Differential Hemodynamic Responses to Motor and Tactile Imagery: Insights from Multichannel fNIRS Mapping.

Tactile and motor imagery are crucial components of sensorimotor functioning and cognitive neuroscience research, yet the neural mechanisms of tactile imagery remain underexplored compared to motor imagery. This study employs multichannel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) combined with image reconstruction techniques to investigate the neural hemodynamics associated with tactile (TI) and motor imagery (MI). In a study of 15 healthy participants, we found that MI elicited significantly greater hemodynamic responses (HRs) in the precentral area compared to TI, suggesting the involvement of different cortical areas involved in two different types of sensorimotor mental imagery.

Decoding Heterogenous Single-cell Perturbation Responses.

Understanding diverse responses of individual cells to the same perturbation is central to many biological and biomedical problems. Current methods, however, do not precisely quantify the strength of perturbation responses and, more importantly, reveal new biological insights from heterogeneity in responses. Here we introduce the perturbation-response score (PS), based on constrained quadratic optimization, to quantify diverse perturbation responses at a single-cell level.

Is there a continuum of agentive awareness across physical and mental actions? The case of quasi-movements.

While humans routinely distinguish between physical and mental actions, overt movements (OM) and kinesthetically imagined movements (IM) are often viewed as forming a continuum of activities. Here, we theoretically conceptualized this continuum hypothesis for agentive awareness related to OM and IM and tested it experimentally using quasi-movements (QM), a little studied type of covert actions, which is considered as an inner part of the OM-IM continuum. QM are performed when a movement attempt is minimized down to full extinction of overt movement and muscle activity.

Quasi-Movements and "Quasi-Quasi-Movements": Does Residual Muscle Activation Matter?

Quasi-movements (QM) are observed when an individual minimizes a movement to an extent that no related muscle activation is detected. Likewise to imaginary movements (IM) and overt movements, QMs are accompanied by the event-related desynchronization (ERD) of EEG sensorimotor rhythms. Stronger ERD was observed under QMs compared to IMs in some studies.

Does Real-Time Feedback Affect Sensorimotor EEG Patterns in Routine Motor Imagery Practice?

Background: Motor imagery engages much of the same neural circuits as an overt movement. Therefore, the mental rehearsal of movements is often used to supplement physical training and might aid motor neurorehabilitation after stroke. One attempt to capture the brain's involvement in imagery involves the use, as a marker, of the depression or event-related desynchronization (ERD) of thalamocortical sensorimotor rhythms found in a human electroencephalogram (EEG).

MEG-Based Detection of Voluntary Eye Fixations Used to Control a Computer.

Gaze-based input is an efficient way of hand-free human-computer interaction. However, it suffers from the inability of gaze-based interfaces to discriminate voluntary and spontaneous gaze behaviors, which are overtly similar. Here, we demonstrate that voluntary eye fixations can be discriminated from spontaneous ones using short segments of magnetoencephalography (MEG) data measured immediately after the fixation onset.

A passive BCI for monitoring the intentionality of the gaze-based moving object selection.

The use of an electroencephalogram (EEG) anticipation-related component, the expectancy wave (E-wave), in brain-machine interaction was proposed more than 50 years ago. This possibility was not explored for decades, but recently it was shown that voluntary attempts to select items using eye fixations, but not spontaneous eye fixations, are accompanied by the E-wave. Thus, the use of the E-wave detection was proposed for the enhancement of gaze interaction technology, which has a strong need for a mean to decide if a gaze behavior is voluntary or not.

Knomics-Biota - a system for exploratory analysis of human gut microbiota data.

Background: Metagenomic surveys of human microbiota are becoming increasingly widespread in academic research as well as in food and pharmaceutical industries and clinical context. Intuitive tools for investigating experimental data are of high interest to researchers.

Results: Knomics-Biota is a web-based resource for exploratory analysis of human gut metagenomes.

Assessing motor imagery in brain-computer interface training: Psychological and neurophysiological correlates.

Motor imagery (MI) is considered to be a promising cognitive tool for improving motor skills as well as for rehabilitation therapy of movement disorders. It is believed that MI training efficiency could be improved by using the brain-computer interface (BCI) technology providing real-time feedback on person's mental attempts. While BCI is indeed a convenient and motivating tool for practicing MI, it is not clear whether it could be used for predicting or measuring potential positive impact of the training.