The effect of inebriation on human brain functional connectivity

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Poster Abstracts / International Journal of Psychophysiology 85 (2012) 361–430

Our psychophysiological data shed light on the involvement of the attentional frontal network in ET, revealing a picture of the pathological process underlying this disease that is more complex than traditionally believed. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.07.068

Attentional processing in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: The role of ERPs D. Mannarellia, C. Paulettia, N. Locuratoloa, N. Vanacoreb, M. Inghilleria, F. Fattappostaa a Department of Neurology and Psychiatry — Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy b National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was traditionally believed to spare cognitive functions, but subtle executive deficits have been recently reported in patients with sporadic ALS. Aims: To investigate the attentional processing related to both the involuntary attention and the sustained attention with executive control in ALS using event-related potentials (ERPs). 33 non-demented patients with sporadic ALS (22 spinal-onset, 11 bulbar-onset) and 32 age and sex-matched controls underwent an EEG recording. Mismatch negativity (MMN) and contingent negative variation (CNV) components were obtained. MMN latency, and CNV amplitude (measured as total area and as three temporal windows of interest) were evaluated. Reaction times in the CNV paradigm were also obtained. No differences emerged between ALS patients and controls as regard to MMN latency and CNV characteristics. Total CNV area (Fz p b 0.01) and W1-CNV area were significantly reduced (Fz p = 0.07 – Cz p b 0.05 – Pz p b 0,05) in bALS vs controls, while no differences were found between sALS and controls. The normal MMN latency, even when the two clinical subtypes are analysed individually, may indicate that the disease process does not interfere with the automatic pre-attentive processing of the stimuli. However, b-ALS patients showed a difficulty in giving start and sustaining attention during a complex task of associative learning, suggesting the assumption of an abnormal integration of associative functions, as demonstrated by the decreased amplitude of CNV in frontal area and in early orienting windows. These results are in line with the hypothesis of a degeneration of the attentional networks probably due to the interneuronal pathological involvement. ALS patients with bulbar onset presented selective cognitive dysfunction with difficulty in sustained attention. The involuntary attention, instead, seems to be preserved, irrespective of the disease subtype. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.07.069

Influence of the concordance of temperament questionnaires data on the properties of the event-related potentials I.E. Lazarev, B.V. Chernyshev, E.G. Chernysheva, E.S. Osokina, D.M. Ramendik National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia Despite the fact that widely used temperament questionnaires (for example, Eyesenck's EPI, Strelau's Pavlovian temperament survey) are based on different theoretical approaches, their dimensions are usually interrelated in a strict way, i.e. their scales correlate with each other in a regular manner (Rusalov 1990, Strelau 2009). But this is not always the case, and for some subjects

data obtained by different questionnaires give discordant results (Ramendik, 2010, 2008). The nature of this irregularity is unclear, and the aim of the present study was to investigate the electroencephalographic correlates of such discordance. The study was performed in 30 university students aged 18–27 years (20 females and 10 males). All participants completed 3 questionnaires: Eysenck personality inventory (EPI) (Eysenck, 1982; Shmelyov, 2002), Pavlovian temperament survey (PTS) (Strelau et al., 1999), and structure of temperament questionnaire (STQ) (Rusalov, 1990, 2002). According to the interrelations between dimensions of different questionnaire, participants were divided into 2 subgroups: “concordant” and “discordant”. In “concordant” ones the three questionnaires showed a greater amount of match between dimensions, which are known to be correlated. In the “discordant” group, data obtained from those questionnaires gave controversial results. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded under active odd-ball 2-stimulus paradigm: subjects were instructed to press a joystick button after a rare target, which had higher pitch. 16 subjects were assigned to the “concordant” group, 14 — to the “discordant” one. All participants performed the pitch discrimination task equally good: there were almost no response omissions or wrong responses and response latencies did not differ amongst the groups. “Concordant” participants were discovered to have higher scores in mobility (PTS), socialrelated and object-related ergonicity and tempo (STQ) scales in comparison to “discordant” subjects. “Concordant” subjects showed higher amplitude of the N2–P3 complex of the auditory ERP (p = 0.002). Although some significant correlations between ERPs component amplitude and scales of questionnaires were found, none of them included the N2–P3 complex, thus suggesting that the difference in the N2–P3 amplitude is not related to the known dimensions measured by 3 used questionnaires. Late components of the ERPs (N2, P3) are believed to reflect different aspects of stimulus identification, cognitive control and attention process. Taking into account that amplitude of an ERP component may reflect the extent of brain resource allocation to a particular task (Kok, 2001) it is possible to assume that in the “discordant” subjects performance of the attention task recruited less brain resources than in the “concordant” people. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.07.070

The effect of inebriation on human brain functional connectivity C. Litharia, M.A. Kladosa, C. Pappasa, M. Albanib, D. Kapoukranidoub, L. Kovatsic, D. Fragouc, C. Papadelisd, P. Bamidisa a Lab of Medical Informatics, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece b Laboratory of Physiology, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece c Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece d Department of Neurology, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, MA, USA Given the effect of acute alcohol intake on the human emotional state, we hypothesized that even a moderate dose of alcohol will affect the brain activity of social drinkers, both at rest (default-mode network, DMN) and when passively viewing emotional stimuli, in terms of functional connectivity. Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings were performed on 27 participants after receiving an alcoholic beverage and placebo respectively, at rest and during passive viewing of affective images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). The selected images were representative of 4 categories: pleasant and high arousing, pleasant and low arousing, unpleasant and high arousing and unpleasant and low

Poster Abstracts / International Journal of Psychophysiology 85 (2012) 361–430

arousing. Salivary alcohol served to measure the inebriation levels. The activity of cortical sources was estimated with the standardized Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (sLORETA). The magnitude square coherence (MSC) on each pair of them was estimated for each frequency band to form functional networks among the cortical sources. The networks were treated in the context of graph theory and their global parameters were calculated. Our preliminary results refer to the DMN connectivity. The MSC averaged across all sources' pairs, along with the global efficiency of the DMN, were significantly (p b 0.05) higher following alcohol intake (vs. placebo) in alpha and beta bands. The inter-connectivity of certain nodes, roughly outlining the DMN, was elevated (p b .05 corrected) in alpha band during alcohol sessions indicating a pronounced baseline functional connectivity. Our findings support the hypothesis that alcohol affects the functional connectivity of the DMN not necessarily locally, but in a more global way. A resting state pronounced functional connectivity in the human brain can elucidate to an extent the attention impairment already observed following acute alcohol intake, since the transition to an attentive state would be more demanding. Extensive functional connectivity analysis is underway in order to examine the effect of acute alcohol intake on the connectivity patterns eliciting during passive viewing of emotional stimuli examining whether it is different for different kinds of affective images. As expected, measures that globally quantify the brain functional connectivity were sensitively affected by alcohol-induced alterations in the DMN. We will soon have some findings on the functional networks formed as a response to emotional stimuli following inebriation. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.07.071

The predictive characteristics of trait anxiety for heart rate variability parameters during mental arithmetic stress D.A. Dimitriev, E.V. Saperova I. Y. Yakovlev Chuvash State Pedagogical University, Cheboksary, Russia The purpose of the present study was to investigate the predictive characteristics of state and trait anxiety for heart rate variability (HRV) parameters during mental arithmetic stress. Methodological clarity: The sample consisted of 81 healthy students with a mean age of 21.06 ± 0.20 years. The students were examining in the following sequence: recording of HRV at rest (10 min), during mental arithmetic (10 min) and 10 min of monitored recovery. Personality features were assessed by Spielberger state and trait anxiety inventory. All studies were performed in a quiet room at approximately the same time of day. For the calculation condition, subjects were given a three-digit number and asked to count backward by sevens. He had to continue subtracting and calling out answers for 1 min. A new number was introduced every minute for a total of 10 min. To avoid speaking artifacts, subjects were asked to perform tasks without actually speaking. To obtain a measure of how fast they were calculating subjects were asked to report the final number reached in the last subtraction condition immediately after each set (L. Rueckert et al., 1996; E. S. Mezzacappa et al., 2001). Statistical analysis was performed using Sign test and correlation test (R). During the mental arithmetic condition, the RR interval was reduced (Sign test (Z) = 8.00; p b 0.00001). Power spectral analysis of HRV showed that the HF component of HRV, which reflects only parasympathetic activity, decreased more during mental stress (Z = 3.11; p = 0.002). The LF/HF ratio in the stress was significantly higher than that at rest (Z = 4.22; p = 0.00002), indicating that sympathetic nerve activity during mental stress became predominant. Furthermore, VLF parameter was significantly higher (Z = 2.67;

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p = 0.008) during the test than that at rest. pNN50 and RMSSD parameters were lower during stress (respectively, Z = 5.33; p b 0.00001 and Z = 3.83; p = 0.0001), suggesting decreased sympathetic activity. All the studied HRV parameters approached the baseline level in the recovery. During arithmetic test trait anxiety scores were significantly correlated with heart rate (Spearman correlation coefficient (R)= 0.302; p = 0.0006), RMSSD (R = −0.251; p = 0.024), pNN50 (R = − 0.283; p = 0.010), HF (R = −0.243; p = 0.029). During stress, state anxiety scores, but not state anxiety scores, were significantly correlated with heart rate (R = 0.232; p = 0.041), RMSSD (R = −0.254; p = 0.025), pNN50 (R = −0.229; p = 0.044) and VLF (R = −0.256; p = 0.024). During recovery period state anxiety scores were significantly correlated with heart rate (R = 0.254; p = 0.024), RMSSD (R = −0.222; p = 0.049), pNN50 (R = −0.252; p = 0.024) and VLF (R = − 0.263; p = 0.019). The main findings of this study suggest that mental arithmetic test is capable to produce complex changes in major cardiovascular regulatory mechanisms. Trait anxiety may predict cardiovascular functioning during rest, while recovery from mental stress is affected by state anxiety. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.07.073

Differential effect of facial expression on Mu-suppression according to the level of autistic traits N.R. Cooper, A. Simpson, A. Till, K. Simmons, I. Puzzo University of Essex, Colchester, UK The human mirror neuron system (hMNS) has been associated with various forms of social cognition and affective processing. It has also been proposed that a faulty hMNS may underlie some of the deficits seen in the autism spectrum disorders. In the present study we set out to investigate whether emotional facial expressions could modulate a putative EEG index of hMNS activation (Mu suppression) and if so, would this differ according to the individual level of autistic traits (high versus low AQ score). Participants were presented with 3 s films of actors opening and closing their hands (classic hMNS Mu-suppression protocol) while simultaneously wearing happy, angry or neutral expressions. Musuppression was measured in the alpha and low beta bands. The low AQ group displayed greater low beta ERD to both angry and neutral expressions. The high AQ group displayed greater low beta ERD to angry than to happy expressions. There was also significantly more low beta ERD to happy faces for the low than for the high AQ group. In conclusion, an interesting interaction between AQ group and emotional expression revealed that hMNS activation can be modulated by emotional facial expressions and that this is differentiated according to individual differences in the level of autistic traits. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.07.074

Increased intertrial phase coherence of alpha oscillation of migraine patient to auditory stimuli J.H. Moona, M.K. Yuma, J.K. Youngb Department of Pediatrics, Han Yang University Guri Hospital, Guri, South Korea b Department of Neurology, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

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To investigate the amplitude, phase, and phase locking of alpha wave in migraine patients during auditory cognition.