Sharif Digital Repository

The human brain continuously tries to predict sensory input in order to prepare for responding to new events. The brain develops a model for the incoming sensory information and updates it as new inputs arrive. It is hypothesized that the brain deduces a distribution for the input which is made more accurate with new observations. A notable question is how the brain perceives and reacts to new information. The oddball paradigm task is a simple experiment that can reveal the brain's ability in predicting the incoming input. We analyzed the EEG response of the brain recorded during oddball visual and auditory tasks in order to characterize its response to surprising instances embedded in a... 

Surprise and social influence are linked through several neuropsychological mechanisms. By garnering attention, causing arousal, and motivating engagement, surprise provides a context for effective or durable social influence. Attention to a surprising event motivates the formation of an explanation or updating of models, while high arousal experiences due to surprise promote memory formation. They both encourage engagement with the surprising event through efforts aimed at understanding the situation. By affecting the behavior of the individual or a social group via setting an attractive engagement context, surprise plays an important role in shaping personal and social change. Surprise is... 

Slow-gamma (35-45 Hz) phase synchronization and the coupling between slow-gamma and low-frequency theta oscillations (4–8 Hz) are closely related to memory retrieval and cognitive functions. In this pilot study, we assess the Phase Amplitude Coupling (PAC) between theta and slow-gamma oscillatory bands and the quality of synchronization in slow-gamma oscillations using Phase Locking Value (PLV) on EEG data from healthy individuals and patients diagnosed with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) during an oddball olfactory task. Our study indicates noticeable differences between the PLV and PAC values corresponding to olfactory stimulation in the three groups...