Biomedical subjects

A A Varlamov

Publications and source records attributed to A A Varlamov.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

Effects of alexithymia on the activity of the anterior and posterior areas of the cortex of the right hemisphere in positive and negative emotional activation.

The aim of the present work was to assess the effects of alexithymia (a psychoemotional disorder associated with difficulties in identifying and describing personal feelings) on regional activity in the cerebral cortex during positive and negative emotional activation in a non-clinical set of subjects. EEG (62-channel) recordings were made during presentation of special emotional video clips to alexithymics (17 subjects) and controls (27 subjects). Alexithymia was found to influence EEG activity in the theta-2, alpha-1, and alpha-2 ranges; alexithymics showed greater reactivity in the anterior and/or posterior areas of the cortex of the right hemisphere in all frequency ranges during watching of both positive and negative clips. The similarity of the responses of alexithymics in conditions of positive and negative emotional activation identifies the increase in emotional reactivity, independent of the sign of the incoming emotional information, as non-specific. This phenomenon may provide evidence of the need for recruiting additional cognitive resources for identifying emotional feelings in relation to the impairments of the symbolic perception of emotional information seen in alexithymics observed here.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Effect of vortex-antivortex fluctuations on the heat capacity of a type-II superconducting film.

The small size vortex-antivortex pairs proliferation in a type-II superconducting film is considered below T(c). The corresponding contribution to the free energy is calculated. It is shown that these fluctuations give the main temperature dependent contribution to the heat capacity of the superconducting film in the sufficiently large interval of temperatures below the transition point.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

[Alexithymia impact on EEG activity of anterior and posterior regions of the right hemisphere while experiencing positive and negative emotions].

The present study was aimed to assess the influence of alexithymia (an emotional disorder associated with difficulties in identification and describing personal feelings) on regional activity while experiencing positive or negative emotional activation. The 62-channels EEG was recorded in non-alexithymic (n = 27) and alexithymic (n = 17) subjects viewing emotional film clips. Effects of alexithymia were found in the upper theta, low and upper alpha frequency bands; for all the bands the alexithymics exhibited greater reactivity of the right hemisphere, suggesting enhanced avoidance motivational tendencies, negative effect and autonomic arousal. The present phenomenon suggests engagement of additional cognitive resources in identification of emotional feelings. Such a 'cognitive effort' can be a result of impaired referential links and deficit of symbolic processing of emotions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Analysis of evoked EEG synchronization and desynchronization in conditions of emotional activation in humans: temporal and topographic characteristics.

Studies in 20 healthy right-handed subjects analyzed evoked EEG synchronization and desynchronization in the delta, theta1, theta2, alpha1, alpha2, beta1, beta2, beta3, and gamma ranges in response to sequential presentation of stimuli from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) with low, medium, and high emotional activation impact. Each signal presentation was accompanied by subjective scaling of the extent of its emotional impact. EEG traces were recorded in 62 channels as signals were presented. These experiments showed that the degree of emotional impact of the signal was significantly associated with increases in evoked synchronization in the delta, theta1, theta2, beta1, beta3, and gamma ranges and with the effects of combined changes in evoked synchronization and desynchronization in the alpha2 frequency range. The interhemisphere distribution of evoked changes in power provided evidence that not only the posterior areas of the right hemisphere were involved in analyzing the emotional significance of images, as indicated by changes in evoked theta1 and theta2 synchronization and alpha2 desynchronization, but also the anterior areas of the left hemisphere, as indicated by changes in evoked theta2 synchronization. From the standpoint of affective chronometry, the earliest discrimination of the emotional content of stimuli, regardless of the sign of the emotion, occurred in the lower theta range and was seen at 0-600 msec after the start of stimulus presentation. This process was delayed 600-1000 msec in the theta2, alpha2, and gamma ranges.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Disruption of early event-related theta synchronization of human EEG in alexithymics viewing affective pictures.

The 62-channel EEG was recorded while control non-alexithymic (n=21) and alexithymic (n=20) participants viewed sequentially presented neutral, pleasant and unpleasant pictures and subjectively rated them after each presentation. The event-related synchronization (ERS) to these stimuli was assessed in the theta-1 (4-6 Hz) and theta-2 (6-8 Hz) frequency bands. The obtained findings indicate that alexithymia influences perception of only emotional stimuli. Over anterior cortical regions alexithymia vs. control individuals in response to both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli manifested decreased left hemisphere ERS in the early test period of 0-200 ms along with enhanced ERS in response to negative vs. positive and neutral stimuli in the right hemisphere at 200-600 ms after stimulus onset. The findings provide the first EEG evidence that alexithymia construct, associated with a cognitive deficit in initial evaluation of emotion, is indexed by disrupted early frontal synchronization in the upper theta band that can be best interpreted to reflect disregulation during appraisal of emotional stimuli.

Affective Symptoms↗

PubMed2003

[Effect of alexithymia on the event-related theta-synchronization of human EEG during reception of emotional visual stimuli].

The 62-channel EEG was recorded while control non-alexithymic (n = 21) and alexithymic (n = 20) participants viewed sequentially presented neutral, pleasant and unpleasant pictures and subjectively rated them after each presentation. The event-related synchronization (ERS) to these stimuli was assessed in the theta-1 (4-6 Hr) and theta-2 (6-8 Hz) frequency bands. The obtained findings indicate that alexithymia influences perception of only emotional stimuli. In the upper theta over anterior cortical regions alexithymia vs control individuals in response to both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli manifested decreased left hemisphere ERS in the early test period of 0-200 ms along with enhanced ERS in response to negative vs positive and neutral stimuli in the right hemisphere at 200-600 ms after stimulus onset. The findings provide the first EEG evidence that alexithymia construct, associated with a cognitive deficit in initial evaluation of emotion, is indexed by disrupted early frontal synchronization in the upper theta band that can be best interpreted to reflect disregulation during appraisal of emotional stimuli.

Affective Symptoms↗

PubMed2002

Very large purely intralayer critical current density in ultrathin cuprate artificial structures.

Ultrathin artificial high temperature superconducting structures, consisting of (Ba(0.9)Nd0.1)CuO2+x and CaCuO2 layers, were grown by pulsed laser deposition. Intralayer superconductivity at 60 K was obtained for a structure consisting of a single (CaCuO2) block sandwiched between two (Ba(0.9)Nd0.1)CuO2+x charge reservoir blocks. The purely intralayer critical current density was measured at 4.2 K and resulted to be larger than 10(8) A/cm(2). These findings clearly show that interaction between nearest neighbor (CaCuO2) layers is not essential for high T(c) superconductivity and strongly supports the physical model based on the idea that intralayer interaction alone is responsible for high temperature superconductivity.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

Critical fluctuations in a mesoscopic superconducting ring.

The nonlocal magnetoconductivity fluctuations in a superconducting submicron ring, with radius comparable to the Ginzburg-Landau coherence length, are studied. The order parameter mode separation yields to the solution of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation and the paraconductivity Fourier components are calculated in the vicinity of the critical temperature, including the critical fluctuation region. The homogeneous component has a logarithmic singularity at T(c) while the other components are found to be not singular.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

[Reflection of the emotion manifestation in effects of evoked EEG synchronization and desynchronization].

Event-related desynchronization (ERD) and synchronization (ERS) in response to neutral, positive and negative emotional IAPS stimuli were measured in narrow theta, alpha-1, alpha-2 and alpha-3 frequency bands in 22 healthy Ss. A high resolution 62-channel EEG was recorded while subjects viewed a sequence of pictures. The effects of valence discrimination related to hemispheric asymmetries are associated with increased theta and alpha-3 synchronization. Theta ERS revealed a significant valence by hemisphere interaction for anterior temporal leads in the time window of 100-700 ms after stimulus onset indicating a relatively greater right hemisphere ERS for negative and a left hemisphere ERS for positive stimuli in comparison to neutral those. In the alpha-3 band, negative stimuli induced a left hemisphere ERS increase (F7 site) in the time window of 800-1200 ms not observed for neutral and positive stimuli. The results obtained along with the earlier observations on EEG correlates of affective processing challenge the notion that effective anterior hemispheric asymmetries are reflected mainly in the wide alpha frequency band.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Affective picture processing: event-related synchronization within individually defined human theta band is modulated by valence dimension.

Event-related desynchronization (ERD) and synchronization (ERS) in the theta frequency band was measured while subjects viewed stimuli with differing emotional content (from the International Affective Picture System). A significant valence by hemisphere interaction emerged only in the anterior temporal regions, showing relatively greater right hemisphere ERS for negative and left hemisphere ERS for positive stimuli. In turn, in the posterior brain regions affectively valenced vs neutral stimuli prompted larger extent of ERS against the background of the overall right hemisphere dominance in theta synchronization. The findings document that valence discrimination is associated with the early (200-500 ms poststimulus) time-locked synchronized theta activity as well as hemispheric asymmetries in anterior-posterior direction.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Analysis of elicited EEG synchronization and desynchronization in emotional activation: temporal and topographic characteristics].

Event-related synchronization (ERS) and desynchronization (ERD) in delta, theta1, theta2, alpha1, alpha2, beta1, beta2, beta3, and gamma were measured in 20 healthy right-handed subjects in response to IAPS stimuli with low, moderate, and high arousal reactions. The 62-channel EEG was simultaneously recorded while subjects viewed sequentially presented pictures and subjectively rated them after each presentation. The results show that emotionally loaded stimuli induced higher ERS in the delta, theta1, theta2, beta1, beta3, and gamma bands along with combined ERD and ERS effects in alpha2 band. As to hemispheric asymmetries, the effects of emotional arousal were restricted not only to right parietal (theta1 and theta2 ERS, alpha2 ERD) but also to left frontal (theta2 ERS) regions. In terms of affective chronometry, lower theta was the first to catch the affective salience of incoming stimuli (time window 0-600 ms after the stimulus input). For theta2, alpha2, and gamma bands this process was delayed to 600-1000 ms.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Event-related synchronization and desynchronization of EEG during appraisal of threatening and pleasant visual stimuli in high anxious subjects].

The 62-channel EEG was recorded while low (LA, n = 18) and high (HA, n = 18) trait-anxious subjects viewed sequentially presented neutral, threatening and pleasant IAPS stimuli. Event-related desynchronization (ERD) and synchronization (ERS) were studied in the delta, theta1, theta2, alpha1, alpha2, beta1, beta2, beta3, and gamma frequency bands. Between-group differences, related to stimulus emotionality, were linked to theta1 and theta2 bands. In the low theta at prefrontal sites in the test period of 100-700 ms after stimulus onset HA exhibited relative predominance of the left hemisphere in response to both threatening and pleasant stimuli, whereas LA yielded larger right than left hemisphere activity in response to all the three stimulus categories. In the upper theta band between group differences were associated with posterior cortical regions and the test period of 0-1000 ms after stimulus onset: HA exhibited the largest ERS to threatening, whereas LA prompted the largest ERS to pleasant stimuli. Finally, according to the ERD data, in the alpha1 band HA participants in comparison with LA revealed enhanced left hemisphere activation in response to all the stimulus categories. It is suggested that as it is indexed by theta-ERS relative predominance of the left hemisphere at prefrontal sites along with the largest bilateral activity of posterior cortical regions (i.e., enhanced higher order visual processing) to threatening stimuli could form the basis for general bias towards threatening information in HA at the very early stages of emotional processing.

Adolescent↗