Positive Technology Journal

Via Medgadget

The storage will be free to scientists and access to the data will be free for all. The project, known as Palimpsest and first previewed to the scientific community at the Science Foo camp at the Googleplex last August, missed its original launch date this week, but will debut soon.

Building on the company's acquisition of the data visualization technology, Trendalyzer, from the oft-lauded, TED presenting Gapminder team, Google will also be offering algorithms for the examination and probing of the information. The new site will have YouTube-style annotating and commenting features.

The storage would fill a major need for scientists who want to openly share their data, and would allow citizen scientists access to an unprecedented amount of data to explore. For example, two planned datasets are all 120 terabytes of Hubble Space Telescope data and the images from the Archimedes Palimpsest, the 10th century manuscript that inspired the Google dataset storage project.

Re-blogged from Medgadget

Researchers at Breakthrough Learning have developed the world's most stressful board game to help foster systems thinking, collaboration, and innovation in the health care setting.

Played out over a simulated 24-hour day at a hospital, "Friday Night at the ER" graphically shows the downside of short-term thinking, faulty assumptions and an every-manager-for-himself philosophy.

Four-player teams try to juggle a limited number of hospital beds, a relentless influx of patients and a gradual attrition of nurses to care for them, all while racing against a clock that forced faster and faster decisions. Every so often, game cards announce another mini-crisis to ramp up the pressure.

The patient count in the ER waiting room soars as the day goes on, especially if the players running the operating room, critical care unit and medical-surgical floor don't cooperate to free up bed space, share nursing staff and think ahead to the next challenge.

"It's about collaboration and teamwork, about seeing your department as one piece of an enormous mosaic," game leader William Ward [Johns Hopkins University professor of health finance and management -ed] told the players. "Whether it's lab, registration, records, we tend to manage just in our own little departments. I swear at the bottom of the Atlantic there's still a hospital department manager in dry room on the Titanic who went down thinking 'It's OK. My department is dry.'"

Brain-computer interfaces in the continuum of consciousness.

Curr Opin Neurol. 2007 Dec;20(6):643-9

Authors: Kübler A, Kotchoubey B

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To summarize recent developments and look at important future aspects of brain-computer interfaces. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent brain-computer interface studies are largely targeted at helping severely or even completely paralysed patients. The former are only able to communicate yes or no via a single muscle twitch, and the latter are totally nonresponsive. Such patients can control brain-computer interfaces and use them to select letters, words or items on a computer screen, for neuroprosthesis control or for surfing the Internet. This condition of motor paralysis, in which cognition and consciousness appear to be unaffected, is traditionally opposed to nonresponsiveness due to disorders of consciousness. Although these groups of patients may appear to be very alike, numerous transition states between them are demonstrated by recent studies. SUMMARY: All nonresponsive patients can be regarded on a continuum of consciousness which may vary even within short time periods. As overt behaviour is lacking, cognitive functions in such patients can only be investigated using neurophysiological methods. We suggest that brain-computer interfaces may provide a new tool to investigate cognition in disorders of consciousness, and propose a hierarchical procedure entailing passive stimulation, active instructions, volitional paradigms, and brain-computer interface operation.

Integrating a Portable Biofeedback Device into Clinical Practice for Patients with Anxiety Disorders: Results of a Pilot Study.

Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback. 2008 Feb 20;

Authors: Reiner R

This study examined the effectiveness of a portable Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) biofeedback device as an adjunct to CBT in persons with anxiety disorders and other disorders associated with autonomic dysfunction attending outpatient treatment. Participants were 24 individuals attending outpatient cognitive behavioral treatment for a range of anxiety disorders. Participants were assessed over a 3 week period. Outcomes included measures of anxiety (STAI-Y), sleep disturbances (PSQI), anger (STAEI), and subjective questions about the effectiveness of the device as a treatment adjunct. Significant reductions were found for anxiety and anger and for certain sleep variables (e.g. sleep latency). There was a significant dos-effect in that those who were more compliant had significantly greater reductions in most domains including sleep, anger and trait anxiety. Overall, participants found the device more helpful than other relaxation techniques such as mediation, yoga and unassisted breathing techniques but less helpful than exercise. The most frequently endorsed side effects were dizziness (15%) and sleepiness (55%). These preliminary results suggest that portable RSA biofeedback appears to be a promising treatment adjunct for disorders of autonomic arousal and is easily integrated into treatment. Results support the need for further investigation with more rigorous experimental designs.

Virtual reality and paranoid ideations in people with an 'at-risk mental state' for psychosis.

Br J Psychiatry Suppl. 2007 Dec;51:s63-8

Authors: Valmaggia LR, Freeman D, Green C, Garety P, Swapp D, Antley A, Prescott C, Fowler D, Kuipers E, Bebbington P, Slater M, Broome M, McGuire PK

BACKGROUND: Virtual reality provides a means of studying paranoid thinking in controlled laboratory conditions. However, this method has not been used with a clinical group. AIMS: To establish the feasibility and safety of using virtual reality methodology in people with an at-risk mental state and to investigate the applicability of a cognitive model of paranoia to this group. METHOD: Twenty-one participants with an at-risk mental state were assessed before and after entering a virtual reality environment depicting the inside of an underground train. RESULTS: Virtual reality did not raise levels of distress at the time of testing or cause adverse experiences over the subsequent week. Individuals attributed mental states to virtual reality characters including hostile intent. Persecutory ideation in virtual reality was predicted by higher levels of trait paranoia, anxiety, stress, immersion in virtual reality, perseveration and interpersonal sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: Virtual reality is an acceptable experimental technique for use with individuals with at-risk mental states. Paranoia in virtual reality was understandable in terms of the cognitive model of persecutory delusions.

Processing of peripersonal and extrapersonal space using tools: Evidence from visual line bisection in real and virtual environments.

Neuropsychologia. 2007 Dec 27;

Authors: Gamberini L, Seraglia B, Priftis K

The dissociation between peripersonal space (within reaching) and extrapersonal space (beyond reaching) has been reported in studies using the line bisection task in left neglect patients and in healthy participants. Furthermore, this dissociation can be modulated by tool use. We conducted two experiments to compare line bisection in peripersonal (i.e., 30, 60cm) and extrapersonal space (i.e., 90, 120cm). Healthy participants bisected visual lines using sticks and a laser pointer, according to the experimental paradigm of Longo and Lourenco [On the nature of near space: Effects of tool use and the transition to far space. Neuropsychologia, 44, 977-981, 2006]. In Experiment 1 participants performed line bisection in a real environment, whereas in Experiment 2 participants performed line bisection in a virtual environment. Results from both experiments revealed an abrupt midpoint shift from the peripersonal to the extrapersonal space but only when a laser pointer was used. In addition, we confirmed that peripersonal space can be extended to extrapersonal space when participants used a stick. Notably, virtual reality can be a useful technique for studying the dissociation between peripersonal and extrapersonal space and their interaction by means of tool use.

Location and longing: The nicotine craving experience in virtual reality.

Drug Alcohol Depend. 2008 Feb 1;

Authors: Carter BL, Bordnick P, Traylor A, Day SX, Paris M

Considerable research suggests that cigarette craving is complex, with psychological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects that are inadequately captured by typical craving assessments that focus on level of severity. That is, the experience of craving, for cigarette smokers, remains poorly understood. This study immersed smokers in different virtual reality (VR) scenarios (with and without cigarette cues present), collected detailed craving assessments, and analyzed the data using a multidimensional analytic approach. Non-treatment-seeking, nicotine dependent smokers (N=22) experienced two different virtual reality scenarios, one with cigarette cues and one without, and rated 24 descriptors related to craving. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) models demonstrate that smokers' experience of craving is qualitatively, structurally different under VR smoking cue conditions versus neutral conditions. This finding sheds new light on the complexity of craving as well as implications for its measurement.

Allocentric memory impaired and egocentric memory intact as assessed by virtual reality in recent-onset schizophrenia.

Schizophr Res. 2008 Feb 12;

Authors: Weniger G, Irle E

Present evidence suggests that schizophrenia is associated with explicit memory deficits, whereas implicit memory seems to be largely preserved. Virtual reality studies on declarative allocentric memory in schizophrenia are rare, and studies on implicit egocentric memory in schizophrenia are lacking. However, virtual realities have a major advantage for the assessment of spatial navigation and memory formation, as computer-simulated first-person environments can simulate navigation in a large-scale space. Twenty-five subjects with recent-onset schizophrenia were compared with 25 healthy matched control subjects on two virtual reality tasks affording the navigation and learning of a virtual park (allocentric memory) and a virtual maze (egocentric memory). Compared with control subjects, schizophrenia subjects were significantly impaired in learning the virtual park. However, schizophrenia subjects were as able as control subjects to learn the virtual maze. Stronger disorganized symptoms of schizophrenia subjects were significantly related to more errors on the virtual maze. It is concluded that egocentric spatial learning adds to the many other implicit cognitive skills being largely preserved in schizophrenia. Possibly, the more global neural network supporting egocentric spatial learning is less affected than the declarative hippocampal memory system in early stages of schizophrenia and may offer opportunities for compensation in the presence of focal deficits.

Assessing reactivity to virtual reality alcohol based cues.

Addict Behav. 2008 Jan 2

Authors: Bordnick PS, Traylor A, Copp HL, Graap KM, Carter B, Ferrer M, Walton AP

The use of virtual reality (VR) programs in behavioral science research has been gaining prominence over the past several years. In the field of substance abuse, VR cue reactivity programs have been successfully tested for feasibility in nicotine and cocaine dependent samples. Seeking to expand VR applications in alcohol cue research, a novel VR alcohol cue reactivity assessment system incorporating visual, auditory, and olfactory stimuli was developed and tested. In a controlled trial, 40 non-treatment-seeking drinkers with alcohol use disorders were exposed to VR alcohol cue environments. Subjective craving, attention to alcohol cues, and level of presence (realism of experience) in VR were assessed across the environments. Overall, subjective craving for alcohol increased across the VR alcohol-related cue environments versus VR neutral cue environments. Participants reported high levels of presence in VR, indicating that the environments were perceived as realistic and compelling. These initial findings support the use of VR based cue reactivity environments for use in alcohol cue-based treatment and research.

Development of symbolic play through the use of virtual reality tools in children with autistic spectrum disorders: Two case studies.

Autism. 2008 Mar;12(2):143-57

Authors: Herrera G, Alcantud F, Jordan R, Blanquer A, Labajo G, De Pablo C

Difficulties in understanding symbolism have been documented as characteristic of autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). In general, virtual reality (VR) environments offer a set of potential advantages for educational intervention in ASD. In particular, VR offers the advantage, for teaching pretend play and for understanding imagination, of it being possible to show these imaginary transformations explicitly. This article reports two case studies of children with autism (aged 8:6 and 15:7, both male), examining the effectiveness of using a VR tool specifically designed to work on teaching understanding of pretend play. The results, confirmed by independent observers, showed a significant advance in pretend play abilities after the intervention period in both participants, and a high degree of generalization of the acquired teaching in one of them.