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Introduction: Air traffic control is a very complex process, including multiple human-machine interactions. Human mental workload plays an important role in this process. Nowadays, electroencephalography indexes are considered as new indicators in the field of assessment of mental workload. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between EEG theta power and mental workload in air traffic control simulation. Material and Methods: Fourteen air traffic controllers participated in this study. Controllers carried out two scenarios, including low and high workload, based on task load factors in an air traffic control simulator. Mental workload was assessed in these two scenarios by the NASA-TLX questionnaire. EEG signals were continuously recorded during air traffic control tasks. Afterward, absolute theta power was extracted from participants’ EEG using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) by the MATLAB software and was compared with each other in terms of high and low workload. Results: The results showed a significant relationship in absolute theta power during low and high workload scenarios in all regions of the brain (p < 0.05). Absolute theta power increased primarily in the frontal region during the high workload scenario. Also, there was a significant increase in the relationship between work experience and absolute theta power at the F3 region during the high workload scenario (P=0.021, r=0.607). Conclusion: Absolute theta power provides a good parameter to assess mental workload at different levels of air traffic control tasks. Therefore, it can be used as a tool for the design of human-machine complex systems.

Mindfulness-based education (Mind-Edu) is increasingly being recognized as an effective educational approach to promote children’s social and emotional competence. Although it has been implemented in several schools in Thailand for many years, studies examining its impact on the developing brain have been scarce. We hypothesized that the Mind-Edu might have some effects on resting state brain activities in school-aged students; therefore, we investigated long-term effects of Mind-Edu on the EEG power spectrum and compared with the control. Participants are 53 typically developing children (27 girls) studying in the 6th grade, mean aged 11.7 years, SD = 0.4. They were divided into the Mind-Edu group (N = 22) and the control group (N = 31). These two groups are different in school curriculums. One school uses the Mind-Edu curriculum for all levels of education, and another one uses the country’s core curriculum. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded; eye-closed EEG segment was used for quantitative analysis and compared between groups. The results revealed that there was no significant difference between groups on the mean value of absolute beta, alpha, and delta powers over all electrode sites. However, the Mind-Edu group had a significant lower absolute theta power over the posterior brain regions and a significant smaller theta/beta ratio over the Cz electrode as compared to the control. Our results suggested that implementation of the Mind-Edu into the regular elementary school curriculum would be of benefit for enhancing maturation in brain areas involved with cognitive control and self-regulation, which might provide support for a smooth transition into the adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Low-frequency Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation application affects absolute theta power over frontal regions. • Comparison between execution, action observation and motor imagery tasks. • Hypothesis of an integrated circuit of performance monitoring on prefrontal cortex. • Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation effects over Motor Imagery tasks on frontal regions. Abstract Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) studies are used to test motor imagery hypothesis. Motor Imagery (MI) represents conscious access to contents of movement intention, generally executed unconsciously during motor preparation. The main objective of this study was to investigate electrophysiological changes, which occurred before and after low-frequency rTMS application when we compared three different tasks: execution, action observation and motor imagery of finger movement. We hypothesize that absolute theta power over frontal regions would change between sensorimotor integration tasks and after 1 Hz of rTMS application. Eleven healthy, right-handed volunteers of both sexes (5 males, 6 females; mean age 28 ± 5 years), with no history of psychiatric or neurological disorders, participated in the experiment. After performing the tasks randomly, subjects were submitted to 15 min of low-frequency rTMS applied on Superior Parietal Cortex (SPC) and performed the tasks again. All tasks were executed simultaneously with Eletroencephalography (EEG) signals recording. Our results clarified the specificity of each sub-region during MI activity. Frontopolar cortex presented involvement with motor process and showed main effect for task and moment. Inferior frontal gyrus presented involvement with long-term memory retrieval and showed interaction between task and moment in the left hemisphere while the right hemisphere showed a main effect for task and moment. The lack of the main effect for conditions on the anterior frontal cortex collaborates with the hypothesis that in this region an integrated circuit of performance monitoring exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study analyzed absolute theta power (ATP) in brain areas involved with attention in the three phase of BD while the patients performing a saccadic attention task. We hypothesized that patients in depression and mania states show a higher ATP compared to euthymic patients, since a higher ATP is indicative of attention deficit. We analyzed the frontal (F7, F3, F z , F4 and F8) and central (C3, Cz and C4) areas. Thirty bipolar patients were enrolled in this study. The subjects performed a saccadic attention task while their brain activity pattern was recorded using quantitative electroencephalography (20 channels). Our results showed a main effect for group over C3, C4, Cz, F7, F4, F8 electrodes, and a main effect for moment over Cz, F7, F8 electrodes. These results indicate that both task and groups produce changes in theta activity in distinct cortical areas that participate in the organization of attention. Our results therefore demonstrate that, although it is well established in the literature that theta has a relevant role in the attention process, it is necessary to deepen the investigations to better understand the specifics of theta during visual processing tasks that have a demand for attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bromazepam is a benzodiazepine, which has been widely employed in the treatment of anxiety. We investigated the electrophysiological changes in absolute theta power within the frontal cortex when individuals performed a visuomotor task under bromazepam. The sample of 17 healthy individuals was randomized into 2 experimental conditions, under which bromazepam 6 mg and placebo were administered on different days. All subjects were right -handed, with no mental or physical illness and were not using any psychoactive or psychotropic substance during the entire period of the study. We found an increase in reaction time under bromazepam compared with placebo . With regard to the electrophysiological variable, we found a lower theta power value in the prefrontal cortex prior to task execution, compared with after. We therefore suggested that this could be an increase of neural activity in this region, because of the subjects' readiness to perform the task, that is, because of their higher alertness. The right lateral frontal region showed lower theta power under bromazepam for pre- and post-finger movement. This could have occurred because of more effort to execute the task. In the left frontal region: premovement did not demonstrate any difference between conditions, possibly because the proposed task was simple to execute. In conclusion, theta power plays an important role in the analysis of visuomotor performance, assuming that bromazepam causes impairment on sustained attention and sensory perception., (© EEG and Clinical Neuroscience Society (ECNS) 2014.)