Matching Items (25)
Description
This dissertation proposes a new set of analytical methods for high dimensional physiological sensors. The methodologies developed in this work were motivated by problems in learning science, but also apply to numerous disciplines where high dimensional signals are present. In the education field, more data is now available from traditional sources and there is an important need for analytical methods to translate this data into improved learning. Affecting Computing which is the study of new techniques that develop systems to recognize and model human emotions is integrating different physiological signals such as electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyogram (EMG) to detect and model emotions which later can be used to improve these learning systems.
The first contribution proposes an event-crossover (ECO) methodology to analyze performance in learning environments. The methodology is relevant to studies where it is desired to evaluate the relationships between sentinel events in a learning environment and a physiological measurement which is provided in real time.
The second contribution introduces analytical methods to study relationships between multi-dimensional physiological signals and sentinel events in a learning environment. The methodology proposed learns physiological patterns in the form of node activations near time of events using different statistical techniques.
The third contribution addresses the challenge of performance prediction from physiological signals. Features from the sensors which could be computed early in the learning activity were developed for input to a machine learning model. The objective is to predict success or failure of the student in the learning environment early in the activity. EEG was used as the physiological signal to train a pattern recognition algorithm in order to derive meta affective states.
The last contribution introduced a methodology to predict a learner's performance using Bayes Belief Networks (BBNs). Posterior probabilities of latent nodes were used as inputs to a predictive model in real-time as evidence was accumulated in the BBN.
The methodology was applied to data streams from a video game and from a Damage Control Simulator which were used to predict and quantify performance. The proposed methods provide cognitive scientists with new tools to analyze subjects in learning environments.
The first contribution proposes an event-crossover (ECO) methodology to analyze performance in learning environments. The methodology is relevant to studies where it is desired to evaluate the relationships between sentinel events in a learning environment and a physiological measurement which is provided in real time.
The second contribution introduces analytical methods to study relationships between multi-dimensional physiological signals and sentinel events in a learning environment. The methodology proposed learns physiological patterns in the form of node activations near time of events using different statistical techniques.
The third contribution addresses the challenge of performance prediction from physiological signals. Features from the sensors which could be computed early in the learning activity were developed for input to a machine learning model. The objective is to predict success or failure of the student in the learning environment early in the activity. EEG was used as the physiological signal to train a pattern recognition algorithm in order to derive meta affective states.
The last contribution introduced a methodology to predict a learner's performance using Bayes Belief Networks (BBNs). Posterior probabilities of latent nodes were used as inputs to a predictive model in real-time as evidence was accumulated in the BBN.
The methodology was applied to data streams from a video game and from a Damage Control Simulator which were used to predict and quantify performance. The proposed methods provide cognitive scientists with new tools to analyze subjects in learning environments.
ContributorsLujan Moreno, Gustavo A. (Author) / Runger, George C. (Thesis advisor) / Atkinson, Robert K (Thesis advisor) / Montgomery, Douglas C. (Committee member) / Villalobos, Rene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The premise of the embodied cognition hypothesis is that cognitive processes require emotion, sensory, and motor systems in the brain, rather than using arbitrary symbols divorced from sensorimotor systems. The hypothesis explains many of the mechanisms of mental simulation or imagination and how they facilitate comprehension of concepts. Some forms of embodied processing can be measured using electroencephalography (EEG), in a particular waveform known as the mu rhythm (8-13 Hz) in the sensorimotor cortex of the brain. Power in the mu band is suppressed (or de-synchronized) when an individual performs an action, as well as when the individual imagines performing the action, thus mu suppression measures embodied imagination. An important question however is whether the sensorimotor cortex involvement while reading, as measured by mu suppression, is part of the comprehension of what is read or if it is arises after comprehension has taken place. To answer this question, participants first took the Gates-MacGinitie reading comprehension test. Then, mu-suppression was measured while participants read experimental materials. The degree of mu-suppression while reading verbs correlated .45 with their score on the Gates-MacGinitie test. This correlation strongly suggests that the sensorimotor system involvement while reading action sentences is part of the comprehension process rather than being an aftereffect.
ContributorsMarino, Annette Webb (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Blais, Chris (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The research question this thesis aims to answer is whether depressive symptoms of adolescents involved in romantic relationships are related to their rejection sensitivity. It was hypothesized that adolescents who have more rejection sensitivity, indicated by a bigger P3b response, will have more depressive symptoms. This hypothesis was tested by having adolescent couples attend a lab session in which they played a Social Rejection Task while EEG data was being collected. Rejection sensitivity was measured using the activity of the P3b ERP at the Pz electrode. The P3b ERP was chosen to measure rejection sensitivity as it has been used before to measure rejection sensitivity in previous ostracism studies. Depressive symptoms were measured using the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D, Radloff, 1977). After running a multiple regression analysis, the results did not support the hypothesis; instead, the results showed no relationship between rejection sensitivity and depressive symptoms. The results are also contrary to similar literature which typically shows that the higher the rejection sensitivity, the greater the depressive symptoms.
ContributorsBiera, Alex (Author) / Dishion, Tom (Thesis director) / Ha, Thao (Committee member) / Shore, Danielle (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Many mysteries still surround brain function, and yet greater understanding of it is vital to advancing scientific research. Studies on the brain in particular play a huge role in the medical field as analysis can lead to proper diagnosis of patients and to anticipatory treatments. The objective of this research was to apply signal processing techniques on electroencephalogram (EEG) data in order to extract features for which to quantify an activity performed or a response to stimuli. The responses by the brain were shown in eigenspectrum plots in combination with time-frequency plots for each of the sensors to provide both spatial and temporal frequency analysis. Through this method, it was revealed how the brain responds to various stimuli not typically used in current research. Future applications might include testing similar stimuli on patients with neurological diseases to gain further insight into their condition.
ContributorsJackson, Matthew Joseph (Author) / Bliss, Daniel (Thesis director) / Berisha, Visar (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Abstract: Behavioral evidence suggests that joint coordinated movement attunes one's own motor system to the actions of another. This attunement is called a joint body schema (JBS). According to the JBS hypothesis, the attunement arises from heightened mirror neuron sensitivity to the actions of the other person. This study uses EEG mu suppression, an index of mirror neuron system activity, to provide neurophysiological evidence for the JBS hypothesis. After a joint action task in which the experimenter used her left hand, the participant's EEG revealed greater mu suppression (compared to before the task) in her right cerebral hemisphere when watching a left hand movement. This enhanced mu suppression was found regardless of whether the participant was moving or watching the experimenter move. These results are suggestive of super mirror neurons, that is, mirror neurons which are strengthened in sensitivity to another after a joint action task and do not distinguish between whether the individual or the individual's partner is moving.
ContributorsGoodwin, Brenna Renee (Author) / Glenberg, Art (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Blais, Chris (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
The cocktail party effect describes the brain’s natural ability to attend to a specific voice or audio source in a crowded room. Researchers have recently attempted to recreate this ability in hearing aid design using brain signals from invasive electrocorticography electrodes. The present study aims to find neural signatures of auditory attention to achieve this same goal with noninvasive electroencephalographic (EEG) methods. Five human participants participated in an auditory attention task. Participants listened to a series of four syllables followed by a fifth syllable (probe syllable). Participants were instructed to indicate whether or not the probe syllable was one of the four syllables played immediately before the probe syllable. Trials of this task were separated into conditions of playing the syllables in silence (Signal) and in background noise (Signal With Noise), and both behavioral and EEG data were recorded. EEG signals were analyzed with event-related potential and time-frequency analysis methods. The behavioral data indicated that participants performed better on the task during the “Signal” condition, which aligns with the challenges demonstrated in the cocktail party effect. The EEG analysis showed that the alpha band’s (9-13 Hz) inter-trial coherence could potentially indicate characteristics of the attended speech signal. These preliminary results suggest that EEG time-frequency analysis has the potential to reveal the neural signatures of auditory attention, which may allow for the design of a noninvasive, EEG-based hearing aid.
ContributorsLaBine, Alyssa (Author) / Daliri, Ayoub (Thesis director) / Chao, Saraching (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
With millions of people living with a disease as restraining as migraines, there are no ways to diagnose them before they occur. In this study, a migraine model using nitroglycerin is used in rats to study the awake brain activity during the migraine state. In an attempt to search for a biomarker for the migraine state, we found multiple deviations in EEG brain activity across different bands. Firstly, there was a clear decrease in power in the delta, beta, alpha, and theta bands. A slight increase in power in the gamma and high frequency bands was also found, which is consistent with other pain-related studies12. Additionally, we searched for a decreased pain threshold in this deviation, in which we concluded that more data analysis is needed to eliminate the multiple potential noise influxes throughout each dataset. However, with this study we did find a clear change in brain activity, but a more detailed analysis will narrow down what this change could mean and how it impacts the migraine state.
ContributorsStrambi, McKenna (Author) / Muthuswamy, Jitendran (Thesis director) / Greger, Bradley (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
Objective: Previous studies have observed that adults with dyslexia display a reduced N1 gating when exposed to repetitive stimuli. Robust gating is associated with the ability to recognize familiar stimuli and identify the stimuli that will need novel memory representations formed. This study investigates if the mismatch negativity component in electroencephalographic-produced Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) is affected as well by diminished memory forming in adults with dyslexia. Additionally, signal/ noise processing for auditory-based memory recollection and thus word learning is explored. Methods: Nineteen adults with dyslexia and 18 adult controls participated in a classic auditory oddball electroencephalographic experiment here referred to as DIFF, to indicate that the tones differed in frequency, while incorporating a decision-making task that signified participant tonal discrimination. Mismatch Negativity (MMN) amplitudes (AMPs) and latencies were collected from ERPs. Behavioral data consisting of reaction time (RT) and accuracy (ACC) of tone choice were documented.
Results: Group differences for accuracy and reaction time in the DIFF task were highly significant. The dyslexic group produced longer reaction times and with less accuracy than the control group. The Mismatch Negativity amplitude and latency collected did not differ significantly between groups, however, correlations to other variables obtained from similar studies consisting of the same participant group were observed. Linear regression models indicated predictions for accuracy and reaction time results based upon WID scores (Word Identification Test) and SWE scores (Sight Word Efficiency) respectfully.
Conclusions: Neural processing speed and the ability to form permanent memory representations of auditory sound bites for retrieval is dampened in dyslexic populations.
Significance: To better illuminate and understand the neural mechanisms of dyslexia, specifically auditory processing, with the goal of improving outcomes in individuals with dyslexia through more efficient therapy treatment options.
ContributorsAbrams, Gabrielle Renee (Author) / Peter, Beate (Thesis advisor) / Rogalsky, Corianne (Committee member) / Rao, Aparna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The experience of language can, as any other experience, change the way that the human brain is organized and connected. Fluency in more than one language should, in turn, change the brain in the same way. Recent research has focused on the differences in processing between bilinguals and monolinguals, and has even ventured into using different neuroimaging techniques to study why these differences exist. What previous research has failed to identify is the mechanism that is responsible for the difference in processing. In an attempt to gather information about these effects, this study explores the possibility that bilingual individuals utilize lower signal strength (and by comparison less biological energy) to complete the same tasks that monolingual individuals do. Using an electroencephalograph (EEG), signal strength is retrieved during two perceptual tasks, the Landolt C and the critical flicker fusion threshold, as well as one executive task (the Stroop task). Most likely due to small sample size, bilingual participants did not perform better than monolingual participants on any of the tasks they were given, but they did show a lower EEG signal strength during the Landolt C task than monolingual participants. Monolingual participants showed a lower EEG signal strength during the Stroop task, which stands to support the idea that a linguistic processing task adds complexity to the bilingual brain. Likewise, analysis revealed a significantly lower signal strength during the critical flicker fusion task for monolingual participants than for bilingual participants. Monolingual participants also had a significantly different variability during the critical flicker fusion threshold task, suggesting that becoming bilingual creates an entirely separate population of individuals. Future research should perform analysis with the addition of a prefrontal cortex electrode to determine if less collaboration during processing is present for bilinguals, and if signal complexity in the prefrontal cortex is lower than other electrodes.
ContributorsMcLees, Sallie (Author) / Náñez Sr., José E (Thesis advisor) / Holloway, Steven (Committee member) / Duran, Nicholas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Previous research has showed that auditory modulation may be affected by pure tone
stimuli played prior to the onset of speech production. In this experiment, we are examining the
specificity of the auditory stimulus by implementing congruent and incongruent speech sounds in
addition to non-speech sound. Electroencephalography (EEG) data was recorded for eleven adult
subjects in both speaking (speech planning) and silent reading (no speech planning) conditions.
Data analysis was accomplished manually as well as via generation of a MATLAB code to
combine data sets and calculate auditory modulation (suppression). Results of the P200
modulation showed that modulation was larger for incongruent stimuli than congruent stimuli.
However, this was not the case for the N100 modulation. The data for pure tone could not be
analyzed because the intensity of this stimulus was substantially lower than that of the speech
stimuli. Overall, the results indicated that the P200 component plays a significant role in
processing stimuli and determining the relevance of stimuli; this result is consistent with role of
P200 component in high-level analysis of speech and perceptual processing. This experiment is
ongoing, and we hope to obtain data from more subjects to support the current findings.
stimuli played prior to the onset of speech production. In this experiment, we are examining the
specificity of the auditory stimulus by implementing congruent and incongruent speech sounds in
addition to non-speech sound. Electroencephalography (EEG) data was recorded for eleven adult
subjects in both speaking (speech planning) and silent reading (no speech planning) conditions.
Data analysis was accomplished manually as well as via generation of a MATLAB code to
combine data sets and calculate auditory modulation (suppression). Results of the P200
modulation showed that modulation was larger for incongruent stimuli than congruent stimuli.
However, this was not the case for the N100 modulation. The data for pure tone could not be
analyzed because the intensity of this stimulus was substantially lower than that of the speech
stimuli. Overall, the results indicated that the P200 component plays a significant role in
processing stimuli and determining the relevance of stimuli; this result is consistent with role of
P200 component in high-level analysis of speech and perceptual processing. This experiment is
ongoing, and we hope to obtain data from more subjects to support the current findings.
ContributorsTaylor, Megan Kathleen (Author) / Daliri, Ayoub (Thesis director) / Liss, Julie (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05