Cardiac cycle modulates alpha and beta suppression during motor imagery.

Previous interoception research has demonstrated that sensory processing is reduced during cardiac systole, an effect associated with diminished cortical excitability, possibly due to heightened baroreceptor activity. This study aims to determine how phases of the cardiac cycle-systole and diastole-modulate neural sensorimotor activity during motor imagery (MI) and motor execution (ME). We hypothesised that MI performance, indexed by enhanced suppression of contralateral sensorimotor alpha (8-13 Hz) and beta (14-30 Hz) activity, would be modulated by the cardiac phases, with improved performance during diastole due to enhanced sensory processing of movement cues.

A framework for neurophysiological experiments on flow states.

Csikszentmihalyi's concept of the "flow state" was initially discovered in experts deeply engaged in self-rewarding activities. However, recent neurophysiology research often measures flow in constrained and unfamiliar activities. In this perspective article, we address the challenging yet necessary considerations for studying flow state's neurophysiology.

The association between liking, learning and creativity in music.

Aesthetic preference is intricately linked to learning and creativity. Previous studies have largely examined the perception of novelty in terms of pleasantness and the generation of novelty via creativity separately. The current study examines the connection between perception and generation of novelty in music; specifically, we investigated how pleasantness judgements and brain responses to musical notes of varying probability (estimated by a computational model of auditory expectation) are linked to learning and creativity.

Beyond novelty: Learnability in the interplay between creativity, curiosity and artistic endeavours.

Using art and aesthetics as context, we explore the notion that curiosity and creativity emanate from a single novelty-seeking mechanism and outline support for the idea. However, we also highlight the importance of learning progress tracking in exploratory action and advocate for a nuanced understanding that aligns novelty-seeking with learnability. This, we argue, offers a more comprehensive framework of how curiosity and creativity are related.

Is income inequality linked to infectious disease prevalence? A hypothesis-generating study using tuberculosis.

We study the association between infectious disease incidence and income inequality. We hypothesize that random social mixing in an income-unequal society brings into contact a) susceptible and infected poor and b) the infected-poor and the susceptible-rich, raising infectious disease incidence. We analyzed publicly available, country-level panel data for a large cross-section of countries between 1995 and 2013 to examine whether countries with elevated levels of income inequality have higher rates of pulmonary Tuberculosis (TB) incidence per capita.

Autism Detection in Children using Common Spatial Patterns of MEG Signals.

Autism exhibits a wide range of developmental disabilities and is associated with aberrant anatomical and functional neural patterns. To detect autism in young children (4-7 years) in an automatic and non-invasive fashion, we have recorded magnetoencephalogram (MEG) signals from 30 autistic and 30 age-matched typically developing (TD) children. We have used a machine learning classification framework with common spatial pattern (CSP)-based logarithmic band power (LBP) features.

Cortical signatures of visual body representation develop in human infancy.

Human infants cannot report their experiences, limiting what we can learn about their bodily awareness. However, visual cortical responses to the body, linked to visual awareness and selective attention in adults, can be easily measured in infants and provide a promising marker of bodily awareness in early life. We presented 4- and 8-month-old infants with a flickering (7.

Functional connectivity based machine learning approach for autism detection in young children using MEG signals.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder, and identifying early autism biomarkers plays a vital role in improving detection and subsequent life outcomes. This study aims to reveal hidden biomarkers in the patterns of functional brain connectivity as recorded by the neuro-magnetic brain responses in children with ASD.We recorded resting-state magnetoencephalogram signals from thirty children with ASD (4-7 years) and thirty age and gender-matched typically developing (TD) children.

A Fusion-Based Machine Learning Approach for Autism Detection in Young Children Using Magnetoencephalography Signals.

In this study, we aimed to find biomarkers of autism in young children. We recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) in thirty children (4-7 years) with autism and thirty age, gender-matched controls while they were watching cartoons. We focused on characterizing neural oscillations by amplitude (power spectral density, PSD) and phase (preferred phase angle, PPA).

Flow in contemporary musicians: Individual differences in flow proneness, anxiety, and emotional intelligence.

Flow is a highly focussed state of consciousness that is rewarding, fulfilling, and sought after by many, especially musicians. It is characterised by exceptional levels of concentration, loss of self-consciousness, and competent control over one's actions. Several personality and non-cognitive traits have been positively linked with flow proneness, such as emotional intelligence; however, anxiety is thought to be the antithesis of flow, yet the relationship between trait anxiety and flow proneness in musicians is not adequately characterised.

ASMR amplifies low frequency and reduces high frequency oscillations.

Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) describes an atypical multisensory experience of calming, tingling sensations in response to a specific subset of social audiovisual triggers. To date, the electrophysiological (EEG) correlates of ASMR remain largely unexplored. Here we sought to provide source-level signatures of oscillatory changes induced by this phenomenon and investigate potential decay effects-oscillatory changes in the absence of self-reported ASMR.

Multivariate patterns and long-range temporal correlations of alpha oscillations are associated with flexible manipulation of visual working memory representations.

The ability to flexibly manipulate memory representations is embedded in visual working memory (VWM) and can be tested using paradigms with retrospective cues. Although valid retrospective cues often facilitate memory recall, invalid ones may or may not result in performance costs. We investigated individual differences in utilising retrospective cues and evaluated how these individual differences are associated with brain oscillatory activity at rest.

A rational-choice model of Covid-19 transmission with endogenous quarantining and two-sided prevention.

This paper offers a parsimonious, rational-choice model to study the effect of pre-existing inequalities on the transmission of COVID-19. Agents decide whether to "go out" (or self-quarantine) and, if so, whether to wear protection such as masks. Three elements distinguish the model from existing work.

Exponential-growth prediction bias and compliance with safety measures related to COVID-19.

Objective: We define prediction bias as the systematic error arising from an incorrect prediction of the number of positive COVID cases x-weeks hence when presented with y-weeks of prior, actual data on the same. Our objective is to investigate the importance of an exponential-growth prediction bias (EGPB) in understanding why the COVID-19 outbreak has exploded. To that end, our goal is to document EGPB in the comprehension of disease data, study how it evolves as the epidemic progresses, and connect it with compliance of personal safety guidelines such as the use of face coverings and social distancing.

Auditory but Not Audiovisual Cues Lead to Higher Neural Sensitivity to the Statistical Regularities of an Unfamiliar Musical Style.

It is still a matter of debate whether visual aids improve learning of music. In a multisession study, we investigated the neural signatures of novel music sequence learning with or without aids (auditory-only: AO, audiovisual: AV). During three training sessions on three separate days, participants (nonmusicians) reproduced (note by note on a keyboard) melodic sequences generated by an artificial musical grammar.

Causally linking neural dominance to perceptual dominance in a multisensory conflict.

When different senses are in conflict, one sense may dominate the perception of other sense, but it is not known whether the sensory cortex associated with the dominant modality exerts directional influence, at the functional brain level, over the sensory cortex associated with the dominated modality; in short, the link between sensory dominance and neuronal dominance is not established. In a task involving audio-visual conflict, using magnetoencephalography recordings in humans, we first demonstrated that the neuronal dominance - auditory cortex functionally influencing visual cortex - was associated with the sensory dominance - sound qualitatively altering visual perception. Further, we found that prestimulus auditory-to-visual connectivity could predict the perceptual outcome on a trial-by-trial basis.

Switch or stay? Automatic classification of internal mental states in bistable perception.

The human brain goes through numerous cognitive states, most of these being hidden or implicit while performing a task, and understanding them is of great practical importance. However, identifying internal mental states is quite challenging as these states are difficult to label, usually short-lived, and generally, overlap with other tasks. One such problem pertains to bistable perception, which we consider to consist of two internal mental states, namely, transition and maintenance.

Investigating Age-Related Neural Compensation During Emotion Perception Using Electroencephalography.

Previous research suggests declines in emotion perception in older as compared to younger adults, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we address this by investigating how "face-age" and "face emotion intensity" affect both younger and older participants' behavioural and neural responses using event-related potentials (ERPs). Sixteen young and fifteen older adults viewed and judged the emotion type of facial images with old or young face-age and with high- or low- emotion intensities while EEG was recorded.

From learning to creativity: Identifying the behavioural and neural correlates of learning to predict human judgements of musical creativity.

Human creativity is intricately linked to acquired knowledge. However, to date learning a new musical style and subsequent musical creativity have largely been studied in isolation. We introduced a novel experimental paradigm combining behavioural, electrophysiological, and computational methods, to examine the neural correlates of unfamiliar music learning, and to investigate how neural and computational measures can predict human creativity.

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Val66Met Polymorphism Is Associated With a Reduced ERP Component Indexing Emotional Recollection.

The Met allele of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism is associated with reduced functioning of the amygdala and hippocampus. It has been linked to major psychiatric conditions, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and is associated with deficits in episodic memory. The precise mechanisms of the BDNF gene's influence on emotional memory are not well characterized, especially its impact on recognition.

The influence of motor preparation on the processing of action-relevant visual features.

Action preparation can facilitate performance in tasks of visual perception, for instance by speeding up responses to action-relevant stimulus features. However, it is unknown whether this facilitation reflects an influence on early perceptual processing, or instead post-perceptual processes. In three experiments, a combination of psychophysics and electroencephalography was used to investigate whether visual features are influenced by action preparation at the perceptual level.

Neural entrainment is associated with subjective groove and complexity for performed but not mechanical musical rhythms.

Both movement and neural activity in humans can be entrained by the regularities of an external stimulus, such as the beat of musical rhythms. Neural entrainment to auditory rhythms supports temporal perception, and is enhanced by selective attention and by hierarchical temporal structure imposed on rhythms. However, it is not known how neural entrainment to rhythms is related to the subjective experience of groove (the desire to move along with music or rhythm), the perception of a regular beat, the perception of complexity, and the experience of pleasure.

Cardiac afferent activity modulates early neural signature of error detection during skilled performance.

Behavioral adaptations during performance rely on predicting and evaluating the consequences of our actions through action monitoring. Previous studies revealed that proprioceptive and exteroceptive signals contribute to error-monitoring processes, which are implemented in the posterior medial frontal cortex. Interestingly, errors also trigger changes in autonomic nervous system activity such as pupil dilation or heartbeat deceleration.