electroencephalographic-heart-rate-galvanic-skin-response-assessment

Electroencephalographic, Heart Rate, and Galvanic Skin Response Assessment for an Advertising Perception Study: Application to Antismoking Public Service Announcements

The evaluation of advertising, products, and packaging is traditionally performed through methods based on self-reports and focus groups, but these ...

Sapienza University of Rome

Recent studies have shown that lack of control induces illusory pattern perception. In this study, we demonstrate that lacking control also affected identification responses to degraded pictures of visual objects. As compared with control participants, participants in whom lack of control was experimentally induced produced identification responses to visual objects at a significantly higher level of degradation of the stimulus. Lacking control did not influence accuracy of identification, since the effect was present for both correct and incorrect identification responses, and did not encourage pure random guessing. Our results indicate that lacking control makes individuals more prone to achieve visual closure by attempting earlier identifications of perceptually degraded visual objects. Possible mechanisms involved in this effect are discussed.

Lack of control enhances accurate and inaccurate identification responses to degraded visual objects.

Reduced perceptual sensitivity for biological motion in paraplegia patients.

The study suggests that Mozart therapy could be a valid alternative to the common sound therapy methods in tinnitus patients.

The Mozart effect in patients suffering from tinnitus.

The results demonstrate the stability of the efficacy over time of the intratympanic prednisolone protocol and they suggest that the spontaneous recovery does not significantly influence the long-term evaluation of intratympanic therapy. A 10-day follow-up after 3 days of intratympanic prednisolone administration can be considered a sufficient period to evaluate the effectiveness of the undertaken therapy.

Long-term results of intratympanic prednisolone injection in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the sleep architecture and its possible alterations in chronic tinnitus patients, and investigate any possible correlation between sleep architecture modifications and tinnitus perception, adaptation, and the degree of discomfort in these patients.

Sleep architecture variation in chronic tinnitus patients.

Serotonin seems to play a central role in tinnitus. The intensity dependence of auditory evoked potential (IDAP) is considered an index of central serotonergic activity in the auditory cortex. The higher the steepness of the N1/P2 component amplitude-stimulus function slope (N1/P2 ASF slope as calculated by IDAP), the lower the central serotonergic activity. Similarly, the N1 amplitude-stimulus function slope (N1 ASF slope) was investigated. Auditory brainstem responses (ABR) examine the auditory system functionality from the periphery and through the brainstem, where serotonergic projections have been identified.

An electrophysiological approach to tinnitus interpretation.

To assess the therapeutic effectiveness of an intratympanic (IT) steroid protocol compared to a systemic steroid protocol.

Oral versus short-term intratympanic prednisolone therapy for idiopathic sudden hearing loss.

Despite of technological innovations, noisy environments still constitute a challenging and stressful situation for words recognition by hearing impaired subjects. The evaluation of the mental workload imposed by the noisy environments for the recognition of the words in prelingually deaf children is then of paramount importance since it could affect the speed of the learning process during scholar period.The aim of the present study was to investigate different electroencephalographic (EEG) power spectral density (PSD) components (in theta 4-8 Hz - and alpha - 8-12 Hz - frequency bands) to estimate the mental workload index in different noise conditions during a word recognition task in prelingually deaf children, a population not yet investigated in relation to the workload index during auditory tasks. A pilot study involving a small group of prelingually deaf children was then subjected to EEG recordings during an auditory task composed by a listening and a successive recognition of words with different noise conditions. Results showed that in the pre-word listening phase frontal EEG PSD in theta band and the ratio of the frontal EEG PSD in theta band and the parietal EEG PSD in alpha band (workload index; IWL) reported highest values in the most demanding noise condition. In addition, in the phase preceding the word forced-choice task the highest parietal EEG PSD in alpha band and IWL values were reported at the presumably simplest condition (noise emitted in correspondence of the subject's deaf ear). These results could suggest the prominence of EEG PSD theta component activity in the pre-word listening phase. In addition, a more challenging noise situation in the pre-choice phase would be so "over-demanding" to fail to enhance both the alpha power and the IWL in comparison to the already demanding "simple" condition.

Mental workload estimations in unilateral deafened children.

The aim of the present paper is to show how the variation of the EEG frontal cortical asymmetry is related to the general appreciation perceived during the observation of TV advertisements, in particular considering the influence of the gender and age on it. In particular, we investigated the influence of the gender on the perception of a car advertisement (Experiment 1) and the influence of the factor age on a chewing gum commercial (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 results showed statistically significant higher approach values for the men group throughout the commercial. Results from Experiment 2 showed significant lower values by older adults for the spot, containing scenes not very enjoyed by them. In both studies, there was no statistical significant difference in the scene relative to the product offering between the experimental populations, suggesting the absence in our study of a bias towards the specific product in the evaluated populations. These evidences state the importance of the creativity in advertising, in order to attract the target population.

Gender and Age Related Effects While Watching TV Advertisements: An EEG Study.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and smoking-related illness worldwide. Research has shown that antismoking advertising may help reduce this habit. Nowadays, public service announcements (PSAs) are considered "Effective" or "Ineffective" on the base of official reports concerning behavioral/attitudinal changes toward healthier patterns and health-related savings following the exposure to the PSA. In this pilot study, we described the results of the use of three neurometric indexes for the evaluation of the efficacy of a couple of antismoking PSAs in a reduced sample of voluntary participants. The study applied the gathering of the electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms variations, as well as the heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR). The neurometric indicators here employed were the Approach-Withdrawal (AW), the Effort (EfI) and the Emotional (EI) indexes. Results suggest a significant higher values for AW, Effort and Emotional indexes (p=0,02; p= 0,03 and p= 0,01 respectively) related to the perception of the "Effective" antismoking PSAs against the perception of the "Ineffective" one. Since this is a pilot study, the results obtained need further investigation, in terms of enlarged stimuli sample and number of participants to provide indications concerning the relevant features to be included in the realization of effective anti-smoking PSAs.

A pilot study on the neurometric evaluation of "effective" and "ineffective" antismoking public service announcements.

Several models defining different types of cognitive human behaviour are available. For this work, we have selected the Skill, Rule and Knowledge (SRK) model proposed by Rasmussen in 1983. This model is currently broadly used in safety critical domains, such as the aviation. Nowadays, there are no tools able to assess at which level of cognitive control the operator is dealing with the considered task, that is if he/she is performing the task as an automated routine (skill level), as procedures-based activity (rule level), or as a problem-solving process (knowledge level). Several studies tried to model the SRK behaviours from a Human Factor perspective. Despite such studies, there are no evidences in which such behaviours have been evaluated from a neurophysiological point of view, for example, by considering brain activity variations across the different SRK levels. Therefore, the proposed study aimed to investigate the use of neurophysiological signals to assess the cognitive control behaviours accordingly to the SRK taxonomy. The results of the study, performed on 37 professional Air Traffic Controllers, demonstrated that specific brain features could characterize and discriminate the different SRK levels, therefore enabling an objective assessment of the degree of cognitive control behaviours in realistic settings.

EEG-Based Cognitive Control Behaviour Assessment: an Ecological study with Professional Air Traffic Controllers.

Deaf subjects with hearing aids or cochlear implants generally find it challenging to understand speech in noisy environments where a great deal of listening effort and cognitive load are invested. In prelingually deaf children, such difficulties may have detrimental consequences on the learning process and, later in life, on academic performance. Despite the importance of such a topic, currently, there is no validated test for the assessment of cognitive load during audiological tasks. Recently, alpha and theta EEG rhythm variations in the parietal and frontal areas, respectively, have been used as indicators of cognitive load in adult subjects. The aim of the present study was to investigate, by means of EEG, the cognitive load of pediatric subjects affected by asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss as they were engaged in a speech-in-noise identification task.

EEG activity as an objective measure of cognitive load during effortful listening: A study on pediatric subjects with bilateral, asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss.

Article	Year
Lack of control enhances accurate and inaccurate identification responses to degraded visual objects. Psychonomic bulletin & review\| PubMed ID: 21416153	2011
Reduced perceptual sensitivity for biological motion in paraplegia patients. Current biology : CB\| PubMed ID: 22115454	2011
The Mozart effect in patients suffering from tinnitus. Acta oto-laryngologica\| PubMed ID: 23025336	2012
Long-term results of intratympanic prednisolone injection in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Acta oto-laryngologica\| PubMed ID: 23692396	2013
Sleep architecture variation in chronic tinnitus patients. Ear and hearing\| PubMed ID: 24005841	2013
An electrophysiological approach to tinnitus interpretation. The international tinnitus journal\| PubMed ID: 24333887	2012
Oral versus short-term intratympanic prednisolone therapy for idiopathic sudden hearing loss. Audiology & neuro-otology\| PubMed ID: 24992949	2014
Mental workload estimations in unilateral deafened children. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference\| PubMed ID: 26736593	2015
Gender and Age Related Effects While Watching TV Advertisements: An EEG Study. Computational intelligence and neuroscience\| PubMed ID: 27313602	2016
A pilot study on the neurometric evaluation of "effective" and "ineffective" antismoking public service announcements. Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference\| PubMed ID: 28269299	2016
EEG-Based Cognitive Control Behaviour Assessment: an Ecological study with Professional Air Traffic Controllers. Scientific reports\| PubMed ID: 28373684	2017
EEG activity as an objective measure of cognitive load during effortful listening: A study on pediatric subjects with bilateral, asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss. International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology\| PubMed ID: 28688548	2017

Giulia Cartocci

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