Publications by authors named "Diego F Slezak"

Article Synopsis
  • The left supramarginal gyrus (LSMG) is linked to attention and memory, as shown in a study analyzing 142 verbal recall experiments in epilepsy patients with LSMG electrode implants.
  • A specific subset of 14 patients had notable results when using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to identify recalled words, achieving an area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) between 60-90%.
  • The findings suggest that high-gamma and beta bursts in the LSMG could serve as indicators of verbal memory performance and state, based on distinct neural activity patterns and electrode placements.
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The 'day residue' - the presence of waking memories into dreams - is a century-old concept that remains controversial in neuroscience. Even at the psychological level, it remains unclear how waking imagery cedes into dreams. Are visual and affective residues enhanced, modified, or erased at sleep onset? Are they linked, or dissociated? What are the neural correlates of these transformations? To address these questions we combined quantitative semantics, sleep EEG markers, visual stimulation, and multiple awakenings to investigate visual and affect residues in hypnagogic imagery at sleep onset.

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Measuring human capabilities to synchronize in time, adapt to perturbations to timing sequences, or reproduce time intervals often requires experimental setups that allow recording response times with millisecond precision. Most setups present auditory stimuli using either MIDI devices or specialized hardware such as Arduino and are often expensive or require calibration and advanced programming skills. Here, we present in detail an experimental setup that only requires an external sound card and minor electronic skills, works on a conventional PC, is cheaper than alternatives, and requires almost no programming skills.

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Background And Purpose: There are instances in which an estimate of the brain volume should be obtained from MRI in clinical practice. Our objective is to calculate cross-sectional robustness of a convolutional neural network (CNN) based software (Entelai Pic) for brain volume estimation and compare it to traditional software such as FreeSurfer, CAT12 and FSL in healthy controls (HC).

Materials And Methods: Sixteen HC were scanned four times, two different days on two different MRI scanners (1.

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We investigate the dynamics of semantic organization using social media, a collective expression of human thought. We propose a novel, time-dependent semantic similarity measure (TSS), based on the social network Twitter. We show that TSS is consistent with static measures of similarity but provides high temporal resolution for the identification of real-world events and induced changes in the distributed structure of semantic relationships across the entire lexicon.

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Background/objectives: Psychiatry lacks the objective clinical tests routinely used in other specializations. Novel computerized methods to characterize complex behaviors such as speech could be used to identify and predict psychiatric illness in individuals.

Aims: In this proof-of-principle study, our aim was to test automated speech analyses combined with Machine Learning to predict later psychosis onset in youths at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis.

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Abused drugs can profoundly alter mental states in ways that may motivate drug use. These effects are usually assessed with self-report, an approach that is vulnerable to biases. Analyzing speech during intoxication may present a more direct, objective measure, offering a unique 'window' into the mind.

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The time spent making a decision and its quality define a widely studied trade-off. Some models suggest that the time spent is set to optimize reward, as verified empirically in simple-decision making experiments. However, in a more complex perspective compromising components of regulation focus, ambitions, fear, risk and social variables, adjustment of the speed-accuracy trade-off may not be optimal.

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Rapid chess provides an unparalleled laboratory to understand decision making in a natural environment. In a chess game, players choose consecutively around 40 moves in a finite time budget. The goodness of each choice can be determined quantitatively since current chess algorithms estimate precisely the value of a position.

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