Brain Sciences

When one sense is unavailable, sensory responsibilities shift and processing of the remaining modalities becomes enhanced to compensate for missing information. This shift, referred to as compensatory plasticity, results in a unique sensory experience for individuals who are deaf, including the manner in which music is perceived. This paper evaluates the neural, behavioural and cognitive evidence for compensatory plasticity following auditory deprivation and considers how this manifests in a unique experience of music that emphasizes visual and vibrotactile modalities.

New paradigms are required in Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems for the needs and expectations of healthy people. To solve this issue, we explore the emerging field of cooperative BCIs, which involves several users in a single BCI system. Contrary to classical BCIs that are dependent on the unique subject's will, cooperative BCIs are used for problem solving tasks where several people shall be engaged by sharing a common goal. Similarly as combining trials over time improves performance, combining trials across subjects can significantly improve performance compared with when only a single user is involved. Yet, cooperative BCIs may only be used in particular settings, and new paradigms must be proposed to efficiently use this approach. The possible benefits of using several subjects are addressed, and compared with current single-subject BCI paradigms. To show the advantages of a cooperative BCI, we evaluate the performance of combining decisions across subjects with data ...

The brain is probably the most complex object in the universe. Many think that the neuron structure in the brains resembles the structure in the universe, however, this thinking is not supported by any theory other than figurative comparisons. Brain science though have made tremendous advances in the last couple of decades, is based mostly on correlation of scan data, which lacks an underlaying or ontological understanding of the formation or the brain. Or rather, the formation of our brains is thought to be purely a physical process and then consciousness appear.  But one of the hard problems on consciousness is how and why can consciousness result merely from putting together non-conscious matter in certain complex ways? In other words, the current understanding of brain is nothing more than correlation of bunches of organic compounds or meats. This understanding is definitely not built on science of consciousness. That is why a part of critical brain, the limbic system is even termed as unconscious. For Buddhism, all physical phenomena arise from consciousness of sentient beings and this certainly include our bodies and brains. As we have seen and discussed extensively in Paper III , this work of creation is the 8th Consciousness. 8th Consciousness is said to reside in the organ heart although in reality it is non-local or it has the entire universe. If that is true, then the structure of our brains and hearts must follow certain rules of the Buddhism theory. It is the intent of this paper to show that the structure and layout of the brain and heart follows the definitions of 8 Consciousness, 5 Skandas, and 12 Ayatana / 18 Realms in Mind-Only school. Our hearts having a role in our consciousness is a new field of research.  The relationship between heart and brain will be discussed here.  What does string theory have to do with this?  The 11th dimension in string theory is the 8th Consciousness in Mind-Only school has been a central theme from Paper I to III. As mentioned in Paper III, the shape of Calabi-Yau Manifolds in string theory, though much simpler, resembles the many-fold structure of our brains and this cannot be a coincidence especially the Calabi-Yau Manifolds is shown to be Consciousness.  String theory has predicted many unobserved particles, some of which are of different masses and many are massless, these particles especially the massless ones could be biophotons which we are just starting to understand.

BOLD fMRI is often used for the study of human language. However, there are still very few attempts to conduct longitudinal fMRI studies in the study of language acquisition by measuring auditory comprehension and reading. The following paper is the first in a series concerning a unique longitudinal study devoted to the analysis of bi- and multilingual subjects who are: (1) already proficient in at least two languages; or (2) are acquiring Russian as a second/third language. The focus of the current analysis is to present data from the auditory sections of a set of three scans acquired from April, 2011 through April, 2012 on a five-person subject pool who are learning Russian during the study. All subjects were scanned using the same protocol for auditory comprehension on the same General Electric LX 3T Signa scanner in Duke University Hospital. Using a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) for statistical analysis, proficiency measurements are shown to correlate significant...

It is commonly believed that consciousness is a higher brain function. Here we consider the likelihood, based on abundant neuroevolutionary data that lower brain affective phenomenal experiences provide the "energy" for the developmental construction of higher forms of cognitive consciousness. This view is concordant with many of the theoretical formulations of Sigmund Freud. In this reconceptualization, all of consciousness may be dependent on the original evolution of affective phenomenal experiences that coded survival values. These subcortical energies provided a foundation that could be used for the epigenetic construction of perceptual and other higher forms of consciousness. From this perspective, perceptual experiences were initially affective at the primary-process brainstem level, but capable of being elaborated by secondary learning and memory processes into tertiary-cognitive forms of consciousness. Within this view, although all individual neural activities ar...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder, whose etiology and pathogenesis are still largely unknown. In order to uncover novel regulatory networks and molecular pathways possibly related to ADHD, we performed an integrated miRNA and mRNA expression profiling analysis in peripheral blood samples of children with ADHD and age-matched typically developing (TD) children. The expression levels of 13 miRNAs were evaluated with microfluidic qPCR, and differentially expressed (DE) mRNAs were detected on an Illumina HiSeq 2500 genome analyzer. The miRNA targetome was identified using an integrated approach of validated and predicted interaction data extracted from seven different bioinformatic tools. Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment analyses were carried out. Results showed that six miRNAs (miR-652-3p, miR-942-5p, let-7b-5p, miR-181a-5p, miR-320a, and miR-148b-3p) and 560 genes were significantly DE in children with ADHD compar...

The authors wish to make the following correction to this paper (Cecotti, H.; Rivet, B. Subject Combination and Electrode Selection in Cooperative Brain-Computer Interface Based on Event Related Potentials. Brain Sci. 2014, 4, 335-355). Dut to an error the reference number in the original published paper were not shown. The former main text should be replaced as below.

Chan state (one type of meditative states) is unconceivable, which practitioners could achieve to the degree of neither arising nor ceasing, neither identical nor different, with only penetrated by intuitive insight instead of conceptual discrimination. From the perspective of contemporary brain science, is it possible to achieve such Chan state (one type of meditative states)? By collecting present research achievements on brain science experiments related with Chan state (meditative states), this problem is deeply analyzed, with the result that meditative state is a special mental activity different from dormant state of consciousness. Such meditative state has its unique characteristics of brain wave. Frequent meditation training will not only be beneficial to personal physiological quality and physical health, but it also promotes people's understanding to life and emotion, thus improving life quality. By analysis, it is certain to discover that although contemporary brain science experiments provide verifying methods to testify meditative state achievement, yet in the sense of meditative theory, ordinary people still are unable to understand such subjective experience "self-knowing as it is, cold or warm 冷暖自知" in meditation. It is believed that with the constant development of brain science, brain science must be able to provide more scientific evidences for the probability of regulating physical and mental health through meditative activities, and for the improvement of life quality through Chan state (one type of meditative activities). This paper is to make study on brain science experiments on Chan state as one type of meditative states, so the following discussion mainly refers to Chan cultivation to achieve Chan state as one type of meditative states in Buddhism, especially sudden teaching in Chinese Buddhism.

Particularly with the fundamental works of the Leipzig school of experimental
psychophysiology (between the 1850s and 1880s), the modern neurosciences witnessed an increasing interest in attempts to objectify “pain” as a bodily signal and physiological
value. This development has led to refined psychological test repertoires and new clinical
measurement techniques, which became progressively paired with imaging approaches and sophisticated theories about neuropathological pain etiology. With the advent of
electroencephalography since the middle of the 20th century, and through the use of brain stimulation technologies and modern neuroimaging, the chosen scientific route towards an ever more refined “objectification” of pain phenomena took firm root in Western medicine. This article provides a broad overview of landmark events and key imaging technologies, which represent the long developmental path of a field that could be called “algesiogenic pathology.”

Chanting is a form of rhythmic, repetitive vocalization practiced in a wide range of cultures. It is used in spiritual practice to strengthen community, heal illness, and overcome psychological and emotional difficulties. In many traditions, chanting is used to induce mystical states, an altered state of consciousness characterised by a profound sense of peace. Despite the global prevalence of chanting, its psychological effects are poorly understood. This investigation examined the psychological and contextual factors associated with mystical states during chanting. Data were analyzed from 464 participants across 33 countries who regularly engaged in chanting. Results showed that 60% of participants experienced mystical states during chanting. Absorption, altruism, and religiosity were higher among people who reported mystical states while chanting compared to those who did not report mystical states. There was no difference in mystical experience scores between vocal, silent, grou...

Stroke is a leading cause of death, disability and dementia worldwide. Despite extensive pre-clinical investigation, few therapeutic treatment options are available to patients, meaning that death, severe disability and the requirement for long-term rehabilitation are common outcomes. Cell loss and tissue injury following stroke occurs through a number of diverse secondary injury pathways, whose delayed nature provides an opportunity for pharmacological intervention. Amongst these secondary injury factors, increased blood-brain barrier permeability and cerebral oedema are well-documented complications of cerebral ischaemia, whose severity has been shown to be associated with final outcome. Whilst the mechanisms of increased blood-brain barrier permeability and cerebral oedema are largely unknown, recent evidence suggests that the neuropeptide substance P (SP) plays a central role. The aim of this review is to examine the role of SP in ischaemic stroke and report on the potential uti...

One of the several ways in which affect may influence cognition is when people use affect as a source of information about external events. Emotional reasoning, ex-consequentia reasoning, and affect-as-information are terms referring to the mechanism that can lead people to take their emotions as information about the external world, even when the emotion is not generated by the situation to be evaluated. Pre-existing emotions may thus bias evaluative judgments of unrelated events or topics. From this perspective, the more people experience a particular kind of affect, the more they may rely on it as a source of valid information. Indeed, in several studies, it was found that adult patients suffering from psychological disorders tend to use negative affect to estimate the negative event as more severe and more likely and to negatively evaluate preventive performance. The findings on this topic have contributed to the debate that theorizes the use of emotional reasoning as responsibl...

Stanley Finger et al., eds. The Fine Arts, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Neuro-Historical Dimensions; The Fine Arts, Neurology, and Neuroscience: New Discoveries and Changing Landscapes; Literature, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Historical and Literary Connections; Literature, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders (Amsterdam, Elsevier, 2013, Progress in Brain Research, vols. 203-206)

In this discussion paper, I review a number of common misconceptions about the phonological deficit theory (PDH) of dyslexia. These include the common but mistaken idea that the PDH is simply about phonemic awareness (PA), and, consequently, is a circular “pseudo”-explanation or epiphenomenon of reading difficulties. I argue that PA is only the “tip of the phonological iceberg” and that “deeper” spoken-language phonological impairments among dyslexics appear well before the onset of reading and even at birth. Furthermore, not even reading-specific expressions of phonological deficits—PA or pseudoword naming, can be considered circular if we clearly distinguish between reading proper—real meaning-bearing words, or real text, and the mechanisms (subskills) of reading development (such as phonological recoding). I also explain why an understanding of what constitutes an efficient writing system explains why phonology is necessarily a major source of variability in reading ability and h...

The latency of startle reflex potentiation may shed light on the aware and unaware processes underlying associative learning, especially associative fear learning. We review research suggesting that single-cue delay classical conditioning is independent of awareness of the contingency between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US). Moreover, we discuss research that argues that conditioning independent of awareness has not been proven. Subsequently, three studies from our lab are presented that have investigated the role of awareness in classical conditioning, by measuring the minimum latency from CS onset to observed changes in reflexive behavior. In sum, research using this method shows that startle is potentiated 30 to 100 ms after CS onset following delay conditioning. Following trace fear conditioning, startle is potentiated 1500 ms after CS presentation. These results indicate that the process underlying delay conditioned responding is independent of...

The benefits of early detection and classification of epileptic seizures in analysis, monitoring and diagnosis for the realization and actualization of computer-aided devices and recent internet of medical things (IoMT) devices can never be overemphasized. The success of these applications largely depends on the accuracy of the detection and classification techniques employed. Several methods have been investigated, proposed and developed over the years. This paper investigates various seizure detection algorithms and classifications in the last decade, including conventional techniques and recent deep learning algorithms. It also discusses epileptiform detection as one of the steps towards advanced diagnoses of disorders of consciousness (DOCs) and their understanding. A performance comparison was carried out on the different algorithms investigated, and their advantages and disadvantages were explored. From our survey, much attention has recently been paid to exploring the efficac...

Stress and diet are intricately linked, and they often interact in a negative fashion. Increases in stress can lead to poor food choices; adolescence is a period that is often accompanied by increased levels of stress. Stress and poor dietary choices can affect learning and memory; it is important to understand their combined effects when occurring during crucial developmental periods. Here, we present evidence that chronic mild unpredictable stress (CMUS) and high-fat diet (HFD) impact both cognitive and noncognitive behaviors when assessed after four weeks of manipulation in four-week old mice. CMUS mice had increased anxiety in the open field test (OFT) (p = 0.01) and spent more time in the open arms of the elevated zero maze (EZM) (p < 0.01). HFD administration was shown to interact with CMUS to impair spatial memory in the Morris Water Maze (MWM) (p < 0.05). Stress and diet also led to disturbances in non-cognitive behaviors: CMUS led to significantly more burrowing (p &l...

Cognitive impairment, associated with ageing, stress, hypertension and various neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy, is a major health issue. The present review focuses on Alzheimer’s disease (AD), since it is the most important cause of cognitive impairment. It is characterized by progressive memory loss, language deficits, depression, agitation, mood disturbances and psychosis. Although the hallmarks of AD are cholinergic dysfunction, β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangle formation, it is also associated with derangement of other neurotransmitters, elevated levels of advanced glycation end products, oxidative damage, neuroinflammation, genetic and environmental factors. On one hand, this complex etiopathology makes a response to commonly used drugs such as donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine and memantine less predictable and often unsatisfactory. On the other hand, it supports the use of herbal medicines due to their nonspecific antioxida...

Initially, infants are capable of discriminating phonetic contrasts across the world's languages. Starting between seven and ten months of age, they gradually lose this ability through a process of perceptual narrowing. Although traditionally investigated with isolated speech sounds, such narrowing occurs in a variety of perceptual domains (e.g., faces, visual speech). Thus far, tracking the developmental trajectory of this tuning process has been focused primarily on auditory speech alone, and generally using isolated sounds. But infants learn from speech produced by people talking to them, meaning they learn from a complex audiovisual signal. Here, we use near-infrared spectroscopy to measure blood concentration changes in the bilateral temporal cortices of infants in three different age groups: 3-to-6 months, 7-to-10 months, and 11-to-14-months. Critically, all three groups of infants were tested with continuous audiovisual speech in both their native and another, unfamiliar ...

Chanting is a form of rhythmic, repetitive vocalization practiced in a wide range of cultures. It is used in spiritual practice to strengthen community, heal illness, and overcome psychological and emotional difficulties. In many traditions, chanting is used to induce mystical states, an altered state of consciousness characterised by a profound sense of peace. Despite the global prevalence of chanting, its psychological effects are poorly understood. This investigation examined the psychological and contextual factors associated with mystical states during chanting. Data were analyzed from 464 participants across 33 countries who regularly engaged in chanting. Results showed that 60% of participants experienced mystical states during chanting. Absorption, altruism, and religiosity were higher among people who reported mystical states while chanting compared to those who did not report mystical states. There was no difference in mystical experience scores between vocal, silent, grou...