Kleanthis Neokleous - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Kleanthis Neokleous

IEEE Access

The present article explores the most popular approaches and the best practices for the design an... more The present article explores the most popular approaches and the best practices for the design and implementation of cognitive gaming interventions that combine Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems with Virtual Reality (VR). We focus on interventions that target cognitive skills related to perception, visuospatial attention and visuospatial memory. To this purpose, we review the techniques and algorithms that are commonly used for data pre-processing, feature extraction, and classification in such interventions. We discuss issues related to BCI-VR Cognitive Gaming, including the BCI paradigms, the action tasks and environments, user characteristics, algorithms, channels, accuracy, and the most prominent findings. We conclude with a discussion of the current challenges, limitations, future research directions, and the potential commercial applications of BCI-VR in cognitive gaming. INDEX TERMS Brain computer interface (BCI), cognition, electroencephalography (EEG), gaming, virtual reality (VR).

European Journal of Psychology Open

Background: In a goalkeeping task that entailed intercepting fast-approaching balls, the present ... more Background: In a goalkeeping task that entailed intercepting fast-approaching balls, the present research examined whether training under conditions more intense than those of a subsequent test yields a performance improvement. Methods: Fifty participants (38 males) carried out the goalkeeping task in two conditions: In the progressive-intensity condition, participants carried out three training sessions with increasing intensity (i.e., balls shot at increasingly faster speeds) that exceeded that of a pretest and a posttest; in the fixedintensity condition, participants also carried out three training conditions but at a fixed intensity equal to that of both the pretest and the posttest. Results: Performance in the goalkeeping task improved from pretest to posttest equally under the two intensity conditions. Similarly, performance on a different task that required fast responses to visual targets also increased from pretest to posttest, likewise equally for the two intensity conditions. Conclusions: Overall, these results challenge the common belief in sports that more intense training than a subsequent test is beneficial for performance.

2022 International Conference on Interactive Media, Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies (IMET)

Soccer is one of the most popular sports and goalkeepers are central to a team's winning. Physica... more Soccer is one of the most popular sports and goalkeepers are central to a team's winning. Physical abilities are essential to goalkeepers but the involved cognitive abilities for these players are understudied and not well understood. In this study, we investigated the role of different aspects of attention in a goalkeeping task in soccer. Participants assumed the role of a goalkeeper in immersive Virtual Reality and carried out a task that entailed blocking balls shot towards their goal. In addition, they carried out two computerized tasks each assessing different attentional abilities: the Attention Network Test provided scores for three well-established networks of attention, namely the alerting, the orienting, and the executive control. The Whacka-Mole task evaluated inhibitory control, by measuring performance in a classic Go/No-Go task and tapping on response inhibition. Results revealed that all three attention network scores predicted performance in the VR goalkeeping task. Furthermore, performance in the Whack-a-Mole task correlated significantly with performance in the VR goalkeeping task. Overall, findings confirm that cognitive skills relating to attention play a critical role in the efficient execution of soccer-specific tasks. These findings have important implications for the training of cognitive skills in sports.

A computational model of selective attention is implemented to account for findings from an exper... more A computational model of selective attention is implemented to account for findings from an experiment on selective attention that was conducted. The model successfully reproduces the latency data of human participants by relying on the interaction between a bottom-up saliency map and the top-down influences from spatial and semantic goals. The model offers a biologically-plausible way of operationalizing perceptual load and provides insights about the possible brain mechanisms that underlie related empirical findings.

A computational model of selective attention has been previously used to provide a concrete and c... more A computational model of selective attention has been previously used to provide a concrete and comprehensive account for perceptual load findings in visual search tasks (Neokleous, Koushiou, Avraamides, & Schizas, 2009). Here, the same model was used to simulate findings from an experiment in which perceptual load effects were attributed to distractor dilution (Benoni & Tsal, 2010). By modeling at the neural level the continuous inhibitory interactions that take place among visual stimuli competing for cortical representation, the model reproduced successfully the behavioural pattern of results. The model thus offers a biologically-plausible way to reconcile findings that contradict Perceptual Load theory with those that support it.

Learning and Collaboration Technologies: Games and Virtual Environments for Learning, 2021

Chatbots are becoming a trend in many fields such as medical, service industry and more recently ... more Chatbots are becoming a trend in many fields such as medical, service industry and more recently in education. Especially in healthcare education, there is a growing interest in integrating chatbots in the learning and teaching processes mostly because of their portability and affordance. In this paper, we seek to explore the primary uses of chatbots in medical education, as well as how they are developed. We elaborate on current chatbot applications and research enacted in the domains of medical and healthcare education, We focus in the areas of virtual patients in medical education, patients' education related to healthcare matters but also chatbots as course assistance in for enhancing healthcare professionals' curricula. Additionally, we examine the metrics that have been used to evaluate these chatbots, which include subjective ones like the usability and acceptability by the users, and objectives ones, like their accuracy and users' skills evaluation. Overall, even though chatbots offer a flexible solution and a vast possibility to improve healthcare education, our literature review suggests that their efficacy has not been thoroughly tested. Also, limited examples of chatbots in European Healthcare curricula have been found. These call of the need for further research towards this direction.

Studies in health technology and informatics, 2014

The design and implementation of a healthcare system needs to follow a specific philosophy regard... more The design and implementation of a healthcare system needs to follow a specific philosophy regarding its operational structure and must be adapted gradually with one step at a time, depending on the level of maturity of a country on certain key issues. The main goal of this paper is to present an overall recommendations framework for implementing an Electronic Health System at national level, guided by the Patient Centered Philosophy. Certain prerequisites for implementing such systems are analyzed together with guiding principles for identifying the maturity level of an organization or country. The maturity level analysis for Cyprus is presented and is accompanied by some recommendations that determine the steps needed to prepare the ground for a complete patient centered national healthcare system.

2021 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC), 2021

The aim of this paper is to present Cyprus’ initiative for the design and the implementation of t... more The aim of this paper is to present Cyprus’ initiative for the design and the implementation of the prototype of the integrated electronic health record at a national level that will establish the foundations of the country’s broader eHealth ecosystem. The latter, requires an interdisciplinary approach and scientific collaboration among various fields, including medicine, information and communication technologies, management, and finance, among others. The objective, is to design the system architecture, specify the requirements in terms of clinical content as well as the hardware infrastructure, but also implement European and national legislation with respect to privacy and security that govern sensitive medical data manipulation. The present study summarizes the outcomes of the 1st phase of this initiative, which comprises of the healthcare as well as the administrative requirements, user stories, data-flows and associated functionality. Moreover, leveraging the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard we highlight the concluded interoperability framework that allows genuine cross-system communication and defines third-party systems connectivity.Clinical Relevance— This work is strongly correlated with medicine since it describes the system requirements and the architecture of a national integrated electronic health records system.

Applied Sciences, 2021

Physical abilities are essential to goalkeepers in soccer but the involved cognitive abilities fo... more Physical abilities are essential to goalkeepers in soccer but the involved cognitive abilities for these players have only recently become the focus of extensive research. In this study, we investigated the role of different aspects of attention in a basic goalkeeping task in soccer. One hundred participants assumed the role of a goalkeeper in immersive virtual reality (VR) and carried out a task that entailed blocking balls shot towards their goal. In addition, they carried out two computerized tasks each assessing different attentional abilities: the Attention Network Test provided scores for three well-established networks of attention, namely the alerting, the orienting, and the executive control. The Whack-a-Mole task evaluated inhibitory control, by measuring performance in a classic Go/No-Go task and tapping on response inhibition. A regression analysis revealed that all three attention network scores contributed to performance in the VR goalkeeping task. Furthermore, perform...

Frontiers in Psychology, 2016

A computational model of visual selective attention has been implemented to account for experimen... more A computational model of visual selective attention has been implemented to account for experimental findings on the Perceptual Load Theory (PLT) of attention. The model was designed based on existing neurophysiological findings on attentional processes with the objective to offer an explicit and biologically plausible formulation of PLT. Simulation results verified that the proposed model is capable of capturing the basic pattern of results that support the PLT as well as findings that are considered contradictory to the theory. Importantly, the model is able to reproduce the behavioral results from a dilution experiment, providing thus a way to reconcile PLT with the competing Dilution account. Overall, the model presents a novel account for explaining PLT effects on the basis of the low-level competitive interactions among neurons that represent visual input and the top-down signals that modulate neural activity. The implications of the model concerning the debate on the locus of selective attention as well as the origins of distractor interference in visual displays of varying load are discussed.

Technology and Health Care, 2015

BACKGROUND: Medical practice and patient-doctor relationship will continue improving while techno... more BACKGROUND: Medical practice and patient-doctor relationship will continue improving while technology is integrated in our everyday life. In recent years the term eHealth landmarked a new era with improved health provider's skills and knowledge, and increased patient participation in medical care activities. OBJECTIVE: To show why the design and implementation of a healthcare system needs to follow a specific philosophy dictated by the level of eHealth maturity of a country and its citizens. METHODS: Based on the maturity level, an adaptable framework for implementing an Electronic Health System at national level is derived, guided by the Patient Centered Philosophy as defined and introduced by the EU directives. Implementation prerequisites are analyzed together with guiding principles for identifying the maturity level of an organization or country. RESULTS: Cyprus being a small EU country, it can be used as pilot site for the whole Europe, was chosen for this study and its maturity level analysis is presented. Recommendations that determine general steps needed to prepare the ground for an adequate patient-centered national healthcare system are accompanied. CONCLUSION: The implementation of an integrated Electronic Health Record at National level, as a prerequisite for a patient-centered eHealth environment is evidently demonstrated.

Studies in health technology and informatics

This paper presents an electronic registry system for the purposes of the eENERCA for rare congen... more This paper presents an electronic registry system for the purposes of the eENERCA for rare congenital conditions that require lifelong follow up and treatment. The main objective of the eENERCA project focusses on the prevention of major rare anaemias (RAs) by facilitating the access, at a European level, to the best genetic counselling, diagnosis and clinical management of the patients with RA independently of their country of origin. This can be achieved by promoting an extension of the full Electronic Health Record system and specifically the electronic registries for RAs, across Europe for the purposes stated hence promoting service development for the benefit of patients. The proposed eRegistry will serve as an epidemiological tool to improve the management of patient services and ultimately improve patient care.

Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2009

One challenging application for Neural Networks would be to try and actually mimic the behaviour ... more One challenging application for Neural Networks would be to try and actually mimic the behaviour of the system that has inspired their creation as computational algorithms. That is to use Neural Networks in order to simulate important brain functions. In this report we attempt to do so, by proposing a Neural Network computational model for simulating visual selective attention, a specific aspect of human attention. The internal operation of the model is based on recent neurophysiologic evidence emphasizing the importance of neural synchronization between different areas of the brain. Synchronization of neuronal activity has been shown to be involved in several fundamental functions in the brain especially in attention. We investigate this theory by applying in the model a correlation control module comprised by basic integrate and fire model neurons combined with coincidence detector neurons. Thus providing the ability to the model to capture the correlation between spike trains originating from endogenous or internal goals and spike trains generated by the saliency of a stimulus such as in tasks that involve topdown attention (Cobetta and Shulman, 2002). The theoretical structure of this model is based on the temporal correlation of neural activity as initially proposed by Niebur and Koch (1994). More specifically; visual stimuli are represented by the rate and temporal coding of spiking neurons. The rate is mainly based on the saliency of each stimuli (i.e. brightness intensity etc.) while the temporal correlation of neural activity plays a critical role in a later stage of processing were neural activity passes through the correlation control system and based on the correlation, the corresponding neural activity is either enhanced or suppressed. In this way, attended stimulus will cause an increase in the synchronization as well as additional reinforcement of the corresponding neural activity and therefore it will "win" a place in working memory. We have successfully tested the model by simulating behavioural data from the "attentional blink" paradigm (Raymond and Sapiro, 1992).

Artificial Intelligence: Theories, Models and Applications, 2010

A large number of feedforward neural structures, both standard multilayer and multi-slab schemes ... more A large number of feedforward neural structures, both standard multilayer and multi-slab schemes have been applied to a large data base of pregnant women, aiming at generating a predictor for the risk of preeclampsia occurrence at an early stage. In this study we have investigated the importance of ethnicity on the classification yield. The database was composed of 6838 cases of pregnant women in UK, provided by the Harris Birthright Research Centre for Fetal Medicine in London. For each subject 15 parameters were considered as the most influential at characterizing the risk of preeclampsia occurrence, including information on ethnicity. The same data were applied to the same neural architecture, after excluding the information on ethnicity, in order to study its importance on the correct classification yield. It has been found that the inclusion of information on ethnicity, deteriorates the prediction yield in the training and test (guidance) data sets but not in the totally unknown verification data set.

2009 9th International Conference on Information Technology and Applications in Biomedicine, 2009

... ofMed., 334:567-72, 1996. [9] James D., P. Steer, C. Weiner, B. Gonik (eds). High Risk Pregna... more ... ofMed., 334:567-72, 1996. [9] James D., P. Steer, C. Weiner, B. Gonik (eds). High Risk Pregnancy, Ch. 37, pp 639-640, Saunders, 1999. [10] Khaw A., N. Kametas, O. Turan,1. Bamfo, K. Nicolaides. Maternal cardiac function and ...