2018-10, Wolff, Wanja, Bieleke, Maik, Hirsch, Anna, Wienbruch, Christian, Gollwitzer, Peter M., Schüler, Julia

Enduring physical strain is an important ability and prototypically required in athletic activities. However, little is known about the psychological determinants of endurance performance and their underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we investigated self-regulation as one such factor. We recruited 60 participants who hold intertwined rings for as long as possible while avoiding contacts between them, either with a goal intention or an implementation intention to perform well. Performance was measured in terms of time-to-failure and contact errors. Additionally, we repeatedly assessed ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and pain (RPP) and used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to continuously monitor cerebral oxygenation in dorsal and ventral parts of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), brain regions associated with effortful attentional control and response inhibition, respectively. Performance, RPE and RPP were similar in the goal and the implementation intention condition. LPFC activity increased over time, but its activation level was generally lower in the implementation intention condition. Both effects were particularly pronounced in the dorsal LPFC. Moreover, the balance between effortful and more automatic regulation seems to differ between self-regulation strategies. Our results indicate that self-regulation plays an important role in endurance performance and that self-regulatory processes during endurance performance might be reflected in LPFC activation.

2014, Popova, Petia, Popov, Tzvetan G., Wienbruch, Christian, Carolus, Almut, Miller, Gregory A., Rockstroh, Brigitte

Deficits in social cognition including facial affect recognition and their detrimental effects on functional outcome are well established in schizophrenia. Structured training can have substantial effects on social cognitive measures including facial affect recognition. Elucidating training effects on cortical mechanisms involved in facial affect recognition may identify causes of dysfunctional facial affect recognition in schizophrenia and foster remediation strategies. In the present study, 57 schizophrenia patientswere randomly assigned to (a) computer-based facial affect training that focused on affect discrimination and working memory in 20 daily 1-hour sessions, (b) similarly intense, targeted cognitive training on auditory-verbal discrimination and working memory, or (c) treatment as usual. Neuromagnetic activity was measured before and after training during a dynamic facial affect recognition task (5 s videos showing human faces gradually changing from neutral to fear or to happy expressions). Effects on 10–13 Hz (alpha) power during the transition from neutral to emotional expressionswere assessed viaMEG based on previous findings that alpha power increase is related to facial affect recognition and is smaller in schizophrenia than in healthy subjects. Targeted affect training improved overt performance on the training tasks. Moreover, alpha power increase during the dynamic facial affect recognition task was larger after affect training than after treatment-as-usual, though similar to that after targeted perceptual–cognitive training, indicating somewhat nonspecific benefits. Alpha power modulationwas unrelated to general neuropsychological test performance, which improved in all groups. Results suggest that specific neural processes supporting facial affect recognition, evident in oscillatory phenomena, are modifiable. This should be considered when developing remediation strategies targeting social cognition in schizophrenia.

2011-08, Steffen, Astrid, Rockstroh, Brigitte, Wienbruch, Christian, Miller, Gregory A.

Distinct psychological processes have been proposed to unfold in decision-making. The time course of neural mechanisms supporting these processes has not been fully identified. The present MEG study examined spatio-temporal activity related to components of decision-making proposed to support reward valuation, reward prediction, and outcome evaluation. Each trial presented information on reward value (10 or 50 cents) and reward probability (10%, 50%, or 90%). Brain activity related to those inputs and to outcome feedback was evaluated via electromagnetic responses in source space. Distributed dipole activity reflected reward value and reward probability 150–350 ms after information arrival. Neural responses to reward-value information peaked earlier than those to reward-probability information. Results suggest that valuation, prediction, and outcome evaluation share neural structures and mechanisms even on a relatively fine time scale.

2010, Matz, Katharina, Junghöfer, Markus, Elbert, Thomas, Weber, Katja, Wienbruch, Christian, Rockstroh, Brigitte

Previous results suggest that early life stress (ELS) may be related to altered cortical responses to emotional stimuli. In a previous study, we found suppressed cortical responses to emotional pictures in psychiatric patients with high-ELS. The present study explored the stability of this effect across time and stimulation conditions. In addition, the relationship between ELS and current life stress was examined, and we probed whether this current life stress was related to the cortical responses. Fifteen patients with high, 16 patients with low-ELS and 15 psychiatrically healthy subjects with low-ELS participated in two sessions 8 months apart. Subjects monitored a rapid serial presentation of pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures during magnetoencephalographic recording. In both sessions, estimated neural activity in occipital parietal temporal regions between 70 and 250 ms after picture onset was smaller in patients, particularly in those with high-ELS, compared to healthy subjects. Modulation of activity by arousing (pleasant and unpleasant) compared to neutral stimuli around 200 ms post-stimulus did not differ between groups, whereas around 300 ms, patients did not show the pronounced cortical response to pleasant stimuli exhibited by healthy subjects. Results suggest that ELS and psychiatric disorder (1) diminish early perceptual processing (b200 ms) of emotional stimuli without substantially affecting activity modulation by stimulus arousal value, (2) diminish later attention allocation processes (N300 ms), and (3) are related to more recent life stress. High intraindividual correlations of activity patterns between sessions suggest lasting effects of ELS on processing modes.

2017-10, Moran, James, Crombach, Anselm, Elbert, Thomas, Nandi, Corina, Bambonyé, Manassé, Wienbruch, Christian, Lommen, Ursula, Weierstall, Roland

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been linked to deviations in lateralized frontal functional oscillatory activity. This is possibly because left and right DLPFC have differential roles in regulating both memory and stress response, which are both dysfunctional in PTSD. However, previous results are heterogeneous, and could be attributable to individual symptom clusters, traumatic or aggressive life events, early life stress, or the interaction of these factors. In a large sample of active combatants (N=401), we regressed these factors on frontal electroencephalography (EEG) asymmetry across 5 frequency bands (delta: 2-4Hz; theta: 4-8Hz; alpha: 8-12Hz; beta: 12-24Hz; gamma: 24-48Hz). Negative cognition and mood was associated with stronger relative left delta and theta band power. Traumatic life events showed stronger right alpha and beta band power. Traumatic life events in interaction with hyperarousal predicted stronger relative right left-right imbalance (theta, alpha, and beta bands), whereas childhood adversity, in interaction with negative cognition and mood, predicted stronger relative left left-right imbalance (delta, theta, alpha and beta bands). The contribution of lateralized DLPFC dysfunction to PTSD is thus dependent on the individual complexities of subsymptom clusters and life history, and future studies need to take these factors into account.

2012, Bey, Alina, Leue, Stefan, Wienbruch, Christian

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) holds promise as a non-invasive therapy for the treatment of neurological disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, tinnitus, and epilepsy. Complex interdependencies between stimulus duration, frequency and intensity obscure the exact effects of rTMS stimulation on neural activity in the cortex, making evaluation of and comparison between rTMS studies difficult. To explain the influence of rTMS on neural activity (e.g. in the motor cortex), we use a neuronal network model. The results demonstrate that the model adequately explains experimentally observed short term effects of rTMS on the band power in common frequency bands used in electroencephalography (EEG). We show that the equivalent local field potential (eLFP) band power depends on stimulation intensity rather than on stimulation frequency. Additionally, our model resolves contradictions in experiments.

2010-09-30, Jordanov, Todor, Popov, Tzvetan G., Wienbruch, Christian, Elbert, Thomas, Rockstroh, Brigitte

Allocating electromagnetic auditory responses to active regions in the human auditory cortex can be difficult because of high interindividual variability of the relevant structures. Location and orientation of the primary auditory cortex (Heschl's Gyrus) and the temporal plane vary with individual features such as age, gender, handedness, or between healthy subjects and patients with a psychiatric disorder (e.g., schizophrenia). Here, we propose a reference coordinate system that considers the individual MRI-based position, orientation and length of the primary auditory cortex to account for interindividual variability. Transformation of the M50 dipole localizations in this new HG-(Heschl's-Gyrus)-coordinate system, accomplished for 10 healthy subjects and 10 schizophrenia patients, confirmed group difference more precisely than other registration methods. We suggest to use the HG-coordinate system for localization of functional measures and evaluation of brain activity differences between groups or measurement conditions.

2015, Bey, Alina, Wienbruch, Christian

2011-09, Leirer, Vera Maria, Wienbruch, Christian, Kolassa, Stephan, Schlee, Winfried, Elbert, Thomas, Kolassa, Iris-Tatjana

A number of studies have demonstrated enhanced slow wave activity associated with pathological brain function e.g. in stroke patients, schizophrenia, depression, Morbus Alzheimer, and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the association between slow wave activity and healthy aging has remained largely unexplored. This study examined whether the frequency at which focal generators of delta waves appear in the healthy cerebral cortex changes with age and whether this measure relates to cognitive performance. We investigated 53 healthy individuals aged 18 to 89 years and assessed MEG during a resting condition. Generators of focal magnetic slow waves were localized. Results showed a significant influence of age: dipole density decreases with increasing age. The relationship between cognitive performance and delta dipole density was not significant. The results suggest that in healthy aging slow waves decrease with aging and emphasize the importance of age-matched control groups for further studies. Increased appearance of slow waves as a marker for pathological stages can only be detected in relation to a control group of the same age.

2010, Keil, Julian, Weisz, Nathan, Paul, Isabella, Wienbruch, Christian

It has been found in numerous electroencephalographic (EEG) studies that a negative potential arises following an erroneous response (so-called Error-Related Negativity, ERN). This typical component of the EEG has, however, proven more difficult to identify when transferring analogous paradigms to magnetoencephalography (MEG). The aim of this study was to devise and apply a paradigm to elicit erroneous responses and using MEG to measure both the error-related evoked brain activity (mERN) as well as accompanying induced oscillatory activity. Results clearly demonstrate that it is possible to measure the mERN and to identify cortical sources associated with it. Using distributed source modeling, it is possible to identify the mERN in source space and corroborate EEG findings, with the mERN generated in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). This supports notions regarding the role of the ACC in error monitoring and cognitive control of motor behavior. Furthermore, changes in induced oscillatory activity were observed in the theta and beta bands. This extends previous studies, which show that evoked theta activity could underlie the generation of the ERN.