Biomedical subjects

G Sammer

Publications and source records attributed to G Sammer.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Utilizing the ventriloquism-effect to investigate audio-visual binding.

Audio-visual binding - as subset of crossmodal integration - describes the combination of information across both these senses to the subjective unified perception of a bound object. We investigated audio-visual binding by using the ventriloquism-effect (localization of a sound is biased towards and by a simultaneous visual stimulus) to act as an indicator for perceived binding. Simple visual and auditory stimuli were presented synchronously or asynchronously. fMRI was recorded during task performance (n = 19 subjects) in order to reveal activation in areas discussed to be involved in multisensory processing in the literature. Contrasting trials with reported ventriloquism-effect versus the no-binding condition revealed activation in the insula, superior temporal sulcus and parieto-occipital sulcus. Implementing the ventriloquism-effect allows us to relate these activations to consciousness-related processes, which probably are different from stimulus-driven multisensory integration in subcortical areas.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2002

The insula is not specifically involved in disgust processing: an fMRI study.

fMRI studies have shown that the perception of facial disgust expressions specifically activates the insula. The present fMRI study investigated whether this structure is also involved in the processing of visual stimuli depicting non-mimic disgust elicitors compared to fear-inducing and neutral scenes. Twelve female subjects were scanned while viewing alternating blocks of 40 disgust-inducing, 40 fear-inducing and 40 affectively neutral pictures, shown for 1.5 s each. Afterwards, affective ratings were assessed. The disgust pictures, rated as highly repulsive, induced activation in the insula, the amygdala, the orbitofrontal and occipito-temporal cortex. Since during the fear condition the insula was also involved, our findings do not fit the idea of the insula as a specific disgust processor.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Working memory load and EEG-dynamics as revealed by point correlation dimension analysis.

The results of the present study showed a decreased dimensional complexity during working-memory load, which was induced by the Corsi-Bock-Tapping task as compared to a baseline task. This baseline task was similar to the Corsi-Block-Tapping with respect to both the required processes of perception and the motor performance. A load-specific change of brain dynamics was observed, which was most pronounced over frontal cortical areas. This finding is in agreement with the literature and encourages further research on the ongoing EEG, especially with clinical tests, where little is known about their psychophysiological correlates. From a methodological point of view, the point correlation dimension, which deals with non-stationary data, was applied to EEG-time series that were a concatenation of several EEG-subepochs of the same experimental conditions. From the results it is proposed that this procedure might offer an approach for EEG analysis, where the EEG-epochs are of short duration and non-stationary data are to be expected.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Heart period variability and respiratory changes associated with physical and mental load: non-linear analysis.

In the investigation of heart rate and heart rate variability, the discrimination between mental workload, physical activity and respiration is known to be methodologically difficult. At most, heart rate variability measures are more likely to be coarse-grained measures with variability confounded by heart rate. Moreover, the spectral analysis of heart rate variability shows broad-band frequency characteristics, pointing towards non-stationarity or non-linearity. From this it is suggested to focus on non-linear dynamic analyses that are variance-insensitive. The experimental section of the paper focuses on the estimation of two non-linear measures for both heartbeat dynamics and respiration, the correlation dimension indicating complexity and the Lyapunov exponents indicating predictability. The results indicate that the complexity of heart dynamics is related to the type of task and that the predictability of heart dynamics is related to the amount of load.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Working-memory load and dimensional complexity of the EEG.

This investigation shows that a working-memory load induced by a memory scanning task has an effect on nonlinear descriptors of the EEG dynamics. The effect was locally specific above the fronto-temporal (right) cortex and it may be described as a reduction in the dimensional complexity of cortical brain activity. The meaning of the effects seems to differ from that of EEG spectral power, which varied with time during the experiment and not with changes in the working-memory load conditions. Behaviorally controlled over- and underload led to increased variance of the dimensional complexity, thus indicating that dimensional complexity correlates more closely with actual performance than with more general descriptions of brain states. Habitual response speed had an effect at the parietal lead, thus indicating that fast responders reduced their dimensional complexity as the task demand increased. In contrast, the slower responders showed no such definite trend.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

[Changes in spontaneous slow potentials and visually (flash) evoked potentials in response to stimuli with no performance implication].

The influence of spontaneous slow potential shifts (SPSs) on visual (flash-)evoked potentials (VEPs) was studied. Eighteen subjects received 100 flashes. The sequence of interstimulus-intervals (ISIs) was pseudo-randomized. ISI-durations were 3, 5, 7, 9 or 11 seconds. EEG was recorded from Fz, Cz, Pz and Oz with linked-mastoids as reference. EEG was EOG-corrected and VEPs were calculated for preceding positive SPSs. Averaging was done for local SPSs; VEP pairings as well as VEPs were calculated over occipital SPS-polarities. Results showed an influence of SPSs on VEP-amplitudes. Differences in amplitudes were interpreted with the 'activation-correction'-hypothesis and with the 'ceiling'-hypothesis. Negative SPSs were followed by smaller negative peaks, and positive SPSs were followed by smaller positive peak-amplitudes. Differences in latencies of N145-P300 peak-to-peak amplitudes after SPSs of different polarity were explained with the threshold-regulation hypothesis. Spectral-analysis were done for SPS-data. There were only poor effects, showing increased parietal alpha 2-power after negative SPSs.

Adult↗