Software

EEG was registered in healthy volunteers before and after their entry into modeling (hypnotic) catalepsy. The brain activity recorded under standard electrode placement (the 10-20 international classification) was processed using a special computer program. The data obtained were digitally represented as sets of standard parameters of EEG patterns in 0,5-32 Hz diapason (alpha-, beta1-, beta2,-, theta-, delta-rythms). These parameters were compared under different functional tests particularly connected with the control of sensomotor brain activity.

The study investigated hypnosis-related electroencephalographic (EEG) coherence and power spectra changes in high and low hypnotizables (Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale) induced by a virtual reality hypnosis (VRH) induction system. In this study, the EEG from 17 participants (Mean age = 21.35, SD = 1.58) were compared based on their hypnotizability score. The EEG recording associated with a 2-minute, eyes-closed baseline state was compared to the EEG during a hypnosis-related state. This novel induction system was able to produce EEG findings consistent with previous hypnosis literature.

BACKGROUND: Concurrent with their enrollment in Web-based Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), participants can easily choose to use treatment programs that are not assigned in the study. The prevalence of using non-assigned treatments is largely unknown although it is likely to be related to the extent to which non-assigned treatments are: (a) easy to find and use, (b) low in cost, (c) well publicized, and (d) available from trusted sources. The impact of using other programs--both beneficial and detrimental--warrants additional research investigation.

The analysis of data from matched pairs binary experiments, often performed with McNemar's test, presents a unique experimental design challenge in dealing with the effect of the discordance probability, p. Most approaches for determining size and power use point estimates or maximization, but this fails to account for the considerable variability across values of the nuisance parameter that occur for all common tests.

Research has demonstrated the efficacy of closed-loop control of anesthesia using bispectral index (BIS) as the controlled variable, and the recent development of model-based, patient-adaptive systems has considerably improved anesthetic control. To further explore the use of model-based control in anesthesia, we investigated the application of fuzzy control in the delivery of patient-specific propofol-induced hypnosis. In simulated intraoperative patients, the fuzzy controller demonstrated clinically acceptable performance, suggesting that further study is warranted.

In a 2008 pilot study we used DNA microarrays to explore the historical ideo-plastic faculty of therapeutic hypnosis. We documented how to measure changes in activity or experience-dependent gene expression over relatively brief time periods (1 hour and 24 hours) following a single intervention of therapeutic hypnosis (about 1 hour). In the present paper we utilize bioinformatic software to explore the possible meaning and significance of this ideo-plastic faculty of therapeutic hypnosis.

BACKGROUND: This study describes the design of a hypnosis closed-loop control system with propofol. The controller used a proportional-integral (PI) algorithm with the bispectral index (BIS) as the feedback signal. Our hypothesis was that a PI closed-loop control could be applied in clinical practice safely keeping the BIS within a pre-determined target range. METHODS: The adjustment of the PI parameters was based on simulation.

To control the three components of general anesthesia (hypnosis, analgesia, and neuromuscular blockade), an automated closed-loop, anesthesia-drug delivery system (McSleepy) was developed. Bispectral index was used as the control variable for hypnosis, the analgoscore for analgesia, and phonomyography for neuromuscular blockade. McSleepy can be used to control the induction, maintenance and emergence from general anesthesia.

Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to malaria. The pharmacokinetic properties of antimalarial drugs are often affected by pregnancy, resulting in lower drug concentrations and a consequently higher risk of treatment failure. The objective of this study was to evaluate the population pharmacokinetic properties of piperaquine and dihydroartemisinin in pregnant and nonpregnant women with uncomplicated malaria.

Here we report that a specific form of yoga can generate controlled high-frequency gamma waves. For the first time, paroxysmal gamma waves (PGW) were observed in eight subjects practicing a yoga technique of breathing control called Bhramari Pranayama (BhPr). To obtain new insights into the nature of the EEG during BhPr, we analyzed EEG signals using time-frequency representations (TFR), independent component analysis (ICA), and EEG tomography (LORETA). We found that the PGW consists of high-frequency biphasic ripples.