基于稳态视觉诱发电位的脑电控制上肢康复机器人

针对现阶段基于脑机接口(brain-computer interface,BCI)的康复机器人存在多目标分类时间长、识别准确率仍有待提升的问题,设计了一种由脑电信号控制的上肢康复机器人,对脑电信号中的稳态视觉诱发电位(steady-state visual evoked po-tential,SSVEP)分类,进而判断出受试意图并输出相应动作指令.基于MATLAB的Psychtoolbox工具箱设计了包含5个刺激矩形的频闪界面作为视觉刺激器,刺激大脑生成SSVEP信号,对应上肢康复机器人的5个控制指令.运用多导联同步指数(multivariate synchronization index,MSI)算法对采集到的信号进行分类并输出控制指令,机器人在接收指令后执行特定动作.实验得到的机器人动作正确率最佳为98.33％,平均信息传输速率为23.11 bit/min.结果表明:SSVEP信号控制的上肢康复机器人在辅助治疗的方面具有良好的应用前景,可以有效提高肢体偏瘫患者的康复效果.     

Tracking an object through feature space

Visual attention allows an observer to select certain visual information for specialized processing. Selection is readily apparent in 'tracking' tasks where even with the eyes fixed, observers can track a target as it moves among identical distractor items. In such a case, a target is distinguished by its spatial trajectory. Here we show that one can keep track of a stationary item solely on the basis of its changing appearance--specified by its trajectory along colour, orientation, and spatial frequency dimensions--even when a distractor shares the same spatial location. This ability to track through feature space bears directly on competing theories of attention, that is, on whether attention can select locations in space, features such as colour or shape, or particular visual objects composed of constellations of visual features. Our results affirm, consistent with a growing body of psychophysical and neurophysiological evidence, that attention can indeed select specific visual objects. Furthermore, feature-space tracking extends the definition of visual object to include not only items with well defined spatio-temporal trajectories, but also those with well defined featuro-temporal trajectories.     

Studying the Effect of the Pre-Stimulation Paradigm on Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials with Dynamic Models Based on the Zero-Pole Analytical Method

This study explored methods for improving the performance of Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential(SSVEP)-based Brain-Computer Interfaces(BCI), and introduced a new analytical method to quantitatively analyze and reflect the characteristics of SSVEP. We focused on the effect of the pre-stimulation paradigm on the SSVEP dynamic models and the dynamic response process of SSVEP, and performed a comparative analysis of three pre-stimulus paradigms(black, gray, and white). Four dynamic models with different orders(second-and third-order)and with and without a zero point were used to fit the SSVEP envelope. The zero-pole analytical method was adopted to conduct quantitative analysis on the dynamic models, and the response characteristics of SSVEP were represented by zero-pole distribution characteristics. The results of this study indicated that the pre-stimulation paradigm affects the characteristics of SSVEP, and the dynamic models had good fitting abilities with SSVEPs under various types of pre-stimulation. Furthermore, the zero-pole characteristics of the models effectively characterize the damping coefficient, oscillation period, and other SSVEP characteristics. The comparison of zeros and poles indicated that the gray pre-stimulation condition corresponds to a lower damping coefficient, thus showing its potential to improve the performance of SSVEP-BCIs.     

Enhanced detection in the aperture of focal attention during simple discrimination tasks

There is increasing evidence that it is possible to shift an aperture of focal attention to a position in visual space independent of fixation and that this can be done much faster than the eyes are able to move. Recently, we showed that such serial scrutiny by the aperture of focal attention is required before an observer is able to tell what a target is (for example, to know whether the orientation of a line segment is horizontal or vertical). Here we considered whether attention directed towards a specific position in the visual field for an orientation discrimination task improves performance on a simple detection task in the area to which attention is directed. We found that a small test flash could be detected when it was positioned near a peripheral line target presented briefly, if the orientation of the target had to be identified. The test flash could not be detected when presented at some distance from the same target or when another target had to be identified. This enhancement implies that even simple identification tasks such as orientation discrimination are not performed passively by the visual system.     

Electrophysiological measurement of rapid shifts of attention during visual search.

The perception of natural visual scenes that contain many objects poses computational problems that are absent when objects are perceived in isolation. Vision researchers have captured this attribute of real-world perception in the laboratory by using visual search tasks, in which subjects search for a target object in arrays containing varying numbers of non-target distractor objects. Under many conditions, the amount of time required to detect a visual search target increases as the number of objects in the stimulus array increases, and some investigators have proposed that this reflects the serial application of attention to the individual objects in the array. However, other investigators have argued that this pattern of results may instead be due to limitations in the processing capacity of a parallel processing system that identifies multiple objects concurrently. Here we attempt to address this longstanding controversy by using an electrophysiological marker of the moment-by-moment direction of attention-the N2pc component of the event-related potential waveform--to show that attention shifts rapidly among objects during visual search.     

Attentional modulation of motion-induced blindness

When a global moving pattern is superimposed on high-contrast stationary or slowly moving stimuli, the stimuli can be perceived as disappearing and reappearing alternately for periods of several sec- onds.This visual illusory phenomenon was named“motion-induced blindness”(MIB)in recent litera- ture.So far there is no consensus on the mechanism of MIB,especially on the role of attention in this phenomenon.To examine the effect of spatial attention on MIB,the present study manipulated the participants’spatial attention by asking them to respond to two targets simultaneously presented in bilateral visual fields(the divided-attention condition)or only respond to one of them(the fo- cused-attention condition).A central arrow was presented as an endogenous cue to index the target visual field in the focused-attention condition,while a point was presented instead in the di- vided-attention condition.The results show that the percentage of accumulated invisibility period was larger for the targets in the focused-attention condition than for those in the divided-attention condition. This effect of attention is significant in upper visual field(UVF)and left lower visual field(left LVF);that is,this effect shows a hemispheric asymmetry in LVF but not in UVF.Furthermore,the percentage of accumulated invisibility period was larger for targets in left LVF than for those in right LVF in the fo- cused-attention condition,but no hemispheric asymmetry was found in the divided-attention condition. In addition,the increased percentage of accumulated invisibility period in the focused-attention condi- tion originated merely in the enhancement of the mean phase duration of disappearance in LVF,while the disappearance occurred more frequently and lasted longer for each occurrence,which led to an increase in the total invisibility period,in the focused-than divided-attention condition in UVF.These results suggest that the modulation of spatial attention on MIB has different patterns in UVF and LVF.     

基于视觉双特征的并行联合脑-机接口范式的研究

基于多特征的并行联合脑-机接口与单一特征脑-机接口相比,能利用更多信息和并行方式提高特征提取和系统执行效率。提出了一种基于稳态视觉诱发电位(SSVEP)和运动起始视觉诱发电位(MVEP)的双特征并行联合脑-机接口范式,通过设计3×3字符拼写范式,矩阵中纵列白色竖条按设定频率闪烁诱发SSVEP,横行中白色竖条随机运动诱发MVEP。实验表明,被试者关注目标字符时,两种特征脑电信号被同时诱发出来,并且对两种脑电信号进行特征识别能够检测出被试者选取的目标字符。联合范式并行的刺激编码方式有效节约了刺激诱发时间,为构建更为实用的联合脑-机接口提供了一种实现方法。     

基于FEKO的引信目标近场动态散射特性实时仿真

引信目标的近场散射特性受到天线方向图、目标局部照射、弹目交会状态等因素的影响,计算过程复杂。首先提出了一种基于FEKO的目标近场散射特性实时仿真方法,然后根据引信作用段的特点建立了弹目交会模型,对引信目标的近场动态散射特性进行了实时仿真,仿真结果表明近场散射强度与导弹脱靶量和目标照亮区有直接关系,脱靶量越小,散射强度相对越大,且弹目距离较近时,由于照亮区的不同散射强度将出现较大起伏。     

RSVP字符流中后继干扰物在注意瞬脱中的作用

通过去掉RSVP刺激流中第2靶(T2)之后除紧跟T2的那个干扰物之外的其他干扰物,发现了对T2的报告正确率在长间隔条件下出现了不同寻常的降低.要求两名被试积极注意整条刺激流的实验发现,AB曲线回复到常规的U形曲线.这些结果提示:RSVP刺激流中后继干扰物的去除通过使观察者的注意状态出现偏差而影响长间隔时的AB效应.     

稳态视觉诱发电位频率与相位特性的脑电研究

以往的研究发现,头皮脑电在枕区电极处所测得的稳态视觉诱发响应的幅度随着刺激频率的变化而变化。为了解释这一现象,该文采用一个3层的边界元头模型以及基于该模型的求逆算法,通过真实脑电数据分析,发现位于左、右侧枕区的皮层源在稳态视觉诱发响应上存在着时间差,由此提出假设:左、右侧枕区的皮层源在不同刺激频率下,在时间相位上存在着差异,这是造成不同刺激频率下脑电响应幅度存在差异的原因之一。通过仿真实验进一步验证了该假设的合理性。     

基于多元线性逆滤波器的视顶盖神经元集群亮度信息解码研究

通过解码鸽子视顶盖(the optic tectum,OT)神经元集群亮度信息的方法,研究了OT区神经元集群编码亮度信息的神经机制。首先设计了具有瞬态闪变特性的亮度视觉刺激模式,采用微电极阵列记录了多通道的锋电位(spike)发放序列;然后提取了神经元集群的spike发放率特征,构造多元线性逆滤波器解码视觉刺激亮度;最后采用互相关和信息论的方法对解码结果进行了分析。结果表明:采用的多元线性逆滤波器有效解码了OT区神经元集群编码的亮度信息。通过对解码参数变化与解码精度的分析可知神经元集群数目13个、bin的宽度5 ms、刺激后15 ms、刺激后持续时间35 ms具有最高的解码精度。通过神经元集群中逆滤波器形态的分析发现,单神经元在亮度信息的编码过程中受周围神经元的动态调制。通过对解码精度与刺激闪变频率关系的分析,发现在刺激闪变频率19 Hz到53 Hz的范围内,重建质量较好,在刺激闪变频率为33.5 Hz时,重建质量达到最优。     

视、听偏差刺激选择性注意的ERPs研究

本实验采用了视听双通道伪同时呈现的oddball模式,以汉字和简单几何图形为视觉刺激,1000Hz和800Hz的纯音为听觉刺激,使用注意通道(注意和非注意条件)×刺激概率(偏差刺激概率均为15%,标准刺激的概率均为85%)的2×2因素设计,来研究视觉和听觉偏差刺激在注意和非注意条件下诱发的事件相关电位(ERPs)。实验中视觉和听觉刺激随机序列地呈现给被试(刺激间隔ISI为700～1300ms),被试被要求注意某一通道如视觉通道,而相应地忽视另一通道即听觉通道,以左右手触键反应,如左手反应视觉偏差刺激,右手反应视觉标准刺激。结果表明,听觉偏差刺激在注意和非注意条件下均诱发了类似的不匹配负波(MMN);而视觉偏差刺激在注意和非注意条件下没有诱发MMN或类似MMN的成分,这是因为视觉系统的平行加工特性和难以对视觉影像产生记忆痕迹。听觉偏差刺激在注意条件下重迭了N2b成分并跟随了P3a成分,这种重迭和跟随反映了选择注意中的定向反应。注意条件下听觉和视觉的偏差刺激诱发了较大波幅的P300成分,反映了工作记忆中的表象更新。本实验的结果支持Naatanen对MMN所做的观察,听觉偏差刺激所诱发的MMN与注意条件的无关性反映了听觉通道中感觉刺激特征的自动化加工。     

The effect of attention to distractor on inhibitory processes in selective attention

Selective attention means perceiving and responding to information selectively, most of which are visual analyses and selection. By choosing a target that is task-relevant from stimuli array, while successfully ignoring distractorsthat are irrelevant, one can make a selection for his be-havioral goals correctly and efficiently. Recent studies have begun to focus on the dual-process mechanism of selective attention: target-excitation and distractor-inhibi- tion. A plenty of measures were used t…     

Two modes of fusion pore opening revealed by cell-attached recordings at a synapse

Fusion of a vesicle with the cell membrane opens a pore that releases transmitter to the extracellular space. The pore can either dilate fully so that the vesicle collapses completely, or close rapidly to generate 'kiss-and-run' fusion. The size of the pore determines the release rate. At synapses, the size of the fusion pore is unclear, 'kiss-and-run' remains controversial, and the ability of 'kiss-and-run' fusion to generate rapid synaptic currents is questionable. Here, by recording fusion pore kinetics during single vesicle fusion, we found both full collapse and 'kiss-and-run' fusion at calyx-type synapses. For full collapse, the initial fusion pore conductance (G(p)) was usually >375 pS and increased rapidly at > or =299 pS ms(-1). 'Kiss-and-run' fusion was seen as a brief capacitance flicker (<2 s) with G(p) >288 pS for most flickers, but within 15-288 pS for the remaining flickers. Large G(p) (>288 pS) might discharge transmitter rapidly and thereby cause rapid synaptic currents, whereas small G(p) might generate slow and small synaptic currents. These results show that 'kiss-and-run' fusion occurs at synapses and that it can generate rapid postsynaptic currents, and suggest that various fusion pore sizes help to control the kinetics and amplitude of synaptic currents.     

Differentiating electrophysiological response to decrease and increase negative emotion regulation

We investigated the reappraisal and the time course of negative emotion regulation by performing event-related potential (ERP) recordings. We found that negative pictures elicited more positive P2 and late positivity potential (LPP) deflections than neutral pictures. This effect occurred between 150-2000 ms post-stimulus. Compared to the emotion maintaining condition, the emotion enhancing condition was associated with higher arousal ratings and displayed increased P2 and LPP amplitudes. The decrease condition was also associated with reduced picture-induced arousal; however, it led to increased P2 and LPP amplitudes. Furthermore, when compared with the maintain condition, both the enhancing and decrease conditions significantly enhanced LPP in the early stage (350-750 ms). Compared to previous studies using western subjects, the negative emotion LPP effects of the present study were shorter in duration and the decrease-emotion condition elicited larger LPPs.     

Long-lasting sensitization to a given colour after visual search

Visual attention enables an observer to select specific visual information for processing. In an ambiguous motion task in which a coloured grating can be perceived as moving in either of two opposite directions depending on the relative salience of two colours in the display, attending to one of the colours influences the direction in which the grating appears to move. Here, we use this secondary effect of attention in a motion task to measure the effect of attending to a specific colour in a search task. Observers performed a search task in which they searched for a target letter in a 4 x 4 coloured matrix. Each of the 16 squares within a matrix was assigned one of four colours, and observers knew that the target letter would appear on only one of these colours throughout the experiment. Observers performed the ambiguous motion task before and after the search task. Attending to a particular colour for a brief period in the search task profoundly influenced the perceived direction of motion. This effect lasted for up to one month and in some cases had to be reversed by practising searches for the complementary colour, indicating a much longer-persisting effect of attention than has been observed previously.     

Early scale effect and hemisphere superiority on the visual spatial attention: From the electrophysiological evidence of ERP

The visual attention mechanism in the brain was studied among 16 young subjects through the precue-target visual search paradigm using the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique, with the attentive ranges cued with different scales of Chinese words. The results showed that the response time was shortened as the cue scale was reduced, while the amplitudes of the P1 and N1 components of the ERPs increased. These results not only provided the electrophysiological evidence supporting the spotlight theory, but also indicated that the spotlight effect occurred during the early period of the selected attention. Two kinds of separation in the P2 effect were observed. One separation was between the P1 effect and P2 effect, which meant that additional computation was needed when the spatial scale of attention was enlarged; the other was between the left and right hemisphere of the P2 effect, which indicates that the attentive processing of the cue range mainly occurred in the left hemisphere.     

基于PSD特征的FBCCA脑电信号识别方法

:当前基于稳态视觉诱发电位 (Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential,SSVEP）的脑机接口使用的都是单一识别算法,针对不同时间长度的识别准确率较低。本文提出了一种基于滤波器组的典型相关分析（Filter Bank Canonical Correlation Analysis,FBCCA）与功率谱密度（Power Spectral Density,PSD）分析相结合的SSVEP识别算法,可以提高SSVEP识别的普适性与准确率。该方法使用FBCCA寻找高相似度的参考频率信号,再通过多组PSD分析来锁定最终的响应频率,完成频率识别。该方法无需经过训练就能得到较高的识别准确率。实验结果表明,在刺激时长为1s时,该方法能达到86.61%的准确率,比PSD分析的方法提升了5.44%,比典型相关性分析方法(Canonical Correlation Analysis,CCA)提升了10.38%的准确率,比FBCCA提升了8.86%的准确率。     

目标和干扰刺激不同步的情绪冲突效应研究

采用情绪启动范式，考察了目标和干扰刺激不同步的情况下是否会出现情绪冲突，以及可能造成的特殊效应。结果发现：1）“不同步”的情绪刺激也能导致情绪冲突效应；2）除了情绪冲突现象中存在经典的“冲突调整效应”外，还发现了一类特殊的序列调整效应---试次（trial）间的一致性效应；3）上述效应的出现与否与目标刺激的呈现时间密切相关。该结果表明，刺激的呈现时间是情绪冲突现象中一个重要的变量。     

Brain dynamic mechanisms on the visual attention scale with Chinese characters cues

The temporal dynamics in brain evoked by the scale of visual attention with the cues of Chinese characters were studied by recording event-related potentials (ERPs). With the fixed orientation of visual attention, 14 healthy young participants performed a search task in which the search array was preceded by Chinese characters cues, “大, 中, 小” (large, medium, small). 128 channels scalp ERPs were recorded to study the role of visual attention scale played in the visual spatial attention. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the ERP components evoked by the three Chinese characters cues except the inferoposterior N2 latency. The targets evoked P2, N2 amplitudes and latency have significant differences with the different cues of large, middle and small, while P1 and N1 components had no significant difference. The results suggested that the processing of scale of visual attention was mainly concerned with P2, N2 components, while the P1, N1 components were mainly related with the processing of visual orientation information.