Cognitive task performance under (combined) conditions of a metabolic and sensory stressor

Effects of stressors on cognitive task performance have primarily been studied in isolation, and little is known about the combined effects of two or more stressors. This study examined how a metabolic stressor (skipping breakfast) and a sensory stressor (noise) affect cognitive task performance in isolation and combined. In addition to...

Screen‐Printed Dry Electrodes: Basic Characterization and Benchmarking

The electrical performance of screen‐printed dry electrodes on thermoplastic polyurethane substrates are evaluated according to their conformance to international standards, skin‐electrode impedance, and ability to gather high quality electrocardiograms. The electrical behavior of seven screen‐printed electrodes (Ag, Ag/PEDOT:PSS, Ag/AgCl, Ag...

Multimodal Physiological Synchrony as Measure of Attentional Engagement

Shared attention reflected in eeg, electrodermal activity and heart rate

Monitoring directed auditory attention in groups can be helpful in a range of contexts. Concurrent change in physiological variables across multiple listeners (physiological synchrony – PS) may be a suitable marker of attentional focus as caused by shared affective or cognitive processes. We here determine PS for EEG (electroencephalography),...

Near-infrared tandem organic photodiodes for future application in artificial retinal implants

Photovoltaic retinal prostheses show great potential to restore sight in patients suffering from degenerative eye diseases by electrical stimulation of the surviving neurons in the retinal network. Herein, organic photodiodes (OPDs) sensitive to near-infrared (NIR) light are evaluated as photovoltaic pixels for future application in retinal...

Detrimental effects of constant light exposure and high-fat diet on circadian energy metabolism and insulin sensitivity

Circadian rhythm disturbances are observed in, e.g., aging and neurodegenerative diseases and are associated with an increased incidence of obesity and diabetes. We subjected male C57Bl/6J mice to constant light [12-h light-light (LL) cycle] to examine the effects of a disturbed circadian rhythm on energy metabolism and insulin sensitivity. In...

Advances in research on spatial and binaural hearing

The advanced developments in research on spatial and binaural auditory perception, were described. The research on sound localization revealed one important development of virtual acoustic space (VAS) as a research tool. Sound sources in VAS can be repositioned in other acoustic environments. The second research area included sound segregation,...

Abscisic acid and 14-3-3 proteins control K* channel activity in barley embryonic root

Germination of seeds proceeds in general in two phases, an initial imbibition phase and a subsequent growth phase. In grasses like barley, the latter phase is evident as the emergence of the embryonic root (radicle). The hormone abscisic acid (ABA) inhibits germination because it prevents the embryo from entering and completing the growth phase....

Block of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors by organophosphate insecticides

Chronic and acute exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides may lead to persistent neurological and neurobehavioral effects, which cannot be explained by acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition alone. It is suggested that other brain proteins are involved. Effects of commonly used organophosphate pesticides on rat neuronal α4β2 nicotinic...

Subchronic physostigmine pretreatment in guinea pigs: Effective against soman and without side effects

The behavioral and neurophysiological effects of the subchronically administered cholinesterase-inhibitor physostigmine (PHY) (0.025 mg/kg/h) either with or without the muscarinergic antagonist scopolamine (SCO) (0.018 mg/kg/h) were determined in guinea pigs. In contrast to a single injection of PHY, subchronic application by osmotic minipumps...

Slow brain potentials in the CNV-paradigm

Slow brain potentials were recorded during the foreperiod of a reaction time task, and the effects of instructions governing the trade-off between speed and accuracy were investigated. One brain potential, a slow negative shift preceding S2, was largely attenuated under accuracy instructions. It is suggested that this shift is dependent on a...

The terminal CNV and stimulus discriminability in motor and sensory tasks

Slow EEG potentials were recorded during the foreperiod of a signal detection task which involved different levels of discrimination difficulty. The subject was requried to react to S2 as quickly as possible or to delay his responses by 1 s. It was found that the contingent negative variation (CNV) was attenuated when no speeded response was...