious perception and are possibly adirect correlate of the perception of pain. Hence,these GBOs are induced and not evoked we needthe special TimeFrequency-Analysis to detect the-se oscillations. Influenced by these recent reports,

we conducted a study, where we tried to specifythe relationship between the application of noci-ceptive vs. tactile stimuli and GBOs more closely.

Twelve healthy volunteers (6 male, 6 female)participated in the experiment. We applied no-ciceptive laser heat and pneumatic tactile sti-muli. 90 stimuli with 3 different intensities (la-ser+pneumatic) were applied both to the righthand and the right foot in a balanced sequenceincluding one repetition per block, resulting in180 stimuli per location and stimulus. In addi-tion, we amended another stimulation block with1800 pneumatic stimuli to exclude the possibilitythat in case GBOs are elicited by tactile stimulias well, the number of tactile stimuli might notbe high enough to yield a response beyond noise.

Our preliminary results indicate that there is a dif-ference in the appearance of GBOs between no-ciceptive and tactile stimuli and that GBOs couldbe specific for the perception of pain.

These results may help to get a better objectiveunderstanding of the perception of pain.

Cortical reorganisation nociceptive and soma-tosensory evoked potentials after capsaicin-induced tonic pain M.A. Mahmutoglu (1),A. Rupp (1), U. Baumgärtner (2) (1) Section ofBiomagnetism, Department of Neurology, Univer-sity of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany (2) Chairof Neurophysiology, Centre for Biomedicine andMedical Technology Mannheim, Medical FacultyMannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim,Germany

Electrophysiological and neuroimaging studiesindicate that nociceptive stimuli elicit activityin a wide network of cortical areas includingthe primary and secondary somatosensory cor-tices, operculo-insular cortex, prefrontal cortexas well as the cingulate gyrus. Furthermore,



a number of studies suggest that capsaicinalters laser-induced cortical evoked potentialsas well as the saliency of the stimulus. Theunderlying functional (re-)organization of suchpain processing and the central mechanism ofcapsaicin-induced hyperalgesia and allodynia hasnot been adequately explained. To characterizethe capsaicin-induced (re-)organization, evokedactivity of above mentioned areas was recordedby means of 32-channel electroencephalogram(EEG) and 122-channel magnetoencephalogram(MEG) in 12 healthy volunteers stimulated withnoxious laser stimuli and tactile control stim-uli before and after intraepidermal capsaicininjection. 90 laser stimuli (Tm YAG, 2μmwavelength) with three different intensities (painthreshold, moderate, max: 540mJ) were appliedto both hands in pseudo-randomized order togenerate laser-evoked potentials (LEP) and mag-netic fields (LEF). 2000 tactile stimuli (6 bar)were applied equally on both sides in order togenerate somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEP)and magnetic fields (SEF). Balanced stimulationblocks were repeated on both sides after intraepi-dermal capsaicin injection only to the left handdorsum (0.05%, 0.02ml). The goal of such an ex-perimental design is to describe specific corticalprocessing and plasticity by means of spatio-temporal source analysis (BESA 5.2). Subjectivepain intensities were registered by a consoleand a rating scale (0–100). Our preliminaryresults suggest a differential capsaicin-inducedchange pattern of LEPs in operculo-insular andcingulate sources. Furthermore, EEG and MEGsource models in corresponding brain areas showdifferent waveform morphologies and changepatterns.This study is supported by DFG SFB-1158 B05.


Announcements — Ankündigungen


• Human Brain Mapping (HBM)

22nd Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (HBM)

Dates: June 26 – 30, 2016

Venue: Palexpo Exhibition and Congress Centre, Geneva, Switzerland

URL: http://www.humanbrainmapping.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=3662

• IOP World Congress

18th World Congress of Psychophysiology (IOP2016)

Official World Congress of the International Organization of Psychophysiology (IOP)

Dates: August 31 – September 4, 2016

Venue: Melia Habana Hotel, Havana, Cuba

Chair: Pedro A. Valdes-Sosa

URL: http://iop2016.cneuro.cu/

• ECNS / ISNIP / ISBET

Conference on Translational Neuroscience: Neurophysiological Biomarkers

Joint Congress of ECNS / ISNIP / ISBET

Dates: September, 7 – 11, 2016

Venue: Istanbul, Turkey

URL: http://www.ecns2016.com/

• 25. Deutsches EEG/EP Mapping Meeting / 25th German EEG/EP Mapping MeetingConference language is German; English contributions will be accepted.

Datum: 28. bis 30. Oktober 2016Ort: Schloss Rauischholzhausen



Übersichtsvorträge und Symposien:

D. Brandeis (Zürich /Mannheim), Entwicklungen im EEG-basiertem Mapping.M. Ruchsow (Göppingen), Mentale Repräsentation.H. Witte & L. Leistritz, (Jena), Multivariate EEG / MEG / fMRI-Analyse und ”Big Data”.(Symposium).

Information und Anmeldung unter: http://www.med.uni-giessen.de/physio/


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