We are indebted to all the personnel of the Fundaci&#243; Carme Vidal NeuroPsicopedagogia, the children, and their parents for their invaluable collaboration in the research presented here. Also, to all professionals who contributed to this study in any way, such as statistical analysis, computational assistance, suggestions, comments, and encouragement, overall to Joan Timoneda. A special thanks goes to our teammates, Jordi Baus, Jordi Hern&#225;ndez, Oscar Mateu, Anna Orri, and Mart&#237; Ribas.

The protocol follows the guidelines of Fundaci&#243; Carme Vidal human research ethics committee. Inform consent was obtained.
1. Recruitment of the subjects
NOTE: Recruitment was performed as per the previously published literature12. &#160;
<ol>
	<li>Recruit children with ADHD without comorbidity. In the present study, 66 children, aged 13-15 years, mean 13.89 years with SD &#177; 0.8, 47 males and 19 females, were recruited. Have trained psychotherapists (quali&#64257;ed in psychology) or psychiatrists perform the procedure of recruitment.</li>
	<li>Get informed consent from the patient or the caregivers.</li>
	<li>Practice a discerning clinical history. As needed, perform the following studies: cardiological examination, both auditory and visual event-related potential, thyroid study, sonography, video-EEG, otorrinolaringology exploration, ophthalmological exploration, rule out both previous medication and comorbidity, as well as, any child psychiatric disorders or any other therapy in progress. Use any registered personal medical history available.</li>
	<li>Ask a pediatric neurologist to confirm the diagnosis using DSM-IV55 or DSM-V56. Ask a psychiatrist to rule out comorbidity.</li>
	<li>Complement the diagnosis using another useful criterion like parent and teacher rated Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham scale 18 (SNAP-IV-18) for ADHD symptoms (Swanson, 1995)57 as used in this protocol.
	<ol>
		<li>Use the narrow band behavioral scale, like SNAP-IV, which is more specific for the diagnosis of ADHD and often correlates with the de&#64257;nition in DSM-V. In this study, all children met the criteria for ADHD combined type at baseline. All 66 children scored &#8805; 2.5/1.8 (teacher/parents) in SNAP-IV. 
		NOTE: SNAP-IV consists of 18 items and can be filled in by parents and teachers. The items are questions about the occurrence frequency of a series of behavioral characteristics. The answers range from zero (no or not at all), 1 (yes, a little), 2 (yes, quite a lot) to 3 (yes, a lot). A total score can be obtained by adding the values of all the items and dividing by 18. The cutoff point is different according to the response of the parents (1.78) or the teacher (2.56).</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Perform an unstructured interview of parents and teachers focused on collecting (confirming) data on behavior as mentioned in the SNAP-IV in to have sufficient information to make the diagnosis.
	<ol>
		<li>Use the unstructured interview that is more informal and open-ended. There is a high probability that they will give 100% truthful answers. In the present study, each case was assessed by two blinded researchers and inter-observer agreement of 80% was required. The ADHD diagnostic interview was completed face-to-face with the child&#8217;s principal caregiver by trained research interviewers.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Use inclusion criteria: combined ADHD according to DSM-IV55or DSM-V56 and SNAP-IV-18 or similar one. Also, use the following exclusion criteria: any child psychiatric disorders or any previous medication or any other therapy.</li>
</ol>
2. Procedure
<ol>
	<li>Cognitive assessment 
	NOTE: This was done by administering CAS test4 which was performed as per the previously published literature12.
	<ol>
		<li>Measure the cognitive function of participants by applying the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS).</li>
		<li>Use a battery like CAS that assesses PASS processing of information: planning, attention, successive and simultaneous.</li>
		<li>Record the raw score for each test to be transformed into a standard score according to manual instructions. 
		NOTE: For the four PASS processing, a standard score with a normative mean of 100 was used with a standard deviation (SD) of 15. For three subtests in each of the four scales, the mean is 10 and the SD is 3.</li>
		<li>Repeat this assessment using again the CAS battery at month 6 after the application of the program &#8220;The Adventures of Fundi&#8221;.</li>
		<li>Compare the results between the score of each cognitive process at baseline and the 6-month follow-up scores. 
		NOTE: The 6-month follow-up, without pharmacological intervention, allows ruling out the potential &#8220;practice effect&#8221; of two closely spaced psychological tests.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Behavioral assessment 
	NOTE: This was performed by administering the SNAP-IV-18
	<ol>
		<li>Administer the SNAP-IV questionnaire (Swanson, 1995)57 at baseline, that is, values against which all performances will be compared. After intervention. Record the remission versus the response in each case. Calculate the percentages of remissions and responses in the entire sample. 
		NOTE: Remission is defined as a mean total score of 1 on most standardized questionnaires. On the contrary, the response has been usually de&#64257;ned as amelioration in symptoms of at least 25% with disappearance of the malfunctioning DSM-V criteria. Therefore, remission is associated with a loss of diagnostic status and optimal functioning. Remission is optimal, but the response not so much.</li>
		<li>Put into practice a regular follow-up communication with the child&#8217;s caregiver (parents and teachers) to review the caregiver concerns, evaluate progress, and provide advice and support (e.g., monthly telephone calls).</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>The Adventures of Fundi - Go/No go task
	<ol>
		<li>Show to the participant five short videos on how the brain learns before starting the game of &#8220;The Adventures of Fundi&#8221;. These videos are named &#8220;Fundi and the Brain&#8221;. In these supplementary videos, the four cognitive processes described by the PASS theory (planning, attention, simultaneous and successive) are explained through a metaphor. 
		NOTE: Remember, the indirect metaphorical communication implies inductive learning and indirect communication that makes remediation less painful or more enjoyable. A knowledge is being communicated considering the emotional impact.</li>
		<li>Explain the objective of the game of cognitive intervention &#34;The Adventures of Fundi&#34; to the participant: &#8220;It seeks to train the brain to facilitate academic learning. Above all, it pursues the self-regulation of the student supported by the PASS cognitive process of planning.&#8221;</li>
		<li>Have the participant enter the page: http://www.fcarmevidal.com/aventures/ and click on the language to work with.</li>
		<li>Provide them with a username and a password so that the participant can start the session (e.g., login: jove / password: jove).</li>
		<li>Click on the first country (1-Paris).</li>
		<li>Read the screen and click the Continuar button. Perform this step in the same way for each of the nine screens.</li>
		<li>Ask the child to solve the proposed task. The first task involves clicking on the boy&#8217;s face every time it appears on the screen.</li>
		<li>Read the screen results and click Continuar.</li>
		<li>Ensure that the game provides a code that the child must remember to input in the next screen. Start the game again from the beginning if he/she does not remember the code.</li>
		<li>Repeat step 2.3.4 but with the next country.</li>
		<li>End the session after about 40 min.</li>
		<li>Inform the child that he will have to figure out a way to remember the code and the country in which the session ended to continue the next day.</li>
		<li>Perform one session every week for six months.</li>
		<li>Intervene making use of indirect communication. If during the session, the participant makes a mistake, the game itself will indicate that he/she must repeat the task. The most important thing is that in the second attempt, the participant solves the task correctly. One example is presented below.
		<ol>
			<li>If the child makes a mistake, and he does not solve a task, say: &#8220;Oh! what&#8217;s happened? Do you know?&#8221; Let the child answer if he does.</li>
			<li>Then continue, &#8220;I think we were tricked. This happens. Maybe our hand went quicker than our brain.&#8221; Observe the child&#8217;s body language.</li>
			<li>If the child nods, suggest to them to try again but using a stop signal. This signal can be visually presented or can be presented as a clue (e.g., lifting the palm of his hand). 
			NOTE: Techniques used in indirect communication include metaphors, introductory phrases, saturation of channels of information, indirect questions, hypothetical phrases, ambiguous terms, silence, dissociation, paradox, false alternative options, melodramatic expression or confusion, prescription of the symptom, and post-trance amnesia.</li>
		</ol>
		</li>
		<li>If the therapist observes the child repeats the error and he/she is blocked, use some metaphor (Ericksonian hypnosis) to change the belief that is blocking the participant. An example is presented below.
		<ol>
			<li>If the blocking belief is &#8220;I am not able to do this task&#8221;, use a pacing prescription like: &#8220;Maybe, at this moment, we feel bad because we know we have failed but look, I am going to explain to you a very interesting story, do you agree?&#8221;</li>
			<li>If the child nods, narrate a story to motivate them. Now, ask them to repeat the task.</li>
		</ol>
		</li>
		<li>Intervene through indirect communication if the child solves the task using a strategy that is inappropriate and they do not modify it without help. If the metaphor can allow the participant to see other alternatives or other strategies, allow them to solve the task successfully.</li>
		<li>Use inductive learning and indirect communication throughout the procedure. The effect of the procedure lies in communicating knowledge (messages) without transmitting pain or discomfort, whether consciously or unconsciously. This requires interpreting body language and verbal language as a transmitter of feeling. Self-verbal report is unreliable. This experience increases self-confidence. 
		NOTE: Both indirect communication (what it is) and its rationale are explained in the discussion section.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>

The authors have nothing to disclose.

As expected, the training, Adventures of Fundi, was useful to intervene in ADHD behavioral dysfunction based on both the PASS cognitive processing and self-confidence emotional processing. The success is in terms of better cognitive processing and better behavior. The better cognitive processing is mainly in planning and not so much in attention (Table 1). PASS planning and selective attention join the executive function. It is well known that a better executive function is associated with a better behav...

Decision making is linked to the behavior and most behaviors implies decision-making. Decision making, and, also learning, involves both cognitive and emotional processing. The cognitive processing can be conceptualized and assessed according to the planning, attention, successive and simultaneous (PASS) theory of intelligence1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. According to PASS, any behavior is the output of neurological central information processing10. Therefore, paying attention must be considered a behavior that is independent of the central processing of information1,2,3,7,8,9,10,11,12. One may not pay attention (observable behavior), but the central attention processing may be working on something different. On the other hand, the emotional processing includes the fear processing responsible for self-confidence (self-esteem) or lack of confidence13,14,15. The fear processing is the underlying undifferentiated autonomic physiological basis of all emotions. Like most emotions (or &#8220;affects&#8221; or &#8220;moods&#8221;), fear begins in the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure responsible for detecting threats to our well-being.
Both the cognitive and the emotional processing can happen consciously or more often unconsciously, which is a crucial point to substantiate the diagnosis and intervention of ADHD behavior or any other behavior. Growing and converging neuroscientific evidence indicates that not only unconscious-involuntary processing16,17,18,19,20,21 but also anticipatory unconscious processing22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35 are true in decision-making. Particularly, a new study on the neuroscience of the interpersonal unconscious (implicit) subliminal communication is evidence of this36.
Decision-making is based on the self-confident feeling associated with what it is cognitively processed, implicitly more frequently than explicitly37,38,39,40,41. The self-confidence is associated with self-concept (beliefs of the knowledge base), but we claim that decision-making is based on what one feels consciously and unconsciously, but not on deliberate rational calculation of consequences38. In fact, the rational arguments that people express (verbal report) to explain behavior and decision-making are a posteriori phenomenon and a cognitive bias42,43 triggered by the fear processing. First, reaction to feeling occurs, and then an explanation is unconsciously implemented as a posteriori phenomenon. A self-verbal report is questionable. Cognition/emotion research is plagued by problems in which it is not clear what is the emotion response. This is the path to understand the emotional fear response. Therefore, decision making, self-confidence and behavior are closely linked.
From the viewpoint of therapeutic intervention, how exactly should the intervention be carried out? What should be the common and essential properties of the procedure of intervention, mediation, or teaching? Considering the previously expressed procedures, inductive learning2 and indirect communications (metaphor and Ericksonian hypnosis)14,44 are recommended. Growing and converging evidence from neuroscientific investigations45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53 shows some neurological mechanisms of the indirect communication.
Concerning inductive learning, the emphasis is on the child&#8217;s solution to the task, not on rehearsing an adult instructed verbal procedure. It aims at enhancing the processing strategies that underlie the task, while avoiding direct teaching of skills. Successful inductive learning is an experience that provides a growth of the self-concept of personal abilities, and so a growth of self-confidence. In contrast, direct teaching involving more-of-the-same kind of work turns off the interest and motivation. The distinctive feature here is the tacit acquisition and use of appropriate processing strategies in contrast to instruction learning; this is the inductive rather than the deductive rule-learning approach. The child must see the insufficiency in the old approach or strategy and the need for developing a new strategy.
Here, we have shown the foundation (rationale) of the technique Fundi&#39;s Adventures as a tool of remedial therapy to apply it in the clinical setting. There are no published previous studies with this program Fundi&#39;s Adventure. The main advantage of this procedure is that it is not based on the self-verbal report. In contrast, countless alternative techniques are based on deductive learning, direct communication and literal interpretation of the self-verbal report.
In the example presented in this manuscript, Fundi&#8217;s Adventure intervention was performed in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) patients. ADHD is a behavioral dysfunction in terms of inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive behavior, which involves a dysfunctional decision making12. Any behavior implies decision making. ADHD is likely caused by a combination of genetics and earlier experience. The overall goal of this protocol is to test the hypothesis about the effectiveness of a go/no-go decision task (Fundi&#39;s Adventures) based on both inductive learning and indirect communication in a sample of ADHD children. It has been reported that the basic neuropsychological constructs of the go/no-go task are preserved in the emotional investigation54.

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			<td height="63" style="height:63px;width:203px;">The Adventures of Fundi</td>
			<td style="width:196px;">Fundaci&#243; Carme Vidal Xifre de Neuropsicopedagogia</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">---</td>
			<td style="width:841px;">The &#34;Adventures of Fundi&#34; has been designed with the objective of helping to improve the concentration, attention and control of impulsivity for Secondary Education students and it is also possible to apply it to Students in the last cycle of Primary Education. To execute the &#34;Adventures of Fundi&#34; a browser with internet conection is required.</td>
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			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:203px;">Computer with internet connection and browser</td>
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			<td>Mozilla, Firefox, Chrome or Safari</td>
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the adventures of fundi intervention based on the cognitive and emotional processing in attention deficit hyperactive disorder patients

Many children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) are known to have executive dysfunction, which weakens their abilities to learn and behave in daily living. This protocol describes the methodology that is required for the intervention (psychotherapy) based on planning, attention, successive, and simultaneous (PASS theory) cognitive processing and fear emotional processing. It provides guiding principles and practical recommendations. A disproportionately high level of fear (dysregulation) increases the vulnerability for dysfunction in learning and behavior. We explain the interplay between emotion and cognition at the neurological level.
A go/no go task (The Adventures of Fundi), which involves decision making, is administered in a PC- mode to a sample of 66 ADHD subjects. The Adventures of Fundi, a computer program, was constructed to induce successive or simultaneous processing when involving the training of planning and selective attention. It aims to improve the executive function with planning and selective attention. If executive function improves, learning improves, and behavior ameliorates. After intervention over 6 months, remission was achieved in 70% of subjects.
The instructor encourages the use of appropriate strategies and points out the ways in which the strategies can be useful in finding the solution to the problem (go/no go). The emphasis is not on rehearsing and adult instructed verbal sequence. The verbalization may reveal the conscious verbalized strategy to solve a task that is not really the strategy being unconsciously used in that case. A self-verbal report is unreliable. This is an inductive learning rather than deductive rule-learning approach central to cognitive PASS training. This inductive training has proved to produce not only near transfer but also far transfer.
Noncognitive factors (emotional factors) must be considered to maximize the benefit of cognitive training. Indirect and metaphorical communication considers the emotional factor.

A random, prospective, longitudinal, uncontrolled, analytical study (before &#8211; after) was designed. We recruited 66 pharmacologically untreated combined ADHD children according to DSM-V criteria, aged 13-15 years with a mean of 13.89 years with SD &#177; 0.8 (47 males and 19 females). They also met ADHD criteria according to SNAP-IV-18. Statistical analysis was conducted using a paired Student t-test and effect size statistics (Cohen&#8217;s &#948;) was applied.
All 66 children in the stu...

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The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients

This protocol illustrates a remedial therapy based on inductive learning and indirect communication (Ericksonian metaphorical hypnosis) that can be applied to children with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). Particularly, this protocol is intended to test the effectiveness of a go/no-go decision task. Neuroscientific rationale is presented throughout the text.

Many children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) are known to have executive dysfunction, which weakens their abilities to learn and ...

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5.5K Views.  University of Girona. This protocol illustrates a remedial therapy based on inductive learning and indirect communication (Ericksonian metaphorical hypnosis) that can be applied to children with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). Particularly, this protocol is intended to test the effectiveness of a go/no-go decision task. Neuroscientific rationale is presented throughout the text.

Video: The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Kinesthetic awareness is important to successfully navigate the environment. When we interact with our daily surroundings, some aspects of movement are deliberately planned, while others spontaneously occur below conscious awareness. The deliberate component of this dichotomy has been studied extensively in several contexts, while the spontaneous component remains largely under-explored. Moreover, how perceptual processes modulate these movement classes is still unclear. In particular, a currently debated issue is whether the visuomotor system is governed by the spatial percept produced by a visual illusion or whether it is not affected by the illusion and is governed instead by the veridical percept. Bistable percepts such as 3D depth inversion illusions (DIIs) provide an excellent context to study such interactions and balance, particularly when used in combination with reach-to-grasp movements. In this study, a methodology is developed that uses a DII to clarify the role of top-down processes on motor action, particularly exploring how reaches toward a target on a DII are affected in both deliberate and spontaneous movement domains.

It is unclear how top-down signals from the ventral visual stream affect movement. We developed a paradigm to test motor behavior towards a target on a 3D depth inversion illusion. Significant differences are reported in both deliberate, goal-directed movements and automatic actions under illusory and veridical viewing conditions.

Kinesthetic awareness is important to successfully navigate the environment. When we interact with our daily surroundings, some aspects of movement are ...

Investigating the Effects of Antipsychotics and Schizotypy on the N400 Using Event-Related Potentials and Semantic Categorization

Within the field of cognitive neuroscience, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a popular method of visualizing brain function. This is in part because of its excellent spatial resolution, which allows researchers to identify brain areas associated with specific cognitive processes. However, in the quest to localize brain functions, it is relevant to note that many cognitive, sensory, and motor processes have temporal distinctions that are imperative to capture, an aspect that is left unfulfilled by fMRI&#8217;s suboptimal temporal resolution. To better understand cognitive processes, it is thus advantageous to utilize event-related potential (ERP) recording as a method of gathering information about the brain. Some of its advantages include its fantastic temporal resolution, which gives researchers the ability to follow the activity of the brain down to the millisecond. It also directly indexes both excitatory and inhibitory post-synaptic potentials by which most brain computations are performed. This sits in contrast to fMRI, which captures an index of metabolic activity. Further, the non-invasive ERP method does not require a contrast condition: raw ERPs can be examined for just one experimental condition, a distinction from fMRI where control conditions must be subtracted from the experimental condition, leading to uncertainty in associating observations with experimental or contrast conditions. While it is limited by its poor spatial and subcortical activity resolution, ERP recordings&#8217; utility, relative cost-effectiveness, and associated advantages offer strong rationale for its use in cognitive neuroscience to track rapid temporal changes in neural activity. In an effort to foster increase in its use as a research imaging method, and to ensure proper and accurate data collection, the present article will outline &#8211; in the framework of a paradigm using semantic categorization to examine the effects of antipsychotics and schizotypy on the N400 &#8211; the procedure and key aspects associated with ERP data acquisition.

Using event-related EEG potentials (ERPs), we investigate the effects of antipsychotic medications on abnormal semantic brain activations in healthy individuals with schizotypal traits. We use ERPs to track distinct changes in brain activity, shedding insight into the cognitive processes associated with semantic categorization.

Within the field of cognitive neuroscience, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a popular method of visualizing brain function. This is in ...

Mindfulness in Motion (MIM): An Onsite Mindfulness Based Intervention (MBI) for Chronically High Stress Work Environments to Increase Resiliency and Work Engagement

A pragmatic mindfulness intervention to benefit personnel working in chronically high-stress environments, delivered onsite during the workday, is timely and valuable to employee and employer alike. Mindfulness in Motion (MIM) is a Mindfulness Based Intervention (MBI) offered as a modified, less time intensive method (compared to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction), delivered onsite, during work, and intends to enable busy working adults to experience the benefits of mindfulness. It teaches mindful awareness principles, rehearses mindfulness as a group, emphasizes the use of gentle yoga stretches, and utilizes relaxing music in the background of both the group sessions and individual mindfulness practice. MIM is delivered in a group format, for 1 hr/week/8 weeks. CDs and a DVD are provided to facilitate individual practice. The yoga movement is emphasized in the protocol to facilitate a quieting of the mind. The music is included for participants to associate the relaxed state experienced in the group session with their individual practice. To determine the intervention feasibility/efficacy we conducted a randomized wait-list control group in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). ICUs represent a high-stress work environment where personnel experience chronic exposure to catastrophic situations as they care for seriously injured/ill patients. Despite high levels of work-related stress, few interventions have been developed and delivered onsite for such environments. The intervention is delivered on site in the ICU, during work hours, with participants receiving time release to attend sessions. The intervention is well received with 97% retention rate. Work engagement and resiliency increase significantly in the intervention group, compared to the wait-list control group, while participant respiration rates decrease significantly pre-post in 6/8 of the weekly sessions. Participants value institutional support, relaxing music, and the instructor as pivotal to program success. This provides evidence that MIM is feasible, well accepted, and can be effectively implemented in a chronically high-stress work environment.

Mindfulness in Motion MIM: An Onsite Mindfulness Based Intervention MBI for Chronically High Stress Work Environments to Increase Resiliency and Work Engagement

The Mindfulness in Motion (MIM) protocol offers a pragmatic Mindfulness Based Intervention (MBI) on-site, for persons working in chronically high-stress work environments that significantly increases resiliency and work engagement. The protocol has proven feasible, beneficial, and is easily adaptable to other high-stress workplaces.

A pragmatic mindfulness intervention to benefit personnel working in chronically high-stress environments, delivered onsite during the workday, is timely ...

Methods to Test Visual Attention Online

Online data collection methods have particular appeal to behavioral scientists because they offer the promise of much larger and much more representative data samples than can typically be collected on college campuses. However, before such methods can be widely adopted, a number of technological challenges must be overcome &#8211; in particular in experiments where tight control over stimulus properties is necessary. Here we present methods for collecting performance data on two tests of visual attention. Both tests require control over the visual angle of the stimuli (which in turn requires knowledge of the viewing distance, monitor size, screen resolution, etc.) and the timing of the stimuli (as the tests involve either briefly flashed stimuli or stimuli that move at specific rates). Data collected on these tests from over 1,700 online participants were consistent with data collected in laboratory-based versions of the exact same tests. These results suggest that with proper care, timing/stimulus size dependent tasks can be deployed in web-based settings.

To replicate laboratory settings, online data collection methods for visual tasks require tight control over stimulus presentation. We outline methods for the use of a web application to collect performance data on two tests of visual attention.

Online data collection methods have particular appeal to behavioral scientists because they offer the promise of much larger and much more representative ...

Combined Invasive Subcortical and Non-invasive Surface Neurophysiological Recordings for the Assessment of Cognitive and Emotional Functions in Humans

In spite of the success in applying non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG), magneto-encephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for extracting crucial information about the mechanism of the human brain, such methods remain insufficient to provide information about physiological processes reflecting cognitive and emotional functions at the subcortical level. In this respect, modern invasive clinical approaches in humans, such as deep brain stimulation (DBS), offer a tremendous possibility to record subcortical brain activity, namely local field potentials (LFPs) representing coherent activity of neural assemblies from localized basal ganglia or thalamic regions. Notwithstanding the fact that invasive approaches in humans are applied only after medical indication and thus recorded data correspond to altered brain circuits, valuable insight can be gained regarding the presence of intact brain functions in relation to brain oscillatory activity and the pathophysiology of disorders in response to experimental cognitive paradigms. In this direction, a growing number of DBS studies in patients with Parkinson&#39;s disease (PD) target not only motor functions but also higher level processes such as emotions, decision-making, attention, memory and sensory perception. Recent clinical trials also emphasize the role of DBS as an alternative treatment in neuropsychiatric disorders ranging from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) to chronic disorders of consciousness (DOC). Consequently, we focus on the use of combined invasive (LFP) and non-invasive (EEG) human brain recordings in assessing the role of cortical-subcortical structures in cognitive and emotional processing trough experimental paradigms (e.g. speech stimuli with emotional connotation or paradigms of cognitive control such as the Flanker task), for patients undergoing DBS treatment.

The present protocol aims at assessing cognitive-emotional functions in the basal ganglia by simultaneous neurophysiological recording of local field potentials and non-invasive brain cortical activity (EEG). The procedure is exemplified by the use of paradigms involving speech stimuli with emotional connotation or the Flanker task involving cognitive control.

In spite of the success in applying non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG), magneto-encephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging ...

The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content

The emotional Stroop effect (ESE) is the result of longer naming latencies to ink colors of emotion words than to ink colors of neutral words. The difference shows that people are affected by the emotional content conveyed by the carrier words even though they are irrelevant to the color-naming task at hand. The ESE has been widely deployed with patient populations, as well as with non-selected populations, because the emotion words can be selected to match the tested pathology. The ESE is a powerful tool, yet it is vulnerable to various threats to its validity. This report refers to potential sources of confounding and includes a modal experiment that provides the means to control for them. The most prevalent threat to the validity of existing ESE studies is sustained effects and habituation wrought about by repeated exposure to emotion stimuli. Consequently, the order of exposure to emotion and neutral stimuli is of utmost importance. We show that in the standard design, only one specific order produces the ESE.

The emotional Stroop effect (ESE) is the result of longer naming latencies to ink colors of emotion words than those of neutral words. This report refers to potential sources of confounding and includes a modal experiment that provides the means to control for them.

The emotional Stroop effect (ESE) is the result of longer naming latencies to ink colors of emotion words than to ink colors of neutral words. The ...

A Pressure Injection System for Investigating the Neuropharmacology of Information Processing in Awake Behaving Macaque Monkey Cortex

The top-down modulation of feed-forward cortical information processing is functionally important for many cognitive processes, including the modulation of sensory information processing by attention. However, little is known about which neurotransmitter systems are involved in such modulations. A practical way to address this question is to combine single-cell recording with local and temporary neuropharmacological manipulation in a suitable animal model. Here we demonstrate a technique combining acute single-cell recordings with the injection of neuropharmacological agents in the direct vicinity of the recording electrode. The video shows the preparation of the pressure injection/recording system, including preparation of the substance to be injected. We show a rhesus monkey performing a visual attention task and the procedure of single-unit recording with block-wise pharmacological manipulations.

Here, we show the pressure injection of neuropharmacological substances during single-cell recording in an awake, behaving macaque monkey. This procedure allows pharmacological manipulation in the direct vicinity of a cortical recording site.

The top-down modulation of feed-forward cortical information processing is functionally important for many cognitive processes, including the modulation ...

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Several neuroimaging studies have suggested that the low spatial frequency content in an emotional face mainly activates the amygdala, pulvinar, and superior colliculus especially with fearful faces1-3. These regions constitute the limbic structure in non-conscious perception of emotions and modulate cortical activity either directly or indirectly2. In contrast, the conscious representation of emotions is more pronounced in the anterior cingulate, prefrontal cortex, and somatosensory cortex for directing voluntary attention to details in faces3,4. Asperger&#39;s syndrome (AS)5,6 represents an atypical mental disturbance that affects sensory, affective and communicative abilities, without interfering with normal linguistic skills and intellectual ability. Several studies have found that functional deficits in the neural circuitry important for facial emotion recognition can partly explain social communication failure in patients with AS7-9. In order to clarify the interplay between conscious and non-conscious representations of emotional faces in AS, an EEG experimental protocol is designed with two tasks involving emotionality evaluation of either photograph or line-drawing faces. A pilot study is introduced for selecting face stimuli that minimize the differences in reaction times and scores assigned to facial emotions between the pretested patients with AS and IQ/gender-matched healthy controls. Information from the pretested patients was used to develop the scoring system used for the emotionality evaluation. Research into facial emotions and visual stimuli with different spatial frequency contents has reached discrepant findings depending on the demographic characteristics of participants and task demands2. The experimental protocol is intended to clarify deficits in patients with AS in processing emotional faces when compared with healthy controls by controlling for factors unrelated to recognition of facial emotions, such as task difficulty, IQ and gender.

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger&#039;s Syndrome

An EEG experimental protocol is designed to clarify the interplay between conscious and non-conscious representations of emotional faces in patients with Asperger&#39;s syndrome. The technique suggests that patients with Asperger&#39;s syndrome have deficits in non-conscious representation of emotional faces, but have comparable performance in conscious representation with healthy controls.

Several neuroimaging studies have suggested that the low spatial frequency content in an emotional face mainly activates the amygdala, pulvinar, and ...

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

This protocol describes how to conduct temporal-order experiments to measure visual processing speed and the attentional resource distribution. The proposed method is based on a new and synergistic combination of three components: the temporal-order judgments (TOJ) paradigm, Bundesen&#39;s Theory of Visual Attention (TVA), and a hierarchical Bayesian estimation framework. The method provides readily interpretable parameters, which are supported by the theoretical and neurophysiological underpinnings of TVA. Using TOJs, TVA-based estimates can be obtained for a broad range of stimuli, whereas traditional paradigms used with TVA are mainly limited to letters and digits. Finally, the meaningful parameters of the proposed model allow for the establishment of a hierarchical Bayesian model. Such a statistical model allows assessing results in one coherent analysis both on the subject and the group level.
To demonstrate the feasibility and versatility of this new approach, three experiments are reported with attention manipulations in synthetic pop-out displays, natural images, and a cued letter-report paradigm.

Temporal-order judgments can be used to estimate processing speed parameters and attentional weights and thereby to infer the mechanisms of attentional processing. This methodology can be applied to a wide range of visual stimuli and works with many attention manipulations.

This protocol describes how to conduct temporal-order experiments to measure visual processing speed and the attentional resource distribution. The ...

Central and Divided Visual Field Presentation of Emotional Images to Measure Hemispheric Differences in Motivated Attention

Two dominant theories on lateralized processing of emotional information exist in the literature. One theory posits that unpleasant emotions are processed by right frontal regions, while pleasant emotions are processed by left frontal regions. The other theory posits that the right hemisphere is more specialized for the processing of emotional information overall, particularly in posterior regions.
Assessing the different roles of the cerebral hemispheres in processing emotional information can be difficult without the use of neuroimaging methodologies, which are not accessible or affordable to all scientists. Divided visual field presentation of stimuli can allow for the investigation of lateralized processing of information without the use of neuroimaging technology. 
This study compared central versus divided visual field presentations of emotional images to assess differences in motivated attention between the two hemispheres. The late positive potential (LPP) was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) methodologies to assess motivated attention. Future work will pair this paradigm with a more active behavioral task to explore the behavioral impacts on the attentional differences found.

This study compared central versus divided visual field presentations of emotional images to assess differences in motivated attention between the two hemispheres. The late positive potential (LPP) was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) methodologies to assess motivated attention.

Two dominant theories on lateralized processing of emotional information exist in the literature. One theory posits that unpleasant emotions are processed ...