Scott Bunce

Selon la presente invention, la neuroimagerie dans l'infrarouge proche (fNIR) fonctionnelle est utilisee pour detecter la supercherie. Les taux d'oxygenation de parties du cerveau d'un sujet sont images a l'aide d'une spectroscopie fNIR. Les taux d'oxygenation mesures sont utilises pour determiner si le sujet ment ou dit la verite. Dans un exemple de configuration, les taux d'oxygenation des zones corticales prefrontales inferieures et/ou medianes du cerveau, telles que le cortex prefrontal dorsolateral bilateral et/ou inferieur frontal, sont mesures pour determiner si un sujet ment ou bien dit la verite. Un exemple de systeme comprend un dispositif de detection en forme de ceinture portable souple qui est situe a proximite du cuir chevelu du sujet. L'activite neurale detectee est transmise par des moyens avec ou sans fil vers un processeur pour etre analysee. En consequence, les resultats peuvent etre rendus disponibles apres un calcul de moyenne apr...

Future issues of the magazine will have the themes of Teaching Engineering in Medicine and Biology. Tissue Engineering, Biotechnology, and Wearable Sensors/Systems and Their Impact on BME. Contributions on theme topics are invited. Other technical articles and feature stories of interest to biomedical engineers are also welcome. All articles are submitted anonymously for peer review. Letters to the editor, notes, commentaries, and other pieces of personal opinion will be published as such. We also seek press releases related ...

Aims: Alcohol advertisement has been indicated as an important factor shaping youngster’s decision to drink. This study aims to investigate the association between alcohol ads with drinking intention and behaviors among adolescents in Taiwan. Methods: The data were derived from the Alcohol-Related Experiences among Children II. The baseline sample comprised 1926 7th to 8th graders from 11 public middle schools in Taipei by multi-stage sampling; follow-up was conducted in 9th grade (follow-up rate =97%). Data concerning sociodemographic and family characteristics, exposure to alcohol ads on eight marketing channels, and drinking experiences were collected by web-based self-administratedquestionnnaires. Complex survey analyseswere used to evaluate the predictors for drinking behaviors in 9th grade, with stratification by prior drinking experiences in childhood. Results: Approximately 45% students had tried alcoholic beverages at least once in 7th grade. Annual incidence of alcohol initiation was estimated 18%. 90% of adolescents were exposed to alcohol ads on television in 7th grade, and the estimates for pamphlets andwebsite was 27% and 68%, respectively. After statistical adjustment for potential confounders at baseline, exposure to alcohol ads on pamphlets, television, website, and stores was significantly linkedwith subsequent alcohol initiation (aOR=1.3–3.4); continued drinking was only linked with pamphlet ads (aOR=1.2). Website alcohol ads exposure may increase future drinking intention in noncurrent drinkers by 46–50%. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that alcohol advertisement on marketing channels may have differential effects on youngsters’ involvement of drinking behaviors and intention through early adolescence. Preventive strategies targeting underage drinking should consider restrain marketing channels from certain advertising content (e.g., website). Financial support: This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology to Chen, C.

Anhedonia is an important but understudied element of a neuroadaptive model underlying vulnerability to relapse in opioid dependence. Previous research using fMRI has shown reduced activation to pleasant stimuli in rostral prefrontal cortex among heroin-dependent patients in early recovery. This study evaluated the presence of anhedonia among recently withdrawn prescription opiate dependent patients (PODP) in residential treatment compared to control subjects. Anhedonia was assessed using self-report, affect-modulated startle response (AMSR), and a cue reactivity task during which participant's rostral prefrontal cortex (RPFC) and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) was monitored with functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The cue reactivity task included three distinct categories of natural reward stimuli: highly palatable food, positive social situations, and intimate (non-erotic) interactions. PODP reported greater anhedonia on self-report (Snaith-Hamilton Pleasur...

BACKGROUND A sense of meaningfulness is an important initial indicator of the successful treatment of addiction, and supports the larger recovery process. Most studies address meaningfulness as a static trait, and do not assess the extent to which meaningfulness might vary within an individual, or how it may vary in response to daily life events such as social experiences. METHODS Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) was used to: 1) examine the amount of within-person variability in meaningfulness among patients in residential treatment for prescription opioid use disorder; 2) determine whether that variability was related to positive or negative social experiences on a daily basis; and 3) assess whether those day-to-day relationships were related to relapse at four months post-treatment. Participants (N = 73, 77% male, Mage = 30.10, Range = 19-61) completed smartphone-based assessments four times per day for 12 days. Associations among social experiences, meaningfulness, and relapse were examined using multilevel modeling. RESULTS Between-person variability accounted for 52% (95% CI = 0.35, 0.67) of variance in end-of-day meaningfulness. End-of-day meaningfulness was higher on days when participants reported more positive social experiences (β = 1.17, SE = 0.33, p < .05, ΔR2 = 0.041). On average, participants who relapsed within four months post-residential treatment exhibited greater within-day reactivity to negative social experiences (β = -1.89, SE = 0.88, p < .05, ΔR2 = 0.024) during treatment than participants who remained abstinent. CONCLUSION Individual differences in maintaining meaningfulness day by day when faced with negative social experiences may contribute to the risk of relapse in the early months following residential treatment.

In the last decade, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) has been introduced as a new neuroimaging modality with which to conduct functional brain imaging studies [1]‐[24]. fNIR technology uses specific wavelengths of light, irradiated through the scalp, to enable the noninvasive measurement of changes in the relative ratios of deoxygenated hemoglobin (deoxy-Hb) and oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) during brain activity. This technology allows the design of portable, safe, affordable, noninvasive, and minimally intrusive monitoring systems. These qualities make fNIR suitable for the study of hemodynamic changes due to cognitive and emotional brain activity under many working and educational conditions, as well as in the field. Functional imaging is typically conducted in an effort to understand the activity in a given brain region in terms of its relationship to a particular behavioral state or its interactions with inputs from another region’s activity. The program of researc...

Background: Craving is a dynamic state that is both theoretically and empirically linked to relapse in addiction. Static measures cannot adequately capture the dynamic nature of craving, and research has shown that these measures are limited in their capacity to link craving to treatment outcomes. Methods: The current study reports on assessments of craving collected 4x-day across 12 days from 73 patients in residential treatment for opioid dependence. Analyses investigated whether the within-person assessments yielded expected across- and within-day variability, whether levels of craving changed across and within days, and, finally, whether individual differences in craving variability predicted post-residential treatment relapse. Results: Preliminary analyses found acceptable levels of data entry compliance and reliability. Consistent with expectations, craving varied both between (46%) and within persons, with most within-person variance (over 40%) existing within days. Other pat...

The objective of this study was to examine a sample (n = 55) of filicidal mothers to compare those with and without psychotic symptoms at the time of the filicide. Clinical data were gathered through retrospective chart review of filicidal women referred for criminal responsibility/competence to stand trial evaluations from 1974 to 1996 at Michigan's Center for Forensic Psychiatry. Most (52.7%) women had psychotic symptoms at the time of filicide. Women with psychosis were more likely than those without to have a history of substance abuse; to have past and ongoing psychiatric treatment; and to be older, unemployed, more educated, and divorced or separated. They were less likely to be first time mothers or to have had prior contact with Children's Protective Services. The psychotic mothers more often confessed, attempted suicide at the time of the filicide, used weapons, killed multiple children, and expressed homicidal thoughts and/or concerns about their children to psychi...

Sleep disturbance has been identified as a risk factor for relapse in addiction to a range of substances. The relationship between sleep quality and treatment outcome has received relatively little attention in research on nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD). This study examined the within-person association between sleep quality and craving in medically detoxified patients in residence for the treatment of NMUPD. Participants (n=68) provided daily reports of their sleep quality, negative affect (NA), positive affect (PA), and craving for an average of 9.36 (SD=2.99) days. Within-person associations of sleep quality and craving were examined using multilevel modeling. Within-person mediation analyses were used to evaluate the mediating roles of NA and PA in the relationship between sleep quality and craving. Greater cravings were observed on days of lower than usual sleep quality (γ10=-0.10, p=0.003). Thirty-one percent of the overall association between sleep quality and craving was explained by PA, such that poorer sleep quality was associated with lower PA and, in turn, lower PA was associated with greater craving. No evidence emerged for an indirect association between sleep quality and craving through NA. Daily fluctuations in sleep quality were associated with fluctuations in craving, an association partially explained by the association between sleep quality and daily PA. These data encourage further research on the relationship between sleep, affect, and craving in NMUPD patients, as well as in patients with other substance use disorders.

ABSTRACT Deception detection has important clinical and legal implications. Traditional methods used for the discrimination between truthful and deceptive responses offer still limited reliability. For this reason, EEG has been examined to obtain a more objective measure of the deception process. However, EEG analysis based on either time- or frequency- domain parameters have had mixed results. Because of the non-stationarity in EEG measurements, the use of wavelet analysis has been proposed for the extraction of discriminating features from ERPs in our earlier study. The goal of this preliminary study was to investigate the discriminating information provided by the application of wavelet analysis to trials spanning a longer time-window of 8 s after the stimulus. EEG was recorded from 4 electrode sites (F3, F4, F7, F8) during a modified version of the Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) in 5 subjects. The preliminary analysis of shorter time windows using wavelet transforms revealed significant differences between deceptive and truthful responses in the frequency range corresponding to the beta rhythm. As an extension to our preliminary analysis, here we investigated the effects of long-term recordings on the discriminating power of wavelet features within the beta rhythm in deception detection. In particular, besides the previously revealed differences in short-term recordings (1 s), wavelet decomposition of deceptive and truthful responses in the beta rhythm is found to differ also in time ranges around 1.8 s, 2.1 s, and 4.8 s in this study (p<0.05). This time localization suggests that dissimilarities are far extending in time and their study may offer further understanding of the cognitive processes underlying deception.

Low positive affect (PA) is likely to contribute to risk of relapse; however, it has received relatively little attention in clinical research. This study examined the associations among positive affect, negative affect (NA), and craving in medically withdrawn patients using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Participants (n=73) provided reports of their PA, NA, and craving 4 times a day for an average of 10.47 (SD=3.80) days. Person- and day-level associations between PA, NA, and craving were examined using multilevel models. A significant interaction emerged between person- and day-level PA such that PA on the day level was negatively associated with craving for individuals experiencing low mean PA throughout the study. No significant interaction emerged between person- and day-level NA. The main effects for both person- and day-level NA were significant. Individuals experiencing high NA throughout the study experienced higher craving overall and on days when NA was higher tha...

This presentation will focus on the various applications of functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) in a variety of settings to include laboratories, field-work and surgical suites. As an interdisciplinary team, Drexel University’s Optical Brain Sensor group of engineers, cognitive and motor neuroscientists, and neurorehabilitation scientists have developed and integrated fNIR imaging techniques while assessing cognitive and motor activities of individuals with and without impairments.

There is growing evidence for a neuroadaptive model underlying vulnerability to relapse in opioid dependence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinical measures hypothesized to mirror elements of allostatic dysregulation in patients dependent on prescription opioids at 2 time points after withdrawal, compared with healthy control participants. Recently withdrawn (n = 7) prescription opioid-dependent patients were compared with the patients in supervised residential care for 2 to 3 months (extended care; n = 7) and healthy controls (n = 7) using drug cue reactivity, affect-modulated startle response tasks, salivary cortisol, and 8 days of sleep actigraphy. Prefrontal cortex was monitored with functional near-infrared spectroscopy during the cue reactivity task. Startle response results indicated reduced hedonic response to natural rewards among patients recently withdrawn from opioids relative to extended care patients. The recently withdrawn patients showed increased activation to pill stimuli in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex relative to extended care patients. Cortisol levels were elevated among recently withdrawn patients and intermediate for extended care relative to healthy controls. Actigraphy indicated disturbed sleep between recently withdrawn patients and extended care patients; extended care patients were similar to controls. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation to drug and natural reward cues, startle responses to natural reward cues, day-time cortisol levels, time in bed, and total time spent sleeping were all correlated with the number of days since last drug use (ie, time in supervised residential treatment). These results suggest possible re-regulation of dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and brain reward systems in prescription opioid-dependent patients over the drug-free period in residential treatment.

There is growing evidence for a neuroadaptive model underlying vulnerability to relapse in opioid dependence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinical measures hypothesized to mirror elements of allostatic dysregulation in patients dependent on prescription opioids at 2 time points after withdrawal, compared with healthy control participants. Recently withdrawn (n = 7) prescription opioid-dependent patients were compared with the patients in supervised residential care for 2 to 3 months (extended care; n = 7) and healthy controls (n = 7) using drug cue reactivity, affect-modulated startle response tasks, salivary cortisol, and 8 days of sleep actigraphy. Prefrontal cortex was monitored with functional near-infrared spectroscopy during the cue reactivity task. Startle response results indicated reduced hedonic response to natural rewards among patients recently withdrawn from opioids relative to extended care patients. The recently withdrawn patients showed increased activation to pill stimuli in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex relative to extended care patients. Cortisol levels were elevated among recently withdrawn patients and intermediate for extended care relative to healthy controls. Actigraphy indicated disturbed sleep between recently withdrawn patients and extended care patients; extended care patients were similar to controls. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation to drug and natural reward cues, startle responses to natural reward cues, day-time cortisol levels, time in bed, and total time spent sleeping were all correlated with the number of days since last drug use (ie, time in supervised residential treatment). These results suggest possible re-regulation of dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and brain reward systems in prescription opioid-dependent patients over the drug-free period in residential treatment.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR), which assesses changes in the relative levels of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin, has increasingly been used to assess neural function in the cortex. Unlike positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance ...

ABSTRACT Hemodynamic responses of brain during single-event trials are measured by functional optical imaging (fOI) method. The response curves are modeled by a gamma function where the model fit yields the parameters related to the shape of each response. We found that during a twenty minute target detection and categorization task, finger press reaction times have a quadratic relation to the amplitude and time constant of the gamma function.