Effect of fMRI acoustic noise on non-auditory working memory task: comparison between continuous and pulsed sound emitting EPI

Conventional blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is accompanied by substantial acoustic gradient noise. This noise can influence the performance as well as neuronal activations. Conventional fMRI typically has a pulsed noise component, which is a particularly efficient auditory stimulus. We investigated whether the elimination of this pulsed noise component in a recent modification of continuous-sound fMRI modifies neuronal activations in a cognitively demanding non-auditory working memory task. Sixteen normal subjects performed a letter variant n-back task. Brain activity and psychomotor performance was examined during fMRI with continuous-sound fMRI and conventional fMRI. We found greater BOLD responses in bilateral medial frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, left hippocampus, right superior frontal gyrus, right precuneus and right cingulate gyrus with continuous-sound compared to conventional fMRI. Conversely, BOLD responses were greater in bilateral cingulate gyrus, left middle and superior frontal gyrus and right lingual gyrus with conventional compared to continuous-sound fMRI. There were no differences in psychomotor performance between both scanning protocols. Although behavioral performance was not affected, acoustic gradient noise interferes with neuronal activations in non-auditory cognitive tasks and represents a putative systematic confound     

Functional MRI study of PASAT in normal subjects

The paced auditory serial addition test (PASAT) is routinely used to evaluate the cognitive part of the multiple sclerosis functional composite (MSFC) score, the new reference index of patient disability. PASAT is sensitive to subtle cognitive impairment related to MS, although the cognitive components of this test still remain unclear. In order to better characterize brain systems involved during this complex task, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments were conducted during PASAT in a population of ten normal subjects. The paradigm consisted of a series of 61 single-digit numbers delivered every 3 s. After each number, subjects were asked to overt vocalize the result of the addition of the two last numbers heard. A control task consisting of the repetition of the same series of single-digit numbers was used. Statistical group analysis was performed using the random effect procedure (SPM 99). Cortical activation was observed in the left prefontal cortex, the supplementary motor area, the lateral premotor cortex, the cingulate gyrus, the left parietal lobe, the left superior temporal gyrus, the left temporal pole, and visual associative areas. fMRI activations underlying PASAT were consistent with an involvement of verbal working memory and the semantic memory retrieval network which could be related to arithmetic fact retrieval. This study on normal subjects could provide a base for the understanding of the potential abnormal cortical activation in MS patients performing this test for a cognitive evaluation.This revised version was published in March 2005 with corrections to the history.     

Brain activity associated with graphic emoticons. The effect of abstract faces in communication over a computer network

In this paper, we describe the brain activities that are associated with graphic emoticons by using functional MRI (fMRI). We use various types of faces, from abstract to photorealistic, in computer network applications. A graphics emoticon is an abstract face in communication over a computer network. In this research, we created various graphic emoticons for the fMRI study and the graphic emoticons were classified according to friendliness and level of arousal. We investigated the brain activities of participants who were required to evaluate the emotional valence of the graphic emoticons (happy or sad). The experimental results showed that not only the right inferior frontal gyrus and the cingulate gyrus, but also the inferior and middle temporal gyrus and the fusiform gyrus, were found to be activated during the experiment. Furthermore, it is possible that the activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus and the cingulate gyrus is related to the type of abstract face. Since the inferior and middle temporal gyrus were activated, even though the graphic emoticons are static, we may perceive graphic emoticons as dynamic and living agents. Moreover, it is believed that text and graphics emoticons play an important role in enriching communication among users. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 177(3): 36–45, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21162     

The application of fMRI to basic experiments in acupuncture

In this article, the changes in the cerebral activation induced by different acupuncture stimuli were studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The authors studied how the differences in the stimulus points (hand or leg, left or right) would affect cerebral activities and how differences of stimulus content (sense of pain, not getting qi, getting qi) would alter the cerebral response to the stimuli. Four healthy (normal in neurology) adult subjects: three males and one female, 22- to 30-years-old, and all right-handed were studied. Pain stimuli - getting qi with a noninducing oppressing stimulus (without resonance) and getting qi with an inducing oppressing stimulus - were conducted on the yuchi point. For a meridian point stimulus, a getting-qi inducing oppressing stimulus (with resonance) was conducted with a tenderness meter (FP meter). As qi-inducing pressure, 3.3 kg of pressure was conducted on the right yuchi point and 3 kg on the left yuchi point. Then, the right hand had a strong getting-qi feeling from the pollisis bulb to the elbow, and the left hand had a getting-qi feeling on the pollisis bulb. The different stimulus points produced correspondingly different cerebral activation observed in the S1 area. The differences in stimulus content were evident in the cerebral activation response of the central nervous system (S1, superior temporal gyrus, thalamus, gyrus cinguli, parahippocampal gyrus, cerebellum, and insula). Most of all, the S1 activation of a getting-qi stimulus was bilateral and correlated with the sense of getting qi.     

The impact of susceptibility gradients on cartesian and spiral EPI for BOLD fMRI

High sensitivity to magnetic susceptibility changes and accurate localization of functional activations are key requisites for pulse sequences used for BOLD fMRI. This paper seeks to develop a framework for analysing the performance of various k-space sampling techniques in this respect, with special emphasis on spiral EPI (spiral) and cartesian EPI (EPI) and their performance under influence of induced field gradients (SFGs) and stochastic noise. A numerical method for calculating synthetic MR images is developed and used to simulate BOLD fMRI experiments using EPI and spirals. The data is then examined for activation using a pixel-wise t test. Nine subjects are scanned with both techniques while performing a motor task. SPM99 is used for analysing the experimental data. The simulated spirals provide generally higher t scores at low SFGs but lose more strength than EPI at higher SFGs, where EPI activation is offset from the true position. In the primary motor area spirals provide significantly higher t scores (P < 0.0002). In-plane variation of EPI is higher in phase-encoding direction than in frequency-encoding direction (P < 0.003). In the low SFG areas spirals provide stronger activation than EPI and less spatial variability. Thus, spirals are recommended for fMRI in motor area and language areas.     

Quantitative evaluation of lightning surge range voltage–time characteristics in high‐pressure SF6 gas

Gas‐insulated switchgear (GIS) is subjected to very fast transient overvoltages such as lightning surges or disconnector switching surges. Therefore, the sparkover voltage and time (V?t) characteristics of SF₆ in a very short time range of less than are of great interest from the viewpoint of insulation design and coordination for a GIS. This paper describes the V?t characteristics of SF₆ at a gas pressure of 0.5 MPa using a steep‐front square impulse voltage under a quasi‐uniform field gap and presents a quantitative evaluation of the V?t characteristics for a nonstandard lightning impulse voltage. In the case of a square impulse, the V?t characteristics of positive polarity were observed to be almost flat over a long time range from 80 ns to , and rose steeply over a short time range from 80 ns down to 20 ns. For negative polarity, the V?t characteristics exhibit a gentle rise from 200 ns down to 40 ns. In the estimation of V?t characteristics, the equal‐area criterion parameters were quantitatively estimated using the square impulse. For a nonstandard lighting impulse, we found that application of the equal‐area criterion with these parameters for the nonoscillating impulse and oscillating impulse of up to 5.3 MHz as a model of lightning surge and disconnector switching surge is possible. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 159(4): 8– 17, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20309     

Event‐related potentials affected by spatial frequencies of background visual pattern during a cognitive task

Spatial variation in luminance, which is one of the most important attributes of a visual image, may cause characteristic reactions in higher order brain functions. We aim to characterize the event‐related potentials (ERPs) associated with a cognitive task (simple addition) in terms of how they are influenced by the spatial frequencies of the background visual pattern. We use vertically striped visual stimuli with embedded numbers (0–9) and different spatial frequency characteristics (white noise, 1/f, 1/f², and 1/f³). The subjects are instructed to perform two tasks: an addition task that involved adding numbers presented as visual stimuli, and a reference task wherein the numbers were not added. In ERPs averaged over four types of visual stimuli for the addition task, positive components peaking at latencies of 182 ms in the central and frontal areas and 360 ms in the parietal area are observed, and significant differences are found between ERPs for the addition and reference tasks. In the addition task, the 182‐ms latency component shows a larger positive amplitude for 1/f³ compared with other stimuli in the right parietal‐occipital‐temporal area (P₄, T₆, O₂), and the 360‐ms latency component tends to show a larger positive amplitude for 1/f compared with other stimuli in the parietal‐central area (C₃, P₃, P_z). We conclude that spatial frequency characteristics influence ERPs associated with the retrieval of arithmetic data and certain neural activities that accompany simple forms of addition. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Adaptive TS‐FNN control for a class of uncertain multi‐time‐delay systems: The exponentially stable sliding mode‐based approach

This paper presents an adaptive Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy neural network (TS‐FNN) control for a class of multiple time‐delay uncertain nonlinear systems. First, we develop a sliding surface guaranteed to achieve exponential stability while considering mismatched uncertainty and unknown delays. This exponential stability result based on a novel Lyapunov–Krasovskii method is an improvement when compared with traditional schemes where only asymptotic stability is achieved. The stability analysis is transformed into a linear matrix inequalities problem independent of time delays. Then, a sliding mode control‐based TS‐FNN control scheme is proposed to achieve asymptotic stability for the controlled system. Since the TS‐FNN combines TS fuzzy rules and a neural network structure, fewer numbers of fuzzy rules and tuning parameters are used compared with the traditional pure TS fuzzy approach. Moreover, all the fuzzy membership functions are tuned on‐line even in the presence of input uncertainty. Finally, simulation results show the control performance of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reduction of dimensionality in choosing optimal control

Given that x(t) = (x₁(t),…,x_n(t)) represents a trajectory of the considered dynamical system, we demonstrate that reduction of dimensionality of x(t) by using its principal components in choosing the optimal control u(t) is necessary to overcome the computational difficulties that might arise in obtaining a solution of the optimal control problem. We obtain explicit solutions for linear time‐varying systems with quadratic cost functional and show how to overcome difficulties appearing in non‐linear matrix differential equations of Riccati type. A gradient method of searching for the close‐to‐optimal trajectory and control in non‐linear optimal control problems is also considered. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi‐component instantaneous frequency estimation using locally adaptive directional time frequency distributions

This paper presents a locally adaptive time‐frequency (t,f) method for estimating the instantaneous frequency (IF) of multi‐component signals. A high‐resolution adaptive directional time‐frequency distribution (ADTFD) is defined by locally adapting the direction of its smoothing kernel at each (t,f) point based on the direction of the energy distribution in the (t,f) domain. The IF of signal components is then estimated from the ADTFD using an image processing algorithm. Using the mean square error between the original IF and estimated IF as a performance criterion, experimental results indicate that the ADTFD gives better IF estimation performance compared with other TFDs for a multi‐component signal. For example, for signal‐to‐noise ratio of 12dB, the IF estimate obtained using the ADTFD achieves a mean square error of ?42dB for a weak signal component, which is an improvement of ?12dB compared with other TFDs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accelerating the transient simulation of semiconductor devices using filter‐bank transforms

Simulation of high frequency semiconductor devices, where non‐local and hot carrier transport cannot be ignored, requires solution of Poisson's equation and at least the first three moments of the Boltzmann transport equation (hydrodynamic transport model). These equations form non‐linear, coupled and time‐dependent partial differential equations. One of the most efficient solvers of such system of equations is decoupled solver. In conventional decoupled methods, the fully implicit, semi‐implicit and explicit methods are used to solve the equations. In fully or semi‐implicit schemes, the method is unconditionally stable for any Δt or for very large Δt compared to explicit scheme. Thus, these schemes are very suitable and efficient for transient simulations. But, using these techniques leads to a large system of linear equations. Here for the first time, a filter bank‐based preconditioning method is used to facilitate the iterative solution of this system. This method provides efficient preconditioners for matrices arising from discretizing of the PDEs, using finite difference techniques. Numerical results show that the condition number and iteration number are significantly reduced. The most important advantage of this preconditioner is its low computational complexity which can be reduced to O(N). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

First plasma experiment on spherical tokamak device UTST

The UTST (University of Tokyo Spherical Tokamak) device was constructed for the purpose of exploring the formation of ultrahigh‐beta ST (spherical tokamak) plasma using the double null plasma merging method. When two plasmas merge together to form a single plasma, magnetic field lines reconnect, and magnetic field energy is converted to plasma kinetic energy, increasing the plasma beta. Merging start‐up has been demonstrated in the TS‐3/4, START, and MAST devices using coils inside the vacuum vessel, and the TS‐3 plasma obtained a 50% beta. In order to demonstrate start‐up in a more reactor‐relevant situation, UTST has all poloidal field (PF) coils outside the vacuum vessel. The first plasma experiment on the UTST was begun in December 2007. In the results, the plasma obtained 10 kA by using only the outer PF coils and a single ST was generated in the lower area (z = –0.3 to –1.0 m) close to a washer gun. This result suggests that another washer gun on the top of the UTST can allow the generation of ST in the upper area and merging start‐up by using outer PF coils. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 179(2): 20–26, 2012; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21216     

Electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI): a 2-D virtual wheelchair control based on event-related desynchronization/synchronization and state control

This study aims to propose an effective and practical paradigm for a brain-computer interface (BCI)-based 2-D virtual wheelchair control. The paradigm was based on the multi-class discrimination of spatiotemporally distinguishable phenomenon of event-related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) in electroencephalogram signals associated with motor execution/imagery of right/left hand movement. Comparing with traditional method using ERD only, where bilateral ERDs appear during left/right hand mental tasks, the 2-D control exhibited high accuracy within a short time, as incorporating ERS into the paradigm hypothetically enhanced the spatiotemoral feature contrast of ERS versus ERD. We also expected users to experience ease of control by including a noncontrol state. In this study, the control command was sent discretely whereas the virtual wheelchair was moving continuously. We tested five healthy subjects in a single visit with two sessions, i.e., motor execution and motor imagery. Each session included a 20 min calibration and two sets of games that were less than 30 min. Average target hit rate was as high as 98.4% with motor imagery. Every subject achieved 100% hit rate in the second set of wheelchair control games. The average time to hit a target 10 m away was about 59 s, with 39 s for the best set. The superior control performance in subjects without intensive BCI training suggested a practical wheelchair control paradigm for BCI users.     

An expression for the voltage response of a current‐excited fractance device based on fractional‐order trigonometric identities

We report a closed‐form expression of the voltage response of a current‐excited fractance device. The derived simple expression is made possible following the introduction of the generalized sine and cosine functions (rmsin_α(t) and cos_α(t)), which are valid on any fractional‐order surface and tend to the normal sin(t) and cos(t) at α = 1 or asymptotically as t→∞. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Partial discharge endurance life of polymer insulating materials at high temperature

This paper describes the partial discharge (PD) characteristics and V‐t characteristics of several insulating materials, such as liquid crystal polymer, epoxy resins, polyimide, and polyethylene‐terephthalate (PET) with a needle‐plane electrode system at elevated temperature. The life index n for an applied electric field less than 20 kV/mm is found to be about 9 and that for more than 20 kV/mm is found to be less than 4. The PD characteristics of the insulating materials varied. These V‐t characteristics due to PD degradation were similar to those at room temperature except for the absolute life time. © 1998 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 126(1): 15–22, 1999     

High resolution SE-fMRI in humans at 3 and 7 T using a motor task

Object The sensitivity of spin echo (SE) experiments to blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast was explored in a study of the same six subjects carried out at 3 and 7 T. Materials and methods Multi-slice, single shot, spin echo, echo planar images with a voxel size of 1 × 1 × 3 mm³ were acquired at three different echo times, during execution of a simple motor task. Results Significant activation was observed at all echo times at both field strengths. Analysis of the fractional signal change as a function of echo time indicated that the change in relaxation rate, ΔR ₂, at 7 T was −0.51 ± 0.14 s ⁻¹, which was 1.3 times larger than the value found at 3 T. Measurements of the percentage signal change on activation and temporal signal to noise ratio showed that there was an increase in the BOLD contrast to noise ratio (CNR) at 7 versus 3 T by a factor of 1.9. There was no overlap of areas of significant activation in the SE data acquired at either field strength with the site of large veins. Conclusion SE-BOLD CNR in motor cortex was found to increase significantly at 7 T compared with 3 T.     

Toward mapping spatiotemporal characteristics of muscle oxygenation in different motor modalities by multichannel near‐infrared spectroscopy

Commonly, the near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) devices are used to measure muscle oxygenated hemoglobin (HBO) concentration and total hemoglobin (HBT) concentration with a single channel, which can obtain the temporal HBO and HBT signals. Lacking of the spatial information of muscle oxygenation will limit the exploration of the heterogeneity of muscle activities. In this study, a multichannel NIRS recording system was used to measure the muscle oxygenation with an attempt to simultaneously provide the temporal and spatial HBO and HBT concentration. In the experiment, the influences of four motor tasks, including active, passive, imaginary movement, and the control task (no movement), on muscle oxygenation were investigated in eight normal subjects. Our results showed that both amplitude and spatial heterogeneity associated with variation in muscle oxygenation during active and passive motor tasks were significantly different between the motor time and rest time (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the region where HBO concentration decreased during the active motor task was in accordance with the anatomical position of contracted muscle, which cannot be observed from the results of the passive task. Considering the imaginary and control tasks in which the muscle was in a fixed/stationary state, the amplitude and spatial heterogeneity associated with variations in muscle oxygenation only exhibited slight changes (P > 0.05). This pilot study suggested that the spatiotemporal information obtained from multichannel NIRS devices might be potential for accurate measurement of the variation in muscle oxygenation during motor tasks, which would be useful for different clinical applications.     

Oscillatory neural activity associated with cognitive processes affected by spatial frequency

The spatial frequency contained in visual objects is known to affect human psychophysiology. In our previous study, we showed that event‐related potentials are affected by spatial frequency during a simple calculation task. In that study, however, we did not investigate the contribution of oscillatory neural activities. The purpose of the present study is to characterize the changes in oscillatory neural activity associated with cognitive processes, and to investigate how these signals are affected by the spatial frequency of a visual stimulus during simple calculation tasks. We investigate these issues by analyzing our previously collected electroencephalography (EEG) dataset using the same visual stimulus, tasks, subjects, and EEG recordings. In that study, four types of vertically striped visual stimuli were used. The visual stimuli contained embedded numbers (from 0 to 9) that possessed the following frequency (f) characteristics: white noise, 1/f, 1/f², and 1/f³. The subjects were instructed to perform two tasks: ‘add numbers’ (addition task) and ‘do not add numbers’ (reference task). EEG data were recorded, and event‐related synchronization (ERS) and desynchronization (ERD) for each visual stimulus were analyzed on the basis of the intertrial variances of wavelet coefficients for theta, alpha, low‐beta, and gamma band activity. Eight healthy men (21–23 years) were recruited to participate in the study. Our results suggest the presence of a frequency discrimination function in the theta band activity in the fronto‐central area at the latency of 198 ms during the addition task. The alpha‐band ERD during completion of the reference task also showed a spatial frequency dependency. This phenomenon was observed in the left temporal‐parietal area at a latency of 376 ms, and is thought to be related to the perceptual filter. We conclude that the observed changes in oscillatory neural activity associated with cognitive processes are affected by spatial frequency. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A low‐loss snubber for reducing motor terminal surge voltage

The development of an advanced Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) has enabled high‐frequency switching operation and has improved the performance of PWM inverters for motor drive. However, the IGBT's high rate of dv/dt has adverse effects on motor insulation stress. In many motor drive applications, the inverter and motor are separated, requiring long motor feeds. The long cable contributes high‐frequency ringing at the motor terminal and results in high surge voltage which stresses the motor insulation. The inverter output filter and RDC snubber are the conventional method for reducing the surge voltage. In this paper, we propose a new low‐loss snubber to reduce the motor terminal surge voltage. The snubber consists of the series connection of chraging/discharging capacitor and the voltage‐clamped capacitor. At IGBT turn‐off, the snubber starts to operate when the IGBT voltage reaches the voltage‐clamped level. Since dv/dt is decreased by snubber operating, the peak level of the surge voltage can be reduced. Also the snubber operates at the IGBT voltage above the voltage‐clamped level, and the snubber loss is largely reduced compared with the RDC snubber. The proposed snubber enables reduction of the motor terminal surge voltage with low loss. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 150(4): 64–72, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10378     

Breakdown characteristics of oil and paper insulation for a very fast transient voltage

This paper describes the dielectric breakdown characteristics of oil and oil‐impregnated paper for very fast transient (VFT) voltages. Blumlein circuits generate VFT voltages of 60 and 300 ns in a pulse width that simulates disconnecting switching surges in gas‐insulated switch gears. We measured the breakdown voltages of needle‐to‐plane, plane‐to‐plane oil gaps and several pieces of paper between plane electrodes for VFT and lightning impulse voltages. The measured data were formulated in V‐t characteristics and Weibull probability distributions. The inclination n of V‐t characteristics of insulating paper is 150, which is less than n = 13.7 of the plane‐to‐plane oil gap in the VFT time range. The shape parameters of Weibull distribution obtained in this study show that the scattering of breakdown voltages of paper is much less than that of oil. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 141(4): 16–24, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10043