Psychophysiological mechanisms of cognition disorders and optimization of their correction: I. Psychophysiological effects of transcranial micropolarization used as a corrective therapy for different disturbances in the control of wakefulness,emotions, and cognition in schoolchildren aged 10–12 years with learning difficulties

We have summarized the results of psychophysiological studies in schoolchildren aged 10–12 years with cerebral functional disturbances of hypoxic-ischemic or traumatic origin with learning difficulties. We have differentiated three types of disintegration of ultraslow information-controlling systems that reflect specific disturbances in the interaction of cortical-brainstem, limbic-reticular, and suprasegmental mechanisms of regulation of the wakefulness level and are characterized by emotional and cognitive disturbances typical of each type of disintegration. Adolescents with moderately and strongly decreased resistance to transitory hypoxia differed in psychological and psychophysiological effects of corrective and recovery therapy, which included transcranial micropolarization (TCMP) and psychological-pedagogical sessions during and between TCMP sessions and during the intervals between repeated TCMP courses. We discuss the psychophysiological mechanisms of the corrective effect of low-intensity direct currents with parameters close to the native ultraslow processes of the brain and the body systems regulated by these parameters.     

Characteristics of the mobilization of psychophysiologic functions in various degrees of effectiveness in occupational activity

Central nervous, neuromuscular, cardiovascular systems and high psychic functions: thinking, attention and memory in assemblers of electric equipment have been studied in complex. These studies have revealed that high labour productivity is achieved due to the high functional stress of physiological systems of the organism. In this case functions both specific and nonspecific for the local physical work are activated. High-efficient activity is followed by mobilization of the psychophysiological functions, interfunctional relations being intensified.     

Effects of various regimes of rhythmic photostimulation on fatigue and related parameters of the psychophysiological status in humans]

In randomised blind study with active placebo control in humans, rhythmic photostimulation of 77 Hz frequency did not elicit any fatigue or negative psychophysiological events as opposed to 50, 60, 100 Hz frequency. This and other findings are to be considered in designing rational systems of cinema projection and PC monitors.     

Visual perception as an integrated characteristic of the psychophysiological development of six- to eight-year-old children

The psychophysiological structure of subtests included in the Methodology of Estimation of the Degree of Visual Perception Development has been determined, and the usability of this methodology for the integrated assessment of the degree of the psychophysiological development of six- to eight-year-old children has been justified. The role of the degree of visual perception development in the psychophysiological state of children has been demonstrated, with special emphasis on the effect of visual perception on the fulfillment of other psychophysiological functions and the formation of learning difficulties.     

The effect of space—frequency characteristics of the organ of vision on the human psychophysiological state and working capacity

During the long-term stay in closed environment of the orbital space station, it is extremely important that the light conditions and color scheme were favorable for the working capacity of a cosmonaut. The systems of lighting should ensure visual comfort for the crew members under stressful conditions and, in addition, they should appropriate to their health and recovery of functional reserves during the long-duration flight. To solve this task, the distribution of luminosity and chromaticity within a closed space should be taken into account. For better understanding the perception of visual information, we studied the color space-frequency characteristics of the organ of vision (SFC VO). A set of sensors was used to estimate psychophysiological parameters. After preadaptation of an operator, VO contrast sensitivity was measured by determining the thresholds of advent and disappearance of the test objects; this was accompanied by fixation of the time and adaptive brightness. Analysis of the experimental data made it clear that the color contrast sensitivity and directly related SFC of the organ of vision are valuable markers for interrelationships between processing of visual information and psychophysiological state of a human. Note that the color SFC VO not only illustrates deviations but also enables their quantification. Changes in psychophysiological state are accompanied by the appropriate changes in SFC VO, which should be taken into account in developing the neural information technologies used for health recovery and light-and-color control of environment.     

Electrodermal and cardiovascular manifestations of emotions in children

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current state of developmental researches in the area of psychophysiology of emotions in preschool and elementary school children. Electrodermal and cardiovascular activity measures are considered as the sources of indices of the autonomic nervous system activation during emotion-eliciting stimulation in children. We discuss the question of sensitivity of phasic and tonic autonomic measures for the identification of occurrence of emotion, mapping it along with valence and arousal dimensions in affective space, and to further differentiate emotions by their physiological manifestations. Considered are the conceptual and methodological issues related to psychophysiological measurements and developmental factors affecting the emotional reactivity in children. Special attention is devoted to the developmental aspects of psychophysiological studies on emotion such as the maturation of organs, integration of the autonomic and central nervous systems, age and gender-related changes in autonomic reactivity, and development of inhibitory control. Summarized are main findings relevant to psychophysiology of emotions in preschool and early school-age children and suggested are most perspective directions of their integration in the framework of modern theories of emotion.     

Limbic irritability and chaotic neural response during conflicting stroop task in the patients with unipolar depression

According to recent findings activation of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is related to detecting cognitive conflict. This conflict related activation elicits autonomic responses which can be assessed by psychophysiological measures such as heart rate variability calculated as beat to beat R-R intervals (RRI). Recent findings in neuroscience also suggest that cognitive conflict is related to specific nonlinear chaotic changes of the signal generated by neural systems. The present study used Stroop word-color test as an experimental approach to psychophysiological study of cognitive conflict in connection with RRI measurement, psychometric measurement of limbic irritability (LSCL-33), depression (BDI-II) and calculation of largest Lyapunov exponents in nonlinear data analysis of RRI time series. Significant correlation 0.61 between largest Lyapunov exponents and LSCL-33 found in this study indicate that a defect of neural inhibition during conflicting Stroop task is closely related to limbic irritability. Because limbic irritability is probably closely related to epileptiform abnormalities in the temporolimbic structures, this result might represent useful instrument for indication of anticonvulsant treatment in depressive patients who are resistant to antidepressant medication.     

The psychophysiological cost of intense information load in 5-to 14-year-old children and adolescents

The psychophysiological cost of activity was determined in 5- to 14-year-old children and adolescents (n = 612) by correlating the performance of intense information load with the value of autonomic shifts in the course of the test. It was shown that the psychophysiological cost of information load in the state of functional comfort (self-determined speed) decreased 2.2- to 5.4-fold in the period from 5–6 to 13–14 years of age and the psychophysiological cost of intense intellectual activity with the maximum speed under the conditions of a time deficit (the maximum speed) decreased 1.2- to 4-fold. The greatest changes in the psychophysiological cost of intense intellectual activity were observed at the beginning of regular schooling and during puberty. The data indicate the need for a continuous search for new, efficient, and more physiologically adequate ways of control of the process of training and education taking into consideration the psychophysiological cost of intense academic activity in different periods of ontogeny and ensuring a beneficial effect of educational technologies on the health and development of schoolchildren.     

Characteristics of the psychophysiological development of adolescents and adaptation to education at the gymnasium

Experimental data on the characteristics of psychophysiological development and adaptation of adolescents are presented. The effect of specialized curricula on the characteristics of psychophysiological development and adaptation of high school students to education in a gymnasium is discussed.     

Psychophysiological characteristics of young workers at an aircraft plant

The results of an evaluation of the psychophysiological characteristics of young workers exposed to factors of aircraft production indicate functional stress, inefficiency of work, detraining of the cardiovascular system, limited psychophysiological potential, and dissatisfaction with work in the majority of examined young workers.     

Investigating the effect of increasing robot group sizes on the human psychophysiological state in the context of human–swarm interaction

We study the psychophysiological state of humans when exposed to robot groups of varying sizes. In our experiments, 24 participants are exposed sequentially to groups of robots made up of 1, 3 and 24 robots. We measure both objective physiological metrics (skin conductance level and heart rate), and subjective self-reported metrics (from a psychological questionnaire). These measures allow us to analyse the psychophysiological state (stress, anxiety, happiness) of our participants. Our results show that the number of robots to which a human is exposed has a significant impact on the psychophysiological state of the human and that higher numbers of robots provoke a stronger response.     

A systems view of the orienting reflex

According to Pavlov's observations, the orienting reflex is a specific response to a specific stimulus, bound together in a cause and effect relationship, and having the capacity to specifically inhibit or suppress weaker, conditional reflexes. Contemporary psychophysiological research has added to the definition the well-replicated fact that the total reaction to a novel stimulus is a highly generalized increase in variability that temporarily appears in many basic and vital physiological functions--"organismic uncertainty." A systems view of the orienting reflex may be used to complement Pavlov's understanding.     

Characterization of the Phenotype of 14- to 15-Year-Old Altaian Adolescents

The specific morphofunctional and psychophysiological features of Altaian and Russian adolescents living under the conditions of Gornyi Altai were studied. The comparative assessment of the morphological and psychophysiological parameters of the bodies of the adolescents allowed their individual typological variability depending on their nationality to be revealed.     

Stress and drug dependence (animal studies)

This review describes a role of stress in formation of the primary drug-taking behaviour and the effects of stress on a drug-seeking behaviour after withdrawal of drugs. The psychophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms of the rewarding and aversive states during a drug taking and after its withdrawal are considered. A role of separate neurotransmitters and their interactions in formation of drug dependence and the effects of stress on neuroadaptive changes in these neurotransmitter systems are described. A review of the structures involved in mediation of the stress effects and a drug-seeking behaviour is also discussed.     

Comprehensive Longitudinal Study of the Physical and Psychophysiological Development of Schoolchildren at the Preadolescent, Early Adolescent, and Late Adolescent Ontogenetic Stages

Results are presented of a 10-year comprehensive study of the changes in somatic, psychophysiological, and autonomic parameters of 132 students of an innovative school (a linguistics-oriented gymnasium) by using computer-aided psychophysiological and functional diagnostics. Certain changes were found in the development of the structural and functional psychosomatic complexes of students at different stages of their ontogenesis.     

The concept of typological variability of physiological individuality: III. Psychophysiological characteristics of functional types differing in habitual physical activity

Results of longitudinal studies were used to estimate the psychophysiological characteristics of preschool and young school children and young adults of both sexes belonging to functional types (FTs) with low, medium, and high habitual physical activity (HPA) levels (FT-1, LHPA; FT-2, MHPA, and FT-3, HHPA, respectively). Statistical analysis of the distributions of averaged psychophysiological parameters in the total sample with the use of the χ² and λ tests showed wide quantitative and qualitative ranges of psychophysiological individuality in a healthy population and demonstrated that it is reasonable to distinguish three typological groups (FT-1, FT-2, and FT-3). Typical first- and second-order parameters, as well as the results of third-order tests characterizing the current state, were determined for each FT. Determination of the psychophysiological characteristics of FT-1, FT-2, and FT-3 and their prevailing behavioral tendencies makes it possible to differentiate between strategies of organism-environment interaction and estimate their advantages and disadvantages.     

Changes in the color sensitivity of operators during modelling of different forms of emotional stress

The dynamics is considered of absolute changes of differential color sensibility of operators at modelling of different psychophysiological states with the original method of the work at teletraining in combination with the complex of distracting factors. A possibility is suggested of diagnostics of operator's different psychophysiological states by absolute changes of differential color sensibility.     

Classifying human operator functional state based on electrophysiological and performance measures and fuzzy clustering method

The human operator’s ability to perform their tasks can fluctuate over time. Because the cognitive demands of the task can also vary it is possible that the capabilities of the operator are not sufficient to satisfy the job demands. This can lead to serious errors when the operator is overwhelmed by the task demands. Psychophysiological measures, such as heart rate and brain activity, can be used to monitor operator cognitive workload. In this paper, the most influential psychophysiological measures are extracted to characterize Operator Functional State (OFS) in automated tasks under a complex form of human–automation interaction. The fuzzy c-mean (FCM) algorithm is used and tested for its OFS classification performance. The results obtained have shown the feasibility and effectiveness of the FCM algorithm as well as the utility of the selected input features for OFS classification. Besides being able to cope with nonlinearity and fuzzy uncertainty in the psychophysiological data it can provide information about the relative importance of the input features as well as the confidence estimate of the classification results. The OFS pattern classification method developed can be incorporated into an adaptive aiding system in order to enhance the overall performance of a large class of safety–critical human–machine cooperative systems.     

Psychophysiological Parameters of the Functional State in Adolescents at Different Stages of Puberty under Intense Informational Loading

A study of the psychophysiological reactivity of boys aged 13–14 years during mental performance at optimal and maximum rates showed that informational loading caused marked functional strain. The physiological cost of working at a comfortable rate was lower than at the maximum rate. Excessive psychophysiological reactivity was observed at the initial stages of puberty during intense mental loading. Such reactivity was responsible for a high physiological cost of adaptation and low functional capabilities of adolescents at puberty stages (PSs) II and III. Moreover, personality traits that contribute to mental strain were expressed to a greater extent in these adolescents. Comparisons indicated a tendency towards higher emotional stability and lower anxiety and frustration for the transition from PS II to PS IV. Excessive psychophysiological reactivity during intense mental work and a high psychophysiological cost of activity in adolescents at PSs II and III may decrease working efficiency, worsen the efficiency of learning, and cause adverse deviations in the state of health. This circumstance should be taken into account during elaboration of effective prophylactic measures aimed at optimizing the functional state of schoolchildren in puberty.