Operant conditioning of brain steady potential shifts in man

Abstract

Steady potential shifts (SPS) recorded from the scalp were conditioned operantly by visual and acoustical feedback. Three groups of seven subjects were each tested with a different response-reinforcement contingency: positive reinforcement for a positive SPS after a cue stimulus, positive reinforcement for a negative SPS after a cue stimulus, and noncontingent reinforcement. The steady potential shifts learned under these three conditions differed significantly. Negative shifts were associated with subjective feelings of activation, positive shifts with inactivation. Cortical genesis and possible artifacts are discussed.

Can Humans Perceive Their Brain States?

“…Large amount of data has been accumulated that animals (Pirch & Osterholm, 1974), healthy people (Bauer & Lauber, 1979;Bauer et al, 1998;Birbaumer et al, 1981;Elbert et al, 1980;Kotchoubey et al, 1996a;Lutzenberger et al, 1993), patients with epilepsy (Kotchoubey et al, 2001;Rockstroh et al, 1993) and motor paralysis (Kübler et al, 1998;Birbaumer et al, 1999) can learn to control their SCP changes. However, no data exist about the ability to perceive these changes or other electrophysiological processes in the brain.…”

“…For the past 20 years, large literature has been accumulated about the ability of humans to control low-frequency EEG components: the so called slow cortical potentials (SCPs) (Siegel et al, 1979;Bauer & Lauber, 1979;Elbert et al, 1980;Birbaumer et al, 1981;Rockstroh et al, 1984;Lutzenberger et al, 1993;Kotchoubey et al, 1996a;Bauer et al, 1998; to mention only most important studies). These SCPs are changes of brain potentials lasting for several hundred milliseconds to several seconds and reflecting depolarization shifts of apical dendrites in the superficial cortical layers (Birbaumer et al, 1990;Rockstroh et al, 1989).…”

Functional neuroanatomy of learned helplessness

“…Subject-and channel-specific weights separated for the vertical and the horizontal EOG were calculated as the ratio of the covariance of the EEGs and EOGs and the variance of the EOGs. These values were recorded in two preexperimental calibration trials in which subjects performed voluntary vertical and then horizontal eye movements (Bauer and Lauber, 1979). Additionally, Note.…”

Windows on the Human Body – in Vivo High-Field Magnetic Resonance Research and Applications in Medicine and Psychology

“…To this end up to 100 channel-specific templates were generated in a previous acquisition run [115]. Thereafter eye movement artefacts were eliminated using a linear regression approach with channel-specific correction coefficients [116]. Finally, single trial signals were low-pass filtered at 8 Hz and averaged.…”