成人脑波涨落图功率空间构型的年龄变化特点

本工作研究了１２０名２０－７９岁正常成人的脑波涨落功率空间构型的年龄变化特点。结果表明,随着年龄增长,脑波超慢涨落系统平均功率及主要谱线功率前脑与后脑（包括额区与枕区）比值明显增大,表明额低枕高的梯度减小以至逆转,左脑与右脑（包括左颞与右颞）比值趋近于１,表明左右不对称性程度减弱,但变化较小。     

105例额叶、非额叶肿瘤患者词语流畅性作业的比较研究

让４８例额叶肿瘤患者,２６例颞叶肿瘤患者,２６例顶枕叶肿瘤患者,５例额颞肿瘤或颞顶肿瘤患者（全部病人分为左脑肿瘤５６例,右脑肿瘤４９例）说同类词,说非其类词及Ｓｔｒｏｏｐ测验。结果表明：１．额叶组说同类词总和明显低于颞叶组。２．额叶组读色字及读字色两项任务所用时间明显长于颞叶组及顶枕叶组。３．额叶组读色字及字色出现的错误频率明显高于正常人组及顶枕叶组。４．左脑肿瘤组说同类词及读黑色、色字及颜色命名的成绩明显低于右脑肿瘤组。资料提示：额叶肿瘤比颞叶与顶枕叶肿瘤、左脑肿瘤比右脑肿瘤更容易影响被试的词语记忆能力、选择性注意能力及分类归属能力。     

如何正确认识左脑和右脑的功能问题——介绍日本神经心理学家八田武志的有关研究

本文介绍了日本神经心理学家八田武志助教授关于左、右脑功能问题的新的研究结果:(一)人的左脑和右脑的功能差异是相对的。不论言语材料的认知,还是非言语材料的认知,都是因信息处理水平和方式的不同,时而左脑优势对而右脑优势的;不能简单地说:“××是左脑优势,××是右脑优势”。(二)随着儿童的身心发展,其左、右脑的功能差异是处于动态变化之中的,而且左、右脑之间的联系和协同活动日益增强;“现代教育只是使用左脑,必须开展右脑教育”的说法,是没有科学根据的。(三)人的左、右脑的功能可能出生时就有某些差异,但是在发展过程中,左、右脑的正常联系和协同活动才是人的智能活动的基础;认为“人可以分为右脑型的和左脑型的”,是不正确的。     

6—12岁儿童脑波超慢功率涨落分布及发展特点

对172名6-12岁的正常儿童进行脑波超慢功率涨落特点的研究。结果表明：(1)各组优势涨落平均功率空间分布表现出额低枕高的前后梯度;(2)随着年龄的增加,不同的脑区其发展趋势是不同的,且逆转现象逐渐减少;(3)左右脑表现出左小右大的不对称性;(4)男女生脑波优势涨落功率的空间分布、逆转趋势、方位等有差异。上述结果说明,脑波超慢功率涨落与儿童的成熟过程及功能状态有密切关系。     

专家记忆优势效应理论的比较

依据专家记忆优势效应三个主要理论 (即模板理论、长时工作记忆理论和限制调节理论 )的不同特点选取变量 ,以中国象棋为实验材料 ,采用 2× 2× 2× 2混合设计 ,对三个理论进行检验比较。研究发现 :(1)被试在记忆棋局条件下的包含测验成绩 ,优于选择着法条件下的 ;(2 )棋局与棋手水平之间不存在显著的交互作用 ;(3)棋局与提取时的意识水平之间存在显著的交互作用 ,对局中的外显效应大于排局中的外显效应 ,而棋局的内隐效应则无显著差异。上述结果表明 ,相对而言 ,长时工作记忆理论能够对专家记忆优势效应作出合理的解释     

汉语普通话声调加工的右耳优势及其机理：一项双耳分听的研究

采用双耳分听的任务探讨了汉语普通话声调加工的右耳优势问题,并引进反应手的因素,探讨了汉语声调加工的右耳优势的机制。结果表明,汉语母语被试对普通话声调的加工存在右耳、左脑优势,但这种优势是相对的,右脑也具备加工声调信息的能力,结果支持了直接通达模型。     

情绪状态对大学生道德判断能力的影响

采用道德判断测验(MJT中文版),以300名大学生为被试,考察了情绪状态对大学生道德判断能力的影响。结果发现:(1)大学生道德判断能力的年级差异显著;(2)情绪状态对大学生道德判断能力具有显著影响,快乐状态下的道德判断能力高于悲伤状态,这与国外的研究结论正好相反;(3)道德判断任务的自我相关性对大学生道德判断能力的影响不显著。     

线索特征和提示对基于事件前瞻记忆的影响

前瞻记忆是一种记住在将来执行某个意向活动的记忆。研究采取2线索类型×2提示被试间设计探究了线索特征和有无提示对基于事件前瞻记忆的影响。结果表明:(1)提示使前瞻记忆的反应速度明显变慢,说明基于事件前瞻记忆的加工过程可能是自动完成的;(2)在具体线索条件下,被试完成进行中任务的速度显著快于概念线索条件下的速度。说明线索类型虽然没有影响到前瞻记忆加工,但是影响到了进行中任务的效率。     

言语和非言语信号加工的早期分离——来自ERP研究的证据

利用128导事件相关电位技术,对19名正常被试在言语、峰鸣声和音乐刺激上产生的脑电早期外源性成分N1进行了考察。实验结果发现,在音素条件和蜂鸣声条件下,左侧额叶N1波幅显著高于右侧。偶极子溯源分析发现音素条件和蜂鸣声条件下的偶极子都位于左脑额叶,而音乐条件下的两个偶极子位于右脑额叶。证明范畴属性对信号加工大脑半球优势的影响在加工的早期就开始发挥作用。     

记忆方式选择偏向与有效记忆

研究以大学生为被试考查在记忆过程中的策略选择及其影响因素,以及选择不同记忆策略与有效记忆的关系,结果发现:(1)当对某材料的记忆达到一定水平时,被试选择记忆方式(测试或再学)的倾向性与其之前的学习判断水平的高低未成相应关系;(2)对被试而言,自我测试策略并非直接促进学习,而是以提高元认知水平为中介;(3)重复学习导致被试高估学习掌握水平,而提取练习则使被试实现有效记忆。     

Anxiety, perception, and control of heart rate

8 women and 8 men took Cattell's IPAT-anxiety questionnaire and later McFarland's test of ability to perceive heart activity. The second test involved subjects' tracking their own heart rates, then they enrolled in an EKG biofeedback session to evaluate ability to increase and decrease heart rate from subjects' resting baselines. At the end of the session each subject completed Blanchard, et al.'s questionnaire to specify the cognitive strategies used for heart-rate control. Heart rate, abdominal respiration rate, respiration amplitude, EEG percent power in theta, alpha, and beta bands were evaluated. Success of heart-rate decrease seemed to depend mainly on activity levels: the subjects who achieved high scores on the activity test decreased heart rate significantly better than did low scorers. The relationship between scores for perception of heart and increases in heart rate was nonsignificant: increased heart-rate seemed to depend on differences in respiration between the rest and periods of increase. The significant, negative correlation between trait anxiety and perceptions of heart activity suggested that anxiety affected subjects' ability to perceive heart rate. The theta EEG power of the right hemisphere was significantly higher in subjects scoring high than for those low in perception of heart activity. During heart-rate increase tasks subjects mainly reported use of 'arousal responses,' similarly during heart-rate decrease tasks they reported use of relaxation responses.     

Reduced right hemisphere activation in severely abused violent offenders during a working memory task: An fMRI study

This study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to address two important gaps in our knowledge of brain functioning and violence: (1) What are the brain correlates of adults in the community who have suffered severe physical abuse early in life and who go on to perpetrate serious violence in adulthood? (2) What characterizes those who experience severe physical abuse but who refrain from serious violence? Four groups of participants recruited from the community (controls, severe physical child abuse only, serious violence only, and severely abused, seriously violent offenders) underwent fMRI while performing a visual/verbal working memory task. Violent offenders who had suffered severe child abuse show reduced right hemisphere functioning, particularly in the right temporal cortex. Abused individuals who refrain from serious violence showed relatively lower left, but higher right, activation of the superior temporal gyrus. Abused individuals, irrespective of violence status, showed reduced cortical activation during the working memory task, especially in the left hemisphere. Brain deficits were independent of IQ, history of head injury, task performance, cognitive strategy, and mental activity during the control task. Findings constitute the first fMRI study of brain dysfunction in violent offenders, and indicate that initial right hemisphere dysfunction, when combined with the effects of severe early physical abuse, predisposes to serious violence but that relatively good right hemisphere functioning protects against violence in physically abused children. Aggr. Behav. 27:111–129, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Effects of semantic discrimination of Chinese words on N400 component of event-related potentials.

20 subjects' event-related brain potentials were measured during a lexical decision task in which Chinese characters were used in both conditions of related (antonym) and unrelated words. Analysis indicated that the mean reaction time for unrelated words was 130 msec. longer than that elicited by related words. The condition of unrelated words elicited a significant N450, and an obvious P500 was evoked by related words at each of the 17 recording sites. Furthermore, the amplitudes of N210 and N450 were larger in the left hemisphere than in the right hemisphere but the amplitude of P500 was larger in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere.     

Hemispheric alpha asymmetries and behavioral responses of aphasic and normal subjects for the recall and recognition of active, passive, and negative sentences

The hemispheric alpha asymmetries of a group of normal males, a group of normal females, and a group of aphasic patients (fluent and dysfluent) were examined with electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques under memory conditions of recall and recognition of active, passive, and negative sentences. Aphasic patients, regardless of classification, showed right hemispheric alpha suppression across memory conditions and sentence types. Both normal groups were found to have greater left hemispheric alpha suppression for the recall memory condition and greater right hemispheric alpha suppression for the recognition memory condition (males significantly more than females). The aphasic subjects performed better on recognition tasks compared to recalled tasks and active sentences compared to transformed sentences. Results are discussed as providing evidence of the aphasic subjects' greater dependency on information processing resources of the right hemisphere in the recovery of language function. The findings are also discussed as providing support for a multiple-resources model of information processing.     

Sex-related hemispheric lateralization of amygdala function in emotionally influenced memory: an FMRI investigation

The amygdala appears necessary for enhanced long-term memory associated with emotionally arousing events. Recent brain imaging investigations support this view and indicate a sex-related hemispheric lateralization exists in the amygdala relationship to memory for emotional material. This study confirms and further explores this finding. Healthy men and women underwent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) while viewing a series of standardized slides that were rated by the subjects as ranging from emotionally neutral to highly arousing. Two weeks later, memory for the slides was assessed in an incidental recognition test. The results demonstrate a significantly stronger relationship in men than in women between activity of the right hemisphere amygdala and memory for those slides judged as arousing, and a significantly stronger relationship in women than in men between activity of the left hemisphere amygdala and memory for arousing slides. An ANOVA confirmed a significant interaction between sex and hemisphere regarding amygdala function in memory. These results provide the strongest evidence to date of a sex-related hemispheric lateralization of amygdala function in memory for emotional material. Furthermore, they underscore the view that investigations of neural mechanisms underlying emotionally influenced memory must anticipate, and begin to account for, the apparently substantial influence of sex.     

Hemisphere differences in the mood state-dependent effect for recognition of emotional faces

Forty subjects viewed 10 pictures of facial expressions of emotion while they experienced a happy mood and 10 pictures while they experienced a sad mood. Later, while re-experiencing either a happy or sad mood, they were tested for recognition of these 20 target pictures intermixed with 20 distractors. Recognition of the 10 pictures seen earlier in a disparate mood was impaired significantly when they were presented at testing to the right hemisphere, but not when presented to the left. The right hemisphere appears to store the subject's mood as an integral part of a memory representation for an emotionally expressive face. When that face is presented at testing to the right hemisphere, recognition depends on whether the subject's test mood matches the mood stored in the representation. In contrast, the left hemisphere appears to store the subject's mood separately from encoded visual information about a face, and so recognition of a face presented at testing to the left hemisphere is unaffected by changes in mood.     

Hemispheric asymmetries in the activation and monitoring of memory errors

Previous research on the lateralization of memory errors suggests that the right hemisphere's tendency to produce more memory errors than the left hemisphere reflects hemispheric differences in semantic activation. However, all prior research that has examined the lateralization of memory errors has used self-paced recognition judgments. Because activation occurs early in memory retrieval, with more time to make a decision, other memory processes, like strategic monitoring processes, may affect memory errors. By manipulating the time subjects were given to make memory decisions, this study separated the influence of automatic memory processes (activation) from strategic memory processes (monitoring) on the production of false memories. The results indicated that when retrieval was fast, the right hemisphere produced more memory errors than the left hemisphere. However, when retrieval was slow, the left hemisphere's error-proneness increased compared to the fast retrieval condition, while the right hemisphere's error-proneness remained the same. These results suggest that the right hemisphere's errors are largely due to activation, while the left hemisphere's errors are influenced by both activation and monitoring.     

6—12岁儿童脑波超慢涨落功率与计算速度的关系

对176名6-12岁认知功能正常小学生进行脑波超慢涨落平均功率分布与计算速度关系的研究。结果表明：(1)计算速度快组和计算速度慢组中各年龄组的脑区平均功率符合额低枕高的前后梯度。计算速度慢组的逆转百分率高于计算速度快组。(2)在各年龄组中,计算速度快组和慢组功率前后逆转百分率的差异主要反映在右脑,右脑功率前后梯度逆转在不同计算组之间差异较大。(3)在计算速度快组和慢组中,左脑平均功率都小于右脑平均功率。计算速度快组和慢组脑波功率左右逆转百分率的差异主要反映在后脑,后脑功率左右逆转在逆转总数上计算速度快组多于计算速度慢组。     

Look over there! Unilateral gaze increases geographical memory of the 50 United States

Based on their specialized processing abilities, the left and right hemispheres of the brain may not contribute equally to recall of general world knowledge. US college students recalled the verbal names and spatial locations of the 50 US states while sustaining leftward or rightward unilateral gaze, a procedure that selectively activates the contralateral hemisphere. Compared to a no-unilateral gaze control, right gaze/left hemisphere activation resulted in better recall, demonstrating left hemisphere superiority in recall of general world knowledge and offering equivocal support for the hemispheric encoding asymmetry model of memory. Unilateral gaze- regardless of direction- improved recall of spatial, but not verbal, information. Future research could investigate the conditions under which unilateral gaze increases recall. Sustained unilateral gaze can be used as a simple, inexpensive, means for testing theories of hemispheric specialization of cognitive functions. Results support an overall deficit in US geographical knowledge in undergraduate college students.     

Musicians processing music: Measurement of brain potentials with EEG

Abstract

In the present study, the EEG was recorded from the scalp of musicians while mentally active in their field. Analytic, creative and memory processes of the brain were observable using a special electrophysiological method called DC-potential recording. Music students listened to a sequence of four notes and subsequently were either to reverse the sequence (task 1 = analytic) or to compose a new continuation (task 2 = creative). In task 3, the initial segment of a well-known melody was presented and had to be continued (memory task). All tasks had to be solved mentally (imagery). In tasks 1 and 2, either tonal or atonal sequences were presented.

While processing, the results show that the analytic task elicited the highest brain activity. The analytic task involved mainly parieto-temporal areas of both hemispheres, the left hemisphere showing a tendency for domination. The memory task produced predominant activity over the right hemisphere. The creative task caused the lowest brain activation and elicited an unexpected lateralisation to the left, though we expected creativity to be a right hemispheric holistic-synthetic phenomenon.

Comparing listening with processing of the perceived music, we found a significant shift from an insignificant right hemispheric to an insignificant left hemispheric predominance (except with the memory task). This indicates that musicians do not lateralise to the left hemisphere per se when listening to music. Whether one finds a left hemispheric lateralisation in listening tasks or a right hemispheric one probably depends on the amount of simultaneous analytic-sequential processing the musician undertakes.