EEG measures of alternative strategies used by subjects to solve block designs

Emotivity, personality, and task-dependent EEG asymmetry

In order to verify if task-dependent EEG asymmetry is related to emotivity or personality traits, the relationship between EEGraphic (EEG mapping) asymmetry, personality aspects, and emotional-affective state in 12 healthy volunteers was evaluated by means of standardized methods (SAD and CPI). Our subjects show an EEG asymmetry which is currently attributed in the literature to anxiety. In our subject the absence of anxiety and the presence of hyperthymic characteristics suggests that the different individual trends observed in various studies which have used methods similar to ours, could, at least partly, depend on interference on these variables.

Brain stimulation to treat mental illness and enhance human learning, creativity, performance, altruism, and defenses against suffering

Any mental/emotional state or process (MESP) which is considered highly desirable (e.g., sustained concentration, memorization of important facts, empathy) or undesirable (e.g., paranoid delusionalism, delirium) could be, respectively, facilitated or deterred by means of an external (i.e., extracranial, or at least extracerebral, and extracorporal) brain stimulation circuit designed in such a way as to deliver rewarding stimulation as often and only as often as and for as long and only for as long as an electroencephalographic or other kind of brain function characteristic, which uniquely identifies the occurrence of the MESP in question, were being emitted by the individual's (i.e., the subject's) brain, with the intensity of the stimulation at every point in time being proportional, respectively, to the simultaneous magnitude or to the reciprocal of the simultaneous magnitude of the MESP-identifying characteristic. Approaches a and b are generalized examples of a number of hypothetical stimulation paradigms presented below that might be used to treat mental illness, enhance learning, etc. (as in the title). Explanations of the psychodynamic mechanisms whereby these paradigms might exert their intended effects are given in most cases.

[Right hemisphere lesion and directional indication in a visuoconstructive task]

We test the hypothesis that the divergences between Hecaen and Assal (1970) and Gianotti et al (1977) as regards the efficiency of indications supplied together with drawings to patients with unilateral lesion are due to the topological or directional nature of these indicators. We submit subjects with cerebral damage to a test involving copying cubes and non-significant drawings by opposing these two types of indication and also resorting to the procedure of Pillon and Lhermitte (1978). The results demonstrate that the topological or directional character of the indicators used can account for the differences between these two sets of findings. Finally, the results tend to show that the left hemisphere basically controls the manipulatory or executive side of the visuo-constructive task, whilst the right takes over its executive and perceptive aspects in conjunction.