The neural code for written words: a proposal

How is reading, a cultural invention, coded by neural populations in the human brain? The neural code for written words must be abstract, because we can recognize words regardless of their location, font and size. Yet it must also be exquisitely sensitive to letter identity and letter order. Most existing coding schemes are insufficiently invariant or incompatible with the constraints of the visual system. We propose a tentative neuronal model according to which part of the occipito-temporal 'what' pathway is tuned to writing and forms a hierarchy of local combination detectors sensitive to increasingly larger fragments of words. Our proposal can explain why the detection of 'open bigrams' (ordered pairs of letters) constitutes an important stage in visual word recognition.     

The neural basis of error detection: conflict monitoring and the error-related negativity

According to a recent theory, anterior cingulate cortex is sensitive to response conflict, the coactivation of mutually incompatible responses. The present research develops this theory to provide a new account of the error-related negativity (ERN), a scalp potential observed following errors. Connectionist simulations of response conflict in an attentional task demonstrated that the ERN--its timing and sensitivity to task parameters--can be explained in terms of the conflict theory. A new experiment confirmed predictions of this theory regarding the ERN and a second scalp potential, the N2, that is proposed to reflect conflict monitoring on correct response trials. Further analysis of the simulation data indicated that errors can be detected reliably on the basis of post-error conflict. It is concluded that the ERN can be explained in terms of response conflict and that monitoring for conflict may provide a simple mechanism for detecting errors.     

Errors without conflict: implications for performance monitoring theories of anterior cingulate cortex

Recent theories of the neural basis of performance monitoring have emphasized a central role for the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Replicating an earlier event-related potential (ERP) study, which showed an error feedback negativity that was modeled as having an ACC generator, we used event-related fMRI to investigate whether the ACC would differentiate between correct and incorrect feedback stimuli in a time estimation task. The design controlled for response conflict and frequency and expectancy effects. Although participants in the current study adjusted their performance following error feedback, we did not observe error feedback-evoked ACC activity. In contrast, we did observe ACC activity while the same subjects performed the Stroop task, in which an area of the ACC activated during both conflict and error trials. These findings are inconsistent with previous dipole models of the error feedback negativity, and suggest the ACC may not be involved in the generation of this ERP component. These results question involvement of the ACC in the detection of errors per se when controlling for conflict.     

An Essay In The Aid Of Writing History: Fictions Of Historiography

In what follows I explore the question of fictionality in history writing. First, I venture into the unfamiliar genre of ego-histoire and make my own professional training in the tenets of positivist or realist historiography an object of theoretical reflection and critical analysis. Then as a way of dealing with the literary dimension of written history, I make a canonical work in history of education an object of rhetorical analysis. Finally, as another way of coming to terms with the fictions of historiography, I revisit one of my own productions and make it an object of metacritical consideration. My central theme is that historiographical realism alone will not suffice , that historians are as dependant upon literary invention as upon documents, that history cannot be written without the aid of the fictions of historiography, and that the difference between the historian and the novelist is narrower than we may have been accustomed to think. I further argue that attention to the literary or rhetorical dimension of history is long overdue in history of education, where it flourishes unacknowledged. I conclude that historical writing is not just a literary pastime and the issue remains: how to come to grips with fictionalizing and the truth claims of historiography.     

The relationship between perisylvian morphology and verbal short-term memory functioning in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Although children with neurodevelopmental disorders frequently present with reduced short-term memory functioning, the relationship between perisylvian morphology and verbal short-term memory functioning has received limited attention. Thus, examining this relationship in children with neurodevelopmental disorders was the focus of this exploratory study. Results suggested leftward asymmetry in the temporal bank of the planum temporale is related to better coding and storage of semantic material. In contrast, parietal bank morphology is related to coding and storage of phonological material, and presence of an extra gyrus in the parietal region is associated with reduced phonological working memory. Data also supported a relationship between pars triangularis morphology and verbal short-term memory functioning, but this is not material-specific.     

Adolescent personality disorders and conflict with romantic partners during the transition to adulthood

Longitudinal data were used to investigate the association of adolescent personality disorders with conflict between romantic partners during the transition to adulthood (i.e., age 17 to 27). Findings indicated that adolescent personality disorders (PDs) assessed at mean age 16 were associated with subsequent elevated partner conflict. Cluster B PD was associated with sustained elevations in partner conflict throughout the transition to adulthood. Cluster A and C PDs were associated with elevated partner conflict before age 23. Paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, borderline, narcissistic, and obsessive-compulsive PD symptoms were independently associated with sustained elevations in partner conflict.     

Obsessive-compulsive disorder subtypes: an attempted replication and extension of a symptom-based taxonomy

A symptom-based subgroup taxonomy for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) was evaluated and refined. The Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale symptom checklist was scored and cluster analysis was conducted with a sample of OCD patients (N = 114). Results were compared to Calamari et al.'s (Behaviour Research and Therapy 37 (1999) 113) five subgroup model. Rules for determining the number of subgroups supported a more complex model. In between sample comparisons, a stable contamination subgroup was found in both a five and seven subgroup taxonomy. Between sample stability was not as strong for Harming, Obsessionals, Symmetry, and Certainty subgroups. Hoarding, as a distinctive subgroup, was unstable in separate samples. When the Calamari et al. sample and the present sample were combined (N = 220), we found a reliable Hoarding subgroup. More interpretable and stable models emerged with the combined samples suggesting that large clinical samples are needed to identify OCD subgroups. Greater support was found for a seven subgroup taxonomy based subgroup interpretability and validation measure differences. The potential utility of symptom-based subgroup models of OCD and alternative approaches are discussed. Identification of reliable and valid OCD subtypes may advance theory and treatment.     

Self-reported attachment, interpersonal aggression, and personality disorder in a prospective community sample of adolescents and adults

Anxious and avoidant attachment were assessed in the Children in the Community (CIC) Study during adolescence and adulthood using self-report scales developed for this prospective study. The convergent and discriminant validity of the new CIC attachment scales were evaluated and their stability was assessed across a 17-year interval. Attachment scales predicted DSM-IV personality disorders in theoretically coherent and clinically meaningful ways, especially when supplemented with a separate measure of interpersonal aggression. Cluster B and C personality disorder symptoms were associated with elevated anxious attachment. Avoidant attachment was positively associated with Cluster A symptoms and inversely associated with Cluster B and C symptoms. Interpersonal aggression was higher in Cluster B symptoms and lower in Cluster C symptoms, thus differentiating between these symptom clusters.     

Cross-language lexical connections in the mental lexicon: evidence from a case of trilingual aphasia

Despite anecdotal data on lexical interference among the languages of multilingual speakers, little research evidence about the lexical connections among multilinguals' languages exists to date. In the present paper, two experiments with a multilingual speaker who had suffered aphasia are reported. The first experiment provides data about inter-language activation during natural conversations; the second experiment examines performance on a word-translation task. Asymmetric patterns of inter-language interference and translation are evident. These patterns are influenced by age of language learning, degree of language recovery and use, and prevalence of shared lexical items. We conclude that whereas age of language learning plays a role in language recovery following aphasia, the degrees of language use prior to the aphasia onset and of shared vocabulary determine the ease with which words are accessed. The findings emphasize the importance of patterns of language use and the relations between the language pair under investigation in understanding lexical connections among languages in bilinguals and multilinguals.