Positive Technology Journal

Via Medgadget

Medgadget reports about a new technology, which allows measuring cerebral oxygenation and indirectly cerebral perfusion. These paramethers can be used by anesthesiologists during a surgical procedure to prevent potential harm in the brain.Designed by CAS Medical Systems, Inc., the monitor, called a cerebral oximeter, uses one or more sensors attached to the forehead that emit non-harmful, low-level laser light through the skin and skull into the brain. Since the near-infrared light absorption characteristics of the hemoglobin in red blood cells are known, the system can calculate the brain tissue oxygen saturation by measuring the differences in intensity of light as it passes through the brain. When combined with pulse oximetry, the cerebral oximeter may be used to estimate the cerebral venous oxygen saturation.

Tenured faculty position on Modeling of Cognitive Processes is available within the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering of the Berlin University of Technology and the recently established Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin. The Berlin Bernstein Center, which is funded by the German federal government, integrates interdisciplinary research initiatives in the brain sciences and in AI across the city's three major universities and across several research institutes in Berlin, covering neuroscience, medicine, physics, mathematics, computer science and engineering. The Center plans to launch an international Master/PhD program in Computational Neuroscience by fall 2006.

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering is currently creating a focus area in AI and machine learning with at least four core faculty positions (Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Modelling of Cognitive Processes, Neural Information Processing) and several other labs with AI related research. The Department will introduce "intelligent systems" as an area of specialization in its new Master program in Computer Science by fall 2006.

J Neuroengineering Rehabil. 2005 Oct 5;2(1):31

Title: A preliminary study of clinical assessment of left unilateral spatial neglect using a head mounted display system (HMD) in rehabilitation engineering technology

Tanaka T, Sugihara S, Nara H, Ino S, Ifukube T.

Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is a common syndrome in which a patient fails to report or respond to stimulation from the side of space opposite a brain lesion, where these symptoms are not due to primary sensory or motor deficits. The purpose of this study was to analyze an evaluation process system of USN in various visual fields using HMD in order to understand more accurately any faults of USN operating in the object-centred co-ordinates. Eight stroke patients participated in this study and they had Left USN in clinical test, and right hemisphere damage was checked by CT scan. Assessments of USN were performed the BIT common clinical test ( the line bisection test and the stars cancellation test) and special tests the zoom-in condition (ZI) condition and the zoom-out condition (ZO) condition. The subjects were first evaluated by the common clinical test without HMD and then two spatial tests with HMD. Moreover, we used a video-recording for all tests to analyze each subject's movements. For the line bisection test under the commonl condition, the mean percentage of the correct answers at the left side in the test paper was 94.4%. In the ZI condition, the left side was 61.8.% and the right side was 92.4.%. In the ZO condition, the left side was 79.9% and the right side was 91.7.%. There were significant differences among the three conditions. The results of the stars cancellation test also showed the same tendency as the line bisection test. The results showed that the assessment of USN using a technique of HMD system may indicate the disability of USN more than the common clinical tests. Moreover, it might be hypothesized that the three dimensional for USN test may be more related to various damage and occurrence of USN than only the two dimensional test.

Neuroreport. 2005 Nov 7;16(16):1795-1800

Authors: Tomasino B, Budai R, Mondani M, Skrap M, Rumiati RI

We investigated the effects of cortical stimulation on mental rotation tasks in a patient with an electrode array placed over his left primary motor cortex. The array was implanted to relieve chronic pain resulting from right brachial plexus damage. Tasks involving motor imagery were slowed down by cortical stimulation, whereas those involving visual imagery were not. When the patient performed the motor-imagery task, the interference effect on response times disappeared if the stimulator was switched off. We also probed two of the sites (anterior-lateral and posterior-medial position), and found that stimulation of the more anterior-lateral one consistently disrupted motor imagery.

6th International Conference on Digital Cinema, Virtual Reality, Computer Graphics, 3D animation and special effects

The conference will be held in Turin, 3-6 November 2005

Visit the conference web site for further information

See you there 

Authors: Anderson PL, Zimand E, Hodges LF, Rothbaum BO

This study used an open clinical trial to test a cognitive-behavioral treatment for public-speaking anxiety that utilized virtual reality as a tool for exposure therapy. Treatment was completed by participants (n=10) meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-IV criteria for social phobia, or panic disorder with agoraphobia in which public speaking was the predominantly feared stimulus. Treatment was conducted by a licensed psychologist in an outpatient clinic. Treatment consisted of eight individual therapy sessions, including four sessions of anxiety management training and four sessions of exposure therapy using a virtual audience, according to a standardized treatment manual. Participants completed standardized self-report questionnaires assessing public-speaking anxiety at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up. Participants were asked to give a speech to an actual audience at pre- and post-treatment. Results showed decreases on all self-report measures of public-speaking anxiety from pre- to post-treatment, which were maintained at follow-up (n=8; all P<.05). Participants were no more likely to complete a speech post-treatment than at pre-treatment. This study provides preliminary evidence that a cognitive-behavioral treatment using virtual reality for exposure to public speaking may reduce public-speaking anxiety and suggests that further research with a controlled design is needed. Depression and Anxiety 0:1-3, 2005. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Psychological Symptoms

Having a sense of well-being or euphoria while at the computer
Inability to stop the activity
Craving more and more time at the computer
Neglect of family and friends
Feeling empty, depressed, irritable when not at the computer
Lying to employers and family about activities
Problems with school or job

Physical Symptoms

Carpal tunnel syndrome
Dry eyes
Migraine headaches
Back aches
Eating irregularities, such as skipping meals
Failure to attend to personal hygiene
Sleep disturbances, change in sleep pattern

(According to Maressa Hecht Orack, Ph.D.)

Via Extremetech

Deviceforge.com today reports that a company has just started marketing a technology that inexpensively adds face recognition to camera-equipped cellphones. Oki's "Face Sensing Engine" (FSE) "middleware" decodes facial images within 280mS on a 100MHz ARM9 processor, and can restrict access to mobile devices by recognizing their owners.

Besides security applications, this new technology could have interesting applications in the field of neurorehabilitation. For example, the implementation of face recognition may help brain-injured patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases to recognize their relatives and friends

Oki lists the following key features of its FSE technology:

• Compact system footprint -- requires approximately 260KB on an ARM9 processor
  
• Fast image processing -- requires approximately 280mS on a 100MHz ARM9 processor
  
• Face recognition algorithm automatically adjusts to ambient lighting conditions
  
• Supported processor architectures -- ARM9, SH Mobile, and others
  
• Supported software platforms -- Symbian, uITRON, Linux, BREW, WIPI, Windows, Solaris, and others

Cyberpsychol Behav. 2005 Oct;8(5):487-92

Authors: Bordnick PS, Graap KM, Copp HL, Brooks J, Ferrer M

Abstract. Drug craving has purportedly been linked to relapse and to substance use. For over two decades, cue reactivity has been a viable method to assess craving and physiological reactions to drug stimuli. However, traditional cue reactivity has faced the following limitations: austere situations or stimuli, lack of complex cues, lack of standardization, and limited generalization outside of the lab setting. In order to improve cue methodologies, a virtual reality (VR) nicotine cue reactivity assessment system (VR-NCRAS) was developed and tested in a controlled experimental trial. Ten nicotine dependent smokers were exposed to VR smoking cues and VR neutral cues in a standardized, timed, computer controlled experiment. Subjective craving and physiological responses were recorded and compared across VR-NCRAS stimuli. Subjective cigarette craving increased significantly and corresponding physiological reactivity was observed in response to VR smoking cues. VR neutral cues did not result in subjective or physiological changes consistent with craving. Implications of these findings on substance abuse research and treatment are discussed.

"...Words like "intelligence", "awareness" and "agency" describe particular and peculiar behaviors performed effectively and appropriately in certain locations and situations. We do not need to imagine that they indicate anything other than that. What is important is not what happens within us, but rather what happens between us in the medium of language in which we communicate, in the social institutions within which we operate and in the culture within which we've been conditioned - at this point in our history and so on, depending on our frame of reference. To talk of agency is to refer to an intentional act defined within a very small frame of reference. [...] In the body performances, the skin has been stretched, the body has been probed and its limbs have been extended. The interest is to construct alternate interfaces that explore the absent, alien, involuntary and automated. What we experience is emptiness, ambiguity and uncertainty. We fear what we have always been and what we have already become -- a zombie with no mind -- a body that performs involuntarily..." From Prosthetic Head: Intelligence, Awareness and Agency by Stelarc

Via Mind Hacks

CNET News.com interviews Mike Merzenich, a neuroscientist, on how high-tech is shaping human intelligence. Merzenich, who is also a high-tech entrepreneur, focuses on designing and developing computer applications that support cognitive skills such as memory, attention, and language processing.

In this interview, Merzenich claims that massive exposure to technologies such as video games, television and the Internet is affecting brain evolution. He observes that in each stage of cultural development human beings had to develop novel skills and abilities. The progressive accumulation of these skills determined significant changes in our central nervous system, which is now very different from the brain of our ancestors. As culture and technology are still evolving, the challenges faced by brains are continuously changing and elaborating. Starting from these premises, Merzenich suggests that continuous exercise can help to preserve and maintain cognitive skills and abilities, and assumes that brain fitness will be an important part of every future, well-organized life.

Read full article on News.com

More to explore

Merzenich's company Posit Science

A 12 month full-time contract for a research post will be available in the Department of Psychology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milano, Italy. The contract will start in February 2006.

The contract can be renewed for further 12-month periods. The research post is connected to a project entitled "Cognitive processes in media use" and is completely funded by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. The project is aimed at carrying out experimental investigations about the cognitive processes and the levels of consciousness which accompany the use of multimedia interactive tools. The project is being led by Professor Alessandro Antonietti

Requirements
Ph. D. degree in psychology or allied disciplines.
A clear interest in the topic of the project and proven qualifications for doing research.
Language skills: fluent English (written and speech). No previous knowledge of Italian is required.

Place
The research activities will be based in the Department and Faculty of Psychology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milano.

Salary
The salary is 1,345.00 euros per month. The salary is free from taxes; An insurance deduction (5.00%) might be applied (it depends on the nationality of the candidate).

Applications
The official announcement will be delivered in January 2006.
The application forms and further particulars will available from January 2006 from the website of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

Candidates will apply by sending the following documents:
- the application forms
- curriculum vitae including list of publications
- the research plan (approximately 6 page written in English) that the candidate would carry out.

Informal enquiries can be made to:
Alessandro Antonietti
(Tel) ++39-02-72342909
(E-mail) alessandro.antonietti@unicatt.it

(Postal address) Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Largo Gemelli 1, 20123 Milano, Italy

Via Usability News A special issue of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing is calling for contributions about "Experience, Enchantment, and Interaction Design".

An indicative list of possible topics is:

- The enchantment of digital technology
- Novel and enchanting interactions
- The possibility of designing for enchantment
- Measuring and evaluating enchantment
- Approaches to enchantment from art, design and literature
- Critical theory
- Designing for experience, openness and potential
- Design practices to confer depth on a design
- Ambiguity, depth and meaning in interaction design
- Relationships between enchantment and other varieties of experience
Important dates

Paper Submission: 25 November, 2005
Notification of acceptance: 27 January 2006
Final Corrections to papers: 31 March, 2006

From the conference website

Can computers help fight obesity? Can technology motivate you to waste less energy? Can communication devices help overcome racial prejudice? Can a virtual agent persuade you to break your smoking habit? Can a mobile phone help you study? Can a robot challenge you to perform rehabilitation exercises?

PERSUASIVE 06 is aimed at exploring technology in the service of human well-being, within the broader context of a socially and ecologically sustainable society. Join academic researchers, designers, and technology developers from around the world in investigating the potential of persuasive technologies to positively affect human attitudes and behaviour.

The goal of PERSUASIVE 06 is to bring together a multidisciplinary group of social scientists studying persuasion, and engineers developing persuasive technologies in areas such as health and rehabilitation, housing, information and communication, and energy conservation, so they can meet, share experiences, present research, and exchange ideas. Key topics include:

· Health, comfort, and wellbeing
· Sustainability
· Education and training
· Communication
· Ethics of persuasive technology
· Theories of persuasion and related topics such as motivation, credibility, trust and control
· Persuasive technologies as change agents

The conference will take place 15-16 May 2006 hosted by Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

Via Medgadget

European Union has published a new call for proposals in the area of Networked Audio Visual Systems. In this field DG INFSO aims at supporting research and development of open, trusted and interoperable multimedia user platforms and devices. The main focus is notably on platforms used on broadcasting and on delivery of fully interactive services to the home user capabilities. These developments will lead to the concept of "extended home", where the users will enjoy seamless access to a diversity of multimedia content.

Important information:

Allocated budget: € 52,5 million
Closing Date(s): 20 December 2005 at 17h00 (Brussels local time)
OJ Reference: OJ C259 of 19.10.2005
Specific programme: Integrating and Strengthening the European Research Area
Activity area(s): Information Society Technologies (IST)

Via Wired

The CommonCensus Map Project is redrawing the map of the United States based on users' voting, to show how the country is organized culturally, as opposed to traditional political boundaries. It shows how the country is divided into 'spheres of influence' between different cities at the national, regional, and local levels.

The third national map has been produced, based on the first 16,000 votes

A special issue of the journal Virtual Reality will be devoted to the use of Collaborative virtual environments to support creativity. Here is an excerpt from the journals' call for papers:

Creative processes often are collaborative in nature, with a group of people reflecting on an overall theme, jointly contributing thoughts interactively, and ultimately generating new ideas. Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) to support this process, thus, should support the group, provide a creative atmosphere and comfortable environment, and support the seamless expression and visualization of ideas. This requires the environment to be inspiring, to enable a wide range of design options, to allow multiple and appropriate types of interaction, to provide for seamless interaction, advanced visualization technologies and simplified sharing mechanisms. Example application areas of such systems are the design and development of computer games, art, product design, fashion, digital storytelling environments, entertainment services, advertising, and architecture or urban planning. The aim of this special issue is to provide an overview of innovative and state-of-theart research on Collaborative Environments in Virtual Reality which support the creative process. Paper contributions should discuss in general how to support creativity with collaborative tools and virtual environments.

Research questions cover a wide range of topics such as how to

• allow participants with various professional backgrounds, working languages,
  and ways of expressing their ideas to collaborate with each other locally and
  over distance
• allow for quick and efficient selection of options to express and visualize
  innovative ideas, going well beyond support for 2D drawings, text and voice
• provide a non-technical, human-friendly and supportive work environment
  with the focus on creativity
• support the design of multi-dimensional interactive applications
• keep an overview on different activity lines in both the design and the use of
  multilevel, multi-dimensional applications
  

Via Neurodudes

Neuroscholar is a KM software application for neuroscientists, which allows to store and annotate primary research data in conjunction with information from the literature (below a preview of the program's graphical user interface).

More to explore

The Neuroscholar demo can be accessed here.

The Neuroscholar source code can be downloaded from here.

Burns, G. A. (2001). Knowledge management of the neuroscientific literature: the data model and underlying strategy of the NeuroScholar system. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 356(1412): 1187-208.

Burns, G., K. Stephan, B. Ludäscher, A. Gupta and R. Kötter (2001). Towards a federated neuroscientific knowledge management system using brain atlases. Neurocomputing 38-40: 1633-1641.

The EU Commission adopted a Green Paper on Mental Health on 17 October designed to tackle mental illnesses in Europe. The Green Paper, 'Promoting the mental health of the population: Towards a strategy on mental health for the European Union', aims to launch a public consultation on how better to tackle mental illness and promote mental well-being in the EU.
Mental illness affects over 27 per cent of European adults every year, and is responsible for the majority of the annual 58,000 deaths by suicide, more than the numbers who die from motor vehicle traffic accidents. Mental health levels can have a significant influence on the economic and social welfare of society. As well as the challenges of mental ill health for the health sector, and the implications for the affected citizens and their families, mental illness imposes significant costs on society and its economic, educational, social, criminal and justice systems. Moreover, stigma and discrimination linked to mental disorders undermine fundamental rights.

A conference to launch the Green paper will be held in Luxembourg on 24 October.

Draft agenda

The launch conference will be followed by three thematic meetings until end of May 2006:
1) Meeting 1: “Promotion and prevention in mental health” (fourth quarter of 2005);
2) Meeting 2: “Social inclusion and fundamental rights in mental health” (first quarter of 2006);
3) Meeting 2: “Information, data and knowledge in mental health” (second quarter of 2006).