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Occipital Alpha and the Attributes of the “Alpha Experience”
Author(s) -
Plotkin William B.,
Cohen Robin
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1976.tb03329.x
Subject(s) - psychology , alpha (finance) , degree (music) , dimension (graph theory) , sensory processing , cognitive psychology , sensory system , task (project management) , audiology , social psychology , developmental psychology , mathematics , combinatorics , physics , medicine , construct validity , acoustics , psychometrics , management , economics
The present research was designed to study to what extent occipital alpha strength is related to five subjective dimensions that are associated with the “alpha experience.” These are (1) the degree of oculomotor processing, (2) the degree of sensory awareness, (3) the degree of body awareness, (4) the deliberateness of thought, and (5) the pleasantness of emotional state. One experimental group of 8 persons was run for each of the above five dimensions. First, while an integrated amplitude measure of occipital alpha strength was recorded, our research participants practiced two “simple awareness techniques” (without feedback) corresponding to the two poles of their group's dimension. Later they were given the task of associating their two “awareness techniques” with occipital alpha strength by means of feedback‐augmented alpha enhancement and suppression. The results showed that only the first two dimensions—the degree of oculomotor processing and the degree of sensory awareness—are significantly related to occipital alpha strength. These findings support the notion that the “alpha experience” as a whole is not intrinsically or directly associated with enhanced occipital alpha strength, and that occipital alpha strength is a direct function of only oculomotor processing.