疼痛恐惧的神经机制及其消退

疼痛恐惧是疼痛基础和临床研究中的一个重要课题。个体对疼痛信息产生过度警觉,诱发不恰当的回避行为,扰乱机体的正常功能,加剧疼痛的现象即为疼痛恐惧。疼痛恐惧可影响个体的疼痛感知以及疼痛相关的注意和回避行为,且在慢性疼痛(如慢性肌骨骼疼痛)的发展、维持个体正常生理功能的丧失中起着重要作用。疼痛恐惧的形成与表达涉及杏仁核、海马、背侧前扣带回皮层、和前额叶皮层等脑区的参与。当前的疼痛恐惧消退的心理-行为干预方法可在疼痛恐惧加工的不同阶段(巩固、再巩固和消退)消退个体的疼痛恐惧。然而,由于恐惧记忆形成过程较为复杂并受多种因素影响,疼痛恐惧记忆消退方法效果较不稳定,其基础研究与临床应用之间仍存在较大的鸿沟。将来研究有必要考虑到疼痛恐惧形成环境的差异以及个体人格特质/心理状态的差异,逐步完善相关消退方法并将其引入临床镇痛,以期帮助患者弱化、擦除甚至改写困扰他们的疼痛恐惧,从而缓解甚至消除病患的疼痛。     

The aftermath of memory retrieval for recycling visual working memory representations

We examined the aftermath of accessing and retrieving a subset of information stored in visual working memory (VWM)—namely, whether detection of a mismatch between memory and perception can impair the original memory of an item while triggering recognition-induced forgetting for the remaining, untested items. For this purpose, we devised a consecutive-change detection task wherein two successive testing probes were displayed after a single set of memory items. Across two experiments utilizing different memory-testing methods (whole vs. single probe), we observed a reliable pattern of poor performance in change detection for the second test when the first test had exhibited a color change. The impairment after a color change was evident even when the same memory item was repeatedly probed; this suggests that an attention-driven, salient visual change made it difficult to reinstate the previously remembered item. The second change detection, for memory items untested during the first change detection, was also found to be inaccurate, indicating that recognition-induced forgetting had occurred for the unprobed items in VWM. In a third experiment, we conducted a task that involved change detection plus continuous recall, wherein a memory recall task was presented after the change detection task. The analyses of the distributions of recall errors with a probabilistic mixture model revealed that the memory impairments from both visual changes and recognition-induced forgetting are explained better by the stochastic loss of memory items than by their degraded resolution. These results indicate that attention-driven visual change and recognition-induced forgetting jointly influence the “recycling” of VWM representations.     

A case report of compensation in daily life of a person with memory problems: detailed functional use of memory aids over a five-year period

Numerous studies have been conducted on memory aids for memory-impaired people. However, it is not known how they use these memory aids in a functional, practical way. A 20-year-old patient (MH) was monitored for five years to identify what memory aids or other means she used and how she used them to compensate for her memory problems, e.g., forgetting what was said by others in a few minutes and getting lost or turning in the wrong direction on a walk or in a building. Results indicated MH did not necessarily always use memory aids such as a notebook or calendar to compensate for her memory problems, although MH and her mother reported that she frequently used them in daily life. She coped with memory problems by using various "resources" besides the memory aid. These facts suggest that it may be necessary to redefine functionally useful compensations, which include both memory aids and resources in daily life.     

空间书写障碍的个案研究

根据书写加工理论,从异形字水平、图解动作模式水平和神经动作执行水平三个方面,综合考察一例空间书写障碍儿童的认知加工特点。结果表明：（1）个案QY的异形字水平出现选择性损伤,在视觉整体特征的知觉加工上存在困难,导致自发书写的汉字难以辨识,存在严重的间架结构问题。（2）个案QY在图解动作模式水平以及神经动作执行水平上表现正常     

对高校无神论教育的思考

高校是学术的殿堂,科学的圣地,也是传播科学精神,培养科学理念的重要阵地。大学阶段是学生的世界观和人生观形成的重要时期,在这个重要     

Young children's understanding of pretend crying: The effect of context

Reasoning about another's pretend and real crying is related to ma'ny important social cognitive abilities (e.g., emotional understanding, appearance–reality, and theory of mind). This study investigated whether children aged 6 years and younger could distinguish between instances of pretend crying and real crying as presented in stories. Sixty‐five Japanese children aged 4–6 years were given stories within two contexts (Play and Non‐play). In the Play context, the protagonist of the story was pretending to cry or really crying during a pretend play activity. In the Non‐play context, the protagonist was also pretending to cry or really crying after his/her toy had been hidden by another child. The children answered questions about these crying events. The results showed that the 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds showed significantly better understanding of pretend crying in the Play context compared to the Non‐play context. In the Non‐play context, they were significantly less likely to understand the cause of pretend crying compared to the 6‐year‐olds. The results suggest that the context of pretend play facilitates the children's understanding of pretend crying.     

Translating External Knowledge to Team Creativity in Turbulent Environments: The Role of Absorptive Capacity and Knowledge Integration

In seeking to understand factors contributing to team creativity in dynamic environments, we explored the role of external knowledge search on team creativity through absorptive capacity and knowledge integration. We tested our hypotheses with a sample of 96 teams involving 421 employees in China. Results demonstrated that external knowledge search related positively to team creativity, fully mediated by both absorptive capacity and knowledge integration. In addition, environmental dynamism played a moderating role in the relation between external knowledge search and absorptive capacity, as well as in the relation between external knowledge search and knowledge integration. We discussed the implications of these findings for research and practice.     

Chinese Learners of English See Chinese Words When Reading English Words

The present study examines when second language (L2) learners read words in the L2, whether the orthography and/or phonology of the translation words in the first language (L1) is activated and whether the patterns would be modulated by the proficiency in the L2. In two experiments, two groups of Chinese learners of English immersed in the L1 environment, one less proficient and the other more proficient in English, performed a translation recognition task. In this task, participants judged whether pairs of words, with an L2 word preceding an L1 word, were translation words or not. The critical conditions compared the performance of learners to reject distractors that were related to the translation word (e.g., Open image in new window , pronounced as /bei 1/) of an L2 word (e.g., cup) in orthography (e.g., Open image in new window , bad in Chinese, pronounced as /huai 4/) or phonology (e.g., Open image in new window , sad in Chinese, pronounced as /bei 1/). Results of Experiment 1 showed less proficient learners were slower and less accurate to reject translation orthography distractors, as compared to unrelated controls, demonstrating a robust translation orthography interference effect. In contrast, their performance was not significantly different when rejecting translation phonology distractors, relative to unrelated controls, showing no translation phonology interference. The same patterns were observed in more proficient learners in Experiment 2. Together, these results suggest that when Chinese learners of English read English words, the orthographic information, but not the phonological information of the Chinese translation words is activated. In addition, this activation is not modulated by L2 proficiency.     

Electrophysiological measures reveal the role of anterior cingulate cortex in learning from unreliable feedback

Although a growing number of studies have investigated the neural mechanisms of reinforcement learning, it remains unclear how the brain responds to feedback that is unreliable. A recent theory proposes that the reward positivity (RewP) component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) and frontal midline theta (FMT) power reflect separate feedback-related processing functions of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). In the present study, the electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded from participants as they engaged in a time estimation task in which feedback reliability was manipulated across conditions. After each response, they received a cue that indicated that the following feedback stimulus was 100%, 75%, or 50% reliable. The results showed that participants’ time estimates adjusted linearly according to the feedback reliability. Moreover, presentation of the cue indicating 100% reliability elicited a larger RewP-like ERP component than the other cues did, and feedback presentation elicited a RewP of approximately equal amplitude for all of the three reliability conditions. By contrast, FMT power elicited by negative feedback decreased linearly from the 100% condition to 75% and 50% condition, and only FMT power predicted behavioral adjustments on the following trials. In addition, an analysis of Beta power and cross-frequency coupling (CFC) of Beta power with FMT phase suggested that Beta-FMT communication modulated motor areas for the purpose of adjusting behavior. We interpreted these findings in terms of the hierarchical reinforcement learning account of ACC, in which the RewP and FMT are proposed to reflect reward processing and control functions of ACC, respectively.     

医患冲突中医生特质信息与负性情绪反馈的作用：以失望和愤怒为例

他人失望反馈和他人愤怒反馈在人际冲突解决中起着重要作用。这一情绪的人际效应在医患冲突中是否同样成立,医生的特质对这一人际效应有何影响。为此,通过两个计算机情景模拟实验,采用“最后通牒博弈”范式,分别考察了他人失望反馈与他人愤怒反馈以及医生的温情与能力特质对于医患冲突中个体威胁评价及其冲突行为的影响。结果发现：（1）医生能力高时患者对情境的威胁评价比能力低时更高,但在有医生失望反馈中医生能力高时患者对情境的威胁评价比能力低时更低。高温情的医生愤怒时患者的威胁评价比温情低时更高。（2）医生能力高时患者的出价比能力低时更高,冲突行为更少。（3）医生温情高时患者的出价比温情低时更高,冲突行为更少。（4）在温情高能力低时,有医生愤怒反馈时患者的出价相比无情绪反馈时更低。说明了医生需谨慎表达自己的情绪。相较而言,医生的能力和温情的培养更为重要。