Browsing by Author "Chou, Wen-Chi"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Brain oscillation and connectivity during a chemistry visual working memory task
(2013-11-01)
Huang, Li-Yu
;
She, Hsiao-Ching
;
Chou, Wen-Chi
;
Chuang, Ming-Hua
;
Duann, Jeng-Ren
Many studies have reported that frontal theta and posterior alpha activities are associated with working memory tasks. However, fewer studies have focused on examining whether or not the frontal alpha or posterior theta can play a role in the working memory task. This study investigates electroencephalography (EEG) dynamics and connectivity among different brain regions' theta and alpha oscillations. The EEG was collected from undergraduate students (n = 64) while they were performing a Sternberg-like working memory task involving chemistry concepts. The results showed that the frontal midline cluster exhibited sustained theta augmentation across the periods of stimulus presentations, maintenance, and probe presentation, suggesting that the frontal midline theta might associate with facilitating the central execute function to maintain information in the working memory. Study of the central parietal and the occipital clusters revealed a sequence of theta augmentation followed by alpha suppression at constant intervals after the onset of stimulus and probe presentations, suggesting that the posterior theta might be associated with sensory processing, theta gating, or stimulus selection. It further suggests that the posterior alpha event-related de-synchronization (ERD) might be linked to direct information flow into and out of the long-term memory (LTM) and precede stimulus recognition. An alternating phasic alpha event-related synchronization (ERS) and ERD following the 1st stimulus and probe presentations were observed at the occipital cluster, in which alpha ERS might be linked to the inhibition of irrelevant information. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
EEG Dynamics Reflect the Distinct Cognitive Process of Optic Problem Solving
(1970-01-01)
She, Hsiao-Ching
;
Jung, Tzyy-Ping
;
Chou, Wen-Chi
;
Huang, Li-Yu
;
Wang, Chia-Yu
"This study explores the changes in electroencephalographic (EEG) activity associated with the performance of solving an optics maze problem. College students (N = 37) were instructed to construct three solutions to the optical maze in a Web-based learning environment, which required some knowledge of physics. The subjects put forth their best effort to minimize the number of convexes and mirrors needed to guide the image of an object from the entrance to the exit of the maze. This study examines EEG changes in different frequency bands accompanying varying demands on the cognitive process of providing solutions. Results showed that the mean power of theta, alpha 1, alpha 2, and beta 1 significantly increased as the number of convexes and mirrors used by the students decreased from solution 1 to 3. Moreover, the mean power of theta and alpha 1 significantly increased when the participants constructed their personal optimal solution (the least total number of mirrors and lens used by students) compared to their non-personal optimal solution. In conclusion, the spectral power of frontal, frontal midline and posterior theta, posterior alpha, and temporal beta increased predominantly as the task demands and task performance increased."
Encoding of Physics Concepts: Concreteness and Presentation Modality Reflected by Human Brain Dynamics
(2012-07-27)
Lai, Kevin
;
She, Hsiao-Ching
;
Chen, Sheng-Chang
;
Chou, Wen-Chi
;
Huang, Li-Yu
Previous research into working memory has focused on activations in different brain areas accompanying either different presentation modalities (verbal vs. non-verbal) or concreteness (abstract vs. concrete) of non-science concepts. Less research has been conducted investigating how scientific concepts are learned and further processed in working memory. To bridge this gap, the present study investigated human brain dynamics associated with encoding of physics concepts, taking both presentation modality and concreteness into account. Results of this study revealed greater theta and low-beta synchronization in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during encoding of concrete pictures as compared to the encoding of both high and low imageable words. In visual brain areas, greater theta activity accompanying stimulus onsets was observed for words as compared to pictures while stronger alpha suppression was observed in responses to pictures as compared to words. In general, the EEG oscillation patterns for encoding words of different levels of abstractness were comparable but differed significantly from encoding of pictures. These results provide insights into the effects of modality of presentation on human encoding of scientific concepts and thus might help in developing new ways to better teach scientific concepts in class.
Explore the eye movement regarding the cognitive process of online optic reasoning learning
(2015)
Chou, Wen-Chi
;
She, Hsiao-Ching
;
教育研究所
;
Institute of Education
this study to explore the eye movement patterns with underlying cognitive process of optic reasoning between science and non-science major students that have different prior knowledge of optical concepts. There are 33 science major and 33 non-science major undergraduate students were involved in this study. The results showed the science major students and non-science major students have improved learning performance, and science major students significantly outperformed than non-science major students in pre-test and post-test. In addition, the eye movement patterns indicated the mean fixation duration and mean regression duration within areas of interest (AOIs) of pictorial and text region were longer in science major students than that in non-science major students. To get the learning performance and eye movement patterns, we suggested that science major students involved deeper cognitive processing and greater attention during the optic reasoning learning content and might be reflected on eye movement patterns.
Explore the Functional Connectivity between Brain Regions during a Chemistry Working Memory Task
(2015-06-03)
Chou, Wen-Chi
;
Duann, Jeng-Ren
;
She, Hsiao-Ching
;
Huang, Li-Yu
;
Jung, Tzyy-Ping
Previous studies have rarely examined how temporal dynamic patterns, event-related coherence, and phase-locking are related to each other. This study assessed reaction-time-sorted spectral perturbation and event-related spectral perturbation in order to examine the temporal dynamic patterns in the frontal midline (F), central parietal (CP), and occipital (O) regions during a chemistry working memory task at theta, alpha, and beta frequencies. Furthermore, the functional connectivity between F-CP, CP-O, and F-O were assessed by component event-related coherence (ERCoh) and component phase-locking (PL) at different frequency bands. In addition, this study examined whether the temporal dynamic patterns are consistent with the functional connectivity patterns across different frequencies and time courses. Component ERCoh/PL measured the interactions between different independent components decomposed from the scalp EEG, mixtures of time courses of activities arising from different brain, and artifactual sources. The results indicate that the O and CP regions' temporal dynamic patterns are similar to each other. Furthermore, pronounced component ERCoh/PL patterns were found to exist between the O and CP regions across each stimulus and probe presentation, in both theta and alpha frequencies. The consistent theta component ERCoh/PL between the F and O regions was found at the first stimulus and after probe presentation. These findings demonstrate that temporal dynamic patterns at different regions are in accordance with the functional connectivity patterns. Such coordinated and robust EEG temporal dynamics and component ERCoh/PL patterns suggest that these brain regions' neurons work together both to induce similar event-related spectral perturbation and to synchronize or desynchronize simultaneously in order to swiftly accomplish a particular goal. The possible mechanisms for such distinct component phase-locking and coherence patterns were also further discussed.
Eye fixation-related fronto-parietal neural network correlates of memory retrieval
(2019-04-01)
Tsai, Pei-Yi
;
She, Hsiao-Ching
;
Chen, Sheng-Chang
;
Huang, Li-Yu
;
Chou, Wen-Chi
Eye movements are considered to be informative with regard to the underlying cognitive processes of human beings. Previous studies have reported that eye movements are associated with which scientific concepts are retrieved correctly. Moreover, other studies have also suggested that eye movements involve the cooperative activity of the human brain's fronto-parietal circuits. Less research has been conducted to investigate whether fronto-parietal EEG oscillations are associated with the retrieval processing of scientific concepts. Our findings in this study demonstrated that the fronto-parietal network is indeed crucial for successful memory retrieval. In short, significantly lower theta augmentation in the frontal midline and lower alpha suppression in the right parietal region were observed at the 5th eye fixation for physics concepts that were correctly retrieved than for those that were incorrectly retrieved. Moreover, the visual cortex in the occipital lobe exhibits a significantly greater theta augmentation followed by an alpha suppression following each eye fixation, while a right frontoparietal asymmetry was also found for the successful retrieval of presentations of physics concepts. In particular, the study results showed that eye fixation-related frontal midline theta power and right parietal alpha power at the 5th eye fixation have the greatest predictive power regarding the correctness of the retrieval of physics concepts.
The Prognostic Value of Circulating Tumor Cells in Asian Neuroendocrine Tumors
(2019-12-27)
Hsieh, Jason Chia-Hsun
;
Chen, Guan-Yu
;
Jhou, David Da-Wei
;
Chou, Wen-Chi
;
Yeh, Chun-Nan
Circulating tumor cells (CTC) play important roles in various cancers; however, few studies have assessed their clinical utility in neuroendocrine tumors. This study aimed to prospectively evaluate the prognostic value of CTC counts in Asian patients with neuroendocrine tumors before and during anti-cancer therapy. Patients who were diagnosed with unresectable histological neuroendocrine tumors between September 2011 and September 2017 were enrolled. CTC testing was performed before and during anti-cancer therapy using a negative selection protocol. Chromogranin A levels were also assessed. Univariate and multivariate Cox's proportional hazard model with forward LR model was performed to investigate the impact of independent factors on overall survival and progression-free survival. Kaplan-Meier method with log-rank tests were used to determine the difference among different clinicopathological signatures and CTC cutoff. The baseline CTC detection rate was 94.3% (33/35). CTC counts were associated with cancer stages (I-III vs. IV, P = 0.015), liver metastasis (P = 0.026), and neuroendocrine tumor grading (P = 0.03). The median progression-free survival and overall survivals were 12.3 and 30.4 months, respectively. In multivariate Cox regression model, neuroendocrine tumors grading and baseline CTC counts were both independent prognostic factors for progression-free survival (PFS, P = 0.005 and 0.015, respectively) and overall survival (OS, P = 0.018 and 0.023, respectively). In Kaplan-Meier analysis, lower baseline chromogranin A levels were associated with longer PFS (P = 0.024). Baseline CTC counts are associated with the clinicopathologic features of neuroendocrine tumors and are an independent prognostic factor for this malignancy.
Trajectories of caregiver depressive symptoms while providing end-of-life care
(2013-12-01)
Tang, Siew Tzuh
;
Huang, Guan-Hua
;
Wei, Yu-Chung
;
Chang, Wen-Cheng
;
Chen, Jen-Shi
ObjectiveThe course of caregivers' depressive symptoms may not be homogenous. This study identified trajectories of depressive symptoms among caregivers providing end-of-life care to cancer patients and profiled the unique characteristics of caregivers within each trajectory. MethodsTrajectories of depressive symptoms were explored in 447 caregivers who completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale over four periods close to the patient's death (1-30, 31-90, 91-180, and >180days). Distinct trajectories were identified by latent class analysis. ResultsFour trajectories were identified as endurance, resilience, moderately symptomatic, and chronically distressed and contained 32.0%, 11.4%, 36.9%, and 19.7% of the sample, respectively. Caregivers in the endurance trajectory were relatively well-adjusted individuals with less education, adequate financial support, and ample psychological resources but provided care to older patients with greater symptom distress. They perceived less subjective caregiving burden than caregivers with moderate or chronic depressive symptoms. Caregivers in the resilience trajectory were in a more vulnerable position than those in other trajectories when they first transitioned into the caregiving role because they were more likely to be the patient's spouse, have greater educational attainment and insufficient finances, provide higher intensity assistance to a younger relative, and have weaker psychological resources. However, they were older, reported greater confidence in caregiving, and perceived less caregiving burden than caregivers in other trajectories. The moderately symptomatic and chronically distressed trajectories were differentiated only by the strength of psychological resources. ConclusionsCaregivers of terminally ill cancer patients follow distinct depressive-symptom trajectories while providing end-of-life care. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Web-based undergraduate chemistry problem-solving: The interplay of task performance, domain knowledge and web-searching strategies
(2012-09-01)
She, Hsiao-Ching
;
Cheng, Meng-Tzu
;
Li, Ta-Wei
;
Wang, Chia-Yu
;
Chiu, Hsin-Tien
This study investigates the effect of Web-based Chemistry Problem-Solving, with the attributes of Web-searching and problem-solving scaffolds, on undergraduate students' problem-solving task performance. In addition, the nature and extent of Web-searching strategies students used and its correlation with task performance and domain knowledge also were examined. We recruited a total of 183 undergraduate students, all of whom are taking the freshman chemistry course, to participate in the study to solve three chemistry tasks across a semester. Mandated screen-capture software captured participants' on-screen Web-searching processes were recorded every five seconds. Results demonstrated that students' problem-solving performance was significantly improved from task 1 to 3, and students with more domain knowledge outperformed students with less domain knowledge. Students with higher problem-solving performance employed more existing knowledge and metacognitive Web-searching strategies; and students with lower problem-solving performance employed more cognitive Web-searching strategies. In addition, students' problem-solving performance was correlated with their domain knowledge, use of existing knowledge, and metacognitive Web-searching strategies. Moreover, students' use of existing knowledge was the major factor for predicting their problem-solving performance according to the regression model. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.