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1. Exploring relationships between electrodermal activity, skin temperature, and performance during engineering exams

   T. H. Khan, I. Villanueva (October 2019, Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   Students' academic learning, performance, and motivation are ongoing topics in engineering education. Those studies that have attempted to understand the mechanisms of motivation in authentic classroom settings and scenarios are few and limited to the methods used (e.g., self-reports, observations). This Work-in-Progress study explores the utility of electrodermal activity (EDA) and temperature sensors in accurately informing scholars about student performance during an exam in real-time. Correlations between each factor were analyzed. Initial results suggest that peripheral skin temperature has a weak, positive but significant correlation to exam question difficulty r=0.08; p<; 0.001). Also, electrodermal activity and temperature showed a weak, positive, but significant correlation (r=0.13; p<; 0.0010.05). The electrodermal activity showed a weak, positive, but significant correlation to exam question difficulty (r=0.16; p<; 0.0010.01). Also, skin temperature correlations with difficulty index (did not) changed across semesters (r=0.18; p<; 0.0010.001). We also developed a multiple regression model and found moderately significant relationships between EDA, difficulty index, and skin temperature (r=0.45; p<; 0.0010.05). The findings suggest that performance is tied to physiological responses among students during exam taking, indicating a possible connection between emotions and cognition via physiology. 

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2. Exploring relationships between electrodermal activity, skin temperature, and performance during engineering exams

   M.T.H. Khan, P. Vicioso (October 2019, Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   Students' academic learning, performance, and motivation are ongoing topics in engineering education. Those studies that have attempted to understand the mechanisms of motivation in authentic classroom settings and scenarios are few and limited to the methods used (e.g., self-reports, observations). This Work-in-Progress study explores the utility of electrodermal activity (EDA) and temperature sensors in accurately informing scholars about student performance during an exam in real-time. Correlations between each factor were analyzed. Initial results suggest that peripheral skin temperature has a weak, positive but significant correlation to exam question difficulty r=0.08; p<; 0.001). Also, electrodermal activity and temperature showed a weak, positive, but significant correlation (r=0.13; p<; 0.0010.05). The electrodermal activity showed a weak, positive, but significant correlation to exam question difficulty (r=0.16; p<; 0.0010.01). Also, skin temperature correlations with difficulty index (did not) changed across semesters (r=0.18; p<; 0.0010.001). We also developed a multiple regression model and found moderately significant relationships between EDA, difficulty index, and skin temperature (r=0.45; p<; 0.0010.05). The findings suggest that performance is tied to physiological responses among students during exam taking, indicating a possible connection between emotions and cognition via physiology. 

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3. Cortical response to balance perturbation is more sensitive in modern dancers than nondancers during biomechanically similar balance recovery

   https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.14.688528  

   Kerr, Kennedy G; Boebinger, Scott E; Mirdamadi, Jasmine L; Protzak, Janna; Borich, Michael R; Ting, Lena H (November 2025, bioRxiv)

   ABSTRACT Motor skill expertise can facilitate more automatic movement, engaging less cortical activity while producing appropriate motor output. Accordingly, cortical-evoked N1 responses to balance perturbation, assessed using electroencephalography (EEG), are smaller in young and older adults with better balance. These responses may thus reflect individual balance challenge versus functional, or objective, task difficulty. However, the effect of balance expertise on cortical responses to balance perturbation has not been studied. We hypothesized that balance ability gained though long-term training facilitates more automatic balance control. Using professional modern dancers as balance experts, we compared cortical-evoked responses and biomechanics of the balance-correcting response between modern dancers and nondancers. We predicted that modern dancers would have smaller cortical-evoked responses and better balance recovery at equivalent levels of balance challenge. Support-surface perturbations were normalized to individual challenge levels by delivering perturbations scaled to 60% and 140% of each individual’s step threshold. In contrast to our prediction, dancers exhibited larger N1 responses compared to nondancers while demonstrating similar biomechanical responses. Our results suggest dancers have greater cortical sensitivity to balance perturbations than nondancers. Further, dancer N1 responses modulated across perturbation magnitudes according to differences in objective task difficulty. In contrast, nondancer N1 responses modulated as a function of individual challenge level. Our findings suggest dance training increases sensitivity of the initial, cortical N1 response to balance perturbation, supporting postural alignment to an objective reference. The N1 response may reflect differences in balance-error processing that are altered with specific long-term training and may have implications for rehabilitation. NEW & NOTEWORTHYModern dancers show larger cortical responses to balance perturbations than nondancers, suggesting a greater sensitivity to perturbations. These results contrast with evidence of larger cortical-evoked responses in young adults with poorer balance, consistent with the cortical N1 response being a balance error assessment signal. Whereas nondancers scaled cortical responses by individual differences in N1 amplitude, dancers’ cortical responses were scaled to objective differences in perturbation magnitude, suggesting increased postural awareness due to training. 

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4. Atypical neural encoding of faces in individuals with autism spectrum disorder

   https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhae060  

   Wang, Yue; Cao, Runnan; Chakravarthula, Puneeth_N; Yu, Hongbo; Wang, Shuo (May 2024, Cerebral Cortex)

   Abstract Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience pervasive difficulties in processing social information from faces. However, the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying social trait judgments of faces in ASD remain largely unclear. Here, we comprehensively addressed this question by employing functional neuroimaging and parametrically generated faces that vary in facial trustworthiness and dominance. Behaviorally, participants with ASD exhibited reduced specificity but increased inter-rater variability in social trait judgments. Neurally, participants with ASD showed hypo-activation across broad face-processing areas. Multivariate analysis based on trial-by-trial face responses could discriminate participant groups in the majority of the face-processing areas. Encoding social traits in ASD engaged vastly different face-processing areas compared to controls, and encoding different social traits engaged different brain areas. Interestingly, the idiosyncratic brain areas encoding social traits in ASD were still flexible and context-dependent, similar to neurotypicals. Additionally, participants with ASD also showed an altered encoding of facial saliency features in the eyes and mouth. Together, our results provide a comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying social trait judgments in ASD. 

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5. Reduced White Matter Integrity and Deficits in Neuropsychological Functioning in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

   https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2271  

   Haigh, Sarah M.; Keller, Timothy A.; Minshew, Nancy J.; Eack, Shaun M. (February 2020, Autism Research)

   Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is currently viewed as a disorder of cortical systems connectivity, with a heavy emphasis being on the structural integrity of white matter tracts. However, the majority of the literature to date has focused on children with ASD. Understanding the integrity of white matter tracts in adults may help reveal the nature of ASD pathology in adulthood and the potential contributors to cognitive impairment. This study examined white matter water diffusion using diffusion tensor imaging in relation to neuropsychological measures of cognition in a sample of 45 adults with ASD compared to 20 age, gender, and full‐scale‐IQ‐matched healthy volunteers. Tract‐based spatial statistics were used to assess differences in diffusion along white matter tracts between groups using permutation testing. The following neuropsychological measures of cognition were assessed: processing speed, attention vigilance, working memory, verbal learning, visual learning, reasoning and problem solving, and social cognition. Results indicated that fractional anisotropy (FA) was significantly reduced in adults with ASD in the anterior thalamic radiation (P= 0.022) and the right cingulum (P= 0.008). All neuropsychological measures were worse in the ASD group, but none of the measures significantly correlated with reduced FA in either tract in the adults with ASD or in the healthy volunteers. Together, this indicates that the tracts that are the most impacted in autism may not be (at least directly) responsible for the behavioral deficits in ASD.Autism Res2020, 13: 702–714. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay SummaryWhite matter tracts are the data cables in the brain that efficiently transfer information, and damage to these tracts could be the cause for the abnormal behaviors that are associated with autism. We found that two long‐range tracts (the anterior thalamic radiation and the cingulum) were both impaired in autism but were not directly related to the impairments in behavior. This suggests that the abnormal tracts and behavior are the effects of another underlying mechanism. 

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