Norbert Tomek Marek Krzysztof

1. Norbert Tomek Marek Krzysztof

2. Imagery Agnosia New branch of neuropsychology: imagery agnosias. Classical agnosias~30 major types: alexia, akinetopsia, alexithimia, many visual types: prosopagnosia, simultanagnosia, semantic agnosia , form, color … Little access to perceptual imagery in visual, auditory, tactile or gustatory mode. Without internal feedback the only way to learn about plans formed by the brain is to act and observe results: trying to play an instrument in this condition is like blindsight, maneuvering blindly in the auditory space, without the ability to imagine results of next move (hitting piano key). • Learning to play music without imagery is difficult – how far can one go? Which key do I have to press if I have no idea how it will sound like? • Recognition memory is fine, but it is difficult to repeat or remember simple melodies (memory-motor map). • No problem to read & improvise music, higher cognition is fine. • Conscious mental rehearsal is not possible. • Immediate feedback may help?

3. Extended mind Philosophers talk about parts of environment (notebooks for external memory etc) tightly coupled to our motor and cognitive activity as “extended mind”. • Robert K. Logan, The Extended Mind: The Emergence of Language, the Human Mind and Culture. University of Toronto Press 2007 Inability to consciously interpret internal brain states leads to the need to express and recognize them through various bodily actions. • David Kirsh, Interactive Cognition Lab at UCSD, thinking by doing. • Understanding oneself = own brain states, allows for self-reflection and better self-regulation, but information flow in the brain is not perfect. • Spontaneous thoughts are the main source of knowing, but acting out, motor activity also help to recognize brain processes (ex. humming melodies). Imagery agnosia may be rather common (more common than classical agnosia). • Investigation of this condition may elucidate relations between conscious and unconscious processes in implementation of higher cognitive functions.

4. Practical implications Better understanding of these issues will have far reaching implications for education, assessment of talent, understanding role of conscious experiences. • Work on VVIQ-like questionnaire-based evaluation of auditory imagery. • Repeat ERP experiments using NIR-OT (Janata, Zatorre) – imagery of missing sounds, priming cadences, look at auditory cortex response. • Development of simple tests for imagery agnosia, correlations of such tests with NIR-OT, ERP studies. Ex: Correlation of sounds with buttons: memory for mapping sounds to buttons should correlated with the ability to imagine sounds; as memory for images should correlate with ability to draw from memory. • Collecting statistical data, ex. children in music classes at school, correlation of IA with grades in different subjects? • Gender differences? • Can one recover from imagery agnosia? Neurofeedback? Is it good goal?Influence of intensive musical training on auditory cortex activation. • Neuroimaging: top-down and bottom-up distinction?

5. Mental energy Can one train willpower, motivation, perseverance, curiosity and creativity using neurofeedback? Thinking and self-control requires mental energy derived from food. Higher levels of blood glucose reduce reliance on intuitive, heuristic-based decision making and help controlling attention, regulating emotions, coping with stress, resisting impulsivity, refraining from aggressive behavior. Alcohol reduces glucose levels impairing many forms of self-control. Self-control failure is most likely during times of the day when glucose is used least effectively. • Willpower and glucose • Gailliot MT & Baumeister RF (2007) The physiology of willpower: Linking blood glucose to self-control. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 303-327. • Masicampo EJ & Baumeister RF (2008) Toward a physiology of dual-process reasoning and judgment: Lemonade, willpower, and effortful rule-based analysis. Psychological Science, 19, 255-260. • Sufficient energy for mental activity is a necessary condition.

6. EEG and creativity • John H. Gruzelier (Imperial College), SAN President • a-qneurofeedback produced “professionally significant performance improvements” in music and dance students. Neurofeedback and heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback. benefited performance in different ways. • Musicality of violin music students was enhanced; novice singers from London music colleges after ten sessions over two months learned significantly within and between session the EEG self-regulation of q/a ratio. • The pre-post assessment involved creativity measures in improvisation, a divergent production task, and the adaptation innovation inventory. Support for associations with creativity followed improvement in creativity assessment measures of singing performance. Why? • Low frequency waves = easier synchronization between distant areas. • Background processes and parasite oscillations decrease (can one see it with NIR-OT or EEG?). How to increase cooperation between distant brain areas important for creativity?

7. Neurocognitive informatics My own attempts - see my webpage, Google: W. Duch Mind as a shadow of neurodynamics: geometrical model of mind processes, psychological spaces providing inner perspective as an approximation to neurodynamics. Intuition: learning from partial observations, solving problems without explicit reasoning (and combinatorial complexity) in an intuitive way. Neurocognitive linguistics: how to find neural pathways in the brain. Creativity in limited domains + word games, good fields for testing. Duch W, Intuition, Insight, Imagination and Creativity, IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine 2(3), August 2007, pp. 40-52 Use inspirations from the brain, derive practical algorithms!

8. Some questions To understand talent in its many forms it would be good to know: • Many types of agnosia exist: do all have their imagery versions? • Statistics on strong visualizers/ auditory/taste imagery ect. How strong? Is there correlation between lack of different types of imagery? • 15% of population has difficulty in singing, but only 5% congenitial amusia. • Interpretation of many experiments may be wrong, mixing brains that work in quite different styles (compare statistics for cognitive decline). • High-level processes, such as imagery, planning & creativity, do not have to be conscious – when is consciousness essential and how does it help? • Many important brain science questions: averaging in fMRI over different brain processing styles; spatial deficits correlation with amusia => try to distinguish between imagery and other types of amusia and find people with amusia without spatial deficits!

9. Possible applications Two main areas: Education and Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). • Education • A simple giftedness tests based on ERPs or NIRS-OT for imagery? • Music/art education only? Abstract thinking? Thinking by doing (Kirsch)? • How to develop personalized education styles? Enhance curiosity, imagination, motivation, perseverance, strong will, creativity … • Brain-Computer Interfaces & Neurofeedback • BCI based on sound imagery (with Klonowski, Perovic, Jovanovic). • How many states can be distinguished by pitch? Timbre? Rhythm imagery? • Neurofeedback based on synchronization/connectivity assessment. • Klonowski W, Duch W, Perovic A, Jovanovic A, Some Computational Aspects of the Brain Computer Interfaces Based on Inner Music. • Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, Vol 2009, Article ID 950403, 9 pages, 2009. doi:10.1155/2009/950403

10. Phantomology: the virtual reality of the body. Theoretical aspects and hands-on demonstrations (co-organized with Dept. of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich), with Olaf Blanke, Peter Brugger, HenrikEhrsson, Kevin O’Regan and others (second half of Sept 2011). • Brain and music, May 2011 (probably 22-24.05), with J. LeDoux ... • Crossmodality and synesthesia (2012)

11. Exciting times are coming! Thank you for synchronizing your neurons and lending your ears Google: W Duch => Papers