The Establishment of an On-Campus Neurotraining Center at a Small University: Internship Experience Using Neuropsychological Techniques.

In 2015, Wilkes University's Neuroscience Program and Psychology Department established a unique training and learning center on a small liberal arts undergraduate campus - The NeuroTraining & Research Center. This paper shares the purpose of the Center, as a learning tool for Neuroscience majors who engage in internships and research opportunities, and as a means of promoting well-being on the campus by offering training in techniques such as Neurofeedback, Biofeedback and Audio-Visual Entrainment to the college community. The role that the center plays in connecting real world applications to concepts in Neuroscience, and the approach that the authors have taken to assess student learning is presented in this article.

The Effects of Attention on the Trigeminal Blink Reflex.

During top-down processing, higher cognitive processes modulate lower sensory processing. The present experiment tested the effects of directed attention on trigeminal reflex blinks in humans (n = 8). In separate sessions, participants either attended to blink-eliciting stimuli or were given no attentional instructions during stimulation of the supraorbital branch of the trigeminal nerve. Attention to blink-eliciting stimuli significantly increased reflex blink amplitude and duration and shortened blink latency compared with the no attention condition. These results suggested that higher processes such as attention can modify the trigeminal blink reflex circuit.

Effects of caffeine on the trigeminal blink reflex.

The acoustic startle and trigeminal blink reflexes share the same motor output. Since caffeine has been shown to augment the startle reflex, it was proposed that caffeine would also increase the trigeminal blink reflex. In 6 humans, the effects of caffeine (100 mg) on the trigeminal blink reflex were investigated. Reflex blinks were elicited by stimulation of the supraorbital branch of the trigeminal nerve. Following ingestion of caffeinated coffee, reflex blinks increased in amplitude and duration and occurred at a shorter latency than reflex blinks following ingestion of decaffeinated coffee. Since the blink reflex is a brainstem reflex, these results suggest that the psychomotor effects of caffeine facilitate brainstem processing.

Lid restraint evokes two types of motor adaptation.

Unilateral reduction in eyelid motility produced two modes of blink adaptation in humans. The first adaptive modification affected both eyelids. Stimulation of the supraorbital branch of the trigeminal nerve (SO) ipsilateral to the upper eyelid with reduced motility evoked bilateral, hyperexcitable reflex blinks, whereas contralateral SO stimulation elicited normally excitable blinks bilaterally. The probability of blink oscillations evoked by stimulation of the ipsilateral SO also increased with a reduction in lid motility. The increased probability of blink oscillations correlated with the enhanced trigeminal reflex blink excitability. Thus, the trigeminal complex ipsilateral to the restrained eyelid coordinated an increase in excitability and blink oscillations independent of the eyelid experiencing reduced motility. The second type of modification appeared only in the eyelid experiencing reduced motility. When tested immediately after removing lid restraint, blink amplitude increased in this eyelid relative to the normal eyelid regardless of the stimulated SO. A patient with seventh nerve palsy exhibited the same two patterns of blink adaptation. These results were consistent with two forms of adaptation, presumably because unilateral lid restraint produced two error signals. The corneal irritation caused by reduced blink amplitude generated abnormal corneal inputs. The difference between proprioceptive feedback from the blink and expected blink magnitude signaled an error in blink amplitude. The corneal irritation appeared to drive an adaptive process organized through the trigeminal complex, whereas the proprioceptive error signal drove an adaptive process involving just the motoneurons controlling the restrained eyelid.