Positive Technology Journal

Feeling present in arousing virtual reality worlds: prefrontal brain regions differentially orchestrate presence experience in adults and children.

Front Hum Neurosci. 2008;2:8

Authors: Baumgartner T, Speck D, Wettstein D, Masnari O, Beeli G, Jäncke L

Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful tool for simulating aspects of the real world. The success of VR is thought to depend on its ability to evoke a sense of "being there", that is, the feeling of "Presence". In view of the rapid progress in the development of increasingly more sophisticated virtual environments (VE), the importance of understanding the neural underpinnings of presence is growing. To date however, the neural correlates of this phenomenon have received very scant attention. An fMRI-based study with 52 adults and 25 children was therefore conducted using a highly immersive VE. The experience of presence in adult subjects was found to be modulated by two major strategies involving two homologous prefrontal brain structures. Whereas the right DLPFC controlled the sense of presence by down-regulating the activation in the egocentric dorsal visual processing stream, the left DLPFC up-regulated widespread areas of the medial prefrontal cortex known to be involved in self-reflective and stimulus-independent thoughts. In contrast, there was no evidence of these two strategies in children. In fact, anatomical analyses showed that these two prefrontal areas have not yet reached full maturity in children. Taken together, this study presents the first findings that show activation of a highly specific neural network orchestrating the experience of presence in adult subjects, and that the absence of activity in this neural network might contribute to the generally increased susceptibility of children for the experience of presence in VEs.

Circadian Modulation of Mentally Simulated Motor Actions: Implications for the Potential Use of Motor Imagery in Rehabilitation.

Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2008 Oct 30;

Authors: Gueugneau N, Mauvieux B, Papaxanthis C

BACKGROUND: . Mental practice through motor imagery improves subsequent motor performance and thus mental training is considered to be a potential tool in neuromotor rehabilitation. OBJECTIVE: . The authors investigated whether a circadian fluctuation of the motor imagery process occurs, which could be relevant in scheduling mental training in rehabilitation programs. METHODS: . The executed and imagined durations of walking and writing movements were recorded every 3 hours from 8 am to 11 pm in healthy participants. The authors made a cosinor analysis on the temporal features of these movements to detect circadian rhythms. Temporal differences between executed and imagined movements as well as their variability during the day were also quantified. RESULTS: . Circadian rhythms were detected for both the executed and the imagined movements. Furthermore, these rhythms covaried between them and with body temperature. The participants' ability to internally simulate their movements also fluctuated significantly during the day. The isochrony between the executed and the imagined movements was exclusively observed between 2 pm and 8 pm. In the morning (8 am and 11 am) and the evening (11 pm), the durations of the imagined movements were significantly longer than the durations of executed movements. CONCLUSIONS: . Predictive internal models fluctuate in a circadian basis, as do many other physiological parameters. It could be important to take into consideration the time of day in the planning of rehabilitation programs using physical or mental training.

Open hearts build lives: positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources.

J Pers Soc Psychol. 2008 Nov;95(5):1045-62

Authors: Fredrickson BL, Cohn MA, Coffey KA, Pek J, Finkel SM

B. L. Fredrickson's (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions asserts that people's daily experiences of positive emotions compound over time to build a variety of consequential personal resources. The authors tested this build hypothesis in a field experiment with working adults (n = 139), half of whom were randomly-assigned to begin a practice of loving-kindness meditation. Results showed that this meditation practice produced increases over time in daily experiences of positive emotions, which, in turn, produced increases in a wide range of personal resources (e.g., increased mindfulness, purpose in life, social support, decreased illness symptoms). In turn, these increments in personal resources predicted increased life satisfaction and reduced depressive symptoms. Discussion centers on how positive emotions are the mechanism of change for the type of mind-training practice studied here and how loving-kindness meditation is an intervention strategy that produces positive emotions in a way that outpaces the hedonic treadmill effect.

A pilot study of meditation for mental health workers following Hurricane Katrina.

J Trauma Stress. 2008 Oct 27;21(5):497-500

Authors: Waelde LC, Uddo M, Marquett R, Ropelato M, Freightman S, Pardo A, Salazar J

This pilot study examined the effects of a manualized meditation intervention (called Inner Resources) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety symptoms among 20 African American and Caucasian mental health workers in New Orleans beginning 10 weeks after Hurricane Katrina. They participated in a 4-hour workshop followed by an 8-week home study program. Complete follow-up data were available for 15 participants. Results of intention-to-treat analyses indicated that participants' PTSD and anxiety symptoms significantly decreased over the 8 weeks of the intervention; these improvements were significantly correlated with the total number of minutes of daily meditation practice. The majority of participants reported good treatment adherence and improvements in well-being. These findings suggest that meditation may be a feasible, acceptable, and effective postdisaster intervention.