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In order to understand the working brain as a network, it is essential to identify the mechanisms by which information is gated between regions. We here propose that information is gated by inhibiting task-irrelevant regions, thus routing information to task-relevant regions. The functional inhibition is reflected in oscillatory activity in the alpha band (8-13 Hz). From a physiological perspective the alpha activity provides pulsed inhibition reducing the processing capabilities of a given area. Active processing in the engaged areas is reflected by neuronal synchronization in the gamma band (30-100 Hz) accompanied by an alpha band decrease. According to this framework the brain could be studied as a network by investigating cross-frequency interactions between gamma and alpha activity. Specifically the framework predicts that optimal task performance will correlate with alpha activity in task-irrelevant areas. In this review we will discuss the empirical support for this framework. Given that alpha activity is by far the strongest signal recorded by EEG and MEG, we propose that a major part of the electrophysiological activity detected from the working brain reflects gating by inhibition.

•The bilingual advantage (i.e. bilinguals having superior cognitive control) is not without controversy.•Part of this controversy relates to bilingualism being treated as a binary category, and not a continuum.•Our large-scale electrophysiological investigation focused on the impact of different facets of.•bilingual experience on cognitive-control.•We found specific aspects of bilingual experience lead to neural adaptations which impact behavioural outcomes. Bilinguals have often, but not always, been found to outperform monolinguals on domain-general attentional control. Inconsistent findings have been argued to stem, at least partly, from treating bilingualism as a uniform category and from not considering how neural adaptations to bilingual experiences modulate behavioural outcomes. The present study investigated how patterns of language experience, including language switching behaviour, duration and intensity/diversity of bilingual language use, influence the brain processes underlying cognitive control, and how these in turn translate to cognitive control performance. We examined reaction times and spectral dynamics of the electroencephalograms (EEG) of two-hundred-and-thirty-nine participants (about 70% bilinguals) with diverse language experiences during two cognitive control paradigms testing interference suppression (flanker and Simon task). Using structural equation modelling, we found that different bilingual experience factors were related with neurocognitive measures, which in turn were related with behavioural interference effects, for the flanker but not the Simon task. More specifically, increased frequency of language switching and intensity/diversity of bilingual language usage was negatively related to induced top-down control measures (especially midline-frontal theta), which in turn was beneficial for interference control. In contrast, duration of bilingual engagement correlated negatively with evoked bottom-up control measures (especially P3) and was therefore detrimental to interference control. We demonstrate here for the first time how the different factors of bilingual experience lead to different neural adaptations which impact behavioural outcomes. Like other intensive experiences, bilingualism leads to brain adaptations. It results in structural changes in language areas, and, due to demands on language control, in brain areas associated with domain-general cognitive control. Related to this, bilinguals often outperform monolinguals on cognitive control tasks. But what is often ignored is that bilingualism is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, with variations such as diversity of language usage and duration of language use. The present large-scale study of neural functioning in bilingualism revealed for the first time how individual differences in bilingual experience lead to adaptations to brain functioning which in turn affect cognitive control behaviour. It exemplifies how the complexity of individual experiences plays a fundamental role in brain function.

Dead-time is the most important disturbance in a voltage-source inverter’s operation. It introduces low-order harmonics at the inverter’s output voltage. To compensate for the dead-time effects in three-phase grid-tied inverters, this paper proposes a Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) multivariable control approach. The LQG multivariable control is known as a robust control approach while provides a high band-width for the closed-loop system. Therefore, it promises significant attenuations in the dead-time introduced harmonics. To achieve a high performance, we run the three-phase grid-tied inverter in the current-controlled mode. Based on the nominal multivariable model derived for the three-phase grid-tied inverter in a synchronous reference frame, the LQG controller is composed such that the closed-loop system exhibits robust stability while attenuates disturbances significantly. The dead-time introduced harmonics produce disturbances in the synchronous reference frame with the highest frequencies. This is the reason for considering the dead-time as the most important disturbance in an inverter’s operation. For an experimental set-up manufactured for the three-phase grid-tied inverter, we developed a detailed model in MATLAB/Simulink. It is employed for the performance verifications of designed LQG controller. Extensive results are presented for different important scenarios, based on which, the excellent performance of proposed approach is proven. In fact, by employing the proposed approach, the dead-time introduced harmonics are significantly attenuated such that a Total Harmonics Distortions (THD) of about 5% is achieved for the injected currents to grid which meets the IEEE 1547 standard.

The conventional assumption in human cognitive electrophysiology using EEG and MEG is that the presentation of a particular event such as visual or auditory stimuli evokes a \"turning on\" of additional brain activity that adds to the ongoing background activity. Averaging multiple event-locked trials is thought to result in the cancellation of the seemingly random phased ongoing activity while leaving the evoked response. However, recent work strongly challenges this conventional view and demonstrates that the ongoing activity is not averaged out due to specific non-sinusoidal properties. As a consquence, systematic modulations in ongoing activity can produce slow cortical evoked responses reflecting cognitive processing. In this review we introduce the concept of \"rhythmic pulsing\" to account for this specific non-sinusoidal property. We will explain how rhythmic pulsing can create slow evoked responses from a physiological perspective. We will also discuss how the notion of rhythmic pulsing provides a unifying framework linking ongoing oscillations, evoked responses and the brain's capacity to process incoming information.

The study by Valentini et al. (2022) observed that the peak alpha frequency (PAF) of participants became slower after they were exposed to painful, as well as non-painful but unpleasant stimuli. The authors interpreted this as a challenge to our previous studies which propose that the speed of resting PAF, independently of pain-induced changes to PAF, can be a reliable biomarker marker for gaging individual pain sensitivity. While investigations into the role that PAF plays in pain perception are timely, we have some concerns about the assumptions and methodology employed by Valentini et al. Moreover, we believe the authors here have also misrepresented some of our previous work. In the current commentary, we detail the critical differences between our respective studies, with the ultimate aim of guiding future investigations.

There have been a number of studies suggesting that oscillatory alpha activity (~10Hz) plays a pivotal role in attention by gating information flow to relevant sensory regions. The vast majority of these studies have looked at shifts of attention in the spatial domain and only in a single modality (often visual or sensorimotor). In the current magnetoencephalography (MEG) study, we investigated the role of alpha activity in the suppression of a distracting modality stream. We used a cross-modal attention task where visual cues indicated whether participants had to judge a visual orientation or discriminate the auditory pitch of an upcoming target. The visual and auditory targets were presented either simultaneously or alone, allowing us to behaviorally gauge the “cost” of having a distractor present in each modality. We found that the preparation for visual discrimination (relative to pitch discrimination) resulted in a decrease of alpha power (9–11Hz) in the early visual cortex, with a concomitant increase in alpha/beta power (14–16Hz) in the supramarginal gyrus, a region suggested to play a vital role in short-term storage of pitch information (Gaab et al., 2003). On a trial-by-trial basis, alpha power over the visual areas was significantly correlated with increased visual discrimination times, whereas alpha power over the precuneus and right superior temporal gyrus was correlated with increased auditory discrimination times. However, these correlations were only significant when the targets were paired with distractors. Our work adds to increasing evidence that the top–down (i.e. attentional) modulation of alpha activity is a mechanism by which stimulus processing can be gated within the cortex. Here, we find that this phenomenon is not restricted to the domain of spatial attention and can be generalized to other sensory modalities than vision. •We investigated the role of alpha modulation outside the spatial attention domain.•Cues instructed participants to perform either visual or auditory discrimination.•Visual discrimination cues modulated alpha power in visual cortex.•Auditory discrimination cues modulated alpha power over the supramarginal gyrus.•We find that the role of alpha in attention is not restricted to the spatial domain.

Background While advancements in cancer treatments have improved survival rates, they also lead to adverse effects such as insomnia, which significantly impacts survivors' sleep quality. Objective This study explores the influence of cancer‐related fatigue (CRF), Fear of Cancer Recurrence (FCR), and psychological distress, with rumination serving as a mediating factor, on the insomnia experienced by cancer survivors. Methods The study involved 220 cancer survivors attending Shohada‐e‐Tajrish Hospital's oncology center in Tehran, Iran. Participants were selected through convenience sampling and completed several questionnaires: the Insomnia Severity Index, Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory, Cancer Fatigue Scale, Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, and Rumination Response Scale. Results The results showed that the tested model had a good fit, and the correlation matrix demonstrated significant positive correlations between CRF (0.46), FCR (0.15), psychological distress (0.55), and rumination (0.42) with insomnia in cancer survivors (p < 0.05). Notably, CRF (B = 0.356, p < 0.001) and psychological distress (B = 0.339, p < 0.001) affect insomnia both directly and indirectly through mediation by rumination, while the impact of FCR on insomnia was indirectly significant (B = 0.73, p < 0.05). Conclusion The findings suggest that interventions focused on managing rumination could be potential targets to alleviate insomnia and improve the sleep quality of cancer survivors.

There is currently a debate as to whether event-related potentials and fields measured by using electroencephalography or magnetoencephalography are generated by ongoing oscillatory activity becoming phase-reset in response to a given stimulus. We performed a magnetoencephalography study measuring brain activity in response to visual stimuli. Using a measure termed the phasepreservation index we investigated the phase of oscillatory α activity (8-13 Hz) before and after the stimulus. We found that in single trials the α oscillations after visual stimuli preserve their phase relationship with respect to the phase before the stimuli. This finding argues against phase-resetting of ongoing oscillations as being responsible for visually evoked responses. The eventrelated field can be explained primarily by stimulus-locked activity in the θ band that is absent before the stimulus. These findings suggest that different neuronal events are responsible for generating the ongoing oscillations and the visually evoked responses.

The prevalence of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a major concern in public health. Two main factors (individual and environmental) cause NSSI. Studies addressing NSSI often consider it as an emotion regulation strategy. Studying NSSI within the framework of attachment theory is reasonable since the capacities to regulate emotion come into existence in the framework of attachment in the first periods of a child's growth. Primary studies addressing this topic are not frequent, and no systematic review has been conducted. This systematic review and meta-analysis protocol aims to investigate the relationship between NSSI and attachment style and finding its relationship based on study design, study type, different types of attachments, and gender. All studies on the relationship between NSSI and attachment will be included in this systematic review. We will include observational studies (cross-sectional, cohort, and case control) through searches in electronic databases via PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, Web of Science, ProQuest, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar as complementary search. Qualitative studies, case studies, case series, and letters to the editor will be excluded. There will be no language limitation. Moreover, there will be no limitations regarding the study participants' age, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, and psychological problems. Funnel plots were examined if 10 or more studies are included, and the Begg and Egger statistical tests were used to assess the risk of bias. All similar data will be combined through the \"metan\" command by Stata statistical package (StataCorp). A fixed-effects or random-effects model, considering methodological similarities or differences, will be selected to determine a combination model. We will summarize the selection of the eligible studies using a flowchart. The results will be presented in a table of evidence. The results of the meta-analysis will be depicted using diagrams and tables. It seems necessary to carry out such systematic and comprehensive meta-analysis to present a summary of the published articles in terms of the relationship between NSSI and attachment. The results from this review will be used to improve our knowledge of the role of the upbringing of children and NSSI behavior and will help design appropriate interventions to address NSSI. PROSPERO CRD42021226455; https://tinyurl.com/yc77wny8. PRR1-10.2196/40808.

Event-related responses and oscillatory activity are typically regarded as manifestations of different neural processes. Recent work has nevertheless revealed a mechanism by which slow event-related responses are created as a direct consequence of modulations in brain oscillations with nonsinusoidal properties. It remains unknown if this mechanism applies to cognitively relevant event-related responses. Here, we investigated whether sustained event-related fields (ERFs) measured during working memory maintenance can be explained by modulations in oscillatory power. In particular, we focused on contralateral delayed activity (CDA) typically observed in working memory tasks in which hemifield specific attention is manipulated. Using magnetoencephalography, we observed sustained posterior ERFs following the presentation of the memory target. These ERFs were systematically lateralized with respect to the hemisphere in which the target was presented. A strikingly similar pattern emerged for modulations in alpha (9-13 Hz) power. The alpha power and ERF lateralization were strongly correlated over subjects. Based on a mechanistic argument pertaining to the nonsinusoidal properties of the alpha activity, we conclude that the ERFs modulated by working memory are likely to be directly produced by the modulations in oscillatory alpha activity. Given that posterior alpha activity typically reflects disengagement, we conclude that the CDA is not attributable to an additive process reflecting memory maintenance per se but, rather, is a consequence of how attentional resources are allocated.