THE CONCEPT OF PRESENCE AND ERRONEOUS PERFORMANCE CAUSED BY SLEEP/WAKE TRANSITIONS

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THE CONCEPT OF PRESENCE AND ERRONEOUS
PERFORMANCECAUSED BY SLEEP/WAKE TRANSITIONS

• Dorokhov V. B.
• Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and
  Neurophysiology RAS, Moscow, Russia
• e-mail vbdorokhov_at_ mail.ru

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Drowsiness

• Drowsiness is the cause of an accident on
  transport and industry.
• Drowsy subject is not to be aware the danger of
  his own state.
• Drowsiness is a change of a state of
  consciousness at which the attention is switched
  from external environment to internal information
  processes that rather frequently is accompanied
  by occurrence of hypnagogic images.

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PresenceURL http//www.presence-connect.com

• Presence is defined as the subjective experience
  of being in one place or environment, even when
  one is physically situated in another

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Evolution and presence

• Sense of presence allows the nervous system to
  solve a key problem for its survival how to
  differentiate between internal and external
  states. ( Waterworth 2003).
• Two kinds of information, the concrete and the
  abstract.
• Concrete information -via the perceptual-motor
  systems from the world around us.
• Abstract information must be realised mentally.

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Internal mental world

• Sense of presence could appear in three cases in
  a real world in a virtual world and in an
  internal mental world (Int).
• We do not always feel present in physical
  environments. The daydreamer feels present
  here in the mental imagery of the simulation
  occurring in their head. This I have called the
  reality problem, the need to explain how one
  might not feel present even when exposed to high
  fidelity sensory stimuli. (F. Biocca. 2002 )

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Consciousness and presence/absence

• Presence is as attending to an external world -
  real or virtual
• Absence is as attending to a world that is
  created internally .
• ( Waterworth 2003).
• If we are lost in thought" we are not present
  (in the real or a virtual world), but we are
  conscious
• To feel presence or absence both require
  consciousness.

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Measuring presence - Break In Presence (BIP)

• Presence is a product of an unconscious
  continuous reality-check to fit what we perceive
  with our senses (see, hear, touch, smell, taste).
  The issues of presence is only interesting when
  there are competing signals from at least two
  environments.
• Slater Steed (2000) propose a mechanism for
  measuring presence, the Break In Presence (BIP).
  Model, based on the idea that at any instant "t"
  of time one either is present 100 or not, in one
  environment, being this virtual or real.
• This view is different to those of others that
  actually proposes presence as a continuously
  changing feeling with a shift of attentive
  resources (Ijsselsteijn de Ridder, 1998). The
  difference in view does not lie in the idea of
  continuous against discrete ".. a break in
  presence may be conceived of as an attentional
  shift away from the mediated environment and
  towards the physical environment, but with the
  possibility to still feel a sense of presence in
  the mediated environment, albeit to a lesser
  extent." (Ijsselsteijn, 2002)

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Two experimental models for investigation of
performance error during falling asleep
Driving simulator and polygraphic recording

• Psychomotorical test
• with the closed eyes in sitting or lying
  position.
• 1) counting of external stimulus (sound clicks).
• 2) self pacing counting without external
  stimulation,

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Electrodermal indices of the subjective
perception of performance errors
(BIP)?sychomotoric test, self-pacing button
pressing (right hand, sitting position)

• Skin conductance response (SCR), EEG, EOG, and
  button pressings were recorded.
• Error onset was shown to be preceded by the
  decreased in the rate of spontaneous SCR.
  Performance reappearance after the
  self-detected error was accompanied by phasic SCR
  and alpha-burst of EEG.
• When participants spontaneously self-activated
  and renewal of proper performance, he/she
  reported about
• "...lost in thought" Mean interval between the
  error and the last preceding SCR 69.8 s Mean
  interval between the error and the first
  following SCR 10.1 s
• . .

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ALPHA-BURSTS AND K-COMPLEXACTIVATION PATTERN
AFTER ERRORS (BIP) ?sychomotoric test,
self-pacing button pressing (two hand, lying
position)
Theta error
Alpha activation
Performance reappearance KCalpha
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ALPHA RHYTHM AND PERFORMANCE
Psychomotorical test (closed eyes, counting of
external stimulus - sound clicks). (two hand,
lying position)
Correct performance alpha rhythm
Performance error alpha blocking
Correct performance reappearance alpha
reappearance
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Hypothesis EEG correlates of a
presence/absence switch is a alpha /theta
interaction

• It is known that during the transition from
  waking to sleeping when the ability to respond to
  external stimuli ceases, alpha power decreases,
  whereas theta increases. It is suggested that
  the encoding of new information is reflected by
  theta oscillations in hippocampo-cortical
  feedback loops, whereas search and retrieval
  processes in semantic long-term memory are
  reflected by alpha oscillations in
  thalamo-cortical feedback loops . W. Klimesch.
  1999

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DREAMING and the BRAINToward a Cognitive
Neuroscience of Conscious States J. A. Hobson,
E. Pace-Schott, R. Stickgold (2000)
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A State Space Model of the Brain-MindFrom J.
A. Hobson, E. Pace-Schott, R. Stickgold (2000)
DREAMING and the BRAINToward a Cognitive
Neuroscience of Conscious States

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