Thomas Koenig

Kansai Medical University, Moriguchi, Osaka-fu, Japan

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Publications (35)139.98 Total impact

  • Article: Correlation between Topographic N400 Anomalies and Reduced Cerebral Blood Flow in the Anterior Temporal Lobes of Patients with Dementia.
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    ABSTRACT: In Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, episodic memory impairments are apparent, yet semantic memory difficulties are also observed. While the episodic pathology has been thoroughly studied, the neurophysiological mechanisms of the semantic impairments remain obscure. Semantic dementia (SD) is characterized by isolated semantic memory deficits. The present study aimed to find an early marker of mild AD and SD by employing a semantic priming paradigm during electroencephalogram recordings. Event-related potentials (ERP) of early (P1, N1) and late (N400) word processing stages were obtained to measure semantic memory functions. Separately, baseline cerebral blood flow (CBF) was acquired with arterial spin labeling. Thus, the analysis focused on linear regressions of CBF with ERP topographical similarity indices in order to find the brain structures that showed altered baseline functionality associated with deviant ERPs. All participant groups showed semantic priming in their reaction times. Furthermore, decreased CBF in the temporal lobes was associated with abnormal N400 topography. No significant CBF clusters were found for the early ERPs. Taken together, the neurophysiological results suggested that the automatic spread of activation during semantic word processing was preserved in mild dementia, while controlled access to the words was impaired. These findings suggested that N400-topography alterations might be a potential marker for the detection of early dementia. Such a marker could be beneficial for differential diagnosis due to its low cost and non-invasive application as well as its relationship with semantic memory dysfunctions that are closely associated to the cortical deterioration in regions crucial for semantic word processing.
    Journal of Alzheimer's disease: JAD 05/2013; · 3.74 Impact Factor
  • Article: Tracking the implicit self using event-related potentials.
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    ABSTRACT: Negative biases in implicit self-evaluation are thought to be detrimental to subjective well-being and have been linked to various psychological disorders, including depression. An understanding of the neural processes underlying implicit self-evaluation in healthy subjects could provide a basis for the investigation of negative biases in depressed patients, the development of differential psychotherapeutic interventions, and the estimation of relapse risk in remitted patients. We thus studied the brain processes linked to implicit self-evaluation in 25 healthy subjects using event-related potential (ERP) recording during a self-relevant Implicit Association Test (sIAT). Consistent with a positive implicit self-evaluation in healthy subjects, they responded significantly faster to the congruent (self-positive mapping) than to the incongruent sIAT condition (self-negative mapping). Our main finding was a topographical ERP difference in a time window between 600 and 700 ms, whereas no significant differences between congruent and incongruent conditions were observed in earlier time windows. This suggests that biases in implicit self-evaluation are reflected only indirectly, in the additional recruitment of control processes needed to override the positive implicit self-evaluation of healthy subjects in the incongruent sIAT condition. Brain activations linked to these control processes can thus serve as an indirect measure for estimating biases in implicit self-evaluation. The sIAT paradigm, combined with ERP, could therefore permit the tracking of the neural processes underlying implicit self-evaluation in depressed patients during psychotherapy.
    Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience 05/2013; · 3.57 Impact Factor
  • Article: A Neurophysiological Signature of Motivational Incongruence: EEG changes related to insufficient goal satisfaction.
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    ABSTRACT: Human behavior and psychological functioning is motivated and guided by individual goals. Motivational incongruence refers to states of insufficient goal satisfaction and is tightly related to psychological problems and even psychopathology. In the present study, individual levels of motivational incongruence were assessed with the incongruence-questionnaire (INC) in a healthy sample. In addition, multi-channel resting-state EEG was measured. Individual variations of EEG synchronization and spectral power were related to individual levels of motivational incongruence. For significant correlations, the relation to intracerebral sources of electrical brain activity was investigated with sLORETA. The results indicate that, even in a healthy sample with rather low degrees of motivational incongruence, this insufficient goal satisfaction is related to consistent changes in resting state brain activity. Upper Alpha band attenuation seems to be most indicative of increased levels of motivational incongruence. This is not only reflected in significantly reduced functional connectivity, but also in changes regarding the level of brain activation, as indicated by significant effects in the spectral power and LORETA analyses. Results are related to research investigating the upper Alpha band and are discussed in the framework of Grawe's consistency theory.
    International journal of psychophysiology: official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology 04/2013; · 3.05 Impact Factor
  • Article: The bivalency effect represents an interference-triggered adjustment of cognitive control: An ERP study.
    Alodie Rey-Mermet, Thomas Koenig, Beat Meier
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    ABSTRACT: When bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two different tasks) occur occasionally among univalent stimuli, performance is slowed on subsequent univalent stimuli even if they have no overlapping stimulus features. This finding has been labeled the bivalency effect. It indexes an adjustment of cognitive control, but the underlying mechanism is not well understood yet. The purpose of the present study was to shed light on this question, using event-related potentials. We used a paradigm requiring predictable alternations between three tasks, with bivalent stimuli occasionally occurring on one task. The results revealed that the bivalency effect elicited a sustained parietal positivity and a frontal negativity, a neural signature that is typical for control processes implemented to resolve interference. We suggest that the bivalency effect reflects interference, which may be caused by episodic context binding.
    Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience 04/2013; · 3.57 Impact Factor
  • Article: EEG microstates associated with salience and frontoparietal networks in frontotemporal dementia, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.
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    ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE: There are relevant links between resting-state fMRI networks, EEG microstate classes and psychopathological alterations in mental disorders associated with frontal lobe dysfunction. We hypothesized that a certain microstate class, labeled C and correlated with the salience network, was impaired early in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and that microstate class D, correlated with the frontoparietal network, was impaired in schizophrenia. METHODS: We measured resting EEG microstate parameters in patients with mild FTD (n=18), schizophrenia (n=20), mild Alzheimer's disease (AD; n=19) and age-matched controls (old n=19, young n=18) to investigate neuronal dynamics at the whole-brain level. RESULTS: The duration of class C was significantly shorter in FTD than in controls and AD, and the duration of class D was significantly shorter in schizophrenia than in controls, FTD and AD. Transition analysis showed a reversed sequence of activation of classes C and D in FTD and schizophrenia patients compared with that in controls, with controls preferring transitions from C to D, and patients preferring D to C. CONCLUSION: The duration and sequence of EEG microstates reflect specific aberrations of frontal lobe functions in FTD and schizophrenia. SIGNIFICANCE: This study highlights the importance of subsecond brain dynamics for understanding of psychiatric disorders.
    Clinical neurophysiology: official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology 02/2013; · 3.12 Impact Factor
  • Article: Is gamma band EEG synchronization reduced during auditory driving in schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucinations?
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    ABSTRACT: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) in schizophrenia patients assumingly result from a state inadequate activation of the primary auditory system. We tested brain responsiveness to auditory stimulation in healthy controls (n=26), and in schizophrenia patients that frequently (n=18) or never (n=11) experienced AVH. Responsiveness was assessed by driving the EEG with click-tones at 20, 30 and 40Hz. We compared stimulus induced EEG changes between groups using spectral amplitude maps and a global measure of phase-locking (GFS). As expected, the 40Hz stimulation elicited the strongest changes. However, while controls and non-hallucinators increased 40Hz EEG activity during stimulation, a left-lateralized decrease was observed in the hallucinators. These differences were significant (p=.02). As expected, GFS increased during stimulation in controls (p=.08) and non-hallucinating patients (p=.06), which was significant when combining the two groups (p=.01). In contrast, GFS decreased with stimulation in hallucinating patients (p=0.13), resulting in a significantly different GFS response when comparing subjects with and without AVH (p<.01). Our data suggests that normally, 40Hz stimulation leads to the activation of a synchronized network representing the sensory input, but in hallucinating patients, the same stimulation partly disrupts ongoing activity in this network.
    Biological Psychiatry 08/2012; 141(2-3):266-70. · 8.28 Impact Factor
  • Article: Non-conscious word processing in a mirror-masking paradigm causing attentional distraction: an ERP-study.
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    ABSTRACT: In this event-related potential (ERP) study a masking technique that prevents conscious perception of words and non-words through attentional distraction was used to reveal the temporal dynamics of word processing under non-conscious and conscious conditions. In the non-conscious condition, ERP responses differed between masked words and non-words from 112 to 160 ms after stimulus-onset over posterior brain areas. The early onset of the word-non-word differences was compatible with previous studies that reported non-conscious access to orthographic information within this time period. Moreover, source localisations provided evidence for automatic activation of prelexical phonological information, whereas no evidence for non-conscious semantic processing was found. When subjects were informed about the masking technique, lexical differences occurred at later time intervals, suggesting conscious access to additional word related information. These results indicate that early visual word processing does not depend entirely on attentional resources, but that non-conscious processing probably is restricted to rather lower-level linguistic information.
    Consciousness and Cognition 03/2012; 21(1):353-65. · 2.31 Impact Factor
  • Article: Neurophysiological studies of auditory verbal hallucinations.
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    ABSTRACT: We discuss 3 neurophysiological approaches to study auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). First, we describe "state" (or symptom capture) studies where periods with and without hallucinations are compared "within" a patient. These studies take 2 forms: passive studies, where brain activity during these states is compared, and probe studies, where brain responses to sounds during these states are compared. EEG (electroencephalography) and MEG (magnetoencephalography) data point to frontal and temporal lobe activity, the latter resulting in competition with external sounds for auditory resources. Second, we discuss "trait" studies where EEG and MEG responses to sounds are recorded from patients who hallucinate and those who do not. They suggest a tendency to hallucinate is associated with competition for auditory processing resources. Third, we discuss studies addressing possible mechanisms of AVH, including spontaneous neural activity, abnormal self-monitoring, and dysfunctional interregional communication. While most studies show differences in EEG and MEG responses between patients and controls, far fewer show symptom relationships. We conclude that efforts to understand the pathophysiology of AVH using EEG and MEG have been hindered by poor anatomical resolution of the EEG and MEG measures, poor assessment of symptoms, poor understanding of the phenomenon, poor models of the phenomenon, decoupling of the symptoms from the neurophysiology due to medications and comorbidites, and the possibility that the schizophrenia diagnosis breeds truer than the symptoms it comprises. These problems are common to studies of other psychiatric symptoms and should be considered when attempting to understand the basic neural mechanisms responsible for them.
    Schizophrenia Bulletin 02/2012; 38(4):715-23. · 8.80 Impact Factor
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    Article: Increased phase synchronization during continuous face integration measured simultaneously with EEG and fMRI.
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    ABSTRACT: Gamma zero-lag phase synchronization has been measured in the animal brain during visual binding. Human scalp EEG studies used a phase locking factor (trial-to-trial phase-shift consistency) or gamma amplitude to measure binding but did not analyze common-phase signals so far. This study introduces a method to identify networks oscillating with near zero-lag phase synchronization in human subjects. We presented unpredictably moving face parts (NOFACE) which - during some periods - produced a complete schematic face (FACE). The amount of zero-lag phase synchronization was measured using global field synchronization (GFS). GFS provides global information on the amount of instantaneous coincidences in specific frequencies throughout the brain. Gamma GFS was increased during the FACE condition. To localize the underlying areas, we correlated gamma GFS with simultaneously recorded BOLD responses. Positive correlates comprised the bilateral middle fusiform gyrus and the left precuneus. These areas may form a network of areas transiently synchronized during face integration, including face-specific as well as binding-specific regions and regions for visual processing in general. Thus, the amount of zero-lag phase synchronization between remote regions of the human visual system can be measured with simultaneously acquired EEG/fMRI.
    Clinical neurophysiology: official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology 02/2012; 123(8):1536-48. · 3.12 Impact Factor
  • Article: Neurophysiological correlates of delinquent behaviour in adult subjects with ADHD.
    Nadja M Meier, Walter Perrig, Thomas Koenig
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    ABSTRACT: The attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) shows an increased prevalence in arrested offenders compared to the normal population. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether ADHD symptoms are a major risk factor for criminal behaviour, or whether further deficits, mainly abnormalities in emotion-processing, have to be considered as important additional factors that promote delinquency in the presence of ADHD symptomatology. Event related potentials (ERPs) of 13 non-delinquent and 13 delinquent subjects with ADHD and 13 controls were compared using a modified visual Go/Nogo continuous performance task (VCPT) and a newly developed version of the visual CPT that additionally requires emotional evaluation (ECPT). ERPs were analyzed regarding their topographies and Global Field Power (GFP). Offenders with ADHD differed from non-delinquent subjects with ADHD in the ERPs representing higher-order visual processing of objects and faces (N170) and facial affect (P200), and in late monitoring and evaluative functions (LPC) of behavioural response inhibition. Concerning neural activity thought to reflect the allocation of neural resources and cognitive processing capability (P300 Go), response inhibition (P300 Nogo), and attention/expectancy (CNV), deviances were observable in both ADHD groups and may thus be attributed to ADHD rather than to delinquency. In conclusion, ADHD symptomatology may be a risk factor for delinquency, since some neural information processing deficits found in ADHD seemed to be even more pronounced in offenders with ADHD. However, our results suggest additional risk factors consisting of deviant higher-order visual processing, especially of facial affect, as well as abnormalities in monitoring and evaluative functions of response inhibition.
    International journal of psychophysiology: official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology 01/2012; 84(1):1-16. · 3.05 Impact Factor
  • Article: Linking brain connectivity across different time scales with electroencephalogram, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and diffusion tensor imaging.
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    ABSTRACT: Structural and functional connectivity are intrinsic properties of the human brain and represent the amount of cognitive capacities of individual subjects. These connections are modulated due to development, learning, and disease. Momentary adaptations in functional connectivity alter the structural connections, which in turn affect the functional connectivity. Thus, structural and functional connectivity interact on a broad timescale. In this study, we aimed to explore distinct measures of connectivity assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging and their association to the dominant electroencephalogram oscillatory property at rest: the individual alpha frequency (IAF). We found that in 21 healthy young subjects, small intraindividual temporal IAF fluctuations were correlated to increased blood oxygenation level-dependent signal in brain areas associated to working memory functions and to the modulation of attention. These areas colocalized with functionally connected networks supporting the respective functions. Furthermore, subjects with higher IAF show increased fractional anisotropy values in fascicles connecting the above-mentioned areas and networks. Hence, due to a multimodal approach a consistent functionally and structurally connected network related to IAF was observed.
    Brain connectivity. 01/2012; 2(1):11-20.
  • Article: Electrophysiological and behavioral correlates of stable automatic semantic retrieval in aging.
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    ABSTRACT: Previous studies have shown both declining and stable semantic-memory abilities during healthy aging. There is consistent evidence that semantic processes involving controlled mechanisms weaken with age. In contrast, results of aging studies on automatic semantic retrieval are often inconsistent, probably due to methodological limitations and differences. The present study therefore examines age-related alterations in automatic semantic retrieval and memory structure with a novel combination of critical methodological factors, i.e., the selection of subjects, a well-designed paradigm, and electrophysiological methods that result in unambiguous signal markers. Healthy young and elderly participants performed lexical decisions on visually presented word/non-word pairs with a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 150 ms. Behavioral and electrophysiological data were measured, and the N400-LPC complex, an event-related potential component sensitive to lexical-semantic retrieval, was analyzed by power and topographic distribution of electrical brain activity. Both age groups exhibited semantic priming (SP) and concreteness effects in behavioral reaction time and the electrophysiological N400-LPC complex. Importantly, elderly subjects did not differ significantly from the young in their lexical decision and SP performances as well as in the N400-LPC SP effect. The only difference was an age-related delay measured in the N400-LPC microstate. This could be attributed to existing age effects in controlled functions, as further supported by the replicated age difference in word fluency. The present results add new behavioral and neurophysiological evidence to earlier findings, by showing that automatic semantic retrieval remains stable in global signal strength and topographic distribution during healthy aging.
    Neuropsychologia 11/2011; 50(1):160-71. · 3.64 Impact Factor
  • Article: Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on behaviour and electrophysiology of language production.
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    ABSTRACT: Excitatory anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (A-tDCS) over the left dorsal prefrontal cortex (DPFC) has been shown to improve language production. The present study examined neurophysiological underpinnings of this effect. In a single-blinded within-subject design, we traced effects of A-tDCS compared to sham stimulation over the left DPFC using electrophysiological and behavioural correlates during overt picture naming. Online effects were examined during A-tDCS by employing the semantic interference (SI-)Effect - a marker that denotes the functional integrity of the language system. The behavioural SI-Effect was found to be reduced, whereas the electrophysiological SI-Effect was enhanced over left compared to right temporal scalp-electrode sites. This modulation is suggested to reflect a superior tuning of neural responses within language-related generators. After -(offline) effects of A-tDCS were detected in the delta frequency band, a marker of neural inhibition. After A-tDCS there was a reduction in delta activity during picture naming and the resting state, interpreted to indicate neural disinhibition. Together, these findings demonstrate electrophysiological modulations induced by A-tDCS of the left DPFC. They suggest that A-tDCS is capable of enhancing neural processes during and after application. The present functional and oscillatory neural markers could detect positive effects of prefrontal A-tDCS, which could be of use in the neuro-rehabilitation of frontal language functions.
    Neuropsychologia 10/2011; 49(14):3989-98. · 3.64 Impact Factor
  • Article: Different brain activities predict retrieval success during emotional and semantic encoding.
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    ABSTRACT: There is an increasing line of evidence supporting the idea that the formation of lasting memories involves neural activity preceding stimulus presentation. Following this line, we presented words in an incidental learning setting and manipulated the prestimulus state by asking the participants to perform either an emotional (neutral or emotional) or a semantic (animate or inanimate) decision task. Later, we tested the retrieval of each previously presented word with a recognition memory test. For both conditions, the subsequent memory effect (SME) was defined as ERP difference between subsequently remembered and forgotten words. Comparing the prestimulus SME between and within the two conditions yielded topographic differences in the time interval from -1300 to -700 msec before stimulus onset. This indicates that the activity of brain areas involved in incidental encoding of semantic information varied in the spatial distribution of ERPs, depending on the emotional and semantic requirements of the task. These findings provide evidence that there is a difference in semantic and emotional preparatory processes, which modulates successful encoding into episodic memory. This difference suggests that there are multiple task-specific functional neural systems that support memory formation. These systems differ in location and/or relative contribution of some of the brain structures that generate the measured scalp electric fields. Consequently, the cognitive processes that enable memory formation depend on the differential semantic nature of the study task and reflect differences in the preparatory processing of the multiple semantic components of a word's meaning.
    Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 08/2011; 23(12):4008-21. · 5.18 Impact Factor
  • Article: Electroencephalographic topography measures of experienced utility.
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    ABSTRACT: Economic theory distinguishes two concepts of utility: decision utility, objectively quantifiable by choices, and experienced utility, referring to the satisfaction by an obtainment. To date, experienced utility is typically measured with subjective ratings. This study intended to quantify experienced utility by global levels of neuronal activity. Neuronal activity was measured by means of electroencephalographic (EEG) responses to gain and omission of graded monetary rewards at the level of the EEG topography in human subjects. A novel analysis approach allowed approximating psychophysiological value functions for the experienced utility of monetary rewards. In addition, we identified the time windows of the event-related potentials (ERP) and the respective intracortical sources, in which variations in neuronal activity were significantly related to the value or valence of outcomes. Results indicate that value functions of experienced utility and regret disproportionally increase with monetary value, and thus contradict the compressing value functions of decision utility. The temporal pattern of outcome evaluation suggests an initial (∼250 ms) coarse evaluation regarding the valence, concurrent with a finer-grained evaluation of the value of gained rewards, whereas the evaluation of the value of omitted rewards emerges later. We hypothesize that this temporal double dissociation is explained by reward prediction errors. Finally, a late, yet unreported, reward-sensitive ERP topography (∼500 ms) was identified. The sources of these topographical covariations are estimated in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the medial frontal gyrus, the anterior and posterior cingulate cortex and the hippocampus/amygdala. The results provide important new evidence regarding "how," "when," and "where" the brain evaluates outcomes with different hedonic impact.
    Journal of Neuroscience 07/2011; 31(29):10474-80. · 7.11 Impact Factor
  • Article: Frontal areas contribute to reduced global coordination of resting-state gamma activities in drug-naïve patients with schizophrenia.
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    ABSTRACT: Schizophrenia has been postulated to involve impaired neuronal cooperation in large-scale neural networks, including cortico-cortical circuitry. Alterations in gamma band oscillations have attracted a great deal of interest as they appear to represent a pathophysiological process of cortical dysfunction in schizophrenia. Gamma band oscillations reflect local cortical activities, and the synchronization of these activities among spatially distributed cortical areas has been suggested to play a central role in the formation of networks. To assess global coordination across spatially distributed brain regions, Omega complexity (OC) in multichannel EEG was proposed. Using OC, we investigated global coordination of resting-state EEG activities in both gamma (30-50 Hz) and below-gamma (1.5-30 Hz) bands in drug-naïve patients with schizophrenia and investigated the effects of neuroleptic treatment. We found that gamma band OC was significantly higher in drug-naïve patients with schizophrenia compared to control subjects and that a right frontal electrode (F3) contributed significantly to the higher OC. After neuroleptic treatment, reductions in the contribution of frontal electrodes to global OC in both bands correlated with the improvement of schizophrenia symptomatology. The present study suggests that frontal brain processes in schizophrenia were less coordinated with activity in the remaining brain. In addition, beneficial effects of neuroleptic treatment were accompanied by improvement of brain coordination predominantly due to changes in frontal regions. Our study provides new evidence of improper intrinsic brain integration in schizophrenia by investigating the resting-state gamma band activity.
    Biological Psychiatry 06/2011; 130(1-3):187-94. · 8.28 Impact Factor
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    Article: Ragu: a free tool for the analysis of EEG and MEG event-related scalp field data using global randomization statistics.
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    ABSTRACT: We present a program (Ragu; Randomization Graphical User interface) for statistical analyses of multichannel event-related EEG and MEG experiments. Based on measures of scalp field differences including all sensors, and using powerful, assumption-free randomization statistics, the program yields robust, physiologically meaningful conclusions based on the entire, untransformed, and unbiased set of measurements. Ragu accommodates up to two within-subject factors and one between-subject factor with multiple levels each. Significance is computed as function of time and can be controlled for type II errors with overall analyses. Results are displayed in an intuitive visual interface that allows further exploration of the findings. A sample analysis of an ERP experiment illustrates the different possibilities offered by Ragu. The aim of Ragu is to maximize statistical power while minimizing the need for a-priori choices of models and parameters (like inverse models or sensors of interest) that interact with and bias statistics.
    Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience 01/2011; 2011:938925.
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    Article: EEG microstate analysis in drug-naive patients with panic disorder.
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    ABSTRACT: Patients with panic disorder (PD) have a bias to respond to normal stimuli in a fearful way. This may be due to the preactivation of fear-associated networks prior to stimulus perception. Based on EEG, we investigated the difference between patients with PD and normal controls in resting state activity using features of transiently stable brain states (microstates). EEGs from 18 drug-naive patients and 18 healthy controls were analyzed. Microstate analysis showed that one class of microstates (with a right-anterior to left-posterior orientation of the mapped field) displayed longer durations and covered more of the total time in the patients than controls. Another microstate class (with a symmetric, anterior-posterior orientation) was observed less frequently in the patients compared to controls. The observation that selected microstate classes differ between patients with PD and controls suggests that specific brain functions are altered already during resting condition. The altered resting state may be the starting point of the observed dysfunctional processing of phobic stimuli.
    PLoS ONE 01/2011; 6(7):e22912. · 4.09 Impact Factor
  • Article: Structural plasticity in the language system related to increased second language proficiency.
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    ABSTRACT: While functional changes linked to second language learning have been subject to extensive investigation, the issue of learning-dependent structural plasticity in the fields of bilingualism and language comprehension has so far received less notice. In the present study we used voxel-based morphometry to monitor structural changes occurring within five months of second language learning. Native English-speaking exchange students learning German in Switzerland were examined once at the beginning of their stay and once about five months later, when their German language skills had significantly increased. We show that structural changes in the left inferior frontal gyrus are correlated with the increase in second language proficiency as measured by a paper-and-pencil language test. Contrary to the increase in proficiency and grey matter, the absolute values of grey matter density and second language proficiency did not correlate (neither on first nor on second measurement). This indicates that the individual amount of learning is reflected in brain structure changes, regardless of absolute proficiency.
    Cortex 10/2010; 48(4):458-65. · 6.08 Impact Factor
  • Article: A method to determine the presence of averaged event-related fields using randomization tests.
    Thomas Koenig, Lester Melie-García
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    ABSTRACT: We present a simple and effective method to test whether an event consistently activates a set of brain electric sources across repeated measurements of event-related scalp field data. These repeated measurements can be single trials, single subject ERPs, or ERPs from different studies. The method considers all sensors simultaneously, but can be applied separately to each time frame or frequency band of the data. This allows limiting the analysis to time periods and frequency bands where there is positive evidence of a consistent relation between the event and some brain electric sources. The test may therefore avoid false conclusions about the data resulting from an inadequate selection of the analysis window and bandpass filter, and permit the exploration of alternate hypotheses when group/condition differences are observed in evoked field data. The test will be called topographic consistency test (TCT). The statistical inference is based on simple randomization techniques. Apart form the methodological introduction, the paper contains a series of simulations testing the statistical power of the method as function of number of sensors and observations, a sample analysis of EEG potentials related to self-initiated finger movements, and Matlab source code to facilitate the implementation. Furthermore a series of measures to control for multiple testing are introduced and applied to the sample data.
    Brain Topography 04/2010; 23(3):233-42. · 3.45 Impact Factor