Positive Technology Journal

Real-time Neurofeedback Using Functional MRI Could Improve Down-Regulation of Amygdala Activity During Emotional Stimulation: A Proof-of-Concept Study.

Brain Topogr. 2013 Nov 16;

Authors: Brühl AB, Scherpiet S, Sulzer J, Stämpfli P, Seifritz E, Herwig U

Abstract. The amygdala is a central target of emotion regulation. It is overactive and dysregulated in affective and anxiety disorders and amygdala activity normalizes with successful therapy of the symptoms. However, a considerable percentage of patients do not reach remission within acceptable duration of treatment. The amygdala could therefore represent a promising target for real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) neurofeedback. rtfMRI neurofeedback directly improves the voluntary regulation of localized brain activity. At present, most rtfMRI neurofeedback studies have trained participants to increase activity of a target, i.e. up-regulation. However, in the case of the amygdala, down-regulation is supposedly more clinically relevant. Therefore, we developed a task that trained participants to down-regulate activity of the right amygdala while being confronted with amygdala stimulation, i.e. negative emotional faces. The activity in the functionally-defined region was used as online visual feedback in six healthy subjects instructed to minimize this signal using reality checking as emotion regulation strategy. Over a period of four training sessions, participants significantly increased down-regulation of the right amygdala compared to a passive viewing condition to control for habilitation effects. This result supports the concept of using rtfMRI neurofeedback training to control brain activity during relevant stimulation, specifically in the case of emotion, and has implications towards clinical treatment of emotional disorders.

Garnet Hertz's video game concept car combines a car-shaped arcade game cabinet with a real world electric vehicle to produce a video game system that actually drives. OutRun offers a unique mixed reality simulation as one physically drives through an 8-bit video game. The windshield of the system features custom software that transforms the real world into an 8-bit video game, enabling the user to have limitless gameplay opportunities while driving. Hertz has designed OutRun to de-simulate the driving component of a video game: where game simulations strive to be increasingly realistic (usually focused on graphics), this system pursues "real" driving through the game. Additionally, playing off the game-like experience one can have driving with an automobile navigation system, OutRun explores the consequences of using only a computer model of the world as a navigation tool for driving.

More info: http://conceptlab.com/outrun/

Effect of mindfulness meditation on brain-computer interface performance.

Conscious Cogn. 2013 Nov 22;23C:12-21

Authors: Tan LF, Dienes Z, Jansari A, Goh SY

Abstract. Electroencephalogram based Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) enable stroke and motor neuron disease patients to communicate and control devices. Mindfulness meditation has been claimed to enhance metacognitive regulation. The current study explores whether mindfulness meditation training can thus improve the performance of BCI users. To eliminate the possibility of expectation of improvement influencing the results, we introduced a music training condition. A norming study found that both meditation and music interventions elicited clear expectations for improvement on the BCI task, with the strength of expectation being closely matched. In the main 12week intervention study, seventy-six healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to three groups: a meditation training group; a music training group; and a no treatment control group. The mindfulness meditation training group obtained a significantly higher BCI accuracy compared to both the music training and no-treatment control groups after the intervention, indicating effects of meditation above and beyond expectancy effects.

Great BBC documentary (40')

Call for papers IDGEI 2014 - International Workshop on Intelligent Games for Empowerment and Inclusion - associated with "Intelligent User Interfaces IUI 2014"

2nd International Workshop on Intelligent Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion.

http://idgei2014.joanneum.at/

Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion possess the potential to change our society in a most positive way by preparing selected groups in a playful and fun way for their everyday life’s social and special situations. Exemplary domains span as far as from children with Autism Spectrum Condition to young adults preparing for their first job interviews or migrants familiarizing with their new environment. The current generation of such games thereby increasingly demands for computational intelligence algorithms to help analyze players’ behavior and monitor their motivation and interest to adapt game progress. The development of such games usually thus requires expertise from the general gaming domain, but in particular also from a game’s target domain, besides technological savoir-faire to provide intelligent analysis and reaction solutions. IDGEI 2014 aims at bridging across these communities and disciplines by inviting respective researchers and experts to discuss their latest perspectives and findings in the field of Intelligent Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion.

 Suggested workshop topics include, but are by no means limited to:

• Machine Intelligence in Serious Games
• Mobile and Real-World Serious Gaming
• Emotion & Affect in Serious Games
• Player Behavior and Attention Modeling
• Player-Adaptation and Motivation
• Security & Privacy Preservation
• Novel Serious Games
• User Studies & Tests of Serious Games

Paper submission deadline 4 December 2013.

Associated with International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces 2014.

For more info, download Call for Papers (PDF; 582 KB)

A new study shows that over one third of people feel overwhelmed by technology today and are more likely to feel less satisfied with their life as a whole.

The study, conducted by the University of Cambridge and sponsored by BT, surveyed 1,269 people including in-depth interviews with families in the UK, also found that people who felt in control of their use of communications technology were more likely to be more satisfied with life.

Read the full story

Special issue editors:
• Hugo Gamboa (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
• Hugo Plácido da Silva (IT – Institute of Telecommunications, Portugal)
• Kiel Gilleade (Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom)
• Sergi Bermúdez i Badia (Universidade da Madeira, Portugal)
• Stephen Fairclough (Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom)

Contact:
s.fairclough@ljmu.ac.uk

Deadline for Submissions:
30 June 2014

Physiological data provides a wealth of information about the behavioural state of the user. These data can provide important contextual information by allowing the system to draw inferences with respect to the affective, cognitive and physical state of a person. In a computerised system this information can be used as an input control to drive system adaptation. For example, a videogame can use psychophysiological inferences of the player’s level of mental workload during play to adjust game difficulty in real-time.

A basic physiological computer system will simply reflect changes in the physiological data in its system adaptations. More advanced systems would use their knowledge of the individual user and the context in which changes are occurring in order to “intelligently” adapt the system at the most appropriate time with the most appropriate intervention.

In this special issue we call for the submission of cutting edge research work relating to the creation, facilitation of and issues involved in intelligent adaptive physiological computing systems (PCS). The focus of this special issue is on Physiological Computing for Intelligent Adaptation, and within this the scope includes but is not limited to:

• Applications of intelligent adaptation in PCS
• Mobile and embedded systems for intelligent adaptation in PCS
• Adaptive user interfaces driven by physiological computing
• Assistive technologies mediated by physiological computing
• Pervasive technologies for physiological computing
• Affective interfaces
• Context aware interfaces
• The user experience of intelligent adaptive PCS
• Ethics of intelligent adaptation in PCS

All contributions will be rigorously peer reviewed to the usual exacting standards of IwC. Further information, including submission procedures and advice on formatting and preparing your manuscript, can be found at:http://iwc.oxfordjournals.org/

inFORM is a Dynamic Shape Display developed by MIT Tangible Media Group that can render 3D content physically, so users can interact with digital information in a tangible way.

inFORM can also interact with the physical world around it, for example moving objects on the table’s surface.

Remote participants in a video conference can be displayed physically, allowing for a strong sense of presence and the ability to interact physically at a distance.

A team of MIT students and alumni hava developed a new low-cost solution to get the body temperature just right: Wristify, a wrist cuff that allows individuals to maintain a comfortable body temperature independent of their environment. In essence, their thermoelectric bracelet monitors air and skin temperature and then responds with pulses of hot or cold waveforms to the wrist.

A MADMEC attendee tries out Wristify’s thermoelectric bracelet. (Photo: Franklin Hobbs)

The Wristify team recently won first prize and $10,000 in MIT’s Making and Designing Materials Engineering Competition (MADMEC)—that’s after months of development and 15 prototypes.

Via Medgadget

Researchers at Duke University have reported in journal Science Translational Medicine that they were able to train monkeys to control two virtual limbs through a brain-computer interface (BCI). The rhesus monkeys initially used joysticks to become comfortable moving the avatar’s arms, but later the brain-computer interfaces implanted on their brains were activated to allow the monkeys to drive the avatar using only their minds. Two years ago the same team was able to train monkeys to control one arm, but the complexity of controlling two arms required the development of a new algorithm for reading and filtering the signals. Moreover, the monkey brains themselves showed great adaptation to the training with the BCI, building new neural pathways to help improve how the monkeys moved the virtual arms. As the authors of the study note in the abstract, “These findings should help in the design of more sophisticated BMIs capable of enabling bimanual motor control in human patients.”

Here’s a video of one of the avatars being controlled to tap on the white balls:

Via Medgadget

NeuroPace has received FDA pre-market approval for the NeuroPace RNS System, used to treat medically refractory partial epilepsy. The battery powered device is implanted in the cranium and monitors electrical activity in the brain. If abnormal activity is detected, electrical impulses are sent to the seizure focus in the brain via leads, helping to prevent the onset of a seizure. The RNS System also comes with a programmer for physicians to non-invasively set the detection and stimulation parameters for the implanted device, and has the ability to view the patients electrocorticogram (ECoG) in real time and upload previously recorded ECoGs stored on the RNS implant.

Results from clinical studies show significant benefits for patients, with a 37.9% reduction in seizure frequency for subjects with active implants. Follow up with patients two years post-implant showed that over half experienced a reduction in seizures of 50% or more.

Neurofeedback training aimed to improve focused attention and alertness in children with ADHD: a study of relative power of EEG rhythms using custom-made software application.

Clin EEG Neurosci. 2013 Jul;44(3):193-202

Authors: Hillard B, El-Baz AS, Sears L, Tasman A, Sokhadze EM

Abstract. Neurofeedback is a nonpharmacological treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We propose that operant conditioning of electroencephalogram (EEG) in neurofeedback training aimed to mitigate inattention and low arousal in ADHD, will be accompanied by changes in EEG bands' relative power. Patients were 18 children diagnosed with ADHD. The neurofeedback protocol ("Focus/Alertness" by Peak Achievement Trainer) has a focused attention and alertness training mode. The neurofeedback protocol provides one for Focus and one for Alertness. This does not allow for collecting information regarding changes in specific EEG bands (delta, theta, alpha, low and high beta, and gamma) power within the 2 to 45 Hz range. Quantitative EEG analysis was completed on each of twelve 25-minute-long sessions using a custom-made MatLab application to determine the relative power of each of the aforementioned EEG bands throughout each session, and from the first session to the last session. Additional statistical analysis determined significant changes in relative power within sessions (from minute 1 to minute 25) and between sessions (from session 1 to session 12). Analysis was of relative power of theta, alpha, low and high beta, theta/alpha, theta/beta, and theta/low beta and theta/high beta ratios. Additional secondary measures of patients' post-neurofeedback outcomes were assessed, using an audiovisual selective attention test (IVA + Plus) and behavioral evaluation scores from the Aberrant Behavior Checklist. Analysis of data computed in the MatLab application, determined that theta/low beta and theta/alpha ratios decreased significantly from session 1 to session 12, and from minute 1 to minute 25 within sessions. The findings regarding EEG changes resulting from brain wave self-regulation training, along with behavioral evaluations, will help elucidate neural mechanisms of neurofeedback aimed to improve focused attention and alertness in ADHD.

Phonebloks is a modular smartphone concept created by Dutch designer Dave Hakkens to reduce electronic waste. By attaching individual third-party components (called "bloks") to a main board, a user would create a personalized smartphone. These bloks can be replaced at will if they break or the user wishes to upgrade.

The design contest solicits entries from student teams worldwide and is aimed at finding solutions that help keep people with cognitive impairments independent as long as possible.

The competition is currently accepting submissions in what is called Phase I of the challenge. Submitted concepts will be judged in January and finalists will be given financial help to flesh out their design and travel to Stanford to present it.

From January until April, called Phase II, finalists will also have access to mentors in different schools and centers at Stanford

The final presentations, in April, will be before a panel of academics, industry professionals, nonprofit groups and investors.

The top prize is $10,000, while the second place team will take home $5,000 and third place will get $3,000.

Artist Javier Pérez turns everyday objects into whimsical illustrations. Here are some of my favourites. Discover more on his Instagram account.

Via KurzweilAI.net

The neurocam is the world’s first wearable camera system that automatically records what interests you, based on brainwaves, DigInfo TV reports.

It consists of a headset with a brain-wave sensor and uses the iPhone’s camera to record a 5-second GIF animation. It could also be useful for life-logging.

The algorithm for quantifying brain waves was co-developed by Associate Professor Mitsukura at Keio University.

The project team plans to create an emotional interface.