Dictator's Game and Prisoner's Dilemma in an EEG study on money donation

Knowledge is currently scarce about what happens in the brain when a decision is made to make a donation. This intriguing donation behavior is often assumed to relate to social relationships. The present study used simulated situations in which participants had to decide how to manage money when possibilities for donation were available. Electroencephalographic signals were recorded while participants were exposed to two cognitive situations, the Dictator's Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma, to simulate money exchange between people. Brain activity was measured to determine whether correlations could be made with decisions to donate. Sixty volunteers were assessed, and stimuli were presented randomly. After the presentation of the cognitive tests, the participants were allocated to two groups for the respective cognitive situations. The data showed significant differences in the left prefrontal cortex between questions with a donation context and questions not related to donations. Participants who heard a question related to donation had higher activation in the left prefrontal cortex. These results are consistent with recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, suggesting that greater activation in the prefrontal cortex could be produced by the logical evaluation of dilemmas. These results suggest that logical evaluation occurs when faced with a reasonable donation situation.(AU)

Dictator's Game and Prisoner's Dilemma in an EEG study on money donation

Knowledge is currently scarce about what happens in the brain when a decision is made to make a donation. This intriguing donation behavior is often assumed to relate to social relationships. The present study used simulated situations in which participants had to decide how to manage money when possibilities for donation were available. Electroencephalographic signals were recorded while participants were exposed to two cognitive situations, the Dictator's Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma, to simulate money exchange between people. Brain activity was measured to determine whether correlations could be made with decisions to donate. Sixty volunteers were assessed, and stimuli were presented randomly. After the presentation of the cognitive tests, the participants were allocated to two groups for the respective cognitive situations. The data showed significant differences in the left prefrontal cortex between questions with a donation context and questions not related to donations. Participants who heard a question related to donation had higher activation in the left prefrontal cortex. These results are consistent with recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, suggesting that greater activation in the prefrontal cortex could be produced by the logical evaluation of dilemmas. These results suggest that logical evaluation occurs when faced with a reasonable donation situation.

Observação das evidências cognitivas de aprendizagem motora no desempenho de jovens violonistas monitoradas por eletroencefalograma: um estudo piloto / Observation cognitive evidences of the motor learning in the performance of young guitarists monitored by electroencephalogram: a pilot study

O artigo apresenta evidências cognitivas de aprendizagem motora por pesquisa com EEG cujo protocolo e tarefa buscou motivar dois violonistas a treinar e aprender a tocar uma seqüência de notas oferecida em partitura e áudio. Objetivou-se aumentar a demanda cortical para atenção seletiva, processamento, evocação de memórias e ampliação de representações mentais. Sabe-se que a aprendizagem é construída endogenamente, por ação cognitiva dos indivíduos sobre novas informações assimiladas e acomodadas em repertório prévio. Reorganizando-se, dá significância às novas informações e cria conhecimento e estes estados cognitivos relacionados com aprendizado motor exigem vigília, atenção, abstração e programação, o que causa mudanças nos sinais biológicos elétricos captados por EEG. Monitoraram-se sinais de EEG durante leitura, audição e prática da tarefa e calculou-se as medianas das freqüências (MFeeg) e médias aritméticas simples de ondas eletroencefalográficas em 3.000 e 60.000 milissegundos. O modelo estatístico foi ANOVA, Teste Bonferroni e Teste T para amostras pareadas (p<0,05); programas Excell 2003 e SPSS 14.0. A pesquisa mostrou a existência de específicas alterações de padrões de EEG, da aparente inatividade da pré-execução da tarefa à prática e memorização da partitura e desempenho motor.(AU)

The article presents cognitive evidences of motor learning with electroencephalogram (EEG) whose protocol and task looked to cause two guitarists training and learning to touch a sequence of notes offered in score and sound. The demand aimed to increase cortical for selective attention, processing, evocation of memories and of mental representations. The motor learning is known when built the action with new assimilated and accommodated in formations - it creates knowledge. These cognitive states connected with driving demand wakefulness, attention, abstraction and planning and changes the biological electric signs caught by EEG. Signs of EEG were monitored during reading, audition and practice of the task and there were calculated the medium ones of the frequencies (MFeeg) and arithmetical simple averages of waves electroencephalographic in 3.000 and 60.000 milliseconds. The statistical model was ANOVA, Test Bonferroni and Test T for samples gauged tuns Test Bonferroni and Test T for gauged tuns samples (p <0,05); programs Excell 2003 and SPSS 14.0. The inquiry showed the existence of specific alterations of standards of EEG, of the apparent inactivity of the daily pay-execution of the task to the practice and memorization of the score and driving performance. (AU)

Metodologia para observação e quantificação de sinais de EEG relativos a evidências cognitivas de aprendizagem motora / Methodology to observation and quantification of EEG signs related to cognitive evidences of motor learning

Este artigo apresenta uma revisão sobre questões cognitivas – de processamento de informações - envolvidas na aprendizagem motora, para consolidar pesquisa empírica a esse respeito. Propõe metodologia de observação e quantificação de sinais bioelétricos neurofisiológicos – de EEG – para identificação das modificações que ocorrem durante o processo de aquisição de tarefa cognitivo-motora. Descreve experimento-piloto em projeto de tese de doutorado na área das Ciências do Movimento, que monitora, quantifica e interpreta a alteração de sinais de base em relação a vários momentos da tarefa: prática deliberada de partitura musical por violonistas.