Twin studies can help us understand the relative contributions of genes and environment to phenotypic trait variation, including attentional and brain activation measures. In terms of applying methodologies such as electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking, which are key methods in developmental neuroscience, infant twin studies are almost nonexistent. Here, we describe the Babytwins Study Sweden (BATSS), a multi-method longitudinal twin study of 177 MZ and 134 DZ twin pairs (i.e., 622 individual infants) covering the 5−36 month time period. The study includes EEG, eye tracking and genetics, together with more traditional measures based on in-person testing, direct observation and questionnaires. The results show that interest in participation in research among twin parents is high, despite the comprehensive protocol. DNA analysis from saliva samples was possible in virtually all participants, allowing for both zygosity confirmation and polygenic score analyses. Combining a longitudinal twin design with advanced technologies in developmental cognitive neuroscience and genomics, BATSS represents a new approach in infancy research, which we hope to have impact across multiple disciplines in the coming years.

Associations have been observed between socioeconomic status (SES) and language outcomes from early childhood, but individual variability is high. Exposure to high levels of stress, often associated with low-SES status, might influence how parents and infants interact within the early language environment. Differences in these early language behaviors, and in early neurodevelopment, might underlie SES-based differences in language that emerge later on. Analysis of natural language samples from a predominantly low-/mid-income sample of mother-infant dyads, obtained using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system, found that maternal reports of exposure to stressful life events, and perceived stress, were negatively correlated with child vocalizations and conversational turns when infants were 6 and 12 months of age. Greater numbers of vocalizations and conversational turns were also associated with lower relative theta power and higher relative gamma power in 6- and 12-month baseline EEG – a pattern that might support subsequent language development.

Early regular experience with dual-language management is thought to shape executive function (EF) circuitry during development. However, previous investigations of bilingual children's EF have largely focused on behavioral measures, or on cognitive aspects of EF. The first part of this study compared monolingual and bilingual preschoolers’ performance on more purely cognitive and more affective versions of a card-sort task, and the second part investigated Error-related negativity (ERN) event-related potential (ERP) waveforms to understand error-awareness mechanisms underlying task performance. Behavioral results showed bilingual advantages in reaction times but not accuracy, and interaction effects of language background, level of challenge, and affective/motivational salience on reaction times. Electrophysiological results revealed smaller ERN peak amplitudes in bilinguals compared to monolinguals in frontal and frontocentral midline regions. Results highlight that bilingualism may shape motivational mechanisms and neural learning mechanisms such as error-detection, such that bilinguals may be less focused on their errors.

Using electroencephalography (EEG) power measures within conventional delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands, the aims of the current study were to highlight cortical correlates of subjective perception of cold pain (CP) and the associations of these measures with behavioral inhibition system (BIS), fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS), and behavioral approach system personality traits. EEG was recorded in 55 healthy right-handed women under (i) a white noise interruption detection condition (Baseline); (ii) enduring CP induced by the cold cup test. CP and Baseline EEG band power scores within conventional frequency bands served for covariance analyses. We found that: (1) higher Pain scorers had higher EEG beta power changes at left frontal, midline central, posterior temporal leads; (2) higher BIS was associated with greater EEG delta activity changes at parietal scalp regions; (3) higher FFFS was associated with higher EEG delta activity changes at temporal and left-parietal regions, and with lower EEG gamma activity changes at right parietal regions. High FFFS, compared to Low FFFS scorers, also showed a lower gamma power across the midline, posterior temporal, and parietal regions. Results suggest a functional role of higher EEG beta activity in the subjective perception of tonic pain. EEG delta activity underpins conflict resolution system responsible for passive avoidance control of pain, while higher EEG delta and lower EEG gamma activity changes, taken together, underpin active avoidance system responsible for pain escape behavior.

A patient with intractable epilepsy, previous right frontal resection, and active vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) developed new onset quasi-continuous twitching around the left eye. Electroencephalography showed no correlate to the orbicularis oculi twitches apart from myographic potentials at the left supraorbital and anterior frontal electrodes. Magnetoencephalography was performed using spatiotemporal signal space separation to suppress magnetic artifacts associated with the VNS apparatus. Magnetoencephalographic source imaging performed on the data back-averaged from the left supraorbital myographic potentials revealed an intrasulcal cortical generator situated in the posterior wall of the right precentral gyrus representing the eye area of the motor homunculus.

Design protocol data analysis methods form a well-known set of techniques used by design researchers to further understand the conceptual design process. Verbal protocols are a popular technique used to analyze design activities. However, verbal protocols are known to have some limitations. A recurring problem in design protocol analysis is to segment and code protocol data into logical and semantic units. This is usually a manual step and little work has been done on fully automated segmentation techniques. Physiological signals such as electroencephalograms (EEG) can provide assistance in solving this problem. Such problems are typical inverse problems that occur in the line of research. A thought process needs to be reconstructed from its output, an EEG signal. We propose an EEG-based method for design protocol coding and segmentation. We provide experimental validation of our methods and compare manual segmentation by domain experts to algorithmic segmentation using EEG. The best performing automated segmentation method (when manual segmentation is the baseline) is found to have an average deviation from manual segmentations of 2 s. Furthermore, EEG-based segmentation can identify cognitive structures that simple observation of design protocols cannot. EEG-based segmentation does not replace complex domain expert segmentation but rather complements it. Techniques such as verbal protocols are known to fail in some circumstances. EEG-based segmentation has the added feature that it is fully automated and can be readily integrated in engineering systems and subsystems. It is effectively a window into the mind.

In the present study we evaluated the relationships between the P300 event-related potential and event-related desynchronization (ERD) of electroencephalographic alpha activity by simultaneously analyzing P300 as well as 7–10- and 10–14-Hz alpha ERD responses from auditory passive and active oddball conditions. We compared the effects of task (target vs. nontarget) and electrode (Fz, Cz, Pz) on P300 and ERD, and correlated P300 amplitude/latency with ERD maximal amplitude/latency across individuals. The major findings were that P300 as well as slow and fast alpha ERD manifested similar task and electrode effects. P300 preceded ERD and predicted individual variance of both slow and fast alpha ERD. The relationships of P300 with alpha ERD were different for the slow and fast alpha frequencies. These findings indicate that P300 and ERD are related such that slow and fast alpha ERDs are specifically guided or modified by the internal event(s) indexed by P300.